Chapter Three: Xavier/ Chapter Four: Bellona

 The Ocean was so soothing, hearing the sounds of gently crashing waves, the suns light dancing across the water as it rose to announce the beginning of a new day. "You'll go blind if you keep staring at it". A voice was heard from behind me, "Good morning Bellona" I pushed my forehead onto hers as a greeting. She is my left hand in this war among four separate kingdoms and she is one hell of fighter. She's capable on her own against a small army, she enjoys hand to hand combat but uses a Heilberg as a weapon, her magic is basic so she only uses it to strengthen her body and weapons. "We should get going already, I'm sure Aria misses you", "Yea I'm sure she misses her guineapig". We both share a laugh as she slightly pushes and leaves me to my view of the sunrise. After a few more minutes of one of the most beautiful scenes, I walk back to camp just a few yards away. Everyone was cleaning and packing every thing away, it was a small raid group of barley ten people including myself and Bellona, "Stop standing there and load up the trucks already". Another voice shouted at me near the bonfire of our camp, it was a tall dark skinned man with a shirt covered in sand and only the bottom half of his armor on. "What have I told you about yelling so early in the morning Durand", "Shut your ass up and load the trucks". He yells again with an annoyed but playful voice, he has always been one for a quick come back. Durand was my right hand in the war, always by my side and we always kept each other in check. He was an archer, Aria had made a specialized bow to strengthen him more than he could do on his own, though he won't tell me how. 

 He's the best archer in our colony and quite skilled in magic as well, he's been our designated healer since he learned how to do so several months ago, he also uses allot of his magic on his arrows, mostly Arcane, Fire and Water type spells. His strength was pretty high for an archer and his close combat was better than most thanks to my training he copied, but he always preferred to stay far from the battles and be the marksman that he is. During a late night, he told me that all the archery he learned was from his mother on an island she lived on towards the East of Aulvan. Apparently his father was from the South and I've already imagined how the leaders of each section took the news. 

 The trucks are loaded and the camp area clean, it was time to go home. "Alright everyone in the trucks, drivers start up and Birds in the air, you'll be our eyes for a few hours". Just as the words left me, the vehicles roared with a slight sputter and my Birds spread their wings and took off into the air, finally headed back home to our colony in a broken down city. The people I refer to as birds are Avian humanoids that have agreed to help us in return for a home. Our colony has only a population of eighty-seven people and no leader, the fighters mostly follow me and Durand but everyone else looks out for each other. The other kingdoms have agreed to keep the war away from each majorly populated area and onto a few designated zones in Aulvan, that's where we are coming back from, destruction zone J. "Xavier, Durand, Bellona, we got a group making their way south, two hundred meters, headed for you", a voice was heard from the radios in each truck, it was my Birds giving us a warning. Bellona quickly answered, "How many do you see, what weapons do they carry". "Thirteen and just regular fire arms, waiting on your word to engage", I quickly looked at Bell with a confused face and back to the road, guns barely did anything in this war of magic. No one has been able to embed their magic into regular military weapons so the fact that they had them was barely concerning.

 "How much room do we have for each passengers", Durand was speaking over the radio now and his question left an eerie feeling in my chest. "If they don't mind sticking close, then we should have enough room for eighteen more people in the trailer". One of my subordinates answered and though he was right, I didn't want to put my people at risk. "One of you stay in the air, the rest of you check on them and see if they need help. If anything goes wrong, you're dealing with it Durand". They were finally in sight and all I could see were two kids, a bunch of older people and only one person who barely looked old enough to fight. My Birds were talking with them and with the last one still in the skies, negotiations must have been going well. As we pulled over, the kids look with amazement at the trucks and the older people started to fall to the floor in exhaustion. "What's the agreement we've come to" I asked my subordinate while a young girl and one of the older men almost fell to their knees and began to beg. 

 "We've been walking for days, my family can't take anymore and the bandits have been taking everything we catch. Some of us haven't eaten in several days just to make sure there's enough". The girl spoke while hold onto a shotgun strapped to her back, she looked about fifteen, she wore ragged clothes like the others, her eyes were a beautiful oceanic green and though she was small, she had a decent amount of muscle. I look over at Durand and motioned for him to come over, "I said you would handle it". He nodded and shouted loud enough for everyone to hear, "Everyone move over, we got some guest tagging along. Make room for the old or weak, Birds back in the air, hunters with Bellona. Take your own trucks and break off, we are gonna need allot more food. Bell, meet at the gas station eighty-three miles out for a refill and we'll make back home from there". Before I began to walk back to my truck, I looked at the girl. Her eyes began to tear up and her face finally looked relax, I moved closer and placed my hand on her shoulder, "Relax kid, hop in the truck with your family and rest until we get back to my colony". She nodded and started to walk away as I shouted while moving to my truck. "Chin up, eyes forward and paint your world in sunshine".

