Chapter 5: Freedom or Death

Seraphina:

"So close. Saint Petronas, lead us home."

Seraphina's hand shook as she finished her prayer and performed the holy sign. When she opened her eyes, a mountain pass overtook the lumen's sight, which looked all too familiar. Even as the young woman tried to return to prayer, memories flooded Seraphina's mind and brought two specters with them, both appearing before her.

"We will not see each other again, will we, Ferdinand."

"Not in this world."

"Ferdinand, Delilah." Their names and faces remained lodged in Seraphina's mind ever since she was six years old, but now, twelve years later, on her first expedition as a fully trained lumen, their ghosts lingered.

"It's time to go home." Delilah's cloak filled with blood all over again, and Seraphina held herself as she saw Ferdinand die again, too.

"I prayed to Saint Circe on your behalf. You look gaunt."

Zehra's voice snapped her from the daze, and Seraphina composed herself. It was not the first time such recollections haunted her. But since leaving for this first rescue mission, these specters of her past came stronger than ever before.

"Gracias, but I am fine. I just-" Seraphina took a deep breath and tried to recenter herself. "I remembered something unpleasant." Zehra took her by the shoulders with steel eyes.

 "Don't even think about your past. Live for yourself and them."

Zehra pointed to the party resting in the clearing around them, a hundred slaves freed by the young women. Seraphina's skin glowed again, and she nodded with fierce determination. Zehra was right, and she could not allow fear to paralyze her now. Not on her first outing as a shepherd. Rodrigo helped them identify the safest target, a plantation a few miles south of the border. Under the cover of darkness, Seraphin and Zehra caught the Invadores noble's men off-guard and absconded with their slaves.

"What do you think? Rest a little bit longer or keep moving?" Zehra stretched her arms and adjusted herself in her armor. At eighteen, both young women stood around five-eight. However, while Seraphina wore a lumen jacket, Zehra adorned herself in brown brigandine armor with steel plate sections over her shoulders, arms, and lower legs. She also tied her long brown hair into a ponytail.

Seraphina looked over the freed slaves and took in their exhaustion and weariness. Many held their feet and various injuries from before and after escaping. Despite how many there were and only knowing them for a brief time, Seraphina spoke each name in her head and noted what plagued them.

"I shall do what I can for them, but we are close to the border. A few more miles and the others will arrive. They should be close."

"Safety at last, and finally something proper to eat." Zehra held her stomach and sighed, but Seraphina giggled. "Don't laugh! For five years, I've eaten real food. I will not go back to what I ate before! I'm going to check for enemy scouts."

"Do not stray far."

"I know!"

Zehra's voice faded into the distance, and Seraphina went to work healing the slaves' immediate injuries and feeding them the last of their provisions. "Just a few more miles, I promise. We will be in Tierrero today, and then your new lives shall begin." She assured the slaves, many of whom remained locked in prayer or struggled to their feet. Seraphina thought back to her own arrival in Tierrero as a child. Such sweet memories fortified the lumen and drove her on to heal over a dozen more within a few minutes.

"They're gonna get us!" A child wailed and clutched to his father. The image of Ferdinand and Delilah's deaths threatened to pounce on her mind again, but Seraphina pushed it away. She was their guide, their shepherd to freedom. In the Father's name, she would not fail his sheep. Seraphina knelt down and looked the boy in his eyes.

"The Father watches over us. I promised to get you to freedom, and I will."

It took a moment, but he calmed enough to get up with his father. Soon enough, Seraphina got everyone else on their feet. Her spirit renewed their determination for freedom, and each stared in the direction of Tierrero with glittering eyes. All they had to do now was wait for Zehra, and they could leave. However, Seraphina went silent when several slaves yelped and jerked away from someone behind them. She leaped over a few but saw it was none other than Zehra. Yet, she remained on edge upon seeing blood stained across the young woman's armor and sweat down her brow.

"An enemy scout. A horse archer tried to jump me. Hump, he should have run and reported back. Must have seen my face and tried to punish me for being armed and unescorted." Zehra poured some water from a waterskin over her face, and Seraphina saw her flock trembling.

"There is no time to lose then."

"Right. Let's go, people, freedom or death!" Zehra grinned until Seraphina's stern glare turned her pale. "Too much?"

