Emily scans the rows of tents carefully, trying to pick the safest route out of the camp. As the fires in the distance lights up the night sky, and the shouts and screams of battle drowns out the sounds of the forest, she admits to herself yet again that she might have gone too far with her “distraction”.

  Soldiers run here and there, sometimes chasing goblins and other times being chased themselves. She sees a gap open up in one of the rows and takes it, hurrying along her injured friends as best as she can. She keeps her head on a swivel the entire time they’re traveling, her heart racing in her ears as the worry and panic mounts. Both of them are limping quite badly, barely able to support each other on the two good legs that they have between them. Her hands glow brighter and brighter, as Emily pours as much mana as she can pack into it, her fingers tingling from the raw energy contained in them.

  She spots a group of soldiers fighting against a pack of goblins at the end of the row and ducks into another one, scanning her surroundings as she does so. Finding it empty, she waits for Alastair and Nora to catch up –

  – And barely manages to dodge out of the way, as she hears a snarling war cry come from the tent behind her, a makeshift sword narrowly missing her back as it tears through the canvas.

  She pops up from her roll, her hand already sweeping out to slice down the goblin as it cuts a path through the thick canvas. The wind blade careens out of her hand and crosses the space between them within the blink of an eye, going a bit higher than it needed to be and slicing off the top of its skull. It collapses to the ground, before more of them rush out of the tent, stomping on the body of their comrade as they do so.

  Emily barely dodges the swing of a club and the hack of a rough-made axe, before holding up her hand and letting off a blast of wind that pushes them back and gives herself a bit of breathing room, before the goblins hop back up to their feet and rush her once again. She concentrates her mana into her index finger, blasting off a concentrated pillar of wind no larger than her appendix that pierces directly through the lead goblin’s chest, opening a hole in his stomach and letting its blood spill out on the floor. It grasps its stomach in pain, letting out a grunt, but continues rushing at Emily, much to her surprise.

  The thing manages to get up to her, its club held to the side in a one-handed grip, ready to bash Emily’s brain in before Alastair appears from the side of it, kicking it with all of his might and sending it off-course. He grits his teeth in pain, as Emily takes the opportunity to send out a large blade of wind to dig deep into the goblin horde in front of her, slicing open their bellies and killing a few of them in the process.

  Alastair walks over to the goblin he kicked over and stomps it until it stills, as Emily sends out another sweeping wind blade to take care of the last of the goblins. They both take a breath, as Nora hobbles towards them, supporting Alastair once again before he collapses.

  Emily stares at the broken down tent, a sudden realization coming to her. She’s been treating the tents like houses this entire time, solid and unmoving. But you can just… Slip around them as needed.

  A plan hastily forms in her head, and she rushes up to the collapsed tent, digging into it while Nora and Alastair hobble closer to take a look.

  “Hey, how about we loot after we make it out of here safely?” Alastair asks, as he looks around warily.

  Emily ignores him as she finds just what she was looking for: A wooden chest buried in the canvas, at the foot of a cot that’s seen better days. She opens it and whoops in joy as she pulls out what she was looking for, laying three of them down on the canvas next to her.

  Alastair’s eyes widen as she finishes rummaging through the chest and she picks up her prizes, holding one up for him to see and letting the material unfold in front of him.

  “Shut up and let me put this on you.” Emily replies, as she walks up to Alastair, draping the clean Wrenfall cloak over his shoulders and pulling the hood up to hide his face. She turns to Nora and does the same to her, taking a step back to quickly look at them.

  “Well done, you’ve officially defected.” She says, as she gives them a nod of approval.

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  “Oh, great. Glad to be on their side, for once.” Alastair replies, as he rolls his eyes and tongues a missing tooth. “Do defectors get dental?”

  Emily lets out a short chuckle, as she shakes her head. “No, but they do go unnoticed through the camp… Hopefully.”

  She looks around, plotting her new course diagonally through the tents.

  “Come on, follow me as best you can…” She says, as she starts weaving past tent poles and crates of supplies. “This should be the fastest way to the gate.”

  “And once we get there?” Alastair asks, as he lets go of Nora, hobbling after Emily as fast as he can with a determined look on his face.

  Emily chews her lip, as she stops moving and ducks into cover, a group of soldiers rushing past her and towards another swarm of goblins. “I don’t know… But I’m sure we can think of something when we get there.”

  Alastair stays quiet as they keep moving, slinking from dark corner to dark corner, avoiding fights as much as they can. Soon enough, the shadow of the wall draws near, the sounds of fighting growing louder and louder. Fire is spreading everywhere, lighting tent after tent as it goes, throwing chaotic shadows that makes it hard to keep track of what’s going on; and who’s winning.

  Unfortunately, no matter how Emily looks at it, there’s no escape. The horde is acting like a cork, holding back the bubbling tide that is the Wrenfall army from escaping.

  She feels something bump into her back, and turns to see Alastair looking down at her, the deep hood hiding his face as he leans comfortingly against her.

  “Hey. You did your best. And it was a damn good one, at that.”

  Emily stares up at Alastair in confusion, her head cocking to the side. “What do you mean by that?”

  Alastair lets out a resigned sigh, as his head tilts up to look at the horde in front of them. “I mean, we gave it a good run… At least you took down an army before we kicked it.”

  Nora stomps on Alastair’s foot, both of them yelping in pain and hopping away from each other. Alastair recovers first, glaring at his aggressor. “What the hell was that for?!”

  Nora takes a hobbling step closer to Alastair, glaring up at him.

  “For trying to just… Give up! You bastard! What the hell do you think that was for?!”

  Alastair shrugs his shoulders towards the mass of bodies, his chains rattling from the movement. “Have you seen the clusterfuck over there? How the hell are two cripples and an ex-bandit going to get through that, huh?”

  “By not giving up! There’s got to be a way. I refuse to let us go through what we just did and not make it out the other side!” Nora replies animatedly.

  “Two cripples and an ex-bandit…?”

  Alastair takes a deep breath, as he steps up closer to Nora, his body pressing up against hers. “Hey. I don’t like it just as much as you. That doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. I mean, there’s still so much I wanted to do… So much I wanted to see.”

  He stares down at Nora longingly, and she looks up at him, their eyes locking from behind their hoods.

  “So much I wanted to say. Like how much I like you, Nora. I’ve wanted to say that since the moment we met.”

  Nora stays quiet, as the words sink in to her, and Emily frantically watches as the shadowy figures of the battle begin to move closer. “Uh… Guys. Hurry this up,” she says nervously, as she looks down at the dull glow of her hands and realizes she might not have as many spells left to her as she’d hoped.

  Nora gets up on tiptoes, straining with all of her might to reach as high as she can. Alastair watches her in confusion, before Nora gives up, letting out a frustrated groan as she does so.

  “Why the hell are you so damn tall? Bend down already!”

  Alastair looks at her for a moment, before reluctantly complying, memories of Nora headbutting him for something he said flashing through his mind –

  – Before Nora lifts herself up again on her toes and kisses him on the lips, and all thoughts cease, his mind fully devoted to this one singular moment between the two and the softness of her lips. He even just barely manages to ignore Emily’s gasp of surprise in the background, as the sounds of battle fade to the background.

  Nora breaks off the kiss first, the tingle of her lips still on his, and his eyes still closed, savouring this moment for however many minutes he has left to live. Which is why he completely misses the moment that all of the goblins turn silent and stare as one at something beyond the wall, the battle going from a frantic mass slowly shifting towards them to a one-sided massacre, as wave after wave of the little green men stop all that they are doing to turn.

  And one by one, they start to scream and run.