I flinched at every sound, dreading that more of the snakes would appear. My heart raced. I just wanted to scream for everyone to move faster, but I knew that it would not help. Most of the people could barely walk. It was more of a shuffle forward than the sprint we had hoped for. Those who were strong enough lent the weak their shoulder and helped them move one step at a time.

I clutched my dagger tightly with both hands, while following close behind my dad, nearly tripping over his shoes a few times. Each of the five groups had taken a different path through the city. This way if one group was unlucky and drew the snakes’ attentions, at least the others would make it out safely.

I felt terrible for thinking it, but I prayed that if a group was attacked, it would not be ours. Just the idea of being buried in that endless sea of writhing snakes sent shivers through my body. I did not know what I would do if I actually had to face it.

I took a few deep breaths and focused on what was in front of me. We had to get these people out of the city before the snakes finished off Ferenc or got tired of chasing him.

Among the hundreds of people we were shepherding towards the city exit, I saw a young woman towards the back of the group, holding a toddler that looked to only be about three or four years old. Her legs were not able to carry her anymore as she faltered and collapsed to the ground. In her attempt to shield the small child in her arms, she was not able to break her fall. She hit the ground hard with a heavy thud. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to stand back up, but was too weak to manage it.

Forgetting my own anxiety, I rushed up to the woman and offered her my hand. With some difficulty, I managed to help her get on her feet.

“Thank… Thank you,” she said with gasping breaths.

“I will take him,” I said, holding my hands out towards the toddler. The child looked at me with great big eyes before burying his face into his mother’s shirt.

The woman smiled sweetly at the small boy before shaking her head. “I can carry him. He is my child. I will protect him.”

I hesitated for a moment, wanting to convince her otherwise, but after looking in her eyes, I knew she would not relent. In that moment, she reminded me of how my own mom looked back when I was always sick. Since I could not help carry the child, I offered her my shoulder to lean on as she walked. She accepted that gladly and we moved together with slow shuffling steps.

My heart sunk as the distant sound of the blaring horn came to a stop. Either Ferenc had found a way to stop the glyph, or he was dead. Either way, it was not good news for us. The snakes would be returning soon. It was only a matter of time now.

As we moved, I kept looking over my shoulder. I dreaded the idea that at any moment there could be millions of eyes slithering out of the mist.

Each second seemed to drag on for an eternity. The only sounds were our shuffling footsteps. Nobody dared say a word in fear that it would draw the snakes to us.

I could see it through the mist. The gate was just in front of us. We almost made it out of the city, and hope welled up in my chest, just in time to have it dashed to pieces.

What I dreaded had come. The sounds of hissing appeared behind us, answered by a cacophony of snakes in the distance.

“Everyone, keep moving to the gate!” my dad shouted, “We will hold them off.”

I handed the woman off to another man with the strength to help her and dashed back to my dad’s side. His bracer was already glowing as he peered into the heavy mist.

Charly had his crossbow aimed and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. A few seconds later a few other soldiers also appeared at our side. Each one held glyphs capable of fighting off the snakes.

The first wiggling body appeared out of the mist. The snake reared up, looking at us with bright red eyes. It hissed loudly, and a swarm of grey serpents appeared behind it.

Charly reacted first, firing his crossbow into the swarm. The explosion covered a large area, burning all the small snakes nearby to a crisp. Hundreds of pained screeches echoed through the mist before falling silent.

Within seconds, thousands more squirming snakes slithered out of the mist to replace those that were burned. They slithered over the smoldering corpses of their fallen family as they swarmed towards us.

My dad acted next, creating two huge walls of ice. The walls extended into the mist in either direction, but left a small gap in the middle.

The snakes hurled themselves towards the small opening mindlessly. The swarmed together in a giant tangled mass as countless thousands of snakes all tried to fit through the small opening at the same time.

The nearby soldiers did not need any direction. As soon as the snakes clumped together in the small gap, they fired off their glyphs. Fire and lightning blasted the countless snakes to pieces in another massive explosion, but no matter how many we killed, there were always more to take their place.

Charly fired off another explosion, and a while he was preparing his next shot, my dad created hundreds of small spikes of ice. The two of them rotated attacks as the snakes funneled to their death. In just a couple minutes, they killed thousands of snakes.

Charly panted as his bracer glowed in preparation of another shot. “Dad… I do not know how much longer I can keep this up.”

My dad looked at the group of fleeing civilians behind him and frowned. They had not made it very far despite the time he had gained for them.

In front of us, the two walls of ice had begun to crack as more and more snakes threw themselves against it. Even more snakes had started to follow the wall to its edge and were beginning to circle around us.

I looked at the endless swarm, my hands shaking as I held my little dagger. What was I supposed to do? The power in my right eye could not affect this many creatures, and without Aurielle I had no idea how to use the green flames or even if I could. I wished she was here now. She would know what to do.

Charly fired another shot of his crossbow, and once again the baby snakes screamed as they burned, but this time was different. This time there was an answer to the screams. My blood froze as an ear-piercing screech rang through the mist. The mother had woken up.

