Behind Enemy Lines

The cries of pain and aggression echoed around the battlefield. Metal clashed and spells thrown about. The animalistic growls of shifters could be heard as they tore through the crowds of soldiers, tearing into their targets.

War was a bloodbath and Leon was grateful he was desensitized to it years ago. He was sure this would’ve made him sick if it weren’t. Leone was thankful that the training was so rigorous, if it weren’t he’d have never known how strong of a mage he actually was. He never knew his wings could be used to his advantage on the battlefield, always thinking that their size was a hindrance. 

Leone swung an arm to the side, feathers rapidly stretched from seemingly beneath the skin forming a massive wing. The sheer size of the wing, and the speed of his swing created a massive impact between his feathers and a few enemy soldiers. Just as quickly as his arm formed into the wing, it retracted back into a regular appendage. Spinning on his heel he took a swing with his mace at the soldiers he had knocked over. 

His back meets the familiar feeling of feathers. Turning his head slightly confirms his suspicions.

“Havin’ fun princy?” Leone called out, barely being heard over the cries of war.

“Only you would have the audacity to ask that Leone” Antonio let out a light snort. 

“And that’s why I’m the only fun one, no one else can even talk to you without being so formal. -Grab my arm” Antonio immediately obeyed, grabbing onto Leone’s arm. He was swung inwards towards Leone’s chest, and his left arm moved in front of the prince.  Antonio’s view of the battle field was blocked, becoming overshadowed by a wall of feathers. Antonio could hear the hiss of pain from Leone as something clearly hit the wing. He owed him one for sure.

Where the tips of the feathers met the ground, Antonio saw a flash of something black shoot out. Antonio hadn’t seen Leone use his magic this way before. Was this what he had been sneaking away to do? The black matter encompassed the radius around them. It was…a little scary how strong the magic was.

“You’re not that helpless little boy the judge kicked our way anymore huh” Antonio mumbled to himself.

The feathers retracted, restoring Antonio's view of the landscape. A shroud of black covered Leone’s left arm, his mace at the ready in the other. His face was partially obscured by his hair, his damned smile threatening to widen. He was heaving, clearly winded a little from the use of magic. Antonio would be downright terrified of this man if he wasn’t on the same team, and found it kinda hot.

They continued their battle against the enemy soldiers, moving around each other as if in a dance.

“Feels like the masquerade all over again” Leone laughed.

“But with much less of you stepping on my toes” Antonio recalled.

“I still think you disguising yourself as not the prince is funnier than my lack of dance abilities” Leone bumped into Antonio as he blocked an attack, knocking him to the ground. “Watch out lil ol “Feliciano”, you’ll get hit at this rate”

“You’re never going to let me live that down huh, I panicked I didn’t think of a name before hand”

“And Feliciano was the best you could come up with”

A soft flashing caught the corner of Antonio’s eye. The mark on his wrist was glowing blue.

‘Sector 3’ Leone recalled the meanings of each colour in his mind.

“Leone! I’m needed in one of the other sectors. Coming with?” Antonio half scrambled from his spot on the ground near him, getting his bearings.

“I’ll cover you, go ahead. I’ll find you later” Leone gave him a soft nudge with the butt of his mace.

Antonio smiled, ever so heroic that stupid man. He found his opening and bolted, taking one last glance at the soldier. He’s grown a lot since they first met, and he was a damn good fighter.

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The war grounds no longer echoed of metal striking, the battle had concluded. They had held their ground and driven off the enemy forces, for now. Antonio smiled, overseeing that the injured were turned to the medical tents. Taking a pause from helping, he surveyed the grounds.

But could not find the familiar sight of raven hair and feathers. 

Antonio turned to a nearby soldier. “Have you seen Leone?”

“Leone? The street kid? Last I saw him he was all the way over in sector 1”

Antonio nodded, trying his best not to just break into a sprint to find him. 

‘There’s no way…right? Of course there isn’t he’s a strong soldier, his magic on the field was amazing. He knows when he’s beat he would’ve come back to me immediately’

“Leone?” He called out into the crowd. 

A few soldiers looked up in confusion, most just brushing it off and going back to what they were doing. Antonio had a visible look of panic, his pace becoming more frantic.

