He ran towards the direction of that far gate without looking back. He knew Aemie had to keep her grasp over the city, and from the look of things the other camp planned to make it a very hard task to achieve.
And that meant they wanted either to trap them here or separate them.
"What is the plan?" Amera urged while the three of them ran as fast as they could towards that gate.
They were meeting with large numbers of mages running in the opposite direction. There was no way to tell if there were any traitors among them or not.
"Let's talk when we get outside," Arthur shortly said while moving his eyes all around, watching for any unexpected moves.
However, until they reached the gate, they didn't meet any resistance.
"Weird," Arthur said while standing just in front of the opened gate.
"You thought they would attack us?" Doaf sneered, "they wanted her to stay behind. Other than this they think they have the confidence to deal with us."
"Do you think so?" Arthur asked, yet Amera's mysterious smile coupled with the smirking smile over Doaf's face told Arthur a lot.
"Let's keep moving," Amera said as she started to move.
"Won't we wait for others?" Arthur turned to Doaf who winked.
"Let's follow the lady," Doaf said and this was one of the rarest moments the two would really agree on something.
Arthur wanted to ask but the warning glance he had from Amera made him refrain from doing so.
They weren't alone, and they were planning something.
"You owe me an explanation," as the three crossed past the gate and walked for a mile or more, Arthur couldn't help but say.
"Soon," Doaf mysteriously answered, "all your questions will be answered soon."
Arthur gave him a deep glance before saying to Gege:
'Scan the area around, make sure the tree won't miss anything hidden.'
'There is already a group of people walking from one of the gates of the city,' Gege came back in less than one minute, 'they seem to be heading towards you.'
Arthur gave the two a look full of doubt. 'Are they friends?'
'I doubt that,' Gege said, 'they are all part of the cauldron clan.'
"Oh," Arthur couldn't help but say and his single word attracted the attention of Daof and Amera.
"What happened?" the latter asked while taking out her spear, "are we followed?"
"So you knew all this time?" Arthur answered with a question of his.
"We have to improvise," Doaf said without a speck of guilt, "and our caution proved to be correct, right?"
Arthur stopped and gazed at the two without knowing what to say. "They are coming here in great numbers. We were outnumbered and we left before meeting up with everyone else."
"Who said we are outnumbered?" Amera sneered before turning her head around, "which direction are they coming from? And how long before catching up to us?"
Arthur could only look at the two without finding the suitable words to express his frustration. They were taking this matter too lightly as if they were about to meet old friends.
"There are over a thousand," Arthur took a deep breath and decided to trust them, "they are coming from this way and by their speed… they can arrive here in less than half an hour."
He just repeated the words Gege told him.
"That's good," Doaf shrugged as if this was nothing to worry about, "all we need to do now is to keep our speed and move as far as possible from the city."
"Away?" Arthur was surprised again, "shouldn't we go back and ask for help?"
"No," Amera gave him a warm smile, "when you are about to pull a trick, don't do it in front of the watchful gazes of your enemy, right?"
Arthur stayed in his place motionless for a long minute while the two started running again as if nothing happened.
"Crazy…" he mumbled to himself, "you two have gone crazy, do you know that?" he shouted at their backs while starting to run.
He had nothing else to do but that anyway.
The three ran together while Arthur had to resist asking. He asked Gege more than once to check the surrounding area.
Other than those growing in size enemies, there wasn't a single ally around.
It was like a desert for him despite everything around looking so green.
They were running through small hills covered with low and mid level grass. Some flowers and short trees could be seen sometimes, giving the place a touch of beauty.
Yet Arthur couldn't see anything beautiful about this place. For him things seemed to be heading towards his own death.
The bizarre thing was the strange silence of his three voices. They never complained or advised him to walk away or retreat.
Even the always complaining and very skeptical golden dragon kept his silence all the time.
And that made Arthur realize the three knew something he didn't.
'One way or another I will know,' Arthur said to the three beings without getting anything back but a chuckle from Gege.
'And you want us to spoil the surprise your two friends here are preparing for you? Not a chance,' she even laughed and despite that Arthur felt more at ease.
If he was in any danger, those three wouldn't stay silent or even act this cheerful. Not with the sympathetic Gege.
With them running with their top speed, the pursuing enemies couldn't reach them in a short time.
However that also brought another trouble for them... the one group that was hunting them down turned into five, and they seemed to show no stop of increasing their numbers with the more time the three kept running.
"We have around seven thousand mages now running at our tail," Arthur couldn't help but say in warning, "I don't need to know what you two are planning, but just tell me you got this under control."
"Don't worry," Amera exchanged silent glances with Doaf before the two laughed and said nothing later.
And that made Arthur more frustrated, yet he kept his mouth shut and decided to wait and watch until this circus ended.
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