Through the lands of the kingdom of Lisbea, in a road surrounded by an almost completely clear field of grass surrounded by few trees, an army of almost 2000 soldiers march in near complete unison heading north, leaded by their prince, Julius Frozenshot, alongside him walked the two generals of the army, Drake Stormvale and Erbow Goldbend, as well as Sylvana Swiftblade, an elf guardian.
Most of the army marches with a focused gaze, fixed towards their destiny, the so-called 'Demon Tower', still kilometers afar from them. In the back most of the marching army followed caravans carrying several stuff to make a camp when needed, such as fruit, vegetables, tents, backup weapons and more stuff of the sort.
The caravans had been put under the vigilance of the mercenaries and adventurers that had agreed to participate in this crusade against the demons, despite the several people who backed off from participating, there were still around 200 mercenaries and adventurers marching alongside the lisbean army.
This first day of marching had been difficult, the unforgiving sun had been particularly scorching today, mostly at noon when the sun reached its highest position, causing some soldiers and mercenaries to pass out because of the heat, considerably slowing down the pace of the march, but they persisted nevertheless.
As of now, the sun had already begun to set, and the fresh air of summer nights could already be felt in the air, bringing a feeling of relief to the entire army as the cool air hit them on the face. Only one person seemed to remain unfazed by both the scorching sun and cool breeze of the night, the prince himself, his family didn't possess the last name 'Frozenshot' for anything, the man hadn't sweat a drop the entire day.
Of course, the trained soldiers made their best efforts to maintain their pace and not complain about the intense heat they had faced during the entire way, but the same could not be said about those on the back of the march. The grunts of discomfort were highly prominent between the mercenaries and adventurers, arguably the most relieved by the arrival of the night breezes.
"Stupid heat, this is why I prefer spring over summer" Said a very sweaty Stella, who had been allowed to sit on the back of a caravan.
"For once I shall agree with you on something, the sun during summer is one mean bitch" A noticeably annoyed Mistia spoke as she walked next to the caravan where Stella sat.
"I don't remember having ever lived a summer this hot before…" Lyle said while he cleaned the sweat from his forehead with his forearm as he walked right next to Mistia.
"Come on, cheer up a bit, consider this like a… test, we are about to face enemies that come from a place as hot as this day, it's kinda ironic to be honest" Ascalon said with a smile.
"You shut the fuck up! You're just speaking because you're the only one who's not about to have a heatstroke, why are you so chill?!" Mistia exclaimed with surprising rage in her tone.
"Who knows, genetics?" Ascalon answered with little care on his words, making Mistia grunt out of annoyance.
"Wow, Mistia really gets in a bad mood with the heat" Lyle thought as he looked at his annoyed friend.
"Oh for the gods, if she's like this with the heat I don't wanna imagine what she'd do to me if I annoyed her with this mood" Stella though as many images of her brutal death in hands of Mistia came across her mind, getting her to sweat even more than she already was.
Not too far from where the squad was, The Elementals walked with fairly less issues, Dante was taking the heat pretty well despite being all sweaty, Raphael had passed out because of the heat, but Terrac ever the good teammate had been carrying his unconscious body over his shoulder ever since he passed out a while ago, and then there was Elene, who as a fire magic user naturally was barely affected by the heat, she was sweating but not as bad as the others.
As the moon began to rise on the sky and the sun disappeared on the horizon, the prince gave the order to stop and set up the camp for the night, the soldiers obeyed without hesitation while those on the back celebrated in relief of finally having time to rest. Between everyone the camp was set in an open field next to the road with a few trees around and some of the people in charge of the caravans had brought stuff to make a soup that was served to the hungry warriors, the night was chilling so a good hot soup was not unwelcome.
A lot of tents were set up for the soldiers to rest, the mercenaries and adventurers however would have to sleep out in the open. The squad made up a fire, or rather, Ascalon did, he and many others chopped down some trees for bonfires.
The squad sat surrounding the fire, Stella was quick to drift off to sleep, she was by far the least athletic of the group and she was the most tired of them all after walking under a scorching sun the entire day, although she was not the only one, most of the people present fell asleep pretty early, the soldiers specially knew very well that their prince would probably wake them up as soon as the sun rises so they knew they should go to sleep early so they can have a good nap.
