The ride went on for another while longer, with the silence being interrupted periodically when the wheels drove over something particularly hard. And throughout the ride, Brutus couldn't help but notice Lady Alicia staring at his face very intently.
"Is there something on my face?" Brutus sighed.
"Huh?" Replied Alicia.
"You were staring at my face?"
"I was?"
"Yes? How can you not know if you've been staring at me while staring at me?"
"Oh, I don't know, do you not get that a lot though?"
"No, I don't think I ever have. Why?"
"Oh, that's odd, considering your facilities in the face department, I would've figured that all the girls would stare."
"What's that supposed to mean? What's a face departme-" and before Brutus could fully ask, the entire carriage shook as if the ground under it had been shattered. "What the..." said Brutus warily. He looked out the window to try to get a grasp on what could've happened outside the carriage, but it was completely quiet, too quiet.
No signs of panic from the horses, no distress from Mark.
Silence.
"Ugh, there must be a holdup outside the carriage," sighed Alicia.
"Holdup? What holdup?" Asked Brutus, still looking out the window.
By the time he looked back to where Alicia was, the cabin was occupied only by Brutus. 'Where the hell did she go now?' Stepping outside the carriage, Brutus looked at what had caused the delay, and what he saw made him freeze. "What... the hell," is all Brutus could mutter.
Alicia was battling blurs, as if reality itself had been smudged. Vague silhouettes of monstrously large creatures, a misshapen head that seems to have not grown properly, whose vertical mouth parts it down the middle, lined with short, jagged teeth. The head melts into a thick neck too big for the head it supports, and frail elderly limbs sticking out of a torso in the shape of a large lion.
Their slick grey skin flickered between having fur one moment, rotting the next, then glinting scales, as if reality couldn't decide what they were. Above all, no noises could be heard coming from the creatures, just an occasional soft tick, like that of a clock.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE THINGS?!" Brutus shouted.
"They're the Misaligned!"
"The misa-what?!"
"Misaligned! They're beasts that aren't aligned with time!"
Brutus wanted to look for more answers, but before he could ask questions, he saw a blur flicker in front of him before immediately feeling a bone-shattering impact on his chest, launching him metres to the side.
Groaning and struggling to get back to his senses, Brutus felt himself being pulled to his feet by his armour's collar.
"Get up! Unless you want to die a gruesome death, you need to fight!" Alicia beckoned. "Dammit, if only I weren't wearing this damned dress!" She grumbled.
"Fight?! How the hell do we even fight something like this!"
"It's simple, really!" Before finishing, Alicia swung at thin air, but instead of passing through nothing, her sword made contact and wedged itself into the body of a blur. "You have to predict where they'll attack from!" Tugging the sword out from the blur's body, Alicia plunged the sword into its torso. The Misaligned flickering exploded into a frenzy of fur, rot, and scales. The flickering quickened to a point faster than eyes could see, and as quick as the flickering began, it stopped, and the Misaligned body shuddered and grew still.
"What the hell..." Brutus stood dumbfounded. 'Guess? I have to guess where these monsters are gonna hit me?!' Before another thought came to his head. A blur appeared before him once again. This time, Brutus tried to react but was struck in the chest.
"You can't react to their movements! If you see them, they've already hit you!"
Brutus groaned on the ground, 'What... the hell... how am I supposed to predict the future...' crawling off the ground and shakily rising to his feet, Brutus unsheathed his sword and grasped it tightly in his hands. Taking a steady breath, Brutus swung his sword... and hit nothing. Then, all he felt was his arm being torn open to let a torrent of blood flow.
"Argh! How am I supposed to hit these assholes!" Brutus roared
"I don't know myself! You just have to trust your instincts!" Alicia called out.
"...you're useless!" Shouted Brutus once more.
"Hey, watch how you talk to me!" Alicia yelled.
Disregarding anything else she had to say, Brutus grounded himself. Inhaling slowly, Brutus narrowed his eyes, waited, and swung once more, and once again sliced nothing but air. But before past events repeated themselves, Brutus dove forward, avoiding a long, skinny limb striking where he should've been. "Aha! How d'you like that, you little shi-" Brutus was struck in his chest again. Feeling his ribs fracture.
"Stop fooling around or you'll really die, Brutus!" Warned Alicia.
Rolling away on the ground, Brutus got to all fours and spat out a crimson liquid on the orange sand.
"I got it!" Brutus called out. Once again, Brutus grounded himself, this time focusing on his instinct.
Left.
Swinging his sword in a wide arc to the left, Brutus felt... nothing.
A pocket of empty air followed instantly by a crushing spike of pain.
"ARGH!"
He hit the ground hard, a puff of sand slowly settling around him. For a moment, Brutus could only lie there and simmer in the pain, ribs screaming, and his breath refused to return.
'Alicia's method,' he thought bitterly, of course it works for her, she seems like a prodigy, a monster-slayer, or whatever they're called. Brutus was pretty much just a regular guy; he's stronger than the average person, sure, but he can't just replicate Alicia's instinct on the fly.
So Brutus gritted his teeth and pushed himself back on his feet. This time, he forced himself not to rely on instinct. Instead, he locked his eyes on the blur, really looked at it, searching for any clues as to how it attacks. 'Maybe the flickering stops when it's about to attack or something.' On the ground, Brutus learned that's not the case.
'Maybe their image sharpens?' Nope.
'Maybe-' Nope again.
Back on the ground, Brutus felt his body slowly failing, too many hits, too many close calls, and there being no pattern to the Misaligned, erratic movements. Brutus was about to give in to the piled weight of sleep.
Then something shifted.
A shadow stretched across his body.
A shadow with nothing above to cast it.
Brutus puzzled, 'Is my mind playing tricks on me before I die?' he thought weakly.
The shadow moved slowly across his body, seemingly taunting his defenselessness.
Deciding to pay it no mind, Brutus mustered the strength to turn his head and take a look at Alicia.
And that damned genius was doing just fine, effortlessly dodging and weaving between crushing strikes.
The low sun cast tremendously long shadows, painting the battle on the ground, the tall shadow of Alicia dancing with the solid shadows of the Misaligned. Wait... solid shadows? Not flickering ones? The blurred attacks Alicia dodged instinctively were perfectly telegraphed by the shadows...
The shadows.
The shadows!
Suddenly, Brutus snapped his eyes wide open. Seeing the shadow above him stir.
Brutus flung his body to the left hard, hearing a thunderous boom behind where his head used to be.
"It's not the body!... It's the shadow!"
Finally upright, Brutus shifted focus from the blur to the long shadow, showing a clear image of an oddly shaped lion.
For the first time, the knight was sure where to swing.