During our fourth day travelling together, we finally get attacked.

It is unavoidable, walking on the Wild like this.

We are a big group, with over ten hunters. We are all armed. There are easier preys.

But monsters are too often too bloodlust to care about that.

They see only food.

I warn Diego about the coming creatures. Ten ogres, approaching sneakily from the trees.

“-We can handle ten with no problems” Says Anna.

“-But let’s play safe either way. Rosa, go into position.” Diego says as she disappears on the high trees. “-Amelia, I believe me, Anna you and Samuel should charge them. Rosa will cover us. Meanwhile, the others surround the ogres and start pushing pressure”.

“-Yes. Jane should come with us. Her powers work better the closer she is. I can cover her on the battlefield.”

“-I’ve no doubt that you can” He nods and look at the remaining two“-You are solo hunters. I take it you are both very skilled, to have survived this far. Any insight to offer?”

Kevin just shrugs, but Ronaldo gives a step forward with a grin on his face.

“-I actually have a suggestion. Since ogres have a great sense of smell, it’s near impossible to surprise them. That’s why you want us to be aggressive. But we can still make them angry. We can lure them to attack”.

He explains, and it’s indeed a good plan. It’s the fastest and safest way in our opinion. The one with fewer risks.

The others agree.

Everyone gets into position, leaving Ronaldo alone, waiting.

The ogres don’t take long to come. They see only Ronaldo and are wary because of it, but they are hungry. They lick their lips while they walk, anticipating the meal, getting closer.

And when they get close enough, Ronaldo throws his axe into an ogre’s face.

The monsters were being careful, but Ronald throwing his only weapon from a distance was not what they were looking for. The creature is slow to dodge and protects it with its arm. The blade enters deep into its meat, making the ogre scream with pain. Ronaldo then reaches out with his hand and the axe comes flying back, leaving a destroyed arm behind.

Ronaldo throws it again, at the direction of a second ogre.

The ogre manages to duck before getting hit and unleashes a roar of fury. Before it can start coming at him, though, the axe comes flying from behind and hits the back of its head.  The creature dies instantly and falls limp.

Then again the axe comes back to Ronaldo’s hand, who smirks.

All of the ogres start running into his direction. Despite all being extremely fat, they run exceedingly fast.

An arrow comes from nowhere and pierces one creature’s eye.

Surprisingly, it didn’t die. It screams in pain and rage and takes the arrow out, with its eye stuck on its tip. Before it can do anything, though, another arrow pierces its throat. This time, it doesn’t make a sound.

When the other ogres are almost reaching Ronaldo, we bite them. We couldn’t attack with too many of us at the same time, because of the risk of being seen, so we only had five or six of us in each, positioned on their knees, legs and feet. Just enough to provoke a strong reaction and make them lose their footing for a second.

The result works better than expected.

They let out a collective shrike of pain. One ogre even stumbles into another and they both fall on the ground.

At this moment Anna appears on the middle of them, punching one on his stomach. With the impact the monster is thrown on top of another one. An instant later, Diego and Samuel are by her side, together with Douglas and Talia. Everyone slashes a different Ogre and none is fast enough to dodge. Two of them die, and the other two get nasty cuts. Ronaldo comes spinning with his axe, and cuts the head of the Ogre that Talia had injured.

Five down already.

The ogres try to fight back, but soon they get surrounded. Kevin comes from behind and uses the crossbow device on his left hand to maim an ogre with an arrow to his leg. With his right he slashes with his sword. The creature protect itself with its arm and the weapon get stuck on its meat, but an arrow from Rosa comes and pierces deep into stomach. While the monster screams, Kevin positions his crossbow on its neck and fires again.

The survivors are trying to get control of the situation, but now everyone is on the fight and the attacks are coming from everywhere.

Lucas is in a one a one fight, but he dodges easily. The ogre keeps attacking only air with an expression of anger on his face, turned to confusion when Lucas stabs his gut. He falls to his knees, and then Amelia puts two of her fingers on the creature’s forehead and executes it with a powerful discharge of electricity.

Mateus charges the other one and hits its jaw with a powerful strike, shattering bone. Charged with Jane powers, his hits are as strong as Anna’s. Amelia finishes this one off with the same technique, aimed at the creature’s heart this time.

Anna’s breaks an ogre leg with a powerful kick and Samuel almost rips its head off with a blow from his hammer. Meanwhile, Diego manages to cut both arms of the last one with a single slash, and Ronaldo kills it burying his axe deep on its face.

