Dread Guard

Chapter 7

Also unedited. You can kinda assume that by now lol.

Genji froze. He clung to the tree, muscles tense and trying to move as little as possible. He could hear the enemy soldiers' footsteps below him. If they looked up, he and Fraser would be seen. Fraser's hands dug into his shoulders as a result of him tensing up. The dwarf's nails were long and dig into his back, but Genji was silent. He knew if he made a sound the soldiers below hi would look up. They would almost definitely be captured or killed.

Suddenly, Fraser fell slightly. Genji cursed silently and grabbed Fraser's arm before he could fall, heaving him back up onto a thick branch, sighing with relief. The branch creaked under Fraser's weight. Genji tensed, waiting for a soldier to yell. Silence. For the second time in a few seconds Genji let out a silent sigh of relief. And then a pinecone fell from the tree and landed right on a soldier's head.

"HEY!!! THE PRISONERS ARE UP THE TREE!" Arrows flew from everywhere towards the tree trunk. Genji cut as many arrows as he could out of the air with his swords, even deflecting a few back and hearing cries of pain as they found their mark. An arrow sunk into the tree trunk only millimetres away from the tough leather of his suit. He watched as the beautiful branches of the tree were ripped apart by the onslaught of arrows. Fraser drew his musket, aiming  into the middle of the archers and firing. Genji, carrying him, climbed further up the tree to make themselves a harder target, until the trunk became dangerously thin. "Fraser. You can climb a bit higher because you're smaller and lighter. Get as high as possible so you can get a good shot at that huge orc." Fraser's eyes showed fear but he nodded and began to scale the now extremely narrow tree. Genji tried his best to stop most of the arrows from reaching him and Fraser. Emma looked at him, ready to draw her bow and join the fight, but Genji shook his head. Not yet. She was their only advantage, they didn't know where she was.

The huge orc shouldered his way through the horde crowded around the bottom of their tree. His huge, green figure mad him an easy target for Genji's shuriken, which hit him on the forehead with enough force to knock him over. Genji cursed as the orc got back up, the throwing star hadn't managed to pierce the beast's thick skull. The orc hefted a huge stone axe and swung it with unbelievable strength at the redwood tree. The entire tree shook with the force of the blow, a huge cut mad in the trunk. "He's chopping the tree down, The crazy bugger!" Genji yelled, powerless to stop the destruction being caused by the monster. He felt musket rounds whistle past his head and towards the orc, blasting part of its hand off. Unfortunately, it continued to attack the tree, albeit slower and less powerfully. Fraser cursed as he scrambled to reload his musket. If his next shot didn't stop the orc, the tree would fall. Grunting, he rammed the musket ball down the barrel with a rod before aiming it directly at the orca head. He couldn't get a clear shot, the tree was swaying too much.

Just as the orc swung to cut down the tree, an arrow pierced its hand, pinning it to the pine tree, seconds later, an enraged elf landed in the clearing and let loose with a storm of arrows into the surprised enemy. Genji was on the floor seconds afterwards, taking out the orc with one swipe of his sword. Fraser stayed up the tree. It was a good vantage point. Genji fought like a demon. When a group of vikings mad a shield wall around him, he rolled underneath their legs and stabbed two if them in the back. Mongols launched arrows at him, but he leapt behind an opponent, the arrows hitting the Viking so much that he looked like a hedgehog. The tide of the battle was on their side. It was becoming a slaughter. It was clear that they had not been prepared for such a fierce fight in such a small area, where their vast numbers had little effect. The Viking Genji recognised as his interrogator turned to retreat, calling his troops with him. He yelled at Fraser and Emma to stop him from getting away. Emma was busy putting an arrow through an assailant's head and Fraser fired a musket ball at the Viking. At the last moment the man grabbed a mongol and shoved him in the way of the musket ball, sacrificing him to save his own life, before galloping way back to the wall. Then the tree toppled. A soldier had used his own sword to cut the last tiny chunk of wood and Fraser let out a shrill scream as the mongol shouted "TIMBERRRR!!!!" Fraser screamed even louder when the trunk hit the floor, trapping his left arm underneath it. Enemies attempted to surround the log, but they were quickly cut down like wheat before a harvester until they fled for their lives. Genji, covered in blood and gore, collapsed in exhaustion only for Emma to haul him up. " I won't be able to find you if you fall over, you'll look just like one of the dead bodies here."
"You're lucky," Genji groaned. "You just had to shoot arrows. I had to fight them hand to hand."
"Too bad!" Emma smirked. "You'll have to help me lift this tree and free Fraser as well as heal him."
"Can't we just leave him? I'm too tired for that," Genji joked, winking when Fraser gasped in a mixture of pain and horror.

Hope you guys had a happy Easter Sunday :)