Raid stood at the forest's edge, flanked on all sides but one by tall trees and thick vegetation. His gaze swept across the expanse of the open field before him, and on the horizon, the silhouette of another woodland emerged, a distant counterpart approximately three kilometers away. These two endpoints bore the names of Ver and Golka forests, with Raid positioned at the helm of the northern expanse known as the Ver. Despite the appearance of being distinct forests, they were actually connected further to the west.

The sound of men chattering resonated loudly from behind him, where soldiers stood in a disorderly battleline, awaiting any indication of enemy movement. The retreat of the center should have commenced by this point with the right flank having long since melted into obscurity. However, despite this there was an absence of motion from the Imperial forces, which struck Raid as peculiar. The right flank is gone, it's open to them. Why were they not pushing? There were small Imperial formations positioned in front of the opposite forest, yet they displayed no signs of movement. Given his position, it would have been difficult for any Imperial forces to overlook his forces; certainly, no one could simply ignore the presence of his forces.

Raid's vigilant gaze discerned a solitary figure traversing the landscape, a slow emergence over the crest of a gentle hill. He enhanced his vision, allowing him to identify the approaching person. It was Nova. She appeared fatigued and exhibited a slight stagger in her gait. The absence of visible wounds provided a fleeting comfort, reassuring Raid of her physical safety. Despite her evident exhaustion, he felt no compulsion to offer assistance. Instead, he found himself smirking, amused by her gradual approach.

He sensed her unyielding gaze fixed upon him as she approached. The closer she drew, the more potent her stare became. By the time she stood before him, her eyes emitted a piercing glare, akin to shooting daggers.

"Took your sweet time getting here," he quipped with a grin.

"Thanks for the help, bastard," she hissed.

"I heard you went to hold off some cavalry."

"So they made it here safely then…" she replied, her every word ladened with exhaustion.

"It could have been worse if you hadn't played hero. I sent the more injured ones to the back, and evenly distributed the rest along the line. You do appear quite rugged though. Keep this up and you'll be a granny by thirty."

"You certainly lack tact when addressing a lady," she retorted, wearily, moving to stand by his side and turning to view the same scenery.

"I don't need any of that with you do I?"

"It depends on my mood. Right now, I'm not feeling very good. I faced off against two knights right after dealing with the cavalry."

"Are you alright?"

"My reserves are beyond dismal. I just want to sleep. If I use any more aura, I might just puke like all hell. I feel sick."

Raid's fingers extended to graze the superficial wound on the left side of her neck, his expression morphing into a sardonic smirk. "Taking after me now? Mine's bigger though."

"We're comparing scars now? That neck wound almost killed you," she stated, her gaze lingering upon the prominent scar that traversed his neck's left side. It appeared as if his neck had been cleaved in half at one point. In truth, it almost was. If that farrider had struck any harder, he would've been decapitated. Fortunately, as terrible as the scar looked, the wound itself wasn't deep, and he had received immediate medical attention. It helped that the blade stopped before it hit his carotid artery, and his body's natural resilience against major wounds that would've killed any normal man. Heightened natural regeneration being one of them.

"Sorry…" Nova suddenly expressed, as guilt's weight settled upon her.

"That was ages ago; forget about it," he replied, uncomfortably rubbing his neck. "I wouldn't have forgiven myself if you had died."

She rested her head against his shoulder as they both gazed outward. "Hey, Raid, why on earth did we think joining the military was a good idea?"

"They would've conscripted us sooner or later anyway, well maybe not you, but certainly me. I told you it was a mistake to join me."

"As if I would leave you on your own."

"I suppose we're both fools then. But how could we have known there was a war just on the horizon when we enlisted."

"War or not, we almost died a few times before this. Should have considered becoming a merchant instead. I could have helped you with the paperwork."

"No. You know I chose the military because neither government service nor merchant life suited me."

"Well I don't know about that, they both sound quite fucking cosy right now."

"Hey, I did say you didn't have to join me. Our social statuses are entirely different, you don't gain anything from this."

"Like I care, I didn't enlist for that. You should be thankful. Without me, you would've been long gone by now."

"Have you forgotten the numerous times we nearly got each other killed during those raids?"

"We don't bring up those memories. That's history."

"You're the one who mentioned it. Well, on the topic of getting killed. It wouldn't be ideal for a fight to erupt right now, would it? Considering how you're unable to fight at the moment."

"I trust that you'll protect me if that happens. Now, give me an update. What's going on?"

