Golden Rose Encampment

None of them knew why Golden Fang had decided that their carriage was to stop at the side of the road just before reaching the main connecting path, they were ordered that they are to not remove cloth from the carriage under any circumstance and escape in case of attack.

Most of the escorting Thorns were confused as to why they had to go deeper inside the forest instead of going by Eastern Road towards Red Dawn, but it was not their place to question their leader.

After all, he led them for years, and not once have they run into issues while following his commands.

Most of them took their time relaxing and chatting with each other, but it was not something thorn Ivar indulged in.

After all, if none of them had their guard up, they would most certainly be found and killed by the blessed child before escaping.

He made sure to patrol the site as much as he could before returning to the carriage and leaning against it.

It was ordered to stay here until the dawn of the next day, Ivor could assume only one thing, they served as a diversion.

Golden Fang has likely taken the eastern route towards Red Dawn while leaving them to serve as a distraction.

'That would explain why he was adamant about us escaping in case of an attack...' Ivor thought as he closed his eyes.

The task was pretty simple, stay put until dawn, and then go back to the camp to wait further instructions from Golden Fang himself.

All seemed to go well, his patrols led to no discoveries, and he finally felt that he could relax.

But it was not to last, he saw a glint of silver flash and in the next moment screams of his fellow thorns could be heard.

He knew what this meant 'Shit, Blessed child found us' he thought, but it did not matter, he collected himself as he rushed back to help his fellow thorns, but most of them were already dead, and surviving ones were not surviving for long.

What he saw was insanity, a berserker, an elven berserker, with acidic green eyes slashing and melting his comrades.

He had to warn others, but it was no use in a moment the berserker's gaze was on him, and with the speed of lightning she slashed at him making Ivor fall to the ground but he was not dead.

He opened his eyes to see the mad berserker slash at him, but he was still alive.

Her sword was stopped by some kind of fiery barrier, he wanted to thank the divine, but on the other hand, he was still terrified.

The woman in front of him kept slashing at him but fortunately the barrier held firm.

For the first time since his first training session with Golden Fang himself he felt helpless.

This barrier was the only thing that was keeping him alive at the current moment.

While the woman was seemingly getting exhausted Ivor tried reaching out of the barrier and possibly running into the forest, he needed everyone at the camp before it was too late.

And yet same way the barrier was keeping the mad berserker out, it was also keeping him in, he had no way of escaping.

He almost gave up his will to live before the berserker got pulled to the ground by what he could make out to be a young elven girl.

'Another blessed child... why are there two of them here!' he felt it in his bones, one who cast the barrier was this elf, and he knew why he was kept alive, he was about to get tortured and interrogated.

'I will not allow them to break me, That berserker woman might have been scary but it will take more than that to get me to spill the information' he smirked in his mind.

He saw the two of them exchange a couple of words before thinking to himself 'When I think about it both are elves, and they are notoriously bad at torture'

He whispered words of resolve to himself "Golden Fang, I will not break!"

He saw the red-haired girl slowly approach him before crouching in front of him, he instinctively looked between her legs but she seemed to have covered herself.

'Shame, to deny me a view of woman's treasure is truly cruel' he shook his head inside his mind.

She dispelled her barrier before approaching him slowly, her face getting closer to his.

He still had strength left, he could have tried fighting his way out, but he knew it would be for nothing.

He sensed something wrong with this girl as she stared at him with her gorgeous blue eyes.

As she stared at him he wished that he would have bought himself an elf, but it was for nothing, she removed his hood before smiling.

"Now you would like to answer some of our questions, wouldn't you" the elven girl smiled warmly at him while asking him.

'What kind of interrogation method is this, Golden Fang prepared me for much worse you bitch!' he almost laughed at the girl in front of him as she asked this question.

'It seems the rumours about elves being horrible interrogators are true, these women might be powerful but they know nothing about this, they lack the finesse and skill!'

He remembered the drills Golden Fang used to do with each of his members, so many methods were drilled in his head and in the heads of his fellow thorns that there was nobody in this world that could get the information out of their heads.

