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MineZ So many Zombies... So Little Time... (Story-Section)

Discussion in 'Roleplay' started by Ole_Byzantine, Dec 26, 2014.

MineZ - So many Zombies... So Little Time... (Story-Section) | Page 3
  1. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 41: Back to Romero.
    Byzantine returned to the throne room to find it empty, besides Shadow, who was just sitting down on the throne near the entrance.
    "Oh, hey, Byzantine. I was just observing the map Matt handed us," Shadow said calmly, examing the papyrus piece in his grasp.
    "What're you looking for on it?" Byzantine asked, walking closer to the sitting figure.
    "Well, we are running low on food, we ran out of mushrooms from Pilius. Don't bother going back there, the rest are poisonous," Shadow informed. "I'm just looking for possible places that could have some extra rations...afarm for ourselves would be nice though I don't know how we would get around to do that..." he added, narrowing his eyes upon the map.
    "Well, we could go to Romero...Or Geuten, I don't care too much," Byzantine suggested.
    "I've thought about Romero, Nick told me that is where the remainder of the barbarians that we fought went," Shadow informed, looking up to Byzantine's tall form.
    "Some survived? I thought we put them all to the sword..." Byzantine said, staring downward and clenching his fist.
    "Yeah, well, apparently not..and Geuten, I'm not too sure it'd have any supplies..." Shadow was interrupted by Byzantine before he could finish his sentence.
    "Well, Shadow, tomorrow we're going to gather some men and go over and siege Romero," Byzantine announced proudly with a bloodlust.
    "Woah now, Byzantine. Just because it could have food doesn't mean -" Shadow was again cut off.
    "Shadow, those fuckers killed Wade! I'm of course going to seek vengeance against those knaves!" Byzantine exclaimed, pointing at the man in front of him
    "Byz! Killing them isn't going to bring him back," he snapped back quickly.
    "Shadow, I'm going to destroy them. It's your decision to attack with me or not.."
    "Alright...I'll er..I'll sit this one out then, and scavenge Geuten," Shadow reluctantly disagreed.
    "Alright then..." Byzantine said with disappointment.

    * * *

    Before the moon was at it's peak, Byzantine got Harkness, Caleb, Sean, Terrowin, and Balthazaar. They had all rallied on the road near Cole Castle, then began setting out towards the Bridge. Everyone besides Balthazaar and Sean held a torch that rested on scone within the walls of the mighty castle.
    About an hour passed before they reached the bridge, an hour of almost complete darkness aside from the faint light the torches let off into the night. Nick and one of his comrades were still awake sitting around the outpost.
    "Hey, Byz. What are you guys doing here?" Nick asked, turning away from his conversation.
    "Going to take Romero back," Byzantine retorted quickly, his nails dug into his palm.
    "Ah...Oh, and I found this," Nick said as he held up a letter with a small puncture in it. "It's a note from someone, said something about meeting him near some cabin outside of Romero, to the North." Nick finished before handing Byzantine the note. Byzantine did a quick read of the note before pocketing it.
    "Thanks for giving this to me," Byzantine simply replied, folding the note and holstering it in between his belt and tunic . "Alright, let's move out."
    "Slaughter awaits them," Terrowin started lowly, cracking a devilish smile beneath his steel sallet helmet. About halfway across the bridge they noticed a regular citizen gathering all of his supplies together, which was just a short sword, an odd looking stew and a bottle of water.
    "Please! Just, let me by! I don't have anything of use!" the Citizen begged.
    "I'm not like one of those savages across the river," Byzantine said gesturing towards Romero. "Head back across the bridge, and talk to one of them. Tell him Byzantine told you to seek refuge there for now."
    "Oh, God bless thee, sir!" the citizen said as he ran off to Nick's outpost. Not long after that Byzantine and the rest of the group were before the walls of Romero.
    "What do you suppose we do, just walk in there and kill them all?" Sean asked, turning towards Byzantine, the moonlight reflecting off his helmet.
    "Aye, I suppose," Byzantine began, unsheathing the beautiful arming sword. Wesley drew his sword from it's scabbard soon after. "Okay, let's move in...
    "Heheh," Terrowin laughed lowly. "These savages flock together in consent..." he added scanning the area. "Like so many wild geese..." with this, they entered the town quietly, and most were still caught in their sleep, though one clad in leather armor with fur decorating his back and shoulders, came face to face with them.
    "Out of my way, bastard!" Terrowin shouted, quickly stabbing into his chest before he had the chance to draw his blade.
    "They'll pay for what they did..." Sean said lowly as he walked towards a house and kicked the door open and charged in.
    "Ergh, looks like someone wants to have some fun," a foreign voice chuckled, emerging from around a corner with a makeshift spear.
    "Haha! Savage scum!" Harkness yelled, slashing at the new face, not realizing the man rushing towards him with a double-headed axe who raised it above himself.
    "Watch out, Harkness!" Byzantine yelled aloud, though the axe had already taken his arm.
    "Ahh....er..." Harkness grunted lowly as he slumped to the ground clutching what used to be his arm. Terrowin ran by and quickly avenged Harkness by taking his enemies head as a prize, then quickly got into a standoff with the spear-wielding foe. Byzantine barged into one the houses, and scanned the area for anyone. One turned the corner sharply and kicked Byzantine away and slashed at his torso, Byzantine lowered his sword, quickly parrying the slash, though he recoiled against the door,, when he charged towards Byzantine he simply ducked under the slash and went around his flank and stabbed him in the back of the throat and escaped the building.
    "Ha! I hardly broke a sweat!" Terrowin yelled as he tore his blade out of a man's neck.
    "I don't think too many are left, I suggest we do a quick sweep of the area," Balthazaar said, raising his axe out of one's head. With this, a man charged around the corner with an axe and smashed it against Terrowin's shoulder, with the blade cutting in slightly through the armor.
    "Hahahah!" Terrowin laughed. "I don't think you understand how tempered steel works," he laughed again, grasping his sword with two hands and quickly slashing into his stomach. The man recoiled, tearing his axe out of the bulky platemail covering the shoulder of Wesley and looked down to his left hand, which he held a torch in.
    "Back away, or I'll... burn you!" the Man spat quickly, backing away from the menacing Terrowin.
    "Heheh," he laughed once more, a terrible laugh. "What a comedy is your defiance," with this he quickly stabbed into his torch bearing hand, which rolled onto his opponents leather boots which erupted into flames. "Hahahah! Fire, fire!" Wesley shouted once more. "Die like a dog!" The man shrieked, running into a nearby building while wrapped in a blanket of flames, causing the wooden housing to catch fire.
    "Let's get out of here..." Byzantine started, backing away from the towering flames, which began to extend outward.
    "I agree," Balthazaar said, putting away his axe on a leather strap around his back. Terrowin still chuckling, his evil, maniac laugh.
    "Alright, you guys do that. Have you seen Sean?" Byzantine asked, trying to ignore the burning town and Terrowin alike. Balthazaar gestured his head to his right where Sean was approaching them, emerging from the smoke.
    "Sean, let's go check out the cabin while they clear this place out," Byzantine ordered, looking towards him.
    "Are you sure it's safe? Do you know who the letter came from?" Sean asked with disbelief all while coughing, then turning his head to look at his bloodied bardiche.
    "I have a pretty good idea," is all Byzantine said before he turned away and began heading into the dense woodlands. They were soon encountered by a corpse, whose flesh was peeling off of his face and hands and feet were drenched in mud. Sean quickly thrust his bardiche forward, which easily pierced the decaying carcass.
    "Alright, let's keep moving." Sean said, unsheathing his bardiche from the monsters skull in disgust. Few minutes, or maybe more went by, Byzantine lost thought of time, all he could think of was the letter. He quickly emerged from his thoughts and was abruptly introduced to light in the ring of darkness.
    "About time you got around here," a familiar voice said in the distance. Suddenly a figured emerged from the cabin, he wielded a crossbow and had a short sword at his side.
    "Joe, I figured you sent that letter," Byzantine said calmly, cracking a smile at the sight of his old friend.
    "Well, I wanted to check up on how everything was going. So, how do you fare?"Joe asked, setting the crossbow down by his side, leaning it against the door frame.
    "We're doing fine, Joe. Cole Castle, Forthwind, and soon Rockwood will be banded together, along with Aeternalis and the bridge," Byzantine informed, feeling quite proud of his not-so-unified bunch.
    "I figured you hadn't gotten past your tyrannical ways..." Joe snapped back quickly, sheathing his short sword.
    "Joe, I don't' see what you're so upset about, I mean -" Byzantine was interrupted.
    "You crucified those bandits who did not deserve that! You should have just put them out of their misery! And with you building an army of puppets who will do anything at your command would surely lead to more of these barbaric actions! Look, I can see the flames from here, just on suspicion that you have an enemy in Romero you torch the damn place!" Joe summed up angrily.
    "I see you're point, but that's not a suspicion, Joe. The bastards over there killed Wade and other good men...Sadly I did not get their names." Byzantine said quickly, feeling an invisible veil of despair drape over him.
    "Wade died?" asked Joe sadly, grieve stricken by the sudden unfortunate news. "Well...because of your greed you led Wade to his death, I'm not too surprised. Sadly he had to die and not you," he said quickly, glaring back at Byzantine.
    "Wade died honorably!" Byzantine exclaimed. "He was a front line defender when they attempted to cross the bridge and kill everyone across it! If anything we were the heroes, Joe," he finished, throwing his hand furiously has if to get his point across to the bowman before him.
    "Pfft. I still don't care. Though, I did call you here for a reason other than to discuss your crimes, Byzantine." Joe said. "Do you remember our Captain, from Yawpton?"
    "Slightly," Byzantine replied, vague memories of the familiar yet distant town flooded his mind.
    "Figured, odd not thinking yourself of the leader, eh? Anyway, I've found out where he is. Some tower north of Crymoore, he had suspicion that the cause of the zombies would be near there, so -"
    "Wait," Byzantine interrupted. "How did you find out where he is?" he asked perplexed.
    "Because," said Joe quietly, reaching for a small radio holstered onto his belt. "I have one too," he added, flailing the device in front of his and their faces. "Anyway, him and some survivors from Yawpton are going to clear it out, though half of the survivors were killed along the way. It's just him, Lieutenant Francis and some recruit named Luis."
    "Why are you bringing this to my attention?" Byzantine wondered, furrowing his brow.
    "Because, you have men who will fight for you, and he asked me round some men up to assist him...So, as much as it pains me to do so, I'm asking for your help." said Joe, who looked down and swallowed his pride.
    "Hmm, well, I'll see what I can do. Where do you want me to bring the men I rally?" Byzantine agreed as Joe raised his head.
    "Back here, tomorrow. We mustn't waste time." Joe informed, leaning against the other door frame opposite to his bow.
    "Alright, I'll see what I can do. Where is he at?" The physician questioned once more.
    "Crymoore, they're holding up there."
    "I've a question?" said Sean finally after remaining silent. "Why not just head with us back to the castle and we rally together? Seems like it'd be a lot easier," Sean said, his helmet bobbing as he tilted his head left and right as if to survey the area.
    "Well... I guess that'd be the most practical. Alright, I'll meet you guys there in about an hour, someone be ready to let me in." Joe said reluctantly, slowly backing into his cabin, grabbing his crossbow and closing the door.

  2. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 42: Journey to Crymoore
    The both of them headed back to Romero while Joe stayed at his shack gathering his supplies. A couple zombies rushed Sean from out of the woods, though he killed the three of them with one swipe, his polearm easily cutting through the weak flesh.
    "Alright," Byzantine began. "Think we'll run across anything on the way to this tower Joe speaks of?" he finished, looking at Sean while still moving forward.
    "I'm not sure," Sean replied. "I'm not even sure if we should trust Joe, he did go rogue, maybe he wants to stab you in the back," he looked back up, away from his feet. "He does kind of uh... hate you now."
    "Joe is an excellent Marksman, he could've easily shot me as I was approaching if he wanted. Though he did abandon us I still trust him," Byzantine informed confidently, diverting his attention forward.
    "Sir, in these times you seem a bit....Soft," Sean uttered quickly, as if he spoke of an omen.
    "Tis' fine, I know I can trust Joe," Byzantine responded, continuing to drag his legs through the dark, wet turf.
    "Aye, of course, sir," Sean agreed, looking away.
    They continued on their way to Romero, which was easy to spot because of the height of the flames. As they approached the gate to check on how the others were doing, a body of an assumed foe slumped over right on the outskirts of the burning top of Romero's gates, laughter behind it.
    "HA HA HA! These savages probably haven't held a blade in their life!" Wesley yelled enthusiastically.
    "I'm guessing it was an easy fight..." Byzantine muttered, looking at the dead body before them; Byzantine felt suddenly overwhelmed with guilt seeing the young face killed.
    "'Tis an easy fight, we only lost Harkness, only because that mongrel came out of no where and took 'is arm off," Wesley explained, sheathing his great sword on his belt.
    "Oh... nicely done..." Sean told him somewhat nervously.
    "So, what is the plan of actions, my Lord?" Wesley asked.
    "Well, we'll begin heading back to Cole Castle and rallying some men for the journey to Crymoore... for a mission. Though we'll have to head to Huntsgrove and then head north through Ridgevale, then tread north through the snow until we reach maybe...Knoxmoor Inn, then we'll continue towards Crymoore," Byzantine informed.
    "Aye, sounds like a plan..." Wesley said with confusion, wrapping his head around the sudden plan. "We'll have to pack some winter clothes though if we plan to make it through..."
    "Aye, of course...C'mon, let's begin heading back to the Castle, Byzantine ordered, looking back at the rest of them.

    * * *

    An hour before the sun was up, they stumbled in almost complete darkness besides for a barley lit torch until they reached the mighty Castle. Sean and Shadow waited for Joe to arrive at the gates so he could rest there for the night. Byzantine sat back on the throne thinking of where'd they get the clothing to survive the harsh climates in the snowy regions.
    "Some of you guys might want to carry some firewood on you," Cami suggested to Byzantine. "Of course, they wouldn't be able to fight anything that attacked, but that wood would be very useful in those areas..."
    "Yeah, you have a point. We'll get some people to drag those around..." Byzantine said, still thinking of other ways they'd survive the weather. Several minutes went by until Shadow walked in.
    "Joe is back already?" Byzantine asked, unfolding his hands to look forward at him as he entered.
    "Yeah, just got here," Shadow informed. "So, any ideas on what we should do?" Shadow asked as he sat on the small throne to the left of Byzantine.
    "Well, we could go through the desert to avoid the weather and just go straight through Knoxmoor, though..."
    "Desert is a bit dangerous," Shadow interrupted. "Might be better off if we don't take those chances...We could always delay the mission a couple days to build a small boat, of course, if time is of the essence..."
    "I'd prefer we make it as soon as possibly, though if we hurry, maybe we can make it through the snow before anyone falls to it..." Byzantine said silently, suddenly feeling a swelling in his head. Why was he even bothering going after someone he hardly knew from Yawpton? Now all of his efforts to defend the East were completely set aside to go on some noble quest to rescue someone who is just going to take them on another dangerous journey back to Yawpton, which might get them killed. Shadow remained quiet.


    * * *

    Next morning Byzantine awoken, realizing he had fallen asleep on the throne. He walked out to see Sean roaming the halls with his bardiche still in hand.
    "Ah, hey, Byzantine." Sean greeted, tossing him a nonchalant wave in his direction.
    "Hey, Sean. Everything alright?" Byzantine questioned, wondering why he was roaming around.
    "For the most part, yeah," Sean nodded, they're downstairs, I believe."
    "Alright, I'll go down there and ready this expedition," Byzantine stated as he began walking downstairs.
    "I remember once, I was on patrol..." Byzantine could hear Wesley saying at the dining hall. "These scoundrels came out of no where and demanded we handed over our gold! I don't recall any of them even equipping themselves with chainmaille before the battle, one swing of my sword and half of their troops were dead! Glad they attacked us though..." Wesley said as he took another swig of his ale. "They made good slaves..."
    "Nice troops you have here Byzantine, eh?" said Joe, somehow ending up behind him.
    "Yeah, yeah, listen, you ready to head there or not?" Byzantine asked.
    "I've been waiting," Joe replied, glaring at him. "Your men seem quite civilized, don't they?"
    Byzantine walked into the dining room, ignoring Joe's remark. He quickly grabbed all of their attention.
    "Alright, listen, Terrowin, Shadow, Sean, Caleb...You men come with me! Actually, Caleb you stay here with the rest and guard the Castle. I'll go get the rest of my men from Forthwind," Byzantine announced, facing all of them at the table.
    "Alright, let's move onward then," Shadow said somewhat nervously, setting down his tankard with the trembling hand. Byzantine gathered the ones he rallied with him and they traveled to the walls of the castle, then climbing down, then headed off to Forthwind.
    "The path to Forthwind is relatively clear of zombies and bandits," Byzantine informed, facing Joe. "Odin and Balthazaar have been keeping the area safe... clear, I suppose."
    "By killing everyone on sight?" Joe retorted, tilting his head away from Byzantine with disgust.
    "Of course, Joe," Byzantine responded sarcastically, shaking his head somewhat angrily. Shortly afterwards they arrived at Forthwind to see two random peasants clashing swords with one another while the rest of them, including Odin, watched the fight.
    "Hey, what is going on?" Byzantine asked, quickly rushing up to him.
    "Just doing some practice battles," Odin answered lowly, still watching over the spectacle\. "Gotta make sure they're used to combat. Oh, and don't worry, those are some dulled swords we had, don't want soldiers dying within our own fort."
    "Ah, I see. Well, I'll -"
    "No, no, not like that!" Odin erupted, cutting off Byzantine. "Look, Balthazaar come over here and show them how to parry correctly! Now, go on."
    "Well, we need some extra soldiers to head north to Crymoore for an expedition," Byzantine informed, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyone you're willing to spare?"
    "Yes...You two!" Odin yelled, pointing into a crowd of soldiers. "Come forward."
    "Aye,?" The first one that approached said, standing shorter than both Byzantine and Odin.
    "What are your names?" Odin asked him as the second one he called forth approached.
    "Nepos, sir," The first soldier responded, he wore a standard cuirass with a primarily red color with a black trim around it, the leather wrinkled and aged.
    "Tiberius, sire..." the second soldier uttered, he wore iron armor banded with a chainmaille chestplate, steel gauntlets, greaves, and cloth draped over the torso that was a light blue.
    "Alright, you two, go with the High King on his journey over to Crymoore, and don't fail him," Odin
    "But of course," Nepos agreed, looking to Byzantine.
    "Alright, thanks for the help, sire," Byzantine thanked Odin, who stood tall before him. "Now, let's get going you two."
  3. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 43: Onward, to Bazel!

