Geocyte, a name given to monsters akin to scorpions, however instead of poison as they lack stingers to inject it, they use their absurd strength on their pincers to crush their prey and ultimately devour them with the brutal serrated mandibles in front of their mouth. The name usually confuses new adventurers as its spawn is usually easily dealt with by using the right weapons or magic against its somewhat soft body.

However, once it grows, a geocyte gains enough strength to feed on minerals and gems that become its newfound armor, making most weapons useless against it.

“This ain’t good.”

Jonathan backed up against Laura as he pulled both of his daggers out. Leona was in the middle of the group with Laslow who was preparing a spell. Krieg and Phoebe were on the opposite side of the barbarian and thief duo with their respective melee weapons out.

A number of geocytes were gathering along the various floors of the tunnels. Many varied in size, the average being about one and half meter long from end to the pincers, but two in particularly stood out from the rest, a bright scarlet armored giant geocyte, spanning almost three meters and a totally black one of same size that almost blend in to the dark environment if it wasn’t for the torch illuminating most of the area around them.

Both giant geocytes could easily crush anyone in the group if they were caught, but instead of rushing towards their prey, both stood somewhat still, only snapping its pincers and letting their spawn do the work. Hundreds of smaller creatures gathered around the party as if inspecting each one of the members.

“We have to get out of here, fighting all of these will spell our doom.”

The wizard spoke while paying attention to the foes closer to him as his hand crackled with a bright orange fireball.

“I’ll hurl another one of these and the moment it explodes we’ll have to run.”

“Krieg.”

Leona called him. The knight glanced to his side, barely seeing her face. She thought of a plan, but the knight had to protect her.

“I’ll need time to cast a spell. Do you think you can keep me safe for eight seconds?”

“Yes.”

She took a deep breath. Some of the smaller monsters started to skittle closer to the party, at that moment Laslow released his spell against the bigger cluster of geocytes. The heat of the explosion made some of the closer ones burned and died along with the others hit directly by the fireball, not accustomed to the heat made the others scatter.

“Run!”

The wizard slid down the cliff with Laura right behind him, she swung her greatsword accurately at each leaping geocyte that tried to snap at his face. Leona was on their tails while holding both of her hands close together while muttering chanting words. Jonathan and Phoebe kept the flanks safe by knocking away the leaping creatures with the daggers.

When the foot of the cliff became visible, a number of mangled bodies came into view from the torchlight, some wore armor, others some kind of black and white clothing, like maid uniforms.

“What…?”

Leona froze in place when she recognized the contrasting fabric.

“No… this can’t be…”

There were numerous amounts of cloth and other fabric, though no intact bodies, all of them were chewed beyond recognition. The spell fizzled out from her hand when her concentration broke.

“Leona! Snap out of it Leona!”

Phoebe was yanking her arm violently.

“Ah!”

She was once again scooped off the ground by the knight who wielded the greatsword with his right hand and carried the princess with his left. He slashed through many smaller geocytes that tried to leap on them, but one jumped from his left blindspot and gave him a nasty bite on his upper back. The elf managed to kick the small creature off his back, but the flesh being ripped out of his body made him clench his teeth in pain, but he kept running without looking back.

Thankfully the whole group reached the lower level that gave access to the spiraling ramp, spanning a total of twenty to thirty meters upwards, the ramp was well made and smooth, while not perfect to run on, it was better than the previous tunnels. However that meant that it was just as good for the geocytes chasing after them.

“Leona! We need your magic! Now!”

Laslow yelled as he blasted another leaping creature out of the air with a concentrated fire explosion from the palm of his left hand. The Princess knew it was just a matter of time before they were overrun, the more they climbed the spiraling ramp, more of the geocytes skittered along the vertical walls to cut them off.

She took a deep breath and clasped her hands together. Ice crystalizing from her palms to her fingers then to her arms encasing both into a gauntlet of sharp frozen water.

