Volumen I Scions of Destiny - Chapter 1 Part II: Blurry Fate

General Scatter paused for a moment, carefully inspecting his soldiers from afar.

The makeshift battalion was either interested or bored, with half the soldiers who were listening intently to Scatter realized that he did a pause, while others didn't even notice as they were busy sharpening their weapons silently ignoring every single word. Scatter was narrating the story just to kill some time, as soon as the second wave enemy would strike the city defenses. Everyone looked anxious, the General included; but to keep his soldiers’ image of him, he stayed calm, although that’s just a well-made facade. After a short sigh, the General Scatter resumed his narrating. “Bready quickly succumbed to his looming death and he abandoned his futile thoughts of escape…" Bready gazed up into the sky only to be blinded by the sun, feeling his slow impending doom.

While in his mind, the voice kept talking.

“Don’t give up…do not…” But this slowly trailed off.

The same soldier with a serious expression on his scarred face kept trampling Bready’s stomach for a while. Suddenly, he stopped and sinisterly giggled as he unsheathed a normal medieval-like sword from his hip and inspected its blade sliding his fingers on it as his comrades looked at him smiling as they knew what he was going to do.

Then, the soldier slowly stabbed the tip of his sword through Bready left thigh till it was totally pierced as Bready’s face twisted in and screamed pain.

*Ahhhhhhhhh!*

But the soldier didn't stop there; he slowly spun his sword till he heard Bready’s bones cracking alongside Bready’s painful screams.

“Hahahaha...look his face, totally pale...poor shameless Popori. Hahaha!” One of the soldiers said in the middle of his laugh.

Bready was breathing heavily, due the severe wound as he tried to compress his wound with his hands but he was immediately stopped since another soldier directly kicked his head, leaving him semi-conscious and dazed.

He just could feel how his warm blood leaving his body as the blade was still stuck in his thigh.

The others soldiers were also Humans, all wearing light armors with three colorful stripes, two blue and one yellow in the middle them, alongside Iron Order’s symbol on the center of their light breastplate.

It wasn’t uncommon to see humans mixed within the three alliances since they usually fought amongst themselves without clear goals as other races.

Although inside the other races, there were also a few who left their own people, who were quite less in comparison to the more numerous scattered Human population.

In the past, the other races saw in them great leaderships and great ambitions with noble goals, but suddenly they darkened their own goals when they succumbed to their own newfound envy leading to fight among themselves.

The older races couldn't notice this situation in time, as they were also involved in interracial conflicts against their will, leading the whole realm to a long bloody war, where all the races revealed their own dark sides as they fought.

This war lasted almost four years, leaving grim scars on the whole realm and on every race as well...

Meanwhile, Princess Cauterize was trying to hide as she saw everything from the early start, but the fear and hesitation prevented her to act earlier.

She followed Bready from afar upon he left the Fort and when she saw that they just jumped on the enemy she was also going to join the battle, but then she quickly noticed that almost every soldier was defeated, so she decided to hide.

She was lying on a brown rock near of a huge natural pile of rocks. The rock on where she was lying was about 10 meters in height from where Bready and the Iron Order soldiers were, allowing her to look the every detail of the situation.

The Princess tried to remain calm as much as she could, but thinking back about her actions, that she just hid and avoided a fight instead acting like a Pora Elinu’s Princess would, was gnawing her consciousness.

Mixed also with the sense of duty and obligation to leave none behind anymore as her Nation once did, she was unable to stand by idly and watch and decided to act.

The Princess had beautiful long light orange hair and blue eyes, like pearls; she also wore a white light riddling hauberk which fit her body perfectly.

The hauberk had a small metallic pad on her both sides, a brown strap across her chest and a belt around her waist. She also wore black light gauntlets and white boots, both to ensure great comfort in any of the situations.

On the other hand, she carried in her back a modest but reliable bow; it was light enough and also her favorite.

‘What can I do...’ The Princess thought as she watched the Human twisting his sword in Bready’s thigh forcing her to look away from the painful scene as her amber wolf ears startled upon hearing his continuous painful screams.

Suddenly her eyes widened more than usual as she crawled backwards a little and then sat on the rock.

“That is!!!! … I hope this works and they see it in time…” The Princess Caut said as she begins to slowly wave her hands around, creating a sphere, and slowly a little spark ignited between her hands.

