Noah felt as if his legs were burning up, as he kept running towards the west as fast as his body would allow him, without knowing how much time had passed or the distance he had covered- all while cursing Liam in his heart.

He hadn't signed up for this, even taking down one archer had almost cost him an arm... and now two fired at him from the shadows relentlessly, as if aggrieved by the fall of their comrade in arms. What was even worse was that after ten minutes of sprinting like a madman, he had slowed down his pace thinking he'd lost them- only to have an arrow whiz past his right arm, missing by an inch at most.

Perhaps even Liam hadn't anticipated such an unlucky scenario, the little fuckers were tracking him like bloodhounds- and while Noah had the advantage of speed with him, he couldn't maintain this pace until morning. Something had to change, and Noah decided to swerve hard to the left- bulldozing through thick shrubbery as he felt brambles and leaves brush past his face in hopes that it would help cover his tracks.

With his spear held with both his hands and kept in front of him as he reappeared on the other side, Noah felt a hot and warm light momentarily blind his field of vision- causing him to assume a combat stance immediately with his spear pointed forward. Almost instantaneously he refocused his vision to see the sight in front of him- which made him do a double-take.

Two weapons pointed back at him, a longsword and a medium-sized curved blade that Noah didn't know the correct terminology for- as Noah realized that he had stumbled upon a makeshift campfire and it's owners.

"I'd suggest you put down that pointy stick, young man," said the older-looking of the two, a caucasian man that appeared to be in his mid-thirties, with blonde hair and a well-defined muscular body that seemed to justify his pick of the long-sword, wearing a green T-shirt and a pair of regular looking denim jeans

"You should listen to him" followed through the brown-haired caucasian woman that seemed to be in her late twenties, dressed in formal office attire, though her white shirt was tucked out and she didn't have any boots on, "We're just regular office workers, kid- not some escaped serial killers, so don't look at us like that" she continued, slightly irritated at Noah's expression.

'Fuck' thought Noah, not worried about the two in front of him, but rather the two in pursuit of him.

"I'm not falling for that twice. I've already had one lunatic try to kill me a few hours into the trial, what proof do I have you two won't do the same the moment I let my guard down" said Noah, in a genuinely aggrieved tone.

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Noah saw both their faces twitch at his proclamation, and he struck again while the iron was hot.

"Look, let me just back away a few steps and you guys do the same. And then we can both go on our own ways without a fight. Okay?" asked Noah with a beseeching expression on his face, trying to show how scared he was.

"I'll agree to that if you answer a question of mine," said the caucasian man with a firm tone that seemed to brook no disagreement.

Noah felt his heartbeat speed up, as he thought about the situation he was presently in. Two people stood in front of him with weapons pointed at him, while the archers were hot on his tail and bound to catch up with him in a few minutes.

"You'll get us all killed trying to interrogate me!" snapped Noah, finally unable to hold back any longer. "Two goblin archers are after me, back away and run if you want to live!" stopping himself from screaming in anger at these people because that would only serve as a guiding beacon for the archers to assassinate him.

"Huh?" the man grunted non-committally. "Natalie, have we run across a single goblin that was smart enough to know how to aim a bow, leaving aside firing one from a long distance?" the caucasian man asked his partner, in a tone that was laced with sarcasm.

"No Will, they're all as dumb as rocks" replied the woman in a dry, unamused tone.

"Boy, if you're gonna spin a tale at least try and make it a believable one..." the man shook his head a single time and then continued "Those boots of yours, and that weird outfit you're wearing.... where did you get them? I don't pick on kids, but if you tell me that you got it from your local clothing store- I will punch you" he finished in a tone that clearly indicated that the man would follow through with his threat.

Noah was visualizing a possible way out of this scenario, but it always seemed to end up with his inevitable demise. These two didn't seem like bad people, but even if he wanted to harm them- considering he had run in blindly into their camp, it was only his high dexterity that let him assume a combat stance, to begin with. He had the advantage in reach, but only by a little bit. He could take out one person at most, but due to the close proximity, he felt limited in the maneuvers he could pull off, and the second person was almost guaranteed to fatally injure him.

Rustling sounds echoed out from both their left and right, drawing the attention of all three of them.

"DUCK!" Noah yelled and threw himself to the side while holding on to his spear- if these two still didn't believe him then it wasn't his problem.

The woman chose to follow Noah's advice, crouching with her hands held over her head but the man remained standing as he looked around with his longsword held in both hands. The rustling stopped near their location and the silence remained for a tense minute....

Until the rustling resumed westward, choosing to move past their location without firing a single shot.

"You've got some explaining to do, young man," said the caucasian man with an unamused expression, as Noah hurriedly scrambled up to his feet while trying to find the reason for the bizarre incident that had just occurred.