Fighting Back

One by one, everyone looked towards the sky and saw the thick cloud of dark smoke from the shadow creature fly 20 feet over our heads.

“No way,” August said. “How is that possible?”

Ophelia trembled and gasped for air as she spoke.

“I—huff—I’m not sure! I’ve never seen this kind of magic before!”

“Is this black magic?” Bertram said.

“Black magic?” I asked, confused.

“Mm.” Bertram nodded. “It’s magic that has to do with the element of darkness, but the techniques and teachings were lost almost 150 years ago! How old is this King guy?!”

It seemed like a rhetorical question. Bertram pretty much answered it already.

There were faint shrieks from a distance. They were coming from creatures and people.

Everyone turned to the terrifying noise. They raised their guards and their shoulders. Maya leaned onto Frank for support.

We were scared. I knew that for a fact.

And it only got worse.

I looked up and searched for the city wall.

“Look,” I said with fear in my voice. “We’re closer to the walls than before. We’re near the southern gate!”

Which was bad. Really bad.

Arnold and the others raised their weapons.

Arnold was as serious as ever. He furrowed his brow and tightened the grip on his colossal greatsword.

“Then, those creatures are going to show up,” he said.

“…Yeah.”

They will.

“S-should we run?” Ophelia asked, turning her head to see each ‌of our reactions.

To be honest, running was the safe play. It’s what we should do. It made perfect sense.

But how I felt was different. Seeing Arnold and Frank raising their swords with anger on their faces, I knew what they were feeling.

Frustration.

I knew it all too well. I felt the same way. Maybe we all did.

I clenched onto the dagger of a previous fighter. A person who must’ve defended themselves and fought until the end.

Of course, I didn’t know whether I was right. I could be very far from the truth. But that didn’t matter. Because I know what my truth is.

I turned to Ophelia.

“No,” I said. “I’m tired of running. There’s no point to it anymore. All we’ll do if we keep running is tire ourselves out until we meet our doom—either from King himself or his nasty creatures.”

I raised my dagger.

“I don’t intend to let that happen to us.”

I lowered my head.

“My ‘plan’ from earlier to catch King off guard and analyze his moves may not have been any good…”

In fact, we still don’t know that much about King’s abilities or any weaknesses he has.

“But I know that if we make it towards the southern gate and help the people there, then we can beat King once and for all!”

Arnold grinned.

“That’s a pretty good plan considering it was made just now. Couldn’t have said it any better myself.”

Bertram and Cici nodded.

“I’m tired of all this damn running too!” he said.

“I am as well.”

Cici raised her mighty bow as Bertram raised his shortsword. The two grinned charmingly with confidence.

Mia, along with her parents and August, did the same.

“I’m gonna make those creatures pay for what they did to my nice shirt,” Maya said.

A cold breeze blew by. Maya wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, though, lucky for her, Frank was there and hugged her from behind, sharing his warmth with her.

“If you’re looking for revenge, Honey, then I’ll help you with that.”

“Me too,” Mia chimed in, wrapping her arms around them. She wore her mischievous smile, as per usual. “Let’s not forget that those werewolves trashed our house!”

Maya and Frank blinked rapidly when they heard those words.

“You’re right,” Frank said.

“I totally forgot about that,” Maya added.

I chuckled along with everyone else. Then, I brought my fist out.

“So how about it, everyone? Are you guys in on this new plan?”

“I wouldn’t call it a plan, but more of a broad suggestion,” Mia teased.

I sighed.

“Are you in or not?”

Mia bumped fists with mine.

“I’m in~” she said.

Maya and Frank joined in. After that, everyone else did the same.

I turned from side to side, looking at all my companions.

“Then it’s settled,” I said. “We’re going to the southern gate!”

“Right!” everyone shouted.

August stood at the front along with Arnold.

She raised her shield.

“King and his creatures may have taken us out of our homes, but we’ll take them back!”

“Right!” We all shouted.

We raised our weapons and scoped the area.

They should be here any second now.

The dark smoke above us was sending them to our exact location.

For a few seconds, all that we heard were the shrieks from before.

But then we heard footsteps.

A lot of footsteps.

“They’re here,” I said. “Get ready!”

From down the street, about 10 monsters ran from the southern gate and towards us.

2 small rock golems, 3 flying chimps, 4 rodents, and some sort of purple giant.

I grinned. No werewolves. That’s a good sign.

