Souls Intertwined (Fraxus)

Chapter 8

Me and Bickslow realise our goal; eliminate the gang and get our hands on the chest with the crystals. Seems simple enough, but considering that we are kids battling against adult men, the task won't be so easy.

"One of the men is getting up!" Bickslow says with a loud whisper.

"Shh!" I reply.

Luckily, we remain behind the bushes in the forest without being found out, but we see the bandana man standing up and walking further into the forest.

"We have a chance." Bickslow whispers.

"Wait, we can't go yet, one of the other men will sit on there temporarily." I respond.

As I rightly guessed, the man with blonde hair, sat opposite to the chest, moved from where he was sat onto the chest to protect it.

"Bickslow, I think you should knock one of the men out now to lower the numbers. I'll set a trap for the bandana man coming back." I explain.

"Okay." Bickslow replies.

I get on my hands and knees and crawl as quietly as I can around the ring of bushes and hedges to get to the opposite side of our original position to lay down a rune for the bandana man to step into. As I continue crawling, I get stopped halfway as I bump into something. My heart beats faster as I lift my head to see the towering beast in front of me.

"I thought I heard a noise." The bandana man chuckles.

Crap! This isn't good!

"I'm sorry. I didn't know there were people here." I reply quietly.

"Yeah right, I'm not stupid, you have a guild mark on your hand." The man says angrily.

His huge hand stretches down towards me and grabs me by the collar of my jacket; I'm in trouble. The only magic I practise are runes, but I'm not quick enough to use them in this sort of situation. I wriggle and flail my arms and legs, trying to break free from this beast's grip. It's no good, he's too strong, all I can do is hang like a doll as he carries me back to the enemy zone.

I'm dropped onto the ground in the middle of the camp and I look towards Bickslow, seeing his worried face as he awaited my signal. I can't help him, but at the same time, I don't want him to get in trouble either...

"Let's go babies! Attack!" Bickslow exclaims as he jumps out of the bushes and controls his dolls like weapons.

"Attack, attack, attack!" The dolls chimed as they flew in the air like predator birds going in for the kill.

Bickslow's dolls managed to knock out the blonde haired man, but the other two men tried to shoot the dolls down. As the gang are distracted, I know that trying to escape would be the best option, but I also know that I could still be caught and subjected to worse punishment. As I look beside me, I see a wooden stick that had snapped off of a tree, this gives me an idea.

I hear Bickslow shouting at me, telling me to run, but I continue to ignore him as he keeps controlling his dolls to dodge the bullets hurtling towards them.

"I think we need some ammo too, line formation babies!" Bickslow declares as his dolls stack on top of one another and they shoot a large green beam towards the gang.

Although the attack seemed to hit the target, when the dust from the ground cleared, it is revealed that the gang had a trump card. As well as having guns fuelled with magic power, one of the men must also have a defensive ability to produce shields to block attacks.

"Damn it, my attacks won't work on them anyway." Bickslow says.

"Bickslow! Keep shooting at them, push them back!" I shout.