He looks up to Xb, covering his mouth so his sobs can't escape. The letter in hand as a small smile grows on the others' face, the memories of his childhood friend flowing through his mind as he reads about how much his friend thinks about him, how after seven years he hasn't forgotten, or at least still cares.
"T-thank you." Scar stutters shoving the letter into his pocket, making sure it doesn't tear.
"No problem, now we can't stay out here. Where have you been staying?" Xb asks, looking around for any sign of shelter.
"Oh, come with me." Scar says, holding up a torch as he begins to walk through the woods.
"Sure, i guess.." Xb follows closely behind.
They walk through the forrest for what feels like hours before stepping out of the treeline to see a large black tower infested by vines with cracks all around it.
"Is this what i think it is?" Xb questions nervously, looking up at the tower looking over him.
"It is, the home of the undead it's called in the books." Scar smirks, walking around to the other side of the tower to open one of the most squeaky and stiff doors Xb could ever imagine.
"Why have you been staying with her?" Xb questions again, walking in and looking up, unable to see the top of the tower due to its complete darkness.
"It's custom to stay with your family, is it not?" He places down his torch, lighting up the room a little.
"Your family?" The now confused Xb asks with a hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Yep, my family, no need to be so on guard no one will hurt you here." Scar laughs a little with a smile on his face, putting down his axe and beginning to walk up the creaking stairs.
"Is she here?" Xb asks, following behind with his hands off his sword.
"She is, just up here." Scar answers as they walk up the stairs for another few minutes before reaching the top.
"Is that you, Scar?" A feminine voice says from the shadows in front of them, causing a chill to shoot right through Xb. The rumours are true.
"Yeah, it's me, and i brought a friend." He says happily, Xb can hear the loud footsteps of the other walking towards them, he's frozen, unable to move in fear of what he's about to see.
She emerges out of the shadows, dark ginger hair down to her shoulders with tears in her rotted skin, the undead woman, Cleo, ZombieCleo.
People say she died protecting her children in the war, and some dark experiment was used to bring her back to life only for her to get banished the second she resurrected.
She was close to the king, the whole family was although nobody knew what ever happened to her children, the entire family split after the war, Xb had heard people in the street calling the hand of the king one of her sons, but nobody ever asked him about it, nor who the father was.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost?" She asks with a smirk on her face straight to Xb.
"I suppose i have." He calms down slightly, making sure to seem confident in the situation.
"I suppose you have." She sighs, walking up to her son.
"Why is he here?" She asks him, knowing Xb is a knight of Dogwarts, the place which banished her
"He got banished too. He's a friend of Grian's and a friend of mine." He says, smiling over at Xb.
"Very well, happy to let you stay for as long as you need, a friend of my son is a friend of mine." She sighs again before sitting down on a chair to regain her breath.
"Seems the resurrection didn't do much for your health." Xb says, noticing how breathless she is.
"Better than being dead, at least i can be with one of my sons." She says, coughing with a smile on her face, clearly very appreciative for the chance to be alive.
Xb smiles down at her before turning back to Scar, "Iskall and Stress miss you, they wish to see you again." he says with a serious look on his face.
"Oh, yeah, them, I'll see them again someday, just not any day soon." Scar looks down at the ground before running off down the stairs.
"Did i say something wrong?"? He asks, looking back at Cleo, concerned.
"No, he's always been afraid to make friends after being sent out here, he doesn't want to get too close to Iskall or Stress even though they raised him for five years, he's too afraid to dissapoint them." She replies with a frown on her face.
"I see." Xb mutters.
"Why isn't anyone charging?" Gem questions with her sword pointed towards the kings head, having expected her entire army to rush to kill them in an instant.
"Im not sure?" Scott says, confused, turning around to see their men looking behind them in dismay.
"What are you doing? Kill them!" Scott shouts to his men, catching their attention.
"Can you not hear that?" One of them asks back to him, making him step closer to them.
"What's going on?" Ren asks, confused at the entire situation.
