"W-wait, brother, how do we fight them?" Kael stuttered, clearly scared by the scream of the Moroi from earlier.
"You two, Lune and Kael, use bows and stay as far away as possible. Celine, you use your sword. Miyanna, use whatever weapons you are most comfortable with," explained Blanc.
"But I do not have a weapon," said Miyanna.
"Not the best time to lie to me, Commander of the Iron Line. How can such a distinguished warrior like you not have a weapon, hm?" asked Blanc, not present in the conversation he had, but still ready to throw away the lie Miyanna was trying to tell.
"Well, I-" began Miyanna.
"Miyanna, enough. He knows," said Celine, interrupting her.
"If we survive, there will be enough to talk about. Now silence. I need to figure out how many there are," instructed Blanc, beginning to focus on his listening.
There were plenty of sounds outside the cave, about two hundred feet away from them.
Things crashing in trees, growls so deep it was clear they did not come from a beast.
Then another shriek, "Gwak, GRIIEEEEEE!"
Step.
A swipe.
Aswift whistle.
A tree fell.
Step, step, step.
Jump.
Thud.
Silence.
"They make it hard to hear properly, but there are fewer than four," Blanc said.
"That's good, no?" asked Kael, sighing in relief.
Blanc shook his head. "If they were anything other than Moroi, perhaps. Now, against them, I'm not sure."
"Can't we just hide inside?" Lune asked, tearfully hugging the bow to her chest.
"Little Flower," began Blanc, crouching in front of her, "These are not beasts. They are men cursed by the Vita. They will not leave us now that they know we are here. They are far too hungry for that."
"Hunger? F-for what?" asked Miyanna, now with her curved sword on her hip.
"Flesh and blood," said Blanc, turning towards the exit.
A few clicks came from the outside as if from a woodpecker.
But that was no woodpecker.
Those were their overextended bones cracking as they stood waiting like predators, barely able to contain themselves or their saliva from escaping through the openings in their mouths.
"Ready?" asked Blanc towards the four behind him as he stood near the corner of the cave's exit.
"Will a 'no' change what we have to do?" asked Celine.
Blanc shook his head, "I'm afraid not."
"Then let us go towards our death," said Celine with a smile on her face.
Kael and Lune froze as she spoke.
And Blanc's heart, too weak to handle too much now, almost audibly shattered at her words.
Miyanna, though, while scared, and with the lie now discovered, looked prepared for what was to follow.
He would have given some words of wisdom or comfort.
But there was none to be had in their situation.
As he nocked an arrow on the string, all he could give was a short prayer.
"May the Vita be with you all," and with those words, he loosed it.
Fwip. A hit.
"GRIEEEK!" One of the Morois, the one Blanc just hit in its shoulders, began running towards the cave.
The other two followed.
Another arrow from Blanc.
Thud.
The arrow buried itself deep in the Moroi's skull, dropping the creature to the ground.
But a heartbeat later, it stirred. With a grotesque sway, it began clawing its way upright on those long, spindly arms.
An arrow through the brain would not kill it.
The other two closed in.
Blanc had no time to nock another arrow.
So he let his bow fall and tore his sword free.
In a blink, faster than Miyanna's eyes could follow, he sprinted, closing the gap.
Twenty feet vanished in an instant.
The others rushed to join.
Celine broke first, blade drawn, charging to his side.
Miyanna hesitated, heart hammering, but forced her legs to follow.
Kael and Lune stayed near the cave mouth, bows raised, strings stretched with an arrow ready on each of them.
"Bring down the one still crawling!" Blanc barked, half command, half war cry.
Kael and Lune loosed, arrows hissing through the air.
Thud.
Thud.
Meanwhile, one of the standing Morois lashed out at Blanc.
Its arms were long, its reach monstrous, each swipe meant to tear the blade from his hands.
But Blanc met it head-on, steel whistling through the air, every swing a desperate parry or hopeless deflection.
The last Moroi began focusing on Celine, who began her sword dance, trying to close the distance between herself and Blanc, hoping to aid him.
However, she could not.
As the other one jumped in an instant onto a tree on the other side of the battlefield, and sent himself over Blanc and the Moroi he was fighting, and came crashing, claws first, to Celine.
The clash between Celine's steel and the claws of the Moroi made a screech so loud it might as well have been a banshee.
Yet Celine stood strong, able to hold her ground.
Miyanna's war cry could be heard behind Celine as she approached.
She tried to swing her curved sword at the Moroi.
Success.