Not too much time later, Ascalon, Lyle and Mistia turned off the bonfire and went to sleep right there on the grass under the night sky filled with stars.
In the middle of the night Mistia woke up suddenly. Sleeping on the grass wasn't really comfortable for her, plus she could hear some people having fun on the tents which she found utterly disgusting. She looked at her companions, Ascalon seemed way too comfortable sleeping on the grass and Stella looked really tired, and she must be if she wasn't part of the people having fun at these hours, however, upon looking at where Lyle should've been sleeping she noticed that he wasn't there.
Mistia worried for a second before she focused on searching for Lyle's presence, she was quick to find her teammate's power right behind from where she was, he was actually quite far away from the camp, which caught her attention, so she went on to investigate where he had gone.
It was a fairly long walk before finding Lyle, she had to go across a little forest to get to him, there she found him, sitting on a clear spot as he looked at the sky. Mistia walked towards him and sat right next to him.
"Good night Mistia, I hope I didn't wake you up" Lyle said as he kept his gaze on the stars.
"No, no, I… I woke up for another reason" Mistia clarified as she cleared her throat.
"The people having sex?" Lyle asked in an unusually casual tone.
"Y-Yes…" Mistia responded with clear disgust in her voice.
"Me too, well, I was already awake but the sounds made me come here" Lyle stated.
They both remained sitting on the clear spot for a good while, saying absolutely nothing as they looked at the stars in the sky.
"Do you like stars?" Mistia questioned, finally breaking the silence.
"They are pretty, but that's not what I'm looking at" Lyle said very seriously.
"What are you looking at then?" Mistia asked as she turned to look at her teammate whose gaze remained on the sky.
"I'm trying to look at heaven" Lyle responded.
"At… heaven?" Mistia asked in bewilderment.
"Yes, I know I won't get it but… I want to believe that, at least for a second, I will be able to see their faces again" Lyle said.
"Oh… you… you really miss them, don't you?" Mistia asked with a comprehensive tone.
"I do, even if I usually try to not think of them, This… This time I just couldn't avoid thinking of them, considering who are we facing" Lyle stated, a little crack in his voice could be heard.
"I see…" Mistia said, looking at the ground.
"I bet you understand that feeling, am I wrong?" Lyle asked, his gaze fixed on the sky.
"Huh?!" Mistia exclaimed in astonishment as she looked at Lyle.
"You can't fool me, I noticed, when Esteller was mentioned, when you remembered who he was, a memory came to you, his empire took someone you knew as well, am I wrong?" Lyle declared without stopping to look at the sky. Mistia was surprised
"Heh… I suppose there is no point in hiding it, right? You're right on that but unlike you, I don't miss him at all. Heck, if I wanted to try to look at him once more I'd have to look down" She confessed with a chuckle. "But I'm probably meeting him again once I die anyway…" Mistia said in a very soft whisper that Lyle didn't notice.
"Well, I suppose we all are different about the kind of people we grow up with… I kinda envy you for that to be honest… it must be great, not having… to try and hide…" Lyle said as his voice slowly cracked more and more with each word.
Lyle attempted his best to hold back his tears but he could not do it, not anymore. His gaze finally drifted away from the sky onto the ground as tears began streaming down his face.
"... to try and hide the pain of loss that fills your heart because you just can't allow yourself to not care about them, even though they are not here anymore…" Lyle said as he cried, his voice completely shattered.
The swordsman continued crying for a few seconds, seconds on which the only thing that could be heard was his crying, but it suddenly stopped at the surprising feeling of Mistia's arms surrounding him, she was hugging him.
"Mistia?" Lyle asked in disbelief of what was going on.
"It's… it's ok… I'm… here…" Mistia said as she patted Lyle's head and guided it towards her bosom.
Mistia was feeling a bit uncomfortable, she could not understand how it felt, to lose someone you loved, most of the love she had experienced on her life did not involve her, so the only things she knew about were from watching others, and for what she knew, this was something common to do when a friend is crying. The feeling of uncomfortability slowly faded away as Lyle rested on Mistia's chest while she patted his head, it felt oddly nice.
