Cara's hand instinctively reached for her sword as her eyes narrowed at the creatures in front of her, those horses with human faces. Their features were grotesque, almost impossible to recognize.
Their faces looked twisted and scarred, as if they had been sewn together by something unnatural. The skin was burned, raw, and patchy...like fire had burned their flesh too many times. There was no hair on their heads. No eyebrows. Just bare, damaged skin. Their human heads were stitched directly onto horse bodies, the seam visible and ugly.
The first creature had brown skin, but its two upper arms were pale while the lower ones matched the face. The horse body was covered in sleek silver fur. Aside from their faces and hands, nothing about them looked human.
The second creature, standing just behind the first, had olive skin. Two of its hands were pale and two matched the olive tone. Both of their faces were lifeless, zombified...as if all light had drained from their eyes.
"What the hell… is this?" Cara muttered under her breath, her mind racing.
Without warning, the first horseman hurled a glowing spear at her. The speed was blurry, something normal eyes couldn't even follow, but she reacted in a flash. Her blade slid free, and she sliced the incoming spear clean in half midair. The two halves whizzed past and slammed into the side of the carriage cabin, barely missing Diana, who stumbled from the sudden stop. Inside the cabin, everyone tensed.
"What's happening?" Doulong shouted, peering through a small gap.
His eyes widened when he saw the monstrous figures outside.
Cara didn't hesitate. "This is a direct attack. I don't have time to think...I need to act, " she told herself.
Doulong asked, "What are those things?"
"Stay inside, all of you!" Cara ordered sharply, then jumped down from her position, landing gracefully on the dirt path. Her sword flared with glowing mana.
"There's another presence around " she thought. "Not just these two. But… I can't tell where it's hiding." She raised her voice, demanding, "Who are you? What do you want?"
The creatures responded with a distorted, horrible sound which was a mix of a horse's shriek and a human growl. No words. No sense.
Then, without warning, the first horseman, the one who had already thrown a spear, raised two more spears in his upper hands and hurled them both.
This time, they were slower like half the speed of the first. Cara sprinted forward to dodge, but after a few steps, her eyes widened.
"No… if I dodge, it'll hit the horses or the cabin!"
She instantly jumped back. With perfect timing, she caught the first spear midair with her bare hand. She spun and raised her sword to strike the second...but it slipped past.
The spear rocketed toward the white horses pulling the carriage. It noticed and tried to move, but it was too fast.
Just as it was about to hit, Selay appeared between the horse and the spear.
He reached out to catch it, but he didn't have the skill to do like her . The spear pierced clean through his hand, blood spraying as he cried out in pain. The spear stopped, buried in his palm and he screamed in pain.
Cara turned, eyes wide, just in time to see Selay collapse, clutching his arm.
Diana, Doulong, and Nikola had already rushed out of the cabin, despite her warning.
Diana reached Selay and held him, trying to stop the bleeding and heal him.
Cara shouted, frustrated, "Didn't I tell you to stay inside?! This is dangerous!"
Her mind raced. "These creatures are attacking… but not recklessly. They're holding back... As if testing us? Why?"
She focused on their faces again. Both had glowing crimson eyes.
"Are they… possessed?"
Doulong looked at the creatures and scoffed. "They're just horses with human faces. Nothing to be scared of. I know how to fight."
Without waiting, he charged toward them.
"Doulong, no!" Cara yelled, running after him.
The first horseman reacted and shot his last spear. His final spear moved through the air toward Doulong in blurry speed.
But Doulong smirked and raised his hand. A black material formed in the air as if an energy like shadows and upon hitting the spear it wrapped around the spear, absorbing its mana completely.
"I got this," he muttered confidently.
But the spear didn't stop. It broke through the black energy, still heading for him.
Just before it could hit, Nikola raised his hand, focusing his mind. Telekinesis showed the spear mid-air and slowed it just enough but couldn't really control its movement, only managed to slow it.
Cara reached Doulong and yanked him out of the way. The spear missed.
But the moment it passed them, the mana returned. The black energy dissolved, and the spear moved again as fast as before toward Nikola who was just behind them.
Nikola dodged at the last second. The spear whizzed by, cutting the air close.
It all happened in seconds... so fast that Diana could barely understand what was going on.
Cara steadied herself and turned to Doulong.
"This isn't some game," she said. "You can't just charge in like that. These things aren't normal. I can feel their mana...it's strong. B+ rank at least. If I didn't pull you back, that spear would've torn through you and for mana it isn't a normal spear that u can survive from that easily."
"Yah right... If she didnt pull me, the spear would've hit me..." Doulong thought and Doulong clenched his fists saying, "So what, you want me to stand back and watch?"
Cara pushed him backward.
"I said I'll handle them. The best thing you can do now is go back to the village. Get help. Find someone from the Knight Clan...or anyone who can send a message to them and ask for help. "
She turned to face the two horsemen again as her sword glowed with her blue mana.
She looked back at them thinking " What should I do now? I dont want to take steps without understanding the situation "
While Cara thought , the second horseman suddenly ran forward with really fast speed, thrusting a spear at her.
She reacted instantly, raising her sword to block. The impact cracked the earth beneath her feet.
Before she could react , the horseman struck again with another arm, aiming a second spear. She twisted her body, catching the strike with the spear in her hand once more.
Sparks flew. With a sharp movement , she kicked at its equine leg, staggering the creature just enough to shift its balance.
Seeing the opening, she slashed her sword toward its throat.... but the horseman raised a third spear-wielding hand, intercepting her attack. Steel clashed violently.
