The march had gone by without any real problem, and they were currently walking along a narrow mountain path. It was cold so high up, but he still refused to wear shoes. He wasn’t all that used to walking, and it was much easier to find good grips with his bare feet. It would never get so cold that it could actually hurt him. The mountains were smaller than he expected, but it was still the biggest things he had ever seen. Trudging through the snow had been annoying, and they were moving slowly so that the normal knights could keep up.

Cedric followed the path, turning a corner and seeing the city for the first time. This city had short walls, small enough that he could see the roofs of buildings poking over them. He could probably scale them in a few seconds. He spotted several buildings behind them too and noticed that they had some smoke coming from the top. They were occupied, and he wondered how many people lived in this location. He imagined that they couldn’t grow a lot of food up here and wondered how all the people survived. There were a lot of buildings and smoke trails, making it seem like the city was crowded. This fight wouldn’t be like the last.

The city had been given no time to prepare, and the Prince had created a snowstorm around them to hide their approach. The city’s army was unprepared, and they wouldn’t even have many chanters ready to defend the city. The generals predicted that most of the chanters would flee at the start of the battle. Cedric walked further towards the city, the army gathering behind him. Even before the full army turned the corner, he heard the calls for a charge. The horns resounded loudly despite the snowstorm.

Like last time, he knew better than to hesitate and charged at the walls. The walls were made of an oddly colored stone. Specks of red mixed with the otherwise grey stone. The people on top finally seemed to notice their charge, and he watched carefully. When he saw the first fireball get thrown, he charged straight towards it. The chanters were his targets, and he was waiting for one of them to reveal themselves. The snow was melted by the coming fireball, and Cedric swung his sword to deflect the fireball.

The wind whistled as he swung his blade, and the fireball exploded from the force he mustered. It didn’t deflect but erupted as his sword broke it. While the metal in his hand heated up, there was no damage to the weapon though. The snow melted, and he was left running over wet stone. This moment reaffirmed his confidence in moving without shoes. He would’ve certainly slipped if he was running in shoes. With his bare feet, he was easily able to ignore the little bit of water on the ground.

They had been able to get much closer to the wall this time, and the run didn’t last long. Soldiers started pouring out of the main gate. It was an archway with a metal grate that got raised into the wall. He ignored the soldiers, knowing that the fight would end when the chanters were defeated. None of the soldiers would be willing to carry the fight without the chanters around. Larkin’s troops and people were simply stronger and better organized.

A sound caused him to turn his head, and he saw a stone spear flashing towards him. He had been looking away and didn’t have the time to dodge. The stone spear hit him in the stomach, but he actually managed to stop the attack. It pierced his skin, but not his bones. Blood was pouring from the spear, and he wanked it out with one of his hands. He coughed a little, some blood coming up with the cough. The stone spear clattered against the ground, and he saw signs of panic on the wall. He started running again and got close enough to leap. He cleared over half the wall with his leap, and he used his free hand to dig into the stone.

Another jump took him right over the lip, and he landed in front of a few panicking soldiers. He didn’t see anything weird around them and knew that they weren’t the chanters from earlier. Looking down the wall, he saw them fleeing. One started forming a fireball and threw it into the army. Cedric ran after the two chanters, easily catching up to them. He didn’t want to drag on the battle any more than necessary and swung his blade in a wide arc. It easily cut into both chanters, killing them instantly, their bodies split just above their stomachs. Not wanting to look at the gruesome sight, he turned trying to look down the wall on the other side. He saw a few more chosen scaling the wall and running across. A few were heading towards him too, and he realized that they would need to run around the whole wall.

He started down the wall slightly ahead of the other chosen. He ran into another pack of chanters soon and counted seven of them. It was a lot, and he wondered what they were planning. He remembered the lighting and moved to block it from hitting the other chosen. He could survive, but he wasn’t as sure about the others. It was relieving to see a normal fireball flying towards him, and he easily stopped it with his sword. It did more damage to the wall than to anything else. A few normal soldiers got caught in the flames, but Cedric pushed through their wails. The sounds haunted him, and it would add to the screams from the previous battle. Another chosen was following close behind him.

Cedric leapt at the chanters, trying to act as a distraction for the other chosen. A strong wind crashed into him, sending him flying into the city. At the same moment, he heard a large crashing noise and guessed that Brigid had finally destroyed the wall. Her job had been to make an opening and the sound of falling rocks could be heard throughout the battle. The sound got drowned out when he collided with a building. It was made of wood, and it cracked as he flew through one of the walls. He managed to hold his sword, and the added weight made him destroy the house like a boulder.

Pieces of wood cracked as he rose to his feet. Instantly, he gathered his surroundings. There was a family inside, a mom shielding her two children and a father standing between Cedric and the rest of his family. Flashbacks surged in his memory, reminding him of the caravan from a few weeks ago.

“Please spare us!”

