Chapter 12: Cruelty (1)

“They’re coming from everywhere and attack us like savages!”, Kaze tells them as he catches up. “Lark was there as well, but..”, he explains.

“But what?!”, Marc yells at him.

“I don’t know, man! He said he’s going to help the old lady from the potatoe farm! He just left!”, Kaze screams back with tears in his eyes.

Lex stares into the distance, where black smoke begins rising into the air, and screams of confusion, grief and pain drown out the once so peaceful atmosphere. “I’ll go get him.”, she declares.

“You’ll do what?”, Marc asks her frantically.

“We’re all gonna get slaughtered if we don’t! Even if they’re no knights, but bandits sent by the army, we don’t stand a chance! Most of us couldn’t even escape!”, she yells at him, starting to tear up as well. “You all go get as many of the elderly and children out of here as you can and move them to the other side! Stall time in any way you can think of!”, she instructs her friends and takes off running.

“Damnit!”, Marc curses, as he makes his way towards the nearby houses. “HEY! HEY! ALL OF YOU, RUN FOR THE PLAZA! THE PROXIMA KINGDOM IS ATTACKING!”, he roars from the top of his lungs, and Kaze and Elaine follow his example.

“GET OUT OF HERE!”, they scream. “EVERYONE WHO CANT WALK ALONE TELL US NOW!”

While they continue their warnings, people come flodding out of hiding and run towards the plaza. The sound of clashing weapons draws ever closer, when suddenly, Lark appears, carrying an old lady on his back, following the others.

“Lark!”, Marc calls him.

He stops moving and turns towards him for a second. “I’ll go bring her to safety! Go and carry the children from Mister Uzagi’s house! They’re probably still hiding there!”, he tells them, and takes off full throttle.

The screams of agony grow fewer and fainter. ‘I think everyone not here yet is dead already. DAMN! I don’t believe in that chosen bastard one bit.’, Marc surmises. “Kaze, get the children! Elaine, find a torch and set this whole place on fire with me. Spill firewood on the roads as well!”, he coordinates them. ‘But I believe in you, Lex, so please, get him!’

While Kaze runs past the two, carrying two small children on his shoulders, they rush around the street, setting all the grass and hay laying on the site they’re being attacked from ablaze. The flames flare up in gigantic fireballs, rapidly enclosing entire wooden houses, and slowly spreading towards the fire wood spilled on the paths. Through the rising curtain of dark smoke they spot a group of soldiers steadily heading their way. Lark comes running back with an axe.

“Did you get the children?”, he asks them.

“Kaze is bringing.. them over.. right now”, Marc answers, wheezing, with sweat dripping down his face. “I don’t think.. the flames.. are reaching the… the road.. fast enough..”

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Lark looks at the two arsonists in concern, as they appear to be close to collapsing, struggling to catch their breath while supporting themselves with their hands on their knees. “Get going!”, he orders them. “I’ll take care of the rest!”

“Don’t be an idiot!”, Elaine begs of him.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan to fight them. Now go! I’ll follow up soon!”, he reassures her. “Try to build up some sort of barricade in the meantime!”

She nods. “Don’t you dare die!”, she yells at him, and takes off with Marc.

‘As if I plan to die here today, stupid. Who’s gonna listen to your crap if I’m gone?’, he ponders with a smile across his face. Lark takes a deep breath of the smokey air, and takes a glance down the street, where the enemies draw closer, just a couple hundred meters away. Now that he got a clearer view of them, he recognizes them to be savages. Not wearing armor, most of them without shields, and in way too good of a mood. ‘Seems like they’re just bloodythristy bandits’, he concludes. ‘Well, since I don’t plan on dying here today, better get to it!’.

He walks up to the wooden house on the left side of the street, the one which has elevated floor, supported by three wooden beams on each side. Lark starts chopping away at the pillar closest to the enemy. Chop. Chop. Chop. “AHH!”, he screams out, as he puts in all the power he has into each chop. Burning debris drops onto his arms and shoulders, but despite causing screams of agony, he doesn’t allow them to stop him from forcing that wooden beam into submission.

The bandits watch him on their way up. “Look at that moron!”, he laughs. “Not really the time to be cutting wood, ehh?!”, he yells over to Lark.

Lark himself doesn’t even take notice. Chop. Chop. Chop. It’s not the bandits that are on his mind. As he battles the dead tree with a chunk of metal, all he can think of are his friends, and even more than that, Elaine. Thud. Instead of wood, he strikes the earth under this house this time. The first pillar is broken. Without wasting a second, he goes on to work on the second one.

Meanwhile, Marc and Elaine have met up with Kaze at the plaza. Marc uses a stick to draw something in the ground. It appears to be a basic layout of the village.

“There are two roads leading here, and the only other entrance is on the other side of the fence, but it seems Lex had the gate there closed for now. The enemy could come there any second, they very well might already be lurking it.”, Marc explains. “Our only shot is building a barricade that somehow allows us to fight the bandits off at a distance. The weapon shop as well as the hunter’s club are right here as well, so we can get some bows.”

A tall, middle aged man with a huge beard wearing chainmail armor and a sword walks up to them. “Marc, I’m glad to see you’re fine. Lex passed through the gate, but where’s Lark?”, he asks him.

“He’s trying to fend them off at a line of fire we created. I don’t know what he has in mind, but he said he wouldn’t fight them. But more importantly, uncle, I need your help! I think I have an idea on how to stop them!”, Marc explains frantically.

“Really? What is it?”, his uncle demands to know.

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