An hour later, the wagons finally rolled out of the forest as the trees gave way to the rolling fields around Tonbura Village. The rain had finally let up, giving way to a bright sun which illuminated dozens of tents that had been set up outside the village walls. From afar, hundreds of figures could be seen bustling between the tents, carrying various objects that Eric couldn't quite make out from their current position.

As they got closer, Alistair stood up at the front of the lead wagon, his posture still ramrod straight as always despite the rocky movement of the wagon beneath him.

"The official end time of this a.s.sault operation is in three hours at sundown. You have time to visit the healers, rest up, get your weapons and armour checked, and fraternize. All the services are free as part of the kingdom's support, so make sure to take advantage. Any damaged gear you have, get it fixed, even if it wasn't damaged in the a.s.sault. What the kingdom doesn't know won't hurt them."

This got a small chuckle from the platoon as Alistair continued.

"At sundown, make sure you're here if you want your payment for partic.i.p.ating in the a.s.sault. There will also be awards and honours for those who contributed the most, so don't head back to your own village or town just yet."

As Alistair said this, the wagons rolled to a stop just outside the outer perimeter of the ring of tents. Climbing down from the wagon, Owin gave Alistair a salute.

"Permission to take our leave, Captain?"

"Permission granted. Crowsea Platoon, you are dismissed!" Alistair roared.

Letting out a cheer, the members of Crowsea Platoon jumped out of the wagons, heading for the tents. Lara and the other healers rounded up Tanix, Owin, and the other severely wounded members, taking them to the healers tents, while Eric and the others searched for blacksmiths and other craftsmen to fix their gear.

Leaving his broken falchion, Grimarok's sabre, and his armour with a friendly militia blacksmith, Eric split off from the rest of the group, as he made his way into Tonbura Village itself.

The village was mostly deserted. Many of the inhabitants were outside the walls, helping to care for the exhausted militia members, or simply enjoying the festive atmosphere. It wasn't often that Tonbura saw this many people outside its gates after all. Arriving in front of his destination, Eric took a moment to gather his courage, exhaling softly before striding boldly forward.

"Craig's archery supplies, how can I- Oh hey Eric," Craig greeted him.

"Hey Craig, how's business?" Eric replied. Due to the amount of time Craig spent with Jun, he'd picked up the habit of simply calling Eric by his name. Thankfully, he hadn't picked up any of Jun's other habits, Eric thought privately to himself.

"Not bad. The militia's been buying plenty of my arrows recently, but I'm selling them at cost to help out Alistair. So I've been busy, but not earning much. What can I do for you?"

Smiling awkwardly, Eric reached into his storage and took out the fragments of his long bow. Craig gasped.

"What in the h.e.l.l did you do to this poor bow?"

"Well-"

"This was one of my best creations! I gave you a discount and even repaired it for you and this is how you repay me?!"

"It wasn't my fault-"

"Oh like h.e.l.l, I bet-" at this point Craig broke down laughing, his angry face dissolving into helpless giggles as he gave Eric a mirthful look. "I watched the tournament, I know that you got it broken in your fight against that Mortang guy."

"Mortang?" Eric asked, before remembering. "Oh right, Hydrus' last name."

"Yeah, I'll fix it for you for free if you want. We were all cheering for you here in Tonbura. I can't let our would-be hero pay when he was fighting so hard for our sake."

"I still lost though," Eric tried to argue.

"Yeah, like I said. Would-be hero. Cause you would have been our hero if you'd won. Just accept it, not like it's that much work to fix an unenchanted bow. Plus Lucy might kill me if she knew I'd charged you to fix a weapon you broke against Hydrus. It was all we could do to persuade her not to go hunt him down," said Craig, taking the charred remains of Eric's bow. "It'll take me a while, so don't bother coming back for it until tomorrow at the earliest."

"Thanks Craig."

"Don't mention it," Craig said with another laugh, waving Eric out of the shop.

Lucy wasn't home when Eric arrived, or at least that was the conclusion Eric arrived at after standing on her doorstep for twenty minutes. Shrugging his shoulders, Eric departed Tonbura, headed back to the militia encampment just outside the gates.

Griffin, Mark, and Rob had all revived and regrouped with Ryan and Jun, looking no worse for the experience, especially once Jun gave them back the items they'd dropped upon their death. Gio had also returned, having successfully destroyed a camp along with the platoon he'd been a.s.signed to.

"I'm telling you, the Realm of the G.o.ds is amazing. Elysium is peaceful, sure. But the realm was incredible," Griffin was saying.

"I can't believe you guys got to go to the Realm of the G.o.ds. That's sick," Ryan said enviously.

"Yeah, I definitely want to go back some time," Griffin replied.

"If you want I can send you," said Eric, fiddling with his Quickwind Dagger.

"No, I'm good," Griffin replied hurriedly.

"Still, I wonder what allowed us to go there instead of Elysium?" Mark wondered. "I mean we began in Elysium. Or I did at least. But then after a few minutes a portal opened up which allowed me to enter the Realm."

"We performed a funeral ceremony for you guys. That's probably what did it," Eric explained, as Ryan and Jun nodded to confirm his words.

"Huh, well I'd say it's something to explore. But I don't really want to have to die just to try it again."

Chatting as they moved, Eric and the rest of the group began to explore the camp, looking for a way to kill time before sundown. Luckily, there wasn't long to wait before the sun began to set. As the sun began to dip below the horizon, a bugle's call rang through the camp, causing heads to snap up as they looked towards the source of the sound.

Making their way towards the bugler, Eric and the others discussed the possible rewards they could be given as they followed the rest of the camp towards the sound. As they left the camp, the bugler came into sight, standing alongside two other figures on a tall platform in the middle of the plains surrounding Tonbura. Large banners bearing the same symbol as Eric's militia badge hung on either side of the platform, fluttering gently in the evening breeze.