Seraphina shook her head, then took the lead, with Zehra watching the back to ensure no one fell behind. Everything seemed so calm around them. Birds sang and roosted in their nests, and squirrels raced about or fought with anjanas for fruit growing in the branches. Seraphina watched a few anjanas fairies dance among the trees in their little leaf dresses and breathed a sigh of relief. However, the fairies stopped, and many shrieked, flying away to escape something unseen. Seraphina caught her breath when she saw its glowing red eyes. A hawk-sized bat-like creature with pale skin and black wings glided from the darkness and descended upon the anjanas. Yet, as she watched the chaos, Seraphina's keen sight picked up something else high above them in the distance: another predator on the hunt.

"No, we need to move now! Whatever you do, do not look up." Seraphina caught herself the moment she said it, for half her refugees did the exact opposite and shrieked while pointing at the sky.

"Abras!"

Zehra glanced at Seraphina, arms crossed. The lumen sighed and nodded. "I know. Come on, we have no time to waste!" They pushed the refugees on through the forest path and toward a clearing just before the mountain pass.

"There they are!"

The cries echoed behind them alongside a chorus of horse and equoferri hooves. Seraphina's heartbeat hastened with the shaking ground. Zehra drew her rapier and dagger, but her eyes went wide when the first of the horse archers entered their sight.

"Ok, we run." Zehra sprinted beside Seraphina and helped her push the refugees forward toward the mountainous pass. They escaped the forest road, entering a vast open field of green that rose into a small hill.

"Keep going, keep going-"

Seraphina's voice dimmed before the roars of not one but six arbas descended upon them. Zehra's mouth opened, but no words came out as she backed up. Her face was pale and sweaty, and she raised a trembling finger behind them. It was as if Seraphina traveled back in time to the day Ferdinand and Delilah died. She saw the tidal wave of horse archers and armored heavy cavalry forming up behind them.

"There you are, thief!" The lead abra rider's armor ignited and erupted into flames as his beast roared. "Did you think you could escape us, filthy little beasts!?"

His abra hissed and arched his head back, fangs out. Everything slowed even as the wave of cavalry swept toward them and the abras descended. The slaves broke down, bolted, or collapsed into desperate prayers while Zehra took out her christogram and kissed it. Then, with a fiery expression, she donned a visored helmet, drew her blades, and faced the incoming Invadores. Seraphina saw Ferdinand in her and forced herself to smile. She had escaped slavery and lived as a free woman of the Father for years. She would see the prince again and Delilah. They would finally be a family, the three of them. Of course, Seraphina wished she could have given at least one slave the same freedom. It also meant parting ways with Rodrigo until he joined her in the Father's embrace. Isabella and Pedro, too, and their dragons. Then there was Arnaut.

Seraphina held her heart as his face filled her mind. She had long put aside whatever childish feelings she held for him since becoming a lumen. However, at that moment, Seraphina saw him freeing her from Kıvanç again. She imagined him saving her now, whisking her off to a chapel and the two on an estate with children around them.

Seraphina yelped, her hands trembling and face bright red. What was she thinking, and now of all times? Seraphina held her Christogram out and tried praying again. However, she saw the anjanas fleeing from the forest, the ubir hot in pursuit. It closed in, fangs and claws out, ready to ensnare one of the fairies. But fate had other plans. Seraphina's eyes widened a little when she saw the gilded eagle emerge from above.

It was an Ieltxu. Seraphina gazed in awe at the magnificent bird, which came down and seized the ubir in his talons. The bat-like monster shrieked and flailed about, but to no avail, and the Ieltxu carried him away to the anjanas' cheers. At that moment, Seraphina caught her breath, for everything to their left turned scorching hot while to the right, it went frigid.

A slave's yelp spread to the others when a river of magma rose up between half the enemy riders and the slaves. More refugees stumbled backward when a wall of ice shot up and shielded them from a hail of arrows shot by the horse archers. More retreated before bursts of blue fire, which crashed into the ground before them like meteorites. Five thunderous roars jumped the abras above them and sent them into frightened slithers back toward the forest.

"Well, look who showed up!"

Zehra's laughter exploded through her helmet, and Seraphina felt ready to soar when she saw the five dragons approaching from the mountain pass with a knight atop their backs. Each wore a suit of gleaming magicae armor, as well as the color and design of their respective dragon. To top it off, she also spotted gilded spurs on their boots and epaulet jackets the same color as their armor flowing behind them as capes.

