Hazeel rushed through the battlefield on her warhorse, shooting through the carnage and destruction like an arrow. Like she had predicted, the Gold Continent’s emperor, Satoshi Akakaze, had sent his naval forces to bombard the northern side of the continent, where Jane Clairborne’s mansion was located.

The mansion itself overlooked the city of Pharona, whose oceanside city boasted the greatest trade revenue out of the entire Azure Kingdom, and whose great population made an excellent target for an invasion point.

Unfortunately for Hazeel, not even her forewarning could have prepared the city for the massive explosions that had almost reduced the coastline to bedrock, but also the fact that the Gold’s navy had landed due west of the city, and were marching towards the city with a grand scale of 10,000 strong, against the slightly lesser amount of 8 and a half thousand for the kingdom.

Hazeel’s only saving grace was the fact that they held a positional advantage against the incoming onslaught, but that was quickly diminished by the smart move they made to make landfall away from the booby-trapped city and into the forest, which provided the enemy with cover and stealth.

Hazeel clicked her teeth. She knew that King Pola had tried to order their Naval commander to assist the wood elf, but he was a hard conservative, and resigned, saying that, “I wouldn’t dare to go against the king’s order, but I am incapable of filling it out at this time.”

With that stunt by the conservative camp, Hazeel had no choice but to mobilize all the forces under her command. Well almost all of them. She had decided to leave an elite troop to guard the king in the capital, and by extension, guard the soon-to-be princess of the empire, Rora Clairborne. That dumb prince had knocked her up before marriage, and now the kingdom was eagerly awaiting the closing chapter of it’s very own romantic fairytale.

An arrow whizzed by Hazeel’s ears, destroying her earring and making her curse in the process. This wasn’t the time to be getting side tracked by context, she needed to behead General Umizo, the Gold Empire’s Naval Commander, and fast.

Hazeel stopped her horse’s gallop on a hill overlooking the battlefield, which had shifted further towards the city. Her own forces were slowly being pushed back , although it was at a rate which gave Hazeel plenty of time to operate in her own special way.

Hazeel took a small tube carved out of bone, and blew into the whistle, emitting a high-pitched noise that caused both her own and the enemy troops to wince severely. Both sides looked up at her location, but she was already gone, and racing towards the enemy battleship once more.

She had confidence in her troops, and they knew exactly what the whistle meant. A smirk slowly formed on Hazeel’s face as she heard her force’s rallying cry behind her.

---

Hazeel reached the massive warship and had just started to slow her horse’s pace when a cannon exploded to her immediate right, demolishing her horse’s limbs and throwing her to the ground with a ringing in her ears.

Hazeel got up shakily, and felt something warm on her neck. She dabbed at the area with her fingers to find blood, which she traced back to her own ears.

Hazeel sneered. If they wanted to kill her, they should have done it on the first shot. She took her buster sword from her fallen steed’s saddle and staggered forward. She would win this fight. She had it on record that this was the Gold Continent’s last-ditch attempt at an invasion following all their previous failures.

She quickly used one of the few battle magics she could use, and cast stealth on herself. The magic started to cause light refracted around her legs, and worked its way up her torso. Now that she knew there were mines around the ship, she wouldn’t fall for the same thing twice. With great caution and scrutiny, she observed the ground between her and the ship, noting places where the dirt had been replaced.

She danced over and in-between the mines, elegantly working her way through the minefield and in front of the ramp of the ship. She slowly walked up the ramp, and down the dark corridor of the cargo hold.

Looking around, Hazeel noticed a faint smell of smoke, and walked up to one of the many crates that littered the holds. Prying it open, she found a small round object, made of a material she hadn’t encountered before. She held it up to her nose, and choked as the smoky smell overpowered her nose.

“What was that noise!?”

“I don’t know… hey you, check over there!”

Hazeel silently cursed and hid behind the crate, momentarily forgetting that she was invisible. When she regained her cool, she nearly lost it again when she saw one soldier heading in her direction.

She waited until the guard turned his head to quickly pick up the crate’s lid and slide it back on, an action that resounded with a clunk. It wasn’t too loud, but loud enough for the closest soldier to hear it. The soldier aimed his crossbow her way, and slowly stalked towards the crate she was hiding behind.

