Devil's meadow

Chapter 18- Hidden in plain sight

I was hiding behind a birch tree for a while, the hunters wouldn't let up, they remained quiet and soft on their feet but their amour was audible even though they were moving further away. Whilst I was hiding, my hand covered my mouth, and my breathing remained slow but shaky.
Please tell me you're gone.
Just as I was about to move, I heard them walking back over, and as I quickly snapped back into my original position, I could hear the sounds of leaves crunching underneath their boots. I was pondering whether or not I would ever make it out alive and save Blaze and Misha, and just as I was planning my next move, I heard one of the hunters say something to the others.
"Keep searching! He couldn't have gone far..."
Sh*t.
I didn't want to move. I wasn't ready to get caught, but the thought of being caught would both help and sabotage the mission of saving my friends. Just as I slowly started to move further into the forest, the trident slightly grazed the trunk of the tree I was hiding behind, but it didn't cause any disturbance. To stop them from seeing me, I decided to throw something to attract their attention, and then move once I was in the clear, so I decided to throw a rock.
"What was that?"
"Double split. Report if you see anything....off."
Okay. Now I move.
I moved vigorously and slowly as not to reveal my location and hid behind some other trees thicker than the ones on the edge of the forest. Once I was in the clear, I remained as quiet as humanly possible and hoped they didn't see me.
Don't get caught.
Their footsteps got progressively close to me, and I was about to book it further in, but something happened. Some sort of animal rustling in the leaves gained the attention of the hunters and they all rushed passed. I decided that this was my only opportunity to escape, and carefully but quickly left the forest. I could just about see their spears and amour sticking out through the dense trees, and chose not to stick around. Facing towards the village, I took a few steps forward.
I'm coming.
My brown cloak was keeping me hidden from other people whilst I was traversing through the town. The trident on my back wasn't too close to anything, I didn't want to alert my presence and get my self caught trying to find the place where my friends were taken, but the crowds made it kind of difficult. At certain times of me searching, murmurs and whisperers were spread, the villagers knew who I was underneath my disguise and the hunters had not a single clue about my whereabouts. Until my luck ran out when shouts came from being me, alerting the hunters of my location. So I did the only logical thing, and jumped onto a ledge and up a building a started running on the roof of a house. As they ran below me trying to catch me, I nearly slipped and grabbed onto a metal pole just within my reach, and hoisted myself back up using all what little strength I had left in my arm.
Okay...that was WAY to close. One of the perks of having one hand I guess.
As they swung their weapons underneath my feet, I leapt onto another ledge a little higher up, but they soon found a way to cut me off.
"Stop!"
"No!"
"You're violating the village laws."
"You're violating me!"
"You have no right to back chat. Remain silent."
"Tell me where my friends are first!"
"You'll never find them. We have them locked away in the bell tower- uh pretend you never heard that!"
"The bell tower?"
"No.? What are you talking about?"
"I just heard you-."
"NEVER-MIND THAT. You're not gonna find them."
"Well now that you've just told me where they were, I don't believe I'll have any problems finding them, so thanks."
As I started to walk away, they said something. It was too quiet to hear exactly what it was, but I could tell it was definitely about me. I noticed that they seemed to be following me, and sped up to avoid them, but all that did was escalate the situation. So I ran.
"HEY!"
Running through the crowds of people, with the trident slung over my shoulder, I ran into an open passage. It wasn't blocked off, but random pieces of junk and garbage prevented me from going any further so I took the trident out from its casing and tapped it against the rubbish. It crackled for a bit, the power from the prongs killing everything in the way, and before I knew it, I could traverse further into the building. After putting my weapon back into its sheath, I tiptoed into a side arc connected to a stair case where the colour of the steps were a light creamy brown. They didn't creak, but I was being extra careful still. I knew my life was on the line, but I didn't move an inch.
Not today...
They rushed over, trying to find where I had gone, but as I went up more stairs, they were poking their heads through the doorway. As the took a step in the side arc, I moved further up to the point where I was stood on a balcony overlooking the village. The bell tower loomed over me, watching my every direction, and I knew this mission would either result in me saving my friends or me being killed.
As I leaped off the balcony and down into the crowds of civilians, 4 hunters sprinted over and tried to grab my arm, but they just barely missed and ended up grazing my cloak instead. Whilst I sprinted towards the door of the tower, 2 tried blocking the entrance, but they weren't close enough to physically stop me from doing what I came here to do. Bursting through the door, I slammed it shut behind me and bolted it shut, so that no body would be able to get in, and started to walk over the the middle of the stairs. Looking up, I realise just how high the tower was in comparison, and let out a sigh of annoyance.
