The White and Dark One’s

Chapter four
Kill the dark one

Holy crap, I thought, are we ready for this? How will we even get back? I looked at Ian, hoping his tracking skill was up to this, because we had changed direction maybe fifteen or twenty times?
We did not know we were in for this and the atmosphere was that we were just kids. We were almost beyond completely panicked. Vedin raised his arm to get everyone’s attention, then spoke very calmly.
“First things first; we need to find our proper masks. Any one of them could of taken them, since we had our goggles off. I think we should follow one of their trails and see where it leads. Maybe we will stumble upon them, that must be a part of this... um, test."
“Test?! More like let’s leave the students for dead and see which one comes out alive!” Gust burst out, and for once, I definitely agreed.
“We will be fine. We just need to work together, get our gear, and kill something. It doesn’t have to be big, and then we get out of here,” Clare said, but her tone also said she was just as scared as the rest of us.
Gust stared at her and just snorted, turning away.
"I don't know, I think we should head back to roughly where we can get out of here. Surely they wouldn't want us going deeper into the Dark lands and possibly getting lost?” Hamkirk finally said.
"Stop; Hamkirk, we will be fine. Just remember who you honour, your house and your family!” Responded Vedin.
Hamkirk's tone went harsh, and I could see he wasn’t wanting to be here any longer then we had to be, he looked thought full and said, “But we don't want to get carried away heading off to who knows where!"
"Guys! It’s obvious, We track Yimas... He's their leader. You track the leader, get the rest of our masks, then boom! We head back and kill something small like they did,” Ian chucked in.
Clare patted him on the back. "Yep. I totally agree. You know, sometimes you aren't as dumb as you look,” she said with a laugh.
"Well, I just hope I don't get us killed!” He sounded unsure, but it was a good idea.
Hamkirk and I were very quiet, it was all making me feel bloody nervous. Also, the whole situation just didn’t sit right. Why would they do this to us at our age? Surely they wouldn't let us die would they? Or change things if we did? Had this happened to others, and had they been killed? So many questions, and anger, towards even my father. Was he in on this too?
We scouted around where we roughly knew Yimas had been, he had been closest to Ian, so hopefully he had his trail. We started following what Ian thought was definitely it, and it was actually not a bad path. We were able to roughly see each other because the tree’s weren’t as thick, so our pace grew faster and faster. We even all got into our attack formation behind Vedin, with Ian leading the way. Ian blew me away with his tracking abilities, as with every group like ours, two were trained to follow trails. Gust was our second best but Ian was by far the best.
We were listening out when the trail came to the bottom of a cliff face. You couldn’t even see it until you were about to walk into it. It went way up, and looking up there, I could see more huge gigantic trees. This place was just trees on trees I thought, and probably on more trees. Imagine seeing all of this from the top?
We decided to take a break. Looking up at the cliff more, it was covered mostly in moss and half hanging trees. It was definitely climbable and we all took turns hanging off the moss to test it out.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to feel so cold," said Clare uneasy.
“Same,” said Ian hopelessly.
"If we don't find those masks soon.." Hamkirk started to say.
"We will be fine. They don't just kill off groups of youths like this. Let's just keep going, we must be nearly there,” I said with a bit of a tone I only half believed.
They all looked over at me; they couldn't see me that well, but I bet they were thinking something like, 'do you not know our people at all?'.
No one said anything. We headed off along the bottom of the cliff, following what must be Yimas’s trail.
Then we came to a dead end, where a massive chunk of thick bushes. It was so strong we couldn’t get through it.
Ian looked at it puzzled. “I don’t understand; it disappears here,” he said looking around.
Hamkirk tapped him on the shoulder. “Buddy, I think he must have gone up.”
We all looked up. It looked rough but there were a few small signs of someone having climbed this recently.
Vedin turned to Clare and smiled. “Ladies first.”
Clare laughed gently. “Are you afraid dear, strong, leader? Does the big man not like the high trees?” She said in a mocking tone with a big smile, then she started to climb.
