Injury

The boys know.

The two princes let out a long sigh. Finally, the shorter one opens the letter he hid behind his back. The letter is written in a messy handwriting. Everything is smudged around and the paper itself is very crumbled. The brothers are a bit concerned. Nobody ever writes this bad to the emperor, unless it's an emergency. The two boys stop looking at the handwriting and start reading the note.

Dear Philza,

the Esempi has arrived at the city right next to L'manburg. We need the soldiers here and quick! Some farmers say that the Esempi leaves a path of destruction behind. If you don't hurry, L'manburg will end up like that.

The blonde looks up to his brother with confusion in his eyes. The brunette has the same look on his face.

...

"Should we talk about this with Phil? I think he wanted to talk about this with us anyways."

The older one just nods.

Philza is sitting in his armchair, as always. He doesn't know what to do anymore. The problems with the army are getting better, but he doesn't know how to send the soldiers to the fight in time. The ride 'til L'manburg is at least a week and the soldiers still need quite some training. He could send the best and advanced soldiers, but if he does that, the army will get even weaker. Philza has always been a good leader of his army, but this is a really unexpected war. He thought that he and the emperor of the Esempi were on good tracks. Philza knows that stressing about literally everything isn't going to help the process, but he can't help it.

The door flies open. The emperor's sons come rushing in. Their father looks surprised and a little annoyed. The brothers don't care and the taller one slams a piece of paper on the desk.

"What is that about?"

"I don't know? Where'd you get it?"

The boys don't answer. Phil takes the letter and starts reading it. His eyes turn cold. He slowly lowers the paper. He clears his throat and starts telling them about the fear of the old village, L'manburg, to be destroyed and shredded by the Esempi. The boys try to find a solution again, eager to help this country with their ideas. But they don't have anything. Until...

"You need to send a part of the army at some point. The soldiers that go there can slow down the Esempi. Hopefully just enough to make the rest of the army stronger. If you send the soldiers now, the Esempi won't have enough time to destroy L'manburg before the rest of the army arrives. Esempi just arrived at the city next to the one we need to protect, that could give us enough time to send our army there."

The two blondes are very impressed.

"That... That could work!"

The Emperor immediately makes himself ready to give a speech to the soldiers, about how and who of the soldiers will leave to go to their oldest village.

-The next day-

The army is ready for their long trip. Instead of the general, one of the best soldiers is going with them. Technoblade will go there in maybe two weeks, just like the rest of the army. Philza has decided to join the fighting as well, but only if he has to.

After the goodbyes, the rest of the army continues training. The general is now teaching the soldiers how to handle a lot of damage. He shows them how to stop bleedings and to recognise when the opponent is going to conduct a deadly attack. The army itself has a lot of energy. Despite the lack of sleep they had in the last couple of days. Technoblade was afraid that the army would be very weak and tired. But to his surprise, some of the soldiers managed to have not only a boring training fight, but an actual fight against Techno. Of course no one is able to defeat Techno, but they are definitely strong enough to be able to defeat a good army, for example the one of the Esempi. The army of Hypixel now looks like the one about a decade ago.

On the training field there are still more and more people joining the army. A lot of the soldiers are in their twenties, but some are either younger or older. There are soldiers that look like they are in their sixties or seventies and others that seem to be minors. Among those younger soldiers are the two personal guards of the princes. They are both around sixteen years old but they have a huge height difference. The taller one is the one soldier that Technoblade recognised on the first day of training. His pale skin is shining even brighter because of the sunrise but his raven black hair doesn't seem to have been taken good care of, because of it being very disorganised and a bit greasy. The shorter one doesn't look well cared of either. It's not like anyone really does, but it looks like these two boys have been training very hard. The shorter one has mud brown hair and green eyes. The two soldiers aren't paying much attention to the training. They are standing further away from the rest.

"Have you seen how the general fights?", asks the taller one.

"Yeah... it's scary and impressive at the same time. I've seen his eyes glow, that's probably the scariest part."

"Glow?"

"Yeah... like a deep red. Every time he fends off or conducts a strong attack."

The two guys continue this conversation, until the fighting next to them stops and the emperor steps onto the field. A crowd forms around the leader which makes the teens get curious and follow the rest of the soldiers. The Emperor pumps up his chest before he starts speaking.

"As you all have probably noticed, a part of the army has left this morning. They are on their way to L'manburg, our oldest and most treasured city of Hypixel. We will all be leaving in two weeks as well. You have two weeks to get enough practice to fight against the Esempi. But don't you worry. We have a way to not get many bad injuries and stay healthy and strong during the war. It will be a difficult fight, but if everything goes as planned, we could definitely win it."

The emperor finishes his short speech with a small wave, signalling that the soldiers may continue their training. On his way off the field he answers a few questions and then leaves to continue his own business.

Not much happened anymore that day. The soldiers trained until the late evening. They stopped a bit earlier than normally, just to get some more rest.