Wrongly in Love

28- Realization

Meanwhile, only a few yards away from Guinevere, Gusion and Lancelot were trying their best to keep the hoods away. They were fighting with all their might, but neither wanted to state the obvious- they were outnumbered. Greatly.

"There's just- too- many of them!" Lancelot finally blurted out, panting as he caught his breath.

"Just a few more- we need to carry on," Gusion said back, though there was nothing few about the number of hoods charging towards them. "They're getting desperate to catch Granger. And me. And we need to protect Gwen."

Lancelot looked around worriedly. "Speaking of which, are Granger and the others okay?" A hood tried to shoot a spell to Lancelot's head. He quickly ducked.

"Yes, they can't be very far behind, right?" Gusion shot a dagger, aiming for the hood's heart. The hood immediately fell headfirst in a puddle of blood, and another tried to shoot a spell back to Gusion but missed.

"Haha, nice aim," Gusion said sarcastically, and shooted daggers again, this time a dozen. A blue spark nearly hit his eye. "Woah, that wasn't bad- hey, is that violet I see? Could it be... Guinevere? " He interrupted himself, noticing a flash of violet out of the corner of his eye.

Lancelot glanced back, barely dodging a spell, which whizzed past his ear. "Gwen? No, Odette ordered her to go back at the castle. Anyways- well, I hate to admit it, but these hoods are pretty good."

"I agree, they aren't this brutal back in the Forest, can they be using clones? Why are they so many?" Gusion said. Then he noticed a flash of violet even brighter than before. Only one person in the entire Land of Dawn can make a violet just like that. Hmmm.

"Lance, are you sure that wasn't really Gwen?" He asked tentatively, not wanting to annoy Lancelot. But Lancelot had also looked over his shoulder. He looked pale. "Typical Guinevere! Always so stubborn, wanting to get into the action when she knows she's not capable of doing so!"

Lancelot stared behind his back, now completely oblivious to the hoods. "Wait... There's a dozen around her, and she doesn't seem bothered, in fact, she looks like she's rather enjoying it. Wait- bloody hell, was that her third skill? It's knocking the enemies in the air!" A spell nearly knocked him off his feet but he deflected it with his sword.

"What!" Gusion turned back in alarm. Sure enough, Guinevere was doing just fine, with enemies afloat around her. But there was something- something coming towards her- a great white flame poised to shoot her in the head.

Gusion turned pale. Quickly he said to Lancelot, "Can you hold these hoods for a while on your own? I need to go to Gwen."

"But she's doing just fine! Why are you-" But Gusion was already dashing towards Guinevere. Completely unaware of the danger she was in, Guinevere thought she was going to get a scolding when she saw Gusion running in her direction. Shouting in a defensive tone, she started to say, "Gusion, I don't have time for a telling-off. We're in great danger, now, you know, but-"

To her great surprise, Gusion didn't appear to want to say anything and pulled her hand. But just before he was about to drag her to safety, the white flame hit Gusion in the chest, and he gasped for breath, looking shocked. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Guinevere's terrified face looking at him, realising she'd made a huge, huge mistake.

Guinevere tried to drag Gusion to the castle, but he was too heavy so she lifted him by magic, occasionally looking this way and that to make sure there wasn't any peeping hoods. Too exhausted to bring him directly to the infirmary, she set him in the castle grounds, where he would be safe. Finally. Guinevere checked his pulse. Oh good. He's unconscious, but at least alive. She tried reviving him with a spell, but her healing spells were proven too feeble. She was no support. Sighing, she just decided to just tough it out and bring him to the infirmary. She knocked on the castle doors, and a castle guard answered. "Sir, my friend here has lost consciousness because of some spell can you please bring him to the infirmary I need to get back outside," she said hurriedly. The guard looked rather confused for a few seconds, but then carried him to the infirmary.

As Guinevere walked back to the village, where there was still a swarm of hoods, she cursed herself. Stupid fool. Gusion was trying to save you, and you scream at him because you think he's gonna scold you? Damn. What an idiot I was, she thought. She was so absorbed in her thoughts, she barely noticed a hood just in front of her, stopping just a few inches from him.

Guinevere gasped, but remained calm. "What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me? Go ahead," she said fiercely, before witnessing the most curious thing.

The hood did not dare attack, but instead tried not to laugh. Guinevere noticed that instead of a glowing blue sword under his cloak, he carried two blades. The odd hood hesitated for a moment, then handed her a piece of parchment. He then nodded at her, then left.

Odd. Did this paper contain some poison or something? Guinevere wondered. She nevertheless opened the folded piece of parchment, then gasped.

Suddenly, Guinevere realized what she should have done at the beginning, before causing all this chaos.