"I had the knights spread out along the line to cover as much area as possible. I also plan on splitting our advance group for the same reason, a shame the fire groups barely covered our unit's losses. I was hoping for an upsize rather than a refill. News just came that the army is finally in full retreat, by word anyways. I don't see them actually retreating yet, our center is currently competing with a brick as you can see over there. Might want to enhance your vision a bit so you can actually see them, they're quite far."

"I can't, remember? Do you want me to puke?"

"Ahh… right, your reserves. Well, anyhow, I think it's best we do a defensive action the moment we engage, we're just here to buy time after all. We got two units forming up on our left, two companies from the 16th Battalion at half from max, with another unit of unknown strength set to arrive later to cover our right. There's still no word from the left flank though, not entirely sure what's going on."

"Strange, our left should be here by now. Looks like we're acting as the center for this rear then."

"Of course, right now only the 3rd Knights have been assigned to the rearguard, so everyone is rallying to us. But we can't protect all of them. Including you and me, there are only seven of us here."

"Are they going to send more knights to help us?"

"I have no idea, let's just hope so. I forgot to mention, but we also have two more divisions heading over behind us soon to form the 2nd and 3rd lines. Once we can't hold anymore, we will fall back to the 3rd while the 2nd takes the helm. It's rinse and repeat from then on I guess, at least till we receive the order of relief."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"So stack and fall? Sounds great and all but the plan is an organized and proper retreat. Might take them a while, problem is, while the army is trying to gain distance from the Lemfords, we'll be here trying to hold off an entire Imperial army. How long do you think we can hold them off for? We lost a battle that was meant to last for days, they completely mauled us, the order for relief won't come anytime soon either."

"Nothing we can really do about it. We have our orders, let's just hope the General actually leaves behind some decent units for us."

"Raid, my point is what about us? Our army would be holding hands and skipping to safety while we’re here with the Lemfords up our ass. We'll be exhausted by the time the order of relief comes, how exactly are we going to get out of this?"

"Ah, I get it. I know what you're asking for. Yeah, a genius plan, made for our daring escape. Seeing how you just arrived, I'll inform you now," he said with a wide grin on his face, waiting a moment to allow the silence to settle before he spoke.

"Well? Tell me, what is it?"

"We're basically going to haul ass without looking back. I guess on paper it's called an unorganized tactical retreat. We'll run until our lungs burn out."

Nova figured she was finally experiencing what was called stress-induced hearing loss. Yes, that's definitely what was happening. It had been a stressful day, and she was ever so tired. It wouldn't be a lie to say she was currently dying inside.

"Nova? What's wrong?"

Nova put a shaky hand on her rapier's hilt, the edges of her lips twitching as she tried very hard to smile.

"Raid, you bastard…" she uttered quietly. "Say that again."

"No. Because I have a feeling you'd attempt murder. How about you remove your lovely, small, and grubby hand off that sword yeah? Don't kill the messenger, I didn't come up with that awful plan."

Nova's face contorted with frustration, her exasperation palpable as she released a defeated sigh. "Alright… run for all hell, we can work with that."

"Is that a statement or are you trying to convince yourself?"

"You don't sound so concerned about the situation we're in."

"The existential dread hasn't hit me yet, don't worry, I'll join you in a moment," he retorted with a faint smile. "But in all honesty, I suspect they’re half expecting us to die here. I guess we have to see how much they actually leave behind for us, it doesn't look much too good right now."

"Lovely, I am in tears."

Raid's gaze once again fixed itself upon the Imperial formation, the silent betrayal of expectation by the absence of movement. "Lead Sergeant Condor!" Raid shouted.

Prompting the individual behind him to rigidly stand at attention. "Sir!"

"Tell everyone to rest, the enemy is showing no signs of movement, but remain on full alert. We have one to two till darkness, anyone who wants to sleep do it now while there's the chance, with rotations of course. We have a long night ahead of us."

"Can we send some men to the supplies? Ask for some rations?" Condor replied. "It'd be nice to replenish some of our energy, we haven't eaten anything since morning."

"Good idea, grab some medical supplies too while you're at it, before the army takes it with them. I doubt they'll leave any behind for us. There are some idiots here who insist on fighting even while injured, treat them immediately."

"Understood, I'll begin watch rotation," Condor affirmed before hastening away.

Raid gazed out once more, this time drawn towards the blue expanse above him. A delicate infusion of light purple intermingled with the cerulean sky. A thick purple mist rose from parts of the battlefield, dispersing ever wider the higher it rose. Perhaps in a different time and place, he might have described it as beautiful. It was a regrettable circumstance. Had he been unaware of its cause, he might have been filled with awe and appreciation. Instead, bitterness and dread settled within him.

