Chapter 4: The Flock

When Owl and Sparrow walked into the prison’s entrance block, they didn’t at all expect a sight like this.

A roaring crowd surrounds a pile of knights and mechs. They shout for a revolution, about success, about how royal scum should die.

And atop it all, riling up the sea of criminals at the summit…

“Swallow, what are you doing?” Sparrow asks, now halfway to the summit that the hammer girl is now on.

“Sparrow!” Swallow shouts in surprise, dropping her hammer to the ground and rushing the dark skinned girl with open arms.

“Ah– Aha, Swallow, this is embarrassing…”

“Just take the hug, dumbass! I missed you!”

“Shouldn’t you be giving this treatment to Raven… He was imprisoned for three weeks.” Sparrow replies with a half-chuckle.

“Doesn’t matter! He’s free now!” Swallow responds, tightening her hug.

From here, head over Swallow’s shoulder, Sparrow notices something.

Rips and tears and dried blood splashed all over Swallow’s expensive black suit. A mess that Swallow would never allow, unless…

Sparrow suddenly pushes the smaller girl back and gives her a frantic look-over.

A large tear on her side, and fresh scars.

“Swallow, what happened to you?!”

“Ah– Well…” the shorter girl stutters, putting a nervous hand to the back of her head.

“Don’t even try to hide or excuse it! Tell me exactly what happened!”

“Y– You shouldn’t be talking! Look at the burn marks all over your body!” Swallow rebuttals, pointing out the black scorch marks that clutters both Sparrow’s outfit and skin.

“Don’t dodge the question, Swallow!”

“I–”

Suddenly, from behind, Sparrow hears a hearty laugh.

“Sisterly bond is quite something, huh?”

Sparrow’s alarmed frown quickly morphs into a wide-eyed smile.

“Raven!”

“In the flesh,” Raven replies with a grin.

Sparrow sends a glare to the blue eyed girl, “I’ll get back to you later.”

“Yes ma’am!” Swallow salutes.

The short blonde lets out a relieving sigh as she watches the dark haired girl rush to Raven with her arms splayed wide open, catching the messy haired young man in an embrace.

“Dumbass Raven…” she mutters on the young man’s shoulder.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Raven responds with a smile.

“Imprisoned for nearly a month… Did they hurt you?”

Raven chuckles, “I’m fine, Sparrow.”

Sparrow releases the black haired boy from her hug ever so slightly, allowing Raven to look into Sparrow’s soft golden eyes.

“Say, where’s Owl?” Swallow butts in.

To this, Swallow and Raven simply follow Sparrow’s gaze which leads right to the corner of the block, where Owl is smoking alongside their commission target.

Swallow sighs, “Well, at least he’s doing alright.”

“I’d rather him quit smoking, though,” Raven comments.

“I’ll talk to him about it,” Sparrow adds.

“Forget it, he won’t listen to a word you say,” Raven says with a weak smile.

Raven gives a wave to Owl, to which Owl responds with a small wave of his own before giving his focus back to smoking.

Raven sighs, “Yup, same old Owl.”

Sparrow nods in agreement, “So, have you two had your fill in the prison?”

Swallow and Raven nod in unison.

“Yeah, we might as well get going,” Swallow says as she prepares to slide down the pile of fallen knights and machines.

“I’ll go with her,” Raven says, following in the small girl’s footsteps.

Sparrow nods, letting Raven slide down the mountain with the blue eyed girl.

From the summit of fallen knights and broken machinery, Sparrow could see everything.

The riled up crowd, the lifting fumes of smoke from Owl’s cigar, the chattery of Raven and Swallow, and… the shimmer of a crossbow scope by the exit of the block…

‘Shit!’

She ducks in the nick of time, the steel crossbow bolt just barely grazing her flowing hair, cutting some strands off as it flies through.

The doors burst open, revealing a single person suited in grandiose silver armor, patterned intricately with flowery designs engraved upon every inch of plated steel.

They drop the silver crossbow in their hand nonchalantly and reach across their back to grip upon two hilts, one for each hand.

In a flash, the knight let loose both swords in one singular movement, their blades engulfed in scorching flame.

“Everyone here… Back to your cells…” the knight speaks softly, but the weight in their voice is audible for everyone to hear.

“A… Gran Royal Knight!” one of the prisoners amongst the crowd cries.

The Royal Knight looks to the left just in time to see Owl and the maximum security prisoner drop their cigarettes, their hands frozen in place, eyes wide.

The knight raises the point of their right flaming sword at them as they turn to face the two.

“You two… Death awaits…”

The knight suddenly whirls into action, blades spinning through the air, letting trailing flames arc and encircle the knight as the tornado of destruction fast approaches the unprepared duo.

Owl hitches his breath and raises his arms in reaction, ready to be sliced to bits.

But then–

The sound of clashing metal and engulfing flames resound through the block.

“Raven!” Owl shouts in surprise, watching Raven stand between him and the knight, claymore in hand and clashing against two flaming hot blades.

“Owl, go get the commission target out! Me and the others will deal with the knight!”

With a furrowed brow, Owl gives a determined nod and takes a firm grasp of the target’s wrist.

