The beautiful red-haired woman was the hard and ruthless Major Ena.
Someone who was not to be underestimated, as doing so was always guaranteed to be the last mistake of most of her victims.
She was one of the most feared figures in the Empire's military, one of whom even her superiors watched over with caution and discernment.
She was one who never hesitated to do what the mission required, the type to kill her family members for the sake of it, and would quickly sever close bonds with others for the sake of the mission.
Perhaps this was why General Senju chose her to be his direct subordinate, as he needed someone he could trust because he believed there was no place as corrupt as the military.
She was sent to investigate the current situation of things concerning the invasion and intervene if necessary.
But from what her spies had reported to her, it seemed the Enforcers had probably lost the war against Langford, and now she had spotted some of them here, and they had just gone into hiding while she was looking.
She knew each of them to a good extent because she had a photographic memory and always accompanied her superior, General Senju, during the recruitment processes. So facially identifying the deserters from a distance was not a problem for her.
"Come out, you Fable-Bastards!" she called out, unsheathing her long silver sword, eager to cut someone down as soon as possible.
Yuri's eyes widened as he noticed it was a woman, who seemed quite confident of herself.
He wasn't sure if confronting this person would be a good idea, but he already figured out that, whomever she was, she was smart enough to figure out who they were and the fact that they were hiding.
So he thought it would be best if he just came out to face her, to at least see where it went and be sure of what they were up against this time.
He came out of where he was hiding, with his hands up,
"Alright, you've got me," he said, feigning submission.
Major Ena arched a brow, looking around to confirm if others were coming out with him, but there were none.
"Where are the others?" she asked, looking upset.
"What others?" he asked, playing dumb with her to buy the others enough time to run away.
Tobirama and the twins, who were hiding behind the trees on the other side of the safe path, realized this.
Tobirama briefly hesitated for a moment, almost believing he was deserting his comrade again until he remembered what Yuri had told him earlier.
He realized that he had to leave, along with the twins, as it was the only way.
"What do you take me for?" Where are the rest of you? "Where is Drey Matsumoto?" Major Ena asked, as she instinctively felt he was just taking her for a ride.
She pointed her sword at him, placing the tip right at his throat.
"I'm not going to repeat myself," she said with an angry face. She didn't like being played, and that was exactly what Yuri was doing.
"I am the only one here; as for the others, I don't know what they're up to," he said with a straight face, as lying wasn't difficult for him given the circumstances.
He wanted to keep the young ones safe—especially the twins—at all costs.
Even though it was a woman he was dealing with, he didn't want to underestimate her abilities.
He had seen her once, when General Senju called him out of prison to propose that he become an enforcer instead of facing capital punishment.
She seemed to be his assistant and bodyguard, as she always stood by his side in her armor for the whole time he saw her, so she was not a weakling.
"Oh, really?" she asked as she raised her other hand and gave a signal to her centurions that were assembled right behind the carriage.
On receiving the signal, they all sprinted into the woods, searching for the others.
Yuri was surprised by the attitude of the soldiers under her, eagerly running into the dangerous forest to find the others.
Either they didn't know the dangers of venturing into the fabled woods without caution or they were just extremely stupid enough to do so just because they were ordered to.
Yuri prayed that Tobirama and the twins understood what he tried to do earlier, because if they did, they would have run away by now before this happened.
Major Ena looked at Yuri with curiosity and said,
"While my men sniff out your fleeing comrades, I would love to experience just how powerful you are."
Yuri looked confused, so she said to him plainly,
"Fight Me".
Yuri looked at her, giving her a look that questioned if she knew what she was asking for.
So she took a few steps back and took a fighting stance, showing that she meant business.
Yuri's eyes widened as he noticed she was damn serious. But why was he there? He already knew that this woman was no weakling and was not to be taken for granted.
"You better hope that I underestimated you because if not, you will not see the end of this day," she warned.
So Yuri brought forth his sword and pointed it at her.
.......
Meanwhile, Tobirama and the twins were sprinting as fast as they could, trying to get beyond the sight of the oncoming squad of soldiers in armor.
"Damn it!" Tobirama swore as he continued, going as fast as he could along with the children, who were slowly running out of breath.
One of the soldiers threw a spear at Genta, which she barely evaded thanks to Tobirama calling out her name on time.
Tobirama knew that at this rate, they would get caught and wondered to himself how fast these soldiers were. None of them were on horseback, but they were almost easily able to catch up with them.
He realized they were lucky they had no trained archers among them, or they would have gotten caught by now.
So he stopped to face the oncoming squad of soldiers,
"Tobi!" the twins called out as they went ahead of him, looking back.
"Run!" he instructed, "I'll buy you some time!"
So they did, after briefly hesitating as they realized it was the only way for them at this point. Even if they wanted to help, they would turn out to be a burden on him, as their abilities required them to be protected throughout.
When Tobirama saw that they had left, he immediately set himself ablaze with the power of his inherent fabled beast, the Tenryu.
The oncoming Centuria of soldiers kept coming at him without hesitation, as if they were expecting this to happen without a hint of fear. It seemed they knew he was a fableman and were well prepared for it.
"If you all are so eager to face your deaths... then come!" he said, facing them.
He ran towards the oncoming army, ready to take them on with everything he had.
He saw this as the opportunity for him to redeem himself from the guilt that plagued him after the failure of the invasion and made up his mind to do this, even though he instinctively felt it would cost him his life.