We aren’t given much time to rest, as several soldiers take notice of us almost directly after our discussion.

They are a group of four, with one of them seemingly their leader. The leader seems to be about a low tier 6, which could cause some trouble for the Uncle Moren and Garut.

The others seems to be either tier 3 or 4, which ordinarily would be no trouble for the three of us, but with the big guy around, it’ll be tough to focus down any of them.

They approach quickly, and in no time, they are on us. The main one seems to be using some sort of elaborate great shield, while the rest of the group use spears.

Immediately their tactic becomes clear. Surrounding us and poking at us with their spears, all while the shield guy uses some sort of advanced shield skill to move into the way of any attacks we throw out towards his teammates.

‘Man what is it with all these soldiers and using the ‘poke you from a distance until you give up’ technique! I hate to say it, but it works.’

Every time any of us try to put up some sort of counterattack, that asshole with the shield gets in out way, almost as if he’s teleporting to exactly where he needs to be at the perfect time.

‘We can’t keep going like this! At this rate we’ll be Swiss cheese in no time!’

“Protect me a second would ya!” Uncle Moren says as he goes completely still.

Garut and I both nod, and surround Uncle Moren on both sides. Without a third person to help deflect attacks and keep the shield guy occupied, the group increases the pressure drastically.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to help as much as I’d like, with Garut bearing the brunt of the attack. We continue our struggle against the four men, dodging blocking, attacking back every once in a while to make sure the shield guy is still on his toes.

‘No way he can keep that up forever!’ I think to myself.

Finally after a minute of standing still, Uncle Moren opens his eyes, all three of them to be exact. Alongside his two regular eyes, is a third one right smack dab in the middle of his forehead.

“What the hell?!” I exclaim out loud once I see Uncle Moren.

“Relax kid, just watch.” Uncle Moren says confidently.

Then, he walks slowly towards one of the spearmen, who then begins to back up quickly. Instead of following him, Uncle Moren winds up a big haymaker. Around his fist glows some sort of black miasma and he almost comically slowly releases the blow.

As soon as he does, the shield bearer gets in front of him quickly, but instead of the attack getting blocked, it hits the shield bearer directly on the chin, sending his jaw flying off its socket, and his body tumbling away.

The spearman watch in shock and horror as their leader and barrier between us and them is sent flying 10 feet away. Before they can even look back at us, we’re on them, taking advantage of their defenselessness.

“Woah, that was awesome! How’d you do that?” I ask, eager to learn his trick.

“Sorry kid, it’s nothing you can learn, it’s from my cultivation. It allowed me to see any gaps in their formation. It’s quite useful all things considered, though the long startup time often makes it a bit too situational.” He explains as the eye in his forehead closes out of existence like it was never there.

We look around the battlefield once more. The tides of battle seem to be shifting, and not in our favor. While the soldiers’ number have been almost cut in half by this point, the kingdom operatives have lost about a third of theirs, with the rest of them very clearly tired and exhausted.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

The red guy and Mr. Important on the other hand, show no signs of slowing down. In fact, if anything their fight has only gotten MORE intense throughout the past five minutes or so.

I watch in shock and awe as laser beams fly out at lightning speed towards the rapier wielding military man. They are unable to hit him though, as he dances gracefully around the attacks, constantly closing the distance between the two men.

I even watch as he manages to cut a beam in half like it was nothing.

Deciding I’ve watched enough I turn to the two men beside me.

“So what do we do now? Just wait for Gael or someone else to show up?” I ask.

“No, we only have so much time, we need to make a move now. Protect me again, I’m using the same thing that I did during our fight.” Uncle Moren says quickly, before once again closing his eyes and standing still.

Luckily no soldiers turn and spot us, or else we’d have a tough time depending on how many there were. Most if not all of the remaining soldiers seem very much occupied by the opponents in front of them.

Each of the Kingdom agents somehow able to take on three or four meant a time. Though with each passing second, their exhaustion only grows.