Isabella poked her index fingers together, and Seraphina almost saw her sheepish look through the chivalric maiden's helmet. Wiha also let out a thick bead of sweat and looked away, a hint of pink in her cheeks when Gleam smiled at her. Pedro likewise patted Isabella's shoulder and then pointed his index finger past Seraphina while Gleam aimed his head in the same direction.

 "Everyone, brace yourselves."

Seraphina called out loud enough for the slaves to hear but in a steady voice. They sprinted ahead as two beams of golden light flew overhead from Pedro and Gleam. Seraphina made no attempt to absorb any magic, nor did Zehra flinch. However, a tremendous scream echoed across the slaves when the first beam hit the ground in front of the charging Invadores horsemen and exploded. Two horse-archers disappeared into the light before a mounted temple minister absorbed the explosion with his own magical light. However, the debris did not stop and spread panic into another dozen horses.

Seraphina's muscles eased when she saw the second beam impact the nearest abra's side and explode. Scales and blood drops rained over the slaves as the abra howled in agony and slithered higher into the sky. Two more abras tried to come in from below him, but more blue fire engulfed the serpents. Seraphina's eyes lit up when Don Alvaro swooped in on Bluefyre and swept both abras away.

"Fear not! The future King of Riquezarra and his soon-to-be leading baron have come to save you!"

Inferno shook the ground with his explosive roar, but Arnaut's voice still managed to reach them. The onyx dragon, now bigger than an orca, almost knocked the slaves off their feet with wind as he flew overhead. Seraphina's heart raced, and her insides almost lit on fire when she saw him stand up in his saddle. Over six-foot-three with broad shoulders, the eighteen-year-old knight threw his left hand into a punch while Inferno snapped his head forward. Two jets of molten magma tore across the ground, consuming a trio of horse archers and their mounts before a temple minister could stop it. Seraphina tried to pray for the three men but could not take her eyes off Arnaut. He drew his red and black magicae sword and faced another abra rider who had swooped in. The armored rider threw his offhand into an uppercut and conjured a stone wall between the riders and Arnaut, slowing the second jet of magma.

Arnaut snarled a challenge to the man, and Inferno made a sharp turn despite his immense size. He body-slammed the sleeker abra at the same time the young knight struck his magma-coated blade into the opposing warrior's curved blade. The resulting impact sent the abra and rider alike tumbling into the trees.

"Humph, show-offs," Zehra scoffed, but Seraphina's eyes glistened, and her hands trembled even then clasped together.

"Uhh, Seraphina, now what?" a slave muttered. Seraphina almost yelped, and her face turned bright red as she watched Arnaut.

"We, we need to keep moving. Everyone, toward the pass. Take great haste!"

"We've got company!" Zehra screamed.

Seraphina saw them. A dozen horse archers rode up to the stone wall separating them from the slaves and leaped onto it. The small and short men moved like acrobats, scaling the rock in a matter of moments and performing front flips onto the ledge. "Only kill the thief! Those slaves are expensive, and the woman must learn her place!"

The lead archer adjusted his turban and took aim at Seraphina. Despite this, the lumen glanced back at the quivering slaves behind her and remained still.

"Go, we shall distract them," Seraphina said.

"Yeah, listen to her! Freedom is just through that pass!" Zehra added.

At that, the slaves raced, and Seraphina smiled. Without looking, she flipped herself through the air, dodging five arrows shot from above. Not a moment after landing, she pivoted and leaped away from the next volley. "Can't you aim! Hit her-" The lead horse-archer grunted when an apple-sized rock hit his stomach and sent him tumbling down beside Zehra. His eyes met hers through her helmet's visor.

Zehra held her blades ready, but the man did not stop and scrambled for his mace. In response, the chivalric maiden lunged down and stabbed her rapier through his exposed neck. Seraphina cringed at the sight of his final convulsion. Regardless, she could not lose focus and backflipped away from more arrows.

"Did that barbarian harlot just kill the captain!?"

"Kill the thief, I'll get her." Another horse-archer ran down the stone wall, drew a curved saber, and kicked off into a front flip.

"Zehra, above you!" Seraphina shouted.

