Elsewhere…

  Leo skidded to a halt as he saw movement on his compass.

  His red and black compass had both been pointing in the same direction, but now the red compass had spun a full 180 degrees.

  He had just passed the location someone had been at an hour ago.

  Leo sighed in relief. Although he wasn’t fully in the clear yet, at least this other party hadn’t been hunting him.

  Leo checked out his surroundings, confirming there was no ambush, then continued running in the direction he presumed Elena and Brenton would meet up.

  Elsewhere…

  Juniper slumped her shoulders, letting them relax.

  The fight nearby had been over for quite some time now, and nobody had approached her ambush tree.

  She descended from the tree, and dismissed her porcupine. It wasn’t very taxing to keep it active if she let it sleep, but once they got moving it would start draining her reserves.

  She had been observing the compass and it had moved a fair amount in the last hour she stayed in the tree.

  Elena is close.

  She’s heading for the river.

  Elsewhere…

  Bremin casually wiped the blood off of the black compass and pivoted to face the direction it determined. However, this black compass wasn’t the one pointing at Evel.

  At his feet, was a dead body, a sword pierced through their chest.

  It had taken too long to find him. The red compass was unreliable

  It was too easy to simply move away from your original spot, and Bremin didn’t have any way of following their tracks across this expansive timberland.

  But now he had another black compass.

  And this one would follow around the person directly, no matter how far they tried to run.

  Without expression, Bremin yanked out the sword from the dead body, and flicked the blade with a practiced snap, sending a spray of red splatter to a nearby brush.

  He sheathed his sword and aligned himself to the needle of the black compass.

  Then he took off, the ground cracking below the force of his feet.

  Elsewhere…

  Fern stood frozen, hands held high in the air. This wasn’t a battle she could win.

  Around her, three men surrounded her, pointing a variety of weapons towards her.

  Can I make a break for it?

  Fern considered her options, but regardless of any plan she could come up with, it was hopeless. Her life was no longer in her hands.

  The leader of the trio, a man with blonde hair and pale complexion, approached her, and Fern readied her stance. She wasn’t planning on going down without a fight.

  The leader, unperturbed by her stance, continued approaching Fern with a confident stride. His blue eyes were staring deeply at Fern, but there was no hint of malice. His bright smile allowed Fern to relax a little.

  Getting close to Fern, he dropped his battle axe on the ground, an action that seemed senseless to Fern. Wasn’t he completely defenseless?

  He reached out his hand to Fern.

  “Lucien.”

  Fern slowly extended her arm and met Lucien’s in a firm handshake.

  “Fern.”

  Fern considered attacking Lucien then and there, using him hostage to get away from the other two, after all, Lucien was without a weapon. This may be her only opportunity.

  Yet…

  He didn’t look like a man in danger. He looked fully in control and the air around him gave Fern the feeling he was somebody quite capable.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Care to join my group?”

  Lucien asked her directly, skipping any formalities.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  Lucien’s smile widened.

  “Sure, but will you be able to find safety elsewhere?”

  Fern thought of her group. Assuming she was able to meet up with all of them, she would feel extremely safe. She trusted all of them, and knew they were capable people.

  But that was a big assumption.

  “Then what?”

  “Then, we’ll take out all the beasts.”

  Fern looked to the ground. She had seen one of these beasts before, and they looked far too ferocious. Take out all the beasts? Yeah right, she just needed to survive until enough people got eliminated. Unless massive groups got together to take them out, but even then she doubted they’d go unscathed. Fern wasn’t interested in throwing her life away.

  “Then I’m not interested.”

  However, she did appreciate this group’s kindness towards her so she felt she owed them a warning.

  “And I would give up on these beasts, if… if you’d seen one, then you’d know you can’t win.”

  As she turned to leave, Lucien said something that caused her to freeze.

  “Oh, those guys? We’ve already defeated one. Zero casualties!”

  Unsure that she heard him correctly, she slowly turned back around and studied the man in front of her. He met her eyes with confidence, confirming she didn’t mishear him. She considered his offer, now much more attractive, once more.

  Eventually, she came to a decision.

  “There’s another one of them from the direction I came, a Clawbear with jaws bigger than you.”

  Lucien showed no signs of hesitation, his bright smile turning ferocious. He lifted the battleaxe off the ground and signaled to the rest of his group their next destination.

  Elsewhere…

  Elena took deep, heavy breaths, slowly staggering forward, unused to her current center of mass.

  The world was a smear of green and shadow as her brain struggled to filter the visual information, but she kept her eyes locked on the grit of the footpath, following the needle relentlessly.

  She pulled the stolen coat tighter, as blood seeped through the heavy wool. Her hand clamped tightly over her left shoulder, clutching at the place her arm used to be.

  I just need to get to Brenton.

  He can heal me up then I can keep him safe.

