By The Sword - Homepage
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The pumping of blood in my ears and the rustling of leaves behind me were the only things I heard as I dashed through the trees. My feet slammed on the dirt, weaving between the brush and the woods. With my brows furrowed into a line and sweat dripping down my back, I was moving as fast as I could. I was moving as fast as my frail, uncoordinated body could push me. And it was still catching up.
I really shouldn’t have agreed to come on this hunt.
Shaking away the unneeded thought, I pushed my foot into the ground again. The worn-in boot that the warm barkeep had given me all those days ago dug into the dirt at the worst possible angle and I stumbled. My arms shot out and my eyes shot wide. But with all of my might, I managed to keep upright just enough to continue sprinting.
The thuds of my boots rippled through the air. The pounding of my blood seemed to shake my very being. And the leaping bounds of the creature on my tail were immense. Each subtle change in the air—each jolt of movement felt like it lasted a thousand years.
Thoughts raced in my head as I tried to figure out something to do. Ways to fight the creature, ways to evade it, ways to live. All I had was my mind and my sword since my companion had gone off somewhere down the line. And usually, that was enough for me. But right now, I was coming up short. I couldn’t think the way I normally did. I couldn’t fight back like normal. Death, for me, was too much to risk.
I just had to stay ahead of it, I told myself. I just had to stay ahead.
A sharp rustle sounded behind me and the creature growled. I turned, twisting on my heel and surging through the trees to my side. Thorns of a bush tore into my leg, but I wrenched it out in quick time. I ducked and weaved through the next few trees, scrambling to cover as much ground as possible.
If the bounding creature caught me now, the reaper would take me with swift ease. I couldn’t let that happen, so I continued to push on. Cold fire seeped into my veins and resolve solidified in my head. With each new step, my bones ached more and more. I was slowing down and I knew it, but that didn’t mean I had to give in. As the hulking creature tore out of thorns, I still had hope. Hope that in however much time I had, something would change. That something would save me. Some miracle would—
A rustle to my left. All thoughts screeched to a halt.
I perked my ears up and twisted my neck. Beside me, a form was barreling through the trees. That was all I needed to know. Whatever or whoever it was, it was aiming for the growling creature.
And fortunately for me, my pace was quick enough because within the next few seconds, the form clad in blue cloth lunged out of the trees and a strangled growl slipped into the air. I flicked my eyes back, glancing at the ranger who’d saved me. The flash of chestnut hair and the toothy, cheerful smirk told me everything I needed to know. All at once, tension slipped right out of my muscles and I turned around to face Kye.
Or, that’s what I’d intended to do. Instead, my thundering feet struggled to slow, twisting on the ground and causing me to stumble into the dirt. Air pressed out of my lungs and a jolt of pain shot through my chest as I skidded on grass, my sword slipping from grip.
I cursed under my breath, berating my body once again. No matter how many times I tried, it didn’t listen to my calls. It was too slow. It was unconditioned. It was unresponsive. And those facts grated on my mind.
A gargled, angry howl bellowed out through the air behind me. A wave of fear rushed over my being. I snapped my eyes wide, my fingers already skittering on the dirt to grasp my sword.
“Mine!” a voice exclaimed, far too excited for the circumstances. I blinked past heavy breaths as Kye retracted her dagger from the back of the whimpering wolf. The hulking thing growled once more, wrenching its head over to bite her, but she evaded with ease and dragged the knife through its neck.
Blood poured out and the creature shrieked as soon as it made contact with her knife. The bounding wolf—which had looked so intimidating before—teetered on shaky paws before crumpling to the ground, life pouring from its wounds.
I gasped, blinking in disbelief at the woman who’d reluctantly chosen to partner up with me. When she flicked her gaze over to meet mine, the smirk on her face only deepened. She ripped her knife from the wolf’s neck and wiped off the blood, narrowing eyes at me.
“You’re not very useful,” she said with the same humorless edge she’d used back at the lodge. After I’d asked about the competition, neither her or the rest of the rangers in the room had particularly wanted to tell me. Eventually, Tan had let out that it was a competitive hunt that most of the rangers participated in. It was a game to them. A thing of status. And at the time, it had really piqued my interest.
