Chapter 5 - Hunted

In in the middle of the night they managed to stumble upon some sort of road.

"What to do? Do we follow it or continue as we were?" Siem asked.

"I don't know." Jens said.

"Maybe this road leads to a town?" Rock suggested.

"That's possible. Maybe we will pass a city if we don't follow the road?"

"Let's follow it then." Jens quickly responded. He wanted to keep moving. He felt like prey being hunted, ever since they had managed to escape from the battlefield. He wanted to keep going.

"Okay, we will follow the road." Siem said. He turned around and led then onward.

When the sky turned brighter Siem stopped again. "Where do we look for shelter?"

Jens looked around them. They were in trouble. The land was flat. The last forest they had passed seemed hours ago.

"There." Rock pointed to the side. "There is a rock formation over there. We might be able to hide there."

"Let's go quickly." Siem said as he started walking again.

Jens did not see the rock formation, but he followed anyway.

When the sun started to rise Jens was panicking a little. They still hadn't found any rock formation.

"Where is it?" Siem said agitated.

Rock pulled up his shoulders. "Maybe the land isn't as flat as we thought?"

A few minutes later something came into view. It was no rock formation. It was a caravan.

Jens counted more twenty carts with horses. Even more tents were placed between them.

He looked behind them and noticed that the area was indeed slightly elevated. They hadn't spotted the tents because they were downhill.

If this was the enemy they had walked right towards them!

He looked panicked at Siem and Rock. They looked the same. He quickly motioned for them to go back.

They were running now. Jens was so scared. He was sure it was an enemy camp. They were also fully exposed now that the sun was rising.

He grabbed a mana stone and tried to gather mana to strengthen himself. If it only helped a tiny bit, it was enough.

"Mana… stones." He said in between breaths while running.

He noticed that both Rock and Siem listened and started doing the same.

When they were far away they heard some noise behind them. Jens looked behind him and noticed a group of people gathering. They were shouting something.

"Keep running, they've spotted us!"

The mana stones really did help. They were running, no almost sprinting, for far longer then should be possible.

Siem was running up front. He was constantly scanning the area for some place to hide.

Jens was more focused on the back. The group of people was really following them. They had some kind of animals with them, that he couldn't recognize from this distance. He looked shocked when he realized some of the animals were let loose and were running at them at a faster pace!

"Animals incoming!"

Rock and Siem both looked back. They also saw it. Four animals were running towards them at a faster pace then the group of people did.

"What are those?" Rock asked.

Jens looked again. They were shortening the gap quickly. The animals seemed to be to large to be a dog. He feared they would soon find out.

"Keep going! We will fight them when they get here." Siem shouted encouraging.

Jens started to slack behind them. He looked at his mana stone and realized it had dimmed completely. He tossed it on the ground and immediately got a new one.

"There!" Siem shouted and he immediately changed directions. Ahead of him stood something out of the horizon. It was to far to see what it really was.

Jens noticed the animals were half way between them and the enemy. They still had time.

He now started to see what was ahead of them. It were some sort of natural formed stone pillars. The ground had also changed from a grassy plain to stones and sand.

Because they had to turn towards their new direction, the animals were gaining even more ground.

Jens looked behind them and was horrified to see they were a lot closer now. Perhaps only a few minutes and they would be upon them.

"They've almost… caught up… on us!" He yelled.

Siem looked quickly behind him. "Keep going! Only… a little more!"

Jens was constantly looking back and forth now. He was running behind the others. He started to really fear for his life. He could hear the animals growl.

They were some kind of mix between a dog and a cat, but much larger. They were only a little smaller then a human and their fangs were tall and eye catching. They only didn't seem to have a tail, as far as he could see.

The stone pillars were close now. They wouldn't make it in time. The animals were closer now. "We need to fight, NOW!" Jens shouted afraid.

Siem and Rock looked behind and stopped running. Jens almost crashed into them because he was looking behind him. He noticed that Rock had already his axe in hand.

He stopped beside them and grabbed his sword.

It was a sight to behold to see four of those mutated dogs run towards them in big strides. When they growled you could see their fangs. One bite and you would be done for.

The first animal leaped towards them. Both Siem and Jens stepped forward and pointed their swords at it. If jumped straight into the swords. One of the swords pierced it's neck, the other pierced it's side. Because of the force of impact they both couldn't keep hold of their sword. They also fell on the ground but lucky enough the anima flew passed them.

Rock stood already before them with his axe ready. The other three animals had slowed down and stayed out of range. They growled while they encircled them.

Jens crouched to the dead animal and pulled his sword free. Siem did the same, but found out that his sword was broken. It was missing a large piece of the blade.

They stood up and took their places next to Rock.

Siem casted a fireball at one of the animals. Jens was shocked to see this. He had not seen him cast before. He had told them he had affinity with the fire element, but not that he could actually cast a fireball.

"Wow! That's a first." Jens shouted amazed. "Try to cast. My casting has improved significantly!"

Jens couldn't cast. He had no element. Rock casted an earth pillar under one of the animals. It lost it's balance and fell on it's stomach. Jens quickly reacted to that and stabbed it with a fast motion. He hurried back to his original position. He was surprised by his own reaction. Since when was he so daring?

The creature growled at him. It rushed towards them in anger. Siem again casted a fireball and from this distance he couldn't miss. The fireball exploded on it's face and soon the fires spread. The creature howled in pain as the flames spread across it's entire body. It was crashing and rolling on the ground now. When it got close to Rock, he didn't hesitate and chopped his axe downward onto the neck of the creature. He quickly pulled his axe free, before the flames could hurt him.

"We can do this!" Siem said hopefully. It was three against two now. Their improved magic also gave them courage.

They were taunting the creatures now. Rock took a step forward and slashed his axe with one hand in a horizontal motion. The creature jumped back to avoid it. Siem casted a fireball toward it. Jens noticed that the other creature saw it's chance and jumped straight at Rock, who wasn't paying attention to it.

Jens took one large step and from a crouched position he stabbed his sword in the belly of the creature. Jens felt his arm sway to the right but kept hold of his sword. The sword slashed a wide gap in the creature's belly. It crashed against Rock but luckily it didn't move after that. Siem stood up and ran towards Rock.

Rock was lying beneath the dead creature. When Jens reached him, he now noticed that the last creature was also burning already. Siem was evading it and keeping it at bay with his sword, while it burned to death.

Jens pushed at the dead creature with all his might. "Rock! Rock? Are you okay?" He shouted panicked.

He finally managed to push the creature to the side. Rock was moaning. He was covered in blood and had a nasty gash on his arm.

"Are you okay? Can you stand?"

He crouched down beside Rock and tried to help him sit.

"My arm, it hurts."

Rock pushed at the wound with his free hand.

"We need to wrap the wound." Siem suddenly said. He pulled Rock's hand away to see it for himself.

He cut his own sleeve and used it to wrap around Rock's wound. He pulled hard and Rock growled with his teeth shut.

Jens looked around them and suddenly noticed that the enemies were getting close as well. Fighting the creatures had cost them their head start.

"We need to go again. We don't have much time." He said anxiously.