"Just listen." Cub says with a smirk on his face as Scott could swear the ground was moving beneath him, a rumbling sound coming from behind the hill shortly in front of him.
"What is that?" Gem asks again, looking over at the hill before seeing banners raised above the hill and dozens of men in red armour ride over in their direction.
"How did they know?" Scott screams, pulling out his sword, ready to fight what's coming for him.
"Kill them all!" Mumbo shouts with his sword pointed out towards the Stratos men closely in front of them.
"Hold your ground!" Gem shouts, running to get on her horse, not wanting to be trampled over.
The two groups of men meet in not much time, horses falling all around them, and men of both sides falling in the name of their king.
"My king, watch out!" Wels shouts, slicing down a man that was coming straight for the king.
Blood was scattering everywhere as menless horses ran around aimlessly, and in the middle of the fight, one random man on a horse wandered away into the forrest next to them.
Scott must've killed twenty horses by now, but he could swear more came the more he killed, along with the men who rode them.
Bdubs and Cub hid behind a rock watching the fight, the two of them aren't built for a battle, they had always survived inside a castle helping command battles, fighting in them was a very different thing.
Suddenly, a Stratos man appeared from the side of them, a sword in his hand and charging straight for them, his mouth desperate for a taste of blood, and no blood is better than that of the hand of a king.
The two of them crawled backwards away from the man as he walked up to them slowly. Neither of them knew how to fight before Cub used the only way he knew how.
He dug out a golden coin from one of his pockets and held it up. "Don't kill us, and you get this, plus ten more, don't you want to be rich?" He says with a smirk on his face. He can't wait to tell Mumbo about this.
The man stopped and looked down at him. He considered it for a minute, coming to many different conclusions before snatching the coin and walking away from the two of them.
"Thank god you're rich, Cub. Otherwise, we'd be dead." Bdubs says, catching his breath from the situation.
Mumbo rode in shortly behind them, jumping off his horse and walking into the battle.
He could see a slightly smaller horse than the others charging right for him as he stepped to the side to cut right through it, knocking off a girl he knew as GeminiTay or as his men would call her, GeminiSlay.
The name came from how many people she had killed, without much effort either, men and women alike fell in a matter of seconds to her pure skill and speed, Mumbo would not be one of these men.
"You." She sputtered out lunging forward at him, meeting her blade with his.
It was quite evident that more Stratos men were dying than Dogwarts, and this was a fight Stratos couldn't win any longer.
Scott tried to get on a horse he found in front of him covered in blood, but he saw an axe go right through it. When it fell, he saw the king with a bloodlust in his eyes staring right at him.
Those eyes scared him. They froze him in place as the axe swung high above his head before dropping down. Surely, this is the moment he dies. By the axe of a king isn't a bad way to die, but dying as a whole isn't a good thing.
At this point, he's accepted his fate. He closes his eyes. This axe will slice him in half, and there's nothing he can do, except that's what he thought. He was shocked when he opened his eyes to find the king on the ground ten metres away, seemingly charged there by someone on a horse.
He snaps back into reality, getting on the first horse he can find, searching for Gem, but noticing she's almost surrounding, he figured it'd be better if atleast one of them got home so he begun to ride off and abandon the fight.
Gem and Mumbo duelled for what felt like minutes, Gem with the obvious upperhand as she was all attacked, and Mumbo could barely defend her, he was certain she was about to kill him before she dropped to the ground with a blade in the back of her ankle.
"You're welcome." Wels says, pulling his sword out of her ankle and turning her around to face him.
Bdubs and Cub help Ren up, both of them grabbing an arm and pulling him up with all their strength.
"Did we win?" Ren asks, shaking his head and looking around, seeing only men in red still standing.
"We did. Thanks to Mumbo, he came and saved us." Cub says with a smile before walking back to where Wels and Mumbo were.
"What about the other one? Did we get him?" Ren asks, looking down at Gem, who is in pain.
"No, I saw him riding off a few minutes ago." Bdubs says, shaking his head.
"Then get on your horse and go kill him!" Ren shouts to Wels, who was about to do as he says.
