Chapter 20: Cleave

  “…Regardless, we have to regroup with the others.”

  “If we ran into things like this, there’s a chance they could have too.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Ruby’s words left no room for insubordination. They were logical, rational, and above all, firm.

  Even Evelyn couldn’t help but to swallow her words…

  …However, if there was one thing above duty, it was love!

  Adelaide— obviously a young man in his twenties— looked at the girl whose hand he was still holding.

  ‘Straight raven black hair, piercing green eyes, sharp-jawline, high cheekbones…’

  ‘Gorgeous! Only a prince like me should accompany her!’

  Adelaide cleared his throat, “I can’t quite run yet, and…”

  “What was your name, miss?”

  “Uh— It’s Giselle.” She replied a little puzzled.

  “How bout me and Giselle look for the others that are still around here, while you three meet up with the battalion?”

  “While we’re looking, my legs can take the time to recover, while Giselle can take the time to settle in more. We can save time and—”

  “No.” Ruby replied swiftly and promptly while shaking her head.

  “I won’t be able to protect all of you if you’re too far from me.” Within that sentence contained an undeniable confidence, along with perhaps many other notions that could be inferred.

  “What does that mean?” Evelyn snapped.

  “What?” Ruby snapped back sharply.

  “Guys…” Laelin tried to interject, but her voice was too soft for the two to hear.

  “Who do you think you are? We’re just so incapable, is that right? Who says any of us needs your so-called protection?”

  “I say you do.”

  “Are you always a problem?”

  “Does anyone actually like you?”

  “No one actually likes you! You should be asking yourself that!” Evelyn furiously retorted, before an idea appeared in her head that made her grin.

  She spoke mockingly, “Oh wait! Now I think about it, instead of your little tea parties or whatever you nobles do, little miss perfect is here with us exactly because of her rotten attitude.”

  The heat only kept rising, and with Evelyn’s remark, that statement was rapidly transforming from figurative to literal.

  Laelin continued to glance back and forth between the two helplessly, while Giselle started to subconsciously inch backwards.

  Suddenly, a calm voice interrupted timely, “Hey guys? Every second counts, right? For every minute that passes, something bad could happen to someone else.”

  Both Ruby and Evelyn looked at Adelaide, before harrumphing and turning away, unwilling to even get another look at each other.

  ‘Whew. Whoever started naming natural disasters after women had the right idea…’

  ‘...Did I look dependable though? Reliable?’

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ‘But I can’t scope out Giselle and Laelin’s reaction right now— I’ve gotta keep up the good image!’

  …And in fact, they were indeed looking at him more favorably.

  Unwilling to speak to Evelyn, Ruby called out to the other two, “Can you guys help him keep up? We’ll look for the others, then meet up with the battalion.”

  “Ah…I can’t trouble you two to take on such a burden.”

  “No, it’s fine.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind at all!” Giselle spoke, followed by Laelin who was always excited to help.

  ‘Hook. Line. And sinker.’ Adelaide said in his head.

  But then Evelyn hollered, “Hey now, he’s right! Don’t let him burden you two, I can carry the bastard alone.”

  ‘Godsdamn you, Evelyn!’

  “You sure?”

  “Are you sure, Ev?” The girls spoke in unison.

  “It’s not a problem, afterall, we grew up in the same town.”

  Evelyn forcefully grabbed Adelaide's arm without allowing him to protest, and slung it around her shoulder.

  Before Evelyn could speak, Ruby stole the words out of her mouth, “Keep up.”

  The apprentice-knight ran forwards, and the two girls followed her lead.

  Evelyn grit her teeth, before turning her anger to Adelaide.

  “Hey, friend. You weren't trying to take any advantages from those two innocent girls just now, were you?”

  “Huh? I have no idea what you're implying.” Adelaide's acting was impeccable!

  “You even called me a bastard for no reason.”

  “Apart from stupid, now everyone knows you're rude too.”

  Evelyn didn't listen to his quips; she was far more impervious to what he had to say, than Ruby’s insults that seemed to accurately get under her skin.

  “Hey, why haven't I seen you since we left town?” Evelyn asked.

  ‘That’s because I’ve been deliberately avoiding you!’

  “Coincidence. Maybe even…fate.”

  “Fate? Don’t use those same words on me like all the other women you trick.”\

  “What? Was it fate when you cheated on—”

  Hearing something scandalous. Laelin and Giselle glanced backwards.

  “Gossip, gossip! It’s not true! I swear!”

