“Not again.” I groaned softly, not softly enough though as Clair threw me a disappointed look. I looked away feeling abashed and felt my ears burning slightly.

  The camp was almost identical to the one we left this morning. The small sea of white tents stretched out into the distance, it was larger than the one on the other side of Mountain Guard. I heard faint music over the sound of our horses panting furiously. Someone must have spotted us as suddenly the camp exploded into a hive of activity, like an ants nest finding that the new ant is actually a termite in disguise. Bells rang and shouts echoed over the distance between us but the words were swallowed by the wind. Within minutes three riders left the camp and headed towards us, they wore the same coloured equipment as the marines around me.

  “Let's go meet our brothers and sisters in arms.” Wesley said to his marines. I heard a few people agree and once more we all started to move towards the oncoming riders.

  “I hope we aren't going to be entering that camp.” I groused.

  “You can sit outside while we enjoy a nice warm lunch if you want.” Harold jabbed. I really did contemplate waiting outside. I had food on me and I could spend the time carving however I would need to look after the monstrous horse, I had no doubt it would try and run away from me.

  “Fine.” I said grumpily.

  “Forgotten Gods Luca, it's just a camp. It's not even assured that we are going to enter it.” Taylor said shaking their head.

  “That's not the point. Every second we delay is a second we could lose the necromancer forever.”

  “This is the first time I've heard you sound so determined about this quest.” Harold said and I could hear the frown that was undoubtedly on his face.

  “I have a class quest for it and failing it will result in me losing my class.” I replied, I didn't need to see everyone wince. Everyone knew that class quests could be very lucrative but had the worst punishments for failure, most were losing levels for being locked until a great feat was performed. Only a few had the harsh class removal punishment.

  "Halt." The lead rider from the camp said as we came within shouting range. "Who goes there?"

  "Lieutenant Wesley Bucknam, 78th Legion." Wesley said proudly. "Who are you and what is your business?"

  "Lieutenant Alistar Jolts, 68th Legion." The rider said, taking off his helmet. Long purple hair fell down to his shoulders and I saw that he had a big grin on his face.

  "Jolty!?" Wesley exclaimed as he tore off his helmet, "Man alive, we all thought we lost you! I heard your division went missing at Halden Holme and no one has heard from you since."

  "I'm glad to see you too Bucky, we had to fall back to Soyalls after getting our asses handed to us." Alistar explained, "Our mage squad was ambushed, those gobbos targeted them with shadow assassins and before we knew what had happened, they were all dead. They ordered us to fall back and most of us got out but since then we haven't had any mages. Command figured we must have won when the goblins started retreating. Most of us came here hoping that Mountain Guard would stand but…" He trailed off as he looked up at the ruins in the distance.

  "Mountain Guard is lost." Wesley said grimly.

  "Come let's talk about this in camp, command will no doubt want an update." He beckoned us and we followed him. “I see that you also have some civilians with you.”

  “Adventurers not civilians.” Wesley corrected him. “They have an important quest from the King.”

  “If at all possible, we would like to speak with your command to get a lay of the land. As far as we were aware this was all no man's land.” Harold jumped into the conversation. It was at this point I tuned out the conversation. While it was important to get the lay of the land, I'd hated having those conversations. I would get bored and my mind would start to drift.

  We cantered down the road to the camp, which was set out exactly the same as the other camp, we were led to the stables and dismounted there. Once again I had to dodge my horse's attempts at biting me, however there were a lot more than yesterday. I guess it held me responsible for the mad dash through Mountain Guard and all the danger we faced. Still, I wasn't going to take shit from the horse so I ended up slapping it again. I thought that would be it but as I turned to walk away I heard some commotion behind me, I turned just in time to see two horse hoofs attempt to kick me in the face. Just as they would have connected I turned ethereal and they passed through my head.

  “Get that horse under control.” Lieutenant Jolts scolded the stablehand having not seen me slap the horse.

  “Sorry sir.” The poor man replied.

