Reborn: Age of Heroes

Ten - The Escape

If I was going to bail on them and run, I thought it should not be obvious. With that in mind, I shifted my gaze back to the forest to look as though I was interested. “How do you plan on doing that, exactly?” My eyes were prowling the path to the Dead forest, searching if there was any place I could run to. There was nothing.

“Don’t be intimidated by their numbers, but don’t underestimate them, too,” Amias replied. “Shadow demons are vicious, but they have a weakness that we could take advantage of.”

Magat stepped closer to the robed man. “What is their weakness?”

“Light.” The old man turned to face the war chief. “What else burns the shadows away? Is it not light?”

“Well, there’s no sun in here, so I don’t see how we can use light to our advantage,” I said.

At that, Magat craned his neck to look at me, his eyebrows raised. “Why are you all of the sudden taking interest, boy? I thought you’d rather cower in fear?”

My heart thumped faster inside my chest at the questions of the war chief. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead, but I fought the urge to wipe them away as I thought it would look suspicious. Holding my gaze at Magat, I opened my mouth to answer. “I thought that this was what you wanted? What’s wrong with not wanting to be left alone for the demons to find?”

Magat scoffed. “I don’t believe you.”

“Give the boy a break,” someone said. It was Lyana, defending me yet again. “I think it is good that he is trying.”

For a moment, I wanted to tell her that Magat was right not to believe me, but I could not waste my chance. I have enacted my plan, and there was no turning back now. “Thank you, Lyana,” I said. “Believe what you want, Magat. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this because I don’t fancy getting eaten by whatever lurks in this Hell.”

Magat scoffed. Again. He did not say another word to me and turned to face the robed Amias. “So what’s the plan, old man?”

“It is not just sunlight that the Shadow demons are afraid of. Any kind of light will do the trick. A fire from a torch will work well for our cause,” said Amias as he drew the blackened length of wood slung on his waist. “This one would be enough. We just need to light it up.”

“For the love of the seas! I left my flint back at the cave!” yelled the war chief as he placed his hands on his waist. “How in Hell would we light that thing up?”

“I know how,” I said with a certain pride. I’m a Chazaklev. We bakers know how to start fires for our ovens. I looked at Magat, and his face was scrunched as though he was irritated with what I said. I knew that he was annoyed at me, but I couldn’t help missing a chance to pester him further. “Surely you can start a fire with just two rocks or pieces of wood, war chief? It’s a shame if you can’t.”

“HOW DARE YOU QUESTION WHAT I CAN DO?” Magat ran in full speed toward me.

One second he was beside Amias, the next, he was in front of me, his fist flying to my face. He moved so fast that I barely had the time to react. His knuckles connected with my cheekbones, and I fell down. A hot, throbbing pain flared where he hit me. I stood up and placed my hand over my cheek. I spat. Blood and spit stained the ground. He was about to land another punch to my face, but Lyana stepped in front of me, catching the war chief’s fist with both of her hands.

“MOVE, HUNTRESS!”

“That’s enough, Magat!” exclaimed Lyana as he dropped the man’s arm. “Seriously, you two should stop fighting! We are supposed to work together, not beat each other up!”

“Lyana’s right,” said Amias with a cool voice. “Fistfights and squabbles will not help you get back to the mortal plane. Moving forward, I expect both of you to act like civilized grown men.”

Magat’s chest heaved as he took deep breaths to calm himself down. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, and his face was red. Looking at the angry expression on his features, I knew that getting punched by him was worth it. He took another lungful of air and walked away from me. “Whatever,” he said. “Let’s get moving. Let the boy light the torch once we are near the Dead Forest. We’ll see by then if he can really do what he claims he can.”

“Fine by me,” I said and started to walk forward while the others just stood still. When I walked past Amias, I looked over my shoulder. “What? I thought we’re going?”

The three of them looked at each other as though they could not believe their eyes. Shrugging their shoulders, they followed after me—my plan’s working. I smiled and continued down the path toward the Dead Forest.

-0-

“What’s taking so long?” Magat asked as he loomed over me.

I was crouched on the ground, working my way with two apple-sized rocks. Lyana was in front of me, holding the torch as I struck the stone together with speed and force. After what felt like half a day’s worth of walking, we arrived near the mouth of the Dead Forest. The four of us were huddled close together behind a gathering of huge boulders. We had stopped walking to discuss the plan to get the Angelic Sword while we lit up the firebrand. Back at the cave, I wondered where Amias got the oil for the wooden torch. As it turned out, it wasn’t oil that fueled the torch’s fire. It was ghoul blood. Amias told me that the blood of the blind gray-skinned demons was highly flammable. A tiny spark would be enough to light it on fire. That’s what I was trying to do; create a small spark to set the torch ablaze. Magat’s bickering did not help. “Patience, big man. Pressuring me will not speed things up.”

The King of scoffs scoffed for the third time. “Just admit that you can’t do it --”

“Aha!” I exclaimed as a spark flew from the rocks and landed on the wooden firebrand. As soon as it made contact with the demon blood, a flame blazed. I took the torch from Lyana and stood up. “You were saying?” I asked as I held the flames near the war chief’s face.

Magat took a step back, looking annoyed as always. “You’re just lucky,” he said and snatched the torch from my hand. “What now, old man?”

Amias’s face was void of expression. For a moment, I thought that he would look pleased with what I’d done, but he didn’t look glad even in the slightest. “We will charge to the forest. Magat, you will take the lead since you’re holding the torch. The rest of us will follow closely behind. The Heavenly Sword is in the middle of the Dead Forest. Stay within reach of the light. The Shadow demons will devour you when you step out of the torch’s glow, but they cannot touch us as long as we remain in the light. Is that understood?”

“So we’ll just grab the sword and go?” asked the huntress.

Amias nodded. “Yes, if you follow everything I just said, taking the Heavenly sword would be easy.”

“Understood,” said Magat as he walked around the boulder. “Are you ready?” he asked, looking at us.

“Yes,” we replied in unison.

“On my signal,” started Magat. He shifted his gaze back to the Dead Forest. “One… Two…. Three… Charge!” he yelled. The three of them dashed forward without looking back. Magat led the attack as planned, raising the firebrand in the air. Its flames blazed like a righteous beacon. Lyana’s bow was in her hands, nocking an arrow as she ran. Despite his limp, Amias charged, trailing after the two warriors.

My heart was pounding like war drums inside my chest as I watched them run to their certain demise. There were hundreds of the flying Shadow demons. I knew that a single torch would not save them from the monstrosities that lurked in the dead woods. There was no way they could make it back. My muscles trembled as my mind whirled. I shook my head and decided to push through with my plan. In one swift movement, I stepped away from behind the huge rocks that we used for cover and ran in the opposite direction. I did all I could to silence my screams as I did not want them to know that I had left. I’m sorry, I thought as I continued to run away.