I elbowed Vedin. “Good one. You will never live that one down,” I whispered, half smiling.
The climb didn’t go for too long, it was maybe three meters off the ground, and it seemed to be have a little flat area along the side of the cliff. We walked along and it grew so narrow we had to cling to the side of the cliff, moving along one by one.
“Are you sure it’s still his trail?” I asked Ian, who was beside me, clinging and carefully walking.
“I’m almost certain, unless they tricked me, somehow,” he said, with a small amount of doubt in his voice.
That got me thinking. If they would do this, then they would probably do almost anything.
Slowly the path moved back down to the ground, we all sighed a little to our selves. It felt like forever being up there.
We then just walked along away from the cliff, still following the trail, and into a little clearing area, which had something there in the middle of it. Thank goodness! It was a pile of our mouth pieces. Hamkirk ran over but Clare yelled at him.
“Wait! Let's check the perimeter! I think I heard something!"
We carefully surrounded our helmets with guns and swords ready. Then we each put our masks on one at a time, while the other five watched carefully. I didn’t know about the others but I was getting bloody nervous. I could hear something as well. There was movement close by, and from what I could tell, it was changing direction fast and circling us.
We stopped talking and slightly spread out and began Morse coding between us. We didn’t want to speak with whatever it was, so close. One by one we each slowly moved around the edges of the area, checking and readying ourselves for anything. This felt way over our heads but at least we could breathe properly now, all we needed to do was kill something, and we could go home.
Vedin signalled he was near it and started to move towards it. He said, through the Morse code, he's going to try and draw it in. He called for Hamkirk to back him up and the others to go around and surround it.
Clare agreed, and that her and I would move to the left flank. We started quietly moving out and around their side. We pushed through out of the clearing into the bushes, trying to be as quiet as possible. I had my gun and sword ready, whilst Clare had two guns drawn at the ready. It made it hard to get through the bush with the sword, but I wanted it in hand ready.
As Ian and Gust communicated, they went to the right side before the big boys went directly at the sound. They were making to much noise to my liking.
We were clicking away madly in Morse code between us but Hamkirk and Vedin couldn’t hear me. The sounds our weapons made changed all the time, but there were small details to it we were taught to listen too.
Vedin suddenly said they were nearly upon it, and to get ready to move in. All of a sudden, Clare grabbed me from behind. Throwing her arms around me her guns criss-crossed in front of me. I tensed, thinking something was wrong, then I felt her helmet against the side of mine as she whispered in my ear.
“ Be safe, Philhaz.”
I relaxed as the hug from behind continued, then just as quickly, she let go and continued moving pass me. My brain was like fire works! It was probably the worst distraction before combat I’d ever had. All these thoughts were exploding inside of me and the way her voice sounded. I wanted to escape these feelings, as they were overwhelming me.
Blasts suddenly could be heard right next to us and we sprinted in to help. We Morse coded which angle we were coming in from, so we didn't get shot. Hopefully, they were listening!
There was suddenly an emergency code from Gust. We arrived obviously too late, both Gust and Ian were down. Gust was climbing to his feet along with Ian. Hamkirk kept watching down a small trail while Vedin helped Ian to his feet.
“It came straight at us, full pace and crashed into us! I think it was running away from you being so bloody loud," Ian said. He sounded dazed and angry.
“What is it?” Clare asked.
“I don’t know, do you Gust?” Ian said.
Gust groaned, he looked fine though. “I think it’s a Dark One, it wasn’t a creature.”
We all looked at each other with fear and excitement. If we took down a Dark One, we would be legends at our academy. We heard movement again, close to Hamkirk.
Hamkirk turned to us. "Let's take it together!" and he charged off after it.
Vedin tried to stop him by yelling, but was too slow, and chased after him instead. Vedin was Morse coding like crazy at him and running hard and almost catching him. Clare and I sprinted, getting in just behind him and then boom!!
