“Man, I can't wait for my shift to be over.” A guard said, leaning against the battlements of the wall, his back towards the surrounding forest. “I just hope all this dragon business finishes soon, my wedding is coming up.”

“Yea, we know, you won't stop talking about it.” Another guard said, “and we won't have to worry about the dragon if the adventurers are able to kill it.” The two guards talked for a bit before another guard came up onto the battlements.

“HEY! You are supposed to be keeping watch, not relaxing.” Another guard said angrily, coming out of one of the gate towers. “Who is up on the tower right now?”

“Sorry captain, but I thought it would be good practice for the rookie to be up there for a bit so I switched places with him.”

“It's fine, as long as we have at least two people on each tower.” The captain responded, turning to look out towards the field, before turning to the tower on his left. “Hey rookie, do you see anything?”

“Oh captain,” a voice came from on top of the tower, “we haven't seen anything yet but we are still looking.”

“Alright, after the next rotation you won't be going back up there, understood?” The captain said, waiting for a response. “I said, is that understo....”

“I think I just saw something!” The voice exclaimed, while to the untrained, they wouldn't know the difference, to the captain, he could feel the fear in the rookie's voice. There were only two reasons why the skywatchers would be the first to spot something. Either the adventurers are returning heavily injured, or the dragon is coming.

“What is it! What do you see?” The captain yelled, preparing to cast a spell.

“There it is again. It's an initial flare spell, they are firing it at an emergency frequency.” The soldier responded, his voice still trembling ever so slightly. 

“I'm sending up an alert-response flare.” The captain said, casting the spell he had been preparing. “Everyone prepare for battle!”

* * * * * *

Hikari let out a long sigh as she and Fredryn made their way through town. They had both grown up in the same orphanage as Arthur and were as close as siblings. “You okay Hikari? Worried about Arthur?” Fredryn asked, looking at her with worry.

“Yea, what... what if he doesn't survive?” Hikari said, looking down at her feet. “We have already had to face some trouble just because we love each other. If it wasn't for the fact that our hometown is so accepting of other races, I don't think we would have been able to get married, let alone date.”

“True, but we all lived there for almost our entire lives so far, all except for me. I left because I wanted to serve the kingdom. Hell, I didn't expect to be appointed to the castle guard so quickly. It's only been three years since I joined the army and one year since I became a castle guard... listen Hikari,” Fredryn said, stopping in his tracks. “The grandmaster is right, the likelihood of Arthur surviving is extremely low. Just be prepared for him not to have survived okay?”

“I know Fred, but I still want to hope, Arthur has always been there for me, even on my darkest days. Hell, if he hadn't disobeyed Mother Elasha, then I would probably have died with my parents.”

“Wait, what do you mean? I thought the mayor had heard screams while he was out on patrol.”

“No, Arthur was being his usual disobedient five-year-old self...”

“Hold that thought Hikari, an alert flare just went up. Go find his majesty and the grandmaster, they will probably be chatting at this time. Inform them of the situation, and let his highness know that I am headed to the wall to assist however I can.” Fred said before running in the direction the flare spell appeared from.

“I swear,” Hikari sighed “even if you and Arthur are not related by blood, you both always rush into danger if it means protecting people.” Hikari ran towards the town hall, knowing that his majesty and the grandmaster would both be there. “Fred,” Hikari began to think, as she ran, “I know you care about me, but you don't know Arthur like I do. I know for a fact that he will live because he promised he would before he left.” As Hikari rushed into the town hall she was stopped by the royal guards. They were about to demand to know why she was in such a hurry, but before they could ask she informed them about what Fredryn said. They immediately opened the door to the office, which the King has been using to get work done, and informed him and the grandmaster of the situation. As soon as they left Hikari burst into tears, as she fully realized what Arthur's fate would be.

* * * * * *

“Come on, just a little bit more.” Aerith thought as she was cast the flare spell, hoping for a response. She was running low on mana and was out of mana potions. Healing spells and potions no longer worked on Arthur because of the dragon poisoning, and they were running out of time. As she saw the response flare a smile spread across her face, finally good luck. She sent a medical emergency flare into the sky in response, as soon as it passed through the trees above her, she sent another, and another, she kept sending the flare hoping the city would understand how dire the situation is. As she rounded a corner an arrow came out through the trees piercing the horse's skull causing it to tumble and send Aerith and Arthur flying. While Aerith was able to catch herself, she was not able to catch the unconscious Arthur as he went flying. As soon as Arthur landed, Aerith rushed over to him, and immediately cast a shield spell just as four more arrows came flying through the trees.

“Bandits?” She said aloud to herself, as she stood up. She only had a little bit of mana left and if she were to cast another spell the shield spell would fail. She would have to think fast though because bandits had begun making their way through the trees towards her and Arthur. “Fuck it,” she muttered as she drew the shortsword she always kept with her, “O̷̳̕g̸̦̟̔̀̚r̵̟̻̒͝u̵͎̘̤͊̈́q̵͓̦̄͒c̴̦͊̅t̷̢̳̅̍ã̷̘͉̭ ̵̹̂F̴̮̱̓e̴͍͇̙͌o̶̱͍̝̊͐͝ǐ̵̘̪̘̑c̵̖̼̞̆̅̋s̵͙̣̲̅ǎ̷͈s̶̨̱̦̈́v̷̼̼̫͒u̴̲̺̦͐͠r̴͎͍̓̃͐” As soon as she uttered those words the shield spell shattered and created a shockwave, knocking back several of the bandits, and causing a loud boom that could be heard from miles away. A portion of the shield had also been sent upwards, becoming an emergency help request flare.

As the bandits made their way closer to her and Arthur, she readied herself to fight, but a blow came from behind before she could even react. As she turned to see what had just struck her another blow came and knocked her to the ground. “Was this it,” she thought, “Is this how I dare, swarmed by bandits?” A blinding flash of light engulfed all of them, as the screams of pain could be heard from the bandits.