"You just said that—" Maso confused at what the fellow soldier said.
"Yes! I do know what I just said!" The fellow soldier interjects.
"Allow me to finish dammit!"
"We don't have much time left before they get here." He came closer to Mosa as the thumping of the horses and shouts became louder, squatted on his knees and extended his hand out forward.
"Give me your leg." He grabbed Mosa's leg where the wound was.
"What could you do?" Mosa's breath shakes as blood spurts.
"What do you wanna do with it?"
He asked him, his eyes all over the fellow soldier's face.
"Grrr…" The fellow soldier groans as he dragged Maso's knee closer, hovering his hand over his knee.
Then suddenly out of nowhere. A black star shaped thing appeared above the wound.
What? I know this…
Mosa's mind, disarranged, It scanned through memories as his eyes dotted around the thing.
"This is gonna hurt…" He sighed.
He then stood up, his hand still hovered above Mosa but for him, another star-shaped thing appeared on his right knee.
But it was above his like it was for Mosa, instead this time a burn mark in the shape of the thing was on the cloth around his knee.
Then all of a sudden----The thing over Mosa's own knee started spinning. It spun around and around at an incredible speed.
The injury started to close up, every fibre around it was growing back, bit by bit,
till it finally all grew back together.
The wound was completely gone---As if it never happened in the first place. The black thing still spun around, but it evaporated into the air.
N-No way…
As sweat rolls down Mosa's face.
"Hehe." The fellow soldier chuckled.
Then over the fellow soldier's right knee where the burn mark was, it had seemed to turn into ashes and was blown off as the patches of tall grass and weeds danced in the wind. In its absence, blood stains appeared over his knee, penetrating the cloth area rapidly.
"Ahh!" The fellow soldier grunted and fell towards the ground.
"Dammit…" He cursed under his breath.
Maso's neurons clicked.
Wait–You're a healer?
The fellow soldier breathed heavily as blood flowed down his cloth as he fell to the ground.
"B-But why?" Mosa's face still squeezed.
"Why what?" The soldier replied as he placed his hand on his knee. The wind lightly blowing as the thumping grew nearer.
"Why do all this? For a random soldier like me?" Mosa stared at him, the area under his eyes sagging.
"...Hahh…" The fellow soldier breathed loudly.
How was he bearing this?!
"It's hope." His voice was stern.
"H-Hope?" Mosa wondered as his hair blew in the slight breeze.
"Your will to still want to fight---Even though it's futile." The soldier smiles.
"It sure is stupid." He added as he chuckled lightly.
"But that spirit…It just can't go to waste."
"Since the others are running for their lives…" He removed one of his hands from the wounded area.
"Some not even having it anymore..." As he looks at the soldier's corpse with the arrow that passed them sticking out of his back.
He pointed his bloodied hand right at Mosa, shaking as it was suspended in the air.
"You need to inform the rest---You need to inform the lord about what just happened."
"So they can be ready, so the next troops can be ready!" The soldier's voice resonated in Mosa's head.
"For the Lord, this is the little I can do as an appreciation for him." He chuckled as tears slowly formed in his closed eyes.
At that moment, Mosa was lost with words, the only thing he could do was to widen his eyes.
The shouts and the horses with their hooves digging into the ground drawing near.
"Now go! Before it'll all be in vain." He shouted with little spit coming out of his mouth. Out of haste, Mosa stood up and made his way into the bushes.
He then pausedas he gripped his palms with his fingers and turns back to the soldier as he laid there on the ground.
"At least…"
"...Tell me what your name is."
Horse neighs and the sound of metal clanking grew closer, already being a few metres away from them. The soldier sitting on the ground with the rest of the corpses, his face quickly spoiled into rage.
"Are you dumb?! I just told you to go before they get here!" He shouted as throws his hand in the air as if chasing a stary dog.
"Don't ask me stupid questions or it all would've been for naught."
The intensity of those words along with his voice, they were so sharp and thick that they blew Mosa making him slightly loose his balance.
"R-Right!" Mosa shook his head at him as he turns around.
"It's Gerl…" The soldier replied while spitting to the ground facing Mosa's back. This caused Mosa to pause, he tightened his grip and prepared to run.
Gerl…
The name resounded in Mosa's mind.
Then as soon as Mosa turned his head and blinked. He saw a tall man standing right in front of the soldier, wearing a long black coat with a hood covering his face.
Everything from head to toe was covered in black---Even a bit of his skin couldn't be seen. What then seemed out of a nightmare, a long black spike emerged from the man, going right through the Gerl's head.
SPLAT... SPLAT… SPLAT…
The head still attached to its body as the spike protruded from the other side with bits of Gerl's brain stuck on it as blood dripped.
The opposing forces on their horses finally came towards them, but instead of stopping, they all passed the man in all black like ants passing a stone.
W-Wait… that symbol…
It's a crest…It looks familiar...
Mosa thought as he looks at the people on horses as they passed, he tried to make sense of it, but It was all blurry with the leaves and branches blocking his vision the more.
The man in all black, slowly moved his head, each turn seemed like he's cracking his own neck. His head then stopped moving---Facing head on in Mosa's direction as it slowly tilted.
Mosa's skin whitened with as his hands trembled and his feet seemed nerveless. The man in all black slowly moved towards Mosa, with the horses still passing him.
"Hey where the heck is he going?" Someone on one of the horses asked as he looked back at the man in black.
"It's best not to question him…" The person besides him answered.
"Or even talk to him." The person behind them both answered with a face of dread. Then the two now looked back at the third person as fear overtook all of them.
Mosa nerves in his legs finally felt a jolt of electricity, he ran with his legs pushing against the ground as the man in black slowly picked up his pace, his black coat flowing in the wind.
Mosa's heart skipped a beat, sweat gliding across his face, his mind rushed with thoughts as his eyes were glued to the ground, then---
---BAM!
His head collided with a branch and for a moment, Mosa saw black and white. The hit caused him to lose his balance as he then slipped past the bushes, with the tiny thorns and branches scratching his skin.
He rolled down a hill as his metal armour collided with his body also smacked a large stone. The pain spreading all over his body and did not stop as he tumbled downwards. Only a river on the flat bottom of the hill stopped him.
"Ughhhh…" Mosa groaned as he couldn't feel his body---The sound of the river drowned out his moans with also his sight and hearing. His vision descended, as everything slowly washed out as his eyes opened back to a figure's face that blocked out the light.
---The end of chapter 5---