For a moment, he simply stared at the scene before him. Macarius was lying in the mud, surrounded by dead goblins, his clothes torn and soaked with blood. His body twitched whenever another injury healed, and every few seconds, a scream escaped his throat.
Aksibilian had seen people injured in battle before. He had seen men lose limbs, suffer broken bones, and beg for death rather than endure another moment of agony.
But he had never seen anything quite like this.
"Hey, hey! Man, what’s happening? What should I do?"
He dropped to his knees beside Macarius, looking desperately for something he could do. His hands hovered over the younger man’s body, afraid that touching him might somehow make things worse.
Macarius couldn’t answer. He was barely conscious of Aksibilian’s presence, his attention consumed by the unbearable sensation of his own body rebuilding itself.
Another wave of pain struck him.
His back arched, and he screamed.
"Shit! Hold on! Just hold on!"
Aksibilian gritted his teeth and slipped an arm beneath Macarius’s shoulders. He tried lifting him, but the mud sucked at their clothes and boots, making every movement difficult. The heavy rain battered them relentlessly, turning the ground into a treacherous mess.
"I don’t know what’s happening... but just hold on a little bit. I’ll find a safe place. Just hold on a little bit!"
He dragged Macarius away from the corpses, supporting as much of his weight as he could. Whenever Macarius’s body jerked in pain, Aksibilian tightened his grip and continued moving.
He had no idea what was happening to his friend.
He only knew that leaving him there wasn’t an option.
After what felt like an eternity, Aksibilian found a narrow opening between several enormous rocks at the foot of the mountain.
The overhanging stone provided some protection from the rain. It wasn’t comfortable, and the ground was still damp, but at least they weren’t standing in the middle of an open forest with water pouring over their heads.
He lowered Macarius onto the driest patch of ground he could find.
"Macarius, just wait a little. Wait a little. I’ll start a fire, and I’ll find a way to help you."
Aksibilian hurried to gather whatever dry material he could find beneath the rocks. Unfortunately, nature seemed determined to make his life as miserable as possible. Most of the branches were wet, and the wind kept blowing rain into their shelter.
He tried anyway.
He rubbed pieces of wood together, searched his belongings for anything useful, and repeatedly glanced back at Macarius.
The younger man remained curled on the ground, breathing unevenly.
Aksibilian had no healing magic capable of dealing with whatever was happening to him. He didn’t even know what kind of injury could cause someone’s wounds to close while leaving them screaming as though they were being tortured.
He felt utterly useless.
Then something grabbed his leg.
Aksibilian nearly jumped out of his skin.
He turned.
Macarius’s bloodied hand was wrapped around his ankle.
"No... you... don’t need to do that..."
His voice was so faint that Aksibilian almost failed to hear it.
"I... I’m good..."
"Hey! Are you alright? Don’t move, okay? Don’t move!"
"No, no... I’m good now..."
Macarius swallowed painfully. His fingers loosened around Aksibilian’s ankle, and he slowly rolled onto his back.
"It was... just a little pain..."
Aksibilian stared at him.
A little pain?
The boy had been screaming loudly enough to frighten the birds out of the surrounding trees, and now he was calling it a little pain.
"Are... are you really alright?"
"Yeah... now... I think I’m alright."
Macarius planted his hands against the ground and attempted to sit up.
His arms shook violently.
For a second, he managed to lift his upper body. Then his head began spinning, and he had to stop, squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for the sensation to pass.
"But... my head is hurting like crazy, and my whole body is shaking so much."
He took a slow breath.
His back still ached, his muscles felt as though they had been torn apart, and exhaustion weighed on him like a mountain. His wounds had closed, but that didn’t mean his body had magically recovered from everything it had endured.
He looked toward the entrance of their shelter.
"But those damn goblins... They were fucking annoying and bad..."
Despite everything, he managed a weak smile.
"Next time, we’ll go somewhere else."
Aksibilian stared at him for another second.
Then he started laughing.
"Hah... haha... Hahahaha!"
The laughter came out awkwardly at first, almost as if he were trying to convince himself that the situation was somehow funny.
He wiped the rainwater from his face and shook his head.
