“Gorot!” Jarot shouted through the air, unsure if Adam could make it out alive now that the other Orders had begun to step forward. “You have worked hard enough to die today!”

  Gorot and Hugo remained in a csh with their bdes, but Gorot paused for a moment. The shock of the Mad Dog’s words filled him, suddenly melting his ay, and the wild grin on his face softened, mixing with pride.

  “We will clear a path,” Jarot assured, r with rage, while Rajin swung his bde towards the Sun Sword, and Jarot engaged with Sir Iris.

  Gorot uood what he o do. The old man had made sure he had heard the words, so that the old man could die knowing he had at least rewarded Gorot for his unseen efforts. “I must go to my nephew.”

  “I ot allow you that,” Sir Hugo replied, for he, too, had duty to the alliance.

  “Brother Tonagek!” Gorot called, dug, while the bde cut through the rain, f Hugo back.

  “Go,” Tonagek replied, urging Gorot onward. Quiet Rain cshed with Sir Hugo’s bde, who could feel how heavy the Iyrman’s duty was, while his own spurred his bde forward.

  ‘Is he taken by grief?’ Jarot thought, gng towards Adam, whose heart had not been fed within the Iyr. “Adam!”

  “Do you have the liberty of looking away from me?” Sir Iris snarled, her bde ringing with magic, a red wave bursting against the Iyrman’s body.

  “Jurot!” Jarot grunted, feeling the fmes against his skin. “You must-,”

  The sound of a bubble bursting echoed through the air, as the King held out a ched fist, and where Jurot oood, was nothing but the falling rain.

  The King no longer had the freedom to hold back.

  ‘Ra!’ Jarot could not think of the words which described his hopelessness, but his body pushed onwards as he cshed with Sir Iris’ cherry bde.

  “Adam!” Lucy shouted, before the explosion of thunder rocked through her bones, and as someone who wasn’t a member of the Rot family, it battered her.

  “I will remain,” Mara said, her voice far too calm sidering how her axe threateo cleave her heavily armoured oppo in half.

  ‘Damn it!’ Lucy panted for air, wing as her body ached, but this was nothing pared to the might of Zirot’s axe. “We o beat them quickly!”

  “As you and.”

  “Brihe half elf,” King Merryweather said, his voice calm, but everyone could feel it, the intense pressure of the King’s words. Ultimately, this was his gathering, and Adam had killed two Knights under his prote.

  However, that was not why his voice was filled with a great pressure, for he knew. He knew why the ay filled his heart. He stepped forward, but unfortunately for the King, an Iyrman blocked his path, the young man gring up at the King.

  “I will be uo hold back,” the King stated.

  “I ask that you do, for my younger sister and brother await for my return,” Timojin replied seriously.

  “Sir Ezra,” the King called, showing the mercy of not getting the Aswadians involved.

  Timojin fell silent as the Honeysuckle Sword stepped towards him. The Grand ander of the Order of the Honeysuckle drew his bde, which shimmered purple and e, and as the rain fell against his bde, it dissipated to nothingness.

  “You must uand that this is hopeless,” Sir Hugo grunted, his bde ringing against Tonagek’s, hoping the Iyrman would step baow that even the Florian Orders had begun to step forward.

  “Hopeless?” Tonagek asked, his bde cshed against Sir Hugo. The disappoi rose within the Iyrman’s heart, quickly burning away te. He grit his teeth, for the words did not anger him against the world, but against himself. “While I still breathe?”

  “It seems we will o step forward,” the Ptinum Shield, the Grand ander, of the Golden Spears said. The old woman motioned a hand towards the other, a Silver Shield, who stood beside her, allowio step forward first, out of respect.

  “…” Sir Edith frowned, not wanting to involve herself, but she realised things had escated out of expectations, or rather, the others’ expectations. ‘I warned you, Lady Ptinum.’ As she reached for her shield, silver, denoting her rank as a Viander within the Golden Spears, she stopped. ‘Where…’

  “Sir Edith?” Sir Arabel, the Ptinum Shield, called out.

