A great silhouette appeared in front of him, dashing in with incredible speed from the right. In a split-second Julia held her hands in front of her chest, protecting it, as a white-blue spherical barrier materialized. It encapsulated both her and Silas as the laser descended upon them. Julia's massive body blocked Silas' view of the beam as he stumbled and fell backwards on his knees. He instinctively raised his hands to cover her eyes, but it was no use. Even from behind, the beam was so bright Silas lost all sense of perception. The world around him was reduced to a blank canvas of shining white.
Julia groaned, her guttural growl transforming into a defiant howl as she poured all of her mana into her defensive shield. Suddenly, just as soon as it started, the beam died down and disappeared. As the weight was immediately lifted, Julia fell forward, her barrier shattering. She collapsed on the ground, completely spent. In an instant Jasper was there, his hand on her forehead. His brows furrowed, and he grit his teeth in concentration. Silas saw a light blue substance shoot through Jasper's veins and plunge into Julia's skin. Julia's eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet, reinvigorated.
Julia hoisted Silas up to his feet with one arm while she pushed Jasper behind her with the other. The bristleback was shuffling its feet, getting ready to charge. Silas, sensing an opportunity, stepped forward and kicked up dust. Dirt, pebbles, and dead grass flew everywhere, and Silas, staring intently at the clouds he had formed, demanded it to move.
Nothing happened.
Move! Silas yelled silently. Move!
The bristleback screamed in agony, its single giant eye squeezed shut. Saya let out a celebratory whoop, breaking Silas' concentration. The dust cloud dissipated uselessly. Silas saw Saya off to the side, holding her slingshot and several sharp pebbles in her hand. Now that the bristleback was blinded, it stomped around confusedly, unaware of where its prey was. Silas realized that because its eye was so big, it had incredible eyesight, but its other senses were very poor.
Evelynn had already realized that, and Silas watched, amazed, as she unsheathed her dagger and leapt flawlessly on top of the bristleback. She defied gravity itself - Axel was lifting her up with his air magic. She landed neatly, plunging the dagger deep into the bristleback's shell, cracking it like an egg. It roared and tried to throw her off, but she hung on twice as ferociously. Bloodlust oozed from her figure. She drew a longer, sharper sword from her jacket and drew it forward in a great slash, bringing it down on the bristleback's neck. Blood gushed upwards like a fountain and coated Evelynn crimson.
"Get down! I'll finish it off!" Rekka's voice shouted. Evelynn obeyed. She heaved her sword and dagger out of the bristleback's body with a noisy shhlunk! and leapt. Axel guided her flight as she landed and tumbled in front of Silas. She had leapt dozens of meters, almost flying. Distracted, Silas jumped when he felt a great rush of heat. But it didn't come from the bristleback, it came from Rekka. A beam just like that of the bristleback shot out of her palms and smashed into the blinded feral. It screamed an unholy, bloodcurdling scream and writhed uncontrollably on the ground, its tail smashing the earth and kicking up dust. Its blood turned to flame as its shell melted and began to fall off. Pink organs turned charred black as they flooded out of the bristleback's burning body. The smell was so horrible, Silas felt faint. His mind was reeling, his throat was parched, and he could barely think. He started to cry, not even knowing why. He felt so weak, so weak. He was useless. He couldn't do anything but lie down and wait for death. He hadn't even been able to run.
Rekka collapsed again, her head smashing against a blunt boulder. Jasper and Julia were on her in an instant, bringing her to her feet. Jasper tried to heal her, but he could only get her to open her eyes for a second. She groaned.
"Wait," she whispered. "Let me stand. I can still stand."
"No, Rekka. You're exhausted. You need to rest. We've killed the monster, it's all okay."
"I need to make sure it's dead," Rekka insisted.
"I can do that," Silas offered. This was his last opportunity to seem useful. Without waiting for a reply, he dashed to the bristleback, which lay smoldering. He couldn't even get close to it; the heat was still so unbearable. He watched it for a while, but nothing moved, save for melting pieces of black skin dropping onto the grass.
"I thought I," Rekka started. Jasper made a move to hush her, but she slapped his hand away. "I asked you not to come."
"You never told us to come, but you also never said we couldn't," Jasper replied, smirking. Rekka sighed angrily.
"I was a little worried about the four of you going alone, so I sort of begged everyone else to follow you," Macy admitted, fidgeting with her thumbs.
"It's a good thing you did," Axel scoffed. "Or we'd most likely be dead. Thanks, Eve."
"Hey, I did some work, too!" Jasper protested, but Axel ignored him.
"We need to be more careful from now on. We need to move as a group in case things like this happen again," Rekka said, finally getting her breath back. She stood up straight. Other than the soot on her face and her pained expression, she seemed like she was back to her normal, serious self. She picked up a stick and made herself another torch. Silas was shocked to see that even after single-handedly stopping a fire, then firing a gigantic beam, she still had enough mana to make a torch.
"Hey?"
Silas heard a quiet voice from somewhere in the trees.
"I-is it dead?"
