Keith struggled to keep his eyes open as they reached another fork in the road again. He looked down at his map and decided going left would be the faster way to get back to Galraen. 

He was tired and he was sure his group was too but they couldn't stop now to rest. They had to get back to warn Galraen and then the other kingdoms.

He wondered how Katie and the others were doing. There seemed to be no galra attacks on them or on surrounding areas so it meant they succeeded at keeping the galra back for today. 

Keith hoped they were all okay and that they would be able to keep blocking the galra off so he would have enough time to warn the other kingdoms.

Before all the thoughts could fully distract him from the road, he cleared his mind and looked back at his group to see if they were all okay. He predicted it would take at least a week at this pace.

He hoped he would make it back to Katie and the others before they all died trying to stop Lotor and his parents.

                                                                                    ---

Katie barely had time to block the attack but saved her shoulder just in time from the flying knife the woman sent out. The women didn't attack her at the same time although they could easily beat her if they both did. 

The bright woman's movements were very precise and quick but Katie noticed that she was aiming for all the parts of Katie's body that would only damage and not kill. The women didn't want her dead.

She kept up with all the movements by blocking them and waited for her time to strike. If they didn't want her dead, it meant they wanted to bring her back somewhere else alive. 

Katie would rather die than end up in the hands of an enemy. 

After a while of dodging and blocking, she finally saw the bright woman get visually tired so she took her chance. Her plan to beat the woman from the beginning was to make her exhausted to lower her guard and then strike. 

Katie's first hit was blocked off by the woman but just barely. She blocked it off barely with two knifes and Katie knew the woman wouldn't have enough strength to be able to block the next hit. 

As Katie went in again, her attack was blocked off again but this time it was the darker woman who stepped in with her massive sword. Katie looked up in surprise and could see the features of the darker woman better.

She had a scar under her right eye and her dark eyes showed anger as she looked down at Katie like she was an ant compared to her. The darker woman easily overpowered her and was much more stronger and bigger in size.

Katie struggled to hold her ground against the larger woman and was eventually knocked back. She fell on the ground, her sword falling besides her and she grunted as she tried to get back up. She had already used almost all her energy dodging and blocking the attacks of the bright woman. Katie was just as worn out as she was.

"You're lucky our Prince doesn't want you dead." The larger woman spat out, obviously bitter about it as she put her sword back. 

She was about to grab Katie but an arrow suddenly went in between them and the woman backed up in surprise while Katie turned to the direction from where it came from to see the archer who she knew well.

"Mark!" She exclaimed with anticipating eyes and he smiled at her from the tree branch he was on. 

Carlos rushed in between Katie and the women with his sword raised.

"Sorry it took a while." He said, his head slightly turned back to her but his eyes still on the women.

"Just in time actually." She responded with a grin as she picked up her sword again. She finally found the strength to stand up as Theo and Mark came down from the trees to stand beside Carlos.

The women shared a glance and the darker woman turned to them with a glare. 

"This will not be our last fight." She said, looking over all of them and then her fierce eyes stopping on Katie.

Katie glared back at the woman, hoping her eyes were as threatening and intimidating as the woman's.

The dark woman snarled at them one more time before picking up the brighter woman on her shoulder and jumping away through the trees. 

Katie sighed in relief at the thought that no one really got hurt. Her legs almost gave out at remembering the impact of the woman's strength but she was still able to walk by herself back to their camp where Kenneth and Drew kept watch. 

She knew that wouldn't be the last of the two women but hoped they wouldn't come back too soon. 

She had to get stronger until she fought with the darker woman again.

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A/N

Another chapter out on schedule! 

Welcome Summer Breakkkk!!!!

I'm so happy to finally be free from school work but I have a bunch of summer chores to do as well so I'm going to keep my 2 week update schedule the same. I hope you guys won't mind.

Also sorry for the short chapter today, I was a bit busy this week (was forced to be social haha)

Anyway thank you for reading and I hope you all will have a good day!

-Silver <3