The place that all the kids of the town were hiding was a wine cellar… it had a large space underground and that would be completely free from the smoke as well. But the defenses there weren’t that sturdy… so it was very worrisome that the enemies managed to learn that the kids were there.

“The spies are still here and informing them… how fucking annoying!”

In the distance, Zelos began to hear the sounds of coughing, and a lot sooner than he had expected, he saw a silhouette ahead walking in the same direction. It was Irlan, and he was being careful since he wasn’t good at ambushes. Still, he didn’t overreact when Zelos approached him, since Zelos let out a very obvious sigh, and soon he turned around.

“I should have known that you wouldn’t stay in your place, Zelos.”

“The irony is lost on you, huh?”

“I have a reason for this… and I am ready to accept the punishment for it later.”

“Whatever, they have twenty-five riders very close to the wine cellar. How can we get rid of all of them and get their horses as well?”

“We should probably just let the horses go and make them panicky run in the distance. It would be easier if we had Edea with us, but we will make a try, anyway.”

“So, you have no idea, huh? In that case, I want to try something. I can do both things: kill the riders and make their horses run at the same time, but not many times in a row. Since your trait is defensive, you should get their attention, and then I will cause chaos among their ranks.”

“Can it work against twenty-five of them?”

“Twenty. I will dispose of five of them immediately at the beginning, and then perhaps five move afterward. We will have to improvise with the rest.”

“Seven and a half to each is better than twelve and a half to each of us. I will take those odds.”

Zelos and Irlan quickly worked on the details of the plan and soon put it into motion. When they arrived at the wine cellar, they saw the riders moving around the place, checking for traps. Before long, they decided to move after nodding at each other. They moved away and then surrounded the place. However, when they were about to destroy the entrance, they suddenly heard the sound of metal hitting the ground and then the sound of a horse grunting.

Four other horses joined them in the next few moments and soon, the riders raised their guard and moved to the front of the wine cellar. Around the same time, Irlan appeared in front of the wine cellar without hiding the sound of his footsteps.

“Hey… there is someone there alone.”

“It is a trap… we need to regroup to pierce them completely.”

When the riders on the right side of the wine cellar began to move, the one in the back suddenly almost lost its balance as something fell on the back of his horse… before he could turn around and then look at what had happened. Zelos stabbed his side with his sword deeply. The enemy began to agonize, and then Zelos kicked the back of the horse, making the animal groan in pain as he almost dashed through the air toward the next rider.

The second one had the time to see him, but not to attack… Zelos beheaded him with the sword. At that moment, Zelos had a very nasty idea, but he decided to try it later. In a hurry, he used his charging technique through the air and quickly disposed of six riders from behind. The horses panicked and ran away in all directions… he could have killed another rider, but his heels began to hurt like there was a bone there it was broken… his technique reached the limit… or perhaps his legs did after using that five times in a row.

The riders on the other side of the wine cellar arrived on the front, but only one on the right side appeared… the riders looked at each other in confusion as eight of them were missing, and soon they saw some of their horses running around wildly.

“Keep a tight formation… they aren’t revealing themselves because their numbers are low. All of their warriors aren’t here. This is just a trap.”

The riders soon calmed down and then moved to protect each other from all sides. It was like a reverse circular formation to surround a target. Before long, five of them charged toward Irlan, and then he raised his spear… Zelos told him to improvise, but he didn’t expect that Zelos would practically disappear from the battlefield like that.

Irlan focused his eyes as the enemies approached and then tried to stab him from both sides. All of a sudden, he jumped backward and then repelled one of the enemies’ spears to the side and then pushed away the next of the enemy before raising his spear and then spinning himself around when the enemies passed by him… they were hit on their backs and grunted in agony before falling from their horses.

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The others squinted their eyes while studying Irlan. They immediately could tell that he was good at counterattacks, so they nodded at each other and then threw their spears at him. If he had time to click his tongue, Irlan would have done so. He hated throwing attacks; the closer, the worse…

Still, instead, he swung his spear as fast as he could and then hit both weapons. Thanks to that, he avoided direct damage, but one of the weapons still pierced the inside of his thigh, and then he grunted in pain for a moment.

The riders moved to the side and then studied him… it looked like some decent fighters were left behind, and with that kind of trait, it would be annoying to get closer to him. Thanks to that, the enemies decided to play it safe.

