"Ah, fucking shit!" Armen squeaks, ducking his head as a sword was swung his way.
Luke raises his sword and slashes at him as an attempt to cut off the younger's head, forcing Armen to jump away from the attack and land on his butt. "Oof!"
Sweating slightly, he opens his pack and takes out an old daggar. He quickly gets up to his feet and raises it hesitantly. It's been a while since Armen's had control over his actions, so his fighting skills is ought to be rusty.

"Armen!" Grayson yells, pulling out his own sword to help his friend. He runs towards his direction, when a soldier steps in front of him, sword ready to stab at Grayson's chest. "Hey!" The ex-commander moves away from sword.
The soldier then strikes at him, growling. Grayson lifts his sword and blocks the attack. Both are glaring at each other with hate in their eyes.

Meanwhile with Mia and Drake, they dealt with the other three. The mage takes out his medallions, raising an earth wall between him and the soldiers. Mia, who had been standing on the earth wall, steadies herself and readies her bow, aiming at the enemies down below.

"Eat this, Empire scum!" She pulls out a couple arrow and places them her bow.
With no hesistation, she lets go of the string, hitting one of the soldiers with ease. He screeches in pain, holding the place where the arrow was shot; implanted on his chest. He looks up angrily, raising his sword to her current direction. In an attempt to harm the elf, he throws his sword at her and only stabs at the earthen wall. She just smiles smugly, her next arrow aimed at his head.

Twack!

And one soldier falls to the floor, blood pooling from his wounds. The earth wall slowly sinks into the ground, giving way for Drake to make some attacks. He looks around and sees a small pond of water nearby. He grins slightly, holding his water medallion. Turning towards the two attackers, he clenches the medallion and concentrates his magic on the water.

Suddenly, the water rises from the pond, rushing and heading straight for the soldiers. One of them saw the water and gets out of the way, but the other wasn't so lucky as he gets hit by the attack. It shoots him into a tree and stays around his head. The soldier gasps for air unsuccessfully, and drowns.

Drake drops his attack and falls to the floor, breathing heavily.
"Fuck.." That attack unexpectedly took alot of energy and mana from him. The last of the three soldiers stands over him, sword raised.
All of the sudden, the soldier drops his sword, gasping painfully. Drake looks up to see a golden sword impaled into the enemy's back.

"Haha, not today bub." Mia pulls out her sword from the soldier and kicks him to the side.
She, puts her sword back into its hilt and kneels down. "Need some help, dude?" She asks, smiling.
Drake smiles back and shakes his head. "I'll be fine, Mia. Just help the others." He says, gesturing to Grayson and Armen, who were still fighting their enemies.
She nods and runs back into the battlefield.

Drake takes a quick breath and looks at his medallions. "I should be more careful with my magic. Who knows what'll happen if I over-work myself again?"
------
The sound of swords clashing rings through the forest. Grayson pulls back his sword and slashes at the soldier. He doesn't jump away in time and gets a big cut across his body. The soldier holds a hand to his wound and feels blood starting to drip from it. Looking at Grayson with rage, he clenches his sword and prepares to swing at him again, when his face suddenly distorts into pain.
This catches Grayson off-guard, who watches in surprise as the soldier falls onto his knees and lies dead on the floor, a couple arrows planted on the back of his head. From behind, Mia had her bow out, grinning.

"Drake said to help you out, so ta-da!" She says, putting her bow down and walking towards Grayson.
The blonde rolls his eyes, smiling. "God, you haven't changed in those past years huh?"
The elf shakes her head. "Oh, you have no idea how different I actually am, but I suppose I did keep my child-like nature."

A pained yell grabs the two's attention as they turn to see Armen on the floor, arm bleeding from a couple cuts, with Luke sitting on top of his him, breathing heavily, sword above his head, ready to strike down. The boy whimpers slightly, watching as stone-cold purple eyes meet his fearful cyan ones.
"Stop squirming, i'll make this quick." The lavender-haired boy huffs in annoyance.

"NO!!" The two blondes yell, running to their direction, Grayson lifting his sword and Mia readying her bow with haste.

Suddenly a blast of yellow light was shot Luke's way, forcing the assassin off of Armen and thrown into a bush. "AUGH!"
The surge of power knocks Luke out cold.

Armen quickly gets off the ground, breathing fast and holding his neck shakily. Drake, who was the cause of the yellow light attack, rushes over to him. "Armen!! Are you okay?"
"I'm...i'm fine." He replies, picking up his daggar from the ground.
"Oh thank god!" Grayson yells, giving the young boy a quick hug.

"Dude, you nearly gave us heart attacks!" Mia exclaims, hitting Armen slightly on his arm.
Armen snickers a bit, rubbing where she hit him. "Awwh, I didn't know you cared."
"Ugh, nevermind. You worried these two more than me, you cocky shit." The elf scoffs, crossing her arms.
The four of them laugh, but their moment is short-lived when they noticed the yelling getting much louder. This is a sign for them to run, Mia taking the lead and Drake hanging back in case he needs to cast some spells.
---------
"Oh god, where do we go now?!" Grayson exclaims worriedly.
"Okay, if we keep heading straight, maybe we're lose them!" Mia adds, though uncertain.
"That's not going to work, they've been hot on our tail for such a long time!" Drake argues.

While the three bicker on what to do, Armen looks around franctically. He notices a cave, not too far away from where they're at and seems to be hidden well enough.
"Guys! Do you see that?!" He asks the three, pointing at the general direction of the cave.
"See what?? I can't see anything in this dark forest!" Drake replies, squinting to see where he's pointing.
The other two respond the same, saying they can't see too well in the dark and it's a miracle no one's tripped yet.
It confused him how he could be the only one to see better in the dark. What could differ him from the others?

Wait...

'It's because of Herobrine! He's an entity that can see best in the dark, I must have retained some of his eyesight!' He thinks to himself. As far as he knows, that's the most logical conclusion.

"Okay guys! I think we can lose them, just follow me!" Armen yells to the three, running in front of Mia, who's starting to be out of breath again. She simply gives off a thumbs-up, while the others nod in response.

With Armen leading the group, he makes a bee line for the cave, avoiding as many hanging branches and pot holes as possible.
Soon, the voices get farther, but the Empire is still behind them.

"Here!!" He whisper-yells, skidding to a pause in front of the cave.
Armen herds everyone in and they all hide behind the cave's walls, being as silent as possible.
The sound of angry soldiers and archers quickly run past them, not even paying any attention to the cave. Once they're certain that the Empire is out of ear's range, the four sigh in relief.

"Thank god..." Mia says, huffing as she's finally able to catch her breath.
"Yeah, I don't think I could've handled more running." Drake agrees, wiping some sweat from his forehead.
"Uh huh, now. About you two being fugatives.." Armen asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Speaking of that indeed, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE EMPIRE IS AFTER YOU?!" Grayson whisper-yells at Mia, voice cracking due to all the shouting that's been done today.

Fwish! Fwish! Fwish!

Torches that they didn't realize were there before are suddenly set aflame, dully lighting up the cave. The torches continue ahead, lighting up the pathway, until they stop infront of a strange structure.

An arch of brittle stone, with old vines that have hung on it for centuries, glows an ominous green from afar.

It was an active portal.