"Time to swap," Annet stumbled her way to the fire. "Alright, rest up," Julius painfully climbed up. "No need to act tough, we all know you've helped a lot." She crossed her legs and held her palms to the fire. "Now this feels good," every time she spoke, a mist came out of her mouth, it looked like clouds. "That's the job of a big brother, I've got Autumn to take care of you know," his voice faded as he got farther. "We all have someone to take care of," her eyelids grew heavier by the second and she fell asleep.

  *Bang, bang,* rocks crumbled near the entrance, a faint sliver of snow followed suit. Everyone awoke, Annet's well-deserved nap abruptly ended. "What is it?" she shouted hearing the thunderous explosion grow closer. "I-It's Knightfall, they've locked down on our location." Julius said as he slid down, "we don't have any time to spare." Ayleth's right eye opened, part of her face was damaged from the explosion. Even her right arm broke, with its skins charred. Not to forget the still critical stomach wound. She wasn't in any position to move; her consciousness went to and fro. "L-leave me, alone sis," she mumbled. "Don't say such things," Annet yelled. "Don't argue with me." She paused, coughed, and continued; "-did you forget that I'm older than you." Annet tried to argue but the now awake Autumn touched her shoulder and shook her head.

  "We need to move, now," Julius grew impatient, a tear flowed down Annet's face. The a.s.sault had now reached their hideout. Bit by bit, bullet after bullet, it pierced through. "Watch out," the trajectory was dead set for Autumn's head. *Purgatory fireball, inferno,* before the cave broke, using sound, he predicted where the bullet would come out from. A highly condensed and burning hot fireball was conjured. A pssh was heard, It sounded like extinguis.h.i.+ng a fire with water. The bullet melted, but Julius ended up hurting his hand in the process. "Brother," Autumn immediately used healing magic to no avail, it was Knightfall's curse. Each shot grew more powerful, escape was no longer an option. The defending party was being held down by a single weapon.

  "Your holiness, are you sure it's wise to continue firing at that spot?" the marksmen spoke, his left eye was covered fully by black colored hair. Using his right eye to scope in, a cross appeared on the face of the mountain and he shot. "Yes child, keep following the cross and you'll surely kill the ones who've escaped us earlier. The pope used a tracker, magic, and some new gadgets they obtained from the earlier s.h.i.+pment of weapons. "I see it, time stops, my target moves and I shoot," a figure jumped out from the entrance. *Click,* long hair was the last thing he saw before pulling the trigger.

  *Bang,* "Nooo," Fenrir tried to grab her, everything went silent. "Annet, why did you?" Julius crawled to the entrance, Annet had jumped out of spite. She acted like the sacrificial lamb, each shot took about two seconds to reload. "Come on, we need to run now," Julius jumped in turn. *Bang,* "brother." Autumn yelled. "This is stupid," Fenrir spoke casually. "Why do you look so nonchalant, two out of our party members just threw themselves to the lion." Autumn fired back; her cheek boiled red out of frustration.

  "Can you be anymore reckless?" A familiar voice came through the opening, "you sure took your time, didn't you?" Fenrir spoke, "sorry, I got lost." Black hair flashed through the hole, black lips and two unconscious bodies in each arm. "Phew, you sure do make my job harder." She smiled, Undrar landed, her wings stretched then relaxed into a neutral stance.

  "I-impossible," the long hair now covered his eyes, he looked up. "What happened?" the soothing voice asked out of curiosity, "why do you look so pale?" the pope pressed on forward. "Knightfall's bullets were stopped as if it were nothing," he gulped and his breathing grew faster. "Calm down child, this isn't nothing to threat about." His giant palm patted the boy's head rea.s.suringly. "Outrageous, how c-can I m-miss?" everything got filtered out. "I see you're no longer of any use," the pope sighed as the boy tightly hugged his legs. "Main troops, advance forward and kill anyone on sight, I shall be returning to camp, relay any useful information. May G.o.d enlighten your path and bless all of you."

  "How, what, who are you?" Autumn stood as perplexed as ever, this lady who seemingly came out of nowhere stopped Knightfall. "I'm Viola Haggard," she replied and checked on Ayleth. Outside, the sun finally broke the never-ending dawn. The sound of engines was heard, the army resumed their march. This time, it was the real army, not the scouts, fully armed and ready to kill on sight. Their gaze looked like hungry beasts, they hungered for blood.