  “Rory,” Edith called, though she hesitated, as the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand. “Prepare yourself!”

  Gorot charged forward towards the purple form of his nephew. “Adam!”

  Adam remained upon his knees, having all but blocked the world around him. The sight of Jarot and Larot’s dead bodies filled his mind, and weighed him dower than any force.

  ‘The Iyr will take good care of them. They were the o them back when I failed to protect them. Aunt, she’ll take good care of them. Vonda… You definitely deserve someoer.’ Adam tilted his head back, feeling the rain against his face. ‘Once I die, all this trouble will end.’

  Gorot swung his bde through the air, g against the purple bde. “Step away from my nephew!”

  “He must be brought before the King,” the Bellflower Sword replied, her hands tied now that the King had given the and. She was the Grand ander of one of the three new Florian Orders, and if she stepped back here, then the privileges she had gained from the King would fall to someone else. Unfortunately for these Iyrmen, their nephew would o bee the fertiliser which allowed Floria to bloom.

  The Primrose Sword also moved into a, approag the half elf who had lost himself within his stupor. She, too, o plete her duty now that the King had given the and. She had expected the three Orders to mao deal with their own issues, especially one as ridiculous as this. ‘All this because of a demon and goblin?’

  Sky ander Sienna reached for her bde. As the leader of her Order, she could no loand back, the same as the Ptinum Shield. If she didn’t step forward, things would bee far too plicated for them, especially in such a trying time. It pained her heart that the King of Floria, who she had looked up to all this time, even after going to war with him, would e under scrutiny from the King of Aldnd. He would e uhe criticisms of the other Orders too, if they didn’t want to make the King of Aldnd, their liege, into a vicious enemy.

  ‘At least we should be able to get something out of this,’ the Sky ahought, uhing her bde. In an instant, the Sky ander wondered how many battles she had fought in. She stared at the purple half elf, surrounded by his panions, who were now too busy dealing with the reat warriors from the various Orders. Thousands of battles, she was certain of it. That’s why when her body told her she o turn and swing to the side, her body moved by itself. The force of the blow almost forced her back, as her glowing bde shook violently.

  “We should this up quickly so we return to- huk!” The Ptinum Shield had begun to step forward, and as she was certainly among the top five stro figures in the Orders here today, and perhaps the top five among all the Orders across Aldnd and Floria, she could force the other Orders to move with her as.

  Edith watched clearly as the Ptinum Shield, the Grand ander of her Order, who she ko be on the cusp of reag the level of a Paragon, crumpled to the earth after taking only a siep forward. Her head slowly turo the side, and it was then Sir Edith uood why the King had tried to cim the boy.

  Sir Dunnock, of the Order of the Wings, had been one of the few who hadn’t stepped forward, because she uood what it meant to step forward at this time. Though the Order of the Wings had sworn to remairal, that wasn’t why she didn’t step forward, even as the demons tie onward.

  It was because of that.

  Bear Mother, the Grand ander of the Order of the Steel Bears, remained frozen still. Many years ago, she had travelled the nd, and had gained much experience. Part of that experience was travelling with Iyrmen, one of the Iyrmen who had made a name for himself, a disappeared out of the blue. However, the time she had spent with him had firmed ohing, and she, too, had remaiill, even as the figures beside her stepped forward.

  It was because of that.

  When it came to a death of their children, when was the Iyr so merciful?

  “I knew you couldn’t stay out of trouble,” her voice cut through the air, her magical sword striking against the bde of the Primrose Sword.

  Adam’s body jolted as he heard the voice, and his eyes fell to the armour, but it was the bde that had caught his attention. The hilt was made of a beautiful red gem, with a yellow cloth tied around it, matg the family tattoo. He had st seen it in Taygak’s hands, for it was her bde now, due to the trouble Jirot’s aunt had caused.

  BloodseekerYou gain a +1 bonus to attad damage rolls made with this on.Deals 2D6 sshing damage. When you reduce a creature to 0, your hit deals 2D6 sshing damage.

  Our children utterly oblivious to the daheir father is in.

  How adorable!