Amon and yumi made their way through the corridor leading to the training area, ducking under a set of burnt boards that were once a part of the ceiling, and squeezing through under a slab of stone that had part of the building collapsed on top of it, the sand on the ground moved and adjusted itself to their weight as they made their way through, Amon had radioed Krio through the comm crystal, informing him and everyone else of the damages and losses that were incurred, Krio had told him that he would be back by days end as he was already at Kainon village and just had to make it past Ibis fortress.
Amon had allowed himself to feel a modicum of happiness at the fact that Yumi had decided not to abandon him due to his new goal,
"yu I'm glad you decided to stay, because honestly, if you're gone this plan is not going to work", Amon said, he held his head up looking forward out at the training area, he didn't have the urge to look back anymore, he had steeled his emotions to what he had to do,
"like I said, you can't get rid of that easily, besides we need someone smart leading us otherwise you and bard might fuck things up", Yumi said, a smile was on her face, a genuine smile. Walking out in to the training area all eyes were on them as they finally returned, Amon took pause for a moment, gathering his thoughts and calming his mind, he made his way to the table that still had the map laid out on top of it,
He drew in a deep breath, slowly exhaling, "okay everyone, I have a plan to make our goal work, the end goal is to occupy the royal palace with the king as our hostage", Amon said, a wicked grin that could only be worn by zecatate himself formed on his face,
"Amon what do you mean by that ?", Bard asked,
"it means as exactly what I said", Amon answered,
the boys who again were occupying the back of the crowd heard this,
"ohh, he has my full attention", Barak said, his face lit up at the sound, thought and idea of taking a castle,
"of course you would be excited about something like this", Aster said, he was sitting atop a shorter earthen pillar so he could see above the crowd, but his eyes gave him away, they were just a bright eyed as Barak's,
"As different as you two might be you guys are still the same", levant commented,
"I can't blame them taking over an entire castle, I'm definitely helping out on this one", polaris said,
"not you to", Levant said, slapping his palm against his face,
"come on this means you get more people to Fight", Polaris said,
"I never said I wasn't going to help, it's just fucking disgusting how ecstatic you three are about doing it", Levant scoffed,
back to amon's plan,
"so how do we get to occupy the castle in the first place", bard asked,
"well there are a few things we must do first before we get to that, the first step to all of this is, Levant, Polaris, Barak and Aster, these four must draw away the four pillars from Aluric", Amon explained,
"Oh that should be easy, since we pissed them off good, back in the capital", Barak shouted,
"once that's done yumi and I will get Aluric's attention by making a beeline straight for the castle, he won't be able to ignore that", Amon continued,
"and where do I fit into all of this", Bard chimed in,
"that's the most important part, Bard, you and Zack will be in charge of the remaining forces we have, now they don't know that we have additional forces coming to back us up, but since we'll be fighting at the Alamar planes they'll most likely send troops from the ibis fortress", Amon explained,
He paused for a moment, he closed his eyes and gave a deep breath, he reopened his eyes, and slowly panned his vision over the group gathered around him, he inhaled heavily,
"ALL OF YOU HAVE THE MOST IMPORTANT MISSION OF ALL, HOLD OFF DRACHTS FORCES UNTIL DEMITR ARRIVES", Amon shouted,
"YESSIR", the crowd shouted, in response to Amon's request, after wards silence cut through the room,
Bard cleared his throat loudly, "this only takes care of dividing up their attention, but what happens after that ?", he asked,
"I was going to get to that", Amon said, his face turning like ice, the pressure radiating off of him become cold and domineering,
"you four boys have to win your fights, and by win I mean make it so that the pillars can't interfere with what happens next, so I don't care if you kill them, maim them, hell even if you cut off their legs that's acceptable, but make sure they can't interfere", Amon said, directing the output of his energy to where the boys stood,
"yeah yeah yeah we got it", Barak answered, as he waved off his hand in a dismissive way,
"and what happens next", Zack asked,
"after they win their fights, they will have to take over fighting aluric from me and Yumi, and once they've done that we'll head to the castle to confront the king and the prince", Amon finished explaining,
Many of the people there began to whisper, Amon could tell most of them had a flickering faith in his plan,
"i assure you all this will work, it has to because frankly if it doesn't that means we all are marching to our own graves in two day's time", Amon said sternly,
"this is something we all know, what I personally want to know is how, how will you make the king put an end to this war", Zack asked, leaning forward on the table,
"That is a secret, but, what I will say is if I pull it off he won't have a choice", Amon said,
"that's all for now, from this moment till the end of the fighting everyone is on high alert, keep all your weapons at the ready, and all of our heavy weaponry are to be stationed at the base's main door, we leave the day after tomorrow,
some time later
Levant made his way around the corner, into the large blacksmithing area they had first come through when they entered the rebel's base, once enclosed, part of the building had appeared to be gashed away, ripped from the ceiling down to the floor, to one corner all of the armors, weapons and equipment that could be salvaged were piled up, some had dents in it others were almost completely flattened. Levant made his way around the pile of barely useful metal, finding Aster sitting on a stool pulling one of the metal bracers back to it's original form with his blessing, however, Levant knew aster they thousand yard blank stare that he wore on his face, as if he was looking at something on the horizon that pulled all of his focus.