  "Get ready people, we are approaching, a little bird has already told us where our targets are hiding," Adelana shouted, she burned with antic.i.p.ation. "Alright boys, you've heard the boss." Everyone loaded their weapons. Frostrest came into view, the trucks went straight towards it unknowing of the danger awaiting them. Faint flashes of light were spotted thanks to the slightly dim morning. "Everybody, get down," hearing someone scream so loudly, everyone obeyed. Behind them, the path on which they had just driven on got rained by bullets. "Get into cover," the trucks sharply left the path and drove onto the mountainside where they were out of sight. The vehicles took a beating but she didn't care.

Still driving on the rather gently sloped mountain edge, Adelana spotted something. It was snow and rubbles. Looking up, she noticed it, the entrance that was thoroughly damaged. Bullets continued to hit randomly all around them. "Continue moving forward, and stay behind cover; don't get shot and die aimlessly." She leaped; the truck lowered due to the pressure. Unluckily, she leaped into an oncoming barrage of bullets, "annoying pests," in midair, she turned around and swung her sword flawlessly stopping the projectiles. "Ayleth," she rushed to her side, Undrar held her head.

  "Who's this now?" Autumn crossed her legs and watched intently. So many new people rushed into the cave, she practically got lost in thought. Julius and Annet woke at the same time. "You've finally come," Annet smiled. "Did you have doubts?" Adelana's tone got filled with anger and hate. Laying before her, Ayleth whose face and body were badly hurt. "Kreston is going to pay," she took her sword in hand for the second time. It gleamed; she gently stroked the blade's edge. The once dull and dusty blade responded to her, it felt as if it got reawaken after years of sleeping. "You've been to rest for far too long, old friend," she held it with one hand. "Anyone able to fight, follow me, Kreston's army will pay." She leaped out, "brother you're not going anywhere," Autumn held his s.h.i.+rt. "Don't worry about it, leave the clean up to us," Undrar finished whatever she was doing. "Use healing magic on her now, the curse has been lifted," her wings flapped, a brisk wind blew across their faces. Fenrir changed into her human form; her help was no longer required.

  "Fenrir, who were they?" Autumn asked.

  "They are the silver guardians, my dear little sister, Staxius Haggard's friends. But I know not the girl with black hair."

  "That's Viola Haggard, Staxius's sister. I've never seen her act this way, she's normally calm and collected without the drive to fight. Though she feels off today, that smile, that grin, it looks the same as him when he gets serious." Fenrir stood up, "after your done healing, let us get out of this abyss, I want to go back to sleep." She yawned.

Soon after, the defending party rejoined with a truck that waited further up. Said truck was brought especially for them. Orders were given that; after they've entered, the driver would get them out as fast as possible. On that front, everything went smoothly, Ayleth got partially healed by Autumn. All that she needed now was a doctor, a good one at that. Julius, Autumn, Fenrir, Ayleth and Annet all left – Adelana, Alyson and Undrar remained.

  "Undrar, are you sure you're doing alright? This is the first time we'll be fighting together." The duo of Adelana and Undrar climbed down the mountain at neck-breaking speeds. Adelana ran while Undrar flew, despite that, their pace was identical. "I just needed some exercise." Following close behind, Alyson who led all the mercenaries, they were hidden behind the foliage. Instead of going through the main path leading into the village, as the silver guardians previously got acquainted with the vicinity. They climbed the small hill on which the village leader's hut rested. The height advantage was one thing and knowing the terrain was even better.

  "Dear G.o.d," Adelana stopped to catch her breath, the village leader laid face down in a puddle of his own blood. He had been shot in the head, it left a hole as big as a human fist, the remnants of the brain matter sluggishly laid on the already bloodied top. "That's him alright," Alyson spat out of disgust. "We don't have time to waste, the army is approaching." Undrar got everyone back on track. Looking down from atop, soldiers walked, they were carefully scattered all around. All the military vehicles stationed were jeeps with mounted guns and trucks painted in green and brown.

  "Guys I don't want to alarm you but our men are getting restless." Alyson notified Adelana.

  "What is it Floyd, are you scared?" Adelana addressed the mercenary leader. "No ma'am, we're restless because we want to fight, our guns are begging to reign down death." He smirked.  

