The woman looked at the leader, completely stunned by what he had just said. "You… you were there?" she asked.
"Yes," the man said solemnly.
"You killed him. You killed my father," she said, her face paling with each word.
"No," the man said. "I won't lie to you. Had I had the chance, I would have absolutely killed him. We were enemies on the battlefield, and your father's troop was one of the stronger ones. We were even in the middle of the battle, but I was not the one who killed him."
"Who did?" the woman asked, preparing herself.
"I… I don't know," the man answered.
The woman paused. "You don't know?" she asked. "You said you were there when he died."
"I was," the man said. "I was fighting your brother, or at least trying to. But in the middle of our battle, two arrows ca for him. One got him right in the chest and the other in the shoulder. I had thought at first that he had died from our archers, but no one from our side had killed him at all. Even the arrows were different from what we had."
The woman remained quiet for a while, not knowing what to say.
Ning stepped in. "Is there a reason why you react this way to his na?" he asked. "Did his death make you question so things?"
"It absolutely did," the man said. "Torris Ann Glow was a master strategist we had been trying to defeat for a while now. And his son, Tauman Ann Glow was a monster on the battlefield."
"He carved through people in the battle like a butcher. He was soone that very quickly made his na in the war. Anyone who learned that they had to fight against their group shat themselves."
"I had figured during that battle 3 years ago that I was going to die."
Ning nodded. "But you didn't. Instead, they were killed by soone else."
The man nodded.
"What has confused until now is not only who attacked, but rather how no one saw the arrows," the man said. "They were very careful about attacks from the air, so they were on constant lookout. And yet… they still died."
The woman's eyes were red by now, hearing about her brother's death. She had never known anything about their death, aside from the fact that they were killed while attempting to defect from the army.
Not even their corpse was returned ho.
"What… what about my father?" she asked. "How did he die?"
"I do not know precisely. I only rember my shock at seeing your brother die, and then the soldiers ran away. Upon later inspection, your father died of a sword wound to the chest. I fear he may have been betrayed."
The woman took in deep breaths, calming herself. Everything she had been told had been too much for her to take in just a few minutes. She needed hours at least.
"Let us continue this conversation back at camp," Ning suggested. "For now, we need to get rid of these bodies and heal our wounded. Also, I need to find the Spirit that was chasing her, make sure it does not go report to soone else."
He gestured for Shara to help the woman back to the camp, which she did. She helped support the woman while taking her back to the camp.
"No need look for the spirit though," Matthew said as the won began moving. "I already exorcised it."
Ning paused, turning to look back at the man. "You… exorcised it?"
"Yes," the man said.
"You never ntioned you had powers," Ning said.
"Neither did you," the man replied, looking at both Ning and the departing Shara.
Ning smiled. "Fair enough. So the spirit is gone?"
"Completely," the man said. "I finally have a power back after so long."
"Okay then," Ning said with a wide smile. "We are done here."
A sudden explosion destroyed their peace after the battle imdiately, sending Ning and the man flying a few ters away.
The man landed on the grass and Ning landed on the hard rock.
"Boss!"
"Ning!"
Ning slowly got up, dazed and stunned, but mostly unhurt. He had only been hit by the shockwave of the explosion and so spray of dirt, so he was unhard.
He got up quickly, trying to see if they had sohow let one of the soldiers still survive. However, when he saw what it really was, his eyes widened in pure shock.
Far in the distance was a group of soldiers, arriving out of the forest. They had co from the other direction, nearly 2 dozen once again by the looks of it.
Not only that, there were 3 carriages, dozens of horses, each carrying the soldiers fully decked out in tal armor. These armors appeared a lot more sturdier than what the other ones did.
Not only that, they also appeared familiar.
In front of them stood a woman in tight-fitting armor, holding a bow next to her, which she had shot out of.
Ning recognized her imdiately.
"Altunia!" he said softly.
She was the sa woman they had t right after Ning's arm was cut off. She was the one they had to run away from. Her power to shoot invisible hot arrows had been too much for him back then when he was tired, out of energy, and missing an arm.
Now that he was none of the three, he waited for her to co over.
"Ning!" Shara called out quickly, having seen the newly arrived individuals, feeling scared for herself once again.
Ning placed Shara behind him and quickly spoke. "Be careful. She has the power to launch blistering hot arrows," he said.
"What do we do?" the leader asked, coming out of the bushes. He looked toward the new soldiers. "Do we fight, or do we run?"
Ning stared directly at the woman who began pulling on her bow again and felt a pang of anger burst through him.
"We don't run," he said. "We fight."
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