Is this where it ends? Am I truly going to die in these woods? Despair flickered across Flaxseed’s eyes as the ring of blades tightened.
The grass ahead rustled, and the fallen clan leader token erupted in blinding white radiance, its beam flooding the clearing and swallowing every snake demon in ghost-pale light.
The moment the snake demons brushed against the pale radiance, a chorus of shrill, inhuman screams tore through the air.
Acrid black smoke curled from their scales as though their very flesh were burning, and even the serpent that had been planted on Flaxseed’s chest recoiled, staggering backward in agony.
Gasping, Flaxseed pushed himself upright and scooped the clan leader token from the trampled earth. He stared at the clan leader token, light still leaking from its grooves, wonder widening his eyes.
So the token carries power strong enough to shatter a snake demon’s hide… Why did no one ever tell me?!
“What kind of devilry is this thing?” Flaxseed blurted, voice cracking between disbelief and dawning hope.
“All of you! Attack together! I refuse to believe we can’t tear apart!” the leading snake demon hissed, unease flashing across its vertical pupils at the token’s glow.
Still quivering from the pain, the demons surged forward.
Flaxseed planted his heels, clenched the token in both hands, and funneled what little spiritual energy had left into it.
The milky light blazed into a blinding pillar, then fanned out to form a brilliant shield that looked the monsters outside. Yet his strength was almost spent.
Within heartbeats the glow began to dim, thin cracks splintering across the luminous barrier like ice on a thawing pond.
“Hahaha… He’s running on fumes!” The snake demons, smelling weakness, slammed against the faltering shield with renewed frenzy.
Every strike sent fresh fissures racing across the light, each roar louder, more savage, than the last.
Just as the barrier was about to shatter, a streak of golden sword-energy sliced out of the sky like a comet. It ripped through the front ranks, hurling several snake demons backward in ragged spirals of blood and scale.
“Jared!” Flaxseed shouted, relief roughening his voice.
Jared stepped from the fading brilliance, the Dragonslayer Sword gleaming in his grasp, and placed himself squarely between Flaxseed and the demons. “Sorry, I’m late…”
“You… Came back? I thought you’d escaped already,” Flaxseed stammered.
Jared offered a small, easy smile. “I told you, if we leave together, we return together. Catch your breath. These pests are mine.”
Before the last word had cooled, lunged. Golden arcs of sword energy rained down like a storm front, each swing a thunderclap.
Snake demons toppled, shrieking, their bodies cleaved apart before they could slither clear. The leader spun, panic eclipsing its malice, and tried to flee, but Jared blurred forward and one decisive stroke of the Dragonslayer Sword cut the creature from crown to tail.
When the final corpse hit the dirt, Jared returned to Flaxseed’s side and pressed a tonic pill into his palm. “Here, can you still walk?”
Flaxseed swallowed the medicine; a faint flush of strength settled in his cheeks. “Just about…”
“Then we leave now. Seraphina will be on us any minute,” Jared said, scanning the treeline. Leaning on each other, they hobbled toward the shadowed slopes beyond Serpentcoil Mountain.
As Jared predicted, Seraphina learned of slaughtered minions almost at once. Fury ignited voice, echoing across the crags. “Search every inch! Dig them out if you must!”
***
Deep within the dense forest, Jared and Flaxseed forced their battered bodies onward, branches whipping past while Seraphina’s pursuit closed in like a wolf pack on a wounded stag.
Panting, Flaxseed rasped, “We can’t keep this pace forever. Seraphina’s power dwarfs ours, we’ll never beat head-on.”
Jared’s brow tightened, every muscle in his jaw flexing with frustration. He knew Flaxseed was right, yet no better escape revealed itself.
Then, as if the swamp itself sensed blood, Bone-rot Swamp yawned ahead. Viscous mud belched black bubbles, the reek so sharp it clawed the lungs.
Flaxseed blanched. “Bone-rot Swamp, records say its poison strips flesh from bone, even earth-immortals stay clear.”
Glancing at the pursuers closing fast behind, Jared’s eyes hardened.
“We go through it,” said, voice low and final.
