Trails of carriages and horses rolled atop the paved roads leading to Arcgate. Amongst the carriages near the center, a rather opulent carriage was surrounded by Knights and horses. Inside the carriage, Prince Elric was idling his time away.

The strategy was already in place. The personnel were armed and invigorated. Prince Elric was traveling with the first Knight brigade to the front line to act as commander. The competent advisors Queen Blonsall sent with the Prince were enough to handle the logistics which left Prince Elric an abundance of idle time during the trip.

They were currently 2 days out from the territory line of Arcgate. Their rate of travel surprised the Prince and his idling eyes drifted to the hardened roadway Iridescent paved. His thoughts couldn’t help but drift to that small girl that was the bane of his existence.

As if from the ether, annoyance, anger, and frustration tackled the Prince’s mind. They could have accomplished so much together, so how could the girl reject such a good offer? Though obsessive, Prince Elric understood he drove the girl away.

Even so, he couldn’t find himself at fault. He was the Crown Prince. The next King. It was the girl’s duty to serve her King. Prince Elric’s fists clenched at the thought. While he was dazed by his thoughts and emotions, his absent gaze caught the sight of strange indentations on the otherwise smooth roadway.

His carriage moved along with his brigade without the indentations affecting them in any way. Trapped in his idle thoughts, the Prince’s eyes only followed those marks without concern to help drive the frustrating thoughts away.

Another 3 hours passed before Prince Roland felt the roadway had become abnormally pitted. His carriage shook as it traveled despite utilizing the paved road. The phenomena had already been noticed by the other carriages, however as it was still better than a dirt trail, they couldn’t find anything wrong with the situation.

Prince Elric understood the situation better though. They were traveling deeper into Arcgate, not further. With the mentality of that girl, she would never allow her own to be worse off than those nearby. He soon called the caravan to a halt.

After he alighted from the carriage, he convened the advisors he brought along about their situation and if they needed to adjust course as they moved closer. However the advisors couldn’t find anything wrong with the road and only marked it off as a defensive move by Arcgate to slow the convoy down.

Sol’s face flashed through Prince Elric’s mind, yet the road appeared just as normal as one would expect. He ordered the march on while maintaining his wariness. Another 3 hours passed and the road remained as pitted as before. Prince Elric had long since dismissed his suspicions and so the massive explosion that ruptured the side of his carriage dazed the Prince.

Before he could recollect himself, another series of explosions resounded both in the front of the convoy and at its tail. Prince Elric staggered out from the hole torn on his carriage. Blood trailed his head and from a red tainted vision, Prince Elric took in the situation.

Massive craters littered his surroundings. Inside each hole  was a smoldering wooden platform with a small ring shape etched into it. Prince Elric could see the faint traces of wire or string running over the pitted road.

He knew he had been tricked. The road deterioration was to lure him into a false sense of normalcy and the debris hid the triggers for the trap. Despite taking an explosion almost directly, Prince Elric was mostly unharmed. In fact, as he glanced around, he realized that most of his troops were also untouched.

While powerful, most of the blast was directed straight up and so only a select few Knights and their horses were killed. “Calm down! Get into defensive positions!” Prince Elric roared out his command and slowly regained control of his panicked troops.

Makeshift defenses were thrown down with some men even using their horse as a barricade. Despite the preparations though, no follow on attacks came. Beside Prince Elric, a war advisor’s face turned ugly. “Prince Elric, this subject believes this to be a warning and deterrent. Our troops are too far from Arcgate for them to prepare this quickly.”

Certainly, if the traps were prepared beforehand to buy time, then the goal was accomplished. Prince Elric’s troops remained in a defensive state for the rest of the night. As the blast occurred around 9 pm, his troops were forced to spend the night awake and tense.

Repeated attempts to scout were met with empty reports, yet the abrupt ambush was enough to belay the sense of safety the troops started with. Now Prince Elric was stuck leading a group of troops both stressed and exhausted. The excited mindset and momentum Prince Elric built up on the journey to Arcgate had been crushed overnight.

