Hephaestus and a small group of soldiers searched through the forest trying to find the remaining Karashians that fled during the battle. She held onto her automatic crossbow ready to use it a moment’s notice as she and her group neared the river.

“Bastards will be using the river to head up to the city.”

“Alright everyone fan out and search the area they can’t have gone far.”

Hephaestus began searching through the area of the river that had the most trees hoping that she might come across the enemy. She looked behind her and saw three others bringing up the rear. She was about to move when she heard movement. She and the rest stopped and paid attention to figure out where the enemy was hiding. She aimed her crossbow over the bush and thicket in earnest ready to pull the trigger. Finally a wild boar appeared looking at Hephaestus and the rest curiously.

She turned to see her comrades laughing at the jump scare when suddenly two legionnaires jumped them from above the trees and killed two of her compatriots. Hephaestus fired her crossbow at one of them and managed to kill the legionnaire. The other one was currently fighting the other for the crossbow. Hephaestus aimed her crossbow at the other legionnaire and opened fire. She fired a trail of arrows along his back up to his head. She rushed over to aid her companion. She saw him remove the corpse away from him as he slowly started to get his bearings.

“Thanks for the quick save.”

“Any time.” She said as she pulled out another arrow cartridge to replace the one she just spent.

“Poor bastards. No matter let’s keep going once the legionnaires reach the city it will be over for us.”

“Oh?”

“You’ve never been in urban combat in Karash?”

“Never… Why?” There was an uneasy pause between the two.

“Let’s just say that the bastards learned a trick or two from when they fought us in the country of Aephon.”

Onyx and the rest kept pushing through the forest trying to put as much distance between them and the Dolsurian army as possible. They were able to reach the river and began resting.

“This is…” Tykal tried catching her breath. “This is bullshit. Fucking Dolsurians!”

“Keep your voice down Tykal or they will hear us.” Said Lyo as she sat near the river’s edge.

Tykal snarled. “If we hadn’t gone back for you we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Onyx saw Tykal slowly reach for her knife just as he did the same. “Easy there guys we’re all in this together.” Tigris tried to ease the tension.

“We fight together. We die together. Isn’t that right Onyx?” Tykal recited the legionnaire mantra. “Besides I’ve always wondered what you ‘spooky kids’ are made of.”

“You sure about that?” Asked Onyx as he held the knife firmly but did not dare to pull it out of its sheath. “How good is your knife combat?”

“I get around besides…” Tykal threw her knife past Onyx’s head to a Dolsurian soldier that was ready to open fire. “You forget that ranged combat is my expertise.”

Tykal walked to the soldier who was trying to pull the knife out of his body. He then tried to reach for his crossbow when Tykal pressed her foot where the knife landed. “You feel that? That’s the last thing you will ever feel.”

She grabbed his crossbow aimed it at his forehead, and opened fire. Tykal pilfered the body for any other ammo and walked back to the rest of the group. “Now I’m in a better mood. What’s the plan to get us to the city?”

“Normally it would be the river like Azura said but…” Onyx began.

“It’s infested with Dol-Sur’s army.” Finished Embry.

“Exactly so the only real option now is to take the main road but…”

“Dol-Sur controls the road.” Finished Tigris.

“Exactly so either way we are screwed.” Said Onyx.

“The Sovereigns will guide us.” Said Lyo.

“No thanks Lyo besides I don’t believe in the Sovereigns as real as they may be… Nor in Gaia, Tigris.” Said Tykal.

“Tch tight ass.” Quipped Tigris.

“So what do you believe in Tykal?” Asked Lyo.

“I believe in ammunition.”

Hephaestus busied herself filling her canteen with water at the river. She watched both sides and kept her eyes and ears open for any signs of the enemy. She took a sip and grabbed her crossbow.

She saw Hagar emerge from the thicket with a look of dissatisfaction in his face. “Looks like the bulk of the legionnaires have already gone beyond our reach; at this point we are just hunting a few stragglers.”

“Do we march back to camp?” She asked as she picked up her crossbow.