She tried to focus as she murmured. “Come on…Come on…”

The little spark became a small sphere, then begun to form in her hands and then it solidified; it was a metallic silver sphere of ten centimeters in diameter with a small yellow button in the middle.

“Yes!” She exclaimed nervously. “I really hope that they see it in time…” The Princess said worried but once again she heard another wild painful scream.

Princess Caut quickly installed the emergency beacon on the rock and pressed the button, activating it, this released a small magical cloud that quickly vanished and then a wide phosphorescent green beam of light was shot into the sky creating a green magical pillar.

She knew that the enemies would notice it soon and kill Bready, and there wasn't too much time. Caut quickly stood up and stepped back for a few meters.

“Should I?” The Princess hesitated but then she shook her head and cleared her mind. She then ran to the front with all her forces.

At the middle of her sprint, took her bow with her right hand and summoned a white arrow on her left hand and when her ground was about to run out, stopped and crouched as she strained all her muscles in her legs and jumped forward.

She was prepared and cleared her hesitation in her mind since she was already decided. She wouldn’t meet the same mistakes that her people did once.

Bready’s face kept twisting in pain as he painfully cried while his body started to feel weak and heavy, probably from the great loss of blood from his wounds in the legs.

Between whiles, the soldier removed his bloody sword from Bready’s thigh as he screamed.

“You seem really...bleak Popori. Haha!” The Iron Order soldier shouted as he lifted his sword preparing to end Bready’s life as he closed his eyes waiting for his death.

Suddenly, Bready felt almost imperceptibly a humanoid silhouette blocking the luminous sun for a second as he heard a whistle.

“Captain!” The other soldiers shouted in surprise upon seeing their Captain’s neck totally pierced by an arrow and then Princess Caut landed on one knee and both hands on the floor with her bow in between, around seventeen meters back the other soldiers around Bready.

He opened his heavy eyelids and turned his head to the left and saw the Iron Order’s soldier dropping his sword and then brought both hands on his bloodstained neck trying to remove the arrow desperately as he tried to open his mouth asking for help.

Instead of words, just blood spurted out and after a second he succumbed to the fatal wound and fell backwards.

The other Humans soldier stood surprised for a few seconds, trying to understand what just had happened and then they turned upon feeling Caut’s presence and three of them immediately unsheathed their swords, while the other stretched the string of his bow aiming at Caut.

Quickly the Princess rolled forward avoiding the arrow and quickly took aim by stretching her bow string and then fired her arrow to the Human, but she missed his head by a centimeter.

“This is bad,” The Princess thought for herself as she back stepped trying to gain more distance, but the other Humans were quickly approaching.

“You’ll pay for that!” One of the Humans shouted as he ran towards her.

“You cannot escape!” The Human with the bow shouted as he kept shooting his arrows without any luck, missing the shot barely with each and every arrow.

One arrow pierced the floor near her feet while the others simply brushed against her scratching some minor injuries at her arms, but were enough to break her balance and she fell to the sand.

They were getting close, too close for her liking.

“What’s that…?” One of the soldiers persecuting her said as he saw a huge winging shadow quickly loomed over them, while the others retreated upon seeing this.

When he noticed it, it was too late. The last thing he saw, was a huge mouth with sharp fangs before blacking out while the other three remaining soldiers threw themselves to the ground evading the dragon, or better said, dracoloth.

The dracoloth landed right on top of one of the soldiers, its claw piercing flesh.The soldier underfoot screamed, and died. Another soldier threw a low-level magic spell at the monster, but the dracoloth’s red scales deflected it with ease before the monster lunged forward and chomped down on its new victim.

The soldier underfoot screamed, and died. Another soldier threw a low-level magic spell at the monster, but the dracoloth’s red scales deflected it with ease before the monster lunged forward and chomped down on its new victim.

Its sharp fangs tore the whole upper torso of the Iron Order’s soldier in just a brief blink of an eye while the bottom part of his body fell on the sand, staining the nearby sand crimson.

Then the dracoloth flew to a rock pile, flew around it, and then circled back flying over the three remaining IO’s soldiers, but this time, the dracoloth did not attack.

