A/N: okay, so this chapter is pretty short... I'm going to get to the point soon enough, don't worry ;)
The end is nigh?
I picked up my sword, from where it lay, a few feet away on the table. As i slowly turned to see the creature, the stench of something that had been dead for weeks reached my nostrils, The foul stench engulfing my lungs...
And there it was, a Skeletal creature poised on the stone balcony, waiting to strike. I felt the other two rustling behind me.
"What's your plan now, smart ass?" Victor's voice said from behind. I heard him grip his sword moments before he came to my side, waiting like me, for something to happen.
"It's got no head, so it can't hear or see us..." I observed, while Richard began to whimper from behind. "It must be sensitive to movement," I whispered, waving my hand, and as I did so, the creature poised, ready to attack.
"Brilliant. bloody brilliant," Victor said, as fear struck him. He waved his sword gently, and the creature turned in his direction.
"Victor, how many men are in the camp?" I began, trying to come up with a plan.
"None, sir. I sent them to the cave behind us, The same way we came in a few days ago," He said quickly.
"Good, That should make for a quick retreat... Richard, I need you to go and alert them, and I want you all to fall back to the Harvest temple. This may be the biggest island on the jade sea, but let's not think twice about surrendering it to save the others. We'll have a good view from there of what to do next. Now move!" I said, so quickly it had him confused. When he understood he ran as fast as he could into the cave…
"what about me, sir?" Victor said, gathering confidence that a plan finally coming together.
I tightened the grip on my sword, Bringing it in front of me to a defensive stance. "We're holding down the fort," I said, trying to believe what had just come out of my mouth.
Victor's mouth went dry so fast I swore I could have heard it. "Y- you know that this isn't going to be the only thing that attacks us, don't you?" He whimpered. Sure enough, moments later, the sound of Luxon infantry breaking into the camp below met their ears.
"I know. We're going to hold it long enough for the others to escape." I drew up my sword, and rushed the creature - Thrusting the blade out in front of me, I knocked it back over the balcony to the camp below.
We let out a sigh of relief. "See, it won't be that hard -" I began, yet the battle roars of the Luxons below met our ears. We looked at each other, and like we were thinking the exact same thing, we both pelted towards the entrance to the crevice in the cliff face.
As we ran through the dark, dank caves, hoping for signs of the exit, we heard the shuffling and shouting of the rest of the men ahead of us. The camp they had set up inside the cave held the smell of freshly burnt wood, as the fires had been extinguished and the gear gathered - it remained a blur as we rushed past. We felt our feet hitting higher ground as we ran up through the tunnel to the cave's mouth.
The rushing of Luxon infantry could be heard behind us. We protruded out into the daylight to meet piercingly fresh air, tinted with the smell of the sea, and the sound of waves crashing up on the shores.
There it was, The Harvest Temple… The last Kurzick outpost outside of Echovald, and one that should not see war or trifle, but remain a place of peace… Yet we had brought these things to its doors. sat in the middle of the ocean, connected by creaky bridges from the shoreline, it rose out of the water. Many of us stood in awe - we hadn't passed through here on the way to kanaai, we'd travelled a few miles west, through the small villages plaguing the shorelines - Myself included…
