Zenora, The Dragon's Fury
15. Surrounded

Emily’s point of view:

Shit! We are surrounded by a lot of hunters, and I bet that if we would be running, warriors and mages stood around the corner awaiting to catch us.

But why are these fighters not in the army? Or not training at the camps? Are there a lot of powered people who don’t wish to defend their King’s lands? Of course I heard them speak foul words at the bar, but I just can’t understand why they would think like that. I guess that everywhere you go, there will always be bad people.

The man who spoke first, came closer to the edge of the roof he was standing on. His lean build, black hair, evil smirk and dark clothes left nothing to my imagination, he was bad news. I tried reading his mind, but it was blocked, so my assumption of having mages close by is a confirmation of that.

Every fibre in my body screamed to kill this man, but if I would engage into battle right now, many of us would get killed too. We are not at an advantage point right now.

“As Mayor of this lovely city, I feel obligated to get rid of any danger towards my citizens.” He started talking with a smile on his face and venom attached to his voice.

I’m sure that he is not a chosen mayor, he must have used his lackeys that were surrounding us, to get into this position. Knowing that this man is the Mayor and he is claiming to know everything that is going on in his city, he must know about the slaves as well. In fact, I think that he ‘owns’ some of them himself. Oh, the images that arise in my mind right now, of the scars of Ruth, makes every fibre in my body aching to kill this man!

My hands tightened around my white bow, almost releasing an arrow which is aimed for this man’s chest, but Nicolai stopped me. He put a hand on my shoulder and shook his head lightly, motioning for me to lower my bow.

“And as General of the King’s army, I order you to stand down!” Brock yelled at him.

“General? Ooohhh… should I shiver now? I’m not afraid of you!” The man stated, still not a single sliver of fear seen on his face.

I bowed my head down, feeling the blue glow starting to burn in my eyes, but I didn’t want them to see that yet. The men on the rooftops needed to be unaware of my powers, until we would have the advantage.

I tried to calm my breathing, only thinking about my children, happy thoughts is what I needed now. When the glow dissipated I lifted my head again, looking upwards to the Mayor.

Brock was talking to the man on the roof, and he yelled some words back. Neither of them lowering the weapons, or seizing their anger. We have to come up with something!

Wait! Those hunters must have pets of their own, where are they? I looked around me, searching for an enemy hunter that was hesitating to attack. There! One of them shifted his feet and twitched his hands around his bow, he is one of the younger ones, new to battle. I bet he never killed a single soul in his life yet.

I strained my ears, listening to something that might be close to him. And there it was, a small squeak and the young hunter’s head turned just slightly towards the other side of the roof. His animal, and maybe others as well, must be behind the buildings.

I lowered my head again, knowing that I had to use my hunter’s powers, but I never tried something like this. My eyes started to glow again and I was focusing on the squeak that I had heard, trying to feel where this bird was, hoping that maybe I could communicate with it from a distance.

Focusing my mind on the backside of the building, hearing the bird’s quick heartbeat, but I couldn’t compel it to do something. Shit, he was too far away, too much hidden. I needed to see his eyes, so we have to draw them out.

Nicolai read my mind and I told him what we had to do. He smiled lightly at my plan, not really happy with it, but it was our only way out of this. We have to get animals close to me, for me to maybe turn them against their owners.

I’m not sure if I am able to do that, but Archeops always told me that he was stunned to see me communicate with other tamed animals so easily. It was really uncommon to be able to get into the minds of animals that were already tamed by others. Not even my trained Rangers could communicate with other hunter’s animals.

Yes, they all have similar abilities with a perfect aim, more endurance and guiding their pets and using their abilities to the fullest, blue eyes and all. But their power was still nothing compared to what I could do. Seeing pet’s visions and feeling their presence, using my magic on the arrows, or having the eyesight, hearing and sense of smell that I possess right now.

During the years, all my hunter’s abilities have grown to this point at which I wasn’t sure it could grow any further. But I have to try, we have to get a window of opportunity.

“You don’t know who you are dealing with, Mayor!” Brock stated firm.

“General, do you really believe that with the few of you, you can beat my men?” He raised his arms up, pointing to all of the men that surrounded us on the rooftops, we were clearly outnumbered, but not outpowered.

I had raised my head, looking at the arrogant man on the roof, a small smile appeared on my face.

“Maybe if you knew what some of us could do, then you might not be so secured of yourself.” I said.

“General, I knew you were weak, but letting a woman talk in your team? That is really the definition of weak.”

I could feel the gaze of Brock burning in my back, but I didn’t care anymore. I’ll show him how weak I am! My eyes started to glow with the brightest blue there is to replace, it even lit up the streets a bit more brighter. The Mayor gasped and all of his men shifted their feet now. They were fearing for their lives. Good!

“Kill them! Kill them ALL!” The dark man yelled.

Arrows from all around us, started to shoot in our direction. With rapid fire I shot arrows in the chests of at least three hunters, making them fall over in pain or death. From both sides of the street, warriors appeared, making their way to fight our warriors.

Nicolai used his spells to turn away the incoming arrows, turning another hunter temporary into a block of ice, and shooting an arcane volley to the incoming warriors on our left.

My rangers turned their eyes blue, so now there were six people with blue eyes standing in the centre. I could see the realization of the men on the roof sink in, knowing that we are killing them faster than they could harm us. Soon, whistles and yells were heard and finally, their pets arrived at the scene.

As I expected, the young hunter on the roof had a bird, a brown hawk. He made it soar in my direction, but there was something in this hunter’s eyes, the boy isn’t bad, I think that he is forced to do this. So, I didn’t shoot my arrows towards his hawk, I let it come close to me and when it did, I stepped aside and touched his wing.

The bird fell on the ground, not dead, but sound asleep. As it was dark, almost midnight, it was hard to tell from a distance that the hawk was sleeping though. I could hear the young hunter scream and yell for his pet, I could only imagine how it must feel that he lost his dear friend.

Other hunters send off their animals towards us as well. While my Rangers shot back at them, I solely focused on their pets, taunting them to only attack me. Of course this was my plan all along, getting them on my side, instead of theirs.

“Don’t shoot the animals.” I told my Rangers.

A wolf came running in my direction, teeth bared, mucus dripping, clearly rabid to kill me. I looked him in the eyes, focusing on his mind, telling him to stop. But he didn’t do that just yet.

I got almost knocked over by a warthog running at my right side. Without leaving my gaze on the wolf, I stepped aside and touched the hog’s head, making it slide against a wall, breaking his head on impact. That was not my plan! I never meant to hurt the animals, only making them sleep. But this was war, I had to continue.

The wolf finally succumbed to my will and stopped fighting, laying still on the ground. More and more pets came rushing in, and I felt overwhelmed by all the eyes that were pinpointing at me.

I’m not sure if I could do this, there were at least thirty more animals coming our way.

“Princess, can you take them all?” I heard one of my Rangers ask, but I couldn’t give him a satisfying answer.

“I honestly don’t know. But hell have to freeze over, in order for me to stop trying.”