Ellen winced. If he was going to break their promise, he could at least come up with a half decent story.
"I killed it n-no problem, but the dream made me realize just how much danger is out there. That danger is going to crawl up the fortress walls and attack us if we don't stop it."
"I had a similar dream," Trevor said meekly. "A monster attacked us. Barry and I were both too scared to move. It was really embarrassing for both of us."
"I-I also have someone I want to protect," Barry said. "They might get hurt if I sit around and do nothing."
Ellen glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Was that someone her? They'd only known each other for a few days. That couldn't be enough time for him to start worrying about her safety.
"That's a very vivid dream you both had," Kilroy said suspiciously.
Barry and Trevor averted their eyes as if they had something to hide, which of course they did.
"Do you think it might've been based on a real event?" Kilroy eyed them both, but neither spoke. "It's good to have a personal investment in your job. You're going to need it when you're freezing cold, sleeping in the dirt and wondering if that sound you just heard is a monster creeping up behind you." He picked up his bucket of wooden training weapons and smiled. "We'll talk about basic survival in a bit. For now, we'll work on-"
Stern, battle ready expressions appeared on Ludendi, Barry and Trevor's faces. They looked monstrous. Ellen took a step back, fearing she might end up caught in the trouble they were about to cause.
"What's with those looks?" Kilroy asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
Ludendi, Barry and Trevor charged at him. In an instant they had him on the ground, his bucket of weapons torn from his hands. They sat triumphantly atop his body.
"You three... you made your point," Kilroy said, gasping desperately for air. "Can you... move? A little hard to breath."
"Defense is good," Barry said proudly, "but sometimes you just need to whack your enemy before they whack you. That's something I learned recently."
"Your training has made us a lot bolder," Trevor added.
"I'm still kind of mad about that sword you threw at my head yesterday," Ludendi said, "but I suppose we can let you go... this time."
They dismounted Kilroy.
"We can do more dodging exercises tomorrow." Kilroy heaved himself up. "Let's move onto camping." He retrieved a book of maps and spent the next hour pointing out the various caves and crevices and other campsites scattered around the fortress, of which there were dozens, and afterwards concluded with, "It's up to your team leader to decide which sites you're going to use."
Afterwards, he led everyone to the target dummies and had them let loose; everyone except for Ellen, who lingered behind feeling estranged again.
"Have you really never been able to create a magic weapon before?" Kilroy asked.
"No, never," Ellen said.
Kilroy studied her. "My guess is that it has something to do with your knife. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but it doesn't look like a normal knife at all. Do you know anything about its origin?"
"I-it is just a normal knife," Ellen insisted.
Her remark caused Kilroy to study her even harder. She lowered her head to avoid his probing eyes.
"If that's the case, I guess there's not much you can do about it," Kilroy said with a shrug. "If you had your shield and the power to create magic weapons, you could easily become the strongest human being to ever live, but nobody's perfect." He chuckled. "Anyway, I think I can still help you out."
His bucket of wooden practice weapons was nearby. He handed one to Ellen then took one for himself.
"These will sting, but that's the best way to learn."
The weapons did sting, Ellen took enough hits to become well aware of just how much damage a training weapon could cause, but she learned as well, about her strengths and weaknesses. She wasn't strong enough to cause much harm with a single strike, but she was small and agile enough to slip away from a lot of Kilroy's attacks and hit him while he recovered.
By the time they were finished, she was hot and sweating and red in the face while Kilroy showed zero signs of exhaustion.
"You did well for someone your age," Kilroy said. "If you keep practicing then soon nothing will be able to touch you."
"T-thanks," Ellen said, panting. There was no need for her to become the strongest human ever, all she wanted was the strength to keep her friends safe.
Ludendi, Barry and Trevor joined her. They were hot and sweating as well.
"We're getting close to the end of your assessment," Kilroy said. "And really, you four have passed my assessment. Now it's just a matter of deciding if the Fortress Brigade is something each of you truly wants to be a part of. You still have a few more sessions before you're officially allowed to make that decision."
"Of course we're going to stay!" Ludendi said.
"I'm not going anywhere," Barry said.
"We've been through this much together," Trevor said. "It'd be a shame if we didn't make it the rest of the way together."
"I'm staying," Ellen said. Her reasons for joining the Fortress Brigade were still nebulous, but why she stayed was very clear to her now: her friends were here.
Chapter 9
The days became routine. Ellen woke up when the bell rang and helped Ludendi with her candle making operation. At first she only helped trade for supplies, but slowly she learned how to make them herself. They often ended up lumpy or with wicks the wrong length, and she ruined a mold more than once, but she had no trouble trading them for all the cooked monster meat she could ever eat.
Kilroy's training sessions became routine as well. Rarely did a day go by where he didn't find an excuse to pull out his bucket of practice weapons, but he also talked about everything from how to ration supplies to treating injuries.
No more monsters attacked the fortress, at least not any Ellen ever heard about. The extra soldiers on top of the outer wall might've had something to do with it, or the previous attacks could've all just been flukes. She couldn't decide.
