Wildly I fend off my attacker quickly being pushed back. My feet skim across the stone pavement as I step over fallen bodies. This soldier plays with me. His skills way better than mines, which is basically nothing compared to his. A blur of silver everywhere I can't see his attacks at all. His blade nicks me, cutting my hands, arms, sides, legs, and face. He's enjoying my agony. I can barely ignore the pain. His cuts deepen, but not enough to disarm or kill. I fuel myself with anger, letting it bubble.

Bastard! I curse. This is nothing! I've been thrown out a window. I've been beaten up by a bully. Our swords clang loudly as I make a dive for his side. I got a broken spine from Tao! This--this is nothing! I throw my all into the fight. I clash swords with him, ignoring another cut. Moving as fast as I can go, I make a feint, then jerk the sword up, slashing him from the jaw up. He knocks my word away before it can get his eyes.

He sneers, touching the blood coursing down his chin and cheek with his fingertips. Lowering his sword he says, "Not the best out there....Eun Jung. But that was unexpected."  I continue to point my sword at him, "Another person who knows my name."  He continues the subject he was on, ignoring my statement. "Not the best, yes, but there's something about you," he chuckles, "not special of course, just something wrong."  "I suppose," I answer.  "Ah, so you know," he says with a smile.  "So what's the point of this conversation?"  He points a finger at me, "I brought you all here."

"You?" I ask in disbelief. He didn't even seem suspicious at all, but looks can be decieving.  "You don't realize this, but I was able to bring you all here by extending my powers through you."  "Me? How?" I ask, feeling curious, but still wary.  He points to his head, " Your mind, it holds just the right thing for me to perform my magic."  I narrow my eyes at him, "Then are you good or bad? Do you work for General Wu-Chin?"  He smirks, "I work for no one. Nor am I good or bad. I just sent you all here to help the princess."

"Th-then how did Wu-Chin vanish when Tao punched him?" I blurt out. I had a feeling he was going to leave.

Suddenly he runs his sword through my stomach. I freeze, stunned. Spreading like spider webs, the pain spreads from my abdomen, ferociously consuming. I can feel the cold steel blade in me, hard and foreign.

"You know the answer, but just in case."

I am barely holding onto my conscience.

"There's another sorcerer," he murmurs.

With a jerk he roughly pulls out the sword. My mind goes blank. My eyesight blurs as I fall to my knees and hit the ground hard.

         Surock skirts the fighters, looking for General Wu-Chin. The fight would never come to an end if they didn't catch General Wu-Chin. She scans the battle, looking for him. Where was he? Fighting? or....With a leap she jumps over a body. Clang!

"Looking for Wu-Chin?" Yu asks as he throws back an attacker. Surock nods, "I'm pretty sure he's not fighting. Most likely he ran off somewhere with the Queen!"  Surock gasps in surprise as Yu lifts her up so that she can see above the battle. "There's the edge of the battlefield. I can see the palace."  Surock narrows her eyes, "I'm going after him. You go get the Princess."  Yu clenches his teeth, but nods, "Fine, but don't do anything rash. Bring a few people with you." He puts her down and rushes off. Sighting the direction that Yu showed her, Surock heads towards the palace.

         Tao spins around with his sword about to strike, but stops when he sees who tapped him. Surock laughs at him, "Good to see you're into this, but that's not what I'm here for."  "What do you need with me?" Tao asks. When he had turned around he thought it was Eun Jung when he saw Surock's face. "Find Eun Jung and the rest. Tell them to head for the palace. We've got to stop Wu-Chin." With that she's gone, disappearing into the rabble of fighting.

Tao finds Luhan, Taek Gu, and Lay working together as one to protect Na Hee and Haru, who were also fighting. Na Hee had gotten hold of a sword while Haru battered fiercely with a long wooden stick.

"Head to the palace?" Lay repeats above the noise. "Apparently Wu-Chin has escaped there and Surock plans to take him down," answers Tao. "We're on it!" Na Hee calls back.

Next Tao found Kris and his double, Rai. "If we can make it out," Rai replies.

Tao helps D.O. and Daichu fend off more soldiers as he informs them of Surock's message. After leaving he searches the crowd for more familiar faces. He spots Chen, his alter ego Tura, Xing, Xiumin, and his other Cainor. He soon found everyone, bumping into Renra along the way. "Sure, I'm definitely coming." Now Tao had only one person left to find. Eun Jung. The one person he saved for last, the one person he was afraid to face. Would she forgive him for hurting her? Even though he didn't mean to, in the end he broke her spine, left her---no was going to kill her. They weren't exactly friends anymore, nor did he have special feelings for her...but it made him feel awful. He could hardly look at her out of guilt.

He searches the faces of everyone, but can't find her. Where did she go? Did she escape or....is she dead? Tao shivers, trying not to remember the people he killed. Over and over again he looks, but Eun Jung is nowhere to be found. Mouth dry he begins turning over bodies of the dead. He removes the bodies of those ontop of another, making sure she wasn't hidden underneath.

Finally he finds her. She lies beside five fallen bodies, face foward on the stone ground. She's dead.

Tao takes deep breaths as he bends over, trying to steady his wildly beating heart. Breathe in, breathe out. He turns her over.

Her eyes were closed as if she was just sleeping. Blood seeps from her stomach, staining the ground along with her clothes. In her hand a sword is still tightly clenched. Despite the battle going on around him Tao sheds a tear, then another and another. He wipes them away in vain. "I'm sorry," he says, his voice barely audible over the sound of battle. He sniffs, "Please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt you the other day." After wiping some more tears he stands up to leave.

         I...no--there is something I need to do---something important. My eyes move, my fingers twitch. I remeber now, that sorcerer stabbed me...but I'm not dead. He didn't kill me so why did he stab me in the first place?

Instantly I sit up as I remeber that something important. There's another sorcerer!

I blink several times and rub my eyes. I stand up with no difficulty. Did that soldier guy--sorcerer heal me? I feel perfectly fine!

"You---Eun Jung! How?"

I look up and see Tao. Many questions rush to my mind, but I ignore them. If Surock and I are similar in thinking, I'm pretty sure that she had already...or is chasing after Wu-Chin. I have to warn her!  The second sorcerer is an element of surprise that she won't suspect..or may have. I did pretty much figure it out when the sorcerer told me I should know...right before he stabbed me. I sharply glance at Tao.

"Tao, have you seen Surock?" He stares at me in surprise and shock, "How are you...okay?"  "Have you seen Surock? And I'll explain later," I say in one breath. I begin running. Tao follows, "Actually Surock sent me to look for everyone. She said to go to the palace. Wu-Chin supposedly escaped there. We're going to stop him."  "As I thought," I mutter.

We enter the palace at the same time as Sehun and his other Jungsu, Sucho and his other Banchuk. "Where exactly is Surock?" Suho asks Tao.  "She didn't say. All she told me was go to the palace," he answers. We decide to split up. I run down the wide palace halls, my shoes echoing on the black stone floor. Someone screams. 

"Over here!" Sehun shouts. I turn back around to meet Sehun, together we run to the location of the shout.