The thundering rainfall lashed at the trees of Grenbelm Forest as dawn began to break over their tips.

On the ground, three monster-human hybrids stood before a partially frozen human—a one-armed swordsman who seemed more inconvenienced than furious at his temporary imprisonment.

And behind them all, still shackled to a rotten oak tree by the human swordsman’s knife, was Ethan, the Legendary hat.

Just… gotta… wiggle… free!

You are witnessing history unfolding before you, and you deem it fit to wiggle like a fish on a line?

History? Ethan asked, his eye lighting on the sneering faces of the hybrids as they readied their weapons. Looks to me like a common brawl, and I’d rather not get caught in the crossfire.

They’re here for you, [Archon].

Remember? I told you others would come looking for you.

No hybrid with an instinct of self-preservation would face off against a Greycloak otherwise, let alone the [Lightborn] himself.

I really gotta shut off your ‘foreshadowing’ setting, y’know that?

Cracks began forming in the ice block that encased Artorious’ lower torso, but the man looked on at his three new opponents with blazing eyes.

“If you obstruct my mission, then you are my enemies,” he told them calmly. “I would suggest that you lay down your arms.”

“Shut it!” the catgirl—Tara—barked back. “Hate to tell ya, but this is the end for you! Fauna: blast him!”

“Um… ah—ok!”

The robe-clad rabbit girl clutched her staff tightly within her pale hands and leveled it at the Lightborn’s head.

“T-taste vengeance!” she squeaked. This was probably as threatening a battle cry as her species could create.

She twitched her ears, wiggled her nose, and kept her eyes focused on the buildup of searing, killing light gathering at the tip of her wooden stave.

“NOW!”

The command had been the catgirl’s, and at her shout, the rabbit-mage loosed her spell—sending a spear of radiant light streaking toward the swordsman’s forehead…

… and just before it hit the bridge of his nose, the spell stuttered and died, balled into a small white puff of fluff, which then dropped to the ground with an indignant CLUCK!

At the frozen feet of the warrior now clucked a chicken, much to the frustration of her companions.

“…Nice, Fauna. Real nice.”

“Sorry!”

“Plan B,” the wolfman said, and as Ethan’s eye switched to his position at the very edge of the den, he found that there was no one there at all.

He’s using [Hide]! A wolfboi after my own heart.

Sir Artorious of the Greycloaks heaved a weary sigh as he looked down at the tumbling chick beneath him.

“You think to defeat me by hurling poultry at my feet,” he said.

The catgirl double blinked, immediately sheathing her blades and taking some time to stretch her legs and lithe, fluffy tail.

“Nope,” she said. “But we are gonna run away from ya.”

Ethan was just as shocked as the Greycloak was when the wolfman then appeared beside him, snatched him from the tree with speed far beyond anything Ethan had seen in this world thus far, and made a break for the rainswept treeline.

The arm of Artorious was quicker, however, lashing out and clawing for the wolfman’s matted coat, which he would have doubtless managed to grab if the catgirl had not thrown a silver throwing knife, piercing his palm.

“MOVE!” The wolfman shouted as he sped away. “We’ve got the Archon. The job’s done!”

“This ain’t over, Greyboy!” the catgirl hissed before she turned to follow her friends. “This is just the beginning!”

The hybrids then disappeared beyond the bushes and brambles, leaving the swordsman to look after the filthy beast who had just drawn his blood.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

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Ethan blinked through sharp thorns and thickets that beat against his threadbare body.

Hey! Watch it, furball! Is this any way to treat your ‘Archon,’ or whatever?

He was answered by the wolfman barking to his companion as she ran beside him:

“Tara! Is the teleport stone ready?”

“Thirty minutes!” the catgirl replied, her dark body flitting through the bushes like a living shadow, tail flicking around like crazy.

“Sorry, guys!” the rabbit hybrid squeaked. “I tried, really! I tri—”

“Forget about it, Faun,” the catgirl said. “You’ve saved our asses more than enough. Besides, it’s the Archon who’s gotta take down the Lightborn. We’d have just slowed him down.”

The wolfman looked down at Ethan and winked.

“Sorry,” he said. “I know you’re probably confused right now. But give our ugly mugs the benefit of the doubt, yes? We’re here to help you. Just like you’re here to help us.”

Ethan’s eye gazed up at him with knowing trepidation, and more than a little excitement.

Is this gonna be some kinda fate-tied-to-prophecy type deal? Am I… the One?

What do you think?

I think you could be a little more helpful.

Just then, the fleeing hybrids were stopped in their tracks by the sound of gunfire to the east, and Tara dove for Fauna as a bullet whizzed by her friend’s floppy ears.

“Shit! Get down!”

