《Earthbound Nightmare》


 1 in 2

    *Om nom nom*


    In a darkest alley gnawing and chewing sounds echo along the walls.


    Suddenly footsteps fall between the chewing sounds.


    -"Damn, again a dark wolf. Why its mostly this trash?"


    "It could be once something more appetizing."


    Said the boy as walking closer towards the enormous jet black wolf.


    The walls were slightly bloody. The wolf was eating an arm of a man, the rest of the body in pieces all over.


    .....


    Psssssrrt...           Psssrrrt...


    -"Magical Patrol 7. Boyd here"


    "Arrived to the location of the magical signature, Bird nest" said Boyd through his radio


    A seductive womans voice could be heard through the radio.


    - "And what do you see Boyd?"


    - "Well at glance would not say anything extraordinary.Body in pieces, attacked by a black wolf."


    "Its same as the other strange cases. The body of the wolf was pierced through the stomach. Blood all over the floor and walls.


    Probably some of it are from the victim, some from the wolf."


    Boyd slowly stepped closer, conjuring a small light from his palm.


    "The problem comes after this. The same creepy shit as always, the wolf has no shadow."


    "This shit gives me the creeps everytime" said Boyd.


    The voice of the woman could be heard again.


    -"Yea,for fuck sake.What the hell Im going to say to the leader, and the council"


    "The visit almost upon us, and we have a fucking unknown serial killer walking around"


    "Luckily its only killing beasts"


    "If Its would be an one time case or some pickpot no problem. We can overlook that, but a loose serial killer just makes us look incompetent." said the woman.


    .....


    Light was shining through the small window on the door. An old sign could be seen over the door saying "Peaceful Chaos"


    The sounds of merry laughter and music could be heard from insight.


    *Cling Cling*


    As the door slowly opened it hit the two small bells in the inside.


    A smaller dark figure was stepping into the tavern.


    It was a "boy" wearing black hoodie, his face was covered by shadow. Only his jaw and somewhat his lips could be seen.


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    Nobody given him a second glance.It was nothing new to the customers of the tavern.


    As the boy was walking closer to the bar front, the bartender slowly turned around.


    -"It would be nice at least once seeing you coming in with a smile Mordred"


    "You scaring the shit out of most of the new guys" said the bartender


    It could not be seen but the boy''s eyebrows risen slightly


    -"You always say that, but Im only around 175cm in height."


    "I dont think I look too intimidating, Meanwhile you have all these hulks sitting here, Sord." Answered Mordred as he pointed his thumb behind his back over his shoulder.


    The bartender Sord looked behind the boy


    -"Yea, sure they look buff and all, still they dont look like they have your death certificate."


    As this sentence was heard, one of the hulking man slightly turned to the side from table with his chair.


    The guy looked 190 cm with short yellow-brownish hair. Strong and masculine face with a scara on his left cheek from a slash.


    -"Hahaha.... that''s a good one Sord" said the muscle head guy named Karon


    " And Mordred? How''s the stinking old witch?"


    Mordred also turned slowly sideways and said


    -"Im always surprised how she still didn''t poisoned your potions when you say such shit everytime"


    *DUM*


    A sound was heard as someone slammed money on the bartender''s counter.


    Then an old rusty voice could be heard


    -"So Sord, what is the big deal. Why all the mage partols turning the slums upside-down?


    I know the visit almost upon us, but it does not justify the amount of partols"


    The bartender Sord turned towards the owner of the old rusty voice.


    -"You always too smart for your own good Kalahan. As I know the reason because of a serial killer. The guy only killed beast that attacked people, but you know them.


    They want to control everything so a noname,unaccounted somebody,who can kill a monster in a second is thorn in their eyes. Probably they want to put him in line also."


    Kalahan took a huge swing from his whisky then said.


    -"Damn, somebody finally getting rid of the pesky monsters then the upper want to get rid of him."


    Loud footsteps could be heard, then the door smashed open.


    3 man stepped into the tavern. Fine uniform clothes, with insignias.


