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Chapter 11: A Battle to Remember
They Flew down almost strait into the army of ants, Hacking,cutting,and slashing away at whatever they could. The Army of humans were surprised about their new, temporary allies, but they called thanks when Brad got close to the front lines on the city wall. "Brad, You and Gregor remain here and fight, I must talk to the king now before it is too late!" Luxa called as she whipped past him. Brad wanted to be there to help her, but she had been queen for a long time now, and he was needed here, even with Twitchtip, Gregor, Eris, and even Thanatos, they couldn't handle it...they probably couldn't handle it no matter what. Brad kept chopping away but the more he killed, the more took it's place. It seemed like they had the whole colony here, but Brad knew that there were many more...thousand more, waiting to pour in from the tunnels, Cracks, Crevices, everywhere they could enter. Brad Realized that Him,Gregor, and especially Twitchtip, were useless fighting on bats. Twitchtip couldn't even attack without hurting Eris, and Brad and Gregor couldn't fight freely on the bats backs. "Than, tell Eris to take Gregor to the front line of the wall, take me there as well" he called over the noise. Soon they had both landed and Gregor was full of questions, "Why did we stop? What's the plan? Do you have a plan? Why arn't we fighting? Why did you call me here?" and Brad cut him off before Gregor could flip out, "Gregor, we stand a better chance fighting on the ground with our abilities this time, there are too many cutters to fight on bats. the Bats can fight from above and they wont have us to carry, we can spin, Twitchtip can fight now. Get to the front of the wall, form a three point arc with Twitchtip, I shall do the same with they others.". Gregor just nodded and head off towards the front of the wall, Brad found two survivors and told them to follow, they did and as they all formed a three point arc, Brad started his spin, hoping that Luxa would be fast.
Luxa POV
As soon as I could find someone who wasn't completely disoriented, she asked for the room to the king. As soon as she reached it, the king ordered the room clear for them to speak. "I am queen Luxa, I come to urgently ask your to join the Regalian army for the survival of all mankind." she said getting strait to the point. The man looked at her strangely, "So you are asking me to leave my kingdom to save the lives of those in yours?". Luxa Grew angry, she didn't have time to explain everything, this castle would be coming down any second. "Please listen! The cutters have sworn to wipe out all the human race to gain power in the underland, they have already destroyed one castle off to the west, I do not ask you this for to save our lives, we ask you this to save all lives.". The king seemed to understand, but he wasn't so quick to agree. He looked out of the window of the room, and saw the cutters...the massive army of more than two thousand, his army being torn to shreds. Soon he had no choice but to accept her offer, but he made a deal of his own first. "We waste time here, and my army will not win this war. however if we go to this "Regalia" you speak of, I want to be certain that we will be compensated for our duties. I will not leave my home for nothing your highness, surely you understand this.". The time was running out, and she had to agree. She had no idea what she would give them in return...you would think helping all the humans survival would be payment enough...but he was right, this was his home, and now he could see that if he stayed, it would change nothing. After she nodded, and man called for his guards and told them, "Get everyone still alive out to the midlands, I will follow, but first, I must rally my soldiers.". The guards quickly nodded and head of on their fliers to get the civilians to freedom. And that's when it happened, Luxa saw out of the window that the small army that had been helping Brad and Gregor, had vanished, they only thing that stood between the cutters and the city, was six people: Brad, Gregor, Twitchtip, and the 3 soldiers that had been fighting with them...they would never live if they tried to fight.
Brad POV
Brad held out as long as he could, but there was nothing more any of them could do. "RUN!" he ordered the small party that had been trying to fight, "RUN! GET OUT!". Thanatos had already thought this through and managed to Grab Twitchtip and one of the guards before coming to Grab Brad. Thanatos was strong, but even he struggles under the weight of them all. Eris was the only flier left that could help, and she made a mad dash to the remaining 3, she grabbed a soldier, and was heading for Gregor but would never make it, they army of ants had seen him as the biggest threat still within their line of sight, and dove for him. In a Brave act of loyalty, the remaining soldier, Threw himself at Gregor. Just as the front lines of the ants had jumped to take Gregors life, the man knocked Gregor out of the way, and sacrificed his life for Gregors. It was all the time Eris needed to Grab Gregor and they were on their way to the kingdom. As they landed in the throne room, Brad immediately sputtered, "Luxa, he must go, they are seconds away from-" but was cut off by a sudden sway of the castle. Brad joined the king at the side of the window to looked out and what he saw, actually frightened him. Now, one cutter was weak, two cutters, still a weak team, but at the bottom of the castle thousands of cutter gather all around the base of it, using their weight, and combined force to destroy the castle. Literally, only seconds remained before they would all be caught in this castle as it went down. They all knew what to do, and as the castle fell, they were flying away. The old king looked back at his kingdom with tears in his eyes, then looked at Luxa and said, "I take back what I said, just give us a chance to win this war, and we will consider each other even.". They flew on in silence, towards the midlands, where the rest of the survivors would be.
