Chapter 14 - Broken Bar.

Deep in the great forest the Temple doors open with rustic movement, the stone scraping against each other. The hunters hideout glowed from the inside as Alana and Camus leave the maw of the entrance, and in coincidental time Lances carriage had arrived at its destination, the surviving humans in the cage look withered and defeated.

Trailing to the back of it collapses a broken Charles, his feet were so tired and exhausted they bled ferociously. Climbing to his hands and knees, his face was beaten and bruised. While thick red seeps from his teeth, the journey was long and difficult for him, just like his fellow humans.

As Alana passes Lances horse with Camus on a tight leash, looking up at him while he flashes a charismatic smile in her direction.

She observes the cage of people with a neutral stare, they cower under her gaze as if they knew her...but Charles wasn't easily scared by her, provoking her interest.

Approaching him at the back of the cage while his pitiful posture looks up at her from the ground, the staring match went on for a minute before he speaks up.

A disobedient grin on his face.

"Is there something on my face?..."

Suddenly a mixture of spit and blood flies at her face from his lips, hitting her just below her left eye, she gasps in shock as he chuckles.

"Cause there's something on yours~"

She wipes the mess from her cheek, an infuriated glare reaching him. A neat and curved dagger unsheathes from her back, twirling it in her hand while he watches intently.

Getting close in his face.

"You have pretty eyes you know...almost makes me feel bad..."

Taking no time at all she plunges the dagger into his eye, popping it from its socket in brutal fashion as he screams in agony as the hole in his left eye bled furiously.

Lance scoffs at her as he struts over.

"We need him in one piece princess, or there wont be anything left to interrogate" he complains while she wipes her dagger, Charles face pointed to the ground in defeat as he whimpers and growls in pain.

Breathing heavily as the cage is dragged off, Charles clutches his left socket shaking from the trauma and agony.

Camus laughs at the show before him with glee, enjoying the violence of it all, Alana elbowing him in the gut before dragging him away...the resonating sound of her voice calling back to Lance.

"Keep that one in the smallest cage, his spirit is big but ill break him when I'm back"

"Yes Princess Alana, we will await your return eagerly~" he yells back as she disappears into the night with her pet, besides being chained and leashed he wasn't angry at his situation.

Knowing they need him alive for whatever reason.

Carefully observing Alana with scrutinous glares and glances. Noticing she only carried that dagger with her as a weapon, his interest peaking.

"So Princess... whats the reason you have only a dagger? Too weak for a regular sword?"

"A dagger is all I need to slaughter the darkness of this world...don't worry, your cleansing wont be by blade...father has plans for you" She replies with a malicious grin pointed towards him, his eyes uninterested.

"Do carry on, I'm already dying of boredom listening to your voice, the least you could do is buy a poor man a drink~"

"Poor man? Pfft you've lived in a castle your whole life, your entire existence borders on your privilege and your filthy magic" She snaps back, losing her cool in front of him while he smiles back victoriously.

Keeping his voice to himself once they finally come across one of the towns that were unbothered by the recent events, although few humans remained there due to monsters killing them.

Everywhere seemed unsafe in this realm since the balances were shifted, its exactly as it was long ago before the wars.

Alana continues to walk through the town, Camus's head following a bar nearby, a shoddy sign out front that read.

"Survivor's Bar?" He says aloud as Alana follows his gaze, pausing in their tracks.

She scoffs at the sight of it.

"What a terrible name for a bar, luckily no people will see it, we searched this town awhile back" she says readying to move on through the abandoned town.

Until a light catches her eye, looking back to the bar to see its windows were boarded up and a slither of candle light could be seen throughout cracks in the boards.

Her nose scrunches up in suspicion as she peers closer.

"How'd we miss you..." she mutters to herself.

"Perhaps you're terrible hunters"

"Shut it, and don't say a word...this is now a round up" her hiss escapes her as they both wander inside, Alana quickly putting up her hood as she enters the bar.

Sitting down at one of the scattered tables, a few men and women sitting at lonely tables while the barkeep suspiciously eyes the two. Her eyes flitting to everyone, assessing each of them as they drink their slop. A lonely and depressing tone falls over everything in here and the people oozed it too.

Alana sat uncomfortably at the table, the ground rumbles from the distant steps of the new giants roaming the land while the other people notice this too,looking to the outside with dread and fear. Camus sucks in the air through his nose with a warming groan.

"Smell that? the scent of despair?~"

"Be quiet" she hissed, before standing from her table, the strands of orange and silver hair falls down in front of Camus's eyes. His appearance deteriorating in age at a slow rate, each day his skin wrinkles a little more and his hair line slowly receding and graying. But so far he was recognizable.

His signature cocky smirk and his demeaning manners still shone bright in his dark core.

Alana slowly approaches the bar in a non-conspicuous way, her arms laying on the sticky wooden surface with confidence radiating from her body. Her hood set steeply on her head covering her face in the dim lighting, the barkeep approaching her with a less than impressed gaze in his eyes.

"what you having...everything here be free" his thick accent echoes in the bar as she lifts her head, the candle light showing her soft looking lips, curving into a smirk.

"Give me an ale, quickly"

He scoffs at her attitude and begins cleaning a glass with a filthy rag, getting the ale from a barrel behind the bar, piss colored liquid pours from the nozzle in the side as he slams in on the bar, the thud making everyone look in their direction while the barkeep gets closer to her face, a strong creased brow covered his two angry eyes.

