There were three people in the carriage: Melissa, who was sitting with a pale face and huddled up against her mother, the Fourth Mistress, who had become even paler than her daughter and now wanted to get out of here somehow, and Daniel, who was sitting with an impassive expression on his face, but had already drawn the dagger he had used for years as soon as he had learnt the spells of the wind element. The dagger itself had only taken a few human lives, when some not-so-smart muggers got in the way of the Herald's mercenary escort, looking for the weakest target to make one last suicidal attack. But the Herald had given Daniel many assignments to kill animals along the way on his own since the age of 7, when the boy wanted to handle weapons.
Behind the coach, the two men were still engaged in a deadly, but equal, struggle from two different sides: Ryan's henchman was badly injured, but had a stronger magical attack, while the brown-haired mercenary had only minor wounds, but his attacks were only physical, as he used magic only to suppress the residual damage that could reach the carriage. There wasn't much point in cleaning up the effects of the fire attacks in general, as the water element defence on the carriage was still active, but the mercenary himself was in good spirits, as he had the ability to defend people and counterattack with his fists. He had not used weapons throughout his service, relying solely on his hands, which he now used with enveloping water enchantments, which was exactly what allowed him to maintain his fighting ability when dealing with mages, especially fire elementals.
Ryan's henchman was already covered in bruises, so the mercenaries were able to blow his head off under another barrage of fire. The place was quiet now. A dozen bodies lay on the ground outside the wagon, some burnt to a crisp, others decapitated or with gaping wounds in their chests. Heavy sighing and gasping could also be heard. Not all the men were dead, but the mercenary began to examine the rest to determine if they belonged to the group and the severity of their wounds.
He had no hesitation in killing Ryan's minions. He examined the men at his side for wounds, dragging to one side those who were able to heal in time, and to the other the corpses of the followers and those with one foot in the grave. Many in this group were raised by children who had seen their entire homeland burn and their friends and relatives die. These children were ready to die when Herold found them, so he collected them over the years of the group's activities. Some of them were not known for their great intelligence or talent for fighting, so they started doing odd jobs to provide a group of mercenaries to take revenge on their blood enemies. But those who were taken aside by the mercenaries with the corpses were different, they were the ones who kept that enmity deep in their hearts and grew only for revenge with their hands, so everyone knew that they only wanted to die quickly with wounds that would cause them to be their mere burden even with treatment.
A brown-haired mercenary stood in front of a small pile of corpses and two people with acceptance in their eyes. The mercenary's name was Darell, and he had been a soldier under the command of Clantis, the Deputy Herold, during his time of service in the fallen kingdom. Over the years he had often done similar dirty work, giving his comrades an easy death, not considering himself a hero and taking sin upon his soul. It was not the first time he had killed a man during the fall of his homeland, but it was the first time it had been a relative. He was not a soldier of high rank, having joined the army at the age of sixteen, with only a year's experience under Clantis's command in minor skirmishes, but with that he was able to buy his mother treatment for the flames that had begun to consume her from within at a time unknown to her. None of the doctors could provide a complete cure, only a prescription to ease the symptoms. So when death came to their homeland, all he had to do was give his mother eternal rest as she fell beneath the remnants of the flames. His hands trembled on the claymore, there were no tears in his eyes as they all evaporated, leaving only his red eyes to betray his unwillingness to accept reality. As his mother walked away, she looked into his eyes with warmth and gratitude.
"Dari...thank you...I..." She no longer had the strength to say goodbye to her son, but Darell had already seen in her eyes what she wanted to say. In the moment after her last breath, Darell just started screaming at the top of his lungs, not thinking about the need to run. It wasn't until five minutes later, after picking up his mother's body, that the boy fled the house.
He still didn't know how he was supposed to feel about all the deaths on his hands, so in the mercenary group he usually killed people in situations like this, not allowing such a burden of responsibility for the deaths to be passed on to others. He could only resign himself to the fact that his soul would never accept peace, and was glad that he had been able to save many of his comrades from such a thing.
The moment he stood in front of the two men in his group, two pairs of eyes focused on him. One was a man without a jaw, but his eyes burned with rage at the enemy behind a general facade of gratitude for their comrade, he was covered in burns and blood, part of him, part of his enemies, half of his chest pressed inward after the bursts of flame. The other man's eyes also revealed all his emotions, but he had already come to terms with the fact that his revenge would not come from his own hands.
"You did a pretty good job on them," Darell said slowly and not too loudly.
"Yeah, yeah... 10 against 3... that's like a defeat... even after all that training over the years... khhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" the mercenary who was missing half an arm and what looked like a severed leg started coughing bloodily.
"Eh, still, taking a few of these psychos with me before I die is pretty good. "Darell spoke with a sigh, but towards the end he asked, looking him in the eye."
Are you ready?"
He didn't hear an answer, but quickly pierced their hearts when he saw they hadn't formulated an answer to the question. Often, at this point, many would begin to remember their lives in the past, so they would answer "no", causing even more agony before death. So the Herold always passed the list of those who wished not to have their lives hindered, but to be granted a quick oblivion on their deathbed, right into the hands of some of the core members of the squad. Everyone knew that even surviving to the city was not always possible with serious wounds, so no one was embarrassed to answer various questions for such a list. Those who didn't ask for a quick death always returned to the camp for rehabilitation, but not all of them made it there alive. So each of these invalids knew what to expect.
In the carriage, people were watching this scene. Daniel had seen this before, but very rarely as this was the first time so many people had died, but there were cases where animals in the forest and plants could put a person in prolonged agony and then cause a slow death. There were antidotes to poisons, but not all of them, as the entire history of their world was not that long, so healing and alchemy could not provide answers to all poisons. Daniel just stared out of the carriage window, not paying attention to the two ladies, because he didn't expect what could happen at this moment...
The Fourth Mistress just started yelling cruelty and saying that everything was already safe, started to open the carriage door, Melissa couldn't hold on to her mother and fell to the floor of the carriage, Daniel picked Melissa up but it was too late, the Fourth Mistress opened the door and ran out of the carriage, finally losing her mind. Except everyone didn't see one thing.
A burning arrow.
From far away, a burning arrow flew towards them, but looking closely, one could see a man. He was covered in scars, burns, and blood, but his eyes didn't lose focus.
A moment later, everyone near the carriage saw the man, but it was too late.
Daniel only succeeded in grabbing Melissa, but the Fourth Mistress was engulfed in flames and burned alive.
Darell only had time to shout:
"Daniel, RUN!!!"