“By the blessings of my creator, I order it to halt, time and space, Diamond Frost!”

She jumped off Krieg’s arm, swiping her right hand against the ground. Ice seemed to shoot out like a gust of wind in a cone, freezing the ramp behind them. The geocytes right behind them started to skiddle on the ice, eventually falling off the ramp, with her left hand she spread ice along the edges of the ramp, preventing more of the small scorpion-like creatures from climbing onto the path they were taking.

“Good! We’re shaking them off our tail!”

Phoebe commemorated too early as she was cut off by a black pincer emerging from the side of the ramp. The previous giant black geocyte was actively pursuing them now with many spawns on its back. All the ice Leona had coated the side of the ramp was being broken into pieces by the black creature that pierced right through the thin frozen surface with its strong legs.

“It’s climbing up! Laura do your thing!”

Laslow yelled whilst bombarding the smaller geocytes off the big one’s back.

“On it!”

She shouted while swinging the greatsword down with all her might against the creature. The blade hit with such force it shattered part of the ramp, but the weapon was caught between the monster’s pincers.

“Kgh! Haaaaaaa!”

With a war cry, the barbarian lifted the rock scorpion off the side of the ramp and was preparing to lob it.

“Laura watch out!”

Neiliel’s scream came from behind her as she pushed Laura out of the way. The other black pincer snapped onto the priestess's body, her left arm was folded to pry the rock pliers open but no matter how much strength she used it didn’t budge. Quite contrary to her belief, the strength on the claw was overwhelming, it slowly crushed both her arm and forearm, sharp blackened stones piercing her flesh as she desperately tried to smash it with her mace, but the strikes simply bounced off the stone plating with flying sparks to every direction.

Her scream of excruciating pain prompted Laura to let go of her sword and grab on one of the bigger parts of the claw, whilst Krieg dropped his weapon on the ground to hold on the other.

“Let go! You oversized bug!”

Laura shouted. With her rage combined with Krieg’s immense strength, they managed to open just a little of the deadly grip to free the priestess who was now on the ground with her broken left arm dangling from her torso in an awkward position.

“Neil!”

Phoebe got a hold of the priestess to help her stand up.

“I’m- I’m alright-”

Krieg let go of the pincer and kicked the monster’s head in order to knock it off the edge, but its legs were firmly embedded in the wall making it almost impossible to move without removing the ground it was affixed to. Leona dashed between the barbarian and knight, placing both of her hands on the ground in front of the black geocyte when she started to chant.

“Great power of the sea, sever the shackles of our enemies, Water Blade!”

Her hand suddenly splashed out blood from the sides of her palm as the ground in front of her burst with water coming out of grooves that were not previously there. She winced from the pain but kept on casting the spell two more times until the ground broke apart.

“Now Krieg!”

Upon hearing Leona’s voice, he together with Laura, kicked the monster’s face which on receiving the impact, its legs faltered from the broken ground and fell meters below with a deafening screech. The barbarian’s weapon was lost in its pincer but at least they removed the immediate threat, or so they thought.

“Come on, let's get out of here!”

Jonathan took the lead by cleaning the smaller geocytes that climbed from the sides in front of them but upon turning around the spiral ramp he came across the scarlet arachnid bearing its claws and mandibles at him. Out of reflex he sheathed the dagger on his left hand and pulled a silver vial from the bag on his belt.

“Eat this!”

He threw the flask on its face and when it shattered on the red stone skin it started to sizzle and melt away parts of the crimson stone. An ear-splitting shriek made Jonathan stumble back in pain whilst clutching his head. The scarlet geocyte closed its pincers in front of its face and charged at the vulnerable thief.

“Argh!”

Air violently exited his lungs as he was hit, a sharp pain accompanied by cracked rib bones, even protecting himself with his arms didn’t do much against its monstrous might.

“Jonathan!”

