Thud... "Quiet! I have a headache!"
Thud...Thud... "Gah stupid people, always so loud.."
Thud...Thud...Thud... "Why can't they just let me sleep on this soft... sand?"
"What the?" questioned the Rogue as he stood up almost falling back down. The thudding sound had yet to cease and was cresendoing into a loud boom now, only adding more to his headache.
Thud...Thud
"Stupid hunter," mummbled Jeran as he tried to look at what was causing the loud sounds, only to find his vision blurred and disoriented.
He could make out large blotches of gray against the dark yellow of the desert and the black sky. He could see the blotches make their way to him slowly, very slowly. He squinted his eyes and his focus came to view, huge men made of boulders, with tusks coming out from either side of their slit noses were slowly dragging their gigantic arms towards him, taking large, deafening steps. He quickly moved back, stumbling due to his hastiness, and tried to scramble backwards, eyes still on the slow moving rock army in front of him. Whimpering slightly he quickly scrambled up onto his feet and started running away eyes still glued onto the sight behind him.
BAM
He had hit something hard, something cold... Putting a hand on his stinging cheek he turned his head slightly to see what he had hit that would have made him fall. Indead he had hit something hard, something cold...he had hit something made up of rock. There in front of him, was a row of rock men, all breathing in hard, blank black eyes staring at him. He scampered again the other way, only to find he was surrounded by all these cold men of rock. He had seen these men before, anyone who lived in Morroc had to have seen these men at least once.
Flashback
He had been four when he first encountered these men. He and his father had been playing outside of the safe walls of Morroc one early morning, a target range was held on by a few kunais on a large cactus. A few feet back stood Jeran, eyes concentrating as he picked up one of his father's throwing knives.
"Ok Jeran, concentrate on your target and just naturally throw," instructed his father as he corrected his son's hand position.
He concentrated really hard on hitting the red area in the middle of the range and threw with a mighty force. He sighed as he watched his kunai narrowly miss his target
"Eh, its ok kid, thats your first time," encouraged his father. "For a little guy like you, thats a pretty good throw."
He had smiled at his father, just as his father ruffled up his already ruffled hair. He already looked like his father when he was small, so he knew what he wanted to be when he was older, he wanted to be just like his father, Morroc's top defender. Now, his father had messy black hair sticking up in places. He was particially muscular, but still skinny. He was good natured and constantly wore what he and Jeran had called the "Family Grin." He never knew his mother, his father told him that she died giving birth to him. It would be only them two, but he would not have wanted it any other way.
They continued to throw knives until midday, where Jeran finally learned the concept of to let your mind relax and just let your body do the throwing. His father smiled down at him when he finally started throwing multiple knives at once and still hitting what he was aiming for.
They called it a day and started heading back into the city. Jeran on his father's shoulders, proud of his accomplishments today, knowing that life couldn't be any better.
"Good job little guy," congratulated his father. "It's in your blood Jeran, you're a natural."
Thud...Thud...
His father stopped and looked for where the sound was coming from. He quickly took Jeran off his shoulders, and told him to stay close to him.
Thud...Thud...
His father, had quickly taken out some of his pocket and handed it to a frightened Jeran.
"Listen little guy, whatever happens here I want you to stay close and if things get rough, run, run back into Morroc and get people there to help out." instructed his father, a look of worry was in both father and son's eyes.
He quickly hugged his father, small amounts of tears forming in his closed eyes and slowly falling down onto his father's shoulders.
He opened his eyes to see large slabs of rock heading towards them. He gasped and quickly let go of his father, hiding behind his guardian. He didn't know why he cried before, his father could take care of anyone and anything. The ground around him shook violently as the rock men neared.
"Golems..." his father said to Jeran. "Thousands of them... Jeran, run, quickly go, get the people."
He quickly obliged and ran as fast as he could, sprinted into the city yelling for help as people looked at him and then at the golems outside all surrounding something. Men, rushed outside to the battle. Jeran wanted to go back, to go help his father, but one of the guards had held him back and told him just to stay in the city. He agreed as the guard smiled at the obiedient child and quickly ran off to aid in the battle.
