The Foolhardies 74 Living & Dying

With their forces in the center collapsing, the left and right Magesong armies now had to consider the threat of Thors' knights and soldiers attacking their flanks. This made continuing the fight a too risky proposition and the enemy Great General wisely chose to signal a retreat. Funnily enough, Great General Darah also ordered a retreat, ending hostilities for the second night of the conflict. 

I imagined her sitting atop her strange winged mount chuckling to herself while she gazed out at the retreating forces on the field below her command hill. There might even have been a satisfied smirk on her face. Maybe.

As for my unit and the comrades who joined our successful battle against the center army's command unit, General Thors was kind enough to order us back to the rear so we could care for our wounded.

No one complained. Not even Qwipps. We all felt like we needed the rest. After all, most of us who'd survived were already half-dead from exhaustion. 

On the way out of the combat zone, my sight finally returned just in time for me to witness the crowd of friendlies surrounding us. I saw Familiar faces who'd once scorned and ridiculed me for my race—as if being human was the worst insult they could think of—now beaming at me like I was some rockstar about to perform on stage.

Soldiers, both fairy and human, patted me and my friends on our backs. They praised us for a job well done. 

The Foolhardies had finally done it. We'd made a huge contribution to the war effort that clearly got everyone's attention. Everyone on our side gave us rave reviews. So why didn't I feel like celebrating?

Perhaps it was because our victory cost the Foolhardies and our new allies much. We lost a hundred and thirty-five soldiers in our struggle. Some would say losing only half the unit for a general's head might have been worth it, but I felt differently. I viewed the loss of life as a massive failure on my part as a strategist and a leader.

For those of us who survived, many were injured. Perhaps few worse than Luca.

My younger brother had been stabbed in his left leg during the frenzied attempt of Jimmy's soldiers to avenge their leader. His wound was deep, requiring more than a minor healing potion to stitch the sinew and flesh back together. 

"I'm alright," Luca insisted while Berrian forced a greater healing potion into his mouth. "L-look way better than you!" he stammered before the flask of red liquid obscured his face.

Hearing him brush off his injury made me feel like a worthless big brother. As if learning he was wounded while protecting me didn't already make me feel like I was crap. I wish he was the only one. He wasn't.

Among the seriously injured were Shaqs, Pike, Ashley, more than half her shield squad, and a few of Xanthor's centaur warriors. Donar hadn't even woken up from the thrashing Jimmy had given him, and Qwipps—well, Qwipps was being Qwipps and complaining loudly to no one in particular about the most nonsensical things like how he wanted a bath and how Varda's face got ugly. 

Varda, the dwarf in question, hadn't suddenly lost her good looks. She was just sporting a bloody nose. Although she was grinning happily at me when I asked her if she was okay.

"Nuthing to wurry ubout, Cummundur," she said in a nasal voice that emphasised her injury. "I'll bu fuine once U've hud u pubble fucial."

I assumed she meant 'pebble facial,' a secret spa treatment that Great General Grimthorn once revealed to me was the secret to the beauty of female dwarves.

As I sat on the white cot they had assigned me to in the triage area at the back of the frontline, I observed the Foolhardies who weren't as badly injured as most. Particularly, Thom and Edo.

Thom and Edo looked relatively unharmed apart from the new gashes along the surface of their armor. They seemed deep in conversation with Xanthor who himself was sporting a bandage over his forehead. It didn't take me much concentration to hear what they were discussing as they were loud enough to be heard for miles away. The idiots were actually comparing battle stats.

"Forty-two confirmed kills," Edo said proudly.

His chest puffed out like a gorilla's does when it's trying to intimidate someone.

Thom, always the smooth one, gave Edo three slow claps of the mocking variety.

"Impressive," Thom had transitioned from pity claps to inspecting his fingernails. He looked anything but impressed. "Forty-four kills."

The nonchalant way he boasted about getting more points clearly got under Edo's skin. That was obvious in the furrowing of his brow and in the narrowing of his eyes.

"I lost my glaive during the battle and had to rip out a troll's esophagus out of his throat with my bare hands," Edo boasted.

