《Everlasting War: The Heir Of Darkness》


 Undead Village

    A man sprant through the fields. His sandals pacing on the path, "Zahak!" He yelled atop his lungs, but his huffing muffled the sound, "Zahak!" Once again, he gave it his all, his voice traveling and reverberating along the crops and the trees, but he got no response. Exhausted, the man leaned over, resting his hands on the knees, taking a few giant breaths, "huff, huff, huff."


    "Where is that child? Huff, huff. The beasts have been attacking, huff, huff, constantly for days now, huff, huff, why does he keep¡­ huff¡­ running around?" The man straightened up, taking one last, huge breath while cracking his back.


    He grabbed the black cloth wrapped around his arm and tightened it up. Making his entire outfit run closer with his skin. Black cloth completely enveloped him, showing only his hands, face, and feet. Quite an enigma among his people, however, just like the rest of the men, he wore a cape, though, still black, of course. His clothes weren''t with no charm at all, along the cloth wrapped around his arms, there were golden stripes. Similarly, his torso had thin purple lines that wrapped around each other on his belly, creating quite an unmissable pattern of a big human skull.


    He took a look at the surrounding fields, shielding his view from the sun. His completely black eyes perfectly reflected everything on the land. Undead beings limping around, zombies, skeletons, hollows,¡­ Their clothes were hardly more inspiring than that of a man observing them. They lacked the simple patterns, and their clothes were definitely more ragged and worn out. Zombies wore some aprons and hollows were wrapped up. Unfortunately, most of the skeletons weren''t even wearing any. Even those who tried to hide their bones wore nothing but loose transparent robes. However, on each pot, there would at least be one undead with a nice, good-looking, big straw hat.


    They would stand on a bit of an uplift and, similarly to the man, observe others as they slaved in the fields. Maybe point at one here and there and produce some weird sounds, like a potato trying to talk, but workers seemed to understand.


    A man in black beckoned someone closer with a raised hand. "Hey, any of you saw Zahak pass by?"


    The straw-hatted undead just shrugged his shoulders and produced a rough sound. Once again, the black-eyed man puzzled over it, stroking his beard, his concern growing further.


    At that moment, a loud explosion echoed all over the fields. The man jumped, quickly looking in different directions before focusing his gaze toward, the not-so-distant mountain. "The battle has started, it seems. I hope those soldiers will be alright, but now Zahak''s the main issue." He slammed his fist into his palm. "Damn, that child. I told him a million times by now not to leave the village while beasts are attacking. But no, he just can''t listen." His palm smacked his forehead, leaving a red trace. "I can only hope his brother won''t pick up his habits." Sighing, he continued his search, walking along the stone path toward the village, hoping he simply missed him the first time around.


    A few minutes of stepping along it and his feet landed on the wood of the small bridge. He tapped to the other side and finally, hatch roofs came into view. People''s chatter slowly filled the man''s ears. Three passengers passed by the man, waving at him with bright smiles. Two men had colorful capes on their shoulders, filled with patterns of animal skulls, their wide-legged trousers and sandals looking quite comfortable.


    "Have you seen Zahak anywhere?" He returned their greeting with a question.


    "Sorry, haven''t seen him." He made a wrong step, accidentally placing his foot on the piece of multicolored cloth trailing on the ground. Lady suddenly fell into his hands as her bare feet left the ground, he barely caught her, the skulls on his cape dwarfing those on lady''s dress, embracing them, preventing her fall.


    The man in black missed most of it, but the laughter that came from behind him helped to ease his own worries as he arrived at the entrance of the village. To his right stood a big house, well-kept, with a black and purple painting on the front wall. The picture showcased a man standing on top of some kind of platform with his arms held up, showing a skull to the sky while beneath stood a number of undead.


    A man looked at the painting for a second. He has lived for forty years in this house, yet this painting always makes him stutter. It wasn''t the only house with a painting around. In fact, every house that had people living in it had some painting on the wall facing the street, but in his eyes, this one was special.


    Some people with crunched backs in ponchos with masks past him while chattering, breaking the man out of his slight trance. "Hey, do you know where Zahak is?"


    "Nobody ever knows where that son of yours is. You ought to scold him more." The man, with a rough voice, waved his finger at the man before clicking his tongue before waddling away.


    Exhaling, the black-robed man took a step toward the tall wooden fence next to the house. "If those old bones don''t know where he is, there is no way anyone else knows. Maybe Esen, but he would probably be with him if he knew." Shaking his head, he opened the door. "Hmm, well, I can hope that he is in his room, can''t I?" He continued thinking while taking a few steps before getting to the front door. He looked up, an animal skull hanging above the door. He gave a slight bow with his head and knocked three times before entering the house.


    The house had been divided into a few rooms. Black curtains had been hung over each entrance and the walls were covered in small animal and human bones. "Zahak!" He called for him, slogging through the house. His voice was quite soothing now. "Are you here?" He entered the room behind one curtain before the slight shine he still had in his eyes disappeared, a slight breath escaping his mouth.


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    He took a few steps. "Damn it, kid, where are you?" He let the words out with a tremble. His voice was quiet, but it was not supposed to be.


    His eyes circled the room while he got closer to the mostly empty desk. It was well kept, but on it only laid a single paper in the middle and a book on the side. His head darted toward the corner of the room. He lurched, quickly getting to the bookshelf that filled the majority of the wall. Squinting his eyes, he inspected the book before lifting his hand and trailing two fingers along one.


    [The history of Qabri: Importance of Farming?]


    He glanced at his fingers, which were now full of dust.


    "That kid still refuses to listen," Sighing, the man''s gaze continued to trail along the shelf. Most of the books were dusty, but his pupils finally found a few clean ones. Their covers shone, but the pages were clearly worn out.


    [The history of Qabri: Raise the Undead]


    [The history of Qabri: Avoid Backlash]


    Typical books for their family, however, there was another one the man was not so familiar with.


    [Theory on Magic Strength and Amount]


    Man thoughtfully hummed, "Can I really not find a way to make this child understand our role?" Sighting his sight darted toward the dried plant in the middle of the room, a bunch of papers with a bunch of drawings and writing on them were scattered around it making somewhat of a semicircle around the fading, flattened pillow.


    Leaning down, he picked a few papers up and flipped through them quickly. Numbers organized the drawings, seemingly representing days. Plant was completely fine at first and then slowly withered. Here and there it would get slightly better, one day even going from almost completely dead to completely fine. Unfortunately, her state was completely the same as before just the next day.


    He aligned the edges of the papers and then carefully placed them back on the floor before he picked up a few more.


    [Day 1: I just got a Violet Gutroot. I think he needs a name though, maybe Flowey. No, it''s too simple. Willow, yeah, Willow is pretty good. Well, unfortunately for Willow, he is about to be dehydrated, can''t exactly find a way to reanimate him while he is alive. Sorry little guy.]


    ¡­


    [Day 8: Well, Willow is finally ready, now how should I start this¡­Simple reanimation spell doesn''t work, I guess that should''ve been obvious, maybe if I alter it around the middle¡­Well, that didn''t work either. Maybe I should change the use of the spell rather than its structure. Instead of using it as a named spell if I used it as a movement or word-based one, it would produce a better result.]


    [Day 9: Nothing I did yesterday worked, maybe it needs outside influence. For now, I decided to just put in a bit of water before performing a spell but it hardly changes results, maybe I should start coming up with a new spell from the ground up?]


    ¡­


    [Day 21: Oh, it worked, it worked! Willow is alive, I''m not sure whether he is safe to consume yet, and even less sure about whether she will have the same properties but this is step, I will tell the potion guy about it from a house with sun painting, I''m sure he will be able to help.]


    [Day 22: Um, it seems Willow is back to his dead self, damn, I don''t get it, this never happened to me with animals, and I haven''t seen this happen with humans, maybe one of the family history books will have an answer? Well, though it failed, it is a step in the right direction, I just don''t know how to move forward.]


    ¡­


    The papers end on day twenty-nine with no progress from day twenty-two.


    The man in black robes glanced at the plant with a bit of a sad look on his face. He picked up a jug of water next to it and poured a little of it into the pot before he began to laugh.


    "Qabri is still a Qabri, I guess, ey?" He chuckled. "It always ends back in farming at the end. I should try to be more understanding. Great Elder always speaks of ventures like this in his ''young days''. I guess curiosity just comes with talent, ha Willow?"


    The man glanced up, looking at the window, he squinted as something caught his eye. He walked up to it and leaned over the frame, his head peeked through the blinds and exited the house.


    A bunch of people ran to the middle of the village, some commotion was going on. The man sighed not expecting it to be anything important but then a guttural scream filled the entire village. Something crept up his back. A concern for his child came back, but now in a different form.


    He jumped through the window and ran down the road till he saw a bunch of people dressed in colorful capes, long-flowing dresses, and ponchos gathering around something. He tore through the crowd in panic before he saw a one-armed man in the middle. He held a crying baby in his remaining hand.


    "HELP!" He screamed desperately.


    A woman walked up to him. A beautiful young woman.


    Esi? The black-robed man thought and looked at the boy who walked just behind her. Esen? So Zahak truly isn''t with him.


    ***


    Esi was by many considered to be the most beautiful woman in the village, there were few who could match her in that department, but the poor lady had no one besides her son, her husband died a few months back when he went on a hunt in the Great Swamp. The news hit the entire village as the man was the only warrior they had. They were heavily protected by the empire but with a constant exchange between the soldiers they didn''t understand the terrain. Kurt was the only one who could help them, maybe the weird old man up the village who lives in seclusion could do so but he wasn''t bothered by such things. This made their safety very compromised.


    ***


    Seeing Esi walking up to the man, Hakim''s interest in this situation dwindled but his worry remained. "ZAHAAAAAAK!"


    ...


    "Yes, father?" The voice came from the crowd.


