“As long as you don’t understand capitalism,

you won’t understand human society.”

George Bernard Shawn

Fire and smoke burned the lungs of the numerous mercenaries manning the broken and partly collapsed wall. Pained cries and desolate shouts rang out as desperate men were slaughtered from all sides. Red flags whirled all around the ruins, waved by the zealous soldiers of the red mania. It had swept across the kingdoms and republics, incited revolts, and destroyed societies. It turned peaceful, weak-minded peasants into ideologic maniacs and flourishing, peaceful cities into burning ruins.

And now it swept across the capital of Venna, burning the once renowned city and destroying the invincible-thought walls that had stood tall for centuries.

Men died all around as groups of well-paid, luxuriously dressed royal magicians recited their mysterious incantations while barring the path to the palace. Fire burned from the grey sky, killing everything in its path, followed closely by a horde of furious peasants hacking at everything that moved.

Wave after wave of murderous militias were repelled by the ever-decreasing mercenary force that had been paid handsomely to protect the palace. Wave after wave of fresh zealots were supplied from the vast and ever-growing turmoil that had engulfed the continent.

And when the final desperate magician who had been holding the gates with his spells was overrun by the never-ending furious mob, the kingdom of Venna finally fell to the grand red flood that had destroyed so many great nations before it and would destroy so many lives in the years to come.

What was left behind were the mutilated corpses of those who died for crazy the dreams of equality and an ideal world, and the disfigured bodies of those who had died for a couple of coins and a bad pension.

….

“Are you sure we should venture this far into red territory?”, Micha asked his overly confident female companion with a fearful glance to the thick underbrush surrounding them. They had wandered this forest for days now, having left the small village of Turnip and headed east into the seemingly boundless northern Torren Forrest.

It was these endless woodlands, inhabited by all sorts of magical creatures and dangerous animals, that separated most of the northern empire of Nottin from its southern neighbor Venna. The dangers within this vast expanse of forest, and especially the feared and notoriously bloodthirsty dryads, were also a major reason why the red mania that had swept across the continent only twenty years before, had never managed to properly infect Nottin.  

But right now, this pair of two were heading dangerously far into a territory that not only housed a bunch of murderous tree-women known for their godly skill with the bow and arrow but also a famously xenophobic mob of zealots that hated everything that wasn’t what they called “communist”.

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Micha certainly wasn’t fond of his chances against either one of those two groups.

But his female companion just shook her head and rolled her shining grey eyes.

“Why in the god's name are you such a little cry baby? We need to get that bounty to be able to afford new equipment. How the fuck, do you propose we continue earning out living if we can’t even properly arm ourselves?”, her eyes wandered across the area as she continued to advance.

“What good is new equipment if we never get to wear it?”, the young man replied with an annoyed expression.

“For darnation’s sake Ina. Why do you always have to go for missions that are close to impossible to complete? Even the guild was hesitant to commission the mission since the place is too close to enemy territory… If we were mages, we could at least cast some invisibility spell and be sure that we won’t be spotted but what do YOU plan on doing if we come across some maniacs from the south or worse, a few dryads?”

Ina shrugged her shoulders and jumped over a fallen tree trunk before looking up to peer through the foliage of the trees. From the position of the sun, she could tell that it was almost noon. If she was not wrong, they should soon arrive in the area that they were supposed to scout.

“Just stop being so negative”, she whistled in a mocking tone. “We made it through the entire forest without having to deal with even just a meager goblin. Seriously, why are you always such a fraidy-cat? We are silver ranked adventurers, what do we have to fear?”

“....dryads? The dragons that are said to inhabit the area? Even a group of fucking goblins could kill us if we’re not careful!”

The girl gave him a look that would embarrass even the most steadfast of men.

Micha inhaled sharply and struggled visibly to ignore the girl’s taunts. He was used to her jarring tone and to be honest, he had to admit that he was getting unusually nervous. After all, they had come to this place without even the shadow of danger.

But maybe it was this lack of challenge that was the cause for his discomfort. It seemed too easy, too… smooth. Something would go wrong any minute now. He could sense it in the way the hairs on his back were curling.

Something….

He was raising too many death flags for his own good. Just as Ina turned around to unleash another barrage of emasculating remarks about Micha’s character, the later dropped to the ground. A mere moment later, an arrow hit a tree a few meters behind him, the force of the impact causing wood to splinter and the trunk to sway.

Her eyes widened with shock as she whirled around to face the attacker. Simultaneously she unleashed a pair of short daggers that had been hidden in her wide sleeves. Mumbling a short incantation, she activated the speed enchantments on her boots and dashed towards the direction from where the arrows had come.

She had barely had time to move when a second arrow graced her left shoulder. The sheer force of the arrow was so great that she had to let go of the dagger in that hand and almost lost her balance.

Adrenalin pumped through her veins as she gritted her teeth and continued her advance. If she couldn’t close the distance she would die. If she wanted to live, she had to find the archer and kill him before the archer could kill her.

Another arrow came towards her but this time, Ina was prepared and managed to barely avoid it by relying on her enchanted boots to jump into the air. Using this chance, her eyes darted around trying to find the spot where the enemy was hiding.

But jumping and exposing herself had been a terrible mistake. Another arrow shot towards her, silent and powerful as only a dryad’s could be. She was still airborne and even with her enchanted boots, she couldn’t magically change her course midair.

The only thing she could do was curl up into a ball and hope for the best.

Sheer pain overwhelmed her, as the arrow pierced through her flesh, breaking her shinbone and piecing further into her upper thigh before stopping. She fell to the ground, her mind shook as she tumbled across the ground, breaking another few bones before hitting a stone with her head.

Finally, she lost consciousness, avoiding the misery of having to endure the pain of her broken body.