Laura saw him being thrown out of the ramp, but he had a trick under his sleeve. Hidden beneath his washed white cloak there was a rope with a dagger attached to the end of it, he threw the projectile between the crimson geocyte’s pincers aiming to its soft mouth. But with a clank the dagger ricocheted off the closed maw.

‘Is this… the end for me?’

Time seemed to come to a stop as his body started to fall. Geocytes awaited the prey below with snapping pincers and hungry mandibles. Everyone’s eyes were locked on him mid-air. Phoebe screamed as she tried to run towards the thief, ultimately a futile attempt as she didn’t have the strength nor the reach to do so. Leona and Laslow seemed to shout something as they ran up towards the ramp with both Neiliel and Krieg.

Certain death awaited him below, however he felt strangely at peace, as he did try to make amends to what bleak future he brought to innocent children before. Knowing that Leona could possibly be that one kid’s future he saved.

His body fell but before he plummeted into the geocyte infested ground he was suddenly yanked from the back. Looking up, the barbarian had gotten a hold of the rope by the dagger he had thrown, sharp metal was cutting deep into her flesh as her cry of pure rage kept her from letting go of the weapon.

“Laura!”

“I WILL! NOT! LET! THIS! GO! AAAAAAAARGH!”

She locked her hand in the blade as she pulled the thief up, hauling his body one small piece of rope at time. Meanwhile a little bit further on the ramp, Krieg was keeping the snapping crimson geocyte busy by dodging and parrying its massive wide attacks to the ground.

On a closer inspection, the creature’s armor was much different from the previous black geocyte, where there normally would be rocks and prominent round protrusions, instead there was scintillating ruby-like sharp gems sprouting out of its wide back. The pincers had much deadlier sharp edges all across the surface, if a prey were caught between those they could be easily shredded to pieces.

“Breaking this thing’s armor will be difficult!”

The knight shouted back at Laslow.

“Just aim at its eyes! It’s right above the head!”

Its beady black eyes above the red shell was one of the weak points of the creature, but getting through the massive claws that protected it was not something easily achieved with a greatsword. Krieg turned the weapon upside down and held it by blade. Leona was surprised by the unorthodox way to hold a sword, but nevertheless she punched the two gauntlets of ice together before circling around the geocyte.

“I just need a few seconds Krieg!”

She shouted while focusing to maintain the ice armor active, though it was already starting to put a strain on her body as sweat built up on her brow and her vision started to blur.

“Flames of destruction heed my call, reclaim mine enemy unto the ashes, Flame Spear!”

Laslow chanted as he threw fire javelins at the monster’s claws. The high heat didn’t seem to affect it much but using the brief window when it closed its guard, Krieg landed a blow with the guard of his weapon.

Normally a sword would be unable to pierce through heavy armor, that was true in most cases but with enough power and technique, it was possible to employ an attack called.

“Murderstroke. When your opponent is too heavily armored you’ll need ways to deal with them.”

He remembered those words from his tutor. The Queen herself.

“Aaaagh!”

He shouted as he attacked. The strike was so powerful it bent the guard of the weapon inwards, but as result, part of the creature’s flesh was visible from the cracked exoskeleton. It shrieked even more loudly than before, its sense of pain was only further amplified since not many individuals are capable of exerting enough force to break through the heavy natural armor.

“Now Leona!”

Krieg shouted but wasn’t expecting his liege to get so close to a raging beast, even less so when she reached out to touch it with her frozen gauntlets.

“Frigid northern winds, freeze my foe under ice, Frost Touch!”

The left claw was taken over by rapid growing spikes of ice from the point of contact, spreading like a disease, the cloudy frozen water created layer upon layer of spiked ice, hindering its movements and puncturing through its red soft flesh underneath the exposed crimson pincer. It let out another shriek followed up with a claw attack at Leona, the giant snapping claw would surely crush her body if it wasn’t for Krieg stepping in to deftly parry its limb to the ground but the geocyte wasn’t done yet as it instead decided to snap at the knight.