It had been hours, Jeran thought it'd take minutes, almost all of Morroc was out there trying to fend off the destructive Golems. Finally it had been over, tired men were entering the city, medics rushing towards them to help with the injuries. Jeran couldn't find his father, quickly climbing onto a shed nearby to looked above the many men coming in. Bruised men, Bloody men, he didn't care, he wanted to see his father. He called for him, tears starting to expose themselves as he shouted even louder for his father.
Many of the men looked at the loud kid, faces all with deep regret. Some turned their heads back down at the ground and started to cry, while others cried still looking at him. They all knew who Jeran was, who wouldn't know the child of the famous defender.
Jeran was confused by now, he was suppose to be the one crying, he couldn't find his father, but why were all these men crying. His father told him that men don't really cry in public. He was taught to just smile and cheer people up when things looked down, but why were these grown men crying. They were the heroes, all he wanted to do was find his hero.
One of the men quickly made his way towards Jeran, he had noticed this was the guard that had previously stopped him from entering the fray. Head bowed down he made his way in front of the shed Jeran was on top of.
"I'm sorry kid," the guard said, finally looking up, "Your dad didn't make it."
He didn't know how that could have happened, his father, the greatest fighter of all times had been taken away from him by some rock. Fury and sadness fused into one as Jeran let all his tears run out, crying freely with all the other men who mourned for their defender's life.
He jumped off the shed and ran. He sprinted out of Morroc, and into the battle field. Red sand was all over the place, large boulders here and there, but no dead body around. He had seen people come back from the battle injured, but there was no talk of deaths except his fathers. Not a single dead body was around.
He looked around then remembered what his father had given him before he ran for help. He opened his fist, only noticing now that it was particially bleeding, and there, in pure black with bits of Jeran's red blood on it was a small kunai. He took a closer look at it and saw something inscribed in it.
"Remember, its in your blood."
End Flashback
He quickly snapped back into reality as one of the surrounding Golems aimed a large fist at him. Quickly he evaded the attack, only entering the attack range of another. He quickly scanned the area around him as he evaded the many blows the Golems were throwing at him. There wasn't that much advantage he had above these rock men, they were on a flat desert which both sides knew a lot about, but he was easily outnumbered, forty to one.
Damnit, how am I suppose to beat these when I have about eighty fists flying at me.
He had one advantage though, they were slow he was fast, their fists didn't make any contact with the rogue as he skillfully predicted their movements and evaded them. He was still surrounded, so fleeing didn't make any help, and they no matter how idiotic they looked, by the way they faught, Jeran knew they were smart, so hiding wouldn't be a choice. All he could do was now survive and hopefully Kailey or Roddy would come and attack from the outside.
Another fist had come at him, quickly, he jumped up allowing the fist to plunge itself into the sand. Landing on it, Jeran quickly threw kunais at the Golem's head. Surprisingly all they had done was bounce off.
"What the hell!" exclaimed Jeran as he threw more kunais at the golem with more force, only bouncing off it again.
Without knowing another Golem had swung his fist at Jeran, smashing him in the mid-section, sending him flying towards another Golem who threw another devistating punch at the rogue sending him flying fifty feet away from them.
"At least i'm away from them" thought Jeran as he started to disorientate again. "These aren't regular Golems..." There he had blacked out, only few seconds before he had heard footsteps approaching him...
To Be Continued...
Explanations
"Jeran knew they were smart, so hiding wouldn't be a choice." - I know, hiding and tunnel driving would have been the best choice for any rogue. Though as the story progresses, monsters will be just smart, this didn't apply to the mukas, because they also remembered Roddy was there too. Also, in real life, if a person sees you hide somewhere, obviously they'll have a general idea where you are.
Difficulty of the battle-Well, yes I know, even though how many Golems, a rogue can proably take them all out easily. He/She could have easily picked them off one by one, but please note what Jeran had said before the end.
Whole point of the explanation part-Even though how much I enjoy reviews, with flame or not, I don't like looking stupid when I write, I prefer for people to know why I put it like that, because when I read something and it doesn't make any sense without reason, I lose interest in it, and well, i'd like to see people enjoy this story, rather than have people lose interest in it.
I appologize with the lack of updates with this story. To be truthful I only did this chapter because I had received a review that asked me to continue. As I wrote this chapter, believing this is the last one before I quit on this story, I got back into it with the flashback and decided to continue this story. MAJOR thanks to the reviewers and also a thanks to all those silent readers who read this (Yes I was a silent reader too), hopefully you guys have enjoyed this installment
