The sun has long ago gone under the horizon, bathing the whole City in darkness. The night was darker than most, as the smoke from the fires blocked the sky, yet some rays of moonlight still peeked throughout the smoke.

The camps had already set up some rudimentary standing torches, their light like a beacon among the night. Even so, bright flashes of light, coming from the frontlines, occasionally blinded everyone present.

Jule and his group continued staring at the mind refiner’s camp, waiting for some sort of commotion to happen. They couldn’t just travel as they wished between the camps, their group of 31 was bound to attract attention if they moved around constantly.

“Should we just attack the camp? Lord Parn might have been caught, we can probably scurry away in time if we do it…” One of the body refiners following Jule said.

He was the same body refiner that had talked back to him in the monster subjugation. His title as the rank 1 body refiner leader was not a joke, he was the strongest present, just behind the few rank 2s.

In the past, Jule would have paid more attention to the ramblings of the soldier, however, he had already gotten a crash course in impatience.

Slow and steady wins the race.

“I trust in Parn, he will be able to sneak inside and start the plan” Jule said resolutely and could only hear the shuffling of the refiner behind him.

Jule had learned his lesson over underestimating Parn recently too.

…

A few more minutes passed and the night turned deeper.

Even if Jule talked with confidence, he couldn’t help but fiddle with his fingers, wondering whether Parn had truly managed to infiltrate the castle town.

If he had failed… then they needed to get away as fast as they could and formulate a new plan.

Every second that passed refined Jule’s nerves into steel, as a leader he couldn’t show an impatient face, but his inexperience in stealth attacks led to his stomach being full of butterflies.

...

“¡Hey look!..” One of the men called everyone’s attention to the mind cultivator’s camp

A few soldiers were rushing towards the satellite camp from the main camp, their speed denoting them as rank 1 body refiners. They were carrying torches and running with all their might.

Something had clearly happened back at the frontlines.

Even though they were too far away to listen, they could observe the soldiers entering the camp and gathering everyone’s attention.

After the soldiers shouted around for a while, some robed men came out of the tents, their eyes bloodshot. They clearly didn’t enjoy getting interrupted in the middle of their na replenishing.

The soldiers talked with them for a while and then a small number of them walked forward and returned with the soldiers towards the camp, letting the rest of the mind cultivators return to their tents.

“Is that the signal?..” The same soldier who had spotted the soldiers mumbled, his hand hovering over his sheathed sword.

“I hope so, let’s start walking closer and observe…” Jule answered and crouched, taking the lead position while the rest of the group followed, similarly in stealth. Jule didn’t want to rush and make too much noise, the later they discovered them, the greater their chances.

The same nervous body refiner from earlier, grasped Jule’s shoulder, halting him in place.

“We should just rush the camp and then scurry as fast as possible, the faster we hit, the slower they can react…” Jule noticed how the man seemed to be shaking, his eyes wandering around and refusing to meet Jule’s.

He wondered why the man was so nervous, even if he was scared of getting caught, it was a bit too much.

Jule brushed the hands of the refiner off his body and kept his stealthy approach, not even deigning to answer the man back. If not for his trained senses, he wouldn’t have heard the man click his tongue.

Jule wanted to lash out and discipline the conduct of the man, but it was the wrong time and wrong place right now, suffice to say, the man would not be a part of the Redshield army for much longer… it would have to wait until they saved the city though.

As they got closer to the camp, using the cover of the night, Jule felt it a bit weird that not a single noise could be heard.

Usually, the places where mind cultivators stocked up on na were separated from the main camp due to the fact that they consumed the na in the atmosphere, thus leading to scrolls and inscribed items losing a portion of their effectiveness.

Even if the point of the camp was for it to be as remote as possible, it should still have some guards defending it. It wouldn’t make much sense for it to be the weakest point.

Jule felt a sinking feeling deep in his guts, making him slow down his pace… something was wrong.

Before he reached the point where they would be visible by anyone standing in the camp, Jule stopped completely, his feet firmly planted onto the floor. The people who were following him stopped too, but with frowns on their faces.

One of the rank 2 body refiners walked up to him.

“What seems to be the problem?” The body refiner asked while crouching a bit lower, the sheer size of his muscle-bound build making it rather hard to sneak around.

“I… I am getting a very strange feeling…” Jule muttered, his thoughts so distracted by his premonition that he couldn’t control the tone of his voice.

The rest of the refiners cocked their heads and held back their sighs, it was common for a leader to hesitate in their first time, they had seen it countless times.

“Don’t worry Lord”
“We will get in and out in a flash”
“It will all be okay..”

The soldiers tried to calm down Jule, who they believed to be overreacting. Although they didn’t like to be lead by an inexperienced person, they couldn’t’ just leave the future heir of the Dukedom to his own devices.

Jule felt his head throbbing, between the shivers constantly traveling his body and his anger at being looked down on by those simpleton soldiers, he was about to explode.

Just as he was about to turn around and tell the soldiers who was in charge, his eyes opened so wide that they turned into plates.

The rank 1 body refiner who he had felt was irrationally impatient abruptly stood up, giving anyone scouting a clear look of his body.

“What the hell are you…” Jule shouted and moved his hands towards the soldier, hoping to push him down into the ground.

“ENEMIES SPOTTED!!!” Before Jule could take the man down, he shouted with all the air in his lungs, completely ruining everyone’s attempt at sneaking around.

“Fuck…” Jule couldn’t even finish his words as the man who stood up unsheathed his sword and swung it towards his arms, which were still trying to push the man down.

