Elsewhere in the village, after Lucien had left chasing that bandit, Captain Vernon and the rest of the soldiers with her were finishing off the remaining through stragglers. Thanks to her big knockback attack, they had already killed a sizeable portion of the bandits before they had the chance to rally, and from there, they were able to overwhelm the remaining bandits before any more reinforcements could come.

  Captain Vernon rounded up the few bandits that had surrendered, ordered some other soldiers to watch over them, then sighed. “It looks like no more are coming, but stay vigilant. We don’t know how the battles are going everywhere else. Maintain your guard at all times.”

  Saying that, she rounded up the members of her squad to check on them. There were a couple light injuries here and there, but nothing serious that they would have to sit out the rest of the battle. “How’s everyone feeling? Still up for a fight?” After seeing them nod, she continues with what she was saying. “We need to go find Lucien. I’m not sure where he is right now, or how much danger he’s in. All I know is that he went deeper inside the village. He might already be dead. But I want to, at the very least, bring his body back. If anyone wants to join me, they can. Or you can all stay here and help the rest of the army with their duties.”

  “We’ll go with you.” The entire group decided without hesitation that they would go look for Lucien.

  “Good. Now like I said before, stay vigilant. We don’t know how many more bandits are still out there. Keep your guard up and your weapons ready. Let’s go.”

  They began cautiously making their way in the direction Lucien had run off in. They remained careful around every building and alleyway they passed by, in case of more bandits, but they didn’t run into anyone, as if the place had suddenly turned into a ghost town.

  They were far enough away from the wall that they couldn’t hear the sounds of battle. They weren’t sure if the battles were already over like theirs was, or if there were still battles raging on elsewhere.

  Just as they were dreading the eery quietness of everything, their attention was suddenly drawn to the sound of hurried and panicked footsteps. From the sounds of it, multiple people were headed their way.

  They readied themselves for battle, poised to strike at a moment’s notice.

  The sound of footsteps was soon followed by the sight of several bandits hurriedly fleeing, their faces pale, as if they had just seen a ghost. One of the bandits was carrying a small child in his arms, but it didn’t look like he was trying to protect the child, more that he was so frightened that he had forgot to put the child down.

  The bandits were in such a panic that they hadn’t even noticed them standing there with weapons drawn, and looked like they were about to just run right by them.

  Thinking back to what Lucien had said, Captain Vernon adjusted the way she was holding her sword, sidestepped, and hit the child carrying bandit in the head with the weapon’s pommel. The bandit fell back in a daze, not even realising what had happened. The same could be said for the other bandits, that were still in the midst of fleeing, not caring for their companion at all.

  The others wanted to chase after them, but the captain stopped them. “We have more important things to deal with right now. They shouldn’t be able to cause any harm.”

  They all looked down at the small child, who was looking back at them with a mixture of fear, confusion, and hope. The child didn’t go closer, but neither did he try and flee from them. He didn’t know who they were, but believed he could trust them since they attacked the bandit that was carrying him.

  “Who are you?” he asked softly, his age evident in his childish voice.

  “We’re members of his Lordship’s army, here to take down the evil bandits.” Anthony crouched down with a charming smile on his face. “No need to worry now that we’re here. We’ll definitely get you home safely.” Anthony’s smile faltered when he noticed the tears welling up in the child’s eyes, then crumbled away completely, replaced by panic as the kid bawled out crying.

  “I don’t have a home.” he barely got out through choked, sobbing breaths.

  William dragged Anthony back while Clara and Noah crouched down to comfort the child, all the while glaring daggers at Anthony.

  “It’s okay,” Clara said gently. “What’s your name? I’m Clara.”

  “Roddy,” he sniffled.

  The group looked between them, having now completely confirmed their suspicions.

  “Well Roddy, we’re actually friends of your uncle. Do you-” Noah’s words were abruptly cut off when Roddy started panicking, looking back in the direction he came from.

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  “Uncle Luci’s still back there! He’s hurt! You have to help him!” After all of the emotional turmoil he had gone through, this short conversation had grounded him, but that only made him remember that his family was back there and was seriously injured.

  The group once again looked between each other, then nodded.

  “Can you lead us to him?” After seeing Roddy nod, Clara picked him up and the group started walking. “Is your uncle over this way?”

  Following Clara’s lead, it wasn’t long before the group got to the clearing where Roddy had been previously. Seeing the two people lying in the dirt deeper in, Clara pointedly chose to hold Roddy’s head to her shoulder so that he couldn’t see anything.

  What they had come across looked absolutely dreadful, and was already beginning to smell awful. The smell of blood was so thick that they couldn’t believe that there were only two body’s lying there.