You gotta be f*cking kidding me.
I planted my left foot onto the first step, and started to traverse up. I started growing tired and out of energy, but I never stopped, I was determined to take risks just to rescue the two people I had a connection with. After a while of me climbing, I reach an oak trapdoor and pushed it open. I was being extremely quiet and cautious, there could be anyone on the other side of the contraption. As I hoisted myself up, and shut the door behind me a familiar voice was heard.
"Hunter?"
I quickly glanced over my shoulder, Blaze and Misha were both there, with chains tightly attached on both their legs, and a group of thick bars prevented me from taking the chains off.
"Did they hurt you two?"
"No. But they did question us."
"Yep, and they didn't even stop."
"How many questions did they ask, on average?"
"More than 20."
"Jeez."
"Yeah. What took you so long to get here anyway?"
"Hunters. They wouldn't let up."
"You weren't hurt in the process... were you?"
"No. But they did come pretty close to scratching my arm."
"So long as they didn't injure anyone, including you."
"Thanks B."
"Don't worry about it. So can you let us out?"
"Not without a key."
"Sh*t."
"I can try to find one."
Walking away from the 'prison', I had to think of where they would hide a key. I looked on top of a cabinet, underneath a carpet, but there was nothing left. Until I realised that the key was on top of a small hook on the ceiling.
"Oh my god... as if this couldn't get any worse."
"What?"
"Look up."
When they both glanced up, they saw the key on the top of the tower, and couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"How in the f*ck?!"
"How did they get it up there?"
"Don't know. But I'm gonna have the trouble of getting it down."
I tried moving the cabinet over to the middle of the floor, and climbed onto the top of it. As I stood up on my toes and extended my arm out, the key was just out of reach, and there was no way that I could get it down. My balance nearly made me fall off and as I wobbled uncontrollably, Blaze and Misha were casually watching me and suggested I try something to get it down.
"Uh, Hunter?"
"Yeah what's up?"
"You have something that's long enough the reach the key."
"What would that be?"
"Your trident. It's long enough! Just don't hit anything with it."
"I highly doubt I won't."
I took my trident out the sheath and turned it over so that the prongs were facing down towards my feet. As I clutched it in my hand and slowly moved it up towards the hook, it slightly made contact with the key's ring. I moved it upward even more so that the end of the weapon was inside the hoop of the key and carefully lowered it down towards my hand. The colour of it was a perfect golden brown and it looked like one of those medieval keys as well. The lighting from the roof of the tower reflected off the small object, creating a shimmering affect, and whilst examining it closer it had a small symbol on the neck of it. Small letters in some type of ancient language covered parts of the main body of it, to which I couldn't tell what it said. I carefully got off the cabinet and decided to move it back to where it was... on top of the trapdoor.
Blaze and Misha both looked at me with relief, knowing that I safely received what I was after. Placing my trident back into its casing, I walking over to the 'prison,' key I hand, and unlocked the door. But they couldn't get out. A thick chain made of some type of metal was wrapped across their legs, and as I examined it closer, murmurs were just about audible.
"Shh! Do you hear that?"
"Hunter..?"
"Yeah. I know."
We all remained still and silent. I moved over the the door on the ground, and waited. I decided to move onto the floor directly, and whilst I lay with the side of my head on the wooden flooring, amour started to jingle slightly. I realised who it was. Hunters. Somehow that had managed to get into the tower, I imagined that the door had been demolished with the locking mechanism on the ground in shattered pieces. They were looking.
"Okay! We gotta go. Right now."
"We can't go anywhere Ortiz! We're chained, remember?"
"Not for long."
I took a step forwards, trident in possession and walked into the barred 'prison.' They both looked at me with concern and confusion, but I wasn't about to leave them here.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting you out of here."
"But they're literally down the staircase, we can't possibly go that direction!"
"That's why we're going out the window."
"What?!"
I tapped the trident onto the chains, and they dissolved into the air, and whilst I helped them both out, loud heavy footsteps were audible. Looking around, we tried finding something to break the window open, but the only thing we could use was a few books that were thrown on the ground. But I soon realised something.
"Uh, guys?"
"Yea?"
"Step aside."
"What?"
"Don't ask questions, just move!"
