"You motherer!" Heechul cried out, swinging wildly with his sword. “You dare attack the Lord Kim Heechul?! I am on official royal business, you bastard!” His swing caught the attacker across the head and he tumbled backwards off of his horse.

Soon after they left the grove, they had been ambushed by a group of bandits, and now they were fighting to stay alive. Donghae was already injured, having taken the first blow, a shallow sword slash to the chest. Heechul was holed up inside the carriage protecting Donghae while Shindong spurred the horses as fast as he could.

The rest of the group surrounded the carriage, trying to fend off the bandits while still staying on their galloping horses. The bandits were keeping up, as their horses were accustomed to the rough terrain. It was up to the others to beat them with their skills, or else they would all perish.

Sungmin shouted as his sword was yanked out of his hands. “Hyung!” Henry screeched. He immediately snapped his horse’s reins and he was by Sungmin’s side in a second, knocking the rider off of his horse with a swift jab of his spear. “Hyung, are you all right?”

The elder nodded. “Thanks Henry!”

Sungmin immediately took his bow off of his shoulder and notched an arrow. He let the arrow fly and it struck a rider in the back of the head, sending the man flying over the front of his horse, his body being trampled by his own steed.

Siwon roared with a fury and brought his sword down on a rider who was getting too close for comfort. “Everyone be careful!” He turned his attention back to the bandit and punched him in the nose, sending him off of his horse and out of sight.

“I’m hit!” Shindong cried. Leeteuk looked over and nearly threw up; a feather-tipped arrow protruded from each of his shoulders and Shindong’s face grew increasingly pale.

“If this keeps up, we’ll be overrun!” Kyuhyun shouted. He whirled around on his horse and slashed with a deadly accuracy with his sword. Two thieves were flipped backwards and landed with a crash, lying on the road, waiting for their end to come. “Leeteuk-hyung, I hope you have a plan!”

Heechul screamed and socked a rider in the face. “Jungsoo, we’re running out of road!” Leeteuk cursed, but that was overpowered by Heechul’s earsplitting expletives. “The cliff, Jungsoo, we’re going to run over the cliff!”

In that split second, Leeteuk made a decision. “Keep going!”

“What did you say?!” Eunhyuk shrieked.

“Keep going, damn you!” Leeteuk snapped the reins of his horse and gripped his staff tightly. “Get closer, this is going to be rough!” Henry exchanged a glance with Sungmin, who only nodded grimly and urged his horse to go faster, pressing as close as he could to the carriage without falling over.

Leeteuk hefted his staff over his head and began muttering intensely to himself. Eunhyuk’s eyes widened when he saw the mage’s eyes close. Shindong groaned in pain, but kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead of him.

“They’re headed towards the falls!” one rogue rider shouted. “It’s not worth it!” The bandits looked at each other and pulled back, firing one last volley of arrows just as the group leaped over the side of the road.

Heechul held Donghae closer to his body and squeezed his eyes shut. Donghae weakly clung to Heechul’s robes, murmuring a quick, trembling prayer to whatever god would hear him. Eunhyuk and Kyuhyun rode next to one side of the carriage while Sungmin, Siwon, and Henry flanked the other.

“We’re going over!” Shindong bellowed.

Leeteuk’s eyes snapped open and he flung his arms out wide, his staff colored a blazing blue as the men soared over the edge of the cliff and plummeted to the bottom of the ravine. The bandits gingerly directed their horses to the edge and looked down.

“Oh? Where’d they go?”

“Donghae, does it hurt?” Eunhyuk murmured, holding the injured man’s hand in his own. Donghae shook his head and leaned back on the tree he was resting on. Sungmin pursed his lips and dabbed at Donghae’s forehead with a handkerchief. Siwon unrolled the bandages and held them out for Sungmin to begin wrapping Donghae’s shoulder.

Heechul stood at the edge of the clearing with Leeteuk. “So you teleported all of us, plus the horses and carriage, to this place?”

Leeteuk nodded and turned his gaze over to the younger men. “This is a good spot to be right now.” Shindong sat leaning against the carriage while Kyuhyun and Henry attempted to bandage his chest. The two eldest watched in amusement as the butcher finally got fed up and swatted them away.

“Don’t you think that it’ll stir up a bit of attention? I mean, I’m a pretty important figure, I can’t just drive over the cliff and then show up unhurt later.”

“I think what’s gonna happen next will get more attention than anything that you can imagine.”

Heechul scoffed. “What? It’s not like we’ll show up on a fire-breathing dragon