"The Runners are coming," End said with a grim tone. "Brace yourselves."
"The what?" Essenla asked him.
"The mutants. We've taken to calling them Runners, to differentiate them from the others."
"Oh." Essenla turned to face forward, putting her shield in front of her chest and bringing her spear to poke out above it, mimicking the stance of the elves wearing the same armor as her. "Horrible name," she muttered under her breath.
"We are soldiers, not nomenclators," End said dryly, her words not escaping him. He pointed his spear forward, at a dark shape emerging from the trees. "Here they come."
The already quiet village gained a pregnant, heavy silence as a malformed monster crept out between two trees. Just a glance was enough to snatch the breath out of the elven rank-and-file soldiers' lungs, those among them who weren't knights breaking into a cold sweat.