Levant pulled out the chair that was sitting next to aster, turning it around and sitting on it backwards, resting his bandaged arm on the back of the chair, dried pale pink spots showed through the bandages catching Aster's eye,
"Lev you should really go see a healer, you're gonna need to be at full strength for this upcoming battle, a lot is riding on us", Aster said, holding his palm over the now fixed piece of armor, he floated over placing it down gently on a much smaller pile of things he had fixed,
"there are a lot more seriously injured people than me, besides, you know that burn marks on me heal up way quicker than any one else, see I'm practically healed already", Levant said, lifting his arm up and swinging it as hard as he could, he winced in pain at the motion.
"yeah sure, just get healed up before the day is done", Aster said, picking up a short sword that had been bent in a zig zag shape, and covered in a layer of dust, Levant could only assume it had been covered in the rubble, Which Levant had just begun to realize that the pile of metal Aster had next to him was much large than he had realized and almost everything was covered in dust.
" did you dig up all of them ?", levant asked, scooting the chair forward, he picked up a helmet that half of the top had been deformed,
"yeah, I'm just trying to help out in what ever way I can", Aster said, placing the bent sword on a wide but short wooden stump, he pushed down on a part of the bent sword straightening it out again,
"are you really helping out or are you just trying to keep yourself occupied from focusing on the upcoming fighting", Levant questioned, twirling the helmet on his finger,
"what do you mean ?", Aster answered, finishing up the straightening of the sword and throwing it into the pile of things he fixed,
"come on Aster, we've been through thick and thin, we're more brothers than cousins, I know you and I can tell where your head is at, I know you're planning to go after.... umm what's her name again", Levant said,
"Kiara ?", Aster responded,
"right, you're going after her to get answers on serene, and hopefully save her if you can", Levant said, "but take it from someone everyone regularly calls a try hard 'hero', saving people who don't want to be saved is the work of a fool",
"Lev she brought someone to our hometown to try and kill me, granted it would have never worked, but I just want to know why, besides how do you know she doesn't want or need saving", Aster said snatching the helmet off of his finger,
"because she tried to kill you aster, I get wanting to know why, gods know she is way more than a little crazy, remember she actually tried to kill Rabia after y'all had broken up because she was convinced you two were seeing each other", Levant said,
A smirk rolled across Aster's face, turning the helmet upside down to look at the inside, "you're not wrong she is crazy, but she was and is right, me and Rabia have been seeing each other", Aster said,
"what….Ast...what the fuck, you're serious", Levant said, pushing himself out of his seat,
"yeah, it started after Serene left me, I just remember her screaming at me about being dog for the elders, that we can just leave start a new life in a different country and be rid of everyone here, I'm pretty sure she was just running away from something else but she wouldn't tell me what it was, and she just stormed off, next time I saw her was months later after me and Rabia started seeing each other Serene flew off the handle and started a huge fight in the middle of town", Aster said, pushing his fist into the dent of the helmet making it take on its original shape.
"okay…. We'll talk about you and rabia later, but I get it, you want some sort of closure from serene, she left and never gave you an explanation, but you can't fix or save her, she chose her own path", levant said, taking a seat again,
"ASTER, it isn't only me who thinks so Barak, and especially Polaris are of the same mind", Levant said,
Aster looked on at Levant," I also know you three like the back of my hand, but you should be worried about who you have to take on", Aster said, as Zack walked by taking note of Aster and Levant's conversation,
"what do you mean by that ?", Levant questioned,
"I'm sure you've noticed it, Pol is gonna go after the one who attacked the base, you already figured out who I'm after, and Barak is gonna go after Aluric's right hand just to prove he's the strongest, so where does that leave you, you have to fight against the one we literally know nothing about, so while I appreciate the concern, I'm more concerned that you're going into a fight blind, so I suggest you go do you due diligence", Aster said as he walked off leaving Levant behind,
Shortly after Zack approached him,
"he's not wrong you know", Zack said, taking a seat in front of Levant,
"but I can help you out in that specific category, as I happen to be an expert", Zack continued,
"ohh and how are you an expert on one of Aluric's pillars, I thought you said you were from Argon", Levant questioned,
Ohh but I am, and so is your opponent, His name is Grahm, by the way", Zack began explaining,
"okay you have my attention", Levant said, as he leaned forward in his seat, his senses focusing on what Zack had to say,
"continue", Levant uttered,
"well for starters, my full name is Zackariah Argonia Fullance", the Crown prince of the kingdom of Argon, and Grahm was my body guard, as well as my best friend", Zack explained,
Two Days Later
As the sun came up, The Large doors which lead to the entrance of the rebel armies base slowly glided open, the sun began to peak over the mountains off to the side of the base as the crisp morning air could be felt on each an everyone of the soldiers lips, everything stood still as the all took their first steps on a path of no return