The ground beneath me trembled with each monstrous step Red Nose took, his guttural howls echoing through the camp. His veins pulsed, black mist writhing from his grotesque form like tendrils of living shadow. His rage was palpable, a suffocating pressure pressing down on all of us.
And he wasn't done.
His claws dug into the dirt, his eyes locked onto Elias, his massive chest rising and falling with each snarling breath.
"Ushto'kai! Nathur—ZAKHAR!"
The air rippled.
I didn't understand his words, but I felt them, the anger, the hatred, the promise of vengeance.
Elias, standing rigid, his fists clenched, exhaled sharply. "Me... the cursed thief? The doomed one?"
——
Then came the roar.
It wasn't Red Nose's.
It wasn't an Imp's.
It was something else entirely.
Something that shook the battlefield like a storm had just crashed into the earth.
A voice like thunder rolling over mountains.
"WESTERN GUARD CAMP! HOLD FAST!"
And then, like a streak of gold, Captain Cliff, the Commander of the Western Guard Camp, the leader of the camp, the one who planned to lead the advance force to raid the imp's camp arrives.
——
The impact of his entrance was immediate.
His warhorse, a massive, golden-armoured steed, stormed through the crumbling battlefield, hooves thundering, sending Imps flying like broken dolls.
The blade in his hands, gleaming beneath the blood-soaked sky, moved faster than a man his size should have been able to.
A single downward arc—
And an Imp brute's head rolled across the dirt.
——
Red Nose turned sharply, his enraged eyes narrowing as Cliff dismounted mid-charge, his boots slamming against the ground with a force that cracked the very earth beneath him.
The Unyielding Blade of Serendia had arrived.
——
The camp, once drowning in despair, roared to life.
"CLIFF!" A soldier, half his face smeared with blood, gasped as he fought to push forward.
The remaining defenders, barely holding the inner perimeter, rallied at his presence.
Weapons that had wavered in exhaustion now steadied.
Men who had been backing away now surged forward.
——
"GET THE WOUNDED MOVING!" Cliff's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding. "NOW! MOVE TOWARDS THE EASTERN PASSAGE!"
I didn't hesitate.
No one hesitate.
I grabbed Edan, his unconscious form limp in my arms.
"HELP ME WITH HIM!" I shouted.
Two soldiers, barely able to stand themselves, rushed over.
"We've got him!" one grunted, slinging Edan's arm over his shoulder.
A makeshift stretcher, cobbled together from broken shields, was thrown beneath him.
"GO!" I ordered. "Get him OUT of here!"
——
Meanwhile, Cliff held the line.
His sword flashed, the sheer force of his swings sending waves of Imps crashing backward.
Red Nose growled low, watching him. Calculating.
Then, with a ground-shaking snarl, he lunged.
——
Cliff blocked him.
He caught Red Nose's massive, spike-covered fist against his armoured gauntlet, the force sending shockwaves through the battlefield.
I felt my teeth rattle, the impact so powerful I could barely comprehend it.
Cliff held firm.
And then, he pushed back.
——
Red Nose stumbled.
Only for a second.
But it was enough.
——
"NOW!"
I turned sharply, my heart hammering as I saw the eastern barricade—our only way out.
But it was still blocked.
We needed to clear a path.
And we needed to do it fast.
——
I grabbed the nearest torch and hurled it at the supply depot.
The straw caught fire instantly.
Within moments, the entire structure was ablaze.
Food. Medicine. Everything.
Gone.
Better lost to flames than to the enemy.
——
"Ume!" Elias's voice snapped me back to reality.
"WE HAVE TO GO!"
——
I moved.
My blades flashed, carving a path through the disoriented Imps, the flames casting shadows against the walls.
Behind me, the remaining wounded were being dragged, carried, and pushed toward the exit.
Edan's stretcher rocked as the soldiers carrying him stumbled through the carnage.
"KEEP GOING!" I shouted.
The eastern palisade—our escape route—was within reach.
——
Then I felt it.
The shift in the air.
——
Red Nose had noticed.
And he was furious.
——
His body convulsed, the black mist around him exploding outward in a suffocating wave.
His mouth twisted into a horrifying grin, and jagged teeth bared.
His voice—
A snarl.
A promise.
"T'KAASH! NAV'RAK! ISSHH-TORAH!"
The sound vibrated in my skull, something otherworldly, ancient, a language I did not understand but instinctively feared.
And then, in a voice that cut through the crackling flames and screams of the dying—
"I WILL FIND YOU!"
——
Elias froze.
His breath hitched.
His entire body stiffened.
But I didn't let him stop.
I grabbed his wrist, forcing him to move.
"NOT TODAY, YOU WON'T!" I shouted, throwing my weight forward, and pushing Elias towards the exit.
——
Cliff was still holding the front.
His armour was dented, his sword slick with blood.
But he turned his fierce gaze toward me—and nodded.
He wasn't coming with us.
He was staying behind.
Holding the last defence.
——
The last thing I saw before we finally broke free—
Was Red Nose, his monstrous form raging, his body pulsating with darkness.
His roar of fury shattered the sky.
——
And then—
We were gone.