My legs went weak as a massive shadow loomed in the mist. The mother snake moved slowly. It seemed to have trouble moving at all. The injuries from fighting all of us and the damage Aurielle had left behind was enough to seriously hinder the snake, but with its size, it did not take more than a couple seconds before its colossal head was visible. Its large tongue flickered as the snake turned its empty eye sockets towards us.

I felt the empty eyes lock onto me as a deafening screech rang out of its mouth. The colossal snake reared up slowly, wobbling unsteadily. Painful memories of getting crushed flashed through my mind. If it happened again, there was no way I could survive it this time.

“Everyone, run!” my father shouted. I could hear the panic in his voice.

We sprinted away as the colossal snake struck down, but through divine intervention or maybe just luck, the blind snake did not hit anywhere near us. It slammed into the ground just in front of the two ice walls my father had made, crushing the countless thousands of baby snakes that had been swarming us.

After slamming into the ground, the snake heaved and tried to rear up again, but fell back to the ground limply. Its tongue flickered out. I could feel the snake was still locked onto me, but it did not try to move again. It simply opened its mouth and hissed loudly.

My legs gave out as I collapsed to the ground laughing. I was still alive! The stupid snake had not crushed me, instead it actually managed to crush all the baby snakes chasing us. Too weak to move, the massive body of the snake also created the perfect wall protecting us from any more baby snakes that might have survived.

“Should… Should we finish it off?” Charly asked, raising his crossbow.

“You want to make it mad?” I replied, raising an eyebrow.

My dad eyed the giant snake suspiciously, before sheathing his sword. “Wren is right. It is weak, but if we enrage it, that monstrosity might find the strength to fight back. Our priority is getting the people to safety, not killing Demonkin.”

I nodded and together we moved back towards the fleeing civilians. I kept a constant eye on the monstrosity of a snake just in case it moved again, but it seemed that it would not be doing anything any time soon. Even then, I still felt the empty eyes still locked onto me.

It was only once we made it past the city walls and met up with the other four groups that I let out a sigh of relief. We had gotten away safely and the snake had not followed. I could not hope for anything more than that.

Orias gathered everyone together so that we could discuss what we should do next. A suave looking man who claimed to be the mayor of the city also insisted on being part of the conversation.

“What do we do now?” the mayor asked, “There is no way my people can make a long trip out of this horrible mist in their current state.”

Orias was quiet for a moment as he thought about the problem. “It took us days to cut a path here, and we were able bodied soldiers. Sick like they are, these people would not be able to make that journey by themselves. I have wagons and supplies hidden south of the city. Not enough for everyone to ride, but we could fit a few hundred of the weakest on the wagons. We have enough supplies to feed an entire army. It should be more than enough for this many people.”

“The biggest problem is the vines,” my father replied, “Cutting a path large enough for this many people would be much more difficult, and they grow back nearly as fast as we cut them. If one of these people got caught by the vines, they would die before they even knew what happened.”

“Is there any place near here where plants did not grow before the mist came?” I asked curiously.

The mayor thought for a moment. “West is nothing but rocks and mountains. Not much ever grew there, but… that is also the same direction the army fled. The Demonkin and that… woman were chasing after them. If we go that way, we could run into them again.”

Orias paused for a moment. “Our mission was to find and escort the soldiers from the army out of the mist, but if they are as weak as the civilians here and being pursued by an army of Demonkin, what do you think their chances of still being alive are?”

“Dismal,” my dad said with a grimace.

Orias sighed and leaned back against a nearby tree. “I cannot abandon the civilians, and our main mission is a bust. I am calling it off here. It is time for us to fall back. The Avari need to know that someone is leading the Demonkin. It is no longer a loose collection of rampaging beasts. We will go southwest through the forest, swinging wide of the direction the Demonkin. Once we are closer to the border we will move north to the barren terrain.”

My dad frowned, asking the mayor, “Do you have any news of General Arthur?”

The mayor shook his head. “I am not part of the military. I had my hands full just keeping my city together. I did not have time to get news of the rest of the country before the mist came

“You cannot seriously still be thinking of looking for the general?” Orias asked in disbelief, “We have been lucky so far. If we had run into that horde of Demonkin all of us would be dead.”

My dad hesitated for a moment, when my mom placed her hand on his. “I know how important the general is to you, but we cannot do anything. We should have listened to Wren. This place is a death sentence. We should never have come here.”

My dad let out a long breath before nodding. “You are right.”

“Of course, I am right,” my mom replied smugly, “Besides, you know how tenacious Arthur is. He might have already made it out of the mist. By the time we find him, he will be back home laughing with a cup of tea, regaling anyone who will listen with tales of how exciting all this was.”

My dad forced a weak smile. “Alright, lets escort these civilians and get out of here.”

I let out a sigh of relief, happy my parents finally saw reason. Now Aurielle would finally stop screaming in my head about how bad of an idea this venture was. It would probably take us a week to get out of the mist using the route Orias described, but with all the Demonkin gathered around the Demon it would not be as dangerous as a normal trek through the blood mists. All we had to do was make it out without drawing attention to ourselves and everything would be fine…