“Why did you agree to walk through the night?” Lyra dragged her words. Her arms hung at her sides and her shoulders were slumped.

  “We are already halfway through. If we keep moving, we will reach our location in about two hours,” Tarin said.

  Meilie yawned. She was also tired. They were moving far to the left of the Nyctona camp, far enough that the Nyctona would not see them. They were not even using any light source to move through the night. The Nyctona camp guided their path; they knew exactly where to go.

  "We didn't even sleep yesterday," Lyra said, dragging her words again.

  “The night is still new. We will rest once we reach there,” Arix said, looking at the stars above him.

  Lyra’s vision was getting blurrier. She was about to reach her limit. She yawned and moved forward, trying her best to stay awake.

  Arix was also tired, but not enough to fall asleep at that moment. Tarin looked perfectly fine, like he could take on a few of the Nyctona generals all by himself at that hour. But deep down, Arix knew Tarin was tired too – he just didn't show it.

  “Do you really think the dwarves will win this battle?” Tarin asked.

  Arix looked at the Nyctona camp far away from him and paused for a bit. After a while, he said, “They made a good plan. If we follow our instructions and attack the king from behind, we can definitely win.”

  “Hmm.” Tarin also looked at the camp. The lights were barely glowing from this far, but there were so many of them.

  "The lights of the camp make this night even more beautiful," Arix thought. “I wonder what Elena would have thought.”

  A faint image of Elena’s smile in her final moment came to his mind, but he soon snapped out of it. He took a deep breath and kept walking forward.

  After another hour of walking, they finally saw the woods in front of them. Lyra and Meilie were still hanging on.

  "Look, we are close," Arix said, pointing toward the woods.

  Lyra barely noticed. “Fiiine,” she said as she kept moving, barely opening her eyes.

  They entered the woods and kept moving in the direction of the light.

  The path was not visible, but they could spot the lights in the distance, and they kept moving.

  After another half an hour, they reached the camp. They were directly behind it. Midnight struck. The Nyctona were mostly silent, and so were the woods.

  “Don’t make any noise,” Arix whispered from behind a tree.

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  Tarin was directly behind him, hiding behind a tree and looking at the camp.

  Lyra and Meilie had already fallen asleep near a tree behind them.

  “I don’t think anyone is out right now,” Arix whispered.

  “They must be resting too,” Tarin whispered.

  “Let’s rest too. We will look in the morning,” Arix said to Tarin, going behind a few trees and leaning against one.

  Tarin did the same.

  Arix took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He was tired and quickly fell asleep.

  - - -

  Arix’s eyes opened at the sound of a large horn just outside the camp. He focused ahead and saw that all the camps were gone. Just outside the woods, all the Nyctona were mounted on their horses, facing the village.

  “Hey, wake up quickly.” Arix shook Tarin to wake him up. Afterward, he went to Lyra and Meilie and shook their shoulders too.

  They quickly woke up and moved ahead a little.

  “How could we oversleep at a moment like this?” Tarin whispered.

  “We were tired. That was bound to happen,” Arix said, looking behind him to see Lyra still yawning.

  “Wake up now. We don’t have much time,” he said to her.

  "Yes. I am awake. But I don't see any king here," Lyra said, looking ahead at the army.

  “What?” Arix said. In front of him were only normal Nyctona soldiers. The king was stationed in the middle of the army.

  “Fuck. How are we supposed to reach the king now?” Arix said.

  “We have to clear the back too. They are facing the opposite direction from us, so it will not be hard, I hope,” Tarin said.

  "But there are so many," Lyra said.

  "Yes. But their normal soldiers are weak too," Arix said. A large horn blasted again.

  Arix and the others covered their ears, as they were directly behind the one who blew the horn.

  After recovering, they heard the pounding of horses’ hooves and the shouting of Nyctona and dwarves ahead of them.

  “The battle must have started,” Tarin said.

  “Yes. Should we start moving too?” Arix asked.

  "But the king is not here," Lyra said.

  "We still have to push through," Arix said, looking ahead.

  “You are right.” Tarin took out his greatsword and ran toward the Nyctona at the back.

  Arix and the others followed him.

  Tarin jumped and struck the Nyctona who blew the horn. All the Nyctona near him got startled to find the group there.

  They were not ready for the ambush. They quickly tried to take out their curved swords, but it was already too late. Arix, Meilie, and Lyra were already upon them with their weapons.

  They fell to the ground as a few more Nyctona around them got startled.

  Arix ran ahead toward the middle of the field, slaying Nyctona in his way.

  “The king must be in the middle. We didn’t get a good look, but it’s the best location for him to be, surrounded by his soldiers,” he thought while jumping and slashing another Nyctona’s head clean off.

  Arix landed on the ground, gasping for breath as he saw the Nyctona’s head fall in front of him.

  But his brief rest quickly vanished as he looked around.

  All the Nyctona were surrounding him and closing in. He looked behind and found only Nyctona.

  “The others must have gotten separated from me,” he thought before taking a deep breath and tightening his grip on his sword.

  He kept one leg behind and furrowed his brows.

  “Come on. I am ready,” he said in a low voice before rushing toward the group of Nyctona.