The Scent Of Prey

"A mage? Like us?" Iris asked for clarity.

"Yes." It was either that or that the thief had some magic artifact on him that was canceling out their magic. But it was more likely to be the prior since magic artifacts weren't something that was easy to get a hold of. But, that doesn't deny the possibility of it happening. Even if it were the latter, they were better off assuming that their opponent is a mage as to not get caught off-guard if he attacked them with magic.

"Also, move!" Kies pushed Iris out of the way as an arrow flew down from the darkness and landed on the ground next to them. *Thunk!* "D*mn..." This guy wasn't easy to deal with, especially when they're fighting in his territory. He was safe up there where he had rows of ropes and wires for them to travel around from ledge to ledge. Furthermore, he wasn't going to run out of arrows any time soon so exhausting his supply was out of the question. Lastly, he had some way to nullify their magic, making this fight extremely difficult.

"Seeing how two of you are mages, let's spice this fight up!" the thief laughed. *Clang!* All around them, cages holding in the vicious beasts all swung open. Growls, hisses, croaks, roars, and all other sorts of noises filled the room as they all crawled out of their cages.

"..." Just wonderful. As if fighting the thief alone wasn't hard enough, now they had to deal with all these beasts as well. Keis didn't know how the thief managed to open all the cages from up there, but it seemed that there was a switch. He tightened the grip on his sword and looked around at all the beasts. Their eyes stared at him hungrily. From the looks of it, they haven't eaten anything for some time now and were starving.

"Hey, I think we should move back," Iris told Kies in a concerned tone. She grabbed Kies by his shoulder and tried to pull him back towards the stairs and away from the beasts that were now surrounding them.

"Sorry, but I can't allow that!" The thief fired an arrow at Iris, almost hitting her in the back. The arrow landed on the floor right behind her feet. He wasn't going to let them escape. He wanted them to fight the animals in front of them.

*Hiss!* One of the creatures coiled up and sprung at Wompa. She held up her daggers and cut the head off the animal. Despite losing its head, the body wiggled around grossly for a couple of seconds before going completely still.

"Watch out!" Iris shouted at her sister. She moved in front of her and intercepted a cat-like animal as it was about to pounce on Wompa. The cat pushed her onto the floor with its weight and swiped at her with its claws. "Ack!" The beast managed to scratch her arm with its claw before Wompa got the cat off of her sister by slashing at it with her daggers. The agile animal jumped away and avoided the attack before it could hit.

"I'm o-okay..." Iris told Wompa as she helped her back onto her feet. Blood trickled down her arm where the beast scratched her. Iris gently touched the open wound with her hand. "Ow..." Wompa grabbed the sleeve of her shirt and began to cut off a section of the cloth for her sister to use as a bandage but Iris stopped her before she could. "No, I'm fine," she insisted. "This is nothing. I'll walk it off."

Wompa gave her sister a worried look, asking her if she was sure, to which Iris responded, "Yes, don't worry about me."

While that was happening, three of the beasts ganged up on Kies and all jumped on him at the same time. Kies blasted one of them away with his winds and cut down the third one with his sword. The animal's head flew off and splattered against the wall.

"Huh, magic is very handy, I have to say..." the thief said in a troubled tone. "I'll have to turn the difficulty up a notch. I can't have you killing any more of my animals." A strange electrifying feeling filled the air. The winds around him began to waver wildly. Kies tried to get them under control but they wouldn't listen to him. What was going on?

"What's going on!" Iris asked. Kies looked at her and saw that she was holding herself and shivering. He then glanced over at Wompa who was watching her sister with an anxious look on her face, seemingly unsure of what her sister was experiencing.

"Can you not feel it?" Kies asked Wompa. She shook her head. She had no idea what Kies was talking about.

"Iris, can you use your magic?" Kies called out to her. Iris held out her hand and shouted, "Spark!" but nothing came up. "What-"

"Sh*t..." Just as he thought. The thief was doing something to interfere with their magic. Kies didn't know what it was, but it was likely a magic-jamming tool of some sort.

*Growl!* The beasts sensed the confusion and panic in the air and closed in on them. Kies raised his sword and charged at the closest one, driving it back with a swing, but the others pounced on him.

"Hoodie!" Iris called out to him. The beasts pinned him to the ground and began to gnaw and slash at his cloak, unable to get through. This confused the beasts and they continued to attack him in an attempt to harm him. "Hoodie!" Iris called out again, this time her voice was cracking as she thought that the worse had happened to Kies.

The two sisters couldn't see what was going on as it was dark and that the beasts were blocking their line of sight, and so when they heard the sounds of snarling and biting, they assumed that Kies was getting ripped to pieces by the starving beasts.

"No... No!" Iris ran at one of the beasts and tried stabbing it in its back hide with her sword but Wompa grabbed her and pulled her back. She pointed up the stairs, telling her that they needed to escape. They had no chance of saving Kies anymore. If they tried, they would just get eaten as well.

Iris knew this as well looking at how viciously they were attacking Kies. As she turned away from the pack of beasts ravaging Kies' body, she held back a wave of tears and began heading up the stairs.

"Where do you think you're going!?" the thief's voice boomed. A volley of arrows flew at them as they were ascending the stairs, forcing them to stop or otherwise get hit by them. The arrows all missed and landed in front of them. A shadow descended from the ceiling and landed at the top of the stairs.

"Your friend died quite a brutal death..." he smugly remarked. "But don't worry. You'll be joining him in the next world," he smiled coldly. The thief drew his bow and fired a shot at Iris. She ducked and the arrow zipped past over her head. *Thuck!* Iris saw something roll down the stairs next to her and hit the floor with a thump. She turned around and saw that the thing was her sister.

"Wompa!" Iris rushed down the stairs and kneeled next to her sister. Thankfully, she was alive. The arrow didn't hit any vital parts, but it did hit her leg. Wompa bit down on her teeth and tried her best to hold in her pain. She opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to say something but something came out. The thief had fired a second arrow that they didn't see and it struck Wompa.

*Growl!* A chill went down Iris' body. She slowly turned around and saw that a number of the beasts now had their attention on them. Iris felt her arm itch as blood and saw that it was covered with blood on the wound. She looked back at Wompa and saw that her leg was leaking a lot of blood as well. The beasts smelled it and were drawn in by the scent. They smelled vulnerability. They smelled food.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!