But as I stood up, aches already setting into my bones, I wasn’t so sure that interest was worth it.
“Insightful,” I said as I wiped dirt off my pants.
Kye snickered, but didn’t take her eyes off me. “When I’d agreed to let you come along, I’d at least thought you would be more of a help than a hindrance.”
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe I would have if you hadn’t wandered off without telling me.”
“This is a hunt,” she said, crouching down to inspect the now-dying abomination. “It isn’t my fault that you can’t handle yourself.”
I glared at her, my gaze harsh as nails. But she didn’t even seem to be bothered. Instead, she looked down at the hulking wolf-like beast. Reluctantly, I followed her gaze.
The large and muscular monster that had been chasing me through the woods, for all intents and purposes, was a wolf. It was enormous and had fur patches of mismatched shades of grey, but it was a wolf. My problem with it was more related to the charred marks it had been leaving behind with its fiery claws and the terrifying black protrusion sticking out of its left eye.
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A shiver raced down my spine.
It was the kind of creature talked about only in old folklore or exaggerated horror stories back in Credon. It wasn’t the kind of nightmare that was real. But, as I reminded myself again with a heavy breath, things were different now. Here, the ghastly creature was real, and apparently it had been killed with the simple use of a dagger.
“It’s not like I’m out hunting deer or something,” I said, not even trying to hide the bitterness in my tone. But after a few more seconds, I had to tear my gaze away from the thing. “That thing looks like it would feed on my dreams.”
Kye chuckled. “These are the kinds of creatures we hunt here.” I didn’t miss the smirk that flashed at her lips. “Probably something you should get used to if you’re going to stick around.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to take a deep breath. Instead of sending a quip back her way, I opted for a question instead. “How did you kill it so quickly anyway?”
Kye raised an eyebrow. “My dagger is tipped with blue silver.”
I blinked, my fingers curling. A squint of confusion threatened my face, but I kept it at bay. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of that. “And blue silver is…”
The ranger in front of me didn’t even look up. “A metal. It’s poisonous to most mammals, and fast acting too.”
My eyes narrowed, but I nodded at that. “Right,” I said, adding the new information to the pile I still hadn’t sorted out in my head.
In my past life, I hadn’t been much of a hunter. I’d been able to do it, of course. Even quite well, if a mission called for it. But we hadn’t had magical beasts with fiery claws. I’d trained against other people because they were the largest threat. I’d simply hunted for food. I only ever had to be stronger than a boar or a deer. I had not been forced to deal with hulking beasts of corruption that could cauterize any wound they inflicted.
In front of me, Kye cut off the wolf’s paw. She held it up to the light and inspected it, a small spark flying off her finger to make sure the wound didn’t bleed.
“What’s that for?” I asked, not even commenting on the display of magic. Before, I would’ve gawked at the ability to produce a spark that easily. But at this point, I’d heard Jason bragging about his abilities enough to know it was standard.
Kye shot me a sidelong glance. “It’s a trophy,” she said as she placed it in the small bag on her waist.
My eyebrows dropped. Right. The competition. For each of the targets we killed, we were supposed to bring a trophy back to the lodge. Apparently, there was some point system determined by mages who inspected the trophies of each team.
A flash of brown hair ripped me back to the present. Kye narrowed her eyes, glaring at the murky black spike coming out of the wolf’s eye. All along it, thin silver streaks sent fear to my core.
I shuddered. “What even is that?”
Kye raised her head, but she didn’t instantly come back. Instead, she leaned toward the disgusting thing. “I don’t exactly know.”
Well, I thought to myself with a snort, that was a first.
But instead of being scared of the thing, or leaving it where it was, Kye had another idea. She poked it with her dagger. It shuddered, and I did as well. But Kye kept picking at it, eventually tearing open the creature’s eye socket with her knife in an effort to pull it out.
A few seconds, a few slices, and one grunt later, she was holding the spike. It stopped shaking as soon as she ripped it from its parasitic lodging.