    “Alright, let’s get moving. We’ll be moving in through the deserts, probably stopping through Bazel and continuing onto Crymoore,” Byzantine informed the two new soldiers, Tiberius and Nepos, gesturing his hands wildly. After leaving Forthwind, about ten minutes later Tiberius spoke out. “Why exactly are we headed to Crymoore, if I may ask?” he muttered more letters, trying to formulate words nervously.
    “Well, my old captain is apparently there, and is in need of assistance. We’re going over to relieve them, I guess,” Byzantine said calmly, keeping his eyes on the dense forest they were traveling through.
    “Well, Byz, think we’ll meet any resistance in Bazel?” Sean asked, looking to his side.
    “We might. If anything it would be the living. Not too many zombies around those parts…” Byzantine answered, surveying the area. “Wesley, I also have a question for you, if the water supply was poisoned, why did you agree to stay with us in the Castle?”
    “We were already out of the castle before it happened, we were hoping they’d think we were low on security, go in to attack us and kill our citizens, and we’d spring in behind them. Of course the damn Knights of Saward had spies everywhere and our men got ambushed, all while Theodora was dumping dead corpses in the water supply….They had some disease I forget the name of and turned in to walking dead later when we went to clear them out…” Terrowin explained, playing with a small branch he broke off a tree as they were passing by. “Well, most of our men were weak and exhausted from the battle, and we decided we'd wait it out at Agni Ignis, the fortress, and then head back when we were ready. I was captured along the way so I'm not sure if they ever made it...."
    "I guess we could check that out after we get to Crymoore," Byzantine replied sympathetically, figuring he'd want to see if his comrades survived.
    "To be honest..." Terrowin said quietly, a tone Byzantine had never heard before. "I don't want to know, it makes it easier to pretend that they're alive..." Byzantine remained quiet, and slowly looked back to the journey ahead.
    They continued marching towards the bridge, having a quick meet with Nick and the others there and kept moving onward, still able to see the smoke coming off of Romero. Terrowin muttered something as they neared Romero that Byzantine couldn't quite make out.
    "We've got some dead up ahead," Sean said calmly, gripping his bardiche with his other hand and holding it out in front of him.
    "Alright, let's take 'em out," Tiberius muttered, sluggishly drawing a dulled iron longsword. Sean raised the bardiche over his head and slammed it down upon a zombie, as this happened a cannibal limped over, reaching his nasty fingers towards Sean's side, though an arrow swiftly and cleanly pierced his skull.
    "Got 'em," Joe said calmly, knocking another arrow. Terrowin slashed with his sword horizontally taking the heads of two corpses at once, he cried his horrible laugh once more. Tiberius weakly thrust his sword into one of the decaying bodies, weakly drawing the sword out of his flesh.
    "That should be the last of 'em," said Terrowin, who was moving around in circles to check around for more. "Now let’s keep moving," Joe said with haste, wrapping the bow around his shoulder. They began following the coastline for a little, which was oddly free of the dead. Suddenly there was a continuous gust of wind as dark clouds loomed in the sky.
    "I think going through the snow is out of the picture now," Shadow said quietly, looking up with fear. "I don't want to if it is going to rain..."
    "Aye, I wouldn't either," Byzantine responded nonchalantly, raising his head as well.
    "There is a fountain 'round here, right?" Sean asked, looking to the others for answers. "I could use a drink."
    "I think there is, we'll go there real quick," Byzantine ordered. They took a sharp turn and began heading through the foliage. Treading lightly through the woods, Byzantine began to hear some noise near the Fountain.
    "Wait..." Byzantine whispered, holding his hand behind them to halt the others. "Quiet, I think I hear something up ahead," he said as he looked over, peering his head behind a tree with thick limbs and leaves, covering his face, seeing four people talking near the fountain. One of them was a man wearing banded-iron armor with steel greaves and leather gloves, the other two were dressed in standard civilian clothing, and the other was a women outfitted in leather armor, greaves, and gloves.
    "Come on, we got to get over to the Stonehenge, we can't wait here much longer," The armored man said quickly and hushed.
    "Not yet," The women shouted. "We need to kill those fools who burned down Romero!"
    "You idiot! We can't take on them by ourselves, we couldn't even make it out with our gear!" one of the "civilians" erupted, pointing at his light attire.
    "I don't care if I die fighting them, we have to seek vengeance!" The women exclaimed. Without Byzantine noticing, Terrowin slowly started sneaking through the shrubs and emerged in to the open.
    "Well that is good..." Terrowin said lowly. "Because after I'm done with you peasants, your heads shall be on a spike!"
    "Shit..." the second civilian said three seconds before he began to run away.
    "Dammit, come on, we can't fight them here, retreat!" The armored man said running towards the north with the civilian.
    "AFTER THEM!" Terrowin yelled, drawing out his great sword, running towards the cowards.
    "You think I'm scared of you?" The women said, pulling out her flanged mace.
    "Hahahaha!" Terrowin laughed excitedly. "Time to die, wench!" he yelled as he raised his sword over his head and hit downward, barely missing the women as she dodged out of the way. She bashed her mace against his leg, bashing in through the armor; Terrowin somehow held back a wince of pain.
    "Ha! I'm almost trying!" Terrowin yelled again he went to stab forward, though it met her parry, and she thrust her mace once more towards him, though he dodged this.
    "Let's go in there and finish her off, this'll take forever," Byzantine said in a hushed voice as he drew out his arming sword.
    "I've got your back!" Sean yelled as he charged out with the bardiche.
    "I'll uh...wait here...” Joe said quietly, leaning back a bit. Terrowin kicked her back, stunning her for a second, and then she quickly recovered and ducked under his attack."
    "You can't do this forever, bitch!" Terrowin shouted, raising his sword and went to slam it down upon her head. She was out of breath and wasn't able to parry the attack.
    "Hahahaha! Pathetic wench!" Terrowin barked looking at her dead body. "Now, let's get some water then check out this Stonehenge and kill the rest of them..."
    "Sounds like a plan..." Byzantine said, sheathing his arming sword, stunned at how quickly Wesley had done this then wanted to casually get a drink.
    "Think this is funny, Byz?" Joe asked, looking at him with disgust, shaking his head. Byzantine tried to ignore him as he filled two empty ale bottles with water.
    "I've got two bottles of mead on me," Byzantine said calmly, noticing two on the ground, presumably belonging to the ones that fled. "If anyone wants one."
    "We'll celebrate after we kill those savages..." said Terrowin looking towards the North.
    Fifteen minutes passed of them sitting there, just drinking water. This water was surprisingly cool and didn't taste like the gross waste they were used to. The winds began to pick up speed and thundering could be heard in the distance. Before the storm arrived they started moving towards the Stonehenge. After just five minutes of traveling it started pouring down rain, and the solid ground now was as loose as mud, making it difficult for them to move onward.
    "Listen, we can't keep going like this. We need to find some shelter before we investigate the stonehenge," Byzantine stated, his over his face as if to protect his eyes.
    "Aye, 'tis true enough. I think there are some old forts around here, let's see if there are any..." Terrowin informed and started moving west. Soon a fort was in sight, it seemed to abandoned with no life around, just dead. The relative silence was broken as a corpse rushed out and threw itself upon Sean.
    "Fuck, get this thing off of me!" Sean yelled aloud, shoving the zombie back. Byzantine ran over yanked the zombie off of him, then stabbing it with his now drawn arming sword. More cannibals limped from their surroundings. Terrowin was the worst off in this situation, heavy armor, not enough room, and lots of mud to immobilize him.
    "What are you doing?! Defend me!" Terrowin exclaimed as four decaying sacks of skin that seemed to peel with each step neared the heavily armored Knight with mud up to his greaves. Shadow ran over and killed two of the zombies with quick stabs, and Joe shot the other one while Terrowin stabbed the last one awkwardly without much room to pull his arms back for the initial thrust.
    "Now, let's get on solid ground!" Terrowin ordered trying to march through the mud, sluggishly tearing his boots out of the wet ground.
    "I can hardly grip my sword in this rain," said Shadow quietly, taking his blade out of the zombie's weak skull that severed with the initial strike. After fifteen minutes of fending off from small bands of the undead and crawling through the terrain, they finally got into the ruined fort and the zombies seemed to be gone.
    "Thank god," Byzantine breathed, relieved at the weight off of their shoulders. "They just kept on coming."
    “It’s…its fucking freezing now,” Shadow said shivering violently. “Can’t even make a fire in this fucking rain…”
    “Atleast we’ve got some shelter now, sitting in that rain would be worse…” Sean pointed out joyfully, rubbing his wet hands together.
    “Aye, once this rain has passed on, we can strike the Stonehenge and kill them all…" Terrowin started, breaking the somewhat joyful and relieved mood with yet another task of aimlessly killing another band of people.
    Byzantine sat there, not knowing what to do for the next couple of hours they’d have to wait for the rain to pass by. He looked down and noticed the two mead bottles attached to his belt.
    “Anyone up for some mead now?” Byzantine asked, with his head still down and his arms resting on his tired legs.
    “We could all go for some…” Shadow shivered. “But I’ll pass.”
    “I’m fine,” Joe replied calmly, looking down at his crossbow.
    “Wait, Joe, when did you get a crossbow?” Byzantine questioned, just taking notice of the piece of equipment.
    “It was in the shack I rested in; I decided I’d use it. Still have my longbow on hand though,” Joe answered, not taking his eyes off the well designed bow.
    Fifteen minutes of silence from the group passed, as the thunder and rain kept roaring outside. Byzantine started pacing around the fort, looking for any leftover supplies. After finding three useless crates, he stumbled upon a chest on the upper floor. Hoping to find something good, Byzantine opened it, and found just a simple hammer. Byzantine just looked at it for a bit then picked it up and began walking downstairs.
    “Anything useful?” Joe asked, turning his head to the side.
    “Not really,” Byzantine responded looking at the hammer. “Actually….hey, Terrowin...”
    “Aye?” Terrowin looked up.
    “Got something for yah,” Byzantine said handing him the hammer. “In case you ever need to bash in some brains up close," he joked.
    “Haha, I’ll be sure to use it well!” Terrowin assured, taking the hammer from his hands. Byzantine sat back down and realized he didn’t bring any food along with him, just the two bottles of mead and his drinking tankard.
    “Alright, what rations do we have?” Byzantine asked, looking at the rest of the group.
    “I’ve got two apples and a sweet roll,” Sean answered without hesitation.
    “I’ve got some bread,” Joe responded after looking through his equipment.
    “I’ve got some cheese,” Shadow said raising it for everyone to see.
    “Piece of bread and an apple,” Terrowin responded, looking at his boots, while he held the foodstuff in his hand.
    “Alright, good, I’m uh…A bit short on rations…” Byzantine said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.
    “Here,” Sean said tossing him an apple casually. “I don’t need it.”
    “Thanks…” Byzantine called back, catching the slippery fruit, beginning to dine into it. Two more hours passed without much action going on, the sun was also beginning to set, along with this the rain began to die down, though the wind wasn’t giving up.
    “So uh... are we still going to uhm... kill those people?" Byzantine asked, somewhat nervously waiting for Wesley response
    "Yep... we're going to kill them all with ease," Terrowin replied lowly. Thirty minutes passed and they decided to leave the ruined fort, figuring the rain had settled enough for them to traverse the wet soil.
    Soon enough they were on the outskirts of the structure, Byzantine only seeing two men, both geared in full banded-iron armor.
    “Alright, I’ll move in and take out the one on the right,” Terrowin whispered, slowly beginning to move out of the way.
    “Okay, I’ll move in on the other,” Sean muttered and began to move in. Sean snuck up behind him with ease and stabbed through the back of his neck where his armor was exposed, while Terrowin hit the other in the head with the hilt of his sword, the beheaded him while he was stunned. Joe, Shadow, and Byzantine moved and got a quick look inside of the small housing in the middle, even though it was just a carved out stone. There were five people, three of them were at the Fountain previously, and the other two were both men geared in steel armor, greaves, and gauntlets. Byzantine couldn’t understand what they were talking about. Terrowin and Shadow went along to the other side, while Byzantine, Sean and Joe stayed at this side. Joe wasn’t going to go in to kill anyone unless necessary, so he sat outside and waited.
    “Time to die, whelps!” Terrowin yelled charging in and stabbing one quickly in the throat. At this moment, Shadow, Sean, and Byzantine moved in quickly catching them all by surprise and ended them all with ease.
    “I was expecting a challenge,” Terrowin said sounding disappointed. “No matter, we must progress onward to Bazel now that these dogs are done for.” Not far from the stream separating the desert and the woodland areas, the group kept moving knowing they’d be there soon. By the time they reached the stream it was pitch black, and it was difficult to see more than three meters ahead of you, this didn’t stop anyone from getting a drink from the waters though.
    “Dammit, anyone got a torch? We can find some way to light it, or something…” Joe asked, rubbing his hands together.
    “I had one,” Shadow started. “Ruined from all the rain though, we’ll just have to keep moving, and hope that nothing attacks us…”
    “Not like the zombies can see much better than us,” Byzantine pointed out. “If anything they’ll have a harder time getting to us, now, let’s just stay quiet, don’t go far from each other, and keep moving forward.” They did just this, just kept moving onward, ignoring the exhaustion and fatigue. After two hours of marching through the desert sands, they arrived just on the outskirts of Bazel, the torches outside of the town were still emitting light, either a blessing, blind luck, or the fact that someone was in the town.
  4. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 44: Bazel

    “Well uh…we’re finally here…” Tiberius whispered after a couple seconds of silence, staring off into the town ahead.
    “And looks like some other people are also here,” Terrowin replied coldly, gazing forward just like the rest were. Byzantine looked around but could not see anything besides the faint glimmer of the torches.
    “So, should we just… walk in the through the front gate?” Shadow asked puzzled, trying to look at the silhouettes of the others in the almost complete darkness.
    “Could work,” said Sean quietly. “We just might have to do some gutting...” he finished, his grip on his pole-arm tightening.
    “No,” Byzantine replied quickly. “I mean, just, try to keep the bloodshed down. We’re never going to beat this apocalypse if we’re all just killing each other," he finished hastily, trying to keep his voice down.
    “Well, personally, I’d prefer killing than to be killed,” Terrowin whispered in his cold tone. “But hey, suit yourself…” With that said Terrowin stood tall and looked towards the town of Bazel. “Well, what’re you waiting for? Let’s move in now…”
    “Sounds a bit risky if you ask me,” Joe replied instantly. "Also sounds like a good way to get us all killed," he hesitated. "But hey... suit yourself," the Lieutenant mocked. Byzantine couldn't see, but he could tell Terrowin was grimacing behind his helmet.
    “He’s got a point,” Nepos agreed nervously, as if scared of the tall Knight.. “I mean, there are clearly people there. And I don’t think they’ll just greet us with open arms…”
    “Well, what do you propose we do then?” Terrowin retorted harshly, snapping his head towards the peasant raising arms for their side.
    “I could scout around,” Joe offered. “I’ll be back soon.” He said quickly, not waiting for an answer assuming it'd be a 'yes' then started making his away around the walls of the town.
    “I’ll scout it out with him,” Shadow muttered, quickly catching up to Joe. Byzantine glanced over several seconds later to see that they were already engulfed in darkness.
    “Man, what a night,” said Sean, the moon flashing against his helmet as he stared upwards. “So dark, and out of all the nights we want to rescue someone…” They waited around for five minutes, looking at what they could trying to get the time passed, though the invisible veil of shadows around them gave Byzantine an uneasy feel.
    “Okay, they’re still not back. Think we should check up on them,” Sean asked, trembling beneath his breath. “Or, something... at least..."
    “Well,” Terrowin said looking down. “I’m up for it.” Sean nodded his head.
    “If you two are going…” sighed Byzantine heavily. “I’ll go," he added, unsheathing the beautiful sword. Terrowin took the lead, with Sean to his left and the rest slightly behind. They approached the edge of the gate before they heard a faint voice.
    “Get down,” Byzantine whispered, quickly dropping to his knee. “You guys hear that?”
    “Aye…” Sean muttered nodding. Byzantine could hear slightly what they were saying.
    “Yeah, he was just out causing trouble and I found 'em” The first, male voice said with an arrogant tone.
    “What do you suppose we do with them?” The second voice spoke, which also belonged to a man. “We can’t just keep them both around as prisoners…”
    “I know, brethren,” Agreed the first voice, sounding uncertain. “But… I don’t know…”
    “I tell you what,” The second voice said. “I’ll deal with them, take them far from here, but I won’t kill them, sound good?”
    “I think that’d be best…. well," the first one stopped. "I'm sure we could have some fun beating one of them to death," he finished chuckling coldly.
    “Well, what are we waiting for?” Terrowin interrupted, his voice low and quiet. “They clearly have them, and I don’t like the way he is saying that…" he ironically added. "Let's just go in..."
    “We can’t just assume. You’re right about getting them back, but just try not to kill them-“Byzantine said before hearing something sling behind him.
    “You guys really should be quieter,” a male voice said behind Byzantine. “Now drop the sword, and you guys will be just fine…"
    “Like hell, I’ll surrender!” Sean yelled grabbing his bardiche and thrusting it towards the crossbow man that was right behind all of them. The second his bardiche stabbed into him, he released the arrow inaccurately, causing it to hit Terrowin in the upper arm.
    “Ah, bastard!“Terrowin yelled, dropping his longsword to clutch his arm. Two swordsmen both geared with cheaply banded iron-armor came up behind Sean and Terrowin and forced them down.
    “Hands in the air…” Another crossbowman said coming around the corner with the guards. Byzantine, Nepos, and Tiberius dropped their weapons while Sean and Terrowin were being dealt by the ‘guards’.
    “You know, we should kill your friend here for doing what he did…” the swordsman said, diverting his gaze to look at the dead crossbowman that Sean had defeated with one swift thrust. “But, I’ve got a better idea for him…” He said before whispering into the other guard’s ear.
    “Anyone of you a doctor?” another swordsman asked pointing his sword at all of them. Byzantine slowly raised one of his hands a little higher than the other. “Good, what kind of doctor?”
    “… Combat medic… physician...” Byzantine said reluctantly, his voice trembling.
    “Alright, alright, we’re getting somewhere,” the swordsman said, mocking Byzantine. “Now, you get to live, maybe you can try to save our friend over there,” He finishes motioning towards the dead body, obviously trying to play with the doctor's mind.
    “He is… he is beyond dead –“
    “I said,” the swordsman interrupted quickly. “Try to save him…” he finished has a smirk formed on his face.
    “I swear,” Terrowin yelled, thrashing his non-injured arm against two guards trying to hold him back. “I will kill every last one of you, and decorate my chambers with your intestines!” He yelled loudly before breaking one hand free, grabbing his hammer, and proceeding to destroy one of the guard’s skulls. In the heat of this, Nepos broke free and stabbed the crossbowman with a random blade he . Byzantine looked around for his weapon while slowly backing up, then tripped over the dead body, looking at the crossbow.
    “Hahahahaha! His skull is no longer fit to be my piss pot!” Terrowin yelled with excitement. Tiberius grabbed a nearby sword and stabbed the guard still holding down Sean.
    “Thanks, man,” Sean thanked while grabbing his bardiche. “Byz, what now, man, I think they’re getting everyone on us…”
    “Uhm… well,” Byzantine mumbled, thinking of a plan as he looked up and saw more people turning the corners with the intent of killing them. “I suggest we-“ Byzantine said before he heard a thud and his vision abruptly disappeared.


    * * *

    Byzantine awoke, outside the walls of Bazel, looking outwards towards the desert, looking at some corpses that didn’t seem to wander closer. As his vision began clearing up, he looked to his left side, and saw Sean, and Terrowin bound to the walls of Bazel by rope and to his right was Nepos and Tiberius.
    “What the hell is going on here…?” Byzantine said looking down… then begining to look up.
    “Well,” the voice of one of the swordsman said. “We’re going to do what we did to your friends.” He finished beginning to smirk. In front of them there were five guards, all holding back zombies with leashes they used with the same rope they were bound with.
    “Let them go,” one of them said still holding onto his zombie still.
    “Sick fucks…” Sean muttered, looking down, shutting his eyes.
    “Unless…” he began. “You can tell us where this little hideout of yours is? Way too many of you to just be constantly moving around, plus you guys didn’t have much food on you…” He continued. “Now, for every minute you don’t tell us, we let one of these go, got it?”
    “Fuck off,” Terrowin said casually, his unguarded face glaring back at them.
    “Heheh…” He muttered looking at all of them bound to the wall. “Him,” he said pointing towards Terrowin and Sean. “Bring him over here,”
    “Got it,” the swordsman said, handing him the rope for ‘his’ zombie. He walked over, released Sean by cutting the rope tied all the way around to the other side of the wall and back through the exposed breaches, and dragged him back over to the rest of the guards. While this was all going on, Byzantine felt something very odd going on with his bindings…
    “Go, now…this is your shot,” Byzantine heard a faint whisper, which he could barely make out, traveling through the walls.
    “What?” Byzantine whispering back, “Who is that..?”
    “It’s me, Byz, just go; I’ll buy some time…” Joe said, finished as the binds were suddenly loosened, the pressure on his wrist suddenly relieved.
    “Thanks…” Byzantine muttered releasing his hands very quickly.
    “Hey!” One of the swordsmen yelled, unsheathing his sword, yet forgetting about the zombie while doing so.
    “The fuck, man!” Another swordsman said stabbing at the zombie he let go. While this was going on Sean kicked one of the guard’s legs in, allowing the zombie to quickly turn on him and begin devouring at his neck.
    “Let’s go!” Sean yelled, running towards the fence with his hands still bound.
    “Yeah, that’ll be easy,” Terrowin said sarcastically, still tied up. Joe went over and cut the rope around Tiberius, Terrowin, and Nepos as Byzantine ran behind the walls to where Joe was.
    “Alright, I think we can get out of here,” Joe said turning around looking at the other gate. “Come on, this is our shot” He finished picking up a bag that clanked loudly.
    “Wait, where is Shadow…?” Byzantine asked looking around. Joe looked towards the ground.
    “We can talk about that later…” Joe muttered, gently cutting the rope holding Sean's hands together. Then they all headed off towards the gate opposite to theirs to escape Bazel through the gate they entered.
    “They’re still a threat…” Terrowin stated calmly, looking back into the town, “give me a second, I’ll be right there…” He finished looking towards the town and walking in very quickly.
    “What is in the bag, Joe?” Sean asked, taking notice of the 'loot bag' as it could be called thrown across Joe's shoulder. “And uh, thanks, again…”
    “It’s no problem, and here,” Joe said dropping the bag revealing a bunch of swords lacking sheathes, which the guards had not confiscated. “They took all of your weapons down to one room; after I broke out I managed to take them all," he informed them proudly.
    “Nice,” muttered Byzantine, kneeling down to grab his beautiful arming sword. As soon as he grabbed the handle he heard a crackling sound, that seemed to become slightly louder every second.
    “Alright, told you I’d be back…” Terrowin said nonchalantly, walking past them as a building in the town went up in flames. “Now, we should get going before the rest of the town goes, and finally get to Crymoore, or whatever God forsaken place we’re headed to…”


  5. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 45: Killing the East.
    Byzantine looked toward the town, seeing the flames quickly engulf the dried wood roofs and spread between the houses in the town, followed by shouts and screams of panic echoing through the town.
    “How did you do that?” Sean wondered. “We didn’t have any torches.
    “Haha, yes, but they did…” Terrowin began. “There was an open furnace near the gates, ripped off some planks from a house, placed it in a furnace for a couple seconds, and tossed it at a building.” As Terrowin was explaining this, Byzantine noticed various types of people, soldiers, women, and just regular people trying to escape the town.
    “Ah dammit,” Byzantine muttered, suddenly overtaken by guilt. “They're going to be after us though..."
    “What are you suggesting we do?” Terrowin asked, turning his now helmeted face towards Byzantine.
    “To be honest, I don’t want to risk going to Crymoore,” Byzantine stated. “I mean, how the fuck did he even get there? I’ve still got my people to care about; I want to head back to the castle," he started quickly, his mood changing.
    “I’ll still head there by myself if I must, but I’m not leaving him for dead!” Joe retorted quickly, not looking away.
    “Didn’t this captain die, Joe?” Byzantine asked harshly. “I remember when this whole shitstorm started and we had to get to the fortress, everyone died, including Taylor or whatever the fuck-faces name was," Byzantine growled back, referring to their former captain.
    “But… I… I don't think he was dead, just, let’s get to Crymoore, someone answered the radio-“Joe said interrupted by a muffled noise of a radio. Byzantine pulled out his radio and heard a broadcast message being sent.
    “No word from the… Defenders of the East as they go by in a couple days, I’m assuming they were overrun, that’s all for now, signing off.” The broadcaster said calmly in a matter-of-fact tone.
    “H-how…” Byzantine muttered looking at his radio, his hands trembling, suddenly taken back from his anger to worry.
    “Fuck, we got to go back,” Sean said quickly looking to the south. “Like, right now, the castle could be in trouble. “ Joe looked at the ground muttering incoherently, almost dropping his crossbow.
    “Listen, Joe, I don’t know who you got that broadcast from, but it doesn’t matter, I’m going back to my castle, and if you want to stay alive, I suggest you come with us,” Byzantine said calmly, gesturing his hands towards the bowman. “I really don't want anyone else to die."
    “Looks like I don’t have much of a choice…” Joe muttered, looking back up. “Everyone else is dead,” he finished slinging his crossbow over his shoulder.
    “Let’s get going then,” Sean concluded the conversation as he began walking to the south
    “Wait,” Byzantine interrupted. “Where’s Shadow?”
    “Oh, yeah, he… last I saw they… they uh, broke his legs with something very blunt, threw something at him and yelled ‘good luck’ that’s all I heard…” Joe said hesitantly, as if he didn't want to speak of the bad news and wanted to answer as quickly as possibly.

