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Shit.
I dashed to the side, an arrow splintering on the wood right where my shoulder had been. My teeth gritted and I kept my head low.
How the fuck was I supposed to get out of this?
Another arrow flew toward me. It curved in its signature pattern, shifting course on the wind as if to fake me out. But I knew the trick. I stopped in place, and the arrow missed me, sailing through the air and leaving a sharp blast of wind in its wake. Taking the brief moment of respite, I scanned the area around me.
I was still dozens of paces from the nearest tree line.
With arrows flying my way, the prospect of an open space had been an exciting one. Leaving the dim, cramped forest was an idea I’d welcomed. But, as I was quickly learning, my excitement had been unwarranted. Instead of fighting out in the open where my sword would reign over a bow, I was simply more of a target. My adversary had stayed in the woods, scoping me out and shooting at me whenever they wanted.
It was not better than before. And, in fact, it was actually far worse. Before, I’d at least been able to weave through the trees. Constantly worrying about running and getting my blade caught in bark, but at least protected. There was at least some form of cover—a confusion that came with the natural chaos of the woods. Now, in an open space, I was able to wield my sword without risk. But I was also an open target.
The twang of a bowstring sounded to my left. Pursing my lips, I dashed, ducking low in hopes that the arrow would fly over my back. A few moments later the air slightly above my ears split, an arrow barreling through it. A heavy breath fell from my lips as I ran, but I didn’t give into any rest. I flicked my eyes to the left. The arrow had come from there. My target was there, and I still had to catch them.
My thoughts swirled, berating myself once more. If they continued gaining advantage on me—if I allowed them to continue gaining advantage, I’d be useless. Barely more effective than a chicken with my head cut off. Because even if I kept my evasion perfect—something I doubted I could do in my current body—I still had no chance. As soon as either of us landed a successful hit, the odds of it were settled. And having to dodge was only tiring me out. It was making me an easier target.
That was something I did not want to be.
Keeping the movement between the trees in sight, I charged into the woods. The brush rustled at their maneuvering in response. But as they moved away, far quicker than I could have possibly caught them, I had a dilemma. If I stayed in the clearing, I was a strafing duck. But if I chased through the forest again, I’d be in the same situation as before.
My sword wasn’t very useful if I couldn’t figure out where my enemy was, but they knew the forest better than I did. They knew tactics, patterns, spots of hiding I couldn’t have possibly been aware of. I had to play it smart—to come up with an idea that put me in the advantageous spot.
Either way though, it seemed like I was out of luck. With their limited supply of arrows—one that had to run out at some point, I kept telling myself—I may have been able to outlast. But even then, they were faster than me. They knew the forest better. It would be a wild goose chase with a goose I wasn’t even sure could be caught.
My lip curled in distaste, the aches already starting to set into my muscles. The hilt of my blade brushed against my fingers, cool metal sliding on sweat-soaked skin. But even as the afternoon breeze ran through my hair, I couldn’t focus on the small things. A realization was rising in my head, and it left a bitter taste on my tongue.
I didn’t know what to do.
An arrow speared the air beside me. I flinched, twisting and stumbling to the side as I brought my sword out. The metal of my blade slashed through the air right where my instincts had screamed an enemy would be. Of course, there was nobody there, but the arrow was a good reminder of my situation. As if it had been a warning for me to get my shit together.
A dry chuckle rose out of my throat.
Scanning the trees, I steeled myself. Primed my stance and adjusted my grip. I had to be ready—more so than I had been. In my new body, I couldn’t help but find myself more distracted, but now was not the time for it. Movement flashed somewhere across the clearing. Close enough to have a sightline on me but far enough that I couldn’t reach them without getting hit.
So, instead, I whipped my head around. I flicked my eyes across the sea of brown and green, my eyes locking eventually on a thick slab of bark. A wide tree, larger than most, and large enough to provide enough cover. I didn’t waste time surging toward it.
Keeping my eyes sharp, I turned my head to the side. At the edge of my hearing, I could’ve sworn I heard a hissed curse of frustration. They moved, heading toward me. Still though, as they changed position, the reverberations of a bowstring echoed off the trees.
My eyes widened, a jolt of fear catching me in the throat as I closed the final paces toward the tree. Moments bled into painful hours, but I kept with it. Closing my eyes tight and clenching my fist around my blade, I dived.
For a moment, I almost expected to have miscalculated my own speed again. But as the ground came up under me with a dirt-filled thud, I sighed. As my mind caught up though, I waited for the arrow to strike me, for the piercing pain to come into effect.
But it never came.
And as a full second passed, I let a smile crack my lips. I opened my eyes.
