Bandit shrugged off the pain of his severed hand.
It was bad, but he couldn't dwell on it.
He bit back the string of his only crossbow, and fire at the giant kobold chief standing in front of him.
The arrow didn't even pierce his skin and deflected off of it like it was metal.
'Damnit all...'
Landing beside him, was a giant griffin, and on it was Zelenna.
She looked terrible, her arm was covered in slashes and her griffin was badly injured as well.
"Think we can take em?"
She asked hesitantly.
Beside them, The faceless man stepped forward and put a hand on Luke's shoulder.
"Go back, stay in the backlines and play it at a range, you are in no shape to continue this. Your efforts were honorable."
Luke frowned, and shook his head.
"No..."
Zelenna cursed.
"He can't Jonathon... Look at them, and then take a look at the army we have... They will destroy them all if we can't hold them off a little longer. We need Luke, and may even need Onyx to come and assist..."
"Jonathon is your name?"
Luke raised an eyebrow as his breaths were ragged, looking at the faceless man with a strange expression.
He nodded and lifted his hand from Luke's shoulder.
"We- We need more firepower..."
Jonathon said behind his mask.
Zelenna scowled at the beast that was just standing there next to its equal companions.
"May the gods of death let us die with glory..."
She whispered, clutching her necklace in her hands.
Luke shook his head.
"No... You can sense it can't you... That hope... Gods I hate hope... It's poison... But even so, it eats at my heart just as it eats at my mind. Watch the skies friends, I was given a message to send from the lesser goddess of the moon, and she said I have to send it... So we must hold strong."
Jonathon nodded.
Zelenna gritted her teeth.
"We hold the line then. But how long?"
She asked Luke.
He looked up, breathing hard, and keeping his gaze on the tree line.
"Three minutes... Just trust me..."
Jonathon gripped his rapier, his once lushes ivory suit of silk armor now stained red from blood.
"I trust you... But you better be right about this..."
"I hope I am..."
He whispered, tying his bandana around his gashed open wrist, where his hand once had been.
Then he used his teeth to knock another arrow on his crossbow, and stepped forward side by side with Zelenna and the faceless man.
They moved swiftly, as the ground shook from each step of the giant kobolds.
A gust of wind blew every corpse aside as the griffin shot into the air with Zelenna on its back.
The faceless man was gone before Luke knew it as well, as a blur of white shot up the ogre like body of the farthest kobold chief on the left.
Luke steadied himself, and aimed at the eye of the middle kobold, and let the arrow fly.
It struck causing a terrible scream that made Luke cover his ears with his shoulders, as he fell to the ground.
"Luna... guide me..."
It was almost evening which meant that Luna's blessing would see take its place, even though he was not her champion, and would never be a champion, he knew that she would protect him when death threatened, but it had to be night time.
Which meant that they needed to stall for a lot longer than three minutes, and there was no telling if the reinforcements would really come.
Luke also didn't want the burden to fall on the students either, he knew that they were all strong. Including Equan and especially Michael and Leo, they all had promise.
He knew that they would be able to at least kill one of the chiefs but it would take everything, and they didn't have everything.
Luke's main objective had changed since he truly got to know Equan.
The kids were special, they were amazing, and had bright futures where they would continue to grow and show even more promise.
He originally wanted to gain a quick pot of gold from this raid where he could pay off his debts, but now... No matter what... He had to see the kids make it out of this alive.
He needed to make sure that they could go on.
He was going to make sure of it.
Summoning his Primis, crimson energy began to flow through the air, and then slowly made its way toward the angered chief.
'Crimson... Rope...'
The energy shot forward, wrapping itself around the giant's neck and pulling it downward with all of Luke's might.
The ground shook and shattered.
The air went cold, and the beast began to loose its footing.
Luke was panting, but he couldn't stop now.
He kept pulling, and tried his best to bring the monster down, but it was too much.
His energy gave out and he feared that he would need to use what was left of his reserves and use his trinity art.
However, as the third chief knocked Zelenna out of the air with its arm, and Jonathon was being squeezed in the grip of the first kobold, the air grew... hot?
"No way..."
Everything in the vicinity was burning and sizzling as an unfamiliar roar echoed throughout the entire forest.
Light just as bright as the sun began to radiate from the side of the sky that the sun was not.
"He's here..."
Luke was grinning like a mad man as Luna's intuition came true just in the nick of time...