Author's Notes: It gets violent! Well, I can't really seem to deliver the mood I wanted. Any thoughts people? Well, I had fun writing this chapter as it gets darker and more gruesome, and hope you have fun reading it too!
Author's Notes 2: Did a little facelift for better flow.
Chronicles of the Reaper – Chapter 8
In the midst of the grey dulling forest, Leo winced in pain, clutched his injured arm as he fell and rolled over a heavy bed of fallen leaves, clearing a pathway and sending the wilting leaves gliding up high into the air. With precise timing, he flexed and planted his feet into the earth, the momentum and anchor worked in unison to swerve his entire body 90 degrees clockwise and pushed his torso upwards into a crawling position, with chest facing down, his right hand and straightened legs clawed the earth, sliding him to a gradual stop.
The yellow leaves swayed down gently with a deadly silence.
His sharp mind recalled the previous location of the enemy and predicted the flight pattern and trajectory of the incoming darts; he did a forward roll and evaded three missiles. Again, he side rolled to his left to cover behind a tree when three more darts harmlessly buried shallow into the hard trunk.
With his back against the trunk, he pried out the dagger and removed a vial of fluid from his pouch, slid it beneath his mask and hastily drank the thick murky liquid. He replaced the vial and felt his wound mending quickly.
Sweating behind his mask, he silently punished himself for being so eluded in this thick and carefully weaved treachery.
What of Nilis? His mind was troubled again, was he facing two conspiring enemies? He decided not to take anymore chances and would kill them both when opportunity gives.
One to my left, and another to the right. His fingers removed three darts from his holster, carefully studying the terrain to assess his advantage. The left and front was open for a dart strike and his right was open to an unseen Nilis. He had to act fast.
He feigned to bolt forward and heard more darts heading his way. He headed low and evaded once again. He made a sharp left turn and sprinted in that new direction, with Elwick as a target, he charged his legs and leaped into the air as a precautionary evasive move.
Successfully deceiving the traitor, he acted on that window of opportunity to initiate a counterattack; he twisted his body mid-air and launched two darts at Elwick.
Surprised at the sudden turn of tide, Elwick quickly bended backwards to drop from the branch, dodging the incoming darts, he did a somersault mid-air and spun his agile body to gently land on his feet.
The third calculated poisoned dart whistled forth and struck him in the right shoulder forcefully.
Stumbling backwards paralyzed, he saw Leo sprinting towards his position with great speed.
Leo removed a pair of kamas, smaller sized scythes with handles about seven inches long and blades about five inches each, and rushed forward with every intention to drive the sharp blade into the traitor's skull.
But a distant sound caught his ears from the other side of the forest.
Nilis? He hurled a kama with all his strength at Elwick before diving into his upper left direction to the nearest cover. His readied three more darts.
Fortunately for Elwick, the kama's disproportioned construct fell short in its ability to properly function as a missile, the kama rotated furiously while descended from its intended straight path and drove its sharp biting blade deep into his thigh.
Cursing under his breath, Elwick was now within the Leo's blind spot but knew he was still alive by his casting shadow.
The growing complexity of the situation began to gnaw on his shattering advantage and confidence; he grimaced in frustration and calculated moves ahead, predicting the possible outcomes for his decisions. If he would head out to slay Elwick, Nilis might seize the opportunity to ambush him. Or if he chose to attack Nilis, the paralyzing poison will diminish, giving Elwick the opportunity instead.
Time and the lack of information was his enemy, and if he only knew where Nilis' exact position and strategy.
Nilis' imagination began to run wild when he lost sight of his platoon. Consumed in anger and irritation, he bolted ahead without waiting for his peers. Fear and guilt seized froze him in his tracks that sent him shivering a great remorse. Images of their dead bodies flashed through his mind.
As he recklessly searched for their whereabouts, he grew to hate his naivety and failing attitudes that sent them into this treacherous trap. He knew for certain they were in trouble, as they seldom do get separate.
The deaths of his comrades weigh heavily down upon him.
Leo decided to flee the losing battle shortly after he deal with Nilis. Elwick lays upper left from his position and guessed Nilis to his back. To engage another crafty was risky, especially when they know little of each other's tricks and strategies, for that Leo was rather apprehensive in striking on an offensive.
Too odd, or too clever, his heart raced faster upon his doubt.
Decisively, he chose to outrun him and hope his flight could reveal Nilis' position. He made way towards northeast where the Vetropol city lay; his eyes darting at all angles searching for any hostiles or traps. Suddenly, like choking a horse's reins, Nilis' appearance on a branch in a far distance made Leo stop dead in his tracks; his darts were ready to fly. Studying the traitor, it seemed Leo has not been spotted.
