"KOF KOF," Arthur coughed as a mixture of water and blood shot out of his mouth.

"I was sinking, someone from the trailblazers must have pulled me out," Arthur thought as he started breathing again. "So happy they know CPR in this world," Arthur continued as he remembered pressure being applied to his chest when he regained consciousness.

"That was fun," Arthur said before his eyes opened. "Let's do that..."

Arthur froze as he saw a beautiful horned woman standing over him. He had seen her before, underground in Darv and remembered the event instantly, she was a Scythe. Arthur bucked to try and get to his feet to fight, but the pain from his injuries and black lash from his core forced him back down.

"I'm surprised you had enough strength for that," she commented.

"Why did you save me?" Arthur asked, trying to sound strong, but failed.

She then pulled out a small bottle of a light blue liquid.

"Drink this."

"Normally people introduce themselves before giving someone a drink."

"Seris. Now drink, it will heal you."

"Yeah I don't believe that. I don't know what that is, but I'll take my chances without."

Seris' left eye twitched with annoyance, then poured the liquid into her mouth. She knelt down beside Arthur, pinched his nose, forced his mouth open, and smashed her mouth onto his as she forced the liquid into his mouth. Arthur tried to resist, but was too weak. Soon the need for air was too great, and he swallowed the liquid.

"You held out for quite a bit," Seris commented as she pulled away from him. "One might have thought you enjoyed my lips on you." A small smirk formed on her face.

Arthur opened his mouth to reply, but stopped as he instantly felt hot, then cold. His wounds started tingling, he forced himself to the seated position and was able to watch as the once inch wide holes in his thigh completely healed.

"Like I said, it was to heal you."

"Why?" Arthur asked suspiciously.

"Because you need to get stronger," she replied, then walked off.

"Care to elaborate?" Arthur asked, in hopes of getting as much information as possible.

But she didn't reply, and continued walking towards a large hunk of ice. Only now did Arthur take in his surroundings. He was still underwater, but something was holding it out in a dome shape about the size of his former home in Ashber. Dawns Ballad was laying beside him, so he picked it up and tried to force himself to his feet. Despite the wounds being healed everything still ached as he tried to move. Finally he was standing, and was now able to identify the hunk of ice as Uto's frozen corpse, with both of his arms missing.

"I was quite impressed that you defeated him. Uto was nearly strong enough to be considered a Scythe."

"So he is dead right?"

Seris grabbed both of Uto's horns and ripped one off his head, then looked back to Arthur.

"He is," she replied, then ripped off the second one, before turning to Arthur and throwing them to him.

Arthur caught them both, and eyed them suspiciously, then up at her with the same suspicion.

"Vritra horns possess a great deal of mana. Use these to get stronger," Seris explained.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?"

"Most people would say thank you after receiving a gift," Seris jabbed.

"Thank you," Arthur replied.

"Better. Now I suggest you store those and take a deep breath," she replied, and a few seconds later she had teleported away as Arthur stored the horns and his sword.

Just then the dome collapsed, and the vast amount of water rushed in.

—————————————————————

"Come on fire mages melt that ice!" Tess yelled from the edge of the frozen pool. "The General's life may depend on it!

Upon the ice stood dozens of mages trying to melt and break away at the ice, even Sylvie was in her dragon form trying to blast it away with her pure mana flames. Arthur had been under for nearly five minutes, and if not for Sylvie saying that he was still alive, they would have already marked him as dead.

Theo was on his knees halfway to the center of the pool, unleashing an assault of gravity-imbued punches to break away the ice.

"Fire in the hole!" Standard yelled before firing a beast core at the ice, causing a fiery explosion that broke away large chunks of ice. Tess then extended a series of vines to pull the ice away.

"Tess," Claire said as she walked off the ice. "The ice is too thick, and everyone is wiped out. I want to save Arthur too, but I just don't think we'll be able to break through like this."

"Send some people back to camp to rest, and have them send some fresh fire mages," she ordered.

During the attack the Captain was one of the unfortunate individuals who was impaled by one of Uto's spikes, killing him instantly. With his death leadership fell to Tess as she was the senior most head.

