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17 – Race against time

Fear. That’s what I sensed from the other 6 men that were surrounding me.

I’m 9 years old, and its my 10th year in this world. I don’t want it to end like this. Do I have to curse my fate?

“We scram now!” Vurm whispered under his lips. “Where?” someone asked from behind. “To west, if we run back to Lunaris, it will catch up to us in jungle.. West is the only reasonable choice..” Vurm said in panic.

In a blink of eye, Vurm grabbed from neck of my shirt and everyone began to run. Lichen’s screams were echoing in air as we were running. After few hours of run, all of them took out small bottles and drank them. I didn’t ask for details but I assume they were health potions which were used to rejuvenate their body conditions.

Just as sun was setting down, group stopped running. Vurm asked Muramir to activate a spell which would identify dangerous creatures that could attack us at night time. “We will take a rest in here! Try to sleep for few hours and we leave after everyone has good sleep” Vurm told.

I was lucky to be carried by Vurm or else there was no chance for me to run as fast as them. Muramir confirmed that there was nothing around which could be identified as threat to us. Two of squad members caught wild rabbit and we ate them. All of us were hungry, thirsty and demotivated. Nobody expected to be involved with a monster from myths. Everyone clearly understood severity of situation. As we ate, I learnt that tomorrow we shall run straight up to afternoon and change our direction to north and run until evening. By that time we were going to reach city called Metropolis. All I understood is that it was a city well-known for gambling and prostitution. Few of the warriors were saying that they were planning to relieve their stress in red light district of Metropolis.

Plan was that one person would stay awake while rest slept. I was first one to be on shift for 1 hour. Time passed very slowly. Sounds of wind slipping through leaves, crackling branches, wild animals’ growling and hissing put lots of stress on my mind. I was watching right and left, turning back and forward almost every minute to analyze the environment for any possible movement. One hour passed but it felt like an eternity for a person who was as powerless as me.

It was Muramir’s turn now, so I woke him up and went to sleep. 6 hours. It was the amount of time, that I was going to sleep. Last one to stay on alert and be on guard was going to be Ahkel. He was a 4th rank warrior.

I didn’t have a good sleep. I was sleeping on ground which was filled with small rocks, which made my body uncomfortable. But that was not the reason for bad sleep. It was because of nightmare. It too real and I was startled by it. In my dream I saw Oscar and Leila getting killed by Lichen. It was using its black sword to chop them of to pieces and was looking at me intensely giving me goosebumps in sleep.

I woke up to feel sweat covering all of my face. I was breathing heavily after understanding that all what I saw was part of dream. Sun was raising up from East and sun rays began to lighten up surroundings. I counted five people sleeping around me. In shock, I shook up Vurm. “Ahkel is missing” I shouted. He woke up instantly. “What?” he said. “Ahkel.. Ahkel is missing..” I replied. He was meant to be last one to stay on alert but he was missing.

Other woke up and Muramir in haste chanted some kind of spell. “I can’t sense his life-force 100 meters in diameter from us..” Muramir said. “We shall go now!” Vurm said and they drank another bottle of small glass liquid.

Because of emergency and stress, I didn’t feel like eating anything at all. My appetite was lost yesterday when I saw Lichen and basilisk. Eating that rabbit meat was enough for me at least for a day or two. Vurm grabbed me again and squad members began to run again.

We were trying to go in straight line as much as possible. Although sometimes trees were getting intensely close to each other at some points where we avoided to choose another path. After few hours of run, we faced most gruesome sight which others had seen in their lifetime.

Ahkel’s body was cut into pieces. His body from waist to shoulders was cut so perfectly as if a gardener had cut the extra branches and leaves to give perfect shape to tree. Anyway, Ahkel’s body was lying on ground. His legs, which were again cut into many pieces, were lying in place of his arms. Around his waist, chunks of his arm were put together. Most disgusting part was that his head was lying where his penis used to be.

At a sight like this everyone would go crazy and hopeless. But not me, “Not me, motherfucker.. You can’t scare me with my own methods” I whispered. I saw squad members getting demotivated at sight and some of them raising their voices to face the damned monster. It was time to get involved.