Too bad young one, I found you first, he grinned grimly at his fortune.
But something did not make sense, if Nilis was conspiring with Elwick, they should have launched a cooperative strike on him. Instead, Nilis almost seemed lost at that point of time, as a child was looking for his missing parents.
Deception? He second-guessed and could not dismiss the fact that he maybe trying to feign innocence, or maybe he was too, sucked in by Elwick's unarranged and unsanctioned attack, as a deviation from their original plan to lure him into the steep slopes.
He dared not take any chances, his deadly darts called out to him in excitement.
Or maybe he is truly innocent.
He stood still behind the tree and considered painfully.
Finally he lowered his arm in resignation and he concluded Nilis did not pose any threat, nor has his position been compromised; whether or not Nilis is a traitor, the truth and situation was too chaotic to rest any firm trusts or beliefs. He had to abandon Nilis for all the obvious reasons.
He considered again resuming the attack, but his mind yelled retreat. Reluctantly, he picked up his stealthy pace and made for friendlier grounds.
Nilis' eyes led him to inspect the several darts that was lodged in the bark, he swung down cautiously from the branch and traced the trajectory and easily guessed it originated from a nearby branch. He turned around and saw the obvious point of attack.
He studied the darts and its make and carvings carefully and concluded that it was from the agency,he quivered at the possible horrible possibilities of a struggle between his platoon and some unseen enemies. It all made sense to him why Leo chose retreat. He brushed off all negative thoughts, the crouched low and exerted his stealthiest maneuver to reach the point of attack, in hope to search more clues, or bodies.
With dagger in hand, his head peeked out from a tree trunk to scout further. "Elwick?" he could not believe his eyes as Elwick stood there like a statue, breathing, but motionless.
He sprinted forward in exasperation and relief, but was equally baffled with the strange occurrence. Without thinking further, he immediately removed a vial containing orangey colored liquid; he pulled out the dart and applied some of the mixture to nullify the poison. He too, surgically and carefully removed the bloodied kama and hurled it to the ground.
"Elwick, are you okay? Where's Leo?" he began when Elwick became more animated and fluid, his stiff arms loosened and neck quivered. His frantic eyes simply looked ahead behind his dark goggles.
"Elwick, what happened?" Nilis whispered with nervous anticipation but was further received by a long dreadful silence.
Elwick's hand moved to clutch his injured shoulder, and the other subtly and calmly reached to his back pouch.
Nilis shifted uncomfortably at the stillness of Elwick's emotion, his left foot instinctively stepped back
As Elwick unlatched his belt pouch, Nilis jumped backwards in paranoia and unsheathed his dagger. "What are you doing Elwick? Put your hands where I can see them, slowly!"
Elwick remained calm with a surrendering arm, and the other slowly revealed a vial of healing potion. "Calm down Nilis…" he slid the vial beneath his mask and took a sip.
Relaxing a little but still nervous, he pressed on, "Where's Leo? Have the enemy showed themselves?"
Elwick nodded in careful consideration, Nilis was a dumb kid, but he would not underestimate any Agent's sensitive intuitions and instinct. Suddenly above, he heard a familiar eagle's scream; it was the sign for an escalation of the alert level.
Perfect, he smiled to himself.
"Did you hear that?" he asked Nilis.
"The Five has suspicions of a high level threat," Elwick looked above. "…and I think we're staring at one."
"Which is…?" Nilis started sweating as it was his first experience in a high alert situation. He was sure their situation had something to do with the recent incident, but was unsure how.
"I'm not sure," Elwick feigned uncertainty, "I don't understand why Leo spared me…"
Even his disguise could not mask Nilis' shock, "Spared…he… he attacked you?" he stuttered, realizing the implications of the word 'spared'.
"I don't know his motives," Elwick stretched his healed shoulder and thigh, "but we best subdue him before he cause anymore harm, by the High Lord's name." Staring at Nilis, "You're fortunate that he did not find you first."
Nilis gulped at the thought. "He's a traitor?" He still could not comprehend the peculiar situation.
"Let's go, we might yet catch up to him before anything happens." Elwick said calmly. Perhaps too calm, Nilis thought.
Leo sprinted to a nearby dense and low hanging branch, jumped and grabbed it, he used his forward momentum to swing himself upwards. Landing on his feet, he repeated his maneuver to reach a higher branch, pulling himself up and continued his tree striding.
The next branch shuddered at his more forceful leaps and the next and the next, he did bother to leave any trace as he was sure he was being hunted at that very moment.