    * * *

    After all of the useless journey to Bazel, just to turn back, several hours had passed since their encounter with the small army of Bazel and they managed to find their way back to what used to be Romero, though it was just hot coals and scraps of wood in the shapes of what used to be beautiful structures.
    “Okay, come on, let’s hurry,” Byzantine said quickly, walking swiftly. “We have to check on the Defenders.”
    “Right behind you,” Sean said following close behind with haste.
    “I swear….” Terrowin started muttering before his voice lowered and was inaudible. Byzantine, Sean, Tiberius and Nepos rushed over to the small outpost they had at the bridge.
    “Dammit, see any of them?” Byzantine asked in a rushed voice, scanning the area quickly, hoping to find a sign of life.
    “I uh… think I see some of them…” Tiberius started, gesturing to scattered limb, legs, arms and spilled guts and intestines.
    “This wasn’t the work of the savages,” Terrowin said slowly. “I’m guessing someone cut them up and…”
    “But why would their guts be ripped out in chunks?” Byzantine asked, violently gesturing his hand at the intestines spilled on the ground. “I agree, someone did this, but… it doesn’t make sense.”
    “What about our allies at Aeternalis?” Sean asked, shrugging innocently. “If they didn’t do this, then they might be dead.”
    “Let’s check it out then,” Tiberius suggested timidly. “Just… saying, sir..."
    “It’s fine,” Byzantine said, his stomach dropping as his heart pounded against his chest. “Let's.. get to that damn cathedral,” he finished hurriedly. They began rushing to Aeternalis without hesitating, treading through the foliage and obstacles in the way quickly, making it to a nearby mansion to rest after thirty minutes of running.
    “By-Byzantine,” Joe said panting. “If they lost word from the… Defenders or whatever, it might be too late already…”
    “I… I know -- it might be -- but we still - can’t waste -- any time,” Byzantine said in between breaths. They stayed to rest for no more than a minute and quickly began heading off to Aeternalis, Worthington looked different as they passed it, as Byzantine slowed down to examine the small town. Blue blank banners were flying by the walls, with blood splattered against the walls forming random shapes that Byzantine couldn’t make out.
    “Looks like a warcamp,” Terrowin pointed out, turning his head, clenching his fist at the sight of the blue flag he looked at with disgust. “Looks like these fuckers are moving constantly, killing everyone in their way.”
    “Probably... should we investigate?" asked Sean quietly, as if fearful of what may lie within the town.
    “I… I don’t know if we have the time, we’ve still got to check the castle and Aeternalis,” Byzantine responded, still trying to catch his breath.
    “I’ll take a quick look inside,” Nepos informed them before quickly gliding into the town with swift feet.
    “Alright, go in, I’ll cover you from here,” Joe said pulling out his crossbow.
    “Ah, I’ll just wait around them,” Byzantine muttered walking around with a hand on his arming sword’s grip.
    “Oh, and Byzantine, I uh… went back to Yawpton a while back, after I left, and found this…” Joe said reaching onto his belt, drawing out a bone saw. “Thought you might want it back.”
    “Thanks, Joe, forgot about this…” Byzantine said reaching for the bonesaw, After several minutes of waiting around, Nepos returned empty handed.
    “Nothing, nothing there, just… it was looted even, whoever was here took everything with them…” Nepos revealed.
    “Dammit, well, no sign of anyone there?” Sean asked. He shook his head.
    “Okay, now hurry, let's get going!” Byzantine ordered quickly, already beginning to tread towards the cathedral.
  6. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 46: Aftermath
    They stayed for no more than five minutes after Byzantine announced they were moving toward Aeternalis. The walk there was, sadly, quiet, and with not much liveliness as everyone dawned at the butcher that occurred at the Continental Bridge. As they approached the Cathedral, not much of the church was revealed, but the smell, the horrid smell came distinctly from the old church.
    “Ah, I remember this being a pleasant place,” said Terrowin coldly, but sympathetically.
    “…Yeah,” Sean hesitated, looking forward. Moments later the mossy cobblestone was visible, with several holes breaching in, and half of the structure was collapsed.
    “Looks like a trebuchet or something fired upon them… or someone had a lot of oil pots,” Terrowin assumed, examining the church of Aeternalis.
    “Alright, alright, let’s stop fucking around and check this out,” Byzantine said hurriedly, immediately regretting his harsh words.
    “Byzantine,” Sean interrupted, “I know you want to go in there and see if you can save anyone, and I understand that, but just accept it, just about everyone in there is most likely dead…” Sean said reluctantly, but at the same time with no remorse. “Just look at this place, I can see dried blood in that rubble, and…. I think those are intestines over there…”
    “How can you guys even stomach this?” Nepos asked, quickly looking away.
    “Because just about all of us here have seen a lot of this, even before the world went to hell,” Sean answered. Byzantine paused and looked at the ground for a moment.
    “Yeah, yeah, just… someone had to have lived,” Byzantine said, trying to convince himself that he spoke the truth.
    “We hardly knew these people, they were only our allies because you practically forced them with the whole 'we won't stand a chance' thing,” Sean responded harshly. "I still don't understand you, Byz..."
    “Alright, now let’s go dammit,” Terrowin said impatiently, quickly walking over stone rubble to enter the building, in which Sean quickly followed.
    “I’ll uh, I’ll just stay out here, and keep watch,” Nepos said nervously, backing away. Tiberius sighed.
    “Come on, you big baby,” Tiberius muttered, following Byzantine into Aeternalis. The first thing Byzantine noticed were the intestines that were used to decorate the walls, blood splattered across the floor and walls, the bits of what used to be people scattered across the room in an effortless attempt to make a walkway for the savages who did this.
    “Well, looks like the defenders didn’t stand a chance,” Terrowin said nonchalantly. “Too bad for these conscientious objectors, heheh," he added, admiring the blood that stained the walls.
    “Oh God,” Joe said as he just now walked into the church. “This place is fucking horrible…” While the others looked around what used to be bodies, Byzantine walked downstairs into a small room, and on the floor was a long, loose white coat for one of the church priest, with long white sleeves, with a brown collar, brown cuffs for the sleeves, and it was very warm, probably meant for winter time. Byzantine, not thinking anything of who it might’ve belonged to, put the coat on, which did well concealing his broadsword and bone saw. Byzantine turned around and started walking back up stairs and was immediately confronted by Joe at the top of the steps.
    “Ah, there you are, Byz” Joe said quickly. “I uh… see you’ve been shopping…” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
    “Alright, lads, ready to head out?” Terrowin asked, turning around sharply to face them behind his
    "I suppose..." Byzantine replied, looking around in disgust. He was hoping the mighty Castle they had recently claimed wouldn't be the same as this.
    “Yeah, I’d like to get out of this place…” Sean said looking blankly at the wall. Byzantine walked back over the rubble to the outside, to see Nepos sitting down against a tree with his head down.
    “Fucker went to sleep,” Byzantine snarled, angry that while they witnessed the slaughter of their comrades he was just sleeping --“Real good job watching our backs, Nepos,” Byzantine vociferated.
    “Is he really sleeping? I swear…” Tiberius growled, walking towards the sitting figure, lfting his head up to try and wake him, revealing a gigantic slash across his neck with blood beginning to stain his collar. “Son of a bitch!” Tiberius shouted taking a step back.
    “What the hell is going on?” Terrowin said calmly walking out. “Oh, poor kid is dead…”
    “Who the fuck would’ve done this,” Sean questioned. “They didn’t even loot his corpse…”
    “Ah, shite. Down. Now!” Terrowin shouted, jumping back into the church, without hesitation the rest followed him besides Tiberius who stayed by Nepos.
    “What? What’d you see?” Byzantine asked.
    “It’s clearly an ambush, they killed him silently, and didn’t take anything, they know we’re here and they want to kill us all, one by one, so stick together” Terrowin explained calmly, as if he had been in a similar situation.
    “You better be right..." Byzantine mumbled, hesitant to believe the Knight. Sean walked toward the opening of the church near the rubble and popped out for a second.
    “Get back inside, now!” Sean yelled to Tiberius as Byzantine witnessed him fall back, beginning to shout out in pain.
    “Worthless archers…” Terrowin muttered, looking at Sean's now bleeding stomach Byzantine quickly dragged Sean back into cover as Tiberius jumped behind some rubble for cover.
    “Calm down, Sean, it’ll be fine…” Byzantine said trying to calm him down.
    “Oh God, this fucking hurts,” Sean said holding onto his stomach near where the arrow hit, barely entering his flesh through his armor.
    “Okay, okay, listen, I need you to calm down…” Byzantine said reaching at his belt and pulling out the extra bottle of ale. “Okay, here,” Byzantine said handing him the ale, “don’t drink it all.” Byzantine pulled out his arming sword and cut off the feathers of the arrow with a swift slash and pulled the rest of it out of his stomach slowly as Sean chugged down on the ale, before Byzantine stopped him. “Sorry, I need the rest of this,” Byzantine said taking it and pouring what was left on his wound.
    “Ah, ah dammit…. Ah fuck, that hurt…” Sean muttered incoherently.
    “Well, he’s out of the fight,” Terrowin said, looking over his exhausted and bleeding corpse as Byzantine applied some coagulation powder into the wound.
    “And from the looks of it, we’re fucked…” Tiberius said panicking, who apparently ran back in after Sean yelled for him.
    “I’ve got an idea…” Joe said looking at his crossbow. “Cover me; I’m going to head behind the church.”
    “And how are we supposed to cover you?” Byzantine asked worriedly as Joe walked off but he didn’t respond.
    “Well, let’s hope he’s a good counter-archer, or they might as well starve us out,” Terrowin said glumly, sitting back calmly. Byzantine looked at the ground and sat down next to where Sean was laying.
    “I don’t care how many there are,” Terrowin said, looking down at the sword he held in his two hands across his lap. “Once those archers are down I’ll gladly kill all of them," he finished, a twisted smile curling on his face.
    “We can’t risk that, we need to get back to the castle while we can, and if they chase us we have a better position to fight them,” Byzantine replied quickly, wanting to get to the castle as soon as possible.
    “Unless the imperialistic barbarians are there, then we’re fighting a war on two fronts,” Terrowin responded calmly, turning the sword ever so slightly as if to get a look at it from every angle.
    “They couldn’t have taken the castle; it’s too well defended…” Byzantine said doubting anyone could take the castle as easily as they did before.
    “You never know, we did take away a decent amount of our warriors on this vanity mission, right?” Terrowin replied, looking back up to Byzantine. They waited for several minutes, barely watching the entrances thinking they’d be too scared to attempt a full out charge into the cathedral, then Joe came back around running in as fast as he could.
    “Alright, let’s go - I took out -- three -- archers, I don’t -- think they have more -- let’s get going, now!” Joe panted, spitting these words out in between breaths.
    “Alright, alright,” Byzantine said, helping Sean up. “Use me as a support; you’re still a bit weak.”
    “Alright… thanks…” Sean said wearily. Joe and Tiberius both ran out first, using some trees as cover.
    “Hm… actually,” Terrowin muttered. “We’ve got some injured, and we can’t run forever,” He added drawing out his Messer longsword. “I’ll stay here and kill these savages and meet up with you near the castle, anyone volunteer to help?”
    “I guess I-I'll stay..." Tiberius said nervously, turning his head back and forth noticing no one else offering to fight alongside Terrowin.
    “Okay, Byzantine, let’s go,” said Joe, moving through the foliage.
    “Wait up; I’ve still got to help Sean move…” Byzantine said walking towards Joe. They moved near the trees, using them as cover, hearing shouts in the distance along with arrows flying by them, causing Byzantine's heart to pound against his chest, worried he too would drop down as Sean did. Soon, the shouting calmed and the arrows ceased lodging themselves into the bark of trees and they could begin walking to the castle without fear. The walk there was quiet; Byzantine’s mind was shrouded with the idea of the castle being loss, and them meeting the same sight they confronted at Aeternalis and the Continental Bridge. Around half an hour passed and they could see the flags hanging from the gateway of Cole Castle.
    “Finally, we’re here…” Joe said relieved, wiping his forehead.
    “Aye, now, let’s find Terrowin-“Byzantine was interrupted.
    “About time you guys showed up,” Terrowin said walking towards them; his armor definitely was bloodier than before.
    “How long have you been here?” Joe wondered, taking a step back.
    “Well, about a couple minutes, we just made it here quicker because we didn’t have to carry a wounded man around,” Terrowin answered, smirking devilishly.
    “Now,” Byzantine interrupted, with Sean still resting against him. "We should... head into the castle."
  7. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 47: Remnants of Cole Castle
    Byzantine walked casually towards the castle’s entrance, a familiar yet foreign noise filling the air. Terrowin and Tiberius were close behind him as Sean leaned against the Lieutenant.
    “Wait a second…” Terrowin said abruptly, stopping them. “Ugh, I recognize that sound, sadly…”
    “Yeah, I do too…” Byzantine muttered, peaking around the corner to see more than ten zombies clustered around the ladder, feasting on the intestines of what used to be a person. “Ah dammit” Byzantine whispered to himself, his stomach dropping at what they had just seen.
    “Was he a friend or something?” Tiberius asked innocently.
    “I - I don't know," Byzantine choked, his mind flooded with thoughts of the fate of the rest. "Not like I can even recognize him.." he finished, water in his eyes.
    “Well, we’ve got to get up that ladder to check… and I’d rather not fight all of them,” Terrowin whispered, for once avoiding battle.
    “We’ve fought more, I think we could do this," Joe replied quietly, still holding onto Sean.
    “I’d rather not risk it..." Tiberius whispered nervously. They all stood there, quietly listening to the flesh being devoured between the teeth of the decaying monsters. The Knight sighed, looking back at the rest of them.
    "I'll uhm... I'll handle this," Terrowin mumbled reluctantly, walking right towards the zombies, pulling out his sword and tapping it against his bracers. “Yes, come hither you decomposing son of a bitch!” the cannibals turned to face him, some ignored him completely and just kept devouring. Most stood up and stumbled toward the knight, who slowly backed away from them all.
    “You guys check it out, I’ll be fine,” Terrowin said nonchalantly, giving them a nod of approval. Byzantine went past them quickly and climbed up first, seeing no signs of anything strange.
    “Hold up, Byzantine,” Joe yelled looking up the ladder. “I can’t go up there with Sean, he’s still got that injured arm, and I’d rather not stay down here by myself…”
    “I’ll stay here with Joe, if you’re willing to investigate by yourself,” Tiberius suggested, turning back to observe Terrowin slashing at the undead.
    “Just give me a second to kill all of these bastards and I’ll go with him,” Terrowin shouted as all the zombies tried biting through his steel-plated armor. Several minutes later, Terrowin slowly climbed up the ladder and met with Byzantine.
    “I’d rather not have done that, fuckers wore me down, but let’s just get going…” Terrowin ordered, gesturing them forward.
    “So, what do you think happened?” Byzantine wondered, looking at the walls. “The place just seems… abandoned.”
    “I don’t know, the cursed ones couldn’t have gotten up those ladders…” Terrowin said slowly, his eyes trailing the walls. When they reached the stairs, they turned towards the throne room, and it was decorated with dead corpses, most of them weren’t recognizable due to their butchered state.
    “Dammit!” Terrowin yelled. “This castle isn’t going to fall to fucking barbarians!“
    “N-no..." Byzantine muttered simply, only several bodies remained there, but all were severed and scattered beyond belief.
    “Looks like those fuckers who attacked Aeternalis are here too!” Terrowin shouted, bursting with anger. Byzantine turned around and saw someone else looking at him with an axe raised.
    “Byzantine?” The familiar voice said. “Ah thank God, someone is alive!”
    “Ah, Matt, you made it!" Byzantine exclaimed, his spirit raising at the sight of the man he first encountered at the observatory. "What happened here?” Byzantine questioned, his eyes widening at the sight of his weapon. “And uh, why did you have that axe raised?”
    “I thought you two were part of the group who attacked us… I just, wanted to make sure no one else would die…” Matt revealed, slowly backing away as if he did wrong.
    “Uh, alright… anyone else alive?” Byzantine asked, trying to ignore the awful smell emitting from the throne room.
    “I don’t know, I tried to help fight back, but I had to hide, I think just about everyone is dead…” Matt said, his face dropping as he stared at the ground. “Though, some people might have escaped, we tried to get some people out while they attacked us but it just happened so fast, just about everyone was dead within minutes…” he finished, raising his head to face them.
    “Dammit... I'm sorry," Byzantine said sympathetically for the one before him.
    “Did you notice anything about them?” Terrowin asked with interest. “Did they all bear the same type of equipment?”
    “Yes, they were covered in steel, with a blue coat of arms I couldn’t make out…” Matt answered. "Sorry... it's all I noticed."
    “Ah, damn, well, anyone bearing blue is an enemy then…” Terrowin answered simply, turning back to look at the corpses. "How sickening."
    “Should we check around for anyone else alive?” Matt asked, facing the physician. Byzantine shook his head.
    “No, we need to get to Fort Forthwind and see if they’re alive… they have to be.” Byzantine ordered, beginning to walk past Matt down the stairs.


    * * *

    After reuniting with Joe, Sean, and Tiberius, the group headed towards Forthwind, planning to stop at Fort Rockwood to rest up. Fifteen minutes passed before it started to drizzle, which was soon followed by thunder.
    “What we needed, a damn storm…” Tiberius muttered.
    “It’ll be worse when winter comes around, which it will soon…” Terrowin told him. “Just think, instead of going through mud, we have to go through all of this snow…” he started to chuckle. "Imagine how cold it'll be in steel."
    “Yeah, that’ll be shit,” Byzantine grinned. They continued on to Fort Rockwood as the rain began dropping harder, causing it hard to trek through the mud, especially for those with heavy equipment.
    "Ah, dammit..." Terrowin muttered. "My shit greaves are sinking into the mud, ugh, let's keep moving," his boots tearing through the mud sluggishly.
    "Sean, how you holding up?" Joe asked, readjusting to Sean's weight against him once more.
    "Uh, I'm... I'm fine..." Sean replied wearily, his eyes struggling to stay open.
    Soon, the walls of Fort Rockwood came into sight, though the entrance was decorated with two flags on either side, both blue with the coat of arms of two swords crossing through a golden lion.
    "Those fuckers, those are the ones..." Terrowin mumbled, his fist clenching loudly due to his gauntlets.
    "Wait, what is it?" Byzantine asked him, turning to face the knight.
    "Those fuckers from Saward are down here," Terrowin responded without hesitating. "They've butchered everyone at the castle..."
    "Can't we just... kill them in their sleep or something then?" Tiberius spoke out quietly. "I mean, if they are here..." Wesley interrupted him quickly.
    "These aren't just some average people, lad; these are elite knights of Castle Saward. They'd know you were there within a second and would gut you the next."
    "Well, what should we do then?" Joe asked uncomfortably.
    "We... we should rendezvous with the guys from Forthwind... and uh..." Sean breathed.
    "Alright, relax Sean, let's get back to Forthwind and see if they've gotten there yet," Byzantine said, constantly telling himself that they couldn't be at the fort.
    "Let's get going then and hopefully you guys are good at sneaking," Terrowin began, turning to face all of them, standing tall before them. "This storm could help cover us, but if they stop us, we're most likely going to die.... besides you, Joe." He finished gesturing towards Joe.
    "Why would they spare me?" Joe asked, his brow raised.
    "Because they despise enemy archers," Terrowin answered, an odd smirk forming on his face. "They'd torture you to death, so, it'd be in your best interest to not act stupid and keep your head down around these fuckers."
    "Yeah, uh, let's get back to Forthwind now..." Joe agreed awkwardly. They quietly made their way through the dense woodlands, using the trees as cover; noise wasn't too much of a problem with the roaring thunder. Byzantine looked forward and heard scratching against the bark of a tree.
    “You lads hear that?" Byzantine asked quietly, stopping in his tracks.
    “Hear what?” Joe wondered, looking to Byzantine.
    “Oh, I just thought I uh… heard something,” Byzantine said, continuing forward with an uneasy feeling.
    “Okay, I think I hear it too…” Tiberius said. “Uh, let’s keep moving.” Byzantine kept walking and heard a groan and quickly looked to the left and saw Caleb leaned against a tree with two arrows in his right knee and his left leg look serious mangled.
    “Holy shit, are you alright?” Byzantine asked rushing by, quickly dropping to kneel by him.
    “Y-yeah, I’m uh, well, no, I’m not,” Caleb replied, blood creeping out of his mouth. “I’ve been here for a couple hours…”
    “How did you get here?” Terrowin asked, in disbelief that he could make it this far.
    “I… well, those sick fucks that attacked us..." he paused, taking a second to stop his head from leaning to the side. "They uh... they took out my legs, and they let me run, maybe they wanted to see me get eaten or something… I just kept limping trying to get to the Fort; I made it here and gave up… I couldn’t walk anymore…” Caleb informed. “But now, you guys are here, maybe I can live.” he finished, a smile forming on his face.
    “Yeah, we’re going to get you out of here, we need you to tell us what happened at the castle,” Byzantine said, desperately hoping another person wouldn't die. “Oh, I should uh... get those arrows out..."
    “Yeah... you should... and my other leg is uh, believe it or not a bit fucked right now,” Caleb answered, still smiling while pointing to his other limb.
    “Byzantine,” Terrowin said lowly. “Come over here real quick…”
    “Alright,” Byzantine said standing back up and walking over to Terrowin. “What is it?”
    “Well,” Terrowin whispered, his eyes peering at Caleb through his helmet. “I don’t think this soldier will make it much longer, he’s just dead weight to us, I don’t think we should take him.”
    “He’s a friend, of course we will, we can’t just leave him here,” Byzantine replied quietly.
    “I’m just saying, we’ve already got one injured, if this backfires there might be more blood on your hand, doctor,” Terrowin finished walking forward and leaning against a tree to wait for the 'procedure'.
    “Alright, Caleb, I can bandage up that leg of yours,” Byzantine said walking back to Caleb and kneeling by his side, pulling his trousers up to apply the bandaging and powders. “But, I won’t take those arrows out unless you want to feel a lot of pain.”
    “I can’t feel that leg anymore,” Caleb said blankly. “Just do it.”
    “Alright…” Byzantine agreed reluctantly, pushing the two arrows completely through his leg, ignoring the low winces to quickly bandage the wounds around the ankle where the arrow piereced. “Okay, Tiberius, can you help me carry him?”
    “Aye, sure…” Tiberius said walking over and taking one of his arms and lifting him up with Byzantine.