The horde of monsters came closer and closer to the open spot of the market.

And once they were in range, I raised my dagger and pointed right at their ugly faces.

“Now, Ophelia!”

“R-right.”

Standing in the middle of the group, where she can be heavily guarded, Ophelia was already in the middle of chanting and gathering mana when she raised her staff towards the horde.

“Earth Shower!”

My ears perked up. That was new.

A large amount of stone from the open marketplace broke from the ground and rose high into the air—higher than even her Rock Volley spell.

And in an instant, they crashed onto the horde at a terrifying speed.

The flying chimps shrieked and fell to the ground. 2 of the rodents actually died from it. But the small golems and the purple giant stood unfazed.

Though from how tough their exterior looked, I was expecting that to be the case.

Either way:

“Let’s go!” I yelled.

And while August, Maya, Mia, and Cici stayed back with Ophelia—I ran towards the remaining monsters with everyone else.

I stayed close to Arnold as we fought.

He was the brawn of this operation. With his devastating swings, the small golems didn’t stand a chance.

Thank goodness for how slow they are!

They simply raised their arms to defend themselves, but Arnold bashed right through it.

The golems were taken out in no time.

Frank dealt with the rodents and even one of the flying chimps on his own, while Bertram and I dealt with the rest.

Well, at least we tried to.

With insane speed and accuracy, Cici sniped the chimps right in their chests.

One of those arrows whizzed right past me and Bertram.

“Eek!” I yelled.

Bertram grasped the clothing around his chest.

“Geez, Cici! You almost shot me!”

Cici smiled and stuck her tongue out.

Bertram shook his head.

“This girl…”

I chuckled.

The last monster left was the purple giant. Its hair was just that—purple—though it didn’t have any on its head. Though its arms and face had plenty of it.

The purple giant made the first move.

With a guttural roar, it swung at me and Bertram.

It’s slow!

We jumped away from it, but its fist crashed into the stone, causing the cracked pebbles to hit the side of my face.

“Agh!” I yelled.

My eyes closed instinctively, and when I opened them back up.

“!!!”

The giant’s fist was heading right towards me.

I can’t dodge this!

I raised my arms and hoped that they were enough to protect me.

It wasn’t, but thanks to Arnold, I didn’t have to learn that the hard way.

I ran away from the two of them.

“Thanks! You saved me!”

“Don’t mention it.” Arnold grinned.

The purple giant swung at Arnold, but Arnold raised his colossal greatsword and blocked it.

The purple giant roared.

Geez, that thing was strong. One hit from that guy would mean a ‘Game Over’ for me.

Better keep my distance.

Arnold continued to block and dodge the purple giant’s attacks. When the giant punched the ground, Mia—who went on to lurk behind it—slashed at its legs.

Blood flew into the air.

“No way. She found a soft spot!”

The giant roared in pain and dropped to its knees.

“Arnold! This is your chance!”

“Huraaagh!”

Arnold swung at the giant’s neck, but the giant used its tough hands to cover its neck.

Arnold swung again.

“Hrk!”

The back of the giant’s hand was cut, but it was shallow.

Arnold swung again. Bertram joined in.

Soon, Mia and Frank joined the two as well.

And all the while, the giant screamed in pain.

I know it ran over to try to kill us, but I couldn’t help but feel bad for it.

It looked like we were bullying the poor thing.

And with one final swing from Arnold, the giant fell face first into stone.

“Yes!” Bertram cheered. “Thank the Goddess for your damn muscles, Arnold!”

Frank wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“Good work.”

The rest of the group cheered while I stared at the purple giant.

It didn’t seem all that violent…

I thought about King's words at the southern gate. How he and his friends hadn’t done anything wrong and yet were hunted, anyway.

Was this giant a passive creature? It didn’t attack as other hostile creatures would.

My heart was being tugged at.

“I’m sorry, but it was either you or us…”

We didn’t want each other to get hurt or killed by you, so we had no choice.

I’m sorry. I really am.

And that’s when I felt a sinister yet tingling sensation. From above.

“Watch out!” I yelled.

But it was too late.

“Nightsmoke!”

A cloud of dark smoke consumed us. It was the same smoke that the shadow creature emitted.

Damn it. I can’t breathe very well. I can’t see a thing either!

My heart pumped harder than it ever had before. My face burned. Sweat slid down the side of my cheek.

Because I remembered that wicked voice. All of us did.

The person who chanted this was King.

And he was livid.