A cold shiver passed up Landen’s spine as he looked around for his scouts.
“Where the hell are the scouts? They should have sprung from the forest and captured him.”
Combined with the look on Jay’s face it slowly caused a string of fear to grip his heart.
Jay smiled slyly while something was coming along the forest path.
“Oh fuck… no…” he saw his six scouts all bound by a chain, their eyes covered.
Thoughts ran through his mind: How were they discovered? How were they caught? Normally when someone looks at the scouts, they should have just looked like bushes.
Jay had Sweeper remove their eye and mouth bindings.
The six men didn’t have any hope in their eyes as they looked up at Landen, their eyes full of sorrow and fear, but what was more unsettling was that none of them were yelling anything - despite their mouths being free, they were not calling for help or speaking. Not a single word.
He wanted to call Jay a bastard and lay down threats, yet he held his tongue as he looked at his men which Jay now held captive, sitting under undead blades.
Landen seemed either dumbstruck or awestruck, so instead, Jay slowly spoke.
“This is your last chance. Bring me my black cube back or I will execute these men.”
Landen was still staring at the men on the ground - he locked eyes with one of them who could only nod back, and it seemed like he was saying ‘do whatever he asks.’
Landen then looked at Jay again.
“Please, wait a moment. I will get it for you.”
Jay sighed, and decided to give him a few more minutes to get the cube back. Landen suddenly disappeared and took four of the archers with him.
In the meantime, Jay took out some large chunks of his meat and began to eat them in front of the prisoners and the remaining men on the walls.
All of them looked shocked - perhaps ever more so than when Jay had appeared with the skeletons. Even the men with fused jaws were drooling.
One after another, Jay kept making large chunks of meat appear, then making them disappear down his throat just as quickly.
The pleasant aroma of cooked meat filled the air.
Their envy quickly turned to bitterness, then jealous hatred, and finally disgust.
It was still early in the morning so it was around breakfast time anyway, and Jay happily indulged himself in front of the hungry men.
Finally Landen came back, he and four of his men returned to the wall, each of them sweating and looking panicked.
“Here. This is what you wanted?” Landen held up the cube, “return my men and it will be yours.”
“No. Give that to me, and I will fix them and then release them without retribution. Then we can discuss how you will compensate me for my time.”
“Fix them?” Landen thought, wondering what this could mean.
Landen then looked at the black cube in his hand, hoping he wasn’t giving away some supreme treasure which could make him powerful. There were no bumps on its perfectly smooth surface, and the edges seemed so fine that they almost felt like they could cut.
But his men’s lives were worth more to him than some strange artefact. Even if he discovered some sort of hidden power within it, there was no telling if he would be able to use it against Jay, or if its power would even be enough to stop Jay. Though he quickly cast the thoughts aside as this was nothing but a fantasy - in his world there was only hunger and fighting, and that was how it would always be.
Landen knew that Jay had him in a corner, and there was no more room left to negotiate; for making Jay wait longer, he was already gambling with his men’s lives.
With a defeated sigh, he placed the black cube in a vine basket and lowered it over the wall.
Jay’s lips curled into a smile as he saw the basked lower. Finally, people were doing what he wanted.
(Sweeper, fetch my cube.)
As Sweeper approached the wall, the archers on top all seemed like their realities had just fallen apart along with their sanity, as they realised this wasn’t some trick. If they could trust their eyes, then the dead had risen - and they were serving this man who wore the same pale-grey armour as them.
Some of the archers couldn’t handle it, and turned around, falling against the wall and hugging themselves.
Others had more of a fight response, and pulled their arrows back a little more, their arms trembling, ready for even a whisper of the word ‘fire!’ to release their arrows; each of them were about to slip into a battle trance at any moment.
As Sweeper approached the wall, Jay removed the duresome chain around the prisoners and stashed it away. Before removing their hand bindings, he began to work on fixing their jaws.
However, before he could fix the jaws, he heard yelling on the other side of the wall.
“....no, Landen! You are exiled for stealing my black cube! Take him!”
“Ah now what?” Jay thought, hearing the bickering.
In this whole situation Jay was the only one who still seemed relaxed.
“I won’t sacrifice my men for your indulgences. You are a traitor, and you should be exiled.” Landen said.
“I am the village master, without me, there’s no food, no nothing!”
Jay recognised the voice.
