"Wha-What are you doing here? Did you flee from the battle?" he asked us loudly.

I grinned at him.

"The battle's over. We're the only survivors," I said calmly.

His eyes widened and then he began chuckling.

"You should have just died up there. We would have told your two companions that you sadly perished and we would have even compensated them," he began.

Before he could continue Hiba began speaking.

"Oh, we knew all along. We just thought we would run as soon as he appeared." He went towards the commander's table and leaned over to him. "But really, you thought counting on someone like Vindictus to do your dirty work was a good idea?" Hiba began laughing right at the commander's face.

The commander jumped up from his chair and began yelling.

"Soldiers! Surround the tent!"

My suspicion was confirmed.

"So you really plan on just killing us now? You could have just paid us and we would have left . . . but now we will have to get violent," I said while unsheathing my sword.

"Let's dance," Mark said.

Both Mark and Larkan ran towards the exit to the tent and stormed outside. Yelling and screaming quickly reached my ears. Hiba had already sent an arrow straight through the commander's head.

"So what now?" he asked.

"We should make sure that Iva and Rey are safe," I said on my way out of the tent.

The battle was raging outside. Two people against at least four dozen soldiers. I looked over to our tent. Multiple soldiers were running straight towards it. I ran as if my life depended on it, dodging many spear thrusts on the way.

I managed to reach the tent before the soldiers and swung my sword to keep them away. Both of them had spears so my options were limited. I tried to quickly find a solution but Ivara had a better idea. She jumped out of the tent behind me and shot an arrow at the soldiers.

The one she shot at barely dodged it which created an opening. I made a quick step forwards and cut through the soldier's chest armour. The one next to him reached out with his spear to stab me but fell to the ground, blood gushing from his throat.

"Good one Rey," I said.

She nodded at me and I turned around. Many of the soldiers had already fallen.

Were they always this weak? I asked myself as I ran towards them.

My blade was quickly covered in blood as I cut through soldier after soldier. I again had that feeling of freedom as I saw people fall before me. I saw Hiba in the corner of my eye shooting arrows from afar. Even though we were vastly outnumbered we managed to cut down most of the soldiers by the time the sky was beginning to turn darker.

The few soldiers that remained had kneeled down before us, begging for their lives.

"What should we do?" Hiba asked.

"Kill them of course," Larkan responded immediately.

"What? But they have already surrendered and lost the will to fight," Ivara said.

"No, I agree with Larkan on this one. If we don't kill them now they will tell on us and then we will have to run away at all times. We would also lose a source of income," I said.

Mark and Hiba nodded.

"Fine then," Ivara said.

"What's your opinion, Rey?" Mark asked.

"W-What . . . I don't . . . I don't know. If you say that it's better to kill them then I won't interfere," she said, clearly surprised that we asked for her opinion.

The soldiers who overheard us began begging louder. "Please! Please let us live! We have families! Please!" But their begging fell on death ears as we began slaughtering them.

Some tried to escape but all of them were shot down by Hiba and Ivara.

"We should check out if they did have any money and then leave as quickly as possible," Hiba said after we finished.

He and Mark went to the commander's tent as we checked around the other tents. I found the supplies of a few of the other mercenaries, potions a few gold and silver coins, and other stuff one might need on his travels.

"They won't be needing it anymore."

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After a short while, we got together again.

"So what did you guys find?" Larkan asked Mark and Hiba who were holding two large pouches.

Both of them quickly began smiling.

"About a thousand gold coins!" both of them yelled at the same time.

"What about you guys?" Mark asked.

"A few silver and gold coins," Ivara answered.

"I f-found . . . a sack full silver coins . . ." Rey answered.

Larkan lowered his head, "I found nothing . . ." he said.

All of them now turned to me.

"Just a few potions, a few gold and silver coins. Things like that," I said.

"Alright. I would say we made a pretty good deal here. Nearly dying in exchange for a thousand gold coins. Usually, only an Aura user would make so much money," Hiba said.

I looked up to the sky, it was nearly nightfall.

"We should leave, I don't want to sleep surrounded by corpses you know."

We got our bags out of the tent and left the camp, laughing the entire time.

"Should we stay at the inn again?" Mark asked as we made our way back down the mountain.

"I don't know, might be a bit too close," Larkan said.

"I mean if they send someone they would probably just assume that Vindictus figured it out and wiped out everyone in the camp," I said.

"You might be right about that . . . but still," Larkan said.

"Let's stay for one night, it's too dark to travel a lot right now anyways. They won't be sending someone for at least a few days. We should be safe," Mark said.

By the time we arrived at the inn, the sun was completely gone and the moon had started to rise behind the trees. We entered the inn again, ordered food and rooms. Ivara and I quickly finished our food and went up to our room.

She shut the door behind me and already began dropping her clothes.

"As fast as ever," I said as I went to take off my leather armour.

