Suicide missions are kinda our thing part 2

During the night as all the soldiers took to maintenance and resting, around two hundred knights clad in black armor with a sun crest on their chest plate left the alliance camp. They would ride steadfast until they would arrive at their location.

They moved with horses to a forest where they left them and continued on foot. From their place, they saw a large camp with tens of thousands of men.

"That's a large army. If we are caught, they would surround us and massacre us," Joan said as she was standing next to her brother.

"You scared?" Edward said back with a smile.

Joan didn't say anything back and instead just walked forward.

~ ~

A couple of the knights sneaked past and killed the varangians who were guarding the rear. They silently moved forward toward the cannons that were on the east flank of the camp.

The knights of the black sun formed a circle around the cannons to kill anyone who would try and get to them or alert the entire army. The imperial army was busy either sleeping or with other military duties. They had no clue that their military camp's sentries had just been slain and the enemy was about to sabotage their precious artillery.

"Yosef gave me these. They have the same powder that the cannons use, but Yosef modified it. It should be more explosive and powerful. We just place this with a fuse that will ignite the whole thing and they are surely able to destroy all of these cannons," Joan said and showed a couple of pouches of grey powder.

Edward looked at Joan.

"What?" Joan whispered.

"Nothing. Just surprised how well you're getting along with Yosef. Thought you two would hate each other with your two so different personalities."

"...just shut up and ready the fuses."

The knights started to spread around the cannons to ready the explosives. As one knight was about to place a bag next to a cannon, he looked up and saw a man with a mask, staring at him from the dark. He had a short sword that curved into many directions and a hood over the head. Light armor covered him with a black cloth over it that blended well into the night.

This unknown man ran toward the knight who blocked its attack with his sword. Soon many more of these men dressed in black and wielding a bizarre sword came forth and attacked the knights.

Edward and Joan looked around. They were surrounded.

"What the fuck are these?" Joan yelled.

"They are not fucks, they are my men of the Swart Lakob organization."

Gadaric had appeared between Edward and Joan without any sound. He was about to snap his fingers right next to the ears of both of them, but they both were able to move out of the way.

"I seem to be too full of myself nowadays. I should not have spoken a word," Gadaric said from under his mask.

Joan lunged at him with her sword, but without even looking, Gadaric dodged the attack and snapped his fingers that sent a blast of sound right at her. Joan was able to guard herself with her mighty sword, but she was sent flying nonetheless.

Edward again with just his sword hitting the air sent a projectile at Gadaric who again without even turning his head dodged the incoming attack. He then snapped both his fingers and aimed the blast at Edward. He cut the sound blast with his sword in two with a couple of cannons getting destroyed behind them.

The knights and the hooded men started to fight fiercely. Even though every knight was divine in at least some sense, they were not overpowering the attackers.

The hooded assailants moved fast and lightly. They aimed their curved and weird blades at the holes of the armor. Their fast movement made them hard to strike at by the heavily armored knights and did not hesitate to attack their enemy from behind. Some even looked like they disappeared into the darkness as the knights gave chase to them.

The hooded men did not yell when one was killed, nor did they feel anything when one of their comrades was cut down in front of them.

"What the hell are these men of yours?" Edward asked as he saw his knights were fighting on equal terms with the assailants.

"They are the assassins of the empire known as the Soul Watchers. The organization called Swart Lakob is my organization and is in direct service to the emperor himself. These men are no ordinary humans or assassins. They are more than a match to you and your knights of the black sun," Gadaric explained.

Joan came with her sword from the back of Gadaric, but again without even looking he dodged the slash.

Soon the noises of the battle alerted and woke up the varangians who were sleeping and resting in their tents. Loud sounds of people heading in their direction were heard.

"Lady and Lord Plangent. You have to get away. We will hold them off for you," one of the knights said with four other knights.

"Are you crazy? We are not leaving you behind," Edward yelled back.

"We need to go now!" Joan yelled.

Edward stared at the knight.

"I am not leaving any of you," Edward yelled again.

"It is their job. You must respect their wishes," Joan yelled trying to reason with her brother.

"It has been an honor serving under you sir Edward. Please let us fight for you as your mother did to us," the knight said.

Edward then turn around and started to flee the scene with the rest of his knights. The five who stayed kept fighting the Soul Watcher and the varangians who were rushing in the scene. The sacrifice of these five knights who worked as the rearguard saved the knights as well as Joan and Edward from certain death. Still, the failed raid had been costly, with twenty of the elite knights dead with ten other badly wounded.

It was starting to feel like this war was not going to end as all of their last wars had.