Zehra planted both feet and stabbed into the air toward him. However, the archer parried her blow and then flipped himself behind her. Zehra turned with moments to spare, blocking his slashes with her sword and parrying dagger. Seraphina grimaced when each of her companion's attempted counter-strikes missed. The horse-archer proved almost as agile and acrobatic as a lumen. He demonstrated this with a spinning kick to Zehra's chest. Seraphina almost ran over but jerked aside when more arrows closed in. She looked back and watched in horror as Zehra stumbled backward and the archer closed in. Yet, at the last moment, the chivalric maiden caught herself and then held the slashing blade in place with her rapier. In the same motion, Zehra threw her head forward and slammed the archer's exposed face with a headbutt enhanced by her helmet.

"Bok," he grunted, blood flying from his mouth and nose. The man staggered backward, and Zehra surged forward, stabbing him in the stomach beneath the padded jacket over his torso with her dagger. A mixture of relief and lament overtook Seraphina when she saw blood soak into the robe over him before he collapsed.

"Humph, sorry, but you won't be escorting me today-" Zehra stopped when Seraphina grabbed her and pointed to the remaining horse-archers, who all turned red and shrieked.

"Forget the thief! This harlot needs to learn her place."

"Oh yeah! I'll take you all on-" Zehra went silent when she saw them race down together. "Another time."

Zehra bolted, dragged along by Seraphina. She ensured her companion kept up even when armored. "Uhh, Seraphina, any chance we could speed it up?"

"Not unless I carried you, why?"

Seraphina soon did not need an answer. The ground shook again, and behind them, the tidal wave of cavalry reformed and swept forward. The horse archers rode up on the flanks with heavy riders in the center on equoferri. Seraphina almost threw Zehra onto her back and raced across the grassy hillside.

"Faster, faster, faster!" Zehra yelped despite Seraphina passing the crowd of fleeing refugees. She could not abandon them and slowed down. Once she saw this, Zehra jumped off to help round up any stragglers, but the ground tremors grew closer and closer. Arnaut and the others flew just above them but were locked in combat with the abra riders and were a world apart.

"I wanna be free! I wanna be free!" A little girl wailed, tears flowing down her face as she tripped.

"You will be, I promise."

Seraphina got the child to her feet, but in doing so, both saw the cavalry less than two hundred meters away. The archers would not shoot arrows into the slaves but rather round them up and return them to slavery. All five dragon riders remained locked in battle with the flying serpents and their riders. Seraphina held the girl tighter before a horn rekindled the fire of hope in her soul.

"Saint Petronas! Ha ha!"

Zehra pointed to the hilltop, and the slaves gazed in awe with a beaming Seraphina. Over a hundred knights on equoferri formed up with twice as many jinete light cavalrymen flanking them on horses. Knights of Circe made up the center squadron, their white sigils shining in the sun. The other knights all wore Tierrero's coat of arms or an assortment of other sigils, either their own or the barons they owed fealty to. A few Onyx knights rode among them. Each squadron likewise carried a banner matching their coat of arms.

"¡Caballeros, on me, Saint Circe, Saint Petronas guide us. For Tierrero and the Father!"

"¡Para the Father!"

With another horn blast, the Fidels cavalry charged down the hill. The Invadores Equoferri, like their riders, were petite compared to their Aciemes counterparts. The knights' equoferri stood tall and muscular, while the Invadores' grey beasts were only just bigger than stallions. Seraphina and the others learned this all too well, for the charging knights created nothing short of an earthquake. These tremors knocked several dozen slaves off their feet and brought the Invadores cavalry to a halt. In their panic, the horse archers loosed arrows into the knights instead of the jinetes. The arrows bounced off their armor plates and the equoferri's thick hides without even slowing them. Riding stirrup to stirrup in three squadrons, the knights couched their lances, and jinetes drew their javelins.

Zehra laughed and cheered them on as the riders rode past them. Dozens of slaves likewise cheered on the knights and jinetes, but a shiver ran down Seraphina's spine when she saw the pagan riders try to halt or turn their mounts. Screams echoed across the line, and Seraphina longed to turn away but knew she could not, lest she risk stragglers breaking through. Thus, the tidal wave of Invadores riders met the tsunami of knights and jinetes. Lances tore into the pagan heavy cavalry's armor and flesh, then sent them tumbling across the hillside. The horse archers, in but quilted tunics, suffered far worse fates. Any hit by a knight's lance had their torsos torn to shreds and scattered across the grass. Some of the horse archers tried to ride away along the flanks but met the jinetes. Within a few yards, the horsemen drew their arms back and hurled a barrage of javelins. The spears knocked aside any arrows sent in response and impaled over a dozen hostile riders.