Moving out of the way would mean Leona would get hit by it so instead of dodging, he stood his ground and let the creature grapple him. He clenched his teeth from the sharp gems sinking into the flesh of his back.

“Krieg!”

Leona was about to move to help him but Laslow yelled from behind her.

“Leona you have to hit its flesh with fire!”

“But Krieg will-!”

“Leona!”

The knight yelled as he grabbed one side of the sharp claw, barely keeping it from crushing his torso and with all his might he once again looked right into her eyes.

“I put my life on the line for you! Do what you must to kill this thing!”

Duty or determination, there wasn’t really an explanation as to what had driven Krieg to that point, but his resolve to put his life in her hands only made her hesitate more. Blasting the geocyte with her full power would be enough to kill it at that range, but that would mean to harm the knight with the explosion as well.

“Leona! You have to do it!”

Laslow shouted. She knew her indecision to act could cost his life, but even more frightening was the idea that she could be the one killing someone she cared for.

“Leona…! Kgh!”

Krieg was struggling to keep the deadly pincers from crushing his body, for each second that passed the sharp limbs were closing into his chest. Blood spilled from his hands from holding onto the bladed claw, the knight’s clothes became stained with crimson. Leona held her trembling left hand back, summoning a sphere not bigger than a golf ball of blue swirling flames.

The heat was enough to melt her gauntlet, without totally focusing on the spell it could end up harming her too in that distance. Her body was suddenly yanked backwards by Jonathan who was also in poor shape from the fight against the creature.

“Princess, move!”

Without realizing, most of the ice that covered the left pincer had melted away leaving the scarlet flesh exposed and weakening the frozen prison. The thief managed to disrupt the princess’ concentration to make the spell fizzle out of her hand as he jumped in front of the exposed pincer and jammed a dagger with his right hand inside the moist flesh, a viscous yellow liquid started to ooze from the wound,

A flash of pain made the creature lower the pressure of its hold on Krieg’s body and the knight used that opening to grab his greatsword again by the blade.

“Die will you?!”

Jonathan yelled as he pulled a cork off a silver colored vial with his teeth and dumped everything inside the open wound which promptly started to sizzle on contact with it. The creature thrashed wildly and between one swing of the free pincer, Krieg swung the greatsword down with all his might between the two beady eyes.

“Eat this!”

The scintillant ruby armor cracked with the first strike as the creature retaliated with a swing of its right pincer against his body, but Laura blocked the attack with her folded left arm close to her body to better absorb the impact, blood was dripping from her hand down on the ground with each strike she took as she tightened her body to withstand the geocyte’s onslaught. Seeing how the barbarian was holding the creature’s attention he mustered all his strength upon taking a deep breath as he started wailing on the cracked carapace, each strike sinking the ruby armor inwards and splashing the yellow viscous fat everywhere.

With each of Krieg’s brutal attacks its legs started to give in until it was completely immobile on the ground, its shrieks becoming more and more quiet as the knight killed the creature.

“Princess, let’s go.”

Phoebe held her from the shoulders as she pushed the dazed princess forward.

A high pitched screech came from below, most likely from the previous black geocyte accompanied by a rumble under their feet.

“Let’s move! Come on!”

Laslow motioned the group to run as he pelted the smaller creatures climbing the walls of the ramp. Everyone was exhausted from the previous fight against the ruby geocyte, Neiliel supported her weight on the barbarian’s waist with her right hand, Laura herself almost couldn’t hold her weapon due to her hands being lacerated from holding the dagger with the thief’s life hanging on it.

The group rushed out of the cavern by climbing the rest of the way, though many of the smaller geocytes were right on their heels. Upon exiting the cave Laslow turned around, extending his hands out as if he was holding something between his palms.

“Flames of destruction heed my call, bring ruination to those who oppose me, Fireball!”

A sphere slightly bigger than his hands shot out straight to the top of the entrance exploding in a roaring blast of flames. The impact rumbled the ground eventually collapsing the opening under rocks and dirt. Laslow fell on his back against the mud with his eyes gazing on the darkened sky.

