The Devil’s Cage

Orders were given out one after another, all the soldiers in Burning Dawn were preparing for the fight in an organized manner.

The soldiers weren’t worried about the war, nor did they fear it.

When they joined Burning Dawn, they already had sufficient preparation, mentally and physically. They even had slight anticipation towards the war.

It also included the newbie soldiers who had only been on the battlefield once or twice.

While the true veterans seized the moment and rested up the best they could because they knew once the war began, tiredness would be the factor that would torture them the most and may also cost them their lives.

Continuous battles and several days of sleepless nights was enough to crumble an iron-willed, nimble veteran, causing him to suffer a delay in reaction.

When that happened, a simple arrow fired at him would be fatal.

However, the riders that were tasked with investigating and disturbing enemies from Golden City weren’t included in the resting and preparation, they were more concerned about their partner, the war horses.

Bean cakes mixed with egg whites were fed to the horses one after another by their respective riders.

The mumbles from the riders even made their respective horses pumped up as they shoved their hooves.

Each rider had their own horse taming technique and unlike farmers and hunters, their own technique was much more excellent yet bore the same result.

All horse taming techniques were aimed to expel the fear in the horses, making them more obedient.

However, a loud shout wasted half of the riders’ efforts in taming their horses.

“NO! I shall not agree to this preposterous suggestion!”

Walloon was voicing his disagreement loudly when Kieran requested to join the battle.

The major shook his head repeatedly, his beard even waved along with his motion and he stood in front of Kieran, blocking him from moving.

The stern gaze from Walloon’s eyes was telling Kieran, “you shall not pass!”

“This is an order.”

Kieran said right away. He knew exactly how to convince a person like Walloon.

It was a soldier’s duty to follow orders, Walloon was no exception either.

“But…”

“Follow your orders, soldier!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Walloon who still wanted to say something saluted right away after Kieran’s sonorous order at him. Meanwhile, Kieran already turned away and headed towards the camp gate.

He didn’t take the normal path to the gate but jumped off the cliff just like that.

Kieran’s figure swiftly vanished from the crowd’s line of sight.

It was natural that his actions attracted the heated discussion among soldiers.

While worrying about any negative comments on Kieran’s actions, Walloon immediately told his men what Kieran wanted to achieve and in response, Burning Dawn based camp fell into clamors.

“What?”

“One man against Golden City?!”

“Is his lordship out of his mind?”

“I don’t know whether is he out of his mind but… he is the one I should be following, not a bunch of spineless bastards like before!”

“Yeah!”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“I said his lordship is who I wanted to follow and since he has taken the charge to the enemies, how can a follower like me stay behind and watch?”

…

Not just the normal soldiers, even the officers were astonished.

A middle-aged man in leather mail with a longsword on his waist and wielding a spear walked out from the crowd with laughter.

“Riders, ready! Three minutes later, we will ride and follow his lordship’s trail!”

When the order was given out, the riders who were still discussing quickly returned to their positions, performing a final check on their horses.

“Luzarc, what the hell are you doing? Stop going on a rampage here! Lord 2567’s decision has made me scratch my head, don’t you dare mess up the situation further! We are now in the dark against our enemies, we should retract our troops and strengthen our defenses!”

Walloon shouted angrily at his colleague’s arbitrary decision.

“I share the same rank as you, what gives you the rights to command me? Besides, did you ever hear about riders staying behind defense line? As for the current situation, even if we are in the dark, if we wait until we get the news here in camp, everything will be too late! I’ll improvise, those bastards will surely get more than they can handle!”

Luzarc rolled his eyes at Walloon and didn’t care about his shouts anymore.

What use of a loud shout? Luzarc’s voice was louder!

He jumped up to his horse and said with his loud voice which sounded more like a roar, “I’ll leave the defense to you guys! We riders will take the charge ahead!”

“Riders, we shall charge forward with an indomitable will! Charge, charge, charge!”

“Ever-victorious!”

“Ever-victorious! Ever-victorious! Ever-victorious!”

…

A single “ever-victorious” from Luzarc attracted the chants of his riders in unison; the other soldiers chanted as well.

It was their goal and at the same time a blessing to the riders as well.

The chants and cheers sounded from the mountain, as it was carried by the wind, the sonorous chants pierced the clouds.

The riders went down the mountains in groups and gathered on the wilderness beneath before they sprinted away.

Dust clouds were flying high following the horses’ gallops.

Walloon who was ranting on the walls did what he could. He was arranging the defensive measures around camp while seeing the riders off from his line of sight.

Until the riders almost disappeared completely, he muttered softly, “Damn it you stubborn fellas, be careful. Those Golden City ain’t that easy to deal with.”

Feelings from a direct clash with others were the sturdiest kind and the feelings, the relationship between brothers-in-arms was exactly that kind.

“This bloody Luzarc, did he just yell at me again? He really thinks I won’t get back at him?”

Walloon who kept on ranting turned around and headed to Luzarc’s room.

He knew that bloody colleague of his had a bunch of good “collections” and now, he would claim all of them.

“Yell, yell all you can! I’ll get something back!”

Walloon continued his ranting.

…

As the “ever-victorious” sounded off, Aisphany finally woke up from her absent-minded state.

When she realized what was going on, she was stunned up again.

“He really went? Alone? No way, he must be hiding somewhere, waiting for the riders to back him up…”

Aisphany mumbled to herself and even tried to analyze what Kieran was trying to achieve but as she continued, she found it harder to think because she knew Kieran wasn’t a coward.

If he took off, he must be going into battle.

“One man against ten thousand… did he really lose his mind?”

Aisphany clenched her teeth as she quickly packed her things.

Right after that, she also left the base and followed closely behind the riders.

At the same time, Evie Dan and Sharly who left the base for a while now returned.

Both of them were smiling, in hopes of getting praise from Kieran.

Whenever they thought about the potential praise and kind words from Kieran, they couldn’t help but hasten their steps.

Then…

“What? He left?!”

“He wants to fight Golden City’s enemies by himself?!”

When Evie Dan and Sharly heard what was going on from Walloon, they looked at each other and instinctively wanted to locate Aisphany.

However, they realized she was gone as well and from the defending soldiers, they knew she went after Kieran as well.

Evie Dan was completely pissed while Sharly extended her claws out of instinct again.

“That damn fox! This is all her plot against us!”

A single voice sounded from two different mouths, then Evie Dan and Sharly dashed towards the camp gate.