At the entrance of the patrolmen's camp in the forest.
As the group of five ran from their aggressors, Seip explained to them that there was only one way to escape successfully, since he knew that the pursuing soldiers would come riding their swift griffins and it wouldn't take them long to catch up with them.
-We have to get into the wilderness. We'll be in danger there, but at least it's not a guaranteed defeat like the one we'll suffer if we just escape in a straight line through the forest.
Leiza - who was still emanating a blue aura from his body -, Zaz and the giant animals decided that it would be a good idea to follow the advice of the experienced hero. He guided them through a steeply sloping path, where they could slide down to gain more speed. In a few minutes they noticed that the vegetation in the surroundings changed, some giant beasts could be seen in the distance.
-This is the wilderness, the territory where humans have not established their control yet. Only the law of survival of the fittest exists here. Any creature we encounter in this area will represent a potential enemy, but it will also pose a threat to the soldiers coming after us. It may sound crazy, but we need to go as deep as we can into this territory, only then we will have a chance to lose the guards that are chasing us.
The five of them continued running through an ecosystem that increasingly started to resemble a jungle setting. Leiza slowed down when she noticed with surprise that the wound on Mity's chest was closing quickly without external help. Everyone was amazed by the dog's speedy recovery, but Seip reiterated to them that they could not waste time and asked them to continue their march. They resumed it by taking careful steps and avoiding attracting attention. A couple of huge coconut-sized flies approached them, Luespo, like a true cat, went crazy with those flying preys and tried to chase them, losing his discipline and making sudden movements with his paws. Zaz had to throw itself over his head to calm him down so he would not attract the gaze of some much more dangerous creatures in the area. Once it managed to appease him, they continued their furtive walk for some more time, until Seip considered that, in order to avoid being seen in the open field area, they should advance chest down. As they crawled through the mud, they observed how in an instant the peace of the place was shattered when a large snake-tailed body crossed in the air like a projectile, followed by a spinning axe that landed in the chest of the green-colored being before allowing its descent to the ground. The event left them speechless, the sounds around them intensified in seconds, allowing them to realize that they were located in the middle of a rampant battle between snake men and minotaurs.
The scaled beings had very agile movements; they crawled on the ground and were capable of wrapping their rivals with their thick tails, which were known for being able to squeeze large creatures to death. They had as their opponents some dark minotaurs armed with axes and swords. Their four-meter body did not require an armor, as it possessed sharp horns, strong muscles and a very thick skin that could resist the venom thrown by the snakes. That substance, capable of easily melting the steel, only caused some minor burns on the body of the minotaurs.
The snakes outnumbered their enemies, but only one of the horned beings was enough to deal with three of the slippery reptiles that measured half their size. The fight was crude; it took several of the creatures' tails to suffocate a minotaur to death. On the other flank, a dark horned being was grabbing an enemy by the ends of its body, pulling it with all its strength to split it apart. In the midst of that chaos, the team of five fugitives knew that they had arrived at the place they were looking for, that hostile event no one in their sanity would want to enter. They concluded that the King's guards would never find them there, as they would avoid getting involved in any conflict unrelated to their pursuit. They spent hours lying on the ground, listening to the grunts, cuts and crashes of battle in the background, deciding not to move until silence settled in. That wait seemed never-ending, but suddenly the clamor of combat ceased altogether. Everything indicated that they only had to remain quiet for a few more minutes and then seek to leave the wilderness area as soon as possible. Seip was breathing slowly, waiting to give the signal to the others to stand up, but that protective mantle of silence was broken by a loud meow emitted by Luespo. The panic and fury broke out in Seip, who jumped up in a hurry to try to quiet the cat. About to place his hands on the animal's muzzle, he heard a loud slashing sound behind him, accompanied by a brief but intense breeze of air. He turned around to find out what caused it and saw a huge axe impacting and sticking in the mud where seconds before its head had been lying. The spider Seip did not have time to be stunned by the event, because a few seconds later, the team was surrounded by a group of armed minotaurs. One of these beings was astonished to see a small woman emitting a blue aura from her body, he commented to his companions:
- Is that blue aura what I think it is? Let's take her to the boss, I'm sure she' s the piece he's been looking all this time for our ally.