"Do you have any idea what kind of artform that is?" he asked absently.

"I am not familiar with any grenadier artforms, but I don't think it's ours. You'd think we should've at least heard of one as deadly and noticeable as that one. Clans can't help but show off their artforms. I'd be curious to know if you ever heard of a long range grenadier before?" she replied.

"First time, feels a little bit unfair doesn't it? A mix between a slingshot and a mystic."

"Unfair? Hey, did you forget who we are? Even our own comrades describe us as natural walking disasters. I feel bad for the infantry to be honest."

"It'd be nice to have a mystic here right about now," he grumbled.

"Doesn't the 76th Knight Squadron have one? Weren't they positioned at the center-left?"

"Then why aren't those grenadiers dead?"

"Probably too busy trying to stop our own lines from collapsing, I am actually not sure if they have a mystic though. It's not like I investigate every single unit I come across."

"What's the point of having that special access if you're not going to use it?"

"Unlike you, I don't give myself unnecessary work. And I don't go around asking for unit logs and report documents on anyone that fits my fancy either. If I don't have sufficient justification, it's actually considered a form of corruption in case you didn't know."

"Wasn't it classified under abuse of power before? When did that change to corruption?"

"Maybe a few months before the war. Two support officers got caught for unlawful investigations, something about them taking bribes, they both got executed for it. The punishments for us are much harsher now. If this was a few years ago, they wouldn't even dare consider executing a support officer for something like that."

"They can't be making these changes without reason, you think there's some kind of power struggle or something?"

"There is always one going on, but that's not important or relevant to us, especially not now," she said, before gesturing skyward. "The real issue is the presence of multiple grenadiers with long-range capabilities. There's little we can do to counter them. What if one of them decides to pay us a visit?"

"No idea. We can tell them about our lovely day, gossip about current events, thank them for decimating our lines, maybe even extend an invitation for dinner. The fuck do you want me to do?"

"Ah, so you're the type who enjoys dinner with the side of, oh I don't know, scorched corpses perhaps? The aroma certainly enhances the flavor of those bland, oily rations, doesn't it?"

"Look, if our entire army couldn't deal with them throughout the entire battle, what makes you think we can?"

"I fucking hate grenadiers," she scowled.

"We'll figure something out when it happens. There's not much else we can do."

"Can I just state that you have none of my confidence. You always somehow manage to almost blow yourself up before getting anywhere near them."

"Now, now, there's an actual strategy to that, and that only happened once mind you."

"And the only time you've dealt with them, if I may add. Tell me, how does blindly charging towards a class specifically designed to counter frontal attacks qualify as a strategy?"

"Distraction," he stated, almost proudly.

"More like suicide. You can't expect me to have your back every time."

"I can, and will. You flank, I shield. Perfect, no?"

"You see, for that to work, I'd need you to stay alive..."

A man approached from behind them, holding two small rectangular cubes wrapped in poorly waxed paper.

"Gastrul," said Nova, "did you already get the rations? That was fast. Isn't base camp quite far from here?"

"No Ma'am, the rations haven't arrived yet. These are the leftovers from this morning that we brought along with us," said Gastrul, offering one out to her.

She stared down at it with visible disgust, "No, you can have it, I am not hungry. I'd rather have dried meat than this…"

"It's not that bad," Raid said, grabbing the other cube, thanking Gastrul with a faint nod. "As long as you don't inquire about what kind of questionable meat this contains. Apart from the bland taste, it's quite edible."

"Bland? Sure, if you consider a brick of oily fat that tastes like spoiled carcass, bland. Then you're a lost cause Raid. I physically cannot eat that, it's disgusting."

"Better than starving. But some baked potatoes would be nice right about now," remarked Gastrul. "But Ma'am, you look quite tired. Are you doing alright?"

"You're not going to do any good like that," Raid added. "I told the others to rest. You should too."

Nova gave them both a tired nod. "Yeah, you're right. I'll go get some rest. I'll be by that tree over there. Wake me if anything happens," she said, brushing shoulders with Raid as she stumbled past him.

Raid watched her go with concern etched on his face. He couldn't help but feel worried seeing her so burnt out. "Nova."

"I know what you're going to ask and I am fine," she replied promptly, without so much as a backwards glance. "I'll call you first thing if I need anything. Now leave me."

"Sir," Gastrul said timidly, unsure if he was intruding.

"What is it?"

"Now that we actually have some time, should I brief you on the state of our forces in detail?"

"Ah, right. Yeah sure, we can assess the state of the men while we're at it."