The Headless Dragon's Struggle II.

As Claus watched Omar from behind as he catched up to the other soldiers, he mumbled to himself:

"Go, this is our goodbye!".

*Sigh*.

(To think there'll be a day when i ended up sacrificing dor the sake of others) while getting up from the ground, Claus turned back to the Dragon's head slowly walked the way back, in his hand, a bag that Omar passed onto him before leaving.

"Where are you going?" Asked the others, that like him were also injured and decided to stay.

"Where else?, To fight the enemy of course! If I'm going to die, it'll be in my own terms, not gonna stay here and wait for them to kill me by the side of the road" answered Claus, stoping for a second before he resumed his walk.

"....".

"....".

As if inspired by him, although with difficulty, everyone got up from the ground and helped each other as they followed Claus back into the fortress, ready to fight for one last time.

"Hrrmn?!" Entering the lower section once again, Claus noticed that although there was still some dust in the air, making the visibility very poor, most of it have already settled, allowing him to see most of the general outline of the fortress.

The walls along with training grounds right next to them were blasted by the explosion, and most of the buildings close to them partially colapsed, only the living quarters at the back, next to the gate at the end of the main road remained in one piece.

Without hesitation Claus choose to enter one of the buildings, followed by the others.

"Alright, here's were we stop!" Said Claus after everyone entered through the door.

"What do you mean?" Asked a woman in light red and black armor, her short black hair and beautiful cyan eyes were in completely contrast with with her equally gruesome wounds, clutching her belly with her left hand while her right was completely gone from the elbow down, leaving only the marks of burnt flesh.

"Ahh!?".

"Mmmn... Right. I was hoping to make use of the buildings, due how close they are to the main road, we could set an ambush here. With the advantage of attacking from the higher floors we could definitely give a nasty surprise to the fuckers!" Flustered, Claus stumbled on his words as he avoided looking at the woman while also giving an explanation.

"I plan to use this also!" Continued claus as he lifted the bag in his hand.

"Is that-".

"See for yourselves, i asked for a little favor before Omar leaved!" Placing the bag on the ground, Claus said:

"In here there's some hundred ish melting bombs, everyone can take as many as you want".

Then Claus took the bag and passed by the side of everyone, letting them take some until the bag was empty. When he passed by the side of the girl who spoke earlier, the akwardly shifted his gaze as she took some bombs before continuing.

"Now that everyone is ready, i recommend that we separate in groups and head to different buildings. This will make more difficult to the enemies to locate our position making it harder to kill us, that way we also be buying more time for our comrades in the upper levels" Claus explained. When the rest of the group was heading to other buildings, Claus was about to go to the upper floor when he felt someone looking at him.

*Stare*.

Even with his back turned, he could feel the gaze, it was intense, as if trying to burn a hole through him. The origin was the woman from earlier, as one of the permanent residents of the fortress for as long as 5 years, Claus could say with confidence that he knew the name of everyone in here.

Turning back to face her, Claus looked her directly in the eyes, but the feeling of being suffocated by her gaze alone was so overwhelming that the words he planned to say simply got struck on his throat. After some moments of silence were they only exchanged looks, Claus finally mustered all the determination within his being and said:

"So... Ummn... Hey, Rebecca. Wanna come with me?" In an akward tone, while trying not advert his eyes, Claus asked Rebecca and pointed to the stairs that lead to the second floor.

"...."

Rebecca silently approached him and walked into the stairs along with Claus.

When they reached the second floor, Claus choose a door at random and entered one of the dorms facing the main road, then he and Rebecca entered it and sat bay the beds next to a broken window, while Claus choose one, Rebecca directly sat opposite to him.

"...." Without saying anything, both remained in silence while facing each other.

"... Does it stills hurt?" Looking at her wounds, Claus asked in concern.

"Is that all that you have to say?" Rebecca replied, both her eyes and her words were frosty.

"... I-i'm sorr-".

"Don't you dare apologise. You well know that's not i wanna hear from you" Rebecca interrupted Claus, cearly pissed at his attempt to seek forgiveness, but even so she never stoped looking at his face.

"The answer you want huh!?" Mumbled Claus with a forced smile, as if mocking himself.

*Sigh*.

"It's too late now, i couldn't keep my end of the promise" clais said as he lowered his head in shame.

"...."

*Stare*.

"So even in death do you plan to avoid me? What a coward!" This time the tone of Rebecca's voice wasn't as cold, but more high pitched, as if she was about to cry.

"What revenge?".

"What getting back at the enemy?"

With every word, Rebecca's eyes filled with tears as her voice broke into sobs.

"How dare a coward like you, who made wait for 3 whole years, have the nerve to say something like that?" Rebecca in her fury stood up from her seat, looking down at Claus, who didn't dared to look her in the eye.

"Why? Why?" Her voice grew stifled as tears fell from her face.

"Why can't you answer me, Claus?" Amidst tears, Rebecca fell on her knees, crying inconsolably.

Seeing her like this, Claus himself felt as if a knot was formed in his throat, leaving him breathless.

Stumbling into the ground, Claus looked at Rebecca, hesitation filled his heart as he watched her crumbling into tears.

*Gasp*.

But suddenly Claus took Rebecca with his arm, embracing her as she cried. Then using his hand, he lifted her face and gently wiped her tears before lowering his face and kissing her.

"....!" Caught by surprise, Rebecca's body tensed up, but didn't resist, eventually relaxing seconds after as she warped her arm around Claus's neck.