She ran into Brendon and Lindsey every other day. They didn't speak much. She often asked them if the attacks were over, received a non-answer, and was then told to keep quiet about the dark patch in the sky.
The patch was growing, albeit very slowly. After a few weeks it had grown enough that most people she came across started referring to it as a cloud.
The black haired boy continued to give her evil glares every time they crossed paths. They never spoke, not until she ran into him on an empty road one night after picking up two skewers of meat.
The boy stepped in front of her and blocked her path.
"Is something wrong?" Ellen asked. He couldn't still be mad about the cut. That had happened weeks ago. His arm had to be healed by now.
"I work at the tavern," the black haired boy snapped. "You and your friends show up every other day and linger in front of the entrance. What are you trying to do, scare me away?"
Ellen gazed at him curiously. Is that what he really believed? Her friends hardly noticed he existed.
"And you come with weapons, too! Are you trying to intimidate me into quitting? Is that it?"
"No, not really," Ellen said. "None of us know you work there. We barely notice you."
"Like I believe that." The boy pulled back his sleeve. A red stained bandage covered his arm from his wrist down to his elbow. "You say you don't notice me, but you had no problem giving me this."
Ellen's spirits sank. The cut was much larger than she remembered. It was probably the largest injury her knife had ever inflicted on another person.
"I wanted to tell someone what happened, but I'm still new here. I knew nobody would take my side, so I bandaged myself up and kept quiet."
"It was an accident," Ellen said. "And I'm new here-"
"This is an accident, too." The black haired boy slapped one of the skewers out of her hand. "Just leave me alone," he growled, then stompe
d off.
Ellen picked up the fallen meat, but it was covered with dirt and ruined. She threw it away then moved on. There was no sense in retaliating against the boy. She had cut his arm, even though it was an accident.
Her dormitory was quiet when she returned, but Ludendi broke the silence with a squeal as soon as she stepped inside their room.
She snatched the skewer out of Ellen's hand. "It's your fault for getting me addicted to this," she said. "Where's yours?"
"I finished already," Ellen lied. "Do you remember that boy with the black hair? The one who's always glaring at us whenever we go near him?"
"No, not really. Why, does he like you?"
"He thinks I attacked him, and he thinks we're trying to scare him away from the tavern."
"What a stupid kid," Ludendi said. "Just forget about him. We're officially joining the Fortress Brigade tomorrow. Focus on that." She tossed her empty skewer onto the desk, blew out her candle then lay down in bed.
Ellen joined her. She still planned to apologize, but it would have to wait. Tomorrow they were going to fight the monster locked in Kilroy's dungeon, and then afterwards they'd be made official members of the Fortress Brigade. It was going to be a hectic day.
She left with Ludendi first thing in the morning. Barry and Trevor were waiting outside their dormitory. They headed for the training hall as a group.
"Just one thing left!" Barry said, his voice eager but nervous. "I hope we don't screw it up."
"It's just a single monster," Trevor said. "There's no way we can mess up any worse than we did on the wall that night."
"And I can't mess up any worse than I did outside the dormitory," Ludendi said.
"Did you freeze up too?" Barry asked.
"I did, and I also... yeah, I froze up."
Ellen smiled. They were still nervous, but the days of her friends cowering at the mere thought of seeing a monster were over.
"Does our first mission really start tomorrow?" Trevor asked. "I've never heard of a team being dispatched so quickly. I wonder why we're the exception?"
"We probably have a lot more experience than the others," Barry said. "How many teams have faced two monsters before they left the fortress?"
"It probably has something to do with that," Ludendi said, pointing to the dark cloud in the sky. "All the trouble around here started when that thing appeared. I wonder what it is?"
"I doubt anyone running the fortress is ever going to tell us," Trevor said, "but someone from outside the fortress might have an idea."
Ellen glanced back at them. All three were staring at her. She hated lying to her friends, but telling the truth wouldn't change anything. Not for the better, at least. "I've never seen anything like it," she mumbled.
She faced forward. She could feel their gazes piercing her back, but they didn't question her.
The training hall was locked when they arrived, but Barry pounded on the doors twice and managed to get Kilroy's attention.
"I'm glad you're eager to finish things up," Kilroy said, "but all my other teams are eager as well. Give me about an hour and I'll have room for you."
He slammed the door shut in Barry's face.
"He said we could stop by any time!" Barry complained.
"But he didn't promise he'd let us inside," Ludendi said. "Let's just wander around for a bit. I think we all need to relax a bit." She looked to Ellen. "You're our team leader. Wherever you want to go, we'll follow."
But Ellen didn't have any ideas. She thought about trying to find the black haired boy again, but he'd probably take off running once he saw the four of them together. Food was her next choice, but none of them had anything to trade.
"Is it okay if we go outside the fortress?" she asked.
"We can go a few miles out without anyone stopping us," Trevor said, "but the guards will chase us down if we go too far without an escort."
"Why do you want to go outside?" Ludendi asked.
"I just want to look around for a little bit," Ellen said. The monster attacks had ended so suddenly she had trouble believing they were really over. A look outside the fortress might calm her nerves, or maybe it would prove her fears true.