  Elena repeated this mantra frequently so as to not lose focus, the soft sound of a distant river echoing in her ear.

  Rustle

  Elena didn’t notice the movement of the bushes as a figure exited.

  “Elena?”

  Hearing her name be called, Elena’s mind snapped awake as she turned her head to the voice.

  “Juniper?”

  Juniper’s face went pale when she saw Elena’s shoulder.

  “Y-You’re gonna bleed out!”

  Elena shook her head and gave her black compass to Juniper.

  “I’ll be fine if we reach Brenton, I patched it up the best I could for now.”

  Nodding her head, Juniper ran to Elena’s side, placing Elena’s remaining arm around her neck.

  Then, they continued the journey.

  “Does Brenton have a healing power?”

  Juniper broke the silence.

  Although they had all trained together, Brenton, like Evel, had remained secretive about his specific powers.

  “Mhm.”

  Elena responded curtly, trying to preserve her energy.

  They pressed on.

  And after another stretch of travel, they reached a wide river. Its gentle waves flowed softly as small fish could be seen making their way downstream.

  Across the river, was a completely different environment. The expansive suffocating forest transformed into a wide open field. There was the occasional bush and tree, but otherwise the only thing of note was the hills. The promised openness motivated Elena further.

  She had made it so far, surely Brenton was close.

  Elena looked at the compass in Juniper’s hand to find that it demanded them to cross the river.

  “Any ideas?”

  She asked in a weak, raspy voice, her mind drifting in and out of consciousness.

  Juniper nodded, and summoned her porcupine.

  The porcupine popped out into existence and immediately shed all of its spikes.

  Then, Juniper laid Elena on top of the porcupine and commanded it to swim across the river.

  The porcupine slowly walked over to the edge of the river, Elena on its back and took a step in.

  Juniper gave it a big push, giving it a little boost to help with the added weight.

  The river was wide and slow, so Juniper did some quick stretches before jumping into the river herself to swim across. She swam side by side with the porcupine, partially holding up some weight.

  They dried themselves off quickly, ready to continue their journey, but Elena’s state had worsened.

  She’s lost so much blood.

  I don’t know if she can keep walking.

  Instead of supporting Elena, Juniper put Elena on her back and continued the march herself.

  Elena laid on Juniper's back, eyes half closed, as she fought against drifting into the darkness.

  Maybe if she just closed her eyes and took a quick break, she’d wake up more rested?

  A small break couldn’t hurt right?

  I just need to get to Brenton.

  He can heal me up then I can keep him safe.

  She repeated the mantra again, keeping her focused on maintaining consciousness, even if just for a bit longer.

  Her body jolted with each step as Juniper carried her forward, and soon, the jolting increased in frequency and intensity; Juniper had started running.

  She could hear muffled yelling around her, but she couldn’t put together what was being said, her head had gotten just so heavy, and her muscles so weak.

  But soon, it became excruciatingly difficult to remain awake.

  Her mind slowly drifted into nothingness.

  …

  “ELENA!”

  Laying flat on the soft grass, a loud, familiar voice broke through the void as a surge of power flowed back into her body.

  Her body jolted up and her eyes flew open, as she took a sharp deep inhale.

  Warmth flooded her veins. Her heartbeat slammed back to life. Her head was no longer heavy, her lungs regained their strength, and the phantom pain from her arm was replaced with flesh. The sounds of the world flooded her ears as she regained her senses.

  She had only intended to raise her head, but her body was too light and she hadn’t fully regained control.

  In front of her was Brenton, looking at her with a fake proud smirk, hiding the tremor still lingering in his hands. Beside him, Juniper whispered something quietly to herself, fully in disbelief at the power Brenton displayed.

  Elena smiled.

  “You look adorable when you look like you care.”

  Brenton’s face flushed red, but the anxiety he had previously been feeling dissipated immediately.

  “Who the hell was able to put you into such a terrible condition?”

  Brenton asked, immediately changing the subject.

  Elena shrugged, she had never learned the name of her ambusher.

  “Doesn’t matter anyways, he lost more than just an arm.”

  Seeing Elena was now alright, Brenton fell forward and embraced Elena in a deep hug.

  “Which rich kid did you steal these clothes from?”

  Elena asked, seeing Brenton’s high quality clothes, and he began recounting his resounding victory in battle.

  Elena radiated with pride, hearing Brenton’s accomplishments, and soon recounted her battle too.

  It had been short and decisive, but because she had been caught off guard she had to sacrifice her arm in order to win.

  Soon, a familiar figure could be seen in one of the distant hills approaching them.

  Elena got up and waved at him with her non-dominant hand, still not used to her healed self.

  “Leo! You made it!”

  Leo waved back with a smile of his own.

  Juniper stared into the distance.

  “Just need to find Fern and Evel now.”