  …

  Having gathered all the surrounding members, the small party of ten or so were now rapidly rushing back to their battalion.

  “Hey doofus…” Evelyn said.

  “What?” Adelaide replied.

  “I thought you couldn’t run.” Evelyn looked down, looking at his legs that seemed to be working just fine.

  Adelaide cleared his throat awkwardly, “I’m feeling better.”

  “I already said I just needed some time to recover, right?”

  “...S’ that so?”

  “With how you were speaking, you made it seem like it’d take an hour or two…”

  Evelyn glanced across her, at the green-eyed, raven haired girl they discovered earlier.

  ‘Hah…’

  “Giselle’s really pretty huh?” She raised her voice so loud that everyone and their mother could hear.

  Even while running, everyone turned to the two of them; first to Evelyn, then to Adelaide.

  With all the hints available, it wasn’t hard to guess what was going on. Feeling their hot and assuming stares, Adelaide couldn't help but to respond, and respond fast!

  He said in an abnormally loud, “hushed” whisper, “Evelyn!”

  “This isn't what I meant when I said you have to subtly confirm whether she's into women like you!”

  ‘Like you?’ Everyone questioned, before the ten or so members of their small squad instantly switched their hot gazes to Evelyn, whose jaw had dropped to the floor.

  Accidentally, she met eyes with the beautiful girl in question, and Giselle quickly turned her head forwards.

  It was so quick, no one knew whether she was appalled…or slightly blushing.

  Evelyn balled her hand into a fist, and before she could drive it into Adelaide's face, a voice interrupted, “Shhhhhh!”

  “Do you hear that?” Ruby asked.

  The rest started to listen closely, and as they approached, the distant and vague sounds started to get louder.

  Naturally, the brash apprentice-knight sped up instead of slowing down, and so too did everyone feel inclined to follow.

  Atop a hill, a raven-haired man leaned his weight on top of a sword that was stabbed into the ground. His breaths were heavy and gasping, as if he was held underwater for much too long. Behind him was the massive carcass of a four-armed bear, and surrounding him, were the corpses of at least a hundred wolves, and mixed with them, a hundred human corpses.

  Wiping the blood running down his eyes, he looked down atop his hill to see a haphazard dance between light and shadow. The thousand-man battalion embodied the pockets of light with their torches, while all around them an overrunning sea of creatures tried to drown them.

  There were wolves, gigantic spiders, and the occasional four-armed bear or giant millipede. If there was any sense of cohesion between, the thousand-man battalion would have all but been annihilated, but instead, they were slaughtering each other, with the human battalion simply caught up in their war-massacre.

  Taking a deep breath, Ashford removed his sword from the pierced ground. As far as he knew, the only way they would get out of their predicament was to carve a path out.

  He moved to descend down the hill, when he noticed his shadow cast by the moon was swallowed by something massive.

  Ashford turned around, to which he saw a series of long black beams. Tracing their source, he saw the body of a gigantic spider slowly climbing the hill, and from his point of view, its massive frame started to obscure the moon.

  The spider lowered its head, to which eight glowing red eyes gazed at him with a savage yet intelligent light.

  One of its long, mighty legs raised itself into the sky, then blurred itself from view. Suddenly, he saw the color of black start to encompass all that he saw.

  An intense feeling of death set in his body, one that felt inescapable.

  Ashford knew he couldn’t move his body fast enough to dodge— his sword positioned itself to block the blow, but somehow he knew that it would shatter his sword, and pierce straight through his armor and skewer him like a kebab.

  ‘Shit.’

  Oddly, the man who had fought so hard to live, accepted his death without despair or defiance, but instead with stoic and graceful confrontation.

  BOOM!

  Smashing the ground, the long spider leg pierced through twenty feet of dirt, and almost drilled all the way into the hill.

  The massive spider looked down. Surprisingly, there was no skewered creature underneath its leg.

  Instead, it felt an urgent sense of danger, but it could not quickly pull out its leg that was buried inside the hill.

  Change after change happened in a rapid instantaneous flow of events. Before he knew it, Ashford found himself just a few meters away from the spider’s leg, and in the next moment, something bright, blue, and shining was blinding his eyes.

  A greatsword concentrated with mana so dense started to sing in high frequency hymns, and in the next moment, it cleaved whatever was in front of it into two.

  A shrill and piercing scream assaulted his ears, but amongst the smoke and rubble, he saw the figure of a female knight, a dimly glowing greatsword in her hand, and a falling, heavy black pillar that hit the ground with a resounding boom.