“Those who are better at throwing spears, come here. We can’t afford to take any chances.”

Three riders soon began to move toward them and Irlan had a hard time gulping. Fortunately, Zelos didn’t abandon him. All of a sudden, the horses began to scream in fear and pain. They began to move from one side to the other, and soon, the riders heard the sound of metal falling. They looked down and then saw swords and spears falling… their tips hit the horses and wounded them quite a bit.

As the horses were panicking, some of the riders were hit on their faces by projectiles that they didn’t see and soon fell from the horses… exactly five of them. The riders tied up their formation even more, but before long, some large things flew at them and hit the heads of the horses… the creatures lost complete control as the projectiles fell on the ground, and the enemies panicked as they recognized the heads of their friends.

“Stand your ground! They are hiding because they can’t face us directly! You idiots!”

Although the riders tried to calm down, the horses didn’t calm down at all… the smoke was starting to annoy them as well, so soon, four of them lost complete control and ran away with their riders. At that point in time, there was no need to hide, not like they could do anything else while riding, so Irlan just approached the enemies and so did Zelos.

The enemies opened their eyes widely when they realized that the enemies were two kids who weren’t old enough even to have facial hair… that was just simply humiliating. Without hesitation, the riders split to kill them… four against Irlan and three against Zelos.

Before the first could get too close to him, Zelos threw his dark blade at the same and then he easily grabbed it… However, the weight made the man lose his balance and Zelos had enough time to grab his club and step in and then smash the leg of the enemy alongside the side of the horse.

The animal groaned in pain and ran into the distance while the rider soon fell from the animal. The other two tried to impale Zelos at the same time, but he swung his club with all his might and easily repelled the spears… the enemies lost their balance as they opened their eyes widely after their spears were pushed away.

They tried to move away from him, but Zelos jumped toward one of them and swung the club again in the middle of the air, and smashed his back. The other rider tried to run away, but Zelos recovered his dark sword when he fell and then threw it at the enemy to knock him down. Much to his surprise, the point of the sword pierced the target’s back with ease…

Zelos was surprised for a moment, but soon he went to check Irlan. His arms were bleeding a bit, but he was standing, and the enemies were on the surrounding ground.

“We need to get going and help the girls. They will be in a bind if the enemies find a way to enter the mansion. The smoke isn’t entering there, after all. Time will be on their side.”

Irlan was putting some bandages on his arms to stop the bleeding and prevent the toxic smoke from entering his wounds. He didn’t know if they could do anything on an open wound, but it was better to be safe than sorry. In the end, Zelos just nodded, and soon, they began to run toward the center of the town. Some horses were nearby, but they would make too much noise approaching… They could use the sound to make the enemies think that their allies were coming, but a frontal ambush like that wouldn’t work.

Before long, those two began to hear the sounds of grunts and screams… They seemed to belong to the enemies, and they came from all parts of the town, but they couldn’t be certain just yet.

When they arrived on the training grounds, they heard the sounds of windows being broken and horses grunting in anger. Zelos and Irlan looked at each other and slowly approached. They had to somehow give the sign that they would attack the back of the enemies and the people inside the house should attack the other front, but soon, they heard the sound of the door of the entrance of the house being destroyed.

“We don’t have time to waste, let’s go!”

Zelos nodded, and then they dashed toward the mansion… During those ten seconds, they heard a lot of arrows being fired and grunts and groans. Soon enough, they saw the shadow of Heirina’s house, but soon, they dashed to the sides when they saw a bunch of silhouettes and horses dashing toward them.

Zelos and Irlan opened their eyes widely when they saw ten or so riders running away from the mansion… three of them with arrows in their arms. It seemed that Heirina and Edea had cooked a nasty surprise for them.

“Captain! It is me and Zelos here, are you okay?”

“Yeah, we are fine… these idiots tried to enter the mansion with horses and everything.”

When those two entered the mansion, they soon found a group of fifty or so archers in front of the entrance. They bombarded the enemies with arrows and killed fifteen of them almost instantly. The rain of arrows completely stopped the horses, and their only option was to retreat.

Still, everyone there looked exhausted and nervous… The smoke was also starting to affect them as well. After sighing in relief, Heirina glared at them for ignoring her orders, but she could deal with them later.