Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

"I heard your reasons, Wrik," Lily's voice came from the omega cube. "And I understand where you are coming from. You are worried about us, but I simply can't abandon the four hundred men under me even if I am bound to lose." 

"This is stupid," Wrik said, gritting his teeth. "Even if you stay there, do you think all your soldiers will stay there with you battling? I can bet half of them would abandon within half an hour of the battle. What's the point of leading such folk to a war you will lose?"

"You won't understand it yet," Lily said. "I guess I have to find out how deep their gratitude runs towards us. If you have not forgotten, you are the one who said, men need a light to show them the way. I know I may fail to be their light. Their leader. But I have to try my best."

Wrik's face turned ugly hearing that, and then the call was cut off.

"That damn woman," Wrik cursed, resting the omega cube. "Fine, I won't run either. I'll see the end of the things here.

Wrik could not understand the teaching of these Borgemen. They were fine with taking in slaves, and yet when they were not slaves, you could not just give up on them. And it will not be a life and death struggle too. Well, there may well be a few, but that was if someone was extremely unlucky and stupid. 

That damn woman had to show her side of Borgemen just now. Wrik could do nothing else now other than going with his plan, just tweaking a little.

"What do we do now?" Tanya asked, worried. 

Everyone else was the same as her, worried sick about the situation they were in. Their chances of successfully escaping were low, and it turned zero when Lily refused to give up on the people and flee on her own, as Wrik had decided against leaving now.

Wrik ground his teeth and looked at Ben again, who was standing nonchalantly after Wrik had freed his mouth. He did not know what this guy was planning, so he had to do it in his own way.

"We will go for the exchange," Wrik said to all of them. "We are sticking to the plan." 

"But it's dumb and not practical," Davin said, arching his eyebrows at him. 

"I know, but we have no other option," he said, sighing. "Ready to abandon at any moment if we can free Kevin and Byul successfully."

If he lost all the men in this battle, there was no chance of rising again. He had to give up and that too, with no confrontation. Even if he failed here, he had to try his best now. Not to say the final evaluation will depend on it. "Even if we lose, we will do our best losing." 

With that thought, Wrik sat down on the ground, bringing out their flag from the spatial bag. The word 'Salvation' was written in it with cursive style, with the symbol of Sword, shield and Spear and all other weapons around the font. It was their banner, but they had put extremely hard work and effort to make it into a symbol.

Perhaps they would have succeeded if they could win the test. But now on the losing end, it lost all the meaning. Nobody would remember the loser after all the history was written by the winners. Wrik had no anxieties about that. He made the symbol to win the test, and in the way, they had helped a few hundred people.

"Didn't you say we are going for the exchange?" Jacob asked, bewildered. "Then why are you sitting down now?"

"What's the point of moving? They have already encircled us. At least I will save up some of my energy and wait for them to move here."

"Oh!" Jacob did the same as well, sitting down beside them. One by one, they all did the same.

"I guess all our hard work and effort was for none," Davin added, looking at the peeking sun among the clouds. It was clearing out slowly. 

Wrik refrained from commentating and so did most of them.

"I thought everything was going well," Davin continued in a slow and meek tone, which was his pessimistic voice. "We won splendidly, captured Theiron's fortress and then won against the huge guy easily, but all went astray with just one mistake."

"I guess we have to be satisfied with this," Jacob added. "We can only learn from here and grow."

"Since when did you become so wise-ass?" Michelle asked the short archer who was still holding his bow in such a way that he could shoot with only a little manoeuvre. And he was not the only one.

"I am stating a fact,'' Jacob said. "Look at yourself. Even if we failed, we learned so much in such a short time. Not just individual skills, look at ourselves, the growth we have as a collective. And best of all, I get so many friends." 

"I guess, you are not wrong," Michelle added, leaning against Tanya. Her palm made a fist when she thought about Byul. "I feel sorry for Byul. She was the only one to suffer the most among us." 

"It's my fault," Wrik said. "I was so busy dealing with Arjamith that I forgot about Theiron." 

"I still don't know how Scythe figured out that we were tracking Theiron," Davin said with the same tone. "If not for that, we would still be in a good position."

The veins on Wrik's temple pulsed hearing that. As far as he was concerned, there was no Designer here in the test who could out-skill Dairyl. Even though the gentle-looking maiden never told him about her skill, Wrik had already guessed she had already exceeded the threshold of an actual Designer. And such designer held more regard compared to an Inquisitor.,

There was no Designer of such skill in the test, and all those who were here were like Wrik or worse. Apprentice at best. So, Scythe finding out about the tracker could only mean one thing. They had help from outside. 

'Scythe needs to win this war in an earth breaking way,' Wrik thought. 'And we were the only obstacle in the path that held a chance of winning. But I lost even the chance of planning and jumped heedlessly at the trap. I should have been more careful.'

There was no point in those thoughts now. The mist cleared a little as the cloud moved from the artificial sun. Wrik stood up and looked to the southeast. It was time.

They all stood up one by one and eyed the southeast where an army of hundreds of men was approaching. The sound could be heard, but they had to wait for a little. 

"Tanya, be prepared," Wrik said to Tanya. And then to everyone else. "Everyone be ready."

It did not take that loss to see their faces. They were marching steadily, wearing good armour and weapons. Surprisingly, the one leading them was not Scythe or Theiron. He was a tall man with a wide build, but he was still little compared to Arjamith. Golden armour covered his entire body, even the sword he held was golden. 

The man radiated majestic aura with each step and when he found Wrik and others, he commanded his man to encircle them. 

Wrik arched a brow. He did not recognise this guy and was waiting for someone to educate him. 

"Harth," Ben said. "If you are curious."

"Harth? The one who was the leader of the south?" Davin flabbergasted. "I thought he was at war with a scythe. Why was he here?"

"I suppose he was not here to join us," Jacob said, gazing at the soliders encircling them.

Everyone's gaze at the golden armoured fellow and the soldiers who were encircling them. Now he the recollection that even if they tried their best, there was no way for them to win.

"Where is Scythe?" Wrik asked loudly to the leader of the opposite team. 

Harth looked at Wrik, then continued to do his job, which was standing there and looking after the men who were doing their job steadily. A gust of wind swayed his golden hair, but he still stood there like some prince.

Wrik felt annoyed being ignored, but he could do nothing now.

"If you have not noticed, we have something that Scythe's," he continued, pointing at Ben with the end of the flag. "And he had two of our friends. We will walk away if he just exchanges our two friends with this guy."

"Silence," Heart finally said in a stern and cold tone. "I assume you are the one who is called Wrik Evernight, the so-called leader of Salvation. You have no say in this. Wait until everyone arrives. Today is the day a cheater like you will be put to justice." 

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Plot twist: Fraser turned out to be Scythe in the next chapter. XD jk.