“Yed!” I screamed as I ran back to him. The arrow was lodged in his right deltoid. Right under the shoulder blade. He was buckled on his knee and I reached for it. Yed grabbed my hand.

“What are you doing?!” He asked.

“I’m helping!”

Another arrow whistled through the air. He pinned me against the carriage. The arrow sunk into Yed’s back. An arrow that was meant for me.

“Go! To your troops! Take a defensive position!”

I nodded my head, shakily. I saw the bard was ducking his head out of the carriage window.

“Stay inside!” Yed and I screamed at him. Barth ducked back into the carriage. I moved quickly, rushing past our cavalry that encircled the carriage for protection. I dipped between the horses and ran back to my troupe.

I could feel the brush of the arrows as they landed on the ground around me. When I made it back, they had already entered a defensive position. The boys held their shields up and circled created a tight circle. Buried in the center was Ghala.

“Move aside,” I said to two boys. Let me into this circle”! I screamed, “Ghala! Get the hell out of there!”

“Hey! You were nowhere to be found! I had to take over.”

“Well, thank you for that. But I’m here now. Get out of the circle.”

An arrow whizzed by my head and clanked off Huy’s shield. He ducked behind his shield in shock. I dropped to my knees and crawled between them. They gave me just enough space to get inside.

The enemies crested the hills that surrounded us. I saw them. Monsters. Or at least, that was how they felt the first time looking at them. They were upright canines, wearing leather armors and adorned in human skulls. They each bared their fangs and approached us with blades in their hands. Their howls were piercing, like someone dying. These were the creatures Ghala mentioned. The ones that stole men off the highway to eat. Chacali.

They moved on us from both sides quickly. A crew of about twenty of them had waited until we stopped before the valley. They knew we would have gone in with extra precaution so they committed to a sling of arrows from afar, then used the chaos to close the gap. I stood up inside the circle, approached Ghala and grabbed his tunic.

“Get to the edge of the circle!” I yelled, “Bhufo put me in charge.”

“You weren’t doing your job!” Ghala pushed me, “I’m the head cadet outside of this mission anyway, which means I get ultimate authority.”

“Outside of this mission, you can have it!” I pushed him back. He fell on his ass and looked up at me. I pulled him back on his feet.

“Get your shield out, Ghala.”

“No.”

“Ghala, we’re under attack!”

“It’s no fair that Sergeant Bhufo likes you better!”

“Guys!” Tuf yelled. He pointed at the Chacali as they split off into factions. I saw about six of them approaching us. Each had a blade that looked like a long meat cleaver and no shields. In their empty hands, they merely brandished their razor-sharp claws.

“Jesus.” I said under my breath. I looked around at my compatriots. They were children. Fully children… at least they had been trained a little. There were ten boys total, not including me. We had the numbers… but these were trained killers.

“Easy, men!” I said, my voice quivering, “If they don’t have an opening they can’t attack!”

They approached us, their yipping meant to disconcert us. It was incredibly effective. Ghala shot back in line as soon as they closed in. One of the jackals took up his cleaver and dropped it on Ruglio, the smallest boy. Ruglio parried and a sharp clanging sound rang as the cleaver bounced off of it. Ghala took his spear and stabbed at the jackal. The first thrust didn’t pierce the armor but it was enough to let the jackals know we meant business.

“Hold firm!” I said, trying to keep my boyish voice from cracking.

Another jackal grabbed Kaavi's shield. I unsheathed my sword and stabbed at the canine folk, aiming for his face. The humanoid leapt back, unharmed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Okay, Ghala,” I said, “No point in opening up the circle now. It’ll only expose us. I need you men to hold the shields while Ghala and I play Whack-a-gnoll. Got it, Ghala?”

“Got it.” Ghala and I both stood with our weapons at the ready. This was what we had trained for, except unlike our training, my hands shook.

A scrawny Chacali clawed at Huy’s shield. He pulled it down, ripping it from the Babion’s. grasp. Before the weapon could land on Huy, Ghala and I both turned and landed blows with our weapons. I managed to pierce through the armor and enter his side. Ghala got his neck. The runt hissed in agony. Since we both responded to the Chacali, two others approached the other side. I turned around and saw a larger Chacali rip the shield from Ruglio, and bring his cleaver down on him.

