‘Clank!’

I heard a loud noise which broke my sleep and eyes were wide open. In front of me, I saw Mikhail holding my spear and a figure attacking him…..or me.

Mikhail slashed the spear around and made the person jump behind.

I stood up straight and rubbed my eyes to clear my vision. I watched carefully towards the person in front of me with a thin sword.

It was Nikola Germ. He is supposed to be the most cruel and also the most trusted of the Blood Knights. He also is the second in command for the whole squad.

I turned around and saw Krial helping Maria getting up. Avon put on his coat and tried hiding his face. Upon more clear inspection, I noticed that Buzz was nowhere to be seen, but as I thought about it I heard footsteps coming closer.

Those were of Buzz’s. He came in running with heavy breathing.

“Well, it seems that your informer and your information…both were right.”

Nikola said as he lifted his sword to signal his knights to surround us. As his speech was over I saw a figure coming out of the night shadow.

‘Chin. As expected.’

I thought with some anger, grief and confusion.

“So, I’ll give you chance to surrender yourselves and accept your punishment. No harm will come to you, except..” said Nikola as he turned his eyes towards me, “you both.”

He completed as he pointed his sword towards me and Mikhail.

I was able to comprehend the reason of being unsafe, but I couldn't understand why Mikhail was supposed to be harmed.

“He- because I was ordered to do so.” Nikola explained as he looked at me, “You because you had the audacity to use my first name.”

‘Using someone’s first name isn’t wrong.’

Is what I had always thought, because its just a way to address someone and I don’t see how that is a problem. It would have been a problem if he were a king, but Nikola isn’t.

“So, you folks put your weapons down and--”

He was interrupted by Maria, “Not happening.”

She said with boldness. She tightened her grip on to her whip which concluded her resolve.

“Very bold of you, Ms.--?”

“There’s no reason for me to tell my name, is there?”

“Of course not.” said Nikola as he lowered his sword, “Then I would have no choice but kill all of you.”

Everyone stiffened as Nikola claimed his intentions. Buzz walked inside the group, between me and Mikhail.

“Informer, huh?”

Krial said with a questioning tone. The word just struck my mind and it began calculating the reason of his utterance.

Then I suddenly realized something which was frightening but also an act of betrayal.

“Four corpses, you said?” I said as I turned my face towards Buzz, “The brothers are alive. No one knew about me going to Maria’s house, but you and Krial. Also you volunteered to keep watch.”

I was confirmed that he was the mole in our group. Also, I did understand his reasons for doing so, still I couldn’t understand why it was something much bigger than breaking someone’s trust in you.

“Why? Buzz?” I asked him.

In that moment of confusion, I could see Buzz face turning grim. He lifted his axe and tried attacking me, but Mikhail dropped my spear and defended.

Buzz turned towards Mikhail to launch another drive, but then I took away my spear and wedged it in front of him, to which he jumped behind and tried to protect himself.

“It is not you who wronged me, but your kind did. I lost my dear ones because of their mistakes. I don’t want to repeat them ever again.”

Buzz said as he confirmed his hostility towards us.

Even though I understood his sentiment, I couldn’t understand why it was our mistake. It was the Knight who wrongly accused and killed them.

‘Or was it our mistake?’

‘What am I?’

‘Who are we?’

There was no escape to us. The remaining soldiers completely surrounded us.

“Oh! I am getting Deja Vu.”

Mikhail remarked as this looked exactly like the scene in Kayo, except there were no buildings but tall trees and no sunlight but moonlight.

I looked towards Avon who appeared to be doing something which he never does, doing something.

He produced a flame ball in his hands.

“Ignite,” he said as he threw the ball towards the trees.

The flame hit one of the trees and a hellish fire broke out. The night sky with a bright moonlight was now hiding behind the dark smoke which was being let out due to the fire.

We all stood aghast as we watched Avon enchanting and making the fire go more and more wild every second.

“We need to put up a fight, but that’s not possible. They’ve got numbers we are just six. So…” said Avon, “The only option we have is runaway.”

‘But that’s what I’ve been doing my whole time.’

Is what I thought. I was fed up with running. I was done with protecting myself.

‘I can’t take it anymore.’

I had a thought of handing myself over to them, but then the thought of me dying was not dreadful. It was the thought me dragging five others with me was dreadful.