Hazeel crept around the far side of the crate, and worked her way behind the soldier. She took a knife out from a sheath on her thigh, and dug it into the woman’s neck. Hazeel sighed as she watched the strength leave the woman’s body. She took the crossbow and threw it at the crate to her immediate left, drawing another soldier her way.

There were only two more guards at this point, so Hazeel repeated the assassination process with them and then moved further into the ship.

Hazeel’s steps slowed as she realized that she had made her way into the crew’s quarters. She could hear the noise emanating from several rooms, telling Hazeel that not all hands were on deck here. In fact, more often than not, sounds of copulation were coming from some rooms.

Really, during a war? Hazeel shook her head and started to stalk the halls again, when something bumped into her from behind.

“What the-?” The man only had a second to wonder before Hazeel’s knife was shoved into his throat. Hazeel clicked her tongue as her battle magic was cancelled. The downside to this particular battle magic, was that it was dispelled when touched by another object with magic. Since magic was a particular aspect looked for in soldiers, the man had unwittingly ended her spell with his ambient magic.

Hazeel stared at the fallen man in scorn. This operation was now dirty, but still, Hazeel had a duty to see this mission through until the end, even if it cost her her life. She cast the second battle magic she knew, Silence on herself, and ran through the hallway. The cargo hold was rarely checked on, so that was fine, but it was only a matter of time before someone come to the crew’s quarters and saw the man’s body.

Hazeel ran through the twisting maze of rooms until she finally found a large staircase that led up to the main deck. She effortlessly ran up the ten megard tall staircase and slid behind a water barrel at the entrance to the stairs.

She craned her neck upwards to see the command deck, but turned her gaze downwards when she heard chatter from the left. They were speaking in a language that Hazeel couldn’t understand, and a realization dawned on Hazeel.

Those soldiers earlier must have been mercenaries hired from the Azure Continent, not soldiers from the Gold Empire. A shiver ran down Hazeel’s spine. The only difference between the people of the Azure Continent and those of the Gold Continent was that the latter had slightly darker skin. How many of their own had they killed thinking of them as enemy soldiers.

Regardless, Hazeel felt the need to keep on moving. She waited until the guards had passed before walking back the way that they had come. She worked her way along the wall until she came to a door, and stopped. A decision which she immediately regretted when another patrol came out of the door of the base of the command tower. Hazeel stood still and watched in horror as the woman noticed her, yelling something at the man.

They tried to raise their metallic batons, but were interrupted as they were cleaved in half by Hazeel’s buster sword. Knowing she was on an even shorter timer than before, Hazeel streaked up the stairs at a blistering pace.

Many times she would get to a floor and meet head to head with a room full of soldiers, but she would clear out the room at a breakneck pace, leaving limbs, bodies, and broken bones in her wake.

She neared the top of the tower, and cut through the final room of guards. She decided to take a moment to breathe. For how easily she was cutting through their defenses, her stamina had taken a big hit. She had started to sweat, and her breathing was beginning to get ragged.

Hazeel knew she couldn’t stay for long, however, and slung the massive blade back over her shoulder. She made her way to the top of the tower, and was met by another room of soldiers, save for a fairly distinguished looking person in the back whose profile met the description intel had given her about Umizo.

He shouted something and all the soldiers raised their tubes, but that was all the time Hazeel needed to launch herself forward. She sliced through half of the soldiers, causing confusion and panic in the room. She heard Umizo utter a single word - “Akuma.”

Hazeel grinned before cutting down the rest of the room. “Akuma…” She liked the sound of that. Her errant thought was brushed aside at the sound of explosions down below her. She watched as a segment the Kingdom’s navy had started to bombard the warship, and she clicked her tongue.

“I’m still in here you idiots!” She shouted to no one in particular. And started to leave the room when she felt a hand grab her ankle. The grip itself wasn’t strong, but the action itself startled her and caused her to look down. A pair of enraged brown eyes stared back, and Hazeel quickly kicked away the hand, and headed to the door, but the damage had already been done.

The tower she had climbed had started to fall towards the the ground. Hazeel cursed, and set seven bodies against a desk and lay down in the middle. She was going to try to make it out of this, one way or another.

With that single thought in mind, she braced herself as the tower fell to the shoreline.