"It's beautiful." Zehra grinned, but Seraphina's stomach churned. She prayed for the horse archers to escape and never return, but alas, they had no such fortune. The jinetes drew swords, axes, and maces, then began the butcher's work. All around them, the knights did much the same, clashing with what remained of the heavy cavalry and horse archers with broadswords.

"Over here, caballeros!" Zehra waved down a few Onyx knights who rode over with a spare horse. The chivalric maiden mounted and joined the fray, rapier ready. "Let's get you all to the pass!"

"Si, come, this is no place for us to be," the lumen said.

Recomposed, Seraphina shepherded the slaves away from the melee. However, so many sheep proved no simple task. Seraphina pulled a man away from an Invadores sipahi who fell from his equoferri after Knight of Circe bashed through his turban helmet. The knight held his sword by the blade and used his pommel as a blunt weapon, smashing through the steel helmet with a mordhau stroke.

Seraphina pulled him away just in time but then had to sprint over and scoop up two kids into her arms after a secular knight sliced a horse-archer in half and his equoferri slammed the horse into the air. Seraphina had no respite and handed the children off to a man before diving and tackling a woman away from another sipahi who collapsed after a jinete's javelin impaled him through a gap in his armor plates.

"Saint Petronas, guide you!" Zehra shouted from nearby as she impaled another horse archer, and an Onyx knight beside her bashed a sipahi off his equoferri. Seraphina struggled, and sweat soon soaked her illuminated skin, but she got her flock away from the worst of the melee. Zehra and the knights remained behind to stop a group of sipahi but shouted at Seraphina to continue. The pass grew closer with each step, and she saw their path to safety. However, Seraphina's new instincts sent a jolt across her nerves, and she looked up in time to see a series of silver concussive waves soaring through the air toward them.

"Everyone, close in around me!"

Seraphina held her hands out and absorbed the magic from every wave threatening to hit them. She remained stalwart even when the other waves tore into the ground around them, spraying dirt and rock fragments everywhere. "Going somewhere, thief."

Two abra riders descended upon the refugees. One unleashed more sonic waves with his rider while the other hissed out bursts of electricity. Seraphina and a few nearby fidels chaplains absorbed the magic, but all nearby jinetes and knights still scattered before the abras. The lumen, however, remained firm even as the serpentine monsters bore down upon her and the slaves wailed.

"Ahh, we can't have that." Two beams of light exploded into the first abra, which barreled away, almost slamming into the ground. Not a moment later, an enormous jet of water crashed into the second, forcing it aside.

"I'm sorry we're late! It's our fault. Mi amor and I slept in," Isabella muttered and poked her fingers together again. Pedro rubbed the back of his helmet, and Seraphina pictured the carefree smile across his face.

 "Si, I shall make up for it now," Pedro said. Isabella and Wiha flew overheard alongside Pedro and Gleam. The refugees gazed in awe, but Seraphina kept them moving.

"There is no time. Come on." Despite this, she watched the clash to ensure neither abra rider came after them. Yet, the more she watched, the less likely that appeared. Isabella aimed her sword and offhand forward, conjuring and guiding bursts of water into the incoming electrical surges sent by the second rider. She joined them into the jet blasted from Wiha's jaws toward the first abra rider. He yelped and jerked his abra aside, slashing the air with more sonic waves threatening to tear Isabella's magical attack apart.

"Sorry, but you shall have to endure her assault."

Pedro and Gleam flew over Isabella, then unleashed two more beams of gold via a kick and jaw thrust. Seraphina knew well how powerful Pedro had become over the last few years. Yet even she blinked when the beams tore through each sonic wave and exploded, clearing a path for Isabella.

"Gracias, mi amor." Isabella blew him a kiss and flew in while the abra and his rider remained disoriented from the blast. In the last desperate moment, his abra tried to evade the magic, but to no avail. Isabella's watery blows slammed into the serpent's side and washed over his rider, leaving them gasping for breath.

"Woman, how dare you! You shall join my harem when this is done-"

The second abra rider went dead silent after Pedro and Gleam loomed over them. A quiver ran down Seraphina's spine for the Invadores rider. Neither saw the golden knight's face, but the threat to Isabella was all she needed to know. "I can be merciful, so apologize to my wife this instant." The joy and life in Pedro's voice vanished, and Gleam let out a deep growl. Seraphina's heart raced faster when the rider scoffed.

