"That was a child," Darrion muttered, his voice trembling. "You murdered a child. How could you?"
"I had no choice," Von replied. "They attacked us; it was either us or them."
"But still, you have no right to murder a child!!"
"This is war; there is no such thing as murder."
Darrion's eyes flickered with rage, he couldn't believe Von had the gall to act so calm after what he had done.
"Aren't you even a little bit upset? You just killed a child, for God's sake!"
"Why should I feel bad? It was self-defense."
"Self-defense?! He was rushing to his father; he was scared. That kid couldn't do anything to you!"
"Now's not the time for this," Damien interrupted. "We're on a battlefield, remember?"
"Lucas is right," Elizabeth relented. "We can't stand here arguing. We should keep moving so we aren't left behind by the rest of the troops."
The rest of the troops were gradually making their way through the forest. There was hardly any sign of battle. Damen just chalked up their encounter to bad luck. But still, the fact that the demi-humans were the first to launch an attack was a bad sign.
"We should also hang up the bodies," Damien suggested.
"Hang up the bodies? What good would that do? It will only make them angry."
"Anger makes them stupid. It's called psychological warfare. Let's hang them from the trees to send a message. It will give us an advantage against them, even if just a slight one."
A demi-human had brazenly ambushed them while traveling with a child, clearly not considering them much of a threat. They needed to send a message to all the demi-humans, to instill panic.
Things would be better if they were running for their lives instead of launching ambushes. Running in fear would also make them easier targets to kill. Plus, they'd think twice about launching ambushes from the trees if the bodies of their people were hanging from them.
Damien felt weak, and the earlier ambush had shown him the grim reality of his situation. The demi-human had targeted him first, as if they were taking out the weakest link first. If the demi-humans had some way of sensing that he lacked magic, he would be constantly targeted.
"No!! I'm not doing that. You expect me to hang the body of a child from a tree?" Elizabeth asked, shocked by Damien's suggestion.
"How could you even suggest something like that?!" Darrion said, visibly agitated. "I thought you were different, Lucas; you guys make me sick!"
"This is war," Damien shot back. "You do whatever it takes to win. Morality has no place here. I don't like killing; it's messy and oftentimes disgusting, but I'll do whatever it takes to win, no matter what it is."
Damien had no qualms about killing but savagely murdering someone wasn't his cup of tea. When he kills someone, he'd rather do it gracefully like a smooth beheading. There were other savage methods of fighting that didn't involve ripping someone apart limb by limb. That was where he and his brother differed slightly.
"This isn't a debate. We're not hanging up the bodies. Let's just leave them and go." Elizabeth commanded.
With no other choice, Damien was forced to leave the bodies where they lay. The entire ordeal had diminished the morale of the group, slowly revealing the horrific nature of war.
Damien glanced over at Darrion, who was walking with his head down, mumbling incoherent words almost tripping a couple of times. He was clearly affected more than the others. Elizabeth was also impacted, but she maintained her composure, by gripping desperately to the hilt of her sword to hide the fact that her hand was shaking uncontrollably.
Von slowed his pace until he was walking side by side with Damien.
"What was that back there about 'hanging bodies from trees'? Where'd you even get that idea?" he asked.
"It was just something I came up with in the heat of the moment." Damien answered, not wanting to pursue the topic any longer.
"Well, it was a crazy idea. Hey, didn't you think it was strange how the demi-humans targeted you instead of everyone else? It was almost like they were taking out our weakest link first."
"What I found strange is that you didn't warn me when you saw them attack."
"What are you implying? That I'd let them kill you? The attack caught me off guard just like everyone else."
"If you say so… But explain something to me. A musket has a fifteen-second delay after you pull the trigger. How did you manage to fire back just three seconds after they launched their attack?"
Von was shocked that Damien had observed so much in just a split second. He had thought Damien was nothing but a magicless reject thrown into war, destined to be killed.
"Maybe the gun malfunctioned, or I'm just that powerful of a mage," Von joked.
"It's none of those. The truth is, your fingers had hit the trigger long before the demi-humans attacked."
"That's an interesting theory," Von mocked, scratching his chin.
Soon after, they exited the forest and entered a small clearing. They spotted a few other four-man units taking a break and decided to follow suit.
As Damien sat down, he gazed around until something caught his eye that piqued his interest. He got up from his seat to take a closer look at what he had seen.
It was a plant about five feet tall, with large, broad, oval-shaped leaves. He leaned in closer to take in the smell, and sure enough, it was what he thought it was.
"What are you doing?" Elizabeth asked, startling him a little.
"Do you know what this plant is?" he asked.
"Do I look like a herbalist to you?" she replied, frowning at his seemingly dumb question.
Von glanced at Damien and the plant he was standing in front of, then spoke up. "My parents run a herbal store, so I can tell you that that plant is nothing but useless junk. It has no magical applications whatsoever."
"Excuse me?" Damien uttered, taken aback by Von's answer.
"What? You know something I don't?"
Damien shifted his attention back to the plant, almost overwhelmed by its presence. To him, it was one of the most treasured plants from his home world, a plant that had changed the world itself. Yet here, people referred to it as nothing but useless junk.
Never in his life had he heard someone speak of tobacco in such a way. But now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen any cigars since arriving in this world.
A spark of an idea began to form in Damien's mind.
"Do you guys know what will happen to this land once we conquer it?"
"Well, some of it will be given to the nobles to use as farmland or something. Most of it will belong to the king, and he'll probably sell it back to whoever can pay. Why are you asking these strange questions all of a sudden?"
"Nothing, just got a little curious," Damien replied, smiling from ear to ear.
By pure coincidence, he might have struck gold, by pure coincidence he'd managed to have found a glimmer of hope to his daunting situation