68 The Hagley Province 5yr

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Darkness crept over the now quiet lifeless landscape, Hartley stepped out of the treeline which now had no trees standing upright and headed back onto the aftermath of a main road left filled with craters, potholes and two dead bodies encased in bright silver armor. Hearing hoofs clopping against the soft muddy road Hartley looked up to see four blood stained silver armored soldiers trotting on their horses at a slow pace coming in his direction. The escorts had returned to the scene of first contact where the carriage was ambushed after routing and chasing the team of crossbow men for two or three miles and were now flabbergasted to the see the bodies of their comrades and a scene that resembled a war zone blasted by heavy artillery for hours. They had rushed away before the battle had started with the cloaked man so they had no clue what had happened here.

Hartley now wearing a normal grey robe with his hair in a sweaty mess sticking to his face in clumps asked "Where is Zhi Ruo? is she safe?" "Yes young lord, we held back the ambushers allowing the carriage to pass safely and it headed north with Qin Li on board, they should be safe as long they haven't encountered a