    The man''s eyes widened. He ran past everyone and saw his son, standing just outside the circle of people. He dashed toward him and hugged him tightly. Almost choking his heir to death. "Oh, son. Thank the dead you are back." He squeezed him even more.


    "Yead... I''m fine." He managed to say while struggling to breathe.


    The man looked up, seeing two women just behind him. He gave Zahak a pat on the back before he stood up. "Thank you, thank you, for bringing my son back I almost died of worry."


    A blond woman with a scar smiled, but it looked kind of forced, "It''s fine, it''s fine."


    Another scream came from the crowd. And the women''s heads perked up. "Boss!?" They screamed before they ran into the group. "Boss!?" They ran to the man who was on his knees in the middle of the circle.


    The father and son looked at them, their completely black eyes refelting everything.


    "Make sure to thank the ladies, okay!" Hakim said.


    "Okay!"


    "Now let''s go home, that man was right, I ought to scold you more." The man slapped his son on the back of the head.


    "Ouch!" He rubbed it a little. "WHAT?!"


    "No what, come here." He grabbed the boy''s ear and dragged him along.

 Soldiers and Mercenaries

    *A WEEK EARLIER*


    "Raaawr" A blond woman with puffy cheeks and a scar running down her face roared, her sword flashing in the sunlight, as she swung it at the two-headed hound. The blade struck the creature''s steel-like fur with a metallic clang, but it left no mark. "This damn thing, Garret, little help here!"


    A man with overgrown black hair glanced toward the yells, "Spent all your mana already, ey? Keke." He chuckled, killing a massive four-legged creature without a head before throwing his spear into the hound. The spear turned into a bolt of lightning before it hit the creature with thunder reverberating through the battlefield, completely evaporating its head, spraying blue blood all over the woman. She glanced in the direction of the spear''s lancer, but the man was already standing right next to her.


    "You really need to learn how to manage it better, you know." He scolded with a forcibly high-pitched voice, his blue eyes and smile shining with satisfaction.


    She rolled her eyes. Her continuous fixing of his air and nagging lectures about armor cleaning made this a long time coming. "Oh, shut up." She hit him on the shoulder as he was pulling the spear out of the beast. "There were way too many beasts to conserve any, easy for you to say when you have such large amounts to pull from."


    The blood on the woman already started turning into vapor, making her smell like a combination of a sea fish and a fart from someone that ate a lot of sauerkraut that day.


    A man took a slight step back. "Oh, come on, look at this." He gestured to the field in front of them. Hundreds of dead beasts were lying dead, their limbs perfectly cut off, their organs sawed out, their bodies burnt, their hearts pierced. They were murdered in a variety of different ways, but those four were clearly the most consistent. "Boss, that captain, and the soldier woman are doing most of the work."


    "Eh, baby boss has been at it too, it seems." The smell continued to spread from her, but she didn''t seem bothered by it.


    "The point is that you could hardly fight enough beasts for your mana pools to be depleted," Garret continued, but distantly, as he already sought his next victim, mostly to get away. "You were just careless."


    "Twenty-two, by the way." She exclaimed.


    The man stopped, frowning as he was forced to keep the conversation going. "Seventeen."


    "Pfft, and you got the balls to scold me." She cackled at his words, almost crying out of laughter, "At this rate, you won''t even get into the top six."


    "We are not here to play games, Aveline. You can do that with Tristan and that girl that pretends not to like him." The man tried to seem serious to skip over the conversation, but the smelly woman already had him figured out. He was not leaving till the vapor was gone.


    "Seems it will be a chilly night for you, brrrr." The woman rubbed her arms as if warming herself up.


    "Ha?" Garret stared, puzzlingly. The smell slowly left, now already bearable.


    "No blanket for you, no sir, those are for winners," Aveline said all upright, with her back straight and arms plastered to her body, but her chin facing the sky.


    He squinted his eyes. "Is that how it is?" His smirk grew before he took a step forward and disappeared, leaving a trail of lightning in his path. In almost an instant, two other beasts were dead.


    Aveline put the hand on her hips along with a little chuckle escaping her lips. She kept staring into empty space before placing her hand above her eyes, blocking the already annoying sun. Scanning the battlefield, she looked around, a bunch of people fighting beasts, most of them teaming up at this point as they were running empty, just like her. Still, they were a bit tougher than beasts. Not to mention the open fields gave them the calculated advantage, as their archers had a significantly easier job than at the start of the battle that happened in the woods, past the river downhill. Slowly but surely, those soldiers, alongside mercenaries, were overwhelming the beasts, and with little to no injuries. Though, certainly, the most credit went to those four, that savage captain of the soldiers and three sword masters. Aveline''s eyes landed on a woman, dual-wielding medium-length swords that continued to burn one beast after the other, the space around her full of raging flames creating an inferno, solid forty beast corpses lay in her vicinity.


    "Pwwwwwhht Pwwoooh!" She whistled. "That lady is going crazy. Maybe we should have asked her to join in on the fun. The boss could''ve finally lost one." She muffled to herself before continuing her search.


    "Now, where are they... oh!" she squeaked as she saw a young man with long white hair coated in water armor and a girl next to him who continued to turn his attacks into ice. She rhythmically hopped towards them, "Hey, you two!"


    "Oh, Aveline," she got to them just as they finished off the beast in front of them. "How many?" The girl hurriedly asked.


    Aveline put on a confident grin, raising a finger in the air. "Twenty-two."


    "Damn it, I''m at twenty." The girl cursed under her breath, but audible enough for the other two to hear her.


    "And you, Tristan?" Aveline glanced toward the young man with a bit of worry in her eyes.


    "I think I''m at fifteen," he said.


    The girl next to him looked at him all wide-eyed. "What, only fifteen?"


    "You''ve been stealing all my kills." He answers in a monotone voice.


    "Oh, yeah, kiki!" The girl hit herself on the head, cackling.


    Aveline looked at the two for a second before shaking her head, "I''m out of mana though, so I doubt I will get much mo¡­"


    Before she could finish the sentence, a massive beast came down on them, trying to trap them between its jaws, but just as it closed in, a lightning spear pierced through its eye and came out on the other side. The next moment, a man materialized above the beast''s body, surrounded by sparks.


    "That''s twenty-two." He looked down at the group, his roughed-up hair dancing as the air bounced it around. "I think I''m done for the day."


    The scarred woman smirked, squinting her eyes. "Is that so?"


    "Yeah, I''m beat. I think I will sit the rest of this one out." He stretched his hands before falling from the beast, rolling onto the grassy soil and placing his hands behind his head.


    "Well, I guess that''s it for me too then, you two can¡­" She wanted to place her arms around the two, but her hands touched only air as the pair disappeared.


    The battle in the plains continued, as beast after beast fell, their blood spraying over the grass, painting it blue for a moment before it started evaporating, making everything around it smell horrible for a minute or so.


    On one side of the battlefield, a man continued to tear open the bellies of the beasts, sawing into them like a madman, but interestingly enough his movements looked quite graceful as he danced around, each time a beast came close to getting him he would teleport to the exact spot he was a second earlier and then his movements would become like that of a wild animal, the organs of over thirty beasts spilled in his path.


    On the other side, two men were fighting in perfect unison. One kept cutting off the limbs of every beast he came across before making a deep cut on their neck, making them bleed out. The other, younger out of the two, was a lot more simple in his approach, stabbing each in the heart. The strength he showcased was unbefitting for someone of his small stature. They collected a total of around eighty bodies this way, slowly exterminating all the beasts in the vicinity.


    Out of the blue, a piercing scream of agony echoed through the field coming from the direction of the river. A peculiar, monstrous creature engaged in a fierce battle with four soldiers, the air thick with the unmistakable stench of decay, its aura oozing with death. Amidst the chaos, a soldier cried out in pain, his leg twisted in a gruesome angle. The beast tried to finish the job; the man had already given up on life, closing his eyes awaiting his end only to be rescued by a powerful sound wave from his fellow comrade at the very last second.


    "What are you doing?!" The man that fired the sound wave shouted at the one on the ground, "Don''t just take it lying down, damn it!"


    After a second, the beast decided to attack again, swinging its claws at the man in front of it, but making a split-second decision, the man kept protecting his friend, creating a shield that looked like a barrier made of sound. The beast''s paw smacked the shield, the clash creating a loud shriek that almost destroyed the man''s eardrums. He barely stayed on his feet, shaking from the impact.


    "Damn it, what the hell is this thing, my barrier should be perfect at distributing the force, but somehow, it almost brought me to my knees," his mind raced, analyzing the situation, "not to mention that thing is protecting something, that little thing ran off to the woods just as this guy appeared and when I tried to attack it, this guy jumped right in front of it." He braced himself for another hit, the beast swinging savagely. He withstood one more attack. However, the beast kept going, attacking for the third time. The force of the impact sent him flying a fair distance away.


    The beast was ready to pounce on him before the other two soldiers near them distracted it, attacking the beast from the back. One quickly created small shackles out of the earth around its feet as the other one reinforced his sword with some type of pant before he shot it out, the grassy sword stretching and injuring the beast.


    The beats let out another roar as it freed itself from the shackles around its feet and launched for the two soldiers, but just as it seemed like they were about to die, a water spear pierced through the beast''s heart. The plainly looking boy with white hair walking up to it raised his sword before slashing down, cutting the beast in half.


    The soldiers stared at the corpse as their jaws nearly touched the ground.


    "That''s twenty-one¡­" He murmured. "Are all of you ok," he asked.


    They looked at him, still surprised. "Ehh, yes... but what about you sir? You are bleeding."


    Tristan''s eyes widened for just a second before his face went back to his old plain look as he traced his thumb beneath his lips. He looked down at it seeing a crimson-red liquid left on it. He clutched his teeth but didn''t allow himself to make it visible to others. "Yeah, I''m fine," He said before turning back and jumping into battle.


    "Wait, sir mercenary." One soldier yelled, "There was another beast that ran into the woods!" But the young man has already left.