“Yeah unless you want to keep scouting the region for more? Sovereigns know the less legionnaires the better.”

“After our last bout I’d say we could use some back up.”

“Right well then let’s go see if we can’t find another group.”

Hephaestus followed Hagar back into the thicket until she heard people conversing. Both of them hid and focused on the conversation.

“It’s only a little more.”

“That’s what you said a few minutes ago.”

“Relax Tigris.”

“Hey Onyx when we get back…”

“Onyx?” Hephaestus whispered to herself thinking on the chances of encountering the boy again.

She got a view of four people walking along the edge of the river. They were probably all legionnaires. The stories were true then Karash takes them in young. They all looked no older than sixteen at best. The group kept moving forward and didn’t seem to notice them. Hephaestus crawled back to Hagar who was leaning against a tree.

“Hagar c’mon we have to… Hagar?” Upon closer inspection she noticed Hagar wasn’t responding to her calls.

She shoved him only for her to notice an arrow bolt in the back of his neck. Hephaestus was soon fired upon and she attempted to dodge, but to no avail as two arrow bolts hit her right arm. She took cover behind the tree and peeked from her cover to see where the volley came from. She bit her lips as she pulled out both arrow bolts hoping to quiet her cries. She watched her surroundings to see if the shooter was any closer, but nothing came of it the shooter was probably lining up his shot waiting for her to make the first move. She saw a rock she could use as cover. The only plan she could come up with was to move to cover and hope the shooter misses as she moves to cover, but she will have to calculate the trajectory and estimate the shooter’s position. Hephaestus took a deep breath and sprinted towards the rock. She kept her eyes towards the trees trying to focus on the arrow volley. She saw a few bolts coming her way. She fired her crossbow in the same direction the arrows came from. One of the bolts hit her leg and now she was busy limping to cover. She hadn’t heard anything that sounded like a hit in fact quite the opposite she heard nothing. She pulled the arrow bolt out of her leg and cried in pain. She heard footsteps coming near her and saw Onyx and his team rushing in. She grabbed her crossbow and began firing at the coming group. They dispersed and took cover among some rocks and trees. Hephaestus looked at the wound in her leg. It looked like it was still bleeding.

Tykal reloaded her crossbow and moved in closer to the girl’s position. She took the far side and opted to approach the girl from her right side as Onyx and the rest would hold her left. She raced to find another spot from where she could shoot. She saw the girl firing multiple arrows at the group trying to keep them at bay. Tykal withdrew about fifty meters from the battle and found a nice tree she could use to get a better shot. She began climbing up until she found a branch strong enough to support her weight. She lay on top of it and began lining up her shot. She aimed her crossbow at the girl’s head. She looked at the leaves seeing in which direction they were blowing. She moved her crossbow a bit more to the girl’s shoulder and fired. She saw the girl turn her head at that moment, and the bolt hit her right eye.

Onyx heard cries of pain and immediately rushed in to finish off the Dolsurian soldier. As he and the rest neared the rock she used as cover he saw Hephaestus with an arrow bolt lodged in her eye. She was crying in pain as she tried to grab the bolt, but immediately regretted her decision.

“Well only one thing to do now.” Said Embry as she pulled out her sword.

“Wait we can’t kill her.” Said Onyx as he stopped Embry in her tracks.

“Onyx we can’t…” Embry began but was immediately cut off.

“She saved my life when I was captured. If it wasn’t for her I would have died back there I owe her that much.”

“I thought she looked familiar.” Said Tigris.

Embry sighed. “May our Sovereign, Apollyon, have mercy on us.”

Onyx neared Hephaestus, but was suddenly stopped by Lyo’s spear. “She is the enemy. Aiding the enemy is against Sovereignism.”

“And so begins the moral quandary of the ages. Dol-Sur has a Sovereign too Lyo. It’s not like Corrax and Ashara only had Apollyon. Last I checked they had six of them.” Said Tigris.

“Apollyon, Sethos, Usha, Hekate, Lamia, and Samael six Sovereigns for each of the six kingdoms: Karash, Dol-Sur, Aephon, Spyre, Zul-Aman, and Ulammar. I know the history Tigris.”