He had noticed the escalation alert and wondered how this betrayal would fit into the halfling's incident. Since the traitor, Elwick, is long standing Agent, was he bought off secretly by an external organization? Or was he working as a double agent since the day he was recruited? Was he all along part of this carefully planned attack?
The real enemy must be formidable indeed, and it came to his realization that kingdom is to about to face a terrible war. He had the horrible burden of delivering the message.
Striding for nearly five minutes now, he was sure the border lies about a mile away. He could scarcely believe it, he had a chance.
Suddenly without warning, his stride was suddenly stopped by a powerful, striking force. He can feel the air squeezed out lungs and blood choked up into his throat before the pain started to register precisely across his sleek abdomens and muscles, throwing him back in the opposite direction despite the forward momentum he built along his stride, he would thought he ran into a sturdy branch.
It was a powerful kick indeed.
While he descended for the second time, his vision blurred and saw a protruding leg from a slim elven body, cloaked and hooded in a camouflage of dark grey. With his back facing Leo, the new assailant balanced unflinchingly with a single leg while holding out still his attacking limb. To successfully throw back such powerful force and stood still showed he was facing no ordinary foe.
Leo was cowed.
The air from his lungs were squeezed out again as his hit the earth, the gravity shook his body terribly, especially at his wounds. He felt a broken rib or two. Wheezing, he bit back his pain and jumped back on with his feet, scurrying quickly for cover and drank another vial of healing potion. He peeked out to spot his enemy.
"You played it well, agent." His assailant complimented sternly with grace and eloquence, his sharp muffled voice showed neither evil nor malcontent but with just a hint of anger and impatience.
Leo's fear deepens as his attacker's words implied an elaborate, calculated deception and that of he was just a pawn that has been long sucked into game he knew not of. How could I've been so blind? He winced and punished himself with despair, and he again, could no longer find any reasons to forgive his ignorance. Facing with a possible foe of more than three, he was at the end of game.
But he had not given up, he will take down as many as he could.
Chuckling at the impossible situation, he might as well find out as much information about the new attacker before his death, "So the mind reveals himself."
"Nay," he replied curtly. "The mind is more than a single person, if you must know."
"Do explain," he requested cynically, his darts lingered still in his hands. His eyes began scanning the area; he winded and huffed from the fall.
The elf remained silent for a brief moment, before saying, "This initiative is not moved by a single mind, but by a collective of like-minded people."
"Like-minded people?" he asked again without any real interest.
"Aye," he replied, "but I trust the answer is the least of your current concern, Agent." He intimidated.
"Maybe not," Leo replied bravely before he lurched out sideways and launched his missiles towards his target. He continued running for a short distance in a horizontal direction, before he turned to run at him head on, hoping at succeeding again in his previous maneuver.
Now facing fully to the front, the attacker swerved his body and swiped his right palm at the incoming missiles, catching all of them between his fingers before he lowered his arms casually. The semi-masked assailant's deep set of fierce eyes stared unflinchingly at Leo.
Staring disbelievingly, he launched another missile in closer range to hopefully bring him down from the branch, taking away his height advantage. He continued running towards the spot below his target, he had several more tricks hidden in his sleeve.
But with a single smooth motion, the attacker side-stepped effortlessly to avoid the missile, did a back flip with a hand on the branch, and catapulted his light body down the branch in attempt to jump off the trunk. Releasing his grasp, both legs planted firmly on the bark before he leaped his body off strongly into a high torque flight. Condensing massive concentration and incredible skills, he twisted his entire body into deadly 360 spin, he timed the distance and power to connect the back of his heels into Leo's left face.
Leo did not see that coming, and he was hurled to aside.
The impact was so strong he could feel his jaw dislocated almost instantly, and several of his teeth were knocked of his gums. His cheekbones too, became fragmented and crumpled across his skull.
The attacker, instead, spun to a gentle landing, while slowly rising from his crouching position, casting his undaunted eyes over the fallen Agent. He studied the darts before hurling them aside.
Leo could not even scream at his own pain as he tried to get back on his feet. He attempted moved his head, but the body reacted violently from the grinding pain. Tears began to well in his eyes as the constant pain was connected to almost every movement of his body. His jaws dislocated, his face permanently disfigured and numbed. Fear of helplessness took over him.
Such effortless defeat shook him further.
Blood and drool leaked beneath his mask, his tongue was feeling the taste of his own blood and he could feel fragments of bones lodged deep in the roof of his mouth, he felt his jaw has been ripped of his head and a ball of weight dangle from his head. He was helpless, and he could only pathetically claw the earth to inch away from his enemy.
