Kegan had put twenty iron-tipped javelins in a backpack, grabbed two spears, three daggers, and a war hammer. As he moved back through the village he was happy to see that the villagers were quickly moving their stuff into the keep. There were about three hundred villagers so they would have to pack tightly into the keep to stay safe.

Jacus spoke to Kegan as he traveled through the village

“We could really use your help carrying some things, Haephon really wants his forge moved into the keep …”

“I can’t help you right now. Go to my hut and gather all the weapons and food I have stored there. I’m going out to delay them, no one will be here before morning.”

“You’re going alone?”

Jacus started scrambling to keep up with Kegan.

“Yes, anyone else might slow me down.”

“Are you injured? There was a lot of blood in there that didn’t belong to Davis or Adrian?

“Gregory attacked me, but I am fine now. I have to go.”

Kegan started a full sprint as he had just passed through the crowded part of the village. Jacus gave up on following him and instead started shouting for people to help him get Kegan’s stuff.

Gregory glanced around nervously. The road had some clearance from the forest around it, but not enough to make them safe from an ambush. They weren’t even five miles from the Keep, but he knew this was the most dangerous part of the journey. If anyone planned to ambush them, they would do it quickly before their group could vanish into the countryside.

His vigilance paid off. Up ahead he caught a glimmer of steel in the moonlight. Now that he knew where to look he could make figures moving slowly along the forest edge.

“Ambush spotted ahead, we are all going through the forest. Gilmore, take your seven men and ride along the tree line. Take them by surprise, kill a few and then disengage. We will meet at the abandoned Claremont manor.”

....

Kegan’s sprint paid off and he managed to catch sight of the fourteen knights ahead of him on the road. He debated for a moment the best way to get them off the road and into the woods, where he would have more of an advantage. But then they started moving into the woods on their own.

He followed from a safe distance behind to see what they were doing. The group was splitting up as they entered the woods. One group of six going deeper into the woods, and a group of eight traveling along the tree line.

Kegan guessed that Gregory was a coward, and he would probably be among the group of eight. So he followed the larger group for a few minutes.

The knights suddenly came upon another group of men. There was shouting and the sounds of combat. Kegan cursed and ran to catch up. He couldn’t let Gregory die an easy death.

One of the knights was lying dead on the ground with a bolt through his faceplate. One of the horses was dead, with the rider being wrestled to the ground by three men trying to stab him. The other six surviving riders were stuck fending off a group of fifteen spearmen as five men with crossbows tried to hurriedly reload.

Kegan’s javelin caught one of the three men trying to overwhelm the downed knight. Kegan wanted to be sure that wasn’t Gregory. In the next moment, Kegan was next to the group and brained one of the other men with his war hammer. The third one was entangled with the struggling knight on the ground. Kegan was close enough to see that the knight was not Gregory, it was one of the younger knights. He yanked his javelin free of the dying man and left the two living men to fight it out.

Kegan’s javelins began reaping death among the crossbowmen. The chaos and darkness of the forest at night meant no one even knew he was there. His war hammer was put away and two daggers were out. His camouflage was active, and he found out he could activate it multiple times, just like the surgery perk. There were diminishing returns after five activations, but he now looked blurry and wispy even up close. It was like a foggy shadow was stepping among the spearmen and slitting their throats or finding weak spots in their armor that left them bleeding out.

When six of the spearmen were dead the knights took it as an opportunity to charge out of the encirclement. One horse was brought down by the remaining spearmen. Another horse tripped on a dead body. Kegan was close enough to see the armor and gear of all of the knights. He realized in frustration that none of them were Gregory.

‘Of course’ he thought, the coward sent these men as a distraction, so he could getaway. Kegan let the four knights escape.

He looked around at the battlefield, the spearmen were successfully restraining the two knights who had fallen off their horses. The first knight he had helped was crawling away unnoticed by everyone else. The third man who had been fighting him lay dead nearby with a dagger sticking out of his face.

Kegan walked up to the knight and hopped on his back. One arm reached around his throat to pull his face clear of the ground. Kegan’s other handheld a dagger right up to the visor of the knight’s helmet.

“Shhhh, don’t scream or this dagger will be the last thing you see.” The knight stiffened.

“Good, now where is Gregory?”

The knight remained silent until Kegan started pushing the dagger through the protective visor. The metal on metal screeching unnerved the knight, as well as the point of the dagger coming closer to his face.

“Claremont manor … its a nearby abandoned estate. He told us to meet him there after we were done fighting here.”

The dagger moved out of the faceplate.

“And where is he planning to go after that?”

“To the Capitol, to request safety in the King’s court for Lord Tasmeel.”

The knight twitched as Kegan shoved the dagger back into the visor and into his brain. As far as he was concerned, only two knights had deserved to live … and Gregory had already killed them.

He stood up and turned to look at the remaining soldiers. They were wearing the Heraldry of Count Talias. During his mornings as a watchman at the Keep he had been required to learn the heraldry colors and symbols for all the nearby lords, in case one of them showed up.

Kegan balanced the idea of taking their lives. If Davis’ warning was true then it would be a proactive defense. If he was wrong then their deaths might lead to retaliation. As they started torturing the captured knight for information, their questions made it obvious that Davis’ warning was true. They wanted to know the number of guards and knights at the Keep.

With the decision made easy, Kegan began hurling javelins out of the darkness. The active camouflage made him a shadow in the night, the soldiers couldn’t even retaliate. They lay dead and dying within a minute. Kegan finished off the living ones begging for mercy, including the captured knight that they had tortured.

He doubled back and began following the trail of Gregory and the other knights. He knew how to reach the abandoned manor directly, but he had a feeling that wasn’t where this group was heading.

