“You’re sure about that?” Emma asked, having heard about Erik’s previous dream and Angela’s theory.

  “Of course not, but it makes sense and seems like the most obvious chain of events,” responded Angela.

  The car stopped, forcing both Erik and Angela to look ahead, seeing the road blocked by crashed cars. Jessie’s car stopped behind them, and everyone left their vehicles, greeting each other for the first time in a short while.

  “Do we have anything that makes moving these easy?” Emma asked the group, though clearly intended the question for Erik and Jessie.

  Jessie shrugged and walked to the side of the closest car, blasting it with a wind scythe. The car, small though it was, was pushed away with a squeal from its tyres.

  “Great! That car didn’t need moving, though,” Emma teased, pointing at a single car blocking the grassy side of the road.

  With a sigh, Erik and Jessie went to move the other car, this one bigger but offered a direct route past the road block. Erik had to help with this as the wind scythe proved too weak, and Jessie’s own physical strength the same. The group were quickly on their way again.

  Not a minute later, Jessie’s car stopped with a squeal of its tyres, Jessie rushing out of the car. Noticing this, Emma also stopped, but the three only looked around for signs of trouble.

  Jessie ran towards the opposite side of the road and prepared herself. Erik opened the door just when a Hellbeast rushed out of the forest beside the road, heading straight for Jessie. Blood fountained from it as a ‘Spike’ stabbed through it.

  A second beast was closing in, this one quickly reaching Jessie. Jessie was quickly moved through the air to her side as she simultaneously cut the side of the monster with Caliburn which almost instantly appeared in her hand. As the hound yelped in pain, it hit the ground and slid away across the asphalt, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

  A third and fourth hound followed, though Erik had gotten close enough to stop one of them in its tracks, grabbing it by its neck with a monstrous hand and squeezing it. The monster fell limp at his feet as the other one was incinerated.

  “I don’t sense any more,” Jessie said, finishing off the second hound that had appeared with another strike of the sword. The sword vanished moments after.

  “Maybe you should take the lead?” Erik asked.

  “No, as long as we keep close, I can sense far enough around us all. We’re pretty close to… Malmo, was it? Must be where they came from, hearing our cars or something.”

  “I think so. We have no idea how many there might be in and around in a city like this, so we should expect more of them as we circle around the city,” Erik agreed.

  “So, back to our earlier conversation,” Emma said as they got back to driving. “You’re thinking Erik’s uncle is behind this? That he’s another Titan-Remnant guy?”

  “I do. He died three years ago, so his death makes it possible for him to be a Remnant. Three years also gives him ample opportunity to absorb abilities and get familiar with them, much more so than our own pair of Remnants,” Angela answered.

  “But why kill Erik and his family? Why do that a month before unleashing an army of Hellbeasts?”

  “My guess is he knew it was a bloodline thing. He killed his sibling along with their kid, and kept the area under observation so none of them came back as a Titan.”

  “The pair of hounds patrolling outside my house when I got back,” Erik commented, realising this.

  “You lived far enough from the town centre to not be counted as any valuable form of infrastructure, and there are few reports of Hellbeasts staying behind in rural areas rather than towns. Why were they there?”

  “Watching for me or my father resurrecting so he could kill us off again, that time forever,” Erik said grimly. Angela nodded in response.

  “So he’s obviously controlling these dogs, right? What’s his goal? If he wanted to destroy the world, he’s done a pretty lousy job so far, and if that’s the case, his Hellbeasts are real cowards for retreating after a short little skirmish that can’t even harm them,” Emma interjected.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “I really don’t know. The infrastructure I get - cell towers, power stations, fibre optics. But why leave monsters behind in captured areas, and why do they give up the fight so easily? I really don’t see any reason for it. But I think he can communicate with them, or at least see what they see,” Angela said, keeping the grim tone Erik did.

  “How so?” Erik asked.

  “Remember Africa?”

  “The continent or the events? Anyway, how could we forget?” Erik teased to slightly lighten the mood.

  “Those beasts were obviously there for us. The rest travel in a straight line and usually in pairs. Those ones didn’t, and simply happened upon our beach? That kind of coincidence doesn’t happen. Do you think that big one smelled you from across two continents? It was probably all those Hellbeasts we killed to train that let your uncle know where we were, who then led the big one close enough to get your scent.”