As the two of them moved, I turned the trident over and approached the windows. Misha soon realised what I was about to do, and took a step back to avoid having glass in her face. As soon as I smashed the window, glass went everywhere, whist Blaze was covering his face and Misha had her body turned. After the chaos calmed, we all looked out to see more hunters with bows this time, drawn and ready to fire.
"Now what?"
"Jump and run!"
We all jumped out onto the ground and ran as fast as we could, avoiding hunters shooting and firing their weapons towards us. When I looked back, a hunter was right behind me and snatched me by the hood, yanking me so hard to the point where I started choking.
"You have a LOT of nerve running like that. I HOPE you see that this will be the last time I see your face..."
"W..Ell, I don't...think I wanted to see your face...to begin with."
"Oh, is that that so, eh? Well it looks like your friends have left you."
"Not exactly."
As soon as the deranged figure turned to face Blaze, he punched the hunter so hard that part of his helmet broke off. After he let go of my hood and collapsed, Blaze grabbed my arm and started running as fast as he could to catch up with Misha. People screaming from behind us starting to fade and as we booked it over the hill behind some of the houses, an arrow was fired in our direction.
"Heads up!"
"Woah!"
When the arrow came crashing into the ground, it corrupted and wilted part of the grass.
"DO NOT GET SHOT!"
Running into the woods nearby, multiple arrows came our way. Blaze and Misha hid behind some trees and watched the shower of sharp tips fly by whilst I just about managed to hide behind trees of thick trunks. The sound of the ends hitting the ground sounded like raindrops crashing onto the roofs of houses, and we all watched with caution.
"Hunter, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. But we should really be careful. Thanks for the help. How's your hand?"
"Not bad actually. I haven't hit someone that hard since I ran off."
"We really need to be more careful with some of the stuff we get into."
"I agree. Though we should probably get out of here before we get ambushed."
"Good point."
We walked deeper into the forest for a while, with the leaves crunching underneath our feet. The trunks of trees loomed overhead, and we finally felt at ease knowing we weren't going to be chased. But something felt...off.
I looked around for any hint of an aggressor or attacker, and seeing that I had swiftly stopped cause Blaze and Misha to come to a sudden halt.
"Umm..Hunter?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing?"
"Listening. It's oddly quiet."
"What are you listening for exactly?"
"I don't know. Movement, I guess."
As we all stood still, crows and ravens squawked and sang amongst the leaves, whilst our breathing remained slow and perplexed. Something caught all of us off guard when a branch snapped almost as if somebody had stepped on it.
"Okay. Did everyone just hear that?"
"Yes."
"Yep."
"It could've just been an animal."
"I don't think animals would cause a branch to break. Unless it's a devil dog. Then it's something to be worried about."
"Either way, we should probably hide."
"Good call."
Blaze scrambled up a tree and Misha soon followed. I didn't know where to go, so I decided to climb up one of the trees using what little strength I had left in me and got into a position that I would be comfortable in. Misha glanced over to see that I had managed to get up despite having only one hand, and questioned me about it.
"Hunter?"
"Hmm?"
"How did you get up with one hand?"
"Strength Misha."
"No not that. How do you have only one hand?"
"..."
"That's personal, Misha."
"Oh. But I'm curious. Did a fire have something to do with it?"
"How did-?"
"Some of the village people could just about see flames rising over the horizon from over a mile away."
"Then you'd be correct."
"Sorry."
"What for?"
"Asking."
"Don't be. Curiosity is sometimes something that has to be questioned about. I can't just ignore you."
"Um. Sorry to break this up but, you might want to look down. And remain quiet."
We all looked down at the ground. Another hunter doing their route with iron amour instead of chain and the sounds of it was not even audible. His weapon was completely different to the others, not a spear but rather a sniper with the barrel pointing down. It was a camouflage colour and had a laser pointer attached to the top of the head, and a small pocket-like flashlight was clutched in the palm of his hand.
"It looks like he just came from somewhere."
"Do you think he just finished killing someone?"
"Don't put that image into my head."
"Sorry."
After he had walked by, we all looked at each other and carefully brought ourselves back down towards the ground. Misha caught onto to a lower branch and let go of it before landing onto the ground with a thud. Blaze wasn't that high up so he just jumped down, and as for me, I had to find a way of carefully getting back down.
"You need help?"
"Uh. Yea."
"Okay."
B walked over to me and stood directly below me with his legs planted firmly on the ground.
