After picking up the dead bandits shield, Wang Jie turned his attention back to his group that were still fighting. He’d been right next to them, but in his frantic battle he was a bit far off now. Everyone was still struggling, he had to help them.

Running over to the twins he raised his shield, braced himself and knocked right into the bandit they were fighting. With a tremendous crack, the blow sent the bandit sprawling onto the ground. Before he could even turn his head Wang Jie had pierced him through the neck. The man gurgled as he choked on his own blood. He tried to speak, but only bubbly noises came out.

Not sparing a second look for the man, Wang Jie called out to the twins, “Go help Guan Yi, I’ll help Liu Wei.” Seeing them nod in response, he charged over to help Liu Wei.

The man fighting Liu Wei saw him coming though, and after blocking one of Liu Wei’s attacks he hit him with a deft kick to the upper chest. As Liu Wei fell on the ground the man sent a monstrous swing with his mace against Wang Jie’s shield.

There was a giant crack as the right side of the shield broke off, leaving Wang Jie unbalanced for a moment and numbing his entire left arm.

The man caught this opportunity and sent another swing of his mace towards Wang Jie. There was no way he could bring his shield up to block the blow in time.

Wang Jie felt a big gust of wind as he ducked under the mace, letting it pass right above him. In his ducked position he lunged forward and drove the spear into the mans abdomen.

In the moment after, Liu Wei got up and stabbed his spear through the mans ribs, right into one of his lungs.

When they both retracted their spears there was nothing to support him and gravity enveloped him as he fell over on his face.

He wheezed on the ground as his lung failed him and he leaked pools of blood from two separate wounds.

There was no way he would survive and neither of them felt like finishing him off. They left him to his final moments as they saw the twins and Guan Yi had defeated their opponent too.

They met up halfway and there was a kindred understanding between all of them.

“We still need to find Liao Kang and Che Xiao Wen.” Wang Jie looked at each of them. None of them looked too good and he felt the same way himself.

It had been okay in the moment, but the feeling you were left with after taking another persons life wasn’t pleasant.

A horn blared from the distant tree line and the sounds of clashing seemed to die down a bit with it. In mere minutes the sound had completely disappeared as they saw some of the other attackers retreat into the trees.

Was it over just like that? The excited cheering seemed to confirm so.

They weren’t in the mood to cheer though, they were missing two members and it didn’t look good.

“Let’s split up and search for them and,” Wang Jie sighed and glanced around at the bodies, “we should probably search the bodies.”

“You mean?” Liu Wei let it linger.

“Yeah, most likely.”

They nodded, it was a sad atmosphere.

The boys started looking around, turning over the different bodies in search of their missing members. They were far from the only ones doing so. It was a scene of cruelty all around as people came to term with reality.

Wang Jie walked up to another body, this was already the 7th one he’d checked. Every single one brought back the images of the people he’d killed. How they’d looked at him or how they hadn’t even had the chance to look at him. The sounds they made as they died, it made him queasy.

Shaking it off he glanced back down at the body. It kinda looked like Liao Kang’s face. A small tremble went through his body as he prepared to turn over the body.

Pushing the dead boy with a stick, the way it moved was so uncanny. The arms twisted like noodles as he gave it that final push.

It was Liao Kang.

There was a deep gash at the side of his neck, his mouth hung open loosely, completely devoid of the soothing smile he used to have.

Admittedly, Wang Jie didn’t know him that well. But he had gotten along with him well.

He bent down and gently closed Liao Kang’s eyes with his fingers. That was all he could do for him.

Walking back to their campsite, he saw that the rest of the group was all waiting on him.

“I found Liao Kang.” Wang Jie said.

“I found Che Xiao Wen too.” Liu Wei spoke.

No one needed to say anything, it was quite clear what was meant.

They shared the moment in silence, with respect for the people they had barely gotten to know. Surprising even himself, Wang Jie felt a tear fall down cheek.

But in war, remembering the fallen can only take up so much time. The sun was starting to come up, and it was a given that they would have to get back on the road.

Over a hundred people had been lost on their side alone. There was no way they would have time to bury them all. The Captain arranged for all of the bodies to be gathered, and then they were burnt. As enemies their bodies burnt together.

The trek was eerily quiet for the first few hours. Not a word was spoken, the only sounds audible being the footfalls and wheels of wagons turning.

