CHAPTER 29: 29-MY SQUAD STANDS UP FOR ME

Clementine

I watched the burning arrow come straight at my forehead. I prepared myself to fight it, but it wasn’t such a swift move. However, everything was in slow-mo because someone stepped ahead and grabbed the arrow before it could even touch me.

While he grabbed the arrow, he turned towards me with a smooth move, the arrow whooshing in the air while being in his hand as he pulled it down, and the force he applied to do so put the fire out from the arrow.

He now faced me with his eyes on me.

"Troy," I uttered.

He then backed down again, turning to face Suki.

"What the fuck," Troy grunted, stepping ahead and putting his hands on her. The way he pushed her, I guess she did not see it coming because she landed straight on her butt.

That is when Joshua, who was still walking slowly with his crusaders, started sprinting. Seeing his mate fall on her ass probably triggered him. He came to attack Troy when Yorick got in the way and the two started to put their hands on each other.

Joshua threw the first punch that only grazed Yorick’s chin before Yorick punched him in his stomach and then put his head between his underarm, trying to drag him away. Joshua pushed him from the back, freeing himself and then pushing him again.

It was becoming too chaotic. Their other crusaders had arrived too. Two more boys and a girl, and they started throwing punches at Yorick and Troy.

But Yorick and Troy were the best, I could tell, because Troy was able to grab two crusaders in a headlock and then throw them away before he turned and punched the girl from their group, and she landed on the ground.

That is when the entire scene stopped because she started screaming.

"You fucking gave me a split lip!"

The way she screamed, everyone stopped to watch and look at her. Even Suki stepped away, wrinkling her nose at the blood coming from that girl’s mouth.

"You fucking hit a woman?" Joshua screamed at Troy, who shrugged.

"There is no gender in a fight. If your bitch can come and attack our crusader, we will do the same. You hear me?" Troy yelled back, shocking me with his reaction.

He was doing this because someone tried to attack me. I thought he would just stand by and have popcorn while I got hit with that arrow. But I guess I wasn’t truly that great at knowing what people thought of me. I thought I had figured it all out. I thought I knew what Troy wanted.

I guess not.

"Because your bitch fucking ruined our chance to slay that monster," Joshua yelled.

"Oh, you fucking bastard. You don’t get to call her a bitch," Yorick stepped up, pointing his finger at him.

What was going on? Why were these two fighting for me? I was so stunned that I could not even speak for myself.

"Besides, who said it was your plan? It was our plan. It failed? So what? Why did you want to kill him while we did the hard work?" Ian finally snapped, but speaking in his very low and calm, scary and creepy voice.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Did you not see how your crusaders hit a woman?"

The girl from the ground got up, suddenly playing a woman card.

"I saw. Enjoyed it. But now you’re becoming a boring person," Ian shrugged and said in the most taunting and carefree voice. So much so that everyone just kept staring at his face like he was speaking gibberish.

"And if you want to slay the monster, do it yourself. Don’t come running into our plan. Because next time, we might not even want to slay the monster. And our focus might turn into other targets," Ian threatened, his eyes speaking their own language.

Everyone was so silently listening to him at this point.

It was actually Joshua who stepped forward to offer his handkerchief to the girl bleeding, while Suki just kept her distance. I could tell she was too full of herself.

But these two were the ones that were running their squad. Obviously, they had picked leaders. I wondered if it was the same for every squad, while our squad was just running around on their own.

Was it the right thing to pick a leader? Or should we all just be individuals? I guess that is why we were all separate now and they were all in groups.

"Let’s go, guys. We will slay the monster, while these fucking alphas will watch their bitch getting fucked by the faun," Joshua hissed as he wrapped his arm around his girl’s tiny waist again, before they walked away.

"Thank you," I said to Troy and Yorick, who turned to me and glared at me.

"Whoa, I’m just being grateful," I said, holding my hands up as a means to surrender.

"No, but what the fuck was that? You really wanted to listen to what that goat was saying?" Yorick yelled.

"Fine. What did you guys plan to do? Hit him with the balls? How many balls did you even have to kill him with? Did you not see? He only gets scared and screams in pain, but then he comes back. There is no injury left on him. That means these balls can only scare him, cause him temporary pain. We cannot kill him with it," I yelled back after they had fucking ate my head for the past few minutes.

"We could capture him and set him on fire," Ian claimed, leaning against the tree trunk.

"Alright, and how are we going to capture it?" I asked, staring at him.

"So what do you suggest, Redhead?" Ian asked, pushing his body forward so that he could stand up and shove his hands in his pockets.

"I’m just saying, let’s hear him out. Let’s see his story. Why the fuck does he think I am the girl who had betrayed him?" I pointed at my chest, watching Troy and Yorick share a glance, but this time it wasn’t like they were secretly calling me names or getting angry at me. More like they were kind of agreeing with me.

"When his horns turn red, it means he is in love, read it somewhere," Ian explained how the others found out he was in love with me. Back when he was chasing me, even then his horns were on fire.

"And he called her Diana," Troy remembered. "Could it be his lover’s name? But was she a faun too?"

"I don’t understand," Yorick asked.

"Exactly, that’s what I want to know. Maybe there’s another way for us to help him move on," I said, watching them slowly rub their chins.

Ian started shaking his head and rolling his eyes. I could tell he was least affected by anything, literally anything. He did not give a fuck about anyone’s emotions, feelings, or stories.

"Fine," Troy was the first one to give up. "But you will tell us what you are planning on doing," he hissed.

"Of course. We are in this together," I said, reminding them we were literally a squad.

"Okay then, what do we do now? Lure him back in and let him continue to talk to you? Did you not see in the end he got angry and tried to attack you?" Yorick reminded me, and I began to nod my head.

"How about this time we chase after him? Like, see where he was going. He must have a home, a place," I suggested, watching Troy look impressed.

"Yeah, if we can get to his home, we can look around and maybe we will find something that we can use against him," Troy mumbled.

Thankfully, the two were agreeing with me now. As for Ian, he seemed like he was tired of our bullshit. He gave us a hand gesture as if to say, you guys are unbelievable, and then he walked away.

"Where are you going?" Yorick yelled for Ian.

"I’ll do my own thing," he voiced, not even looking back to look at us.

"Well, I guess it’s just the three of us now," I uttered.

"Yeah, in order to chase him, we will have to lure him again. But this time we will have to get you out of his sight quickly so that he doesn’t get to attack you. And at the same time, once he is leaving, we will start going after him," Troy suggested.

But Yorick began to nod his head as if he was having his own plan, his own ideas.

As the rain started out of the blue, Yorick started to smile.

"I guess I know how we can follow him. We need to do it while it is raining," he suggested.

And both Troy and I shared a very interested look.