Hamkirk went flying past me, taking out Clare. Vedin moved in fast, not checking Hamkirk, and Morse coding to me to leave him, it’s here. I quickly moved pass and I hear fighting.
I was alone as I pushed through more bushes towards Vedin. Clare must of stayed with Hamkirk from what I could guess, since she wasn’t beside me. I come in to help him, pushing through another small but thick bush. I pause in shock as I see Vedin getting rag dolled by a Dark One! I freaked inside, my panic exploding inside of me, as my heartbeat went nuts.
I take a moment to take in what I was seeing before me. It’s body was surrounded by dreads, that were swinging around from it’s head, and it’s mask was sharp and looked like the skull of some beast.
It was as if it’s skin was near invisible, it was so dark. With several layers of long leather strips all over its body, they swayed whenever it moved. More importantly, it only had one small blade on it..
As I focused, I realised Vedin desperately needed my help. It still had Vedin by his sword arm and was spinning him around by it. I drew my other gun as it flipped him, slamming him hard on the ground. Vedin didn’t move and the monster stood still and stared directly at me. I had calmed a little, but panic was strong in me. I pulled both my guns up and all of a sudden it became a blur, moving towards me. I jumped at it as it flipped and rolled towards me. I fired and drew my sword. I paused moving in and out of range.I tried to time my attack well and I had a go at it with my sword, swinging my blade towards it’s chest. It leapt cleanly over me. I quickly rolled forward in case it attacked my back and I spun round, jumping up ready but it was gone.
Maybe I hurt it, I could have possibly shot it twice, but it spun through the air so fast, I could hardly tell.
I moved to Vedin to see if he was alright just as Clare comes through the bushes.
My natural reactions spring into action, with my gun in the air pointed towards her straight away. I lower it as soon as I see her. I want to go after it, my adrenaline is pumping, and I have a buzz on from the fight! But Vedin is down, and who knows about the rest of our team. Nope; I must check the team first, I breathe deeply, trying to calm down.
Vedin climbed to his feet as I came over to him. I was still watching around us to make sure it didn’t come back.
“Are you alright mate?” I ask, as Clare helps him as he semi falls back down.
"I'm not too bad, my mask is broken though. Shoot it's fast. I can't believe you hit it. Well done! It came at me so fast. It was like a blur!" He said, smiling through grit teeth. He was clenching his leg as he stood.
"It was insane! It was caught up wrestling with you, so that slowed it down, giving me a chance to get ready to fire. If your able too, let's get back to the others."
We carefully head back to find and find that Hamkirk is still not his best. Gust pulled his gun out as we entered, but soon relaxed.
"Looks like it knocked the wind out of him pretty bad, but I think he'll be fine with his thick head,” he said with a small smile. “But there is some bad news, he doesn't have a breathing piece now, it’s smashed."
"He can use mine, I'm feeling good,” I said, taking mine off and I put the rest of my helmet together without it. I actually still felt fine, maybe it was the adrenaline pumping.
"Mines busted too, but I'll manage,” Vedin said, with a hint of anger. “We need to keep moving. There could be more of them and one’s more than enough."
Clare looked at him as he limped along. "Will you be alright? Can you run, or even walk properly? I think we need to retreat, we have the breathing pieces, who cares about one of them.”
"Yeah, I'm fine and no, we should keep going. I just got the wind knocked out of me," He grinned, obviously not OK. Clare kept silent but we all were a little bit concerned for him. He could be so bloody stubborn but some how, he always manages to get away with it.
"I think we need to keep hunting it because this is what we do. Besides, it’s wounded, it will be easier to track," Vedin said, looking to Ian, who was busy with Hamkirk.
"How badly wounded? Did you stab him?” asked Hamkirk, finally coming to life.
“Nah, Philhaz shot it, just.. are you alright?”
Hamkirk walked over to me, swaying a little and grabbing my shoulder, giving it a wee squeeze while he looked me in the eye.
