Sorry it took so long. I was really busy.
pikinanou: That's not a bad idea, actually… Fred and Rico… but I'll have to find a place for them to fit in.
Captain Spam: You'll find out what they plan in this chapter, though it's pretty simple.
K'Arthur: Thanks for your help.
Widower: I try and model my characters after the ones in the actual game, but it gets kind of hard after a while…
KS: Glad you liked it.
………
Chapter 4: Bandits
The ride back to Budehuc passed quickly for the three knights and squire. It was only later that night that they left the castle grounds under the cover of dark onto Yaza Plain, accompanied by a battalion of ready knights. The plan was simple, almost too simple for Salome to have agreed with. But Chris eventually wore him down.
Later the next day, the plan had been launched, and Chris, playing a mother, Borus, a father, and Louis, the son, traveled down the worn road to Tinto. They had rented a cart and filled it with old clothing and worthless magic-made jewelry.
"Milady," Louis whispered in her ear, "Are you sure this is going to work?" He had poked his head out from the back of the cart into the driver's seat, where Chris and Borus sat.
"If anything, it will draw the bandits out of hiding. The battalion has hidden itself well up ahead, so we should not need to worry about safety."
"If you say so, milady." He disappeared as he lowered himself into a sitting position.
"I see he is having second thoughts about coming along," chuckled Borus.
"Yes…" Chris took a sidelong glance at him. She remembered all to clearly how he pulled her aside right before they left Budehuc, and in a whisper, he had said, "Be careful tomorrow, Chris." That was all he had said, but his eyes held a passion, a love and longing that she did not understand. And it scared her.
The day grew old and the sun sank lower in the sky. The cart rolled along the dirt road making hardly any noise. All around the threesome was empty grassland, silent as a winter morning.
Chris nudged Borus in the side, the symbol that they had entered the bandits' most frequented area. Borus made a barely noticeable nod, and said as loud as a drunken Leo, "What are we going to do with all these vaaalllluuuaablllessss when we reach Tinto?"
Chris stifled a chuckle and replied in an equally loud voice, "I do not know. There are just tooo many ex-PEN-sive items to know what to do with."
"Perhaps we should give them away?"
"Yes, let's! I have a cousin who would LOVE some FREE valuables!"
"And to think that we have all these RUNES, too."
Borus looked back at Louis and signaled him to say his one line. He shuddered, pink spreading across his face, then said, "M-Mommy, can I sit up front? All of this gold is crowding me!"
A couple seconds later, their little play had proven successful as the armored, black-clad men seemed to appear out of nowhere, hundreds of them. Chris saw them coming and shot a signal into the evening air, a flash grenade she had gotten from Queen in the war. The bandits raced forward, but stopped short as they felt the ground shake. Chris smirked upon hearing their cries of surprise as the Zexen knights dashed from their hiding spots. The battle was on.
Chris leaped from the cart, her disguise falling away like shed skin. She slashed at the enemy closest to her, knocking him unconscious on the second blow. The Zexen knights and bandits were about equal in number, but something was wrong. The ninja-like style of the bandits was overpowering that of the Zexen Knights. Leo, the appointed leader of the battalion, slashed his way through the enemies until he was at Chris's side.
"This is not good, milady!" he called over the din of the clashing steel. "We're being pushed back. There's way too many of them."
Chris half concentrated on the enemy in front of her as she replied, "I am aware of that. We need a––" She stopped as she looked across the plain in horror. Hundreds more black soldiers led by one on horseback thundered towards the road. Borus hacked his way towards them.
"There are far too many! We must retreat!" he shouted.
"Maybe not…" Chris looked down at her right hand. Borus stared at her confused for a moment, then shook his head as he suddenly realized what she was thinking of.
"No! No, milady, you can't! It's too dangerous!"
"We will not survive a retreat, Borus. They were expecting us—they will surly catch us!"
"But milady!"
She gave him a stern look, and he quieted. Leo shifted uneasily, rubbing enemy blood from his face; he had killed no few bandits. She looked at her hand, gave a silent prayer to Sadie, held up her arm, and called once again for her most powerful attack, "Heavenly Drops."
The sky turned grey as storm clouds stretched across the sky. Chris felt the rune begin to find a mind of its own, and fought for control, putting all of her strength into the task. The bandits looked around in uncertainty, giving the knights a temporary advantage. The man on horseback looked directly at her from the other side of the battlefield, and she felt unseeable, non-human eyes driving into her own. She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated. A searing pain shot through her arm, just like before. Only now, it was much more painful.
But she refused to lose control and only tried harder. And it seemed to work. The air grew cold, and ice began to burst from the frozen ground throughout the entire battlefield. Chris blocked from her mind the screams let out by the enemy as they were stabbed through their feet and backs, or frozen to death. She pushed the pain away as it became more intense.
A yelp of pain from close by made her eyes snap open. Borus held his left arm, which was bleeding profusely. She quickly realized that a shard of ice had cut it. The attack was out of control.
"Stop, stop!" she cried, grabbing her right hand. The rune sucked energy from her body, causing her to fall to her knees. She fought for consciousness as the rune pulled everything out of her like a vacuum on high. But the rune was too powerful this time. She let out a wheezing breath as she fell to a soggy earth, her eyes closing.
Borus watched in terror as his captain fell to the ground, unmoving. He ran to her side, ready to defend her, his arm hanging at his side. But there was nothing to defend her from. The enemy had either run away… or was dead.
………