As soon as I had undressed Ivara was already pushing me towards the bed, she seemed a bit more clingy than usual.

"Is everything alright?" I asked.

"You could have died . . . and now I want to celebrate that you didn't. Anything wrong with that," she asked.

It made me smile. "Of course not."

She then pushed me onto the bed and climbed on top of me. As I looked up at her I could see how happy she was that I was here with her. She embraced me and leaned towards me to kiss me. As I entered her she almost locked me in place, refusing to let me go. Her slow movements were unlike anything I had felt before. This time was different from all the other times we had done it. As if all the times before had just been practice for this day.

Was she really so worried? I asked myself as I looked at her face.

She was biting her lower lip and her eyes turned white every time she moved down.

"I'm sorry," I said as I grabbed her and turned both of us.

I was now on top and looked down at her.

"S-Sorry?" she asked, barely being able to speak from the pleasure.

"I'm sorry I worried you so much," I said.

My movement sped up over time. Even after we were seemingly done, one look at each other immediately reignited the spark between us. That night we jumped at each other like wild animals following their primal instincts many times.

The next morning we were woken by a loud knocking on our door.

"Z, Iva! Wake up!" I slowly opened my eyes, still tired.

We both looked each other in the eyes. I, in her blue eyes that always reminded me of the ocean. She, in my green eyes she always described as gems, sparkling in the dark.

"We didn't get much sleep did we," she said with a smile on her face.

I chuckled in response.

"Anyone in there?" the person on the other side of the door said.

"Yeah, yeah. We're up!" I yelled back.

Both of us got out of bed, still sweaty and our hair ruffled up.

"We really need to find someplace to wash up," I said while putting on my armour.

She nodded in response. I opened the door and both of us went outside. The person that had woken us was Hiba.

"Finally awake, good," he said.

"Something up?" I asked.

"It's nearly noon, that's what's up," he responded annoyed.

"Sorry, we didn't get much sleep last night," Ivara said.

"So I heard," he responded as he turned to the stairs. "The entire inn probably heard."

I sighed. "We should really probably stop being so loud every time," I said.

"No," Ivara began, "I like it loud." Her words made me chuckle.

"Of course you do."

We went downstairs to eat with the others. Like last time we gave the innkeeper a few silver coins and left the inn.

"So what now?" I asked.

"The innkeeper didn't have any jobs so we will have to wander to the next inn," Mark said.

"One with a bath this time. I'm carrying the sweat of a few days with me and I refuse to bath in a river," Ivara said.

"I ag-agree," Rey said.

"Alright then, what's the closest inn that does have a bathhouse . . . guess Hirmal Inn it is," Hiba said.

"Hirmal, haven't been there in a while," Larkan said.

Ivara nodded.

"Ah yeah, that's where you two are from . . . should we go somewhere else?" Hiba asked.

"It's been five years. I don't think anyone would recognize us," Ivara said.

"Good. It's probably going to take us around a week to get there from here. So prepare yourself for some nice nights around the campfire," Hiba said.

"As long as you don't make any more sacrifices to Enid," I replied.

"Don't be like that," he said.

And so we continued on our journey. We walked along many rivers and through forests. Slept on cliffs overlooking valleys and crossed many bridges leading over the many canyons surrounding the Ulva Highland. I often stared down at the rivers running far beneath us. One wrong step and everything would be over. It took us a little over a week before we reached the Alva Highland where Hirmal was located.

We gathered around a large tree that hung over the edge of the cliff.

"How long till we reach Hirmal?" Hiba asked.

Mark had sat down on the bent tree trunk and studied a map.

"About three day's from here," he said.

"We should check out the stone beach. Heard it's one of the only places of Ion where the land actually goes down to sea level," I suggested.

"Yeah, I always wanted to visit," Ivara said.

"You haven't been there?" Hiba asked.

"No, the city of Hirmal is on the other side of the mountain," Larkan said.

"Well then it's gonna be a first for all of us," Hiba said.

We rested at the tree for a short while until we continued on our way to Hirmal. The three days there felt like an incredibly long time. But after we finally saw the city of Hirmal, embedded into the side of a great mountain, we were so happy that time seemed to flow faster than ever.

As we approached the city gates we noticed a line of merchants with their carriages and a number of Argider's advocates, preaching to those trying to enter the city.

"Is there some sort of event?" Hiba asked as we got closer to the gate.

I also noticed a large number of mercenaries.

"Perhaps there will be a battle soon," I stated.

We reached the gate and were approached by a guard in full armour.

"Are you here for the upcoming battle?" he asked us.

I quickly exchanged looks with Hiba who then answered.

"Of course we are," he quickly said.

"Good, can't have enough mercenaries. Once you're in just get registered in the large building at the end of the main street," he said before he let us pass.

"Another battle . . . don't know if I like that," Mark said as we entered the huge city.