    * * *

    After half an hour of walking through the mud as the rain got even worse, the Fort was in sight and they got closer to see Balthazaar and two other soldiers jump out of the gate quickly with weapons in hand.
    “Oh, you guys are still alive, quick, get inside or you’re all dead!” Balthazaar ordered gesturing them in ever so quickly. They obeyed and followed in as fast as they could.
    “What is going on?” Byzantine asked setting Caleb down against the northern wall.
    “Those people who attacked the castle, they’re nearby and they’re in the process of besieging this fort,” Balthazaar said calmly, his eyes gazing towards the gates. “So far, they’ve lured the dead nearby, they’ve launched dead bodies in, and they’ve barraged us with what little arrows they have.” he added chuckling at the last statement.
    “Ah, dammit..." Terrowin grimaced. "How many have died?"
    “A decent amount of our men, we had someone come in from the castle, but no one else.
    “Who was it?” Matt asked with some hope in his eyes.
    “I don’t recall, some wench,” Batlhazaar answered blankly. “If you want to know the battle plans or anything, I’d talk with Odin about it, he’s discussing it with some other soldiers now," he finished, gesturing to Byzantine then to the stone building.
    “Come on, Sean…” Joe said, supporting Sean towards the northern wall where Alkraine seemed to be with several injured lying on the wet grass as he desperately tried to tend to as many as he could.
    "Thanks, Balthazaar..." Byzantine mumbled, gazing at the terrible condition of the injured, feeling empathy for what Alkraine was doing for them.
  8. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 48: Siege of Forthwind

    While they entered the fort and were given the status of the current situation by Balthazaar, Alkraine walked over and escorted Caleb, Sean, and Joe over to the other side of the fort.“So, have you been able to get a good head count on them?” Terrowin interrogated, hoping to get every bit of information about the invaders.
    “So far we’ve seen around twenty-five, thirty, or something around there. Not counting for all the arrows fired at us, but that’s probably just like four archers, they obviously half-assed their marksman forces,” Balthazaar informed, laughing lowly. While Terrowin and Balthazaar continued their conversation, Byzantine walked by the front gates, which were bordered up with some excess of stone and wood, and checked on Bear-Claw-Bones, who sat to the left of the gate.
    “Ah, Byzantine, good to see you’re alive,” He said greeting him. “To be honest, I didn’t think you’d make it, didn’t think anyone at the castle would…”
    “I didn’t realize this had happened until earlier tod- er, yesterday, I think…” Byzantine said. “Have you killed any of those savages yet?”
    “Aye, I killed two with my gauntlets," Bear said raising his arm into the air. "But, that doesn't matter, you should get talking with that big commander of yours or whatever," Bear told him jokingly, gesturing his arms toward the small stone building.
    “Alright, I’ll go to him real quick…” Byzantine said, turning towards the small building. While Byzantine was walking towards the structure, he finally took notice of the state of the fort. The ground had blood spilled in every other direction, few arrows lie in the ground, and on either side you could hear the whimpering of the soldiers, cowering and fearing another attack. Byzantine walked in and found Odin, a soldier Byzantine did not know who wore steel platemail armor and a steel helm, Alkraine, who had just entered, and two other peasants standing around in conversation, opposite to where a small piece of the rood had collapsed just recently.
    “Good you got here, Byzantine…” Odin said lowly, taking notice of his entry through the doorway.
    “Alright…” Byzantine said awkwardly sitting down. “Can you tell me exactly what is going on real quick?”
    “Well, these knights, they’ve already performed multiple ‘lightening attacks’ coming in very quickly, causing little damage and leaving as soon as they entered. We’ve already lost ten people to them, and we’re running out,” Odin explained quickly, as if the lives they lost were just numbers, which raised Byzantine's temper.
    “Aye, we’ve also found out they got a siege weapon…” The soldier with the steel helmet said.
    “They’ve got siege equipment? What kind?” Byzantine asked with haste, trying to hide his anger.
    “They’ve got a catapult, praise Mars that it’s not a trebuchet, but with that kind of firepower we need to take the offensive,” Odin informed.
    “I say we burn that catapult down with a suicide attack,” One of the peasants said.
    “At what cost? A couple lives for the sake of a catapult?” Alkraine asked enraged.
    “It’d be better that a few go rather than all of us,” the peasant replied simply.
    “No, it wouldn’t be. They’ll still try to take this place even without the damn catapult. Sounds like a waste of valuable lives,” Alkraine argued back infuriated.
    “I don’t think you understand the importance of this…” Odin said lowly, leaning against the cold stone walls. “We don’t have the man power to stop this attack, but we’ve got our backs to the river, seems like if this doesn’t work we’re as good as dead…”
    “We could try to get to Pileus,” Another peasant spoke out. “We’d have the high ground, at least.”
    “I don’t think that’d be a good idea,” Byzantine said immediately. “I’ve been to Pileus before, place is decayed to hell, you could fall to death easily, plus it has a slight... cannibal problem…”
    “See, we’ve got no other option…” Odin said in his usual low voice. “We’ve got to end the fight here, a lot of us may die, but it’s the cost of ending this raid of the East…”
    “What about Ignis?” A peasant asked.
    “What about it?” Odin questioned. “If we should seek shelter there? Aye, we could, if we wanted to sink to the bottom of the river with all of this armor on, we don’t have a boat and I don’t know if we could pull it off last second," he informed them, with no sign of hopelessness even though the situation called for it.
    “So, that’s it then?” Alkraine asked, gesturing around as if he was at a loss of words. “Our best option is to just sit here and die? I don’t think that’s a very good way to go.”
    “No, you fool…” Odin growled, facing Alkraine with his narrowed eyes. “I plan on going down fighting, and by Mars I will drag them all down to hell with our teeth biting at their necks in a dozen places.”
    “How do you plan we kill them tho-“The peasant began before Balthazaar stormed into the room.
    “M’lord, I think they’re preparing for another offensive push, you might want to come out here,” Balthazaar informed quickly and ran right back out the door, drawing out his axe. Byzantine reached under his coat and drew out his arming sword and began to follow the rest out the door.
    “Wait, Byzantine,” Alkraine called out before he walked out.
    “Oh, uh, yes?” Byzantine asked, turning to face the retired doctor.
    “You and I both know there is a way around this, just, please help me convince Odin to try and get us out of here alive,” Alkraine said with despair. “I really don’t want us to die like this…”
    “I know, I don’t want to go like this either, I’ll try..." Byzantine assured, though not convinced if he could persuade Odin or himself of a way out.
    “Alright, thanks,” Alkraine said following Byzantine out the door. Byzantine rushed over to Odin, who unsheathed his Messer, and turned towards the rest of the soldiers.
    “Attention, men, everything we need, this fort, our resources, our lives, defend on this last effort. We need to break their force and morale here, if we can stop that it will buy us time to save ourselves. If I see anyone trying to run away to save their own hide, I will personally kill you, so not one step back, only forward…” Odin ordered loudly.
    “It’s time to kill some maggots…” Balthazaar muttered while slowly raising his axe. Byzantine ran to where Bear and Joe were held out near the front gates.
    “Why are you lads’ right here?” Byzantine asked quickly.
    “Safe from bombardment by arrows,” Bear said calmly, looking down at his bloodied hand.
    “I’m looking for a safe place to shoot from…” Joe said looking around, not bothering to face Byzantine. "Glad when I leave for a couple of days I come back to... this."
    “I guess I’ll stay here then, I just hope our wounded are alright,” Byzantine said, ignoring the Lieutenant's last statement, though feeling guilt because of it.
    “They should be fine,” Bear replied, which didn't convince Byzantine. “Alkraine and Balthazaar are with them, they can hold off.” From their position, Byzantine could hear the battle cries of the knights outside the fort, though no attempts to break into the fort had been made.
    “Odin, what’s the deal?” Byzantine interrogated, moving away from Bear.
    “That is what I’m trying to find out; the profligates don’t seem to be trying anything so far…” Odin responded, overlooking the peasants taking arms.
    “These wenches, I can’t wait to cut through them like I did that whore at the castle,” Terrowin growled angrily.
    Several minutes passed without any sword play, as the invaders fired in ten arrows every other minute, missing about every shot. Byzantine looked back to the others.
    “Uhm… hold up, I’m going to go talk with Alkraine for a bit,” Byzantine said quickly, walking off without waiting for a response.
    “Good luck,” Joe said blankly, looking at his crossbow.
    “Uh, thanks…” Byzantine said looking across the fort, beginning to quickly walk through the open ground in the middle of the fort, where he suddenly was stopped and almost tripped.
    “Ah, what the hel-“Byzantine said looking back to see an arrow pinning his coat into the ground.
    “That could’ve been a lot worse,” Alkraine said as Byzantine pulled the arrow out.
    “Yeah, I guess so. How is everyone? The wounded, I mean,” Byzantine asked, looking at the dismal state of those lying on the wet ground.
    “They’re, as of the moment, fine,” Alkraine responded, looking down at them. “Sean and that other person you brought in should be fine, surprised they made it back…”
    “Yeah, I ki-“Byzantine was interrupted by the sound of a really loud explosion followed by crackling. Byzantine looked over and saw the entrance crumble and collapse, while the nearby walls began crashing down inward, with fire engulfing the wooden planks used as a makeshift barricade.
    “So it begins,” an unfamiliar voice spoke, wielding a spear. Without noticing, Joe had gotten right beside Byzantine and Alkraine.
    “Ah, Joe, what are you doing over here, we’re under attack!” Byzantine questioned with concern rushing through him.
    “Need to get… up there,” Joe said looking up. “I need the height advantage.” He concluded before running off.
    “Alkraine, I’m needed up there,” Balthazaar said. “Will you fare well by yourself?”
    “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine; you go out there and, try not to kill anyone…” Alkraine responded, knowing that wasn't possible.
    “Heh, yeah…” Balthazaar said awkwardly before heading off.
    “Sorry, Alkraine, I’m going to head up there too,” Byzantine said while drawing out his arming sword and running up to Bear’s location.
    “What the hell, Byz? Why’d you go up here, you got a death wish?” Bear asked once he arrived.
    “I thought I could be of some assistance,” Byzantine answered, immediately regretting his decision. A barrage of arrows, significantly more than before, flew through the front gates, killing off almost everyone in their way. After the barrage five knights raising shields walked in, with four, even more heavily armored knights behind them with longswords. After soaking up little archer fire, the knights dispersed in all directions, with three knights headed right toward Bear and Byzantine.
    “Dammit, stick with me, soldier,” Bear said as a knight ran right in front of them. “Come on, let us settle this like gentlemen,” Bear said gesturing the knight towards him.
    “Alright, let’s do this,” the knight said looking to the right and throwing his sword to the side, which stuck into peasant running to kill him. “I’m going to have fun killing you,” he added throwing a punch at Bear. Byzantine charged towards the other knight with more immediate regret and was disarmed as their blades struck together and he yanked it away.
    “Oh, come here sweetheart, I’ll make your death quick!” The knight shouted at Byzantine kicking him down and slamming his blade down towards Byzantine. Byzantine immediately pulled out his bone-saw and hit the sword out of the way before it hit his stomach.
    “Thank you so much, Joe…” Byzantine muttered struggling to get back up.
    “Don’t be like that, it’s your destiny to die-“The knight said as soon as an arrow went through his helmet and he fell over dead.
    “Nice work, Byzantine…” Bear said limping over. “They knew a bit more about fisticuffs than I thought.”
    “Yeah, they did…” Byzantine agreed picking up his broadsword while putting away his bone-saw. Byzantine looked at the center of the fort, seeing the death of Odin’s soldiers mainly, with the Knights of Saward scattered among them.
    “Another one has fallen to my blade,” Odin muttered admiring his Messer.
    “Let’s kill some more!” Batlthazaar cried raising his axe.
    “Not yet, if we go on the offensive we’re surely dead,” Odin interrupted. “Unless, you want to die, then by all means go for it…”
    “They’ll be sending more in any second now…” Bear muttered. “Just wait for it.”
    “I’ll be wai-“Byzantine was interrupted by someone shouting ‘I love the smell of sulfur in the morning’ from outside the fort. Within seconds the entrance was filled with smoke. Arrows could be heard whizzing by, followed then by the sound of armor clanking. Through the smoke Byzantine could barely see a small clay pot hit at Bear’s feet as it exploded into flames. Byzantine immediately pulled his coat back to avoid the flames and jumped away from Bear.
    “Ahh, ahh! Fire fire!” Bear shouted hitting at the flames in an attempt to douse the flames.
    “I’m sorry, Bear…” Byzantine said slowly backing up as Bear dropped to his knees. Luckily for Bear, an arrow soared from behind Byzantine and hit Bear in the head.
    “Come on, Byz!” Matt said quickly from behind Byzantine. “I was told to get you, we got to fall back!”
    “Al-alright…” Byzantine stuttered slowly backing away from Bear, his eyes watering. “Y-yeah, let’s go.” Byzantine followed Matt to the ‘safe zone’ of the fort near Alkraine and several archers.
    “Good, you made it,” Alkraine said to Byzantine. “Thought we lost you in that smoke…”
    “Yeah… uhm, Bear is gone.” Byzantine muttered looking down.
    “Yes, I know. I ordered one of our archers to kill him, didn’t want to watch him suffer, you know?” Alkraine explained with a hint of regret. Byzantine nodded slowly, looking at the smoke. An archer pulled his bow back, focusing into the smoke, right as an arrow pierced his chest and he slowly released the arrow effortlessly into the smoke as he fell down dead.
    “We’re not going to last,” Matt mumbled, looking at the dead archer with saddened eyes. “We might as well leave while we still can no good in us all dying, right?”
    “We can’t just leave this place,” Byzantine said. “All the work to fight against this plague and to bring order… we just can’t lose it.”
    “Let’s stop arguing about this!” Alkraine said nervously ducking down. Byzantine crouched down beside him quickly along with Matt.
    “What was it? Did you see anything?” Byzantine asked nervously, wondering what had happened.
    “I’m afraid of those archers… let’s just try to-“ Alkraine said as the sound of fire crackled through with screaming.
    “Ah, dammit…” Alkraine choked.
    “Wh-what is it…?” Caleb asked raising his head up.
    “Can you stand up?” Byzantine asked.
    “I can try-“Caleb said trying to stand on one foot before the other, then right back down he went. “Ahhhhh, dammit, no, no I fucking can’t…”
    “I’ll be fine,” Sean said holding his arm. “Just, no good in a fight,” Odin walked over to their position.
    “Those of you who can raise a sword or bow, do so, we need everyone fighting…” Odin said lowly then ran back off into battle. Byzantine unsheathed his sword and Matt drew out his axe.
    "We'll be fine... we'll be fine," Byzantine tried to persuade himself. Charred bodies, with blood all around them with smashed clay, limbs and guts covering the ground. Odin slashed through one of the knights, cutting their throat cleanly. A peasant in tattered clothing, stained with blood, stumbled face first against Byzantine, burying his dirty face into his white coat, with only one arm, which was clutching at his shoulder.
    “Doctor, if you please…” he spat out leaning onto Byzantine, beginning to sob. “I just need my arm back, D-doctor…”
    “Shhhh, shh, you’ll be fine…” Byzantine reassured, trying to calm him down. Suddenly he coughed up some blood on Byzantine’s shoulder and laid his head down. Byzantine looked at his back and saw an arrow sticking in it.
    “Sorry, buddy…” Byzantine whispered setting him down at his feet, to run towards Odin. “Anything I can do over here?” Byzantine asked quickly, trying not to choke up after the incident with the innocent life wasted.
    “I do not know, you’re the leader, not I.” Odin replied, raising his sword up while an arrow hit him in his torso. This didn’t deter him, even though blood seeped through the armor, he swung his sword and cut deeply into an opposing knight and kicked him down. Byzantine ran back over to Matt and a civilian battling one of the Saward Knights. Byzantine ran over and plunged his sword into the man’s side and pulled it out quickly.
    “Ah, thanks, doc,” the man said running forward to fight another.
    “‘Tis my pleasure,” Byzantine said, feeling like he did something right, though this was drowned out by more explosives as the Eastern wall fell and smoke clouded the area.
    “What they hell just happened?” Matt said stunned. Byzantine noticed more than ten corpses chasing after a limping Knight of Saward who was without a weapon, who seemed to be pleading for help, emerge from the smoke. Byzantine began to run over to him and stabbed into two corpses attempting to grab at him.
    “Ah, thank you…” The knight said lowly, still limping deeper into the fort.
    “Matt, lead him to Alrkaine!” Byzantine called out slashing at another zombie.
    “Wh-what? Ah, whatever, come with me,” Byzantine heard Matt agree reluctantly. The physician raised his sword and forced it down through a zombie’s skull, as he yanked it out a zombie collapsed onto him, forcing Byzantine to the ground, attempting to bite at his throat. Byzantine was tired, dehydrated and hungry; he was surprised he could even hold out for that long. His arms started to slip, barely able to keep the decaying monster away from him. Byzantine looked to the left quickly and saw more headed to finish him off. He closed his eyes for a second and remembered Wade vowing to protect him when this started at Yawpton
    He's dead, it doesn't matter,, it’s over. Byzantine thought to himself accepting his fate. He made one final attempt to throw the zombie off of him, which failed, just bringing the zombie closer to him. The next instant the Knight stumbled by and bashed the zombie’s head in with a rock and pulled Byzantine up quickly.
    “I-I’m alive…” Byzantine said looking at his hands in disbelief.
    “Yeah… I owed it to you.” The Knight said. “Now let’s get out of here unless we do want to die…”
    “Your mead is on me, friend,” Byzantine said happily, back-peddling towards Alkraine. Terrowin ran over and slashed two zombie’s heads off at once and looked at Byzantine.
    “Are you okay? I noticed from a distance, nothing I could do, sadly.” Terrowin said, catching his breath
    “Yes, I’m fine. Kill some of those things for me...” Byzantine ordered weakly.
    “Gladly,” Terrowin responded. The Knight sat near Caleb, groaning due to his pain.
    “It took a lot more work than it looked to kill that monster,” The knight said holding his leg. “Those… bastards, ugh, this hurt…”
    “What wounded you?” Alkraine said while tending to Sean’s arm.
    “In our order, if we didn’t do as we were told, or lacked discipline, they… they punish us. I apparently had disciplinary issues to them…” The Knight said. “They took a hammer, and kept beating at my leg, just one leg. And they use us to lure zombies… so they used me to bring zombies here.” He added looking down at his leg and beginning to sob. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want anyone else dying…”
    “Damn, lad,” Alkraine said sympathetically. “Those knights are more sadistic than I thought…” Byzantine looked forward, away from the Knight, and saw Odin drawing closer to him, covered in blood.
    “It’s time we head out,” Odin growled. “There’s too many of them, with all the dead too... Gather everyone; we need to get out of here.”
    “Where are we supposed to go?” Sean asked weakly, trying to ignore the stinging of the antibiotics.
    “Where ever you can go and survive,” Odin said. “I think the best plan is Anvalia, we could hide in the mountains, or Red Demon Temple, but if they find you, you’re already dead.”
    “Ah, damn, alright... I’ll try to meet you there,” Byzantine said quickly. “I’m going to get Joe quickly, Alkraine, try to get the injured out of the castle.”
    “I’ll try…” Alkraine said lifting Caleb up and walking him to the back of the fort. Byzantine sprinted into the stone building, then up the stairs towards the archers, seeing one of them dead on the stairs with an arrow in his chest and arm.
    “J-Joe, you up here?” Byzantine panted.
    “Yeah…” Joe said looking over the fort. "This is fucked up."
    “We need to get out of here and quickly” Byzantine said hurriedly. He looked over the fort and saw the Knights pouring into the fort, killing what soldiers remained at the front lines with ease. Byzantine ran back down the steps with Joe right behind him, running out to encounter one of the knights face-to-face.
    “Ugh, get out of here,” The knight said looking into his eyes, as he held a dark blue cloth in his hands. “No one else needs to die, get out of here and I’ll act like I didn’t see you.”
    “Th-thanks…” Byzantine said in amazement that he let him live.
    “Yeah, yeah, now go before I do kill you,” the knight said walking off. Byzantine and Joe slipped off through an existing breach in the northern wall.
    “Where is everyone else?” Joe asked looking around.
    “I don’t know,” Byzantine hesitated looking around. “Come on; let’s just get away from here.” Byzantine looked back and witnessed the flag lowered and the blue flag raised up.


    * * *
    Byzantine and Joe made it to Pileus, looking up at the giant mushroom home, examining the decaying structure. The smell of the place was almost as bad as Forthwind; it smelled of blood, though none was evident.
    “Did they tell you to meet up with them anywhere?” Joe asked.
    “Yeah…. They uh, they said Anvalia, the mountains,” Byzantine replied. “Joe, I’ve been meaning to ask you though, what did happen to Shadow?”
    “Oh, that…” Joe said with some despair. “I could hear them, barely; I could not make out any words, though it sounded like they were just abusing him… I heard growling after around five minutes of him being tortured, it didn’t sound like a dog, or any creature. I’m positive it was one of the dead, I’m also sure that it killed Shadow… I am not sure of this though…” Joe explained. “Then your friend burned the place down, so if that didn’t kill him…”
    “We could go back,” Byzantine suggested, looking at the Lieutenant. “We’ll have a chance, plus we could salvage what’s left and take it back to Anvalia…”
    “I don’t know, that’s a long swim, or walk…” Joe said twirling an arrow in his fingers. “I’ll think about it, but it could get us killed.”
    “I know that,” Byzantine said walking through the strange grass. “Better than being here though.”
  9. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 49: Back to Bazel, again.
    Byzantine knew that the only way back was through Forthwind, which would be almost suicidal. Joe sat near the river, looking outward like something would come for them, or maybe he was just clearing his mind, he didn’t know what to think. Byzantine crossed his arms and looked back to the former-lieutenant. “It’s going to become lot colder soon, got any ideas?”
    “We’ll think of something later,” Joe said. “Let’s just disconnect from all of this shit for a little bit, alright?” Byzantine looked back across the small stream, trying to think of someway back without crossing the fort. After another fifteen minutes passed when them both idly sitting there, Byzantine looked up into the giant mushroom.
    “I wouldn’t count on finding anything good up there,” Joe said, “probably just rotted, poisonous mushrooms, not worth it.”
    “It’s better than just waiting around…” Byzantine simply said. “I’ll go up and have a look, if yo-“
    “I’ll cover you then, no one else needs to die today,” Joe said without hesitation.
    “Oh, uh… thanks,” Byzantine replied. He began walking up the stairway, if it could be called that, slowly, watching out for any holes so that he wouldn’t fall to his death. They got to the top of the mushroom, looking around to see the platform lie in ruins.
    “I didn’t have any hopes for this place anyway,” Joe said, while scanning the area with a dulled expression.
    “I… I don’t know what I expected, maybe I didn’t want to just sit around doing nothing," Byzantine replied, looking at Joe to see a weird shadow in front of a doorway in a small shack. "Joe... something else is here..."
    "What are you talking about?" Joe responded.
    "Over there, by the door," Byzantine pointed.
    "I don't see anything, are you sure you saw something?"
    "Yes, I'm sure. Let's check it out," Byzantine said drawing his broadsword.
    "Ugh, fine," Joe said unsheathing a parrying dagger.
    "When did you get that?" Byzantine asked looking over.
    "Found it in Romero, you know, before it got burned down," Joe replied smirking at him.
    "Not funny," Byzantine said before running to the doorway to check it out. Nothing lie in the small shack besides a chest rotting along with mushrooms inside of it. "But... I saw something in here..."
    "I told you, it was nothing," Joe replied. "Now let's go, I don't want to stay here anymore, we need to get out of here."
    "Fine..." Byzantine said sheathing his sword. "What do you suggest we do then?"
    "Well... thinking about it, staying up here for the night would be good if we can clear it out quickly, then early morning I suggest we try to sneak past Forthwind," Joe suggested. "I think that's our best plan."
    "It sounds good, I couldn't think of anything else, honestly..." Byzantine said crossing his arms and looking down. "I'm glad you're here, Joe, I don't think I could do this on my own..." He said shamefully.
    "It's nothing, living alone in the woods was getting boring anyway," Joe replied grinning. "Now, let's check around for any mindless freaks." Byzantine walked around looking carefully at the floor, making sure not to fall. Nothing showed its face while he was patrolling, so he assumed it was clear.
    "Alright, Lieutenant, everything seems good," Byzantine informed.
    "Yeah, this place is surprisingly zombie free..." Joe said with a hint of doubt. "Let's hold up in this shack over here, looks warm enough for the night. Oh, and Byz." Byzantine looked over to see Joe holding three bottles of ale, "there was some good stuff here."


