Reckless Riding

Kies was at a loss for words for what he just witnessed. Although Sirks had his back turned to him, he likely had his jaws wide open and was in shock of what just happened. Iris and Wompa and Wompa abandoned them and went on ahead without them. They will have to grab a horse as well and catch up.

Well, Kies didn't really need one as he could just use his magic to run faster than one. Furthermore, the flat terrain of the plains was perfect as well. He could outtake the horse in a matter of seconds if he wanted to. But he didn't want to do that since exposing himself as a mage here wasn't the best idea. This was his trump card and he couldn't afford to show it off for something as pointless as this. Also, he couldn't leave Sirks either.

They were both victims of the princess' "ingenious" plan. If he left him then Sirks is pretty much screwed. But not all hope is lost. Iris' obnoxious plan has actually distracted all the soldiers and they all had their backs turned to them. It is almost as if they have forgotten that there were two more people behind them. Or maybe it was that they weren't the targets and so the soldiers didn't care about them. But either way, this gave them an opportunity to attack.

Taking advantage of the surprise, Kies ran up to a soldier and pounced on them. The soldier heard Kies' approach but it was too late. Kies quickly grabbed the sword from the soldier's hands and shoved the soldier aside with his shoulder. He then flings the sword at a soldier on top of a horse and catches him in the head. The sword doesn't pierce the soldier's head since he was lucky and only got hit by its blunt side, but the force was still enough to knock him off the horse. Kies ran over to the horse and jumped on it while it was still in the midst of panicking after having lost its rider.

Kies grabs the reins and pulls on them to get the horse under control. He then steers it towards another horse rider and hits the reins. "Go!" The horse gallops towards the panicking soldier who has no idea what is going on. He hits his horse and tries to get it to start moving, but it is too late. Kies jumps off his horse and does exactly what Iris did, and kicks the soldier in the face, and hijacks the horse. He then grabs the reins of the previous horse as it is running by and he steers the two of them towards Sirks.

"Nice going!" Sirks gives Kies a thumbs up as he hops onto the empty horse and the two of them charge past the soldiers as well. All of this happened so quickly that the soldiers didn't even have a chance to react to the chaos.

It wasn't until the two of them rode fifty or so meters away from the soldiers that the person in charge finally snapped out of it and gave commands to the soldiers. "What are you cavalry people standing around for!? Go!"

Immediately, the soldiers on the horses began to give chase to Kies and Sirks. The two princesses were so far ahead at this point that the soldiers had to change their targets from Iris and Wompa to him and Sirks instead.

Kies glanced behind them and saw that the soldiers were gaining ground on them. Kies looked over at Sirks and saw that even though he had been behind him a couple of seconds ago, he was now in the lead, and by a good distance too. What the h*ll? How were their horses so much faster than his? Even though this is his first time riding a horse, he was pretty sure that it has nothing to do with the speed of his horse. In the first place, did experience really matter when they were running across a flat plain? Did he get unlucky and take a slow and old horse?

Kies looks down at his horse and sees that it looks rather young. The stead is healthy and strong so why is it that much slower than the other horses? Did it really have something to do with experience? Kies hit the reins again to try to make the horse run faster but it continues running at the same speed. Amazing... This was truly unbelievable.

*Fsh!*

An arrow speeds past Kies' face and hits the ground in front of him with a thud. Kies glances back and sees that the soldiers behind him were trying to snipe him with bows and arrows.

*Woosh!*

Another arrow flies dangerously close to Kies and almost grazes his cheek. The soldiers were catching up all the while firing arrows at Kies. It was only a matter of time before they would get close enough to hit him with the arrows.

Actually, they already could at the distance they were at. It was just that they weren't close enough to hit with a hundred percent accuracy. Kies mumbles a curse under his breath and slapped the reins again.

"Neigh!" The horse finally got the message and sped up. Arrows flew past him and the horse and landed in the dirt in front of them. Slowly but surely, the arrows were landing closer and closer to him, meaning that he was slowly getting out of the range of their bows.

*Woosh!*

One arrow flies over Kies' shoulder and almost hits his horse on the head. But luckily, Kies grabbed the arrow last second as the tip was buried in the mane and threw the arrow aside. D*mn, those archers were scary. Despite riding horses and being very far behind their target, the soldiers could somehow shoot arrows with such force and accuracy while maintaining balance on their horses. The Otanian army is no joke. It's a good thing that none of their mages are here or else he might actually have to use his own magic to get out.

Kies made it out of range of the soldiers' arrows and caught up with the other three after a few minutes. "That was your plan!? To leave us while the two of you ran off!?" Kies angrily shouts at Iris.

"No, you guys were just too slow. You should've stolen a horse sooner," Iris tells him and Sirks.

"..."

Kies literally hijacked a horse the moment he got close enough to the soldiers to do so and yet she was telling him that he should've done it quicker?

*Fsh!* Kies hears an arrow whistle past his right ear and turns to see that the soldiers haven't given up yet. They are still on their tails and somehow, they managed to close the gap between him significantly.

"How the h*ll did they catch up!? They were miles behind us when I last checked!" Sirks exclaimed.

What a headache. Kies turned his body around and held out one of his hands and kept the other on the reins. His cloak flapped loudly against the winds. Looks like he has to use his magic if they want to escape. These soldiers weren't going to give up until they caught them.

*Woosh!*

"Neigh!"

An arrow flew past Kies from behind him and struck one of the horses. The horse hit the ground and the soldier was thrown off. Kies turned his head back around and looked at who shot that arrow. It was Wompa. She had a bow in one hand and a quiver on her back. So that was what she picked up from that fallen soldier.

Wompa fires another arrow and it also hits another horse. She then continues to fire arrow after arrow. Kies watched as they all landed, taking out all the horses and leaving the soldiers stranded in the tall golden grass. Kies was astonished that she landed all of her shots. But since they were shooting behind them, the arrows weren't fighting against the winds, so that might have something to do with all of them landing.

Anyway, Wompa single-handedly took out all but one of the soldiers. They only had one more chasing after them. Even after losing the rest of his squad, the lone soldier still continued to pursue them. Their bravery was admirable.

"One more!" Kies tells Wompa even though he didn't need to. He was pretty sure that all of them could see that there was only one soldier left. Kies waits for the last arrow to fire but it doesn't come.

Confused, Kies turns back around and looks over at Wompa, confused about why she wasn't firing at the last soldier. She points at her quiver and Kies sees that it is empty. She has no arrows left.

"Oh..."

That meant that they had no way of getting the last soldier off them. As it turns out, Kies does indeed have to use his magic to get rid of them. Kies raises his hand and aims it at the soldier. But before he has the chance to fire off a jet of wind at the soldier, something flies by him at incredible speeds and slams onto the soldier, knocking him off his horse. The horse, having lost its rider, sprints off away from them and into the tall grass in the other direction.

Kies turns around and sees that Iris has her arm out. "Great shot, no?" she says with a smile. Her hair fluttered wildly, covering almost her entire face and made it hard to actually see her smile but Kies caught a glimpse of it when they moved out of the way.

"Not bad," Kies complimented her. Though it isn't that hard to hit a straight target, the soldier wasn't directly behind her which meant that she had to take into account his trajectory and the magic's trajectory as well in order to land the shot. It was nowhere as impressive as her younger sister's archery, but it still was impressive.

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