I heard the unholy sound of a young boy getting his first battle wound to the shoulder.

“Ghala!” I called out to him. He was… unfortunate to admit, the better fighter between the two of us.

Another Chacali made a swipe at my troop’s shield. I cried out, “True Strike!” and expended the mana needed to dig my weapon through the armor and into the Chacali’s body. Once again, the Chacali let out a hissing sound. Not loud, but pungent. It banged on my ear drum. The sound of a sapient being in pain, even if he was my enemy.

“It's gots magis.” The furthest Chacali said. He was wearing a giant skull as a helmet and had the biggest cleaver out of all of them, “Little runt’s got magis already.”

“He’s not the only one!” Ghala yelled, “Stride!” Ghala burst past the opening in the circle made by Ruglio’s injury.

“Ghala don’t!” I commanded.

Ghala ran toward the apparent leader of the Chacali, but there was one in his way. The Chacali standing between them struck at Ghala.

“Knowing light.”

What?! All that spell did was create a small orb of light.

The orb appeared above Ghala’s body right where the Chacali’s swing was heading. The cleaver connected with the orb and it shattered into brilliant sparkles, distracting the Chacali, giving Ghala the movement to reach the leader.

“True Strike!” Ghala yelled as he slammed his spear into the leader’s torso. The leader stepped aside. Ghala’s spear faced off against the air. The leader lifted his cleaver, its length almost as big as Ghala and whacked Ghala with the broad sword side.

Ghala got launched backward many feet, skipping along the ground and ending with his back colliding with a large rock. The lead made a yipping sound and one of the Chacali grabbed shackles on his belt and clipped his arms in.

“We do not need hurt you. But if we must.”

“Ghala!” I yelled. Fuck. I brought Ruglio inside the shrinking circle. We were down two men. They had lost two too, but two of the smaller ones. The Chacali leader howled and yipped, clearly instructing the remaining three. Instead of surrounding us, they slowly walked around us. They convened, no longer in a circle but facing us at our front. All four would be able to pull down the shields and break our line.

“Double shields!” I yelled. We got into a new position. This one interlocking our shields in a honeycomb pattern to create a wall.

The lead threw his head back and let out a loud, billowy howl.

“What’s the plan, Egen?” Kaavi whispered to me.

“I’m thinking,” I said. They were going to charge at us? That would be a dumb move, even with their numbers. It risked too much bloodshed. I could hope for the fact that they were dumb, but that was a big risk. They were clearly well organized.

Just then, I felt teeth sink into my calves.

“Ahh!” I yelled as I fell on my knee. I looked and saw a small jackal, the actual animal, growling as he kept a lock on me. I slash at it with my sword. It sprung backward where it joined four other jackals. Uh oh. I faced the beasts, who began growling and barking as they slowly crawled toward me.

“You got magis,” The leader said, “I got lotsa friends.” Then, he faced his cleave-sword downward, his grip tightened and he concentrated so hard that the metal shined red. I could feel a vibration in the air emanating from it. He looked right at me and said, “oh, I got lotsa strong too.”

He was about ten feet away from the shieldwall. His cleave-sword was long, but not long enough to make contact. The leader slashed at the air and the concentrated energy carried past the reach of his blade and collided with the shield wall, knocking over my whole troupe.

I was the only one even remotely standing, and even I was down on one knee. I stuck my sword up. The leader approached me, chuckling as he did.

“Only you left. You thinks you takes the lot of us?”

My eyeline went to the rest of the battlefield. The battlemasters were still in the throes of combat. Most of the horses had been killed. The cavalry was left fighting with swords. The carriage was being encircled by other Chacali on their own deadly mounts. Some bizarre woolen creatures with twisted faces and teeth that grew out past their mouths. They were going to get the troupe. They were going to get the duchess. They were going to kill me.

“Socco-”

I couldn’t finish my spell. The leader whipped me with the handle of his cleave. My face cracked on the dirt. I opened my eyes and saw mounted Chacali getting the upper hand on the dismounted cavalry men.

“Aubba ba chabbing.” I had tried to say “Aura Of Shielding,” but my mouth was too full of blood. The leader laughed at my attempt as he lifted the handle of his cleave to knock me out, I heard a throaty voice behind me utter:

“Barbarous Rebuke.”