“C’mon, let’s go.”

The two scurry off to safety, letting Raven focus on the primary threat at hand.

“So… you’re Raven,” the knight softly says through the roaring fire.

Raven doesn’t respond, only gritting his teeth under the pressure and heat being forced upon the bind he’s got himself in.

He feels the claymore in his hand starting to melt.

“It doesn’t matter to me… You fall here!”

The knight pushes Raven away with a crossing slash and charges with both bladepoints aimed directly at Raven’s waist.

“Incoming!” a high pitched voice yells, progressively getting louder and louder from the side as the shadow of a hammer fast approaches. And then–

“Here ya go!” A bronze hammer slams right into the charging knight’s side, blasting them into the side of a wall, creating a web of damage upon impact.

“Swallow! You shouldn’t be fighting, you’re still healing!” Raven reprimands.

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“And let you get impaled?” Swallow replies, hammer on her shoulder with a grin spreading across her face, “No way!”

But her grin falters as her posture loosens, “Ow…”

Raven only looks at her with concern.

“I’ll be joining the fray too!” a deeper but still very much feminine voice calls.

“Sparrow,” Raven smiles, seeing the dark skinned girl skip to Swallow’s side, daggers in hand.

“While I agree with Raven that Swallow shouldn’t be fighting, you need all the help you can get!” Sparrow exclaims with a thumbs up.

Raven grins, “Thanks, you two.”

In that moment, the knight dislodges themselves from the wall, letting them fall to the ground coughing.

“Strong hit… But not strong enough.”

They get back up at once and charge at Swallow, who holds her hammer up in defense.

Sparrow strafes to the side with daggers raised to pry open the steel armor in front of her.

Raven raises his claymore much the same.

An ember of understanding passes between the birds’ eyes as they eye the charging knight.

And then they too, charge.

“Got your back, Swallow!” Raven and Sparrow shout in unison, rushing the knight from both flanks.

“Worthless!” the knight declares, twisting into a whirl of fire, deflecting both attacks at once and maintaining their momentum straight for Swallow.

“Damnit…” Swallow mutters as she prepares her hammer to meet fire.

Both hammer and blades clash, with Swallow just barely parrying the attack with a defensive swing of her own.

“Agh!” she yells in pain as she is shot back from the force of two flaming blades clashing against the head of her hammer.

‘Ugh, my shoulders…’ Swallow painfully complains in her head before noticing a second rushdown from the knight in front of her.

‘Need to… move!’

She rolls away from the incoming cross-slash, her blonde hair catching on fire as the searing embers nicked her head just barely.

“Ah!”

“Swallow!” Sparrow yells, dashing at the knight with her daggers raised.

Sparrow quickly closes the gap, and in an instant the four blades clash into a bind, with Sparrow’s fingers narrowly missing the licks of fire.

“So you… are Sparrow.” the Royal Knight says hollowly

“I expected much more from you–”

“Shut up,” Sparrow cuts, gaining distance from the knight with a leap, “You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

The golden eyed girl could practically feel the sneer beneath the knight’s helm, “Then show your worth.”

Sparrow thrusts forward and both her and the knight engage into a destructive blitz, fast strikes and even faster reflexes slice the air of the battlefield into ribbons, only interrupted when Raven tried to sneak up from behind with his claymore raised–

But even that, too, stops in its tracks when the knight twirls around and cuts the claymore right out of Raven’s hands before continuing the onslaught.

The knight steadily closes the gap between them and Sparrow as the barrage of attacks and parries between the two continues.

Closer.

Ever closer–

“I’ll save you, Sparrow!”

“Swallow, no!”

The sound of a heavy hammer skidding across the ground echoes through the block, and so does the soft sound of a body thudding to the ground, and collapsing to the floor, bloodied hands clutching her stomach softly.

“Swallow!” Raven and Sparrow shout in unison.

A small moment of shock that the knight capitalizes on, continuing their destructive barrage of attacks and, for just a split second, Sparrow was too slow.

“No!” she shouts, one of her daggers getting thrown from her hand and–

“Not on my watch!” Raven roars, sparks flying into the air as he just barely manages to deflect the incoming attacks of the knight, bouncing them backwards.

Breathing heavily, Raven tilts his head, desperately searching for Sparrow’s state at the corner of his eye.

He sees her, dagger clutched to her chest, head held low. In shock, hyperventilating, alive.

“You alright?” he calls out.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” he hears her haggard voice call out to him. “Just need a breather…:”

Raven stomps his right leg in front of him and enters a stance with his claymore, “I’ll give you that breather, then.”

The knight flourishes his swords in front of the corvid, flames whipping around him, “Your breaths will not last,” the knight says, his words ringing hollowly in Raven’s ears.

‘I will get through this.’

The mercenary and the knight charge at each other, with the knight quickly cutting down with his sword–

Anticipated, Raven weaves and counters, which is quickly deflected with the knight’s other blade. Once again, he’s on the backfoot, dodging a thrust, then deflecting a swipe, then defending against a crossing slash. The flames scorch his blade and knuckles, but he pays no mind.