"Brainless animal, I shall make you watch as I-"

The rider charged his forearms and bladed but could not finish speaking. Pedro and Gleam surrounded themselves in a golden glow, then flew through the air like a flash of lightning. The impact almost sent the abra flying, but Gleam seized its front right leg in a bone-crushing bite. The serpent beast thrashed about, hissing and slithering in agony. It snapped its jaws around Gleam again and again, electricity surging in the abra's fangs as he did so. However, the golden dragon conjured gleaming light over his scales wherever the strikes came, forcing the abra back. Pedro joined Gleam and coated his gold-colored magicae blade in gleaming light, then unleashed a fury of unnaturally fast blows that all but shattered his opponent. The rider tried to slash back with electrified slashes, but Pedro's light magic overpowered the electricity and forced it aside.

"Are you sorry?"

"Gazap take you and your bitch, barbarian-" The rider's jeer morphed into a high-pitched scream when Pedro's light-infused kick sent him flying out of his abra's saddle and through a nearby rock. Gleam likewise tossed the abra away, then slammed his light-powered tail into the beast's side and put him beside the rider. Pedro and Gleam came in for the kill, and thus, Seraphina turned her attention back to Isabella. The chivalric maiden and her dragon shielded themselves from two concussive waves sent by the other rider and abra with a veil of magic water.

"I am certain you have someone who cares for you back home. Would you rather not return to them?" Isabella absorbed another wave, and Seraphina's prayer went unanswered, for the rider and abra did not relent.

"You must be punished for your thievery!"

His words hardened Seraphina, but she kept her flock moving. Fighting was Isabella's duty, and even with her face concealed, Seraphina almost saw the steel in her eyes. "I pity you, heathen." Isabella and Wiha consumed the next wave with their water, then flew alongside the abra, avoiding his bite.

The chivalric maiden parried two saber blows, then delivered a watery punch to his side followed by three successive mordeau strokes, bringing the man to his knees. Wiha, too, raked the abra's side with her claws and bashed its head with her tail. Scales and blood flew from the beast, and Seraphina eased herself into looking forward again.

"Look! Our freedom!" A slave man sobbed when they saw the mountain pass just ahead. Less than a hundred meters separated Seraphina's flock from their new lives, but she remained vigilant. This proved decisive, for she felt the magic beneath them and almost lost her breath. Seraphina raced to the center and slammed her hands into the ground with but a moment to spare. Spiked rocks shot up and should have impaled the slaves but instead shattered into pebbles when the lumen absorbed all their magic. Several screamed while others let out deep sighs of relief. Seraphina sprung back up but could not stop the wall of stone that shot up and corralled them in.

The second pair of abra riders closed in upon them. The leader's skin burned, and his abra's eyes fixed themselves on Seraphina. "Going somewhere, thief?"

"There is no escaping the reach of civilization, thief. These creatures are our property, and we shall reclaim them."

The abra licked his rider's face moments before the Invadores nobleman transformed before their eyes. The refugees screamed, and many passed out, but Seraphina just gritted her teeth. The rider's body remained somewhat humanoid in shape but took on the appearance of a bright orange bird with flames for feathers, curved blade-like talons for fingers, and a razor-sharp beak. His armor, however, remained.

"Indeed, collect the stolen property that she-thief is mine."

"That thief is mine. May the best gentleman win."

Both abras came in like striking snakes. Seraphina rose to meet them, even as the slaves around her broke down, prayed, or tried to scale the stone walls. One coated his offhand in rock while the other transformed and readied his talons. The race was on to get to Seraphina, and the other one came in first.

"Saint Petronas, hear my prayer. Father, hear my prayer."

Seraphina raised her hand and readied herself to move but had no need. Two thunderous roars echoed across the pass, and the dragons came with them. Inferno flew right over Seraphina and winked at her before coating the front of his body in magma. The young lumen woman's heart fluttered, and she almost lost her breath upon seeing Arnaut atop Inferno, his offhand likewise alight with fiery rock.

"You dare threaten a lumen before a Conquête knight? Your last mistake, heathen!" Arnaut's magma fist met the first rider's rocky fist, which melted and shattered before the massive Conquête young man's power. The rider screamed in agony and tried to pull away, but his abra suffered the same fate when Inferno body-slammed him. Arnaut gave his foe no time to breathe and followed up with two heavy blows with his magma-infused sword that almost lifted the smaller man out of the saddle.