"Sorry, man... I thought everything was the same as the training I received. I didn’t know they would be this much hassle."
Macarius leaned his head against the rock behind him.
"No... no problem, man. Everyone can make mistakes... It’s alright."
For a brief moment, the two sat together beneath the shelter, listening to the rain hammering against the stone.
Aksibilian was still smiling, though the tension in his shoulders hadn’t entirely disappeared.
Macarius closed his eyes.
He desperately wanted to sleep.
Just for a few minutes.
His entire body was exhausted, and even keeping his eyes open felt like an unnecessary punishment. He didn’t understand how he was still alive after everything that had happened.
But he forced himself to remain awake.
He had already learned what happened when he stopped paying attention.
The tower didn’t care whether he was tired.
It didn’t care whether he was frightened, injured, or completely unprepared.
If he wanted to survive, he would have to become stronger.
Much stronger.
He didn’t know why the thought filled him with such a strange sense of regret. There was something missing inside his mind, something he couldn’t reach no matter how hard he tried. Sometimes, he felt as though he had forgotten something important.
Someone important, perhaps.
But whenever he tried to remember, he found nothing.
Only an empty space.
Macarius opened his eyes again and looked at the rain.
Whatever. I don’t even know who I was before this.
His fingers curled against the ground.
But if my life is going to be like this, then I’ll become stronger. Strong enough that I won’t have to suffer like this again.
He didn’t need to know his past to understand that much.
Someday, he wanted to live peacefully.
A simple life. A safe place. No monsters trying to kill him, no endless pain, no waking up every day wondering whether it would be his last.
It sounded almost laughably ordinary.
For some reason, that made him want it even more.
Then an arrow tore through the air.
It struck Macarius from behind.
His body jerked forward.
Before Aksibilian could even understand what had happened, a second arrow whistled through the darkness.
Then a third.
Macarius’s eyes widened.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
He tried to breathe, but his chest tightened, and his body abruptly lost its strength. He toppled sideways, striking the ground with a dull thud.
For one frozen moment, Aksibilian couldn’t move.
Then he saw the arrows protruding from Macarius’s body.
"MACARIUS!"
He lunged toward his friend, but stopped when he heard a woman’s voice from beyond the shelter.
"One down. One more left, guys."
The voice was calm.
Almost bored.
Aksibilian slowly turned toward the darkness.
A woman stepped out from between the rocks, holding a bow in one hand. She was dressed in dark, practical clothing suited for traveling through the forest, with a hood pulled back from her head. Her hair was tied behind her neck, and her expression showed neither excitement nor hesitation.
She looked at Macarius’s motionless body, then shifted her attention to Aksibilian.
Behind her, a man emerged from the shadows.
"That was a nice shot, sister."
He was of average height, with short, untidy hair and a narrow face. A leather strap crossed his chest, holding several small pouches at his waist. He carried a short blade, which he drew casually as he approached.
Another man followed.
He was considerably broader than the other two, with thick arms, a heavy jaw, and a scar running from the corner of his mouth toward his cheek. A large weapon hung at his side, and his eyes moved between the two young men with the detached interest of someone inspecting merchandise.
"You should’ve shot the energetic one," he remarked. "The other one was as good as dead anyway."
The woman lowered her bow slightly.
"His movements were harder to predict. I wasn’t going to risk missing."
The first man chuckled.
"Still, three arrows for one target? You’re getting wasteful."
"Then perhaps you should try aiming next time."
"Keep talking. I’ll let you do all the work."
Their casual exchange continued as though they were discussing the weather.
Aksibilian looked at them in disbelief.
Then he looked down at Macarius.
The younger man lay motionless, blood spreading across the damp ground beneath him.
Something inside Aksibilian went cold.
He rose slowly to his feet.
"You people..."
His voice trembled with anger.
"What are you doing? You killed a person!"
The broad man tilted his head.
"Did we?"
He glanced toward Macarius.
"Hard to tell. He was already lying around like a corpse."
The other man laughed.
The woman, however, kept her bow raised. Her eyes remained fixed on Aksibilian’s hands, watching for the slightest movement.
