Umbren awoke to find himself blindfolded and on his knees.

"Don't say a word."

Umbren hardly heard Yorburn’s command, for it was a small whisper, "Whoever you are I regret to inform you that we’ve been captured by the luxcians."

Umbren remembered the luxcian’s soldier smirk, How! How did he know. I didn’t do anything did I? Have I ruined everything? No...This couldn’t be my fault. Could it?

He did not have to wait long for his answer. Shortly after this thought he heard another voice. "So, you're all up then, eh? Well then I guess it's time for a little chat." At that moment the blindfold was ripped off of Umbren's head.

Umbren noticed that the carriages in the middle of the camp were gone, as well as most of the tents except for three and the wooden wall was also gone. In front of him were nine luxcian troops as well as nine Loinir Attoka, who were waiting to carry their masters back to the caravan.

He looked at those who were beside him. The person directly to his right was Master Yorburn, Who to Umbren's surprise had a look of fear in his eyes. Next to Master Yorburn was Master Miglo, who still had the same grumpy and prideful countenance. Though Something new was in it, something hateful and spiteful.

Umbren looked around for the others but found nothing, “Where are the others?” he breathed fearing the worst.

Standing before them was the same luxcian general as before. He had long blond hair and was clad in a silver military coat with scale armor of the same color. To Umbren he seemed very conceited. Though his face contained something akin to insanity.

The general immediately noticed the look on Yorburn's faced and laughed hysterically,

"What's wrong beast, do I really scare you that much!?"

Yorburn's face of fear turned to one of anger. The luxcian general appeared to notice this and cut his fit of laughter short to just stare at Yorburn. For a full minute they just looked at each other, the luxcian general looking into his crescent eyes and Master Yorburn looking into his star eyes. Then all of the sudden the general burst out in another fit of laughter.

"Why have I plucked a nerve, oh noble general!?"

After this remark Yorburn's face hardened, and a hint of irritation could be seen in his expression.

"Oh, don't be like that general. Why, this whole situation is all your fault.".

The three tenebrage's faces twisted into confusion at that. The luxcian general seemed to be waiting for one of the prisoners to figure out what he meant, but they never did.

"You really didn't notice how there were barely any troops guarding that precious caravan, and how there was a hole in the wall?" asked the luxcian general, waiting for an answer from his prisoners.

"Well be out with it!" commanded Miglo.

"Well all right," the general spoke in a condescending manner. "Let's start with the lack of troops. Because of how important this caravan was I didn't want to take any chances with tenebrage interference, you understand, so I sent scouts out to look for any tenebrage. And to my luck we found two! Luckily one even had his hood down! Can you believe it! My subordinate even recognized him right away!" The general’s eye darted to Umbren for a split second, but that split second was the most vulnerable Umbren had ever felt.

How? I checked if anyone was around before I did that. The light? But Loutrin checked and found nothing.

Around this time the other tenebrage caught on to what the luxcian general was implying. Miglo was spouting very harsh insults at him, though you could say his insults were targeted at everyone. Yorburn just looked down in defeat. Seeming satisfied by their reactions, the luxcian general had another fit of laughter and continued.

"After hearing this news of your forces, I instructed a hole to be made in the wall, and you stupid beast were dumb enough to come right through it!''

Right when the general finished Miglo spit on his boot. The luxcian general's face turned sour. In what seemed like an instant the general unsheathed his Halberd that was strapped to his back and stabbed Miglo in the heart. He collapsed to the ground immediately.

After some struggle he looked at his hands, and smiled while coughing up his own blood, "Well, I guess my work is done,"

with his last words Miglo died. Umbren was in shock.

Yorburn had to bite down on his tongue to prevent himself from lashing out.

"Beast like him deserves less than what I gave him." The general expressed regrettably.

"That was a valuable prisoner Dilem." A new voice remarked

He approached the group from the three tents behind the luxcians.

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"But Ritoro you saw how rude that beast was; it was simply my duty to put him down." Dilem said in a defensive manner.

"You should think more about something's value before killing it." Remarked Ritoro

Ritoro was clad in a silver jacket and was slightly smaller than Dilem, with sharp features and hair down to his neck. Though to Umbren his face seemed unreadable.

"Well did any of them talk?" Asked Dilem

Ritoro shook his head

"What a shame." Dilem grinned

During the two luxcian’s conversation Umbren realized that he had hidden a knife up his sleeve, he immediately took it and started to try to subtly cut his bonds. Master Yorburn seemed to notice this and nodded.

"What has happened to the rest of my troops?" Yorburn asked the luxcian general.

Dilem frowned, "Unfortunately none of them were willing to talk and therefore were useless to us. But don't worry their deaths were painless."

Yorburn's face turned into that of pure hatred.

"Where are their bodies?" Yorburn demanded, in such a tone that it left even Umbren fearful.

"Oh, don't worry we made sure to leave them as presents." The luxcian general pointed at the three remaining tents.

" You monster," blurted Umbren. Though Yorburn's feelings on the matter seemed to be different.