They had survived their first battle, and they knew well what price it had brought with it.

The experienced soldiers had gone through it before, and after the lunch break they were back to it, bantering around with each other.

For Wang Jie and the other recruits, it would probably take a little while longer.

The rest of the trip went smoothly. After 3 more days on the road they arrived at the front line camp. At this point the boys had gotten quite a bit of experience. Sleeping outdoors got easier, even if they were all paranoid the first night after the attack.

You could even say they had gotten used to their rations. Yeah, the bread only got worse for every day passed, but they got used to it.

The experience had brought the remaining survivors closer together. Even the adjutants got looser around them.

When they arrived at the camp everyone cheered up. You could get used to traveling on the road, but it was so much nicer to not be constantly on the move.

But when they were let in by the guards, it was quite a different sight that met them. It was a huge camp, setup to defend against the kingdom’s biggest and most powerful enemy, the Rosalan Kingdom. Yet the camp was barren, only a few dozen soldiers visibly walking around. Quite a few of them were busy trying to repair the wooden fences protecting the camp.

All in all there couldn’t have been more than 800 soldiers there. There was supposed to be a couple of thousand. It was worse than they had expected.

With the camp’s big size and few inhabitants, there were more than enough available tents. Wang Jie and his group quickly got settled into one. 4 bunk beds, just like before, except this time they were only 5 to occupy them.

There were positive sides to it though, that night they had the biggest meal they’d eaten in a long time. Meat, soup and bread, variety was really nice. And after tasting that horrible bread, this was actually kind of nice. One could even say that it was tasty without lying too badly.

It was a comfortable sleep, safe behind the walls of the camp. Dedicated lookouts to watch out for them. Not to mention a bed and actual cover from the climate.

The next morning they woke up just like they had gotten used to, the banging of pans smashing against each other. Wang Jie felt great though, like it was the best nights sleep he’d ever had. At least as far back as he could remember.

There was almost a bounce to his step as he got dressed and headed to breakfast.

“Man this place is great, so much food, nice beds. I could get used to this.” Huang Bo grinned.

“Things are good now but, it’s doubtful it’ll stay that way.” Guan Yi muttered, dipping a piece of bread in his soup.

“You noticed it too?” Liu Wei looked over Guan Yi.

“What do you mean? Noticed what?” Huang Bo raised his eyebrows.

“Haven’t you seen how big this camp is?” Wang Jie gestured with his arms, “Yet there’s barely any soldiers at all.”

“Not to mentioned the scorched grass and the absolutely bashed fence. They’ve suffered more than just one attack here.” Liu Wei nodded. “Which means Rosalan by far has the upper hand on the border.”

“Huh, I hadn’t noticed all that.” Huang Bo scratched his chin, looking down at the table.

“They’re probably getting bombarded with fire arrows every so often.” Liu Wei crossed his arms. “There’s probably not much hope to defend the line here.”

“Well, what are you saying? You wanna-” Wang Jie gave him a doubtful look.

“Desert? I’m certainly considering it. It’s not a bad idea.” Liu Wei interrupted him and said matter of factly.

“Keep your voice down, don’t be so brazen about it.” Wang Jie gave him a light smack. “I don’t know. Seems kind of risky. And we’d be abandoning everyone here.”

“You want to lay down your life for them? None of us volunteered to be here, we don’t owe them anything.” Liu Wei shook his head. “I’m telling you this because I consider you my brothers by now. There’s no one else I’ve gone through as much with.”

“Where could we even go?” Huang Chao who had been silent until now raised a question.

“We could just throw down the gear and hop one of the borders. This camp has way too much on their hands to chase us down as it is right now.” Liu Wei looked around, he didn’t seem to have convinced anyone.

“What about our families though? Couldn’t they go after them?” Huang Chao asked.

“Yeah, I still haven’t talked to my mother. I can’t let them brand me as a traitor, it’d devastate her.” Wang Jie sighed.

“You’d rather let her see you dead? And it’s not like they’re just going to imprison people for being related to us.” Liu Wei uncrossed his arms. “I’m saying, just think about it. There’s no reason for us to die here.”

There were some faint words of agreement, though Wang Jie didn’t seem to have been swayed the slightest. He didn’t want to go into some foreign city by himself and train to be some blacksmith or something. If he couldn’t cultivate he would at least be a soldier.