“Never been better! Let’s go get this bastard and let's get hunting!"
Vedin shook his head. "You look awful, Hamkirk.”
Vedin then turned to the rest of us. “It got the better of us because we were panicking and not working together. If there's more, we could get killed, it’s no joke. Let’s be smart about this, and work as a team.”
Hamkirk walked over to Vedin. “You can’t talk! You look like shit. And yeah, sorry guys.” He said putting his head down.
"We shouldn’t leave it. I vote we hunt," I said, staring towards Vedin.
Clare stepped in. “Fine then; I agree."
"Same," said Ian, and Gust rolled his eyes.
“Whatever then; but if you all die, I ain’t dying with you.”
Ian found the trail fast and we started following. We moving as fast as we could, with three of us semi wounded. The blood from the dark one was getting worse, we even picked up the pace, as it looked like it wasn’t moving very fast now. Maybe I was a better shot than I thought..?
Ian Morse coded to us that we were close, very close, so we decided to make a distraction. We send Hamkirk up around and ahead of it and he started making a lot of noise to hopefully scare it towards us and Hamkirk agreed not to engage. This was to me, a stupid idea, but we held our ground in a small clearing.
Nothing happened, so we careful moved in. We push through into a larger open area and we could see it or something on the ground.
As we approached it, I noticed it just lying down on the ground casually. Hamkirk came in from the other side and looked confused. We surrounded it quickly as Hamkirk came in. Was it dead? Then it sat up, facing us, not moving. We all slowly moved in, weapons raised. It just stared at us, it was done fighting. Then it spoke, and to our utter surprise, took off it’s mask.
"Not the worst I’ve seen team! You did well, apart from that brute running straight at me," Yimas said harshly, but slightly smiling, staring straight at Hamkirk. Hamkirk then whipped off my borrowed helmet.
"What the hell?! You!? What were you thinking doing this!? Are you OK?" He said, looking at the blood at his side, but Yimas pretty much ignored him and spoke to the group instead.
"This is some of the best armour any academy has, and only for testing their most Privileged children,” he smiled dryly, but winched a little as he spoke. Yimas then turned and looked directly at me.
“The blood you saw was from the creature we killed earlier, so don’t think I’m dead. You lot showed good team work and hell, I’m actually a little proud!” He said with a laugh. “Lots of team’s don’t go after me! Oh And, ouch, you shot me Philhaz! I’m going to get some decent bruises. Now all you guys have to do is kill a creature and bring back some meat, and we will open up the gates and let you back in. If you prove your capable of actually doing this. Good luck!" He put his mask back on, the tone in his voice was one of sadness as he stood up and started walking away, he looked very hurt.
"Wait! Really, isn't this enough?!" Gust said. But he just kept walking away.
"Damn it! This is bullshit!" Hamkirk said raging.
I was still feeling good and pretty much like myself out here, this was so intense, but the action was ten times better than anything at home. I still wanted to try and take something out. I watched the others, and most of them were hurt, and looked exhausted. We definitely needed a break.
"Look, I think we need a rest. Let's head back to the bottom of that small cliff so we have some protection and get some sleep and rest. Otherwise we are going to get too fatigued," I said.
Vedin came right over and put his arm on my shoulder and grinned. "A man after my own heart! Let's move."
We slowly, and carefully, headed back following our trail. Being careful in case something was following us, or the troops were planning another mess around on us. Once we got back, Vedin and Ian agreed to take first watch. It honestly took me ages to sleep but a small amount was enough. I took mid watch with Clare, we sat in silence mostly. Every now and again I glanced over at her, thinking about how she hugged me and remembering her whisper in my ear. It had felt good her being close to me. I shook my head, I needed to stay focused and stop thinking about a girl, especially a squad member.
Later on, Gust and Ian were up and we had to decide on a plan on what were we going to go after, and what sort of beast did we feel we were up for taking out. It quickly turned into an argument.