"You have my deepest thanks, any other luxcian would have burnt the bodies." Like Umbren, the luxcian general seemed surprised by this.

"I would have done much more than that but Ritoro insisted on it." Dilem said a bit annoyed

Yorburn turned to other man with a silver cloak

Ritoro nodded, "You’re welcome. Though I regret to inform you that me and my company need to catch up with the others, so we are going to have to leave you with your troops."

During this Umbren surveyed the seven luxcian troops. They didn't wear any cloaks but we're clad in scale armor. To his right He saw one carrying a sword. It had a silver hilt with a black blade, Cronai. If Umbren could get it to Yorburn then maybe they had a chance of surviving.

Dilem walked away from the tenebrage to his attoka but Ritoro stood and watched while two of his troops with spears walked up to them.

At that moment Umbren broke through his bonds. He then threw his knife at the Luxcian soldier to the right of him. He darted to the fallen soldier and retrieved the knife and threw it at the other soldier in front of Yorburn. Umbren rushed for the knife, grabbed it, and cut Yorburn's bonds. Yorburn dove for his sword snatching it from the dead luxcian, while Umbren kept his knife.

At this point Ritoro had walked through his soldiers, and Yorburn charged at him. The luxcian general dodged and went in for a strike of his own, but this was blocked by Yorburn. The sound of metal on metal rang, through the air.

As Yorburn was dueling with Ritoro, Umbren was handling the five other spear men. Umbren successfully dodged the first two strikes from one of them and jabbed his knife into the luxcian throat.

The two swordsmen were engaged in a duel to the death. When it looked like one would break through the other's defense, their offensive would be broken and the tables would turn.

Yorburn fought like a demon making an effort not to let his opponent recover, while Ritoro looked more like a dancer as he dodged and parried Yorburn's advance. After the fight seemed to become a deadlock Ritoro backed off, "I'm sorry for this but I do not have time to trade blows with you."

"You're gonna have to make time then." Yorburn said, with a challenging look.

Ritoro again rushed at Yorburn but before their swords could meet a blinding light came from Ritoro's hand. Yorburn was instantly blinded, and Ritoro stabbed him through the heart. Yorburn collapsed into his arms and uttered his last breath.

Despite Umbren's efforts to combat the luxcians soldiers, he noticed this, and would remember it for the rest of his life that the general seemed to whisper a prayer into Yorburn's ear.

Umbren was paralyzed with terror and shock, and his legs shook. He, a rookie, was confronted by seven luxcian troops, one being a highly skilled luxcian general, that had killed Master Yorburn. At the thought of Yorburn, Umbren was awoken from his trance.

If I was to die, then who was to tell the tale of what has happened here. Who am I kidding, there is no way I'm coming out of this alive, and why fight when I'm fated to die here anyway. Yorburn even said that it was my god's will. But wouldn't he be disappointed that I didn't put up a fight. How could I rest peacefully if I just laid down and died?

With this thought Umbren was barely able to focus enough to wrap a veil of darkness around his head and imbue it with the blessing of the soul. It wouldn't guard much against multiple luxcians using their blessing of the mind, but at least it was something.

Dilem transitioned closer to the fight on his attoka.

"Yes, Yes, I see that you still have some fight in you, now come at us beast."

Umbren observed the playful murderous glare that the general gave him, and started to tremble uncontrollably.

He observed the spear a little distance away from him of the first luxcian he killed, if only he could grab it he might stand a chance. Umbren threw his knife at the closest luxcian, but because of his trembling the throw was sloppy and was easily deflected by Ritoro.

Dilem frowned, "I had hoped you had some other trick up your sleeve."

Umbren’s trembling intensified, to the point where he struggled to stand.

Dilem noticed this, "Ah, so that is the way it's going to be, though I can't say it isn't the smartest thing you could have done."

Dilem cocked an arrow in his bow and aimed at Umbren, but a miracle happened. Just then a purple energy force knocked into all of them, almost sending Umbren to the ground, and more of the same force was sent into them and showed no sign of ending. The whole group looked to the source of the pulsating energy, and what they saw amazed them all.

What they saw was a giant cloud of darkness, spiraling down the hillside into the clearing. Umbren then heard a clunk sound, and looked where it came from. A luxcian soldier had dropped his spear and was running for his attoka out of pure terror.

Soon the rest followed, except for Ritoro who grimaced at the cloud that was fast approaching. He then looked at Umbren, "may we meet again tenebrage."

"Those damned beasts. Hurry, Ritoro, there's not much time." Called Dilem

and with that Ritoro ran to his attoka and flew off.

Umbren fell to his knees and looked at the cloud with indifference. When the cloud was only a few yards away from him, it dissipated and with Umbren’s conscience. From the black cloud came tenebrage riding Dorcha Attoka. The attoka resembled deer rather than bats. They were black with white glowing eyes, the opposite of their loinir counterpart. They still had the cat-like face, but their ears pointed to the back of their heads and they had antlers in the shape of a half-moon upon their head, and leading them was the disciples of Tenebrage Lord Mortis and Lady Morta.