Forest of Death

"Oi." Hanna waved her hand in front of Asta's face as he got up. "Get up."

"Can you knock that off? I'm up." Hanna sighed as Asta stood up. Her face was still full of worry.

Asta's sleep had not been a comfortable one. On top of the constant sound of gunfire, he had also had to help with the defense against...something, for a few hours before heading back to dreamland, where he dreamed of a very nice memory he had had in the past with his sister. The memory was almost insultingly sweet. He rubbed his eyes.

"What now? Are we moving?"

"Seems like it." 

"Is Jason..."

"Not here." The morning sun filtered through the forest canopy. It was almost beautiful. But what they now lacked in attacks from daemonic forces, they now would be facing down orkish attacks more frequently. Asta was glad they had not seen any more of the strange, firearm wielding faction, but they had not yet gotten out of the forest.

"We can't just assume he's gone like that. We have to keep moving. I'm sure your brother wouldn't die that easily." Asta gave Hanna a smile, but despite her best attempt to look nonchalant, her normally blank and bored expression now seemed full of doubt and worry.

The defensive battle wagons of the convoy were slowly but surely beginning to untangle themselves from the defensive circle, and into the traveling square. The wagon train had significantly shrunk since starting off. Several of the defensive war carts had been destroyed or abandoned last night as several had been written off. And there had already been multiple casualties.
"Do we have enough people to drive all the wagons to the temple? Where are we headed anyways?" Hanna shrugged, and gestured to the large, covered civilian wagon at the front that served as the command headquarters.

"Our leader locked himself into the wagon and hasn't been seen after morning. I think the stress is starting to get to him." A young warrior who had approached the two said. "A council of the highest ranking officers have said. We're not even on the right path anymore. This road leads to Eldingenau, not the temple."

"But-" Hanna gripped her arm. "What if the cavalry scouts have gone on ahead towards the temple? My brother's in it..."

"They've either broken to Eldingenau, or they haven't made it at all." The warrior said. He sighed. "I understand the concern for your brother, but if he were here, he would not want you to throw your life away for nothing. Now, get ready." The warrior looked at Asta, and gazed at him coldly. "Make sure she stays in line. We're not going to lose another." Asta glared back as the man walked off.

"This isn't right." Hanna said as the cart began to move. "He's my brother. We're family. We're supposed to stick together." Asta stood silently, listening to her.

"Yeah."

"You wouldn't abandon Eliza if she was lost in the woods, would you?" Honestly, Asta wasn't sure. He had basically abandoned Sylbia already, hadn't he? It had been a few years since he had stopped thinking of her, but the dream last night had reminded him of how much he still missed her.

"No, I wouldn't." The fact that he thought of Sylbia whenever he saw Eliza disturbed him to some degree. Eliza trusted him, depended on him. Outside of their mother, he was the only real family he had. He wasn't sure if it was okay to simply regard her as the replacement to someone else.

Asta felt a dark, foreboding presence from the woods once more. Almost on instinct. 
"Hanna, I sense something." The eye of shadows was ever as handy as always. Several slow growls could be heard from the interior of the forest. "Everyone, I sense something!"

The battle horn blew as the first arrow landed onto the shoulder of one of the cartmen, wounding him. The carts moved into formation, in a poor attempt to defend against the orkish attack, but with the losses they had taken last night, it was an incomplete perimeter.

Hanna grabbed her arquebus and fired back at the green object that swiftly moved to launch another arrow. The arquebus fizzled and cracked as it spit the lead ball towards the ork, which yelled out and slumped over, dead. Asta himself quickly moved in to grab his own bow, a small self bow used for hunting rather than a proper warbow. He nocked the arrow, pulling the light bow back with ease, and let it fly. The arrow harmlessly bounced off of the ork's chainmail armor as it closed the gap, clawing onto the fortified wall of the cart. 

"Shit!" Asta dropped his huntsman bow, and pulled out his sword, driving it deep into the ork's face as it clawed at the walls of the war cart, trying to overturn it. There was a yell of pain as it collapsed.

"We're blind without our cavalry contingent! Not enough ammunition!"

"Did we burn through it all yesterday?"

"We don't have enough arms, too many people are dead!" Asta yelled back at the other warriors as he yanked the sword from the ork's face, splattering blood all over the cart. The other caravaners continued to shoot arrows and bullets at the orks as they charged further and further into what they saw as a weakened and easy target. Another ork leapt for the cart as it jumped over a small rock, and landed onto the side of the cart, rocking it.

"Iwen, take my axe!" Hanna pointed to her axe with her toe as she attempted to reload another ball into her arquebus while maintaining her balance. Asta leapt for it. It was a simple, two handed axe. He brought it down upon the second ork's head, splitting it in half. It split open like a watermelon as the ork stumbled and fell over like a log. Using the point of the axe, he jabbed it into a third ork's nose, causing it to grab his face and scream before he brought it down again onto its chest. "We can't keep fighting like this!" Asta yelled out. The orkish attack was nothing unusual, sure, but the attack last night had taken everything out of them. The orks smelled blood in the water, and continued to ferociously charge at the carts with all their might.

"We have to get the carts moving, now!" One of the warriors yelled out. "We’ll die if we stand and trade shots!"

"You mean to break formation?" A panicked voice asked.

"We got no other choice! Transfer the civilians to the war carts, we go full speed away!" Asta yelled out.

"We won't be able to defend properly! Our horses will tire!" Hanna shook her head at the voices of confusion from up ahead.

"Just tell everyone to get onto the carts dammit!" Hanna said. "Everyone, out, now! There's no room for hesitation. We go full speed, out of the forest now!" Asta picked up a discarded crossbow and loosed a bolt at one of the orks before crawling up to the cart's front seat, holding a shield to his right. The shot missed, but it forced the ork to take cover long enough to allow Asta to wrap the straps around his wrist as he mounted the driver's seat

"That's everyone!" Hanna yelled out as several of the pilgrims and commanders loaded up onto the war cart. 

"Let the orks have their plunder, we leave the wagons behind!" A bearded archer yelled out. Asta started the cart as hard as he could, full speed ahead.

"We are out of here!" And thus, the procession of the carts the people had crowded into, beelined away from the orkish attack as they headed for the open fields.