“Just checking.”

“I know yours too Tigris. I remember King Gaeric uniting the thirteen tribes of Khemmel and killing off the Divines one by one.” Lyo spat back.

“Ah yes a woman who birthed a real bastard that almost wiped out all of human civilization when he was only thirteen.”

Onyx stood between the two. “That’s enough both of you! We’re helping her out and that’s final!”

Lyo and Tigris grunted. Onyx sighed and looked at Embry who was already taking a look at the girl. He saw Tykal making her way with her crossbow aiming it at Hephaestus. Onyx rushed to her side to see if there was any way to remove the arrow safely.

Hephaestus began crying from the pain. Even if she could remove the arrow she was surrounded and now held captive by the enemy. She would be forced to entertain the soldiers with her body. If she was lucky that is. The downside would be that if they figured out she was the daughter of Admiral Tullius and that would tip the scales in Karash’s favor. Hephaestus saw a girl with black hair and black eyes crouch in front of her and begin examining her. Hephaestus was about to reach for her crossbow when the girl put her hand over hers.

“Relax we’re not gonna kill you.”

Hephaestus didn’t say anything and let the girl continue to examine her wound. The girl noticed her leg bleeding and began to pull out a few bandages and poultices from her pack. She applied the poultice on the bandage and began wrapping her leg with it. Hephaestus felt the pain from her leg diminishing, but the pain from her eye was still present.

“Glad to see you’re still alive.” Onyx began as he examined the arrow bolt stuck in her eye. “We’re gonna have to pull it out to heal it. Embry can you…”

“I’ll hold her you pull it out.”

“Okay then.” Onyx gently grabbed the arrow bolt whilst Embry held the girl down. In one quick motion Onyx pulled the arrow without giving Hephaestus a warning.

“So are we gonna bring her back with us?” Asked Tykal.

“No… We won’t be doing that.” Said Onyx.

“Why not?”

“She saved my life back at the enemy camp. I owe her one.” Onyx explained.

“Those two seem to be in a bad mood.” Tykal said as she pointed to Lyo and Tigris.

“They are always in a bad mood.” Said Embry as she began applying the bandages to the wound.

“Agh… Thanks.” Said Hephaestus as she struggled with the pain.

“Now we are even.”

Embry finished patching up Hephaestus, and helped her to her feet. Hephaestus grabbed her crossbow and began walking back to her camp.

Tykal stood in her way. “The next time we meet you won’t be so lucky.”

Hephaestus gulped and kept walking as fast as she could. The thought of the girl deciding to shoot her behind her back was enough to ignore the pain in her leg as she limped.

“Why?” Tykal asked.

“You already asked me that.” Answered Onyx.

“That’s not what I meant. If you want to die for your ideals that’s great have at it. But don’t think that the rest of us are willing to do the same for you.” She bumped into Onyx’s shoulder. “Your ideals will get us all killed one day.”

“She saved me Tykal!”

“And what the fuck do you think we did when we rode into the enemy camp? What did you think that was just for shits and giggles? Azura was willing to risk the entire army for your sake!”

Onyx didn’t quite know how to respond to that. Tykal waited for Onyx to respond, but he couldn’t give her an answer. She walked away and joined Lyo and Tigris. Embry put her hand on Onyx’s shoulder.

“We have to go now.”

“Yeah.”

Koto spotted Hephaestus limping across the edge of the river. He walked over to her side to check up on her. As he neared her he saw her right eye was bandaged up as well as her leg. He let Hephaestus lean on him for support.

“Sovereigns what happened to you girl?” He asked.

“Legionnaire squad… they almost had me.”

“Hmm… Trescu watch over the kid will you?”

Koto let Trescu handle the girl as he and the rest of the patrol made their way back to camp. Koto examined the bandages on Hephaestus and smirked. Hephaestus didn’t know any first aid. That was some luck the kid had on her. It was a good thing she checked up on the kid otherwise it would be a different story.