The Prince cursed in his head, but still allowed his troops time to recover. He lost another 2 days from stabilizing those injured and adjusting the march pattern. To his dismay, he soon found the next segment of road missing. In its place, a deep ravine.

Scorch marks tainted the walls of the ravine suggesting the excavation was eased through explosives similar to ones on the road. Veins pulsed across Prince Elric’s temple at the obstruction. It was impossible to stick to any schedule if he was forced to turn around. The paved roads were the quickest means to reach Arcgate, and they were built in a roundabout fashion.

The nearest junction to hop onto the old trail or another paved road was nearly a kilometer away… on the other side of the ravine. Fury ate away at Prince Elric’s heart as he issued orders to scout around the ring of the ravine. It was impossible for it to continue very far. He would just take a bit of time and march around it before returning back onto the road.

Another series of explosions ripped Prince Elric’s attention to the forest line the scouts just entered. All he found was a single scout hobbling back with one of his legs torn from a joint. The man was likely disabled from now on.

A cold sweat fell across the Knights who saw the man shamble towards them. Despite the man’s injuries, no one stepped forward to help him for fear of their life and indeed, the injured man stepped misfortunately in the wrong spot and before the Knight’s eyes, the man exploded into chunks.

Prince Elric paled at the sight, turning his head away only to see various Knights removing their helmets to vomit. Beyond doubt, their options were limited. A few Knights were even glancing in fear towards the Prince wondering if he would order them to march through the forest around the ravine.

“Fuck!” Prince Elric roared internally at the situation. His enraged eyes drifted to his damaged carriage before glancing at the ravine once more. The spark of an idea struck him and he issued his orders. “Tear apart the broken carriages! Make them into bridges. We’ll cross the ravine instead of going around it!”

Relief slipped through the solemn faces of the Knights. None of them wanted to be sacrificed before even seeing the enemy. How shameful it would be to get killed before combat. The brigade made quick work of the damaged carriages and fashioned a rather study bridge to cross the divide.

Four Knights worked together with another team supporting them to slide the bridge into place. The span between either edge of the ravine was only a few meters. It was far enough to prevent leaping over with horses, yet close enough for a rickety bridge to be feasible.

The bridge fell into place and Prince Elric ordered a scout across it. The man made it halfway across before an arrow tipped by a leather coin ripped through the air. It collided into the bridge’s floor near a support beam. The leather coin ignited with blue sparks and sent a rush of energy into the material.

Before the scout managed to reach three fourths of the way across, the bridge sheared in half taking the scout to the bottom of the ravine with it. The drop was only about 30 meters, but it was enough to kill an unprepared man.

Prince Elric and his brigade were stunned at the turn of events. They could only helplessly watch their colleague fall to his death. Prince Elric’s eyes turned to the forest depths where the arrow was fired from. “Who is it! Who hinders this Prince! Don’t hide yourself, coward! Show this Prince your face!”

From the forest depths, a childish giggle answered back. A little girl dressed in ragged attire walked from the forest line with a bow in hand. Her black hair was tied back into a ponytail with a brown ribbon holding it in place. Her clean face and black eyes stared back at the enraged Prince.

From rage to surprise, then to disbelief before finalizing into an maleficent loathing. The Prince’s face contorted nonstop at Sol’s appearance. Sol genuflected after reaching the ravine’s ledge towards the Prince.

“Prince Elric. No, This Lady surmised you’d rather be called King Blonsall now. Speaking of, this Lady has been quite curious about the situation. Is your father’s throne so enticing you would commit patricide and frame another?” Sol kept her spiritual awareness extended as far as possible. None of the Knights movements escaped her notice.

Her hand raised up and snatched an arrow from the sky while tilting her head slightly to dodge another from the opposite. The two bowmen in the Prince’s brigade paled after seeing their ambush dismissed with a casual wave.

Sol’s eyes remained on the Prince across the ravine, however the man appeared to have no intention of talking back. She shrugged her shoulders before turning around. Her legs carried her to the forest and as she reached its edge… “This Lady will enjoy hunting you, Prince. Wait for this Lady.” She left behind her final words before merging back into the forest depths.