The cry was Klax’s, and the wolfman immediately rolled out into an open glade where a score of human soldiers were waiting. When the girls joined them, they froze, seeing the vicious muskets and spears in the hands of the men.

“Hunters…” Klax whispered. “Looks like the Grey wasn’t alone, after all…”

“That’s them!” one iron-plated soldier said. “And… and look there! The hat!”

“The Bounty was right—it’s him! It’s the Archon!”

Looking into the furious eyes of the human militia, Ethan saw that his reputation preceded him. They had clearly seen this contract that had been placed on his head, and were here to share in the glory…

“How’d you wanna handle it?” Tara whispered to Klax.

“…Stall them. Kill for time.”

“We’ve got twenty whole minutes!”

“…Then our good friend Fauna will just have to ready up something… explosive for our welcoming committee, here.”

Holding Ethan in his right paw, waving him like a flag of surrender, the wolfman then barked at the humans and their readied weapons.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to settle this peacefully?”

The cawing of two black ravens overhead penetrated the short silence that followed. A silence which was broken by the general cry that spilled from every human being’s throat:

“KILL THE DEMONS!”

They charged in unison while the musket bearers began reloading their guns.

“Welp. That’s humans for ya,” Tara sighed. “What did you expect? Faun?”

“I’m ready!”

Klax groaned with weary resignation as he stretched his paws. “You all know what to do. Archon? Hang on tight.”

WITH WHAT?!

Ethan’s cry went unheard. The catgirl let fall a series of smoke bombs that enveloped the glade, giving the hybrids the edge over their charging opponents. Ethan saw the claws of Klax scrape against the exposed eyes and elbow joints of the soldiers that came at him, swiping clean through their chainmail armor and drawing blood that glistened along his grey hide. Whatever the catgirl and the rabbit girl were doing, Ethan could only guess at: but he could hear the screams of their foes as they fell before them one by one, and Klax began to hop over bodies felled by his companions as he raced to help cover their flanks with his flaring fists.

These guys are good, Ethan thought. Wonder how much I could learn on top of their heads…

Klax’s fists assumed a mantle of flame as the battle wore on, the wolfman channeling his energy into battering his foes with inhuman speed, delivering a few precise jump-kicks and roundhouse strikes that sent whole swathes of the human soldiers back.

“What are you doing!?” cried someone from outside the smoke haze of the battlefield. “FIRE!”

A hail of bullets pierced the veil of the smokescreen, and Ethan saw his holder fall, his arm riddled with bullets.

“Klax!”

The cry was Tara’s, and she was at her companion’s side almost instantly, trying to get him up and carry him out of the way of the still-swiping humans as they came forward with spears raised, ready to strike down the evil beings who held the demon hat.

Ethan then heard the shriek of something large as it swept down and plucked at the eyeballs of one spear-wielding soldier. One of the ravens from above had come to their aid… somehow.

“G-go!” the rabbit girl called as the smokescreen began to vanish and reveal that the human forces just kept coming. “The ravens will cover us!”

“Fauna…” Klax murmured. “You know we don’t leave our own… behind.”

The musketeers blasted the ravens as they soared towards them, under the command of Fauna as she fought off two roaring swordsmen with the help of her beleaguered comrades. Even as a hat, looking sidelong at the rampaging human soldiers who were intent on nothing more than the heads of his furry companions, Ethan could tell that this battle was not going their way.

Hey! Hey, wolfy! PUT ME ON SOMEONE’S HEAD!

Klax simply barked at Tara as she knifed an advancing soldier. “How much time left!?”

“T-ten!” the catgirl huffed, her face flecked with crimson.

Ethan could tell his bearer’s eyes were beginning to glaze over in the face of the advancing army. They were being pushed back. There was no other way to say it.

And if you can’t hear me, then I guess I’ve got no choice… I don’t plan on dying here.

Let me guess.

You’re going to try and be a hero…

Hey, Sys, Ethan smirked within his mindscape. That’s something you’ll learn about me—I go with the flow. And right now, these guys are on my side. And I’m betting they’ll have more to tell me about what’s really going on here than you do…so, yeah. If you don't mind, I'm gonna take control.

Without waiting for another retort, Ethan managed to flap hard enough against Klax’s claw that the great wolf let him go.

“Archon!” Klax shouted.

Ethan rolled along the grass, only barely avoiding the feet and spears of the humans as they doubled back on themselves, trying to pin him down. They would have managed to get him if the hybrids hadn’t renewed their assault, fighting the advancing horde to a standstill.

“Tara!” Klax called. “Find him!”

But Ethan didn’t share the worries of his bloody comrades. He flopped towards one of the fallen ravens and met the bird’s amber eye.

The group of musketeers aimed at them both with murderous intent.

Hey, birdy, Ethan thought. You’d look great in blue.