Time seemed to slow down. The dust fell like snow through the field. A green gust of wind flew towards its target, and then a snap. Two bodies moved through the air. They flailed around almost like ragdolls. When the large brown eyes meet with Alex's, the time seemed to speed up once more.

"Hera!" the assassin cried.

Ruvna laughed, "Next time, use humans and not rocks. They fly funny," the kobold commander said to his troops.

"Fucking asshole!" Alex dashed towards the kobold. He was the reason she attacked. He was the reason Hera and Blue fell inside the catapult.

"Alex, wait!" Rose yelled, but the assassin was already getting close to the creature.

Moving her daggers quickly, Alex attacked Ruvna, but each strike was dodged by the commander. Getting even angrier with the apparent smirk of the kobold, Alex started casting her Wind Blade but held the spell within her weapons, giving a longer reach to her daggers. That helped to hit Ruvna, but only to make some superficial cuts.

"Get away from him!" Bonnie aimed a cold bomb behind the monster. Since there was a high chance that Alex wouldn't retreat, she had to toss the spell on a spot that wouldn't hit her. In theory, kobolds are cold-blooded creatures, meaning that sudden temperature drops could hinder their movement. The spell hit most of the other kobolds, but the commander wasn't affected.

"Alex, duck!" Rose yelled. The command went through the rage-filled assassin. As she moved away, a green projectile flew through the air, hitting Ruvna's face. A plume of green smoke covered his head, and the kobold started coughing.

Alex took advantage of that and slashed the monster's stomach, cutting it open and triggering the spell with the dagger still inside it. The wind blade blew through the creature, ripping its back open. Even with a hole in the middle of its body, Ruvna was still alive and trying to hit Alex, but two arrows were embedded in its eyes before it managed to hit her. Seeing the kobold fall to the ground, Alex turned to the side and dashed towards the direction Hera and Blue were launched towards.

Alan grabbed her arm, "What are you doing?"

"What do you think? I'm going after them," Alex replied while trying to pull her arm away.

"They are in the middle of the crossfire. If you go there, we are going to lose one more member."

"Are you saying we should abandon them already? Are you out of your damn mind?"

"Listen to me! Rushing in like that will just make things worse. We need a plan to rescue them," Alan replied.

Alex yanked her arm out of his grasp, "Fine, but make it quick."

"Girl, you better watch that attitude. We are not the ones who cut the rope holding the catapult in place," Rose scoffed.

"Don't you think I know!" Alex yelled.

"Then stop making this worse!" Chloe said.

Alex clenched her fist and stopped talking. The Wolves of the Night and the rest of the group finished the remaining Dragon Kin off. With no more immediate threats, Bonnie opened the map on her tablet and walked over to the catapult. At the same time, Peter and Tiffany were trying to find any signals of their missing companions.

"I can't see where they landed. I managed to follow their path until the dust cloud," Peter wasn't as calm as he seemed. His voice already showed some hints of panic.

"Me neither… Fuck, there is no sign of them," Tiffany said.

"We need to get to another catapult!" Bonnie yelled.

"What? Why?" Kenji asked.

"I've written down the direction they went, but I need more information to calculate where they landed. We either fix this thing or go to another so I can run some tests."

"We don't have time for tests! We need to go after them now!" Alex cried.

"I agree. Testing will take too long. We only have some time before the chasm shows up," Rose turned to Peter, "They vanished in the dust cloud, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then we need to push forward. They are probably close to where the ground will split, and moving around there is very dangerous. If we can reach the cluster of catapults, maybe we can distract the Dragon Kin for long enough for them to get to a safe location," Rose turned to the rest of the group who was watching her, "Let's go people, we don't have time to stand around. Kill what's in our path and ignore the siege weapons. We are going to have the Wolves break them."

Siloh nodded in response, and the group headed towards the next catapult. They managed to clear another 2 groups before the ground shook once more.

"Shit. Rose, we need to move faster," Alan said when the rumbling stopped.

"I know. We only have five minutes," Rose grabbed a few pellets from a pouch and turned to the group, "Does anyone have any fire spells?"

"I do. Why?" Bonnie replied.

"Burn these pellets. I could do it myself, but I'm going to spend most of my mana to do what I want."

Bonnie picked the ammo and used a small fire fist to burn them, turning the brown balls black.

"Thanks," Rose picked the ammo back and took aim with her slingshot, "Shit, we're too far away. We need to get closer."

They pressed forward, killing a few more kobolds while Rose kept trying to aim her slingshot at the cluster of siege weapons. However, the ground shook once more before getting in range for her attack.

"No, no, no, no, no," Alex started shaking her head.

The earthquake was so strong that some of the catapults ended up collapsing, triggering the notification.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By destroying several siege weapons, the kobold Alchemist was called to repair the weapons for the next day of battle.

Dragon Kin morale –200

Wildfire will not appear during the battle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The quake lasted for what felt like forever. The entire group fell to the ground. They stared at each other in awe at the magnitude of the earthquake. Only Rose and Alan seemed to be less fazed by it, but they still had worried expressions on their faces. When it was over, the group continued their advance. After a few minutes, they could already see the massive hole created in the middle of the field. Alex felt a cold sweat wash over her body and see the slight smell of sulfur only made it worse.

