Edmund had a familiar feeling, but it wasn’t nostalgia. But he couldn’t think for even a moment. His body moved by itself and ran toward a more fortified structure, leaving the creatures behind. In the way he grabbed a makeshift blade that was on the ground and when he got right in front of it, his body again, by itself, punched it open without any hesitation whatsoever, like his body could feel that there was something on the other side that should be dead.

The white-haired young man only noticed the creature to his side when it was already dead; his body took a moment to feel like it was looking for a new victim. At that moment, he was surprised that the creature resembled a demon lord soldier, much more than an ork, but even so, it was still not quite right, but the symbols on his body, on the other hand, were spot on.

He heard an ork scream coming from a corredor, but as his body dashed in the direction of the sound, Edmund noticed duchy soldiers inside the room and Ethan was one of them. This made his determination and focus rise as he entered the poor, illuminated corridor.

‘If I wasn’t here, these guys would all be dead by now. Ariadne made the right call.’ He thought to himself.

Even with the low visibility, he threw the blade he was holding and hit a tall ork. As he rushed forward into the corridor, Edmund was smashing the heads of the creatures on the walls with punches and kicks. One of those kicks was so hard that it punched through the ceiling. The light that pored in the corredor was weaker, like the sun retrieving his place of rest. As he walked through the light, it was clear that his clothes were drenched in blood.

Seeing this, the creatures started to back down, but they had no time to think or obey their instincts. Edmund was already punching an ork in the chest, making him fly forward and knocking out a lot of the others on the way. For a moment, he could hear the sound of a rifle shot and with that, he felt that something was coming and moved his body to the side in time to see a blue beam pass where he was.

‘It was too good to be true.’ Edmund thought to himself.

He still moved forward but with every monster killed, he needed to douse himself with a rifle shot by either, using another creature as a shield, doing an acrobatic move or just moving to the side just enough so that the blue beam didn’t hit him. One thing was good about this situation: he could see better because of the light trailing the shots left behind.

As he advanced, the number of creatures started to dwindle, and the amount of debris in the corridor along with the monster bodies increased. Edmund grabbed the last one by the neck and just squeezed with one hand. At that moment, he recovered control over his body, but there was no time to celebrate as the shots continued to come. In a moment of desperation, he laid down on the floor.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘Friendly, friendly, is me, Edmund!!!’ He started to scream.

‘Cease fire, Cease fire!!!’ A loud voice was heard.

‘Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot.’ Edmund spoke while getting up.

‘Light, this is shadow one; Edmund is here in the corridor with us.’ A gray-furred Shafran duchy soldier talked to his radio.

‘Shadow one, protect him, and continue.’ Bartel's voice came from the soldier's radio.

‘We are the ones that need protection.’ The soldier talked to himself.

Tree soldiers passed the young white-haired man covered in blood and walked forward, avoiding the debry on the way along with the bodies of the monsters on the ground. Edmund took a deep breath before following the soldiers.

Coming back to the room he barged into, it was now full of scared Shafrans in chains. Coming in from the hole in the wall was Bartel, accompanied by another soldier with a backpack who wasn’t walking right, with a visible cut on his leg and bandages on his head.

‘Light to all units, mission accomplished.’ He spoke while holding his radio in his mouth.

‘I counted fifty of them; they come from various villages of the kingdom.’ Ethan came closer to Bartel.

‘Well done. I don’t know how we are going to get these people out of here because this is it.’ The lietenant looked around.

‘All my men are incapacitated and there are ones that will not resist going back to the city.’ A gray-furred Shafran soldier spoke as he walked past the chained Shafrans.

‘Your squad is not the only one sergeant; the medics are working hard to keep the guys alive.’ Bartel sigh.

‘Ho, I think the truck will be here at any moment. Lieutenant, if I drive it, we can get back to the city in no time. With Leah's healing magic, nobody needs to die.’ Edmund walked with difficulty toward Bartel.

‘Are you alright, Edmund?’ Ethan looked at his leg.

‘I’m fine, funny enough; this is a rifle shot, urgh... I’m covered in too much blood to see how bad it is. ‘ Edmund touched his right leg.

‘So, is it not a good idea to go fight hand in hand in the middle of a ranged battle?’ Caleb chuckled.

‘Right? I said it to the duchess, but I’m happy that she ordered me to come here; this was crazy.’ Edmund sat on a rock by his side.

‘You are the duchess soldiers? Thank you for the rescue; how did you find us?’ One of the chackled villagers came forward.

‘We found a little girl on our patrol; don’t worry, she is with our wounded in the forest.’ Bartel leans against the wall.

‘I can’t believe it; she made it... She was the only child in here so we sneaked her through a small hole and we made it in the back of our cell.’ He smiled.

All of the Shafran in chains there began to cheer and hug one another, some for the realization of the girl being alright and others used this moment to come to their knees and cry of relief.

‘Light, this is transport one; we are outside the fortress; everything is alright? There's a little girl with us too.’ The voice of the truck driver came from Bartel’s radio.

‘We need to change; we are alive but at the end of the day, this was a disaster.’ Bartel slowly sat on the ground, leaning against the wall.