Many days passed, many days of walking, sleeping by camp fires trying to stay warm, and lacking a bath. The Brigand’s pace slowed for no reason that he could tell. He started to sweat heavily, Max could even smell it. It wasn’t even hot out as the sun started to disappear on the horizon.
“Here we are.” He headed off of the road and Max started to follow a trail with The Brigand. It wasn’t a long walk from the road, but it was obstructed by trees. The building that they approached had perfectly smooth textured walls and it shined in the trailing sunlight. Max never before laid eyes on such a structure. All the buildings of his childhood home were made of wood and sometimes stone. As Max drifted back to the current time from contemplations of his past, he became nervous. They were then approached by a being in the shiniest armor he had ever seen. Max felt very outside of his element and did not even know how to comprehend all of these mysterious objects that now faced him.
The being looked directly at Max and began making a series of strange clicks and buzzes that almost made Max believe the creature was trying to talk to him. “
Arrows suddenly flew into the thick armored being. The force of the projectiles should have at least pushed the creature back, but they did not. Instead, the arrows shattered into shrapnel and dust upon impact, all of their force was exerted back upon themselves. A number of curses could be heard from high ground behind Max. In his current predicament, he didn’t have much concentration to spare on hearing such words.
Max tried his best to roll out of the grasp of The Brigand that now solidified upon his clothes. He imagined himself ducking under the burly man and hearing his clothes rip as he burst free. It was not to be. He heard shuffling through the brush behind him and he resigned to the fact that he was captive and that this thing would do what it willed with him.
Another singular arrow this time burst against the creature in front of him, but this time it impacted one of its eyes. It took a slight step back, but it seemed mostly unphased. It looked up past Max and its other eye quickly glowed red; a glow that grew into a beam of red energy that created a sizzling explosion on the hillside.
It had been just inches from replacing The Brigands grasp with its own, but now it was diverted. Max watched as the golem slowly backed up and then started a quick pace up the hill. It was out of sight now and Max could hear a good deal of arrows flying, footsteps, and sizzling explosions. The Brigand’s breathing was heavy and labored. Max could smell blood and as he looked down near one of his arms, he could see it there, trickling down his shoulder. Was it shock that the boy felt? Max didn’t feel an arrow or shrapnel hit him. What could it be?
The sounds of combat had receded into the distance. He could feel The Brigand looking around almost frantically now. He started to push Max in the direction of the silver saucer.
“Stop right there, Pater. You’re not taking that poor boy anywhere. You’ve already done enough damage.” The voice was feminine. It was a sharp voice that stung with pain and anger. Or was that just the pain in his shoulder from the arrow fragment? The Brigand, or Pater, started to laugh that confident laugh that Max had heard before. That really made him nervous. Made him nervous? No, that wasn’t what Max was feeling, that feel of nervousness was coming from... Pater! It was a faulty laugh of confidence. Maybe Max was saved! At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel a little confusion from this sudden betrayal of The Brigand.
The burly arms let go of him and gave him a shove. He stumbled to the ground and rolled along the muddy, grassy ground. He faced the pair that now faced off.
In a single swift motion, Pater pulled the great axe from his back. The snaps that kept it secure popped and the rest of the harness that wrapped around his nearly bare torso fell to the ground. The size of the axe made a sound as it cut against the air. The speed at which Pater flung it around to ready position pushed the air around Max, creating a breeze that chilled him to the bone.
The woman was the same one who hunted them previously near the river. Her hair flowed almost unnaturally about her body. She slung a bow across her back. A sharp looking, amazingly thin sword was sheathed upon her side. She drew it after throwing a glance at Max and preparing herself to fight Pater in single combat.
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The metallic being trudged off in the direction the other men were running. Bright red light continued to blast into the hill behind them as they fled. Dirt and debris flew up and obscured the view of the men as they continued to run. They took turns stopping and firing arrows from their short, slender bows, but the arrows continued to bounce off the silver armored man.
