020 – The Chase – Part 2 –

Uriel hit the ground hard and came to an unceremonious halt after skidding through the wild shrubbery.

Uriel blinked slowly as he struggled to recall what was going on due to the haziness in his head.

He barely had it in him to place his hands down and push himself up, it was only the pained cry of Zeresha that managed to bring him back to his senses.

"Zeresha," he muttered staggering to his feet.

He saw the beautiful white and black mare lying down on the ground, and based on the earth that was scraped up next to her it was evident that she had an equally awful landing.

He reached her and gave her a few loving strokes as he convinced her to get up, but once she stood up she was having some trouble standing on her front left leg, with a closer inspection, Uriel saw that her knee had swollen over.

Then his ears perked up as the ringing in his ears seized and the sound of hooves digging through the earth greeted him, and it all came rushing back to him.

Uriel looked between Zeresha and the riders, knowing that it was impossible for him to outrun them, not with Zeresha in her current condition.

Uriel gritted his teeth and pulled the pack off his back and pulled out the cooking knives he had taken from home, he considered his sword but the blade had no edge.

And he knew that if he wanted to keep Zeresha and stay alive, he would need to kill them, there was no other choice not anymore.

He had already lost everyone, and he wasn't prepared to lose the beautiful mare as well.

He gritted his teeth and tried to reach in and grab a hold of the power, but just like before it didn't respond to his command, it seemed that he was going to have to fight without the assistance of eldrin.

The riders came to a stop a few feet away from him, they wore shabby cloaks without any armor, to be seen, and their only weapons were their swords.

"Why don't ya make things easy on ya self boy, give up and we'll take ya to the soldiers they'll give us a nice reward and you'll be sold to the highest bidder on the slave market, if ya get lucky ya might even land in the hands of a rich bastard," said the man on the right.

"Piss off," Uriel swore and chucked one of his knives at the man.

The bandit pulled the reigns of the horse steering it to the side, and had Uriel's aim been true he would have surely missed, but he was no marksman the knife went completely off track, it wasn't even close to hitting the man, but thanks to his evasive maneuver it sunk into the flank of the horse.

The blade buried itself deep into the stallion's flank until only the handle remained visible.

"HNGHHHHHH!!!" the stallion started to scream and thrash, flinging its rider all over the place as it went out of control.

As for the other horse, it started to panic seeing the pain of the other horse, and started to kick off the ground and paddle its front legs in the air, the sudden move threw its rider sending him tumbling to the ground.

Seeing his chance Uriel ran past the panicking horse and stood over the man who was groaning on the ground, he raised the knife up high with racing breath as he prepared to jab it down.

He gritted his teeth as he reminded himself again and again that it was necessary he had to kill them, he didn't have a choice, it was them or him and Zeresha.

He would not allow himself to become a slave, especially for those soldiers, he'd sooner die than do anything that would help them or allow them to profit from him.

As he tried to convince himself to stab the bandit, the man recovered and took full advantage of Uriel's hesitation, he swiped with his legs and kicked Uriel on the ankle.

Uriel felt his leg curl under him due to the force of the blow he barely managed to stop himself from falling over but nevertheless, he was sent stumbling backward.

Before he could fully recover the man already charged and caught his hand with the knife and started to twist on it.

"Argh," Uriel let out a soft cry as he was forced to let go of the knife, but he noticed an opening, and without overthinking like before he threw out a punch.

The bandit moved his free hand to catch the fist.

But one of the things about Uriel was that he was deceptively strong, he was strong enough to push back even the bear-sized men of Old Meadow let alone some common bandit who was scrawny and just a few inches shy of 6 feet.

The man's eyes widened as he caught the fist because to his horror the fist didn't stop in his hand.

An incomparable stain passed through his arm from the sheer effort of trying to stop the fist, then he heard a crunch and pain erupted through his body as his arm snapped, but still, the fist didn't stop it continued straight for his abdomen.

The bandit coughed out a mouthful of saliva as the air in his lungs rapidly exploded out of every orifice on his face, he fell over with a look of desperation on his face as he tried desperately to suck in air, but his lungs refused to obey him in any manner.

Uriel stepped back with shaking eyes, never expecting to be able to do much with a single fist, he used to exchange fists like that all the time with Kai and Alec, they would always challenge each other's strength, it was just one of the things that boys do for fun.

The man looked to be on the verge of dying but that wasn't enough for Uriel, he knew that he had to make sure that they were finished off.

He saw the knife lying on the floor and bent down to pick it up when suddenly he felt a bout of pain in his face that sent him tumbling onto his back.

Uriel rolled over and quickly jumped to his feet he rubbed his jaw but at a touch, pain surged through his face, it felt like his jaw was broken.

As he looked up, he saw that the other man had managed to get off his mount safely and kicked him, the second man was currently tending to the first as he held his broken arm, he seemed to be able to breathe again.

Uriel breathed out heavy breaths seeing the two together he knew that things were only going to get worse and to make matters worse he had lost both of his knives all he had left was his blunt sword.

But it was better than nothing, he drew the gleaming silver blade from its sheath, its silver edge was like a beacon of light under the sun's radiance.

The second of the two men quickly pulled out his own sword, and gave Uriel a look, "That's one shiny sword boy, where did a village bimbo like ya get the gold for it?" asked the bandit with a smug smile.

The other man used his working arm to draw his sword, though he looked a little awkward holding it.

Uriel offered no reply he had nothing to say to the likes of them.

"Not talking huh, no matter I'll be sure to toast ya with the crown I get once I take that thing from your corpse," he chuckled.

Uriel looked at the two with worry, not knowing how he would get out of this one, when suddenly from behind he saw Zeresha creep up behind the man with the broken arm, then she pulled back on her rear legs standing at her full height, and brought her legs down.

CRACK!!!

The sound of a cracking skull echoed through the empty lands bloodshot out of the bandit's head like a geyser and his body fell down lifeless taking the other bandit by surprise.

The bandit turned back to see Zeresha charging at him and his eyes shone with coldness he turned his iron blade and swung it directly at Zeresha who was charging wildly.

"Zeresha!!!" Uriel screamed in horror and ran with all his might to catch up, as he neared the bandit he swiped at his blade to try and block it or at least divert it.

Contrary to his expectations his swing seemed to go completely off track, he was sure that he would meet the sword but his blade went right past the blade seeming to miss it by the breath of a hair, and it continued in arch past the man.

Uriel was sure when he saw the path of his blade that it would hit the man but once again it seemed to pass him by the breath of a hair.

Uriel crumpled to his knees when he missed, it was a do-or-die moment and he was certain that Zeresha had been killed with that blow.

But then a second passed and he heard a clank of metal on the ground then he felt something warm and wet raining down on him.

Uriel blinked and looked up with a look of disbelief.

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