Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1) (10 page)

After another half hour it became clear that the horses would win the race unless he Rushed again. It was also clear that all eight of the men that had been sent for the ambush, were after him.  He wanted to wait to use Bull Rushes Down until the last moment though. So he continued to jog for nearly another hour, until the lead horse was only a few feet behind him. Uktesh spied that the riders did not have bows.  He took a deep breath and Rushed forward.  He could hear the sounds of surprise and the curse words over the drum of the hooves. He didn’t know how long he could hold up this pace, but as the wind howled in his ears, he thought he heard the sound of labored breath coming from the horses.

They ran on and, even while Rushing the horses were able to slowly catch up to him. So he sighed and moved up into an imperfect form similar to Bull Rushes Down, called Hawk Soars.  He immediately felt his leg muscle twitch in pain, but he forced himself on. Now, as he began to travel twice as fast as his fastest sprint, he was out distancing the horses.  He heard the sound of horses as they neighed loudly. He turned to see that there were only six chasing after him now, and the remaining six horses had pink foam on the edges of their mouths.

I can’t let these idiots kill their horses. It’s not fair to the horses.
  He slowed to Rushing and pulled his unstrung bow out from the tube of cloth. Now that the horses had begun to catch up, he swung his bow like a club and hit the lead horse in its muzzle.  It slowed to a walk and stopped.  Then two more horses decided they didn’t want to run anymore, and slowed to a walk no matter what their riders did.

Three left! 
Those three split apart and came abreast with him, and Uktesh knew that they planned to crush him between their two horses.  He let them get close enough to try and when they did he used the second, vertical, form of Hawk Soars to jump up as high as he could.  He planted each of his feet, one on each horse’s withers, and swung his bow.  He knocked the two horsemen off their saddles.  Uktesh gestured rudely at the remaining rider, and then he drew his sword from the sheath at his waist.  Uktesh grinned and repeated the gesture. The man charged his horse at the two horses that Uktesh stood on and viciously cut the legs out from under the horse closest to him. 

Uktesh was barely able to shift his weight to the other horse.  He had tried so hard to save the horses once he realized that they were close to death from exhaustion.
It’s not fair!  This poor animal had tried so hard to catch me, only to have one of its master’s friends kill it! 
Uktesh realized that he was furious, only after he realized that he’d leapt from his remaining horse and performed a balanced unarmed attack that as far as he knew, he’d just made up.  He kicked off the horse with one leg, his uninjured one, spun in the air, and kicked the man with the knee of the leg that had kicked off the horse.  His hands, while he was doing that, had slid the sword down and away from his body. Now he was straddling a semi-conscious man, who bled freely from a broken nose and most probably several missing teeth. With one hand, Uktesh had an iron grip one his opponent’s wrist that held a sword. Uktesh had to drop his bow to complete the maneuver. 

The man tried to punch him with his free hand, but Uktesh, once he had dropped the ream of cloth between them, batted away the fist with his right hand and punched him across the mouth.  The horse without any instructions had slowed to a walk.  The man tried to punch him again. Uktesh twisted his left hand and broke the man’s wrist and he dropped his sword.  Uktesh punched him again for good measure, jumped off the now stopped horse, and grabbed the ream.  He retrieved the man’s sword and his own bow.  To his frustration he saw that some of the fallen men were now standing again and were on their way towards him.  He put the bow back through the middle of the ream, checked to ensure that the protective covering had shielded it from the man’s blood, and once satisfied, he continued his jog towards Manori.  But then he stopped suddenly when he realized that he was at the tree where Laurilli was supposed to wait for him. 
By Rushing and then Soaring, I must’ve made the forty eight miles trip in little over four hours!

“Laurilli, come down! We have to hurry. Those men are trying to rob me. The good news is I got you a sword!”

