Noel Canyon

"Damn…ballistae."

Ronan sighed. After many days of walking and fighting, the Liberation Army had finally reached a destination: Noel Canyon.

It was a wide area, with about 3 main rivers slightly parallel to each other. At the western end stood the enemy fort, and to the northeast, a small village. It was a place that the young fisherman would like to live, but certainly not now.

Troops were everywhere, and siege engines such as the ballista had been deployed. Ronan had only heard enough of Dorias' horror stories of the things, but had become slightly reassured; the canyon was thick in woods and forests, and provided plenty of coverage.

Leaf had executed this battle plan as "Limited Free Reign." This meant that each person could do what they want, but must meet an expected deadline during parts of the battle. At the start, Ronan quickly darted to the north, where an arena, armory, and shop stood. There were a few soldiers here and there, so he and Robert performed a tag battle in which one would attack right after another. Once the enemies were dispatched, the duo advanced on the first ballista.

"Huh…" Robert said his voice full of wonder, "Never seen one of these up close..."

It was stationed at the arena entrance, with only one guard in sight. Behind a building a block behind, Ronan and Robert considered their strategy.

"Well, we could just go up and take out the soldier…"

"But he might have backup behind, waiting for ambush…"

"Yeah, maybe so. But it would still help all of our troops down in the forest if we disabled their only means of attacking from afar.…"

Ronan cleared his throat. "I'll go and take him out, you can watch for reinforcements." Robert nodded and proceeded to find a spot to watch in the distance.

The blue haired youth cautiously ran up to the end of the block, and put his back to the wall. Turning ever so slightly, he sighted the soldier and ballista in plain view.

"Here we go…" Ronan said to himself, drawing his bowstring.

Albeit not having much strength, Ronan was fast. In a flash he struck the soldier, and ran toward the siege weapon.

The man was writhing on the ground. Ronan managed to pierce his neck, and it was a rather gruesome site to look at. Shaking the feeling of unease off, he stepped toward the ballista, and began to look it over.

"There he is! Attack, 5th squadron!"

Multiple enemy units spread out all around the bow fighter, all armed with lances. There were about 4 or so. Ronan had never been in this kind of situation before. Should he plea for mercy and get captured, or take down as many bastards as he can?

There was no time to consider the odds. In a flash, one of the men fell down; Robert's arrow had struck him square in the back. "Ronan! Figure eight tactics!" came the fellow archer's voice.

Ronan hesitated, then began running in an arc around the men. Dazed and confused, the enemies had no idea what was going on, and proceeded to start stabbing whatever came close. Robert, running down the lane, fired again. This time, the man who confirmed Ronan's appearance was nothing more than a corpse with an arrow through it. Another man, disregarding all battle tactics entirely, stuck out his lance and tripped Ronan on the ground.

Tasting blood, Ronan had only a second before the man tried to impale him on the street. However, with a quick roll, Ronan avoided and got on his feet, and punched him in the face.

As quoted earlier, Ronan wasn't much for strength. Barely breaking the man's nose, he didn't react enough in time to avoid the other blow.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

Ronan doubled over in pain. The soldier had literally bunted him on the side of the head, causing him to fall on the ground once more. With no will left to dodge, he awaited the final blow.

It never came. Instead, he vaguely saw a man's face with an arrow through it. The body seemed to step forward a bit, and then crashed down altogether next to him. Trying to recollect his scattered thoughts, Ronan shakily got to his feet. The last enemy had apparently fled; he was nowhere on sight.

"Haha…you okay, buddy?"

Robert was grinning. Apparently, he thought seeing his allies get hurt was funny. Ronan shook his head, and took out some medicine for the wound.

"What…what should we do about the ballista?" Ronan weakly said, after applying the proper bandages,

"Leave it." Said Robert. I don't feel like wasting my time with a weapon I've never used."

Ronan silently agreed. "Let's get back to the battle down south; Maybe Leaf saved some guys for us."

Together the men walked out of the village.