When the scout returned the next morning, the mood was quiet and serious. The men were all calm, with a strong resolve in their eyes. The chilly morning seemed suitable for the quiet tension that ran through the air.
“Good morning, Lady Merellis.” Shrey finished getting ready and went to greet her.
“Good morning, Shrey.” Ever since Merellis had left the capital, she’d had a tense sharpness about her, but today, she seemed eerily calm.
“Let’s do our best today.”
Merellis chuckled softly in response. “A casual greeting for such an important day. But yes, let’s.” She turned on her heel and went to talk to the rest of the guards. It seemed like she wanted to cherish her conversations with each one of them, imprinting them upon her memory.
“I’m honored to fight with you all,” she said with a small smile as they all gathered around. Her smile vanished the next moment. “Follow me, everyone.” That was all she said, as if to say there was no reason to be anxious. Strangely, those simple words were enough to make the warrior spirits of the guard quietly burn anew.
They mounted their horses and followed behind her, heading to the plains where the enemy would arrive. Shrey and Merellis hid in the glen to one side of the field. They waited there quietly, unmoving, until the right moment.
They heard the sound of the wind rustling the leaves and the grass. The smell of fresh green tickled their nostrils, calming their hearts. Finally, they heard the distant drumming of hoofbeats that were gradually coming their way. A wave of tension spread through the captains as they hid.
And then, Merellis opened her eyes. Without saying a word, she got back on her horse and quietly charged forward. Shrey and the other members of the guard followed after her. Even though their forces were vastly outnumbered by the enemy, there was no fear in anyone’s eyes. An image of Merellis, powerfully charging forward, was reflected in their gazes.
Before the enemy could react to them charging from the glen, Merellis used her sword to cut a path through them, swiftly and quietly. She took enemies’ lives with a ferocious intensity. Every time her sword slashed through the air, the field was filled with the scent of fresh blood and was covered in crimson splatters beneath her feet.
She slowly, slowly made her way to the center of the enemies, eventually all the way to their commander. Seeing her back as she charged into battle, sitting tall and strong, gave her men confidence. Although she was a dear comrade, the sight of her slicing through enemies and taking lives so swiftly was somewhat frightening to them. She almost looked like a goddess of death. But at the same time, the Anderson guard was mesmerized by her. No matter what the odds looked like, there was no option for them to stop.
As her forces gradually got closer, more guards were injured. Some collapsed. Even yet, the group did not stop. They trusted Merellis and kept charging toward the enemy commander. More than a few of their number had lost their lives by the time the remaining guard had the commander surrounded.
“A-a woman?” a thin man in the center murmured with surprise when he saw Merellis leading the fight.
“You are the commander, are you not? Your blood will become no more than rust on my sword!” Merellis said as she charged at him.
“Lord Cordis! Run away!” The commander’s guards tried to stand in between him and Merellis.
“Get out of my way!” She cut the men down one by one and kept making her way toward the man.
“Ahh… Ahhh!” She looked to be death incarnate, and his knees buckled at the sight as she finally approached.
She mercilessly ran him through with her sword, and the man slowly fell from his horse. The thud of his body hitting the ground echoed throughout the plains.
“Wh-why?!” The man laid in a pool of his own blood as he screamed. Although he wasn’t as loud as other noises from the battle, everyone heard it.
The combatants stopped in their tracks.
Merellis looked calmly down at Lord Cordis, her eyes ice-cold. “Why what?”
“Why? Why, when I finally almost had it…?!” Blood sprayed from his mouth as he spoke. It was plain to see that it was too late for him. “How could it slip from my hands, when I finally came this far? Why could I never get the things I truly wanted…?” He reached a trembling hand out, but it was not in the direction of Tasmeria, as one would expect. Instead, he reached toward the north, toward the duchy of Sligar. “My father never had one good thing to say about me. I just wanted him…to be proud…” His voice became faint and delirious, and his eyes grew vacant. He no longer saw anything, but he reached out with trembling hands, nonetheless.
