"Stop shouting!" Tam said as he tried to reach the desperately struggling man hanging in the air by the rope tied to his waist.
Earl's face was ashen as Tam pulled him to safety.
The others' expression told Saki that getting them to cross now is going to be a struggle.
She went to the bridge and confidently stepped on it. She noticed that the wooden steps slightly thrummed. She examined one particularly rotten step and tapped it with her walking stick.
It felt impossibly SOLID.
She looked at Hamarr who was still holding the wood post. Hamarr, in turn, looked at Hunter.
"I'll tell you more about it later. But for now, we have to move before we lose the light," he whispered to Saki.
She crossed the bridge without any more words and motioned for Kazuki to follow.
Jiro and Jake were terribly slow and were visibly shaking but they managed.
Only Hunter and Hamarr remained.
Saki saw them talking but couldn't make out what they were saying.
Hunter did not walk or run like Calad; he sauntered, much to Saki's consternation.
"Talk about your cocky bastard…" she muttered under her breath but she saw Tam looking at her and they both laughed.
"See you all later!" Hamarr shouted as Hunter crossed.
He let go of the post and the moment he did, most of the wooden steps immediately fell down as if by command. The rotten ones, anyway.
Saki turned to see if her team saw it but all of them huddled near Earl and was excitedly talking about his 'show'.
"How about the old guy?" Saki asked Hunter.
"He will meet with us later. He knows another route. For now, we have to make do without him," he said it loud enough for the rest to hear.
Calad is nowhere to be seen and Duren is now ranging out in front of the whole group.
Tam is curiously near Saki as they went on.
The sound of their footsteps are broken only by the occasional bird noises.
Almost everyone was shaken by their experience at the bridge.
Saki understood that; not a single one of them had near-death experience except maybe for Milo and Frank but she is bothered by the fact that Hunter's men made them look like total amateurs.
She made a mental note to remedy that.
The darkness came so suddenly that Jiro shouted in surprise.
"WHA…! Holy fuck, I thought I was blind for a second!" He fumbled for his flashlight.
Tam was the first to get close to Saki in a stance that she didn't recognize. He is holding a double dagger as low to the ground as possible.
Milo and Frank cocked their pistols at the same time while standing back to back scanning their flanks.
Hunter sniffed at the air while standing perfectly still.
Saki wondered why she is seeing him clearly while she can barely see the others. She too stayed still and tapped her stick to the ground.
"30!" she and Hunter said in unison. He looked surprised as she was but neither thought this was the place and time for curiosity.
"...armed men and creatures I don't know. Feral," Hunter said.
As soon as he said it, something that looked like a wolf leaped at Saki.
Tam turned once and the creature lay bloodied to the ground.
Gunshots erupted ahead of them but immediately got cut off by screams of pain.
Duren came running, a bloody short sword in his hand. He helped Jiro stand, who dove to the ground when he heard the gunshots.
Jake is crouching near them while Kazuki is holding a tree branch like a baseball bat.
Earl rummaged in his pack and brought out a curiously shaped knife.
Something whistled in the air and Duren slashed at it contemptuously.
An arrow! It fell broken at Jake's feet.
As if it was a signal, several of the wolf-like creatures attacked all at once.
Jake ran, screaming, and Duren went after him.
Hunter caught one 'wolf' by the neck and threw it to the ground with enough force to lay it immobile.
In the center of the carnage is Saki calmly taking mental notes. There are 28 more men waiting to attack. They are letting the 'wolves' create confusion while waiting for the right moment.
More and more of the 'wolves' are joining the fray; Milo and Frank's bullets are doing the most damage but Tam's daggers are no less effective.
Earl was throwing rocks at the one attacking him while holding his large knife in one hand.
Even Kazuki and Jiro are effectively clubbing the creatures to death.
"ENOUGH!" roared Hunter and the 'wolves' immediately stopped attacking. He snarled at them and they all turned and fled, whining and yelping.
"MOVE!" Hunter motioned for Duren to take the lead.
He is right.
They should move. This area is surrounded by big rocks that can provide cover for the attackers. They are also correctly deployed. Each is spaced well enough to allow great maneuverability and coverage.
They came to a clearing.
"We are more vulnerable here," exclaimed Frank. "We should find a defensible position," he suggested to Hunter.
"The mountain shall come to a sheer face a couple of miles from here. There is a place that we can hold. Let us aim for that," Hunter replied and came closer to Saki.
"Are you okay?" he touched Saki's arm and that sent a bolt of energy to Saki's body. The air around them seems to be swirling with a dull white light that illuminated the area.
"I'm fine," she said simply to cover her accelerated breathing.
Gunshots erupted from their right side and Hunter moved quickly to shield Saki.
Milo screamed in surprise as a bullet grazed his thigh. Frank threw a flare in the direction of the shots and for a brief moment, Saki saw 3 men kneeling near the trees as they fired their automatic rifles at them.
Tam moved to shield Jiro and Kazuki, and as impossible as it seemed, sparks are showing where he moved his daggers as if he is deflecting the bullets.
As good as Tam was, however, he couldn't shield them all.
They are sitting ducks in that clearing with only a couple of small trees for cover.
Hunter ran towards the man on the right with an agility that matched what she saw of Calad earlier on the bridge, but as fast as he was, Saki knew that he couldn't hope to get them all in time.
She shouted to get Earl's attention, then pointed to the man in the middle and drew her own blade.
The ground below her glowed orange as she gathered force on her feet.
As she leaped to the man on the left, Earl's knife flew to cross her path in a perfect split second timing.
As she slashed the stunned attacker, she quickly looked right just in time to see the long bladed knife sink in the middle guy's forehead.
The three enemies fell almost simultaneously.
Hunter looked at Saki with awe written all over his face.
He was still holding the unconscious man's face against the tree and he absentmindedly let go as he slowly walked towards her.
He was looking at her blade inquiringly to which Saki shrugged, "Nope, it wasn't a stick."
He withdrew Earl's knife from the middle guy's head and tossed it to him as they went back to check on the others.
"That is a fine knife. What is it called?"
"It is called a Bolo, my friend," Earl replied with a toothy grin.
Milo looked fine.
They continued running northwards to the place Hunter mentioned and they can sense the enemies running nearby almost as if they are pushing them to the same direction instead of chasing them.