Chapter 13: The Hunters

Seth

 It only took them one day after entering the Elven lands to come under attack. It was in the morning and they only had half a days journey left until they made it to the capitol. Strat was watching as his friends break down camp in the shallow wood where they had made camp the night before. the trip so far had remained uneventful and for that Strat was thankful. Strat made himself some coffee from the pot, that Michelle had put on when she had awoke in the morning, filling the entire area with the smell of coffee. Unfortunately the fire was only smoldering so the coffee didn't get heated all the way. Strat shrugged, a warm coffee was definitely better than no coffee. He was deeply engrossed in thinking about half heated coffee when he felt it through the earth. The vibrations of about a two dozen or more running feet. But these steps weren't frantic they were paced and careful. Light steps that were hard to even feel, the steps came from all around their camp and, they travelled only in one direction. Right for the camp. Strat whipped around and his mouth opened to warn his friends of the impending attack, but Seth beat him to it.

 Seth

 "Incoming," Seth yelled as he pushed Rylee out of the way of a bolt of darkness as it came hurling out of the densely packed forest. It whizzed overhead striking a half taken down tent and exploded. The explosion sent Matt tumbling over the fire pit. In an instant mike and jack were on their feet weapons in hand. However, Aria and Michelle weren't so lucky. Dark bolts struck the two of them as they came running back towards the center of camp from where they had been loading up the horses. They tumbled to the ground where they laid clothes smoking. Seth raised his left hand and punched the earth and a wall of stone rose out of the ground encircling the camp at about chest height. A moment later a dome of brilliant white light encompassed the encampment as well offering additional protection. Seth grabbed Rylee's hand and pulled her upright as she reached for her weapon.

 "Everyone find cover!" Seth heard Strat yell Seth and Rylee ran for the earthen wall. Seth looked back to see Strat holding up the dome of light as bolts of darkness slammed into it. As each bolt hit the shield they exploded shaking the ground and deafening Seth with the noise. Seth put his hand out and fire a bolt into the brush where he spotted movement. An unearthly howl erupted and a demon fell forward through the brush dead. Seth peeked over the barricade to look at the demon he had just felled. Seth had only glimpsed it briefly but what he had seen didn't seem right. But as two more bolts flew into his barricade he decided to wait and focus on the battle.

 Seth looked out over the encampment trying to locate everyone. Aria and Michelle were still down. Seth felt a twinge of pain as he saw their unmoving bodies. Seth noticed that as a bolt exploded near Aria her hand twitched which meant that they were still alive. Seth scanned the camp to find the one person he was truly worried about. Rubia. It wasn't long before he spotted her. She was crouched behind a tree tears running down her face as she openly sobbed. Terror was written all over her face as bolts of darkness few in every direction. Standing over her was a kind of demon Seth had never seen before. Seth's first impression of it screamed hunter. it was sleek with longer legs it was less humanoid and instead had the look of a predator. It still stood on two feet with two clawed hands but its legs boasted powerful hunches that spoke of a speed that other demons didn't possess. It's wings were folded along its back and instead of a almost human face it had a long snout, its mouth full of wicked sharp teeth. It wore armor even if it was only black leather chestplate with a thin hood. that only covered half of its snout. The demon was looking down at Rubia with a hunger in it's eyes. 

 "Rubia!" Seth exclaimed as he began to gather his feet beneath him to run to her side. There was no way that Seth was going to let that demon no matter how terrifying it looked, hurt Rubia. But, before Seth could even begin to move Seth heard the distinct sound of a gun being cocked. From over where the horses were came a flash of light and the demon screamed in pain as it was riddled with holes. In an Instant roots of a tree began to grow out of the wound and wrap themselves around the demon killing it almost immediately. It fell sideways landing only a few inches from Rubia's terrified face which caused her to scream. Then running across the clearing was John with out any armor and still in his boxers he was holding his weapon. which much to Seth's surprise seemed to be some kind of sawed off shotgun, made of pure silver. Bolts flew at him from every direction, as he ran he yelled something that Seth couldn't make out as he dove for the tree that Rubia hid behind. He threw himself into a roll and came up gun at the ready. he pointed his gun at Seth and fired. For a split second Seth actually thought that John had been aiming for him and he felt his blood chill. But when he fired Seth heard the scream of a demon from the other side of the earthern barrier. John scowled at Seth. 

 "Don't worry about other's focus on yourself! We already have two down!" Seth nodded realizing he was right. Seth looked to his right to where Rylee was crouched she looked over at him as well. She reached up and pushed a strand of her brown hair out of her eyes.

 "He's right you know, " She said in her usual haughty voice. Seth only smiled and then tried to refocus on the fight. Seth peek over the edge of the barrier trying to get a view of where the enemy was positioned. The first thing he saw was one of the snarling beasts charging straight at his part of the barricade at an impossible speed. 

