Unluckily, Flik and Viktor had other ideas. Flik had turned Makoto away outright, citing (correctly) that Makoto had rarely ridden a horse in his life, and would thus be a hindrance to the cavalry unit.

Viktor had made an even shorter case than Flik had, swinging the Shiko Sword at Makoto side-on and using the flat of the blade. Makoto whipped out his tonfa and parried the blow, but the force of it sent him tumbling. As he picked himself up, Viktor had argued, "See? We're going out to face Kiba's armoured cavalry. Not as bad as Teo's from Scarlet Moon, but still bad. You think I hit hard, wait'll you try and block a charging cavalryman - *that* has the whole force and weight of the horse behind it, and you'll break those skinny arms of yours."

Chastened, the young man had agreed to wait at the fort with the men left behind to guard it. {It seems so... so wrong, though, waiting here like this. I wish I were out there.}

He sighted Pohl across the training yard, and waved. Pohl waved back, and that was when all hell broke loose.

A volley of arrows arced over the fort wall and into the compound, most plunging into the packed dirt, but a few finding targets in the flesh of soldiers. Screams erupted, and men began to charge every which way. As he dived behind the watchtower, Makoto waited for an order to be shouted, for the men to rally.

No order came, and Makoto looked up to yell at the man in the watchtower - only to pause in horror as he saw the man had been hit, slumping down as he clutched at an arrow in his gut.

{The archers must have snuck in close and shot him in the first volley,} Makoto thought as a second flight of arrows thunked into the dirt. No one was hit this time, but the chaos was total. Nearly half the men left were archers trained by Kinnison, but they were clutching their weapons and huddling behind cover, just as Makoto was. {We're going to get picked apart,} Makoto thought in a rising panic. {The sergeant in the watchtower was in charge, and we're too disorganized to fight back! We need a leader!} Frantically, Makoto looked around for Pohl, the logical cantidate-

-and froze. Pohl was slumped over in the open, vulnerable to any more arrows that came his way, with a black-fletched shaft buried in his thigh. The archers couldn't see him over the wall, any more than Makoto could see them, but if Pohl cried out or gave away his location, the snipers would send a volley to the voice, and he couldn't run. He'd be killed.

Only one idea ran through Makoto's mind as he saw Pohl lying there, and remembered Jillia nearly being shot when she'd been brought to the fort. It was never expressed in words, but if it had, it would have been: *I won't let anyone else die!*

"You archers! Load your bows!" a voice cried out, ringing in Makoto's ears. After a moment, he recognized it as his own. "I'll spot them! I point, you shoot, you got it?"

"We got it, SIR!" the archers yelled back as Makoto squirelled up the ladder to the watchtower. An arrow came flying by, but was too low, and he was too busy climbing to worry much about it anyway.

General Seed looked up, the battle seemed to be going well, the mercenaries were dropping one by one compared to Highland's well trained soldiers. Was it really such a great victory? He wondered, only history could judge them now.

He glanced around, he had been staying safely behind the lines, coordinating the attack with the help of Klaus Stiles and Justan. With only a dozen or so handpicked guards between him and the slaughter that was taking place only a few feet away.

Suddenly he heard an officer yelling - a Highland officer. What is he doing? Seed silenty consulted. Suddenly a barrage of arrows flew overhead. Everyone was to wait for the signal. When I find the foolish man who jumped ahead, a court martial would be only in his wildest dreams.

Seed waved to his guards. "You, come with me. Klaus, Stiles, Justan. I want you to stay here and finish coordinating the attack while I handle this."

The three officers clicked their heels and bowed their compliance.

Makoto reached the top of the watchtower and looked out to the west, where the arrows were coming from. It took a moment for him to spot them, about twenty yards out from the wall: a group of twelve Highland crossbowmen, reloading and cocking their weapons. Makoto thought, {So that's why there was so much time between volleys! Poor tactics.} However, he wasted no time as he pointed one tonfa in the right direction. "Twenty yards from the wall, that direction! FIRE!" he yelled, imitating the manner of his sergeant in the Unicorn Brigade.

A volley of mercenary arrows went flying, with an accuracy that pleasantly surprised Makoto: one Highlander went down with an arrow sticking out the front of his helmet, while two more were wounded and the rest dove for cover just as the mercenaries had done earlier. Return fire came a moment later, as men stepped out from behind trees to shoot and ducked back to reload. Makoto remembered an excercise he'd done in the Unicorn Brigade and smiled.

"Shoot one after the other! A constant stream of arrows! FIRE!" he bellowed back down to his troops, and they complied, trying to keep the enemy archers too cautious to shoot back.

One, braver or smarter than his fellows, popped out and fired at Makoto, who he had a clear view of up on the watchtower. Makoto ducked and reflexively looked back to see where the arrow landed, and his eyes widened as he saw it plunk into the ground close to the front door of the fort and a weakly crawling Pohl, who had pulled the first arrow from his leg and was trying to reach cover.

Makoto's eyes got very wide a second later. The *twong* of a snapping bowstring sounded from inside the fort, and an archer cursed. At once, all nine remaining archers stepped out from their cover and aimed at Makoto. {If they miss me, Pohl will-} he thought, but even as one part of him was considering consequences, another part - the young protector raised by Genkaku and taught not to hesitate - acted, slinging one arm forward and screaming a name to the sky.

