We keep moving, sprinting though the woods and crushing any Hobgoblin that we find, working to throw the enemy’s army into disarray. Following the orders of Forward Operation’s commander, we move to target the other artillery emplacements, attacking the Earth Mages as we find them.

They are nowhere near as strong as the one that had chased us through the city, that Lain had to dive into the very earth to hunt down. These ones are far weaker, only able to move so much earth rather than being capable of pulling entire buildings into a moving sinkhole. The fact that they have to make launchers out of stone just to throw boulders at a distance is telling enough. The other guy could have probably just chucked the rocks and been more effective.

The first three that had fled haven’t been seen since, as far as we know they have totally fucked off from the battlefield. The others Earth Mages at least fight back, sending spears of stone flying towards us or turning the earth beneath our feet into quicksand to try and catch us. Working together, the three of us bring them down one by one, suppressing them with gun fire and explosion’s while one of us moves in for the kill, plowing through their defenses with our fists before killing them with a single blow, usually it is Frank smashing through them with those gauntlets of his, leaving them as a bloody smear on the forest floor.

It is when we are finishing up with the third group that we get the call to return. The Goblins are getting too close. Their forces have finally managed to crawl their way from cover to cover and are now banging on our doors. Mages are on the move from the other flanks, using the cover of their allies to get close and besiege the fort. With all the entrances sealed, I have no doubt that we could keep the regular Goblins out for quite a while, but once the mages reach the airport, they will be able to tear their way in and allow thousands of Goblins to come pouring in.

“Time to head back, we need to prepare for evac. Let’s move!” Frank calls out.

Sprinting back to base, we are suddenly moving along with the endless current of Goblins, running them over as we speed ahead of them to quickly return. Mixed among their numbers is plenty of dogs and Hobgoblins, but for now, we ignore them and just keep moving.

When we break out of the woods, our first priority is to find Xander. It doesn’t take us long as he is towering over the surrounding Goblins, still locked in battle with the Metal Mage despite how long we had been out there. When we run over to go and help him, we find him locked in battle with the mage, a huge smile on his face like he is having the time of his life.

His opponent, who is darting around like a flash, seems to similarly be enjoying themself. The Hobgoblin, who we hadn't been able to see the appearance of until now, is a female Hobgoblin. With light brown skin, almost like a tan, she has short black hair that seems to have been cut without care for appearance, simply done just to get her hair out of the way.

The both of them are covered in cuts and bleeding in several places, Xander’s and her armor falling apart in several places. Her helmet and the broken parts of both of their armor lay scattered all over the field, but they don’t seem to mind as they continue to go at each other.

Xander moves with power behind his every swing, the wind parting from the shear forces of his blows, while the smaller woman moves and strikes like a phantom, sliding across the ground and moving in ways that shouldn’t be possible, dodging even without having to move her feet before moving in to strike at Xanders exposed side, only for him to parry and return the strike.

They continue to move in this dance of their own creation, exchange blows back and forth as they try to get past each other’s guard, the smiles on their faces only growing with every exchange.

They see us drawing near and their smiles fade, seaming disappointed by the sudden interruption, but they part from each other regardless, their eyes on one another the entire time.

We don’t say a word as we stand behind Xander, compelled to not move to attack the mage by whatever this weird atmosphere is that is between them. Like we would somehow be doing something horrible and potentially… sacrilegious, if we were to get between them.

The two of them stare at each other for a long while, not saying a word until Xander suddenly speaks.

“My name is Xander.”

The woman narrows her eyes and nods in understanding, opening her mouth she speaks a single word.

“Kan’t’ve.”

Her voice is smoky and pleasant on the ears, lips moving up into a little smile as she accentuates the ‘ve’ in her name, drawing out the e teasingly, her eyes tracing Xander’s figure.

Xander nods in understanding and they share one last look before turning away from each other. Kan’t’ve waves her hand as she walks away, all the scattered parts of her armor and every stray bullet raising in the air to flow around her in an orbit of floating metal. With another wave of her hand, the armor that covers her dog shifts and moves, raising the corpse into the air to make it follow behind her as she walks away, disappearing into the woods.

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We all just look at Xander as he returns to us, looking giddy like a kid that just had a very fun day at the amusement park.

“Oh, that was so much fun! My very first sword fight! Ah, I can’t wait to do that again, I hope I’ll get to see her again.” Xander cheers as he walks past us, heading back towards the airport with a spring in his step.

“What the hell was that?” I have to ask.

Sam answers for me. “Two sword nerds just met, crossed blades, and fell in love… Weido’s…”

Xander spins around, completely ignoring the screaming Goblins that are running away from us.

“Hey, I don’t want to hear that from the girl that gets off to explosions!” He says as he points at her. Tilting his head, a thought hits him, and he quickly asks, “What do mean fell in love? We just had a sword fight, that’s all.”

Sam laughs, “Oh shit! I didn’t take you as the dense type. Hey, Frank, should I tell him? Do you think he will blush? Hahahaha!”

