Chapter 478: Fragmented

It was a tough battle they had faced fighting the twenty advanced tier beasts infected by the shadow, as well as the two hundred or so Dark Guild members. Thankfully the fight had ended with little casualties on their side. From their thousand or so strong army, it had only lost around fifty men.

At first, the Redwing members and leaders were thankful that they hadn't lost so many people. It was a great achievement and they felt like they had foiled the Shadow's plans in weakening their large army, but soon they came to realise something.

"I can't find Harry anywhere." Martha said. "Katy said she had saved him and then went on to fight some beasts, luring them away from the army. When I got there, there were two dead beasts and some red blood in the snow.'

"Then I fear that the Dark Guild has actually been successful in their plans." Said Lenny. "They have captured or even killed who they had originally come here for."

"What makes you so sure of that? We attacked and fended them off." Dan replied. "I'm sure they never expected us to get rid of so many of their people yet lose so few of our own."

"We were blind." Bliss added as she sat down on the snow, she looked defeated and tired. In fact they all did. The main members of the Redwings were the ones who were fighting the Dark Guild members. Although they had come out pretty unscathed, that was due to their own skill and not the lack of skill from the Dark Guild members.

"The Dragon knights were too focused on trying to protect Van and me." Bliss added. "That we didn't even focus on Harry. They had already targeted him once, so we should have kept an eye on him."

The others felt this was true, they just never thought someone like Harry, who was stronger than most of them there would need protecting.

"We need to make a decision." Sir K said. "Do we carry on moving forward having lost one of our commanders or do we head back to Avrion and have our last stand there? The Shadow has achieved their goal and so far we have just run into bad luck after bad luck. I feel if we continue forward we may all lose our lives."

"We can't go back, that's exactly what the Shadow wants us to do!" Bliss shouted.

"We have to face the facts." Roy added, "They were prepared for our surprise attack, it was a risky move in the first place heading into their territory. We would be better off fortifying our own defences and setting up small traps along the way just like they have done."

"Then are we just meant to leave Harry with the Dark guild members? Although I may not agree with Bliss's decision I can't leave without knowing what happened to Harry." Martha complained.

"And risk more lives?" Roy said. "Following this God blindly might be exactly the vision she is seeing in the first place. Just because she is a god doesn't mean she will always get it right."

The tension was already high between people in their own group and now it was higher than before, but it was understandable with the lives of others on their hands, and having lost someone close to them.

"And Kyle, what do you think of all of this? I have yet to hear from you." Sir K asked.

"I feel conflicted. Like Bliss says they are trying so hard to make it so we don't reach the fortress, maybe we can do something when we get there. If we head back I feel like Avrion is done for without Ray. What I'm more concerned about is why Jack and his group didn't transform. If they did they could have dealt with the beasts and Harry wouldn't have had to go and try to save those people.

Jack stood silently with his hands in his pockets as he looked to the ground. He had fought hard, but it was true, Jack had told those with him and himself to not transform in this fight, but he had his own reason for doing so.

Ever since Ray hadn't come back from the Empire, he felt like it would be his burden to take on Gary. He knew how strong he was before and could imagine how strong he had gotten. Because of this, he wanted to reserve every last bit of energy he could for the big fight, but now it kind of seemed pointless having lost a dear friend.

"I'm sorry." Jack finally said. "I agree, I too don't want to leave without getting Harry back."

"Then it's decided. We shall proceed further with the main goal of looking for Harry." Sir K said with a smile. He was proud of these former students of his. Although it wasn't exactly the best decision to put their real goal on the back foot, he also thought that the Shadow's reason for taking Harry played a bigger part in all this than Bliss originally thought, an oversight on her behalf. There was one thing Roy was right about, trotting the vision might very well be their downfall in all of this.

*****

The constant sound of his body banging against something was heard, and he had eventually opened his eyes. Harry could only see the snow and the back of the large man's foot that was carrying him. His hands had been tied with galthrium, even with his powerful Ki it was impossible to break. As for his swords, they were lost somewhere in the snow.

"I'm sorry Ray." Harry said, realising that one of the swords was the black raven that had been gifted to him, but he was sorry for something else as well. With Ray gone, Harry felt like he was left with the task of looking after Avrion, filling his position and here he was, having been captured by the Dark guild.

It was dark outside and he had no clue how long the man had been walking for. Where they were he did not know, but eventually he could hear the sound of laughing and people chatting. He was thrown onto the ground and placed near a fire.

That's when Harry realised he was in a temporary made camp that looked to have around fifty or so members in it. They hadn't sent their full forces to attack, it looked like they didn't even break a sweat in their forces today. Even now he was looking at a small portion of them.

'It was a mistake to come to the Shadow continent.' Harry thought.

"I'm tired." The man said who had hurled him all this way. "Listen here, don't try to escape. I have captured you once on his orders but if you try to leave, then I won't bother capturing you again. No way am I lifting your body up in one piece, you will be dead in a body bag, ya hear?"

Harry didn't say anything and the man took it as an answer as he went over to the others to celebrate with a drink and some food. They had to be some distance away from the others now, otherwise they wouldn't be making so much noise out in the open like so.

Harry sat there frustrated that he had allowed himself to be captured. Whatever the Dark guild was planning to do with him, he wanted no part in it. He would rather die than help them towards their plan, but with the cuffs on and his Ki being weak, he was unsure what to do in his predicament.

It seemed like Harry had been brought to the centre of the camp where the leader of this Dark guild platoon laid. The man that brought him in was a Dark guild master. These ranks were set up to be a copy of those at Avrion, so the master here was the same as a sash master. Which would mean the man in front of him contained the same strength as someone at Sir K or Wilfred's level. This thought made him feel a little better that he wasn't taken in by some no name.

His pride would have been hurt if he were knocked out by a normal dark guild member. When the cheering and laughter died down, each of them looked into the fire and Harry saw this as his opportunity. Through listening to their conversation he had learnt that the man's name was Mukdad, and while they were speaking they talked of such things as their family back home and more, it made Harry realise that not all of those who worked with the Shadow were complete monsters, there were humans too.

Harry thought maybe he could reach out to this man's softer side.

"Why, why have you kept me alive?" Harry asked.

"I ask myself that same question, boy." Mukdad said. "It's best you ask the leader himself when you see him."

"The Dark guild leader, Morfran?" Harry asked.

"No, we work for someone you apparently should know well, as he used to be on your side until recently." The person he was talking about was Gary.

*****

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