Thanatos's Curse

Ten: Voyage

“For the Queen!” Commander Audrina yelled in the midst of the fighting, lashing out the final slice of her blade. The monstrous beast finally fell to shreds, fell to her feet in a bloody heap. “Quickly collect the head for further study. The rest of you, collect the wounded and go. Now!” She ordered, helping a wounded soldier to their feet.

Kaida, Yukio and the rest of the soldiers had arrived right in the middle of their fight against the beast. Most of them were too spent to provide any help. Those who could, however, tried their hardest to battle amongst their fellow soldiers.

Although the beast had been slaughtered, many more monsters were coming their way, in large horrid masses. Audrina’s head snapped to the oncoming trouble stomping towards them. “Retreat to the ship! We have to leave this corrupt place immediately. Send a retreat signal to the groups in Xiantian and Jianli. Go, Go!”

Kaida and Yukio stood to attention, very aware of her words. Yet, everything was happening so fast, like a still blur.

Then, something caught her eye, in all the destruction. The wooden box, the box that held all the scrolls Grandmother had given her over the years, was placed at the bottom of gold-filled sacks. If they were leaving, she couldn’t leave that behind, she couldn’t bare to.

She hardened her eyes and sprinted as fast as she could, ignoring the monsters about to slice her head off.

Yukio quickly turned and was filled with horror rising in his chest. She was running straight towards the monsters.

“Come on, there’s no time to waste!” A woman crashed into him with a wounded person leaning on her shoulder. It was Ida.

Kaida was gasping, panting with every step. Her sodden clothes made everything heavier, colder. But as she finally found it, she quickly kneeled and pulled it out, ignoring the piles of gold. She couldn’t take that. She couldn’t steal the money of her own people.

Suddenly, as she stood, the blade of a sword was thrust in her face, but with a quick sidestep, she was able to dodge it. She grasped the wooden box as hard as she could; she couldn’t lose it now.

“Kaida!” Yukio screamed, almost to a point of anger. She quickly joined his side, panting heavily. “What the hell were you thinking? We have to run!”

“I couldn’t leave this!” She yelled back at him as they started running along with the rest of the soldiers. She channeled more of her qi to her legs, but each passing second was tiring. She was going to run out soon.

“Don’t be so selfish! You almost died!”

“But I didn’t!” Kaida kept her eyes forward, looking for the camp. She prayed they didn’t get to the camp, to everyone else. They had to be safe.

Without warning, a wooden pole was raised right before her, and she had to stop herself from ramming her head into the wood. A splatter of blood suddenly drenched her face. When she looked up, the body of her father was speared in the stalk of wood. His abdomen bled profusely, and his face was hardly recognizable. Eyes gouged out from their sockets, teeth broken one by one, limbs bending at inhumane angles; he was far from recognizable. Yet, she could still tell it was him, her father.

Her breath hitched, and she stepped back a few unsteady paces before dropping the wooden box with shaking hands. Her eyes widened at the grotesque sight, but she couldn’t avert her eyes. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t do anything.

Yukio was right beside her, witnessing the same shock. But he grabbed the box and took her arm forcefully with rigid movements. Turning his head, he saw more poles being erected from the ground, with more corpses of familiar faces being already speared through the abdomen.