Hunter Sky

B2: Chapter 45 - The Raging War Continues

Kelly dived at her, tackling her out of the way of a spear as it landed in the snow where she sat.

"The hell are you doing! You wanna die!" he scolded as he leaned up off of her.

Nia looked at him with her brows curved upward in a sad gaze, "I'm sorry, it is just. He was just a kid."

"A kid who can open a hole in you if you don't stop turning your damn back everywhere! I don't like this either, but you can't trust them! C'mon! Get your head in the fight!"

Kelly got up and sprung back into action attacking the nearest Ylisean knight. Nia jumped up to follow him, but far off her eyes caught King Raul on one knee with blood pouring down his face, his golden crown laying in the snow near him. Over him stood King Jaragus with his head back and his body jerking up and down in a series of mad laughs.

Nia flinched to run to his aid, but several Altean knights who also realized King Raul needed help already rushed to attack King Jaragus.

She stopped and looked to the far side of the battlefield where she saw Sir Caldwell fighting off several Yliseans, with his injuries causing him to move much slower than he usually would. She bit her lip in a frown, as she knew he was losing a lot of blood from the wound in his side. With an injury like that he should have withdrawn to the back, but instead, he stayed and fought relentlessly. She rushed to go help him, but a man jumped before her path forcing her to stop and fight.

After dispatching the man, she looked around the snowy plain to see the number of her comrades were fast diminishing, until only a few hundred of them remained standing. Her mouth gaped seeing them fall one by one, some being ganged on by multiple enemies in a bloody slaughter. Her ears were tormented by their screams as they were slain brutally, and her eyes widened at the sight of some familiar faces among the corpses on the ground.

The snow around her was lubricated with raw guts and a nauseating waft emerged from it, slithering into her nostrils causing her to cover them with her hands. As she moved to get away from the scent her legs wobbled, and she felt like she was going to fall over from exhaustion.

She heard Kelly scream, and in the flash of a second she spun around to see him lying in the snow with a Ylisean knight pressing his feet into his back. "Arghhhhhhh!!!!!" she heard another scream, and turned back around to see the knights who went to battle King Jaragus laying on the snow in a bath of blood.

The rest of her comrades that remained were being encircled by the Yliseans, and Sir Caldwell looked to be on his last legs as the soldiers began toying with him, kicking him back and forth in a circle as he staggered toward them still willing to fight.

"Look at this! Is this the mighty Brazen Stallion of Altea? Bah! You are nothing but over-glorified trash! I shall be hailed a hero once I bring your head back in a bag! Ha ha ha!" one of the men teased as they kicked the weak general back and forth.

Looking for some sign of hope Nia looked elsewhere searching for another familiar face, and saw Sir Malik laying with his lower body covered in the snow, a spear lodged in his chest. She covered her mouth to conceal her gasp as her eyes enlarged. It couldn't be that Sir Malik was gone. It couldn't. She shook her head horrifyingly in denial.

She looked back over in Kelly's direction and saw another knight joining the other in stomping him, so she made off to go help him, sprinting across the snow ignoring the soreness of her legs.

Kelly rose his head with a black eye, and pointed behind her as the men stomped him repeatedly, "Nia! Go help the king! Forget about me!" he yelled, but one of the knights above him stomped his feet into his head sending his face into the snow.