Ryu finally arrived at a spot where he could see the fight clearly. His entire body ached as he looked up through the smoke and bloodied air at the two figures battling.
What he saw sent shivers down his spine.
Commander Arnold was kneeling, his sword plunged into the ground for support. A pool of dark blood spread around him. Across from him stood Kolasis — wounded, yes, but nothing close to fatal. The beast let out a shriek that split the air, a savage cry of triumph.
He had won.
Ryu's eyes swept across the battlefield. Corpses — knights and hatchlings alike — littered the ground. Some still twitched and gasped, clinging desperately to life. It was a scene of utter annihilation.
Then, without warning, the battlefield lit up — an eruption of flames consuming the dry grass and ancient trees. Smoke billowed into the sky. The mystical forest was burning, and the fire was spreading fast, hungrily devouring everything.
Ryu saw Kolasis recoil as the fire raged closer. For a heartbeat, the monster hesitated... then turned and fled. It stumbled clumsily at first, as though afraid. And just before it disappeared into the smoke, Ryu swore it turned its head — and smiled at him.
He wasn't sure if it was real... or if the exhaustion and blood loss were playing tricks on his mind.
But it didn't matter. None of it mattered if he burned alive here.
Gritting his teeth, Ryu dashed toward the commander, the heat of the approaching flames clawing at his back with every step. His bones screamed in protest, but he forced himself forward.
As he got closer, he could see just how badly Arnold was wounded. Gashes and bites tore across his armor. Blood soaked him from head to toe. His once proud, arrogant eyes were now reduced to hollow embers — dead, yet somehow still seeing.
Ryu skidded to a stop beside him, coughing from the smoke.
"Commander! What are you doing?! There's a fire, can't you see?!" Ryu shouted hoarsely, shaking him. "We have to go! We have to kill that beast!"
The knight commander's eyes were lifeless as he mumbled, his hands trembling,
"No... there's no way... it's impossible... I might as well die here... it'd be a better fate than whatever that thing has planned for me."
Ryu gritted his teeth.
"Fuck!"
He clenched his fist and slammed it into the side of the commander's helmet with all his strength, knocking it clean off and sending it clattering across the blood-soaked ground.
"You're a goddamn commander!" Ryu roared. "The second you chose to become one, your life stopped being your own! If you die, what happens to your men? To the ones who trusted you with their lives?"
Ryu didn't really care about the commander or his knights. But right now, he needed them. Who else could get him out of this burning hellhole alive?
Slowly, the knight commander pushed himself up. His body still looked broken, his gaze still hollow — but at least he was moving.
In a rough, cracked voice, he said,
"You... go to the camp... get whatever you can. I'll gather whoever's still breathing. Meet me..."
He pointed weakly at a dark silhouette of a mountain rising not too far away, its peak barely visible through the smoke and flames.
"There."
Ryu gave a sharp nod and turned toward the camp.
When he arrived, chaos had already consumed it. Half the tents were on fire, the smoke was so thick it stung his eyes and made it hard to breathe. The whole place stank of burnt flesh and charred wood.
Covering his mouth with his sleeve, Ryu pushed forward. Weapons were useless — the knights still alive had whatever they could carry. No, he needed essentials: food, water, anything that could keep them alive.
After a frantic search, he found a barrel filled with the strange, clean water they used — and a small wooden box of beef jerky. Not much, but better than nothing.
He barely had five minutes until the fire would swallow this place whole.
As he was about to leave, he noticed another barrel tucked behind the ruins of a burnt tent. The sharp, pungent smell hit him immediately.
Alcohol.
His mind raced.
Could he use this? Could it be a weapon... or would it just kill them faster?
Before he could decide, the flames crept closer, their heat biting at his skin.
He hesitated for a moment, eyeing the barrel of alcohol. Then, with a grimace, he picked it up and shoved it into a small wooden cart he found half-buried under debris. His hands moved quickly, loading everything he had gathered — the water, the jerky, the alcohol — anything that could be useful for surviving whatever hell awaited them next.
With one last glance at the burning inferno that had once been their camp, Ryu muttered a silent farewell.
Then he gripped the cart's handle tight, muscles screaming in protest, and bolted from the dying camp — racing toward the mountain, the smoke swallowing everything behind him.