"Who are you people?" I said out loud.
Rue didn't move. His eyes stayed on the leader, flames steady as his breathing.
"We are the Hunters." The lead hunter's voice carried itself with confidence "Exiled and disowned operatives the Society wanted to disappear. Now we hunt the very members of the organization that betrayed us."
Rue laughed once. "And of all the groups you could have ambushed you found us." He shook his head. "That's terrible luck."
He vanished. The leader vanished with him. Steel rang out through the valley in bursts, there and gone, flames and lightning colliding in flashes that lit the mountain walls before disappearing. Their speed was on a different level entirely. Like watching two forces of nature argue.
I was so focused on them I didn't see the greatsword coming at my face.
My blade came up on instinct. The impact drove up my arm and knocked me back a step. The second one appeared behind me before I could reset, sword already moving at my back. I saw the spot behind the greatsword user.
The cold took me. I came out of the shadow behind the greatsword fighter with my blade at his neck. He stepped back fast, eyes sharp.
"You're well trained," he said, settling back into his stance. "It won't matter."
I sheathed one sword and kept my hand resting on the other. Steady. Patient. Dormin's voice in the back of my head. Don't telegraph.
The shadows moved before I told them to. They lashed out from the treeline and coiled around the man, pulling him backward into the darkness. His scream cut off like something swallowed it whole.
The second man froze. He looked at the space where his partner had been and then looked at me.
"What did you do?" His voice had lost its edge.
I advanced. He found his focus and matched me. I raised my sword to strike.
Then the ground shook.
Their leader landed between us with a crash that scattered dirt and gravel. His armor was smoking. His blade was chipped in three places. He looked like he'd been hit by something hard.
Rue appeared beside me and patted my shoulder. Not a scratch on him.
"You did well," he said, leaning against a tree like we were waiting for something.
The leader rose in one motion, gritting his teeth. He snapped his fingers. The remaining man extended his hand and green magick poured from it, sealing the leader's wounds in seconds.
"Rue, what about Dormin and Layla?" I asked.
I didn't see the leader move.
His foot caught my jaw and my head snapped back into the tree behind me. The impact nearly took my legs out. White light filled my vision and I slid down the bark trying to stay upright.
Rue's expression changed. The easy calm he'd been wearing since the ambush started was gone.
"Shit." He straightened up from the tree. "Guess I'm out of distractions."
He flipped his blade in his hand and pointed it at the healer. "You seem strong." He walked a slow circle. "Let's see."
He vanished. Reappeared behind the healer and drove his sword straight through the back of his skull. He pulled it free and wiped the blade on the dead man's vest without looking down. Four arrows came from the ridge. He blocked them without turning his head.
He crouched beside me and held a hand over my body. The pain dissolved immediately.
"Those archers," he said, nodding toward the ridge. "Handle them. I need to finish this."
He stood and swung wide at the leader who blocked it and shoved back. Lightning erupted from the leader's blade and caught Rue across the face, sending him skidding back on his feet. Blood ran from his nose. He touched it with two fingers and looked at them.
The calm was completely gone now.
"Oren." His voice had dropped to something quiet and deliberate. "Go. Now."
I stood and looked up at the archers already drawing again. I didn't close my eyes this time. I just let go.
The shadow took me and dropped me on the ledge beside two of them before they could loose. I put them down fast.
Then my legs gave out.
The fatigue hit all at once. My vision blurred and my body folded and I went over the edge. I caught the lip with both hands, hanging, arms shaking, trying to drag myself back up while my magick reserve sat at nothing.
I got my legs back onto the ledge just as the other two archers trained their bows on me. No time to think. I pushed off and vaulted the gap between ledges, flying across the open air. Two arrows passed underneath me.
I came down on the first one with my right blade through his chest. My left came across the second's throat before I'd fully landed.
I stood there heaving, both swords in hand, completely empty.
Getting down took everything I had left.
"Rue?" I called out, limping toward the last place I'd seen him.
No answer.
"Dormin? Layla?"
My legs stopped working. I went down face first and stayed there. Magick completely gone. Body completely gone, But alive.
Footsteps beside me.
"You really pushed yourself." The voice was low and unhurried. "And for what? Just so I can kill you."
I turned my head. The leader stood over me, beaten and bruised, his blade snapped in half, the broken point aimed at my throat. He looked like he'd lost badly and decided to take it out on whoever was closest.
The arrow came so fast I heard it before I saw it. In one ear and out the other. He dropped beside me without a sound, blood spreading into the dirt.
I let out a breath.
"Heh. I won."
Dormin walked out of the trees with Layla limping behind him, her bow still raised, a faint smile on her face despite the arrow still in her shoulder.
"Never doubted you," Dormin said. Placing both hands over my body. Magick surged from him surrounding me entirely. My body's fatigue went from intense to non-existent.
"I can't restore your magick, you'll just have to rest." Dormin said, sitting down. All of the blades that lined his chest and arms were gone. He had cuts along his face and arms but he was alive nonetheless.
"Layla and Oren go get some firewood and start on a fire. Dormin, find us something to eat." Rue appeared walking up.
Again, not a single scratch on him.
I spoke my thoughts out loud on accident.
"My gods, how strong are you? Did that guy even stand a chance? Were you playing around the entire time?"
All three of them looked at me and laughed.
"It doesn't matter how strong they are, only that they're weaker than me. But if you truly want an answer…yeah he wasn't worth my full strength. That being said, had I not been here...things would of gone badly." Rue said, sitting down.
"Now go, I'm hungry."