The children advanced leading the way towards the dark inside the tight alleyway, finding blood on the sides, tracks of a battle, or more of it a slaughter
Finding a pool of blood, they reached where the battle was. Corpses of guards and knights were scattered both on the sides and ground bellow
Leaning over to one of them William said "These are copper ranked knights; there is about 5 of them here so the threat must be serious"
"Of course, it is" said Isabel "after all they sent a Golden Sigel knight with us as a guard on our first mission" staring back Ino was no where to be found
"Huh…." Isabel was too stunned to speak
"Where did he go?" asked Thomas "Is he lost or something?"
A wet slicing sound followed by tearing of dripping blood came from behind William
It was Henry using his short axe to cut down most of the palm while his shield stopped the knight from harming anyone. That copper rank was about to use his fingers attempting to tear a hole in William neck
His eye pupils were shaking in their place, pulling themselves apart as if reproducing
"He is… infected," said William
"Look out!" shouted John coming forth with his sword, he cut down another guard down from between the neck and shoulder but his armour stopped him from going any further towards the heart
Without hesitation he kicked the infected back pulling out his sword as Henry pushed the other towards the wall
A sharp Woosh went by his ear and towards the Knights face pinning him to the wall
It was Isabel feeling so proud about it
Joh continued pushing down the knight he faced whilst the other 3 started to wake up leaving henry to face the first one, he was yet to be killed
"Huh??? But I hit him in the head!" said Isabel watching him try and reach forward
"Move aside" said Thomas pulling Henry back, and using both his hands he swung the tall axe in hand cutting both the skull and the helmet of that ill shaped human in half
"This is how you strike the head" said Thomas looking back at her with both a mocking voice and smile
Without hesitation she pulled her bow's string firing another shot by Thomas's ear, as he looked backwards, he found the arrow had pushed another infected hand who seemed to be reaching for a surprise attack
William rushed hitting him in the legs forcing his back flat, not leaving a chance he brought down his little hammer crushing him over and over until he was cold dead
"Buddy, you can't stop… his dead" said Thomas watching "William Stop you are wasting strength"
William fell knees to his Knees exhausted, heavy breaths came out as Isabel patted his back saying "See? I told you a hammer fits you best"
"Well… he does seem handy using it" said Thomas, Isabel stood straight looking into her twins' eyes and spoke
"What? Are you jealous? skull crusher. That you are tied with William"
"Oh, come on" said Thomas "He came from the back without making any sounds" pointing with his hand towards the body bellow
"Next time I'll tell them to inform you with a scream before they attack you" said Isabel helping William stand up
While they were fighting John was busy with his own stopping both knights that came his way, he parried a side strike upwards and crouched beneath a high from the other
Not leaving him a chance another hit was coming his way with a sword
"Move out!" said Sara catching the hand with her right by the wrist and using her left to push the elbow in
She continued kicking him in the back of the knee to have him at the same height as her
Crack!!
She broke his hand, but she was too focused on him forgetting about the other who is attempting to catch her by surprise
Clang!
John hit the chest plate with the pointy head of his tall sword. it pierced through to the other side leaving out of the spine as the Infected knight fell
It had one last stand trying to keep a scar, but from behind John Sara pushed that hand climbing his body with it and locking it in between her legs
Crack!
She reversed his elbow as well. John pushed his sword to the other side cutting through and slicing the other's head open
"Tall sword are just the best" said John staring the two body's down
"That blade did not save you twice in a row" said Sara putting her knives in place after cutting the other one's neck
Henry was already fished implanting his axe inside the last one's skull
"That makes it 5," said Henry
"That is weird" Thomas spoke walking towards John Henry and Sara
"What is?" asked John
"I don't see any maggots on the ground" said Thomas "Are these people even infected?"
"They are" said William coming forward holding a needle in hand
"What is this?" asked Thomas staring at it
"A maggot, I caught it by this needle swimming in the blood pool" replied Thomas taking a glass bottle with a little slice of meat out of his pocket
"Why is it so small compared to the one the butler showed us?" asked Sara
"These infected are still fresh therefore it did not have enough time to mature" replied William filling the bottle with them
"Are you collecting them??" said Isabel in disgust
"If the butler won't tell us more" said William closing the bottle "We need to learn about them ourselves" he put inside his pocket as Henry spoke
"There must be more up ahead so we can't waste time, if we do the infection might spread further making it harder"
The sound of foot steps, a crowd of them, came from the dark beyond. Standing their grounds, they found it to be a couple of them, ones that were infected for longer than the rest
These ones were fully infected for that the moment they locked eyes without hesitation the creature sprinted forward through the tight alley slamming into the walls
"Into the houses now!" shouted John slammed his shoulder into the door but it did not badge
From the window he saw a child staring them scared, his mother quickly pulled him in and closed the curtain
"What was that for!" said Sara angry about what she witnessed
"The propel are scared" said John" they don't want to be involved in this"
"We are going to stand our grounds" said Henry pushing the boxes as an obstacle "Even if we outrun them, it will get more complicated if they reach the large street"
They got into a defence line as Isabel rained her arrows at them
"They don't seem to be badging!" she said
"Just continue it!" yelled Thomas just for her strike to stop
"What did you stope for?" asked Thomas
"Out of arrows…" Isabel replied showing her little empty basket
"Useless" replied Thomas preparing to strike the enemy that reached them
The battle broke out as Isabel was left behind without any weapon in hand, the street was coloured with blood as she went back to the knights attempting to take a weapon
"Egh!" Isabel was disgusted from the little worms swimming around the pool of red
"They pushing!!" said Thomas as the boxes started to shatter
"Take as many as you can" replied John
They cut down their feet pushing them down and allowing both Sara and William to shatter their heads
Crush!!
