“Careful!”

Mahon shouted his warning a bit too late, and the soldier collapsed as the Amentiae’s sword cut through his chest. Mahon rolled forward and thrust his spear between two chitinous plates of the Amentiae’s exoskeleton. The insect died instantly, but the monster had already committed his deed as the choked breath of the dying soldier indicated more than clearly.

Seeing the man’s state, Mahon locked into the man’s hazy gaze and plunged his spear through his throat, ending his suffering. With pursed lips, Mahon turned to the rest of the Amentiae patrol and let loose. With Jorik’s fighting prowess and his own, they managed to get rid of the thirty-ish Amentiae that had taken them by surprise.

It had only been one hour of frantic run and fight, but they had already lost one soldier and the others weren’t unscathed. Mahon clearly felt the difference between Jorik and him and the other soldiers. Their training had been nothing alike, and where he and the noble were still in good shape, the soldiers bore small injuries and were showing increased signs of exhaustion.

Alas, they couldn’t linger here. They had managed to shake off the first patrols that had caught their tracks, only to run into another patrol. The chase had continued until they couldn’t escape and had to fight their way through another patrol. Fortunately, it had been a small one, and Mahon and Jorik had slaughtered them with incredible efficiency.

“Amentiae!” The weak warning of one of the soldiers forced them on the run once again.

“Don’t move. Don’t even breathe.” Mahon whispered to the soldiers scattered beside him under the dense foliage of a tree.

More than a hundred Amentiae ran past them, barely a dozen meters ahead of their hidden spot. Although they barely exceeded a meter and a half in height, they were quite large and the ground shook slightly as their numerous legs impacted it. Mahon was close enough to hear the clicking of the insects’ mandibles and the grinding of their articulations, but the monsters didn’t see them.

They had been lucky to find the grove just in time, and that the Amentiae were coming from the right direction, otherwise they would have had to fight again, and against a hundred, the soldiers wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Mahon threw a quick look at Fenian’s injury and his painful expression. Still, through his gritted teeth, the man managed to repress a groan until the Amentiae moved away.

“They’re gone...”

“We need to move.” Jorik stated. “If Amentiae came from this side, we are completely exposed. We can’t stay here.”

“Fanian can’t run.” Another soldier intervened, pointing at the man who was holding his leg with a grimace.

The noble exchanged a glance with Mahon before he turned to the injured soldier. “How are you feeling?”

“I can’t go on. Lea.. leave me here, commander. We’re doomed anyway, and I’m too tired to continue. I… I’ll hide there. If it’s only me, then maybe I can hide long enough.”

The soldier’s tone didn’t convince anyone, and yet no one voiced it. They all knew they couldn’t take the man with them either way.

“Are you sure?” Mahon still asked as the four remaining soldiers and Jorik got ready to move.

“Yes, First Yellow. Do… Don’t worry about me. I’m sorry I was a hindrance to you…”

Mahon didn’t know what to answer. He threw one last look at the blood that was leaking between the man’s fingers and nodded to him encouragingly. The man wouldn’t survive a couple hours with such an injury, but he had more courage than many men Mahon had met.

“May the Fada guide you.” The soldier said as the group left, careful to avoid the previous Amentiae’s patrol path.

The Fada can’t save anyone. We’re on our own.

Mahon spun his spear and executed the last Amentiae close to him as he continued to run forward. He had lost count of the hours and the direction he was running in.

The only thing he knew was that they were always moving away from the closer Amentiae patrol, rotating between running, hiding, and fighting. Only Jorik and him seemed to be unscathed after having spent most of the day in this situation. The four other soldiers didn’t fare as well, but they hadn’t uttered a single complaint throughout the day.

They endured the situation and prayed for only five minutes of break at the shadow of a tree, but it seemed that even that was beyond their means.

The group of six warriors ran as the Amentiae chased endlessly. Mahon stopped and faced the more than fifty Amentiae alone. He faked a left stab, but spun his lance right at the last moment and beheaded an Amentiae.

He didn’t dare to use the Flow as the magic would burn through his stamina so fast he wouldn’t be able to fight long after that. Instead, Mahon laid on his impressive control, and took down another two Amentiae with a swift swipe before he resumed his course.

The little interaction had given the soldiers a second of respite, and they had increased the gap between them and the pursuing insects to a safer distance.

Mahon increased the strain on his muscles and sped up to join the group as they escaped once again from the clutch of an Amentiae patrol. Slowly, they increased the distance until they could hope to lose the insects in the maze of grove and trenches that they were in.

They were still heading south, but they had lost track of where they were exactly. They had long passed the third wall, and they couldn’t even see it behind them. Yet, the second wall was still nowhere in sight. Not that they planned to cross it, as going further into the Amentiae territory would simply be suicide. Instead, they had to move through the little gaps between the patrols, and hope for a way out, somewhere.

In the meantime, they continued to run.

Mahon breathed a short respite as he eyed the dead Amentiae around them. They had tried to move towards the east and back north, but they had been quickly surprised by a small patrol hiding in ambush, and couldn’t run away without a fight.

The night was slowly descending, and the lack of visibility from the cloudy sky was starting to become a problem too. They had lost one other soldier in the afternoon, and another one had given up and tried to hide somewhere.

The two remaining soldiers had managed to survive this long, but minor injuries had started to add to the strain of the constant running, and they were now barely holding on.

“I can’t continue.” One of them said. “I’m gonna do as Kymil and try my luck hiding under the shells and carcasses.”

“I’m gonna stay with you too.” The second said as he shook his head in apologies at the two commanders. “We’re holding you down. You really may have a chance at escaping this nightmare, but we can’t continue. I’m sorry.”