Lucky for her, the Moroi was focused on Celine.
Unlucky, however, was the shallow cut she gave it despite using all her strength.
"GRIEEEK!" howled the Moroi, pushing Celine with a hand, and, with a slap that cut her at her shoulder, sent Miyanna's body flying straight on the trunk of a tree.
Making her pass out for a moment.
Clash. Steel. Deflect. Swipe.
Hit. Another hit.
Miss. Dodge. Retreat.
Clash. Deflect. Swipe. Stab.
Another hit.
Celine's dance was constant.
Managing to work the Moroi here and there with quick actions.
As she slowly understood the pattern in which the Moroi moved.
Yes, they were chaotic. Almost unpredictable.
However, there was a pattern to that as well.
Another hit.
Then.
"Aghh," a grunt left Celine's lips, as one of the claws of the Moroi found her left foot, impaling its claw right through the middle, skin, flesh, bone, then flesh and skin again as it dug deep into the ground.
Before finally retracting the claw from her foot.
Celine fell to her knees as she lost feeling in her left foot.
She was unable to move now.
That was it.
That was the end.
The Moroi swung both his arms wide in the air.
Celine closed her eyes.
No more being a mother.
The Moroi clicked its tongue loudly as if proud before sending both of its hands down upon her.
No.
She will now fall here today.
She spun on her right knee, getting closer to the Moroi, and with a scream, as the Moroi's hands slammed behind her, she slashed horizontally at its lowered chest.
"GRIIEK, GRIIIURrrr…"
Thud. Thud.
The two parts of the Moroi she fought fell to the ground behind her.
The other battles unfolded differently.
Blanc's foe lashed out again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Each strike was easy enough to deflect, but closing the gap was nearly impossible.
Step by step, it drove him backward.
Back toward the other Moroi, the one struggling to get up, only to be hammered down by arrows again.
Kael and Lune's arrows pinned it in place, six shafts jutting from its body, keeping it writhing on the ground.
Deflect. Stab. Deflect again.
Nothing.
He could not even try to wound its arms.
The claws it swung and tried to grab him with were too durable.
Fwip.
Another arrow on the fallen Moroi.
This one in its biceps.
Deflect. Deflect.
Retreat.
Nothing.
"Kael! Lune!" Blanc began yelling, sweat dripping from his forehead, "Try to hit this bastard."
Two arrows flew towards the Moroi.
One missed. One found its mark.
The arrow found the monster's ear.
It turned towards the twins and, with a shriek, began focusing on them.
Just the opening Blanc needed.
He swung wildly, cutting off its left arm and sending it with a heavy thud to the ground.
The Moroi began screaming.
A scream that made Blanc's ears, who was next to it, bleed and for a moment, go silent.
The monster grabbed its open wound with its remaining hand, wailing as it fell back, trying to retreat.
But there was no retreat.
Another arrow hit.
The side of its chest was the mark.
Another scream.
Then, silence as Blanc's sword, with a vertical swing, detached its head from its shoulder, making it go silent.
But another shriek followed behind, as Blanc exhaled for a moment, then a girlish yelp followed by a thud.
Huh?
That was no Moroi.
Blanc turned suddenly, and his mind went silent.
The Moroi he shot at first got up, body filled with arrows, and now stood before the twins.
Lune was on the ground, a diagonal slash across her belly all the way up towards her shoulder.
One of the Moroi's claws.
Kael was grabbed by the Moroi, bringing him up from the ground, shashing his cheek as Kael tried to fight it off.
Poor Kael tried.
Hitting the Moroi's hand with his bow.
To no avail.
It grabbed Kael's legs with its other hand.
A low growl rumbled from the Moroi's throat as its pale eyes locked onto the terrified child in its grasp.
It was ready to kill him.
And it meant to savor every moment.
Yet as it was about to begin ripping Kael apart, three swords pierced its body.
Blanc's sword pierced its back, sending the blade through its heart.
Celine's blade passed the Moroi's neck.
And Miyanna's curved sword pierced its side of the abdomen, the curved sword finding its lung as it traveled deeper inside.
The Moroi began choking on its blood, falling to its knees.
It let go of Kael, who fell to the ground, unconscious from fear.
As it stood there, choking, the blade that pierced its heart left its body.
And entered again.
And again.
And again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
"AAAAAHHHH!" Blanc yelled as it kept stabbing at the Moroi until he could no longer.
The Moroi was long dead at this point.
Somehow, they were victorious.
But victory is half the fight against cursed beings, after all.