Stumbling back to his tent with an exhausted sigh after making sure the other two had returned safely, Lucien sunk into his bed and drifted off to sleep, thinking about the festival and what was to come after.

  Ugh, how much did I drink? He rubbed his fingers on his temples, trying to calm the headache.

  He awoke in the morning with a stinging headache and a wish to not leave his little makeshift bed.

  The ‘bed’ was not much more than some hay and a bit of thick woollen cloth for some slight comfort. The bed was barely big enough to fit him though. Albeit, that was something that could be changed.

  Carefully sitting up, he looked around to get his bearings and to make sure all of his stuff was still there. Good. Not in a stranger’s tent, and haven’t lost anything. I think. He looked down, and after making sure he still had all his clothes on, he sighed. Haven’t drank like that in a long time. She would kill me if she caught me like this.

  He paused for a moment, then shook his head. I should go and freshen up before meeting the others. Something tells me Anthony can’t hold his liquor. Flashes of what happened right after Anthony finished dancing with that girl played through his mind, and he smiled. Yeah, definitely can’t.

  He slowly got out of bed and left the tent, blocking his eyes. The sunlight was a bit too harsh for him at the moment, but he just dealt with it as he stumbled to the nearest basin he could find with clean water in it.

  He dunked his entire head into the water and shook vigorously, as if using the water to flush out all of the alcohol in his system. He stayed under there for several seconds, much to the confusion and concern of the people passing by.

  Phew, no way better to wake up of a morning.

  Bringing his head out of the water, he used the water to clean and wash up as best he could before finding his way to Anthony’s tent that was nearby.

  Already, before even setting foot in Anthony’s tent, he could see some of the chunks of Anthony’s dinner on the ground outside his tent from their walk back. After what was probably half a night and a good chunk of the morning, what was already a far from pleasant experience was now somehow even worse.

  “You up?” he asked from outside the tent, not wanting to walk in on anything he’d rather not see.

  “Huh? Yeah. Give me a minute,” Anthony said, sounding like he had just woken up.

  After a few minutes of stumbling around, Anthony walked out of the tent with his pants on backwards and almost hissing at the sun.

  “Feeling better?” Lucien asked with a bit of a smile.

  “Ugh.” he groaned, clutching at his head.

  “Come on. Captain’s probably waiting for us.”

  “Go on without me. I’ll catch up in a bit.”

  Lucien nodded and left to find William. After getting him out of the tent and making sure he was all ready to go, they met back up with Anthony and went to find the rest of the group, who were sitting around a fire and eating.

  Captain Vernon looked up at them as she scooped a spoonful of stew into her mouth, then nodded. “Good. Everyone’s here. How are you feeling?”

  “I’ll manage.”

  “Just fine.”

  “Been better.”

  The three responded.

  “The Commander has already sent out some scouts to follow the elves. Shouldn’t be long before we find out where they’re hiding. Rest up. I want you all in tip-top shape when we set out.”

  They’ve already gone? I should’ve gone off with them... No, stop that. As much as I want to see Roddy, I’ll probably just end up waltzing in to punch that smug prick right in his face. And that won’t be any good for anyone. It’s for the best that I stay back here so I don’t ruin everything.

  Lucien struggled for a moment, but nodded at what the Captain was saying and joined the rest of them for a much needed meal. Just a little longer. I’ll be able to do a lot more than just break his nose when we surround them.

  He comforted himself with those thoughts and went back to eating. Much of the day passed as his hangover started to fade away. With not much else to do in the camp, he put all his effort into practicing.

  After spending some time on his swordsmanship, he helped Clara with her archery practice, and while he couldn’t help Edward and Noah at all with the magic side of things, he did end up sparring a little with Noah. Albeit, with wooden training swords, as he felt like his sword would just get sliced in two by Noah’s no matter how skilled he was.

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  The rest of the day passed like this, as did part of the next. But this time he was able to spar with Anthony and William. But the camp started to get noisy just passed noon.

  Sitting there eating their meals, the group was curious about what was going on.

  “I’ll see what it is,” Captain Vernon said as she got up and left, returning a few minutes later. “The scouts have returned, thankfully all in one piece. Time to pack up and get moving.”

  The group quickly finished the stew then went back to their tents and started packing. Thankfully, he didn’t have much he needed to pack. He rolled up the bed, moved the hay outside to where the others put it, then grabbed his stuff.

  Taking down the tent was a bit more challenging for him, but he managed to do it only a little bit slower than the people surrounding him.

  After taking down everything, it was all either moved onto the pack horses or into the wagons, while some of the personal items were carried by their owners.

