Chapter 18 #2
Asta dared to step forward and her step was met with multiple in return by one of their opponents.
She thrusted her sword up in time to block the blow coming at her face, her arms straining against the sheer force of her assailant.
The other dove for Kaid and he pulled a sword from his cloak, one Asta had not noticed on him before.
She watched as he used the sword and dagger to block, parry, and swing, still keeping her wits about her enough to block her own partner’s strikes.
The four were caught in a dance, all fair opponents for each other. None had managed to strike an injury as they all attacked. They spun and spun and spun, and Asta was completely unaware of what direction she and Kaid were facing now, unaware of their surroundings, and she hated it.
Was that their tactic? Keep them busy enough to confuse them and get the upper hand?
After blocking a particularly strong blow, her arms shook, and she dared a glance around and saw that the castle was now at their assailants’ backs, the attackers standing between her and Kaid’s protective fortress.
Absolutely a tactic, Asta concluded.
The glance around had cost her and the cloaked figure in front of her managed to slice her shoulder.
The pain seared through Asta, causing her knees to buckle, but it was superficial enough that she fought through the burn.
At the same time, she heard a yelp from Kaid and he was now clutching his thigh.
His partner attacked him again in a storm of steel, more forceful and skillful than before. Kaid was a moderately skilled fighter, but an amateur compared to that.
“Go!” Asta shouted to him. “I’ll hold them off!”
Kaid ignored her and went for his opponent again, favoring his injured leg. She couldn’t wait to witness the scene because her cloaked figure made a dive for her again as well.
She was strong, this creature. Every one of her attacks made Asta’s bones reverberate within her flesh. Asta spun out of the way of a straightforward jab and managed to slide her sword along her opponent’s ribs as she passed.
A growl broke from the cloaked figures mouth, feral and, honestly, terrifying. That solidified Asta’s thoughts that these were creatures and not people. Maybe the same thing the courtesan had been.
Kaid’s wail echoed across the sea as his opponent drove her heel into his already bleeding wound.
Lightning cracked through the dark sky, charging the energy between them.
His turquoise eyes locked on Asta’s and she just nodded before blocking the next strike.
He needed to get out of there. They both did.
Asta knew that, she just didn’t know how to do it.
The least she could do was get Kaid out before it got worse. She had dragged him into this mess and he didn’t need to die with her for it.
Asta snarled through gritted teeth as she plunged her sword forward, narrowly missing her opponent’s abdomen as they parried. “You need to go!”
She could take them both on long enough for him to escape. Long enough for him to live. Asta, however, wasn’t sure what her own fate would be.
Without having to warn him again, Kaid took off in a limping sprint down the beach, his cloak billowing out behind him. He couldn’t run past their attackers and live, so he ran the opposite direction. Asta jumped to his place so she was facing both figures now.
The wound on her shoulder was throbbing, but Asta held her ground.
What do you do if they hurt you, Asta?
Gyrial’s voice echoed through her thoughts. What do you do? You don’t run, you don’t hide, you don’t surrender. She remembered the answer as she bared her teeth and let out a growl.
Let it fuel you.
Asta’s sword slashed out in a fury of calculated combinations.
It was like training, when she had taken on two sparring partners at once.
She ducked when one swung high, using the position to sweep their legs.
She jumped when the other swung low, using the momentum to kick the creature in the chest.
She was wild. Unleashed. An uncontrolled chaos, ruthless and devastating. She was not a princess sitting on a throne, but a warrior fighting for her kingdom. There was no knight to rescue her. There was no army to back her up. She didn’t need it. There was no stopping her.
She whirled like a hurricane and slammed the pommel of her sword into one assailant’s head. Even through the fabric of the thick hood, she could feel the crack of their skull. That opponent staggered back, clutching their temple.
The next charged her, but Asta was ready. She parried, twisting her own sword around her opponent’s and shoving it to the ground. Asta managed to drag her dagger through the attacker’s torso before they lifted their sword again.
She was so shocked that they were still able to fight that she wasn’t able to block the next strike. The blade landed on her forearm, lacerating the same arm that bore her shoulder injury.
Asta needed to plan her retreat. She knew it when the assailant with the head injury hadn’t been knocked out.
They should be incapacitated by now with the strikes she had been making.
Whatever they were, they could withstand injuries far worse than humans could, and she needed to live to warn others about them.
The next time the still-fighting creature attacked, she took a cheap shot and pushed her heel as hard into their abdomen as she could, sending them flying and landing on their back.
Asta turned and sprinted, taking off in the direction that Kaid had gone. Hopefully he had found a safe place to hide, or someone to help, or a shortcut to the village where they would be shielded by the crowds.
She didn’t hear running behind her until she was quite a distance down the beach, her attackers clearly needing time to gather themselves before they could chase her.
Good. She had done some damage, then.
Asta was running at full speed, pushing the pain in her left arm aside and focusing on her legs. She could feel the blood trickling down her fingertips, but she wasn’t losing it fast enough to bleed out as long as she could tuck herself away and make a tourniquet soon.
She turned a corner, temporarily out of sight from the things pursuing her.
Suddenly, Asta was being pulled backward, a hand pressed firmly against her mouth and her back pressed against something hard. She kicked and elbowed as she was dragged back into a dark cave, so far back that she could no longer see the opening.
Asta felt warm breath caress her ear, causing the hair on her arms to stand up.
“Stay quiet, Princess.”
She knew that voice. It was Kaid. Thank the gods.
Asta did as he said and waited, quietly. They heard footsteps rush past the cave, sand kicking up in their wake. When they passed, Asta began breathing again, not realizing she had been holding air within her lungs the entire time.
Kaid’s palm finally dropped from her lips and he stepped away from her. She could hardly make out his face in the faint moonlight as she turned to face him.
The pain in her arm was coming back with a vengeance, the throbbing worse than ever. “My arm.” The only words she managed to get out.
Kaid pulled her a little closer to the light of the cave entrance but remained far enough back so they could easily disappear into the shadows again if needed. He assessed the lacerations under the moonlight, then used his dagger to cut the bottom of his cloak.
He wrapped the strip of cloth under Asta’s arm at the top of her shoulder and nodded to her. “This will hurt.”
Asta gave a sharp nod in response and readied herself. When he pulled the cloth tight, her vision turned clouded and her knees buckled. Sweet Dagmar, that throbbed.
When Asta came-to again, she rested against the cool cave wall.
Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could now see that the structure wasn’t completely made of rock; the ceiling was made up of a tree trunk, the tree itself growing directly over the opening in the shoreline and creating a cave below.
If they had discovered this from adventuring and not from hiding from things who wanted to kill them, Asta would consider returning here and passing some time reading within the peculiar structure.
Kaid got to his feet from where he had been resting at the opposite side of the cave. He sat down next to her and tucked his legs up, resting an arm on his knees.
He scrubbed his face with his hand. “I vote we stay here, in case they’re waiting us out. You?”
Asta ran through their options, which were few.
Stay here and potentially face being attacked in a cave with nowhere to go.
Try leaving and potentially be attacked on the beach, still with nowhere to go.
At least those creatures didn’t know where they had disappeared to and maybe they could get some rest and heal before their next potential battle.
“Here will have to do,” she whispered.
They talked quietly for a while, the conversation being cathartic after what they had endured.
They discussed how the king needs to know that there were vicious, murderous creatures slinking in and out of the castle.
Though they hadn’t actually had the chance to confront the creatures and demand answers, Asta knew they were the reason that more villagers had gone missing.
She could feel it deep in her gut. But why hadn’t they taken anyone from the castle?
Why were they sneaking into it so often?
The royal army would have to figure that out when they captured them.