When Loutrin rode away from Faldrid, frustration filled him at the fact that he would not be able to get his revenge on that monster. All he could hope now was that Faldrid would capture him alive, so he could kill Dilem himself later.

Loutrin didn't know why Faldrid chose him as a leader out of all the other options. He didn't really care either way, but he couldn't reject the desperate look in Faldrid's eyes. It was almost as if he was fearing for his life.

He shortly caught up with the Hands of Morta. Vale only recognized their presence with a sideway glance. Loutrin sighed a little when he saw it, she could have at least said something.

Faldrid ended up being right when he said the caravan had to be close by. Loutrin spotted it before the others. Their were three wagons guarded by archers in the sky on attoka. Once they got a little closer he could see guards with spears on the backs and fronts of the wagons.

Loutrin awaited orders from the two up front, but he never got any. Either they were too busy, or they thought that someone would order around the Bluecloaks.

Loutrin ran his hand through his hair, irritated and started riding towards the sisters. Really, why did he have to do this? Did the Hands think they could do all this by themselves?

He finally reached the front, but still no one took notice of his presence. It was usually always like this. It was a useful skill for a tenebrage soldier, but it was inconvenient at times.

"Mistress?"

Vale looked back in surprise that he was right behind her.

"What exactly is the plan here?"

She still looked to be shocked at his appearance, "Oh. I forgot Faldrid wasn't with you"

Loutrin looked at her, he was tired and just wanted to hear an answer to his question, and it showed on his face.

Vale coughed to clear her mind, "Me and Sadine will shoot down the archers in the sky. We're going to need some of the soldiers to create a shield of darkness to block any arrows of light that come our way."

Vale's voice cut off as if that was all. Loutrin was starting to think that people were putting too much faith in him today. First with Faldrid and then with this Hand that didn't give enough directions.

Loutrin raised an eyebrow while thinking this, and Vale took notice after a moment, "Oh. Focus the rest of the troops on that last wagon. The Hands can take care of the other two."

He knew he wasn't going to get anything else out of that conversation so he just nodded and left.

He thought about what exactly they were supposed to do with the wagon. He didn't really listen that much, but he did remember Faldrid saying something about stopping them. Maybe he had been putting too much faith in him.

Loutrin hoped that they were supposed to do that because if not he would get an ear full from the Mistress he just talked to. Since she was a Hand, he suspected it would involve him being looked down upon, and there wasn't anything that he hated more.

When Loutrin reached the head of the soldiers he sighed. He knew what he had to do, though he wasn't really jumping at the chance to do it.

He patted the beast that he rode. He hadn't yet bonded with it, but he trusted that it was smart enough not to let him fall, when he tried to ride backwards. On second thought it might have been a bad idea, but Loutrin didn't dwell on that for too long.

As Loutrin flipped around in his saddle, he got confused glances from the men that he looked at. He cleared his throat in preparation.

His teacher had once tried to tell him how to command men, though he hadn't gotten much practice until now. If his teacher saw him now, he would probably die of embarrassment. Then again his teacher wasn't one to get embarrassed easily.

Loutrin glared intently at the troops in front of him, "Listen up! Here's the plan, I'll only say it once so you all better listen!"

He dramatically raised his hand and motioned to one side of the soldiers, "You will be our shield. If anyone gets hit by an arrow of lights, I'll point them, or those mourning them, at any of you, so you better not be sloppy."

Loutrin gestured to the other side, "All of you will be responsible for stopping the last wagon. The Hands say that they can take care of the rest, but we’ll see."

Loutrin immediately turned back in his saddle and rode to a point where he wouldn't be able to hear any of the men. He was able to see that some of them had questions before he had turned around. Also he was sort of embarrassed by what he just did, he knew it was far from the ideal commanding presence that he imagined in his head. He needed a lot more practice to reach that goal, but he really didn't know if he wanted to do that again.

At least now he understood the value of vague orders. If they mess up, then you can just stick the blame on them and not you. Though he was a little irked that the Hand from earlier had given him vague instructions, after learning that.

When the party was a little distance away from the caravan, the Hands started unsheathing their weapons. Loutrin followed their actions, though it was barely noticeable to those who weren't looking. His skewers were often mocked by others, but they would often take back their words once they lost an eye from said skewer.

The arrows of light came sooner than expected. Almost immediately after the whole unit had gotten their weapons out. The arrows moved faster than sound, and one headed straight for Loutrin. It was as if everything had slowed down; it was only him and the arrow. For a split second he thought it was going to hit him, since it would take him too long to put up a wall.

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Just as the light was almost a foot away from him, a wall of darkness was erected blocking it.

Loutrin blinked a couple of times, his brain trying to register what had just occurred.

He turned back to the group responsible for the wall, "It took you long enough!"

A lot of the members of the group averted their gaze from his. He cursed under his breath to calm himself down, and so he was ready for the task to come.

Ahead of them some of the Hands were looking back at them, noticing their efforts. Loutrin also saw the two sisters with their bows aimed towards the luxcian archers. The wall of darkness seemed to be thinner where they were, no doubt so they could actually see what they were shooting at.

As the group drew closer to their carriage, the wall of darkness moved so it formed almost a slanted roof over them. When it did so, Loutrin found himself face to face with the driver of the wagon they were supposed to stop.

Next to him was an archer with a normal bow. Loutrin thought that it was at least easier than dealing with those arrows of light.