"Tess, it won't be enough. Our ice mages say the ice is about ten feet thick, and we're only a foot deep," Claire said sympathetically. "We have to accept facts. Arthur won't survive this time."

"SYLVIE, IS ART STILL ALIVE?" Tess yelled out.

"YES!" Sylvie replied before firing an even more focused and intense blast.

"We keep going until Sylvie says Art is dead, and even then we won't leave the dungeon without his body," Tess replied as tears started to well in her eyes at the thought of losing Arthur.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I'll send some people back that can relieve the guards," Claire said apologetically, and began to walk off.

She opened her mouth to gather some people to go, but the ground shook before the first syllable came out. Everyone stopped, then it happened again, and this time the ice cracked.

"IT'S ARTHUR!" Sylvie cried out, and ran to where the cracks started.

Everyone started running towards Sylvie as she blasted and clawed away at the ice. Fire conjurers blasted the spot with the most effective spells they could, before augmenters ran in to remove some of the bigger ice chunks that were loosened. Tess ran over as well, but due to being so far from land her plant magic wasn't going to be of use. The ice shook again from a powerful hit, causing it to start to buckle and break up in the forming hole. The augmenters in the hole were knocked over, and many retreated in case the ice gave way. Theo, Thomas, and Darvus remained as they tried to break away more ice on their end.

"Out of my way!" Sylvie shouted as she jumped into the hole as she saw them struggling to remove a large chunk of ice.

They backed away and Sylvie's razor sharp claws dug into the ice and she began pulling it up. The chunk itself was four feet thick, and as she pulled on it they could see water underneath. A second later Arthur's head burst out as he gasped for air.

"WE'VE GOT HIM!" Theo yelled as he got down on his stomach and reached out to him.

Arthur saw Theo's hand and grabbed it, and was pulled out of the water.

"Wh-ho-o wants to go in next? That freezing water is invigorating," Arthur joked as he shivered, his core still too drained to reinforce his body enough from the frigid water.

"Art!" Tess called out as she ran to him.

She jumped down into the hole he was in and quickly threw a towel around him as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I think skin to skin contact would help best," someone called out.

Claire then hit Jerry in the back of the head.

"Hey! That wasn't me!"

"Maybe not but you were thinking it," Claire replied.

"Art are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere?" Tess asked worriedly.

"I'm ok, I'm only half dead," Arthur replied.

"And what about that horned bastard," Theo asked, seriously worried.

"Completely dead."

Sighs of relief were heard from nearly everyone as they were all a little terrified of what one of the best of Alacrya was capable of.

"So what are our orders sir?" One of the heads asked.

"Why are you asking me? Where's the Captain?" Arthur replied as he looked around.

"He died in the attack. I took command, but you are the senior officer," Tess replied as everyone hung their heads in remembrance of their leader. "I think it would be best if you took command."

"Ok," Arthur said as he stood up, his muscles protesting due to the freezing water. "Gather the beast cores and let's bury the dead. Then we'll head back to camp. Sylvie, you lead the way."

The dead were gathered and buried, their weapons were used in place of grave stones. Arthur took the Captains dimensional ring in case it had anything of importance such as classified documents, planning to return the ring and any personal possessions to his family.

By the time they were ready to leave Arthur's core had recovered enough that he was able to cast his own fire spell to dry himself off, and heal his sore muscles.

"Arthur, I heard everything she said," Sylvie said as they made their way back to camp.

"I figured," Arthur replied.

"Are you really going to use those?"

"At least one, do you want the other?"

Arthur could feel Sylvie was tempted by the idea through their bond, but also her unease.

"How do we know it's not some kind of trick? What if absorbing that mana kills us? Or what if the horns blow up?"

"What if they blow up? Where did that idea come from?"

"That's not the point. She's a scythe, an enemy. Why would she help us?"

"I don't think it's as much helping us, as she's helping herself."

"What do you mean?"

"She could have killed me easily, but instead saved my life and gave me these horns to become stronger. I can't shake the thought that she's trying to use us for something."

"Maybe."

