The forest had gone silent. No birds, no wind—just the wet rasp of Shou Yi's last breath and the creak of the leader's leather gloves tightening around his sword.
Blood dripped from the dagger in his hand—their blood, not his. The remaining pursuers took a step back, their breath ragged, eyes darting to their dead comrades. Alaric counted their heartbeats: two too fast, one steady. The leader's pulse didn't quicken at all. That was the problem. He wasn't afraid. He seemed excited, like he had won the lottery. I have to change that.
"You have some skill, kid, just made things a lot more difficult for me. You will pay for that". The leader said while he chuckled, not bothered by the death of his subordinates.
He continued, "You two, get him together, don't be fooled, those two were caught by surprise, and paid for it with their lives. Now that he's in front of us, we can get him without any surprises. just don't cripple him if he struggles too much".
The other two glanced at each other, took deep breaths, and stepped forward towards the boy. One coming from his right and the other from the left.
Alaric, seeing them coming towards him, took a deep, steady breath, took a stance, and launched himself towards the man on the left. While the leader spoke before, he had taken his time to observe them closely.
He had observed minor characteristics about both characters; the one on the right was left-handed because he had lost his right arm, while the other was right-handed.
It would make sense to go for the one who had lost an arm, but from what he could tell from his measured steps and strong grip on his sword, he had trained very hard to use his left arm just as efficiently or even more than his former right arm.
Taking them together would leave too many openings to exploit, so he had to quickly take one down before the other, and he chose the weaker one to eliminate first.
Closing in on him, the man panicked and swung his sword towards the little demon that had closed in on him. Alaric sidestepped towards the right before he even swung.
Seeing the opening, he drove the dagger into his side before sliding it towards his stomach, releasing his innards on the grassy ground.
Alaric—indifferent as ever—dashed toward the one-armed man. He needed to end this before the leader joined the fray to make his life any more difficult.
The one-armed man prepared as he was to take a step back and swung at him, hoping to stop him in his tracks, but he side-stepped, adjusting to the flow of the man.
The one-armed man pivoted, his sword grazing Alaric's sleeve. A near miss. Alaric's eyes narrowed—this one had trained a lot harder than the others
The man kept swinging at Alaric while the latter dodged, getting better at it as time passed. he was learning, and fast. He read his movements like a book. cations that took three steps to achieve, now took one.
With a sudden burst of movement, Alaric plunged his dagger into his jugular by jumping up.
The dagger's hilt grew slick in his grip. Copper coated his tongue—whether from his breath or the butchered men, he couldn't care less.
'Only one remaining,' Alaric thought while wondering why the leader was just standing there grinning with excitement.
"Good kid," the leader crooned, grin widening. "Now I don't have to share your price."
"Dead means owns nothing."
Alaric's eyes glinted. "Why sell children?".
This was the first time Alaric had spoken since this chase had started.
"So, you could speak, good, I thought the price you went for would reduce because you couldn't speak. You seem very talented, and it would be a shame if you couldn't speak." The leader said in excitement.
The leader took a stance, prepared to finally capture the boy, "You are making me work every single penny, boy, best be prepared". He spoke while thinking 'I have to take him seriously lest I end up like the rest."