A short and filthy-looking girl emerged from the forest cover. She had dark purple hair that draped over her shoulders. She had deep violet eyes and wore a dark grey jacket over a black athletic shirt, with a strap that went from her shoulder to her waist, attached to a yellow belt. Hanging from her strap was a lanyard with an ID that was too muddy to read. Her pants were ripped, exposing light skin. The thing that stood out most about her, however, was the conspicuous pair of bat ears that protruded out of her head. One of them was cut and bleeding.
"I-I'm Wicke," she stuttered. "I just saw you kill that one-eyed bristleback. You guys are obviously very talented at magic… who are you? Are you bounty hunters? Can you help me get back to Lachlan?"
She held her hands very close to her chest. Over the dying flames, it was hard to hear her words clearly. Her voice was soft and innocent. She edged closer, unsure of what to be more afraid of – the bristleback or the humans.
"Wait…" Wicke noticed the distinct lack of any animalistic traits they had. "Are you… humans?"
Her eyes widened in shock as she realized she had just come across eight unknown humans. Humans were supposed to be eradicated, not a single one left on the globe. A group of eight, all young, was unheard of.
"G-get away! I'm warning you, I will fight you," Wicke shouted, frantically picking up a pebble. "I-I can use magic too, and I'm really good at it! I can kill all of you in one blast of fire!"
Rekka remained unfazed. She stepped forwards, glaring at Wicke. Suddenly, Wicke's shoulders drooped and she stiffened.
"Who do you work for?" Rekka asked bluntly.
"I work for PSEF, the Private Sapien Extermination Force, which serves to exterminate all humans," Wicke replied in a monotone voice. She didn't blink or move any muscle other than her mouth.
Saya gasped audibly. An entire organization dedicated to killing humans? What kind of world did they live in? However, Silas was focused on something else.
She can use mind control? Silas' eyes widened as he made the realization. He remembered what Saya had said just a few hours earlier:
"I sense a dangerous presence here. I can't tell who, but one person here is hiding something."
"How many humans are left in the world, then?" Rekka asked, her expression grim.
"None, according to official records."
"What are you doing here?"
"I was on my first mission, a nighttime border patrol with my colleagues Double J the ram and Slick the voxen. We were to replace twenty-five camera batteries that conduct surveillance outside the borders of Lachlan. We were in the process of replacing the first one when the one-eyed bristleback appeared and killed my companions."
"…and where is that camera?" Wicke pointed to a tree. At the bottom of the tree, a mangled camera lay on the ground.
"It was destroyed during the attack."
"Good," Rekka said, wincing. Silas saw a bead of sweat trickle down the side of her cheek. She stumbled suddenly, and Jasper and Julia had to prop her up again.
"What are you doing?" Jasper growled. "Stop using magic! We don't know what will happen if you try to use magic when you're out of mana!"
"What happens when I do that?" Rekka asked Wicke, shaking the two off.
"You can go into magic withdrawal," Wicke explained. "You won't be able to use magic for a few hours, and you'll often get a mild fever. But that's about it. It's just like a vacuum. You can suck air out of an area, but like air, magic is all around us, and it'll inevitably replenish itself. You suck out all the magic around you, but it'll all come back sooner or later."
"See?" Rekka said. "This is useful."
"But is it ethical?" Jasper fired back, unyielding. "Also, I don't like the fact that you can use mind control magic."
"Don't worry about that. It only works on people with weak, easily pliable mentalities. Every one of you resisted easily when I tested it on you."
Silas shuddered. When had Rekka tried to mind control him? He hadn't even noticed anything. He felt violated.
"Besides, think of the repercussions. If we let her go, she'll alert PSEF, and they will come looking for us. No doubt they'll already be receiving news that the caravan was attacked by that giant feral and will be sending out a search and rescue party. We can't let her leak information about our whereabouts. If what she says is true – which is should be, she can't lie – then humans are endangered. We can't let this Private Sapien Extermination Force figure out we exist. It doesn't matter if it's ethical. We need to survive."
Rekka pointed to the decaying corpse of the one-eyed bristleback. The flamed had vanished and it was starting to smolder.
"You saw how close we came to dying," she said, her voice cracking a little. She was sweating hard now, her eyes twitching with the effort of holding Wicke under control while trying to explain herself. "I'm scared. I don't want to die. We need to be absolutely sure that we're safe at all times."
Jasper tried to protest, but Rekka silenced him with a wave of her hand, her eyes ablaze. Her stubborn glare raked over the others. Silas nodded fearfully in agreement. While Rekka was intimidating, she did have a point and Silas was in full agreement. They had to tread as lightly as possible. There was no room for error – they had no idea what they were up against. Silas realized Rekka's strategy was to use Wicke as a guide. She had most likely grown up around here – she would know exactly how the world operated and would be able to fill in the blanks for everyone else. It was astonishingly resourceful, and Silas was impressed Rekka was able to think of such a plan while under so much duress.
"Everyone, let's head back to camp. Saya, stay alert. We need your senses to pick up any rescuers that may come this way. Let's all take a breather and we can ask Wicke questions about the situation. Jasper, if you could tend to any injuries that anybody has sustained, that would be great. And, everyone, make sure you don't leave a trail. Don't step in any mud." With that, Rekka started at a lively pace down to the waterfall, the folds of her suit-dress flapping behind her. Wicke followed, dragged along by some invisible force like a ragdoll.