"Even if I was at my best she's still significantly stronger than us. If we're going to win this war, eventually we'll have to fight and kill the scythes. I'm going to take a leap of faith and give it a shot," Arthur then looked down at his right hand where his new weapon had been implanted, and was slowly absorbing mana to one day grow into some amazing weapon. "Who knows when this thing will be ready, maybe this will help it along. All I know is that as things are now we don't stand a chance against a scythe."

For a few seconds there was nothing said between them, before Sylvie sighed and replied, "Ok. We'll do this together then."

—————————————————————

The teams were filing back into camp, returning to their tents to rest or to the unit blacksmith for repairs if their weapons or armor that were damaged. It was usually relatively easy to tell if an attack went well or not based on the looks on their faces. However this time as the guards watched them, some looked defeated, some looked happy, and some looked just plain scared.

With his injury Clive was unable to participate in the attack, so as the senior most head remaining, he was left in charge of the camp's defense while the Captain was away. Clive watched as everyone entered, his right arm in a sling and splints set on his fingers and wrist.

"Wait, where's the Captain?" Clive asked as the doors were closed.

"He was killed when a retainer showed up," one of the other heads replied.

"What?! Where was our great General when this happened?" Clive asked, his eyes searching for Arthur. He then saw him walking towards the command tent with Sylvie, as Tess and her team split off to return to their tents.

"Hey General. What the hell happened? Why weren't you able to protect everyone?" Clive asked tauntingly, trying to get others on his side.

Arthur didn't even acknowledge him as he continued walking so he could report to the council.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, you coward! I don't see any injuries on you, did you just use us as shields so you could survive?" Clive yelled.

"Clive calm down," another head said. "You weren't there so you didn't see how that monster nearly killed him. We would have been ignored if it weren't for the Captain ordering a ranged attack on that thing when he saw an opening."

Clive opened his mouth to speak again, but one of his team members placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Clive never stood a chance of getting any support from the returning teams, as they all saw how hard he fought, and felt they owed Arthur their lives.

—————————————————————

Arthur entered the command tent and collapsed into one of the chairs at the table. He sat there quietly as he gathered his thoughts. Twenty people had died in the attack from Uto, and he blamed himself for not being strong enough to protect them. The part of himself that was still Grey spoke up, telling him that it was their own fault for attacking the retainer, but the part of him that was Arthur reminded him that they only attacked because they were scared he wouldn't win.

"Arthur," Sylvie said as she placed a comforting hand in his arm.

She could feel his guilt for the deaths, and understood why he felt that way, but also knew he did all he could.

"I know," Arthur replied after a heavy sigh. "Even if I was stronger, Uto was a madman, he might have still attacked them just to kill as many as he could before I killed him."

"As long as you know. So don't blame yourself," she said, then exited the tent.

Arthur remained quietly in the chair. If not for their bond Arthur doubted Sylvie would have been able to tell anything was bothering him. On the other hand,Tess was somehow able to tell. He didn't feel she knew what was bothering him because she didn't say anything, instead she had a sympathetic look and held his hand as they returned to camp. Arthur remembered in his past life, his former friend Nico once saying how after he and his girlfriend Cecilia were together for a while, she always seemed to know when things were bothering him, and assumed this must be the same thing with himself and Tess.

After a few minutes Arthur literally slapped himself back into reality, and pulled two communication scrolls from his dimensional ring. He unrolled them both and held them in his hands as he channeled mana into them.

"Pasta Bloom, Virion Eralith," he said, selecting the individuals he needed to speak with.

"Hello Arthur. What's going on?" Virion answered.

"Hollow?" Pasta answered, sounding muffled.

"Commander, General, I'm contacting you both to report on the situation at the Swamp Pit."

"You? Where's the Captain?" Virion asked.

"After successfully defeating the dungeon boss, we encountered a retainer. I regret to inform you both, the Captain along with nineteen others were killed by the retainer."

"Damn," Pasta breathed out. His tone was enough to tell he was in shock by this development.

"What about Tessia?" Virion asked urgently.

"She's fine. She was able to dodge his attacks."

