The cold night on the Iron Bridge bit deep, worsened by the sharp smell of iron, mud, and fresh blood. For Kairos's new allies, all of it was torturous.
Jaxon stood stiffly, breathing heavily, his gaze fixed on the two dead Veridian soldiers he had just killed on Kairos's order.
Ronan huddled near the cart, his face pale as he still stared at the blood on his hands. Mira held back her nausea, turning her face away from the scene.
Only Finnan seemed relatively calm, his eyes gleaming wildly at the glittering contents of the weapon chests in the cart.
Kairos observed them one by one. From his lips, there was no comment at all about what his crew was currently experiencing.
He raised the new sword, which shimmered under the newly emerged sunlight.
"Good," he said flatly, his voice cutting through the heavy silence. "You survived this phase. Now, clean up this mess."
His command was simple yet contained a demand they found sadistic.
Jaxon swallowed hard and glanced at the Veridian soldier still tangled in the net, his eyes wide with fear. He struggled, whimpered, and begged for mercy with a look that sickened Jaxon.
Kairos watched him in silence, his gaze making Jaxon shiver, unable to say anything else.
"Alright," Jaxon finally said hoarsely. He then pointed his sword at the trapped soldier.
Every muscle tensed, and his heart pounded wildly in his chest. The sword in his grip moved forward and pierced the soldier.
A high-pitched scream drowned out the roar of the river. After the soldier was lifeless, Jaxon took a deep breath, calming the turmoil within him.
"Ronan and Finnan, help me with the gravely wounded. Mira, stay there, keep watch."
Ronan and Finnan nodded, moving slowly with stiff motions, their faces pale. They were men unaccustomed to such cruelty, but under Kairos's strange gaze, they did it.
Minutes later, silence returned to the bridge. The Iron River continued to flow, as if indifferent to what had just happened on its bridge.
Jaxon wiped his sword on the grass, the soldier's blood now mixing with the mud. He did not allow himself to think too much, focusing only on physical movements to distract himself.
Kairos walked closer to him, then stood with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes swept over the corpses and the tied captives, their faces bruised and smeared with blood.
His expression was flat and showed nothing.
"We must go now," he said in a calm voice. "Bring all their equipment, weapons, armor, and clothing. Most importantly, leave no trace."
Jaxon nodded. "Ronan, Finnan, please help remove the nets."
He turned to his two recruited comrades and said, "Help me carry these chests to a safe place."
They all worked in silence, physical exhaustion mixed with the new mental burden.
The chests were heavier than they expected, and to their astonishment, Kairos easily lifted them.
They would carry the chests into a small cave that had been prepared beforehand, hidden behind thick bushes a few hundred meters from the bridge.
When dawn truly broke, painting the eastern sky with bluish-gray hues, their work was finished. The bridge looked clean, as if nothing had happened there.
Only the churned mud from footprints and trampled grass remained as silent witnesses.
Jaxon and his two comrades carried the bodies to the edge of a high cliff downstream from the Iron River.
"Make sure none get caught," Kairos whispered, his cold blue eyes meeting Jaxon's, making the man eleven years his senior shiver. "The current should carry them far from here."
The human bodies quickly disappeared, swallowed by the murky current, the splashing sound of their entry into the river breaking the silence.
Kairos decided that the severely wounded captives would be useless, and they too would be thrown into the river.
"Don't look into their eyes," he hissed suddenly to Ronan and Finnan, who were dragging them to the cliff, severely wounded and still alive. "Just do it. This is their last mercy."
Only one lightly wounded, a pale young man about 25 years old, they brought. "He might give us good information," Kairos said coldly.
***
Mira unhitched the horses from the cart and pushed them all to the middle of the bridge.
"Open all the chests," Kairos commanded. "We only take what we can carry. Burn the cart after it's empty."
With trembling hands, Mira lit a fire in a pile of hay. Soon the cart was burning, black smoke rising above it.
They all worked quickly, though some still struggled to fight their nausea. Kairos watched everything near the pile of looted weapons.
Dozens of short and long swords, scores of spearheads, several sets of light armor, and two short bows with arrows.
"You have all proven you can fight," he said in a calm yet authoritative voice, after they had finished and gathered near the pile.
"Now, take what you want. But remember, only what you can carry. Choose wisely, for what you choose will be your responsibility."
Hearing Kairos's words, Jaxon moved first and took a light armor set and two of the best longswords, then tied them to his back.
Finnan chose a short bow, arrows, and a short sword, examining them carefully. Mira only took a light spearhead and a small dagger, then hid it in her boot.
Ronan, still in shock, flinched when Jaxon hissed beside him, "Choose, or you go empty-handed."
Finally, with a stiff movement, he took a wide-bladed short sword and gripped it tightly.
"We go now," Kairos ordered. "Jaxon, you lead to the cave. Finnan, erase all our traces."
They all walked with their loot carried by the healthy cart horses. The journey was exhausting, but they had all begun to recover from their nausea.
Jaxon walked steadily, leading the captive. Finnan walked at the very back, sweeping away traces with Mira, and Ronan held the horses' reins.
After hours, they finally reached a hidden recess behind a small waterfall. But after the goods were unloaded, Kairos gave them no time to rest.
He ordered them to maintain the weapons, or stand guard and check the surroundings outside the cave, or fetch water. He himself sat on a rock, observing everything.
After everything was done, Kairos called them all and gave them other tasks. Finnan was assigned to guard, Mira and Jaxon to find medicinal herbs.
And in the end, Ronan was tasked with questioning their captive. "Ronan, interrogate the captive. Find out other Veridian supply routes."
Hearing this command, Ronan turned pale. "I-I don't know how."
"You are a noble, you can play with words," Kairos replied coldly. "Your family's lives depend on it."
Kairos's words sounded more like a threat than advice or a warning. With slumped shoulders, Ronan moved to where the captive sat.
After some time, he painstakingly managed to extract some supply routes that the soldier knew. Kairos nodded in satisfaction, pleased with Ronan's progress.