William ended one of them on the ground
"So…. what is with the bread stuff?" asked Sara using her knives to kill another
"Bread stuff?" William was confused preparing to hit another
"I mean why is Isabel so obsessed with bread," said Sara
"I don't know… ask her brother" replied William
"I did, and he too doesn't know about it" said Sara "He says she just started cooking bread out of nowhere so I guessed I'd ask you"
"Why ask me?" said William
"Can you guys do your job!" shouted Thomas at them
Crush!!
"Well, whenever she made some, I sure see you tasting some of it," said Sara
"I guess that is here way to apologies for burning all of my books in the process" replied William
"What a weird way to do so," said Sara
Isabel was coming their way dragging a tall sword behind her "I found a weapon guys open up I am going to swing it—" the wall beside her broke apart as a dust cloud covered her
"Isabel!" shouted William as Thomas stared back in fear
She fell backing the wall and seating herself, deep into slumber. Before her stood a big butcher, huge enough to crash her under his feet
Extra hands came out of his elbows and shoulders and chest with different sizes. His face painted randomly with eyes and ears as his mouth ruled over the lower half with all kinds of teeth coming out from each side
Having a back that reached for the sky and pushing his head down he held all kinds of tools that fit his job. Large feet with finger coming at random just to barley hold his unstable body that shacked alongside the ground
The alley barley fit him as each movement causing great damages raining it down with rocks
"Isabel!!!" shouted Thomas rushing towards her
"He can't do it alone" said Henry to John
"William! Sara! Take my place I will join Thomas" said John rushing to them
The mad butcher attempted to strike her down as he raised his multiple hands into the sky
"No, you want!" said Thomas throwing his two-handed axe after spinning, it went deep into the skull
The monster stared his way as Thomas slide underneath him striking with a small knife his feet joints
"The skin is too thick…" said Thomas trying his hardest to lift the heavy body beneath him using it as a shield
The monster giving no time raised his hand striking him down, But Thomas crouched under the heavy shield taking the hit
"Isabel! Wake up Isabel!!" he shouted as the sound of steel with the sparks red drops rained him
Cough!
Isabel was waking up, but that sound she made notified the monster of her existence once more, he raised his other hand to take care of her
"No!!!" Thomas screamed hopelessly
A sharp clang followed each other before stopping as a dust cloud was made by damaged wall
John has implanted his tall blade into the wall making it a roof that stopped her from being harmed
The butcher had his eyes on John, slicing sideways to take care of him, John raised his weapon guiding the hits up and shielding both himself and Isabel while Thomas was stuck in the same position
"At this rate, both my sword and the body Thomas is using are not going to hold for long" said John before something touched his back
"William??" he said "What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to help out by the boxes"
"I am no use over there" said William pulling Isabel out "At least I can help with this"
Slashes crushing sounds and strikes continued to shatter pieces of the sword John held
William manged to pull her out and said "Help Thomas out!" as he took her over his back searching for a safe place
John went underneath the butcher stretching his hand, he pulled the cracking sword towards him slicing the first knee open, but it had no effect
The butcher tried reaching but his deformed shape did not allow him such a thing
John pinned the butcher's leg to the ground with the cracking sword. he took the one that Isabel had and started cutting at every direction
The monster started hitting randomly as pain started to grow larger with each hit
Thomas was exhausted, little cuts covered his body, with heavy breathing he crawled from beneath the scrambled body
A grave mistake, one from the random hits came his way as John watched in horror
A whistle was followed by a stabbing sound
Looking up Thomas found a chain above his head. With sharp edges it cut the little hand and went throw the chest of the monster
It was pulled back towards the dark, Henry and Sara came towards Thomas helping him away as the butcher watched the dark hearing some foot steps
"What are you—Cough. Guys doing here" said Thomas as Henry helped him out
"We finished what's beyond the boxes, now the rest isn't ours" replied Henry
The chains were slowly pulled into the dark as the foot steps came closer, Taking that chance The children backed away
"Ino??" said John
"Where did he go for the majority of the fight" yelled Sara
Ino was the one who held the sharp-edged chains, with a weight by the end of them, he suddenly dashed and started running as the monster began hitting him at random
He held the chains with two hands reflecting each hit that came towards him, wrapping it around each arm that reached for him
By pulling the chains in different direction he cut the hands clean
Rip! Tear! Slice!
A couple of clangs followed as the monster attempted to use the other hand
All it took Ino was one quick wave before he struck upwards pushing the hands away, he used the other side to slash sideways wrapping it over the wrest
And all it took was a single hard pull and the body was cut in half
The upper part fell, and without hesitation Ino crushed it under his feet leaving the children in shock as guards and knights reached for the place
-
-
-
-
Smack!!!
The butler slapped Ino's helmet with his hand
The children watched with open jaws as he said
"I sent you with them as a guard on my behalf, and they almost died leaving with these injuries!!" yelling at Ino
"Follow me" said the butler to the knight as he left through the door
Some silence went by as the children were left alone with the nurses and doctors
"Did you see the metal helmet!!" said Isabel
"It bent inside from a single slap!!!" said Thomas
"He got one good hand, he is no soft boy after all" said Sara
Each of them on a bed
Ino walked down the hallway, he went through the door as the butler awaited him inside
"Close the door," said the butler
Step, Step
Ino stood in place
"… Did the children do anything unusual?" asked the butler
"No ser…" replied Ino
"Did you notice the masked man anywhere?" asked the butler
"No…" replied Ino "No one else did"
Some silence went by before Butler gave him a scary look, sharp as a tooth he said with a cold tone
"Are you lying?" as he locked eyes with him
"No ser…." Replied Ino
"…. Go change that helmet," said the butler as Ino left the office