Instead, two riders jumped off the dracoloth, landing in front of the Princess Caut as her eyes shone with excitement upon recognizing one of them.

“Mechy!” the Princess shouted in relief while lying down on the sand.

One of the riders quickly approached Caut.

Mech’s blonde hair was always waving behind her. The Princess noticed the new loose sleeve siena detailed gown cascading around her petite figure till her hips ending in a billowing mini-skirt, but Caut could also see her black short knickerbockers as small silver shoulder pads rested on her shoulders, and a belt fastened around her waist.

Her ocher wolf ears twitched in annoyance, but her ocher tail displayed her excitement to see the Princess while her anil eyes twinkled, which matched perfectly with her pale skin tone.

Also, she was holding a wooden staff in her left hand, with engraved glowing aquamarine runes over it.

Mech extended her free hand as Caut took it, feeling her slightly rough black sleeve covering Mech’s hands and stood up.

“Feels like old times already.” Mech spoke softly and vividly.

“Hahaha...yeah…” Princess Caut said standing beside her; she was a bit taller than Mech.

Suddenly Caut heard a whistle, recognizing it immediately and looked forward, seeing a quick spinning arrow coming directly to her head. She quickly raised her arms as she closed her eyes trying to defend herself but it was no avail, that wouldn't stop the arrow.

Yet, the arrow never even touched her ,as it was floating in front of her slowly spinning, better said, imbedded in a magic shield around her, made of slightly transparent light-blue hexagons.

Slowly, Caut opened her eyes and lowered her arms as she looked at Mech, who was smiling.

“Hehe...they will need more than that!” Mech exclaimed and then asked. “How are you? Time I haven't seen you after the Argon War.”

‘It is not time for that!’ The Princess Caut thought for herself.

“You guys didn't come alone, right?” Caut asked trying to ignore Mech’s word.

“Of course, we didn’t. Korah!” Mech shouted aloud the other rider’s name while the arrow limply fell to the sand.

“Alright! I will defend the Princess from those arrows...but those over there seem really nervous.” A High Elf arrogantly proclaimed as his large grape plated shield echoed by the sound of arrows impacting his shield as he blocked them.

The Princess Caut could see a blonde short-haired High Elf of about 6’23’’ height positioning in front of both, Caut and Mech, covering both of the ranged attacks.

Korah was completely armored from feet to neck, two heavy shoulders pads rested over his shoulders, a grape shining plated breastplate covered his torso, his hands covered by heavy gauntlets while his feet by imposing greaves and boots.

On his right hand, he held a shield while on his hip there was a black large metallic sheath of about 80 centimeters sheathing a sword of emerald hilt.

“I recommend that we should act soon! Those guys aren't going to stay there for long.” Korah said calmly as he moving side to side blocking arrows swiftly while his heavy armor clanked.

“We must save that Popori! He’s badly injured!” The Princess tried to explain as she fixed her gaze behind, the soldiers already charging at them.

“Korah, can you handle those two? We will move to rescue that Popori!” Mech said decidedly as she turned.

“Alright!” Korah said as he rushed towards the two IO’s soldier and intercepted them while Mech and Caut ran towards where Bready was lying, slowly and painfully bleeding to death.

Both moved quickly towards Bready while Mech shielded every arrow that was going directly to them while Caut aimed her arrow calmly as she ran.

Caut stretched her bow string at maximum capacity as her arrow shone upon releasing it, accompanied with a heavy whistle. The soldier didn’t even have time to react as Caut’s arrow totally pierced his heart and then got stuck in the sand.

The soldier took a few seconds to fell death on the sand, with a painful surprise face decorating his face as he collapsed.

“You haven't lost your touch!” Mech shouted praising her as she rushed towards Bready.

“You have not changed either!” Caut shouted back.

Meanwhile, Korah was just blocking and evading both swords swings coming from the IO’s soldiers at his both sides. The soldiers’ attacks were slow and lacking teamwork, as well as possessing poor swordsmanship technique.

Yet they kept trying to attack Korah with their all, overconfident of their skills, but they were heavily exhausted after a few minutes of battle which was evident from their ragged breathing.

On the other part, Korah wasn't tired, not even the slightest, despite the scorching sun and the continuous attacks on him, which then stopped for a few seconds.

