Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
"The Harmonian army…" were the first words that came out of Albert's mouth as he woke.
"I'm one step ahead of you," Caesar responded, coming into the tent with Hugo and Dios. The other True Rune Bearers turned their attention to the two of the Grasslander Army. Caesar had earlier chosen the roomiest tent for Sasarai and Albert, and the temporary room comfortably held the seven people currently in it with room to spare. Albert noticed that Sasarai had gotten up and was currently walking around to test his legs. Geddoe stood in the corner, leaning against a piece of furniture while Chris was sitting on a chair next to older Silverberg, apparently having just finished healing with the True Water Rune. Now Caesar walked across the room and deposited himself on a chair, sitting on it backwards so that he could face Albert.
Albert made to stand up, but Chris told him, "You can sit up for now, but I think you should wait a little before walking around."
"Yeah, I would have been familiar with the floor, if not for Geddoe," Sasarai said. Albert took their advice and instead brought himself to a sitting position on the bed.
"Yeah…" Caesar began. "Hugo, Dios, and I talked to your army for you because you were both kind of out of it."
"What was their response?" Sasarai asked.
"Our soldiers were sympathetic with the situation and agreed to follow the Flame Champion, if Lord Sasarai would allow," Dios told him.
"Why me… I lied to them…" Sasarai, surprised, began.
"It is easier to follow one who travels with them to their battles than one who attacks them. Think about it, if they were to follow Hikusaak, they would have to go back to him to claim ignorance and beg for forgiveness," Albert explained to him and then turned his gaze to the three who had walked in last. "I'm certain that you three did quite the explaining in order for them to listen so willingly. Like Lord Sasarai said, we did lie about the purpose of the war to begin with."
Caesar laughed. "Well, we basically told them its five True Runes versus one." His brother raised an eyebrow so the younger hastily added, "... and we also told them that the original plan was to protect Harmonia because if another war were to occur, Harmonia would be left open."
"Hikusaak's True Rune is different from ours," Sasarai told Caesar. "Ours are bound by the forces of nature. I do not know what the Circle Rune is fully capable of. That army of Hikusaak… it had no soldiers except for himself until he opened the portal."
"Well, it can't be that bad right?" Caesar said, resting his head on his hand and his elbow on the back of the wooden chair.
"Hikusaak used the Circle Rune to create Harmonia, to capture both the True Wind and the True Earth Runes, and to create my brother and me," Sasarai continued. "Take that into account."
"Lord Sasarai…" Dios began.
"It's okay," Sasarai cut him off. "I'm okay now…"
"… Not to mention he kind of summoned that portal to the Demon Realm…" Caesar added thoughtfully despite his initial display of confidence. "We might be in a bit of trouble…"
Hugo, who had been silently listening to the conversation up till now, said, "We can do it. Like Caesar said, we have five True Runes compared to Hikusaak's one!" His enthusiasm faded when the others looked at him grimly.
"Hugo, when I was healing some of the soldiers who were critically hurt on my way here… a few of them told me that half of the Harmonian army is unaccounted for since the last battle," Chris said after the others didn't respond.
"Huh? There were a lot of them outside though… and we only suffered minor casualties…" Hugo responded.
"Well, we were fighting on the West side, so our army took most of the impact from the onslaught," Dios said. Sasarai sank into the chair, unable to stand.
"You noticed and didn't tell me?" Caesar exclaimed.
"I didn't want it to affect your words to the three armies," he replied. "I apologize."
"So that's why they didn't want to go back to Hikusaak…" Caesar muttered. "I should've known… I do remember not seeing anything but demons fighting for Hikusaak… oh, and there was this guy in black… that must have been Yuber."
"I can't imagine…" Sasarai muttered.
"Well, sitting here won't help us," Albert finally spoke, getting off the bed. Chris moved to catch him in case he fell, but he showed no sign of disorientation. "Do you know how long it will take Hikusaak to get here?"
"I sent my team to investigate," Geddoe told him. "They should be back sometime tonight."
"Fair enough, until then we should try to organize our men. Lady Chris…" Albert turned to the leader of the Zexens. "Will you attend to the injured until the evening?"
"Oh, of course," she replied and hastily left the tent.
"Well," Caesar rose, grabbing Hugo around the neck with his arm.
"Hey!" Hugo protested.
"We'll go talk with some of the Grasslander leaders to see if they want to come to tonight's meeting. Catch you guys later!" He left the tent, half dragging a struggling Hugo with him. Geddoe nodded to the remaining three and also left.
Now that everyone had left, Albert and Dios directed their attention to Sasarai, who was staring blankly at the floor.
"You should go and talk to them," Albert told him. "They aren't looking for a leader who would abandon them after one lost battle."
"Lord Albert!" Dios said disapprovingly.
"You're right, Albert. I will go and talk to them now," Sasarai said, rising. The two remaining in the tent looked at each other briefly and then followed their leader out.
