Three tattered warriors were rushing through an apocalyptic scene of a destroyed battlefield. The camp looked like it was struck by a bombardment, but in reality all this chaos was a work of a single person.

They passed the collapsed buildings, and jumped over trenches, dug by the Legend’s strikes.

The sound of the helicopter's blades became clearer and clearer. Just when they reached the outer wall of the base, the machine revealed itself from behind it.

“There they are! Drop the rope!” One of the soldiers sitting in the cabin pointed towards the trio. The vehicle was packed to the brim, but that still accounted for a minority of everyone present at the camp. It looked like only a small part of people managed to reach this place. Or maybe some were simply deemed unimportant and got left behind…

Either way, the three Marked were clearly wanted onboard. The soldiers dropped a rope and waited by the edge with reached out arms.

Marcus and Edward put their hands together, allowing Leyla to step onto them, and then in one swift movement, they launched her towards the chopper.

She grabbed onto the rope with one arm, and wrapped her legs around it like an acrobat.

Next up was Edward. Since Marcus was the least wounded, and the strongest physically, it was natural for them to do it this way.

Ed stepped onto his friend’s straightened arms, flinching when the movement put strain on some of his wounds. They moved in unison. Edward bent his legs and pushed out at the same time when Marcus pulled his arms up.

The young warrior reached out for the swinging rope, grabbing it with both arms, and hugging it tightly.

The pilot kept rising higher and higher, and the end of the rope rose with it. Marcus desperately jumped as far as he could. Swinging his arms in the air, he barely reached the end of the rope. He was pulling himself up, when a furious shout came from the distance.

“Get over here cowards! I said I won’t let you leave now!”

“Alright everyone’s in! Go! Go!” Panicked commands came from somewhere above.

The chopper started rising higher and higher, but the pace was slower than they wished. The machine seemed to be struggling under all of the weight.

Everyone stared towards the scene below, tensing their bodies and clenching their fists. The view really looked like a tornado passed through the place. They sped through the air, focused more on getting further away rather than higher.

Just when they started feeling safe, a small figure stepped out from a swerving cloud of dust. The man held a simple sword in a reverse grip, and blood covered the side of his face. His moustache twisted along with his expression, as he brought the weapon back, and extended his left hand forward, pointing towards the chopper.

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“You seemed to have lost something motherfucker!” Atlas threw his arm forward, and the blade disappeared from his hand.

All Edward could see was a flash of reflected light, and then the sound of tearing metal reached his ears. A flash of light came from above. Ed looked up and noticed flames coming from the huge hole in the side of the chopper.

The machine started losing altitude spiraling down in a cacophony of panicked screams. Some people fell out from the inside, plunging to the ground in different directions. Their fate was already sealed…

Edward tried to hold on for as long as he could, but the rope was wobbling more and more. At some point one of the blades from the rotor detached, flying straight towards him. Time seemed to slow down, as the warrior let go of the rope, falling towards the thick trees below…

He felt the wind brush against his body. It was hard to control the fall. His body rotated and twisted in different directions, making him lose track of where was up and where was down.

“Edward!”

He heard a voice call out to him from somewhere. It sounded like Layla, but she seemed to be moving in a different direction, and he couldn’t hear her clearly.

Losing sight of his comrades, Ed kept approaching the treeline faster and faster. He tucked his body into a ball, bracing for impact. Hitting the top branches felt like being poked by hundreds of needles, after which the thicker branches below pummeled him like a team of angry baseball players.

He closed his eyes and heard cracking noises all around. At certain moments he wasn’t sure if the sounds were coming from the tree or from his bones. But despite how ruthless the tree’s limbs were, they at least slowed him down, saving him from a much more serious, potentially lethal, fall.

After rolling down the thickest bottom branches, he fell flat on the ground like a pancake, the impact pulling the air out of his lungs.

The warrior laid there for a moment, looking at the blue sky above. He heard something heavy tearing through the trees in the distance, and out of nowhere an orange hue lit up the heavens, following an echoing explosion.

Ed couldn’t move, processing everything that just happened. The base was gone, along with everything and everyone in it. He had no idea what happened to Marcus and Layla, and had no way out of what was now the enemy territory.

He finally tried to pull himself up, but the damage in his body kept accumulating, without having the time to properly heal. Stumbling down, he supported himself with his hands. The ground was cold, and covered in pine needles, pricking his skin lightly.

Edward crawled towards a nearby tree, leaning his back on its rugged bark. His breath slowly returned to its normal stable tempo. He should really make some kind of plan, but he couldn’t. Not right now. It felt like something was gripping his heart tightly and twisting his stomach.

‘All of this can wait… Stay calm, just stay calm. I need to recover first.’

The young man kept quiet, listening out for any movements. Whether it happened to be friend or foe, it would be good to hear their approach. But except for the chirp of birds, and some crickets hidden on the forest floor, no other sounds came from the surroundings. Ed truly was in the middle of nowhere.

He sat there, observing his wounds come together on their own. Some stray rays of light pierced the thick canopy, hitting his squinted eyes.

‘Alright I’m a warrior, a Marked even… I’ve been prepared for scenarios like this. Think Edward, what’s the best course of action now?’

He reached towards his waist, but his right hand grabbed only air.

‘Oh right… I threw my sword at that asshole…’

Edward made a mental note, adding ‘unarmed’ to his growing list of problems…