It felt weird in every way possible. It was like having a headache, nausea, dizziness and a fever at the same time. His body felt sluggish, and he kept hearing strange sounds.

Before he knew it, Devian had fallen to the ground.

And then the shuddering started.

Slowly, Devian was slipping into oblivion, away from consciousness.

*FLASHBACK*

"For the goodness of sahlara, can you spare me some denars?"

Devian had repeated this sentence exactly 244 times today, and it was still noon. Scowling as he glanced at his meager earnings knowing he was screwed.

When his father sent him to work at the monastery so he  *earn his food* Devian expected more praying and writing, turns out that was for the already literate children; and those were rare. 

Those who aren't have to prove themselves in front of the merciful Sahlara by gathering funds for the monastery and that meant years wasted on the street as begging for denars.

he wasn't the only child to work there though. Hundreds of them seek the monetary all for the sake of the merciful Sahlara, the one and only merciful goddess.

Basically they were slaves. They couldn't escape their fate for the guards would immediately recognize the marks on their forehead. They were told the mark was to offer the mind and body to faith, instead they discovered the hard way what it really was: a slave brand.

And today, Devian was going to change things by teaming up with the biggest and baddest on the streets.

"Did you get them"~Devian started an ugly child of 12 appeared before him: Dip he called himself.

"Hello to you too"~he replied with a bitter look on his face

"Come on! We're already late, we can't waste time on this!"

"No, no I didn't. Lark got caught sneaking in and I barely made a run for it in time alright? Give me a break, it was a gamble anyway"

"YOU IDIOT" Devian shouted failing to control his anger "You brought Lark with you!? That guy can wake the whole city with a sneeze and you brought him to a stealth mission? I swear sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by idiots"

They were attracting a bit of attention now, but Devian didn't care. Today was the day he's been preparing for ever since he joined the monastery.

He ignored Dip as he tried to justify himself and walked over to his companions.

His weary, tired looking and young gang made up of all the 10-12 year olds Devian could gather. But they were his and he would stare death to the face to make sure they were all free.

"Rust, how's the soldiers"~said Devian in his deep voice trying to sound mature. The children liked being called soldiers as it made them feel prideful.

"All 34 are armored and ready but we didn't get the spears" Rust replied. He was the most trustworthy member and loyal to the bone. For that, he got the general duty.

"You can blame Dip on that, we're gonna have to do this with sticks and stones. We already have enough wooden staffs and branches and they'll have to do.

Did the guards shift already?" He asked, looking at no one in particular as he could barely remember who was assigned what.

"Not yet" and it was Will: the short but oddly smart kid, he was in charge of schedules "it's the perfect time to strike"

"Alright, everyone get your squads into position. You know the signal, once you hear it strike just like we practiced"

Seeing his companions rise up and hurry to their places, Devian set out to the next quest.

Climbing to the roof of a fairly long building like he had thousands of times before, he removed the wooden plank that covered the whole in the ceiling revealing the armory.

The place where all the guards' wooden spears were kept.

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The height was too long to do anything from here, which was why he sent Dip to steal enough weapons. Foolish mistake

Moving on to plan B, he took out his tiny torch and lit it up with a charcoal.

 If I'm not getting spears, neither will anyone else

Dropping the torch he watched as the tiny flame grew slowly and steadily spreading and devouring everything.

Too bad I can't do that to the barracks, damn them steel buildings.

He got down as the smoke appeared, signaling all hell to break loose.

----------------------------------------

The timing had to be excessively precise, right between the period where the finished guards returned their weapons and the new ones took them.

The guards came running from the barracks at the commotion and were caught by the companions at the center of the city.

The fire had decimated all of them weapons leaving the guards empty handed and confused.

The perfect moment to attack.

I need to give Wil a raise

He could already hear the fighting break out muffled by the screams.

He charged toward the fight, screaming a battle cry to raise his confidence. As he arrived to the center he met Rust on the side struggling to stay out of the fight.

"Report!" Devian shouted quickly

"The ambush was a success and we got half of them down before they could react. Our 34 are fighting against the 25. The odds are favouring them" Rust spat the words out as fast as possible then dashed forward talking one of them.

The fight was nasty; for the guards were fighting bare handed against the slums companions with blunt weapons and that was always more brutal than with sharp one. With a spear, the death was quick and clean but with bare hands you have to choke your enemy or tear his eyeballs out.

He couldn't stay here watching his companions number dwindle. He had other stuff to do.

He ran towards the stables, ignoring the screaming civilians and shoving aside several of them.

Arriving, he threw a bag of denars at the keeper wasting no time.

He took it and nodded in acknowledgement as he opened the cage.

It took so much time to gather this much from the meager earnings or beggars, but they did it in the end.

With the center finally deserted of civilians, it was the moment to release the wild military hounds.

With a signal from Wil, and only Sahlara knows how he figured the time, the children retreated with the professionalism of beggars.

After all, it wasn't the first time they ran for their lives.

The guards were hopelessly tired regrouped to rest probably not expecting ferocious wild animals to charge at them just then.

Devian looked away, not wanting to see the gore after the slaughter.

They had to leave anyway before the hounds finished off the guards.

Strange creatures they were, highly trained for war they made sure no survivors were left. They will likely turn on the civilians next but that was a collateral Devian could sacrifice.

He knew how rotten they were, therefore he didn't feel the slightest sting of regret.

They left the city before checking who survived and who didn't.

Turns out: 19 survived and those left unconscious were as good as dead thanks to the hounds.

Dip was dead too and Devian oddly felt slightly pleasant but then regretted that, knowing he was too harsh.

after a moment of silence for their fallen friends, they all stared up at the sky and shouted their lungs out.

They let out their anger, celebration and relief in a single shout

And it was the best they ever felt in their lives.