Black clouds filled his view, lightning struck periodically around the abandoned mine camp they found themselves in, it was a grove with parts of the forest cleared out to make space for buildings. A few simple wooden shacks circled the cave entrance, many were rotten to the point of falling apart if a gust of wind blew hard enough, but one sizable warehouse built with a stone foundation and seemingly treated wood was still standing on the far right side of the semi-circle group of buildings.

“Let’s head there.”

Leona said as she pointed to the warehouse, while she supported Jonathan with her shoulder to help him walk. Neiliel looked at the barbarian before muttering to herself.

“We are in dire need of rest.”

Phoebe took the lead to inspect the double doorway.

“Careful… there might be people inside.”

Leona warned the elf as she touched the doors but she seemed too focused to even notice her speech.

‘Locked…’

She thought as her hands gently searched for traps and only after confirming there was none, she started to work on the lock. It only took her a few seconds to unlock the door with a few tools from her satchel, though she motioned everyone to back away in case of a surprise.

The elf grabbed the left door handle with her left hand and while holding a dagger upside down on her right, she gently pushed the door open. There were many wooden boxes stacked upon each other near the doorway with some spilling a certain glowy silver dust from underneath the worn containers. Deep inside there was a faint bit of candle light that seemed to flicker ever so slightly with the wind coming from outside.

Sound of metallic chains rattling inside showed it wasn’t empty. In fact, Phoebe went in knowing that. The princess slowly unsheathed her shortsword and followed the elf a few meters back while paying close attention to her surroundings.

“W-w-who’s there?”

A trembling female voice came from inside, unsure where it came from made Leona uneasy. Her nervousness was showing on the trembling steel on her hands. Krieg stopped her from moving forward inside, instead he lifted his greatsword with both hands, even though they were lacerated badly.

“Princess. If you’re going to enter, stay behind me.”

“Krieg you shouldn’t-”

“Sir Krieg come over here, I found someone.”

The elf’s voice came from deeper into the room, seeing how Phoebe was out of sight promptly made the two move together, though inside was too dark to see anything other than the light in the end of the warehouse. Walking slowly through the creaky floor, they made their way between the stacked wooden boxes until they could see the source of the light. Against the far left corner of the warehouse there was a half melted candle affixed with its own wax on part of the wooden floor, beside there was a young girl of dark purple hair and dark red eyes with two coiled horns protruding from the sides of her head pointing forward. Probably between sixteen to eighteen years old, she held a broken longsword pointed against the elf with both hands.

The girl’s small frame was further highlighted by her skinny limbs that could barely hold the sword steadily, her pale complexion couldn’t be explained if it was from the lack of food, fear or the natural color of her skin. She wore nothing more than tattered brown cloth around her intimate parts, with visible cuts with dry blood smeared around her legs, thighs and arms.

“W-Who are you?”

Her voice was filled with fear, the weapon on her hand didn’t seem to stop shaking anytime soon.

“Calm down, we’re not with the kingdom. Me and my comrades are seeking shelter from the rain.”

Phoebe tried to approach slowly while holding the dagger behind her.

“I- I don’t trust you! Stay back!”

Her small hands grasped the handle even tighter, but her trembling arms couldn’t keep it from shaking.

At that time Krieg appeared out of the shadows with his greatsword ready. The girl tried to move away as soon as she saw the weapon in his hands but her back hit the corner behind her, she desperately looked side to side as if searching for a way out but there was none, the elf had her left side blocked while the knight was covering the path between the stacked wooden boxes.

“I can disarm her.”

Krieg said with a serious expression on his face, only making things worse as the girl’s trembling legs gave out and her back slumped against the wall. She slowly slid down while still clutching the broken weapon on her hands, eventually wetting herself as a puddle of yellowish liquid started to form around her lower body.

“Krieg, Phoebe, please just... let me do this.”