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    And after a few minutes, loud cheers started filling the air as the battle had ended. All the beasts have been slain effectively by this group combined from a small troop of Qahfuer Empire''s soldiers and a mercenary band from the western continent that migrated here recently.


    A big man with a beard and a turban on his head walked up to his steed and jumped up with no issue. "Good job everyone!" He garnered everyone''s attention. "Take five minutes to recuperate, get as much mana back as you can, and then we will continue forward." He laid out a plan before going towards the woman with two swords on her back and her face covered. "Make sure to burn as many corpses as possible."


    "In Captain''s glory!" She answered, but beneath her cloth, her brows were wrinkling as she rubbed her thumb against her palm.


    The man on the steed got to a bit of a clearer area and then raised his weapon into the air. "RAAAWWWRRR!"


    As soon as his victory cry came most of the people raised their weapons as well and cheered. "Your honor shines brighter with this triumph."


    ...


    Hooves clattered against the ground, echoing through the giant crack in the mountain. The sound became louder and louder as a group of armored figures could finally gaze through the opening in the mountain. The wind blew through it with surprising strength, ruffling the shadowsteeds'' sleek black manes and causing soldiers'' cloaks to billow around them.


    As they got to the mouth of the mountain, the animal in the front suddenly rose on its hind legs and started whinnying, throwing the man that was riding it.


    "Captain!" the group screamed, as a few of them rushed to help him stand up.


    "I''m fine, I''m fine." He stood back up with a groan. "What the hell was that?!" Turning around, he noticed all the shadowsteeds had stopped and were refusing to go forward. Even the mexidracon that mercenary leader was riding on refused to take another step.


    "Tariq?" a female voice interrupted his thoughts. "What now?"


    "What else? We leave a few people to take care of the mounts, and the rest of us continue forward."


    Her eyes widened. "You still want to continue?"


    "Draya..." He looked at her with an annoyed expression. "We''ve been over this. That village down there produces twenty percent of the empire''s food supplies. You really think we can just leave?"


    "But we''ve already killed all the beasts near the village and look, no beasts are running at us here. Is it necessary to continue?"


    "Both of us know they came from here. It is only a matter of time before it happens again. We need to figure out why they are running out of the dungeons." He stopped for a second, inspecting her as she shyly stared towards the ground. "And what even has you so scared?"


    Draya opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but stopped quickly, her gaze returning to the ground. "It''s just... a feeling," she mumbled.


    Tariq did not know how to answer that. It sounded quite stupid to him, but Draya was his vice-captain for a reason. He did consider listening to her for a second but threw away that thought quickly, readying to give his order to the whole crew...


    "We could spend the night here, you know." A deep male voice sounded behind him, along with heavy footsteps. The smell of alcohol and sweat hit Captain Tariq''s enormous nose. "Look, the sun is slowly setting. Might as well take our time." The bearded, blue-eyed man pointed towards the sun, its rays traveling through the narrow path, dying them a beautiful red color. The three shielded their eyes from the sun to glance at the canyon. Mountain walls on both sides were full of moss. Now and then, there was a hole, whether on the ground or way up in the air. The ones on the ground seemed dark and deep, but the ones higher up were surrounded by plant life, giving off a comfortable, homey feeling. A powerful gust of wind hits them, swirling their clothes around.


    "We need to get rid of this issue as soon as possible." The captain argued back. "We would only waste our time."


    "Come on, macuahuitl man," the blue-eyed man began, calling the soldier''s captain by the distinct weapon he was carrying that made him chuckle every time he saw it, "What beast will get out when we are at the entrance? Little rest will benefit everyone."


    "What if they surprise us at night? Attack in a sizable group."


    "What then? You''re treating them as if they''re capable of planning an attack, but they''re just beasts; their fleeing means they fear something. Worst-case scenario, we can let them pass through and then hunt them down one by one. As you said, we are here to get rid of the reason behind their fear, are we not?" He gives the captain a long stare, getting no response besides his avoiding eyes. "You are too hasty, too hasty, tsk, tsk." He shakes his finger in an act of disapproval and takes two steps forward.


    Tariq stared at him. Truth be told, he had respect for this man. He was his senior as the leader of a troop, though he was a mercenary from a different continent with different beliefs. There was no doubt that he was a good leader. Though, something else also helped, and that was the man''s large beard. Tariq found it hard to take other men from the mercenary band seriously as none of them had beards. In the Qahfuer Empire, and in the whole southern continent for that matter, man''s beard was their pride, especially so for warriors. In fact, cutting the man''s beard off completely was seen as one of the highest punishments in the empire. Reserved for high treason and an attempt on Qahhar''s life. A man''s beard would be shaved off before different creams and potions would be spread around his face, preventing his beard from growing ever again. So seeing men such as them just walking around completely shaved was quite a shock.


    "OKAY, EVERYONE!" The mercenary clapped twice, asking for attention. "We will camp here tonight! Prepare your campfires and take out those drinks!"


    The loud cheers stop him from saying anything further at which both leaders cannot help but laugh, their joyous reaction getting a chuckle from, till now, trembling Draya.


    Their cheers rumbled through the entire mountain and the forest, down the hill. However, all the animals stayed completely silent, staying surprisingly close to one another and trembling the entire time.


    Tariq signaled towards them with his head before taking a sip of his drink. "What''s with them?"


    "Probably the same thing that''s happening to the beasts." Blue-eyed man observed, before taking a big, messy bite of his food.


    "I saw nothing like this before. They are scared to death," Draya added.


    A brief silence followed before everybody turned towards the fourth person sitting at the fire. A young man with messy short hair looked surprised and started staring at them, changing the person he was focusing on per moment, not understanding what they wanted... a sigh followed.


    "You are embarrassing me, kid." The blue-eyed man shook his head.


    "But boss¡­"


    "No, no, it is what it is. I guess I will have to look for your replacement. You can leave."


    He looked at the man with wide eyes before getting up and starting to walk off slowly with his head staring at the floor before he heard loud laughs behind him.


    "Hahahahhahah, ah, kid, calm down. What damn guy could I even pick instead of you? Sit the hell down," the boss gave him one more chuckle before turning back to the other two.


    Draya inspected the man for a few seconds. "So, Bran, why exactly did you decide to leave the western continent? Your crew seems quite competent, and aren''t there quite a few more jobs to do there? Even the mercenary guilds are the most frequent in the West, no?"


    Bran scratched himself on the back of the head. "Yeeeah, not really. Nations of the Blue Sea don''t really get into wars anymore. It''s just a political squabble while the nations west of the mountain range have all but disappeared. It''s just the Kaira Empire and Primum Omo Empire that are significant forces left now, battling for supremacy, and neither of them hires mercenaries. They actually pride themselves on it. Certainly, nations in the lower islands do still get into fights over resources, but that''s a little far from the Great Jungle." He motioned his head towards the animals.


    "Ah, yes, your dinosaur," Draya squeaked excitedly, "Tariq mentioned it is a mexidracon, but I have to say that I never saw a creature such as this. It''s so beautiful¡­"


    "Yeah, yeah, and although he is from a dragon species, he is really just a big goofball. Ahahahahha! Surprisingly strong, though." Bran gave her another chuckle.


    The group continued their conversation for some time. The entire camp was filled with the smell of burnt meat; someone left it on the fire too long, and it clashed horribly with the smell of sweaty men and alcohol. Dull cracking sounds were coming from every campfire as the soldiers and mercenaries sang and danced together in the middle of the camp before all of them fell to sleep one by one. Only one person stayed awake, that white-haired man didn''t even join the others in celebrating.


    Tristan kept slashing the air with his sword, his movements fluid, like a river. His teeth were clenched before he eventually fell to his knees and coughed out some blood.


    "Maybe you should take some rest, I will take it from here." The man with messy hair came from behind him. "You are forcing yourself too much."


    "I am not forcing myself enough." He responded. "I will never be able to achieve it if I don''t work even harder than I already do. But this body..."


    "Yeah, yeah." Garret interrupted him, "But rest is important too. And considering your condition you desperately need it right now."


    Tristan observed him for a moment, "Maybe you are right." He let out a sigh.


    "I am, now go to Eira and let her heal you a bit before sleep."


    Tristan listened to him and walked back to the group.


    Garret watched him longingly with a sad expression, "His goal will be the end of that boy." He said clicking his tongue before he looked at still-shaking creatures and walked to them before petting the mexidracon. "It really is a shame, isn''t it?"


    ...


    The morning sun came, but it was awfully quiet. Considering all the glacifidus bird dens along higher parts of the mountain walls, they have expected to hear their signature morning creek.


    "Even they ran away?" Tariq sounded concerned, facing the massive crack in the mountain. "Get ready, we are going in twenty minutes!" He brushed it off quickly and picked up his macuahuitl. "Team four will stay here."


    Bran was looking over, preparing his slightly corroded armor. "Rowan!" As soon as he called, the young man with the messy hair appeared in front of him.


    "Yes, boss?"


    "Tell Aveline, Garret, Tristan, and¡­" He stopped for a second looking around, seeing a young girl giggling at one of Tristan''s terrible jokes, "Eira, yeah, let it be the four of them to stay behind."


    "Four of them?" Rowan furrowed his brows, "but didn''t Captain Tariq already leave enough people behind¡­"


    "Yap." Bran cut in, patting him on the shoulder before simply walking off, adjusting his longsword on his waist.


    Soon enough a group of around sixty people stood at the entrance of the mountain path, two people standing in front of the crowd, one with a turban on his head and wearing lamellar armor, a weapon with obsidian saws stuck to the wood by his side. The other was wearing a rusty chainmail and a longsword on his waist.


