41

Rebello looks up at Hyrtan atop the bird. Rebello smiles sharply up at him, almost sneering.

“Looks like those three minions of yours get beat!” He takes a large drink from his gourd. “Looks like I’m better at my job than you are at yours! I pity the man you serve, to be cursed with such an incompetent man beneath him!” Hyrtan scowls at him in response.

“Don’t you dare mock me, you lout! Who should be pitied, My Lord, or your headmaster who must put up with a crude drunk like you!” Rebello laughs heartily.

“I’ll have you know that I’m even worse when I’m sober!”

“To think that such a foul alcoholic is corrupting the youth in such a way.”

“Oh, so now you’re worried about the kids? What a gutless man you are! Though perhaps this Supreme Commander of yours is quite worthy of respect. He treats you well in spite of everything, and that must be the goodness of his heart. In my case, on the other hand, I am simply undeniable.”

Rebello jumps. In a single motion, like flowing water, he appears on Hyrtan’s bird. Rebello throws a light kick at Hyrtan’s shin, aiming to tease out the extent of his strength—the strength of the enemy commanders. Hyrtan barely notices even the weak strike before it connects, his leg buckling from the blow, though he stays standing.

Hyrtan taps his other foot on the back of the bird. The bird begins to fly faster, flapping its wings more forcefully. It shakes from side to side as it flies, though not quite enough to shake Rebello off. Rebello laughs again.

“Come on, you’re the one who called me a drunk! You really think this much shaking will do much of anything!?”

Hyrtan grins, though Rebello does not know why, and does not care enough to let him speak. He throws a quick punch at Hyrtan’s jaw, then grabs Hyrtan by the neck.

“So, tell me about your play-pretend army. How many soldiers do you have? How many are like the ones you brought? How many other commanders are there? Are they similar in strength to you? Or much stronger, which must be the case? How much stronger than that is your leader?” Hyrtan scoffs.

“Do you think I would betray My Lord so easily? Don’t be ridiculous. And besides, you ought to be looking down.” Rebello glances down to the surface to see the army brought by Hyrtan redoubling its efforts against the students, the teachers beginning to be pushed back. “Don’t you think there’s something more important to attend to?”

“I’m honored you think so highly of me as an educator. Fine. Do as you please and go where you want. What do I care?” Rebello shifts his hand up Hyrtan’s face, as though caressing his cheek, then begins to dig his index and middle finger inside of Hyrtan’s right eyesocket. Rebello gouges out Hyrtan’s eye, ripping the eyeball out with a large spurt of blood. “I’ll take this as my advance. I’ll take care of you properly later.”

Rebello crushes the eyeball in his hand, then jumps off the bird. As he falls, the bird begins to fly away, towards the spire. Rebello lands with a crash in the center of the battle, near where Scima lays unconscious. Rebello jumps up to his feet as though he felt nothing at all and looks around. He approaches Scima when he sees him.

Rebello crouches down and looks at Scima atop his defeated foe, the blade-arm gripped tightly in his hand even now. Rebello grabs Scima by the back of his collar and begins to lift him up. He slaps Scima’s cheek, just hard enough for it to actually hurt a little. Scima’s eyes snap awake and he begins to swing the blade-arm at Rebello. Rebello tosses Scima aside and stands back up so that he towers over him.

“Rise and shine, there’s still more fighting for you. And it seems you’re more than ready.” Scima quickly gets up and begins to look around.

“Don’t talk to me. I need to protect Lady Eva.”

“Don’t worry about it. Well you were asleep, your princess took the guy out all by herself.” A strange, pained mixture of emotions cross Scima’s face, emotions Rebello can’t quite place.

“I see. Of course she did.” Scima recovers quickly. “What is the state of the battle?”

“Not too good, or I wouldn’t be asking a violent brat like you for help.”

“Where do you need me to go?”

“What? Pretending you’ll follow orders without a problem?”

“Of course I will. I follow orders all the time.”

“Sure.” Rebello continues on, not entertaining Scima at all. “We need to break this encirclement. Do whatever you please, as long as it cuts a path.” Scima looks around, his voice disinterested already.

“Aye sir.”

Before either of them can begin to fight, however, Valere dashes towards the encirclement from outside it. He swings his sword, not yet close enough to cut any of the enemies. It takes on a silver light and begins to glow. It dulls as it returns to his side. A burst of silver explodes out in a crescent arc, creating a large gap in the encirclement. Valere grows winded, his body no longer keen on such a powerful attack. He begins to walk into the center of the battle, scanning the field for Rebello.

Rebello finds him first.

“Valere, glad you could join us. Didn’t find Sion, then?” Valere looks uneasy.

“Ah, actually, I did find him. He seemed fine, but we were attacked. I left him to hold the enemy back while I came here to aid the rest of you.” Rebello takes a calm step towards Valere and takes a long drink from his gourd. He takes it from his lips, and with a sigh raises it up, then pours the remainder of his drink over Valere’s head.

“So you abandoned that brat? What, did he tell you he could handle it while you protected somebody else? Don’t listen to brats like him, that’s your first lesson as a teacher. They all have a death wish, deep down. You’re lucky that I’m not stupid enough to smoke, or I’d be putting it out on you and seeing what happens.” Valere has no response but to lower his head in shame.

“Yes sir.” Scima interjects.

“If Sion needs help, then I’ll go.”

“Sorry, did you think you weren’t also one of the brats with a death wish? Protect that princess of yours, I’ll deal with it.” As he says that, Tenka appears before them and drops two more soldiers onto the grass. Like the one Scima faced and unlike the rank and file around them, they have heavy modifications to their bodies.

“Sir Faegen, will you allow me to go aid Sion?” Rebello looks at him.

“Sure, go ahead.” As Tenka goes off, Rebello looks towards Scima. “Also, their leader got away, so we’ll need to make due with whatever we can get out of the grunts.”

The three of them go their separate ways, Scima to Eva, Rebello and Valere to the frontlines. All the while, well above the fields, Hyrtan flies atop his bird towards the pinnacle of the spire.