Golden Fang was truly committed to creating perfect fighting machines, and he succeeded, no other band could compare to them, even the weakest of thorns could easily fight many enemies with little to no issue.

The girl turned her head for a moment, likely to check on her partner, but how wrong he was, as she gazed back at him it was no longer the warm gaze of beauty, but cold cruelty alone in the eyes.

These were not the eyes of the elf before now, these were the eyes of a monster.

Ivor instinctively tried to flee and yet his legs froze.

The woman gave him a bit of time to collect before speaking "I do not know why your kind keeps on hunting my kinsmen, and you are unlikely to know, but I see what a disgusting soul you have."

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She shook her head as she caressed his face, her touch almost burning his skin. "You do not need to tell me anything, after all, extracting memory is a simple task"

Ivor's eyes widened in shock, no one could do that, and yet she spoke with such conviction.

He did not get a chance to think before she placed her hands on his head, her eyes glowing with pale blue light and her fingers enveloped by a black flame dug into Ivor's skull as his mind unraveled itself to the whims of the woman in front of him.

That was the last thought that Ivor had before he was truly gone.

His thoughts were no longer his, he relived all of his past once again, from birth to his abandonment by his family and finally to the adoption by the golden rose and training under Golden Fang, and finally the current mission.

Ivor's body spasmed as the red-haired woman in front of him stole all of his memories, as she finally let go of his head he was truly gone, his brain fried by the black fire.

His mind was scrambled, Ivor was no more, his body but an empty husk, all of his training led him to nothing, as he never got a chance to use it.

Aqua smiled cruelly before whispering to herself "We can't have Azure seeing this now..." as she looked at the empty shell in front of her.

She placed her hand on the braindead Ivor, which was his name as she learned from his memory.

Her hand glowed for a moment before Ivor's body erupted in flames before being reduced to ashes in a moment.

'You may have thought me a monster, but nothing I could do could compare to the cruelty inflicted on my kin' She shook her head before standing up and returning to Azure as she wore her usual smile.

***

The camp has never been more silent, after all, only a handful of thorns have been left to guard it as their leader headed out to deliver the captive personally.

Most of the tents were disassembled at were ready to be transported once the order was given, horses were fed and morale was high even after the recent disaster.

It would be a maximum of an hour before they were on their way to catch up with Golden Fang.

While most of them enjoyed the ambiance of the Ebon Forest, not many wished to stay for longer than necessary, especially with what they knew was a blessed child on their trail.

While many of the thorns panicked and wished to leave as soon as possible did not sway their loyalty.

After all the order from Golden Fang was clear, buy the time for the transport part of the mission and then run away towards the City of Razul.

While most people would be scared, someone with the prestigious rank of Golden Petal would not fear, after all, their leader was quite capable of creating perfect plans for any situation.

He was not so respected for no reason, every single thorn that worked under him started with nothing, and only thanks to his cunning and power was he able to make all of them into formidable force.

Most of the thorns consisted of Orphans and Low Life People that society rejected, but each of them was taken into the Golden Rose, and trained to become powerful warriors or casters depending on the discipline they excelled at.

After finishing their training Thorns had an opportunity to leave and make a new life for themselves with their newfound strength, and yet almost all remained by Fang's side.

After all ultimate loyalty has to be earned, and if anyone has earned it was the leader of the Golden Rose.

Each thorn was loyal to its core, after all, who would not show loyalty to the only organization that took you in after everyone else threw you on the streets?

And their loyalty was well awarded, they all lived in comfort due to their cooperation.

Eventually, when thorns have earned enough merit, they would be promoted to a Golden Petal, while someone of this rank was not necessarily more powerful in battle than the rest of the thorns, their skills in other areas let them differentiate themselves from their brothers and sisters.

Some of them were great leaders and strategists while others were able to use divine magic like it was second nature to them.

One more thing differentiating them was that they rarely wore the classic masks covering the faces of many thorns, instead, they used gilded crowns in the shape of rose petals with their faces uncovered.

