Crevex's hands were starting to ache, his body worn from war, yet his hands remained steady. Steady. Steady as he slashed another creature in half, their inky, tarred flesh slicing open under his singing blade. They were being ambushed, him and his army. They should have taken the South road.

"Push through!" he yelled, snarling as blood splattered onto his face. They’d been at his for hours. They'd been at this war for years, half-nenians trained under the humans to fight for them like slaves. Crevex felt bitter at the thought.

”Commander!” a voice screamed, agonized, and Crevex whirled his head around, his breath shallow as he raised his blade, tainted with monsters' blood. There, his younger brothers cradled their older sister in their arms, her head on Callust's lap, her stomach stabbed, blood leaking from her lips as Cadev desperately tried to staunch the bleeding.

His blood froze, his jaw slackening. His ears rang.

"Do something!" Callust snarled, his hands coated with their sister's blood, his eyes anguished, grey eyes steely with panic. Their sister's breath rattled, and it echoed in his mind, replaying over and over again. Crevex, with all his strength and his honor and his might, could not bear to move. "Commander, please!" Cadev shrieked, holding her desperately.

He fell to his knees, stumbling to their side. His hands trembled profusely, his throat suddenly dry.

"Give her to me," he managed, marvelling at how his voice comes out even, numb, "now, Callust."

Callust followed, handing her to him with an impossible tenderness that would make Death weep. "Hang on,” he pleaded, nearly hysteric, broken as Cadev sobbed into his bloodied palms, "come on. Please. Please."

Crevex held his little sister's head in one hand, and her torso in the other, cradling her to his chest. "Call for a healer," he ordered hoarsely to the youngest, Cadev. All that was keeping him grounded was the bubbling vengeance in his ribs, clawing at his heart. "Now."

He gently wiped the blood off her cheek, hands shaking.