Chapter 1: The Attack

(Fifth moon, Eleventh day, 459 Lu; Time: 1:10 am)

Xiao Li and her group are waiting outside the city walls, hidden by the surrounding forest, waiting for a gap in the patrol to strike. "Remember, the chief and all his family die! You can do whatever you want with the servants." Xiao Li said as she finished going over the plan one last time.

"How can we tell the chief's line apart from the servants?" Jian Fei asked.

"Their clothes and appearance obviously. No one would want to spend more than necessary on servants, they'll be wearing something akin to rags and look rather haggard." Xiao Li said.

...

Alphonse had just finished his training and got his meal, something simple and small, but still something to eat. "Eat now, your next meal only comes when I say it does." Raeloph said. Alphonse began to eat and finished rather quickly, as he learned to do over the past seven lunar years.

Alphonse got up and walked up the stairs to finally get some rest after training for several weeks. "Chief! An attack! It's the Mu Yu Sect again!" A soldier yelled as he entered the building.

"Have you activated the defense system yet?" Raeloph asked gruffly.

"No, sir! We haven't repaired it yet, they completely wrecked it last time they were here, we have to build it from scratch!" The soldier said with urgency in his tone.

"I see, I will join the battlefield if that Xiao Li is here she should be easy enough to take down." Raeloph said as he stood and walked towards the door. "Edrit, no one leaves this house." Raeloph said gruffly. Edrit nodded slowly as Raeloph exited and began to walk towards the main gate.

A few moments after Raeloph left, Edrit went upstairs. "Alphonse, are you awake?" Edrit asked as she opened the door. Alphonse looked to the door and saw his mother. "Good... Your fa- Raeloph went to the battle at the main gate, you should run... Our defenses are broken, the gate is in bad shape... and... I can sense the leader of the group has gotten stronger, most definitely stronger than your father." Edrit said.

Edrit walked to Alphonse and went to pet his head when Alphonse instinctively blocked and backed away. "Go to the kitchen when you have gathered what you need, I will give you some food." Edrit said as she walked out of the room.

{You didn't have to block that, it wasn't an attack.} Prism said softly, though once again Alphonse ignored her. Alphonse folded his blanket into the shape of a sack and walked to the kitchen. Alphonse walked to his mother and she began to place food items into the makeshift sack.

As Edrit was finishing up a knock came at the door. Edrit walked over and opened the door to reveal a guard. "Lady Edrit, Raeloph is in a bind, he requests the aid of a healer, since you are the best healer you are the best option." The guard said.

"Let me get my tools." Edrit said. The guard nodded and Edrit closed the door. Edrit walked over to Alphonse. "There is a window on the top floor, outside it is a small platform, from there you can climb down, no one will see you and you can escape without issue, Aila will lead you to it. From there you need to climb the wall, but that shouldn't be hard for you." Edrit said.

Alphonse nodded then Edrit grabbed her staff and left the building. Aila walked over to Alphonse from the living room. "Let's go, you need to hurry." Aila said as she motion Alphonse to follow her. Alphonse followed Aila up the stairs to the fourth floor.

At the top of the staircase is a locked door, preventing access to the floor. "Don't worry, I have the key." Aila said as she unlocked the door. After entering Alphonse saw a large space with a cage in the center. Alphonse hesitantly pointed to the cage. Aila looked to where he pointed and said. "The land this building is one used to be a hill, on that hill the first amethyst wold turned into a man-beast, it is also where the first amethyst wolf man-beast turned into a beastman, the cage is there to show the location we think they transformed." Aila said as she walked over to the window on the left side of the room.

Alphonse had walked with Aila and saw one of the few glass windows in the house. Aila opened the window and looked down, seeing the platform. Alphonse began to climb through the window then noticed the platform had begun to shake quite a lot. Alphonse had stopped climbing through and entered the house again.

"What's wrong?" Aila asked as she looked out the window. As Aila looked out the window, the platform began to fall and she saw a few humans who had snuck into the city. "No, no! Um, okay, there must be another way, right?" Aila asked as she began pacing.

A few moments later a loud crash was heard on the first floor. Aila ran to the door and went down the stairs quickly to see what the sound was. Alphonse followed her closely. When they got to the first floor they saw Linrit and Henmer on the ground in a pool of blood next to each other.

Alphonse looked p and saw three men in the doorway, each of them holding a spear, two of which had blood on them. Aila ran over to Henmer and Linrit, unaware of the three men. "Ai... Aila!" Alphonse said as he pointed to the three men. Aila looked up with a horrified expression and saw Alphonse pointing to the door. Aila looked over and saw the three men.

"Took her long enough to notice. It seems like she's a part of the chief's family." The man in the middle said.

"Seems like, and the boy behind her is probably a servant, I mean look at him, he's practically skin and bones, and his clothes are ripped and barely fit him." The man on the right said.

"So do we kill them both or is the boy going into the slave trade?" The man on the left asked.

"We can figure that out after we kill the girl." The man on the right said as he swung his spear. The other two men nodded then all three of them lunged forwards, stabbing Aila in the vitals.