“Your highness?” A solemn looking man approached. 

Antonio whipped around to face him, a little faster than he meant to. “I- oh-...Yes?”

“Leone, that’s the Avelus descent right? Darkmage?” 

“Yes, that’s him. Do you know where he is?” He took a step closer. 

“There were…too many. They surrounded us and…he…” The soldier took a pause to breathe. “He pushed us out of the way”

Antonio’s face fell. “No…he, is he-?”

“It was right at the end of the fight. They closed in. They took him”

On one hand, Antonio was relieved that he was still alive. But being captured by the enemy kingdom was almost worse. 

“I-I see” He looked down to the ground. “You should visit the medical tent, get your arm looked at” 

Without waiting for a reply, Antonio started to make his way back towards the military camp.

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Leone awoke to a pain in his head. As he gained more consciousness he realised it was more than just his head. His wrists hurt, his legs were sore, hell, his whole body was in agony. He tried his best to sit up, but could only manage to prop himself up a little on his elbows. The room was dark, and there were definitely more people. He wanted to question those around him, but the pain made him too exhausted to try. 

“Finally awake there ey Leone?” 

He squinted into the darkness, vaguely recognising the voice. 

“S’okay. Don’t gotta speak. They roughed you up pretty bad. Not to be mean, but I’m kinda surprised it took this long for them to catch you” 

Leone let out a noise somewhere between a growl and a groan of pain. Whatever it was, it was clearly a sound of disapproval.

“Beaten almost to a pulp and you still got fight in ya. A true soldier indeed”

Leone grumbled, trying his best to sit upright once again. This time succeeding. A few strained coughs escaped his throat. 

His voice came back to him, though raspy and pained. “Where are we”

“Where d’ya think boy? Enemy imprisonment” 

Leone shifted his position, he stared at his surroundings. “Only a few guards? Surely we could take em”

“Son I don’t think you’ve realized yet” The man let out a hoarse laugh. “Kid we can’t use our magic here, they’ve warded off the prisons.”

Leone tried to reach for his magic, and just like he had said, nothing. He grunted in annoyance. He stood up, nearly falling, and stumbled over to the back edge of the cell they were crowded into. Slumping back onto the floor. He honestly felt like crying, but he’d never let himself in front of others let alone in the enemy cells. He instead opted for using his wings as a shield, so at least if he did he’d be hidden. 

“I should’ve stayed with Antonio…”

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Antonio paced in his tent. He had to get him back. Leone was too important to him.

He wished he could go back to the night of the masquerade, dance with him forever. Make fun of his little homemade mask, as he refused to wear the same ones all the soldiers were wearing. Hold him close.

“I’ll have to go rescue him. I-I can make a team” He started thinking out loud. “We’ll sneak in, and break out all the prisoners. Maybe even take out some of their supplies on the way”

This was his only plan, and it’d have to work.

_________________________________

Finding willing candidates for this plan however, was proving difficult. 

Most were rightfully suspicious of why he chose now to do this operation. While he wanted to help everyone, he really was only doing this originally for his own desires. He’s only managed to find a few people, but realistically thinking a smaller group would be easier to stay undercover as. 

Oreana, the wolf shifter from squadron 3. She was not much of a talker but he could see her strength. There was also Avron, the red dragon and Dominic, the moon elf. Both were from squadron 5. The last person was Silvia, a Fae, squadron 1.

It was quite the oddball team, but he had faith.

After the briefing, which was…rather brief, they headed on their way. The plan was simple. Sneak in, find and free the prisoners, set some good ol explosives on the way and get the fuck out of there. 

Getting into the camp proved, weirdly undifficult. The guards stationed on the outside were not paying much attention. They easily slid into the complex. The truly hard part was going to be finding where everyone was held. 

“I definitely do not think that we should split up at all, so we need to move fast so we can cover as much ground as possible. Thinking logically, where would prisoners be held”

“Well, your highness” Dominic spoke up first. “I think the smartest layout would be to have them far into the base, but away from where any weapons would be”

“I think I saw their barracks near where we entered.” Silvia pointed behind her with her thumb.