Thankfully, Jule reacted in time, avoiding his arms from being completely sliced off, but the man still managed to carve a deep wound into Jule’s forearm, splatters of blood staining all the ground around them.

The rest of the soldiers finally had time to react and tackled the standing man before he could do anything else. Piling their hands on top of his mouth to prevent him from making another shout.

The man turned into a beast, rolling around, biting and punching, he even pulled whatever strands of hairs he could reach. The soldiers took a few seconds before they could submit him, punching and kicking him into unconsciousness.

It was far too late though.

Before they could even notice, they were surrounded by a sea of torches, dozens of soldiers gathering around them with their swords at the ready, closing off any hope of using their speed to escape.

No words were needed anymore…

Every single soldier stood up and equipped their weapons, they had left everyone who dealt with ranged attacks behind, thus only leaving the strongest melee fighters in the group.

They could think about the mistakes they had made later on, but they needed to act as quickly as possible in order to survive this ordeal.

Jule too held many regrets in his mind, he should have known something was wrong from the attitude of the soldier, he shouldn’t have been so distracted with the state of the camp and the things he was feeling…

He could only learn from his mistakes and become better next time, though if he wanted the next time, he would need to fight as if his life depended on it… which it kind of did…

As the strongest in the group, Jule knew that he had to carry the burden of the initiative, and so, he unsheathed the sword on his side. Since his blade was broken, he too had to borrow one of the reserve swords, it probably couldn’t use scrolls, but it was better than nothing.

Both sides clearly knew who they belonged to, they were enemies and that was all that truly mattered.

Jule sent ma towards his arms, predicting that he would tire from the massacre that was about to take place… He had not taken a life with his own hands as of yet, but he could not take it easy anymore.

He would have to dip his hands into the fire and hope he wouldn’t come out scorched.

Just as he was about to rush towards the enemy soldiers though, his point of view was replaced by a deep black. It took him a brief second to realize that his head had been stuck into the ground, his face leaving a deep trail on the earth.

He tried to turn his head, but an iron grip on the back of his skull prevented him from even moving a muscle, he could even hear the slight creaking of his bones.

In a single second, he had been taken down from behind and completely immobilized.

He could clearly feel the coldness of the hand grasping him counteracting the warmth from his body, robbing him of his vitality.

With all the strength he could muster, he managed to move his head forward, his eyes no longer facing the ground.

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

A man with bright golden hair walked out of the shadows, a long decorated robe covering the entirety of his body, and an inscribed staff held tightly in his hand.

Viscount Dandelion Rute.

“Ice Blade, you can stop gripping him so tightly, we don’t want him to die after all” After the man said this, the pressure on Jule’s skull became minimal, and with his jaw no longer pressed against the ground, Jule could finally talk.

“DANDELION!, YOU FUCKI…” Before he could continue, his head was smashed against the ground again, a sharp pain coming from his nose.

Jule struggled on the ground for a second, but even his stamina was not endless.

After he was done shifting on the ground like a worm, the pressure on his skull was once again lessened. Jule could feel a coppery taste in his mouth, probably coming from his nose, it was no surprise if it had been broken.

He tried to move his face forward once again, but he could not move... this time it was not because of the hand pushing him against the ground, but because he was just too tired.

It could not be helped.

In his first battle ever, he had been forced to lead a group of soldiers, defeat a much stronger enemy all on his own, then lead the march back. He had also been forced to witness scenes of carnage that he could not imagine in his worst nightmares, faced with the destruction of his hometown and the rollercoaster of emotions that this all came with, all back to back and without a single moment of rest.

He might be a body refiner, but the amount of emotional and physical trauma he had experienced was nothing to scoff at.
He didn’t move, because he couldn’t and because in a certain way… he did not want to.

The coldness of the ground was comforting, as was the calm footsteps of the man who was approaching him.

The man grabbed Jule’s hair and pulled his head up.

“We can’t have you take a rest just yet…” Dandelion muttered.

Jule had been forcing himself forward ever since they had arrived at the town, his limit long ago having been reached, yet it was only now, when his body was forced into stillness that it began taking its revenge for the abuse it had been put through.

The stinging pain of the wounds, the wandering of his mind and the heaviness of his eyelids were slowly overpowering him. He could not even gather his rage at the man before him, he knew that it would only result in another kiss with the ground.

“It’s a shame, I really wanted to have a talk with the supposed Heir of the Redshield Dukedom…” Dandelion then stopped grasping Jule’s hair, leaving his head to once again crash against the floor.

“You had me worried for a second there, I thought you would not fall into the trap we had made at the camp…” Dandelion sighed and continued talking, his presence making all the soldiers unable to move.

“The reports said that you were reckless, yet you approached the camp with far too much caution, if you had run away, you would have escaped our net…” Dandelion then walked towards the group of soldiers from Redshield, who were all on guard.

“Thankfully, our mutual friend here, managed to make a small diversion, letting us encircle you. He probably thought that we would rain praises on him and that he would gain grand rewards…” Dandelion shook his head and kicked the body of the body refiner that had shouted.

“It seems that too, wasn’t meant to be…” The body refiner had been pummeled too much and too quickly, in the heat of the moment, the soldiers hadn’t controlled their strength, leading to his untimely death.

Jule could barely form some thoughts in his mind, the cold aura of the person who was holding him down turning his thoughts even more sluggish.

Yet a single thought kept crashing against the walls of his mind.

“I should have run when I felt something odd…”

“Who would have known that a simple spy we had placed so long ago would grant us with this result…” Dandelion kept talking, as if he was exposing the greatest story on earth.