Maracles and Loffin perch in the canopy right on the forest’s edge, scanning the fields for any breakaways from the battle in the distance.

“Watch them closely, see how they hold their weight. It’s difficult to balance all the way up there. When they get knocked off balance, they’re vulnerable to attack while they try to compensate with all those legs,” Maracles directs her apprentice as he nods along. The two watch the battle in the field with a monocular. The breakaway in front slams into a farmer who just came out of his shed, pitchfork in hand. He’s knocked to the ground as the construct sets on him.

Loffin’s hands clenched tight into fists. He declares “I’ll make them pay for all of this,” his body and voice shaking as the machine searches for new victims even as the man lays dying beneath it.

“That won’t do, Loffin. Your pain is too fresh, for now you must observe.” He turns to her, snarling. “I wish to see those who harry us even now suffer as much as you do, but you’ll only succeed against their weapons when you can think like their weapons. These are simply machines, like a water wheel or a loom. It is unfeeling, and your anger will cloud your judgment, you’ll make mistakes you would normally never make. You can count on those things to do what they were designed to do: take and kill.”

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Loffin wills his body still, his head snapping back to the fields. Drawing in a deep breath he gazes intently into the battle before them.

She gives him a stern look for a moment before indicating a hill closer to the farms. “We will move up when Preen and Retisin come to blows with the constructs. Only observe. Do. Not. Attack. We are required in reserve lest any constructs manage to slip through into the village proper.” Maracles squeezes his shoulder once, the pair nodding once before falling into a tense silence. Loffin thumbs at his knife’s holster, clasping and unclasping the latch as they wait. He shifts, drawing in a breath, “Then, can I fight?” he inquires.

Miracles frowns, pondering the question for a moment. She levels with his gaze, “Be wary for what you wish, young one.”