"Jump."
"EH?!"
"calm down. What if sniper boy comes back?"
"Oh right my bad."
After I let go of the branch, Blaze grabbed hold of my waist and carefully placed me on the leaves. As my feet touched the ground, my friend let me go.
"You okay?"
"Yea."
"Now what?"
"Find out why snipe guy came this direction."
"You're not suggesting...?"
"Oh yes I am."
"One day we're gonna pick a fight we can't win."
We all traversed further into the forest, with dark spruce trees looming overhead and the blood sun was no longer visible. It was getting incredibly difficult and hard to see what was in front of us, and we kept on going until we came across some sort of ancient structure made of stone, covered in moss and vine. It almost resembled a pyramid but parts of the infrastructure had been partly demolished and destroyed.
"What is this...thing?"
"It looks like a temple of some sort."
"Yes. But it looks so...run-down."
"Should we explore?"
"I don't think we should. What if that guy comes back?"
"Misha has a point. If he comes back we're dead."
"Alright fine. I wonder what it does though."
"If he came from this thing, it's probably and execution chamber."
"Than we should definitely move."
Deciding where to go, we looked around for a while. The sounds of the forest echoed through the trees, with owls and ravens screaming their souls out as they stared down from the trees. Then I had an idea.
"Oh!"
"What? Is it a hunter, devil dog, spit it out!"
"We can try finding what he killed?"
"And risk getting caught ourselves? No thanks."
"Not from out here, but from in there."
"Are you sure? We really shouldn't be messing around. Not when our lives are on the line."
"It'll be fine. I have a weapon."
"Hunter..."
"Relax, B. It's not like anything's going to happen."
"It could. Ask Misha."
"I don't think it's smart. But...it wouldn't hurt, I say we do it."
"Heh. We're gonna die."
"We'll just pop in for a quick look and then we'll leave."
"Fine but if anything happens, I will pin all the blame on you."
"That's completely fine with me."
Traversing through the doorway to the temple, we checked our surroundings before moving in to the main area. Black smears covered the walls and small bullets shells lay littered all over the ground. The walls seemed to be plated with gold where some sculptures overlooked the top of the roof.
"What the f*ck happened here?!"
"Probably an execution. That's probably why sniper b*tch came back this way."
"Is the blood of the deceased usually black?"
"No. Which most likely means that it's dried."
"I believe the person was shot, hence the bullet shells all over the ground."
"That's an interesting point. I'd like to imagine that his flower wilted."
"Depends if he survived what ever happened. If he did, well that's just outright impressive."
Whilst we were gazing upon the aftermath, a corridor caught my eye with the stains appearing to be accumulating towards it.
"Uh..Blaze?"
"Yeah?"
"What's up with this corridor?"
"What corrido-oh."
Blaze and Misha saw was I was pointing at, and instead of walking towards the door that was stood in the way, they stood remained in shock.
"I don't think we should check to see what that is."
"Blaze?"
"I...want to...leave."
"But we just started looking around."
"You said a quick look, not an investigation."
"I have to agree with Blaze on this one. You didn't say anything about an entire sweep of this place."
"Fine. But I wanted to find out why there's a trail of blood going towards the door."
"Well if you want to get yourself killed and get your flower wilted, go right ahead, but I will NOT be going into a f*cking room full of a potential biohazard. I may be naïve, but I'm not a complete nut of a f*cking moron."
"Okay! You made your point."
"Can we not argue, please?"
"Thank you Misha, oh my god. Now if you don't move your scrawny ass, I will drag you by the ear."
"Okay. I'm moving."
Striding out of the temple, Blaze grabbed my arm and spun me round so that I was facing him directly. He whispered a sentence into my ear whilst Misha was walking ahead.
"Call me a buzz kill, I don't care, but I don't want to risk loosing your soul for the 4th time. I'm not only making sure that you stay alive, but I'm trying to save the distraught and overwhelming realisation that both myself and Misha have lost someone that we look up to."
"You're not a buzz kill. But we're all the same age, we can look after ourselves."
"I know that, but...just be careful with what you chose to do. Okay?"
"Alright."
Once Blaze let go, he caught up to Misha. I remained still and let out a sigh, I knew that he was only trying to keep me safe, but I wanted to prove my parents a point, I'm no longer a child. I eventually caught up to them both, and as we all traversed out of the forest something sounded as if it was sprinting towards us.
"What is that?"
"Sounds like a person."
