Ash stood there looking in shock at three dead bodies scattered on the ground and a bloody elf standing over them all. Even Snow seemed impressed as she gave a proud whine, Ash felt the need to gag and he did. To his disappointment nothing came out of his already empty bowels.

  Lyra looked over her shoulder and held her gaze on the scene of what she had done for the fraction of a second before addressing him. "We have to go there are others coming."

  Before Ash could ask how she knew this someone interrupted, and the chained man seemed all to interested in them now. "By the devil's arse, that was a mighty good save. If you could kindly take me down from here I would appreciate it, though I can't promise you riches. I shouldn't have said that part, ignore the last bit."

  Lyra did not spared the chained man a look as she walked over to the first corpse of the man she had killed recently and pulled out her other dagger.

  Ash looked up at her, then his gaze fell to the chained man. "What about him?"

  The chained man ever the enthusiast called out to them, "Yeah, what about me?"

  She turned and glared at her companion, "Let's go, now!"

  But he stood still and said. "We can at least free him."

  The chained man beamed with joy, "Good, let's do that please. Free the chained man."

  Lyra flung the blood off her curved daggers with one clean motion before attaching them back to her hip. Her glare stayed on him all the while, "You fool, I did not save you so you could go around risking your life saving others."

  He marches forward towards her, "In my defense I did not ask to be saved, besides it's my life and I decide what to do with it." He attempted to walk past her towards the chained man who was beaming quietly but she stretched out her hand and blocked his path. "Let me pass."

  She met his warning glance with one of her own, their gaze both locked and unshaken. "A bit bold there, it's a shame your bravado was nowhere to be seen when those animal were still standing."

  He gaze faltered in that moment and he was almost forced to take a step back but he held his ground, barely. "I had to do the right thing, and I still have to."

  There was a short moment of silence between them before she spoke again. "You wanted to get yourself killed again, I am done trying to keep you in one piece. You broken, the worlds broken so chin up and let's go."

  This time he said nothing, he only shares his glance between the elf and the chained man who looked at him with puzzled eyes. He opened his mouth to close but shut it after a moment, the next person that spoke was surprisingly the chained man himself. And he sounded a bit letdown, "She's right kid, fools such as yourself don't live long. So get going, I'll hold them back." He finished off with what they proposed was an unneeded joke, "A good heart will only leads to pointless suffering kid. I've been through worse so I wouldn't worry much about he."

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  Ash felt conflicted, he wondered why the victim would offer up such and advice. After all he was trying to save him. Before he could object a projectile flew for his head, it was an arrow aimed right for his head by the time he had seen it it was already too late to react. Lyra laughed wind of it in time and pushed him out of the way, the arrow zipped by grazing her arm barely.

  She turned in the direction of the attack to see no one but trees, "They're here." She had not accounted for archers being in the group, that would be a big problem. Luckily only one arrow had been sent their way so maybe they had just one archer in the group, in the short moment she had been distracted Ash had sprinted for one of dead men. Most especially their boss and searched through him, he found a key chain on his person with only one key on it. Seeing this she fumed, "You're willing to die for a stranger that's already half dead."

  He ran for the chains screaming, "Yes!" As he ran a question blossomed in his mind, "Why am I saving this man?" He could not say it was because he was a good person, that was far from it. He had killed everyone in his home including his best friend so he was not a good person, so could it be that he wanted to atone for that sin? "Perhaps."

  He unlocked the chains of the chained man, the metal links broke off from him leaving him to fall into the flame. The man surprised Ash by rummaging through the fire till he came out with the silver coin the boss had thrown it earlier before climbing out of the fire.

  "He saved you life at the expense of his own and the first thing you do it goes after a penny? Despicable human." Lyra said as she pulled Ash with her and they started sprinting.

  The chained man followed them after pressing his coin into his palm. "You two are crazy kids." He laughed like he was having the best day of his life.

  A number of armoured men in black tore though the forest giving a great battle cry, arrows started flying in their direction. Lyra had no problem dodging them but since Ash was incapable of such feat she had to deflect them all. Meanwhile the formerly chained man moved rather strange from how any sane man would, he stumbled and tripped as he ran like a drunk person and avoided every arrow that came his way with ease. It was almost like he predicted the coming arrows, but that would be impossible.

  "Why are you following us?" Lyra asked as she sped up. Transversing through the forest proved to be a bit of a problem, she was already tired from her day scouting and he was hungry. The fact that they had barely had a decent amount of sleep in days did nothing to relieve the pain. Having a total stranger follow them made her more annoyed, and the fact that he could keep up was more shocking. "You're no ordinary human are you?"

  The man wiped off a bit of blood from his face, showing the deep cuts he already sustained underneath. "And you are no ordinary elf, you are an elf right?" He said with a bit of enthusiasm in his voice.

  Through their exchange Ash did not say a word, he could hardly breath. He felt a hot surge running through his veins causing him to wince in pain. Lyra stole a glance at the men chasing them, they had stopped at the sight of their brother's demise giving them an even bigger gap in their escape.

  "You're not afraid that I'm an elf." Lyra said between deep breaths.

  The man tried to laugh but he hissed out in pain instead, he responded after a bit. "So you really are an elf, a battle warrior cutie. To be honest I don't mind, I've seen my fair share of magical warriors, I did have a sprite and a goblin in my last cohort. Elves are cute too, I guess."

  Lyra for a reason against her will was intrigued by this man, "What are you human?"

  This time he did not answer on command, he gave a long pause that lasted a minute before finally saying. "It's hard to say at the moment, but I used to be an adventurer I think."

  She would have pressed further if she actually cared about what he had to say but she did not, the only person she cared about was Ash. Ash felt his body burning and his chest beating loudly, he held his chest tightly and tried to breath. He tripped over himself and fell to the ground, Lyra wasted no time trying to pick him up. "His burning up", she told herself.

  She looked back at the distance where their pursuers were steadily catching up and paused for a second, thinking, "Why do you always have to hold me back?"

  The formerly chained man stopped and observed the situation for a seconds before deciding on what to do. "I'll try to buy us some time." After saying this he took out his coin and tossed it into the air. "Gods of chance and luck show me my fate, heads we live, tails we die."

  The coin landed back on his hand and he looked at it for a short while before deciding again. He then crossed his middle finger over his index on both hands and drew a strange hand seal on the air and muttered some strange words. The ground beneath them trembled for a bit before a forest of thick vines sprout out of the ground behind them, they coiled and grew larger with huge thorns growing from it.

  He turned back to them, and noticed the elf girl looking at him with a confused stare. "You know magic?" She asked.

  He bent down and picked Ash up, "Run now, questions later." He started to run with Ash on his back and she followed him asking. "Why are you helping us?"

  He said with a slight curl of his lips upwards. "That's as far a good heart will get you missy."