Zephyr walked through the soldiers as they prepared for their attack on Quentac. The overall morale was fierce, with the Academy glad to finally be on the attacking side, but Zephyr was concerned with the small task-force. His hopes rested heavily on Leon and his initial attack, which would be starting within the next few hours. It was not that Zephyr did not trust the boy’s expertise, rather, he was not sure Leon could cause enough damage to give the Academy a fighting chance given their small numbers. He did not voice his concerns to his advisors, in the fear that it would lower the overall morale of the group, but Zephyr’s piercing gaze did not escape all.
“What’s wrong?” Jed asked Zephyr as the boy walked past her.
“Nothing,” Zephyr lied, “I’m just trying to figure out the best approach for tonight’s attack.”
Jed’s curiosity was satisfied, and she returned to tending to her horse. Zephyr’s concern, however, was growing deeper and deeper with each passing moment. With the stolen Empyrean supplies the army was particularly well-equipped, with durable, sturdy armour and light, sharp weaponry, but the Syntian occupation of Quentac outnumbered the Academy ten-to-one, before Leon’s attack. If the Academy was to free Quentac from Syntia, Zephyr was going to need a lot more help than Leon.

“Griff, Luan,” Zephyr beckoned the men over, finally voicing his concerns. “I think we need to call off the attack…”
“Why’s that?” Griff asked Zephyr, his surprise more than evident in his voice.
“We simply don’t have the manpower to free Quentac.”
“That is true,” Griff conceded, “but we don’t have any choice.”
“What do you mean?” Zephyr asked.
“The longer we take to attack Quentac, the more time the Syntians have to either reinforce their occupation there or catch wind of our plans. We can’t run forever, we have to do something to generate support for our cause. Otherwise we’ll never have the numbers to take on the Empyreans.”
“Good point,” Zephyr conceded. “What about hit-and-runs?”
“I was thinking about that,” Griff agreed. “If we start to ambush Syntian convoys and patrols, we can do a fair bit of damage with minimal casualties, but it does give the Syntians warning of our existence. I think we’re better off saving those tactics for the Empyreans. If we can wipe out the Syntians quickly, we can afford to run from the Empyreans and generate support over time.”
“So we’re better off going for a full liberation tomorrow…”
“Zephyr, we need to cause as much damage as possible tomorrow, to draw others to our cause, but if we take too many casualties, you need to call in a retreat or we’re fighting a lost war.”
“I understand…” Zephyr trailed off.

Zephyr did not lead his troops to Quentac until well after midnight, giving Leon as much time as he could to wreak havoc amongst the Syntians. By the time the Academy Warriors had reached Quentac, the sun’s rays pierced the sky, casting a dim light across the land. Quentac was silent, standing tall and proud as a silhouette before the troops. Zephyr sighed as he took one last glance at his soldiers, knowing that this was his last chance to call off the attack. Most of his soldiers were as young as him, mere children, nervously fidgeting in their Empyrean armour as they eyed Zephyr pace in front of them.
“We take Quentac,” Zephyr announced loudly, hoping to stir a little extra morale within his troops, “we prove ourselves fit for this war.” The Warriors nodded in approval, but Zephyr was still not sure. Drawing his sword, he eyed each and every soldier one last time, before twisting Harmony around and charging directly towards Quentac.

The initial wave of Academy Warriors caught the Syntians by surprise, cutting them down with ease. A large cheer erupted from the Quentac civilians as Zephyr and the Academy stormed past them, cutting through Syntians in their way. Zephyr looked up to the alarm bell and smiled, seeing Leon crouching on the railing. With the alarm disabled, Zephyr retained the element of surprise for a much longer time, allowing the Academy to continue mowing down the Syntians. A grin crept across Zephyr’s face as he continued storming the city, feeling much more at ease with the attack than he had been earlier. Leon had wiped out the entire Syntian chain of command, leaving nothing but unorganised and disjointed squads of soldiers to fall by Zephyr’s blade.
Zephyr’s smile soon faded, though, as he came to the edge of the city. Outside the walls of Quentac, the hill was lined with Syntian archers. With the arrival of Zephyr, the archers let loose their arrows, bringing the projectiles hurtling down upon the boy. Zephyr twisted as Harmony reared up and turned to the side, watching arrows as they barely missed him. Zephyr cursed his stupidity, knowing that the attack had been going far too well. Of course the Syntians would have retreated outside the walls of Quentac following Zephyr’s attack, rather than try and organise their formations in the midst of an attack.
The troops behind Zephyr skidded to a halt as they saw the arrows raining down, coming to rest a mere few metres out of range of the arrows, but they knew as well as Zephyr that they would not be so lucky with the next wave of arrows.
“Retreat!” Zephyr yelled, turning Harmony around and galloping back through the streets. He watched helplessly as his soldiers were cut down by arrows whizzing past him, but there was nothing he could do. Realising his squad would be obliterated if the archers were allowed to pick them off, Zephyr brought Harmony to rest and turned her back to face the archers.
“Zephyr!” Jed screamed as she realised he had turned to take on the archers.
“Go!” Zephyr ordered, as he raced towards the hill. With Zephyr charging towards the archers, the rest of the Academy Warriors were given reprieve from the onslaught of arrows as the archers instead focused their aim on Zephyr. Zephyr and Harmony dodged the arrows swiftly, dodging and weaving through the next wave of arrows narrowly as they continued their charge. Zephyr heard hooves behind him as he watched more arrows flying towards him. “Jed!” he yelled, cringing inwardly at the thought of her following him into a stream of arrows, but it was not Jed. Zephyr gasped as he saw the knight clad in black armour charging beside him, both the man and his horse unaffected by the arrows as they bounced off their armour harmlessly.
Zephyr turned to find arrows heading straight towards him, and his eyes widened as he knew he would not be able to avoid them all, but the arrows smashed into an invisible barrier before the three warriors. Zephyr turned to his left, catching sight of a woman atop a building in Quentac, her red dress flowing in the wind as she summoned barriers to protect the two warriors from a distance.
Zephyr and the knight tore into the archers as they broke the lines, peeling off in opposite directions to obliterate the wave of Syntians as they scattered. As the sun broke through the darkness of the night, the Syntians had been eradicated, and Quentac was free once again. The Academy Warriors and Quentac citizens cheered as Zephyr and the knight paraded through the streets, but Zephyr knew as well as everyone that it was only a temporary victory; whatever was left of the Syntian army would already be en route to Quentac. Zephyr knew this was the real reason the knight was still with Zephyr, so the boy did not plague him with questions lest the knight revoke his services. Instead he glanced nervously at the man, whose attention kept flickering back to the hills. The Syntian military was so broken now by the Academy that if they were to attack Quentac, they would not put up much of a fight, but neither Zephyr nor the knight lowered their guard, knowing their vigilance would be the undoing of the Syntians.