He walked under the tree and looked up at the lowest branch only to find a trail of blood that had not been there when he left her. 
Baloce and Dekan! 
Now that he looked around, he could see signs of a struggle that lead off into the trees off the road.  Uktesh Rushed and then Soared through the trees.  His eyes followed the clear trail that they had left. He could hear Laurilli as she struggled and the sound of a man as he cursed at her.  Uktesh burst onto a scene out of his worst nightmare. Laurilli had been attacked!   dark bruise had already formed under her left eye.  She was tied to a tree.  One of six hooded people had a knife on her and had paused in his attempt to make a show of slowly cutting her clothes from her body.  Uktesh assumed the six hooded people were men. 

Uktesh dropped the cloth ream, his bow, and completed Hawk Soars.  While one of the assailant’s head fell from his shoulders, Uktesh had already spun into a perfect Crescent Moon, a spinning sword attack that sliced the two men who had been near the final cut into Laurilli’s clothes that would have caused them to fall from her body.  His sword felt no resistance as it cut from left shoulder blade to right and severed both their spines in the process.  With two quick flicks of his wrist, he cut Laurilli loose. 

As all three of the dead men and Laurilli collapsed, Uktesh turned on the three hooded figures. One whose voice he did not recognize said, “A demon!  Run!”  The three turned as one and ran off. Uktesh turned to chase them down, but the thought of Laurilli left alone again froze him in his place.  He cleaned his blade on the shirt of one of the fallen men and saw Laurilli was curled up in a tiny ball.

How could I have been so foolish!  I should’ve never left her alone!  She’s worth far more to me than one gold piece!  If she had come we would’ve had to fight the eight men, though, because we would never have been able to out run them. 
He glanced towards her and saw that she now sat with her back against the tree. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, and her eyes were vacant.  His heart ached to comfort her, but first he needed to check to see who attacked Laurilli. 

Uktesh took off the hoods from the dead men. The first two he didn’t recognize, but the third was the second man from Tylor Taylor’s Tailoring that hadn’t said anything. 
That man must’ve heard our plan and set about to attack us when we came back!  Is no one in this world honest?  Is no one worthy of trust? 
He immediately thought of Heathyr and Laurilli and knew that there were at least two honest and trustworthy people.  He quickly searched their bodies and found nearly four golds worth in coins.
So either they’re all wealthy enough to carry this much money or they were paid recently.

Uktesh sat next to Laurilli and simply wrapped his arms around her and didn’t say anything.  She leaned against him and cried.  After a while her tears stopped, she nestled into him, and moved closer.  Uktesh knew that soon they would have to leave, before predators could be attracted to the smell of fresh blood.  Besides if they wanted to still get the extra gold, they would need to move soon.  He ignored the risk of both possible consequences, though, for Laurilli’s sake, as he didn’t want to move her until she was ready.  Laurilli started to move against him and just when he thought she was getting ready to get up, he felt her lips on his neck, then his cheek, and finally his lips.  First tentatively, then with more fervor, they kissed.   In the back of his mind Uktesh knew that she probably felt vulnerable and scared and that her momentary passionate affection was simply a product of the relief she now felt.  He knew it wasn’t the type of kiss he wanted, but he didn’t want to stop either, no matter what her reasons were for the kiss. Reluctantly, he gently pushed her away and said, “We need to get out of here before those men come back, or before wolves or worse come.” 

He stood up and he inspected the cloth that he’d dropped to make sure it was clean. Once he was satisfied, he placed his bow again inside the cloth ream and placed both on his shoulder again.  Laurilli had stood up. Where her axe was, he didn’t know. Wordlessly, he handed her the sword of the man from White Bridge he’d killed earlier.  He ignored everything he’d been trained not to do and held out his hand to her. Her warm, soft hand was suddenly in his, as she had rushed to him.  He smiled and together they walked back towards the road. There was only a slight rustle in the bushes to give him a warning.   But without thinking, Uktesh performed the unarmed attack Crescent Axe Kick and connected with the wolf spider that he had barely registered had attacked. 

