Irlan passed some bread and milk for Zelos, and despite his words, Zelos began to chug it down like he had a hole inside him. One could almost wonder how he could eat so much… Regardless, the enemies didn’t look worried at all, and they had total faith in their plan. They lost the scouting party completely, but it seemed that they were two different groups that only temporarily had the same purpose. Hence, they didn’t feel their losses.

“They already finished lighting up all the torches around the town. We will be able to see them moving and approaching us… the sun is setting, so perhaps we should return already.”

“I want to stay here a bit longer… they still didn’t move their horses, so perhaps our assumptions were wrong. They might try to use some different tactics. With that in mind, the sooner we realize that, the better.”

“Don’t worry, Heirina had some good ideas as well. We will turn their advantage into a disadvantage. For now, we just need to make sure that we will work together. Besides, they won’t do a thing until we leave since they can see us or until it is completely dark.”

Zelos soon realized that this was true… there was his strong bad smell coming from the town, and that seemed like one of Heirina’s ideas. In the end, Zelos decided to return with Irlan to hear about the battle plan.

Before entering the town, Zelos saw several massive piles of manure. He could tell where those came from. As soon as Zelos and Irlan returned, someone set them on fire, and then an even more dangerous smell and smoke began to be emitted… Heirina put her nasty side to work once again.

The piles of manure not only created a lot of smoke but also emitted dangerous gases toward the enemy’s camp. They also illuminated the area a fair bit. Groups of people were hidden behind them all to surprise the enemies.

Those could be found in several spots around the town, and while that would also decrease visibility and affect the people there, they had pieces of cloth on their faces that they could use to protect themselves. As for the smoke, they didn’t have to worry since they all only had to stay in a single spot and only acted if the enemies showed up. When Zelos and Irlan dismounted, Heirina and Edea approached.

“Did you see if the enemies had bows?”

“No, they didn’t have it. I imagine that they think that this would be an easy win for them.”

“I will show them the easy win… the last one that they will see in their lives.”

“In any case, the smoke is spreading… isn’t this dangerous?”

“It is the only thing we can do to prevent as many deaths as possible on our side. We will drag out this battle and then poison the enemies with the smoke. Put this in your mouth and cover your nose as well.”

Heirina passed a piece of cloth to Zelos, and then he covered his mouth and nose. Before long, they moved around the town before the sun could set completely and confirmed the positions of everyone there. It seemed that Heirina was good at planning ahead, despite her usual demeanor, but he also assumed that this was something that her ancestors had developed over time against surprise attacks. Zelos didn’t know about the prison, but if he knew, he would have guessed that the leaders of the Hei clan were pretty crafty in an unusual way.

Before long, the entire town was engulfed in smoke, and when the enemies prepared to approach, they soon felt the smell of smoke, which irritated their throats. When that happened, they ignored it, but soon, they saw the town covered in smoke and with some lights of torches and campfires inside…

“It seems those three are up to something. Don’t worry about it; it is just a simple trick to make us waste time. I want half of the cavalry to assume positions around the town. No one will leave this place tonight alive. Our allies are at some checkpoints to get rid of messengers during the day, but they aren’t as effective during the night. We will take this place before dinner time.”

The soldiers began to chuckle and laugh, but soon, they began to cough. They soon realized that there was something in the smoke that they couldn’t breathe for long, but they just had to take over the town before anything could happen.

In the end, the fifty riders hurried up to surround the town. At the same time, the remaining fifty riders and the one hundred infantrymen approached the town without being in a hurry. They tried to protect their mouths and noses with their shirts, but they weren’t thick enough. Moreover, they were sweaty and dirty as well, so soon they regretted that.

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When they were two hundred meters away from the houses, the enemies could barely see the buildings, but soon they began to charge at them. The riders galloped toward the sides of the huge fire while the infantry followed them from behind. Soon enough, a volley of arrows was fired toward them behind the huge fire… Some horses were hit and groaned in pain, but the riders were completely fine.