    Their uniform looked well kept. Black uniform high boots, made from leather.Smooth but durable blue trousers and matching coats.


    The coats had three red lines on the left side. On their heart they wore a yellow insignia. It was a cog which was diagonally crossed by a hammer from one side and a screwdriver from the other.


    Person on the front with the uniform slowly said


    "Im from the seventh mage patrol. We need everybody''s testimony where you stayed and did 2 hours ago.


    Of course you can keep quiet about it, but just gonna put you on our suspect list. Also tell if you seen anybody suspicious."


    Karon looked at the guy.


    (What and idiot. Nobody enough stupid here to rat out anybody in the slums. You would be dead meat after that)


    -"Oh, I seen somebody suspicious"


    Karon looked up towards where the voice is coming from.He slowly gulped because he could not believe what he is witnessing


    There is no way Mordred would be so stupid that would do something like this.


    The leading mage patrol turned towards the boy.


    -"Who, where, when?Tell us everything you know."


    Mordred slowly smirked


    -"You, here,now"


    Everybody in the tavern petrified for a moment. Nobody could believe what they just heard. They looked like someone spooked them to their deaths.


    Karon was only petrified for a moment then burst out laughing almost deafening everybody


    -"Hahahahaha. Thats a fucking good one Mordred. I almost pissed myself."


    Sord and Kalahan also chuckled but they tried to hide it. Its not good to laugh at mage patrols.


    The two patrol behind the mage turned angry. Their brows sharpened like swords and was ready to kill the boy in an instant to avenge what they believed to be an insult.


    The lead mage patrol looked at the boy with a sharp glint in his eyes.


    "I dont have time for your childish stuff... boy. If you gonna waste my time with such things, I send you flying and then you can start counting your broken bones"


    Everybody though Mordred gonna be in a lot of pain which such a joke.


    Twenty minutes later everybody finished recounting the asked information, while nobody mentioned anybody suspicious...


    As the patrols left.


    Mordred also slowly got up starting to walk towards the door.


    Kalahan,Karon and Sord each said a sentence toward the boy.


    -"Good job kid, those guys deserve this shit" -Kalahan


    -"Thats the spirit, a man at least should have this much balls in his life." - Karon


    -"See you Mordred,  and next time dont cause such scenes in my shop or I break your arm" - Sord


    As Mordred heard their sentences. He stopped for a fraction of a second in his step.


    He said under his hood as he way leaving


    -"Stop being such a wuss Sord"


    These were the last words as Mordred stepped through the door and arrived onto the streets.


    He was walking down the same old dirt roads. The half steel,brick houses on the side. Some of them half crumbling.


    Smokes polluting the air as some of the machines puffed them out from their respected shops.


    It also did not help some of the pipes that were feeding the upper city leaked the smoke.


    -"You should stop being friendly with such a lowlives"


    -"At least once say something else. Boring to hear the same shit always"


    -"I told you already everything. I can only repeat myself"


    -"Then shut the fuck up and dont say anything"


    The man who was walking behind Mordred looked up at the boy,petrified.Then hurriedly walked away.


    (Why I always run into these psychos. This boy also like them, talks to himself fucking batshit crazy.)


    .........

 2

    A big wide room. Brown walls, black hexagonal patterns.


    Trophies and medals on the shelf. A huge stuffed deer head on the wall.


    It was an office. An office with a man in it.


    He looked aged. Around 50? Black short straight hair. Strong jaw lines,angular face with a bushy beard.


    -"Hmmmm...."


    The man looked at the paper in his hands. He was turned towards the huge magical class window glancing at the city under.


    He turned around pressing on a magical gem on his table.


    From the comfort of his chair said


    -"Send in Captain Sierra"


    Slowly a minute passed when the opening of the door could be heard.


    A gorgeous woman stepped through the door. She had straight long hair, it looked black like the darkest night.


    Beautiful purple eyes.


    -"Captain Sierra reporting, Sir. Do you require anything?"


    The man looked at the woman. Even though she looked only around 170 cm,delicate and small compared to the man. He did know that the appearance was deceiving. Every mage could feel her power and even for normal people her position showed how much power she represented.