 "Oh crap, " Seth said as he quickly raised his hand palm out and fired a bolt of white energy straight at the charging fiend. It reached behind it's back and drew a slim black curved sword, which it used to slash aways Seth's bolt of energy. Seth tightened his grip on his sword as heade the split second decision to hop over the barricade and meet the creature head on.

 "Seth! What are you doing!" Rylee exclaimed. Truth was Seth really didn't know himself. He could have pretended he had a plan but he didn't, he was just trying to keep the demons away from the barricade. As Seth engaged the demon another shield of light was erected by Strat over the clearing. But Seth was far to busy to pay attention to that. Seth dove to the right as the snapping jaws of the demon came almost too close to taking a chunk out of his side.

 Seth swung Sonfang towards the left side of the creature trying to finish the fight fast but it danced sideways so Seth only succeeded in grazing it. Seth gave chase only to throw himself backward in a summersault as a dark blade whisked over his head. Seth was pretty sure he'd gotten a bit of a hair taken off from that. Seth brought his sword around horizontally and this time he felt sonfang cut as he decapitated the beast. But Seth didn't have time to feel good about his victory because immediately after that Seth was attacked by another demon. Seth parried both of the enemies blows and the lunged his sword sliding past the demons guard into it's belly. It roared and slashed out with its swords. Seth didn't have time to react, one sword tore open a gash on his thigh while the other one left a sizable cut on his left forearm. Seth felt the pain explode in his body and he had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out as yet another creature charged at him from the bushes. Seth raised his uninjured right hand and let loose a fury of bolts that knocked the demon to the ground. It slid forward it's body smoking it was dead.

 These attack went on for several minutes before Seth group successfully killed the demons off. Seth stabbed the last on in the gut just as Strat came flying over head and took the demons head off. Seth watched Strat land and roll sword at the ready. Then he slowly stood.

 He looked at Seth. "That seems to be all of them." He said then a smile broke out on his face. "What a way to wake up huh?. Seth willed some bandages to appear and then began wrapping his wounds.

 "Yeah, no kidding," He replied grunting as pain erupted from his arm. He was wrapping the bandages as tight as he could. Having to use his teeth to pull the cloth at sometimes. Blood splotches appeared on the clothes covering the wounds. The cuts had been far deeper that Seth had first thought.

 "Seth," Strat said. Seth looked up.

 "You know we have healing bandages right?" Seth nodded.

 "I do but I have a feeling Aria and Michelle will need those more."

 Seth and Strat returned to the clearing to find most of the group were hovered over Aria and Michelle who had been moved and we're now laying on their back side by side near the fire. Both were unconscious and both bore nasty burns. Seth limped into the clearing and kneeled beside Rylee who was trying to apply the lightforce's healing bandages to the girls wounds. 

 "I need you to give me some space," Rylee said without looking at Seth. Her eyes were completely focused on the task. Seth said nothing, he really didn't have the energy to either. So he struggled back to his feet and shuffled back. Mike came over to him and sat down on the ground next to him. His right pauldron was smoking. He looked up at Seth noticing the wounds. 

He raised an eyebrow. "You alright there?" he asked. Seth nodded. "You know if you had been wearing your armor that wouldn't have happened right?" Seth looked down at him to see Mike smiling. Seth cracked a smile himself. Mike's dry humor was always a welcome distraction from his pain. On the other side of the clearing Strat, Jack, John and Matt were talking, probably trying to figure out the next move now that they had two injured. Matt's hair was definitely singed from his little tumble in the fire pit, and he looked non too pleased about it either. Seth closed his eyes and tried to focus on the earth. Someone had to keep a look out in case there were more of those hunter demons. Sure enough Seth felt several dozen light footsteps coming straight for them. They were still several miles out but they were closing fast.

 "Strat! We need to leave," Seth yelled. "Now!" Strat looked over at Seth his face a mixture of confusion. Mike also looked up at him clearly confused. Then Seth saw Strat and Jack's faces change.

 "No, there's more of them," Jack said clearly distressed. Strat shook his head.

 "We need to get the wounded up and on horses now." Rylee's head shot up at that. 

 "What! Move them, i haven't even begun to treat them if we move them it could make their condition worse." Strat walked over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder looking her in the eyes.

 "I don't like it either but right now more enemies are coming, too many to fight. It's either we risk moving them or we all die here." Rylee looked down at Aria and Michelle for a moment and then her shoulder drooped.

 "okay but i need you guys to help me get them up and tied into the saddle. Seth stood up and began to make his way to the horses. Mike ran up behind him and offered a shoulder.

 "Here i'll help you get on the horse." 

 "We need to hurry," Strat said. "Leave anything that isn't important we make for the Elven Capitol!"