Their trail was easy enough to follow, even in the dark. After all, horses aren’t known for being light on their feet.

It didn’t take too long for Kegan to catch up with the second group, and the young Lord Tasmeel’s complaints ruined any chance of the group staying hidden.

“Gregory, will we be stopping at the manor soon? I do not care for riding so late at night.”

“No my lord, we have to be careful. The manor is a well-known location and I do not wish to be ambushed in the morning.”

“What about the Knights you told to meet us there?”

“I will send someone to get them when we make camp tonight.”

Kegan listened to them talk for a few minutes longer as he got closer to them as quietly as he could. He snuck alongside their group trying to get out in front of them as much as possible. However he was moving too fast to stay completely silent, a twig snapped beneath him. Gregory’s fist shot up, “Halt”, his head swiveled to look right in Kegan’s direction. The camouflage still hid Kegan, but Gregory was looking right at where he was standing. Gregory moved his horse to the left to get a better look.

That was all Kegan needed, he had a clear target now. His javelin flew out of the darkness and struck Lord Tasmeel’s horse in the head.

Gregory’s head swiveled around to follow the javelin. He cursed when he saw where it landed.

“Charge!” His sword pointed towards Kegan and the other four Knights streamed past Gregory.

Another javelin took out the leading knight. But the next javelin was caught by a shield. The leading knight was lining up a spear to skewer him. Instead of throwing for the knight again, he aimed for the horse. It reared up in pain when the javelin landed. Kegan moved forward and used the leading horse to block the other two charging knights. The man tried to drop his spear and grab a sword out of the scabbard. Kegan was faster and shoved a dagger into the man’s stomach through a gap in his plated armor. Then he twisted and yanked out the dagger making the man scream in agony.

Using the muscles he had built up all summer Kegan dug in and pushed the horse with his shoulder. The horse toppled over into one of the other riders. But it left Kegan exposed to the third rider who drove his spear into Kegan’s chest. His armor saved him from most of the attack, with only the tip of the spear breaking his skin. The knight was trying to push in the spear deeper and started using both hands to thrust. Kegan let himself be pushed back, and grabbed another javelin out his pack and threw it into the knight’s face. The man’s head rocked back from the javelin, and then his body slumped down dead in the saddle.

The third knight had gotten off his panicking horse and was coming from behind. Kegan turned in time to see him winding up to swing his sword in an overhand chop. Kegan jumped back to avoid the swing and pull out his war hammer. The knight extended the attack to still reach him, but the power was gone from the blow. It sliced into Kegan’s armor but didn’t get all the way through.

His war hammer connected with the man’s elbow. The knight screamed in pain dropping the sword and trying to back away. But Kegan’s war hammer came back around to hit him in the head. The first hit only left a small dent and dazed the knight. But the second and third hit in the same spot made the dent much larger and knocked him to the ground. The fourth was accompanied by the sound of the man’s skull cracking and he lay still on the ground.

The second knight was screaming in pain trapped under his fallen horse. Kegan jammed a dagger into the faceplate and the man went silent.

The only sound now was Lord Tasmeel moaning in pain and Gregory cursing trying to get the injured lord up onto his horse. The dead horse had fallen on the young lord’s leg.

Gregory noticed the silence and looked up to see Kegan approaching. There was no recognition in Gregory’s eyes, so Kegan dropped his camouflage.

Satisfaction flooded Kegan at the expression on Gregory’s face. It went from confusion to recognition, to horror all in an instant.

“No, you’re dead. I saw you die!”

“You will have to do better than that.”

Kegan got a spear out and lunged at Gregory. He slammed down his visor and knocked Kegan’s attack aside. Kegan had the spear back and thrusting again in the blink of an eye. Rather than continue trying to knock aside the blows, Gregory lunged forward and twisted his body. A normal spear-thrust would have deflected off of his armor, and allowed him to cut into Kegan’s face. But Kegan’s thrusts weren’t normal. The spear thrust was powerful enough to pierce the armor, but the odd angle caused stress on the spear shaft. The tip of the spear broke off inside of Gregory’s chest piece, and he stumbled back from his aborted attack.

Kegan looked down at his newly formed staff and former spear. He considered switching weapons but realized this would be perfect for what he wanted.

Gregory pulled the spear tip out and threw it away. He was taking risks he’d normally never take, but he knew he’d lose in an extended fight. He felt he could just barely match Kegan with a spear, all he needed was a lucky strike into Kegan’s face. But Kegan’s next moves ended all of his hope.

Kegan had shifted his grip low on the spear handle and began swinging it at Gregory like an extra-long club. This gave him incredibly long reach, and devastating hits that Gregory could do almost nothing about.

The fight only took two minutes before one of Kegan’s swings crushed Gregory’s sword hand. The next few minutes Kegan fulfilled his internal promise of revenge to give Gregory a slow death. He broke his legs, arms, and hands. The man was a crying mess delirious with pain.

Despite carrying out his revenge, Kegan didn’t feel any better. He had never enjoyed torturing anyone or anything. He had been furious at Gregory’s betrayal, and this had somehow felt necessary. He had originally planned to leave Gregory like this and let the man slowly die. But now it just felt pointless. He growled in frustration and plunged a dagger into Gregory’s eye.

Turning around to find Lord Tasmeel he was surprised to see two seven foot tall skinny pointy-eared figures holding longbows with drawn arrows pointed at him.

“We do not wish to fight you, but we will defend ourselves if you step closer.”

Lord Tasmeel was passed out behind the two strangers.

“I don’t want to fight you either. But I would like that boy behind you.”

“We can’t let you kill him, we need him alive for now.”

“Who said anything about killing him? I have an agreement to protect him. I was just going to bring him home.”