Chapter Seven #3
The bullet sent the axe-wielder straight to the ground in a heap and exposed the man behind him. Much like everyone else in this world, they had never seen a weapon like this before, and it looked like I’d just incapacitated someone without actually doing anything.
His stupor at my gun was his downfall, and while he stared at his fallen comrade, I fired again.
His body stumbled back, too, and landed just beside the dead axe-wielder. The other men behind him weren’t as foolish as him, though. They kept charging, despite the two piled bodies in front of them.
The three of them leaped over the heap, and one was swinging his flail around in a wild circle, while the others punched their shortswords into the air like they were banners of their favorite sports team.
I kept a firm grip on my AR, and I fired in quick bursts across the line of bandits. The booming noise it made was beyond satisfying, and each man was sent flying onto their backs.
It was unlikely they would survive a bullet of that caliber ripping through their chests. Some of them were adorned in leather and steel armor chestplates, but they weren’t built to withstand something like my AR.
With my portion of men dispatched, I glanced over at Ellyn to see her making small wind vortexes around the heads of the remaining half-melted men on her side. She was sucking the air out of their lungs, and their eyes were bulging out of their heads and turning bloodshot as they tried to breathe.
I knew my wife could handle finishing them off, and all ?the other bandits were focused on the king’s men. So, I shifted my gaze away from her to see how they were doing.
Some of the soldiers had been pulled down from their horses, but they were fighting insanely well, even without the perk of being on horseback. Aila stood out among the other men, and her agility impressed me as she weaved away from oncoming blows like a ribbon of pure gold drifting in the breeze.
The field was utter chaos, but we’d already taken out over half of the initial attackers.
I slung my AR back over my shoulder and was about to join in the brunt of the fight with my Glock, but then I heard something that sent a chill down my spine.
A deep chuckle emanating from the Mist Woods made me freeze. I knew that laugh all too well by this point, and I whirled around to see the very man who had fled from our town only a matter of days ago.
It was Shaar.
His cloaked form was hovering on the threshold of the Mist Woods. A sadistic smirk was on his scarred and torn face, and as soon as my eyes met his ruddy-brown ones, he sank into the shadows of the forest.
Without another second to waste, I bolted after his retreating form. I sprinted across the numerous bodies littering the ground and the men still fighting a handful of the king’s soldiers until I finally reached the borders of the Mist Woods.
I could hear Ellyn’s concerned cries of my name, but I ignored her as I stomped through the underbrush. Thorns and sharp twigs scraped at my exposed skin, but I was so hellbent on stopping the slimy Lieutenant that I didn’t even register the pain.
Shaar’s dark cloak billowed behind him like smoke, and he weaved in and out of the trees like a spectral ghost.
“Shaar!” I growled as I struggled through a particularly overgrown thicket. “Face me like a man, you coward!”
The scarred man’s mocking chuckle echoed through the suffocating forest, but it only made me more eager to reach him, just so I could snuff out that sound forever.
I ripped and tore at the thick branches blocking my path. My hands were getting shredded to bits, but I ignored the dull ache and pulled harder at the restrictive vines.
“Shaar!” I roared as I finally managed to free one leg. “Don’t run away again!”
I dug my freed heel into the mossy ground and pulled with all of my strength, but my body remained trapped by the flora wrapped around me.
I growled in agitation and slammed my elbows down against the foliage near my face. Then I yanked my gun forward and used the pillow of leaves to rest on. I aimed down my sights and fired in quick succession at Shaar’s retreating form.
The bullets hissed through the air, but rather than hitting their target, they cut straight through Shaar like they were moving through water. I heard the impact on a tree trunk further ahead of him, but rather than faltering, the half-elf paused.
When he finally turned around to face me, a huge grin twisted his mutilated face and made a shudder run down my spine.
“Very good, Noah,” he purred in a voice dripping with mockery. “Very good.”
I was stuck in place as Shaar’s grinning form sank into the darkness of the forest, like ink spreading into water, and then he was gone.
“Fuck!” I forced my body backward through the underbrush that had kept me hostage and trudged my way back toward the opening.
Defeat wasn’t something I was familiar with, and I refused to call what had just happened that. We had stopped an impending attack and saved the wall from being burned down to ash and cinders.
Shaar could run off to his hovel and try again, but for now, there was something else that needed my attention.
Gladewood had a royal pest problem.