    "Attention!" yelled the captain. "These four are the adventurers we''ve hider." He presented the four by moving slightly out of their way. "We will rely on their dungeon expertise moving forward, also, leader of team three¡­" He made an offering gesture towards the man having a scimitar and wearing plated armor that stood first to the right in the third row. He shook his hand and lowered his head slightly. "Your expertise in both ki and magic sensing will be of great help, so you will travel in the front." Tariq straightened up a bit, "and finally! Our air magicians from squad two will set a trap beneath the glacifidus dens so that our vice-leader can check up on the birds."


    "In captain''s glory," screamed the lady carrying two yatagans on her back. She easily had the most extravagant armor there, huge and bulky, blue in color, with gold lines over it and pictures engraved through every piece. Similar to the captain, she also wore no helmet, simply covering her entire face with a thin piece of cloth.


    "Is she even able to see anything with that?" questioned some of the mercenaries standing close by.


    Soon enough, the entire group followed her scream, "In captain''s glory!"


    On the side, Bran couldn''t help but laugh through the entire ordeal. Having come to the Qahfuer Empire just a month prior and this being his first time seeing them give proper orders, this was not what he was expecting in the slightest. Each move Tariq made was so flashy, and he yelled so abnormally loud, not to mention their salutes.


    Bran himself had no further orders to give. He already told his troops all they needed to know, and besides, many of them had been working together since they were kids. They know each other better than they know themselves.


    Two leaders started walking through the mountain path. Leader of the squad three was in the middle, following a step behind them. Behind him were the four adventurers, Draya and Rowan. Everybody else followed slowly behind.


    Mercenaries adapted more to how the soldiers were moving. That''s what they were good at, after all. An equal amount of mercenaries joined every team in this march.


    The winds were quite strong, making it hard to move forward as is, but now and then there would come a terrifyingly strong gust of wing that everybody needed to brace for if they didn''t want to be blown away.


    All glacifidus bird nests were way too high at this point to attempt to get in, so they moved forward.


    "All dungeons in this area seem to be abandoned." Team three leader began, "I don''t think there is anything inside. Even if there is, it would be some small beasts that would hardly be worth the trouble." He concluded, touching the wall of the canyon.


    Tariq stroked his beard, slowly. "Hmmm, well, maybe these were previously cleared out; they are pretty close to the path entrance."


    "I don''t think they were, the dungeons here are mostly left alone, also I was told nothing of any dungeons being cleared," Draya informed him, only making him more puzzled.


    "Well, considering how close it is to the entrance, it could be that these are the beasts that ran away, probably taking the chance when they could." Bran got into the conversation.


    "There aren''t any markings indicating that though¡­" Tariq mentioned, "Well, I guess that is the only possible explanation." He faltered, hoping there would be more answers deeper in the mountain.


    They walked for a bit more, getting to the intersection, the path splitting into two. They thought of talking out which path to take when they heard a cracking sound. The entire troop stopped and observed everything around them.


    Suddenly, a loud sound of the rock breaking reverberated through the whole path. An enormous boulder fell behind the group, trapping them in this canyon.

 Watchful Creature

    A pair of black eyes reflected the battlefield. A few armored individuals slaughtered a beast after beast and after every move, a slight, amazed gasp came from the bush on the opposite side of the river. The black eyes belonged to a little creature that hid in that bush.


    It kept writing down what it saw, the coal in its hand seemingly unable to stop. In the distance there was a soldier that moved with lightning speed, throwing his spear around with incredible precision, every time it collided with a target it thundered through the whole battlefield. Far away there was an inferno, fire raged like a hurricane, a man that looked like he jumped back in time every now and then, and a pair that seemed completely unstoppable with their teamwork in the eyes of this creature.


    As the coast cleared a little, being unable to resist a little creature took a few steps forward while chuckling to itself, its foot got out of the bush before it peeped its head out¡­ oh, it was a boy. His head, as well as his entire body, was wrapped in black cloth.


    A corpse of a big muscular beast with a canine head washed on his side of the water border, the blue blood flew out of it and kept evaporating which created a horrible smell.


    He stepped out of the bush carefully, keeping his head down as he crawled toward it, taking careful step after careful step, trying not to garner any attention.


    "Okay, big boy, how should I call you?" The child thought for a moment before a lamp lit up above his head. "Wiggles!" He nodded his head proudly before his gaze fell back on the beast. "Hmmm, now, there was a mention of the spell for reanimation of beasts in that book¡­was it a charging spell?" The boy shook his head and ruffled his hair before taking in a deep breath. "Something like this¡­" He put his hand on the creature''s head and after a second it started glowing purple.


    The child''s face frowned and his forehead began to sweat before finally, he removed his hand. He looked at the corpse with wide, shining eyes, blinking a few times. "Sigh, it seems it failed¡­ but it''s such a good specimen." He cried out, but just then, the beast''s entire body glowed with a majestic purple light making the boy gasp before clapping his hands.


    "Yes! Yes! Success!" He cheered clenching his fist while observing the creature. "Welcome back Wiggles, I hope we can work well together" He offered the beast an open palm.


    Wiggles got up and observed the boy before he roared and clawed at him. The boy''s eyes widened as he jumped out of the way.


    "This¡­ wasn''t supposed to happen," stated the boy as he analyzed the beast seemingly unbothered by its attack, however, as soon as the beast turned to face him, he snapped back into reality. He jumped up and started running away while screaming in panic. "Calm down Wiggles, please, I am the one that brought you back, aah!"


    The boy managed to create quite a distance since the beast kept smacking itself on the head, and making abrupt stops, but the boy''s screams got the attention of one of the soldiers who in his battle-oriented state threw his weapon at the boy. It almost reached him when Wiggles got in front of it, taking the blow but remaining of his feet.


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    The child''s pupils grew, or at least they would if he had any, as he fell to the ground. His gaze darted toward that of a beast, he saw the slightly teary eyes of the creature telling him "Go! Run!" And so, the boy has done exactly that. He ran like the wind carried him on its back, definitely panicked but a wide smile grew on his face. He began to laugh just as his legs reached the forest and the sound continued to emit while he disappeared into the shadows of the woods, leaving the beast to fight the soldiers.


    "Pant, pant! This, pant, should be enough." The boy exhaled, leaning against the tree. He slid down, beginning to chuckle once again. "This is amazing," he placed two fingers on his chin.


    "Reanimated creatures shouldn''t go against the one that created one, but Wiggles did. Similarly, reanimated creatures shouldn''t just die again on their own, but Willow did. I just need to figure out the connection here. It couldn''t have been the spell itself, I am almost certain that I got it correctly¡­ well, maybe I shouldn''t check that later, but irrelevant at the moment!" The kid talked to himself quite loudly, a few animals in the area gave him a concerning stare before moving on.


    "Now, I should just try and look at this from a perspective of me being right. Dad will certainly keep a close eye on me for some time so while I''m in the forest I should use it as best I can. So, what could be the cause if not the mistake with a spell?"


    ¡­


    Shrugging his shoulders the boy let out a sigh, "I have no idea, shi shi." He rubbed the back of his head a little, "For now let''s just find a good view to watch Wiggles¡­"


    He stopped, it was as if something within him broke, "Oh, the Wiggles is dead¡­"


    ¡­


    "What will I do now!?" He screamed at the sky grabbing his head. His sandals began pacing up and down, his finger tapping on his chin. He continued to think and ponder, considering his options and concluding that the only option he had was to go back to check the bodies.


    However, when he came back all he saw was a burnt field with at best some bodies too damaged to call back from the dead. "Damn it!" Squawked the boy, kicking the rock, which lay at his feet, as far away as he could. "I don''t even have any bodies to use, what to do, what to do?"


    He analyzed the battlefield for a few minutes, he took in a breath, his nostrils feeling the smell of wet grass mixed in with that of burnt bodies cleared his mind, a whispering of the river carrying his thoughts, and then, the realization struck him. He started running up and down the battlefield collecting what was left of the corpses. An arm here, a leg there, half a head from this beast and half a head from this other very similar beast. Soon enough he had enough to make a completely new beast, a sly smirk spread on his face. "Now, this will be wonderful, just wonderful, shi shi shi."


    As the sun settled the boy was resting in a cave at the foot of the mountain, he was listening to the singing and cheering in the distance. He was able to see the fires the troops had set. Boy hummed alongside their songs with a smile on his face, imagining himself celebrating with them, learning how to fight and battling beasts. What he wouldn''t give to do that, but Qabri is never meant to fight.


    The boy''s face fell. "If I could at least be strong, as strong as them, that would be enough." He forced a smile back while clenching his fist.


    "I should probably start working on this." He pushed himself. Sitting down in a lotus position the child breathed in a huge amount of air, the whole cave smelled like burnt meat and burning wood as it kept popping and hissing. He made sure to feel the warmth of the fire on his body before he exhaled, and spread out his hand, "This one will take quite a bit of mana, I need to circulate it as best I can so I won''t collapse once my mana pool goes empty."


    Another breath in, and out.


    In, and out.


    In¡­ out.


    Finally, a purple light started filling the cave, just before the fire went out.

 Dead People Dead Beasts

    "Fuck! Just break you fucking boulder." A man desperately screamed as he hit a massive stone again and again alongside tens of other people.


    The whole group, which was now trapped in a mountain path grouped in front of it, they pushed, they punched, they hit with magical attacks; they slashed with their swords, desperately trying to move it or break it.


    There was only a single person who didn''t follow the rest. Bran simply sat on the small stone near the group and watched them, taking in a sip of his drink every few seconds. "Maybe try it from a different angle!" He yelled at them with a sarcastic tone before breaking into a laugh.


    Tariq shot him a glance, but he quickly returned his eyes to the stone with a scoff. But one person wasn''t so easy on him. Draya pulled out a sword out of the boulder and trudged to him, slamming both of her blades into the ground before crossing her arms.


    Bran looked up at her, imagining her angry face beneath the cloth, probably looking down at him and trying to intimidate him. He had to give her probs. She was a scary lady. He would imagine that basically every soldier under her would be shitting his pants just about now. That wide armor and her colossal frame shed a frightening shadow down on him.