Max was overloaded with the activities going on around him. He took several steps back from the dueling pair, distancing himself as well from the guards and the metallic man. This gave him a view of both groups at the same time. He felt a bit safer for some reason. Even knowing he could not dodge an arrow, it somehow felt better at least knowing he would see his demise. He took this brief moment to pat him down and noticed that the blood on his shoulder was not his. There was no arrow embedded in him.
He looked up and saw that an arrow had punctured Pater’s shoulder from behind. Max knew it must have been this woman’s arrow. Pater stepped forward and spun quickly, letting the momentum of the huge axe head carry him through a full spin and back into ready position. The woman leaped over the axe and got a slight trim of hair from the large weapon.
Pater smiled with that gnarly mouth of teeth. “You should have given up the search.”
“You traitor. You’ll regret this.” She stepped in towards him as he slashed down at her. It was only a feint; two steps back brought her out of the way of the axe.
He must have expected such a move as he leaped up using the axe planted in the ground as a lever for his body. His momentum carried him upon her quickly before she could bring her sword up to stab him. His arm knocked it away, but not without pains of his own from the edge of the blade getting a piece of his bicep. “Phaedra. You’ll be sorry you caught up to us!”
Leading with his non-bloodied shoulder, he slammed into her and she rolled as best she could to not be stuck under him when he landed. He was now without the axe, but that hardly seemed to bother him. Her sword was now planted tip down into a nearby tuft of grass.
She caught herself from falling in a kneeling position and launched up off of the ground. Both of them now faced each other unarmed. They paced back and forth, facing each other. Each would feint or lunge and get back into ready position quickly. It looked like she would be no match for him.
Max peered up to the top of the hill where the guards ran. The metallic man was at the crest of the hill. He could see that one of the guards was not lucky enough to evade all the attacks. He lay face first, body contorted in a look of pain before death. Burns covered the side of his body that faced Max. It was an unpleasant sight, far worse than the broken men that The Brigand had left back in that village.
“I’ll snap you like a twig, just like I did your sister!” Pater said, drawing Max’s attention back to the circling pair just in time. Pater reached out and grabbed around part of Phaedra’s torso with one big hand and her legs with the other. The proportions were insanely out of perspective. His hands seemed wider than both her legs combined. He picked her up off of the ground and started to turn as if he would plant her face first into some nearby sharp rocks.
She pulled out an arrow with a free hand while grabbing onto his back with the other. He lunged down to his knees with her head pointed towards the rocks. Max closed his eyes; this would be the most gruesome display that he would ever see. He just couldn’t watch.
The sound he heard confused him. He opened his eyes to see The Brigand on his knees in front of the sharp rocks. Phaedra was wrapped around behind him now. He was still barely holding on to her torso and his other hand was around her feet. She took the arrow in her hand and stabbed down into Pater’s eye. There was a disturbing sound as the soft flesh of his eye popped, followed by a gut-wrenching scream. Pater let go of Phaedra and grabbed at his face in pain. Phaedra kicked his large body over into the rocks, heedless of the giant man’s suffering.
“It would be best that you return to the road, Max. I will meet you there.” She got to her feet and started to pace around The Brigand. He groaned and lay still on the rocks with his hands on his face.
Max finally walked away from the scene of what might have been his demise. Phaedra stayed behind for a moment. Max could no longer see the majestic, yet surprisingly dreadful, Phaedra as he arrived back at the road. The guards that had helped to rescue him were there with him. He heard the twang of a bow string and a male scream of pain. All the guards stopped chuckling amongst themselves and went silent. They had a look on their faces of utter seriousness. Next, Max heard the sound of a large thud and another scream. Phaedra came from around the hill and approached the road. She was covered in blood down one side of her body and on both hands. She had a grim look, as if she was not proud of what she had done. Max approached her and then went to pass her and head around the hill. Before he got very far, Phaedra held onto Max’s arm and her guards grabbed his other arm. “You don’t want to see what is back there.”
Max was shocked, he was sure she had just murdered Pater. Max surprised himself with how badly he empathized for the man that had just given him up to the ‘enemy’. He wondered who his friends really were, and whether he was among them now.