Unlike her sister, Captain Vernon wielded a sword and a shield, choosing for a steadier, more mixed fighting style than her elder sister’s aggressive, full offensive fighting style.

  Her calm steady gaze patiently observed her surroundings, in contrast to Lucien’s growing anxiousness. She knew that she had to wait for the right time, otherwise Lucien wouldn’t be able to get out of here. But at the same time knew she couldn’t wait too long either.

  She shrugged off a heavy blow to her shield, at the same time bringing her sword down on the person that attacked her, remaining perfectly calm the entire time. She slammed her shield forward, sending the guy staggering back.

  Using the moment to her advantage, mana flowed down her arm and into her shield, which started to glow. Like her sister and the rest of her family, she was a wind magic user. She belonged to a rather prestigious family in the city, with a military history spanning almost as long as the city had existed.

  Flowing from her shoulder, down her arm, up her hand, and into the shield, the mana coiled through the faint circular markings in the shield. Like water slowly filling up a bath, the shield slowly became more saturated until it filled. Like turning off the tap, the mana stopped flowing from her arm, but what was there still remained in the shield.

  She looked back at Lucien for a brief moment, signalling with her eyes for him to ready himself, before she took a step forward. At the same time, the surrounding soldiers took a large step back, closing the circle off again, even at the cost of taking heavy blows to their shields that made them feel like their arms were going to break.

  She was now fully separated from the rest of the soldiers, providing the enemies either side of her with an easy opportunity to stab her in her flank. But, before they could do that, she dropped down and slammed her shield into the ground.

  A shockwave forced its way out of her shield, shaking the earth and sending dirt and dust flying. The ground cracked beneath her blow as the shockwave rushed outwards, sending the surrounding bandits off their feet and crashing to the ground.

  The soldiers hunkered down behind their shields, enduring the remnants of the shockwave, thankful that they didn’t have to bear the full brunt of the attack.

  Now!

  With the bandits scattered, Lucien and the other soldiers rushed forward before they could get the chance to get to their feet. The soldiers cut down anyone they could get to quick enough, while Lucien escaped the encirclement at a speed he had only ever ran at once before in his life. He ran to the buildings, hoping that he could catch a glimpse of the person that had Roddy.

  And thankfully he did.

  He caught sight of him off in the distance just as he turned a corner. Without thinking, Lucien continued to run at full speed, trying desperately to catch up. His eyes were firmly locked on that turn, knowing that he couldn’t make a single mistake.

  Reaching the turn, he rounded the corner without even slowing down and was rewarded with the sight of Roddy just a little bit closer than he was before.

  I’m getting closer. Closer. I must get closer. His legs were shaking. He felt like he was breathing in fire. He had been running for who knows how long now. He had been running through the twists and turns, behind buildings and through small streets as he tried his hardest to catch up.

  The battle was far away from him now, both physically and mentally. He just wanted to get his nephew back, and he would do anything to accomplish that.

  The further in he went, the quieter his surroundings became. Like no one else was even there. But he didn’t notice. He just kept on running. He was sure that the other man would tire out eventually. Would tire out before he did.

  “Guh!” He was running forward when he felt someone run into him, sending him crashing to the ground, his head slamming down with a sickening thud. His ears were ringing as his vision swam. He felt a dull pain radiating from the side that was hit, as he crumpled up like a shrimp. Once he was knocked down, he felt everything just drain from him.

  He found it hard to breathe. He could barely move. All he could do was lie there. The adrenaline that his body was running on to keep moving had ceased flowing, and all he felt was pain and exhaustion.

  His eyes were blurred. He couldn’t hear a thing over the incessant ringing in his head. He even felt his consciousness start to fade away, as it became increasingly harder to stay awake. His entire body was screaming at him to rest as he kept trying to get back up.

  He vaguely felt a pair of hands grab him and start pulling him along. Probably the person that had pushed him down, but he couldn’t tell. All he could feel was the skin of his knees being torn apart until he bled, as he was roughly dragged across rocks, dirt, and gravel.

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  He didn’t care. In fact, he was grateful for the pain, as it forced him to stay awake. Not that that was anything pleasant. He just didn’t want to pass out. His breathing was ragged and it felt like his lungs were burning, but he kept forcefully drawing air in. He needed a constant flow of oxygen to his brain if he wanted to figure out a way out of here.

  He felt weak all over, but even that was slowly starting to get better as the person continued to drag him through the village. I just need to bide my time until I can turn this around. He hasn’t gotten rid of my sword, thankfully. It won’t take me long to kill him if I can catch him by surprise.

