General Huxley could do nothing but stare at the storm of arrows falling towards him and his army. His men were still marching on. He wanted to order them to stop but what good would that do?

  A foolish endeavour. He knew that all along but there was nothing he could do. A general he might be, but he still had his masters. He was still a soldier. He had to obey the orders.

  Though Huxley never thought the Lavans were worse than him and his soldiers, he realised he had underestimated the Lavans. The Lavans were still miles away, according to the information his best scouts had gathered. No arrows could fly this far, unless spells were involved or their enemies had developed tools to a simir extent as the kingdom had.

  They had such tools… They had such machines. Sadly, most of them had been destroyed in the skirmishes. Till now, no one knew who was responsible for these skirmishes. They were quick but thorough. It couldn’t even be called skirmishes but Huxley had no other way of describing it.

  The army had already endured two waves of arrows. The first wasn’t perfect. They were a step too te in their defense due to insufficient light. A chunk of their numbers were culled with that wave. The second came immediately after. This time, they were prepared. The mages executed their task perfectly. Hope was restored. Spirits were infmed. They were preparing to charge—

  —and they shuddered when they saw another hail of arrows in the sky.

  This time, the arrows were on fire. They thought nothing of it… for a second. These were no simple fire arrows where only the arrowheads were set alight. The arrows coming for them were completely shrouded in fire, from the head to the fletching. Arrows do not burn in such a manner. It would render them useless, unless these were all a spell. And indeed, it was a spell, one that the kingdom army did not comprehend.

  The army knew not of what the fiery arrows could do but the dread they felt told them everything they needed to know. Fear was primal. It was instinctual. To prove their dread right, the fiery arrows shattered the barrier. The barrier stood strong at first, against the first ten or so arrows. There were hundreds, or even thousands. Cracks began to appear and form all over the barrier due to the relentless onsught.

  The barrier would not hold against this assault. They all knew it in their hearts. They wanted to run but where would they go? Can they even outrun the arrows? They had no horses.

  The mages were also in the dark about the spell the Lavans employed. They exchanged no words but fear gripped their hearts. No order came from their leader. They acted upon themselves. They erected another barrier, hoping to stop the fiery storm.

  Unfortunately, the barriers were hopeless against the storm of fiery arrows. Both of the barriers shattered without offering much resistance. The army completely halted their march. Fear paralysed all of them, everyone except for a special few. The General was one of them. He was the only one with a horse. He pulled on the reins and shouted the order for retreat.

  No one heard him. Even if they did, there was no time to respond or to adhere.

  The arrows came down on them. Screams, cries, and throes filled the forest. There were also explosions. The destruction of whatever remained of their war machines and combat contraptions from the skirmishes.

  Knowing the horse was not agile enough to dodge the arrows, General Huxley abandoned his horse and dove to safety, just out of the zone where the arrows struck. The horse neighed in agony and betrayal as it perished along with the majority of the army. Huxley was on the ground, crawling away from the death zone. He set his sights forward. He resisted the temptation to gnce behind. He crawled until he reached a tree. He took cover behind it. And he waited.

  ****

  Silence lingered. The sounds of death and despair had stopped. Huxley did not move from his position. He didn’t think that was the end of the arrows. There would be more. He was sure of it. However, no arrows came even after morning came and the night veil completely dispersed.

  “D-damn it…” Huxley cursed. He forced himself to stand and emerge from his hiding spot. His legs trembled. His shoulders shivered. The march had barely started. He had suffered no wounds but he was already exhausted. The devastation had taken a huge toll on him and only more to come.

  The moment Huxley returned to the battlefield, he recoiled from the sight of his now decimated army. His men were all but charred into cinders. Strange enough, there were no lingering fmes nor a huge fire that would consume the whole forest. This was definitely the work of spells. The Lavans fought with spells in the same way a band of archers would. Huxley shuddered to imagine further. This battle wouldn’t have been their victory even if they still had their war machines and numbers.

  “G-General Huxley…”

  Someone called out. Huxley turned around and saw a knight limping towards him with a scalded leg. He recognised the knight. Aaron was the knight’s name. A young man with a promising future, given that he was already a knight at his age. No doubt he would become an Arch Knight… if he could make it out of this… disaster.

  “Aaron, was it?”

  “Y-yes, Sir. It is.”

  “At ease, Aaron. This is no time and pce for titles and formality.”

  “Y-yes… Sir. What are your— What do we do now?”

  “We run.” Huxley came to a decision.

  The young knight couldn’t believe his ears. “S-Sir? Run? We can’t run. We would be—”

  “We are dead, regardless.” Huxley sighed. “Now that I think about it, what’s the point of running? If our enemies won’t finish us off, the wilderness will.”

  The young knight’s face turned grimmer than it already was and he lowered his gaze.

  “The beasts will sense the burnt remains of our fallen brothers. They will come.”