As he glanced back, he saw that some of the soldiers were trying to jump from their attoka's onto the back of the carriage.

One had successfully gotten on, but he ended up with a spear through his shoulder and was shoved off of the carriage. After that it looked like the others were a little more cautious.

Loutrin couldn't blame them. What looked to be six spearmen formed almost a shield of spear tips that made it difficult to get onto the carriage. It would Take them some time to break it.

Although, that wasn't really Loutrin's main concern at the moment as a bow was aimed right at his face. He was able to duck just in time to avoid the arrow, but it was still too close for comfort. Loutrin instinctively threw a skewer at the archer, but it missed badly. He hadn't trained riding full speed on the back of an attoka, so he doubted he would actually fatally wound the archer that way.

One proud tenebrage had made the effort to go around on the other side of the carriage. He no doubt thought that with the driver and archer distracted by Loutrin,He could easily win some glory. Unfortunately he had not considered that he was no longer under the protection of the other soldiers' wall, and was immediately pelted by arrows of light, and fell from his attoka. They seemed to have had a bond, as the attoka dropped dead soon after, without a single injury.

Loutrin ducked in response to another arrow. He returned with another one of his skewers. They repeated this process multiple times, to the point that Loutrin was starting to get aggravated. He really didn't enjoy the feeling of being stuck in a deadlock or the breeze from the arrows that almost hit him.

The soldiers had finally broken through the shield of spears on the back of the carriage. Though it didn't end quickly. One of the tenebrage jumped at a luxcian only to be greeted by a spear point. While the luxcian was occupied a tenebrage slit his throat with his kukri. That tenebrage was then rammed off of the carriage by another luxcian. A tenebrage then grabbed him and used him as a human shield against another luxcian, who ended up piercing his fellow luxcian’s leg.

A blood curdling scream could be heard from the back of the wagon. It drew the archers' attention away from Loutrin for only a millisecond, but that was all he needed. Loutrin aimed his skewer and threw it at his opponent. It found its resting place in the archer's throat, and Loutrin watched in deep satisfaction as he rolled off the driver's seat onto the passing road below them.

With that Loutrin maneuvered his attoka till it was right next to the wagon. It was at that time he wished he had a bond with the thing. The driver of the wagon seemed stressed by the circumstances, as his hands shook uncontrollably, leading to the carriage wavering from side to side.

Loutrin was somehow able to get right up against the carriage. He struggled to balance as he stood in his saddle. The violent wind threatened to send him rolling on the stone road below him. He prepared to do something he dreaded, and he leapt to the carriage with a deep breath.

The driver turned pale faced at the sight at Loutrin. He should have been able to easily see him before now, but Loutrin guessed he may have just been a little preoccupied.

Loutrin gave a wry smile, "You wouldn't mind stopping the carriage, would you?"

Surely this man would not actually put up a fight. His hands were trembling and he looked as if he was going to pass out.

Imagine Loutrin's surprise then when the man pulled a knife on him. He swung it around haphazardly, but he still almost got Loutrin.

After dodging his first few slashes by just jumping back a little, Loutrin instinctually kicked the poor man off the carriage and onto the road below.

Loutrin quickly snatched up the reins, "Huh. That could have been a lot worse."

Just then the carriage lurched to one side, flipping over.

***

"Hello! Hello! You know we’re going to leave you if you don't wake up soon!"

Loutrin slowly opened his eyes. His head felt like it was continuously being pounded on by a hammer, and the muscles in his body ached, "What...what happened."

The girl in front of him was the Hand that Faldrid always bickered with, Sadine, "Well you seemed to have hit your head."

Loutrin furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, "I can tell that, but what happened to the carriage."

"Oh! The wagon! Yeah, you guys really wrecked that thing didn't you? I mean not that I'm complaining."

Loutrin rubbed his head, "But how did it crash?"

"Well one of the wooden wheels seemed to have been butchered by some sort of weapon. No one needed to ask about it though, the guy was proudly proclaiming what he did to the whole party."

Loutrin was more irritated than ever, "Is that so? Then I won't have any problem finding him," he gave a brief pause. "Was crashing the wagon a bad thing?"

Sadine shrugged, "I don't think so, it just wasn't the easiest way to go about it I think."

Loutrin looked further down the road. One carriage stood in the middle of it as if it had just stopped, and another one was off to the side of it with a young hand laying on the driver's seat.

"Doesn't look like you had any trouble Mistress."

Sadine laughed a little, "Well...the archers above us were a big hassle, but they left after they saw what happened to the caravan."

She lowered her voice a bit, "I’ve heard a rumor recently after everything ended that was interesting."

"Oh. What was it."

"That your a Green Cloak in disguise."

Loutrin chuckled to himself, "Where did you hear that from, I barely just started being a soldier."

"Well it's just what all the soldiers have been saying, even the older ones."

Loutrin scratched his chin, "Is that so? Anyway it's all over now, so at least we can rest."

Sadine's eyes dropped down as her face filled with disappointment, "I wish, but Vale will probably have us riding hard to Sangai tomorrow."

Loutrin nodded, "Hmm...I wonder how the others are doing. I bet Umbren should be done dealing with his caravan already. He was in our Lord's group after all, and Faldrid should be back any minute now."

"I had forgotten about him. Though I think Faldrid will take his sweet time..."

Loutrin didn't hear anything else she said as he fell back to sleep.