  “Ugh.” But before he could do that, he was roughly thrown onto the ground again. He skidded across the ground, stopping a few metres shy of a large tree in the middle of the village centre. He clenched his teeth so hard he felt like they would crack, but it did help take his mind off the pain radiating from everywhere else.

  Tap, tap, tap.

  The sound of footsteps grew closer, stopping when a pair of boots entered his view.

  “Well, well, well. Look what we have here,” said a familiar voice, filling Lucien with dread.

  Lucien forced himself to look up, his gaze piercing the man despite the dizziness he was feeling. Adam. It was the same familiarly disgusting face he had known for years. That already smug face was now somehow even more insufferably arrogant.

  I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you. Lucien’s eyes glazed over the moment he saw Adam. His family’s faces flashed in his mind as he was filled with a burning rage. Like a volcano moments away from erupting.

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Lucien?” He kicked Lucien in the gut. Hard.

  He felt a burning feeling rush up his throat as he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor, a few drops landing on Adam’s shoes.

  “Now, that’s not how you should greet your family.” Adam grinded his shoe into Lucien’s head, pushing his face into the dirt.

  “Bas...tard.”

  “Now now, you shouldn’t be speaking like that. There’s children around.” Adam grabbed his head, pulling him to his knees, and forcing Lucien to turn and face Roddy, who was flailing and crying in the arms of the bandit that had lured Lucien all the way here.

  “Uncle... Papa, why?” Roddy’s voice was barely audible, but somehow rang with frightening clarity in Lucien’s ears.

  Adam walked off, dropping Lucien’s head and body back down into the dirt as he quickly reached Roddy. He patted Roddy’s head, a wave of disgust and anger shot through Lucien.

  “Don’t worry little one, it won’t take long. And soon we’ll be able to get out of here and find a place to settle down and live happily.”

  His dreams of a happy life made Lucien sick to his stomach. He doesn’t deserve it. It’s not fair.

  Lucien’s eyes trailed up and down Roddy, relieved that he couldn’t see any injuries. I have to... get up. He tried to force his body to move. His fingers digging into the dirt as he pulled his shaky legs in beneath him.

  Adam was now standing there between Lucien and Roddy, smiling smugly. “Well, it looks like someone’s got a little bit of fight left in him. Reminds me of your wife. She tried so desperately to protect those little brats of yours. It was hilarious.”

  There was a burning hatred in Lucien’s eyes as he staggered to his feet. He was beginning to lose all sense of reason. His heart was filled with the urge to kill the man in front of him.

  “I do kind of miss my wife though. I tried to convince her to leave with me when the whole place was burning down around us, but she just wouldn’t listen. I only did all of this because I cared about our future,” he sighed. “At least I was able to have some fun with her before I left.”

  Lucien sprinted forward, rearing his fist back to punch that lecherous smile off Adam’s face.

  Adam easily dodged, stepping to the side and watching as Lucien fell flat on his face. “Come on. You can do better than that old man.”

  Lucien rose to his feet, his breathing haphazard, but all the pain was fading away, replaced by an flood of adrenaline. He wasn’t really thinking anymore. His mind was constantly flickering between the scene of his family and the present. Roddy crying, and Adam’s smug taunting face.

  He was like a wild animal, injured and on the verge of dying. He was willing to do anything to take Adam down with him. His body, hardened by decades of tough training, was moving on instinct. His hand dropped to his belt and pulled out the sword they had left him with.

  Adam also unsheathed his sword, a sadistic smile on his face as he stood their calmly, in the same stance that Lucien had drilled into him in their countless training sessions. As if to taunt him even further.

  Lucien lunged at him, his sword thrusting for Adam’s chest. Wanting to pierce his heart and end him with the first blow.

  Adam casually deflected the sword to the side, then tapped Lucien with the flat of his blade, mocking him further. “Again.”

  It was like all of their past battles had suddenly reversed. Adam was now kicking him around while Lucien gave everything he had to try and hit him even once.

  “You don’t know just how long I’ve been waiting for this.” His boot connected with Lucien’s backside, sending him tumbling to the ground again. “I had to endure this for years just to weaken your guard. Now I’m going to enjoy every last moment of this.”

  Smiling, he stomped on Lucien’s back, grinding his boot into Lucien’s spine. He took his sword and tapped it against the stump on Lucien’s shoulder. “I almost lost one of my men trying to get that wolf over to us, but it was so worth it.”

  Each tap sent a jolt of pain down Lucien’s side, causing him to groan. His mind blanked for a moment as he felt something stab into the stump, the already traumatised limb made him feel like he was going through all that pain all over again as blood seeped from it.

  Gritting his teeth, he flipped himself over, a pained scream slipped from his lips as the sword slid out of his stump, but he smiled as he watched Adam stumble.