Gawking and wheezing heavy breath, his pitiful face scrapped the earth with every desire to move away. He clawed away.
He clawed.
He clawed.
Before the next enemy stood before him.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," the cynical man sneered. "A Night Agent crawls?" he moved his left foot to press hard on his slacken face. Only muffled air could be heard from the shaking agent, his body jerked and stiffened in a painful reaction to the sadistic torture, cracking several of the already cracked bones. Leo's arm flailed helplessly to get rid of his torturer. "Eh?" the third enemy mocked, "Yer would ave' to speak louder!" he squashed harder with the heel of his boot.
The elf just watched on without any change in expression.
"Let me just ave' a look at yer pathetic face!" he moved to violently jerk the Agent's mask but the strong material would not give, he shook and caused further torment to the already broken man.
"Justias, do not ruin our disguise." The elf commanded stoically.
Finally, with a stroke, the knitted material was removed to reveal the Agent's crushed face.
"Ghah…ghah…ghah…" he called out in pain.
"Tsk! Yer would ave' been a charming lil' devil if yer' face didn't look like a sack o' crock!" He crouched beside him and mocked further.
His mouth was gaped wide open, revealed a line of broken tooth, his cheek bruised and swollen from the disfigurement, his cheeks watered in tears of agony, and shame. He eyes were dilated and pale as he had lost his soul.
While Justias continued pressing his feet against the poor agent, the elf's keen ears caught a clamor from a distance. "Silence Justias…" he commanded.
"Might be Elwick," Justias sneered under his breath. He too, wore a dark grey mask that covered his mouth, revealing his long crooked nose and flaming red hair. He moved to his weapon, a kama-gusari, that was buckled on his belt. A kama-gusari is a whip-like device, made of metal chains fitted with a kama as a head, the other end, however, was a horrible and sadistic spike, used to what end, nobody knew.
Shifting a foot he quickly darted to cover and commanded Justias to do the same. They instantly vanished into hiding, while waiting to ascertain the incoming threat.
Nilis had a hard time following Elwick's lead as more seasoned agent increased his speed and tenacity. After traveling for some distance, Elwick hand motioned Nilis to stop. Exercised the stopping maneuver, they positioned themselves on a vantage point discreetly from Leo's position. "I think I see something upfront," Elwick whispered to Nilis.
Nilis squinted harder to tell the human-like object, shock overcame Nilis' voice as he recognized that it was Leo, his body twitched in agony. "By the Lord, Leo…" he looked towards Elwick. "What's going on Elwick!" He started to get even more confused, his make was removed and nowhere the vicinity.
Elwick could only shake his head.
"We…we've got to help him…" Nilis received a nod from Elwick. "I'll cover you," Elwick placed his hand over Nilis' shoulder in assurance.
Nilis immediately jumped down and dashed forward to the comrade he somehow felt responsible for, a torrent of guilt washed over him. He should not have let his emotions took control of him.
But he is a traitor.
But Leo's condition could not possibly make him a traitor, as Elwick perceived him to be. They was something else, or someone that did a thing like this to him.
He must have his reasons.
"Leo…by the Lord, what happened?" he turned his body over so his lay on his back. It took a moment for Leo's dazing eyes to recognize Nilis, his eyes immediately expanded and flailed his arms to chase him away, his tired pained gaze overcame with anger and fear, tears flowing freely down his broken face.
"Ghah! Ghah!" he cried out while his legs pushed his own body further away, as if he were facing a terrible demon.
"I'm trying to help Leo!" Nilis watched with a sinking heart, the once powerful Leo was reduced to this. "What's going on Leo?" he asked with soft sob.
Out of nowhere, a constant rattle of moving chain caught both Agents' attention. To Nilis' alarm, he can feel a cold iron rapidly encircling his arms, and a sharp blade bit deep into his biceps. With a jerk, Justias pulled his weapon to tighten his chain's grip and bite into his victim, prompting Nilis to yell out in excruciating pain.
Leo's fear instantly altered to a startling conundrum, his head raced with illogical answers that soon turned to a dark, powerful emotional regret. Was…was I mistaken all along? Then he remembered the movement of Elwick's mouth the first time he was struck.
Perfect.
He reached out his hand towards a screaming Nilis, his muscles and tendons were slowly ripped apart by Justias. Elwick calmly approached the subdued young agent. His blank and unreadable expression hidden behind his mask, shielding all motives and emotions.
Please leave a review, Good or Bad, Rants or Compliments! I don't really mind, but I almost down on my knees…Thanks!