Chapter 13

  Everything was blurry, except for them. Benny couldn’t think clearly right now. All he could see were enemies all around him. The Ferals that invaded the camp in the middle of the night only served as a target for his daggers right now. He wasn’t fond of killing. He actively avoided it and considered it a failed job if he had to take a life. That was absolutely not the case tonight. No. He would consider it a failed mission to himself if he didn’t put as many of these crazed bastards into the dirt as he could. He danced and weaved around the battlefield, slipping between the lines of sight of the Ferals, who were all either rampaging around, or locked in combat with various surviving groups of recruits. His daggers found backs, necks, and other various weakpoints he could exploit, either turning the tables for the recruits, or avenging those who were less fortunate.

  If he had known the Ferals had infiltrated the Valley, he might’ve hunted them down himself. He even considered joining the Alliance at one point, just so he could fight the Ferals. But there was no guarantee that’s what he would be doing, and he would much prefer to live on his own terms, not the whims of some commanding officer. Saying that he had a problem with authority may just be a bit of an understatement. But now, there was no chain of command. There was no recourse. And there would be no mercy. There was only his daggers and their intended targets. All else be damned.

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  “So does anyone want to talk about why Cruz just went crazy and bit Hould?” Graham asked into the eerie silence as the three ran in the direction of the Fort. “Fleur, you healed him right? So you must have some idea?”

  “Well, not really. I didn’t even heal him. I just knocked him out and kept whatever it was in his system from spreading.” Fleur said with a light shake of her head.

  “You mean like a plague or something?” Hould asked without turning around.

  “Yes and no. Whatever it was, it seemed alive. It also didn’t seem too happy with me trying to interfere with it.”

  Hould grunted thoughtfully. It seemed like he gripped Cruz a bit tighter to his shoulder as he considered what Fleur was saying.

  The three of them ran through the moonlit forest. The sounds of battle and mayhem had long ago faded out of earshot, instead replaced by the silence of the forest. Even the insects went quiet at the mere presence of the intruders into their domain. They had estimated the Fort to be another day’s march from where they had camped, so just the three of them at a quick pace could be there in a couple of hours by their estimation.

  The silence of the forest felt as if it was closing in on them. It was incredibly unsettling to Graham, who felt as if he was being watched from all directions. If he looked hard enough, he could almost see the glowing eyes of the Ferals that had been ransacking the camp. He had never actually seen a Feral before tonight. But the unmistakable red eyes and unusually savage behavior were hard to mislabel.

  Graham, like most others, had heard the rumors of Ferals being North of the pass, however most attributed it to some sort of sickness or alcohol that caused some of the Woodland Folk to act a bit rowdy.

  The fur on the back of his neck stood up, and he instinctively jerked his head backwards, hearing the soft whistle of the thrown knife that just missed his neck fly by and impale itself into a tree.

  “Damn, I thought I had him there.” A thin voice said as a couple of dark shapes emerged from a set of trees several feet from where the three were running.

  “Gods, what now?” Hould sighed as he once again lowered Cruz to the ground, eyeing him slightly to make sure he wasn’t about to get bitten again.

  The dark shapes walked closer, and Graham could immediately make out their oversized yellow teeth in the pale moonlight. Coupled together with their hunched forms and bare tails, he recognized them immediately.

  “Rats.” Graham said distastefully as he drew his sword.

  “Did you hear that, Barbary? Did the way he said Rats sound a bit hostile to you?”

  “Indeed, indeed, Wink. Seems he doesn't like us. Quite rude if you ask me. I’m rather fond of us, after all.”

  “Are you two just going to talk or are we going to get this over with? I imagine you’re here to kill us or make sure no one escapes?” Hould said nonchalantly, rolling his shoulder that had been carrying Cruz for the past hour.

  “Look at the brain on this one, Barbary. What you think Mouse brain tastes like?”

  “I reckon it’s a bit worse than Rabbit.” The Rat called Barbary eyed Fleur for a moment, whose daggery glare grew harsher.

  “My, my. If looks could kill.” Barbary’s yellow smile grew a bit before he drew the daggers at his waist. “Much fun as it is to joke with you lot, your big friend is right: we’ve got a job to do. So now if you don’t mind just surrendering, we can make this very very easy.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Funny, I was just thinking the same.” Hould said as he unslung the axe from his back.

  “Go on, Wink. I’ll take twinkle-toes over here.” Barbary gestured with his drawn dagger at Graham.

  Wink only grinned, his yellow teeth barely catching the moonlight. Suddenly, he soundlessly dashed forward, brandishing his two daggers. He seemed to slide in and out of the shadows of the trees while running towards Hould. Graham could barely keep his eyes on the Rat.

  “If I were you, I’d look over here.” Barbary called out to Graham, who turned to see the other Rat with his single-dagger in a reverse grip, gleefully looking at Graham’s unready stance.