Her friends didn't question her.
She led them to the front of the fortress. She knew enough about the twisted spiderweb of roads to find her way there without help. The trek there was calm and pleasant.
The front of the fortress was not.
A crowd thick with people and even thicker with fear was charging into the fortress, dropping their supplies as they fled. Ellen took out her knife right away. Only a monster could inspire this much fear. There had to be one nearby. It was just like she suspected: the attacks weren't over.
"What's going on here?" Ludendi asked, her voice shaken.
"Run!" a member of the crowd shouted into her face. "There's something evil coming! It's big! Huge! Get out of here!"
He darted off into the fortress. The others behind him followed.
A monster dropped down outside the fortress, in front of the entrance. Its whole body was a wretched shade of green. Its webbed feet hit the ground first and launched a cloud of dirt into the air. Bulging, throbbing veins covered its knobby head and stout body. It wielded a long staff with a sharp blade sticking out of the top.
Ellen glanced at her friends. She half expected them to turn around and run with the crowd, but they didn't. They stayed at her side. Trevor readied his poleaxe, Barry his sword and shield, and Ludendi her knives.
"This is our job now, isn't it," Ludendi said, her body trembling. "We're not going to make very good Fortress Brigade members if we run at the first sign of trouble."
"We signed up for this," Barry agreed nervously. "Maybe Kilroy will let us skip our final trial if we live."
"The Fortress Guard can't be that far away," Trevor said. "It... shouldn't be that hard to survive until they get here."
A limp body crashed landed beside the monster. Its blood spurt out in a cloud when it hit the ground.
Ellen flinched. That's what monsters did: kill. It had been a long time since she'd witnessed them in the act. She had hoped to never see it again, but that was the nature of the world they lived in.
The monster raised its staff and charged into the fortress. The tiny wings on its back flapped furiously as it moved. They were useless little things that could never hope to lift the revolting mass they were attached to.
"There's one dead already," Barry said. "That's a pretty bad way to start the fight."
"Just remember," Ludendi said, her voice trembling even harder than before. "We've been practicing for this for weeks. Now isn't the time to forget everything we learned."
Trevor was the only one still calm, at least on the outside. "I hope our team leader has a plan," he said.
"Try to hit its wrists," Ellen said. "It can't do anything without a weapon. Or its veins. It might bleed to death if you can cut some of them open." She wanted to slash those veins herself, monsters were hardy but they still needed blood flowing through them to function, but the really thick ones were too high for her to reach.
She took a step forward.
"I'll... I'll try to keep its attention on me."
Her words filled her with dread. The monster was as tall as her dormitory. She'd seen monsters its size before, but never once had she stood toe-to-toe with one this big.
"S-spread out around it," Ellen said, mimicking a command her guardian often gave his friends during battle.
Her friends nodded and split up.
The monster slashed its weapon forward. The air filled with violet sparks and flickers of energy, then a monstrous staff shot forward.
Ellen held her ground. The magic staff couldn't hurt her. She was more worried about it missing and destroying the buildings behind her.
She summoned her shield and sent the magic weapon away. The staff flew back the way it came, over the monster's head and out into the plains. Two more staffs rocketed towards her a moment later, bu
t she repelled them just as easily. Both sailed over the fortress's outer wall and out of sight.
For a moment it seemed like the monster would keep casting weapons at her, but then it stopped, much to her dismay, and marched up to her with its staff raised high into the air. It was a massive weapon. A single blow would leave her flatter than the bread the cafeteria handed out, or if the knife on top hit her instead, she'd end up in the same shape as the monster meat she ate every day.
Her legs turned soft, so much that she doubted they'd still work, but then the staff started coming towards her and they became sturdy again. She darted left, and the staff crashed into the ground behind her, tearing open a hole where it hit.
The impact launched a cloud of dirt into the air. If there had been any rocks mixed into it they would've impaled her or at least left her with a broken bone, but fortunately all she ended up with was a light coat of dirt.
Despite the danger bearing down on her, she managed to relax. Even while her legs were stiff with fear she had little trouble getting out of the way. If all the monster's attacks came that slow, she might make it through the battle after all.
She faced the monster. It still had its gaze set on her despite the swords and knives and poleaxes her friends were pelting it with. The magic weapons pecked at its skin but they'd yet to break through.
The monster pulled its staff back and swung at her with a horizontal slash, which she avoided by throwing herself to the ground. The swing created a fierce gust of wind. The monster went for an overhead smash right after. Ellen picked herself up and darted backwards out of the way.
Her heart was racing so fast it made her chest hurt, but she had a clear means to survive. All she had to do was survive until her friends found a soft spot.
The monster kept swinging at her, but she dodged around all of its attacks without issue. Some forced her to throw herself to the ground, while others had her running left or right or backwards. The monster might be keen enough to not cast any weapons at her, but its aim was thoroughly awful and showed no signs of improving. Or maybe she was just too small a target for it to hit. She didn't care. She was alive and the monster would soon be dead.
Forlorn Dimension (Ellen's Friends Book 1) Page 8