They remained like that for many minutes, Lyle's tears slowly dried on his face as he rested on Mistia's hug who continued to pat his head with tenderness and care. They didn't say anything in those minutes, but eventually, Lyle was the one to break the silence.
"Thanks, Mistia, I… I hadn't really been able to open up with anyone since it happened" Lyle said in a more calmed tone.
"I can get why you wouldn't talk out with Ascalon, but what about Stella? She may be a whore but she is not bad at listening to others' problems" Mistia asked as she continued to pat Lyle.
"Yes but… I don't know, she's my friend and all but… not as much of a friend as you are, if that makes any sense" Lyle said, letting out a chuckle at the end.
Mistia smiled, she didn't know why but she did.
"As comfortable as I am right now I believe you must be desiring to take your hands off me" Lyle said in a chuckle.
Mistia seemed a bit troubled about letting him go but she did as a light blush appeared on her face, a blush that Lyle couldn't notice because of the darkness of the night.
"Once again, thanks for that Mistia, it must've been really difficult for you" Lyle said as he tried to clean up the dried tears off his face with his forearms.
"You're… welcome" Mistia said as she looked at the ground, feeling a heat on her cheeks.
"I think we should be going, if we take too long the others might worry for us" Lyle said as he stood up.
"I don't think we should worry about that, they aren't waking up anytime soon" Mistia said as she stood up, her cheeks still flushed.
"Mistia… can I ask you something?" Lyle asked, looking at her teammate.
"Ah? Eh… of course, you can" Mistia responded with nerves in her voice.
"Why… do you hate Stella so much?" Lyle questioned "I can understand that you don't like her… attitude, but I feel that your hatred for her is a bit… exaggerated"
Mistia was taken aback by the question, she looked away from Lyle while clenching her fists and teeth. Lyle looked at her with a bit of worry for a moment until she finally decided to speak up.
"It's just… She… She really annoys me, like, her whoreness really, really pisses me off" She declared with genuine disgust. "I could tolerate it when I was just her bartender but now that I spend so much more time with her it's… ugh!"
Lyle looks at her with concern in his eyes as he tries to think of something to say, he looks Mistia in the eyes, he can't understand how can such a thing induce so much hatred from Mistia towards the healer. He can understand how uncomfortable it can be but Mistia's reaction just seems so exaggerated for him.
"Mistia… why does that annoy you so much?" Lyle asks Mistia in the eyes, looking for the truth.
Mistia grunts as she drifts her eyes away from the blonde, she doesn't seem eager to collaborate with him. Lyle gulps saliva as he slowly raises his left hand and guides it towards his friend's cheek, who freezes in place as she stares at the hand slowly approaching towards her.
The swordsman bites his lip out of nervousness as he puts his hand on Mistia's right cheek, she doesn't freak out, she doesn't pull him away, she just lets him continue. With a soft movement, Lyle slowly turns Mistia's head, they both face again, looking each other in the eyes. Mistia seems lost in Lyle's gaze for a moment, before he speaks with a soft and understanding voice.
"Both of you are my friends, and my teammates, I want nothing but the best for both of you and if I can I want to help you with your problems, because I care about you, and to help you I need to understand the problem, so please, allow me to have a better understanding of your problem"
Lyle's hand remained on Mistia's cheek for the entirety of his speech, he hadn't bothered to also retain her other cheek, he had noticed that whenever she drifted her gaze away, she always did it in the same direction, it seemed like a natural instinct of hers.
Mistia closes her eyes as she processes her friend's words she slowly moves her right hand upwards to Lyle's hand on her cheek and caresses it softly for no other reason than liking the feel of the contact from Lyle. She relaxes, a moment ago she had gotten angry just by thinking of Stella, but right now, even though she was still on her mind, she wasn't angry.
"It's just…" She begins speaking as her eyes open, her voice tone is serene "I find it very infuriating, how she can just… give up her body like it has no worth, like if what she does is insignificant when in reality…"
Her speech is cut short by nothing, no sound, no movement, no person, no animal, nothing interrupts her, she just stops talking, she just blocks, unable to continue talking as she begins sweating and to hyperventilate.
