The Templaga soldier batted Madrily's dagger out of her hand. She reached for another dagger, but he whacked her cheek with the pommel of his claymore. Blood splashed out of her mouth as she stumbled against the bark. Plunging the blade point towards her neck, he smiled and sighed in relie-

Geruke leapt at Madrily and shoved her to the side. She stumbled away from the tree, tumbled onto the grass, and spun to look up at him. He slammed his feet on the grass, landing from his leap, and rammed his pauldron towards the enem-

The enemy’s sword didn’t thrust towards his pauldron. It shot at his forearm. And it wasn’t the arm that Friedroth slashed. Geruke screamed as the soldier’s blade sunk through flesh. He winced and his teeth smashed together as the sharp pain burned through his arm.

The soldier yanked the blade out, ripping another shriek out of Geruke’s throat. After the sword left his arm, he retched at the sight of the gaping wound in his arm and how much blood gushed out, pooling on the grass.

But he had no time to moan and vomit; the enemy’s blade whooshed through the air and blurred down at his exposed hea-

A dagger zoomed through his neck. Geruke glanced behind the soldier. Madrily pushed her dagger through the man’s nape. She yanked it out, and the knight toppled to the floor, splashing blood on the ground.

Geruke groaned and fell to the grass. He sighed in relief when he saw Lyrassa sever the head of a Templaga soldier.

They won.

However, she didn’t fall to the grass and relax like he did; she turned and ran down the road.

He forgot about the huxkrana horses. Geruke yelled in agony, rushed to his feet, and ran up to the road. All the huxkrana horses either laid motionless in pools of blood or writhed and squealed, splattering blood out of their many wounds. They lost too much blood to be saved. The only surviving huxkrana horse raced away from them and down the road, rode by the only surviving Templaga soldier.

Lyrassa slid across the dirt as she stopped running. She collected a bunch of swords and dagger belts from the corpses of the soldiers she killed. Snatching a sword, she flung it at the escaping huxkrana horse. It hurtled through the air and spun over the galloping huxkrana horse to splash into the dirt. “Damn it!” She muttered.

Geruke ran over and reached for a sword, but he screamed as pain rushed up his injured arms.

“Stop it!” Madrily shouted as she ran up to them. “He’s surrendered! You shouldn’t kill him!”

“We need that horse!” Lyrassa shouted. She threw another sword that just plunged into dirt behind the horse. “Do you not care about succeeding in this mission!?”

Geruke’s heart leapt as he chewed over the situation a bit more. If they let the soldier live and escape, he’d be able to inform the rest of the Templaga about Geruke’s killing of them. No matter how rich he was, they’d never forgive him. If they found out about this incident, his life would be over. Not even just his, but also Lyrassa’s and Madrily’s.

Whilst Barsanna was the Lady of a town, that was nothing compared to the Templaga. They had power across all of Galladria and even nations like Swedark and Ledden. The Supreme Grandmaster Knight of the Templaga Order was even more powerful than a Duke, let alone the Lady of a Town.

Geruke wanted to kill Friedroth and his lackeys for a long time, but he didn’t want to incur the wrath of the almighty Templaga Order. In the middle of Archi Town was the wrong place to fight them, but in the wilderness he could get away with it. But if that soldier escaped, then it would all be hopeless.

“Let him live,” Madrily said, reaching for Lyrassa. “It’s wrong to kill enemies once they’ve surrendered.”

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“Stop it, Maddy,” Geruke stepped between them. “If you let this knight escape, then what do you think will happen to you and your mother? The Templaga will destroy you.”

Lyrassa threw her last sword. It spun over the Templaga soldier and shot down towards him. It bounced off his pauldron and spun into the dirt. She clicked her tongue and Geruke winced. The horse’s getting close to the peak of a hill trembled Geruke’s legs, because after it rode over the peak and galloped down the other side, they wouldn’t be able to throw anything at the horse or the soldier.

“We fought them out of self-defence,” Madrily said, pushing Geruke to the side. “I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Do you think they’ll care?” Geruke said. “They’re more powerful than your mother. Shame, self-defense and fairness are meaningless to them.”

