Axel wiped sweat from his brow as he walked along the dirt path towards the village. At his side was Kyle, whistling and moving at a relaxed pace at Axel's side.
"Why'd they have to send both of us?" Kyle asked. "This mission sounds pretty easy. I could probably complete it alone."
Axel could only shrug. "You know how those nobles are. Better safe than sorry."
The village of Lein was a small fishing village about four days' travel northeast of the capital. While it was much smaller than the large city of Belfort near the mountains to the south, or the conquered castles of former kingdoms on the far east and southeast, it was a valuable location, providing a steady supply of seafood and crops to the kingdom from a relatively sheltered small valley, hidden away from the rest of the world.
To the Kingdom of Argean, the village of Lein was an extremely valuable resource.
But to Axel and Kyle, the village was their starting point.
Less than a year prior, the two of them had washed up on the beach right off the coast of Lein with no memories to speak of, and only strange clothes and strange items in a backpack to show that they didn't come from the place they arrived on.
The villagers had been kind to them, before the two of them got lost in the forest, and after a series of strange adventures and encounters, emerged on the far side, near the royal capital, with new weapons in hand and powerful magic at their disposal.
Axel smiled quietly as he looked forwards to returning to the village and greeting those who first took care of them. From Kyle's cheerful gait, he was also looking forwards to this excursion.
Scouts had recently come back with news that a large army of black creatures, the signature attack method of the Dark Lords, was sighted moving towards the village. After a tedious war council, the nobles convinced King Creon to send the kingdom's strongest fighting force, Axel and Kyle, to defend the village.
Alone.
That's right, they were the only ones sent to defend the village.
According to the nobles, the two Paragons were worth an army by themselves, and put together, would be strong enough to repel the force.
The king had a different opinion. He thought that the village, which had a very small guard force, would have been taken over by the Dark Lords already, and wanted to send a detachment of soldiers with the two to help reconquer the village.
The meeting ended with the nobles agreeing to send a group of elite knights to help Axel and Kyle.
Just not with them.
No, the nobles, by some warped logic, wanted to send the knight detachment afterwards so as to give Axel and Kyle sufficient time to draw the enemies' attention to make it easier to fight. Neither Axel nor Kyle were very good at any sort of strategy beyond "I attack on this side, you attack on the other side", so they had no idea what the nobles were thinking.
And now, the two had to go into the village, fight whatever forces were left behind, and wait for reinforcements.
"Honestly," Kyle grumbled. "I can never understand what's going through those guys' heads."
"The only thing I really understood with that whole strategy talk was 'prioritize the villagers'," Axel agreed. "Why can't they just hash it all out on their own and then come to tell us what they want? They made us miss training."
Kyle shot a mischievous look at Axel. "What a bummer."
Axel smacked Kyle in the face with a frown. "Shut up."
Kyle chuckled. "We both know you just wanted to flirt with Arville."
Axel lit his hand on fire and wound up to slap Kyle again. Kyle gasped like a maiden in danger and darted to hide behind a tree at the side of the road, peeking out with a look of comical astonishment on his face.
Axel burst out laughing at the sight and extinguished his hand, and Kyle strolled out from behind the tree with a wide grin.
"Nah, I ain't stealing her from you," Axel chuckled, "whenever you plan on asking her out. You coward."
"That's a low blow," Kyle said, waving off Axel's retort.
"So," Kyle said once they had resumed walking, "what do you say? Most kills gets to invite Arville out for dinner?"
Axel grinned. "Are you sure? You'll lose, though."
Kyle grinned back. "Wasn't it me who won the last bet? And by a landslide, too."
Axel chuckled. "Are you sure? I seem to remember having more than twice your score, though."
"It might be that way if you don't know how math works," Kyl shot back.
The pair's friendly banter was interrupted by the sound of crashing ahead on the path. In an instant, their demeanor changed. Axel drew his sword and set it on fire, and Kyle brandished both his daggers prepared to run ahead.
"I'll go scout," he said. Axel nodded, before shutting his eyes against the cloud of dust left in Kyle's wake.
