Sergeant Kace saw me going down so he stopped and quickly coated his arms in stone so that he could safely pick up my burning body. With hardly a pause they started to sprint towards camp as horns started to sound from the castle and soldiers started to pour out of the inner bailey in pursuit, they couldn't just let us leave after everything I had just done to the castle so they quickly ran for the outer wall to get some shots off with some crossbows and arrows but when they managed to get to the top of the wall the group was out of bowshot range.
A captain made it to the top of the wall and looked upon the retreating group in dissatisfaction, he had been ordered to chase the intruders out of the castle but to not chase, they didn't have any information on how many intruders were with the group. Was it a whole division of the army coming to get revenge or was it just a small scouting group that came and took advantage of the chaos that the boy had caused. he needed more information so he ordered scouts to find mounts and get said information for a more tactically sound game plan.
Sergeant Volk was concerned with my state, he couldn't tell what blood was mine and what was from others, he couldn't even get close enough to check as the Fireplate was still strong and burning hot. Even Sergeant Kace was starting to feel the heat through his stone coated arms but he wouldn't leave me behind, An envoy was much too valuable.
"Kace we need to get out of here quickly, it won't be long before we have scouts on our ass and after they see how small our group is then they will come at us with full force, we stole a prize from under their noses and will be seriously pissed about it," Volk said as they made it back to camp and were trying to figure out how to get me on a horse without burning the poor creature.
After a few seconds of looking at me, Kace put me down and with the stone still on his arms and hand tried to peel off the breastplate but it wouldn't budge os he went for something that looked easier to remove, he reached for the burning crown but as soon as he made contact, my eyes snapped open in furious globes of fire.
"What do you think you are doing human?" I spoke calmly towards my rescuers as I started to sit up in anger.
"Bruni, calm down boy, I'm just trying to figure out how to get u out of that armor so we can get you onto a horse. You are too hot and would burn the beast if you tried to mount it now." Kace said with a soothing voice as he lifted his hands showing they were empty. He wondered why Bruni referred to me as human? 'what was that about I wonder' he thought to himself as Bruni started to calm down seeing who it was.
"Ah, sorry Kace but do not touch my crown, or I will kill you, do you understand?" I asked coldly as he took a step away from me as the littlest amount of fear crept up his spine.
Everyone was confused now as to my hostile comments and actions. "We understand boy but we have to get you away from here and the only way we will evade capture is if you can get on a horse, with the amount of heat coming from you it will be impossible for you to mount the animal, can you let go of the mana?" he asked after he explained to me what he needed.
"I can let it go," I said quietly as the Fireplate and Crown quickly cooled and in front of everyone dissipated into thin air as if I had never had any of it on. within seconds of letting my mana go, I collapsed once again but I was no longer infused with fire mana.
Kace looked at my hair that was no longer burning but had turned half orange as the other half went back to my normal hair color of black giving me a sinister look. " What did i they do to you boy?" he asked out loud as he picked me up and brought me to a horse before tying me to the saddle.
The camp was chaos and Kace ordered for any items not needed for the journey to be left behind as they would only slow the group and they had to get back to the border with the Southlands to have any chance of escaping.
Within minutes, everyone was mounted and leaving the small camp. Horns could be heard nearby as scouts found the camp and observed from a distance for a few minutes before they disappeared back towards the castle to report.
The Dark lady watched me climb over the wall and escape from her grip. She was truly mad now, how could a boy of 15 do this much damage, he had single-handedly killed most of the commanders of her magic core and had also decimated her personal guards! The death benefits that would have to be paid to the deceased families were going to throw her budget out the window this year let alone how she was going to replenish her magic core. she had a lot of mages but most of them were of low quality as any mages that couldn't fill the leadership role that she desperately needed. "You were the worst thing I could have brought into my castle boy, next time I will kill you on the spot if I see you again," she muttered to herself as she turned away and let the army commanders deal with the chase, she had reports to file and send to the Empire, she wouldn't be able to do some of the missions she had agreed to with her now depleted resources and would have to explain to the empires generals, before it was too late.
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