Leona walked beside the knight while putting her hand on top of the flat part of the blade, gently lowering the greatsword. Seeing how she was determined, Phoebe decided to back away slowly.

“I’m so sorry for startling you. My group was ambushed by monsters in the caverns and we were looking for shelter. We won’t be here long.”

The Princess’ voice was strangely calming, even for the elf who was on the verge of attacking the girl who refused to cooperate was now tranquil. The girl on the other hand seemed to calm down a little, her trembling wasn’t as bad as before, but it didn’t seem that she could move.

“Can you lower your weapon? I only wish to talk.”

Leona approached very slowly while the girl still had her weapon pointing at her.

“I know it’s hard being alone out here, but we can help you. My name is Leona Crossford, the gentleman over there is Krieg, my personal knight and the elf here is Phoebe, she helps him keep me safe.”

Tears started to fall from her dark red eyes. She eventually lowered the blade with cries of relief echoing through the warehouse.

It took a few minutes to sort everything out. Everyone needed rest, especially Krieg, Laura and Neiliel whose bodies were wounded the most during the escape from the geocyte riddled cavern. Laslow seemed busy inspecting the glowy dust from the crates while Phoebe healed the knight’s back. Jonathan was working on removing parts of the wooden floor to make a campfire indoors.

Leona helped the girl clean herself and thanks to the barbarian’s preparation, she had extra clothing inside her bag, though the raw cotton shirt that was meant for Laura was too big for her so instead it ended up being an oversized dress, with the sleeves going much past her hands.

“T-Thank you… I was so scared when I heard something unlock the door I wasn’t thinking straight.”

On a closer inspection she was much like a normal girl, except the two horns pointing forward on her eye level, they were coiled but the right one seemed broken near the tip, making it sharper than the other one.

Leona shook her head as she sympathized with her.

“It’s only normal to be afraid like this. How long have you been here? What exactly happened in the capital?”

“It has been three days since me and my father ran away.”

Her eyes drifted before meeting Leona’s

“Miss Leona, they told us you were dead. We didn’t want to believe, other demi-human families sought answers from lord Alexander, only to be killed on the spot. Everyone who had any appearance close to demons was attacked...”

The Princess gritted her teeth, everything she worked so hard to build was being destroyed by someone she barely knew. It made her furious, but the girl placed her hand on Leona’s shoulder before shaking her head. Princess knew getting angry wouldn’t help, but it was hard to accept that reality.

“I’m- I’m sorry… this happened to your family because of me.”

“No, no, please it’s not your fault Miss Leona. I- father and I, we are thankful to you because we could start to live in peace in the capital.”

Leona’s eyes slowly drifted towards the floor in front of her. While she was grateful for the kind words of a stranger, she was ashamed from letting that happen to someone in the kingdom she swore to do right by.

“Sorry, I never asked your name.”

“Selene Loraexion, Miss Leona.”

While still looking at the floor, she closed her eyes and with a deep breath she turned to the girl once again.

“Selene… I see. Do you need anything other than food?”

“No, not really. My father went outside to search for food but he’ll be back soon. I’ll be okay.”

Princess nodded once before heading over to Krieg who had just finished receiving treatment from Phoebe.

“Krieg, are you alright? I didn’t know your wounds were so serious.”

“I’m alright. I’m graced by your worries Princess.”

She softly hit his right shoulder with her fist before sitting on the ground beside him. She was tired, very tired. Never once in her life had she traveled so far on foot nor have been chased by wild creatures.

“I told you to call me by my name.”

“Apologies Leona.”

She started unwrapping her feet from the muddied cloth which was so thin it could tear apart at any moment, she started to massage her right foot. Krieg noticed how red her soles were, mostly from the poor terrain they traveled on. He leaned in forward before asking.

“Do you want me to help you with that?”

She turned to look at him with a weak smile on her face.