"This is stupid, we should head back and snag one of those small creatures, not go in deeper and potentially find something that's gigantic or an actual Dark One, who would cut us to pieces!" Gust heatedly said.
"We are strong, it doesn't need to be big, but if we want to impress anyone, it can't be some little wheezily wee thing,” Clare said, trying to keep her cool. "Do you agree Vedin?"
He was hurting, and I could tell it was bothering him quite a bit. We were meant to be the strongest group in our year at the academy and what we brought back would set the bar.
“She’s right; do you want to return heroes, or little kid’s scared in the dark?” Vedin said.
“Do you want to return at all? Because there’s a chance some of us might not, and we would just be that group who bit off more then they could chew!” Gust burst out.
“Let’s head back and hunt. I’ve got a few good fresh tracks of decent creatures that weren’t a bad size,” Ian said.
We finally agreed, and we were all rested. I got my helmet back for a bit too, to have a break from this air. Everyone looked a bit better now and Vedin was moving reasonably alright. With Ian, our basic living compass, Vedin and Clare discussed with him the best direction for us to move and to not go deeper in.
We were close to where we were before but roughly zigzagging around the area. We were also doing a large circle formation, the six of us spread out, searching and listening. It seemed we were starting to head back close to where we came in. I don’t think we planned to get this close without something. We moved at a slow pace, not wanting to scare anything off. The track we were following was much easier to move through and the trees grow more spread out and larger.
Gust Morse coded in that something was running fast by him, so we all circled around to support him. I came up the rear to support him, but it was gone. We fanned out in twos, staying very quiet, but moving as fast as possible to catch it. Apparently it wasn’t very big. We picked up our pace chasing it. Then, not long after, we heard a screeching and a massive thump.
Oh shit, I thought, this thing just got crunched by something that was far heavier and bigger! Clare Morse coded in a retreat but whatever it was, was heading straight towards us, I could hear it. And it knew we were here. She sent a emergency Morse code out and I waved at Gust who muttered to himself something like, 'oh shit', and we sprinted in towards this thing. It was moving heaps of small bushes round by sheer force and then I saw Clare and Vedin.
They were on the run from a massive beast, it had a huge head tearing though all these bushes and it was hot on their tail. It had no arms, but four huge strong legs.
It roared at them as they ducked in-between trees, trying to hold it back. I moved in to distract it, firing a couple of shots at it loudly.
I put two bullet holes in it's side but they must have had no effect. It just had to much mass and my blood ran cold as it turned slowly and loudly towards me.
It suddenly began smashing every wee tree over with it’s huge legs as it came for me. What a good path creator this thing would be, I thought.
Gust muttered to me. "You moron!"
I couldn't help but agree, as it sprinted at me and we fired, and reloaded and fired again. We quickly spread out, but it took all the shots like they were nothing.
"Come die ugly!" I yelled at it.
There were more shots from behind, obviously from the others, but it was too strong. It then suddenly went for Gust, who leaped out of the way. He turned and sprinted, pushing through small bushes until he crashed into the middle of a huge, broken tree. He climbed into the crack of it and he yelled, as it smashed into it, biting at him.
Hamkirk roared at it, and ran in smashing a massive hit with his large sword to the back of one of its legs, cutting deep.
He ripped the blade clear, ready to go again. It finally looked a little hurt but turned fast, it’s other huge legs launching out at him, knocking Hamkirk over.
It moved to bite him but he rolled out of the way, while Vedin and I came in on one of it’s sides.
Ian and Clare attacked on the other side and we all hacked deep into another of it’s leg. It howled in pain and started to turn towards us, just as Ian and Clare came slashing down on it’s back. I ducked underneath it, stabbing up into it, ripping my blade above and down as hard as I could.
It roared and twisted savagely towards me. I tried to move, but it slammed into me with it's head biting at me. I dodged, but the hard of it’s head catapults into me, spinning me as it lands upon me, knocking me out cold.