As if the king couldn't handle himself anymore, he spoke. "Decus...my name is king Decus, and I thank you for your help...I suppose after the current events, my name is Just Decus now.". His face held all the emotions he was feeling, anger, sorrow, despair, hate, and especially remorse. "Nice to meet you Decus, I am sorry it is not on a better accord." said Luxa. Decus just looked up at her and said, "I couldn't agree more." and then they flew on in silence. Soon Brad noticed Gregor was not himself, his eyes wide, his body was ridged, he was in shock. "Gregor...you are safe now" Brad said, but he had been wrong. "It's not that Brad, that man who saved me...why did he do it? He didn't know me, yet he risked and lost his life for mine...it feels so dirty to live when he should be the one here right now." Gregor replied softly. After a few moments of silence, one of the soldiers spoke up, " His name was "Fidelitas" ...he was a good friend of my brother.". Brad asked, "What is your name sir, and what is your brothers if I may ask?". The man replied, "I am Castor, My brother is called Pollux." he said motioning to the man on Eris's back. As they reached the midlands, Decus saw how much they had really lost, and buried his head in his hands. More than half of my kingdom...gone, Brad was surprised, when he was the massive group of people that had been waiting, he had thought most of the kingdom had made it...but if this was less then half...then the kingdom must have been immense. Upon counting the survivors, There were 2,439 survivors left, of both humans, fliers, and some nibblers and gnawers. "King Decus, if I told you how to get back to Regalia, would you be able to navigate it? We must continue to the last kingdom if we are to have hopes of getting a stronger army." Luxa said, but Twitchtip spoke up, "I will show them the way your highness, I am wounded and I must get back to Regalia now, you go and find that last kingdom, I will keep yours safe while your gone." she said with a smile. Twitchtip did have a huge gash that ran from her back legs all the way up to her chin, but she seemed eager to go back for another reason. Luxa agreed and they watched all of the Humans take flight...all except two. "Queen Luxa, me and Caster must ask to come with you...we want to help your highness" Pollux said. At first Luxa didn't want them to come but Gregor said, "Luxa, let them come, from what we have all just seen, we may need them, " Luxa remembered the feeling she got when she saw the cutters destroy the kingdom, and let them come. Soon they were on their way to the last kingdom...the kingdom of Chimor.
They flew for only one hour before Eris said, "Thanatos, Aurora, and I must rest.". Brad hadn't even realized that the fliers had been awake and flying for several hours before the battle. The fliers found a safe place to lay down and sleep, and Gregor and Luxa Prepared dinner. Brad soon realized that Twitchtip and them had never had a chance to practice, and started to feel a little bad. But he shook it off, they were all wounded in some way, it wasn't a good time to train. Brad grabbed the medical kit and started to heal the wounds around the group, the worst was a wound on Castor, his wrist had broken in the battle, Brad did his best to keep him from moving it, but Brad had nothing to keep it in place, so he could only wrap it. After the food was cooked, Gregor went strait to sleep with Luxa, and the soldiers and Brad stayed awake. The soldiers talk amongst themselves and Brad began to make his journal entry.
"Month 5 of my 18th year
War is just how I remembered it...two creatures fighting in any method they could to immobilize and destroy the other. Gregor is a Great fighter, and so is Twitchtip, Luxa is a great queen as well...They all did great today, even if we lost many lives. Luxa managed to persuade King Decus to join forces with the Regalian army, which is amazing work on Luxa's part, she only had 10 minutes to act, and most of that was spent trying to find the king. I was wrong about her...and every time I think about what I said to her, I feel more like an evil man... She is my sister, she is a great queen, and if I had to give my life to save hers, I would do it without a second thought. I owe her a bigger apology...I owe her more. I have been thinking about me being king...and I see now, that I am not a king. What makes a king is words, skill, the ability to make good decisions quickly. What makes a king is experience. It doesn't matter about me being Luxa's Brother...most people in Regalia don't trust me. Truthfully, I guess I can say, I don't want to be king, it is not my place...maybe for a time I thought I did want to be, but now I see it is a silly dream. I am a fighter, I am a soldier. I want Regalia to be my home...but I must first find my place there...if I am not needed in Regalia...I must leave, for no one would want me if I could not help.
It took Brad until the tear hit the paper he was writing on to realize he was crying. Why? He didn't cry often, he was strong inside, he had gotten used to being hurt, to seeing death...but something was in his heart now...something that could break him...a new weakness. He realized it was home, he wanted to belong, he wanted a family again, he wanted Luxa, he wanted friends...he was tired of being alone. Thanatos was an amazing friend...but it was different, those two would always be together until the day they died. He was crying because of Luxa...she was his sister, his family...and he didn't even know her, he loved her as a brother, but he didn't know her at all... He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed away the tears, and laid down to sleep, leaving the two guards to watch over them. Little did they know, that the next perils they would face, were worse than they had ever imgained.