The second abra rider squawked and descended upon the slaves, talons outstretched. Seraphina turned to face him, but a bright grin overtook her and the other slaves when two torrents of ice hit the rider and his abra.

"I won't let you hurt these people anymore. Leave this land and live." Rodrigo seized the man's right arm and locked it in an icy vice while pinning his sword down with his own. Blizzard snapped his frigid jaws around the abra's back near his wing and earned a sharp hiss.

"Wretched creature! You dare sink your filthy claws into a majestic creature like myself!"

The abra tried to bite Blizzard's neck, but ice grew over his scales and sent the abra back with a frozen tongue and ice-chipped teeth.

"Get your filthy hands off me, animal!"

The rider's fiery body exploded into flames, and Seraphina's heart raced. She conjured gleaming water to try and seize his magic but eased herself when she saw a thick aura of ice surround Rodrigo's dark-blue armor and push the fire back. However, this initial burst freed the rider, who flipped himself around with his wings and tried to knock the prince off with his foot talons. Ice grew over Rodrigo's left gauntlet, and he seized the fiery foot and then stabbed his magicae sword toward a gap in the rider's armor.

"Ahh!" the second rider shrieked and thrashed about, throwing Rodrigo off balance when the abra slammed into Blizzard's side. The prince dropped his foe, but Blizzard blasted the abra with enough ice to freeze half his body. The abra hissed louder and tried to slither away.

"How dare you! Savage brainless creature!"

"Even the abras are snobs." Rodrigo's words reached Seraphina, and a slight smile grew across her face. She turned back to Arnaut and Inferno as they clashed with the other rider. Sweat ran down Invadores nobleman's brow, and his face turned paler with each spiked rock that melted upon impact with the magma over Inferno's scales and Arnaut's armor, while the rest shattered upon impact with the magicae steel.

"This fight was decided the moment I bonded with Inferno, heathen. Don't throw your life away." Arnaut's entire body seethed with magma, and Inferno followed his example with a fang-filled grin.

"Please, turn away. Fly back home and seek the Father."

Seraphina pleaded while watching the rider's gaunt face. Yet she sighed and almost looked away when his abra tried to fly around Inferno. The onyx dragon fixed his fiery eyes on the serpent and, with Arnaut, unleashed two torrents of magma. The liquid rock hit and burned through the rocks the rider and his abra covered themselves with, and both thrashed about.

"Saint Petronas!" Arnaut roared with Inferno and charged the duo with a veil of magma. Inferno snapped his fiery jaws around the abra's neck while Arnaut's magma-coated sword bashed the rider's blade aside. A punch of liquid rock smashed the abra rider's forearm aside, then exploded across his magicae armor. The rider came inches from flying out of his saddle and only managed to parry one of Arnaut's slashes before the knight sliced through his neck and the stone around it. Inferno's jaws sheared through the abra's rocky throat and sent its head tumbling down alongside the rider's. Seraphina looked away but heard the cheers from dozens of the slaves, even the children.

A boy Seraphina saved earlier pointed back at Blizzard and his doe. A fiery veil surrounded the abra's body while an icy aura covered the dragon's. Both clashed in a ferocious melee of bites, claw slashes, and crushing tail blows. The abra tried to keep his distance, but Blizzard kept on him in a relentless fury.

"Himmet! Filthy beasts, he was worth a hundred of you!" the rider shrieked and snapped his beak toward Rodrigo's neck, slashing and striking with his fiery body.

"He was worth as much as each of the men and women below us."

Rodrigo's words looked like they chilled the rider more than his ice. The prince's next parry sent a torrent of ice across the abra rider's torso. His feathery body exploded, and he jumped onto Rodrigo as a bird of prey would. Seraphina grimaced but soon saw her friend slam an icy fist into the rider's beak. The icy uppercut lifted him up and sent his blade flying, giving Rodrigo an opening. With a single thrust, Rodrigo stabbed his sword between the armor plates over the rider's body. The rider convulsed but then coughed up blood before ice enveloped his body from the inside out.

The abra shrieked but to no avail. Blizzard impaled him with icy blasts until the abra, too, went still. At that, Seraphina knew the battle ended. The slaves cheered, with many sobbing.

