Chapter 6 Death Awaits

'How long has it been?'

By her estimate, she'd been fighting for three hours at least. 

The world had gained an orange hue as she fought, this troubled her.

'Sunset, shit"

Goblins were annoying enemies during the day but at night in the absence of sunlight they became even more deadly as their target stumbled in the dark.

She'd heard stories of how skilled warriors had been brought down by goblins just because they faced them in the dark.

But Lyra wasn't worried about herself, as a beastman her vision at night was just as good as the goblins if not better. Another reason why the other races call them monsters too.

it was Marcus and the other humans she was concerned about. Not because she cared about them, no, never that.

It was because with them she had a better chance of survival. So far the goblins had kept her away from the main battle but from what she'd seen from afar, all the members of their cohort were still alive.

And she was sure that would change when night came.

'Is there no end to them?'

A sharp pain erupted from her side as a force sent her hurtling off the rooftop; she'd made her killing point for the better part of an hour.

She'd have to make another one now.

"Shit!"

She pulled herself from the snow, coughing up blood and hurling insults at Marcus and the universe.

On her feet and breathing heavy, she looked up and saw what hit her— a huge club, firmly attached to the hand of a hobgoblin.

'Of course'

She assumed her fighting stance, pulling her daggers close to her chest and prepared herself for what would likely be her last moments.

The hob took one foot forward and Lyra moved to attack first but stopped as the hob's head was ripped off and its body ripped apart by Gerad and the other beastmen.

She fell to her knees in relief, panting.

'I never thought I'd be happy to see these fools'

Gerad was bigger now, nearly eight feet now having used beastsoul, his appearance had changed too; he looked less human now and more like a tiger standing on two legs and pretending to be human.

The others were in this state too, two bears, a bull and a wolf.

She noticed they held no weapons which made sense, in this form they fought more like animals, with their teeth, claws and overwhelming force, weapons would only get in the way.

With all five of them here the goblins wouldn't attack recklessly. She had a moment to breathe. 

Or so she thought.

"There you are mutt" 

One of the bears spoke as he gestured for the others to look her way.

'Of course they didn't come for me'

The hobgoblin had just been in their way.

Reminded of her place in the world she forced herself up once again.

Marcus gestured for her to come closer and she obeyed. She stopped right in front of them and close enough to see the difference between herself and her betters.

Halflings had too much human in them to ever connect with their beast selves. She looked upon them and saw what she could never be and although she never admitted it, it hurt.

"We have new orders. Marcus has ordered the humans to cut a path through the goblins for the villagers to escape and then they'll follow them as escorts. With night coming they can't continue the fight and protect the villagers at the same time."

This made sense to her but one thing she didn't hear was how they'd do such a thing with the troll around, Marcus and the other ascendant would have to stay behind to keep it pinned down.

And he's never seemed like the type to sacrifice himself.

Thankfully she didn't have to bring up the question herself, the wolf did.

"What about the troll? That thing is not going to just let us retreat."

"About that…"

His silence lingered long enough for Lyra and the others to realize what he was about to say.

"No, you expect us to fight that thing? While they escape?"

She couldn't help herself, she could feel the anger boiling beneath her skin, it's one thing to treat them as subhuman but to ask them to throw their lives away like this was sub human.

"Be quiet, mutt. Orders are orders. Ready yourselves, on his signal we attack the troll." 

"But that's a death sentence!"

Gerad glared at her.

"I said be quiet!"

The others looked away from her.

"No!"

She couldn't believe this. She expected at least one of them to be against such a stupid order but they all looked like this was the most natural outcome.

That's when it hit her.

"You already knew this would happen."

"Not in the beginning. I had an inkling when you spotted the troll and I confirmed it when the village's ascendant passed out from exhaustion. Marcus has no choice but to retreat."

"But that's a troll, we'd be walking to our deaths, how could you just accept that."

"Marcus has promised to speak of our actions when he gets back to command. Our sacrifice here will help beastmen everywhere in the empire. It will help our cause and bring us one step closer to our dream of equality."

Lyra couldn't help but laugh.

"That's it? You expect me to sacrifice myself in the hopes that my death will help a deluded cause? And that's if Marcus actually tells the truth to command."

She could feel the hostility from them.

"I expected nothing less from a halfling, you lot have no concept of unity, of community. Lord Baleir asked the Emperor for Aral'ka, a land to call our own. A sanctuary, and we will do everything to protect it. Disobeying orders would just give them a reason to take it away. I don't expect you to understand but if you insult the cause again, I'll take your head off before the troll gets a chance to. Am I understood?"

He moved closer to her, she was settled well within his range. Fleeing would be a mistake, her head would fly before she even turned around.

"...yes"

"Yes, what? Lyra."

He growled.

'So he does remember my name.'

"Yes, Alpha."

And to her surprise she felt the hostility fade almost instantly. He sighed.

Death awaits.

They turned to leave when a sense of wrongness hit them forcing their hairs to stand straight and sending their danger sense into a frenzy.

"What is that?"

One of the bears asked as they looked in every direction for the source of the discomfort they felt.

It was like they were being watched from everywhere and by everything.

Then they heard fighting not too far away. They could see a lot of goblins heading there.

"Mutt, check it out."

And she did, climbing the roof immediately the order was given. 

"It's that boy," she murmured.

The boy she saw the village ascendant kicking, the boy with the weird tattoos.

She turned back to report what she saw but the others were already gone.

She scoffed.

She weighed her options, following them meant certain death and disobeying the order would bring her unnecessary attention and trouble.

'What do I do?'

With the universe not providing any answers she decided to catch her breath first and watch.

She watched as the boy fought bare handed with a ferocity that would make one mistake him for a beastman. She watched as he was overwhelmed by goblins and she watched as he barely held them back.

And just when she thought he was done for, she saw how two blades had moved from corpses in the snow and flown through the air to his hands as if they were called to him.

The boy didn't seem to register this change or how steam seemed to flow off him, a clear sign of an awakening. He just kept fighting.

Lyra smiled.

'Maybe the universe isn't so deaf.'

He was no doubt a whisper now and one with a pretty useful aspect most likely. Saving him would cancel out disobeying the orders, they might even praise her for such a find.

The Emperor surely needed every advantage in this war and ethereal aspects were a rare and valuable find.

Almost as if sending her hope, the goblins surged to finally overwhelm the boy.

'Not so fast!' 

Lyra channeled lumen to her feet then pushed off the building, shattering the roof and flying straight through the mass of goblins and landing right beside her ticket out of here.

"Shut your eyes!"

She yelled and pulled out a flash bomb she had saved for a rainy day. As the light enveloped everything around them, she grabbed his arm and pulled.

"Run!"