“I refuse to let them force me to stoop down to their level,” Madrily said. Se grabbed Lyrassa’s shoulder. Shrugging Madrily off, Lyrassa pushed her to the ground. She snatched a dagger from the floor and threw it. It plunged towards the huxkrana horse.

The horse squealed. The dagger smashed into its leg, splattering blood onto the dirt. Slowing down, the horse’s gallop turned to a trot. It reached the peak of the hill.

Groaning, Madrily rushed to her feet and ran at Lyrassa. Madrily clenched Lyrassa’s arm before she could grab another dagger. She then ripped her arm from Madrily’s grasp, but she kicked the dagger belt. It slid off of the road and onto the grass. The huxkrana horse rode off the hill’s peak and trotted down the other side of it, appearing smaller and smaller.

Lyrassa ripped her own short sword out of its scabbard and tried to throw it, but Madrily whacked her hand. It fell out of Lyrassa’s grasp and onto the floor. Madrily crouched, dodging a punch, and dashed behind Lyrassa, snatching her dagger belt. Lyrassa flung her foot at Madrily’s face. She slapped Lyrassa’s ankle, swiping it to the side of her head. Madrily snatched Lyrassa’s shin, twisted her torso, threw Lyrassa to the ground, inspiring a yell and a groan.

Geruke grimaced, angry at the fact that he couldn’t help Lyrassa. His arms bled and the pain that ravaged his arms made him continuously shake and groan. The mere thought of putting a strain on his arm muscles made him gasp.

So he could only watch as Madrily scrambled up from the floor, and ripped Lyrassa’s claymore off her back and yanked her dagger belt off her waist. The Templaga soldier and huxkrana horse vanished from Geruke’s vision; they rode down the other side of the hill.

It was over.

Despite that, Lyrassa jumped to her feet and whacked Madrily in the face. Lyrassa ran for the belts whilst Madrily recoiled from the punch. She dropped the belt and claymore that she stole from Lyrassa and ran after her. Madrily was faster. Geruke had to do something. So he ran at Madrily.

Lyrassa grabbed a dagger’s hilt and yanked it out of a belt. Madrily reached for Lyrassa and rushed towards her. Geruke stomped in front of Madrily. Her foot caught on his ankle and she tripped on the floor. She groaned, fell, but caught her balance, stumbling to her feet. But by then, Lyrassa already threw the dagger.

Despite the huxkrana horse galloping so quickly and being so far away earlier, Lyrassa was accurate. What if she could predict where the huxkrana horse and the Templaga soldier would be without even seeing them? The dagger hurtled over the hill’s peak and zoomed down behind it. They couldn’t see if it hit anything, so Lyrassa ran up to their own horse and galloped down the road to check. Madrily hopped on her own horse and followed.

Geruke sat down and continued to whine and moan in response to the pain that surged across his arms. He couldn’t get up onto his own horse in the state that he was in. In fact, how could he even continue with the mission? Such injuries couldn’t heal in a matter of days. It would take months. He couldn’t get up on a horse and he certainly couldn’t fight. It was useless. All he could hope for was that the Templaga soldier was dead. But even that was unlikely.

His groan turned to a shout and then a scream. Swallowing and feeling the soreness prickling through his throat, he had enough. A deafening silence pummelled his ears. He sat and stared at the dirt as he awaited his fate. The vastness of the sky just revealed how little he could experience in his sorry and short life, so he looked away from it and glued a grimace to the ground. He shook his head, chuckled, and waited.

Lyrassa galloped over the hill’s peak first, and then Madrily followed. At such a long distance, Geruke squinted and stared, desperate to read their facial expressions and figure out what happened. He couldn’t; they were too far away.

So he waited.

They got closer. Geruke gulped. A cold sweat stampeded down his face. Madrily scowled and shook her head, staring at the ground. Did that mean it went badly? No, Madrily didn’t want the death of the Templaga soldier. That must’ve meant it went well. Geruke was about to smile, but then he saw Lyrassa’s expression.

Clenching her horse’s reins, she grimaced at the distant sunset. He could also clearly see that neither rode limping horses and certainly not huxkrana horses. So that could only mean one thing.

They failed.

Geruke’s life was over.