  “I have a family… If I run and they find out… my family will be the ones to be punished. I can’t run, Sir. Do you not have a family, Sir?”

  “I do not.”

  “Well… if you want to run… I won’t say anything.”

  “As if I could run away now,” Huxley scoffed. “What kind of general will I be if I run away while my men stay and fight?”

  Aaron smiled. “Thank you, Sir. It is an honour to fight alongside—”

  An arrow came out of nowhere and silenced the young knight forever.

  Huxley jolted away in an instant. He turned around and bolted for the trees. He didn’t see the enemies but he saw how the arrow flew in a straight line. The enemies were closed. They had come to finish off the survivors. He didn’t know how long he had cowered behind the tree. It couldn’t be more than an hour. Yet, the enemies were here. They covered miles of distance in such a short amount of time. He had severely underestimated the Lavans.

  Now, he could only run. He thought about making a st futile stand but his desire to preserve prevailed. He didn’t care if he was branded a traitor. He had had enough of serving the stupid kingdom anyway. The way out of the forest is treacherous but less so than the approaching Lavans. Fortunately, he still had his sword. He hadn’t lost his canteen either, which was attached to his belt by a string.

  Just as Huxley had taken his literal first step in deserting his post, a voice halted his movement.

  “The commander is running away… How pathetic.” The voice belonged to a woman.

  Huxley turned around and saw a woman that was as tall as him with long bck hair that reached her waist. He would have taken her as a human from the eastern nds if it wasn’t for the pair of horns that were protruding from her forehead in a magnificent, gentle curve.

  “You are the commander, are you not? You are dressed more ostentatiously than the others. And those stars and stripes on your pauldron, they denote your rank, don’t they? You must be the commander, or am I mistaken?”

  “...You know a lot about us,” Huxley said. His throat felt dry. Words were hard to pronounce but he squeezed them out. Anything to stall for time. As for what he would do with more time, not even he himself knew. “Did our traders and merchants spill so much of our customs and values?”

  “Your kind is very brazen and btant. I was shocked that they would tell us so much without being prompted.”

  “Is there room for negotiation?”

  “For what purposes? You have lost.”

  “Aye, I have. But the kingdom would send more. If you know so much about us, you will know that the kingdom will—”

  “Your people will do nothing. At least, not now. They have much to deal with internally.”

  Huxley widened his eyes. His first thought went to the probability of spies but that was very unlikely. His next thought was the possibility of a turncoat. The state of the court was known to only a handful few. And a suspect came to mind immediately. “...Kiera.”

  “Your mind works quickly, human.”

  “So, it’s true. She has become a turncoat.” Huxley snorted. “What did she get in return?”

  “...A home.”

  “A home? What kind of deal is that?”

  Riva sighed. “Not the kind you would understand. You have stalled for long enough now. Any final request?”

  “Have mercy on my soul?”

  Riva scowled. “Face your death with some dignity.”

  “Fuck dignity. It has gotten me nowhere but here, at death’s door.”

  Riva shrugged. “Not my problem.” And she lunged at Huxley.

  The General drew his sword and parried the blow that felt like it came from a warhammer.

  In truth, Riva struck Huxley with a sword of a bde that was only single-edged and half the thickness of the usual bde.

  Huxley couldn’t believe such a fragile-looking bde could hit so hard. His hands were trembling. He was not her opponent.

  “I apologised. I have underestimated you. I didn’t think you would survive that attack. Allow me to adjust myself.”

  “Fuck,” was all Huxley could say before the Oni came upon him and unleashed a flurry of attacks. He tried his best to block and parry the attacks. His rank was not just for show. Unlike others of his rank, he didn’t reach his position through nepotism. He worked hard for it. He was a tried and tested warrior and commander. Still, those were nothing compared to the Oni. Even if he could keep up with Riva’s assault, his sword was a different story. It didn’t take long before the bde of his sword was shattered into millions of pieces from the consecutive blows.

  “You’re not a very good warrior.”

  Though he had lost and his skills were obviously cking, Huxley still felt offended by Riva’s words.

  “But you have my respect for showing resistance instead of simply—” Riva stopped speaking suddenly. She spun around in a snap. Her attention was completely shifted from Huxley.

  The General himself was quite puzzled but he didn’t dawdle on the reason. This was the perfect opportunity to run away. However, the brief gnce he threw behind Riva also caused him to shift his attention.

  From the rubble of the destroyed and mangled war machines, a figure emerged from the smoking pile. A Syer, the two thought, but no Syer had glow purplish tattoos drawn all over its body.

  The Dark Syer descended from the small hill of destruction and strode slowly towards Riva— or so it would seem at first. Once it reached the foot, it suddenly sped straight towards Riva. Its right arm turned into a gigantic bde that was as rge as its body.

  Riva dodged low to avoid the ssh but Huxley was a tad too slow. The st thing the General saw was the menacingly glowing purplish eyes of the Dark Syer.