Stab!

Steel meeting flesh. 

The enemy’s sword had pierced the young man’s forearm. From the open wound, a stream of warm blood poured out like a lava eruption on top of a volcano. One drop after another was added to the pool of blood below him.

His entire body spasmed to battle against the sharpness of the blade puncturing his arm–not to mention the burning sensation which engulfed the young man’s arm first before creeping to other limbs as well. 

It burned. Tortured. Tormented. 

If it weren’t for him gritting his teeth and biting his tongue, he’d already have fainted because of the shock his body had to endure. Staying conscious was all that mattered to him now. For a moment, the sword got stuck in his arm. And when he looked up, the expression on that soldier was that of dread. His lips and eyes trembled. 

“W-why are you doing this?!” The young man screamed. 

“Shut up!”

“We are–”

“I said shut up!”

With a grip still firm on the sword’s handle, he retracted his weapon and readied himself for another attack–this time a horizontal slash from right to left. One look was enough to see that he aimed to end the young man’s life with this strike.

“D-die with your kingdom!”

Emotions had taken over the soldier. Different from before, he didn’t have the momentum required to muster a slash powerful enough to split the young man in half. Not only weaker and slower, he was also much more predictable. He’d lost his element of surprise.

His sword had reached halfway the distance from where the young man stumbled. Simultaneously, the young man had planted his foot back on the ground. The excruciating pain, although screaming hauntingly throughout his entire body, didn’t seize his ability to move. At the approaching attack, the young man swung his wooden shield with full strength. He bit his lower lip until it bled, not sparing even the tiniest bit of muscle in his arm from holding back.

A second later, both the sword and shield met at one point with a loud clank, trying to overpower each other. His last cry for survival was able to parry the imminent death and create an opportunity. 

Shocked by what had just happened, the soldier tried to get back on his feet. But not only losing his footing and balance, the grip on his sword couldn’t withstand the recoil. It flew away, spinning around a few times erratically before its tip impaled a few centimeters into the earth.

Before the soldier could plan his next move, the young man bashed his shield right on the soldier’s chest. This time, it was the soldier who toppled backwards and fell on his back. He blinked once, and the next time he opened his eyes, a sword was thrust forward, splitting the wind in one swift motion. It only stopped after penetrating his neck, causing him to blink for the final time and not to open again forever.

The sound of minced flesh echoed in the young man’s ears as he pulled his sword out.

He was still breathing, but the burning pain enveloped his entire body. He took off the scarf covering his shoulder and used it as a temporary bandage. As much as it’d accumulated dust, sweat, iron shrapnel, and other elements, it was the best–or rather the only option at his disposal. He flinched in the process, which at least proved that his body hadn’t gone numb yet. 

In that split second, he glanced back at the soldier he had just killed. 

His gold armor shimmered no more. In its center, there was an insignia without its emblem. On a place where there should have been a soaring Dragon, emptiness took the spot, bleak and commanding hundreds of rebelling hearts. 

The young man gritted his teeth. 

“W-why….Why?!”

He had no more strength to keep the sword in his hand, yet he still held onto it.

Fatigue caught up to him, yet he still saw his reflection on the sword he carried. 

The young man knew he could do no more of this. 

Slashing his way through rebelling allies–his heart couldn’t bear that burden anymore. 

“W-what is that?!”

A sound clashed with the thoughts running in his head. When he looked up, he knew the reason. The young man broke into a cold sweat. There was still quite a distance between him and the nearest fight when he stopped in his tracks, not because of the pain or anything else, but because of what had emerged above him. His heart sank at the sight of that into what seemed to be a bottomless hole where light was absent. 

Reflected in the young man’s eyes was a large red circle hovering in the sky, flickering with blazing color much brighter than the sunset itself. It made a subtle rotation in place, and within its area were lines and hieroglyphs written side by side with a slight gap between each one. With just a single glance, the young man knew exactly what it was. 

Lumen–a powerful one at that. The invaders had decided to wipe their enemies.

“R-run!”

For the first time in this war, the young man dropped his weapon. His fingers had loosened. All the soldiers who did the same stared at that magic circle which had stolen their hope. Its shine mimicked that of a white flash those who were about to die would see. 

It made the young man believe his life would extinguish right at this moment. 

In the next second, a stream of fire exited the magic circle and enveloped the soldiers of the Aethel Kingdom in its rage.