Below me, a dirty patch of grass sprawled under my legs. The slowly registering pain from my fall was working its way through my muscles, but I hadn’t been hit. I hadn’t miscalculated again. I’d made it to the tree and bought myself some time to think.
Still, I had to think fast.
In the distance, I heard movement again. The slightest rustle of the leaves. A twig breaking in the distance. My enemy… they were good at moving in stealth—too good even, as I’d discovered. But I had an advantage. Something my new body had that put my old one to shame. My senses.
From the very start, I’d noticed the eyesight. It had felt sharper and more acute when the howling winds had nearly torn my fresh body to shreds. But from there, it had taken longer to get. It was harder to notice.
My old body didn’t have bad senses. Not by a large margin. They were actually pretty damn good after they’d been honed over decades of experience. But they weren’t everything I could’ve asked for, even if I hadn’t known it before. And especially in my later years, they hadn’t been what they’d used to be. They weren’t perfect.
Not like the ones I was getting used to now, at least. As much as I despised the way my new, youthful vessel functioned, the senses seemed to be perfect. No matter what I’d tasked them with, they’d come through. Especially after I’d noticed. My eyes could see farther and clearer. My nose could detect even faint scents on the wind. And my ears… my ears were phenomenal.
If anyone in my general area made almost any sound, I would hear it. Even as I kept tabs on the slow, calculated movements in the forest around me, I found it strange. At first, I’d thought I was either imagining things or getting lucky, but it was more than that.
And I wasn’t one to complain.
Truthfully, my old body was better in almost every way. And each day since I’d awoken on a new continent with everyone I loved ripped away from me, I’d gone to sleep with at least a sliver of hope that I would wake up and it would all be over. As if the second chance at life I’d been given was some torturous dream. A nightmare the beast subjected me to for its own amusement. And having better senses wasn’t compensation for having to live a completely new life.
Though, I supposed, it definitely didn’t hurt.
An arrow struck through the air, tearing the ambience in half and shattering my thoughts into pieces. It curved, flying two heads above where I was pressed up against the bark of the tree and sending a stream of cold fire through my veins. It sucked me back to reality. Out of my false sense of security and into the danger I still had to figure out how to get out of. I cursed myself under my breath.
I was better than that.
Getting up with new intent and shifting so that I was no longer an easy target, I focused inward. My brilliant eyes scanned the forest. My perked ears listened for any sign of danger. And my swirling thoughts worked overtime, desperately trying to grasp at anything that could’ve worked.
As I thought, flipping through old tactics and maneuvers I’d learned in my youth—most of which required execution I couldn’t trust from my fatigued muscles—the image of my father came up. His dark hair, faded blue eyes, and warm smile stared at me. Even if it was a little clouded. But there was some memory attached to it. A memory that I could use. And as I worked toward it, pushing through the fog, I heard the words. One of his many pieces of advice.
Everyone’s always losing, you know.
The words echoed through my head. Thoughts swarmed them like debris in a swirling wind. And like a sprawling web, ideas connected into something cohesive. Something that felt so obvious once I’d realized it.
I was being stupid.
A disgruntled scoff fell from my lips, aimed at myself. The entire time, I’d been thinking that I was the one who was losing. That I was the one behind. The entire time, I’d been the one to keep up, the one who was always running away. But it didn’t have to be like that. As my father had believed, there was no such thing as advantage in a fight. Everyone was always losing as long as they hadn’t won yet.
Both of us were just as wanting of the win as the other. And as the plan came together in my head, I focused even harder on my surroundings. I tuned tuned all of the background noise. Searched for a specific sound.
Moments later, there it was. A bow being drawn, an arrow notching in it. They were getting closer.
A grin grew across my lips. Because as both of us knew, getting closer to me was not the best course of action. Not for my adversary, at least. But they were getting impatient. They had to be. I heard it in the more reckless footsteps, in the hastier breaths.
They thought they had me up against a wall, that they had the upper hand. But as my father’s words reminded me, one should never assume they have the advantage. One should always fight like they are losing until they come out on top.
I readied myself, steadying my breathing and bringing my sword up. Keeping my body relaxed, I tried to appear as lost in thought as I had before. I tried to lower expectations, to make myself vulnerable. It would only feed into their impatience. Their overconfidence. All I had to do was stay calm, stay ready, and wait.
Footsteps grew closer. Seconds bled together. I fought to keep myself from shallow breaths. But the world seemed to stand still as the moment built. And as her last step sounded off, breaking a twig in the dirt next to my tree, my blood ran cold.
I dashed out. Crouched low and trusting the fact that the arrow would’ve been aiming at my chest, I ran out from behind the tree. My muscles screamed, but I stuck with it, pulling my sword with me the entire way.
