Chapter 3: ...There is an End
Three months later.
Gwen held Kai by the wrist and twisted quickly before tossing him over her shoulder. He landed on the sandy floor of the training grounds with a soft thud.
"THAT one is for making me clean up after your weight training yesterday!"
Soren looked on approvingly as Kai rolled onto his knees and rubbed his back. Gwen had made incredible strides in the last three months. She had surpassed Kai in her abilities long ago.
At this rate, she would be even stronger than the masters come winter.
"No fair! How are you already better than me?" Kai stood up and assumed an offensive stance again. Gwen relaxed and sighed.
"It's 14 to 0, Kai. Why don't we get dinner and call it a night?"
Soren took a step forward to critique their forms during the exercise, but he was stopped by Master Li running up to his side. Li leaned in to whisper to him:
"The group that began ascending the mountain this morning will arrive before nightfall. They are heavily armed and making quick work of the cliffs."
Soren nodded grimly.
"I am needed elsewhere, children. You did well today. Go and eat."
He left with Li in the direction of his study, speaking in low tones.
"If it is really them, we do not stand a chance."
○○○
Gwen sat across from Kai fiddling with her untouched plate. She was thinking of Soren's words from earlier.
Soon after waking up she realized that her perception was much better than those around her. It always annoyed Kai when she announced who was coming around the corner before the person was visible.
Naturally, this included hearing.
We don't stand a chance? Is it the Ashen Prince himself?
Kai looked up from his nearly empty plate for the first time since they sat down and asked with full cheeks, "Hey, Gwen, you have not taken any bites. Is something unwell?"
"Oh," Gwen said distractedly. "I'm just wondering… would anyone want to attack us up here, Kai?"
"Of course not! Up against all of us they would lose too quickly! Even the Ashen Prince's own assassin could not stop us."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Gwen still couldn't remember anything from that night, but, just like the rest of the order, she had been doing her best to adjust.
The duo finished their dinners and were headed to the kitchen with their plates when a pupil burst into the room. He was bleeding heavily from the arm.
"Intruders! Attack!" was all he could force out before collapsing.
Instinctively Gwen reached for a knife from a cabinet. It felt surprisingly comfortable in her hand.
Kai and several other monks had already rushed to where the student had collapsed.
"He is not breathing! What has happened out there?"
"Let's find out," Gwen replied nervously. She was confident in a training bout, but seeing the pupil die rattled her.
Real fighting with real stakes!
Gwen and Kai sprinted through the halls of Cloud Level Monastery. They were following one of the masters that was in the dining hall with them, Master Kuo.
Kuo was barking orders to the pupils behind him as they ran past injured monks in the hallway.
"Someone compress their wounds, these two have been attacked by blades! Help your brothers!"
Neither Gwen nor Kai stopped in the hallway. They were on their way to fight.
As they got closer to the front of the monastery they began to smell smoke.
Are they burning us out? Just how many attackers are there?
Kai and Gwen were the last two pupils behind Master Kuo.
Just as the trio rounded the final corner to the entrance courtyard, an armored knight burst through the wooden corridor and slammed into Kai. Both of them crashed into the other wall, breaking a second hole clean through to a side courtyard.
Gwen and Kuo turned to run to Kai, but a second armored knight stepped into the hole made by the first.
"Go to aid Kai! I will deal with this nuisance," Kuo said while assuming an offensive stance.
Without hesitation Gwen rushed out of the second opening and scanned the ground.
The knight was pushing himself up out of the pile of broken lumber. Kai had been thrown close to the center of the courtyard from the force.
Luckily they were alone.
Seeing Kai in a crumpled heap in the center of the courtyard caused hot rage to well up behind Gwen's eyes. She wanted to breathe fire.
Before the knight could stand straight, Gwen was on him.
Gwen sent a powerful kick to the side of the knight's knee, causing him to fall again. Using the knife she had taken from the kitchen, Gwen stabbed through the knight's visor with a sickening crunch.
But, to her surprise, he kept moving!
The knight stood and drew his blade and faced Gwen, a knife still protruding from where his face ought to be.
How did he survive? He didn't even flinch!
As the knight brought his sword down toward Gwen, she pirouetted to dodge and sent another kick, this time toward the knight's head.
The force tore his helm from his head, and exposed a hideous rotting face.
Undead! He is part of the Ashen Prince's army!
Pulling back from the recoil of the kick, the knight suddenly swept toward Gwen's waist with his sword.
Can't dodge!
Gwen was unarmed and had nothing to block the sweep.
In that moment, she thought of that night in the Tower of the Flock.
[Shadow Blade]!
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