  "Well, strategizing has always been our back-up plan. Everyone, are you ready?" She stared at Undrar, to which the latter nodded. "Floyd, before we charge, I want you to keep most of your men up here, we don't want to lose the height advantage, and guns being fired from atop is better than on the uneven ground down there. The girls and I will handle the close-combat, this is for my sister's honor." As per her order, most of the men laid down and stared through their scopes. Alyson physically enhanced herself with lightning magic, Undrar conjured a s.h.i.+eld and Adelana, at last, broke the seal. "Death awaits our enemies, spare no one," Adelana leaped headfirst into battle, Undrar followed behind and close to her, Alyson. Bullets reign down, the battle begun.

*Fire element: Hades' blessing,* her entire body was wrapped around a blue-fire. Her blade burnt even more so, a single swing from her nearly destroyed half of the village; she wasn't at full power yet. Coming up from the right, Undrar casually flew around and touched anyone who tried shooting at her. Instantly, they turned to dust. Alyson took her lightning-strike stance and single-handedly wiped out most of the remaining members. This was the true Kreston army, despite being overwhelmed by this surprise attack, they rose up and fought. Bullets rained from behind them, blood everywhere, the girls were caged monsters who were just unleashed. The years traveling from battlefields to battlefields proved to be more than enough, their experience alone rivaled the remaining combatants.

  "Boss, are you sure it's even worth wasting our ammo?" one of the recruits spoke out.

  "They did hire us; we can't do anything about it. Fire at will, though I doubt we'll do anything major, I mean the cursed blade has stepped onto the field. Just look at that devastation she left behind, she carved out the left side of the village completely with one strike. This is her after a sixteen-year rest, just imagine how that strike was long ago." He stood, hands crossed, the sun shone, he watched.

  "They just keep on coming back," Undrar said while flying over Adelana. "Yeah, I agree," Alyson added while falling back. "If we prologue this for too long, they'll adapt and we'll lose – let's end it all here." Before now, Adelana was using her left hand, but now, the blade pointed straight in front of her, she held it with both hands. Looking at her stance, Undrar quickly retreated. The enemies kept on firing, luckily, the mounted guns weren't an issue for Alyson took care of it. "This is why I swore to never wield this blade ever again, but time has changed." She took a few breaths in, the aura changed. "I'm called the cursed blade because of this move," *Fire element; Mystic Burst.*

All the blue-flame that covered her body converged into a single dot near the tip of the sword. It grew so small it vanished, but suddenly, it all shot out and enveloped the weapon. "Goodnight," she leaped and swung vertically. The sword did a semi-circle and a giant crescent moon shaped light flew out. It lit so brightly staring at it could burn anyone's eyes. It made contact with the remainder of the village. A high-pitched sound followed and fell silent for a second, nothing happened. Shocked, the recruit stared at his leader, but he eagerly pointed at Frostrest. A faint crack made its way out, then, *BAM,* everything turned to dust, nothing was left standing; total annihilation. Frostrest was gone as well as a ma.s.sive portion of land leading up to Rotten Thicket.

  "Come on, let's go," the sword looked blazing hot, just like metal being smelted. "Should have left something for us," Undrar landed beside her. "You've lost strength sister, that move would have normally made it all the way to Rotten Thicket."

  "You're overestimating me," she scratched her head in denial and climbed the hill. "Hopefully this demonstration of strength will put Kreston in check for the time being," Undrar said casually. Behind them, what remained of Frostrest, a village that once welcomed them – was nothing but a carved-out piece of land reaching several hundreds of meters in length. Witnessing the power of the cursed blade, the mercenaries felt compel to stand up straight and salute. Adelana nodded accordingly and the search and rescue ended. All and all, the operation went as planned. No-one died, and it all ended without any more trouble.

Seeing as Frostrest was now unusable, on the way home. Adelana called on the Merchants of death to scavenge and clean up whatever was left. They praised and thanked her, she still had semi-close ties with them. "Ma'am, are you going to use that blade again?" Floyd asked as the ride became stagnant. "Yes and no, I'm not opposed to using it now but I also have my misgivings about it. Time will tell, if anyone tries to hurt the small community or any one member of my family and friends, I swear that I won't hesitate to unleash all my pent-up anger." The picture of Ayleth's broken down body continued to ail her; she was furious despite killing so many people. She wasn't satisfied, the one responsible still lived, she didn't know who it was, but her gut told her that he was out there. The vermillion colored shooting star at dawn was peculiar, she noticed it but was far too on edge to fully comprehend what was happening behind the scene.  "What is Staxius up to I wonder," she didn't blame him for anything.