  “Don't worry about it,” I said, resting my hand on my scythe that was still in its staff form. “That beast has been trying its luck and if it keeps going, I'll be finding out what horse tastes like.”

  I put a lot of emphasis into my words and activated Man on the Job to give them a little more oomph, the malice and hatred was so thick that even the horse could tell. I watched as it skittering away a little and tried to hide behind the stablehand. I smirked only to receive a suckered punch from Clair. I stumbled as stars exploded in my vision and I temporarily lost my sense of balance.

  “The fuck you doing?” She shouted, “That's just a horse, Luca. I swear, if that horse refuses to let you ride it, you're going to be running.”

  “If I hadn't turned ethereal, there was a good chance I'd have received a major injury. If it tries that again, I will kill it.”

  “Luca, that's a bit extreme.” Harold interjected.

  “Is it? What if your sword tried to cut you every time you drew it from the scabbard?” I asked.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “That's different.”

  “Just because that thing is alive? Some weapons have more sentience than that monster. You'd still try and find a new sword if it attempted to kill you constantly.” I argued. “This is no different.”

  “Doesn't your class forbid you from killing it?” Raven asked, “you know, because it has a soul.”

  “You can live after losing a leg.”

  “Cut for cut.” Clair stated and stepped aside.

  I narrowed my eyes at Clair while she glared at me. I'd heard her issue this challenge before, for every cut I'd received from the horse, I could inflict one back. Technically I'd never been cut by the horse. I'd been bitten, trodden on, kicked and bucked which had resulted in a lot of bruises and a few sore bones but never cut. She knew this as well. We stayed like that for a few seconds as the tension grew. I could see that she wouldn't back down and the horse looked genuinely terrified.

  “Fine.” I said before sighing, “if it attempts to kill me again though I won't back down.”

  I turned away from Clair and the horse. I was still angry but lashing out at Clair would only put strain on the rest of my friends as they tried to get us to drop this. We had bigger things to deal with than drama between us and I didn't feel like dragging up old arguments in front of strangers.

  “Right then.” Wesley said slowly as if testing the waters of an ice cold lake.

  “Please, lead on.” Harold said after giving Clair and I a scowl.

  “In that case follow me.” Lieutenant Jolts said before turning and walking into the tent maze.

  We all followed him and, once again, we were soon lost among the twists and turns. Honestly, I was getting sick of the tent mazes and my argument with Clair put me in a bad mood. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to see that people outside of the capital had survived, but this was getting ridiculous. I hoped that we would be able to leave and stay somewhere that wasn’t a military camp. The walk was a lot longer than it had been in the other camp, it might have been due to the size of the camp or they were taking us on a circuitous route though the camp. We eventually came to a yellow tent with 4 guards outside, I had to check that this wasn't some big joke. It turned out it was not a joke, it was just the standard way the Marines set up their camps. I also earned a few scornful looks from the tent guards.

  We followed everyone into the tent and found ourselves back in a spatially expanded tent with the same boards, tables and chairs set up around the room just like Captain Raynold’s tent. They must have been standard issue as they looked identical. The difference between now and this morning was that instead of 5 people in the tent there were 20, they were huddled around a few desks and maps talking quietly. I noticed that unlike this morning’s camp, they had more maps, more markers and the conversations were a lot more heated.

  "Major Bloodfall." Lieutenant Jolts said, snapping to attention and saluting. "We have had contact from the capital."

  Conversation in the room stopped instantly and as one, everyone turned to face us. I could feel the intensity of everyone’s stares, like we were cooked steaks and they were ravenous hydras. I felt sweat begin to trickle down my neck and I fought the urge to activate Man on the Job and disappear from their gazes. Thankfully Wesley took all their attention as he stepped forwards and saluted towards a woman in the center of the group.

  "Lieutenant Wesley Bucknam, 78th Legion." He dropped the salute and stood to attention. "I am here on behalf of Captain Reynolds Brown, 9th Battalion. We have been assigned to the clearing of Mountain Guard. We prayed that there might be someone on this side of Mountain Guard but this is so much more than we hoped for. I have a comms crystal that is linked back to the capital for you Major."