“Kill them all!”

The riders moved around the fire and soon met each other on the other side, since they had split into two groups. They almost collided, and then looked at each other in confusion. At least fifty archers had been there. It was impossible that a group that large would have moved so fast and without making any noise.

They all looked around and found that the entire place was silent and looked like a desert… they had planned to burn the place after getting rid of everyone, but it looked like things wouldn’t be so simple. The leader of the enemies decided to make their move when the cavalry reached them… the targets were hiding, and it was better to get rid of them as soon as possible.

“Split into groups of ten and check all the buildings. They must be suffering from the smoke as well, and that is the only place that they should be hiding.”

Everyone nodded and then split into groups. They all also began to move in different directions while the riders moved to the center of the town where Heirina house was supposed to be. Their defenses should be stronger there and as long as they take the place down the rest will soon fall as well.

The enemies began to kick the doors of the houses without hesitation, but soon found the interiors empty. They found torches in front of some buildings and soon grabbed them to move better… but these guys didn’t even have time to regret that.

“Ugh…”

All of a sudden, one of the guys on the back of one of the groups grunted in pain and then collided with several others of the group.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

The soldier fell to the ground completely lifeless, and his compassion saw him with his back smashed. Something massively hard killed his friend. Before he could look around, the leader of that group and his friends were soon hit by a volley of arrows… since they were clustered together and the torches revealed their positions, even inexperienced archers hit and killed a bunch of them and hurt the others… The villagers were hidden behind the houses all along.

“Help-!”

The survivors tried to scream, but Zelos approached and cut their throats with his sword. Heirina’s plan was going well, but he couldn’t see any other targets. He was alone as well, and so were the others, so they couldn’t coordinate.

“Stay hidden. Only attack if they get too close.”

The villagers nodded. Heirina told the groups to stay in their positions and ambush the enemies when they believed that they had the best chances, but Zelos knew that he couldn’t just wait.

Heirina told them that because they could end up killing each other since they couldn’t see who was who on the smoke screen, so that made sense. However, Zelos had an idea of how to avoid friendly fire.

Slowly but surely, Zelos moved through the smoke while being mindful of his footsteps. At the same time, he followed the sound of doors being kicked. It seemed that he got lucky since Zelos arrived just in time he heard a volley of arrows. While the enemies were grunting, he saw a bunch of them hiding behind the house… they had guessed that the villagers were heading there.

That was supposed to be where Irlan was… but he wasn’t coming to take down those five guys… his trait was probably too defensive for that. In the end, Zelos approached and slammed their chests with the iron balls… hitting their heads would be too hard since he could only see their silhouettes, and the shadows and the lights would mess with his accuracy.

While the enemies were groaning in the ground without air, Zelos approached them and pierced their throats. He sighed in relief and then tried to clean the sword… but soon he noticed that there was something off with the dark sword… it felt like the blood was moving around it or trembling.

“What the hell is this…”

Zelos wondered if that was because the sword was supposed to be cursed. In any case, he didn’t feel anything strange about him, so he decided to leave the blood there and see what happened afterward.

“Irlan, it is me… are you all right?”

“Irlan left a while ago. He heard that the riders had found a place where the kids were hidden.”

“That idiot… going alone would be a total waste of time.”

“We told him to go, and you should go too. We can handle this.”

The villagers knew that they shouldn’t go. Moving as a group would reveal their position and alert the enemies. Moreover, the enemies would just use the kids to kill them all. For now, they wouldn’t do that and would try to bargain with them all in order to make all the villagers show up and kill them all at once.

“The riders must have split up to look for the people around the town… the other half are heading to where Heirina and Edea are. It will be difficult for them to handle those guys, but they should be able to gain time. I need to help Irlan and then get those horses…”

Zelos considered his options while he was moving ahead… he didn’t have many, so he would have to take some risks.