Lily Rose: Legendary

Chapter 5: The Jackals

The rest of school wasn't too bad.  It went by relatively quickly and before I knew it, I was standing at the bottom of the steps of the school.  

I started walking toward the low mountains, hoping I would somehow run into the robbers.  

Just my luck.

James ran to catch up with me, matching my quick pace. 

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Back home," I replied.

"You live in the low mountains?" he inquired in his annoying, nosey way.

"No," I replied. "I'm just...taking the scenic route."

"Okay," he answered.  

We walked through the forest in silence, me praying and hoping he would say he lived in the other direction and he should get home.  But of course he didn't.  He just stayed with me.  I was thinking about what I should do about him when something suddenly whizzed past me.

An arrow.

It hit the tree behind me.

"Get down!" I screamed, acting on instinct.  I whipped out my sword and held it out in front of me.  Another arrow whizzed toward me, but I sliced it with my sword before it could pierce my skin.  

"The jackals," I murmured to myself.

"The what?" James questioned.

I ignored him and charged toward the place where the arrows were coming from.  I dodged, sliced, and rolled to get away from the many arrows trying to stop me.  Finally I found the archer and I held the tip of my sword to his throat.  The man whipped out a dagger and it clanked against my sword.  I kept a firm grip on it and we went into a heated battle.  Clank.  Sheath.  Thump.  

I had disarmed my opponent.  He held his arms up in surrender.  I quickly tied him up and dragged him into the clearing.  

And James...

Had seen the whole thing.

He stood in open-mouthed shock.  I looked at him for one second before racing away as fast as I could.

"Wait!" he called behind me.  

I didn't wait. 

I wouldn't stop.

I couldn't.

Until I ran into something that was definitely not a tree.  I looked up into the face of the largest man I had ever seen.  

The Jackal himself.

He was surrounded by his goons who were only slightly smaller than him.  I swallowed the lump in my throat.  I jumped back, pulling my sword out of my scabbard.  He pulled out his as well--except it looked much sharper and more dangerous than mine.  Not to mention it was ten times larger and heavier.

I bit my lip, barely missing his first swipe at my head.  I rolled away, leaned on one elbow, and swept my foot under one of the large men.  He fell on his back, and I gave him a nice ax kick to the solar plexus.  I turned around, barely blocking the large sword coming down on me.  I allowed his sword to fall to my right, moving out its way.  The force of the man's attack sent him falling to the ground, hard.  He probably had a broken nose.  Painful.

I didn't have time to think about the two I had taken down because the Jackal tried to take my head off.  I barely ducked, the sword cutting the hair at the very top of my head.  I tried to jab him in the stomach, but he was quicker than he looked.  He blocked me with his sword, trying to get it out of my hand.  I gripped the sword harder, using my other hand for added security.  I swiped at his head, just grazing his cheek.  He growled angrily and cut my shoulder.  I gasped, letting go of the sword with my left hand, grabbing my shoulder.  It felt deep.  I put pressure on it as I kept fighting.  

The rest of the men had joined in--including the two I had dropped before.  Five in all.  Each as large as a small cottage.  

Still, I didn't give up.  I jumped over one of the men's swords that tried to cut my legs.  I landed on another's shoulder, giving him a semi-deep cut on his chest.  He threw me off.  I fell into a back kick over, landing gracefully on my feet.  The man who had thrown me off, however, fell down to the ground, unconscious.  

Another man came at me, but I kicked his sword out of his hand, starting a fist to fist fight.  He swung a punch at my head, but I ducked and nailed him in the chest.

Come on, Lily.  Don't miss next time.

I jumped off of my left leg and swung my right leg over his neck.  I kept turning until we both landed on the ground, me on top of him.  I looked to make sure he was unconscious.

He was out cold.

The last three charged toward me, swords raised.  I blocked the first one, quickly turning to block the next one.  The third's sword clanked against mine.  I found my sword stuck in a chip in the man's sword.  I used it to my advantage, using the ledge to yank the sword out of the man's hand.  

Now I had two swords and one of the men was unarmed.  But I wasn't celebrating yet.

I quickly hit the unarmed man in the head with the ball of my foot so he would be unconscious.

I blocked the last two men's swords at the same time.  I turned the blades, hoping to disarm them, but they held on.  As if in sync, they both brought their swords down on me.  I blocked them, but they were pushing down hard.  I angled myself forward and used my weight to turn the tables.  I used their swords as grounding as I summersaulted over them.  I swiped the man on my left's pants so they fell.  He ran off, holding his pants up.  

The last man wheeled on me.  He slowly approached me, swinging his sword menacingly.  I blocked the first swipe that would have hit me.  I blocked a second strike, then a third.  I tried to hit his shoulder, but he blocked me.  He pushed down on my sword than suddenly swung it to his right.  I went flying, hitting the ground a few yards away from the man.  My sword fell from my grasp and went sliding far away from me.

"So good to see you, Crossbow," the man seethed, slowly coming toward me. "It didn't have to be this way, you know. You could've joined us in our fight against royalty."  He paused.  My breathing slowed; my heart raced. 

This was it.

This was the end.

 The man raised his sword and brought it down toward my head.