    "You planning to help, or are you just going to be a waste of resources?" The threat here was quite obvious to Bran, but also quite hilarious.


    He whistled, meeting her towering frame with sarcastic fright. "Uh oh, I''m in trouble, ha?" He gave himself another laugh before getting up and meeting her gaze. Putting his hand on her shoulder, "Calm down, would you? You won''t break that any time soon. Whether I help you or not. How about we actually do what we came here to do and let the people we left on the other side deal with this?" He finally gave an appropriate answer to their concerns.


    "That isn''t an option. We have very limited resources, especially considering our numbers. We just can''t afford to wait that long," Draya explained.


    "Dear lord, how spoiled are you guys? We brought enough food for the comfortable five days that we initially planned. We just need to be a bit more conservative. Ten or fifteen days should be no issue. And, if it comes down to it, I''m certain we can find the beasts that haven''t run away and hunt them down." He glanced at her, trying to see her face through the cloth, imagining it being disgusted at the thought of eating those stinky creatures.


    "He is right," the male voice intervened into their argument. "We need to finish our job. That should be the priority. I''m certain we can find a way out of here after that. Maybe there is a cave that we passed that has an entrance somewhere here and outside of the path, or maybe the other group can go down to the village and check if there is a rope long enough to get us out." Tariq explained his side, coming up with a few solutions to their problems. "They live near the mountains, after all. I''m certain they must be having something that can help."


    "Are you certain this is the right choice captain, this¡­"


    "Yes, I''m sure." He confirmed before she could finish her thought. "Are you against it because you think it''s a poor plan, or is it the same reason you were against going into the mountain or accepting this assignment in the first place?"


    Draya was quiet, her eyes falling to the floor. Bran glanced at her and then back at the captain of the group just as he walked away. He unconsciously started to stroke his beard as he stared at him.


    "Draya, why were you so against this?" He lightly leaned toward her.


    "It''s just¡­ I get this feeling in my stomach¡­" Draya stuttered, barely getting the words out.


    "Hmm¡­" He stroked his beard one last time, his hand remaining beneath it, "Fire the explosion into the air to call the group." He patted her back before walking off himself.


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    She looked at him with raised brows and a tilted head, "What?" She glanced at her hands and then up at the sky. "Yeah, I suppose that could work."


    The fiery pillar flew into the sky just as Tariq finished explaining the plan to the troops. The spell exploded once it reached the sky, painting it red for just a moment.


    "Oh, it seems they are in trouble." Said the blond girl with a scar while holding a palm above her eyes.


    Others looked up with her, watching the fireworks.


    "Is this how your people signal that?" Questioned one soldier.


    "Eh, we use what we can. This certainly isn''t the first time we saw something like this." Aveline answered, "That girl sure has some firepower, though."


    With the help of his spear, Garrett got up from the log he was sitting on. "We should go check what it is then." He stated, stretching his arms.


    "They probably got stuck," said Tristan.


    "What?" Eira''s eyes went wide. "How do you know that?" She inquired.


    "Didn''t you hear the rocks falling? They probably trapped the group." Tristan responded matter-of-factly.


    She looked like she would wiggle her tail if she had one after she heard it. "Wow, so smart."


    The soldiers, Garret, and Aveline looked at them with squinted eyes. That was a pretty reasonable assumption all of them have made. Seeing her be so impressed by it was pretty weird though regardless of that, it made the soldiers incredibly jealous of Tristan. "Why didn''t I say it out loud first?" Most of them thought, but eventually, they consoled themselves by coming to the conclusion that Eira knew that too and she simply wanted to compliment the man.


    However, Garret and Aveline were both aware she wasn''t the brightest apple under the tree. Their disdain rather came from the scene being all lovey-dovey.


    "Okay, let''s go," commanded Garret before turning away and walking toward the entrance, followed by Aveline. A second later, soldiers slowly focused on the actual task and followed them as well.


    While that was going on, a pair of completely black eyes drifted open, still heavy with sleep. Under them, the wide short nose took in a big breath as the boy to whom it belonged stretched out. As the boy pushed himself up, a little ''num, num'' sound escaped his lips while he traced his hand over his belly. "''Yawn,'' I should probably get back to work." He stated as he walked up to the pile of body parts.


    Or, at least¡­ where body parts should''ve been.


    The boy looked at the empty place for a few seconds and then rubbed his eyes before they went wide. "Where are Wunny, Wrinkles, Winnie, Worky, Wooples, Wish, Waffles, Wookie, Walnut, Wally, and Whiskers?" He glanced around, then turned around, then looked up. "Hmm, seems that my spell worked. It just took some time, and the beast left."


    "The beast left!" He screamed grabbing his head, "No, no, no, no, no,¡­"


    "What will I do now? That was my last chance." He yelled at the wall.


    The cave fell into silence. Only the whistling of the wind as it hit the cave walls, entered the boy''s ears, he began to think. He crunched down next to the now-extinguished campfire and stared at it. He took in a deep breath, smelling the scorched logs, and dipped his fingers into ash.


    He then began to draw on the ground. It wasn''t very visible, but enough so to make it apart from the stone beneath it. He first drew a square, writing ''three nahr'' above and to the side. After that he drew a portion of the mountain on the upper portion and drew two small lines next to each other near the upper right corner and a few small stickmen just beneath it and a little left to them he drew a half circle and ''x'' within it. He then drew a river, starting a bit down from the upper right corner, and went down, exiting just right from a bottom left after making a near ninety-degree turn. After that, he drew what seemed to be some type of farmland, left to the river, at the very bottom left of the map. The only thing left to draw were the woods beneath and left of the river and the small opening in the forest where a few more farmland were.


    Stroking his chin, he observed his map and stated, "He shouldn''t have gone further than this; the reanimated creatures rarely stray from their creator, even if disobedient. Idris''s failures proved that." He chuckled a little, remembering his little brother trying to reanimate their pet after it died. It jumped at him and scratched his face. He cried for hours after that. He even ended up with a scar going down the middle of his forehead. Zahak searched for it later and once he found it rather than taking it, he followed it, trying to figure out this exact thing. It wasn''t the only time it happened either, so he was pretty certain when it came to his conclusion. "But will the beast behave the same way, especially since it''s a completely recreated creature from Wunny, Wrinkles, Winnie, Worky, Wooples, Wish, Waffles, Wookie, Walnut, Wally, and Whiskers?"


    "Currently, that''s my only option. I can assume he didn''t climb the mountain and as a dead creature, which I should give a name to, thinking for himself he should go where life is, so the farmlands are probably out." He looked at the few drawn stickmen before he sighed, "no, I shouldn''t go there. So, my best bet is the forest." He got up, placing his hand on his hips, "Let''s go!"


    He hopped out of the cave with excitement¡­ "Warp. Warp sounds pretty good."

 No People No Beasts

    The boy wandered around.


    He got to the fields and scoured the battlefield. He passed the river and searched the forest. He even went down to the farmlands, just in case. He checked everywhere he DARED check.


    But no beast was found.


    -------------------------


    Hey everyone?? Akev here.


    This site doesn''t allow chapters with less than 500 words so I am forced to fill it like this, usually, I would just say something in author notes but this works fine.


    This is a nice short chapter that I felt perfectly rounded everything so far. It is short but sweet, I think it rose your hair a little, hehe. So here I thought I could talk a bit about a story a little since the situation already presented itself. This was originally simply supposed to be a short part of the backstory for the protagonist of the story I''ve been working on since I was 9. But due to some circumstances, I decided to turn it into an entire novel??. I pulled someone who was supposed to appear far later in Noir''s life and turned him into an antagonist here, it worked well cause it also gave me an explanation for why Qamh village is so important, it was always supposed to be, cause what will happen at the end of this novel was known around the world but I never had an exact idea why that is, however, with this I finally have the answer?. It is a bit of a weird start I must admit, after all, you have yet to even meet the protagonist properly outside of one mention of him in the first chapter but it is necessary to take that approach. This is a world of its own at the end of the day, I can''t just force characters to do something differently??. I hope you will enjoy this first arc regardless of Noir''s absence, and I hope you will read it after that despite the shift in the protagonist from the initial chapters.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    What you can expect from this story is a lot of world-building, adventures, and psychological horror, mostly coming from Noir''s mental state but the other characters will have their issues as well. I am also certain that you will be able to connect my stories with some fairy tales you know as a lot of adventures will be vaguely based on classical fairy tales, and if you happen to be Croatian like myself you will also be able to recognize connections with some stories you''ve read as a kid for school. I did take some inspiration from such stories, though, the aspects you see from them will be a lot darker, muahahhahaha??.


    Please if you like the story, make sure to support it, on this and other sites that I write on, leave a comment, negative or positive, I welcome all critiques and insults you have??. At the end of the day I can progress as a writer if you don''t point out my flaws, now can I?


    Have a wonderful day everyone??.

 Real Troubles Begin

    A group stepped through the lightly muddy terrain. The wind continued to strongly blow through it, carrying the earthly scent, a mix of damp soil and ancient stone. The white-haired boy looked up. Two giant walls, over a harra tall, towered on both sides, turning a relatively wide walking space into a thin blue line at the top. Now and then there was a large hole surrounded by moss and vegetation.


    Two girls briskly moved their hands against their arms as chilly air smeared against their skin. "Achoo" Aveline rubbed her nose with her finger. "How did they walk all this way? It''s freezing in here."


    Garret appeared with zips and placed a cape around her. "Yeah, yeah, you crybaby."


    "Thanks," she said, placing her palm on his knuckle.


    Meanwhilst, one soldier was looking around, unable to find the garment that cloaked him just a second earlier.


    Finally, their walk ended as a gigantic pile of boulders laid before them. They couldn''t even see the top properly, let alone figure out how tall it was.