  It didn’t take long for the army to pack everything away and get back into formation to get moving. Everyone already knew that they would be leaving soon, so they had all done some work over the past day to lighten the load for themselves.

  The army once again set off under the Commander’s lead, this time following behind Elder Aerin, returning west. They followed the road they took just a few days prior until they returned to the area where Lucien and his group had split off from the army.

  This time, they followed the road down south before taking another road to the west. After a few days of travelling, the army started to slow down and eventually came to a stop.

  “We’re less than a days out now. It’s possible that they already know that we’re here. Stay alert and be ready for combat at any time. Onwards”

  Picking up the pace, the army marched forward before splitting off to start surrounding the bandits.

  From what the scouts had reported, the bandits were holed up in a village sequestered in the middle of a forest. There was only one road in and out. It was old and run down, with plants growing everywhere. It was difficult for a horse to even traverse through, much less a long line of carriages.

  Since they couldn’t take the road, and they were worried that the bandits would flee upon noticing them, they had no other choice than to spread themselves thin and encircle the forest and close in on the enemy.

  Thanks to the assistance of the elves, the army was able to communicate even across opposite sides of the forest through vines and pre-discussed signals.

  The sun had already set by the time the encirclement was completed, and with a wave of her hand, Commander Vernon ordered the circle to close in.

  Stepping foot into the forest, Lucien was constantly on alert for signs of any figures hidden amongst the trees. But all he could see were the other squadrons quickly, but unhurriedly, shuttling through the trees a short distance away.

  Although the army had to stretch itself to cover the entire area, it wasn’t like the squads were in any way isolated from each other. Lucien could see dozens of fellow soldiers, in spite of the growing darkness and the trees in the way.

  Along with that was a series of vines that were constantly moving near the captain’s and passing on information. If a battle happened anywhere, everyone would immediately be alerted to it.

  A vague feeling of unease lodged itself in his stomach. There’s no way they haven’t noticed us by now. There’s simply too many of us for that to be the case. Why is it so quiet then?

  Lucien thought that the bandits would immediately try and escape the forest before the army was able to fully close in on them, but so far he hadn’t seen anything. It was all just too quiet. He had long since unsheathed his sword, finding the quiet disturbing.

  Everyone else had also taken out their weapons, prepared for a surprise attack at any time.

  It wasn’t until they had crossed through most of the forest that they could finally see something different.

  A stone wall towered in front of them, at almost three times Lucien’s height. It wasn’t as impressive as the walls around Whitmore Castle, but was still far and away beyond what a small village like this should have been capable of constructing.

  Lucien’s group, as well as the others nearby, all came to a stop and hid behind the trees. Peering carefully, although it was difficult to see through the tree line, they could still make out the figures of people patrolling atop the walls.

  Faced with the fact that they wouldn’t be able to easily break through the outer defences and engage with the enemy, the soldiers had to wait for the commander to decide on their next course of action.

  The scouts they had sent out earlier weren’t able to penetrate this deeply into the forest in fear of getting caught, so they hadn’t seen the wall. But thankfully, the elves had witnessed its construction thanks to their prior agreement with Lucien to watch after his nephew.

  However, even though they already knew of it, it was still not just something they could bypass easily. And if a single group jumped out at the wrong time, they would be slaughtered and would only cause chaos.

  As the soldiers waited in silence, Commander Vernon was also waiting for her chance to strike. She was standing guard over Elder Aerin, who was channelling her mana into the ground.

  Roots shot out from her sleeves and into the dirt. The roots quietly dug through the dirt, leaving no traces as it reached the walls. Finding weaknesses in the walls, the roots dug into the walls, pushing the bricks away from each other. Decreasing the stability of the wall and making it prone to collapse.

  Elder Aerin continued to channel her mana into the ground to continue to weaken the part of the wall in front of her, but looked up at Commander Vernon and nodded.

  Commander Vernon channelled mana into both her arms and focused on her breathing. Wind whipped around her, cutting deep gashes into the dirt and trees as it flowed towards her.

  The air grew abruptly still after the chaos it caused.

  Breathing out, Commander Vernon’s eyes sharpened as she flung her arms forward, releasing all the mana she had been storing in her arms.

  A deafening blast rung out through the entire forest, causing the birds and animals to scatter in a hurry.

  The already damaged wall crumbled under the powerful blast of wind, alerting the entire camp of bandits.

  Bandits hurriedly gathered around the hole, hurriedly trying to fill in the gap in their defences with their bodies.

  “Charge!”