"Fear not! You are saved today, brothers and sisters!" Arnaut and Inferno smashed a hole in the rock wall around them upon landing. The knight removed his helmet and let his shoulder-length sweat-covered blonde hair fall free and glisten in the sunlight. Seraphina shook her head but smiled back at him. A dozen women among the slaves quivered when they saw Arnaut, and their eyes turned to hearts.

Seraphina's smile vanished, and she suppressed a fire growing in her belly. "Come on, no need to gawk at him-" Seraphina's head felt heavier when Rodrigo landed and did the same. The other women soon fell upon him as well.

"So handsome!"

"So brave!"

"So strong!"

Rodrigo paid little mind to the fawning despite Blizzard's nudging. "Is everyone alright?" He wiped some of the sweat from his face with a little magical ice.

"Si, thanks to you." Seraphina came close enough to rub the dragons' heads. Both whined with bright smiles and nuzzled her back while Rodrigo smiled. "And you, Seraphina."

"Oui, you and Zehra did free them and lead them here. Don't sell yourself short." Arnaut chuckled, his face a little red. Seraphina tried to hide the pink in her own cheeks and turned away to see Isabella and Pedro over them with their dragons.

"Bueno, everyone is safe. Our enemies lay defeated." Pedro flashed a bright smile and earned a few giggles from Isabella. "Si, a fine day for us all."

"A glorious day, you mean!" Zehra rode over at the head of their knights and jinetes.

"We suffered fifteen dead," the Knights of Circe Captain reminded Zehra with a fierce look.

"Indeed, and we shall honor their sacrifice and pray for their souls. But alas, they did not die in vain, look!" She pointed to the slaves, and soon, their cheers spread to the fighting men.

Seraphina giggled as she looked over the refugees, who continued breaking down. She found herself with a bright smile as Don Alvaro came over to congratulate them. Seraphina herself could not wait to write to Padre Benito and tell him about everything. That was when one of the boys raced up to Rodrigo, tears in his eyes.

"Your majesty, please, I want to be a warrior too!" he stood tall before the six-foot prince, and Seraphina saw a twinkle in her friend's eye.

"What's your name?"

"Keos."

"Hmm, Arnaut. You could use a page," Rodrigo said.

"Alright, why not," Arnaut sighed after a nudging from Inferno, and Seraphina giggled herself. As they traveled further into Tierrero, several young children likewise asked her how to become a lumen, and Seraphina graciously told them. Others basked in the works around them. Farms, castles, and villages came into sight.

"Welcome to your new home. Don't be afraid. The Tierreron are welcoming to all who contribute. Like me." Zehra flashed a wide grin, but soon the company's attention turned to something else. Seraphina and the others likewise gasped when they heard moaning and a chorus of marching feet from afar. Tremor and three other dragons flew over a far larger host of Tierrero knights and men at arms who entered a nearby town.

"What's happening!?" a slave stuttered.

"Abuelo, he went on a campaign to reclaim several castles on the border," Rodrigo's bright smile vanished as he took in the bloodied host. Many still suffered grievous injuries and limped on even as chaplains tried to heal them.

A somber silence overtook Rodrigo's company and many prayed, including Rodrigo. "Father, por favor, not mi abuelo," Rodrigo pleaded, then his heart soared when when Tremor turned toward them and arrived in but a minute.

"Rodrigo!"

The aging king seized his grandson in a bone-crushing hug while Tremor nuzzled Blizzard.

"Abuelo, what happened?" Rodrigo asked.

"Selim, he was waiting for us. We- we barely escaped, and I lost over two-hundred men, Father give them rest. But you, Rodrigo, you're safe, that's what matters," Sancho hugged him tighter.

"Behold, King Sancho de Tierrero!" A knight cried, and all fell to their knees, including the slaves.

"Abuelo, we won. These are your newest subjects." Rodrigo gestured to the slaves who shook before the titanic king and his dragon. However, Seraphina saw tears swell in Sancho's eyes when he looked upon the company and back at Rodrigo.

"Si, si. I'm very proud of you, Rodrigo." He almost crushed him in another embrace, and Seraphina struggled to keep her own tears in.

"We did it, Ferdinand, Delilah. We will make you proud."

"I can't wait to tell Madre and Padre!" Rodrigo added. Sancho's smile wavered a little, but he nodded.