"You're proud of losing your weapon in the middle of a war?" Thom arched an eyebrow as if to ask Edo if he wasn't actually an idiot.

Edo raised a massive fist and squeezed it tight. "I ripped through a troll's thick hide with just my grip."

Xanthor, who was a quiet spectator in their pissing contest, was wise enough to "Oo~~oh" and "Aa~~ah" at all the right moments.

"I had a single arrow left while I faced off against two desperate elves," Thom raised his hand in the shape of a gun. Then he blew on the tip of his forefinger. "I killed them both with that one arrow."

Edo's scowl deepened. "How in mud's sake could you even make that shot?"

Thom raised his hands and mimed firing an imaginary bow. "Fired it at just the right angle to shoot one through the neck. Arrow passed through his jugular and hit the she-elf behind him in her right eye. Instant death for them both, I'm afraid."

While Xanthor clapped in amazement, Edo blew air out of his nose in a disbelieving grunt just like a bull might have done.

"Leprechaun for your thoughts?" whispered a honeyed voice that, thankfully, distracted me away from the inconsiderate fairies boasting their battle prowess while surrounded by their wounded teammates.

My gaze shifted to Aura's hooded face, who despite the glaring crack on her golden half mask, seemed to me as radiant as ever.

"Berrian fixed you up yet?" I asked.

Aura shook her head. "More people need aid than I do... may I sit?"

I moved over to give her room on my cot, and I watched as it took her some effort to sit beside me. Her hand rested lightly on her side in support.

"You're not okay..." I realized.

"It's just a bruise, Dean," Aura assured me. "Unfortunately, I found myself on the other end of a troll's fist... Edo was furious. Tore the troll's esophagus out of its throat... it was very disturbing to watch…"

As I watched Aura shudder visibly, I couldn't help but experience a tightening in my chest. And not even the verification that Edo's boasting was actually true could stop me from feeling sad. My foolhardy plan had put her in danger. Enough to make Edo go a little berserk to defend her.

"aura… I—"

"—you have nothing to apologize for, Dean," she interrupted. Her face was stern. Her eyes were like the blue sky before the storm arrived. "We all chose to follow you despite the risks… and I watched you defeat someone who by all rights should have been stronger than you in every way—"

"B-but I—"

"—You made us all proud, Dean!" Aura's emotions burst out of her, and for a second, I thought that her golden hair had flared into flames. "So don't wallow in your regret any longer. It's a disservice to those who fought and died so we could succeed in our mission."

It was a while before I spoke again. After all, she had a good point. Everyone made their own choice, and regardless of how dangerous the mission was, they still followed.

"Thanks," I said.

My voice was barely more than a whisper.

"That's not the only thing making you sad, is it?" she asked concernedly. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

It took another few minutes for me to explain why I felt the way I did. It really wasn't just the loss of my soldiers. It was also the guilt I felt for killing a good man. Someone who could have, maybe in a few years, helped steer both the Magesong clan and Starlight city onto a better path if he was given the chance. But he wasn't. I snuffed his light before it could truly shine. And I even broke my rule about not killing humans.

"Then fight for him as well," Aura stated like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. "If you believed in his cause, then just make it your own."

"Are you serious?" I looked skeptically at her. "You realize his goals weren't any smaller than ours, right?"

"So?" she shrugged. "It's not like our task will get any less difficult, Dean. We're already aiming for the very top, aren't we?"

Hearing her declaration, for the first time, I thought that Aura was a little too greedy. A little too selfless. Maybe even a little crazy. The thought, strangely enough, didn't bother me. Just made me smile. I didn't mind a bit of imperfection in an almost perfect girl.

"Alright, princess, let's—"

"—Dean!" Qwipps yelled.

I watched him saunter over to us with a skip in his step.

"W-what?" I asked while feeling annoyed at how he ruined our moment.

"Great General Darah wants to see you two," he said happily.

"W-why would that make you happy? There's nothing happy about getting summoned by her, you know," I insisted.

"Well, I think she's about to reward you," he grinned. "Don't forget the rest of us when you split the spoils, alright? By my count, we bagged eight officer heads. Including that of a general!"

Chapter end