When Seip, Zaz, Luespo and Mity heard what they planned to do with their friend, they adopted a combative stance. They tackled decisively those very strong minotaurs to defend Leiza at all costs. A new and dangerous fight was beginning at that moment. Even though these minotaurs were worn out and with low energy after a war of hours against the snake men, they still possessed a frightening power that posed a major risk. On the far left, Mity the dog and Luespo the cat joined forces and headed toward the same target; the combined weight of their bodies was barely enough to bring down one of the threatening minotaurs. In the central part, Zaz was frantically kicking back and forth at a group of minotaurs, covering its leg with the reddish aura of the Goan, unafraid that its slender figure might end up shattered by an impact against the strong arm of a horned creature. On the right flank, Seip released the incandescent arms from his back and wrapped them around one of the black-furred aggressors, being amazed to see the minimal damage his Goan was causing on that skin. One could barely see signs of burns on it, as if it had just been exposed to the flame of a small lighter from a middle distance.
Despite still being covered by the blue Goan, Leiza was unable to control the new power at will. She could do little to resist against wild beings of that magnitude. Although she tried to stand up to one of the adversaries, but she ended up with a dislocated shoulder after the first exchange of blows, when both collided their fists frontally. Seip had to retreat urgently to protect an injured Leiza. Knowing how important this woman's life was, he had no other choice but to use his greatest technique, the one he had not employed since the battle of the Great Revolution. A brief and powerful red flash covered the forest for a second and the incandescent arms on Seip's back grew more than five times in size. The revolutionary hero's body was separated several meters from the ground, held by four burning arms that supported him like a long-legged spider. With those reddish limbs, he attacked the minotaurs one by one, incapacitating them from combat by a huge Goan-covered sting that devoured their hair and left severe burns on their skin. The strong horned beings tried to block the attacks with their axes, but these were instantly pierced. Once they realized that they could not stand up to such an attack, they began to retreat. Seip made an effort to defeat all of them as quickly as possible, trying to stop them from calling reinforcements.
But his hurry was not enough, the red flash that the use of that technique caused, ended up revealing the location of the five -both to the rest of the minotaurs, as well as to the King's guards from whom they had been escaping-. Seip realized his mistake when he saw a large group of minotaurs arriving, he concluded that it was only a matter of time before the royal soldiers did the same. Not even his skill was sufficient to sustain a two-sided war against such dangerous adversaries. He had to think fast and decided to retract his elongated reddish arms to vanish behind his back. The priority was Leiza's life, so he negotiated the team' s surrender.
-I have not killed any of your teammates. The battle ends right now if you promise not to kill us. A group of King Moal's guards is minutes away from reaching this place, capture us quickly and let's get out of here before a war is started. I don't know who your ally is, but I'm sure he can't be as bad as Moal.
Minotaurs turned out to be much more rational creatures than they expected, agreeing to the deal, in order to avoid a conflict that would harm both sides. The five fugitives allowed themselves to be chained up and put into metal cages on top of wooden chariots. Then the group of minotaurs left the area and began a procession towards a destination. Leiza was frightened and nervous about what was happening. She noticed that several snake men were imprisoned in the adjoining carriages, wearing capes with the royal emblem.
-Look! Those snake men are on King Moal's side.
-It doesn't make sense... the inhabitants of the wilderness detest that man. -Seip was surprised to see those emblems on them-. Under his mandate, the worst hunting of creatures has been conducted. He has always sought to drive them to extinction before the Goan is finished and once again the human species is left unprotected.
-Then maybe the minotaurs will support us when they know that we share the same rival. -Leiza answered him.
-Don't be so optimistic. Your opponent's enemies are not necessarily your friends. Sometimes they just want to defeat him in order to take his place.