The air zipped shut above me, signaling the arrow before sound even reached my ears. But it had missed, and I smiled as soon as it did. Flicking my eyes up, I caught the blatant surprise painted on the chestnut-haired woman’s face for a fraction of a second before my blade slashed out. Flinging my arm sloppily, steel crashed through the air. She noticed the maneuver and tore out of the way in an instant, but that was fine with me. I’d intended that. As she spent the time culling her surprise and grabbing for another arrow, I was already getting away.
She was readjusting faster than I’d anticipated, but it didn’t matter. It was what I’d wanted her to do; it bought me just enough time go slow her down and disappear into the trees. I simply wanted to get into the woods far enough that she’d have trouble tracking me. For the past couple of minutes straight, she’d been hunting me. And for the next couple of minutes, I wanted to be hunting her.
My thundering pulse filled my ears as I ran. Kicking up dirt the entire way, too. Swerving between as many trees as I could, I didn’t spare a single glance back. I didn’t need to. Not really, at least. The point was to reset our arrangement so that I could take advantage of my own strengths and remove whatever ones she’d assumed to have.
In the dense, twisting forest, both of our weapons had benefits. With a sword I didn’t have to worry about aiming or maneuvering, and I had a much easier time landing a strike in the appropriate range. But her bow required vigilance. It required her to know the environment, to have a line of sight, and to use it. Even though she had a greater range, she needed to know my location.
So I tried to make sure that was not something she could do.
After a couple of seconds of running though, I stumbled. My foot slammed into a stick and my body staggered. Cursing myself quietly, I surged on. The strain in my chest worsened with each breath. But I kept going regardless, holding my body to the standard I wanted to reach.
I needed to be better. To be as good as possible. To be flawless.
The past few weeks had gone well, after becoming a ranger and all. The assignments of hunting along with the training I’d already done had benefitted me. Building muscle mass, heightening my awareness, and finally giving context to the pile of information I had stacking up in my mind. But while I was making progress, I still had a long way to go.
That was why I was out here in the first place, after all.
Tracking a suitable tree for cover, I shot my off hand out. Bark scraped against my skin, but I held on tight and swung myself around to hide from view. The sound of my footsteps faded from the forest. I all but held my breath. Now was the time to wait.
I knew she saw me running. As well as which direction. She could’ve tracked me pretty well, if she’d been attentive and patient. But she was neither of those things at this point in the fight. So I just hoped that my surprise attack had disrupted her enough to have lost sight of where I’d gone.
Waiting behind the tree, I adjusted the grip on my sword. And I listened.
The chirping of birds. The rustling of leaves from the canopy above. A horn blaring in the far distance. An arrow being notched in a bow.
I found it.
Somewhere behind me and to the right. That’s where the sound had come from. I latched onto it, focusing to its location above everything else. Listening intently, I couldn’t hear any footsteps. And after a few seconds, I became baffled. Where I was sure I should’ve heart at least the faintest sound of movement, there was nothing. It confused me a little, and worried me far more than that.
Was my hearing failing me? It hadn’t done so thus far… but I’d only had this body for less than a month.
Was she just that good at hiding her footsteps? It seemed unlikely. Though, I didn’t truly know what she was capable of when she pushed herself. She might’ve only been more determined to catch me now.
Was it a facet of her magical abilities? It could’ve been, but for some reason, that answer seemed… insufficient. It wasn’t satisfying, as if there was some answer I wasn’t seeing. As if I was distracting myself with a bunch of useless questions. But I pushed away the worry; I didn’t have time for it anyway.
The light twang of a bowstring. Eerily similar to the sound before, the noise drifted to my ears. Louder than before this time. Closer. But still, I heard no footsteps. No other evidence of movement as far as I was concerned. Somehow though, she was getting closer. As she did, one thing became abundantly clear.
I didn’t want to be behind a tree as she did it.
The decision rushed to me in an instant. My addled mind accepted it and, sharpening my senses once more, I inched away from the tree. Out to my left so I could scope the area.
Around me, I saw nothing abnormal. Only the dense woodland. I didn’t catch on anything, or even pay attention to a specific area. Even with the blue outfit in my mind, I couldn’t find her form in the trees.
So I moved on.
Weaving between the trees and placing my feet down carefully, I got closer to where she probably was. My sword stayed ready at hand, and with each step, anticipation filled my bones. The world around me became blocked out to anything and everything I could ignore. Which only made me painfully aware of one thing.
I was loud.