    * * *
    Byzantine woke up very late in the night, where it was almost pitch black, though he could make out a light outside the door. Without thinking,he stood up and walked out the door to investigate, slowly and quietly unsheathing his broadsword and looking around. Byzantine walked around the base of the mushroom to see if anything was at the stairs. As soon as he turned the corner he came face to face with a man fully clad with steel. He looked down at Byzantine for a second before raising his steel gauntlets and punching Byzantine in the face and knocking him down.
    "Ahhh, dammit..." Byzantine cried out putting his hand to his mouth, he could feel blood rushing out of it. He quickly went to grab his broadsword, though he felt cold boots smash upon his hand, knocking it further away. Byzantine let out another cry of pain before the man grabbed Byzantine by his coat and lifted him up and threw him against the railing of Pileus.
    "Hmm, I could easily throw you off to your death right now..." the Armored man said.
    "Agh... dammit..." Byzantine muttered. He threw his hands up at his throat to try to fight his way past him but he gave him another hit to the head and pressed him over the railing more.
    "Don't tempt me," The Man said lowly.
    "What are you, a knight? I thought they were supposed to be good people..." Byzantine replied, allowing his eyes to slide to the right, which he quickly noticed Joe sneaking over with a dagger in his hands. Byzantine looked back to the man quickly, to not arouse suspicion.
    “Shut your fucking mouth, so now, where is your friends?” the Man said again.
    “What are you talking about?” Byzantine replied.
    “Your friends, I know you escaped from the Fort, and I’m here to hunt down you and your patheti-“ He was cut off by Joe’s hands wrapping around his neck and dragging him back, causing them both to stumble onto the floor.
    “Quick!” Joe yelled. “Kill him!” Byzantine not wanting to waste time reaching for his broadsword, pulled out his bone-saw and jumped on the knight, hit his helmet up a bit and began sawing at his neck very quickly. What happened in seconds felt like a lifetime to Byzantine, as he looked right at him while cutting at his throat, seeing his life slowly fade away.
    “Looks like we just needed to amputate the area…” Byzantine said feeling immediate guilt while he stood up.
    “That… was way too close,” Joe said panting. “Everything turned out fine though, I think… and look at his gear… this could come in handy.”
    “You can take the armor if you wish,” Byzantine said pointing at them.
    “You sure?” Joe asked.
    “Yeah, I prefer being more mobile,” Byzantine answered.
    “Oh, uh… okay, let’s try to get this off of him…” Joe said forcing off the Dead Man’s helmet.
    * * *
    The following morning Joe and Byzantine were both by the water, Joe with his newly acquired steel armor looked a lot more menacing, though he didn’t take the helmet. They both agreed to try to sneak past Forthwind as soon as possible. They quickly crossed the small stream, once they reached land they began to move between trees, to try and hide themselves.
    “I won’t lie, Byzantine,” Joe said seriously. “This is a lot heavier than I expected.”
    “Yeah, it looks heavy,” Byzantine said having another look at it. “Also packs one hell of a punch too…” He added rubbing his face. They both took another look around to check for any of the Knights of Saward, which could also be considered the Knights of Forthwind, Cole Castle, Aeternalis, and the East. Thinking of all the ground lost made Byzantine’s mind uneasy.
    “Let’s not sit around for too long, let’s get going,” Joe suggested.
    “Oh, yeah… sorry,” Byzantine said quickly walking forward with Joe. “So, I say we head to Bazel before we head to Anvalia.
    “Oh, for Shadow?” Joe asked. “Listen, Byz, I don’t think he’s-“
    “There is still a chance, besides, there might be something of use there…” Byzantine said with despair.
    “I guess, we lost a lot of people yesterday, I mean, you did, and it’d be nice to find a familiar face… A living one, of course,” Joe replied some-what awkwardly.
    “I miss the old days,” Byzantine said blankly. “This thing as only been around for less than two months, but it feels like an eternity ago that we were in Yawpton when it was overrun, that we all escaped to the fortress in the woods… that Wade, and Freya, and everyone else died…” Byzantine said depressingly.
    “Wade was one tough bastard, I miss him too, Byz,” Joe said. “On a-uh… better note, we’re close to the church, which means we’re closer to the bridge.”
    “That’s good,” Byzantine said staring off. “We should be good now; I’m just surprised we weren’t caught…
    Twenty more minutes passed before Byzantine and Joe encountered the church and kept moving onward to the bridge. Byzantine figured it would be clear, though the dead, around fifteen or so, crowded around the bridge.
    “Shh, Joe, there are so many… what should we do?” Byzantine asked quietly while slowly backing away.
    “Let’s…I uh…” Joe said looking at them and thinking. “If you think we can, we can fight them, but…”
    “Yeah, I’d rather not…” Byzantine said. “Well, actually…” he added slowly walking down to the water and filling his empty ale bottle with water and drinking. He hadn’t had a drink all morning since he began travelling. Joe walked over and began to do the same.
    “We could always uh… swim,” Byzantine added jokingly.
    “I’d rather not sink,” Joe grinned while patting his armor. “At this point, I think we should just fight them, don’t know if we have the time to fool around.”
    “Hmm, fair enough,” Byzantine unsheathed his broadsword while Joe unsheathed the claymore he looted. They walked over to the bridge and slowly approached the zombies. Byzantine swiftly struck his sword into one of the zombie’s eyes and pulled it out quickly enough, drawing two more onto him. Joe swung his claymore and nearly decapitated a zombie, then backed away.
    “This’ll take a bit, but I think we’ve got it.” Byzantine assured, taking another swing at a zombie, which unfortunately got stuck in the zombie’s skull, causing Byzantine to try to yank it out while being approached by several zombies.
    “I’ve got you!” Joe shouted slicing a zombie’s neck open that was about to drop onto Byzantine.
    “Thanks for the assistance,” Byzantine said pulling out his sword from the zombie’s skull and crashing it down onto another fragile and decaying skull. Soon, only a few zombies remain. Byzantine was fighting two and one focused on Joe, Byzantine took a swing towards a zombie, which missed and cut into the arm instead. Panicking, Byzantine pulled out the bonesaw and went to strike at the zombie to his right, which knocked the zombie towards Joe, pushing him to the rail of the bridge with two zombies pinning him there, both biting at his forearms.
    “Joe! Dammit, I’m so sorry!” Byzantine yelled throwing the zombie with the sword still stuck in his arm over to the ground and pulling both the corpses off of Joe as quickly as he could. Emotion overwhelmed Byzantine quickly, “please, you’re alright Joe, right? Right?!”
    “Yes,” Joe said confidently raising both of his arms to reveal his gauntlets. “These demon spawns won’t get through steel,” he chuckled.
    “Oh thank god…” Byzantine said, stomping a zombie’s head in and drawing his sword out of its arm and finishing off the last two. “I’m so sorry…” Byzantine said again, sheathing his broadsword and bone-saw.
    “It’s fine, let’s just keep moving,” Joe said walking forward. “It wouldn’t matter anyway, right? I don't think their saliva would cause you to be like them, seems stupid.
    “The fact that something can reanimate with the intent of feeding off of us is stupid too,” Byzantine shot back quickly and worriedly. “I don’t know though, maybe it’ll kill you in the long run, and just needs a couple weeks... just try not to let one of their jaws near you."
    “I'll try” Joe said continuing forward. “So, do you really think we’ll find Shadow there? I mean, last I remember it was burned to the ground.”
    “Yeah, at least it’ll be warm…” said Byzantine, readjusting his coat slightly. “I can tell winter is setting in early.”
    “True, warmth there won’t last long. If we can’t get to Anvalia, we’re going to have to set up shelter elsewhere, or we’re going to die,” Joe said sternly.
    “Yeah, I know…” Byzantine agreed glumly. After ten minutes passed they crossed the bridge, overlooking the burnt city of Romero. “Think anything survived, or…?”
    “Maybe, I don’t think we should risk looking… My house should be fine though,” Joe said proudly. “Just right over that a way,” he added gesturing to the north.
    “Then let’s move up,” Byzantine said. “I hope you had lots of stuff stockpiled…” He added as they began walking northbound. Byzantine looked behind himself for a split second and saw a burnt corpse of a person missing an arm chasing after them both.
    “Keep your head on a swivel,” Byzantine said turning around quickly and drawing his broadsword. He extended his sword to quickly create distance between him and the undead hell spawn, allowing his sword to easily cut into the burned flesh. This did not deter the zombie, which kept pulling its self-closer to Byzantine, even while withstanding the cut. “Uh, Joe, this is getting a bit weird…” Byzantine said looking at the zombie moving closer to the guard of the sword. Joe gave it a kick and knocked the zombie to the ground, allowing Byzantine to quickly stab it and finish him.
    “That was strange, the zombie looked awfully… familiar,” Byzantine said looking down onto him. “Eh, it’s probably nothing. Now, the fight is elsewhere. We must move on.”
    “Right,” Joe said calmly, continuing forward. After a slow walk of twenty minutes the two made it outside of the small cabin, Byzantine could feel how warm it must have been in there from just looking at it.
    “Well, it doesn’t look like anyone has messed with this place yet,” Joe observed. “Alright, let’s go in.” Byzantine followed behind Joe, upon entering, Byzantine felt a strange sense of comfort in the warm house cabin. Maybe it was because he escaped the winter heat for a second or that or reminded him of how life was before all of this.
    “Okay, okay…” Joe said sounding relieved. “I had a bad feeling it would’ve been a lot worse,” Joe said. “I’m glad that’s not the case,” He added sheathing his sword, Byzantine did the same. He noticed the blood-stained floors, and the somewhat battered walls, though overall looked like it could sustain a life.
    “Ah yes…” Joe breathed. “I’m going to get something to try to start up a fire,” Joe added gesturing to the fireplace in the corner. “Have a look around, I guess. I’m pretty sure I left some food behind…” He finished walking outside. Byzantine turned around and walked upstairs, seeing nothing of use immediately downstairs. He stumbled upon the sink, and rested his hands on the edge of the cauldron. It looked clean, so he quickly filled up his empty bottle and downed it quickly, already feeling better. He refilled the bottle again and pocketed it within his coat. Byzantine walked back downstairs to see Joe with a small fire started in the fire place.
    “That’s good to see,” Byzantine smiled. “This feels strangely warmer than the Castle.”
    “Yeah, yeah…. It feels like it,” Joe agreed. “So, we stay here for a night or two then head out to Bazel?” Joe asked.
    “I’d rather not stay for more than a night,” Byzantine replied. “I want to get to Bazel then to those mountains as quickly as possible.”
    “We can try, but if we don’t gather supplies soon we won’t make the journey,” Joe said.
    “Where would we even go to get anything?” Byzantine asked. “Romero burned down and-“
    “I wonder why,” Joe responded harshly.
    “…And Camp Bell was looted a while ago,” Byzantine said sternly.
    “The farm is always an option,” Joe said. “The one just north of the camp,” Joe added. Byzantine shrugged.
    “It could work, we’ll see,” Byzantine said turning back to the fire.
    “Is everything alright upstairs?” Joe wondered.
    “Yeah… there was some water up there too, taste surprisingly clean,” Byzantine informed.
    “What if it’s not?” Joe asked.
    “Doesn’t matter too much to me,” Byzantine ironically said. “Dirty water is better than no water,” Byzantine added.
    “Fair enough,” Joe shrugged. “Byzantine took a look around the front door, noticing several breaches.
    “I see some holes in the wall, how could you sleep with this breeze that must come in at night?” Byzantine wondered.
    “It’s not too bad,” Joe stared into the fire. “Can’t even feel it upstairs,” he added resting his cheek on his palm. “You should go upstairs and get some sleep,” Joe said. “I’ll keep watch.”
    “Are you sure? I can take first watch-“
    “Yes, I’m sure.” Joe interrupted, Byzantine remained silent while turning to the stairs, moments later sitting at the bedside. He laid down his coat, broadsword, bone-saw, and water on the floor beside the bed and quickly fell asleep.

    * * *
    Hours later Byzantine was awoken by Joe, who was violently shaking him.
    “Okay, okay, I’m awake,” Byzantine said quickly.
    “I’ve been trying to wake you for a while, it’s about time,” Joe growled. “Now it’s my turn to get some sleep.” Byzantine quickly threw on his coat, sheathed his sword and bone-saw, and grabbing his drink and bolted downstairs. The fire was still burning strongly, so Byzantine say against a wall and watched it. The first couple of hours had gone by with great boredom, letting Byzantine remember the slaughter at Cole Castle and how he let everybody down. He took another sip of water then set his bottle down. A tapping was heard after several more minutes of blankly staring at the fire, Byzantine checked behind him, trying to listening out for something.
    “Ah, ‘tis nothing…” Byzantine muttered turning back around. Moments later, the door creaked open and he shot up quickly, unsheathing his broadsword and turned towards the door. A man ran up to Byzantine and slammed him against the wall, rendering him useless not being able to move his sword. In turn, his sword was at Byzantine’s throat, while two other men entered through the door, both clad in banded-iron armor and steel swords. Both the invaders stood in the doorway and chuckled as Byzantine was immobilized against the wall.
    “Not quick enough,” one of the bandits said. Grabbing Byzantine’s sword and tossing it across the room.
    “So, any good loot you have ‘ere? Heheh,” another one said looking around. “Sure seems like you’ve got everything you could need here…”
    “Oh, another band of sociopaths who go around killing unarmed people to prove their strength,” Byzantine grinned nonchalantly. “You’ve won the crown of originality.” With that said, he felt a cold gauntlet slam against his face.
    “You don’t have to prove my point further,” Byzantine smirked, trying to hide his pain.
    “You should shut that stupid mouth of yours unless you want another!” The bandit threatened. One of the thugs started making his way upstairs; Byzantine didn’t want to risk Joe’s life because of his slow reaction.
    “Hey, I wouldn’t go up there,” Byzantine shouted with a malevolent grin on his face.
    “Oh yeah? Why not, you little-“the bandit was cut off.
    “Wouldn’t want you to see a bottle of cheap ale beside your mother,” Byzantine interrupted.
    “You piece of shit…” the bandit growled beginning to run downstairs, just as an arrow went through his skull.
    “That there is what happens when you fight a man,” Joe said setting another arrow into his longbow and drawing it back. The leader quickly held Byzantine in front of him as the other one turned to run out the door, until an arrow hit his upper thigh and blood splattered across the floors.
    “Ahh, dammit! No, no, no…” the bandit panicked, examining the arrow in his leg. “Pl-please…” he gasped again looking out the door.
    “Don’t fire another arrow, Archer,” The last bandit said, with his sword at Byzantine’s neck once again.
    “You could fight me one-on-one like a man,” Joe challenged, throwing his bow down.
    “Mhm, fine,” The bandit grinned, throwing Byzantine against a wall. “Stay out of the way,” he said pointing to Byzantine. Joe pulled out a dagger and twirled it in between his fingers, taunting the bandit.
    “Heh, nice sword, if one could call it that,” The bandit smirked, holding his sword out in front of him. Suddenly, he charged toward Joe blindly and swung downward. Joe simply stepped out of the way, twirled his dagger downward and drove it into the back of his neck.
    Joe smirked. “How did he survive this long with such rudimentary tactics?” He said pulling his dagger out of the Dead Man’s throat. a
    “Nice work,” Byzantine said standing up, looking over at the last remaining person.
    “Oh god…” he breathed again, looking outside. “Pl-please… kill me, b-before they get me…” he added tilting his head outside toward a group of six zombies.
    “Ah, piss…” Joe muttered. “What should we do?”
    “That’s your call,” Byzantine replied. “Though, he’s going to die either way. Just end his suffering.”
    “Ah… I’m sorry,” Joe said picking his bow up off the ground.
    “Make it quick, please…” the man said exhausted of breath. “They’re getting closer…” with that said, Joe drew the bow back and swiftly let his arrow loose into the man’s skull, causing more blood to splatter. Byzantine picked up his sword and held it close to himself.
    “Should we finish those ones off outside or…?” Byzantine wondered. Without an answer, he saw an arrow fly by his face and hit one of the zombies. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he smiled. The fight was boring, as Joe was able to take them all out before they got close. They both walked back inside and looked at what had just happened.
    “Well,” Joe broke the silence. “We should both sleep away the last hours of the night. Then we can head for Bazel in the morning,” Joe ordered.
    “Alright, that sounds good…” Byzantine replied. “Let’s get these bodies out first, don’t want to wake up to the smell of death.”
    “I bet that smells almost as foul as you, Byz.” Joe smirked.
    “Ah, fuck off, Lieutenant.” Byzantine chuckled.

    * * *
    By the time Byzantine had awoken, Joe was still asleep upstairs. Out of boredom, Byzantine looked through the books on the shelf, seeking something to entertain him.
    Myths about Potions… Decameron…” Byzantine wandered off, looking through the books, and then he reached in and pulled out a book whose pages flied open revealing the empty pages.
    “That’s odd,” Byzantine observed. “Hmm, maybe I could write down the events I’ve gone through since this plague started…” he pondered to himself. “Ah, what am I thinking, that’s a terrible idea,” he finished putting the book away.
    A few moments passed before Joe arrived downstairs carrying a bottle in one hand with a small satchel in the other.
    “What’s in there?” Byzantine asked stepping away from the bookshelf.
    “I was just about to tell ya,” Joe muttered. “I search those bandits’ bodies a little before throwing them outside,” he said. “One of them was carrying this piece on them. I looked through it and…” Joe paused looking through the bag. “There’s a roll of bandage-“before Joe finished Byzantine was already grinning, seeing as they had just been out of cloth to use for bandages. “Some… red powder… three apples, some dried meat and salt,” Joe concluded.
    “Sounds like one hell of a haul,” Byzantine said happily. “Mind if I get those bandages and powder?”
    “Yeah, sure,” Joe walked over to him and handed him the roll with a small purse with the powder inside of it. “Make sure the lacing is tight enough,” he added referring to the small coin-purse.
    “Thanks, could I get some of these books too?” Byzantine asked, feeling guilty for asking for too much.
    “I don’t have a use for them, so sure,” Joe answered, tossing him an apple, which Byzantine only barely caught. “We need to leave soon though,” he added. Byzantine grabbed three books, and removed the lacing and leather from all three, setting tit on the ground. He stepped outside; walking over the dead bodies to grab some branches and quickly took them back inside.
    “What’re you doing?” Joe asked while biting into an apple.
    “Er, going to try to make some torches,” Byzantine replied. “Not sure how that’ll turn out.”
    “Hopefully it goes well,” Joe responded.
    “Yeah,” Byzantine said staring down. “I hope so too…” he added doubting himself. “Oh, Joe, are you going to be carrying that satchel or shall I?” he asked before Joe continued upstairs.
    “I planned on carrying it,” Joe answered. “Why?” he added.
    “You should pack that blanket upstairs,” Byzantine said while tying sticks together with some lining from the books... “And if you could, cut two strips of cloth, if you’ve got enough to spare…”
    “Right on it,” Joe said continuing upstairs. While he was gone, Byzantine finished tying the limbs together with a makeshift leather grip. He took another bundle of sticks and began tying them together. By the time he was finished, Joe appeared right before Byzantine, not even realizing his presence.
    “Oh, uh, hey,” Byzantine muttered quickly and nervously. “Didn’t notice you there…”
    “It’s quite alright,” Joe replied holding his hand out. “Here, take them.”
    “Thanks…” Byzantine said quietly taking the strips of cloth. He hastily tied them around the end of the torches, if they could be called that.
    “Wait, Joe, any extra room in that bag?” Byzantine asked.
    “Yeah, there is,” Joe turned around. “Need to take something else with us?” He added edgily, Byzantine nodded.
    “Just a couple books, if it’s alright,” Byzantine said, Joe simply nodded. Byzantine grabbed the Decameron, The Myths about Potions, and the blank book and handed them to Joe, who shoved it into the satchel, along with the two torches Byzantine fashioned together.
    “Let’s finish up here and head out,” Joe said blankly.
    “Agreed,” Byzantine nodded.

