The sun has started setting behind the horizon, before vast mountains laid a town to waste. The streets were filled with soldiers, busy tending to the wounded and preparing themselves for combat.

In the middle of town stood a big tent, inside it were captain of Andor’s sight Skald, his strategists, squad captains and commander of the second army of Nivalis Noburo.

Standing in the middle of the tent stood a great oak table covered in multiple maps of the surrounding areas.

‘’Should we take them out to the pains?’’

‘’No they’ll probably come to challenge us again, so we need to figure out where they will strike.’’

Wondering what is to come Skald and Hiro started a heated discussion. Turmoil was rising as everyone started giving their thoughts, having a quiet discussion for themselves were the youngsters Kazehaya and Fubuki.

‘’What do you think their best option is Kaze?’’

Moving his hand towards the map Kaze pointed towards a river.

‘’If I were them, I wouldn’t give our enemies a chance to escape. This way they’ll be able to throw us into a state of chaos, and wipe us out without even trying.’’

‘’I see, but If we split our forces we would be able to perform a pincer attack.’’

‘’You’re right but there is still the unknown factor.’’

Getting a pained expression on his face Fubuki couldn’t think of a way to rebut Kaze.

‘’We shall split our troops, the 200 men of Andor’s sight and the 100 men from the army of Nivalis.’’

Drawing everyone’s eyes on himself was Skald. Wondering what his reasoning was the room got silent.

‘’Noburo I’ll need you to draw their attention and lead them here.’’

Pointing towards a nearby forest, the soldiers held their breath as Skald started explaining his plan. While in the middle of his explanation a messenger from Nivalis arrived.

‘’Commander one of the bandits just dropped this off.’’

After handing Skald a letter the messenger took his leave, opening the letter Skald started to read it out loud.

‘’Greeting remnants of the Nivalis army, it seems you’re still determined on finishing your duty a soldiers. Let me start off by saying I admire your tenacity and your foolishness. If you think that you even have the slightest chance on stopping us, I feel really hurt that you underestimate me that much. You of course remember where we first met right? That place shall be were you draw your last breath, and if you were to refuse my kind offer, you know what will happen right? That is where the letter ends.’’

Taking their eyes of Skald and back towards the map the soldiers started checking out the area where the bandits would show up.

‘’Well Noburo, what do you think?’’

‘’It’s possible, we can do this. From this distance we’ll be able to lead the bandits towards the forest, without taking any losses.’’

‘’Then we’ll go with this strategy, get the men ready it’s time for battle.’’

While walking out of the tent Skald and his group were met with a group of injured soldiers.

‘’Commander please leave guarding the villagers to us.’’

Looking at the soldiers who were barely able to pick up their weapons, even Skald who would normally ask of this was hesitant.

‘’Moving around too much could re-open your wounds, yet you still wish to do this?’’

‘’Of course, without you a great number of us would not have survived. So now we need to repay our depth.’’

Determined to fulfill their duty as soldiers, Skald decided to concede and let them do their work.

‘’Very well but please take care of yourselves, if you start feeling unwell stand down immediately.’’

‘’Thank you commander.’’

Preparing himself for the upcoming battle Kaze headed towards his tent to prepare his equipment. On his way to his tent Kaze came across the group of people he had met in the forest earlier. Making sure everyone was doing alright, Kaze checked their mental and physical state. One of the men he had saved saw tension on Kaze’s face.

‘’You seem to quite serious lad, even more so than earlier. Guess the battle is getting near isn’t it.’’

‘’Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean make anyone worry.’’

‘’Don’t be foolish lad, going to battle isn’t an easy thing to do, especially for someone of your age.’’

After looking over everyone Kaze noticed someone missing. It was the young girl who had earlier cried into Kaze’s chest.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘’Excuse me where is that blond girl?’’

Thinking a minute about what Kaze meant, the man clapped his hands together and answered.

‘’You must mean Setsuna, she’s probably at her house, or at least what used to be her house.’’

Concerning himself with the girl named Setsuna, Kaze asked the man where she would be, and started heading to her home.

After about 5 minutes of walking Kaze found Setsuna standing in front of a destroyed house. Walking up to her Kaze quietly called out her name. Not noticing Kaze, Setsuna started talking to herself.

‘’They’re not here. My parents are not here.’’

Putting his hand on her shoulder Kaze called out to her once more.

‘’Setsuna.’’

‘’Ah, it’s you. How do you know my name?’’

Kaze started explaining how he knew Setsuna’s name and how he found her. He also properly introduce himself.

‘’I see, thank you Kazehaya.’’

‘’Setsuna are you okay?’’

‘’I’m fine, no need to worry about me.’’

Though she said not to worry about her, Kaze noticed that the smile she had on her face was a fake one.

‘’Is this your house?’’

‘’It used to be, but it was also my parents bar. Dad always poured drinks for the guest, as Mom and I helped cooking the meals.’’

As Setsuna started reminiscing about the time she spent with her parent her expression kept getting faker.

‘’Setsuna.’’

‘’There used to be this old couple who would come over every day, the old man always gave me candies. They weren’t good but I loved seeing the smile on his face as I ate them.’’

‘’Setsuna.’’

‘’The old woman always told me about how pretty I was and that I would make a great wife someday.’’

‘’Setsuna!’’

As Kaze yelled her name, Setsuna could no longer keep her smile, and tears started flowing down her face.