"Never seen you round 'ere...who t'fuck are ya..." he sneers, the patrons of the mostly empty bar place their hands on their respected weapons, three men and one woman slowly rise from their seats as Alana remains seated calmly, not even moving once the crowd of fighters surround her stool, Camus looking at the scene with an intrigued glare.

Also slipping from his seat, clutching his stumped hand with the other while his blockers remained shackled to his wrist, the intricate patterns beginning to burn him once he slips out the front door, his eyes gaped and shocked as he stares at the environment, completely different from before they entered.

The once grassy dirt floor and forest setting was now covered in a light scatter of snow, it wasn't falling from the sky but from one direction from outside the town, thuds continuing to rumble the ground beneath his feet, scattering into the town and taking shelter behind a wooden shack.

Back to Alana in the bar, they continue to corner her in, progressively getting angrier.

"I ain't asking ya again bitch! WHO ARE-" His sentence was cut short from the dagger lodged in his cheek, his teeth smashed as blood sprays from the wound with his agonized scream resonating through everyone there. Her attacks were flawless, lifting her foot and jabbing one of the men in his windpipe.

The blow knocking him to the floor with a sickening crack, the woman raises her sword to strike her down, but the dagger gets thrashed from the barkeeps face, ripping his mouth open by its seams as his jaw hangs from his hinges, the eyes rolling to the back while he flops to the floor in a dead heap.

The woman's sword connects with the wood instead of Alana's head, Her sleek figure slithering under her arms and behind her. Pulling back her arm and connecting her hilt with her head, knocking her down to the ground with a minor head injury, her body unconscious, leaving only one left, he gazes upon the fallen people with frightened eyes.

Slowly lowering his sword in defeat, but he'd already unsheathed it in her mind.

Wasting no time, she hurls her dagger through the air, catching him by clavicle and digging straight into him, pinning him against the wall, the dagger sticking into the wall through the other end.

He yells loudly in pain as she saunters up to him, noticing Camus was gone from his seat, scoffing to herself with a protruding finger balanced on the end of the dagger, his pained mutterings incoherent.

"Don't go anywhere...is what I would say if you could, that dagger is made out of memory steel, only I can use it~" she teases him, taking his sword in replacement to hunt down her runaway pet. Strutting towards the entrance with the sword firmly gripped in her hand, seeing another one of the men had dropped.

She smiles with anticipation and picks it up in her other hand, leaving the bar and wandering into the gradually building snow, her eyes staring out into the town, half covered in heavy snow while others remained barely untouched, her eyes slit in suspicion, slowly patrolling the street she was in, calling out to Camus through the blizzard winds.

"If you're going to run and hide like a coward... I have no use for you!" she yells at the top of her lungs, He could hear her faintly, taking a rock to the blockers to break them, but each hit made him flinch from the pain, silently encouraging himself.

Until the rock breaks off a piece of the latch, allowing it to be opened.

He smiles victoriously at this and peers around the corner of the shack to look for her in the worsening blizzard around them, the thuds only growing louder with each minute outside. but neither refused to acknowledge it. She continues in her search for him while her peels one blocker fro his stumped hand.

Four pronged snake teeth like latches emerge from inside his arm, the pain so bad a single tear leaves his eyes, a gratifying groan leaving his lips once they were all removed, two for the fore arm and wrists.

Feeling a weakened pulse of energy inside him return after being blocked for that amount of time, the feeling invigorating, but once he tries accessing it the feeling fizzles, unable to fix his hand until he manages to take the other one off.

Alana was trying her hardest to see through the snow but the white had soon covered everything in a short amount of time, a thud coming from the edge of the town with a guttural groan coming from the trees, the heavy snow obstructing her view, but she knew exactly what it was.

"Shit..." she says under her breath as more ground shaking thuds get closer, a massive figure growing in opacity with each step.

"Elffire!" she yells, the beast finally coming into view in front of her, the tallest thing shes ever seen and to make matters worse, it wasn't a regular giant. The crystal like ice grows on its shoulders and arms in deadly spikes, Going up to its face its eyes have a fiery blue glow to them ad its teeth were cubed and blocked.

A growl leaving its lips once he spots Alana standing there with her swords bared towards it, a challenging stance and a concentrated glare focused on the ice giant. The giant makes the first move and starts walking towards her, the ground around her violently shaking when its foot lifts higher and slamming it into the ground.

Bringing her to her knees unable to find balance, but re centers herself and takes off in the opposite direction, angering the giant as it chases after her tiny figure, the snow just as blinding to him as it is to Alana. But its hunting style pays off once it catches her off guard, whacking her with its large arms, her body connecting with a tree nearby.

She gets up without a flinch and stares at the behemoth from the knees, the swords too far away to reach and the giant begins preparing its final attack on her, opening his mouth wide and letting loose a breath of frost. its concentrated temperature can freeze a body instantly.

And she wasn't able to dodge out of the way in time, the breath shoots from the giants mouth after a lengthy charge, its gets closer to her with each millisecond that goes by, the time slowing in her mind as she closes her eyes and accepts her fate. But a sudden scream of wrath shocks her eyes back open.

Camus jumping in front of her at the last second while black smoke erupts from his hands, shielding the two from the blast while the breath starts solidifying into beautiful crystal shards around the mass. but the two were saved from the deadly blast. Alana's eyes glare upon the Prince with unsure thoughts running through her head.

"Why?"

"No time, I suggest we slaughter this thing~" He says, a mischievous smirk rising on his face. Her brow creased but she smirks along with him, rising from her knees and picking up one of her stray swords.

"Fine, lets make this quick"