And like that, all the enemies are finished.

“-They never expect me to throw it. I always can get one or two by surprise.” Ronaldo says, with a big grin on his face.

“-It was a good plan” Diego acknowledges it.

“-Really interesting thing that you did with your axe back there. Is it enchanted or did you use a magic of some kind?” Asks Lucas.

“-You understand if a prefer to keep some secrets with me” He says widening his grin even more. “-But let’s say it’s a mix of both.

He definitely earned some respect with his plan. Which was probably his plan all along.

It’s funny, that he is trying to join the group by showing that he has valuable skills and can make their life easier.

We did much the same.

More or less a year ago

After one day walking together, we sense the Lizards back into our reach.

We think about it for some minutes. They are more numerous this time. Are they numerous enough to be a dangerous to them? We are not sure. Should we just see what happen, see how long it will take for the Shinning Siblings to notice them?

But oddly, we realize that we want to get involved. We don’t want to just watch it; we want to be a part of it.

We’ve stayed just observing for long enough.

“-There are some Lizards creatures stationed this way. If we keep walking in this direction, we’ll fall on their trap.

Everyone stop on their feet. They look surprised, but not as surprised as we were expecting.  They had seen a similar power before.

Rosas looks at me skeptical for a while, and then stares at the direction we indicated. After some seconds, she says: “-He’s right. Something is waiting for us there. How do you know all this?”

“-It’s my magic. My Clairvoyance let me know everything that is happening in a short distance around me. I can see them approaching from north, trying to surround us.

“-Interesting” Says Lucas while giving me a short smile “-Is that all you can do?”

We think for a while. What can we tell them? How should we tell it?

“-No. I can also hurt them”

“-How?” Diego asks, with an amused expression.

“-I can make them feel pain”

Diego raises an eyebrow at that. Would he inquire us more?

“-That can be useful” Lucas says smiling again.

“Indeed, it can. Wait for my signal”.

We nod.

“-How many enemies?” Anna asks

“-Thirty-seven of them”

“-Any idea which weapons they are carrying?”

“-Twenty of them are carrying a small sword and a wooden shield. Nine are carrying a spear. 8 are carrying a bow.

She looks surprised for a few seconds, then grins and says:

“-Thanks. That’ll help a lot.”

“-Can you fight? I won’t mind if you prefer to stay on the backlines. You already helped, and it’s our job to deal with the monsters.” Diego asks.

“-I can handle my own.” It’s the only thing we say.

He accepts that and then picks a saber from his belongings.

“-Take it. It’s an old one of mine that I haven’t used in a long time. But it’s still sharp. Do you know how to use it?”

“-Just cut anything that jumps at you” Says Lucas.

“-Yeah, that’s pretty much the gist of it.” Says Diego with a smile. “-Alright. Omega formation.”

They all start moving, getting ready for the battle to come. We do the same, positioning some of ourselves into the body of our enemies.

Again, it’s beautiful.

The moment Diego gives the signal we attack and all the lizards give a collective scream.

Rosa starts shooting at the same moment taking advantage of the distraction. We have no idea how she’s able to hit so many of them from so fast, and from so far away. If she keeps like this, she’ll kill half a dozen before the others can even manage to get to the fight…

Somehow, Anna is already there.

She moves so fast that the lizards barely have a chance to see her before being hit. One try to impale her with its spear, but she breaks it in half with her first then crushes its skull with a punch.

We watch as Diego approaches swinging, cutting everything on his path. With him on their front and Anna on their back, they start dying by the second.

The creatures try to surround them, but Lucas is there no finish off any who tries. Because of the chaos their numbers are scattered and he uses it to his advantage, killing them one by one.

One aims and shoots an arrow at him, but he misses for almost a meter and then dies right after when Lucas throws one of his knives on his eye. Lucas recoveries it calmly, spins and cuts the throat of another one that was on his left, stabbing only air.

We do our part with the blade, of course. We aren’t exactly amazing with it, but we manage to kill a few.

The battle ends incredible fast.

Together, we’d controlled the whole fight. Everything that happened was decided by our combined will.

This sensation of control. This power over our surroundings. It felt good. It felt right.

This is what we had been looking for.

Maybe this is what we had been born to do.

FeverDream

Alriiiight guys, the new chapter is here! Feel free to share your thoughts about it with me. I'm always curious to know if the story is working as I imagine, so I love seeing your comments.