It was Liny, the one who didn’t want to negotiate and almost forced Jay to slaughter his way through another village.
Liny appeared on the wall again, along with three other men who looked far more well-fed and healthier than Landen and his archers. Obviously they were given more food as they were Liny’s personal bodyguards.
While they argued, Sweeper returned to Jay’s side and handed him the black cube back, and Jay flashed a proud look on his face as he tossed it in his hand for a moment while staring at Liny.
Liny noticed Jay and sneered, seeing him tossing the black cube around, but in truth he really didn’t care about the cube - he cared about power.
Landen had stolen his possession and this would be his excuse to finally get rid of the last village elder.
“L-look! He handed it back! What more proof do we need? You’re a thief! Seize him!” he pointed at Landen, “and archers, fire before he escapes!” he yelled, pointing at Jay.
“Do not fire!” Landen yelled as a struggle suddenly broke out on the wall and blows were exchanged.
Jay quickly took out his shield and held it up, standing behind his captives as arrows started to fly.
Some of the archers who were at their last nerves and had been hyper-fixated on the undead only heard the order to fire, and began releasing arrow after arrow as quickly as their hands would allow them.
At this point Jay could have retreated and left happily with his cube, but he still wanted more information about the knights and also to test the needle of the starved on more of these villagers.
The cannibals all turned the needle red, signifying they were ‘tainted’. All of the prisoners at his feet were tainted too, and now he wondered if anyone would turn the needle the white untainted colour.
As for the captives, he really didn’t need them anymore, yet none of them dared to flee from him and his skeletons. They all lay down on the ground and shielded their heads from the flying arrows, which were aimed at the skeletons around them.
*Fring~*
An arrow bounced off of the deathwalker’s sentry shield.
Seeing its master in peril, Red dashed forward and pulled up a captive, holding them by the neck with a sword. Together they moved in front of Jay, making a literal human shield.
As for the other skeletons, none of them moved as Jay had told them not to. The arrows rained down, but the skeletons ignored them as if they were merely falling leaves.
The arrows didn’t do much damage anyway, mostly just passing through the gaps in their bones.
The only skeleton to respond to the arrows was Lamp, who seemed annoyed by all the arrows now piercing its human leather suit, so Jay allowed it to stand further away with him.
A few muffled screams sounded out as the human meat-shield in front of him was pierced by arrows. Unfortunately his jaw was still fused, so letting out muffled screams were all he could do.
“Surely they will run out of arrows soon?” Jay sighed, shaking his head.
Jay was taking the situation quite lightly. If anything, he was bored.
While the archers on the wall thought they were fighting for their lives, to Jay the whole situation seemed utterly trivial.
Despite the man dying after filling up with arrows, Red still held him there, making use of his body as a shield. Jay peeked over his shoulder and looked at the palisade wall.
There was still a physical struggle between some archers and some other men, but they were still only using fists to settle this dispute.
The archers firing at Jay looked panicked, but were soon slowing down and then finally stopped, looking exhausted and coming to their senses as each of them surveyed the battlefield.
All the archers had accomplished was killing two of their own men, as well as injuring two more with their maddened volleys of stray arrows, while the skeletons still guarding them were as uncaring and unmoving as the trees of the forest.
“Are you done?” Jay called out.
The men fighting on top of the wall stopped fighting for a moment; after exchanging blows, each of them were out of breath.
All of them had forgotten about Jay, and even assumed he was slain after the arrows began flying - yet he was now calling out.
As they looked, all of the skeletons were still standing, guarding the remaining captives.
“What the hell is…” Liny slowly said, his proud sneer turned to a look of confusion.
“...you may have doomed us all.” Landen whispered, not caring if Liny heard him or not while his heart sank.
Liny clenched his fists tight, seeing that the arrows stopped flying.
“Why did you stop?! Keep firing!” he yelled at the archers, slapping one across the back of the head. He sounded as desperate as he was panicked.
None of the archers responded, so Liny and his henchmen each snatched the bows and arrows away and fired arrows themselves.
They were not as accurate, but their arrows were just as threatening, and more arrows began to land near Jay and his prisoners.
“Damn, I guess they didn’t run out,” Jay shook his head, “I don’t have time for this.”
Finally, Jay decided he had seen enough. He gave them a chance, and they attacked him.
It was time to settle the dispute - through violence.
