Chapter 15 - Part 14

Two moons were visible, but the Children of Winter accompanying Kurse still felt a need for light. Two cast simple spells that made their shields glow, and three more produced torches. Kurse sneered at them, even though he secretly found their light to be helpful. He always put them down, always mocked them. It was necessary.

They moved across the creek, its water burbling around their ankles. From atop a tall tree, an owl hooted.

Kurse looked up. The owl hadn’t sounded like an owl, it had sounded like a person trying to sound like –

Thunk.

Only the enchantment woven into his leather armor prevented the shot from piercing his heart. As it was he fell backwards from the force of the puncture wound, his vision spinning as he tried to see where it had been fired from.

Bang.

Heat, pain, burning! A man of metal and stone had risen up from a deep part of the creek where he had been crouching, and his hurled flask broke open on Kursk, burning the shifter terribly. The droplets of fire scattered over the Children as well, and they began to yell and panic.

Kurse scrambled out of the creek, seeking cover in the bushes, yelling at his followers to attack the warforged. He didn’t get to the bushes fast enough, and three more arrows hit him, one grazing his neck, one in his leg, and another in his side. He caught a glimpse of a figure high up in a tree, holding a terrible longbow.

The Children of Winter began to cast spells at the warforged. Spells to make him go to sleep. Simple commands to kneel. Spells in their finger to touch him and make him tired. All had no effect. The warforged walked into the midst of them, and began punching and kicking. Bood and teeth flew.

Kurse rolled behind a tree and yanked two arrows out. He tried to cast a curing spell on himself, but the pain shook his concentration, and the spell was lost. Fumbling for some more holly leaves, he glanced back to see that his spider companion had jumped onto the warforged. The two were wrestling on the ground, and Kurse was happy to see it biting the metal man.

“Get the archer, damn you!” the shifter druid snarled. But the night-blind humans could not see where Delegado was. Some shot slings randomly into the air.

It did no good. Delegado was above them, and his arrows began to rain death on the Children. In the meantime, the warforged showed no signs of being affected by the spider’s poison, and was busy crushing its skull between powerful, three-fingered hands.

Kurse came out from behind the tree and broke into a dead run. His followers would delay Delegado, and the shifter would face the half-orc when the archer did not have surprise on his side. All Kurse needed now was to get away, to have a quiet moment to reflect and gather his strength, and cast another curing spell. Then, yes then, there would be retribution. He had a spell prepared that would freeze armor, and there was no reason why it wouldn’t work on a metal man. In fact –

Thunk.

An arrow went deep into his back. He staggered and fell to his knees. He never heard the one that hit him in the back of his head, bursting forward out of the front of his face with a final agony.