"SHINING LIGHT!"

Seed stood standing just outside the wooden palisade that surounded the fortress. He had fought many personal battles and duels over the slow years, but it had been along time since he saw actual combat and led troops in the field. Seed waved his hand signaling his guards to open up an entryway. Suddenly he looked up to see a young man on the peak of the fortresses' watchtower whose hands revealed he was casting a spell that Seed didn't recognize, or even imagine. As the bright light lifted there was no sign of the archers, armour, bows or a single arrow. And not a single blade of grass out of place. "What the-" Suddenly Seed fell to the dirt floor, arm engulfed in a sharp, fiery pain. He howled in pain as his rune began to glow a fiery yet pale yellow. "Not.. N-not now!"

The pain quickly subsided as one of the guards helped Seed to his feet. And he quickly turned his attention back to the young man.

"What are your orders milord?" The lead guard inquired.

"Hmm." Seed paused. "I think we have just found the briefly apointed mercenary mage." He went silent as his mind raced to find options. He is probably the greatest threat, if I could get in there and remove him we could avoid big losses.

He was just about to signal his troops to follow him when he remembered Ruka ordering him for a signal to start his attack. Damn it he silently cursed.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a gathering of Alain's mages. Perhaps he would get lucky and his mages would strike a blow for Highland by having Alain burnt to the ground. However he wasn't as lucky as he had hoped, but Alain's target was the palisade wall. The bright side of things was that the explosion was big enough to have been seen in Kuskus. An unexpected turn of events. And Seed couldn't help but think the possibilities of telling Alain that he actually helped him with that little maneuver.

Seed waved his arm as his guard followed him inside the fortress grounds. And if all went well and luck was on his side he could find the princess and get her out.

Makoto looked down at what he'd done. The Highland archers were devastated. None of them were even there anymore - utterly disintegrated.

But *only* the Highland archers. The trees, the ground, even a bird clinging to a branch near them, were untouched. {I think I *really* like this spell,} Makoto thought, looking at the Rune on its hand with some admiration. {An attack that only hurts the enemy.} He turned away and looked down the ladder to the ground, calling for the men to get some Medicine out for the wounded.

Then a *Massive* lightining bolt slammed into the forest not far from the east wall. "What the-" was all Makoto had time to say before a second one slammed down, blowing a crater out of the forest - this time even closer to the wall. {That's even bigger than the Blazing Camp spell Flik and Kinnison did-} Makoto thought, then a *third* bolt hit.

Squarely in the middle of the fort's east wall.

Flame and debris rained down inside the fort and into the forset off to the side. Makoto looked down and saw even more carnage than before; Pohl pulling a chunk of smoldering wood out of his arm; and worst of all, the man with the Medicine down and bleeding from a head wound, the precious healing agent scattered worthlessly on the ground.

Tears blurred Makoto's eyes as he clutched his wrist, still in the position he'd been in while examining the Bright Shield Rune. Turning to the sergeant who'd been gut-shot, he raised his hand again. As he called out, "Great Blessing!" he thought fiercely, {I only wish I could heal them all!}

Then blinked, sure he was being decieved by tears. The white sparks of the Great Blessing spell were rocketing out all over the fortress, each one arcing down to touch a man. Wounds closed, burns vanished, bruises unhappened, and everyone stared up at the watchtower in surprise, and perhaps awe.

Makoto was feeling not a little of that emotion himself. Blinking away his shock, he wondered, {Just how much can this rune *do?*} while scanning his eyes around the area, more or less on reflex.

Then he froze as he caught sight of a very unwelcome movement. A shuffle, as of many bodies marching together; since Flik and Viktor were due back soon, this wasn't bad in and of itself. The hue of the uniforms was both good news and bad, however.

Good because that glimpse might have saved the lives of everyone in the fort. White was not a forest colour, and it stood out enough for Makoto to have noticed it a mile away, which he had. They had a few minutes.

Bad becuase only one unit in Highland wore white- Ruka's own men, the White Wolves... the bloodthirsty, deadly butchers who had massacred the Unicorn Brigade. Shaking off his shock, Makoto began to yell. "ALARM! The White Wolves are coming! You and you," Makoto pointed to two men with horses, "Go warn Flik and Viktor! Everyone else," and here he paused. Makoto *wanted* to fight; he felt as if he were on fire inside with the desire to battle the monster who had killed all his friends to start a war. But if anyone stayed, there would be another massacre. "Everyone else, gather what you can and scatter to the north! Try to get over the Toto bridge and get to Muse! There's no way we can hold off the White Wolves with that hole in the wall! Take whatever you can carry, don't leave it for Ruka! GO!"

Everyone ran, the two horsemen riding off first. Makoto slid down the tower ladder in a desperate rush and ran over to Pohl. "Pohl! Are Apple and the maps and such still upstairs!?"

"Um, yeah," the boy replied.

"Go tell Apple to take what she can grab and run! Pile everyhing else on the floor and burn it! We can't let Ruka find those maps, they've got information about Muse's defenses in there!"

Pohl nodded. "What about you?" he asked.

Makoto looked around. "I have to find Jillia. Ruka wants her as dead as he wants me, I can't leave her unprotected! We'll be up to help you as soon as we can find her!"