--
Leknaat stood at her window, a hand on the stone framing the opening to the outside of her massive tower. A light wind went through the tower and the seer raised a hand to the air as if to feel the breeze. She closed her hand slowly and brought it down back to its original position on the window sill.
"Hikusaak… what have you done?"
--
"They should be here any minute," Geddoe confirmed as the others shifted uncomfortably. They had set up a huge table with a detailed map of the Grasslands inside of the large tents from the Harmonian army.
"The sun has already gone! How much longer do we have to wait?" hissed Dupa impatiently. Along with him, the leaders of the other four other Grasslander tribes, Salome, Caesar, Dios, and the five Rune Bearers were attendance. As if something were answering Dupa's question, the group suddenly heard people yelling outside and a Harmonian soldier bolted into the tent.
"Excuse for my intrusion, but I think Sir Geddoe's companions need Lady Chris's immediate attention!" he gasped. Chris hurried out with him, leaving the others in a silent shock. Before they recovered enough to follow, Ace stumbled into the tent. He had a few injuries here and there but was otherwise not in critical condition. The mercenary collapsed into a chair offered to him, muttering a few curses from the pain caused by the action.
"Sorry Geddoe… One of them surprised us," Ace said, breathing hard. "We barely managed to get away. You wouldn't believe what we saw…"
"One?" Dupa growled. "How could you be defeated by one?"
"Hey, you try fighting a giant killer dragon-thing! We would've died if Futch and Sharon hadn't arrived! Hikusaak has some nasty stuff up his sleeves."
"Futch is here?" Caesar asked.
"Yeah, I'm here…" the dragon-rider responded, entering the tent. "Bright is resting, and Sharon's helping the others," he told Ace, who nodded. "They'll be fine."
"Did you at least kill the 'giant killer dragon-thing'?" Dupa asked, emphasizing the phrase he copied from Ace sarcastically. Ace shook his head. "What? It was… how many people are in your group again… four plus three against one!"
"It was Black…" Futch muttered.
"So what if it was a black dragon?" Dupa responded. "How does the color determine how strong a foe is? If the Lizard Clan were there…"
"No, it was Black, Futch's first dragon," Sasarai cut in. Dupa stopped, and the room turned to Futch and Ace.
"How many dragons does he have?" Hugo asked. "I mean, I know Bright's pretty strong…"
"Luckily for us, Hikusaak only has control of Black, but," Futch looked away, "I… I don't know how to put it…"
"How many soldiers did you guys lose during the last battle?" Ace asked.
"About half," Hugo replied. "For the Harmonians anyway…"
"That's sounds about right…"
"Well? Just spill it!" Sasarai, sweat dripping down the side of his face from anticipation of bad news, said.
"Black died about twenty years ago. Seeing him here now only means that Hikusaak somehow resurrected him." The others did not speak but continued to stare at him, waiting for more of an explanation. "Look! I know it was Black, even if it was only a skeletal dragon… Hikusaak must have been able to control his corpse… like he did to all the soldiers that died several days ago…"
"Our soldiers… were reanimated?" Sasarai gasped.
"If we add that to the limitless amount of demons Hikusaak is able to summon, then we're in trouble…" Caesar muttered.
"When will they be here?" Albert spoke for the first time since Ace came in.
"Tomorrow…"
"Then we have no choice but to hold them off until we can move our soldiers to a more suitable location."
"Suitable?" Ace asked. "How is anywhere suitable with that many things to fight against?"
"We're currently on a plain; it will be better if we fought in a more sheltered area where only one of our sides was exposed."
"So we'll have to retreat deeper into the Grasslands…" Caesar commented to himself. "Who's going to hold them off? The whole army wouldn't be able to move at once. There are too many people…"
"We can use the True Earth Rune to open up the ground and then the True Fire Rune to fill it with flames. That will keep most of the ground units from crossing. Wind and Lightning can keep the flying ones at bay, at least for a while," Albert said.
"What about Lady Chris?" Salome asked.
"We still have many injured; we'll need her to attend to them for now."
"How do you plan on escaping?" Dupa asked. "Some of us have to stay and help you!"
"No, our objective is to get the entire army to safer grounds. You and the Lizard Clan can remain in the back to fight off any that crosses our line of defense if you wish, but I insist that you keep at moving at all times," Albert told him.
"Very well…" Dupa grumbled.
"If the rest of you agree with the plan…" Albert said, annoyed that no one had spoken up against it. To be truthful, he didn't really know what to do because he had never encountered an army of such overwhelming power like that of Hikusaak's.
"I have no objections," Sasarai said, crossing his arms.
"Then I will go along with it also," Dios agreed with his superior. The others nodded in consent.
What have we gotten ourselves into?
Note: Thanks for reading! Writing fanfiction beats doing homework any day! Now I must stop procrastinating and do my pile of homework…