I took the trident out the sheath and held it tightly, Blaze had both his fists clenched and ready, and Misha whipped out her weapon, and we stood ready to face whatever was coming our way. The thing that approached us happened to be a person just like us 3, except this figure of a man, who looked slightly older than us stumbled out from the trees before tripping over a branch that lay on the ground. He scrambled up onto his feet then realised that we could tell he looked frightened by something.
"Sorry. I didn't expect to bump into a bunch of kids."
"Excuse me, we're not kids, we're adults."
"You don't look it."
"Well that's because we don't sound like we're over 20."
"Not to mention we've just been doing mature activities, something kids wouldn't normally do."
"Misha don't make it sound weird."
"How else do you want me to put it?!"
"Guys! Now's not the time."
"We're getting off track. We exactly did you come from?"
"Well, I was born,"
"Not that long ago! Just now, where did you come from?"
"Oohh, well in that case, I just came from the village."
"Were you...followed at all?"
"Well when you say it in that tone, it sounds a lot more, dire than it is really is, but if you must know, I have no clue."
"Great. So we have no idea if a hunter is coming this way?"
"That sounds logically correct."
"How old are you?"
"I am 32."
"We are extremely underage."
"You got a name?"
"Yes. It's Arda Jimenez."
"Sounds foreign."
"It's Turkish that's why. I'm of Turkish descent. I'm Canadian."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't your name mean sceptre in English?"
"Yes it does. They say that sceptres are closely linked with those who have power or authority. Now I'm not a ruler, or a person of royal descent, but I did have some priority a few years back."
"You have an interesting name."
"I'm aware."
"So if you had priority, why are you here?"
"Misha!?"
"What!?"
"You really shouldn't ask those types of questions."
"No it's okay. I was over turned, to put it lightly. Some tacky delinquent thought it would be a good idea to sell me out to the government. I was murdered before they got they're grubby mitts on me."
"Why were the government after you, May I ask?"
"Felony tax evasion."
"Oh. See I thought it was much worse than that."
"Some people are worse that what they did or, tried to do."
"So my guess is that you have a mark somewhere on you."
"Correct. Though it's not a knife mark."
"What is it then?"
"I have two marks, one is an axe mark which runs down the back of my neck, and the other, is a small pocket knife stab wound."
"So you have two marks as apposed to one. That's interesting, because we all have one."
Whilst Arda glanced at Blaze, his bullet mark caught his eye, and as he glanced at me with curiosity, I stepped in to tell him what happened with us.
"Blaze was killed by a drive-by accident, as for me, well, I ended it all."
"Oh so that's why it it looks like he has a birth mark on his head."
"It's not, okay..."
"What about your female friend?"
"Cancer."
"I feel bad now."
"Don't be. I haven't felt more free in over 5 years."
"Well there are some restrictions even in the after life, but whatever makes you happy."
Moments past and we all stood idle for a while, when trees whispered in the breeze and demon-owls screamed out their lungs. Nobody had ever felt this tranquil before, especially after chaos erupted in 2008.
" I wish I could stay, but I gotta go."
"Where? You could tag along."
"I'm well aware. But have you ever heard of the saying, 'we hide things for a reason'?"
"Yeah. But only in text books."
"You'll find out why when the time is right."
As Arda moved away, we all looked at each in confusion. Of all the people we had ever met no one had been that poetic or cryptic.
"That was odd."
"Yeah, although I wonder what he meant by that."
"Maybe we're not meant to."
"If that was the case, why would he say it?"
"I guess we'll find out when the time is right?"
"I guess. Though I'm not convinced he's a lunatic."
Moving through the trees, we backed out completely from the woods we came into. I knew we had gone in a full circle, but knowing that it was keeping us all from going nuts, I kept my mouth shut. The arrows that were fired beforehand, lay still killing the grey grass, and their feathered heads appeared to shift from one colour to the next. Full of blues and silver, the sharp-tipped darts changed as the light reflected of of them, creating a beautiful yet deadly storm of death. We observed it for a while, the trees gently swaying from side to side, with the clouds of black and grey conjuring above our heads and a few demon-crows flying overhead. Even those types of animals seemed cursed within this second world.
"As dangerous as this place is, it's actually beautiful in some light."
"Well that's a sentence that I'd never thought I'd hear you say."
"Well I normally don't say things like that, but when we're not getting killed nearly every 5 minutes, it honestly feels like...heaven."