Axel sped up his walking pace, moving steadily along the path towards the noise. When Kyle didn't come back, Axel began running, sharpening his focus and bursting out of the treeline at the top of the hill overlooking the village. There, he saw the village of Lein engulfed in an attack. Swaths of black creatures were swarming the streets and houses, breaking property and crashing through the village with reckless abandon. Axel saw a blur weave through the army, with creatures falling in two or more pieces as it passed. Axel ran down the path and dove into the fray, spreading white fire everywhere and burning dozens of creatures who reacted too slowly to death.
"What's going on?" Axel shouted. "Where are all the villagers?"
The blur that was Kyle stopped long enough to respond. "They don't seem to be in any of the houses. Maybe they evacuated."
"You search the forest, then," Axel ordered. "I'll look through the village."
"Got it," Kyle nodded, before darting through the fray to the other side of the dense pack of creatures and disappearing from sight. A split second later, every creature that had been caught in his wake, ranging from the size of Axel's hand to the size of livestock, fell to the ground in two pieces.
Axel turned his attention to the creatures in front of him, and, gathering his focus, returned to slaughtering as many of them with white fire. The fight took him through the streets of the village, past abandoned and crumbling houses. From what Axel could tell, the villagers had fled a few days ago. There were signs of half-done laundry and hastily abandoned meals that had already begun to attract flies around the village. Fortunately, he couldn't see any blood or human remains. The mob thinned slightly, enough for Axel to gather his focus to slam his sword point-down into the ground, sending a wave of white fire blasting out in a massive explosion, burning every creature in the vicinity and a few unfortunate houses to the ground. Axel let out a long sigh and headed for the main square to search the north section of town.
As Axel searched for survivors in the abandoned marketplace, he came across a strange sight. What seemed to be hundreds of footprints that were not covered by the torrent of black creatures seemed to be heading in one direction. Axel squinted as he followed the prints, which gradually led him through the village and crowded around a trapdoor near the town hall. At first glance, the trapdoor appeared to be a cellar of some sort, but under closer inspection, given the size of the wood grate that covered it, it was an underground shelter. Axel frowned. The underground shelter was his idea. He had suggested it to various villages near the frontlines as a way to protect villagers in case a dark army was spotted and their town was overrun. Villagers could hide inside a well-stocked bunker until the army arrived, safe from the storm of black creatures.
"I didn't expect someone to actually listen to me," Axel chuckled.
His idea had been completely disregarded.
Village mayors argued that they didn't have the tools or space to open up an underground cavern large enough to house all the villagers and enough supplies to feed them for several days.
Nobles were reluctant to send supplies and manpower to villages near the frontlines as they felt that they would fall easily regardless and cause them to lose money.
Even the king thought the idea would take up too much manpower that they were short on due to the war.
But to Axel's surprise, this remote fishing village managed to create a bunker and, based on all the footprints leading into it, hide everyone inside. Axel sheathed his sword and smiled slightly. If all the villagers managed to hide away, this meant that part of their job was complete. Axel tried to open the heavy wooden gate, but failed. It was clearly meant for multiple strong men to open, and was sturdy enough to withstand what looked like numerous black creatures' attempts to get inside. Axel frowned at the dilemma, as he was hoping to inform the villagers that they were safe. He glanced around and walked over to a crumbling house nearby. He picked out a heavy, sturdy stone from its broken foundation and rolled it over to the trapdoor. He then drew his sword, wedged its tip under the heavy wood, and put all his weight on the other end, trying to use the stone as a fulcrum to lever open the door. As he pushed down with all his strength and the door gave way slightly, Axel rolled the stone closer to the trapdoor, lifting it further. With a sudden heave, the trapdoor opened enough for Axel to slip his relatively small frame under it and push up with all his might, gradually pushing enough to open the trapdoor and throw it open against the last still-standing wall of the town hall with a resounding crash. Axel's muscles burned and his breath came in ragged gasps, but as soon as he grabbed the hilt of his sword, which had been completely unaffected by the ordeal, his fatigue was washed away. Axel looked with satisfaction at his handiwork and took a deep breath.
He froze.
Axel's face crumpled into a frown immediately as he moved closer to the trapdoor and smelled the air again.
His face twisted into a grimace and his eyes sharpened.
The air wafting up from the bunker smelled like blood.