No matter how much I tried to be quiet or how lightly I placed my feet, I could always hear my steps. I hadn’t trained in stealth, and I was in an inherently different environment than what I was used to. Even back in Credon, I hadn’t snuck around much. I hadn’t done much tracking. But the truth was, I hadn’t needed it.
Leaves rustled ahead. I pushed away my thoughts and stared toward it. My eyes narrowed, picking apart the scene in front of me for all it was worth and staying alert for anything abnormal. Yet still… there was nothing. I didn’t see anything.
A weird sense of dread flooded me. The kind of sense that you couldn’t focus on or strain. As if somebody was watching me, their gaze burning the back of my neck. Yet they were nowhere to be found. My mind churned through it all though, puzzle pieces fitting in one-by-one until I figured it out.
By that time, however, it was already far too late.
I turned, my eyes round. My blade shot up, slicing through the air where I expected the arrow to come, but it had already done damage. From above, the feathered arrow slammed into my side and tore flesh with it. Gritting my teeth, I let out a muffled screech and staggered. Pain erupted like pricks of fire all over my skin underneath the blue cloth of my tunic.
“And that is that,” Kye said from above. I twisted, glaring at her with bulging eyes. My left hand clutched to my side tightly as though it could physically rip the pain out of my body.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered through my teeth. The leather handle of my blade shook with how hard I grasped it.
Kye chuckled, a smirk already on her face as she strung her bow back over her back. “Surprised you much?”
I didn’t need the snark. “No,” I said. Then grunted in pain. “Not really.” At the last second, I had figured out why there had been no footsteps. I’d figured out where Kye actually was. But by then, it had been too late.
“I didn’t expect you to come back like that,” she admitted off-handedly. Her tone was dry and unimpressed, contradicting her words as to not give me too much confidence. “I wasn’t planning on leaving the ground to beat you, you know.” Without sparing much thought, she climbed down from her perch on the tree.
Rolling my eyes, I barely even had time to think of a response. “Right,” I said. Then mumbled, “Fuck… Can you get over here with the leaves already?”
Kye rolled her eyes right back, immediately reaching into her quiver for the leaves.
I cursed, half at the pain and half at myself. For the longest time as a ranger, I’d been given basic things to do. Meeting other rangers, hunting game, doing the menial tasks I’d filled in for before. But the entire time, I hadn’t been able to get the beast out of my mind. I hadn’t been able to ignore all of the faults in my new body—my new life. I’d used it to fuel my fire and push me to improve.
I wanted to be as good as I possibly could. I wanted to be better than the beast. And the way to do that was training. For nearly my entire first month in Sarin, I hadn’t trained with real stakes. Not with actual weapons. I’d only ever sparred. So, when Kye had mentioned leaves that numbed and healed light wounds with incredible efficiency, I’d seen an opportunity.
With leaves that could act as a replacement for most medical supplies, I’d concocted an idea of training that made it feel more real. That honed my actual skills, senses, and tactical reasoning. Although now, in a body that felt more pain than I was used to, I wasn’t exactly ecstatic about my idea.
Walking up to me, Kye finally fished the proper leaves out of her bag along with a bandage. I took them readily, sheathing my sword in the process. Holding the supplies in one hand hand, I took a deep breath and grabbed the arrow near the tip with my other. Steeling myself and gritting my teeth, I pulled it out.
A gravelly shriek echoed through the trees. I winced, only barely seeing Kye’s smirk waver when blood started matting the cloth of my uniform. Thankfully though, the arrow didn’t splinter; it came out without trouble. It still left a bleeding, burning hole of pain where my flesh had been, but it could’ve been worse. So without waiting any longer, I placed the leaves against my wound, wrapped the bandage, and tied it off.
At first, it felt like hell. The burning became worse and I had to lock my teeth to prevent yelling. But then, after a few more seconds, the pain started to numb and I was finally able to take a full breath.
“Okay,” I said, my voice lightening. I teetered. “These… really work.” Deep breaths entered my lungs and I staggered some more, only stopped by Kye placing a hand on my shoulder.
Blinking away the numbing haze, I glanced at her and smiled. The concern in her eyes melted and she smiled back. “You okay?” she asked.
“I’ll—“ I stopped myself, a pulse of pain breaking through. Then it vanished and I took a deep breath. “I’ll live.”
“Good,” she said, a genuine hint in her voice. I raised my eyebrows at me but she shook me off, a smirk rising again. “If you didn’t live, that would be embarrassing.”
I glared at her. “Very… funny.”
She stifled a laugh. “You are not hardened for wounds yet, are you?” I tried to glare again but couldn’t. Instead, I only nodded. Kye let out a bemused chuckle. “I should get you to our healer, shouldn’t I?”
At that statement, I could do nothing but agree.
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