Commander Vihen, his soldiers, and the group spent the night inside the tavern. They woke the next morning to thunder roaring through the stormy sky. Even though Vihen had brought only limited supplies from the city, he shared them with everyone, and together they managed a small breakfast.
"How far is Lakeby from here, commander?" Kromnir asked.
"If we move fast, around ten hours. If we keep talking shit, probably a full day," Vihen answered.
The ten soldiers, Vihen, and the others mounted their horses and set off. To leave Elgovil, they rode along the edges of the hills.
But danger reminded them it wasn't finished with them yet.
From the hills, around twenty armed men charged toward them.
"Again with these fucking elves?!" Mervilion shouted.
The moment he spoke, a rain of arrows came crashing down. One struck Vihen directly in the right knee. Between the heavy storm and the mud, visibility was complete shit. Four of the soldiers were already dead before anyone could react.
Mervilion turned toward Rylen.
"Rylen! Start dropping those bastards!"
Rylen grabbed his bow, placed an arrow, and prepared to fire. But suddenly the horse beneath him started sprinting wildly.
"What the fuck are you doing?! Hold the horse steady!" Rylen shouted at Murple.
Murple didn't answer.
Instead, he slowly slid off the horse.
Rylen turned and saw the arrow lodged deep in Murple's neck. He lost balance immediately and crashed onto the ground himself. He ran straight toward Murple's body.
Right as he reached him, he heard the whistle of a sword cutting through the air behind him.
But before the blade could reach him, a much stronger gust slammed into the attacker and sent the man flying backward up the hill.
Then Kael appeared.
The falcon dove through the battlefield, clawing out eyes one by one.
Rylen froze for a moment.
After years, Kael had returned.
And with him came fury.
Rylen began firing arrows one after another, hunting down attackers with terrifying precision. At the same moment, an arrow flew straight toward Mervilion's head—
—but Kromnir's small axe smashed it out of the air before it could hit.
Finally, the attackers were dead.
But seven of Vihen's ten soldiers had died as well.
Mervilion noticed Rylen's horse had run off and called him over, but Rylen's eyes remained fixed on Murple's corpse.
Kael landed quietly on Rylen's shoulder and rubbed his head against him. Rylen gently stroked the bird in return before Kael disappeared once again into the storm.
The others gathered around Murple's body.
"We swear to you, Murple," Mervilion said coldly, "everyone responsible for this shit will die screaming."
Kromnir lifted the corpse and placed it across his horse.
"We're not burying him?" Rylen asked angrily. "We're just gonna drag him around like slaughtered meat?"
"If we stop now, we'll just get more people killed," Mervilion answered.
Rylen hated it, but he climbed behind Mervilion anyway.
"We need to keep moving," Vihen said. "More will come."
One of the soldiers suddenly called out.
"Commander! These aren't elves. They're humans."
"What difference does it make?" Vihen spat. "They're still miserable fucking bandits."
Before the conversation could continue, a massive noise thundered from beyond the nearby hill. It was loud enough to overpower even the storm itself.
Mervilion spurred his horse to the top of the hill.
What he saw froze his blood.
He immediately rode back down.
"We need to fucking move. Now."
"What happened?" Vihen asked.
"An army. A goblin army."
"How many?"
"At least five thousand. They're heading east—probably toward Lakeby. And they've got siege weapons."
"We ride full speed," Vihen ordered instantly.
Everyone kicked their horses into a gallop toward Lakeby.
But the road gave them no peace.
Soon, nearly thirty goblins began chasing them with goat-drawn war carts. Six goats. Twelve carts.
This time Rylen didn't freeze.
He turned around while riding and began firing at the goats. The storm ruined visibility, and the speed of the horse shook him violently, but even through all that chaos, he managed to kill two goats within a few shots.
Still not enough.
Eleven carts kept coming.
Then finally, far in the distance—
a city appeared.
"Lakeby!" Commander Vihen shouted.
As they approached the city, the goblins finally turned back, unwilling to push farther. The group entered safely.
Lakeby was filled with damp wooden buildings built beside the river on completely flat land. At the center stood a massive arena—one of only three stone structures in the city. The others were the lord's palace and the walls themselves.
The walls surrounded the city in two circular layers, but outside them there was no trench, no outer defense.
Rain-soaked oak trees lined the streets, giving the city a strangely natural beauty despite the storm.
The moment they entered, Vihen barked orders.
"Send word to Lord Lufna! Prepare the city for defense!"
One soldier approached nervously.
"Commander… Lord Lufna died in his sleep last night. His son Vurfna is in the capital. It'll take days for him to arrive."
Vihen closed his eyes for a brief moment. No time to mourn.
"Then until Lord Vurfna arrives, I'm the fucking lord and the commander. Prepare the city immediately! A massive army is coming!"
Meanwhile, Kromnir decided it was finally time to bury Murple.
"Mervilion," he muttered quietly, "we have a funeral."
The group moved to a quiet corner of the city and dug a grave together. Kromnir carefully lowered Murple into the earth while Tarnash shoveled dirt over the body.
