-Break-

Φ As the Lúcogadh’s cavalry race through the mountain range, Téad remembers a conversation from the night before.

To my men, I say, “And that will be the path we will take to reach the outside, any problems?”

None of my men raise any disputes but then I hear, “Please go rest Ferdiad.”

Moving my head, I see Ferdiad fighting against my men trying to reach me, so I head over to him and say, “What are you doing moving about?”

Grabbing me, Ferdiad says, “I have a favour to ask.”

“What?”

“Please let us return for Ibar.”

“No that is stupid, at this point, he is all but assured to be dead.”

“I don’t think he would be. The enemies I fought seemed hesitant to kill me because I was a child, if they caught Ibar I am sure they would restrain him.”

“Regardless of that, those foes you fought were exceptionally strong, even if all of us here teamed up against them, winning would still be an uphill battle.”

“I know but we can’t just leave him.”

“Yes, we can. This is war when one man is down we leave him behind. Even the life of one of the king's children would be something that we would have to think twice about.”

Ferdiad says, “Alright, then I will go by myself.”

“Are you insane you? You’re one step away from dying.”

“It is just some fatigue and exhaustion, my wounds aren’t deep and if I rest of my way there I will be able to be up for battle.”

Grabbing me, he says, “Did all those men not die for you? And you’re back to throwing away your life again.”

“They died so Setanta would have the best fighting force to stand beside him and lead Gorias to glory. Ibar is a part of that fighting force, without him we would have died today, he is someone who I owe my life to and will protect.”

“There are others to be chosen, you have barely known him for half a year unlike you he can be replaced to Setanta.”

“You don’t understand how attached Setanta can grow to those around him, he happens to be a freak. The kind of freak who would go above and beyon…”

Grabbing me, Ferdiad says, “Setanta has probably woken up by this point and received our message.”

“Yes, what of it?”

“Earlier he said that our entire operation was a decoy, at first I didn’t know what that meant. But if I think about it logically, maybe Lugh set up the Lúcogadh’s strike to be a trap that would force the humans to run through the mountain range. Then close to the end of it, Lugh would launch a surprise attack against the escaping beastkin and humans.”

“Wait that’s impossible, because if not that means he set up my father and others to fall for the trap within the castle.”

“Lugh might not have known it could be destroyed like that, or maybe he expected Setanta to say something and didn’t know he would have been knocked out by the wonderbeast.

In all honesty, after seeing the forces we faced during this war I don’t see why the Faoláin forces couldn’t have handled it all by ourselves, but if there is going to be a large strike force to crush the escaping humans, it would make sense why we needed such numbers.”

“Still that wouldn’t change the fact that we should probably leave this to Lugh and his warriors.”

“I want you to think for a second if Setanta woke up and received our message that we would be heading into the mountain range, I am sure he would figure out our situation and head out to inform us of this so we wouldn’t make any stupid moves.”

“Impossible the only way that would work is if he rode all the way through the mountain range diagonally in the night. No one could pull off such a feat.”

“Laeg could, without a doubt and would be willing to do such a thing, and if they continued on in that direction I am sure they would come across the giant fleeing human army before they came in contact with Lugh, and if they see Ibar without a doubt he would go and try to get him back despite the odds.”

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Sweating a bit, I say, “Your entire plan is still upon a bunch of what-ifs. None of it is guaranteed.”

Looking me dead in the eye, Ferdiad says, “It is all guaranteed, I am sure that this would be Setanta’s actions. All the years I have spent with him can guarantee that.”

Clenching my fist, I say, “I am also a red branch child, he might be the son of the king of Gorias but it isn’t enough for someone like me to so willingly throw away his life for such.”

Ferdiad pulls me close and then whispers in my ear, “The high king is infertile, so Setanta is next in line for the position of high king. Do you know what that means?”

As he pulls back I can feel an immense weight fall on top of me and I say, “EVERYONE PREPARE TO MOVE OUT WE WILL GO AND INTERCEPT THE HUMANS!”

Riding through the forest on my horse with Ferdiad resting behind me, I say, “I want a castle?”

“What?”

“I want a castle for all my hard work, it doesn’t have to be big but just somewhere I can relax and be to get away from being a bastard.”

Ferdiad laughs a bit, and says, “You can have a whole colony.”

Smiling I say, “Then you better not die.”

As we ride we hear the footsteps of the human army getting closer and closer, and soon from the tree tops we see the armoured beastkin fall down on us.

One tries to strike me, but Ferdiad knocks him away, and I say, “Spread out, from this point on be vigilant and stick to the plan.”

