(Sorry about it taking me so long to get this chapter posted, but I had a lot of crazy nights trying ti figure out how I really wanted to do this chapter, I hope you like it!)
Chapter 5: Past to the present, then back again...
"Damn these bandits! Press forward men!" Lucian growled as his shield blocked the blow from a bandit to his left while his own sword slashed out cutting through one to his right then coming around to arc through another enemy. All around Lucian, his valiant armored wolf knights fought hard throwing themselves into the massive group of bandits and taking them down, yet more seemed to appear. There were more of them than even the worst estimates for the plan could account for and because of that fact alone, Lucian knew they had been betrayed.
"We have to cut our way through to Princess Lumia and her troops before it is too late! Ignore the enemies at our flanks and charge forward!" Growls and howls answered his command as the wolf-kin knights rallied around Lucian and charged forward with roars so fearsome the bandits were stunned for a moment. That was just what they needed and dozens of bodies were left in their wake, most of them falling to the fighting power of the wolves while others tried to flee from the fury of the wolf-kin.
It was ten minutes later when they finally cut their way to the center of the small village that had come under attack from the bandit army and where the last remnants of the leopard-kin force was besieged. Throwing caution to the side, Lucian barged in seeking the familiar figure of Lumia and he eventually found her squaring off with a rather large, dual sword wielding bandit. "Lumia! Hold on I am coming!"
"Lucian, you truly have the worst timing!" Lumia moved with a grace Lucian had seen many times before yet always found so stunningly beautiful with slender, powerful, muscled legs propelling her forward. Grunting loudly, her opponent swung the two massive swords in a crossing scissor like movement hoping to catch Lumia between them. But that was not to be as the swords sparked impacting one another, only catching open air between them, Lumia already having leapt upwards over them. Her own slender blade slashed down and Lumia landed gracefully while her foe smashed to the ground dead behind her. Lumia grinned at Lucian, parrying the blow from a knife wielding bandit, her blade easily reversing to cut through him as she stood back to back with Lucian. "Can't you see I am rather busy here?"
"That is just why I am here!" Lucian shrugged off a blow with his shield and countered with a stab from his sword as his keen eyes took in the battle before them. The bandits were still charging forward and his valiant wolves were slowly beginning to push them back, but the damage had already been done to the leopard-kin forces, whose ranks were nearly devastated. "This isn't right... Bandits don't attack constantly like this especially considering their losses compared to ours!"
"They have been paid to fight us and, in fact, I am sure they were paid a lot to make sure none of us made it out of here alive!" Another group rushed the pair of them, armed with a variety of weapons, but none of them could match the skills of Lucian and Lumia who dispatched them with little injury to themselves. "The traitors I am seeking have revealed themselves to me through this incident and there is only one group who could have set this attack up. Lucian, we must end this battle and end it now! We will break the enemy, they are already unsettled by the fact my forces fought them so hard, we just need to push harder!"
Though the bandit force was still fighting, Lucian could tell that with one very strong push they could probably break their spirit and he nodded his answer. The look in Lumia's eyes told him she was experiencing a bloodlust after seeing most of her own kin die around her and the feeling of guilt resurfaced within Lucian's stomach. He had followed his orders and that was all there was to it, but that meant that the blood of the kin spilled on this battlefield was now on his claws and his mind kept lingering upon this filling him with grief.
'I should have disobeyed those orders she gave me! All these fine Kin died while I was sitting there, sitting far off letting them fight impossible odds when my troops could have assisted them and broken the enemy from behind easily! These troops were like her very brother and sisters; I can see how heartbroken she is just from the look in her eyes!' Lucian fought his way side by side with Lumia, but his heart was being dragged down deeper by the cold swelling guilt within his chest each time he saw one of her fallen, there were so many dead leopard kin mingled with bandit bodies. He had trained to be hardened against seeing dead comrades, but to see those who had died while he sat around doing nothing but hiding, it sickened him to the point that his stomach tightened in on itself with guilt.
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"So you were both betrayed?" Sapphira's eyes registered the depth of sorrow within Lucian's own gaze as they sat facing each other through the bars of the dungeon cell. Their hands had been connected to one another's since Lucian had started telling the tale of the battle, Sapphira took hold of his early on. It had bothered her the way his hand had kept stroking then digging claws into his right thigh, which meant it probably was a nervous reaction from a traumatic wound he received during the battle.
"Yes, it became obvious to us both and I think that more than anything, Lumia wanted to punish those who would betray their own kin and ensure that they were brought to justice. I could see it in her eyes just a little, the grief of having had to watch so many of her kin die because of some traitors from her own kingdom." It felt good, the feeling of Sapphira's hand wrapped around his own, making it easier for Lucian to tell his tale, much easier than any other time he had told it. Still the guilt remained in his mind even as he continued telling the tale, drawing closer to the moment when his life fell apart.