‘I have to do it. I need to do it.’

“Lets run the other way. Deep inside the forest.”

Mikhail suggested. I nodded as he was right to suggest that. If we tried moving our way out, it would be just useless as there will be guards placed who might catch us.

But running was not the problem. Even if start running, it didn’t mean that the soldiers will stop and there’s nothing more bad than have weapons pointed behind your back.

“I’ll hold them back,” Krial said as he stepped in front of us. He held his bow high and was ready to shoot down anyone in sight, “Don’t worry, my quiver never empties itself and also..”

Krial materialized an arrow in his bow and shot it upwards, which swirled downwards and hit a soldier. It was unreal because winds were blowing at high speeds and to get that kind of accuracy you needed utter confidence and years of training.

“I never miss..”

Krial said as he indicated us to leave. We followed his bid and started running down the path into the forest. We were stopped by many guards, soldiers and members of the Blood Knights, but we stood our ground and tried defending ourselves. Avon kept enchanting, producing fire which kept the enemy away. I tried to use my spear to make a way for us. But Mikhail was engaged in a different fight all together.

Nikola stood in front of Mikhail, blocking his path he moved his thin sword in the air. It was keen act of supremacy by Nikola, but it seemed that Mikhail cared none about it.

“You can’t runaway, you know?”

Mikhail took a step back, but not of fear. He bend down and picked up a sword which I had obviated from one of the soldiers hands earlier.

“Yes Nikola, we can.”

Mikhail answered with a smug smile. He gripped his sword with a great force and became ready for an incoming attack.

It was a bold act, but it wasn’t entertaining to Nikola. His face turned stern and eyes became sharp.

“Say my name again and I will kill you.”

Nikola warned with his sword pointing towards Mikhail.

‘Maybe he is doing this to buy some time.’

I thought because it seemed Nikola was a kind of person who would distracted by small things and hurting his pride was one of the things he couldn’t forgive. So, if Mikhail trying to act like a delinquent would work, but it was still dangerous.

“Is that so? Ni~Ko~La~”

Mikhail said as he smug smile bridged in deeper.

“What is this fool even trying to do? Provoking Nikola is going to make the situation more dire.”

Avon asserted with a pat on his forehead. It’s true that agitating Nikola won’t do us any good. He is an extremely skilled swordsman with an anger which could range like mountains.

But we hardly had any time to react to Avon’s comment as Nikola flew towards Mikhail with sword and dealt with a heavy slash.

The slash was so heavy that dust flew off trees leaves and it felt like the direction of the winds was entirely changed because of that.

‘Clank!’

Came the sound as if it was blocked and indeed it was.

Mikhail put the sword which he had lifted up earlier between him and Nikola, with a perfect defense posture, it seemed like Mikhail knew what he was doing.

“Interesting!” Nikola said as he started pushing his limits with some more gashes, but they were of no use as Mikhail stood his ground and didn’t budge even for a second.

“To stand like that in front of Nikola…”

“He really must be some kind of monster..”

Both Avon and Maria quoted, but soon after they finished Mikhail was dealt with a powerful swing which finally pushed him backwards, towards us.

“This is no good, he won’t let us off.”

Mikhail said as he looked at Avon for some kind of backup plan to get out of this situation, but Avon shook his head in response as he had nothing.

“We just need a distraction.”

“I can do something about it.”

I said with my spear daunting to hit the ground.

“It’s--I am not sure about it, but…”

“Do it!”

Avon raised his voice. He was at no wrong for doing that, but I really had to stop playing the scarred cat now. This is my problem and I should be the one to sort it.

“Okay!”

I said as I started spinning my spear in the air, above my head.

‘1…2….3….Now!’

“Cover your ears.”

I banged my spear on the ground as I asked them to do so. The spear made a huge noise which stunned the enemy. Many of them tripped down because of the loud noise and some went unconscious.

This was our moment to run, but something more big was waiting for us.

‘RAWR!!’

We heard a scream as we were starting to move. The voice didn’t seem familiar, but anything it maybe, it neither was small nor was happy.

We tilted our heads on the right side and out of the bushes, from between the trees. Came the beast of nightmares, The Minotaur.

“Oh my…”

“Congratulations, I think we just signed our death certificates.”