"No, someone has to tell the king of what happened here. About how his assassination attempt failed and how he's going to be next after we kill this girl." Cub says, calling Wels off but demanding the death of Gem.
"No, we're keeping her as a prisoner. Come on." Mumbo denies him pushing Gem onto a horse tied up.
"I agree with Mumbo. Let's get away from all this." Ren says, looking at all the dead bodies and blood, wishing to be away from all of it he gets in his horse along with the others to leave.
"Sir, a raven just landed with a message directly for you." One dwarf says, walking up to Skizz with the letter in hand.
"Give me it then." Skizz grabs it from the dwarf's hand before slowly opening it, looking down at the poor handwriting he can only recognise as Impulse's. He has to read over the words countless times before he drops the letter onto the ground.
"What is it, sir?" Another dwarf asks, looking at the shocked man in front of them.
"Get every man you can. We're about to be attacked." Skizz says urgently, snatching an axe off the wall and walking out of the room.
He looks around his home, a home he now has to defend, the black walls will soon be stained in the blood of his people, and Stratos people.
He walks up to the gates, where there are dwarves running around un coordinated and clueless, preparing any defence they can.
"Dont worry, my people, these gates have been unbreachable for years. This is one of the strongest fortresses in the realm." Skizz tries to reassure and relax the frightened men around him, knowing with how many Stratos men are coming these gates will fall eventually.
"Sir, you should escape immediately. You can't die here." The commander of the entire dwarf army says to Skizz, grabbing on his arm and pleading him to leave.
"And leave you all to die? im going to die with my people, or i have no honour at all." Skizz snatched his arm away before sheathing his sword.
"Sir! they're here!" A dwarf shouts down from a watchtower as the others all look upon Skizz for the next order.
He closes his eyes, trying to slow his breathing, blocking out all sound from around him to try to think for just a moment.
He opens his eyes after a couple of minutes, looking around at all the people relying on him and only him.
"Open the gates." he says quickly, causing confusion to spark between everyone there, but one dared to question it, and before long, the massive black and yellow gates were slowly widening.
"An unusual strategy, to say the least." Martyn says with a smirk on his face, sitting on his horse at the forefront of his army watching Skizz come out alone.
"Martyn!" he shouts, a hand on the hilt of his sword as he can see a thousand men ready to charge him in an instant.
"Skizz, i expected the king. Where is the king?" Martyn questions, running his hand along the dagger he was given to kill the king with.
"Hes busy, you have to deal with me." Skizz pulls out his sword, grabbing it in both hands.
"Okay, kill him." Martyn says, looking back at his men, and in a matter of seconds, Skizz can see countless arrows flying at him.
"Now!" He shouts, starting to run back inside as boulders come flying out of the side of the mountain hitting the Stratos men.
"Chase him! Kill them all!" Martyn shouts, riding forward, trying to get into the gate before it closes.
He doesn't make it and is locked out while the dwarves launch boulders at his men.
Skizz tries catching his breath with his hands on his knees, but he knows theres not much time before they break through.
"What now?" The commander asks, looking up at Skizz.
"Prepare." Skizz says, stepping back from the gate sword in hands, with his men crowded behind him all waiting for the gates to fall.
"You know what to do, Xisuma taught us this little trick." Martyn says with a smirk on his face as a couple of his men walk up to the gate, pouring some sort of purple liquid out onto the ground next to it.
"Everybody back!" He shouts as they retreat, and he jumps off his horse.
"Why aren't they trying to get in?" Skizz asks as he commands a dwarf to walk forward to see what was happening.
The dwarf walks up to the gate, noticing a purple liquid finding its way inside underneath. He bends over, sticking his finger inside of it.
Martyn grabs one of his men's bow, lighting the arrow on fire and aiming upwards, letting the arrow loose and watching it fly towards the gate.
The dwarf stands back up, looking back at Skizz, finally clicking at what the liquid is.
"It's -" He gets a word in his sentence before the gate is burned into a million pieces, a large purple flame blasting through and burning through anything in its path.