The only Petal that was brought on this mission was Laura, the main strategist and advisor to the Golden Rose's leader, Golden Fang.

She had short brown hair, with soft green eyes, while standing at 177cm tall her build was quite muscular for a woman but still considered quite attractive among her brothers and sisters of Golden Rose.

But any relationship inside the organization was strictly prohibited, it was not wise to bring the romantic personal life of the thorns inside the organization where efficiency is most important as the wisdom of Golden Fang dictated.

Laura's strategic mind could rival Golden Fang himself according to many, but even with her skill, she could not understand what the man was thinking for the most part, as she would only be able to interpret his plans and make adjustments.

Power wise she was much weaker than even the weakest thorns in the Golden Rose, and yet her mind allowed her to rise to the rank of a Petal.

With her strategies, and with her bits of advice to the Fang, she was able to secure victories where it should not even be possible.

Her most impressive achievement was leading a successful attack on the Inquisitor of Water's Slave convoy.

With that raid alone she was able to fund Golden Rose operations for years.

Slaves were mostly elven which made them quite valuable and they were able to smuggle them to less than loyal nobility of Red Dawn and gain a significant sum of crowns.

She only hoped that the inquisitor of water would not find out that it was them, while she took precautions an inquisitor coming after them would possibly cripple the Golden Rose.

While Golden Fang liked talking about how Golden Rose thorns could fight off an inquisitor, she knew it was not true.

'Even the strongest thorn would instantly be vaporized by any of those monsters' She thought to herself.

They were all powerful and yet against them it meant nothing, Laura witnessed the power of an Inquisitor of Earth when she lived on the streets of the City of Iris.

A rebellion of slaves took place there and yet, even with thousands of slaves rising, the Inquisitor of Earth cast a strange spell that turned them all into stone statues, and with a mere flick of his wrist entire slave army was turned into dust.

She did not want to draw Ire from any of them, particularly the more ruthless ones like Inquisitors of Death, Space, and Fire.

Her beloved Golden Rose would be destroyed and equally beloved Golden Fang would suffer more than just death, and there would be nothing she could do.

She did not wish for it and he did not deserve it after all he did for them all, so she did all in her power to make sure her strategies would not antagonize any of the Inquisitors of the Red Dawn.

And she was certain she never antagonized any of them, but an angry blessed child was equally bad for them.

A blessed child that they angered when they committed to a job that would pay enough to make everyone live like lords for a long time.

It was worth the risk, and yet a single blessed child should never have been able to kill so many of her brothers and sisters, which meant that the enemy that was chasing them was A Greater Blessed Child, being that was more akin to demigods than anything close to mortal level.

"Everyone, we will be moving out in minutes, anything that remains will be discarded!" She shouted for the rest of the thorns to prepare to move out.

'At least everything was proceeding to her and Fang's plan' She smiled in her mind as she thought of her leader.

She looked at the thorns running around as they prepared to leave, as she was about to meet up with them and order the convoy to go towards the city of Razul she felt a presence behind her, a presence as hot as hell and in the same time as cold as the primal frost itself.

"Where do you think you are going young lady" A young female voice came from behind her, while she might have been weak she should have noticed someone.

And yet all she could do right now was to freeze as the voice continued as she felt someone put a hand on her neck.

"I have some questions to ask of you, you see I am searching for a very important person and you seem like someone important'' she felt a mocking tone in her voice.

But she could not turn, whoever this is, one thing was certain it was the blessed child chasing them.

She felt a hand on her neck before being forcefully turned to see a beautiful young elven girl.

"You may have a chance to live if you collaborate" the red-haired elven girl smiled at Laura with a creepy smile.

Laura tried to trash and punch the elven girl before her and yet each punch and kick did nothing.

As she felt the squeeze on her neck grow stronger almost crushing her neck before releasing her and letting her fall to the ground she knew 'So it seems it is the end for me, all I can hope is for Fang to succeed in the transportation so that he may live comfortably, that was all she wanted'

She smiled as she kept Golden Fang in her mind, not even death would take away her admiration and love from her.