"And the retainer?" Virion asked.

"I managed to kill him. His corpse is at the bottom of a pretty deep pool of water in the boss chamber," Arthur replied.

"Hell yeah," Pasta grunted. "I hope that the bastard's death was painful."

"He was on a completely different level than the previous retainer I fought. If I didn't figure out the basics of how his magic worked in time he definitely would have killed me and everyone else down there."

"Are you ok?" Pasta asked.

"I was pretty rough, but I'm healing. My core should be completely recovered from backlash soon."

"I'm happy to hear you and Tessia are ok," Virion stated.

"But now they need a new Captain," Arthur reminded them.

"Yeah, I've got a few people in mind," Pasta said, as he snapped his fingers, followed by the sounds of paper rustling in the background.

"Why not just promote from within?" Arthur suggested.

"Sorry you two but no. I normally would want to, but Tessia is the senior most head. She's good, but I feel she needs more experience right now before I give her her own unit to command," Pasta replied, actually sounding like a proper leader.

"I understand. You move and promote your people how you see fit," Virion said understanding.

"In that case, have the new Captain meet us at The Wall when the unit comes to resupply," Arthur told them.

"Sorry no, they can't come back to The Wall this time," Pasta informed him.

"But they need supplies? The fact that most of the beasts here were poisonous caused them to rely solely on their own food they brought, not to mention their medical supplies," Arthur argued.

"I realize that, but we need to pick up the pace on clearing dungeons. I'll have the Captain come with some replacement personnel, and have them all come completely loaded up with enough supplies," Pasta replied.

"Arthur, we've been getting reports of increased mutated mana beast attacks along The Wall as well as in the Elenoir forest. With one less unit operating, we need the remaining two units to take up the extra slack," Virion explained. "I also want you and Sylvie to head to Elenoir and work with your division. I want you to evaluate the situation and see if you can come up with any counter measures against these attacks."

"Understood. I'll leave after I relinquish command of the trailblazers to the new Captain," Arthur replied.

"After?" Pasta questioned. "They are more than capable of finding their way to the next dungeon without you."

"I'm sure they are, but I've also seen the reports about the increased Alacryan troop movements in the glades. Wouldn't it make more sense and be safer for the Trailblazers to be supported by a Lance while they are currently without a Captain?" Arthur said, making an argument like a lawyer. "I'm sure my division will be fine for a few days without me."

"Mhmm," both Pasta and Virion replied.

Even though this was only auditory communication, Arthur could see them both smirking and nodding from his request.

"Damned old men," Arthur said under his breath.

"Hahaha," Pasta laughed. "I feel the General has gotten to know us too well."

"It seems so," Virion replied, sounding amused. "Very well, permission to escort the Trailblazers granted. Just be sure to take good care of my granddaughter."

"I'm sure he will," Pasta said in a lewd sounding tone.

"Oh he wouldn't dare try anything with her. We've already discussed this, if he crosses that line he'll pay. I don't care if he has a white core or not, I'll still cover that brat in hot tar and beat him with a cactus."

"I'd like to see you try," Arthur said quietly.

"What was that?" Virion asked, having heard Arthur's comment.

"Nothing, good bye," Arthur said as he quit sending mana to the scrolls, causing them to disconnect.

"Hey Sylv, do you see Tess or Claire?"

"I'm with them now, what do you need?"

"Tell them I need all of the heads in the command tent."

"Will do."

"Oh, and I want Clive up here first."

Sylvie didn't reply, but Arthur could feel she seemed happy, almost excited about that. Arthur took the late Captains dimensional ring and slid it on one of his fingers, and pulled a map with all of their assigned dungeons out. He then unrolled it to find the next dungeon on the list.

"What do you want," Clive said as he entered the tent, about five minutes after Arthur called for him.

"Is that how you report to a senior ranked officer?" Arthur replied, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

Clive then stood at attention. "Head Graves reporting as ordered," he said, his tone clearly sounding annoyed.

