Hunter Sky

B2: Chapter 43 - After The First Wave

A gash of radiant light broke through the cauldron-black sky, as the moon launched its ethreal glow upon the aftermath of Altea and Ylise's vicious battle. A sea of dead bodies laid scattered across the snowy plains before the White Forest, scarlet coats of red liquid soaked into the cold white sands of winter under the corpses of the armored knights.

Over the thousands of bodies disseminated across the land, stood the survivors from the Altean forces tending to their injured, while taking account of the casualties both armies suffered. The two sides fought to the death without relenting, but ultimately, Altea managed to overcome by some strange miracle, causing the remainder of the Ylisean forces to pull back over the border.

Among the Altean survivors on the desolate battlefield were the shaken pair of Nia and Kelly, who remained at each other's side throughout the entire battle. Nia stood over the body of a Ylisean knight she had just killed, her hands trembling as she looked down at the big stature of the knight's corpse, her sword lodged into the man's armor impaling the part of his chest where his heart was.

She raised her shaking hands to lift her helmet from over her head, so she could better take in the heavy atmosphere around her and the reality of what she had just gone through, white clouds of cold air emitting from her nostrils. Her brows furrowed in a sad gaze as she turned her head to look around at the death around her, the death she contributed to.

Men laid with severed limbs, some with arrows stuck in their heads, their chest, their stomach and their backs. Some laying with their heads far from their bodies, some with their intestinal guts splattered all over the snow.

The poor horses brought to war against their will laid dead with their riders in a pool of scarlet red liquid. Her hands were just as guilty for their lives, as she also struck down enemy horses to get to the cavalier and paladin riders, the sound of their desperate squeals as they fell ringing in her ears all over again.

The weight of her armor was as heavy as her guilty conscience, and in her heart hid remorse for the men she had killed. She understood that in order to make this threat go away, and to protect her nation, she had to kill. Yet deep down she felt so bad for it. Never before had she taken so many lives at one time. Was she even better than a criminal? Her hands were stained just as much. In the heat of the moment she killed to survive, as it was either them or her. But it wasn't until the remaining Ylisean forces began to retreat that she began to realize she spilled the blood of her own people.

These people would be gone forever, and their families would never see them again. They would never come back. Time would forget their very existence, and their legacy would fizzle out. Just like some man took her father away from her when she was little, she probably took someone else's father, brother, or son, from someone else. When would the cycle end? She bit her lip in with a crease between her brows thinking about these things.

She turned her head down at her side to look at Kelly, who sat on the chest of a dead Ylisean soldier with a brooding gaze down at the snow, his arms outstretched resting on his knees in a laid-back manner, but his face was more tense than usual.

She frowned at him. Part of her felt offended by this and found it highly disrespectful. No matter the circumstances she was still part Ylisean, and though she spent her entire life trying to renounce that heritage she still had nothing but love for her people.

Her annoyance rose greatly due to Kelly's disrespectful gesture. If she was going to kill a man, then she believed in giving him an honorable end, even an honorable burial. She turned her body to the side to tell Kelly to get off of him, but her lips refused to budge as she had not the courage to do so. Why should she care what happens to the body of a Ylisean? She asked herself.