    "Hey! Can you hear us?" Yelled one soldier, trying to reach the group on the other side.


    "Yes!" Tariq screamed back. "Does it look as bad on your side as it is on ours?"


    "Probably!" The man stopped for a second, moving his gaze up and down the pile, "Yes!"


    "You think there is any way to get through it?"


    "No, not at all, but it might be possible to climb with some struggle."


    "That will be enough¡­" Tariq sighed to himself before taking in a big breath and placing each of his hands next to his mouth, "Go down to Qamh, ask for a rope or whatever can help us climb!" He then looked around, getting a view of his and Bran''s men while they were all watching him. "Also, if possible, try to get us some food. I doubt five days'' worth will be enough."


    "In captain''s honor," the soldier saluted.


    Tariq turned around, letting out some turbulent air. He walked through the group toward Bran and Draya. "We have solved our initial problems, but I doubt we will get any proper food."


    "We won''t be able to get any food at all," stated Bran. "They can yell ''in captain''s honor'' all they want, but there is no way they are climbing that with solid amounts of food. Maybe with a proper tool¡­" He stopped for a second before finishing his thought. "They could get an animal down, but I don''t think they will find anything like that." Sitting down, he placed his arms behind his head and leaned against the mountain wall. "But, as I''ve said before, with a bit of organization and food saving, we could go for fifteen days or so. I don''t think it will be too necessary."


    Draya shot him a look. "The soldiers can''t fight on empty stomachs."


    Bran raised his brows and sucked in his lower lip. "Seriously? How rich are you guys?"


    "This place is full of beasts. Everybody needs to be at their maximum strength." She snapped back, ignoring his comment.


    "He is right." Tariq tried to calm her down by placing his hand on her shoulder. "At the end of the day, we can''t be certain of anything¡­"


    "Also, the beasts WERE here. They''ve either ran or are not coming out." Bran butted in, not allowing Tariq to finish his sentence.


    "Yes¡­ that too," Tariq said. "And because of that, I propose that to continue right away. Do this as fast as possible. We can split into two teams. One can go right and the rest will continue forward. We still need to check on the birds, and¡­"


    "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, would you?" Bran stood up and raised his palm, moving it up and down slightly. "Everybody is still in shock, you can''t rush this." Bran expressed his stance on the matter. "You even want us to split up?"


    "Why not?" Tariq asked. "Smaller force is capable of taking on a dungeon. Not everybody is needed, and we need to explore both paths."


    Bran raised his finger at him and took another step forward before Draya got between them and shot a glance in Tariq''s direction. "There will be absolutely no splitting up, captain, the risk is too great." She sighed, accepting the fact that despite her gut feeling, the job will continue. "But, if we are planning to move on, we should do it as early as possible." She exhaled, removing her hand from the men''s chests.


    "First, let''s check on the birds before anything else." She gave a suggestion before turning away, walking up to a stone, and sitting down. She stabbed her sword into the muddy ground and rested her arm on it.


    Two leaders looked at each other for a moment and then focused on their troops.


    Bran leaned his head slightly. "I think we should take the right path first. It''s probably shorter, and I assume there will be more branching paths if we continue forward."


    "Yeah," Tariq agreed. "And given the position, glacifidus birds will probably build their nests slightly lower." He reasoned further.


    Bran spread out his arm, presenting the group in front. "It''s your lead."


    Tariq stepped forward and demanded attention, his voice strong, echoing through the whole path. He explained their plan to them. One team would remain behind to maintain contact with the other squad, and they would leave most of the resources with them to prevent any unforeseen problems.


    Meanwhile, the rest will explore the right path, hopefully find a glacifidus den they could reach to check on the birds and then they would exterminate all the monsters that lurked in the dungeons near the beginning of the path. The goal was to finish this task within two days and by then, if luck serves them, they might have a way to get out of the canyon by then.


    While Tariq was explaining the plan, the group from the other side slowly walked back.


    "Keke, they''ve really gotten stuck in deep slurry, ey? Keke."


    Aveline hit Garret on the shoulder. "Be a bit more sensitive, would you?"


    Brushing his shoulder slightly, he looked at her with funny eyes, "Oh, come one. I can see you are holding in laughter. You can''t fool me." He lightly tapped her with his elbow.


    Glancing at him, her cheeks puffed. She quickly put a hand up to her small lips to help her hold the air in. "Hahaha hahahaha¡­" She burst into laughter, clutching her stomach due to lack of oxygen. Her finger removed the water from under her eye before she finally got out some sensible words. "Okay, okay, yeah. That''s pretty funn¡­"


    Before she could finish the sentence, she bumped into a person walking in front of her. "Hey, what a¡­" Her eyes focused on the entrance of the path. And hers weren''t the only ones. One by one, soldiers stopped in their tracks looking at the abomination standing just around seven tira away.


    It was an enormous creature with a half-wolf-like face while half looked smashed in. One arm was normal, but large. While the other had huge biceps, a thin but lengthy forearm, and huge claws that didn''t seem to fit on it. A weird, deformed, but firm body with steel-like fur. One of its legs was larger than the other. A dark cloud almost visibly danced around it, the aura of death.


    Rotting smell traveled to their noses as they locked eyes with the beast.


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    It roared, loud enough for the walls to crack, and for a few small stones to fall. It went down on all four and launched at the tranced warriors.


    Tristan was the one to snap out of it first, quickly jumping in front of the beast and clashing his water-cloaked sword with its claws, the impact created a small shock-wave around them.


    The beast came in with a second swing before Tristan could even recover from the initial strike. He created a water shield to his left, hoping to weaken the attack, but there was no way he would be unscathed.


    He tensed his muscles, readying for the impact, but at that moment his water shield froze, creating an icy barrier that completely stopped the beast in its tracks. However, it shattered just an instant later.


    The lightning spear flew past his head, striking the beast, but it just ricocheted off it and went into the wall.


    Garret clenched his teeth. "That''s one tough bastard."


    The lady with blond hair ran up behind him and jumped off his back with a raised sword that reflected the sun which was now just above this part of the canyon. Suddenly her sword became red from heat, as she swung down sparks of red lightning traced behind the sword.


    She struck the creature on the head, creating a big ''BOOM''.


    ¡­


    Everybody squinted their eyes as the cloud of dust slowly cleared. But what they saw wasn''t what they had hoped for. Not a single mark was left on the creature and now it held Aveline in its fist. It tried to bite her head off, but in just the last instant, the fiery axe slammed the creature''s face, making it drop her.


    With a growl, it snapped its head back. It stared at the soldier who threw the weapon. Recognizing his fear, it took a slight step forward before rushing in his direction, closing the distance before anyone could even notice it left its initial spot. Its fangs tried to sink into his flesh. However, two soldiers behind him blocked the attack, one creating a bronze shield while the other one created it out of dirt.


    The fourth soldier took in a deep breath, squeezing his fists. He made a few steps forward and made a half-circular movement with his arms following his footsteps. Suddenly, three small rock pillars shot out of the ground at an angle and struck the beast, pushing it five zarra away.


    "Rawr!" The beast''s voice shot through the air, almost blowing the soldiers away. It jumped at them again. This time, only a man with a bronze shield defended. Meanwhile, the one that previously created the earth shield kept creating small boulders that the fourth soldier would then throw at the beast.


    Quickly, Tristan and Eira joined in. Tristan fired water projectiles at the beast and Eira would turn them into ice as they traveled before hitting the beast with formidable strength. Slowly but surely, they chipped away at its armor-like fur. It began to show more openings as it found itself on the back foot against attacks from both sides. Eventually, they cornered it against the wall and the relentless barrage of attacks caused it to fall. The beast let out a weak roar that sounded more like it had just breathed out a bunch of air after holding it in for too long.


    The group finally relaxed and stopped attacking as they watched the beast breathing heavily on the ground. It growled a little, trying to stand up, but the leg gave up beneath its body and it fell back down, causing the group to laugh.


    "Hey, Tristan, is this what almost ended you? I thought you were going to be the strongest swordsman in the world," Aveline chuckled teasingly. "How will you achieve that if this thing is making you struggle?"


    "Big words for someone who almost got their head beaten off." Eira shoved her face into Aveline''s, mocking her with a sharp voice, with Tristan standing behind her. Tristan only lightly scoffed at Aveline''s statement, hardly giving it any acknowledgment.


    Garret quickly got between them, placing one of his arms in front of each. He said nothing, just smiled awkwardly, as the two girls kept glaring at each other, but he was ready to prevent any possible physical confrontation¡­ maybe.


    Aveline raised her chin slightly before she responded, "Oh, but all I want is a nice little life with Garret, while your boyfriend over there has some ambitions in his head."


    "He is not my¡­ argh."


    "Hey, hey. Cool it a little. Leave that for later." One of the soldiers threw in a word of his own. "Now let''s finish this bastard." He picked up his axe and walked up to the beast.


    The beast looked at him with shining eyes, lowering its head as the man raised his weapon, ready to strike. But suddenly, the beast launched forward and before the man could bring the axe down, his head flew into the air.


    Before anyone could react, a hulking shadow loomed behind the earth bender and magician, its guttural growl shaking the very ground. They only turned their necks slightly before one''s insides spilled on the ground and the other''s head was inside the beast''s stomach.


    The rest of the group attacked, but the beast was fast, too fast. Before they could even blink, the last soldier was down as the beast tore him apart. It roared into the air while four mercenaries watched in horror.


    "How the hell did it get so fast!?" Aveline screamed.


    "I don''t know but we need to¡­" Eira yelled back, but her mouth closed shut as the creature''s claw got just a centimeter away from her face.


    In the last second, Aveline parried the attack away.


    "You okay?" She asked as two of them created some distance from it.


    "Yeah, thanks." She mumbled. Her gaze went back to the creature, and their eyes locked.


    The beast leaned down on all four. Growling, it started to circle them with careful steps, not breaking eye contact with Eira. That didn''t escape their notice, so they kept her behind them, figuring that way they could delay its attack for as long as possible.


