Sinbad sat smiling to himself, every so often glancing in the direction of his silver haired advisor. Ja'far was sat staring out of the carriage's window, clearly frustrated and fidgety that he could not do any paperwork in his current environment, although I bet he's packed as much parchment and ink as he can, the King thought, quietly chuckling to himself.
This was a mistake, as those unimpressed dark green/grey eyes swivelled in his direction, fixing him with an icy stare.
"Something funny?" Ja'far asked, not a trace of a smile on his face. He had not been pleased with Sinbad since he had first been told he'd be accompanying him to this new country they were hoping would join their alliance, apparently feeling any of the other Generals could be there to protect him and that he had far too much paperwork to be getting on with. He had, however, after some negotiating, managed to convince his advisor he could bring as much paperwork with him as he wished, and that, whilst on the ship at least, he would do his job properly for once.
"Oh come on Ja'far, smile", Sinbad said, beaming in his direction, "Doesn't this remind you of the old days? Us going off to new countries and forming alliances, it's a new adventure, and I hear this country has quite a beautiful Princess!" Sinbad said happily.
"If it's nostalgia you want you could have always brought Masrur with you", Ja'far quipped back at him, still glaring out of the window, "and I'm not interested how beautiful their Princess is unless she can magically get paperwork done!"
"Awww Ja'far, how cruel, don't you want to spend some time with me?" He whined, pulling Spartos into a one-armed hug, "Besides, you'll damage your health if you work too much".
"You think he should relax too, don't you Spartos?" He smiled at the young Knight.
"Err...Well, maybe...I mean, it would be bad if you collapsed from over-working" Spartos managed to splutter out, then, looking over in Ja'far direction, hastily added, " Ah, but if it's what you enjoy then err...um, I..." he trailed off, clearly uncomfortable.
His other General had been determinedly staring out of the other window, clearly tense and trying desperately to stay out of this conversation. Sinbad had brought Spartos with him for two reasons. The first was that he was a Knight, and it seemed that this new country they were going to, Mercia, had a Knight system similar to Sasan's. He was hoping that this showed how diverse and respectful towards other cultures both he and his alliance were.
The other was that he hoped to boost his friend's confidence. Even in the palace of Sindria where he knew his young General felt comfortable, he would be mostly found reading by himself and seldom spoke to anyone other than the other Generals. Sinbad thought this was such a waste as he was only in his early twenties and didn't want him to regret not doing more with his youth.
"Don't bring Spartos into this Sin!" Ja'far scolded, "You're clearly making him uncomfortable!"
Sinbad was about to say back that Spartos need not feel like that when he was in the company of friends when the carriage came to an abrupt halt.
"Wait here, I'll see what the problem is", Ja'far sighed as he exited the carriage.
Really, he wished he would just lighten up, surely brooding over paperwork wasn't going to make any difference, he could at least try to enjoy himself, Sinbad mused to himself. He was still thinking about this when the door was yanked back open and Ja'far reappeared, looking flustered.
"It's Kou!"Ja'far exclaimed, "They've launched an attack on the Kingdom of Mercia!"
Sinbad launched himself out of the carriage, now clearly seeing the battle that was unfolding in the distance. How had he not known Kou were making a move?! Had Kougyoku been even slightly privy to the knowledge he would have known. Was this Al Tharmen blocking his channels? It's not like he didn't think they could manage something like that, but did that mean they knew about what he'd done to the Eighth Imperial Princess? But if they did, wouldn't Kou know? And he was certain they wouldn't have just let that slide by.
Thoughts whizzing through his head he wondered if Kou also knew they were there. No, he reasoned, if they knew we'd have had a welcoming party. This gave Sinbad a thought, maybe he could take down Kouen before he even realised they were there. He could make a reasonable excuse; he was helping to protect a possible ally and member of the Seven Seas Alliance. Yes, that was surely bound to work as a valid reason, whilst he'd also get to take out a large threat to his own country.
"We're going to help!" Sinbad announced to his two Generals.
"We're going to HELP?!" Ja'far repeated incredulously, "Sin, we're up against a WHOLE ARMY! How do you expect us to help?"
"What's wrong Ja'far, don't you have faith your abilities anymore? Or trust in your Kings decision?".
"Sin, you know I do, but what can we honestly do against an army like that? Besides" Ja'far glanced at the scene unfolding behind him, "The Mercian army seems to be doing a good job of repelling them".
This was true, Mercia's army clearly had better fighting prowess as they were pushing the Kou soldiers back. However, this just made Sinbad all the more determined. If the side they wished to help was already starting to win, it put his two Generals in less danger.
"Even better" He exclaimed to the other two, "However, do we know if Mercia has any metal vessel users? They'll need help if Kouen appears".