"Better," Arthur then stood up from his chair. "I've had to put up with plenty of your shit this week, enough to where you should be facing some kind of disciplinary action, but I don't want to deal with the paperwork. So let's just keep this simple." Arthur stood toe to toe with Clive, and glared into his eyes. "If I ever hear you doing anything to try and undermine my authority, I will charge you as a traitor and have you sent to a P.O.W camp full of Alacryans and let them kill you."

"Anything else General?"

Arthur then cast a sound dampening spell around them.

"I say this not as a general or Lance, but as Tess' boyfriend." Arthur then swept his legs out from under him. Before Clive started to try and get up, Arthur pushed down on the side of his head into the ground and while also releasing his killing intent. "Stop pursuing Tess, or I will come in the night, kill you, hide your body in the beast glades so that it will never be found, and no one will ever know I was there."

Arthur then stood back up as he withdrew his intent.

"That felt strangely satisfying, and I didn't even do anything," Sylvie replied. "Anyway, are you ready for everyone?"

Arthur looked down at Clive as he slowly got back up to his feet, his face drenched in a cold sweat.

"Wait thirty more seconds and then send them in." Arthur said as he also ended his sound dampening spell.

After thirty seconds everyone else was filing in, all ten heads standing around the briefing table.

"I've spoken with the Commander and General Bloom. Due to increased mutated beast activity, we're going to proceed to the next dungeon right away," Arthur said to begin bringing them up to speed with the plan.

"What about our supplies? Even rationing them most of us don't have more than a few days worth of food," one of the heads brought up in concern.

"Your new Captain will be meeting us at the next dungeon with additional troops and supplies," Arthur replied.

"Us?" Claire asked, with a knowing smirk.

"That's right. I'll be remaining in command until your new Captain arrives," Arthur replied.

Claire nudged Tess, smiling at her friend who was going to get something she knew she wanted for a little longer. However Tess only looked back with a sad smile.

"Spread the word, we'll start tearing down the camp in the morning and I want us out of the dungeon before lunch. Dismissed," Arthur said, concluding the meeting.

The heads all saluted and left the tent, except for Tess, who stood there biting her lip and looking down.

"Tess?" Arthur said with concern after everyone else was out, but she didn't reply. Assuming she didn't want anyone else to hear her he cast a sound dampening spell around them. "Tess, are you ok?" He asked as he placed a hand on her chin and raised her head so her eyes met him.

As Tess' eyes met his, her body trembled as tears welled up in her eyes. She then lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

"Tess what's wrong?" Arthur replied as he wrapped his arms around and embraced her.

"You almost died."

"I know but I didn't," he replied as he stroked her head. "Don't forget, I'm the strongest Lance. It takes a lot to kill me."

"And that's the scariest part," she said as she pulled her face from his chest as looked him in the eyes. "That was a retainer, but the Scythes are supposed to be even stronger."

"I know. That's why I need to get stronger. I'm the only one who can stand a chance against them."

Tess nodded in understanding. This was war, and Arthur was Dicathen's strongest mage. She reached to her neck and grabbed a chain, pulling out the half heart charm he had given to her years ago.

"Let's make a promise," she suggested as she held the charm in her hand.

Arthur smiled as she pulled on his chain, pulling out his identification tag and the charm. It was pretty heavily damaged, so it wouldn't fit together with Tess' half, but it for the most part maintained its shape.

"Promise me you won't sacrifice yourself. Always come back to me. Because as long you're alive you can keep getting stronger, you can keep fighting back."

"I promise," Arthur replied. He wanted to keep his promise, but he also knew that if he had to, he would sacrifice himself to save his loved ones without a moment's hesitation.

The two then shared a tender kiss.

"Now turn away. I don't want you to see me all teary with my eyes red and puffy," Tess said as she broke the kiss and wiped her tears away.

Arthur gently grabbed her wrist and moved it away. "I can't do that." He placed a hand on her lower back and pulled her in closer. "Since I don't want to stop looking at you." He then kissed her again, this time more passionately. Tess put one of her hands on the back of his head as she then deepened the kiss.

In this moment they weren't in a dungeon in the middle of a war. They were just two teens very much in love, that didn't want to let one another go.