A three feet tall, hairless wolf spider stood before Uktesh.  They got their name firstly because, they looked like a wolf, if a hairless and a different color, and secondly because if one of these bit a person, it would paralyze or possibly kill them outright, depending on the color of the skin. The more red it was the older it was, and therefore more deadly.  The blood red wolf flew twelve feet and landed next to one of the bodies, which it ignored.  Wolf spiders would eat the dead, but preferred their victims to be alive while they ate.  Uktesh saw two slightly pinker and only slightly smaller female wolf spiders exit from the bush, followed by four pink, two feet tall adolescents. 
Thrice cursed luck!  A full pack? 
He looked at Laurilli as dread began to sink deep in his stomach, “Take this and run!” he said and handed her the roll of cloth. Then he pushed her towards the road.  “I’ll catch up soon!”  With a shrug he unsheathed his father’s sword,
I will save her!  I can kill seven before their poison kills me!  I have to!  
Tears stung his eyes,
I should’ve told her I loved her. 

He heard her run and then, as if there had been a sound of a gong to begin a fight, the four pups and two females moved.  Just as he flowed into balanced Moth to the Flame, one of the two females was dead.  He spun, and was unable to completely avoid the other female as its claws slashed four rows along his side. Desperately, he kicked out at two of the four adolescents to distract them, and flowed into an imperfect Hawk Soars to kill the alpha male, as it started to move towards the fight.  He saw that the remaining female didn’t chase after him, but rather it and two of the adolescents raced towards Laurilli. 
No!  

He reversed directions and flowed into Serpent Strikes and in an instant crashed into the last female adult and felt his sword slice into its heart as it died.  A low growl alerted him too late that at least one of the adolescents was right on him.  He felt a sharp pain in his right leg, and quickly spun to decapitate the wolf spider that had bit him. Then he felt claws rake his back, and he turned and to stabbed into the other and killed it.  He stood as the two adolescents that remained charged him. His leg was already going numb,
 I will be able to save her!
  He awkwardly flowed into a balanced Shield of Air, and killed the last two spider wolves. 
I lived!  How did I live? 
He wiped away some sweat and his hand came back red.
When did my head get cut?

He smiled and started to limp toward the road. He hoped that Laurilli was ok, as she was heading towards the rest of the would be thieves, who now seemed to be a lesser enemy by comparison.  A howl, that was closer to a roar, shook him from his head to his numb foot, and vibrated through his chest.  He turned only to see the biggest wolf spider he’d ever heard of. 
It’s closer to the size of a horse than a wolf.  
In the dark part of the forest, it looked black.  He thought that maybe this was a different, or new, Afflicted beast, but as it stepped into the light of the clearing, he could see that it wasn’t black. It was deep, dark, nearly purple, red.  Uktesh’s whole right leg was numb now.
What can I do against that thing? 

It opened its mouth and howled a second time. As it did so, Uktesh felt something inside of himself respond to the challenge. 
I’m going insane,
he thought to himself in a panic,
I’m actually excited to fight this monster! 
Again it howled and again Uktesh felt a primal call to go to battle, He shouted right back at the beast in a wordless cry of fury.  In a blink it moved, faster than he could see. It jumped to his right, and came in straight for him with a burst of speed. Somehow, on its own, the beast was able to flank him. 

He flowed into a balanced, defensive Dances with Bull, without actually mentally registering that he had moved.  Then quickly he flowed into an imperfect Leaf Falls and barely scratched it.  He had to jump away in a perfect form of evasion Cat Landing on Fence, to avoid the reprisal bite that was directed at him from the monster.  

He rolled and came to his feet only to find that the beast had surprised him again, by going on the offensive again.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw through a break in the trees that Laurilli had started to run back towards him.
What’s she thinking!
  He dodged again, as it dodged his quick cut, and again he dodged it’s return attack.  He saw that Laurilli was being chased by five men.  The beast howled again, and even though he was tired, cut, and no longer able to feel his ankle, as it slowly began to become paralyzed, he charged it, shouting in defiance as he ran.  He blocked again with Dances with Bull, but it was so fast that he could still feel the air of its near miss. He jumped in with another Leaf Falls and struck it in the hamstring of one of its back legs.  It let out a howl, and even with one of its back legs dragging behind, it charged at him.