When it was done, Sadagat stepped forward and bowed his head.
"May your soul find peace, sister."
Then they returned to Commander Vihen.
"What's the plan?" Mervilion asked.
"You said five thousand, right?" Vihen answered grimly. "I've got five hundred men who can fight. We can hold the city for a while… but not forever. We need help."
"I can ride to Montragan," Mervilion offered. "Call for reinforcements."
"Montragan is nearly a week from here," Vihen replied. "Even if you make it there, the city will fall before you get back. These walls are rotting apart."
"No one's coming to save us, commander," Sadagat said quietly. "We're alone."
"They'll be here before sunrise," Kromnir muttered. "Been a long fucking time since I've seen a real battle. Actually… I've never seen one. But there's a first time for everything."
"I can't ask you to fight beside us," Vihen said. "But if you insist… then you're with us."
And so they waited.
Two hours before sunrise, Mervilion and Sadagat sat side by side atop the walls.
"Where did all these goblins come from?" Mervilion asked.
"Probably beneath the mountains," Sadagat answered. "Thousands of goblins live beneath the Northern Montragan range. Some warlord must've united them and declared war on Muntland."
Kromnir approached them.
"We had a chance to leave," he said. "Hell, we still do. We're forgetting our real goal."
"It's too late for that now, friend," Sadagat replied calmly. "For once in our miserable lives, maybe we do something good."
"I just didn't wanna lose sight of the goal over one act of kindness," Kromnir growled. "But fine. We came this far. We fight."
Then—
a deep war horn echoed through the darkness.
Everyone stood instantly.
Under the moonlight, through the sound of rain hammering metal armor, the goblin army appeared.
Without hesitation, their catapults launched massive stones at the city.
"Archers!" Vihen roared.
"FIRE!"
And the arrows were fired.
Then the city's fire catapults answered, hurling flaming death into the goblin ranks. But the goblins kept charging forward with ladders and shields.
Rylen wanted to stand bravely on the walls…
but the sheer size of the army broke him.
Terrified, he climbed down from the wall and sat trembling against the side of a house.
Above him, Vihen continued screaming orders while goblins climbed the ladders in waves. Archers rained arrows onto them while Mervilion, Sadagat, Tarnash, and Kromnir hacked through the attackers at the top of the walls.
Tarnash saw the battering ram approaching the gate and sprinted toward it, bracing the doors with his body.
But there were too many ladders.
Too many goblins.
The first wall was falling.
Mervilion and Sadagat retreated with the remaining soldiers toward the second wall.
Kromnir stayed behind fighting until a hammer smashed into his skull and threw him off the battlements unconscious.
At last, the gate gave in.
The battering ram shattered it apart.
Nearly half the goblin army was dead already—but the defenders were barely any better off.
Vihen ordered a retreat into the streets.
Then Sadagat stepped forward.
Alone.
He planted his staff into the ground.
The rainwater beneath him began trembling violently. Then Sadagat raised his staff high into the air and shouted with everything left inside him.
Suddenly, every drop of rain falling over the city began spiraling toward the staff.
It was as if the storm itself had stopped everywhere else.
Then Sadagat unleashed it.
A monstrous wave of water exploded through the gate and drowned hundreds of goblins beneath their own heavy armor.
But even that wasn't enough.
The battle still raged.
Rylen suddenly ran toward Sadagat.
"Can you make a massive fire with your staff?" he asked.
"I can try… why?"
"Trust me."
Sadagat lifted the staff again, pouring every last ounce of strength into creating a gigantic sphere of flame.
Then Kael appeared.
Rylen pulled back his bow and placed three arrows at once.
"Don't fail me now, Kael," he whispered.
He released.
The arrows tore through the fireball itself before splitting into three directions, spreading flames across the goblin frontlines.
Every goblin inside the city began burning alive.
One by one.
Screaming.
Dying.
The army collapsed.
Then Commander Vihen raised his sword.
"OUTSIDE! CHARGE!"
As the sun rose behind them, the defenders stormed out through the gates. The surviving goblins, preparing to push deeper into the flames, were caught completely off guard.
Within minutes, the remaining forces were annihilated.
And so the Siege of Lakeby ended in victory for the defenders.
After the battle, Mervilion and the others gathered together.
"This deserves one hell of a drink," Sadagat laughed weakly.
"We'll celebrate later," Kromnir said. "What the fuck was that back there with you and Rylen? I saw what you did!"
"Looks like you're the only useless bastard left in this group," Mervilion replied.
Everyone except Kromnir burst out laughing.
While they joked, Commander Vihen approached them.
"After a victory like this," he said, "nothing beats a good tournament. Interested?"
"Why the hell not?" Mervilion answered immediately.
The others refused.
"Rest today," Vihen said. "Tournament tomorrow. I'll speak with the tavern keeper—you get two nights free. After that, you pay."
"Then let's go rest," Kromnir muttered. "Our monk's got himself a tournament to win."