    * * *
    The two filled up their bottles with water and began heading north, towards Bazel. The walk was surprisingly quiet in the small forest. No zombies, no murderous thieves, nothing holding them back. The ease of the journey made Byzantine feel sick, like there was a slaughter waiting to happen. Joe, on the other hand, looked confident that the both of them would get by without a scratch.
    “It’s been pretty quiet so far,” Byzantine finally spoke.
    “Yeah, it’s strange for it to be this… peaceful,” Joe said looking around. “Like look, there is a bird over there… and a squirrel that way,” Joe added pointing in each direction. “I’m not complaining about it,” he finished.
    “I guess it is a nice change,” Byzantine agreed, looking around for any other signs of life. Minutes slowly passed, and while the sun was at its peak it still felt quite cold. Joe quickly grabbed Byzantine’s shoulder, forcing him to face left.
    “I heard something,” Joe said in a shushed tone. “Thata’way,” he added quietly.
    “I’ll keep an eye out…” Byzantine assured, though quite confused. Just then a soft ‘hello’ was heard behind some trees.
    “Uhm…” Byzantine muttered as three people, two men and a woman emerged from the densely forested area.
    “Hey,” one of the men who wore boiled leather armor and short blonde hair called out in a friendly voice.
    “Hey…” Byzantine and Joe both said awkwardly.
    “This is a bit weird,” Joe whispered.
    “Yep…” Byzantine agreed. “Uh, what are you guys doing out here…?” Byzantine asked.
    “We just got back from a hunt,” another man, dressed in a long black robe with silver lining and dark unkempt hair said in a blank tone. “Poor birds,” he added. Byzantine’s grip on the hilt of his sword tightened.
    “Yeah, we were just about to make a small campfire, care to join us?” the girl spoke again. Byzantine’s grip loosened.
    “What do you think?” Joe whispered.
    “Let’s give it a shot, just stay on guard,” Byzantine whispered back.
    “I guess…” Joe agreed reluctantly. “Yeah, sounds good,” he said to the strangers. Byzantine couldn’t hear the rest of what Joe mumbled.
    “We met you guys at a convenient time,” the man clad in leather said. “We just finished hunting these… ah” he stopped confused, holding up more than five small birds by the tail.
    “Pheasants,” the other man said nonchalantly. “They’re called pheasants,”
    “Yeah! That’s it,” the man agreed. “But yeah, we’re going to cook these peasants.”
    “Pheasants,” the girl finally spoke out. She wore a peasants dress and had long brown hair that trailed down the back of it. “Now, go get some wood for this fire,”
    “Yeah, yeah, alright,” the man said beginning to walk off.
    “Anyway,” the woman said in a somewhat annoyed voice. “I’m Brysies, and this is Ryouta,” she said gesturing to the man in the noble clothing.
    “I’m guessing you’re not from around here,” Byzantine said to Ryouta.
    “Why do you ask-“Brysies was cut off by Ryouta.
    “I was raised in Crowmure,” spoke Ryouta calmly.
    “I was raised in Grimdale,” Byzantine started. “So glad I’m out of that shit town.”
    “What was wrong with it?” Brysies asked.
    “Thieves and corruption plagued the city,” Byzantine answered. “When I was young I took after my mother-“
    “Bad choice,” Joe said teasingly.
    “Anyway,” Byzantine chuckled. “I started learning the basics of medicine from her so I could enlist as a field physician and get out of there as soon as I could,’ he added.
    “Oh, not sure what to say…” Brysies said.
    “Its fine,” Byzantine said nonchalantly, looking over his shoulder to notice Joe motioning him over. He walked over swiftly to the Lieutenant.
    “Yeah, what’s going on?” Byzantine asked quietly.
    “Why were you telling them all that? We’re still not sure if we can trust these people or not,” said Joe, sounding concerned.
    “I understand the concern, but I just got caught up,” Byzantine replied. “It’s just nice to have a conversation about something besides… this,” he finished.
    “Yeah…” Joe agreed quietly. “I guess it is…” he added.
    “So, what was the name of that other person with you?” Joe asked Brysies.
    “His name is Mark,” she answered. “I met him at a logging camp to the west of… uhm, here.”
    “I see,” Joe replied. Byzantine turned away to check their surroundings. NothingByzantine thought. No dead, no trouble makers, but there were people offering food and companionship, something has to be wrong. While Byzantine’s vision swayed away due to his thoughts, he heard their greetings to Mark, who had just returned.
    “Here,” Byzantine heard from Mark, followed by the thumping of wood hitting solid ground. “We can get working on a fire now,” Byzantine ignored this and kept his gaze elsewhere, towards Bazel.
    “Maybe you could wait until sun down before starting a fire,” Joe recommended. “No point starting one now in the middle of the day.”
    “I suppose…” Brysies said. “But I was going to cook these –“ she added holding up the birds. “I can’t do that without a fire.”
    “Obviously,” Ryouta said calmly. “Listen to the man and let’s wait,” he instructed, not looking away from the ground.
    “You’ve got nothing else you could eat?” Joe asked. “You can’t just be living off of game every day…” Joe finished. They remained silent.
    “Great,” Byzantine muttered while beginning to lean against a tree. “These guys are even more mysterious now…”
    “Uh, hey…” Byzantine heard, he turned his head to the side to see Mark standing before him.
    “Oh, hey,” Byzantine responded.
    “I was just wondering,” he said awkwardly. “Are you a priest?”
    “Why do you believe tha –“Byzantine wondered, perplexed about why he would think that. Then, Byzantine felt his coat slightly moving with the wind. “Oh, I see,” he realized. “No, I’m not a priest.”
    “Oh…” Mark breathed, showing a sign of disappointment. “Well, sorry to bother.”
    “’Tis quite alright…” Byzantine awkwardly assured. He leaned back against the tree, folding his arms and continued observing the area. Some minutes later, Joe showed himself to the right of Byzantine.
    “Hey, Byz,” Joe got his attention.
    “Yeah?” Byzantine wondered. “Something wrong or…?”
    “Kind of, when these guys fall asleep, I want to look through their supplies,” Joe said in a hushed tone.
    “They are quite shady…” Byzantine noticed, looking over at them.
    “I’ll go see what they’re doing, I suppose,” said Joe. “You know, keep myself unformed…” he added while walking off.
    Byzantine shrugged and kept his vision wandering. Surprisingly, a lone zombie wandered from behind a tree aimlessly.
    “Ergh,” Byzantine groaned. “I was enjoying the peace,” he said while drawing his sword. He raised it above his head and struck it down on the corpse’s skull, which cut through the decaying flesh easily.
    “What a waste of life,” Byzantine said withdrawing the sword from the skull and laying it down against the tree. Byzantine ripped a piece of cloth from the dead zombie and wiped the blood off the broadsword.
    Byzantine leaned back against the tree sheathing his sword, then reality struck him. Those strangers were going to keep them held there for another day. With that thought, he began walking back to the others.
    “Joe,” whispered Byzantine, gesturing the Lieutenant towards himself.
    “What is it?” asked Joe impatiently.
    “Tell those guys they can set up a fire on the way to Bazel,” said Byzantine. “I don’t want to be stuck here all day.”
    “Ugh, fine, give me a second,” Joe reluctantly agreed. “I’ll be right back,” he added before walking off. Several minutes passed and Byzantine could feel the chilly winds gaining strength. Finally, Joe, Brysies, Ryouta, and Mark came up behind Byzantine, announcing they were ready to get a move on.

    * * *
    As the winds picked up speed, the skies darkened and loud, destructive sounds could be heard from above, causing heavy rain to suddenly pour down.
    “We need to find shelter,” Brysies said. “And fast.”
    “Obviously,” agreed Byzantine with annoyance.
    “She’s right though,” Ryouta said bluntly.
    “I know she’s right, do you think I want to stay out in the open during a storm?!” Byzantine shot back.
    “We’ll be at Bazel soon,” Joe assured. “Just pass a bridge up ahead…”
    “I hope you’re right,” Mark worried as the rain pounded down on them. Within ten minutes, there was an extremely heavy downpour of rain. Though, they did encounter the bridge to the desert-area.
    “We’re here,” Ryouta stated in the same monotone voice.
    “Now, uhm…” Brysies muttered. “Are we going to be able to get across…?”
    “Now that you mention it,” said Byzantine looking at the slabs of concrete that formed the bridge. “We can’t exactly jump across that gap, without slipping into the stream, at least…”
    “And the current seems swift,” Joe added.
    “I say we wait,” Mark said. “It’s too risky.”
    “We can’t,” Ryouta said blankly. “Unless you insist to wait around in this rain, sinking slowly into the mud…”
    “Listen!” Brysies called out, simply pointing to their left into the wooded area. Byzantine turned his head to observe seven zombies reveal themselves and wander towards the group.
    “Dammit,” Byzantine muttered under his breath, drawing out his arming sword. Mark unsheathed a dull iron sword, while Ryouta took a thrusting dagger out from under his robes as Brysies cowered behind the group. Joe went to move towards the threat, though had trouble with all of the mud.
    “Lose some of that armor,” said Byzantine looking around.
    “Yeah, yeah…” Joe said calmly, looking at the ground. Byzantine drove his sword down onto a zombie’s head while Ryouta stabbed his blade into a corpse’s throat in a nonchalant manner.
    “And I thought I was poorly trained…” Byzantine groaned watching Mark dully stab into a torso of one of the rotting bodies. Byzantine quickly turned and was soon face-to-face with a member of the dead, who pinned him against a tree just behind himself. From the sudden push he dropped his sword; he tried pushing the zombie away with his hands while it viciously tried to bite at him, but to no avail.
    “I’ve got you,” Mark shouted sluggishly running through the wet turf. Byzantine put his arm in front of him to desperately keep the corpse away, while reaching into his coat, glancing over he realized Mark and Joe were fighting two zombies, so no help would come.
    “Guess it’s… up to me,” Byzantine thought while drawing out his bone-saw and began hacking away at the zombie’s arm; eventually taking it off. “Finally,” Byzantine breathed, side stepping away from the zombie and into the open. The one-armed body lunged at Byzantine, but stumbled and collapsed down. While it lied immobile, Byzantine picked his sword off the ground and stabbed it down into the decaying flesh. He began hastily running over to the others; most of the threat was already slain, just three more remained. Joe drew back the strings and let loose an arrow into a rotting skull, the remaining two swarmed around Mark.
    “Don’t just stand there!” Mark cried out, “Help me!” Ryouta walked over and grabbed the zombie, pulling him off of Mark and stabbed under its jaw.
    “There,” Ryouta said nonchalantly.
    “Nice work!” Brysies cheered.
    “Shush, unless you want to bring more of them here,” said Byzantine somewhat harshly. “Sorry, but I don’t want to get anyone killed.”
    “I’m alright…” Mark said dusting himself off.
    “I bet you are,” Ryouta said calmly.
    “Alright,” Byzantine interrupted. “You guys ready now?” he asked. “We need to get across that bridge.”
    “We just got out of a battle with those monsters,” Brysies said. “Calm down and give us a break –“
    “He’s right,” Ryouta interrupted. “Let’s risk it, worse that can happen is you slip into some cold water.”
    “Let’s stop arguing,” said Joe calmly looking towards the bridge.
    “Let’s just go,” Byzantine turned around. “Though, now that I think about it, the jump might not be do-able, so we should probably swim through it…”
    “But, still…” Brysies said backing away.
    “This has become so much more difficult than it has to be,” the Lieutenant spoke. “I’ll swim through it first, if it’s going to be this bad.”
    “Glad some people are with me here,” Byzantine said in relief. Joe was the first to set his feet on the slipper stone as more rain continued to drop upon it.
    “He’ll be fine,” Byzantine heard Mark whisper to him nervously. Joe sluggishly dropped into the water, swimming through with little difficult, even in the steel armor. Then, one by one they swam across to the other side of the destroyed bridge. Ryouta, Brysies, Mark, had swum through, now Byzantine stepped towards the edge of the bridge.
    “Not so easy, is it?” Brysies mocked before he had a chance to jump in the water.
    “Shut it,” Byzantine said hoarsely. “Or I’ll kill you when we get across this bride,” he joked. He quickly dropped into the water and swam across it quickly, ignoring the cold stinging of the water.
    “See…” Byzantine said, rising to his feet. “I told you we’d get through it.”
    “Was there ever any doubt?” Joe questioned.
    “I suppose not,” spoke Ryouta. “Not from me, that is.”
    “Now, if my memory serves me correct,” said Byzantine, allowing his eyes to wander. “Bazel should be North-West of this place…”
    “Dear Agni,” Brysies stuttered. “This rain is freezing.” Byzantine shrugged, and then looked forward.
    “Let’s not waste any more time,” ordered Byzantine.
    “You don’t have to be so bossy,” Brysies said.
    I swear…” Byzantine muttered, beginning to walk forward. Ryouta motioned Mark and Brysies to start moving.
    They moved through on the desert sands, soaked from the downpour. The winds, wet clothes, and rain made the trip to Bazel even worse, and the sun slowly descending down didn’t make anything better.
    “You better get us to this place soon or –“Mark was interrupted.
    “You lead us there then!” Byzantine shot back. Mark stood still. “Go on, I’ll follow.” He still stood paralyzed.
    “Fine,” Byzantine said turning back. “Guess I’ll keep going then.”

    * * *
    Thirty minutes of just walking had passed, the downpour had ceased, though they were all still soaked from before. A veil of darkness enveloped all of them, halting their journey suddenly.
    “Let’s stop here,” Brysies said quietly. “We could lose each other out here…” Byzantine looked around, it was difficult to see unless they were a meter in front of you.
    “Maybe we should stop,” Joe also recommended. “I’d sure love to feast right about now,” Byzantine halted suddenly, turning around to faintly see the silhouettes in the cold night.
    “I suppose we can,” Byzantine agreed, kneeling down on the cold, wet sand.
    “Well, shall we just sit here…?” Mark questioned.
    “We should be fine,” Byzantine assured. “Don’t think anything is going to sneak up on us here. Those walking piles of flesh do not have the best vision anyway, nor does one of the living in this darkness,” he finished.
    “I agree,” Ryouta softly spoke. “We shall be fine.”
    “I say we try to make it there before we’re completely shrouded in darkness,” Mark suggested.
    “For once,” Joe started. “I’m with this guy.”
    “What’s with all this drastic decision making lately?” Byzantine asked.
    “Anyway,” Mark said. “I think it’s worth a shot.”
    “Fine,” Byzantine said. “Let’s just get going then,” he added rising to his feet.
    As they overcame a small hill that lie in their path, the wind became a bit harsher, the weather conditions stacked against the group, though they had to keep moving.
    “This is awful,” Brysies spoke from behind him.
    “Yeah,” Byzantine agreed, covering his face from the strong winds. A light sound was heard behind him, Byzantine quickly turned around, and then realized his vision was blighted by the darkness.
    “Everyone alright back there…” Byzantine questioned, without getting a response. “Okay, this isn’t funny,” Byzantine spoke nervously, frantically searching around hopelessly. He laid his hand on his belt, hastily looking for the grip of his broadsword. After moments of searching, the frightened physicians hand fell upon the sheathe of the sword. Though his hands were ripped from the sword and he was shoved down to the ground.
    “This… isn’t right…” Byzantine whimpered, turning his back to see nothing –
    “Byzantine!” Joe yelled as Byzantine’s eyes shot open. Instead of being surrounded by darkness, it was quite bright. Joe and Ryouta stood above him, both looking relieved.
    “What happened?” Byzantine asked, momentarily paralyzed.
    “We were traveling and you just dropped down,” Ryouta answered nonchalantly. “So they stopped here…”
    “Oh… sorry,” Byzantine sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “I didn’t mean to hold us up here.”
    “It’s fine,” Joe said. “You just had us worked up,” he added, grinning. “Don’t scare us like that again.”
    “I’ll try not to…” Byzantine said wiping his eyes. He looked to his right to see the group kneeling around each other. He walked over to the others, intruding on their conversation.
    “We should never have come here,” Mark muttered.
    “I just wonder why it’s so cold…” Brysies ignored him, crossing her arms. Byzantine ignored them and kept looking towards the west. He didn’t know what he’d find, but he had a good feeling about it.
    “Byz,” Joe called out, standing behind him.
    “Oh, hey,” Byzantine said awkwardly. “Everything alright?”
    “I called for you like five times,” Joe replied. “I was making sure everything was alright.”
    “Oh, how much longer do you think they’ll take?” Byzantine asked. Joe shrugged.
    “Everyone is having a good time, Byz, just let them enjoy themselves,” Joe replied.
    “Fine,” Byzantine accepted. “Then meet me in Bazel when you’re ready.”
    “Don’t head off alone,” Joe said. “No one wants to see you dead.”
    “We eliminated everything that was there already,” Byzantine shot back quickly. “I’ll be alright,”
    “You better be,” Joe said calmly. “Good luck, I’ll head there soon,” he added. “Oh, and take this,” Joe said reaching into the bag and pulling out a piece of jerky. “It’s really soggy, but it’s better than nothing.”
    “Thanks, Joe.” Byzantine said gratefully, taking it from his hand.
    “In case anything goes wrong,” Joe started, pulling out a small purplish sphere.
    “Oh, damn, I completely forgot about that,” Byzantine said, checking his belt to find his radio latched onto it. “Still don’t see how these things work…” he added. Joe shrugged and looked back down at his own radio.
    “Heard it’s magic,” Joe said blankly. “I think that’s garbage, probably just made with that red circuit…”
    “Eh,” Byzantine shrugged. “We could debate it all day, let’s just be glad we have it. If it isn’t ruined from the water that is…” Joe nodded and added a faint “See ya” as Byzantine turned toward Bazel.

    * * *

    The weary apothecary kept treading through the sand, looking for the desert town. The desert wasn’t very big compared to places they had been before, though the endless repetition of sand and cacti made Byzantine nauseated, causing him to fall to his knees.
    “I… will get to Bazel…” Byzantine told himself before standing up. “I must,” he took a small sip out of his bottle and began walking once again.
    Not much time passed after that, only a mere twenty minutes before Byzantine started smelling charcoal, remembering what Terrowin did once they escaped. Another few steps and all of Bazel’s destroyed walls were visible. Only a few buildings stood amidst the rubble.
    “Ah, this place is almost as bad as Romero,” Byzantine smirked, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He doubted any dead would roam around here, neither would any trouble makers, so Byzantine walked in the town without worrying about drawing his blade. He carefully walked through the gateway taking note of what buildings survived the flames. The furnace building was clearly in ruin, along with the buildings to the immediate left and right of the entrance also lie completely burned, reduced to charcoal and ash, though the building directly across the furnace lie somewhat intact.
    “This place is a bit different,” Byzantine muttered to himself. “At least from when I was last here,” he added, making his way to the intact structure. Most of the lower portion was burned, beside some of the back walls and most of the staircase. Slowly, he made his way up to the second floor, noticing faint clanking noises as he walked up. Once upstairs a silhouette appeared sitting against the wall opposite of Byzantine, aiming a crossbow at him.
  10. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 50 – All over the place
    Byzantine took another look into the upstairs room then quickly ducked back down onto the staircase, which effectively covered all of his body. He heard the silhouette growl lowly, which was followed by the clanking of metal.
    “I’m sure we can work something out,” the odd, shaken voice called out from the other side of the room.
    “Maybe, I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Byzantine shouted back, still cowering on the staircase.
    “Wait,” the man replied. “Byzantine?” he called back.
    “Er…” Byzantine muttered awkwardly. “Yeah… It’s me…” he added, still not sure who this person may have been, though he figured it’d do no harm to give away his name.
    “Okay, good,” he replied back, sounding relieved. “Is Joe with –“
    “I still don’t know who you are,” Byzantine admitted quickly, interrupting him abruptly.
    “I believe you called me Shadow,” he said sarcastically. “You can come out now, not like I’m going to kill you,” he added.
    “Good,” Byzantine grinned, slowly walking up the remaining steps. “I’m glad you’re alive and everything,” he joyfully added. He noticed Shadow’s silhouette was upon a closed wooden crate, the crossbow still in his hands with none of his features visible.
    “Guess I just got lucky,” Shadow said blankly. “To be honest, I thought our captors killed all of you…” he spat out shamefully.
    “We thought the same thing happened to you,” Byzantine responded. “The getting killed part, I mean…”
    “Oh… sorry for causing so much worry,” said Shadow guiltily, setting the crossbow aside.
    “Not your fault,” said Byzantine, slowly approaching Shadow, who was becoming more visible. His tunic, which was surprisingly not ripped, just smelled of charcoal; his trousers were still hidden in the veil of darkness.
    “Yeah, I’m glad too,” said Shadow reluctantly. “So you uh… want to know how I lived through this?” asked Shadow hesitantly.
    “Oh, uh, yeah,” said Byzantine awkwardly, completely neglecting to think about how he could have managed just that.
    “Right,” nodded Shadow, a grin forming on his dusty face. “I was getting tortured by those… bastards,” he grimaced, taking a second to pause from his tale. “I don’t know what they wanted, guess they just wanted to have some fun,” he added, cracking a fake smile once again.
    “I had a feeling some shit like that was going on,” interrupted Byzantine while he clenched his fist together, his nails digging into his palm. “Sorry I couldn’t get you out of there,” he continued guiltily.
    “It’s quite alright,” Shadow assured. “I thought you were dead, after all the town did uh...” he paused, scratching the back of his head. “The town erupted into flames.”
    “Oh,” breathed Byzantine. “Anyway, go on.”
    “Right,” agreed Shadow. “So, they took…” he hesitated, reaching behind the box he was sitting on. “One of these,” he added, bringing forth a dark, gross flanged mace covered in dark, dried blood. “And bludgeoned in my legs with it,” Byzantine’s eyes shot open.
    “My god,” said Byzantine worriedly and with shock. “Are you alright or –“
    “I’m fine,” Shadow interrupted quickly, as if to not cause the physician in front of him to not worry. “I just can’t walk but its fine, really.”
    “Doesn’t sound fine,” disagreed Byzantine quickly. “Just let me look at your legs when you’re done.” He finished, not wanting to even wait for the story to finish.
    “Oh, yeah,” Shadow shook his head. “Almost forgot. They kept beating my legs in until someone can by and ordered them out…” he paused, looking at the flanged mace in his hand. “So, they dropped one of these, grabbed their actual weapons…” he paused again, glaring at the mace. “Like this thingitself isn’t a fucking weapon,” he growled, quickly tossing the weapon to his left. “Then, they ran out and did something…”
    “…Wait,” said Byzantine slowly. “Where did this happen at?”
    “The building just left once you enter the gates,” Shadow answered. “Anyway, they didn’t bother rebinding me, but then, after they had all fled the room the one that ordered them out in the first place came back in, gripping one of those monsters by the back of the neck and threw it at me,”
    “Goodness,” mumbled Byzantine, which Shadow ignored, still caught up in his tale that he was telling.
    “I somehow killed it with the mace, and then just crawled out to the middle of the town… where there wasn’t fire…” added Shadow, looking forward to Byzantine instead of the ground.
    “How did you uhm…” began Byzantine hesitantly. “Survive?”
    “Oh, yes, I almost forgot…, with this,” said Shadow simply, knocking his hand on a crate just to the left of his. “On this floor, a bunch of these crates were here, with a bunch of grain-like stuff – but it doesn’t seem like grains, no matter though. Also some barrels of mead or ale were up here.”
    “I see,” said Byzantine, looking over to the corner where all the crates and barrels lie stacked upon one another. “Now, ah…” Byzantine began moving the sides of his coat out of the way to grab a small purse off of his belt, then reaching into the coat to draw out a small roll of bandages. “Doubt this’ll do much, but it may stop any wounds from reopening and it might heal faster,” he said matter-of-factly, Shadow knowing exactly what he was talking about as he looked down swiftly to his cut up legs.
    “I appreciate it,” said Shadow nervously. “This is going to sting, isn’t it?”
    “Probably…” Byzantine answered. “Just, uhm, bite something,” he said while pouring a little powder of out of the coin purse onto the bandage. “Now, pull your trousers up a bit.”
    “Right,” Shadow agreed reluctantly, slow pulling his right pants to reveal his treads, then his leg; which had dozens of small puncture wounds, surrounded by a dark purple bruising.
    “They really fucked you up,” said Byzantine, examining the leg. “This’ll take a lot of bandaging…” and with that, he slowly began to wrap the somewhat clean cloth, stained light red, on his ankle, working up to cover his shin; all while Shadow was hissing and squirming around.
    “S-sorry,” said Shadow, clearly in pain as the physician tended to his almost-dead leg.
    “Its fine,” whispered Byzantine, still focusing on his work. “Just, try to calm down for a bit.” He finished, for some reason tending to another wounded person brought him both joy and pain. He didn’t want to see someone so badly injured but at the same time it reminded him of the past and his time at Yawpton – though that small military town was so far away.

