Vampirewill and heartcandiie were walking alongside with the shop owner, Gandalf95.

Suddenly, a burst of light emitted from somewhere. Somewhere south. A flare truck, thought
vampirewill, someone’s near. Following the flare, tobis and wolbis were shot out.
Vampirewill grabbed his partners by their sleeves and dodged into a storeroom before
heartcandiie’s hair was shot off.

‘Heartcandiie! Get Gandalf95 and yourself back to the factory!’ Vampirewill instructed.

‘Maybe there’s another way, like we could take down that truck and hopefully win?’
‘The truck? Of course! We need to divert the troop’s attention in order to escape. We can
do that much at least. Now go back to the factory where you’ll be safe and sound.

Heartcandiie still didn’t get it. The only thing in the doorway was a twenty-foot-high
flare truck. Surely vampirewill didn’t think on taking on one of those. Surely not.
Heartcandiie followed vampirewill down a ladder while Gandlaf95 ran away. She had no
intention of going back to the factory. If vampirewill was going after a flare truck,
heartcandiie was going with him. She was, after all, his ‘partner’.

Heartcandiie followed vampirewill down a ladder surrounded by a tubular cage. Vampirewill
heard her footsteps clanging on the rungs. ‘I thought I told you to get back to the
factory,’he whispered, wary of the two soldiers forty feet below.

‘I have to help. You’re not running away so why should I?’

‘Okay, good, you’re a bowmaster, a ranger. Accurate, just like me. I have to take on the
flare truck on the northeast corner. You can open a hole for me.’

‘Open a hole?’

‘We get down to the next level and knock out those two warriors. I’ll make a run for the
truck and you knock out anyone aiming at me.’

Heartcandiie swallowed. This was war. Vampirewill was talking about war. ‘What about you?’

Vampirewill settled his steelys on his hands. ‘They’ll probably get me, but you can go out
by the tunnel shaft. I’m sure they have one. A diversion is all we need for us to continue
down the path.

Heartcandiie summoned resolve from somewhere. ‘Okay. I’ll do my best. Let’s go.’ She
swallowed, trying to dislodge her heart, which seemed to be jammed in her throat, and
followed vampirewill down the ladder.

Below, the two warriors were doing some recon work with the rusty lenses. Their swords
were readily clenched in their giant palms.

Vampirewill dropped the final few feet, landing behind the warriors. Without pause for a
movie-hero quip, he bashed their heads together, and the two men slid to the stairwell
without so much as a whimper.

‘I’m going in as fast as possible. Hopefully by the time they realize I’m not one of them,
it will be too late.’

Heartcandiie lay down. ‘But what if…’

‘No time for what-ifs,’ interrupted vampirewill, securing himself with the warrior’s suit.
‘Do your best. Remember, xiiaoweii is depending on us.”

No pressure, thought heartcandiie glumly.

Vampirewill was out of the door and running before any soldiers noticed.

One bowman took sight and readied his shot. Heartcandiie moved the bow towards the
bowman’s position. She centered the arrow on the soldier’s hip and pulled back the arrow.

‘Hey, you!’called the bowman, and heartcandiie fired.

An arrow bomb sped from the bow, exploding upon contact with the man’s back. An explosion
occurred, knocking the man senseless on the floor.

Vampirewill continued his run, blasting out stars at unfortunate troopers. He was headed
directly for an assault tank. But why? What could he achieve?

No time for questions. Two more soldiers had noticed vampirewill, bringing out their
weapons.

Heartcandiie aimed and fired. Too low. The arrows exploded a few metres in front of their
targets. Concentrate. Concentrate.

She fired again. Two shots in quick succession. The arrow flew from her grip, and the
soldiers found themselves being hit unconscious.

One on the left.Down low. The bowman got off an arrow that hit vampirewill between the
shoulder blades, knocking him forward three stumbling steps. He quickly shrugged off his
scorpio, revealing another shiny vest.

Lucky, thought heartcandiie. Lucky. She fired five arrows at the marksman. Three found
their target. Vampirewill had almost reached his goal. twenty yards to the truck.

The truck gunner noticed the hermit, revolving the main crossbow in his direction.
Vampirewill tried weaving, but the crossbow barrel was locked on and tracked his movements
with fliud ease. Vampirewill appeared to give up, standing still with his hands raised.
Through the chaos, heartcandiie saw the index finger of vampirewill’s right hand. It was
pointing at a fuel tank loaded on the truck. A message. Shoot the tank! It was a shot in a
million, as she could only spot an eigth of the whole target.

Heartcandiie stood for a better angle, resting her upper muscles on a handle bar. Try to
hit the glass piece of the tank. Still, no point in being delicate about it. Heartcandiie
fired 6 shots. At least one found its mark, causing the whole tank to burse into flames.

Now, more troops have arrived, some recovering from the destruction. Five of them knocked
out the hermit, leaving the ranger clueless of what to do next. Heartcandiie pounded
clenched fists on the railing. There was nothing she could do except watch.

‘Nice shooting, lady,’ said a voice.

Heartcandiie turned. An assassin was standing farther down the doorway, his stars aiming
upon her chest.

‘Do you have any idea how many mesos it’sgoing to cost to repair that flare truck?’

Heartcandiie shook her head.

The assassin spoke,’Hey, lady. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re going to
come peacefully, right?’

‘Right,’ said heartcandiie warily. ‘Well, okay, then,’ said the assassin, pulling the
trigger of a hi-tech sedative ammunition gun, hitting the ranger’s shoulder.

Through the sleepiness she saw the assassin lean over her.

‘Oops,’ said the man, his voice dulled by the sedative, ‘My fingers slipped.’