  Clara stayed back with Roddy, while the others went forth to take a look. And what they saw, wasn’t pleasant. Despite the smell, there was very little blood to be seen in the area surrounding them, which just screamed wrong to them. A bit of blood was flowing from Lucien’s wounds, but far too little in comparison to how much there should have been if the amount of wounds were anything to go off.

  But the blood wasn’t the only thing missing. Both body’s had large chunks of themselves missing. One was missing a hand and a sizeable hole in his chest. There were hardly any other injuries besides those two, and they looked rather clean.

  Lucien, on the other hand, was anything but. It looked like he had been torn apart by a pack of wild animals. Chunks of his flesh had been ripped out, which now littered the ground. Muscle and bones were visible in several places, and anywhere that didn’t have a piece missing was covered in either severe gashes, welts, or bruises.

  His body was severely mangled that it even took them a second to recognise him, but they did recognise him. They didn’t know what had happened, but from what they could see, they knew this wasn’t a fight. He had been tortured. Right in front of Roddy as well.

  The group looked back at Clara and Roddy in the distance before turning back to the things in front of them. Noah crouched down beside Lucien, intending to look over his injuries, but immediately noticed something startling.

  “He’s still alive,” he said, shocked. He couldn’t imagine how somebody could still cling onto life with this level of injuries.

  “Anthony, get the elves,” ordered Captain Vernon. The elves were by far the best medical professionals they had available to them at the moment, and she knew this was a matter of urgency. “Is there anything you can do Noah?”

  Anthony quickly ran off in the direction they came from, heading for the wall and the rest of the army. Meanwhile, Noah searched through his rucksack and pulled out several items.

  “There’s not much I can do with injuries this severe. I can bandage him up to deal with the bleeding, and I can try and sterilise the other injuries, but theres nothing I can do about the chunks missing out of him. It’s a miracle he’s even alive. Will, come help me.”

  Noah got to work while the others waited for Anthony to come back with the elves. He didn’t have nearly enough supplies on him to deal with everything, but he would have to somehow make do.

  He started by bandaging the places bleeding the most, the several gaping holes in Lucien’s body. The cuts and gashes were barely noteworthy in comparison. He had William help him carefully hold Lucien’s body so that he could properly wrap the wounds on his thigh, stomach, and chest.

  Noah was thankful that the stomach wound wasn’t deep enough to get to any of Lucien’s organs, otherwise, there would have really been nothing anyone could do if his guts were hanging out of him.

  Through bandaging the most serious wounds and disinfecting everything else, Noah discovered that Lucien also had several broken bones, the most severe being his ribs, which had practically caved in, easily visible now that the armour was off. But there were other bones that were most likely cracked as well.

  It was truly a miracle that Lucien was still alive, but with all of this, unless Lucien spent money that he didn’t have, there was no way he’d be able to actually live after this, even if he survived.

  Noah did everything he could with the supplies he had on hand, but he was worried it wouldn’t be enough. It looked like Lucien could pass away at any moment. With nothing else to do, they all sat there, waiting for the elves to arrive.

  Elsewhere, Anthony had reached the part of the wall where they had been fighting. The fighting had long since stopped, and the army was now in the process of cleaning everything up. The bandit’s bodies were being moved into a pile to be dealt with and burnt. The injured were being seen to, while those that were still healthy were looking for any signs of survivors among the villagers that originally lived here.

  From what they had already seen though, they weren’t optimistic that they’d be able to find anyone. It was likely that all of the villagers had either been sold off or killed.

  Ignoring the busyness around him, Anthony looked around, eventually spotting an elf who was tending to one of the injured. He rushes over just as the glow of mana from the elf’s hands starts to cease.

  “Quick! You’ve got to come help my friend, he’s seriously injured,” Anthony said.

  The tired looking elf rubs his head and looked at the rest of the wounded still left to treat. Then he looked around, trying to find the person Anthony was talking about. “Where is he? Point him out.”

  “He’s further in the village, at a clearing in the centre,” Anthony explained hurriedly. He then went on to explain how bad Lucien’s injuries were from what he could see.

  The elf looked at him, then back at the wounded in his makeshift tent. “I can’t leave them here untreated. Their injuries will get worse, and some of them might die if I don’t do something. There aren’t enough people here that know how to treat someone.”

  “But-” Anthony tried to plead, but was cut off by the elf.

  “I understand. I need more help here anyway, so I’ll see if I can call for help.” The elf walked over to a thick vine that was sticking out of the ground and grabbed it. Responding to his touch, the vine coiled around his arm and up to his ear. “We need more staff at station E. There’s also a severally wounded soldier in the village centre.”

  The vine wriggled and undulated, as if the information was being physically passed through it. A response came not too long later. The elf calmly listened, then stepped away from the vine.