It was a harrowing moment when Jake realised that the first people they’d fought had been the weakest of the Fatesworne. The axe wielder had been fast and strong, but not that much more than Jake and on a par with Aspen.
The people fighting Ari, though, were faster than any of them.
A higher tier and the ranks to go with it didn’t mean immediate superiority, but it did mean that Jake felt like he was on the back foot immediately.
It didn’t help that the Fatesworne that had moved to fight him and Nepthys was using her Wyrd liberally as well. She was a dagger fighter, much like the one he’d met in that blood-soaked prison.
Jake was faster, stronger and more experienced now, but it was clear that she had a solid edge on him in capability. With Nepthys backing him up, they were holding their own, but that wasn’t enough.
Beyond their initial fight, beyond the longer-range duel that Aspen and Gargan were having with another pair of Fatesworne, Felix was fighting the final pair of Fatesworne. One of them had the normal Fatesworne mask, while the other had a black mask with a white web spread across it.
If the woman he was fighting now had an edge on Jake, then the three of them were something else altogether.
From the brief glimpses that Jake had, he could tell that Felix was going all out. The older man was fighting with both a sword and dagger, his Wyrd-conjured hand in full display.
Despite his best efforts, Felix was only holding his own against the two Fatesworne, and Jake knew with cold certainty that it wouldn’t last.
Mistiming his next dodge, Jake felt hot pain cut across his cheek as the Fatesworne drew blood. Grimacing, he lunged forward to try to land a strike, but the Fatesworne slipped aside, dodging his attack and striking Nepthys’s aside with an infused dagger.
Aspen joined them in a blur of Grey Wyrd, his spear coming in low and catching the woman in the thigh, the weight of the hit knocking her off balance.
Jake and Nepthys were on her in a flash, stabbing down to make sure she never rose again, but even as they dealt with her, Ari let out a pained cry.
Jake turned on instinct in time to see one of the two Fatesworne that Ari had been fighting barrel into him and knock him aside.
Jake went sprawling to the ground, losing his sword, but the Fatesworne ignored him and focused on Nepthys and Ari instead. The two of them had more of a chance to react than Jake and were holding their ground, giving Jake chance to look over and see that Ari was pinned to the safehouse by a spear in his shoulder.
The Fatesworne holding him in place had a dagger out and was trying to put it through Ari’s eye, but was locked into a wrestling match to do so.
Ari was the bigger of the two, but was in a bad position and bleeding heavily from the shoulder.
Trusting Nepthys and Aspen to stay alive, Jake rushed the struggling pair, throwing his dagger before conjuring his spear and lunging at the Fatesworne.
The classer ducked the dagger and pulled back, blurring away in a burst of Wyrd to avoid Jake.
“Fuck, that hurts,” Ari said with a groan, his eyes not leaving the Fatesworne as he grabbed his sword with his good hand. “The moment I go for a potion, this fucker is going to skewer me, so I need you to cover me. Ready?”
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“Ready,” Jake said with a nod, taking up a stance in front of Ari as the Fatesworne stalked closer, twirling his spear expectantly.
Before they could act, Jake felt a touch of Wyrd stir within him, but it felt odd, oddly foreign, yet not invasive.
“No, no, no, don’t do this!” Ari shouted, his voice breaking with raw emotion.
Distantly, Jake saw Wyrd gather around Felix, fitting him snugly as he seemed to swell with strength. Felix and both of the Fatesworne were bleeding from minor wounds, but as whatever Ability Felix had used kicked in he visibly healed.
Moving faster than Jake had ever seen someone move, Felix stabbed the Fatesworne with the web mask, putting his sword through his chest down to the hilt and all but decapitating him with his dagger.
Turning with the movement and leaving his sword behind, Felix attacked the second man, grabbing the Fatesworne’s sword hand with his Wyrd conjured one while stabbing at him with the dagger.
The Fatesworne twisted, taking the hit to his shoulder, but before Felix could finish the job, he staggered, his Wyrd hand shattering into grey fragments.
“Die!” The wounded Fatesworne all but screamed, his sword flaring grey with a powerful Skill as he rammed it home.
The sight of Felix crumpling over the sword hit Jake like a physical punch, and it was only Ari’s blade that saved him from the spear-wielding Fatesworne.
Snapping back to the present, Jake took in the bad wound in Ari’s side, the minor injuries they were all picking up and how many Fatesworne were left.
With just their current enemies, some of them could maybe survive, but with Felix’s killer rushing to join them, they had no hope.
“Fall back!” Jake shouted, grabbing Ari and dragging him back into the safehouse as the others did their best to follow suit.
Alan and Gargan let loose with everything they had, forcing the Fatesworne to dodge or try to take the hits. The ranged attackers tried to do the same, but the walls of the safehouse sheltered Jake and the others.
If anything, the extra Wyrd and projectiles destroying sections of the building just made it harder for the Fatesworne to chase them, and Jake meant to take full advantage of that.
Ari was distraught, bleeding badly and struggling against him, but Jake and Aspen were able to get him into the tunnel as Alan pulled the lever.
The spear-wielding Fatesworne made it to the tunnel right as the mechanism triggered and several tonnes of rock came crashing down to seal the entrance.
Throwing himself forward, the Fatesworne avoided the rocks, only to be tackled against the wall by an enraged Ari. The two had struggled in close quarters earlier, but this time Ari wasn’t impaled on a spear and the fight was as violent as it was short.
“Ari, we have to go!” Jake called out, moving forward to grab at Ari’s shoulder and try to pull him off of the broken body of the Fatesworne.
Ari whirled at the touch, his bloody fist raised and ready, before sagging as the rage left him and nodding silently. Taking Jake’s hand, Ari got to his feet with a grimace and drank a potion before starting down the tunnel.
Nepthys and Gargan had already handed out all the packs, with Alan carrying the extra. No one questioned Alan carrying a dead man’s pack in the heat of the moment, it just felt wrong to leave it behind as they made their escape.
The tunnel went to the far side of the hill, opening out into a tight path between two rocky outcrops. Dismissing and resummoning Moby, Jake had the duck use the lever on the inside of the tunnel once they were all out, collapsing the exit in case they were followed.
“So what do we do now?” Alan asked as the rubble settled on the exit of the escape tunnel.
“First of all, we drink whatever potions we have left, and make sure everyone is in good shape. After that, I’ve got a map to another safehouse. We head there and take some time to figure out our next steps,” Jake said, glancing at Ari to see if he had another plan.
The older man said nothing, though, simply staring back the way they’d come with a tight expression.
The image of Felix crumpling over that sword lingered in Jake’s mind, but he could only imagine how Ari was feeling right now.
Pushing it aside, Jake pulled out the map as they passed around the remaining potions, getting his bearing. Once they were done, he set off, eager to put some distance between them and the tunnel.
Having something to do, even if it was as straightforward as keeping them on the right path, was enough to keep Jake’s mind busy and not focused on what they’d just been through.
He’d have to process it eventually. They all would, but for now, he needed to keep things moving. The safehouse was meant to be half a day away from the tunnel, so they’d get there tonight.
Ideally, they’d figure out what to do overnight and move on in the morning, just to make sure the Fatesworne couldn’t catch up with them.
Where their next destination would be, Jake didn’t know, but that was a question for later.
Focusing on what mattered, Jake led the way away from the collapsed tunnel, making sure to take a non-direct route and use what terrain they could to make their tracks harder to follow.