He knew Ja'far couldn't dismiss this, knew he couldn't just walk away now that there was a possibility lives could be wiped out in a single attack.
"Fine", Ja'far sighed out, clearly unhappy with this turn of events, "But stay close Sin, it's one thing to help out a potential ally, it's another to leave your own country without its King!"
Sinbad glanced round to see how his Generals were faring and unexpectedly noticed Ja'far staring off into the distant battle, quickly following his gaze he noticed a fair haired maiden gliding effortlessly through the enemy ahead of her. Oh, he mused to himself, turning back to deal with his own attackers, and he tells ME to not let women get in the way of important situations. This thought was gone almost as quickly as it had come. His eyes had landed on a tall crimson and black clad man, adrenaline surging though him at the sight, everything else around him becoming a hazy blur. Ren Kouen, so he is here. Sinbad had been hoping that the First Imperial Prince would be the one leading this army, but with Kou and their numerous dungeon conquerors it was never certain which one you might find.
The man was flanked by two "men" to his left, clearly assimilated household members, or at least for their sake he hoped that was what they were, to be born looking like that would be severely unfortunate, especially for the pig like guy which left Sinbad wondering if that was how the household had turned out what exactly did the Djinn Equip look like? The snake-like one was leaning around Kouen's back to talk to another red-haired man, perhaps the least threatening person Sinbad had ever seen on a battlefield. He wore traditional Kou robes, but that looked just slightly too big on him, a tripping hazard in a fight, surely. Not that he appeared as if he would be much of an opponent anyway, unless he was planning on tickling his enemies to death with that ridiculous fan, Sinbad's gaze shifted back to Kouen who had just rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Spartos, I'll leave things here to the two of you", the king announced without even glancing round, simultaneously equipping Baal and taking off, he wasn't going to do this the chivalrous way, no, Sinbad never really cared for that unless he was being watched and needed to keep up an appearance, he was going to try and land a surprise attack and deal with this man as quickly as possible, especially as it seemed he may be about to get involved in this battle personally.
He thought he heard the Knight say something behind him but the noise of the surrounding battle made it hard to hear and before he knew it he'd closed the space between Ren Kouen and himself.
"Bararaq Saiqa", A sharp crackling sound was the only indicator of what was about to happen before a ferocious pillar of electricity shot down out of the heavens, piecing the ground where Kouen and the rest of the army's hierarchy had, seconds before, been standing. Sinbad floated just overhead, waiting for the blinding light to calm so that he could see the aftermath; however, it only seemed to be growing in intensity.
The next few seconds seemed to last a lifetime. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the reappearance of the infuriating prince, a smug smile planted on his face, shifting to shock in what seemed to be in slow motion as his eyes left Sinbad and settled on something behind them, the anger in Sinbad changing with Kouen's expression as he turned to see the release of the Extreme magic he had so stupidly failed to notice, Ja'far really is going to kill me if we get through this, he thought as a blinding light was released over the battlefield. He felt dazed and lightheaded, barely managing to get to the ground safely, legs buckling under him, bringing him into a kneeling position, one hand resting on the ground to keep him from collapsing completely. A sudden onset of tiredness threatened to engulf him, but he managed to keep his eyes open, shaking his head to try and clear the feeling, and staggered back onto his feet where he managed to get a look at the situation.
In the distance he could see the edge of the Mercian army, their armour glinting the afternoon sun, a lone figure that had been flying above them coming down to land at the front, I guess that solves the question of whether they have a metal vessel user. Sprawled out on the ground between himself and the Mercians was the Kou army, not a single soul moving Dead? Unconscious? Sinbad didn't know, but he did know that the ability to wipe out an army in seconds was a frightening thought. If this was released over Sindria we'd be powerless to do anything, his thoughts shifting to his Generals and wondering if any of them could block this. Damn it! He thought, realisation suddenly hitting him. His Generals! Ja'far and Spartos had been behind him helping the Mercians, but they hadn't known their strategy. Had they managed to notice in time? Calm down, Sinbad thought, of course they would have, Ja'far was there, But he seemed preoccupied, another breath out, Spartos was level headed enough to be aware of his surroundings, enough to make up for Ja'far's strange behaviour, he hoped.
He was about to rush forward when the floor seemed to turn to black with a golden outline, and before he knew it the Kou army had vanished. He turned to see the Kou Princes retreating though something similar, Damn it all!, Sinbad reprimanded himself, he really wasn't paying attention today. He turned back to face the Mercian army, watching as a few made their way towards him, but there was no calling of his name, no appearance what-so-ever of his loyal advisor to begin telling him how reckless this had all been, and no shy Knight to try and keep the peace, an awful feeling bubbling up inside him, a combination of anger at himself for his stupidity, guilt for dragging his friends into this and fear at what might have happened to them.