Moren opens all three eyes once again.

“Okay follow me, I found a spot where we might be able to make it through. It’s going to be tough though, so fair warning.”

We both nod at this.

Uncle Moren then begin to sprint quickly around the group of soldiers until eventually, we stop at a seemingly random spot, with no differences to the rest.

“Here it is, right through there is the weakest spot.” He says pointing to the backs of the crowd of soldiers.

“Uh… not to doubt you or anything, but our reliable is this eye of yours?” I ask.

“Very. Now here’s the plan. Garut and I will charge forward as hard and fast as we can. You’ll follow us kid, and just do your best to keep them off our back as much as you can. Make sure to not bring too much attention to ourselves. The moment that big guy in the middle catches sight of us, he’s going to ditch his fight with the red disco ball over there and fly straight towards us.”

Just as we prepare for our charge, a rock looking object falls at out feet. Garut and Uncle Moren show immediate panic at this and quickly dive out of the way, bringing me with them.

The next instant, an explosions rings across the entirety of the battlefield. Everyone goes silent and turns to see us on the floor about seven or so feet from the explosion.

‘Welp, so much for not drawing attention to ourselves.’ I sigh in my head.

The three of us look over to see the culprit of said explosion, and much to our surprise, we see Hoggle and Delorie standing there.

Uncle Moren’s face goes red with anger.

“Goddmanit both of you! I’d expect such a thing from Hoggle but you too Delorie? Is that how little you think of the Kingdom? That you’d betray it on a dime like that?”

Both Delorie and Hoggle look at us solemnly.

“I don’t think you get it Moren.” Hoggle says with disgust and vitriol in his voice, “We haven’t turned out backs on the Kingdom, the Kingdom’s turned it’s back on you.”

“Wha-what? What do you mean?” Uncle Moren asks stunned.

“You know what I mean. They told us what you did Moren, how you went against your original orders. You’re a liability, and the Kingdom doesn’t want or need liabilities.” Delorie says darkly.

“I had it under control! There were better options than that! You couldn’t have actually expected me to do something like that could you?”

“Does this look under control to you? Look around Moren, this is your fault, all because you couldn’t take out some kid. I’m sorry Moren, but the Kingdom’s all I have, I can’t betray it, even for you…” Delorie says, somewhat sadly.

Uncle Moren’s face turns red with anger.

“What do they mean Uncle Moren? What did you do?” I ask, confused at the turn of events.

Uncle Moren turns to me and opens his mouth to speak, before closing it. After a second or two, he explain,

“Originally, I was supposed to… ya know… kill you. The Kingdom deemed you too much trouble than it’s worth, and well, I didn’t agree.” He says ashamedly.

“You didn’t think to tell me that?!” I exclaim out, in shock at the revelation.

“Well I didn’t want you to think any less of the Kingdom, but with what’s happened now, I suppose you would’ve been right to think those things… What the hell are they still doing here then, if not to help us? Shouldn’t the Kingdom have called them off already?”

“Their here to make sure that you die. Can’t let the Empire’s mind mages get a hold of you after all. Plus, with the whole poaching operation now revealed, this planets a great staging ground for the rapidly escalating war between the two superpowers. We plan to take hold of the warp pad and funnel troupes to take over this planet.” Delorie explains calmly.

I stare in shock at the situation that’s unfolding. I almost went to the place that tried to have me killed.

‘Well I dodged a bullet with that one for sure.’ I sigh out in my head.

“Alright that’s enough talking. Garut, you had no part in this, you can still join us if you’d like, but know that if you stay with them, you’ll be a wanted man by the Kingdom.”

Garut’s stares quietly at the two men in front of us for a long second before slowly walking up to them.

“Good, now lets-“ Hoggle’s words get cut off by an axe flying directly for his face. Delorie manages to get in the way of it, but Hoggle is clearly shaken up by the sudden attack.

Delorie stares intently at Garut while their axes interlock.

“Your loss kid.” He says before we are once again thrust into battle.