    No connections or background could get you the position of the Council Guardian Captain.This postion represented true real ability.


    -"I called you because of the report. I know clearing up the slums shouldnt be your responsibility, and we the council forced it up on you. I hope you understand. We cannot look weak due to the visit."


    "But..... Huuh."Sighed the man.


    "These reports highly disturbing and making the council restless. Three cases in the last one and half month. Everytime almost the same report. No evidence, nobody seen or heard anything. Our patrols always late to the scene. You also know this makes us look incompetent.


    Well this is the councils smallest concerns with the case.


    The problem is the odd parts, all corpses look like they lost their souls and they have no shadows. We are quite scared this maybe related to some dark magic rituals.So based on this information we made a decision on todays meeting. This is the reason why I called you here.


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    We invited the Thousand-Eyes wizard from the Cloak Guild. With her specialization as a 7th tier mage, we should be able to catch the culprit."


    The man slowly took out a crystaline card from his desk and tossed it towards the Guardian Captain Sierra.


    -"Shes arriving from Mjuzeld 5 days from now. The rest of the information on the crystal card. Her job to help you catch the culprit, meanwhile yours to keep her safe."


    The woman catched the crystal card.She infused some mana in her fingers.Her eyes slightly arched a little then said.


    -"Understood Council Elder Kalanvir. I do my best to catch the culprit and keep her safe."


    Then the woman turned around and exited the door.


    5 hours later


    -"This is the councils decision in this case. Until then we keep going with the same patrolling routine"


    As the mage patrols heard the end sentence they slowly left to continue their jobs and rest.


    -"Captain Sierra do you think we gonna able to catch the culprit with this outside help?"


    -"Cannot say for sure Boyd. But sure we can get some extra information with her help. As a 7th tier mage specialized in reconnaisance and scouting, Her abilities should able unveil the identity of the culprit."


    -"Lets hope so, Captain. I would like to avoid having a town full of assassins and an unpredictable killer. Even if hes only killing monsters now. He just needs to step over the line once then after its just get easier."


    -"Well we dont even know his motive. Based on how hes dealing with the monsters I highly doubt he wouldnt kill a person if necessary."


    -"Thats true. Also Captain I may have some extra information. I did not write into the reports,because theres no evidence ,but after asking around seems people mentioned such monster kills werent unheard in the past. There were many times dead monsters found around  the outskirts.Sadly as there was no investigation we dont know if they related or not. Only that the execution method matches based on witness testimonies."


    -"Hmmm..."


    "Thats a good information. Thank you Boyd. If thats true its not related to the upcoming event in anyway. After checking the past events, seems the killing started after we cleared out the outskirts. So if that was the killer previous hunting ground,we cleared it so he moved to hunt down the ones that successfully invade into the slums."


    -"Sadly we cant cover the whole outskirts as you know Captain.  The one time purge was already a huge operation, keeping everything at bay would require too much manpower which we dont have."


    -"Yes, I know Boyd. But lets end this meaningless chatter. With the Thousand-Eyes mage we going to know more."


    -"Understood Captain. Have a good rest." These were Boyd last words as he left the hall.


    5 days later....


    Captain Sierra and Mage Patrol Boyd was standing on the airship docks.


    Huge Zeppelins fueled by magic crystals were leaving some of the docks. The docks were bushy as always. People coming and going, passengers disembarking and getting on new flights. Dock workers moving cargo and doing other tasks.


    A huge Zeppelin could be seen getting closer from the horizon. It was marked with the numbers 11. It clearly could be seen that it was bigger than the other ships by quite large margin. The reason being it was the direct trade and passenger ship between the City and Mjuzeld.It held a quite large importance.


    The ship was slowly arriving, parking into the dock. The ship slowly floated into the docks magical lights. The huge crystals which shined with great light slowly anchored the ship. As soon this was done workers started to move cargo.


    Captain Sierra and Mage Patrol Boyd slowly eyed the ship with hawk eyes as passengers started slowly getting out of the ship....