The man spoke, and Cedric froze realizing that he was a chanter. The air around him seemed to ripple slightly, but it was weak. That meant that he was probably a chanter. After it had happened with the princes, they expected it to work against them too. At first, he wondered what the implications of that would be. However, this close to a chanter he realized that there was a difference between the royal family and this man. Their power was different, though he didn’t know exactly how to describe the difference. It just felt different. Neither felt inherently good or bad, but they were not the same. That was enough for him, and his mind flowed back to the current situation.

“I will spare you, but please don’t flee.”

Cedric didn’t know exactly what to say, but the king had a way to remove the ability to chant. So long as this man was willing to do that then there was no reason to attack him. Despite his words, Cedric noticed as that power started swelling up around the mother. She was muttering something, and he tried to stop her preemptively.

“Please don’t do it. I can’t…”

He wasn’t good at this kind of thing, but the father turned to glance at his wife. He was wearing ragged brown clothing, and shards of wood fell from it as he turned. His eyes went wide, and he moved slightly stopping his wife. Cedric didn’t hear what was said, but he slumped to the ground relieved. It wasn’t professional, but he didn’t care. He was just glad that nothing drastic had happened. The small children would’ve been the most at risk.

“Why?”

He was surprised to hear the mother speak. She pushed blond hair back, revealing a youthful face a dark brown eyes. The look she gave him was one of pity and fear, and he didn’t know how to deal with a look like that. The question surprised him, but he didn’t know what to say. The only thing he could think about was the king’s orders.

“The king has a way to take away the ability of chanters. I can spare anyone who doesn’t fight.”

That didn’t sound quite right, and it was obvious that they didn’t believe him. He didn’t know what else he could say, and he still needed to get back to the battle. The others would be able to win without him, but he would get in trouble if he did nothing. The mother’s expression flashed to anger, and she began rising to her feet.

“Are we supposed to believe you? Larkin has hunted chanters like wild animals. Are you expecting us to ignore that? Do you actually believe that they can take away the gift? How can you be so stupid?”

Still slumped on the ground, he froze after hearing her words. He didn’t have an answer and didn’t actually know how much to believe. No, he would trust the king. The man was virtuous and would never lie about something like that. Plus, his orders had been to spare non-combatants, even if they were chanters. The way she spoke brought back some dark memories, and he just wanted to leave before it got worse.

“I don’t know. Sorry.”

He apologized, quickly pushing himself out of the house. It might get him in trouble, but he couldn’t stay in there. Ignoring the calls coming from within the building, he rushed towards the wall. He looked around trying to find the shortest path and decided he would just go to the opposite end of the entrance. If the chanters were fleeing, they would be over there. As he ran through the streets, he noticed a few eyes looking at him through windows. Several people were taking advantage of the chaos and looting. He saw several ordinary people breaking down doors and knew what was happening. For some reason, he remembered some of Sir L’s words, though it was a bit surprising.

Focus on your feet, nothing else.

It was strange for this situation, but he did exactly that. He ignored the eyes and the other people, simply charging towards the wall. Only once the battle had ended could the knights move in and restore order. They would be able to stop things like this and deal with the chanters in the city. He ran through the streets running straight towards the wall.

Buildings flashed by, but something finally caught his attention. A building was partially collapsed, and he heard the screams of children inside. A large stone spear had crashed into the building, and he knew that only a chanter could have done that. Going against Sir L’s orders felt wrong, but he couldn’t hear these screams and do nothing. They reminded him too much of the caravan and the child whose death he caused by accident.

He forced himself to turn and ran into the building. He easily tore away the wooden walls of the building and made his way to the source of the screaming. The sound of the wooden walls being wrenched open, caused the people inside to turn and face him. He saw two adults attempting to move a large section of wood. He noticed a kid partially trapped underneath and stepped towards them. The parents started screaming something but ignored them when he realized that they weren’t chanters. Although his focus had been on the child the whole time. He dropped his sword, the wood cracking as it struck the floor.

He ignored the parent's attempts to stop him, and barely even noticed their fearful glances. Cedric felt the wood crunch under his fingers as he grabbed the piece that was crushing the kid. With one arm, he managed to lift the piece. The parents finally understood what was happening and pulled their child from the debris. The boy was covered in wooden splinters, and he was bleeding from a few cuts. But he was alive. All three of the people were crying, and he barely heard what they were saying as he grabbed his sword and left the house. Helping those people stirred something in him, and he felt genuinely good. Despite all the chaos around him, it felt like he had finally done something right.

Turning to face the wall, he didn’t see any signs of battle anywhere. It looked like the fight was ending too. Hopefully, they could start restoring pieces to the city. Rather than going to fight or finding his superiors, he decided to look for more people in need of help. With his strength, he could do a lot to help those around him. He started running down another street, heading towards any noises he could hear. Something shifted in the air around him, and he tried to figure out what was happening. It felt weird, and he couldn’t tell what he was seeing. It was like what surrounded a chanter, but different too. Different than the power of the royal family too. A second later, everything went white.