Talons

When his brother asked him to leave, Nianzu flicked his tongue in anger. "Very well, brother."

The two yingmo clan group started west, even as the Royal Warriors began to climb the ridge towards them.

While Yingmo left without doing anything to support Luding's plan, some distance from them, Hao Lei, leader of the Talons, ran, loosed an arrow from his dwindling store, and ran again. His Qi arrows were all but gone, and he had only hunting arrows. The heaven-damned righteous and their warriors had more armor than he'd ever seen. And the monsters—he'd been a fool to ever trust them and no doubt imperiled his soul, as well. He was bitter—tired, angry, and defeated.

But he'd seen the king fall. It was some consolation, but it didn't seem to slow the rest of the warriors any, and like all his kind, he faced an ugly death if he was caught, so he waited a heartbeat, stepped from behind his tree, put a shaft under the arm of a warrior, and turned and ran again.