We all move forward and soon we break through the trees and in the middle of a mountainous valley we look down and see a huge amount of humans walking, so many that I freeze for a moment before going on.

Φ Seeing a group of cavalry rushing down the valley, I say, “Ferdiad.”

Craig instantly grabs some robe and ties me up, and then he says, “A pack of fools.”

Soon he moves towards the cavalry with the rest of his men following suit so he can intercept them all.

“I don’t have any time to just stay and be locked up here.” Using my tail I grab a dagger that is attached to the horse and fling it up towards my hands.

Using that dagger I slowly start to break and cut through the ropes.

Φ Seeing the same beastkin who defeated me coming, I say, “Be steadfast Téad, if you can do that I will make sure you come out of this alive.”

He rushes at me and says, “You were lucky we didn’t kill you last time.”

“Red branch battle arts; Sonic thrust,” Is what I use to strike directly at him, which knocks the man back.

Φ Recovering from the blow, I say, “All of the Lucogadh’s calvary rushes to the humans!”

As the rest of my allies rush back, I say, “Why the hell are you they even do that.”

Saoirse beside me says, “Craig, hurry up people will die!”

“Right?”

As those who went away get back we move in to fight but soon we fall into their trap.

Φ The Cavalry of the Lúcogadh’s have stuck themselves in the dense amount of humans and are using them as a shield.

The armoured beastkin are all using great swords, which wasn’t an issue in the forest due to their ability to cut through trees, but surrounded by humans they have all lost their range of movement.

The beastkin however have not as they have no qualms about stabbing directly through the humans to hit their targets, this combined with the fact they are using spears gives them more freedom than before.

They throw the humans at the armoured beastkin, and use them as shields, then slowly but surely, they wait for moments where the beastkin drop their grab and pierce their necks.

Ferdiad especially uses this tactic to defeat the armoured beastkin who was untouchable to the knight before. Using these methods the battlefield changes in favour of the house of Lúcogadh, and Ferdiad.

Φ Enraged by what I see, I lunge forward towards Ferdiad and say, “You people are butchers.”

“I care not for that, I have come to war to gain by killing. The only wish I have is to protect the house of Faoláin and all those within it, so get out of my way.”

We clash a bit but due to the fact I can’t swing my sword how I want I am on the defensive far more often. During this exchange, Ferdiad makes sure to position himself in between humans to break my focus.

Soon he throws humans towards me, whom I catch, then he pierces through the woman’s face which shakes me, but not even giving me a second to rest he stabs right through my armour and strikes my left shoulder.

Then with a smirk, he says, “When you're shaken the flowy aura starts to dissipate, so one's mental state feds into its control.”

I hold the body in my arms tightly and look around the battlefield. There I see humans are confused, scared, and trying to look for somewhere to run away. But they can’t as the beastkin are running around them so much that they can’t even react, whilst the rest are being used as shields, or being trampled on.

“DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!” I say as break my sword into less than half its length.

I charge forward and attack Ferdiad, and with my shorter sword, I am able to react and fight better. We move around the bodies of the humans, and as he tries to use the humans as a shield I am able to counter.

But then he manages to whip my helmet with the back of his spear and taunts me saying, “Your concentration is slipping.”

The attack he hit me with managed to break a bit of my helmet off, and noticing this I go to cover the broken portion. Ferdiad at this moment rushes forward and continues to attack me.

“I think I might have the flowy aura down.”

This is getting bad, I can’t waste any more time dealing with him, he has to die now. Invigorated our clash continues and soon we start using red branch battle arts to move at high speeds all around.

But an issue occurs as now due to the opening in my helmet I have a weak spot which he can easily reach with his spear, so I am still on the defensive while also having to keep humans safe from his attacks.

Soon he hits me directly in the stomach with red branch battle arts; Sky flower and I am knocked backwards out of the crowd of humans, but then Ferdiad starts to move out of the cover of humans towards me.

He has gotten overconfident; I should be able to kill him in this open space. But as Ferdiad comes towards me, I calm down and hear a sound behind me.

Turning, I see it is Ibar on a horse, and using that horse he kicks me directly in my back which breaks my stance, and then using his spear Ferdiad tries to stab me through the hole in my helmet.

But I quickly move my head which makes Ferdiad's spear hit the edge of the hole in the helmet, and the force from this attack breaks my helmet off.

As I recover from the blows, I hear one of the humans scream, and then one of them says, “The black knights, are beastkin!”

Suddenly the faces of all of the humans turn to horror as they see us.