“So we should try to make our way towards the center, and stay on the east side of their base.” Antontio concluded. “Ah, Oreana sorry if this is awkward to ask but, seeing as-”

“Yea yea I got it” Oreana moved from her spot leaning against the wall, tilting her head towards the sky. “I’ve got a scent, let’s move”

And just like that they were immediately off, following Oreana. However her pace was less than easy to keep up with. Antonio tried his best to keep up, and noticed a few of the others were starting to lag behind a little.

“Hey Orea-” Antonio was cut off by Dominic pulling him down into cover.

“Dominic! Wha-”

“Shhh!”  Dominic shushed him, pulling him down further into cover. 

Before he could ask what was happening, he heard yelling. More specifically the yelling of Avron. Peeking up, Antonio could see a glimpse of a thrashing Avron. He was fighting off guards that had spotted him. 

“Shit shit shit” Antonio could only watch as they dragged him off, not being able to risk getting caught.

“You guys go try to catch up with Oreana, I’ll try to see where they take him. If they take him straight to the cells, it’ll lead me to where everyone else is. If they do, I’ll free everyone and I’ll send a signal to get the hell out of here” Silvia didn’t wait for a response before running off after where the guards had taken Avron.

“Does no one here wait for responses???” Antonio was dumbstruck.

“We need to get moving my prince, Oreana probably didn’t stop moving” Dominic pulled him up, and the two quickly made their way through the halls.

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“God where is she” Antonio was starting to become worried, they had been trying to find her for a while now. 

“Chances are she’s been caught too, we may be on our own right now” Dominic sighed, obviously a little annoyed that the group had been picked off so quickly. 

“Wait…Do you hear that” Antonio stopped mid step, Dominic tried to strain to listen. “I think that’s-!” 

Antonio without thinking bolted towards the sound he heard.

Dominic starred in absolute disdain. “And you were complaining about the others leaving before getting a response” He grumbled to himself, running to catch up with the prince.

Antonio burst into a room, granted not the smartest option he could have made. Guards were immediately alerted by his sudden intrusion, and of course rang an alarm. Dominic charged one of the guards, knocking him into the wall effectively rendering him unconscious. Antonio quickly shifted his attention to the other one and attempted to conjure his magic. 

“Highness magic doesn’t work in this room!” A voice called out.

“Well fuck ok, hard way it is” He reached to his side where his dagger lay, ramming the butt of it into the guards head before kicking him into the bars.

“Got the keys” Dominic unlocked one of the cells by him before tossing them to Antonio, who almost fumbled them. Unlocking the only other gate he immediately scanned the crowd of soldiers that were in them. They started to funnel out, arming themselves with what was around and taking the previously conscious enemy guard’s weapons.

His eyes lay on a huddle of feathers in the back, and just at the sight he wanted to burst into tears. He ran up, throwing himself on the floor in front of him. 

“Leone” He pulled away at the wings to show his face, he could clearly tell the avelus descent had been crying previously. “Oh Leone I found you”

“Antonio, what- how” Leone retracted his wings back into his arms, questioning if he was real for a moment before throwing his arms around him. “Jesus fuck took you long enough”

Leone had his head buried in Antonio’s neck, after a moment he pulled away to look at Antonio. And without thinking, threw his lips onto his. It took Antonio a moment to realise what was happening, and boy had he not realised how much he wanted this. Leone pulled away quickly after he came back to his senses. 

“O-Oh, oh god ok um. I didn’t mean to-” Leone stumbled over his words trying to put together his thoughts. Antonio could only stare into his eyes.

The 2 only snapped out of their moment when they heard the voice of Oreana, who was exiting the other cell. Guess she had been captured.

“Sir the guards are coming, we need to get everyone out now.”

“We’ll talk about this later, um, I brought this for you” Antonio reached to his back, presenting Leone with a mace.

“Perfect for bashing in the guards heads in” Leone took it gladly, standing up straight and leading them both out of the cell.

The man Leone had been speaking to before spoke up. “Once we’re out, our magic will be viable again”

“Focus on getting out of here as soon as you all can, do not dilly dally, we’ve got explosives rigged.” Antonio called out to the soldiers in the room around him. 

Leone and Antonio left the room side by side.

“Let’s get back to camp, shall we?”