    * * *
    Soon after Shadow’s legs were bandaged, Byzantine had walked over to the balcony while Shadow still sat on the crates staring blankly at the stairs like he had been for so many days. Byzantine stared out of the opening towards the front gate, the sandstone standing still opposed to the smoldering buildings. He figured Joe and the others would have been here a lot sooner. Shadow broke the silence between the two.
    “So… ah, Byzantine – ah dammit…” Shadow spoke quietly while rubbing his wounded limbs.
    “Don’t do that,” said Byzantine bluntly. “You might mess up the bandaging,” he finished turning his head to face him. Shadow apologized, removing his hands away from his trousers, Byzantine turned back to look at the burnt ruins.
    “That reminds me,” whispered Byzantine to himself, swiveling once again to glance back at the crippled friend of his. “Did they strike anything else besides your legs?” he asked, Shadow shook his head. “Good,” Byzantine nodded. “If they were to strike any higher than your shins you might be dead,” he spoke out glumly. “They didn’t though,” he chuckled soon after, trying to lighten the mood between them.
    “Yeah… that’s a good thing,” Shadow muttered, resting his cheek on his palm. Byzantine diverted his gaze to his boots, then quickly back to the front gate, waiting for the others. The physician tilted his head slightly to investigate what Shadow was doing as he slowly dragged a crate to his side closer to him. He soon took the lid off and dug his hand inside.
    “Want some?” Shadow offered, taking his hand out, revealing a bowl filled with what appeared to be specs of food.
    “What is it?” Byzantine asked awkwardly.
    “Some of that uh.., I uh… don’t know what are in those crates,” Shadow somewhat answered while staring into the bowl. “Maybe some dried shit mashed together?” he finished unsure of his answer. “It tastes awful, but…” Shadow started, reaching his hands into the small wooden bowl. “You have to eat so…” he finished, painfully eating a handful.
    “I’m alright,” Byzantine said turning towards the staircase, “Maybe in a little bit.”
    “I don’t blame you, this is torturous,” Shadow grimaced. “Though, it’s alright when you drown it in ale,” he joked, taking another pinch from the bowl. With that, Byzantine reached for the radio on his belt, bringing it closer to his face.
    “Joe?” Byzantine spoke, holding the radio tightly. A few moments passed without a response.
    “I was going to tell you when we got there,” Joe’s voice emitted from the device, “you shouldn’t have left me here with them” he added in a hushed tone.
    “Sorry,” Byzantine chuckled into the spherical purple object. “How close are you?” he asked.
    “Very,” said Joe bluntly. “Just a couple more minutes, I’ll radio you when we’re there,” he finished as the crackling noise ceased. Byzantine turned back to Shadow, who still had to bowl in his hand, and a small grin forming on his face.
    “I remember when I met you and Joe,” Shadow started, catching Byzantine’s attention. “And Wade, and Freya, and Alkraine…” Shadow continued glumly.
    “Shadow, its fine, just –“Byzantine worried, his recollection of their separated or dead friends also rushing to his mind.
    “I remember walking towards Grimdale, meeting you all there…” he continued, “too bad I won’t be able to do that again,” his eyes trailing downward.
    “I’m sorry…” Byzantine commented sympathetically.
    “Its fine,” said Shadow, his eyes still fixed to his legs. “I just miss everyone else, even if I barely knew them.”
    “Me too,” said Byzantine after several moments of silence, sitting down on an unopened crate. “Me too…”
    “When will they be here?” Shadow asked, raising his head slightly to face Byzantine.
    “Soon,” Byzantine answered blankly, “just another minute or so.” Shadow kept forcing himself to eat, while Byzantine kept his eyes on the staircase. A few minutes passed before the spherical device started crackling on his belt. Byzantine drew the radio closer to his face.
    “Hello,” he said blankly into the radio, already knowing it was Joe.
    “We’re here, which building?” Joe spoke his voice different and crackled through the other end of the device.
    “The one that isn’t burned,” Byzantine responded, putting the radio away.
    “He’s here?” questioned Shadow, sitting more upright, Byzantine simply nodded, standing up to keep his attention on the staircase.
    Soon after the radio transmission from the Lieutenant passed through, he could hear the annoying voice of Mark and Brysies as they approached upstairs being led by Joe.
    “Glad this is the right place,” the Lieutenant spoke once upstairs to see the doctor and the cripple.
    “Uhm…” Brysies mumbled. “Who’s that guy…?” She asked, talking about Shadow. Ryouta muttered while Shadow started to chuckle.
    “You never told them about me?” he asked, still laughing. “I’m offended, I feel so left out,” he joked, Brysies backed away, slightly embarrassed.
    “I’m glad you’re okay,” said Joe with a mixture of joy and exhaustion.
    “The feeling is mutual,” said Shadow quietly. “I would stand up to hug you, but I can’t,” he added nonchalantly.
    “Er, okay…” said Joe, quickly turning to face Byzantine as if to ask what was up.
    “I should probably be really mad at you guys for leaving me here,” Shadow smirked. “Then again, I’m in no position to,” he laughed.
    “You’ve got an odd sense of humor,” said Brysies quietly.
    “So,” Shadow ignored. “Now that we’re all here what did you guys plan to do?” he asked, looking back and forth between all of them there, besides Ryouta who stood farthest away at the staircase. “I uh… can’t really go back to the castle like this,” Shadow finished, flicking his hands towards his legs. Joe faced Byzantine as he realized that Shadow had been hinting towards his paralysis.
    “Er…” Joe started. “None of us can,” he finished, Byzantine took a small step back, feeling a veil of guilt fall upon him.
    “Why? Because of me?” asked Shadow hurriedly, worried that he was holding them back. “We can –“
    “We can’t because some people decided to seize the place,” Byzantine spat out quickly, keeping his eyes closed as if he could avoid the blame that way.
    “What?” Shadow exclaimed, leaning forward. “How could that happen?!”
    “It’s a long story,” the Lieutenant spoke, readjusting the bow slung across his shoulder.
    “So, what will we do without the castle…?” Shadow asked with despair, slowly leaning back.
    “Those who survived wanted us to head to Anvalia,” spoke Byzantine lowly, crossing his arms. “Y’know, that mountain range or whatever,” he informed. Shadow frowned, his eye beginning to twitch.
    “Then why did you head here?!” asked Shadow angrily. “You could’ve been there by now!” He shouted loudly, causing Brysies and Mark to jump back while Ryouta stood calmly, not speaking a single word.
    “Calm down, we came here to see if you were still alive,” explained Byzantine, puzzled as to why Shadow would be so angry at them for checking up on them.
    “Because you guys had a chance,” He said clenching his fist. “But you wasted time finding me. I’m just as dead as my fucking legs. I can’t do anything to help,” he finished, his eyes beginning to water as he threw his face into the palm of his hand.
    “It’s not like that,” Joe tried to explain. “Listen, everything will be alright,” he finished, taking a small step closer to him.
    “No, it won’t be,” Shadow retorted quickly, choking on his words. “I’ll never be able to fucking walk again,” he added tearfully.
    “Shadow, listen,” started Byzantine, whose eyes focused on Shadow. “Once that powder starts taking affect your bruises will settle and your wounds will heal,” he finished scratching the back of his head. Yes, if everything turned out alright that would be the best outcome, though he wasn’t sure if that would happen or not.
    “And how long is that supposed to take?” asked Shadow doubtfully, his gaze still fixed to his legs. “Ever since this happened they’ve… ergh, never you mind,” he finished angrily.
    “Uhm, no mean to interrupt but when will we be going?” asked Mark, stepping forward to project his voice.
    “Shut your mouth,” growled Ryouta lowly. “We’ll get to our destination once we need to.” Byzantine ignored Ryouta, and was more focused on the matter of Shadow’s dead limbs and if they would heal regularly or not. And if they did heal, how long would it take, and if they could afford the time, if they could not go to Anvalia. So many thoughts rushed through his head, though he soon snapped back into reality.
    “I’m sorry…” Shadow sobbed, planting his face into his hands. “I don’t mean to slow you down… you can leave me here and go on.” He finished, painfully getting his words out.
    “We didn’t come all the way over here just to leave you,” Byzantine grinned, looking back to Shadow.
    “That’s so sweet,” Brysies spoke, clasping her hands together childishly.
    “For the last time” Ryouta started, turning to face Mark and Brysies. “Shut up.” Moments of silence past until the conversation was over, with several more minutes of quietness passing. Byzantine sat down on a crate near Shadow, who still seemed upset.
    “Hey, does the leg feel any different?” he asked while he sat down, bringing both of his hands together in his lap.
    “Uh… kind of, I guess. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel,” admitted Shadow, trying to move his legs to no avail.
    “Eh, it’s fine, just tell me if they do,” said Byzantine, leaning back slightly.
    “So, what’s the deal with them anyway?” asked Shadow in a hushed tone, tilting his head to gesture towards the two, Mark and Brysies, on the other end of the room.
    “We found them and they seemed nice,” whispered Joe, somehow appearing by the two.
    “But, they’re kind of annoying…” added Byzantine, smirking slightly while eying the two.
    “Heheh,” chuckled Shadow, “reminds me of Consilio when we’d talk about someone else,” he giggled again, seeming oddly happy.
    “You went to that university?” asked Byzantine puzzled.
    “Yeah, my father sent me there, wanted me to earn lots of coins, gold, and whatnot,” informed Shadow. “But, uh... then this happened, and I had to head to Grimdale… you know,” he finished oddly, fiddling with his hands.
    “Didn’t think you’d be the type of person to go that university,” the Lieutenant admitted, grinning playfully.
    “Are you calling me stupid?” replied Shadow, turning his head to Joe, giving him a strange look. The Lieutenant’s grin grew bigger.
    “Well, when we found you, you were wielding a stone blade,” was all Joe muttered.
    “Anyway,” Shadow tried to ignore, turning away from him. “How are we supposed to get back if I’m… like this?” He asked, gesturing down to his wounded limbs.
    “We could always wait for it to heal,” Byzantine started. “Truly marvelous how we can do that… but uh, it may take a while,” he finished, trying not to get carried away.
    “Even then,” Joe began, slinging the bow off of his shoulder to set down on the floor. “We’d have to go all the way back to the East then to Anvalia,” he added. “Or just swim across the giant river.”
    “Where are you guys trying to go?” Mark asked stupidly, walking forward to approach the three, and he was quickly followed by Ryouta.
    “Stop bothering them,” Ryouta said innocently, “besides, we’ve got our own destination.” Byzantine looked down, he actually didn’t have an idea for Shadow to get anywhere outside of Bazel.
    Mark returned to the other side of the room, close to the staircase. Ryouta went to the balcony, staring off into the distance. The Physician stopped pondering on how they’d return, and shrugged it off, turning to the small barrels that lie beside the crates. Byzantine, smirking, turned to Shadow, who was holding a small book in his hands that he did not see before.
    “You can read? –“Byzantine started to ask but stopped almost immediately. “Oh, wait, you got into Consilio…” Shadow simply nodded, turning to face him.
    “Yeah, wasn’t there for more than a couple weeks though, of course,” he responded, looking back to the small book in his hands.
    “What’s it about and how did you get it?” He asked, leaning closer to the sitting figure. Shadow turned the book to him, which showed scribbles alongside a crude picture of a wheel with a man laid on it and a two people on either side.
    “Torture,” Shadow replied bluntly. “The only thing they had here,” he added, turning back to the book. “As they’d turn the wheel they’d bludgeon the victim as it turned. Sounds familiar,” Shadow spat out angrily. “I’m glad they just did this… and not some of the uh – other ones in here,” he said somewhat fearfully, setting the book down effortlessly.
    “Probably shouldn’t be looking at that anyway,” Byzantine told him as Shadow reached over to drag the closest barrel right beside his crate. He held a small mug under the tap, and looked back up to the physician.
    “There is another mug around here if you want some, Sawbones,” Shadow told him as he took a sip from his mug.
    “Don’t call me that again,” joked Byzantine, grinning as he stood up and walked by Shadow to grab a mug off of the floor, not caring about its location. He held his mug under the tap, which Shadow applied pressure to and he returned to his seat after it was filled completely. The drinks were nice, and definitely less harmful than the water, though Byzantine’s thoughts drifted back to how they would get to Anvalia with Shadow, or if they could. He was surprised Shadow even survived the bludgeoning, and was sure he wouldn’t recover, no matter how much he lied to himself about it. Without him realizing, Joe, Brysies, and Mark had also gotten their own mugs.
    Soon after, the sun lowered in the distance, faintly illuminating the burnt town. The Lieutenant was sitting in the corner, examining his bow, as Shadow dazed off, leaning against the wall uncomfortably. Byzantine looked down at his empty mug, not wanting to bother to rise and refill it. Instead, he lifted his head up to see Mark sitting by the stairs, staring down them as Brysies went to talk with Ryouta, if it was possible to have a conversation with him. He wearily lowered his head into his palm, catching Joe’s gesture towards him immediately after. Sluggishly, he stood up, setting his tankard down to approach the Lieutenant whom gestured him over.
    “Sit,” Joe said simply, setting his bow aside. Byzantine followed the order and did so.
    “What is it?” Byzantine asked after he sat down on the wooden floors.
    “Do you think we’ll be able to stay long enough for him to uhm… heal?” The Lieutenant asked. “I mean, does he have enough food or we would have to go search for some?” He wondered quietly.
    “He has crates full,” Byzantine informed. “He says it taste awful though,” he finished, glancing at the several crates by Shadow’s sleeping figure.
    “Guess we’ll have to look then if we stay long enough,” Joe said, taking a small sip from his tankard.
    “I suppose…” Byzantine muttered as the conversation ended, not bothering to stand up.

    * * *

    An hour and a half passed as Mark and Brysies played a game completely foreign to the physician, shaping their hands in grotesque forms in some brawl, Ryouta staring into the distance, Shadow waking up and passing the time with drinks with the Lieutenant and Byzantine. Surprisingly, the drinks were stronger than most ale that would be in an average household.
    “I’m glad we’re here,” Joe grinned behind his tankard. “I haven’t had a good drink in a while.”
    “Like they had good ale in Yawpton,” said Byzantine sarcastically, tilting the mug in his hand gently.
    “I got invited to the Captain’s parties, unlike you,” the Lieutenant chuckled.
    “I had more important matters anyway,” Byzantine smirked, swallowing another sip from the dull, gray mug. The mood in the small building was surprisingly cheerful; the thoughts of survival and Shadow’s condition escaped their minds for the time as they enjoyed themselves with the drinks as the moon rose in the sky.
    “Heheh, you know, it’s nice being able to simply drink with friends again,” Shadow smiled, hesitating to drink due to his happy expression. “This usually tastes a lot worse without people here to enjoy it with.” He finished happily; Ryouta cocked his head to the side, one of his eyes glancing over for no more than a second before turning away slowly to stare out into the dark night.
    “I don’t see how,” Joe joked, “ale always taste good.” He concluded, taking another swig.

    * * *

    Time passed swiftly, the moon already at its peaked. The fool was already sprawled across the ground near the staircase, fast asleep while Ryouta painfully made conversation with Brysies at the balcony. Byzantine, out of boredom and for some odd reason, not exhausted, attempted to balance his sword on his index and middle finger while Joe examined the feathers of one of his arrows.
    “Byz, think we’ll actually be able to uh… take Shadow anywhere?” asked Joe, resurrecting the dreadful conversation, diverting his gaze to Shadow sleeping uncomfortably.
    “I’ve been asking myself that all day,” he admitted, the sword losing balance on his hand. “To be honest, I’m surprised he’s alive… I’m not sure if we can haul him across a river.”
    “I know, I don’t think we can just leave him here though,” he said, his eyes locked onto his arrow that he twirled in his fingers.
    “Yeah, I agree, yet we still have to get to Anvalia to let someone there know we’re alive,” Byzantine whispered, leaning his head against the wooden walls. He wrapped his coat around him while still in it and drifted off into sleep.

    * * *

    The next afternoon, they were all awake, beside Ryouta who wasn’t in sight; Byzantine figured he wanted to be separated from the fool and cheerer for a bit. Shadow, still sitting upon the same crate, offered the rest of them his dried rations, which they accepted. Byzantine sat down, pinching pieces of grains from the bowl; Shadow was right, it tasted awful, forcing Byzantine to drown it in ale.
    “One things for sure,” Joe whispered to the physician. “We’ve got to go on a search for food,” he muttered, taking another handful of the grains.
    “Yep… we do,” breathed Byzantine. “Have you seen that one lad around?” He wondered aloud.
    “Probably just outside, and between you and me,” the Lieutenant started, lowering his voice. “He doesn’t seem the type to uh… excel in combat,” he hesitated. “Doubt he’d leave us completely, he couldn’t survive.”
    “I suppose,” agreed Byzantine, thinking of how he couldn’t survive by himself either as he stared into the small wooden bowl in his hands. After another minute of blankly staring into the meal, he stood up and lay it down on a crate with the grain inside of it, figuring he could go a little longer without filling his stomach.
    “Byz, Joe,” spoke Shadow, gesturing the two over to him.
    “What is it?” wondered Byzantine as he halted before Shadow and Joe soon followed.
    “I’m sure you two are somewhat familiar with the area?” asked Shadow, looking up to the two questioningly.
    “Why do you ask?” said Joe after a few silent seconds.
    “I figured someone could go on a food run,” Shadow responded. “Because I can’t go on any runs right now,” he added, falsely grinning.
    “I uh… guess I can…” Byzantine volunteered nervously.
    “You shouldn’t go alone,” replied Shadow. Byzantine turned towards Joe.
    “I don’t mean to be a bother,” said Joe moments later. “But I think I should stay here, I doubt it’s wise to leave him here with the others…” the Archer told him, suspicious of the new-found ‘friends’.
    “You could take that odd fellow with you,” Shadow suggested while shrugging. “Could be a chance to get to… find out more about him, I suppose.”
    “I’d rather not take Ryouta on a date,” Byzantine smirked, turning away slightly. “But, I suppose that’s reasonable, I’ll look for him,” he finished, walking past Mark, who was staring blankly at his hands. He swiftly got to the bottom of the staircase and headed out into the open sun, with a surprisingly refreshing breeze accompanying the outside. Just ahead was the grave site of the small smoldering town, Ryouta stood overlooking the wooden blanks with the names chiseled into them. He approached behind him slowly, as if to not startle him, noticing he was staring at Bearclawbone’s not-so-false grave.
    “Hey,” Ryouta said calmly without turning to face the physician.
    “Hello…” Byzantine responded awkwardly, not expecting him to notice him that quickly. “Interested in travelling with me?” Ryouta paused for a second, not turning around.
    “Why do you ask?” He wondered with a hint of suspicion.
    “We need food,” answered Byzantine bluntly, as Ryouta turned swiftly to face him.
    “What of my assets?” Ryouta started. “Will they be safe?” He asked worriedly.
    “Assets…?” responded Byzantine, casting a questioning look.
    “Those two with me,” he replied quickly.
    “Oh… they’ll be fine,” assured Byzantine.
    “I suppose I can,” Ryouta replied hoarsely, much different from his normal monotone voice. “Where do you plan to go?”
    “I uh…” Byzantine started, scratching the back of his head. “We can investigate what is to the west.” Ryouta held his tongue and remained silent, gesturing the doctor to lead the way.