    There wasn''t one person who didn''t feel like something was crawling up their backs higher and higher with every step the beast took. Their muscles tensed up, and they kept shielding Eira with Tristan in front. Creature''s movements were slow, careful, even graceful. It kept putting the front of the foot on the ground first and then slowly laid the rest of it down.


    Front right leg, back right leg.


    Front left leg, back left leg.


    Aveline''s teeth were about to crack. She tensed her arm and strengthened her grip on her sword as she took a step closer to Tristan, almost gluing herself to him.


    Tristan took in a deep breath but didn''t let any air out. His hands trembled slightly.


    That didn''t escape Garret''s eyes, whose brain was in overdrive at the moment, he lightly shifted the position of his feet.


    And in that moment, the beast disappeared from its spot. It aimed for the spot between Garret and Tristan. Tristan made a slight shift in his posture and in the same heartbeat, the creature changed its direction, just a bit, before anyone could react, and went between Tristan and Aveline shoving them both to the side, and opened its jaws, trying to bite Eira''s head off. However, Garret was ready for that and he managed to block it.


    "Everyone, run!" He screamed as he was tangling with a beast.


    "What?!" Aveline yelled while getting up, "NO! We are not leaving you."


    Garret shifted his body, making the beast run into the wall. "I am the only one fast enough to compete. I can buy the most time. No matter how we fight, we will lose. It''s either one of us or all of us."


    "So, what? I''d rather die here than leave you."


    "I will stay." The voice came from Tristan as he, too, stood up. "We can keep it occupied for long enough and that way we might get the opportunity to escape ourselves."


    "No, no, absolutely not." Eira snapped at him, "We are not leaving. We are doing this together or we are not doing it at all."


    He glanced at Garret, and they nodded to each other. "Okay, okay," he said, walking to the two ladies. "We will do this together then," he said, pulling Eira into the hug with Aveline standing right behind her. Eira blushed, sinking into his arms, but in that moment she felt a powerful push. Her back hit Aveline, and they both fell to the ground around six zarra away. They quickly sat up, looking at him with wide eyes, but before they could do anything, he grabbed his sword by the blade, holding it backward, and then hit the wall with his full strength. At the same time, Garret coated his spear with lightning and threw it into the other wall.


    Stones came crashing down, creating a barrier between them. It certainly wasn''t nearly as tall as the one that trapped the larger group, but it was enough.


    "What?! No, Noooo!" Eira screamed while punching the rocks, but nothing happened.


    Certainly, if they had an air magician like the first group, they could get over this. But Eira is a water bender. Without Tristan, she isn''t able to do much in this scenario. She could extract the water from the air or the ground, as they were quite moist, but at best, she would be able to coat her arrows in it.


    Aveline kicked one boulder, "You bastards!" She, too, couldn''t do much. She was a lightning magician. Maybe if her mana was stronger or if she had a larger pool of it, she could get across, but it wasn''t and she didn''t.


    Two men looked at the top of the barrier they created, nodding, concluding two women on the other side won''t be able to get across. They fist-bumped as Garret picked up his spear.


    "Grrrrrrr," a deep, rumbling sound came from behind them. The beast shook the rocks off its body. Its steel-like fur glinting in the dim light.


    "I''ll take the front," Garret stated, his voice tight with determination. "Like I said, I''m the only one fast enough to keep up with it." He tried to sound casual, but the sound that came out was shaky. He did not move his eyes away from the creature for even a nanosecond. His breathing became fast and shallow. His spear nearly slipped out of his grip as he pointed it at the creature.


    It got down on all four again.


    "I will support you as best I can," Tristan said, even now, his voice remained steady and plain, his face had no notable expression but his forehead was drenched in sweat, some dripping into his eyes and blurring his vision.


    The beast clawed into the ground and tensed up, moving its hind up a little.


    Tristan created a water armor around himself and his sword became a long water whip, while Garret lowered his stance, lightning sparks appeared all around him.


    They stood across from each other, ready for battle.


    All three took small steps to the side, their feet digging into the muddy ground, the gooey sound echoing through an otherwise quiet canyon.


    The beast''s pupils got thinner and thinner, the smell of rotten flesh was even more noticeable now whilst the pair''s eyes were full of adrenaline, their bodies full of mud.


    The drop of sweat fell down from Tristan''s chin.


    And the moment it hit the ground Garret''s spear clashed with the claws of the beast, the strike thundering through the canyon.

 Buddies vs Warp

    ''CLANG!''


    Spearhead and beastly claws met. Garret and the beast jumped around, appearing and disappearing in Tristan''s eyes. The lightning magician was clearly struggling far more than the beast from his clenched teeth and furrowed face.


    He narrowly avoided the beast''s attacks. Here and there it would graze him, spraying some blood on the wall, but his eyes never lost focus, staying on the creature the entire time, not even blinking.


    The lancer ran at the beast, ducking under its long arm and slashed it two times, but leaving no mark, bouncing out of the way of the creature''s attack. He jumped back, into the air till his feet touched the stone.


    For a moment, he was standing perfectly parallel to the ground.


    Garret jumped off the wall, turning into a lightning bolt, and thrust his spear at the beast. A light graze to its shoulder left no mark. The beast tried to get him, but in that moment Tristan whipped the claws away. Garret didn''t even bat an eye. He continued to dash from one wall to the other, launching himself forward every time and slowly building up speed.


    He hit the arm.


    The leg clashed with the spear.


    The sharp metal head tried to slash the beast''s shoulder.


    Garret repeatedly hit the beast, each time just barely touching it; however, that was all he could do because any closer, and he would lose a limb. This way, he at least kept it on its toes.


    The creature couldn''t avoid the attacks completely. Chasing Garret around like an annoying mosquito. Just as it thought it had him, he slipped away, leaving no wounds, but it stung regardless of that. So, rather than continuing to entertain the lightning thingy, which continued to hop around, it curled into a ball.


    And then it rushed at Tristan, taking a swing with its long arm. Garret appeared in front of it, his shaft impeding its nails with a thunderous explosion.


    Both fighters lost their footing, but the beast was quicker to recover. It smacked Garret with the back of its muscular hand, sending him flying into the wall.


    The impact cracked the stone as he slammed into it before he fell and started coughing blood.


    While the beast focused on Garret, Tristan ran toward it. He compressed the water that looked like a whip into a cover for his short sword.


    [Water Style: Flowing River]


    His sword slashed gracefully, and his body followed. The blade struck the beast''s stomach just as Tristan ducked under its arm. He took two more steps before dancingly turning around and parrying the creature''s attack at the same time before he attacked again. His blade tried to cut creature''s arm muscles and belly, nevertheless, they were too shallow. Tristan''s form created a flowing river around the beast as it continued trying to grab him or punch him.


    A naked eye would realize that Tristan was significantly slower than the beast, but his sword knew what the creature would do every time. It would parry and block, it would pull Tristan with it to avoid the attack. He seemed to have overwhelmed the beast. However, Tristan''s eyes started to bleed. With each beautiful movement, more crimson color came from them. This was not something he could have continued to do. It was only a matter of time before it happened. His arm flew into the air after the creature slashed down with its claws.


    He stopped himself from letting out a scream by clenching his jaw as hard as he could. He rolled in between the beast''s legs and performed one last side slash, the water around his blade expanding again, the top of it going across the beast''s body.


    A thin blue line appeared on its torso. The creature placed its palm on the chest before looking down. There, on its paw, was a thick blue liquid of awful smell that evaporated after a few seconds.


    It took damage!


    Tristan chuckled a little, trying to stand up. Instead, he vomited blood and his knees remained glued to the floor.


    The creature observed him for a moment before letting out a booming roar and furiously stomping forward; but when its leg hit the ground, a blue glow appeared beneath it, and before it knew what was happening, two water tentacles tangled its leg. In a flash, a sharp metallic top coated with lightning hit its face, making it fall to the ground.


    Its head darted toward the source of the attack and growled at the man who threw the spear before it looked at its leg. It raised its arm before it slashed it off with a resounding howl.


    Two men stared at it with dilated pupils. Their thoughts completely stopped as some air got stuck in their throats.


    Using that moment, the beast leaped at Tristan, but luckily, Garret was fast enough and got in its way. This time his stance remained stable and with another explosive spell, the creature got knocked back but once again recovered quickly. It reached out its arm to grab the lightning magician, still; he was ready once again and ten lightning spears fell out of the sky, making the beast slam into them.


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    The bolts were creating a barrier between the two warriors and the undead creature, not unlike the prison bars. The beast realized it couldn''t get through after the initial impact, instead, it moved left and right, slowly, with enraged air exiting through its exposed teeth, its eyes never leaving the pair.


    Garret knelt down next to Tristan and placed his hand on the white-haired man''s shoulder before lightning sparks enveloped him. The place where his arm used to be closed, and some color returned to his face. After a few seconds, Tristan got up, seemingly fine at first, though he coughed some blood into his hand just a moment later.


    "How bad is it?" Garret asked through ragged breaths.


    "I''m fine." Tristan''s answer came before the question had fully landed. "This is going worse than we anticipated. At this rate, they won''t even be able to escape."


    Garret unwillingly shifted his gaze forward with a desperate sigh. "Yeah. Even if they started running as soon as we blocked the path, it wouldn''t have been enough¡­ You have any ideas?"


    "Hmm¡­ I could try using [Tidal God''s Ballista]."


    "Absolutely not!" Garret didn''t even give it a thought. "Your body wouldn''t be able to handle it."


    "So?" Tristan argued back. "We will die anyway."


    Garret took a deep breath through his nose before clicking his tongue. "Damn it!" He smacked his spear into the ground. "Yeah, I guess you are right¡­ How long?"


    "Two minutes."


    "Start right away, twenty more seconds of [Sparky Prison] over there." He said, walking up to the lightning bars. "Why did I let Aveline name it again?" The man mumbled under his breath.


