The Start

By the time early evening came, a knight in black armor entered the double door to the throne room, the throne room of the Hari of Kruule.

"Mahal na Hari."

The knight who arrived at the throne room was the same person who escaped from the soldiers of Reilaea in Takkot. He came to pass on the information he gathered to king Uruk.

"Thousands of Reilaea are outside the walls in the north of the capital standing by. The one leading them appeared to be a soldier especially assigned by Reyna Amaya, but the Reyna herself remained in Takkot."

"What about that girl Lyrica?" Uruk asked calmly.

"She's not here. However, she did make an appearance in Takkot during their raid. The girl called Lyrica is with Reilaea."

"That means she's gonna show up again sooner or later."

The knight further informed Uruk that their soldiers are also on standby outside the northern wall of the capital, waiting for the enemy to make their move and intercept them.

"Our numbers are almost equal to what Reilaea has, the only shortcoming we have is that some of our soldiers aren't exactly out there for our cause."

"That is fine," Uruk replied while comfortably leaning his head on his hand resting over his seat's armrest. "They shall not deter us from taking the victory. Dying from betrayal or the enemy's hands won't make a difference once we takeover Reilaea. However, we should expect that they summoned more than just their entire forces, especially that Blue Rose."

"Right."

With his order already given to everyone not long ago, Uruk allowed the knight to take his leave and join the others.

Meanwhile, outside the walls of the capital in the north, standing in the front line are Kael and several Payapas, observing the soldiers of Kruule in the distance.

"It seems both sides are waiting which one of us will make the first move." Commented one of the Payapas.

"Lady Lyrica wishes to resolve this without needing to kill anyone..."

"We still have a lot of fabrics to use, the problem is I don't think we can use it for everyone."

The others agreed in unison for their fellow Payapas. While the rest looked for Kael to make a decision.

"What should we do, Kael?"

"It is your call, we will follow you no matter what. But, trying to save everyone at this point seems impossible, unless you tell us to risk our lives that is."

Kael wordlessly looked into the distance, where he can see thousands of Kruule's soldiers waiting for them to attack. Taking everyone's consideration into account, the knight finally spoke.

"The plan changes depending on the situation, I'm certain Lady Lyrica knows that. But... I still want to save as many people as we can from killing themselves."

Kael turned around to face everyone and gave his order.

"The only way to retrieve the heroes and save the people of Kruule is to defeat the Hari, Uruk. And to do that, we must open a path towards the castle on top of that plateau. It is unfortunate, but the only way we can do that is to make sure no one stands in our way."

In other words, they're gonna have to kill, including the innocent people who were forced to fight for Uruk.

"I want you not to hesitate to kill, especially if your life depends on it," Kael shouted so that everyone else could hear his speech. "But if it's at all possible, I beg you to take the chance and save an innocent person's life!"

This is Kael's first actual command without Reyna Amaya and the others backing his words. He's not confident enough that he could make the people look up to him unlike Lyrica, Reyna Amaya, and Aran. If anything, he'd rather take someone else's command and fulfill their demand. He thought about closing his eyes in anticipation. And he did so rather slowly...

But...

"Masusunod!"

Before he could, the Malayas responded simultaneously while doing their proper salutations, putting their open hand against their left chest.

"No offense to Lady Lyrica, but we gotta do what we gotta do."

"If anything, this is the most realistic approach in this scenario."

"Let's do this, Kael."

"Lead us to our victory."

The Payapas are also on board with his speech. A sigh of relief exited Kael's lips.

"Very well..." Kael gathered the confidence to face the enemy once more. "Let us take the first step to battle. Ready the arrows!"

On Kael's command, relayed by the Payapas, countless fire torches were used to light the arrows.

"Enhance them!"

From the soldiers of Kruule's point of view, they could see lights flicker across the formation of soldiers of Reilaea.

"They're preparing for something!"

"Prepare to fight!"

Most of the soldiers of Kruule reluctantly took a fighting stance with their swords, spears, and shields.

Right at that moment, Kael commanded the archers.

"Take aim!"

The archers directed their bow and arrow up in the night sky. And then...

"Fire!"

They released their arrows. They rose and began descending shortly after toward the enemy. The Kruule knights foolishly watched as each of the fire arrows transformed into boulder-like meteors coming from the dark skies.

"Magic arrows!"

"Watch out!"

Boom! Blam!

Some who weren't fast enough to react found themselves in the exploding range of the magically enhanced fire arrows. A wall made of dirt, water, air, and fire sprung out of nowhere. The others found themselves safe in the hands of magic users who reacted just in time to shield everyone. However, this attack was merely just the start.

"It's time!"

Kael made his way up the horse's back that was standing alongside him. The Payapas did the same and mounted each of their rides. The foot soldiers unsheathed their weapons. And then, with Kael's loud cry...

"This is for the future of Reilaea! Sugod!!"

Raaaaaghh!!

With Kael on the lead, the forces of Reilaea began charging bravely towards Kruule.

...

During that time, Amaya visited the Takkot mayor's office.

"It's not too fancy, but this room is quite comfortable," Amaya commented in elation as she walked around the office while the mayor is sitting on his chair with his hands tied on his back. "And you got a nice view from these many windows, too. No wonder the criminal Gilberto liked it here."

"Your soldiers should be confronting ours right about now. Why didn't you go and lead them instead?"

Amaya invited herself to a sofa in front of the mayor's desk.

"Why, you ask? Because it's not my time to shine. At least not yet." Amaya replied. "Aside from the fact that I'm powerless at this time of the day, I am confident that my son can get the heroes back to me. Besides, he's not alone. He's got a friend who always got his back and now a strong young woman beside him."

Meanwhile, that strong young woman Amaya mentioned was riding a horse with Aran.

"Can't you make this horse run faster?!"

"Stop whining, woman! If you want to go fast, why don't you run on foot?!"

"Maybe he's slow because you're too heavy! Your stupid armor and everything!"

"Ha?! We wouldn't have this problem if it wasn't for you!"

The two of them were supposed to be riding one horse each. So how did this happen?

"H-Hey! Wait! Calm down!"

The horse Amaya gave to Lyrica started running amok as soon as she mounted it.

"Woouooh!"

Crash!

"Ow!"

Lyrica was violently thrown by the horse.

"That horse probably didn't like your sassy attitude."

"Say what?" Lyrica asked calmly while staring daggers at Aran.

"I guess we have to ride this one together."

"Tch! I suppose that's the only option we have."

Only the Makabayans and the Reyna knew about it, and she wanted to keep it that way, but Amaya herself specifically picked that horse for Lyrica. That horse was known to have great dislike against people trying to mount it. As a result, Lyrica was forced to ride on the same horse as Aran, just as she planned.

"Good job on the acting, everyone!"

"Right, Mahal na Reyna!"