I froze halfway. If I remembered correctly, Aurelius did say the Storm Brothers had information about Rockflower. They must’ve learned about my friends and the elites defending the town. Masaru might’ve recognized me from the time we liberated Hammerhorn. I need to confront him, or else my cover would be blown. Slowly turning to face him, though avoiding his gaze again, I pretended to be a medieval peasant who shrunk himself before an intimidating overlord.
“I-I’m just a newcomer, sire.”
“I said who, not what!” Masaru growled, which I quivered. “Answer the damn question, and don’t lie to me.”
I gulped. Just like that Asian warrior said earlier, “Don’t lie.” If they had the ability to know if a person told the truth or not, I must be careful with my words.
“S-Samson, sire.”
“Sam Son?” Masaru made it sound like a Chinese name.
“Enough, Lord Masaru,” Aurelius growled. “We have important things that need to be discussed.
After crossing the bridge, the Blood Eagles lit their torches as we entered the forest to guide our way, but they weren’t bright enough to get a clear view of the wagon’s contents. As time passed, my companions were almost on their last legs from pushing. I had to increase my speed to keep up the pace. “Are we there yet?” I inquired. “Keep moving,” a Blood Eagle member exclaimed. “We’re almost there.” “Good, my back’s killing me,” one of the pushers said with relief. Several minutes later, we stumbled upon a mound with a large cave similar to Andorra’s Vein. After reaching the light at the end of the tunnel, we found ourselves in a dome-shaped cavern, bustling in all manners of activities and working hands. It was much bigger than the two mines of Andorra’s Vein combined. Maybe the size of a football stadium. However, there were fissures, rubble, and cracks everywhere. Of course, they were Mount Fort’s handiwork. At the center of this place, t
Sir Chandos was standing before me, alive and well, though his armor was battered and had leg cuffs chained to an iron ball. Nevertheless, he was beaming at me with a smile. “Sir Roche, it’s good to see you —” Sir Chandos dropped his smile and turned away when the foreman shifted his attention toward us. The Grendel Knight squatted on the ground, facing the warheads on the left. Then he buried his mouth under his folding arms. “No slacking off,” the foreman snarled after noticing that I stopped working. I went back on filling up another crack, though keeping a close distance with Sir Chandos. “Don’t turn around,” Sir Chandos’ voice whispered. “Keep working, and keep your voice down.” “Alright,” I said in a hushed tone. “What happened? Sinchi said that you were recalled.” “So Sinchi managed to escape.” he sounded surprised yet relieved. “I’m glad he warned you and everyone in town.” I hung my head down. “The Blood Eagles used Sinchi and
“Are you sure that boy’s a spy, brother?” Hikaru asked. “How do we find him?” Their loud conversation by the entrance was heard all the way here. “He’s wearing a brown hooded coat with black furry lining,” Masaru replied. “The one looks like a lion.” He weaved his head in search of me among the crowd, glad I took it off earlier, or else I’d be found on the spot. “I’m certain that I’ve seen him before.” “You sure about this? We don’t want to trouble King —” Masaru sent his scowling glare at his doubtful brother. “Our boon is on the line, dear brother. Spy or not, we couldn’t afford to be lax.” While locking each other’s stare, he raised his voice. “Trackers, forward!” “Yes, my lord.” The armored warriors chorused behind him. As they began to move, I turned to the Grendels with a scrunching face. They got the hint that it was me that the Storm Brothers were looking for. “We need to go now,” I said. The four of us sneaked
After another five minutes in silence, Zeki’s voice said, “You can move yourself to sit, Mr. Roche. They’re gone.” “Thank you.” I weaved around in search of him up here in the trees. “Where are you?” “Promise me not to scream.” I blinked. “Alright, I promise.” Something landed on my right knee. Moving my gaze to check, there was a spider that was standing on four legs, wearing the same clothes and top hat as… “Zeki, is that you?” “It is I.” The spider bowed. “You… you’re the spider god.” I remembered a character from a story he told back in Rockland. “You’re his brave.” He bowed again. “Anansi’s Brave, the trickster spider god of stories.” I gasped, “You’ve been following me this whole time?” He chuckled, “Guilty as charged.” “I thought you were leaving with the other guilds.” “I was, but I smell a story the moment you left for Sweet Haven. I was also curious about how you are going to get there.” He cro
By sundown, Rockflower sent another counter-raiding party, numbering twenty-one braves. It was smaller than last time, consisting of a Green Bit group led by Chief Bess, Deborah, Marseille, Raja, the entire Foxfire Guild, and me. Rockflower couldn’t afford to send more ever since half of the guilds left town. Our goal was to stop the warheads from flying. As much as possible, we would free the prisoners if we had a chance. We would then high-tail back home afterward and wait for reinforcements to arrive. I was astounded that my friends volunteered for this dangerous quest since they were still newcomers. After crossing the river with the Green Bits’ canoes, we pressed on with haste. “So, I want to make things clear,” Brock began. “This Ares’s Brave guy wanted to start another World War. He would then sit back and let the big shots fight each other. And when this is over, the Eagles pick off what’s left of them, gather a bigger army, and then head back to Ever
My friends and I swallowed hard. It made sense why the adamantites were used as a power source. “Based on the information from Sam,” Raja continued, “an adamantite with the size of a chandelier could blow up an entire city.” “Along with everyone within its radius,” Deborah finished. My friends and I were sweating in dread, understanding why we had to steal it — from underground — surrounded by hundreds of enemies. “I see,” Wilt swallowed. “So how do we destroy them? Safely, of course.” “Magic,” Raja answered. “Only magic can work with adamantite.” Unfortunately, our side didn’t have magic braves. We could really use one right now. “Hmm…” Alex cupped her chin to ponder. “Alex?” I said. Our glances shifted toward the Finnish girl. She took a deep breath. “I must confess, I do have magic —” “Alex, you know you can’t reveal your powers to anyone,” Katie cut her off to reprimand. “It’s alright, Katie. This is
We resumed our journey to Hammerhorn, but in a lengthy detour for several hours. It was slow, though we kept ourselves hidden in the undergrowth at a stealthy pace. We had to be covert when sneaking into the underground base to avoid their patrols. The first patrol we found was a sign that we had arrived. Owing to the Green Bits’ reconnaissance earlier, we managed to bypass several patrolmen until we reached the river. From our left, the hill-fort was in that direction. Chief Bess turned all the Green Bits into crocodiles and panthers. They swam to the other side of the river before dispersing into the trees to check for patrols. We waited for a moment until they came back and wagged their tails. “It’s clear.” Chief Bess signaled Raja to transform into his giant form and grabbed everyone except me, Marseille, and Deborah. Deborah summoned an eight-spoked wheel that hovered in the air. She and Marseille hopped on and flew across. I threw Raja and his p
Every single person in the cavern stopped in their tracks. Then, two more explosions erupted coming from outside. Their fear grew when one person burst from the exit tunnel. “Raid! There’s a raid!” someone shouted. As the knight got distracted, two darts struck his throat. The Green Bit pair went forward with blowguns in their hands. They surrounded the knight as he turned into dust without anyone noticing. My friends and I had our expressions distorted into shock. “How brutal,” Li murmured. A couple of more explosions, a Blood Eagle bellowed, “EVERYONE, GET OUT!” “What?” Raja was surprised when hundreds of stamping feet shook the ground. They were pouring into the exit. Soon, more people burst from the three tunnels. They were all racing toward the surface as well. Even the prisoners were escaping, but at a snail pace because of the iron balls attached to their legs. “Something is not right,” I said. “Me too,”