Location: Oribes Bridge

Year: 1768

Time: Noon (The day before Ike's second test)

Chapter 7: The Immortal Assassin

"General Danato," cried Linde. "Ilana and Salem bridge have both been destroyed!"

"What!" exclaimed Danato. "Why Linde?"

"Queen Maria had ordered: should one of our defenses be overrun, retreat to the fortress gate and set the explosives. It will take out the bridge preventing the enemy from crossing."

"Oribes still stands! As long as I protect it, they will not get further than the bridge's center!"

As archers continued to fire, beasts and Branded continued to pour in. Slaughtered by the hail of arrows, those who survived were met with a quick death from men in heavy armor forming a human wall. They had held of any attack, and it looked like it will continue as so.

"Lady Linde, get up with your knights and tell them to prepare to strafe the enemy," said Danato. I'll break through the heavy armors with my horsemen and run them down. Let's not make this last any longer than needed."

"As you wish," replied Linde. She flew to the end of the bridge and landed on the fortress gate. Atop the gate were two dozen Pegasus Knights ready to attack. Linde went to the barrel of Javelins, and strapped a good half dozen onto her saddle. She then took a spear and looked at her troops. "Ladies," she said "let's take down these beasts for good! Remember to stay in formation and not to fly low. Hopefully, we won't have to get messy if those boys on the horses can finish the rest."

"Prepare to charge," said Danato. "Use only bows until you know you can hit them with your sword." The men charged gallantly shooting in between the heavy armored troops and slaughtering a wave of beasts. They then jumped over the heavily armored men and fired another volley. By this time the Pegasus Knights came sweeping in throwing javelins and spears alike. The survivors of the merciless barrage were then quickly felled by speeding horsemen dashing in and lashing with their weapons. The beasts retreated over the small hill of the plain and Crimea had won.

As soon as Danato was about to congratulate Linde, the fortress gate suddenly exploded. "Impossible!" said Danato. "Those were are own explosives used to destroy the gate and I had even left three squadrons of twelve to defend it."

"I'll go check it out," said Linde.

"General Danato," screamed one of the men. "We have a problem."

As Danato, turned around, he saw four armored tigers dragging down a metal caravan. Behind the caravan was an army of lions quickly advancing down the small hill followed by a single mage. The mage chanted a spell and all the sunlight disappeared and was replaced by clouds. Lightning and thunder then began to flash and roar.

"STEP BACK!" screamed Danto. "REXBOLT!" Danato immediately rallied the men before white lightning in the shape of a colossal dragon exited from the clouds. It hit the ground as quickly as it had left the clouds and all of the armored men were killed. The force of the blast knocked down the archers and swordsmen as well as some of the horsemen. They were then quickly picked of by a rain of crossbow bolts from the armored caravan and lions. With the remaining dozen or so horse men he had left, Danato looked helplessly at the sky as another bolt was about ready to fire and the Pegasus Knights were quickly picked off by the armored caravan.

The bolt struck fifty feet way from Danato, but it was still enough to kill six of his horsemen and knock the rest of them out of their horses. Now running for his life, two more men were shot by the quickly advancing armored caravan and the others taken down by lions. Being the last one left, he ran as fast as he could to the now destroyed fortress gate and managed to reach it. "Linde!" he screamed. "Where are you?"

Danato managed to find her Pegasus standing right next to her motionless body and he felt relief. "Linde!" he screamed. "Linde wake up!"

"General?" questioned Linde just coming to. "What is it?"

"Listen to me very carefully, who did this to you?"

"I don't know…"

"You have to head for Melior and warn Queen Maria, understand?"

"What about you?"

"I'll see if I can still find a way to blow this bridge up," said Danato with a sad smile.

"Your bravery will be remembered general…"

"Good, now get going," said Danato. As Linde flew away, he began to search the rubble. Managing to find a couple of explosives that were not detonated, he climbed up the collapsing stairs to the top of the burning fortress. There, he lied in wait until the metal caravan was right in front of him. When it had reached the burning fortress gate, he dropped the explosives on it causing it to blow in a spectacular fashion. One of the crossbows flew up and Danato caught it happy it was still intact. He immediately aimed at the now chanting mage and shot him right at the neck. Falling over lifeless on the ground, all Danato had to deal with now was the lions.

As he got up, he felt someone grab his back and throw him down the wall. Slowly getting up, he saw a man in brown with a cover on half his face. Shudders entered his body and he said, "You are-

"The 'Immortal Assassin' at your service," said the man. "Unless you managed to pay me twice as much as Daien offered, I think I'll just kill you before you cause anymore damage."

"Don't think it will be that easy."

"I'm not, because it will be beyond that easy."

"I heard you use to work for a man by the name of Bastian before, and he was on Crimea's side. Why don't you join us again?"

"No thanks," said the man taking out a knife and dagger. "Baselard, Peshkatz, it is time to relieve your thirst."

"You'll regret this," said Danato drawing his sword. "Volke."

"I'm quite sure I won't."