“What are you talking about?” Xander asks curiously.

I just put my hand to my face with exacerbation. Shaking my head, I get moving towards the airport.

Behind me, Frank just says, “Make it quick.” Before moving to join me.

They follow behind us, Xander looking confused while Sam is just giggling like a schoolgirl that knows a secret.

“What is it? What’s so funny?”

“Hahaha, you couldn’t tell? What, did you two not speak through your swords, or whatever weird sword nerd stuff there is?”

“No? What the hell are you going on about? I could tell that she was holding back and not using her magic to the full extent, but I don’t know about any-“

“Bro!” Sam exclaims loudly. “You didn’t see it!? That girl was totally thinking about jumping your bone. Wanting to sheathe your sword. Go for a roll in the hay? You get what I’m saying? You just totally seduced that Hobgoblina with your sword skills! Oh, just wait until I tell Lain about this, she is going to lose her shit! Hahahahaha!”

“WHAT!?!? No, I didn’t!”

“Yes, you did, you smooth operator. We leave you alone for half an hour and you’re out here slaying cute Goblins!” Sam teases.

Xander gets flustered and looks over his shoulder towards where she disappeared as we keep moving. He’s blushing as he stammers his response back at Sam, but she is just left laughing. “No, no! You have to be joking! I, I… There is no way…”

“HahahahahHahahaha!!! Holy shit, you are so fucking cute! This is the best day ever! Hahaha! Xander the sword master has captured the heart of his first maiden, a sword woman at that! Good job man, I’m rooting for ya!”

Xander is turning red from embarrassment, so Frank and I come to his rescue before Sam can drive the blade any deeper.

“Ok, Sam, that’s enough. Focus on the mission now.”

“Yeah, we got a job to do, Sam. It’s time to focus.”

Sam wipes away her tears from laughing and gives him a pat on the back. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry Xander, I’ll stop now. Good luck though. I’ll be rooting for you to get some of that Goblin pussy.” She says as a parting joke, though also being sort of serious, just as we reach the building. Jumping up, she easily clears most of the wall of the side of the airport before slamming her fist into the wall. Jumping again, she reaches one of the many holes that now litters the surface of the building and heads inside.

I go to tell her to stop joking around about having sex with Goblins, but then I have to stop and think.

I mean, honestly… A regular Goblin? Hell no, I would rather cut my dick off. But the Hobgoblins? Some of the girls are honestly pretty good looking. They just need a shower for the smell and to clean up some... I mean, appearance wise, they aren’t so far off from humans, just a little alien…

Before I jump up to join Sam, and now Frank who had jumped while I was thinking, I turn to Xander and say, “You know what… Actually, yeah. Good luck man. I’ll be rooting for you too.”

I turn away and jump up to join the others, Xanders left flabbergasted behind me, asking, “What the hell? Really!?”

…

Moving quickly through the airport towards Forward Operations, we head toward security to report to the Lieutenant Colonel, our joking around coming to a close as we shift back into work mode. All around us, soldiers are running around as they quickly move supplies around and getting things ready to move. The four us already know that the next part coming up is not going to be fun.

We arrive to find Lieutenant Colonel Roberts, barking out orders and switching between radios as he manages our preparations for the retreat. Staff are busily working away at stuffing piles of documents into bags, or disassembling equipment to be hauled away.

““Sir!”” We all snap to attention as we arrive before him.

“Good, you are just on time.”

Frank responds, “Yes sir. I’m sorry that we couldn't eliminate all the mages.”

“Don’t worry about it. Our objective is complete. We have stalled the enemy as long as we could, now it is time to leave. To keep the enemy from totally surrounding us, we are going to draw them in through the north entrance, welcoming them into the building. I need the four of you to head there now and hold the enemy back while we get everyone out through the south entrance. Once everyone is clear, link up with us, try to draw as many enemies as possible into the airport as you can before leaving. We made sure to leave plenty of gifts for our new friends.” He says as his serious face shows a rare smile, a cruel look in his eyes as he says the word gifts.

Hearing this, Sam is quick to start giggling, her tail wagging behind her happily as she remains standing at attention.

We all nod, Frank answering for us with a yes sir.

“Good, get to it. We still have some work to do before we can leave, so make sure to put on a good show for our new friends. Dismissed.”

““Sir.””

Before we turn to leave, I ask him, “Sir, what about the prisoners? The Hobgoblins that Lain captured?”

He turns to me and nods. “Don’t worry son, I’m not going to leave them behind. That girl would be pissed with me if I did. You just worry about your job; I’ll worry about getting everyone out of here alive.”

“Thank you, sir.” I say as I snap a salute.

We quickly leave, heading for the north entrance in a hurry. Along the way, I can’t help but look down the hallway that leads to the bathroom where everything started for me. My hand moves up to the scars that still cover my face.

But strangely, now, I don’t feel fear as I remember that day…

I feel Pride.