I felt a tickle in my throat, bile inching its way up. But I swallowed it down quickly and clutched my sword as comfort. “That is terrifying.”
The confident ranger raised her eyebrows. She looked over at me and twirled the spike in her hand. “I won’t disagree with that. It almost reminds me of terror flesh.” For a moment, the mention of yet another thing I didn’t understand almost sparked a question. Kye though, barreled on. “Either way, it has to be worth a lot. Whatever it is.”
“Great,” I said as I sheathed my blade. All at once, the aches in my body caught up with me and I had to grit my teeth through fatigue. “When is this hunt going to end anyway?”
I still wanted to train my body. I still wanted to become stronger, faster, and more experienced. Especially considering how little I knew about my new environment. But at some point, I’d reached my limit. The complaints of my weak muscles had become too much and my training had bled into overexertion. No matter how much I hated it, I had to accept that.
Kye furrowed her brows, looking into the sky as if to judge the sun’s position. “It should be almost over, actually. Which makes your incompetence a little more forgivable.” She gestured to the wolf now lying in the dirt. “With this thing, I might even beat Jason this time.” The signature smirk that crept onto her face told me everything I needed to know.
I still remembered Jason beating me in four straight duels before the hunt had started. And if I were her, I knew I would’ve been as excited as she was to wipe the smug smile off his face.
Yet, as I envisioned the moment, I didn’t feel as excited as I’d hoped. Because I wasn’t excited. I was tired, and not particularly in the mood to hear any more of Kye’s cocky comments. So instead of staying, I just let a breath slip through my lips and walked off.
Pushing through the same brush that Kye had unexpectedly arrived through, I followed her very obvious footprints in an attempt to find my way back. Through the gnarled trees and twisting paths, I knew I wasn’t going to walk to the lodge without her help. But that didn’t worry me much.
“Ready for the end of the hunt so soon?” she asked sarcastically as she caught up.
I nodded. “I’m ready to get out of these woods.”
“You’ve gotten to know them well enough with all the running you did, that’s for sure.”
My eyebrows dropped, the insult scraping against my discipline. “It’s not like the place is particularly welcoming.” But I couldn’t help the grin inching up to my lips.
“I guess for a beginner like you”—I clutched the hilt of my blade—“dealing with a pyre wolf may not have been ideal.” Her smirk bared its shining teeth in the corner of my eye. “Especially if you don’t have blue steel in your arsenal.”
I nodded dryly. “Right. Or if you’re not a mage.”
Kye scoffed. “If you’re capable, you don’t need magic. Most of the time it’s just an extra convenience.”
I just allowed myself an exhale of amusement at that and let her words stew in my head. As seconds slipped by though, my brows furrowed together. Jason’s explanation of magic rose up again, and something nagged at my brain.
“If…” I started. One of Kye’s eyebrows shot up. “If heat is the easiest thing to create with magic, how are you able to enhance your body at will?”
Kye stared at me for a second as my question hung in the air. Her feet masterfully avoided all obstacles on the forest floor while we walked. “It’s not as simple as that,” she eventually said. “The soul is like a muscle—like something you can train. And the more you use it for a purpose, the easier that purpose becomes. I’ve always enhanced my actions, so that’s what I mainly do.”
Recognition flickered in my head like a white flame as I processed her words. My brows knitted together and I nodded, something about her explanation ringing true against the lessons in magic I’d been taught in my youth. Lessons that I’d quickly thrown out, in fact, because I’d never been able to use what they’d taught me.
A chuckle rose in my throat. “So, what—“
I tripped.
A brief moment of panic was all I got before I found myself face-first in the dirt. A slight burn scraped my skin as the rock tore on my shin. Above me, I heard Kye snicker.
“World’s dammit,” I muttered as I picked myself up. Standing up, I brushed the dirt from my face and already-ragged clothing before Kye started laughing beside me. As soon as she did, I gritted my teeth and shot her a glare to shut up. But all that did was make her laugh even louder.
I could barely hear my own grumbles over her bellowing amusement as we pushed on through the trees.