The Last Hope: Chapter 18 - The Hooded Hero

Howls of terrified agony erupted into the air as panicked, unarmed villagers scarpered for their life, as they tried to not be taken by the horrifying, gruesome, grubby arms of the undead. Not one of the residents of this place tried to defeat the evil beings, and with no weapons on hand meant that the town’s only option was to flee. However, two figures, one short young woman and one tall slightly scared lad, helped to defend the citizens. One used her sturdy and trustworthy bow to snipe the disgusting heads off of the enemies while the other used a damaged but strong wooden dagger and sliced through the hordes. Screams of terror still filled the air, but new words were being demanded, one question which cursed the petrified village.
“Where’s the hooded hero?!” Hollered some of the pedestrians as they scrambled through their destroyed city, hope being quickly decreased as more groups of evil beings stormed their home. The male of the duo heard their pleas, and when he had sliced up one horde of zombies, he swiftly backed up into his pal, who cleared zombies faster than they arrived.
“Who’s the hooded hero?” He asked, as he quickly chopped a creeping being in half as it had tried to sneak up on the shorter girl. The cobalt haired female also listened to the many wails, a groaned hum came from her mouth.
“They should be more concerned as to where their leader is” She replied, which didn’t really answer her friend’s question, but she hoped it would shut him up, which it did. One young villager, not yet scarred from the onslaught, heard the two’s conversation and quietly rushed up, and knocked over some of the terrifying things on his way.
“Our leader has escaped already, when the zombies started attacking we made sure she was safe” He said, as he used his worn fists to help the duo as he explained, before he shoved his way to another part of the town. Hearing this news calmed the girl immensely; the one she had come in to save was fine. Suddenly fingers from an injured citizen were pointed to a small alleyway.
“Our hero is there!” The person cheered, hope had flared up again for the entire town, as if one person would be able to defeat an entire army. What the younger girl saw, this ‘hooded hero’ was crowded into the dark place; an entire swarm of zombies surrounded the mysterious helper. No one would be able to kill off that many enemies on their own, so the female took it upon herself to save the town’s only hope, after her friend had reassured her that he’d be fine to fight alone while she saved this knight in a woolly cloak. She used her bow and shot away almost all of the beings, while the trapped one used their glistening and almost brand new iron sword to clear the rest away. When no more enemies dared to try and hurt the two, they decided to rest against the old brick wall.

Even though they were still trying to catch their breath, their lungs were screaming for air, the figure sighed. They wore a dark cloak that covered up their brighter clothes underneath, with a hood that was guaranteed to hide the identity of this person. The figure tiredly undid the loose knot of their soft cloak and quickly shoved it off. Risk turned her attention to the now revealed being and her jaw dropped when she saw it was a young girl, and not just any girl. This female sported dark purple shorts, along with a revealing light blue tee, which her ebony hair covered quite nicely, painted in her hair was a long blue streak. Dark navy gloves wrapped her hands and her head showed red checkered earphones, which made Risk feel the pain of being separated from her own pair. The other woman’s pesky fringe covered up her glowing sapphire eye, while the other was a shining grey.
“Pond?” She asked, still surprised that her long time friend was indeed the ‘hooded hero’ of this village. The slightly taller girl huffed, to signal she heard Risk. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing” Panted the other, who took deeper breaths before she leant her head on the cold wall, and shut her eyes to relax herself. Few seconds later, she spoke again. “The hooded hero had to help; do you understand how heartbreaking it is for the leader to be shoved out of her burning village and not want to help them?” She huffed again, as she regained some of her lost breath. “I never thought having two identities would be so hard” she joked as she opened her eyes to peer at her confused pal, who gave a small nervous laugh. “So why are you here Risk?”
“I ran off with a friend of mine” Muttered the petite girl, who looked away from the prying eyes of her long time friend.
“Charlotte?” Pond asked, but worry pricked her when her pal shook her head. Pond only knew Risk to be around Char, who was also friends with the secretive girl. “Really? So where is Char anyway?” She obliviously queried, obviously she didn’t know the full reason behind her friend’s appearance. Her question brought daring droplets to the young girl’s eyes, tears she thought had dried long ago.
“Something happened to her” Was all Risk managed to tell without her voice breaking sadly. Even without the full explanation, the other gasped, and feared the worse, but did not want to confirm, even though it was true.

The two girls then heard panicked screams, followed by Risk’s companion who sprinted into the dingy alleyway. Rips and tears styled his clothing and his weapon, broken. A crimson glow painted the taller girl’s face as she recognized the male, but that was before she spotted an entire armada of ruthless, horrible undead beings that followed closely behind Lewis, and the two females sprung into battle stances, their strong weapons safe in their hands. The amount of enemies looked much too many for the trio to tackle, but they bravely stood nonetheless.
“I don’t think we can take them” A hopeless murmur came from Pond, fear shivered her entire body.
“We’ll have to” Answered Risk, her sharp shooting skills cleared away only a few of the oppressors.
“Risk, we’re trapped” Another hopeless sound came, this time from the unarmed body of Lewis, who now used the stump of his weapon and knocked away a few of the zombies.
“We won’t get out of this alive” Pond admitted, and stumbled back when one disgusting claw raked across her bare stomach. The damage wasn’t fatal, but it would scar. Risk looked around her, and saw that all of the enemies inched closer and closer, their paws grabbed and scratched at all of them, ready to kill. She didn’t want to accept defeat, that damn pale faced loser wouldn’t get the best of her again, but she failed to see that they were sincerely outnumbered.
“Well we’ll have to hope that the zombies drop dead, otherwise we’re screwed”