“It’s not my hands that’re on him…” Macy pushed against Jon more with her body.

Now this was the closest he had been to a woman.

Tallow walked up to her and pushed her off by the shoulder.

“Ohh… someone’s getting rough,” Macy said. “Jealous much?”

“I ain’t jealous.” Tallow said. “I just like stepping in when I see one of my friends in trouble. And you… you’re real trouble.”

She put herself between Macy and Jon.

“I suppose you wouldn’t know how that works, right? Having real friends.”

Jon expected Macy to say something, but she didn’t. She bit her lip.

“Let’s go, Jon. Let’s not keep Liz waiting.”

Tallow patted Jon on the shoulder to urge him forward.

Jon waited to see if Macy would move forward, but she didn’t. She simply kept biting her lip.

Jon finally decided to walk on, hoping Macy would catch up. Tallow was at his side.

“I guess he wouldn’t go for your dusty ass anyway.”

“What?” Tallow swiftly turned to face Macy.

“I said…” Macy hadn’t even finished turning around before she caught a swift punch in the face. Jon didn’t think he saw anyone be hit so hard.

Macy’s hair had been tossed around, and when she turned back to face them, she was bleeding on the side of her lip.

She took a thumb and brushed it on the side of her mouth. She observed the blood on her thumb before licking the rest off of her face.

“I was wondering when you’d crack,” Macy said, smiling again.

“I’ve been waiting to knock the smack out of you for the longest.” Tallow slowly began to raise her fists. “Come on.”

“In the middle of a mission? Fine.” Macy put her hands up.

“Hey, I ain’t King’s Guard,” Tallow responded.

“Me neither…”

Jon could feel the tension rising. Should he let them fight it out? He pondered the choice, but he also read the air. It was different from Tallow and Mercy, who cared more about proving themselves stronger than the other.

Here, Jon could feel that both girls wanted to hurt each other.

He wondered about stepping in between them, but he also knew that he would probably just get hurt and make things worse. He slowly began reaching for his gun.

“Guys!” Amalia was gesturing towards herself from the side of the building. “Come on!”

“...We’ll finish this at the castle, right?” Macy asked.

“...Right…” Tallow watched suspiciously as Macy went on ahead.

Tallow patted Jon on the shoulder reassuredly. “Sorry.”

“Oh…” Jon wasn’t expecting an apology. He was so glad that Tallow considered his feelings, he started to blush.

“Why are you blushing?” Tallow shook her head and brushed her cheek. Jon could have sworn she was hiding a blush too, but it was hard to see past her headwrap.

They wandered awkwardly forward.

Jon kept wondering why Macy had provoked Tallow like that. Tallow wasn’t very dusty at all. And what did Macy mean by wanting her?

Was there a competition to be his friend? Would Tallow start kissing him too? That seemed kind of complicated.

Then again, Jon started to wonder how it would be if Tallow kissed him. Not that she did after all this time.

She noticed him staring and looked back at him.

Oh no. Was she going to get mad?

Instead, she blushed even more and looked away. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Sorry…” Jon looked away.

“Stop apologizing… you didn’t do anything wrong. I just hate that snake…”

Her voice came to a whisper as they got to the edge of the building.

Jon could hear voices coming from the front. It was Valda.

Then it was Liz.

He wanted to hear what they said, but Tallow pushed Jon along. They went to the wagon, where Ray and his family were already on board, and so was Macy and Amalia.

Tallow ran to the front and hopped on.

“Up here with me, Specs!” Tallow called to Ray. “ They’ll need room to move!”

Ray gave a glance to his family before nodding. ”Okay.”

He climbed up to the front. “I still think I’m useless here.”

“Only if you keep distracting me with your talking,” Tallow commented.

“Hey!” There was Valta’s voice. Liz was already coming on her horse, with Lester sitting behind her.

“Go!” She yelled. “Go!”

The wagon pulled off. Jon held onto the side of the wagon. He looked at Amalia.

“I’m fine!” She said, “Just be careful!”

Jon nodded. He also saw that Thalia was right beside him.

...More help. Jon wished that he was that useful at that age.

He could see Valta, Raglace, and the mixture of mercenaries and bandits running to attack them.

Liz’s group had managed to hold off most of them, but a line of cavalry had still managed to make it through the fighting.

Jon decided that it was time to start shooting. So he did. At one of the mercenaries, since he considered him more dangerous.

This mercenary held up a hand and deflected Jon’s attack with a blue shield.

Uh-oh. He must have come with the reinforcements.

Hector… Still, Jon knew that mana exhaustion was a thing. So he started to fire in random directions into the line.

Most of his shots were still being deflected by an assortment of blue shields.

“She must have kept the best for herself!” Macy called from behind him.

Jon also realized that no magic had come their way, so there wasn’t a chance for Thalia to deflect their attacks. The horses were just going to catch up quickly and surround them.

Jon then felt a tug on his shoulder and looked over. It was Thalia. She held up her dagger to him.

Oh… He nodded.

He pointed the gun towards her dagger and fired.

A blast suddenly appeared underneath some of the feet of the horses, no blue shield to deflect.

Jon and Thalia nearly smiled at each other before they looked back to the fight.

Jon became a lot more liberal with his shooting. He was worried about accidentally knocking Thalia off of her horse, but she held strong onto her dagger.

The line of men was slowly diminishing. Where there were nearly twenty., now there were closing up to ten.

Ten horses with angry-looking people chasing after him were still enough to scare Jon. And now, they were even closer.

And now, they were starting to shoot back.

Magic of every kind started flying towards the wagon, forcing Jon to duck. Thankfully, Liz was there to put up a shield, but even she seemed to be straining against the onslaught of mana.

“Give me that!” Jon could hear Macy’s voice from behind him.

