Within the midst of an eternally dark night with the stars covered by large rainclouds, Novius, Alexia, Emery, and Thaylen are seen sneaking through the midnight air wearing all black clothing.
The plan was simple: sneak over the southern wall by jumping from the roof of a three-story house. With the wall being slightly lower than the roof of the average three story house, the jump would be rather easy besides the large gap.
With Thaylen's ice magic, he was able to raise their feet just barely enough for each one of them to make the jump. Albeit making the surface slippery.
One by one, Novius and his friends sneakily landed onto the hard stone wall bridge that connects the evenly spread lookout towers. One of their worries were the Protector's who would be walking across the pathway. Only by timing it perfectly, they were able to slip past a gap in their watch that followed with them jumping down a tree close to the wall. Being that they were on the eastern side of the Southern Wall, the western side and end of the Crosstree Jungle stood proudly beside a long dirt and stone path..
"What now?" Alexia whispered as soon as Emery's feet hit the grassy and soft ground.
"Stick together, and call out when you see movement." Novius said while taking the lead.
Emery was in the rear and muttered his thoughts while trailing behind. "Damn, I can't believe we are doing this…"
For some odd reason, or simply because it was the dead of the night, not a single beast was seen even after fifteen minutes of silently running down the earthen path. That was until a dim grouping of lights was seen in the distance — likely torches being held as a light source.
Their movements patterns quickly softened with the intention of hiding themselves when necessary.
Alexia creeped close to Novius, even sometimes rubbing up against his shoulder.
"Behind the trees!" Novius loudly whispered as the now seeable caravan surrounded by a numerous number of soldiers was plainly visible.
Walking in front of a brown and cloth covered carriage pulled by magic was a leather-clad brown haired man seemingly talking to himself. "We are almost there, Dravis, are you awake?"
"Ah, yes. Just keep your guard up, especially next to the Jungle. They say during the night, unspeakable creatures come from the abyss, spreading their senses that capture even the slightest movement nearby. Matter of fact, cut the torches… I fear we should've done it some time ago…"
"Yes sir."
Time passed as the lawbreakers heard the entire passing conversation. The question that went through Novius' mind was whether they were friendly adventurers coming from a long expedition, or an enemy from a faraway kingdom knowing there is some type of war going on. Based on their conversation, Novius was leaning towards the latter, and felt worried that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time…
Especially when an ominous orange and red glow emitted from the carriage covered by a thin black cloth — barely seeable to the naked eye, and only visible from the eternal darkness that enveloped every crevice of the natural earth.
While staring intently towards the carriage, indescribable symbols began to appear in front of Novius' eyes, when in reality they were appearing within his eyes.
Badum Badum.
"G-g… Guys… I think… Whatever is in there is going to explode." Novius broke the silence while waiting for orders, his heart fluttering with palpitations!
"Novius? Are you okay?" Emery asked while making eye contact with the worried Alexia and Thaylen.
Laying both of his palms on the bare earth, Novius felt his eyes begin to burn uncontrollably. "Damn… What the hell is happening?"
"We need to destroy whatever is in that carriage. I fear something terrible is about to happen." Novius pleaded and pointed to the passing carriage.
In agreement, the group set off trying their best to catch up to the carriage.
Crack*
Many heads that were slowly surrounding the carriage turned their heads with a smile. "I believe we have company!"
"Just take care of it quickly, and don't make too much noise…" Dravis said who was voicing his thoughts from inside the carriage.
A man who seemed to not have much care about anything calmly sat in front of a black box with many glowing runes, as if drawing something into it. A long strand of thick braided black hair was being twirled while many strands covered his forehead.
"Where are youuuu, beasty??"Inside the hands of the four men who were slowly making their way towards the tree line were long black swords that looked capable of slicing through everything. Without any glimmer across the blade besides the dim moonlight, dodging an attack would be nearly impossible.
What the group did not have time for, nor a shred of a thought to plan, was the potential disaster that would cause them to use magic to protect themselves.
Best case scenario, Theon uses his ice magic, or for Alexia to use her sharp blades of wind that could be thrown at a fast speed in order to incapacitate their potential attackers. The natural properties of lightning and fire would only draw attention to themselves.
"Huh? A ki—" Before the man known as Harold could finish his sentence, a frozen spike of ice that materialized around Theon's left hand was driven into the back of his heart.
Thump!
Theon, who now has the personality of a frenzied battle hungry child, made his decision as soon as Alexia came into the view of the man. No amount of thinking would cause him to make a different decision as the next second later, shouts related to the words, "ambush", were spread by his comrades.
"Theon! You… you killed him!" Alexia was suddenly struck with fear. Her hand tightly clutched her black outfit as if trying to shock herself awake.
Emery pulled Alexia behind a set of trees, nearby Novius' awkward pursuit with an aching head.
Following the dead traveler was his compatriot. Brandished forward was simply black sword, yet, there seemed something odd about it. "Huh?! Are you sure?!"
"I-I swear! I saw another human!!" A tall man clad in leather armor began to run to where his comrade had mysteriously dropped to the ground only to find a shard of ice beginning to melt. "Hey! I-I think its ma-magic!"
Thud!
Again, another body had been dropped in between two towering trees as the groundcover and darkness created a veil for them to blend into. But now, his comrades had confirmed their theory, and began to run towards the four children struggling to prepare for the worst.
BING!
Emery suddenly released a beam of fire shooting towards the face of a man holding a large and wide sword only for it to be deflected towards the sky — likely revealing their position to any one at the wall.
The moment Novius saw the sharp and black blades of four men become covered in a deep orange and red hue color that burnt the leaves they scraped by, he voiced the only sensible plan. "RUN! TOWARDS THE WALL!"