    * * *

    The two began to traverse westward out of the charred ruins of Bazel. Ryouta, for once, looked like he had a lot of thoughts going through his mind; like he was actually worried about something instead of his usual bland nature. The endless repeating pattern of the sand in front of them which was decorated with cactus got boring quicker than the first time they had to tread through it.
    “I don’t think anything else is in this desert,” mumbled Byzantine, while gazing at the sand, aimlessly moving forward.
    “Maybe not,” Ryouta responded blankly, his eyes forward. The sands still continuously overlapped and repeated, giving the impression that it was ever expanding; that the two would never escape it. Byzantine hoped this wasn’t the case. Ten minutes of this torture passed before a small lake appeared at the base of a small sand hill. Neither one spoke, but both refilled their empty bottles in silence until they decided to pass over the small hill.
    “Looks like there is something in this desert,” said Ryouta in his familiar monotone voice, as they proceeded onward past the hill. And he was right; five tents appeared before them just down the summit.
    “Let’s go investigate,” said Byzantine in a hushed voice. Ryouta simply nodded. The two tents that were isolated away from the three tents lined up side-by-side were void of anything useful to them, while the three aligned side-by-side contained various barrels in each of them, used as alcohol kegs, besides one in the center tent that contained loaves of bread.
    “Holy hell,” muttered Byzantine, grinning at the sight of the food that seemed luxurious to him.
    “Don’t get too excited,” Ryouta spoke quietly, scanning the area lightly. “This definitely isn’t just here by coincidence.” Byzantine growled lowly, closing the barrels as if to cover their tracks.
    “Are they going to try to kill us too?” muttered Byzantine rhetorically, turning sharply. Ryouta turned lightly, facing out the tent to notice the barely visible staircase lead into the depths underneath the hard sandstone.
    “Perhaps an investigation would be wise,” said Ryouta quietly. Byzantine nodded, following Ryouta’s lead towards the staircase in the open. They stepped down it slowly, the sound of footsteps more evident the farther down they went. Ryouta suddenly halted, as if he was petrified. Byzantine quickly stopped before colliding into the man in front of him.
    “What is it?” said Byzantine quietly, taking a step back. Ryouta raised one finger without turning to face Byzantine, both of them remaining still and quiet, listening to the eerie footsteps echo through the small hallway that didn’t belong to them. Ryouta slowly began to walk forward, looking into the passageway that dug into the side of the narrow hallway. Ever so swiftly, a figure leaped in front of the two, wielding a pickaxe close to him.
    “Back off!” the unknown man yelled his figure barely noticeable with only a dimly-lit torch wielded to the sandstone for light.
    “Easy there,” said Ryouta calmly without recoiling back towards Byzantine. “Because I’m sure we both know I’d win this fight,” he taunted lowly, a dagger soon appearing in his hands, rising to meet the pickaxe. “Aren’t I right?” he teased more, the hands of the stranger shaking violently. Byzantine, somewhat disturbed, took a step back and placed his hand on his belt, ready to draw his own blade.
    “L-listen!” the man said abruptly, “just – just leave me to my work!” he spat out, still shaking, taking a step back covering himself in more darkness.
    “What would that be?” asked Byzantine, who relaxed his hand.
    “I have some important work, I’m searching for artifacts,” he informed, lowering his tool as Ryouta sheathed his blade. “If you wish we could discuss it in my tent over a meal,” the man added, more relaxed.
    “That’d be nice,” Byzantine smirked, his mind drifting vividly about the food that might be served. As the three of them left the excavation site, it was apparent that the man was older than both Ryouta and Byzantine, his hands calloused and worn, his white tunic stained, covered in dust, and torn around the sleeves. His short brown hair clamped to his scalp with sweat became noticeable as he led them to the tent in the center of the three parallel to one another. The barrel with the loaves was accompanied by two kegs, which were opposite to a small roll of cloth on the ground.
    “You sleep here, I’m guessing,” spoke Byzantine as the three entered.
    “I also work here,” the man spoke, moving an unlit lantern off of a small wooden plank in the center of the tent that was used as a table.
    “Sorry I don’t have any chairs,” he said hastily, rushing past Ryouta towards the tent flap. “Just wait here a second.”
    “He changed quickly,” Ryouta whispered once the man passed by him.
    “Agreed,” said Byzantine quietly, looking back to the makeshift work area. “Surprised he stayed here with all the cannibals around,” neither one spoke after that until the archaeologist entered the tent.
    “Okay, I got something to check on real quick in the tunnels – anyway, we can eat soon.” He spat out quickly, dragging the barrels slightly closer to the table. “Okay – here,” he added, filling two tankards with liquid from the keg. “Okay – sorry again, only have two mugs, but I’ll be back –“he finished hastily, rushing back out of the tent.
    “Uh, thanks,” Byzantine muttered as the miner dashed out, confused at why he was acting so rushed and somewhat friendly compared to his timid nature at their first encounter.
    “Wait –“Ryouta spoke out at him before he fully left the tent. He turned around, raising his brow questioningly. “Your name,” he said dully.
    “Hmm?” was the only response he got.
    “What do you want to be called?” he asked once more boringly. The man grinned, gazing up to Ryouta.
    “Emmitt, you can call me Emmitt,” he replied simply. “Now, I’ll be going for a second,” he finished, finally exiting the tent.
    “Uhm… okay, thanks,” said Byzantine quietly. The two stood there in silence, Byzantine still pondering about the strange man and what he might be doing in those tunnels. He looked at his dull gray tankard on the table, ignoring it – figuring alcohol wouldn’t fill one’s stomach as much as actual food would, forgetting about Emmitt for a moment.
    “What about the others?” said Ryouta blankly, Byzantine turned slightly to face him.
    “What?” he responded, wondering what he had meant.
    “I figure they would want some,” he said dully once more, which began to irritate the physician.
    “We’ll bring back some if we can, I’m sure he’d let us,” replied Byzantine quickly.
    “Maybe he’ll kill us,” Ryouta replied quickly and boringly, sipping from his mug.
    “I doubt it, he’s giving us food and drink –“Byzantine finished, reaching his hand out for his own tankard on the table.
    “Just because he acts friendly at first doesn’t mean he won’t drive a pickaxe through the back of that thick skull of yours,” Ryouta replied in the same pitch of voice. “Just keep an eye on him.”
    “Uh… I’ll try,” replied Byzantine, stunned at his audacious response.
    The two stood there after that, mindlessly drinking from the small, gray cups. Soon, the doctor’s eyes drifted to Ryouta, who was pacing around the room, muttering under his breath about the return of Emmitt. Ten minutes of being idle passed before the miner returned, clasping his hands near his neck, adjusting his dusty tunic.
    “My apologies, now I’m sure we can get to eating,” Emmitt told them, clasping his hands together. The two nodded slowly as he went over and took the lid off of a barrel, pulling out several pieces of bread and placing it on the table for them.
    “I’m glad you lot are here,” he told them, trying to rip off a piece of the hard bread. “It’s been a while since I’ve eaten with anyone…” he said glumly, finally ripping off the piece which he threw into his mouth.
    “No other miners? I’m sure there would’ve been more,” wondered Byzantine aloud, ripping a small chunk off of the loaf, which seemed like a godsend to him at the moment.
    “They all left when… this –“he paused, gesturing his arm violently. “– All happened, they all left me here, and someone had to continue our work… “
    “How have you been surviving… this bread doesn’t seem too old,” questioned Byzantine, eying the piece in front of him.
    “I used to meet with someone who lived in that observatory and we traded…” he informed, taking a small sip. “But, I went back over there and he was gone, so I tried Bazel and some people there offered me some stuff for one of my swords…”
    “Oh…” was all Byzantine could say, wondering how the ones at Bazel could be so hostile towards them but so friendly towards this miner. “Have you two been to Bazel yet? Is everything okay there?”
    “No, we haven’t,” said Ryouta quickly, interrupting Byzantine.
    “Y-yeah, we haven’t had the chance to yet,” Byzantine started, following along with whatever Ryouta was planning.
    “Oh, I see…” Emmitt muttered with disappointment. “Anyone else with you lot?” he asked, looking up from his loaf. Byzantine didn’t say a word, instead taking his coat off in the warm tent.
    “Yes, we’ve got to get back to them soon,” Ryouta told him, casting a glum look onto Emmitt’s dusty face.
    “Oh… I see,” he told them, ripping off another chunk of stale bread.
    “You mind if we uh – “Byzantine started reluctantly, looking towards the corner of the tent. “- Mind if we take some back for our friends? We need food badly.”
    “I… suppose, how many of you are there?” he asked, taking a bite into the loaf.
    “Uhm – six,” The physician answered after taking count on how many were in Bazel.
    “Alright, you can take them on your way out,” he said with despair, taking a swig off the alcohol.
    “Thanks, it means a lot, we really needed it,” informed Byzantine, taking another bite.
    “I hope Romero is still standing, maybe I can trade with them –“He told them before drinking out of his mug.
    “I wouldn’t count on it, I passed by it before and it was in ruins, somehow,” Ryouta said boringly, staring at his tankard.
    “Oh… I might have to leave my work then…” he said glumly, taking another swig. Byzantine remained silent.
    The rest of their meeting was dedicated to eating the stale, dried loaves on the table, Emmitt describing his past experiences in the tunnels, and how he hoped to find something in there one day. Soon the sun reached its height in the sky, radiating down onto the desert, in which Byzantine and Ryouta said their farewells and headed off with the six extra loaves.

    * * *
    “Leave it up to you to make me carry all the bread,” Ryouta grinned oddly, fiddling to keep all of the bread in his arms.
    “I’ve got to keep this coat clean,” Byzantine told him, chuckling slightly under his breath. “Don’t worry; we’ll be at Bazel soon anyway.” Ryouta remained silent. The ruined town was not too far when compared to the previous trek towards the dig site. The route there still void of any visible life besides themselves and the numerous cacti.
    “Was always surprised a desert was… well, is here,’ Byzantine started, destroying the silence between the two. Ryouta didn’t reply, simply nodding as a reply. After traversing through the sand for a seemingly lengthy twenty minutes, the smoldering pile was in sight. They approached slowly, carefully trying to not drop the foodstuffs onto the sand mixed with ash.
    “We need to leave tomorrow,” said Ryouta blankly. Byzantine didn’t respond, weighing out the options in his mind, which he shrugged off once they were inside the partially intact building. Approaching the top of the staircase, they greeted the rest of them with the sight of the stale food.
    “Oh – thank god,” whispered Brysies as the physician and Ryouta entered.
    “Yeah,” spoke Byzantine softly, taking two loaves from Ryouta, immediately passing him to approach the immobile figure. “– Here,” he finished once he made his way towards him, offering the piece. Shadow grinned, looking up to Byzantine’s tall person.
    “You have my gratitude,” he said calmly, taking the loaf out of the doctor’s hands.
    “It’s nothing,” Byzantine responded simply, turning slightly to face the others taking the bread from Ryouta’s arms, which casted a look of annoyance onto Ryouta as they all reached for their rations. “We got everyone a meal for a little while at least…”
    “Yeah, you did,” agreed Shadow, eyeing the food.
    “This is a godsend compared to that other stuff,” Joe interrupted, walking towards the two.
    “I most certainly agree,” Shadow told him, ripping a piece off the loaf. The Lieutenant chuckled lightly, tilting the tankard present in his other hand.”
    “It’s stale –“Byzantine spoke blatantly, glancing at the bread in his hands. “– But it’s pretty amazing compared to starving.” Shadow grinned slightly.
    “Yeah-yeah, not like I have food,” he joked, taking another bite.
    “I’d rather starve than eat what you were hoarding,” Joe started, taking a swig from the tankard.
    “All this hate,” Shadow snickered at his response, then randomly wincing in pain.
    “Try not to be too rough on those bandages if you want to recover well,” Byzantine told him calmly as Shadow’s hands hovered over his injured limbs in an attempt to avoid covering it. Joe gave Shadow an odd look, as if uncertain on how he should react.
    “I’ll try,” he grunted in response after a few seconds, changing the atmosphere of the small dark room quickly. Byzantine kept his eyes attached to the bandaged legs, checking if any blood would find its way out.
    “Well, everything alright now?” The Lieutenant asked awkwardly, noticing Shadow draw his hands away, who then casted a more mellow look.
    “I suppose it is,” said Shadow quietly, leaning back slightly. They exchanged a series of meaningless looks, unsure of what actions to take next. Oddly, they returned to feasting on the dried loaves without uttering a single word.

    * * *

    Part 2 (Below)
  11. Ole_Byzantine Platinum

    XP:
    44,626xp
    Chapter 50 - All over the place ( Part II)
    Several boring hours had passed in the humid chambers, with most of them already finishing off over half of their rations. Byzantine sat idly, leaning against a wall, his coat in his lap due to the temperature of the room. It seemed just as the day before, the quiet relaxing between all of them, the silence being a sign enough of their weariness through this hell on earth. The sun began to droop lowly, though still shining brightly over what used to be Bazel. Ryouta leaned forward, his back no longer against the wall, and headed downstairs swiftly.
    “Where’s he going…” muttered Joe lightly.
    “I don’t know,” said Byzantine.
    “I s’pose it’s nothing to fret about,” spoke the Lieutenant. Byzantine shrugged, glancing over to the staircase. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Mark muttering nonsense to himself as Ryouta left.
    “Can you fill this up for me?” asked Shadow quietly, holding the tankard out towards Joe, who walked over and did as he asked.
    “There,” said Joe blankly.
    “Thanks,” said Shadow appreciatively. Ryouta casually walked back up the stairs, casting a look upon the all of them.
    “We’ve got company,” said Ryouta calmly, lightly holding his hand out behind him.
    “What are you talking about?” Brysies spoke quickly; Ryouta snapped his head towards her.
    “Men, steel plated armor, the usual,” he responded matter-of-factly.
    “Shit,” Shadow muttered, his eyes widening as he reached behind the barrel he was seated on. Joe hurriedly stood up and slung his bow back into his readied hands.
    “Dammit, can’t have one day –“Byzantine began to mutter as he bolted up, throwing his coat on. Brysies cowered behind Ryouta while Mark drew his dull blade.
    “What should we do?” asked Shadow hurriedly, panicking as he reached behind the several crates for the crossbow which lied flat on the ground.
    “Byz, you should stay here with Shadow if he can’t move,” said Joe quickly, headed towards the balcony for a glance outside.
    “Got it,” replied Byzantine, drawing his arming sword. “How many were there? Did you see?”
    “Seemed to be around three, all in steel,” informed Ryouta calmly, not yet drawing his dagger. “I’m sure they’ll find their way in here soon,” he added quietly, sharply turning to face away from them.
    “Maybe… they uhm…” choked Shadow, as if deciding whether he wanted to spit his words out. “Maybe they won’t be… hostile?” he finished doubtfully.
    “I don’t think it’ll be that easy…” replied Mark, looking back at him. A moment later, steel began to clank and stomp against wood, as the three slowly approached the second floor. All of them in full steel, hardly showing any vulnerable skin, with the one in front wielding a kite shield defensively, noticing Joe’s drawn back bow.
    “Oh, that’s more than I had anticipated,” the one with the shield spoke out deeply, somewhat calmly, tilting his sword slightly forward.
    “Oh, hello –“one of the men in steel said blandly. Everyone in the room froze for several seconds, exchanging odd looks between one another.
    “…Fire, now, you idiot,” Ryouta whispered behind Joe, though the three caught on and quickly charged following this quiet words. The Lieutenant did as he was ordered and fired, albeit nervously against them; the arrow missing and piercing into the nearest wall.
    “Dammit – dammit, I’m sorry –“Joe spat out quickly, unsheathing a small dagger as one of the enemies slammed against him – pinning him to a wall whilst holding his arm against his throat and his sword close to his face.
    “Heheh, I’ve got you now, bowman,” he taunted quietly. Byzantine went to stab into his elbow, which lacked any covering, though a shield intercepted the blow and thrashed against him violently. The last one wrapped his metal arm around Brysies neck, holding his sword outward as if to scare them back.
    “Oh god – no – no,” muttered Shadow while he was immobile, holding up a flanged mace defensively, not able to do much else.
    “I’m gonna use that bowstring to sew your mouth shut,” the one pinning Joe whispered, holding the sword very close to him. “And I’m gonna use this as the needle…” Joe tried to retaliate, reaching his left arm upward to grasp at his throat; which failed.
    “Easy, but unnecessary,” said their leader quietly, bearing the shield. He slashed lazily, missing Byzantine’s torso by several centimeters. Mark, panicking, backed away slightly, unsure if he should attempt to help the pinned Lieutenant or their newly-found captive, Brysies.
    “Course I’ve got to look after you too,” whispered Ryouta, sneaking by the shielded bandit.
    “So, which finger do ya use to pull back that damned bow? Hmm?” The one taunted, his sword dangerously close to Joe’s hand. “Is it that one? Or maybe the middle one… all of you archers use a different finger it seems…”
    “Fuck off!” The Lieutenant shouted back – the opposition simply ignored him. Byzantine’s eyes darted between the captain (if he could be called that) and Joe, trying to catch all of the actions.
    “There,” said Ryouta loudly, gesturing to the lifeless body in the floor with his bloodied dagger. Brysies rested against the wall shocked while the other two turned their heads to face Ryouta and their dead friend.
    “You bastard!” The one holding Joe yelled, slamming the Lieutenant against the wall once more before tossing him down. “You’ll die for that!” he shouted, stabbing his sword towards him – which Ryouta side-stepped to avoid.
    “You deal with that fucker!” Their captain shouted, placing his steel boot on Joe’s throat lightly. “I’ll kill the last of these dogs,” he finished, about to apply more pressure to Joe’s neck before he could stand back up.
    Byzantine quickly stepped forward and slashed against the steel armor; which did nothing. The captain’s steel gauntlet met with Byzantine, knocking him down onto the floor as well.
    “I-I’ve got you!” said Shadow, throwing his mace against the knight – which only ricocheted off without any force.
    “You’re all foam and no mead, won’t even stand to fight me,” their leader said angrily, eyeing Shadow as he kicked Joe’s side violently and moved closer to Shadow.
    “Hahaha, see? You’re nothing!” The one challenging Ryouta burst out, slashing to meet Ryouta’s impressive parry with the dagger.
    “I do see, I’m sure your friend saw so as well,” said Ryouta hoarsely, retaliating with a quick thrust of his dagger into his exposed hand.
    “Ahh! You pig fucker!” He shouted, the dagger ripping out of his hand which covered the both of them in blood.
    “Don’t tell me about yourself,” added Ryouta, backing away as the enemy tried to grip his sword with the wounded hand.
    “Ah… dammit…” he muttered, dropping his sword. “F-fuck off! Back away! Craven piece of horse shite!” he added holding his hand tightly, backing away.
    “Don’t worry, I’ve got this!” Mark shouted, slashing the enemy with the dull sword – which knocked him back towards Ryouta.
    “Don’t fret, I’ve got you,” Ryouta whispered, backing away as the injured one fell to the ground.
    The captain grabbed Shadow, lifting him up off the crate he was seated on.
    “Now,” he started, holding his sword by his throat. “Nah, too easy.” He finished quickly after, throwing him against the wall. “I can deal with you later.” Mark ran behind the Captain, who quickly turned around to notice him.
    “Back aw– “Mark tried to say, before a sword slashed at his torso, his tunic now stained with a bright red color.
    “One down,” he said added, looking down to see Byzantine and Joe still on the ground – both trying desperately to stand up.
    “Away!” Ryouta shouted, tackling the captain down onto the ground. “You idiot, all of this work!” Ryouta shouted violently, ripping the enemy’s helmet off to reveal his neck.
    “Off you dog!” He retaliated, rolling over to throw Ryouta off of him, who quickly jumped back on.
    “Fucking die, you idiot!” Ryouta shouted once more, burying his dagger deeply into the man’s throat once, twice, thrice…
    “Mark!” Brysies cried, kneeling by the bloodied body. The Lieutenant still lay on the ground, messaging his side whilst Byzantine tiredly felt the bruises the shield left behind as he walked over to Shadow, knocked down on the floor.
    “Agh… dammit – I’m sorry, Byz,” said Shadow, looking up at him. “I couldn’t do anything…”
    “Its fine, Shadow…” muttered Byzantine weakly, kneeling by him. “Your trousers seem bloodier than usual,” he said simply, lifting his leg off of the ground to inspect it.
    “I think he re – Agh! Reopened the wound…” he finished, rubbing the sides of his legs as Byzantine examined the dark marks painting his skin with blood seeping out.
    “I’ll try to bandage you up…” said Byzantine, knowing the usual routine.
    “Like I said – I’m sorry, Byz, I can’t do anything with these fucking useless legs…” choked Shadow, gesturing violently at them as if to remove them from existence.
    “At ease,” spoke Byzantine. “It’s quite alright, just relax… I’ll get this.”
    “You!” Brysies shouted, marching over to Byzantine and thrashing the palm of her hand against him. “My friend is dying and you’re fucking around! DO SOMETHING!” she shouted.
    “Shit, alright, alright,” said Byzantine, recollecting on what happened to Mark just a minute ago. He jumped to his feet, holding a finger out to Shadow as if to tell him ‘hold on’ as he dived down beside Mark.
    “H-how is it?” asked Brysies worriedly.
    “I don’t know,” started Byzantine, inspecting the wound. “It doesn’t look that deep, and he was a good distance away… “
    “You better find out soon,” said Ryouta boringly, with a slight hint of worry as he looked at the bloodied one on the ground.
    “He looks – agh … I don’t know,” Joe started, finally to his feet. Byzantine applied pressure to the wound, reaching for his powder and bandages – which were in slight disarray after he was knocked down to the ground.
    “Fix him! Hurry!” said Brysies worriedly, which blended annoyingly with that “My hand, aghhh, why my hand” in the background.
    “I’m – trying…” spat out Byzantine, lifting Mark up slightly to get the cloth completely around his back.
    Byzantine wrapped the powder-covered bandages around Mark for ten minutes, while Ryouta and Brysies watched worriedly. Joe helped Shadow back up, seeing as he was suffering on the ground he was on.
    “So… is he alive?” asked Ryouta, a hint of worry present in his eyes though not his voice.
    “Barely,” responded Byzantine, “he’s breathing, barely… and I stopped the bleeding… barely.” He paused, looking over the unconscious Mark, taken aback by the faint emotion Ryouta showed, thinking he didn’t care one bit about Mark.
    “I see…” muttered Ryouta, his eyes fastened to the almost-dead one. “Well, update me soon.” He finished boringly.
    “I will,” was all Byzantine could say as he stood up and walked over the two dead bodies beside Mark’s to resume bandaging Shadow’s busted legs once more.
    “Byz,” said Joe, gesturing towards the last surviving bandit. “What should we ah…?” he couldn’t finish, making crude shapes in the air with his hands towards the last-surviving ‘bandit’.
    “Let him go,” Byzantine said firmly, stopping once he was at Shadow’s side.

    * * *

    The almost complete darkness soon enveloped them, and all of the others beside restless Shadow and Byzantine were asleep, each helping themselves to drinks and any leftover bread from earlier.
    “I felt awful about that attack earlier,” said Shadow randomly, breaking the silence between the two.
    “Why? We’re all alive, well – mostly,” he added, glancing over to Mark who was lying down on the blanket Joe had brought with them.
    “It’s obvious why, don’t be stupid,” replied Shadow coldly. “I can’t move, can’t fight worth shit,” he finished, looking glumly down at Mark.
    “Doesn’t matter, the two are dead and the other took flight,” Byzantine tried to assure, to no avail as Shadow shifted uncomfortable.
    “I don’t see why everyone we meet has to be killed immediately, though I’m not dead yet,” said Shadow glumly. “I don’t know, seems odd… I suppose.”
    Byzantine was at a loss for words, which Shadow shrugged lazily as a response to the silence. Byzantine’s eyes quickly scanned back over to Mark, who still rested on the floor, breathing slowly. “I should make sure he’s fine, you should rest up, it’ll help a bit with the pain,” said Byzantine, rising to his feet.
    “Goodnight…” muttered Shadow, leaning back slightly, his silhouette indistinguishable in the dark room.

    * * *

    The room was dimly lit as early-morning peaked, Byzantine only awake due to his uncomfortable position, buried his face in his hands, noticing no else awake. Shadow was leaned forward slightly, in what seemed like an uncomfortable position. He failed to think of anything else and leaned his back against the wall, shifting back into slumber.
    “Might want to wake up,” said Ryouta boringly, nudging at Byzantine with his foot. His eyes shot open and he looked around wildly, wondering why he decided to wake him.
    “What – what is it?” asked Byzantine tiredly as he rose to his feet, straightening his coat.
    “Your friend,” said Ryouta, tilting his head slightly. “Look,” he added, walking over to Shadow calmly.
    “Well, uh, what is it – “started Byzantine as Ryouta lifted Shadow’s head, revealing a large cut across his throat with a dark liquid staining his neck and collar. Byzantine’s heart stopped momentarily as shock coursed through his body, while Ryouta remained calm and looked back to him.
    “Seems it was by his own blade,” said Ryouta boringly, gesturing towards a bloodied steel blade on the wooden planks that once belonged to the dead man in front of them. Byzantine still had no reaction and felt shaky at the sight of the young friend before him that was now lifeless. “There’s a reserved grave outside,” he finished, referring to Bear’s non-occupied grave.
    “I-I-I’ll bury him before they wake…” said the physician, his eyes teary beyond belief and his voice shaky. Ryouta nodded and walked away as Byzantine couldn’t help but stare forward, unable to look away from the corpse he had talked to hours before.


    [Edit (Sept 30th,2017): although a very late decision, I've decided this last morning that the story left off isn't canon. It was going to be part of a larger story arc that I planned to create as a separate story but I've since abandoned that. Chapter 51 has been mostly finished for a while with the last few paragraphs needed but it's a mess and strays very far from the intended story. As of now, unless I get a sudden idea of how to finish this story then it can be considered finished. Looking back I've realized how convulated the story can be at times as well as my terrible character development, which makes it harder to move the story further (aside from the stupidly long time I've kept radio silent about this) hope anyone invested in this story understands. I've had lots of fun and enjoyment writing this and bonding with the MineZ community over the years. Anyway, if you have any questions about anything just message me or post on my profile
    ~Byz

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