CORE

Chapter XIII - Black Friday

With a sudden jolt, the figures of the men shot out in all directions, their silhouettes dissipating into the thick mist. Acel held his rapier ready as he and Zanil stood back to back, their eyes attempting to peer through the sea of mist.

A swish of the palpable air. The soft crunching of movement all around them. The subtle distortion of the mist somewhere within.

Acel could feel their eyes sear upon him, but they did not strike. A bead of sweat rolled down his head as the sound of his breathing echoed in his head. They were stalking him, looking for an opening, any possible sign of weakness — like the mountain lion to the deer.

There, just to his right, Acel saw what appeared to be a shadow slowly circling them. With a great leap, Acel lunged his rapier towards this darkness, however, his rapier felt no contact and the shadow dissipated.

Suddenly, a cloaked man with dagger in hand rushed towards Acel still off-balance. He stabbed at Acel's left side but with a quick flick of his rapier Acel parried away the dagger. Returning on guard, Acel prepared to counter-attack, however, just as quickly as he appeared the man vanished back into the mist. Acel clenched his teeth.

Zanil slashed at any semblance of movement he could see, creating great ripples and swirls in the mist. A thrown dagger emerged and whizzed by his face, missing him by a finger.

"We have to move Zanil," Acel frantically said, "we can't just stand here and be their target practice.

"Move?" Zanil blurted, "I can barely see my sword in front of me, how can we move anywhere in this haze of gray?"

"They can see as much as we can," Acel said, "if we move we might lose them."

"Fair enough, but this shroud is just begging for me to stumble," Zanil responded.

The two began to slowly move through the fog, Acel taking the lead with each of his steps carefully and selectively taken. They remained back to back, their swords always pointed ahead and their bodies ready to respond to any attack.

Acel guessed they had moved only 4 arm lengths away before something stopped them in their tracks. A great thunderous crack — like metal snapping metal — ringed through their ears. Something from above pierced through the thick mist and with tremendous force struck into the dirt road. A long straight tunnel carved into the ground where they stood just moments ago.

"What was that?" A shocked Zanil said.

"I don't know," Acel said, attempting to keep composure. "Keep moving."

They moved again, further this time, their eyes focused on not the mist in front of them but the air above them. Again the same thunderous crack roared, and another deep hole bored into their position seconds ago.

Zanil looked to Acel, presumably for answers, but Acel's face was blank. His eyes stared at the hole as sweat ran down his forehead. He noticed the hole was closer than the last one.

They took a couple more steps, their breathing growing heavier, and another crack sounded, its impact close enough for them to feel a gust of wind wash over their faces.

"How can it see where we are?" Acel thought, a bad feeling pounding in the back of his head.

More frantically, they lurched as far as they could, the familiar loud crack echoed once again. A draining feeling passed over Acel as the strange attacking force whizzed close past him, accompanied by a cry of pain beside him.

Acel whipped his head around to see Zanil holding his left arm, a little blood trickling down it — the unknown projectile had grazed him.

"Run!" Zanil yelled.