‘’Why…Why did they all leave me?’’

Wrapping his hands around Setsuna, Kaze embraced her until she finally calmed down.

‘’Thank you Kazehaya.’’

‘’Don’t worry I’m here for you, and call me Kaze it’s what all my friends do.’’

Setsuna’s face started to brighten up as Kaze brought her back to camp.

‘’Kaze.’’

‘’Hmm is something wrong?’’

‘’Well what will happen from now on?’’

Thinking about what to say as to not concern Setsuna, Kaze had to choose his next words carefully.

‘’At the end of the day our main army will start the subjugation of the bandits, while a smaller force shall stay behind and protect the villagers. After our fight is over we’ll take the villagers to the nearest town, so that they may pick their regular lives back up.’’

Silently nodding as to confirm she understood, Kaze and Setsuna had arrived back at camp.

‘’This is where we’ll separate for now.’’

As Kaze said his goodbye’s and turned away, Setsuna grabbed his sleeve.

‘’Huh, Setsuna?’’

‘’…back safe.’’

‘’What did you say?’’

‘’Please come back safe.’’

‘’…I promise, I’ll return safely.’’

Getting a smile their faces Kaze and Setsuna each went their respective ways.

20 minutes after departing from Setsuna, Kaze and the other soldiers had finished preparing and were ready for combat. In one hour it would be time for the battle to start, in this period the subjugation army started heading towards the battlefield. The plan was for the Nivalis army to be the bait and lead the bandits away from Cina, later in the battle Andor’s sight would join in. This was to give their enemies a false idea of the amount of soldiers. Skald and his men were to hide behind some nearby hills, deciding when to strike would determine whether they would ascend victorious or fail miserably.

The moon stood high in the sky giving off a dim light, visibility was reduced to but a few hundred meters. 45 minutes after the Nivalis army had set up their formation the bandit army arrived. In the front of the bandit army stood a sturdy man with a thick beard and a bald head, with many scars on his face it was clear this man had survived many battles.

At an distance of 500 meters the two commanders exchanged looks filled with vigor.

Shouting across the battlefield with a voice as if he stood right next to you, the bandit commander conveyed his message.

‘’I have to admit it’s quite honorable that you’ve all got the balls to stand in my way. Now listen here and listen good those of you who die right now get of easy. Those who throw down their weapons like a bunch of dickless cowards shall be taken to the river nearby and will be drowned. Hearing your screams of anguish oughta make me feel happy for a few minutes. Or perhaps I’ll feed you to the ogres, as you can see they’re quite hungry.’’

Seeing his men’s faces turn white with fear Noburo had to raise his soldiers morale.

Walking to the front of his army he drew the attention from his men and his enemies. Lifting his sword in the air he looked over at the enemy commander.

‘’You street dogs would dare to turn your weapons on the kingdom of Nivalis. Do not think your death will be a painless one. For the honor of Nivalis, I Noburo shall take your commanders head.’’

Gazing at Noburo, the soldiers of Nivalis raised their voices. Morale was high on the allied side, but war is not won on morale alone.

‘’Ho ho looks like we might get to have some fun after all.’’

Stroking his thick beard, the bandit commander spoke as if he had already won.

While holding his sword in his hand Noburo pointed it towards the bandit commander and issued his order.

‘’Men retreat!’’

Turning their back to the bandits every soldier of Nivalis started to take their leave.

Unable to process what was happening the bandit commander was staring with an empty gaze as the Nivalis army took their leave.

After 10 seconds of silence the bandit commander’s face turned red with anger.

‘’You dickless cowards!’’

Due to the distance of the Nivalis army, the bandits were unable to hit them with their arrows. The distance between the armies had slowly changed to 400 meters, even the most trained bowmen could not shoot an arrow further than 200 meters. So the bandits had no choice but to follow them, a little while after it was clear where they were headed. One kilometer in front of the bandits was a thick forest, still fueled with rage the bandit commander made his men follow them in.

Turning his gaze towards the bandit army Noburo smiled as he was about to enter the forest. When he entered the forest his men immediately split up in two directions. Not even one minute later the bandit army entered the forest, still going straight ahead at full charge the bandits were unable to find any soldiers.

‘’Damn it where are they!’’

After yelling those words an arrow flew past his face and hit the person riding next to him. As he fell of his horse multiple arrows started flying in his direction, on reflex the commander picked up his shield and protected himself from the arrow rain, only suffering a few scratches. Though this could not be said for a great number of his men. In the span of 5 seconds the bandit army had lost 20 men. Picking himself up the bandit commander picked up more speed than they had before. Thinking that they had left the bowmen’s range the bandits started slowing down. Thanks to the bad visibility of the forest and it being night time, finding the bandits would be a hard task. Were it not that they had predicted their movements. As the bandits were still in motion the ground started to disappear beneath their horses.

‘’What the hell!’’

One by one a large number of bandits fell of their horses, now they were vulnerable. With no visibility and a large number of people dismounted, the bandit commander decided to send his men into every direction. Though unable to use horses these bandits were still a well-trained group.

‘’Commander look at the sky.’’

‘’Huh, what now?’’

Flying an arc across the sky was a flaming arrow, when the commander saw this he held his breath. Feeling the tremors of the earth he stopped his men from advancing and took up a defensive position.

''...Mother fucker.''