“That’s what he wants! Lichen wants you guys to stress and feel powerless. Another 7-8 hours and this damned nightmare will end as soon as we reach Metropolis. Don’t you see he can’t fight all of you together so he tries to separate everyone to kill one by one.. That’s his aim from minute one..” I said. “Kid shut the fuck up.. You can’t even run as fast as us.. Maybe we shall leave you behind to earn time” Braman said while heavily breathing. “Fuck me! Fuck me!” I said in an insulting tone and continued “I’m not being the kid in here.. But you guys are! That damned monster is playing around with ya all! Don’t you see that? I can’t retaliate because I’m too young and powerless but what about you all?”.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Sssh!” Vurm said towards me, fingers touching his lips. I heard few steps but I think I was late to detect. Vurm’s sword was in his hand and I heard the voice of his sword touching metal surface. It was Lichen. Because of adrenaline rush, everything was in slow motion. It stepped back while Vurm’s sword touched it’s armored body. Red liquid looking like blood but much more watery in comparison to blood flew down through its armor. Front part of it’s sword was covered in blood. I turned to see Muramir’s head falling down first followed by his body. Backing away, Lichen jumped to a tree branch and then from one branch to another and got lost from our view. It all happened in matter of seconds, too fast for me to see what had happened at all. Everyone except Vurm was shock. He was able to react which meant Lichen was not faster or stronger than Vurm. “We have a chance” passed my mind.

“Run” Vurm said and grabbed me. We were going in a path which no longer meant anything to them. I knew they had panicked and lost their reasoning. “These fuckers are useless and I will die with these shitholes” I whispered in low tone while being carried by Vurm. After half an hour of non-stop running, two big branch of tree which were thrown from far away from front of us hit Braman and Augustus dropping them dead on spot. “Fuck three of us left! We gotta kill it!” I whispered but I knew no proper way to kill it and I was useless in face-to-face fight with the monster.

Vurm and other squad member stopped. He dropped me and took out his sword. Other member, whose name is long lost to me, unsheathed his sword too. I knew they have reached their mental barrier and were not going to run but face the Lichen. I took out my small katana. “I can’t go down without giving a proper fight” I said and laughed. “Not in here!” Vurm said... “We need an open place to face it!” Vurm said and moved towards place from where sound of waterfall was coming. We walked slowly checking out surroundings for any movement. We reached out part of forest after 5 minutes of walking which seemed like lifetime.

Water was streaming down from waterfall raising high pitch sound that disabled our hearing of surroundings. There was a small lake which was made up of water, and few streams which had emerged from it were going into deep part of forest.

There was enough open space but because of noise, I think it was a bad choice of ground. Vurm and other fella were standing in front of me with huge swords in their hands. Lichen walked out of woods and began to move towards us slowly. It was walking in a manner as if he had won, the only thing was left was to kill. I was determined, but without power nothing mattered.

Other squad member attacked in panic and was sliced down as if a chef was cutting cucumber into slices. Perfect kill.

My legs were trembling but I tried my best not to show fear in my face. “If I had power” was only thing which I was thinking of.

It attacked first, using its sword to try to cut vertically. Vurm dodged to left and went for horizontal cut but Lichen in a fast move cut Vurm’s right leg from his knee. He dropped down in agony, screaming out loud. While dropping for last time Vurm tried to cut Lichen but it used it left hand to grab his sword and take it away from him.

In another slash, Lichen cut Vurm’s left leg. Only thing what Vurm was able to do was to crawl in despair. It turned towards me. “He had left Vurm alive to see me killed first” I thought. I was walking backwards without checking ground with katana in my hand. Slowly but surely he was walking to me. I could hear and feel drops of water from waterfall touching my head. I placed katana on top of my hand, grabbing it with my both and concentrated mana into it. “Falcon’s Beak” I shouted and went for vertical cut. Lichen moved instantly and its sword slashed with mine on air. My katana broke in two, upper part flying somewhere out of my vision. I felt some kind of black aura coming out of Lichen’s sword.

My attack was useless but I didn’t lose hope at all. I threw katana towards him and still walked backwards. “Useless katana, it was not the first and will not be the last one to break after I use it” came to my mind.

It was gaining on me when my foot slipped on watery rocks and I fall into waterfall. Cold water splashing on me, I couldn’t breathe for a moment. Although unimaginable to me, my body hit the rock on bottom of waterfall and bended down into a cave inside which was protected by waters streaming down. I fall down but fortunately entrance was less than a meter in height so I didn’t get any injuries. “God’s still favoring me!” I said and saw two half-open rocky doors.

I turned to see Lichen coming through the stream so I ran into the space half-open doors that lead to. Entering I saw big pillars supporting a temple like place. Torches that were placed on pillars were lighting inside the structure that was carved within the rock.

I saw a mummy of a person in a sitting position as if praying to something. Foul smell was everywhere because of it. Another thing which got my interest was a katana on top of a square rock in front of mummy. I ran towards the mummy of person and passed it. Grabbing katana, I was mesmerized by it. It didn’t feel like ordinary katana as there were different carving on each side of blade giving a different aura to it. Moreover there were two blood red crystals on each side of its hilt.

“Tak, Tak, Tak”, I heard foot steps. Lichen was inside the temple looking at me.

Next: 18 - Mystery