Chapter 4: Bellona

 "Alright boys, we got one more job to do, I know y'all are tired but we can make a bet. Who ever gets the biggest catch, gets first dibs." Slamming my foot on the gas, I take off with two other hunters in my vehicle. There's one more truck that follows behind and I can tell by the movement that he is trying to get past me as we traverse trough the forest in search of more food, that wasn't going to happen. After driving for thirty minutes, we made it a several miles into the forest. Pulling over in a small open area with the other vehicle parked next to me, it was time to start the hunt. "We only have a two hour window until we meet everyone else at the gas station several miles outside the city. Y'all know the rules, no firearms for hunting, you need to shoot something, it better be in-edible. Keep the guns strapped to your side or back, careful how you kill, all pelts can be used no matter how small". While giving my speech, all of us are preparing for the hunt, everyone takes off most of their armor and begin to sharpen their blades. The two archers that came begin to put together there hunting bows and set their long bows in the tool box connected to the trucks and everyone except for myself, strap their guns to themselves.

 I grab my Heilberg off the top of the truck and began to sharpen the axe and spear side of my beautiful weapon. A glorious pearl white with silver at the sharpened edges, spaced with small screw like handles for better grip and only a foot taller than myself. This Perfect weapon stood at an exceptionally well balanced seven feet and I was almost begging to use her once again. My weapon was ready and looking at everyone else sheath theirs, we all give each other a nod and took off into the woods in search of our prey. Only thirty minutes in and we've already gotten quite a few catches, six lion-deer, four squirl-rabbits and a dozen normal hares that tried to scatter. We've gotten a good haul so far, but standing at the edge of the forest, I can feel a strong presence headed right for us and I was still itching for a good fight. 

 "Captain, you've been standing there staring at the forest for an hour already, we should be heading to the gas station soon to refuel". Gripping onto my Heilberg, I rotate it to the side that has the hammer and give a command to my hunters when the ground starts to lightly shake. "Everyone in the trucks, on my signal, race to the gas station and no matter what, no looking back". "Captain shouldn't you be in your truck as well" just a few moments after my hunter spoke, the ground stopped and with no sound, one of the biggest stone-bears appeared from no-where and took a swipe for my chest. Jumping back and using the hammer side of my Heilberg to slam the bears face into the ground, I yell at my hunters to leave, I found my own ride. The bear quickly got to its feet and took another swipe at me, we had just gotten back from fighting in battle a few days ago, from the war against the other kingdoms and it still wasn't enough to satisfy me. Taking a large step back to evade the stone-bear and charging at it with a powerful upward swing, I slam my Heilberg into its face once again, sending it a few feet back into the forest. With a few quick spins, I leave my weapon in the air and after tensing my arms, I slam it back into the ground and send myself over the bear and begin to run after the trucks. Just as I had hoped, the stone-bear jumped up and started to chase me, it was time to see how fast this beast is.

 It was faster than I had thought, almost directly behind me, it tries to take a bite out of my arm. I slightly jump and quickly spin my body in the air as to kick it mouth away from me. It made a loud deep roar after shaking its head, I had to move faster. Quickly casting a spell to strength my legs and grant myself greater speed, I could barely see the stone-bear anymore, I was moving too fast. I slowed down enough for it to be ten feet away when I heard another deep roar to the left side of the forest. A stream of lightning shot down a tree and as I jumped over it, another beast tried to bare its teeth at my throat, it was an arcane-bear. It was hard to do mid-air but using the weight of my Heilberg, I swung myself away from it mouth and slammed my weapon on the side of its face just like I did the other one. It got to its feet and quickly kept pace with the stone-bear and myself, it didn't help when the trucks were insight and the beast and myself were gaining fast. 

 Running side by side next to a truck, driving more than a hundred an forty mph, will put most regular people in some type of shock. My hunters stared at me as I was running next to the trucks, I know everyone was confused but with how fast we were going, these elemental bears were still keeping up. "Captain shouldn't you have killed them already", one of my hunters driving asked while trying to keep up with me. "I'm having a hard time right now", "That's a first, something Captain Bellona can't kill", I give him a sour look before continuing our conversation. "Killing would be to simple", I pause and smile at the hunter, his face a confusion left me with more excitement for what I was about to do with these elemental bears. "You could help me decide witch one to keep as a pet", his eyes widen as I grab a two long pieces of rope off the truck and jump backwards at the bears, while in mid-air I lasso the rope into both the bears mouths and around their necks. Pulling on the ropes as hard as I can, I slam my feet into the ground and begin to pull as the ropes wrap themselves around my forearms. The bears roar louder than before while pushing themselves harder and move past the trucks, my feet sink lower and feel as if they are splitting the ground beneath them. One of the hunters starts to yell at me while both are trying to keep up, "Captain we are almost at the gas station".