The captain of the guard thought Lord Cordis looked like a lost little child—like a young boy never loved or accepted by his father. All the warm feelings the man had wanted went to his younger brother instead. He grew up without knowing what it was like to be loved and forgot that it even existed.
Every Tasmerian, including Merellis, stood there on the battlefield watching, and had no idea when things went wrong for him. Perhaps he had hated everything. Perhaps he thought if he could never get the affection he wanted, he might as well destroy everything.
Merellis quietly stared at the betrayed man. Meanwhile, the first of Cordis’s injured bodyguards rose up and charged at her. She didn’t even blink as she whirled around and stabbed the man. But while she did this, another man rose up and charged at her from behind.
“Lady Merellis, watch out!” Anna was the first one to notice the attack. She slid between the bodyguard’s sword and Merellis at the very last minute…taking the blow through her body instead.
“No! Anna!!!” Merellis screamed, stopping time for everyone for a moment. “Anna! Anna?!” She called the young woman’s name over and over again through her tears. The wound was obviously fatal, and she was slipping away, fast.
“Lady Merellis, let’s go!” Shrey quickly swept Anna up into his arms and galloped away on his horse. Another captain picked up Cordis and slung him over his own steed. Even though the enemy’s commander had fallen, his forces still had them surrounded. The more time they spent here, the more dangerous it would become.
Merellis realized she was being left behind. She quickly climbed up onto her own horse and sped away. The guard took off in a straight line through the enemy, running their horses as fast as they could. Despite the force at which they ran, Merellis seemed to have lost her luster. The guard, too, were all battered and bruised.
Don’t move! Please don’t move! The guard silently chanted that within their minds. It would be much too hard to take on the enemy now that their numbers were even fewer. That was why Merellis had decided to charge from the side and the front in the first place. Her idea had led them to a hard-fought success, and they had killed the enemy commander.
But they hadn’t killed all of them. The brute force attack had worked, but there was no telling if they could make it out of the enemy’s territory alive.
Knowing this, the enemy suddenly pulled the trigger. Even though they lacked a commander now, the enemy forces began charging at the line of Merellis and her men.
“Argh!” The captains were approaching their limits. They were almost overcome by the waves of people, but everyone frantically swung their swords to protect Merellis, who rode in the lead. They were determined not to give up.
Where are they? When will the others get here? Has no one heard from our reinforcements?
They all fought through their impatience, swinging their blades as they followed behind Shrey and Merellis, hoping against hope.
One after another, men sank into the crimson sea.
The reality of the situation weighed on the guard so heavily it was stifling.
Then, it happened.
A strange feeling ran through the enemy troops, and they started to flee. The guard began to wonder what had happened, but they couldn’t allow themselves to get distracted. Merellis’s men kept focusing on running through the enemy lines.
When they had just barely made it through, Merellis realized what happened.
“Brother!” she yelled.
The reinforcements they’d been hoping for had finally arrived. Pax, the heir to House Anderson and Merellis’s brother, calmly and mercilessly led his troops through the enemy lines, cutting them down one by one. They were strong even without a commander, but Pax led his troops so efficiently it didn’t take long for them to lay waste to them.
“You can relax now,” Merellis said quietly as they reached the edge of the plains. Despite being so quiet, everyone heard her. Their breaths caught in their throats. “That’s right. Just you hang on. I promise I’ll save you.”
Anna slightly opened her eyes in response to Merellis.
“Anna!” she screamed, taking her hand.
“Lady Merellis… I was the luckiest girl in the world to serve you. Thank…you…” Anna stared vacantly up at Merellis…and smiled.
“No, Anna! Don’t talk like that! You’re making it sound like this is goodbye… No! No, please!!! Don’t give up on the future!” Tears flowed from Merellis’s eyes and fell onto Anna’s cheeks. The droplets made it look like they were Anna’s own tears.