SOLUS

That man, that despicable prick. I saw the magician leading a wall of metal armour and gleaming weaponry. My entire body burned with hatred as I stared at him. The glint of the pendant caught my eye. Rage bubbled up inside as I contemplated how to kill him. Do I make it excruciating or do I end it in one slice?

I could hear Lena yelling at me to keep running, but I was not having it. I will kill this magician and take back what belongs to me. “All of you keep going,” I said to the beastkin who had stopped running to watch me. They listened and ran, all except for Lena. She ran back to me and pulled on my arm to run too. I watched as she winced in pain as she was burned by my boiling rage.

“Please you need to run too” She said with tears in her eyes. I shook my arm free. “No, I will stay and fight. Get out of here or you’ll be killed.” She shook her head. Twang. I pushed her away roughly and she tumbled away as something impacted my right shoulder. I glanced to see an arrow sticking out. I snapped the shaft and threw it to the ground. “So this is your true nature, Solus. You filthy monster.”

I roared and a bestial sound could be heard from the farthest reaches of Boren. It was a sound of malice and death. The magician paled and disappeared into the ranks of the soldiers. My eyes searched for him but he was gone. My anger was not.

“Spearhead formation!” A soldier yelled. The rank and file of the soldiers changed in an instant to that shaped like an arrowhead. With the soldier who called out the order in front, with the soldiers doubling the further back you went.

My mind had one singular focus, to kill that fucker, that magician. I heard Lena scream at me but it was too late. I couldn’t hear anything over the waves of rage that crashed in my mind. My feet moved in a blur and in an instant I was in front of the leading soldier. My dagger-like claws raked across his chest burying deep into him. He screamed and fell.

That was only the beginning.

Lena of Foxkin

“No, please no” I said to no-one in particular. All of my comrades had used the distraction to escape into the woodlands. I watched as Solus fought against the increasing number of soldiers. Even an amateur could tell that with each soldier Solus killed, two appeared to take their place.

“I WILL KILL YOU MAGICIAN!” Solus roared in anger and desperation.

Why am I still here? I could have ran too but…

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I couldn’t turn away from this fight. I ran towards Solus and picked up a discarded sword from a dead guard on the ground. As I approached three soldiers broke off from the rear and ran towards me. I settled into a defensive stance as the soldiers raised their swords and charged.

“Die, you damn mongrel!” One of the soldiers shouted at me in their approach. My sword whipped towards him and he blocked it with his shield. The other two soldiers surrounded me on either side. I don’t know if I can take on three but if I don’t I’m dead. I swung the sword at the soldier in front, but he parried with his own weapon. His sword hit mine from underneath and the blow knocked the sword out of my hand. It flew and landed next to the soldier on my left.

“Hahaha you can’t even take a single one of us down” the soldier continued to laugh at my failure. He readied his sword to cut me down. There was a flash of steel and I closed my eyes waiting for death to come.

“Arrgh” I heard a scream and I opened my eyes to see the gleam of a sword with an arm attached fly through the air followed by a spray of blood. I looked over the soldier who had swung the sword to see he was missing an arm and was holding down the bleeding stump with the other. A shadow fell onto him and he was torn to shreds. The other two soldiers backed away with their sword hands shaking. Solus stood up and bolted towards the soldiers and cut them down. Twang.

Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang. Twang.

I looked over to the formation of soldiers to see countless arrows flying towards us. They were hard to spot in the night sky but it looked to be over a hundred arrows heading straight for us.

It’s over now. I thought to myself. I’ll never see my sister or mother again.

A shadow fell across my face. I looked up to see Solus staring at me with his arms stretched out to either side. He looked at me and closed his eyes.

Thunk. Followed by another Thunk. And another, one and a few more. Arrows clattered against the cobblestones of the road and buried themselves into the houses lining the street.

“Why?” I choked out. Solus opened his eyes and said nothing. His gaze seemed more gentle than I had previously seen. He tottered to the side and fell forwards onto the rough ground in front of me. Multiple arrows were sticking out of his back.

He took those for me… why?

I heard the clanging and rustling of armour as soldiers encircled us and held their weapons at the ready. The robed man weaved his way through the soldiers and approached. “What a fool” he said as he glanced at Solus who was lying face down.

“He could have easily dodged the arrows but he decided to turn himself into a pincushion.” He smirked and looked at me. “A monster and a filthy demi, hmmm…” the magician seemed to be deep in thought. “Cutting you both down now seems inelegant, and a hanging is too boring.” He paused. “Oh I know, I’ll drop you into the gorge.” He smiled wickedly and ordered the soldiers to chain our hands and feet and take us away. The last thing I saw was the pommel of a sword approaching my face.