A fourth hand came swinging toward her side, and Cara instinctively leapt backward, barely dodging it.
Before she could steady herself, the first horseman flashed into view beside her, aiming a brutal punch. She ducked under it, flipping up onto its back.
Her sword arced downward to hit the horseman but before the strike landed, the second horseman threw a spear her way. Cara backflipped off the creature, avoiding the spear by inches.
As she was mid-air, another spear whistled toward her.
She couldn't dodge in time but Nikola's telekinesis caught it, slowing it mid-flight.
Selay dashed forward, intercepting it with his wooden sword glowing faintly with mana.
The impact changed the spear's direction but the force shattered Selay's sword and flung him to the ground.
Cara landed beside him, but the first horseman was already there, throwing another punch with fist that glowed with mana .
She leapt back again, but the creature mirrored her step for step, relentless in its pursuit.
Each blow came faster, heavier, harder to dodge. Then, suddenly, the horseman's back leg snagged against something and it dis balanced the horseman.
From the ground, thick tree-branch-like vines erupted, wrapping tightly around its limbs. Diana, standing in the distance with one palm pressed to the earth, had summoned them binding the creature just in time.
Cara didn't hesitate. She lunged forward with sword gleaming with mana, but the second horseman struck from the flank, slashing with a spear.
She turned just in time, the weapon slicing across her cheek. Blood trickled down her skin, but she stood as if nothing had happened .
Meanwhile, Selay, still reeling from the impact, looked at the broken remains of his sword.
Before he could react, a glowing mana orb was thrown toward him launched from one of the horseman one's free hands.
He dove aside, the orb blasting a crater into the ground where he had just stood.
The attacks kept coming orb after orb raining toward him.
Selay dodged, breathing hard.
Just as one orb closed in too fast, Doulong appeared between them. With a shout, he raised a shimmering black shield of dark matter, absorbing the impact.
"I got this!" Doulong said, summoning a dense sphere of dark energy in his hand and throwing it at the first horseman.
The creature moved to avoid it simply , but as it moved, it sensed another presence, right behind which was Cara.
She was already in mid-air, sword moved to strike.
But as she closed the distance, the horseman glanced down, its back leg was caught again in Diana's magical vines.
It struggled, tearing at the restraints, but just before Cara's sword hit, it ripped free and moved away.
Her blade missed by inches. In a split-second counter, the horseman lashed out with a rear leg, its hoof smashing into Cara's side and sending her skidding backward across the ground.
Cara was thrown toward the second horseman, who had a spear ready to strike. But just before he could hit her, she raised her hand and formed an ice wall between them. She crashed into the wall instead of the spear, then pushed off it and jumped back.
But the second horseman had already broken through the ice and was in front of her.
He swung his spear, and she blocked it with her sword. Then, with his other two arms, he stabbed forward with two more spears aimed at her chest.
Just as the spears were about to hit, it slowed down the movement of the spear for a moment.
Cara quickly jumped back and saw Nikola in the distance, using his telekinesis to slow the speed.
Cara touched her bleeding cheek. Her breathing was heavy, and her body felt weaker by the second.
"Poison…" she thought, as she felt it spreading through her veins. "Shit… when did that happen?"
The second horseman moved in again to finish her, but Nikola suddenly teleported between them.
He created a white mana spear and threw it at the horseman but it had no effect. The horseman rushed forward in a blur, ready to strike again.
At the last second, Nikola vanished from his path and reappeared behind him. The horseman turned and swung at Cara again.
She blocked the attack with her sword. While the horseman was focused on her, Nikola formed a dark mana spear and hurled it at the creature's back.
It hit but the horseman didn't even flinch and the attack disappeared right after hitting as if the horseman absorbed the mana attack.
With one of his hands, he attacked Nikola, who quickly teleported again, barely avoiding the blow.
Cara switched her spear to her other hand and moved to strike the horseman, but instead of blocking, the horseman countered.
One of his spears slashed her arm the one holding spear and the blade cut deep.
Her forearm was torn off.
Her hand and spear hit the ground with blood around it .
Cara gasped in pain, but didn't scream.
She gritted her teeth and raised her arm that was half cut and made a water arm in the place of fallen arm part.
Water formed where her arm had been, shaping into a spinning drill that glowed in mana and made of water spinning .
She thrust it forward and stabbed the horseman in the throat, piercing deep.
Before he could move, she froze the water turning it into sharp ice inside his neck. Then she sent freezing energy through the wound, spreading it into his body, freezing his blood from within.
The horseman trembled and felt the cold inside his body.
Without waiting, Cara raised her sword and slashed. The slash hit the spot of the horseman that was frozen with her sword glowing brightly.
The horseman's head flew through the air and landed with a heavy thud.
She stood there, breathing hard, watching the head collapse and body is losing its balance.
Thinking he killed it, she turned around to check how the others were doing against the first horseman.
But then suddenly her eyes widened.
She felt something cold and sharp push through her body from behind.
She looked down.
A spear had pierced through her stomach, the tip sticking out from her front. Blood poured from the wound.
Nikola froze in shock. It had happened in less than a second.
Doulong, who had been thrown into a tree by the first horseman, saw it from afar.
Selay, still dodging attacks, saw it from the corner of his eye. Diana, trying to slow the first horseman with her magic branches, saw it too.
Cara turned her head slowly.
The second horseman was still standing without a head but attacked as if nothing had happened.
It had struck her in a blur, without warning, even without its head.
A few drops of her blood and sweat hit the ground.
She took a deep breath… and pulled herself off the spear.
Then she felled on the ground with blood spreading as she fell.