This time, Lyle is the one to pull Mistia into his chest for a hug as he pats her head while whispering comforting words to her ear. The woman feels herself getting relaxed once again, her breathing slowly goes back to normal as she melts into the hug. Upon noticing the improvement on the state of his friend, Lyle lets her go.
"Feeling better?" He asks with a warm smile.
"Yes, thank you" She responds with a serene smile.
"You're welcome"
"Do you… want to hear more?" Mistia asks, however it is noticeable in her voice that she doesn't want to enter on details with her explanation.
"It won't be necessary, I know all what I need.We should head back to the camp, don't you think?" Lyle says, yawning.
Mistia just smiles and nods in approbation. Lyle smiles at her before beginning to walk back towards the camp. He leads the way with Mistia following very close behind, she remains very close to him, practically rubbing herself against him like a puppy needed of affection, this makes Lyle a bit uncomfortable, having this amount of closeness felt like too much for him, especially with a woman, but just for this time, he's going to let her be.
The pair make their way back into the camp, they reach the extinct bonfire where their teammates were, both Ascalon and Stella remained asleep on the grass and the camp was completely silent by these hours.
Only the sounds of nature could be heard, the soft whistle of the wind and the howls of wolves in the nearby mountains, both Mistia and Lyle yawned at the serene atmosphere of the camp, the former quickly laid down on the grass next to the bonfire, looking at the stars. Lyle looked at her for a brief moment before attempting to lay a bit afar from her, but as he did so Mistia's voice interrupted him.
"Lyle… could you… lay with me?"
The swordsman froze for a moment, he wasn't really sure of what to do, if to comply or not, all of this sudden closeness with Mistia was making him feel really awkward, it wasn't that he disliked it, he just was having a hard time processing the speed at which things were going on. But after some seconds of thinking, Lyle decided to comply with his friend's petition, he walked closer to her and laid down in the grass right next to her.
And there they were, laying next to each other, looking at the stars. Mistia's hand brushed against Lyle's, she slowly got closer to him, resting her head on his shoulders as she closed her eyes to enjoy the moment.
Lyle gulped as he felt Mistia's breathing against his neck, he was blushing and drops of sweat began to travel his face. He was uncomfortable but at the same time comfortable, it was a very weird sensation.
"M-Mistia" Lyle said, his voice trembling.
"Yes?" She responded, Lyle could hear a calm on her that he had never heard before.
"I… I… look… don't misunderstand this but, you're… making me feel a bit… uncomfortable" He said with a gentle tone.
"Oh-" Mistia said as she moved away from Lyle "I'm sorry, I just thought…"
"Don't apologize, it's on me, I'm not really used to this level of closeness"
"I understand that, again, I'm sorry, I had forgotten how good it could feel, to be so close to someone. I got carried away"
"It's okay, really, you can get closer to me if you want just… don't breath on my neck please"
Mistia let out a little creepy smile as she moved closer to Lyle, their hands brushing once again as they both looked at the sky. Mistia was the first one to close her eyes and fall asleep. Lyle remained awake for longer, looking at the sky made him think of his family so he decided to drift his gaze away from the sky, more specifically towards the sleeping woman next to him. He stared at her face, it made him a bit nervous having her so close, she was a pretty woman after all, but those thoughts got interrupted by a realization, as Lyle looked at her he could notice how her head had moved to the side and in consequence so did her fringe that usually covered most of her face.
Lyle paid attention to what was behind that fringe, he could still only see one of her eyes but a good chunk of her forehead had become visible, he had noticed long ago the strange mark she had under her left eye, a little dark mark that looked somewhat like a root, he could see more of those marks above her eye, extending over her usually hidden forehead, he wanted to take a better look, to move the rest of her hair to be able to see her face on full display, to know what lays under the fringe on its entirety, he moved his hand towards her face but stopped himself at the last second, even if this was just looking at her face, it didn't felt right, she always made sure to cover most of her face, she wanted to hide it and taking advantage of her current state to go against her desire was something that Lyle couldn't bring himself to do.
And so, he slowly retreats his hand, his gaze never leaving Mistia's sleeping face as his eyes shut close and he falls asleep under the light of the stars.