  Wesley pulled out a small blue crystal that was about the size of an orange and held it up. Major Bloodfall was a slim woman but she had an impressive figure, her deep violet hair and piercing emerald green eyes gave a stark contrast to her red and black cloak. Her cloak flowed over her shoulders and partially covered a sword strapped to her hip that gave off a faint magical glow. I got the impression that she was an incredibly sharp tactician that wasn’t shy when it came to fighting the enemy. She took a step forward and moved the 15 feet in an eye blink, she smiled as she took the crystal from Wesley.

  "Thank goodness someone out there has a comms crystal, all of our carriers were targeted by the goblins." She said as she put the crystal on the closest table. "Report lieutenant, how are things on the other side and what do you know of the city, was the capital breached?"

  While she projects confidence and authority, I could hear the anxiousness and nervousness in her voice. I looked around and saw that every single person was hanging on the answer, waiting to hear if their family and friends had been safe or if there was the chance that they had been killed during the invasion like so many others. I felt for them, not know must have been eating away at them.

  “The capital is unharmed, there was a large scale battle on the plateau but Mountain Guard fell.” Wesley said.

  I heard a few cries of shock and a few sighs of relief and defeat, in equal measures, at the news. The conversation did not end there though, Wesley continued speaking about troop numbers, supplied and plans for Mountain Guard. I blinked in surprise after a few minutes, I'd ended up in another long debriefing. I groaned but I made sure that I didn’t do it audibly. This one was just as boring as the last one except there were no reports of shades or any other monster appearing from the Etheric Realm for me to look through. After the second hour I began to feel restless, we needed to be on our way. Every second wasted here was another second that the necromancer was getting away. If the necromancer made it to a stronghold or a hideout then things would get dicey. I nudged Raven who looked over at me, I raised my eyebrows and gave her a few hand gestures, she nodded understanding. She nudged Harold and began gesturing to him, after a few second he nodded and cleared his throat loudly.

  "Major, please forgive my rudeness but we must be on our way, the longer we delay the harder it will be to catch the necromancer." Harold interrupted.

  "Yes, forgive me.” Major Bloodfall said nodding, “Alistair, please escort the adventurers back to their mounts and make sure they are topped up on supplies." She stood and faced us. "I wish you the best of luck, may you bring down the King's justice on that wretch of a mage."

  I nodded along with the rest of my party and left the tent, yet a-fucking-again, we headed back into the white fabric labyrinth. I was done with military camps from now on. I would wait outside and camp under a tree rather than spend another second wandering through the maze. I didn’t care if I had to spend the whole time fighting for survival, I was done with them. After more turns than I could count we found ourselves back at the stables. My four legged devil mount eyed me as I came back, I held up my hand warningly and it raised its head fully. I walked around to the saddle and waited, the monster didn't move. I stepped closer and put my hand on the saddle horn, I watched for the bite but it never came. Instead the horse moved its back leg and stood on my foot.

  “Ha!” I exclaimed as I turned etheric only for me to phase back and the horse to stamp on my foot again.

  I yelled in pain and jumped back from the monster clutching my foot. I hopped around in pain for a few seconds while the monster neighed in delight. A stablehand grabbed me and gave me a health potion, I drank it like a sugar addict guzzling honeyed drinks. Relief flooded me and my foot felt instantly better as the broken bones fixed themselves, when the effect ended I knew the area was bruised but not broken.

  I stared at the monster who seemed to be enjoying its moment of victory, I narrowed my eyes and cast Haste on myself before rushing the saddle. The horse realised something was wrong as I began to blur but was too slow to react, before it could do anything I was sitting in the saddle with my feet firmly in the stirrups.

  "You win this round monster." I muttered, I saw it looking at me. “I’m looking forward to the day we don’t need to use horses, im going to enjoy abandoning you.”