“Hey!” That was Tallow’s voice.

“Move over!” Macy yelled. “All of you!”

Jon didn’t have time to move as Macy had pulled him back hard. Jon was pushed into Mr. Amistand, knocking them both over.

“Sorry,” Jon said. Macy really must have been holding back this entire time.

“It’s all fine, son.” Mr. Armistand was already patting him off. “You’re doing some mighty good shooting. But what is she going to do?”

Jon looked back at Macy. She had the nunchucks wrapped around her body. That must have been what she and Tallow were making a fuss over.

Jon was elated when he remembered that the nunchucks were able to deflect oncoming mana attacks.

As if on cue, one of the fireballs made its way through the weakening shield.

Macy swung the nunchuck, knocking the spell off course.

It flew by Liz's head, who had to move it to the side to not get hit. She didn't even need to turn around to do so.

“Watch it!” She yelled as Lester was patting the smoke out of her hair.

“You’re fine!” Macy yelled back.

Jon thought that Macy was going to stand and deflect more mana attacks.

“You’re on your own!” Macy called out. She braced herself before leaping off the back of the moving wagon.

Oh... Jon watched her as she turned sideways, her body heading straight towards the line of approaching mercenaries.

Valta realized that the large pair of feet were heading straight towards her.

Her eyes widened in shock, and Jon heard a yell as Macy dropped-kicked her off of her horse, both of them disappeared behind the fading line of horses.

Now, there were 5 mercenaries, 4 bandits, and Raglace.

“I can take him out, too!” Lester said. He stood up on Liz’s horse. “Cover me!”

“No!” Liz yelled.

Lester jumped off of the horse, his sword raised high above his head.

He soared up into the air until he came down at an angle towards the approaching line.

Two of the mercenaries stretched out their hands and caught Lester in the air with a spell.

Liz had already started to wave her hands. “You can’t defend book magic, you dope!”

Jon wished Lester warned him. He would have shot him to give him a boost.

For now, Jon settled for shooting at one of the mercenaries. Liz casted another spell towards the floor and it trailed back towards the other mercenary.

Both mana attacks took out the spellcasters holding up Lester.

Lester, free, came straight down for one of the bandits, knocking him off the horse and taking his place on it. He made one swing, knocking off a rider on either side of him. He then steered the horse towards Raglaces, drawing his sword. Raglace responded in kind.

They began swinging at each other. Jon, seeing his shot, took aim and fired.

He regretted it as soon as Raglace veered his horse to the side. Lester, still trying to keep close to Raglace, veered his horse over as well, right into the line of fire.

He wasn’t aware of the blast as it knocked him off of his horse and he disappeared into the distance.

Raglace gave some commands and the other men around him broke off and went back for Lester.

Jon hadn’t felt so much shame in his life. Raglace did react with incredible speed in order to pull off the maneuver, but Jon still felt blame for his own mistake. Jon had considered knocking a man off of the horse, but he hadn't considered which man to knock off.

Oh. Jon looked at his gun. He could do that?

“Jon!” Amalia grabbed at his shoulder repeatedly.

Raglace was accelerating at an incredible rate.

Was he waiting for Lester to go away? Jon hated himself even more for making that shot.

“Turn!” Liz yelled.

The wagon had started shifting, even as she said it.

Jon wondered why they had turned when he saw even more bandits coming from where the carriage was heading.

More… Jon would have sighed if he could.

“Watch the wagon!” Liz yelled.

She broke off on her horse, ignoring Raglace, but ascending ahead sending mana towards the new line of men approaching. Liz's magic was incredible enough to attract the attention of most of the new riders.

Wow... Jon focused on who was left.

Now it was just Raglace, and a few of the men who had made it passed Liz versus Jon and whomever else was on the wagon.

He looked at the front of the wagon. Tallow was looking back at them, watching the scene.

“...Take it!” she yelled, handing the reins to Ray.

“What?”

“Protect your family!” Tallow yelled.

The wagon finally exited the wide forest, heading off-road onto a grassy plain.

Ray nodded and took the reins. Tallow flipped over to the back of the wagon.

“I’m gonna take this guy out!” she yelled.

She looked at Jon. “You're gonna stay here?"

“I”m coming,” Jon said.

“Well then, I guess it’s us. Princess-”

Amalia had started throwing her small weapons at Raglace, who shrugged off the attacks.

She eventually caught both projectiles and put her hands together, expanding it into a large red pole.

She swung it hard at a closing Raglace.

He caught the pole with one hand, laughing.

Jon was gonna shoot him, but Raglace already started lifting Amalia into the air, continuing to laugh his heart out. She scrambled from her end of the pole, her legs kicking out in the air.

Jon was afraid to shoot him for fear of hurting Amalia, but he was close to taking the chance anyway.

He didn’t get to finish deliberating to himself. Amalia’s pole disappeared back into her hand, transforming into a shield.

Raglace’s amused expression disappeared upon sight of the decending princess. “Oh.”

Amalia landed on top of him, crashing her shield into his face and knocking both of them off the horse.

“Oh shit,” Tallow said. “We can’t let the princess die. Hector will kill us.”

Jon nodded quickly, already wrapping his hand around her waist, holding her close to him.

He pointed the gun towards the ground.

“Really?” she said. “I’m not the princess.”

“Oh…” Jon let go of her waist.

Tallow instead grabbed his gun with her hand and pointed it at the front of the wagon, scaring Mr. Armsitand.

“You shoot, I aim, right?” she asked.

Jon nodded. “Together.”

“You’re so dramatic…” she whispered.

Jon took one last look at Thalia before he pulled the trigger.

He and Tallow were both propelled from the back of the wagon. Thalia’s apprehensive expression, as well as the wagon itself, became smaller and smaller as they flew through the air and back towards Amalia.