Warrior (The Sins | Book 1)

33. Retreat

There were at least twenty men upon each of the trebuchets, protecting it from anyone coming towards it. Andromeda and Dahlia looked at each other before bolting towards the forest. Their bodies were immediately concealed by the raging trees that moved around in the wind viciously. They located the first trebuchet and a weakened area between those who protected it. Their circle was broken as a pile of stone sat there.

Andromeda nodded at Dahlia after a few seconds and they both began to walk forward, they hunched so that no one could see their bodies visibly in the dark and then used the rocks to propel themselves on the platform of the trebuchet where the engineer stood. Andromeda didn't waste time as she drove her sword through his unprotected front, watching the life flow out of him. She pulled away, her hands marred with blood and eyes flashing red.

As the men came towards them she held up her sword, grabbing onto another one that had fallen to the ground and fought her way through them. When they parted, the last of them falling to the ground, Andromeda and Dahlia were both breathing heavily. They panted, looking across from them as Araya and Reina took down the one next to them.

When they made eye contact Reina raised an eyebrow at her and Andromeda pointed to the forest. They once again disappeared behind it and ran the almost fifty feet distance to wait for Reina and Araya to join them.

"Which one do we take?" Reina shouted as she ran over to them, Araya looking back to make sure no one was following them.

Dahlia looked past them, noticing that the one in the middle was the only one left standing as the brothers along with a small group of men attacked the remaining three of the total six. She pointed towards it immediately and Reina nodded. They ran along the length of the area before sneaking up on the men yet again. They began their attack from on the ground and not the platform as they tore through the array of men before them. Andromeda hissed as burning steel met her bare calf and she looked down upon the woman who's burning sword had injured her skin. She put her feet to the woman's wrist as her sword came soaring through the sky towards her.

Once the last of them was taken down, Andromeda moved backwards. Nodding to Araya who moved past them and towards the torches that illuminated the area. She pushed it over allowing coal and flames to come flying out of it, they settled on top of the trebuchet lighting it on fire and Dahlia ran to her side to do it to the other two that they had taken down. Andromeda watched as the heat rolled off of the large machines, emitting towards her as if searing through them was its only purpose. Andromeda took a step back as the wood began to collapse and the trebuchet became irreparable.

Cassandra watched as Hades and Vasilios fought against Zeus and his armada, a circle of protection erected around him by dozens of his men as he waited comfortably inside it. His men sacrificed his life for them and Cassandra shivered in disgust at the gleeful smirk on his face.

She held off three men; running through them before they could get to her or her king. She pushed one backwards and then lunged up into the air, throwing a kick to his chest and sending him flying through the air into Cocytus' tumultuous waters. The man shrieked loudly as he fell; his fear reflecting in his eyes. Cassandra drowned out his screams as the wails encompassed him, turning towards the other two that watched their accomplice's fate dreadfully.

She smirked at them before beckoning them forward, taunting them. They walked forward, trying to stay as far away from the river behind Cassandra. They took her on from both sides as she bolted from between them and took their wariness as an advantage. Their moves were slow and too calculated as they worked around the river; not wanting the same fate as the one before them. Cassandra shook her head at them before driving her sword through the back of one of them and kicking the other. They both fell to their knees. The uninjured one moved to get up but Cassandra quickly wrapped her arm around him in a chokehold as her other hand rounded him and drove the sword through him till she felt it come rest between her breasts.