  Bringing his right foot back and his shield forward, he readied himself to receive whatever it was that Barbary had planned. Graham narrowed his eyes, determined to maintain focus on the Rat. Just as he did, Barbary’s arms seemed to blur in a flurry of motion, obscuring his dagger for a moment. Graham blinked rapidly at the strange movements and he refocused just in time to see a thrown dagger mere feet away from impaling itself into his head.

  With a desperate grunt, he threw his entire body backwards to dodge. Landing square on his back, he watched the dagger turn end over end and embed itself in the tree behind him. What kind of magic was that? Some kind of shadowy obfuscation magic. Graham didn’t even think that was part of the system of magic he was taught. Intent really can manipulate magic in insane ways. The damned Rat must’ve cast a spell before even showing themselves.

  Instinctually, Graham rolled to his right side, bringing his shield over his body, a metallic clang ringing out as his shield crossed his body. He continued the roll onto his shield and pushed himself up to his feet. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He couldn’t even see these attacks, let alone react to them. Damn. He’d have to get creative again. He had completely lost sight of the Rat, nor could he hear anything besides the exchanging of blows between Hould and the other Rat. A brief flash of light shed a new world of shadows through the forest, and Graham turned to see the Rat named Wink holding his singed right arm. Hould wore his signature smirk, despite bleeding profusely from several leaking gashes across his body.

  “I wouldn’t get too distracted if I were you.” Graham heard a sinister whisper in his ear before feeling the Rat’s dagger pierce his lower back, causing him to leap away from the source, turning what would have surely been a completely debilitating attack into a deep puncture that missed his spine.

  Graham clenched his teeth in pain and stumbled away from the shadowy attacker. Who stood with its blade in the same position that it had stabbed, clearly hoping that Graham had stayed on the end of it.

  “Impressive reaction time, though it’ll take a tad more than that, little Mouse.”

  Before his eyes, Graham watched as the image of the Rat faded from his eyes. Quickly, he turned left and right, trying to catch sight of something, anything.

  “Stop freaking out. Pay attention. He can’t hide everything.” Fleur ran over to Graham, already working on healing the stab wound in his back.

  “Fleur! You need to get out of here. It’s too dangerous for you! He’ll kill you.”

  “No. He won’t. I need you to trust me. I’m not as helpless as you think.”

  After she stopped the bleeding, Fleur turned and stood back to back with Graham. The only sound was the laughing of Hould and the occasional clang of weaponry as the battle continued two dozen feet away from them, the forest content to let the battle play out. Closing her eyes and focusing her large ears, Fleur heard a disturbance of leaves behind the tree to their right. Her eyes shot to the location, and the movement ceased suddenly. She drew a Sigil of a tree without shifting her focus, and a blast of roots and vines shot from the ground of the location, wrapping themselves around an invisible object.

  The vines and roots struggled a bit before the roots and vines suddenly shattered into a mess of leaves and wood. A gust of wind scattered them and Fleur pursed her lips as she knew he had escaped.

  “I almost had him. It looks like he can break free, but not right away.”

  “We only need to hold him for a moment, Fleur. If you can do that again, I can put him down. I think.” Graham closed his eyes, focusing his intent on the same spell that let him go toe-to-toe with the Snake weeks ago. What had he been thinking? The truth was, he really had no idea. He just did what he had to. He thought about what would happen if he failed. Perhaps that had something to do with it? He attempted to clear his mind, only picturing what he accomplished that day in the field. He drew a sigil for Air, but allowed it to dissipate as he could feel the failed spell before he cast it. Some talent he had. He could suddenly shift time and basically fight a Snake one on one but he couldn’t manage a simple Air spell to take down some lowly Rat? Well, that lowly Rat had shown some extreme competence in magic and assassination. But a Rat? His honor could not take such a hit. And apparently, neither could his back. He could still feel the wound, only having been lightly closed so that he didn’t bleed out.

  He took a deep breath, keeping his eyes on the forest for any signs of movement. Then he noticed it. A large Mouse standing on the side of a tree, lightly leaning against it, breathing heavily.

  “Hould! You ok?” Graham called out to the Mouse.

  “Don’t worry about me. It’ll take more than some Rat to do me in.”

  “Pity. Wink had potential. Seems it’s up to me now. And rest assured, I do not plan on failing.” The voice seemed to echo out from everywhere all at once. With Fleur and Graham’s heads darting back and forth, trying to determine its source. Graham’s eyes briefly landed on the prone form of Wink, who lay unmoving, bleeding into the leaves and dirt.

  Hould slid down the trunk of the tree he was leaning on a bit further, breathing heavier as his wounds took their toll. The shadow of a nearby tree fluttered, and a voice rang out.

  “Well well. It seems my job is getting easier by the minute. Perhaps I should merely wait and see?”

  Graham looked towards Hould with a hint of alarm, and turned to run towards him to defend him from the attack he knew was coming. At Graham’s movement, Fleur heard the fluttering of leaves, and saw the shadows of Hould’s tree shift.

  “Graham! No!” Fleur sprinted after Graham and shoved him out of the way, his surprised face looking up at Fleur as the dagger that she knew was coming appeared, and stabbed into her.