Sixteen days, two hours, twenty minutes, and five seconds.
Eight hundred years ago, my father had waged war with the monsters of the deep. I was his general. What was the reason? We could not bear having creatures who could cause harm to our persons live. It was a cruel policy, but a choice that had to be made.
Over the span of two hundred years, I had hunted and killed millions of these creatures, but some had proven elusive. The Dorjets were one of the few to escape our wrath.
The moment Joshua picked it up, I knew we were in trouble.
"Cute little goat-rabbit." Joshua tickled the Dorjet's black fur with his index finger, while I looked up in horror at the Destination... that is what a group of them were called. Worse, they all looked back at us, staring with a hungry intensity.
The first one was a bloody scout.
"Joshua, put that thing down," I whispered, taking a few steps back as quickly as I could, while still trying not to make any sudden movements.
"Magnus, this would make a lovely pet," he said, turning to me, the beast raised up high like a child.
"That's a Dorjet," I replied hotly, my volume still extremely low. The last thing we wanted to do was give a swarm of demon bunnies a reason to kill us.
We were gods. Impervious to mortal weapons and normal physical attacks. But when faced with things of our nature...
"Ouch!" Joshua yelped. He flung the Dorjet away with a violent jerk. It landed with a soft thud in the snow and hissed, baring rows of needle-teeth stained with bright red. Joshua immediately began nursing his hand.
"The little bastard bit me," he complained and immediately pointed at it. "Bad abomination."
The rustling of the trees and shrieking of the birds came to an abrupt end. The very forest felt like it was waiting. On edge.
That's when my brother looked up and realized exactly how much danger we were in.
That was when I turned and ran, forsaking him to his fate, while hoping he had the sense to follow.
That was the moment a thousand black fur balls descended on us, each one's teeth deadlier than a piranha's.
I stopped and turned to see Joshua fighting instead of running. He froze the first few, his hand moving with deadly precision, but they were too many. One clamped around his legs and bit hard. Joshua kicked it away, the animal flying several hundred feet into the air.
"Joshua, run!!" I screamed frantically. But they were beginning to swarm him. He let forth blast after blast, but Catherine's toxin was still in effect, slowing him down.
I didn't think... curse my brotherly responsibility. My powers were completely spent, leaving me more helpless than him, but I picked up the only weapon I could find,a heavy log,and ran to help my brother.
When Dorjets feed, they feed off everything, bones included. I was running to my death, a death that even my father would know nothing of. A Dorjet bit into Joshua's thigh and he screamed in agony.
"Aghhh!!" I roared in blind fury, struggling through the heavy snow.
I was almost to him when the sound of heavy automatic gunfire tore through the air. I reached Joshua just as bullets rained down; I pushed him into the snow and shielded him with my own body. The stupid things we do for love.
My brother was a shivering mess of blood and snow.
"You idiot," I cursed, my heart hammering against my ribs.
He looked up at me, a weak, blood-stained smile on his face. "I'd still pet it."
"Hello, boys." I looked up to see that familiar smug face and deadly blue eyes. Her entire body was covered in scratch marks and a huge gash lay open on her forehead, painting her entire face a ghastly red.
"Ah, Catherine. Fancy seeing you here," Joshua said with a smile.
Catherine simply nodded, pointed the gun at us, and fired.
The bullet hit Joshua and bounced off at a dangerous angle, forcing her to duck low. We didn't even have the time to yell or process everything that had just happened, because we had both expected more poison darts.
When the bullet ricocheted, a smile immediately crept up my face; Catherine's own smug look was now replaced with fear.
"Wait now, boys," she said, backing away slowly. "We can talk about this."
Joshua painfully rose to his feet while I already brandished my log in my hand. It was no Frostfang, but it would do sufficient damage.
"How the tables turn, Catherine," I said with a happy smile. If I didn't have the countdown to worry about and this whole battle royale, I believe I would have been genuinely happy at that moment.
"Indeed," Catherine said, her eyes darting from tree to tree, her boots deep within the snow.
"We were quite friendly with you, you know that," I continued, making slow and deliberate steps towards her.
"What was the end game, Catherine?" I asked, swirling the wood. "Why'd you do all this?"
Catherine realized she couldn't outrun us. I remembered how smug she had been in that cellar. She'd only be scared of us if it were Antarctica. Unfortunately for her, we could make anyplace as cold as Antarctica.
"We can't really get information out of each other if one of us is dead," she said, eyeing my stick. I turned to Joshua and he shrugged.
"She drives a hard bargain."
I nodded slowly, barely keeping my anger in check. "You played with our trust." I said through clenched teeth.
"I can understand your anger, but you have a culling game you do not understand, a forest you have no way out of... and most importantly, information about the person who hired me to take you out."
I could not help but chuckle. This lady was indeed one of the worst ones.
I nodded and lowered my stick, but my anger... that was at an all-time high. I still wanted to see her dead, but not after I found out who made her do it.
"Fine, Catherine," I growled. "Start talking."