Chapter 154

154 Follow the plan, please! part Four footmen were walking in line escorting a chained up blond woman and the captain remained right besides her. They were professional soldiers of the kingdom of Loudeac, proud and disciplined men and women with an outstanding sense of duty and honor.

Sera walked with her bare feet and a tattered cloth apparel provided to her before the transfer. She had been planning and scheming of ways to escape for days, but once she saw them fight a giant cobra as broad as a barrel and so long she couldn’t see its tail she completely surrendered to her fate.

Fortunately for her, they treated her well because she was obedient and well behaved, and so far she had been the perfect prisoner.

“It’s about to get dark, let’s find a place to spend the night”

“Yes sir!”

They kept walking for about ten minutes looking for a place that looked both safe and protected from the environment, but when they finally found such a place there was a fire going in there already and a robed person poking at the flames with a stick.

Soldiers and prisoner alike were disapppointed because it meant they had to walk for another ten to twenty minutes to find a place like that again and they were tired already. Especially Sera because her feet were hurt and she was having difficulties walking in the stony road.

They were about to walk past the fireplace, which was about ten meters from the road right in between some trees at just the safe distance, when the captain stopped the march.

“Evening, mind if we share the fire?”

.....

The captain greeted the stranger and asked politely, only then realizing it was actually a woman. She tried her best to cover her face with the robe, but what gave her away were her hands that remained uncovered.

The captain nodded at his soldiers who broke the line and gathered near the fireplace. It was a cold night and they were in a dangerous spot close to the western forest. It wasn’t uncommon for beasts to appear suddenly out of the woods, only to feed on the unwary travellers and then go back into hiding, so the woman allowed the soldiers to sit close by.

“Do you want some?”

The woman offered a piece of cooked meat to the youngest soldier, he looked at his captain to seek for approval and then accepted it.

“Thank you! I’m tired of eating dried meat, its nice to have something juicy from time to time”

“I got more if you guys want”

All the soldiers joined the woman and shared their wine with her, although no one could see her face, her tone of voice showed how happy she was.

“So, what brings you to this place? are you perhaps heading north?”

“No, I’m actually heading south”

The woman shook her head.

“What business do you have there? Life is a lot tougher down there”

“It’s not really business, I just don’t have anywhere else to go. What about you?”

“See our captain over there? the blond woman next to him is a dangerous prisoner, she alone killed a high rank adventurer in Celarent and some kids too”

“That can’t be true!”

The woman took off her robe revealing her silvery hair and fair complexion.

“Sera, is that you!?”

Anne moved so fast the soldiers couldn’t even react, one second she was sitting in a log in front of them and the next one she was in front of Sera and the only thing they felt was a gust of wind.

But the captain was a lot stronger than his subordinates and stood quickly in front of his prisoner.

“What do you think you’re doing!?”

The captain said in a stern voice.

“I’m sorry, but I know that girl”

“Anne, is that really you?”

When Anne saw her friend’s pitiful appearance her heart was moved. She ignored the captain’s warning and performed a feint and walked past the captain in fluid movements and then she hugged Sera tightly.

“What have they done to you? are you hurt?”

Anne cried, but Sera shook her head.

“No, they’ve been treating me well, at least for a prisoner”

“Did you really do the things they say?”

“That’s complicated, actually...”

Before Sera could finish her sentence the captain unsheathed his sword, seeing this the soldiers took their spears and quickly surrounded Anne.

The captain slashed at Anne without hesitation but she jumped back dodging the attack.

“Calm down please”

“How do you expect us to calm down when you’re so strong?”

“Strong? maybe, but I mean no harm. Would you go into a salamander’s nest and then attack it because it’s strong? I was here before you and I didn’t know you would be passing by”

“Captain, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, why don’t we...”

“Shut up, it’s not your call, if I say she’s dangerous she is”

The soldiers who only a few seconds ago were reluctantly pointing theirs spears towards Anne, who had been kind, were now resolved to follow his captain’s commands despite not agreeing with him.

Years of training and following the chain of command worked wonders to dull their own judgement.

“I’m not dangerous, please just let me talk to her”

Anne tried to reason with the captain to no avail, the captain slashed at her again with the same result as before. Anne simply jumped backwards, only this time she found herself right in the middle of the soldiers surrounding her on all sides.

“Attack!”

The captain commanded and the soldiers plunged their spears at Anne with a speed difficult to dodge even for Anne. She was being swarmed by spear thrusts from all sides and her robe was turned into tatters revealing a skin tight leather armor that left part of her thighs and belly exposed in a fashionable way.

She then grabbed a short sword by the hilt and used it to deflect the spears until she was out of the entanglement, but the captain was ready for this.

“Charge!”

A swift tackle that held the strenght of a charging beast hit the defenseless Anne sending her flying towards a tree. A loud clanking sound echoed through the forest, but no beast dared to come out of their hideout.

“Now you’ve done it!”

Anne quickly composed herself and jumped back into the vegetation, the soldiers stood still trying to hear the sounds coming from the forest, but Anne, as an archer, was too quick and she held the upper hand inside the forest.

An arrow whistled in the air and a soldier fell on his knee, he was hit from behind. The others didn’t try to help him, they were too busy trying to hold the cold sweat that ran through their foreheads.

In just one movements the tables were turned and now they were defenseless.

“Show yourself or I kill the girl!”

The captain held a knife to Sera’s throat.

She was so startled when the fight broke out she didn’t even try to run away and now she was completely defenseless because her hands were tied on her back and she couldn’t even lift them to protect her neck. Her fate was completely on the captain’s hands.

Anne, who didn’t want to see Sera die in front of her eyes, came out of the forest raising her arms above her head.

“Now we’ll have to transport two prisoners instead of one”

The captain said with a smirk.

“I just defended myself, you guys attacked me without provocation!”

“Secure her, now!”

But before they were able to do so, Sera let out flames that came out from her hands. They shined so bright in the middle of the night the soldiers were blinded for a second and when they wanted to notice Anne had already released Sera from her chains.

“Are you ok?”

“My hands hurt a little, but I’ll be fine”

“You incompetent bunch, go capture them!”

The soldiers threw themselves at Anne, even the one who still had an arrow stuck behind his knee. Their attacks were so well coordinated that the girls couldn’t dodge them completely and they were getting hurt little by little.

When one of the soldiers made a mistake and got too close, Anne didn’t miss the opportunity to grab on to his spear and disarm the soldier throwing it to the ground. She then jumped forward and launched a barrage of attacks that left the three soldiers standing completely defenseless, their steel plate armor was battered by her every strike, thus reducing it’s effectiveness and their movement capability.

The captain took the chance to attack from behind, skillfully slicing Anne’s back but failing to land a desicive blow.

Anne was feeling pain, but she wasn’t going to give up yet. Using the spear to support her weight she stood up. She was again surrounded, only this time she had been hurt and her fighting prowess was halved.

At that precise moment the bushes rustled as two figures appeared from within the forest.

When they came into sight, the head of one of the soldiers dropped to the ground after being sliced cleanly.

“Well, well, well, what’s going on here?”

A male voice resounded in the dark.