"Don’t make this difficult," she said. "Put down your weapon, and we might let you leave."
Aksibilian stared at her.
"Let me leave?"
His fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword.
"You shot my friend while he was resting. You attacked us without warning, and now you’re telling me to be grateful if you let me walk away?"
The broad man sighed.
"People always have so much to say before they die."
He took a step forward.
Aksibilian moved.
His sword flashed out of its sheath, cutting through the rain with a sharp metallic hiss.
The first man barely had time to raise his blade before Aksibilian closed the distance.
Steel collided.
The impact forced the man backward, his boots scraping across the wet stone. Aksibilian followed with a second strike, then a third, each movement precise and brutally fast.
The man barely managed to defend himself.
"Shit!"
Aksibilian twisted his sword and struck the man’s weapon aside. His next slash tore through the sleeve of the man’s coat, leaving a shallow cut along his arm.
The man stumbled away, clutching his injury.
"What the hell is wrong with this guy?"
"Stop standing there and help him!" the woman shouted.
She drew another arrow.
Aksibilian immediately changed direction.
He kicked a loose stone toward her, forcing her to shift her aim, then rushed forward before she could release the shot. She abandoned the bow’s line of attack and jumped backward, narrowly avoiding his blade.
For several seconds, the three attackers struggled to contain him.
Aksibilian was faster than any of them had expected. His sword moved in short, economical arcs, never wasting motion. He used the narrow space between the rocks to prevent the woman from maintaining a clear firing angle, forcing the other two men to fight him at close range.
The first man had already begun breathing heavily.
The woman had lost her easy expression.
Even the broad man had stopped smiling.
"Where did this bastard come from?" the injured man snarled.
Aksibilian didn’t answer.
He attacked again.
His blade struck the man’s sword near the guard, twisted, and sent the weapon clattering onto the stone.
Before the man could recover, Aksibilian drove his shoulder into him and knocked him to the ground.
One opponent down.
But Aksibilian had made a mistake.
He had focused too much on the man directly in front of him.
The broad man came from his blind side.
Aksibilian sensed the movement and tried to turn, but the attack was already underway.
A heavy blow slammed into his ribs.
His breath escaped in a strangled gasp.
He staggered, barely managing to keep hold of his sword. Pain burst through his side, and for a moment, his legs seemed to forget how to support him.
The broad man didn’t give him time to recover.
He seized Aksibilian by the front of his clothing and drove a knee into his stomach.
Aksibilian doubled over.
A second strike crashed against his back, sending him sprawling across the wet ground. His sword slipped from his fingers and skidded toward the edge of the shelter.
He tried to rise.
His arms shook beneath his weight.
The broad man planted a boot against his chest and forced him back down.
"You’re quick," he admitted, looking down at Aksibilian. "I’ll give you that."
He leaned forward slightly.
"But being quick doesn’t mean much when you don’t know who you’re fighting."
Aksibilian clenched his teeth and tried to push the man’s leg away.
The boot pressed harder.
Pain spread through his chest, and his vision blurred at the edges.
Behind them, the woman retrieved another arrow from her quiver.
"Should I finish him?"
The broad man glanced toward Macarius’s body.
"Not yet."
He looked back at Aksibilian, whose furious stare hadn’t weakened despite the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"First, I want to know why two half-dead kids were wandering around this part of the forest."
Aksibilian spat blood onto the ground.
His eyes shifted briefly toward Macarius.
The boy hadn’t moved.
And for the first time since entering the tower, Aksibilian felt a kind of fear that had nothing to do with his own life.
He had promised himself he would keep his friend safe.
Now Macarius lay behind him, pierced by arrows, while Aksibilian couldn’t even reach him.
The broad man noticed where he was looking.
A cruel smile slowly spread across his face.
"Ah. So that’s what matters to you."
He lifted his boot from Aksibilian’s chest and stepped toward Macarius.
Aksibilian’s eyes widened.
"Don’t you dare touch him!"
He forced himself upright, ignoring the agony in his ribs.
The broad man stopped.
Then he turned his head and looked at Aksibilian over his shoulder.
"Then get up and stop me."