Zeph Kaizen's Arc

Chapter 8 of 51

Zeph ran along the ridge with the three horns closing behind him. The pines gave way to a bare shelf of stone. He could hear Keji fighting somewhere past the shelf, steel on steel, a shout cut short. He put his head down and pushed harder. He cleared the treeline and stopped. Three hunters stood on the stone shelf between him and the drop where the fighting was. They had come in from different sides and met here to wait for him. One held a curved blade. One held a spear. The third carried nothing but his hands, and those were the ones Zeph watched. Behind him, brush cracked. A fourth hunter stepped out of the pines at his back. Zeph reached for the warmth in his chest. He named the thing. "I will not let them stop me." The warmth opened. He moved. He was past the spearman before the spear leveled, and his elbow took the man's jaw sideways. The curved blade came for his neck. He was not there. He was behind that hunter, and his palm drove into the base of the skull. Two down. The warmth held. The empty-handed one closed with him. Zeph named the next thing. "I will not slow." He slid under the swing and drove his knee up into the ribs. The hunter dropped. He turned for the fourth. The fourth was already on him. A fist caught Zeph in the temple. His vision went white. He hit the stone on his side. The warmth flickered. He could not name fast enough. Three refusals in a row and the fourth would not come. The hunter raised a boot over his throat. A low sound rolled out of the pines behind them. The white tiger came onto the shelf at a run. Its fur shimmered pale, blue stripes catching the light like cold water. Keji's test animal, the one Zeph had thrown aside in the clearing. It had followed. It had chosen a side. The tiger hit the fourth hunter in the chest and took him off his feet. Bone cracked under its jaws. The hunter stopped moving. Zeph pushed up onto one elbow. The tiger stood over the body and looked at him. Its eyes were pale. It did not come closer. He understood. Refusal alone was not enough against a pack. He needed help he had not asked for, and it had come. He got to his feet. Below the shelf, the steel had gone quiet. Keji's voice was not in the air anymore. Zeph ran to the edge and looked down. Keji lay in the snow at the bottom of the slope. Two hunters stood over him. One was bending to check if he still breathed. Zeph started down the slope. The tiger came with him.