 3

    Two pearl white hands, a long black hair and a beautiful face. A black robe with red lines and a cloak with a huge eye.


    These clothes clearly given a normal person one indication. Shes someone you dont want get involved with.


    But for our duo these were clear signs that shes the person they waiting for. Of course the huge mana pressure she emited was already a dead giveaway who she is.


    The well worn, battle hardened mage patrol stepped forward.


    -"Welcome to the City of Prosperity Miss Thousand Eyes"


    -"Thank you Boyd. I also would like to offer my greetings to Miss Sierra. You can call me Clarissa" Smiled the woman.


    Boyd eyes widened after he heard his name mentioned. While Sierra only furrowed her brow slightly.


    -"Should say expected from someone who works for the "information" guild."


    -"Miss Sierra please properly refer to us as Cloak. We dont like that nickname. It feels degrading like we only good enough to gather information."


    -"Sure,sure just lets get going we have a bothersome killer to catch."


    -"Okay,okay. I would like to see the crime scenes first."


    4 hours later


    -"So Miss Thousand-Eyes found any clue to our culprit?"


    -"Yes and no" said the woman as he was still looking around the last crime scene.


    -"Please explain"


    -"Well based on the energy residues, the one who killed the beasts were not human ,but an elemental or spirit. Its clearly a work of a summon, or a contracted familiar. Natural spirits and elementals would not hide their energy this much and they wouldnt be this efficient in killing. I meant as the ones who would hunt for these monsters. Of course there are high tier elementals that would able to do same, but they would have a whole domain and not do this in a slum of a city."


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    -"We already checked every person who had enough mana to do something like this. If theres nothing else we are still in the same place." Answered Boyd


    -"Impossible for you to detect him.The summon''s energy type is darkness.It highly boost stealth and concealment spells. The mage himself also high tier if he can summon or contract such monster."


    The Guard Captain looked at both then turned to the woman.


    -"So whats the next step?"


    -"Well I would say setting up a magic array over the slums but considering Im a foreign mage in this city I wont have the premission.So I send out my familiars. They way more sensitive to magic energy and darkness attribute than your mage patrols.With a fresh scene where the enegy still quite active I can get some more clues."


    2km away


    In a worn down shop named "Rat''s glue" the ''young'' Mordred was looking at the ceiling.


    His residence was on the 2nd floor.Just below the roof. The walls were gray and crumbling. The room had almost nothing in it. A small bed and a table with a stool. Mordred was lying on the bed currently. The bed looked like it was only standing due to god''s will and a small wind would make it crumble anytime.


    Mordred was still in his clothes. The clothes were quite unusual for someone in the slums. A black leather boots, a black pants and a blue hoodie.Frist of all it was already strange seeing someone with a black leather boots. Even if someone had boots in the slums it was mostly brown.The surrounding wood animals deers,bears and rabbits all had brown colored leather. If it was a black leather it was dyed or made from some other animals leather. Theres no way someone in the slums would able to buy something like this.Well it could be stolen but most people would not walk around with something stolen.They would sell it as fast as possible for some food.


    Then the hoodie. Blue was even a rarer color. It was somewhat noble color, used by mages and their patrols, noble personal guards.So Mordred clothes always stood out in the crowd. It was helping they all looked old and aged clothes.The hoodie had some patching done with yellow in two places. But well clothes werent the only thing that stood out on Mordred. His black hair with a tinge of red. The unusually vibrant green eyes and his strange smooth face.


    -"So seems we have another visitor. Did not expected they call another 7th tier mage into the slums just because of us."


    -"Eh, quite problematic. I was getting used to eating again. Even though most of the time the foods taste was trash at least it was something to eat. Going back to starving again is not nice."


    -"Well its already too late. If we would have left the city without things getting this far then would be no problem. Now if we leave then we indirectly going to say ''Im the culprit''. So the only choice left is that you gotta starve a little. When this circus is done in the city we can leave without problem."


    -"Well yea sure. Not like it matters to me. A month or five minutes for me its almost the same thing.But I think you also starting to understand this, Right kid?"


    -"Somewhat yes."


    ....