Captain Locrias used a pair of enchanted binoculars to check on both the kids and the arrays that protected the Verhen household. He knew the layout of the magical formations like the back of his hand, but when lives were at risk, he couldn't afford a memory lapse.
"The children are moving toward the edge of the dimensional blocking array!" He said via the communication earpiece to the three teams that were evenly spread around the cultivated fields.
The members of the Queen's Corps reacted in unison, using their scouts to check the surroundings with spells and magical devices while the others chanted their spells. To not leave anything up to chance, one of them contacted the headquarters and renewed their request to keep reinforcements on stand-by.
The Verhen and the Yehval kids kept playing their version of a game of dodgeball where both the magical beasts and their riders could throw or block the ball while Locrias gritted his teeth in anxiety.
"The life sensing array on the north side came out clear." One of the soldiers said.
"East side is clear as well."
"West side is clear. No enemy in sight or in the range of the arrays."
"South side is clear. Requiring permission to go back on stand-by." The last soldier sighed in relief at the realization that everything was fine.
"Denied! You get to relax only after the children get out of the arrays and nothing happens." Locrias said while remembering the directions from which the previous two attacks had come and adjusting the position of his soldiers accordingly.
Then, his worst fears came true.
A series of Warp Steps opened near the borders of the dimensional sealing arrays in a spot that was not only close to the kids, but also the further away from the members of the Queen's Corps.
To make matters worse, he immediately recognized the crimson uniforms that the enemies wore. Except for the color and for the pin on their chest depicting the claws of a bird of prey instead of a crown, they were dressed exactly like the Corps.
"We are against the Talons!" Locrias cursed their bad luck and flew forward to protect the kids.
By adjusting the position of his soldiers, he had contained the disadvantage, but the members of the Queen Corps were already on their back foot.
The Talons was a criminal mercenary unit, whose members were once part of the elite troops from the armies of all the three great Countries. All of them had either deserted their own duty or had been dishonorably discharged.
Some of them came from the Queen's Corps, making the Talons the worst possible enemy. They had received the same training of Locrias' men, they knew all the standard tactics that a detail team would employ and how he had distributed his soldiers on the fields.
They had opened small gates around the Verhen farm to cast life sensing arrays from a distance to find out the position of the members of the Queen's Corps without being detected before launching their assault.
If not for Locrias' last-minute maneuver, his soldiers and the kids would have been ambushed at the same time. The assassins opened their Gates where their marks had been until a minute back, losing the element of surprise and giving the members of the Corps the time to react.
On top of that, the communication officer managed to call for reinforcements, tipping the scale. At least until another mercenary unit walked through the Talon's Steps. And then another and another more.
Despite the Corps' best efforts, the kids managed to stay alive only because catching a magical beast was no easy feat under normal circumstances. The mercenaries were good, but turning their back to the enemy was suicide.
On top of that, the packs of magical beasts from the Trawn wood joined the fray a few moments later the attack had started, making the battlefield even deadlier and more chaotic.
"We need more reinforcements!" The communication officer said in the amulet the moment he realized that they were still outnumbered.
They were not outmatched, but against so many enemies and with so much ground to cover, one shot was enough to kill one of the kids.
"We sent you everyone we had at the ready. Calling for more will take a while. Most of the troops have been dispatched in the North." The headquarters replied.
'Shit! This is the work of the Balkor copycat. They attacked us when we were at our weakest and the Kingdom's resources were already stretched thin. The only question is who is their mark?' Locrias couldn't make sense of the situation.
Neither the Verhen nor the Yehval had received a card, yet he didn't need to understand his enemies to kill them. While Locrias struck at anyone dumb enough to stand on his path, the beasts focused on protecting the Verhens, bringing them away from the battlefield and to the Warp Gate in the barn.
Zinya's children, however, weren't so lucky. The Kingdom considered them irrelevant and the beasts were loyal to Lith. Unbeknownst to the beasts and humans alike, everything was going according to the blue robed man's plan.
"The Yehvals are about to be killed!" One of the soldiers said via his communication earpiece.
"The Verhens are the priority. Don't do anything that might compromise the mission!" Locrias hated himself, but life in the army was about making tough choices and facing their consequences.
'Focus on the battle, not on the collateral damage.' He thought to himself to not think about having sentenced to death two children.
Frey and Filia were running for their lives under the helpless gaze of their mother. After hearing the commotion, Zinya had come out of the house to check on her children and was now screaming for help, pushing every single rune on her communication amulet.
Alas, Lith's rune was unavailable due to the distance while Kamila could only urge the headquarters for more reinforcements and ask Orion for help. She tried to contact Faluel and Protector but their runes were unavailable as well.
Lith's absence had also relieved the Hydra from her duty of protecting Lutia. She had left her lair along with Protector and his family right after he had returned from the mission in Ajatar's turf.
Faluel had temporarily moved to the Gorgon Empire, way past the area of effect of a civilian amulet. The only way to reach her was through a Council amulet.
Captain Locrias had barely the time to curse the unfairness of life that another mercenary unit came out of the Talon's Steps, making it impossible for him to protect anyone but himself.
"Again? How many goons has that asshole hired?" Locrias found himself facing three enemies at the same time, each one belonging to the most wanted list of the three Great Countries.
His men fared no better and the situation quickly turned for the worse as more people kept pouring out of the dimensional corridors. Aran and Leria were still safe thanks to the army of magical beasts fighting fang and claw to protect them, but Frey and Filia had been surrounded.
Someone wearing a deep blue robe dived down from the sky, saving them from the burning death that the fireballs raining upon them from every direction were meant to cause.
The Archmage took the children but left their magical beasts behind.