For The Flock is in danger.

Raven growls as he takes a swing, desperately trying to penetrate through the royal knight’s perfect offense, only for it to be caught between flaming blades, and entering a staring contest– violet eyes to unseen ones.

“Impressive that you managed to live this long… But this ends here!”

The knight throws Raven off-balance with a cross of their swords, and then–

Shlick

The sound of blade penetrating flesh resounds, but not from Raven.

The knight’s would-be attack is put to a halt when a dagger has lodged itself between the silver plates protecting his shoulder. Their once serene armor has finally been tarnished in red.

“Sparrow..?” Raven looks back to see the girl in question in the motion of throwing, and then she puts her hands to the sides of her mouth and she shouts:

“Finish them off, Raven!”

Raven nods and once again faces the knight, blade pointing exactly where he wants it to be: the knight’s head.

Raven roars and starts his charge with a mighty stomp, shooting himself forward and putting all strength into this one, last, thrust.

‘!!!’

Raven lets out a small gasp when he sees the right wrist of the knight twitch.

Raven gets within range–

And just as predicted, he clashes with the swing that would’ve severed his arm.

But he does not step back. He steps further into the bind until the blade’s guards meet.

“You’re a fool, Raven,” the knight whispers, before raising his other arm unsteadily, painfully grunting as the dagger lodged in their shoulder bleeds them further.

“I am a fool that has fooled the knight,” Raven replies with a bitter smile.

He ducks, letting both of the knight’s swords clash into a plume of flames.

“Take this!” he shouts as he sweeps a leg under the knight; the knight falls to the ground with the sound of banging metal accompanying them. And then–

A blade presses against their neck.

“The Flock bids farewell to you, great knight.”

Palm to the pommel, Raven thrusts, running the blade through the knight’s neck.

And everything goes silent, save for Raven’s heavy breaths.

For a small moment, Raven felt a wave of relief wash over him, and a sense of pride to have fallen a Royal Knight when all things looked dire.

But then he looked around himself, to the crowd watching, to the fallen Swallow bleeding out on the ground, and the crouched Sparrow beside her, did he realize that things are dire.

He runs to Sparrow’s side, syringes in hand.

“Flip her up, let me take a look at her,” he says, and Sparrow nods as she does what she is told.

On the ground face-up and lying in a pool of her own blood, Raven sees everything; the torn open stomach, the shallow lifting of her chest, the slowly fading eyes.

“Shit…” he mutters.

“Those potions won’t help much,” Sparrow exclaims, pointing to the syringes in Raven’s hand.

“We need something much stronger to sustain her… In the meanwhile, please get some bandages, Raven.”

Raven, silent yet reluctant, nods and prepares to leave the two to search for items.

But…

“Here, friend.”

A prisoner has presented himself before the corvid, handling a thick bandage in his hands.

“Why?” Raven asks, stunned, and the freed prisoner shoots him a smile.

“You and your team helped wonders in overthrowing the prison,” he replies, “We’ve been planning for a revolt for months, and all you did was speed it up and, frankly, made it much easier.”

“...Thanks I guess,” Raven says awkwardly, taking the bandages from the prisoner’s hands.

“I’ve also got some strong healing potions,” the prisoner reveals, handling multiple syringes filled with red fluid, “I’ll take them to the injured girl while you wrap the bandages.”

But Raven shoots down the suggestion, “No thanks, just drop the syringes by Sparrow– the gold eyed girl around my height –and you may leave us to our devices.”

The prisoner nods, giving Raven a look of understanding, “Alright then.”

Raven nods back before coming to Swallow’s aid, healing items in tow.

Kneeling down next to her, Raven instructs Sparrow to adjust her position so that he may wrap and tighten the bandages around her stomach.

Then comes the healing potions.

“This will only sting a little bit, Swallow. Just bare with it…”

The syringe pierces close to the now bandaged stomach, injecting the crimson red fluid right into her blood. Raven sweats as he hears her groan in uncomfortable pain.

“Second dosage now, Swallow.”

The next dose is injected directly into a vein on her right arm. Raven is careful not to move too much.

“Phew, done,” Raven sighs in relief.

“What should we do now, Raven?” Sparrow asks gloomily, looking at Swallow now lying on her lap.

“We can’t stay here for long,” Raven replies, “I’m counting on Owl to come back for us. Otherwise…”

“We’re dead once the reinforcements arrive,” Sparrow finishes for him. Raven nods in confirmation.

“No need to wait.”

Raven looks back to see Owl, hands in his green coat, spectacles magnifying the shine in his dark green eyes.

He flips his grey hair as he walks over to Raven.

“Owl… What’s next?” Raven asks.

“I got a carriage waiting for ya’ll outside, yes the commission target is secured before you ask.”

Raven looks down to the hurt Swallow and gives her a soft smile, “See, Swallow? Always count on Owl.”

“Let’s go. Sparrow, please carry Swallow in your hands,” Owl instructs.

“Understood,” Sparrow replies, doing just that.

And with that, the quartet splits the sea of prisoners before them, all eyes on them, curious yet cautious, as they exit the prison safely without a hitch.