As he turned to look at the group of men prostrating on the ground, suddenly a bright metallic glint flashed across in front of him, temporarily stealing his vision and blinding Captain Don.

In the next second blood splattered everywhere, amidst a cacophony of woeful cries and gurgles.

"Was this so hard?!"

The barbaric howl of a familiar feminine voice hollered amidst, gradually overpowering the faltering deathly woes and bloodcurdling coughs.

As the scarlet curtain slowly descended it revealed the figure of a tall asura, a true and terrifying reaper of the battlefields; Naybeah stood holding her humongous war axe in her right arm.

Throwing it over her right shoulder she sighed as she stepped forward, crossing through the slowly growing marsh of carnage.

Piles of mutilated bodies, severed limbs, and heads littered the ground. The corpses of Lord Bart's attaché, their expression frozen into the perpetual grimace of pain, agony, and a twisted conniving sneer. Even in their last moments they were scheming, planning about their very future, their path towards out of this mess they were all thrown into.

Oh, the irony!

"You know.. After all that we have been through.. I wouldn't have expected you all, people to hesitate to take the right decision, old man!" Naybeah spoke as she crossed through the marsh, looking as if she was out on a mere afternoon stroll.

Taking a halt as she arrived in front of the shocked, wide-eyed Captain Don, staring at him with all her blood-drenched, battered and worn down, exhausted glory. Despite the wide-berched grin plastered over her face, she was clearly at her limit. Her eyes flickered as the weight of her own eyelids was a constant pressure she was slowly, but gradually losing against.

The battle against the crazed demon-contracted lunatic, Lord Bartholomeo Diaz has taken her every ounce of energy she had and even some.

"Naybeah! You have to rest!"

Suddenly a cry rang out from the silenced crowd. Sara appeared from within the crowd, running towards the slowly faltering amazon.

None knew better than her how devastating the backlash, the cost of the Amazon Queen's Blessing was grave. It was a miracle that she was even conscious, much less standing and calling the heavy decisions that they once again failed to do themselves.

Rushing, her feet caused the pool of blood to splat to both sides as she charged over without hesitation, to reach her friend. She had no idea how she was still standing.. maybe through her sheer willpower?

Her obstinate, stubborn attitude to make HIM be proud of her? Is she still trying to impress him? Did she, Sara do anything noteworthy in comparison? What makes her better compared to Naybeah? Was she really worthy of HIS attention at all?

Sara shook her head as these thoughts, these doubts began to cloud her mind. No. There was no time for any of that when her dear friend was swaying back and forth, barely standing at her feet.

"Naybeah!" She cried out once again, her hands already rushing forth hoping to make contact to provide that much-needed support and to embrace her. Yet, just as she was about to reach out, just as the tip of her fingers was to touch her sweat and blood glistening body, Naybeah finally gave in to the encroaching darkness. Her eyes lost their light before both the old man, Captain Don had a chance to wake up from his stun and both her friend Sara could get there and reach her body swayed one last time before she fell to the side.

*THUMP*

Her body made a loud noise as she fell into the bloodied, murky pool. Her adorned, circular-headed war axe clinked loudly against the stone pavement.

Still, despite everything, her face revealed a satisfied grin, the last sigh before she fainted. She was happy and proud of what she had achieved.

"He can be proud of me. I have protected everyone and took a victory worthy of his majestic glory." She must have thought before her mind sailed towards the distant Land of Dreams.

"I.." Captain Don was shocked, unable to properly react even as the woman fell to the ground. His lack of action, his hesitation.. he failed. He failed his team, his group as well as these kids once again.

Just like back in the Masked Mistress' grounds as they were waiting for this famous adventuring group to join them, so did he fail to act when the time came.

"Gods' damn it!" He cursed at himself with gritted teeth and clenched fists as he came back to his senses at the sound of the loud thump, as the blonde amazon's towering body fell down, crumbled like a castle's walls when they were under siege.

"Naybeah.." Sara muttered as her hands reached the spot where her friend stood just a moment ago. Her fingers hopelessly tried stretching, reaching towards the now-empty spot of air, her emotions are descending into turmoil yet again.

"Y-you!" As if just noticing his presence and was reminded of the actions, or their actual lack off, her hopeless-looking hanging arm, instantly turned into an arrow as it pointed at the still stunned and shocked looking man.

Captain Don had a complicated but mostly dismaying look on his face. His mind as well as his heart was in great turmoil. He hated himself, hated himself to the core.

Memories of his past resurfaced as he recognized that he is still making the same mistakes as he always did. Though he could always recognize the difficult choices, he never had the guts to actually commit to them, to take them. He always hesitated at the very last second, only to fail at the decisive moments.

His lack of actions has already caused an ample amount of misery, grief, and sorrow. Now, though the results wouldn't be as instantaneous back when he was still the village chief and was facing the threat of the looming darkness, the Empire approach, it nevertheless put the people he cared about to potential harm yet again.

"Y-you!" The angered, despaired cry of the purple-haired woman resounded once again, this time with slightly more power behind its weak volume. Though still barely more than a squeal of a mouse, a whisper against the howling wind, Sara did manage to reach into the old man, Captain Don's core with her anguished call nevertheless.

"It is because of you!" She claimed as she pointed at his chest. Her face slowly but surely souring, an angered scowl soon made its dominance known over her previous expressive emotions.

"I.. I.." Captain Don sighed. As he looked up, the look on his face was clear enough of what he was feeling and thinking.

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>>>Check out my latest novel: The Strongest Demon Lord in the Modern World<<

It's an urban modern-day styled story, with a reverse transmigrated ('Banished') immortal entity from the fantastical world of Nova!

Planned Tags and Genre: # CULTIVATION # R18 # BETRAYAL # TRANSMIGRATION # URBAN # ACTION # ANTIHERO # OVERPOWERED (romance maybe at some later point)

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Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading , you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!historical

Links:

/shaele