Hours went by, the sun had already begun to rise on the sky when Lyle felt something poking against his cheek, it was something pointy and thin, he turned around his head to see what was poking him and jumped in surprise when he saw a cooked rabbit right in front of his face.
Lyle rubbed his eyes, as his sight cleared he noticed Ascalon sitting next to him with two cooked rabbits impaled in sticks, he was eating one while the other was the one he used to poke Lyle's cheek, he was offering it.
"What the- Why?" Lyle asked, drowsy.
"Didn't want to make much noise"
The swordsman shaked his head as he took the rabbit Ascalon was offering to him. After taking a bite he looked around, most of the other people were still fast asleep, which was no surprise considering that the sun was just barely rising.
"Woke up early, huh?" Lyle asked.
"Yes, had a very good night of sleep" Ascalon responded as he chewed.
"Please don't talk and chew at the same time" Lyle requested with slight disgust in his face.
Ascalon swallowed before giving a response "Sorry"
Lyle leaned in to take a bite of the rabbit, it had a very decent taste, the cooking was in point. He looked at the bonfire, he hadn't noticed it was turned on, although of course that is where Ascaloon must've cooked the rabbits, but something caught his attention.
"You only hunted two rabbits?" He asked, looking at his partner.
"That's all I could find, I doubt this is a zone of rabbits, these two must've got lost" Ascalon said as he took another bite of the rabbit.
Lyle looked at the rabbit Ascalon was eating, noticing he had almost finished it, sometimes his appetite really surprised him. The blonde continued eating of his rabbit, but felt a little bad not giving some to Stella and Mistia.
"You look a bit worried, if it's about the food remember that they brought stuff for stew in the caravans, they can probably get some of it" Ascalon declared as he finished swallowing the last bit of meat of his rabbit.
"Even though. It feels a bit selfish" Lyle said with concern.
Ascalon just shrugged "Well, if you wanna share it then do it"
Lyle nodded as he continued eating, he had almost eaten about a third part of the rabbit, he felt like it was enough for him. A few moments after, behind Lyle, Mistia rose up while yawning.
"Good morning" Both Lyle and Ascalon said.
Mistia rubbed her eyes as she greeted them back, Lyle offered her from the rabbit he had been eating, Mistia accepted the food and immediately took the entire head of the rabbit in one bite, both the meat and the bone. Lyle and Ascalon watched astonished as Mistia chewed without problem, the sounds of the bones of the rabbit's skull being crushed by Mistia's teeth were rather unsettling.
"Hm? Do I have something in the face?" Mistia asked in confusion at the stares of her teammates.
"Oh, no, it's-it's nothing" Lyle said with nerves in his voice.
Ascalon was about to say something but Lyle quickly made him a sign to keep his mouth shut, which fortunately the axeman understood. Mistia noticed but brushed it off, she was still too sleepy and hungry to care.
Watching Mistia finish the entirety of the rabbit was as unsettling as I could, the sound of the bones cracking inside her mouth were very creepy to Lyle. Once Mistia was done, nothing of the rabbit was left, she thanked Lyle for it and stood up to stretch as if she had done nothing weird.
An awkward silence was formed but it would be quickly cut off by the sound of trumpets and the strong voice of Julius ordering everyone to get their asses up so they can continue marching as early as possible. Most of the camp woke up reluctantly, but of course no one dared to call out Julius for it, there was no one that stupid or brave.
During the morning, as the sun continued to rise, the soldiers made their best efforts to begin getting ready despite the sleepiness, most of them lit fires, the sun hadn't begun to warm up yet and the morning breeze was pretty cold. Some of them decided to go hunt or fetch for food in the nearby areas, but the great majority preferred to wait for the servants of the prince to prepare stew for everyone, even if it was summer, it was better than nothing
Once it was around 9 am, almost everyone was ready to continue the trip, the only thing left to do was to finish stuffing the caravans, it just took a few minutes for it to be ready and once everyone was formed the march towards the tower started again.
The second day of the march was way more pleasant than the last one, the sun wasn't scorching and in fact it was somewhat cloudy. No one passed out this time. Once night hit, the lisbean army camped at the bottom of a mountain, the night was slightly colder than the last one but it wasn't that big of a deal. Tomorrow they will finally arrive at their destination.