During the time we were stood there, some villagers passing by caught slight glimpses of us, and whilst they happened to notice the king's trident poking out of the top of the hill, words were quickly spread. As some passed by, I caught on to a spear sticking out from a crowd of people.
"I hate to be a party pooper, but I believe we have trouble approaching."
After I pointed in his direction, the hunter started to walk faster until his face was clearly visible. I backed up, with Blaze and Misha following soon after, but he had approached the bottom of the hill before making a trek over the grass. Misha was already ready with her trident at the hand, and Blaze took out a small hunting knife. I was ready with the king's weapon in my hand, and whilst we were bracing for a lives, more spears started poking out from in between the hoards of adults and children.
You got to be kidding me.
They eventually came over the hill with spears at the ready and some were even carrying some pistols and hand guns pointed directly at us.
"In all our years, we've never had people run from the law, especially after meeting someone of high priority."
"What?"
"You don't think?"
"Yes. Jimenez! Show yourself."
As he approached with his head held high, my eyes widened.
"Arda. What are you doing?"
"I'm sorry. But my name speaks for itself. You see I'm just like you 3. Desperate, mature and honest."
"I can't believe you. After that conversation we had."
"Yes I can't believe that either, but you 3 told me all I needed to know. After your little façade with the king, he sent me to come and scope things out, I'm only doing what he requested, after all I'm of higher priority than all of you combined. Which reminds me, I'm after the one thing that my superior asked me for."
"I'm not going to give it to you. Not willingly."
"I figured you'd say that. Which is why my name speaks for itself. I'll be taking the trident back. With force. Kill them."
"Yes sir."
Within seconds chaos erupted. Hunters came at us with full force, with their weapons drawn. Blaze started throwing slashes and punches, and Misha was going on a rampage, killing anyone who came within 5 feet of her. I was busy dodging stab attempts, and proceeded to kill multiple soldiers within one strike. As I threw my trident into the air, some hunters came forward to take it out of my reach, but I was already two steps ahead of them. When gravity took it back towards the ground, Arda had taken a few steps forward before pushing me out the way. As he caught the crimson coloured pitch fork with one hand, he tightened his grip so that it was harder to take it back, whilst his other hand was tightly wrapped around my throat, making it hard to breathe. As we both fell to the ground, Blaze saw was going on, he ran forwards to stop Arda but I warned him not to come any closer.
"B! Don't...come any...closer."
"I can't let you get killed."
"I'm aware. But...would you rather...be killed by a murderous weapon. I would never...forgive myself."
"I don't want to. But I don't want to loose you."
"You might have to."
In the middle of our conversation, Misha had somehow managed to get behind Arda. As she punched him across the face, he let go of my neck and the trident before I scrambled up to my feet. He let out a groan of pain and annoyance, and proceeded to fight with her instead.
"Thanks M!"
"Don't mention it. NOW KICK THEIR ASSES!"
Whilst the fighting continued, Blaze and I stood back to back, conjuring up our anger over being chased constantly. With our bond growing stronger our rings started to glow brighter as we got closer together.
"Our connection with each other is getting better."
"I know. Now let's finish this!"
Once most of the soldiers were killed, more started appearing out from the houses as they shouted for back up. Misha still had to deal with Arda as well if some hunters, and among the blood shed, I could only imagine the amount of flowers wilting in the king's field where I had previously woken up. I remembered all the things that had been said to me, with all the pain and hatred that was mixed in with it and that was the reason I kept going. I was sick and tired of being told that I wasn't responsible or mature enough to be a civilised person let alone an adult. Whilst I was fighting with rage, a soldier's spear came flying towards my head to which I luckily avoided being stabbed in the face, but as I continued to fight, I felt tired and weak to continue. After a soldier ran towards me, they grabbed me by the arm and swung me down to the ground before snatching the trident out of my hand. The power was to much for his body to hand, so he started to bleed out from the hands before screaming in pain. He eventually dropped the weapon and after I picked it back up, stabbed him in the throat before he collapsed from blood loss. As I turned back around Misha was shoved to the ground after her weapon was taken right before her head was stuck into the ground. They had tapped her. Blaze was still busy fighting but as I went to help him, I felt something tug on the trident's end. It was him. Before I could think I felt the prongs touch my back and within a few seconds I saw the ends sticking out of my torso. As I screamed in agony, Blaze glanced over his shoulder after helping Misha free. They saw what had happened and couldn't do anything but stay remained in shock.