Mahon caught his breath as he watched the two men coating themselves in Amentiae’s blood and trying to find a place where they could hide under the insects’ bodies.

Jorik sighed in something that passed as a mix of resignation and relief. “Good luck to you, then. I’m sorry we couldn’t help you more.”

“Don’t worry, First Black. It’s us that are sorry. You’re way out of our league, and yet you stayed with us until now. It’s only our fault for not meeting your expectations. Thank you for giving us that chance.” The soldier answered Jorik’s words with a respectful nod. “But if you can accept one more favor. Kill more of these motherfuckers for us if you can.”

“It would be our pleasure.” Mahon smiled grimly as he shook the two soldiers' hands, perfectly knowing he was leaving them to die.

“Further south?” Jorik asked with a hint of doubt as he stepped over a dead Amentiae.

Mahon nodded and tightened his spear to his back. “Each time we get back north, there are more and more patrols luring into the groves and ambushing us. Towards the south, the Amentiae’s patrol are bigger, but there are fewer of them. We can navigate through them without a fight, and that’s better than the constant skirmishes here.” Mahon pointed to the patrol they had just killed to prove his words.

“But then what? If we don’t head back north at some point, we’ll die of hunger or reach the Amentiae’s camp and meet some really strong ones.”

“Going north is simply infeasible. I have no idea where we are, but we haven’t even seen the second wall. We still have some leeway before we get up to that. And for the lack of food, we’ll see when that happens.”

“I don’t know if you’re incredibly foolish to ignore such problems or brilliant smart to focus only on the actual one, but I can’t help admiring your determination. Even if it leads us to our death. Still, I don’t have a better option. From my point of view, every path ends with our doom, so I may as well indulge you. Towards south it is. Lead the way.”

“What is this shit?”

“An Amentiae general.” Mahon answered without taking his eyes off the impressive Amentiae and his bodyguards blocking their path.

“You’re very far from home, little ones.” The general spoke with weird, strident cackles. “But your wandering stops here.” The Amentiae tiptoed with his four massive legs as he unsheathed a gigantic longsword.

“They can speak?” Jorik spoke again with a hint of surprise. “By the Fada, wha…”

“Focus, Jorik.” Mahon cut him short. “He is really strong.”

“I haven’t spent days running to get killed by a simple Amentiae.” Jorik retorted, but he still took a fighting stance.

“Last time, we needed a full unit of the best warriors to bring one of them down. Only I survived.” Mahon explained, and he saw Jorik breathe deeply as he finally took the threat seriously.

“Oh?” The general stopped his warm up as he threw a curious glance at Mahon. “You killed one of my fellows? Even in your weakened, feeble state? That’s interesting.”

Without another word, the Amentiae charged straight at him while the bodyguards circled them to prevent any escape. Mahon spear rushed to meet the general, but the Amentiae tossed it aside with a simple gesture of his longsword.

Mahon sped up suddenly and changed his spear’s trajectory. He had started Flowing the moment he had seen the ten black dots on the red carapace of the Amentiae, and he was now fully immersed in the Flow.

At his side, Jorik had started Flowing too, but he had been a bit too slow, and the general sheer speed and strength caught him off guard. On the other hand, Mahon knew exactly what to expect, and he intercepted the monster before he could follow up with a deadly attack on the noble.

The exchanges hadn’t lasted long, but Mahon immediately realized something.

I’m stronger.

The feeling wasn’t unlike what had happened on that fateful day. When he had somehow got free of Nightmare’s constraint.

The conclusion surprised him at first, but then he realized how the situation had changed. And also how it was familiar.

He wasn’t an ethereal form anymore. He had a fully fleshed out body, and he had trained hard to get back his skills from Nightmare. If the Mahon from Nightmare were to fight what he had become, he would suffer a crushing defeat.

Mahon didn’t know how he had managed such a prowess back in Nightmare, but he couldn’t mistake the feelings rushing through his mind as he eyed the general. It was the exact same as last time.

It could only confirm what he had never been able to do again in Nightmare. He knew it just as surely as he knew he was still breathing. And yet, the conclusion and its implications frightened him.

Somehow, that day, he had been in Nightmare. He had not dreamed it. He had lived it. Just like he was facing the Amentiae now. In flesh.

That’s how he had defeated the general. He remembered how easily he had parried the weak attacks of the insect at that time. How simple it had seemed to defeat the monster who had slaughtered his entire unit.

And today, the same monster was back in front of him. But Mahon didn’t need a miracle to be here this time. He was in Ratho, after all.

You should be the one to be afraid, insect.

Mahon even had another ace hidden in his sleeve. With a confident smile, Mahon blocked another attack of the general who also started to understand the human in front of him wasn’t as weak as he had expected.

“I’ll deal with the general.” Mahon said calmly. “You take care of the bodyguards.”

If anyone else had said those words, it would have been just that. Words. However, after just that short exchange, even the general didn’t dare to deny the Last Red’s claim. Mahon flashed an insolent smile at the insect’s cautiousness.

As if that smile had sparked something in time itself, the situation seemed to both speed up and freeze at the same time. It became fast and slow.

Fast, because dozens of attacks and counters were simulated in an instant within the general’s mind. Fast, because all the other Amentiae were rushing simultaneously from every direction at them. Fast, because Jorik’s frantic heart was pumping blood faster and faster in preparation for what was coming.

Slow, because Mahon’s own heartbeat imposed a calm rhythm to the very air around him. Slow, because a frozen amused smile still lingered on his face as he moved. Slow, because all it took was a single simple motion.

Mahon walked to the side and disappeared.

END OF ARC 1