“No it’s okay, I’m getting used to walking. The problem has been this wetness from the rain and mud outside, my feet are soaked to the bone.”

Her small thumbs pressed strongly on her sole, the reddish pink skin turned white before slowly returning to the usual color. She did the same movements a few more times before moving to the other foot. For a moment she stopped to ask the knight.

“Krieg, I’ve been thinking. What drives someone to hate something so much?”

“Pain, remorse, powerlessness… many things come into play when feeding someone’s hatred. I myself was once driven by resentment from my parents. That one day I would meet them and pay them back for what I suffered through, but the power of rancor only gets you so far, it blinds you, closing all other possibilities that would otherwise be available to you. That much Eleonora taught me.”

She was surprised, never would she suspect the knight who was usually collected and level headed harbored such deep hatred, though it was understandable as his past was only filled with war, violence and death.

“I see… do you still think like that?”

Glancing through the corner of her eyes, she saw an almost imperceptible smile as he chuckled quietly to himself.

“No, the Queen opened my eyes to the truth. My father was a swordmaster in the far east, my late mother was an experienced mage who served as a healer in the village I was born in. Before I could even walk, death angels attacked and my father had to defend the village, but my mother died while carrying me in her arms. After everything was over and with no one to take proper care of me, my father had a witch take me to the arcadian continent.”

“Where you met Eleonora.”

“Yes, exactly. After Medea, my caretaker, was killed by bandits, Eleonora’s troops were passing by and rescued me. Although most of them thought I was a demon and wanted to slay me on the spot, she took me under her wing as a squire. From there I trained to become a full fledged knight and second in command for her army.”

Leona’s expression was dumbfounded, never she thought her personal knight was someone so important in regard to how she first found him half dead near her family’s mansion.

“How come you never told me all of this? I thought you were just another knight in Eleonora’s army.”

“I thought it might have distracted you from your duties, Leona.”

She turned her head down as if she was staring at her own foot for a while, before raising her head again to look at him.

“Truly, having a former second in command knight of the greatest army in the entire world would certainly be distracting, but I’d prefer to know fully about you rather than just pieces and bits of loose information. After all, you know all about my life, it wouldn’t be fair now would it?”

For the first time she noticed him fluster as he turned his face away from her.

“Very well… I’ll tell you about myself.”

On the far corner of the room against a few stacked boxes, Jonathan often glanced at everyone while he kept the campfire going which was now slowly burning part of the wooden floor he had removed. A sizable cast iron pot had rain water heating above the fire. The thief worked on cutting fillets of dried meat to heighten the soup’s flavor; some vegetables were already floating inside the broth.

“Soup again?”

The wizard’s voice came from above him.

“Shut it. It’s what we are having for today.”

“Figured as much.”

Laslow stepped down from the stack of boxes and sat on the lower one near the thief with his tome open.

“One more day until we reach the capital. Then… we’ll end this madness.”

“Listen, Las. I know where you’re going with this, I know why you are so determined to put him down, but don’t you feel anything? Luke died down there for us, even if he was only your cousin, family still-”

“I would have found another way.”

He replied without taking his eyes off the tome.

“What?”

“If he wasn’t a fool to kill himself I would have found another way.”

Jonathan suddenly stood up as he grabbed the wizard by the collar of his cloak.

“You’re now telling me that you could have spared his life?!”

“John… getting physical with me won’t help us. Let go.”

The wizard grabbed his wrist firmly with a serious look in his eyes.

“Help us?! You left him to die! What can you say about helping the group you selfish bastard!”

Anger took over him and with his shouting, it drew attention to the two. Phoebe stomped her feet towards them as she pulled the two apart.

“Enough! We have wounded that need treatment, the situation is bad as it is, we don’t need you two arguing here. If you want to do this, take it outside!”

A loud thud of armor echoed behind her as she turned. Neiliel had fallen on the ground while clutching the collar of her breastplate with Laura desperately holding her.

“Neil! What happened? Neil, talk to me!”