Hours later, Zephyr and the knight rode through the city, observing the rebuilding efforts of the Academy and the Quentac civilians. The pair had still not uttered a single word to one another, instead riding in complete silence as they continued to wait for the Syntians. Zephyr snapped back to attention as Harmony shook her head and whinnied, wrestling with Zephyr as he tried to push her forward. “What’s wrong with you?” Zephyr sighed, but he could not get Harmony to budge even as the knight continued forward. Zephyr watched as the knight ignored Zephyr’s struggles, but his expression of dismay turned to horror as the knight disappeared in a cloud of dust. Harmony reared up to protect Zephyr as something smashed through the ground and flew into the air. The creature came crashing down behind Zephyr and burrowed into the ground again, its tail whipping him off Harmony and into a nearby building. “What the hell was that!” Zephyr yelled as he looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of the creature. As the dust settled Zephyr caught sight of the knight crawling along the ground towards his helmet, but before Zephyr could assist the man the creature crashed through the ground between them and threw Zephyr to the ground. Zephyr gasped as the creature sidled up to him. It was a giant millipede-like creature, venom dripping from its fangs as it hissed at Zephyr. The creature turned as the knight’s horse tried to run, but the creature snapped it up and swallowed it whole before turning back to Zephyr. Zephyr held his breath, both in fear and to avoid the rancid stench of the creature’s breath. The creature again hissed at Zephyr, presumably waiting for him to run so it could snap him up as it had done the horse.
Zephyr leaned back as the millipede continued to creep forward, but he felt his back press against the wall. He turned his head to try and increase the gap between him and the creature, but to no avail. He winced as the creature’s breath became unbearably hot, but before the creature finished him off it reared up in pain. Harmony had charged at the millipede, striking its horn into the creature’s neck in an attempt to protect Zephyr. The creature quickly recovered from the attack and turned to face Harmony, who lowered its horn defensively. The creature was not deterred by Harmony’s defence and lunged forward, in a means to devour Harmony as it had the knight’s horse, but it was intercepted by Zephyr as he cut across the creature’s face. Again the creature reared up in pain, this time returning to the ground as it burrowed underneath the city. Zephyr looked around nervously, hoping to predict where the creature would spring up from, but he knew as soon as he felt the ground rumbling. Zephyr jumped backwards as far as he could as the millipede came up from underneath him, and Zephyr barely rolled out of the way as the creature came down on top of him and returned to the underground. Zephyr realised this onslaught would continue, so as he felt the rumbling underneath him the boy back-flipped into the air, holding his sword in front of him as the creature crashed through the ground where Zephyr had been standing, as he had predicted.
Zephyr’s sword cut through the creature as it rose into the air, unable to stop due to the force of its eruption. The sword continued along the millipede’s body until the creature had been sliced completely through the middle. The creature reared up in pain, hissing and screeching as it thrashed around and eventually crashed onto the ground, dead. Zephyr watched as the creature faded away, leaving behind no traces but the carcass of the horse it had eaten.
Zephyr caught sight of the fallen knight, still collapsed on the ground. The knight continued to crawl towards his helmet, but he was clearly heavily wounded by the creature’s onslaught. Zephyr rushed over to the knight and rolled him over. “Holy shit!” Zephyr exclaimed when he caught sight of the man’s face.