The morning of the third day the army was woken up very early like the previous day, the remaining path was relatively short in comparison to how much they had already walked, the entire army was ready to go at 9 am, they wasted no time on begin marching once again, and by 12 pm, they were there, in front of them stood a hill, at the other side was the tower. The camp was set so the army could get ready for the attack, the faster they attacked the better.
While everyone set up the camp, Sylvana, General Drake and General Erbow were tasked with going up the hill and taking a peek at the demon army. The three of them obeyed Julius' orders without hesitation, walking up the hill until reaching the top, they laid on their bellies against the grass in order to not get seen by the demons.
"Well Sylvana, what can you tell us about them?" Drake questioned as Sylvana looked at the camp of the demons.
"There are a lot of demons, that's for sure, I couldn't tell how many, they are way too cramped to tell their magic emanations apart" She declared as a drop of sweat went down her face.
"Let me see, I have a very good eye" Erbow said with presumption.
Sylvana listened to him and crawled a bit down the hill while Erbow crawled up to be able to see the demon army.
"What can you tell me, Erbow?" Drake asked with concern.
"Give me a minute" Erbow whispered.
Erbow looked at every corner of the demon camp down the hill, a numerous number of tents could be seen, he could see demons of many kinds, both male and female, most of them wore something that looked like proper armor, and many of them also held weapons.
In the middle of everything stood the Demon Tower, imposingly, the tower was pretty tall, it was a pretty generic looking tower except for the fact that it was made of a black stone that Erbow had never seen on his life, he assumed it was some kind of stone from hell itself.The power that the Elven Cannon emanated could be felt even without the capacity of sensing the magic power of other beings. The general watched them for a few minutes, with each second increasing Drake's preoccupation, until Erbow crawled down the hill a bit.
"Well, how many are they?" Drake asked, failing to hide his nerves.
"For what I could count, there are at least 2000 of them, and those are only the ones within my vision range, inside the tents and the tower could be more" Erbow declared as sweat dropped through his face.
"How many are we?" Sylvana asked, looking at Drake.
Drake gulped "1800 at best, and that's including the mercenaries, who aren't many"
"So, we are outnumbered… It is a problem but maybe we stand a chance, when me and my companions got attacked by them there were around 200 and we were only 7 and yet we managed to take down a lot of them. We may have a chance" Sylvana said, trying to make things sound more hopeful.
"About that… " Erbow said with discouragement "You said that the demons who attacked you were nothing but savages, well, these ones look more like properly trained warriors"
Sylvana began sweating "Then… what should we do?"
"What we are gonna do, is inform Lord Julius, then he will decide what we should do next" Drake said, the fear on his face was undeniable.
Meanwhile, at the camp, the squad found themselves around a bonfire alongside The Elementals.
"Any moment now, we will be called into action" Dante said, shedding a drop of sweat.
"I'm really excited for this" Ascalon declared, no one shared his enthusiasm.
"The Esteller Empire… we are really going to fight against them…" Lyle said to himself.
Everyone stayed silent for a few moments, they all but Ascalon were too nervous to come up with something to say.
"Come on guys, it's not gonna be that bad" Ascalon said in an attempt to liven up the atmosphere.
"You could be right, I mean, those demons are really deorganized, I bet they aren't that many to begin with" Raphael said with fake confidence.
"That would be incorrect, they definitely outnumber us, I can sense a lot of presences from the other side of the hill, I can tell at least 2100 of them" Mistia said with a lost gaze.
Mistia's declaration only made everyone even more nervous, especially Stella, who was already the most fearful to begin with. She was shaking.
"Stella, you don't have to go on with us if you don't want to" Lyle said as he looked at his terrified partner.
"N-N-N-N-No, I'll go! If-If something happened to any of you because I couldn't be there to protect or heal you, I could not live with myself!" Stella declared as her voice got slightly more firm.
Lyle smiled "You're really brave Stella"
"Thanks…"
"Are you afraid?" A strange yet familiar masculine voice said.
Everyone turned around from where the voice had come from, they were surprised to meet with Gork.