The light almost blinds Skizz and the dwarves, and even Martyn's men.
When Skizz can regain his sight and look at what just happened, he sees what seems like a thousand men charging through the doors, shields, and swords in hand headed straight for him.
He can't even comprehend what's happening, the sheer power of the flame having put him in a state of shock, he can feel blood being splattered over him and he can hear the screaming of his people.
He finally regains his full conciseness, cutting through a man who had turned away from him.
Martyn was dealing with the dwarves no problem, all of his men were, they were only strong because of that gate, when it fell they fell.
Skizz tries to defend his men, but they are dying all around him. For every Stratos man who fell another five dwarves did the same, it was a bloodbath where nobody would save him.
Yet none of the Stratos men seem to try to kill him, like he was a ghost and nobody even knew he was there, he was killing them and they wouldn't fight back, that was until he heard his name shouted from across the hall.
He turns to see Martyn with his sword in the commander but staring right at Skizz, truly frightening him. The man he's facing is nothing less of a psychopath.
He climbs over the bodies of his own men just to reach Martyn, who had been patiently waiting for the chance to fight him.
He runs straight at him, pure anger in his eyes, losing any strategic thought in his mind. All he wants is to kill Martyn right now. He quickly meets Martyn's blade before kicking him straight in the chest.
He knows Martyn is weakened but also strong enough to kill him with ease, hit him where he's already injured, and he might win. Even then, the Stratos men will kill him.
Skizz hits Martyn a few more times, noticing a little dagger fly out from his armour.
Martyn gets knocked back, losing his footing, making Skizz think he can kill him in this moment. He was wrong. He tries to swing his sword overhead to hit Martyn with a powerful strike, but he gave him. too much time to prepare.
Martyn knocks the sword straight out of his hand, flinging it into the distance. He stands up, grabbing onto Skizz by the back of the head, looking into his eyes, noticing at least a hundred different emotions, fear, sadness, guilt, shame, and even confidence, and finally the eyes calmed as he accepted his death.
Martyn slowly injects his sword into the bottom of Skizz' chest, and lets him go to watch him fall onto the ground in front of him.
He drags him to place him against the throne of the Dwarven mountain to send a message to Impulse, commanding his men to let the remaining dwarves live. Not many dwarves were still alive, though.
Him and his men leave the mountain through the shattered gates, taking any valuable minerals they could find.
The next morning, Impulse races through the forrest to see smoke rising from the mountain he had called home, only making him go faster.
He reaches the mountain, skipping a heartbeat, and he feels sick looking at the gate, which was in pieces. He gets off his horse to try to walk in.
When he does, he can only see a mountain of bodies, the walls covered in blood, and much more dwarvern bodies than Stratos. he can also see the burned walls.
A stone which is said to never burn had been destroyed with what seemed like ease.
He walks through the dead bodies with tears in his eyes, his crown stuck to his head as he searches for his best friend.
He finds a few alive dwarves who point him in the direction of his throne, and when he reaches there, what he sees releases the tears in an instant. His best friend leaned against the throne, coughing and in pain, barely alive.
Impulse runs to the side of his friend, grabbing him by the shoulders as Skizz smiles up at him.
"I-Impulse, please, finish it.." He coughs out, splattering blood as Impulse looks down at his wound.
"No, you can live, you will live!" He screams, hugging his friend, trying to lie to himself that he will live.
"Im in pain, impulse. Please, end it." he pleads, looking into Impulse's eyes, Impulse tries to argue, but Skizz hushes him.
Impulse nods his head, "You were here when i wasn't. You died for my people when it should have been me. You deserve this more than me." He takes the crown off his head, placing it in Skizz' lap, and leaning over to grab the dagger which Martyn had dropped.
"Thank you." Skizz smiles up at his friend despite being in pain, Impulse letting out sobs as he inserts the dagger into Skizz' heart, killing him quickly and in an instant.
"I love you." He whispers in his ear as his friend lets out his final breath.
End of chapter 7: 3534
Now this was a chapter, mhm mhm no comment just izjo