  “Most of this you’re just pulling out of your ass,” Emma said, though her expression was deeply thoughtful. “It makes as much sense as anything else.”

  “That’s not the worst of it,” Angela continued. “Back to that lone Hellbeast earlier, at Bridgefort…”

  “Scout?” Erik asked.

  “Yes. If my theory is correct, even if just the part about controlling and seeing through them, then whoever controls them knows we’re coming, and knows exactly where we are.”

  The car went silent for almost half a minute before Angela continued; “We are likely heading into an ambush, and our enemy has the time to gather his forces. We can’t let our guard down for even a second.”

  Night fell several hours later, and the party had parked to eat and converse, as well as stretch their legs. Angela shared the conversation from earlier in the car with the rest, which was the first time the rest of the group also heard about his uncle being their most likely enemy. Sophie and Jessie were both struggling finding words, but Erik got a big hug from both simultaneously.

  They had stopped to either fight or clear the road plenty of times during the day, and if it hadn’t been for the humans in the group needing rest, they would have continued all through the night with Jessie’s senses not being restricted to having light, nor the Remnants needing as much sleep

  Everyone could push through the night, especially considering the constant sense of danger they all felt. It would be hard to sleep, but they needed the rest. Erik and Jessie would keep watch during the night in shifts.

  There was just one attack during the night, and Jessie had quickly dispatched them without the others even waking from their slumber. Erik noticed the event by Jessie's aura, which had disappeared from his senses for a short while, and the aura feeling more excited when she returned.

  He sensed this even as he slept, lightly though it was. Even if he hadn’t noticed then, he would’ve definitely seen the scorch mark and carcass the next morning, which the others did as soon as they were on their way.

  Driving as slowly as they needed and stopping several times meant that their progress was slow. That said, they were almost in Norway already, having followed Sweden’s coastline past Gothenburg the first day. Now, they had to decide which route to take into Norway; either following Sweden’s border further north, or crossing over at the first opportunity.

  Along the border there would be a lot more wooded areas and empty roads, though they didn’t know the roads that well, and didn’t have any good maps on hand. Crossing over immediately would mean they had to get pretty close to Oslo, where there would likely be plenty of monsters, not to mention in the smaller towns and cities before that.

  They eventually decided on crossing the border a bit further north, entering the country some distance above Oslo on the map. They wouldn’t go further north than that before crossing over, though, keeping on known roads despite the increased danger that might pose.

  They would still be victims of targeted attacks whichever way they drove anyway, but like this they could keep away from the largest population centre between them and their destination.

  That day there were much fewer attacks from Hellbeasts all the way up to Torsby, a small Swedish town signalling the party’s northbound end. From there, they would go west and across the border into the Norwegian region.

  Upon reaching Torsby, Jessie had her car stop and Dunham signalled the frontmost car to stop with a few flashes of the headlights. Erik and Jessie both left their cars as they usually did whenever they were attacked, but this time Jessie shouted for Angela and Emma as well, her face unreadable as she did.

  The pair of women immediately left the car, joining the Remnants on the road. The Hellbeasts would usually have attacked by then, as Jessie’s senses weren’t entirely trustworthy much further away from the cars, giving the party only a dozen or so seconds to prepare themselves. By the half-minute mark, Jessie’s expression hadn’t changed. Something was up.

  “What’s wrong?” Angela asked as they approached the Remnant pair.

  “They’re surrounding us. They keep moving, I can’t keep count,” Jessie said, trying to focus on singling the unseen monsters out.

  “Any big ones?” asked Emma, her tone making her nervousness crystal clear. All of them, even Sophie and Dunham in the other car, felt that same feeling.

  “No. But many normal ones. You two defend Sophie!” Jessie started, yet ended in a shout, magical weapons appearing in the air next to her. The ex-military women grabbed their swords and rushed towards the back-most car. “They’re coming.”

  The nearby treeline cracked open wide as several trampling beasts ran through it without regard for the trees in their way. Horrendous barks and growls filled the area as hounds kept coming out of the forest on both sides of the road.