Chapter 86: Standoff
Nobody spoke for a while after that. The three of them just stood there, breathing hard, each of them currently stuck somewhere deep inside their own head.
Darlus kept glancing toward the direction the footsteps had come from, his jaw tight, the same forced cheer he showed earlier completely gone now.
Lisa stood a little apart from the other two, her eyes fixed on nothing in particular, still trying to make sense of what she had seen when her ability tore through Morden.
Morden himself just sat there, feeling the ghost of that tightness around his throat, the helplessness from earlier still sitting heavy in his chest despite the fact that his body was technically stronger than it had ever been.
’More strength apparently isn’t the answer,’ he thought while flexing his fingers slowly.
"We need to move," Lisa finally said, finally breaking the silence.
"Now, before they get close enough to catch us like this," of the three, she is the most active and alert.
Morden nodded and tried his best to Stand back up, but his knee buckled the moment his weight shifted onto it. He caught himself against a tree before he could actually fall, breathing hard through his teeth.
"I can’t," he admitted, hating how weak the words sounded coming out of his own mouth.
"My legs still aren’t listening to me properly; it’s as if they hadn’t accepted my control yet."
Darlus moved to help him again, but before he could get close, a low growl rumbled out from somewhere in the treeline ahead of them.
All three of them froze.
Slowly, a dog-like beast padded out from between the trees, its fur matted with dried blood, eyes locked directly on the trio. It didn’t attack right away, just stood there, watching, waiting.
Then another one appeared beside it and then another. Within seconds, a small pack of them had gathered at the edge of the clearing, forming a loose half circle, cutting off one direction of escape entirely.
"Great," Darlus muttered, summoning an icicle despite how tired he looked.
"Just what we needed."
The beasts didn’t move any closer, though, and that alone was strange enough to make Morden pause. If they wanted to attack, they would have already.
’They must be waiting for something or someone,’
That line of thought actually made sense since it was the most logical explanation for this bizarre action, but he still didn’t fully believe it.
A moment later, he got his perfect answer to the question.
The ground beneath the pack rumbled, and the beasts parted to either side as something massive stepped through, flames licking off its mane with every heavy step it took. Though it appeared domineering, the trio can still see the wounds that were still on its body.
The Flaming Lion had arrived.
"You three have caused quite a bit of trouble tonight," it said, its voice deep and rough, carrying easily across the clearing.
Morden straightened up as much as his legs would allow, positioning himself slightly in front of Lisa without even thinking too much about it.
"Why are you guys so hellbent on chasing on, we didn’t ask for any of this," he said.
"No," the Lion agreed.
"But you’re tangled in it regardless."
It took a step closer, and Darlus raised his icicle a little higher in response.
"I’m not here for a fight," the Lion said, its golden eyes shifting between the three of them.
"I’m here to help. Whatever that man is after, whatever he wants with you, it isn’t good for anyone. At least the two of us,"
"Come with me, and I can keep you safe from him."
"Forgive us if we don’t exactly trust the giant flaming beast that showed up with an army of dogs," Darlus said.
The Lion let out something between a huff and a growl, clearly a little angry by the response, but before it could say anything more, Lisa’s attention snapped to the side.
"Someone else here," she said quietly.
Morden noticed her reaction, and even before she spoke, he knew what it meant. She had always done something like this when danger was approaching.
A single Bearer stepped out from the opposite treeline with a sword already drawn and his eyes scanning the scene in front of them with obvious confusion.
A second one followed close behind and then a third, until a whole group had gathered on that side of the clearing too, weapons raised, uncertain of what exactly they had just walked into.
Then Marcus pushed through the middle of them, his arm still bandaged from earlier, his expression darkening the moment his eyes landed on the Flaming Lion standing directly across from him.
"You," Marcus said, his voice low and furious.
"I should have known you’d get to them first."
"They were never yours to claim," the Flaming Lion said, flames flaring slightly brighter along its mane.
"They’re Bearers of this city. That makes them mine to protect, whether you like it or not." Marcus’s grip tightened around the hilt of his sword.
Morden looked between the two of them, then over at Darlus and Lisa, both of whom looked just as lost as he felt.
They were back in the same scenario; they were not too long ago the only difference was that this time they weren’t completely ignored.
Three sides now stood facing each other in the small clearing, the trio caught directly in the middle and could be said to be unarmed in every way that mattered against either of the two much larger forces surrounding them.
’This just keeps getting worse,’ Morden thought, his mind getting ready to summon the Ghost slayer sword any chance he got.
Nobody moved for a long moment. The tension sat thick in the air; it was thick enough that even the beasts on the Lion’s side seemed to hold themselves unnaturally still, waiting for whichever side made the first move.
"So," Darlus muttered under his breath, glancing sideways at Morden.
"Any bright ideas, student?"
Morden didn’t answer right away.
He was too busy trying to figure out which direction actually gave them the best chance of surviving whatever happened next because this time there wasn’t really any chance to run and making a choice was equally difficult.
None of them looked particularly good.