“Uhm? I think it is my time for show my technique then.” Korah murmured upon noticing the brief pause, as he fixed his emerald eyes on his enemies with a serious face, while took the hilt of his sword with his free hand.

Quickly, Korah unsheathed his sword, showing its shiny platinum blade with etched glowing emerald runes on the flat side, and rushed towards the enemy in front of him, performing a swift vertical swing, but the soldier blocked it in time and repelled Korah’s blade backwards.

Then this quickly balanced his sword forward trying to pierce Korah’s chest but Korah blocked it and slightly twisted his enemy’s attack trajectory to his right with his grape plated shield and then quickly sidestepped to his left positioning himself at his enemy’s back.

There was no hesitation. Korah pierced his enemy’s back as Mech and Caut could hear a short but loud cry of pain; then Korah pushed his corpse with her right foot as he removed his sword with a bloody damp metallic sound.

Meanwhile at his back, another enemy had both of his hands lifted holding a sword, trying to give a powerful vertical swung but Korah noticed it and turned as he also swung his sword, but horizontally.

Korah felt how his blade cut flesh and bones all along in that cut as also a little of blood spotted on his breastplate.

“AHHH!” The enemy screamed painfully as his hands limbed down, dropping his sword to the sand.

Korah stood unfazed as the enemy fell on his knees screaming in pain, the battle was already decided, Korah just needed to finish the job.

Korah lifted his sword…

On the other hand, Mech and Caut were kneeling on the sand, around the still semi-conscious Bready, but his sight was too blurred to see something, so he just could hear all that just happened.

“Cautie, apply pressure on the wound!” Bready heard a female clear voice as a Human’s painful scream gradually faded through the air.

“Eh? But…” The voice of the Princess hesitated.

“Just do it! He will be fine, don't worry!” The female voice responded sincerely, trying to calm her down. “I just need a little of time to cast my healing spell.” She added.

“A-alright.” The Princess said still hesitating as suddenly Bready felt a sharp pain around his tight wound.

“AHHH!” He shouted in pain, as his senses recovered briefly. And saw Caut’s lovely blue eyes as under him there was a glowing white arcane circle, with numerous runes on its structure. It was being casted by an Elin Priestess which he didn't know.

“You will be fine! Hang on, ok?!” The Princess shouted to Bready nervously as her hands were bloodstained pressuring his painful wound, but he couldn't answer.

“Hey! Hey! Are you alright?!” Bready heard the Princess’s desperate voice as his consciousness faded away with his wound.

“Mech! Mech! He! No…” The Princess shouted as the shiny white arcane circle faded away while Mech spoke.

“Calm down Cautie, he just fainted from overexertion; his wounds are completely healed already.” Mech explained trying to calm her down as she smiled.

“Oh...I see…” Princess Caut said sighing in relief as she looked at Bready resting unconscious on the sand under the scorching sun.

A metallic clunk is heard as Korah approached to them with his sword already sheathed.

“So who is the lucky one resting here?” Korah asked friendly as he stopped at Mech’s right side.

“Uhm hum! I don't know...but Cautie seemed really worried about him...huhuhu...ohh…” Mech fixed her suspicious gaze on Princess Caut with a smile.

“I see…” Korah immediately replied understanding what Mech implied while the Princess slightly blushed upon noticing what Mech meant.

“I don't even know him!” The Princess shouted back trying to defend herself of Mech’s words.

The General Scatter’s narration was about to come to an end. “…Then, the IO’s threat was finally eliminated, in this way, the fate of the realm was slowly being written by all of them, a fate which is still blurred and unknown…”

But suddenly he was interrupted by a Castanic officer which arrived running at his side, agitated.

“General! The...the enemy’s approaching!” The Officer shouted aloud as shrieks and heavy steps can be heard echoing throughout all Castanica which agitated everyone listening.

The General rose up slowly as everyone else did and he shouted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come! Everyone knows what to do! All of us will regroup here after we repel their attack, NOW MOVE!”

The General had lied to himself, no; he had lied to everyone present, including himself, since many might not survive this wave. But ... what could he do more than to moralize his troops?

All the soldiers alongside General Scatter ran to their defense positions and awaited the imminent enemy assault.

Credits to I4MD34TH and Chiisutofupuru.