"I hope you are all afraid of facing these demons, fear it's what keeps us alive, not fearing would be stupid" Gork said.
"That makes sense, after all, bravery isn't the lack of fear, but the capacity to act despite it" Ascalon declared.
"Heheh, you're right on that"
"Do you want something?" Elene asked.
"Just coming to check on, some of you seem really promising. I can tell apart a warrior with potential with just a glance" He responded, pointing at one of his eyes.
"It's a good encouragement to hear that, thanks" Lyle said a bit more relaxed, yet still very nervous.
"I just speak the truth of what I see"
"And what about your group, how are they?" Raphael asked.
"They are fine, although it's our first time facing demons it's not our first time facing an army. Elias is really looking forward to slicing some of them, he's still very mad from what you told him the other day. You better not run into him, he may try slicing you in half" Gork said in a chuckle.
"Alright that's… that's actually really unsettling" Raphael declared, creeped out.
"Sorry for that, but don't worry, really, Elias can be aggressive but wouldn't kill someone over something so trivial, at much he's gonna leave you a scar"
"I guess that's better…" Raphael said, still creeped out.
"Heheheh, well, I'll be heading back with my team, I hope none of you dies today" Gork said as he began walking away.
"That guy is really creepy, how can he be so relaxed?" Terrac questioned.
"It's nothing complicated really" Ascalon said, making everyone turn to look at him "He has more experience on this, he's been in many battles before and after having faced death many times already he just doesn't care anymore. That man simply has already mentalized that in every mission he goes he may die or not, and he accepts it"
"Wow, I cannot imagine how it can be, to not fear death" Dante said.
"It sounds really cool" Raphael declared.
"Although a bit sad" Lyle said, making everyone turn and look at him "I mean, having lost the care if you live or not, someone like that must have a really sad life, because, does he not have someone who'd miss him? Do his teammates not care for him? Does he not have any family?"
Lyle's words made everyone silent for a second.
"Well Lyle" Ascalon said "That's the life of a warrior, it may sound sad to you, but for them, it's everything. They live for battle and will die for battle, for them it's not sad, there is nothing that a warrior would love more but to perish doing what they most love in this world"
Once again, silence, no one knew what to say next. The awkward silence would be short lasting as Julius called out everyone to gather before the fight. The entirety of the lisbean army reunited in the middle of the camp, Julius alongside his generals and Sylvana stood at the bottom part of the hill, just a bit up so everyone in the camp could look at them.
"Alright everybody, the time has come, we cannot wait for too long or else they could organize. We are outnumbered, but they don't know we are here, and we have to take that to our advantage to kill as many as possible before they can fight back. And once they do, we will crush the remaining ones!" Julius declared with fierce determination.
Some of the soldiers seemed animated, but the vast majority was still unsure, this didn't go under Julius who spoked up once again.
"Have no fear! Valiant warriors, for these savages don't know how to fight but only to mindlessly attack until their objective has perished! Use that to your advantage! Show them your superior power and superior intelligence!" He said with even more determination.
The people began cheering but were quickly shut down as there was the risk of being heard. With the army in silence, Julius proceeded to continue talking.
"This is what we are gonna do, our most robust warriors will stand on the top of the hill with their shields up, when Erbow gives the sign, the archers from behind will throw a barrage of arrows on top of those pesky demons. Once they attack us our specialized mages will use speed up spells on our robust warriors so they can rush in and take down as many demons as they can, then everyone else rushes in and kills the demons on the floor before they can do anything! From there, we will have to fight normally but that should allow us to severely decimate their numbers. Alright, formation!"
As Julius finished up talking, the army began to get in formation for the attack, the most robust soldiers went uphill with their shields on hand, stopping near the peak, waiting for Julius' orders to continue. The archers and mages that knew speed boosting spells as well walked right behind them for Julius' plan.
Meanwhile the rest of the army walked behind to be prepared for when they had to rush down the enemy.
In just a few minutes, everyone was in position. The sun had begun going down, it was past noon already and the heat had started to decrease, the breeze was fresh and soft. At the opposite side of the hill, a bunch of demons lazed, without an idea of what was going to happen in the next few minutes.
The battle between the lisbean army and the Esteller forces was about to begin.