"Please be ok, please don't die because of me," Alex mumbled while running.

They kept fighting for half an hour. Now the lava had already covered the entire chasm. There was another large horn signaling the end of the battle, and every member of both armies stopped fighting and headed back to the camps. The group kept searching for some time after the battle, but it didn't matter how much they called for Hera and Blue. There was no response.

"Alex, we should go back. We can leave the dungeon and check if they are still getting signals from the bracelet in the guild," Rose suggested.

"And then what? If they are getting signals, we can't come back here to help them," Alex waited to hear another idea, but no one had any suggestions. She turned back to her search, "Hera! Blue! Where are you?"

"Shouldn't we finish the dungeon?" as Tiffany spoke, she immediately got an angry stare from Bonnie, "I don't mean to give up. I never want to do what we did in the test again, but tomorrow there will still be a fight. If they are missing or are prisoners inside the Dragon Kin army, finishing the dungeon is the best option."

Rose nodded, "I get what you mean. After the dungeon is over, the kobolds will just vanish, and we can search without having to worry about fighting."

"That's a good idea. We need to rest for tonight. Everyone is exhausted from the fight," Peter added.

"You can go back. I'll keep searching," Alex didn't even look at the rest of the group.

Seeing the stares of the group, Bonnie turned to the leaders, "You guys go back. I'll stay with Alex. If worse comes to worst, can you guys do the last day by yourselves?"

Rose and Alan nodded. The last day was the easiest because of the morale debuff. Considering everything they had done, it was possible that the humans wouldn't even need to participate. Alex and Bonnie kept searching until late at night. At one point, Bonnie went back to the camp and asked Siloh for help, but even with the Omegas, their friends were nowhere to be seen.

Alex searched during the entire night, not stopping to sleep, eat or even use the bathroom. Bonnie tried her best to stop her friend, even going as far as sharing the theory that Blue and Hera fell into the abyss when it opened, but the assassin refused to listen to reason. In the morning, the kobolds found Alex passed out by the cooled lava and brought her back to the camp.

Before the fight, Rose asked Bonnie to stay behind with Alex. If the assassin decided to go back in her search during the battle, there would be another team casualty.

"So you are already counting them as dead?" Bonnie asked.

Rose sighed, "Bonnie, you are a very smart and logical person. Can you tell me the odds that they fell into the chasm?"

Bonnie looked away. According to the trajectory of the catapult, they could have ended up in the middle of the chasm. They could also have dropped before or even after it, but the odds were slim. Rose left their tent and headed to the battle. Alex woke up a few hours later, and only after a lengthy discussion she agreed to not go searching for Hera and Blue during the fight.

At the end of the day, they received the notification about the completion of the dungeon quest. Alex didn't even bother with it. She just bolted off the tent and started yelling for her friends once more. The rest of the group helped, but after five hours of search, they had already cleared out a large part of the battlefield and the Dragon Kin camp in case they had become prisoners.

Rose and the other agreed they had to go back to the guild and report about the two possible casualties, but Alex decided to stay behind. She wasn't about to leave the dungeon before searching every single centimeter of the dungeon. Bonnie stayed with her, worried about how Alex would act if she was alone. Bonnie gather enough food and water for them to last another day.

At around 10 pm, all the creatures inside the dungeon vanished. Leaving only Bonnie and Alex inside. In a place like this, nothing would force them out. The two spent another day inside the dungeon, searching for both Hera and Blue without even sleeping. Alex didn't stop for a moment. Bonnie was the one who had to force her to eat and drink water.

"Alex, we have to go. They are not here," Bonnie said after the sun had set once more.

"I have to find them. They have to be alive," Alex kept walking. They were already walking through the same area for the third time.

"Alex, they are gone. Please, we need to tell people, her family, Leo, Mark, Lena."

"No, they are not! I didn't kill them!"

"No one is blaming you. It was an accident."

Alex stared at the ground, "I can't lose them."

"I lost them too!" Bonnie snapped, "Why are you acting like you are the only one who cares?"

"Bonnie…" Alex looked at her friend for the first time in the day.

"I don't wanna hear it. I've been holding everything since you started freaking out. Can you stop so I can fucking cry?" Bonnie couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

"I'm… I'm sorry," Alex felt her own tears coming through. The two hugged each other as they wept in the empty field.

After half an hour, they headed out of the dungeon. Their first stop was the guild. They asked about Hera and Blue's bracelet, and the information was already available. They stopped receiving a signal two days earlier. Blue had a steady heartbeat the entire time, but Hera's oscillated. Bonnie knew what that could mean. Hera was awake before her last moments. She knew what was about to happen.

They headed back to Brinefront, still crying for their lost friends. When they arrived back home, the two sat down on the floor, dropping Hera's and Blue's bags to the side.

"Hey, girls. How was the battlefield?... What's wrong? Where are Hera and Blue?" Helena asked.