    "Do you need any healing?"


    "Oh, please. Just focus on powering up your attack. I am just fine." He responded while cracking his back. He gargled some saliva in his mouth to clear the blood before he spit it out.


    A miniature ball of lightning formed in his hand, which he then dissipated by opening his palm. The air became heavy, sparks continued to appear everywhere, while Garret got coated in lightning.


    He took in a deep breath and took a low stance, the storm around him becoming even more powerful, lightning swirling all around him. "Let''s go rotting puppy."


    ¡­ 3¡­


    [Unicorn''s Lance]


    ¡­ 2¡­


    [First Form]


    ¡­ 1¡­


    [Dauntful Stab]


    Garret moved explosively from his place and thrust his spear forward. It went between the claws of the beast, grazing one, which caused it to change direction slightly and move toward the creature''s eye. However, it managed it dodge it in the last moment.


    Tristan¡­ in your condition and with your body¡­


    It swung its other hand toward him, but Garret had already disappeared from its sight. He was already behind it. His speed was incomparable with how he moved earlier. He sank his feet into the mud, his eyes shining blue as sparks flew out of them.


    [Unicorn''s Lance, Second Form: Rainbow''s Impaler]


    His spear thrust upward, aiming for the creature''s rib cage, but once again, it wasn''t strong enough to pierce through it. It just bounced off the beast''s belly.


    There is no way you will survive using that attack.


    In the next second, he was in the air, behind the beast again. Using the creature''s lower agility due to the loss of its leg. Now he didn''t have to clash with it head-on anymore and risk dying with each of his attacks. Yet, if this was a living creature, this tactic would make it harder to kill in a single strike, though Garret not being able to pierce it made that fact irrelevant.


    [Unicorn''s Lance, Third Form: 23 Raging Horns]


    His hand moved so fast that it created an illusion. Twenty-three spears came down on the beast at the same time, hitting its head and body. It raised its arms into a guard to defend as much as possible.


    This scene created a smirk on Garret''s face.


    Pain? So I can hurt you, ey? Keke. Tristan. We can win this.


    Garret''s eyes glowed even fiercer as his feet dug into the ground.


    I won''t let your sacrifice be for nothing. You, who is the only one with any ambition past this group.


    Just as claws were a dira away from his face, Garret vanished and appeared behind the creature again.


    [Unicorn''s Lance, Fourth Form: Rainbow Slash]


    Before the beast could even begin to turn around, he made a swift attempt to cut it down.


    ''Slash,''


    Thick blue fluid flew out of the beast''s back.


    It tried to backhand him, but Garret was quick to get out of the way.


    Yes, not you. I can still remember the first time we met. You were thrown away in the street, all malnourished. You weren''t even an adult yet. I was so surprised when you told us you went to the Holy King''s Swordsmanship Academy, keke.


    He parried the beast''s attack and dodged another one before jumping on the wall and launching himself straight forward, cutting the creature''s cheek.


    And I was furious when you told us they threw you out because of your body.


    Garret stopped at just the right moment, making the beast''s attack just short of reaching him before hitting its chin with the butt of the spear.


    You, who is the most hard-working person I''ve ever seen, training for hours upon hours every single day without exception. We have others that went to the academy here, yet none of us come even close to your dedication or motivation.


    He stuck the top of his spear into the ground and threw some mud into the beast''s face before avoiding its blind attacks and positioning himself.


    [Unicorn''s Lance, Fifth Form: 22 Colorful Cuts]


    Similarly to before, it was as if his spear came from multiple different directions at the same time, each reflecting the light from the sun in a different color, though it was barely visible from the lightning surrounding it. Each was slashing toward the undead beast, leaving shallow cuts, but cuts nonetheless.


    And to think you had to end up with Saignemort''s body. To think that because of it, you wouldn''t even be able to perform one sword form without spewing out blood. You can''t even fight for that long. And why? All because the damn academy expects kids to do missions on a level of high-class adventurer groups alone.


    He clenched his teeth while zipping around the beast and tainting it every time he got behind it.


    It''s just not fair.


    In a swift move, he leaped onto the beast''s head, using the full length of his spear to strike the beast''s back before dismounting, a maneuver that caused the beast to inadvertently strike its own head.


    And now you are here, sacrificing yourself for me, your senior. You wanted to be the strongest swordsman in the world; you wanted to bear the mark of the dragon''s claw but because I am too weak, you can''t.


    "Screw holding it back! We will kill this bastard right here!" He screamed atop his lounges while he flew into the air behind the said bastard.


    [Unicorn''s Lance, Final From: Illusionary Spear]


    "Raaaaaagh!" He raised his arm, summoning all of his strength.


    But, in that moment, something struck his body, sending him flying into the wall.


    The beast had swung its tail and got him at just the right moment.

 Buddies vs Warp Part II

    "You think they will survive?" A girl asked with a soft voice, still panting from running. She walked up to the tree and leaned on it.


    A blond woman next to her sat down on the grass across from her. "Absolutely. They will kick that bastard''s ass."


    "Kikiki." Eira almost lost the little air in her lungs she had left. "Yeah, they might. But those sons of bitches should''ve let us fight with them."


    "No." The saddening voice arrived from Aveline''s mouth. "We would''ve just gotten in their way. They were right to do it¡­" She paused for a moment. "I''m still going to beat him up when he comes back." She huffed, crossing her arms.


    "Yeah, they need to be scolded." Eira agreed, looking at the mountain. "I really don''t want to lose anyone after¡­"


    "Marry?¡­ Yeah¡­" Aveline lay on the grass and looked at the sky.


    ***


    Five Years ago. Marry, one of their friends, and comrades, died. They went to the city without telling Bran or any of the squad members. It was Garret, Tristan, Aveline, Eira, and Marry. They got in trouble with some thugs and later got ambushed. They managed to repel them. However, they abducted Marry. They ran to the rest of the crew and, with their help, quickly found her, but she was on the verge of death. They tortured her for hours before they came. She was in enormous pain. Bran simply walked up to her, placed his hand on her shoulder, and looked her in her eyes. They nodded to each other before he stuck his blade into her heart.


    Later, the group promised not to do anything so stupid ever again. And swore that if by some chance something like that does happen again, they will summon the strength to do what Bran did.


    ***


    Garret coughed out some blood. "To hell!"


    "Something definitely just got broken." He barely got the word out while trying to get up. He looked at what he was holding in his hands. "More than one thing, as it seems," he said when he saw his broken spear.


    He stared the beast down while it growled at him. It clearly wanted to leap at him, but the lack of the lack made it far more conservative in its actions. Pain matters little if it means survival.


    Despite his body''s protest, Garret used one half of the spear as a support and got up. He spewed out more blood, the red substance hardly visible on the muddy ground.


    How much longer do I need to keep fighting this dude?


    He glanced at Tristan, who was standing still; his eyes closed, slowly gathering mana.


    By the looks of it, I still have a minute to go. I can keep the mana field up for around forty more seconds.


    He slapped himself.


    Calm down! How will I go about this?


    He touched one of the daggers which rested above his hind, but he let it go as he looked up.


    No, no. Let''s start with this¡­


    The spearhead flew toward the beast''s head, which it dodged. The spear went right past it and struck the wall, getting stuck in it. A second after that, the other half of the spear aimed for the creature''s face as well, but it caught it between its jaws.


    Garret''s eyes opened wide. "Oh¡­ I didn''t expect that."


    The beast returned the fire. It flicked its head, throwing the spear at him.


    Garret only leaned a half-dira to the side. The butt of the spear grazed his cheek as he ran forward.


    Garret dashed at the beast and slid between its legs. Without stopping, he continued moving. He jumped on the rod stuck in the mountain and then leaped off it, pulling his daggers at the same time.


    [Flashing Chains]


    A thin, rope-like structure made completely out of lightning tied his hand around the handle of a dagger.


    He started rotating it as his back started feeling the air pressure before he threw it into the ledge on the wall. The dagger dug into it, and Garret used the spell to swing himself to the other side. His legs hit the mountain; he hung above the beast, making sure to not let go of the lightning chain before he gripped it tighter, causing a sudden surge of energy to flow through it. The spark went into the dagger and then the stone before the ledge separated itself from the wall with an explosion.


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    A huge rock fell down along with a man as lighting sparks burst all around, getting all the way to the dens.


    The beast tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late. The boulder shattered on its back and knocked it down.


    Garret landed on his back but quickly got up. He dashed forward at the beast and slashed its head with both of the daggers, but it did nothing. The beast jerked its head, sending him away.


    The claws dug into the ground while it stared at its opponent. Garret crossed his arms and held both of the daggers in a reverse grip. Both of them launched at each other at the same time.


    Garret''s daggers clashed with the creature''s claws. The beast''s advance sent him a few steps back. It slashed at him with one hand and then tried to punch him with the other. And soon enough, Garret was up against the wall.


    The beast went for one final attack, but then something fell down. A massive branch on fire. The creature jumped back right away, growling whilst slowly retreating.


    The man''s eyes light up. "Of course!" He exclaimed. "I read some books on the undead when I was a kid. Now that I think about it, it did say they hate fire. I never really thought much about it, didn''t think I would ever encounter one. To think it''s true." He put on a smirk as he ripped off two thin branches that were yet to catch fire before lighting their top on it. He held one in each hand, along with a dagger.


    Let''s see how this works.


    He used the wall as leverage to get over the flames and attack the beast. He used its terrified state to deal some blows. They didn''t seem to do much, but the creature was hardly fighting back. The daggers slowly heated from the torches they were up against and, with that, started doing some damage.


    There we go! Garret was getting excited. Now I just need to be careful not to hold them for too long.


    The beast kept defending itself before it finally had enough and swung at Garret, but such a panicked attack was easy to dodge now.


    "You are just a panicked little pup, aren''t you?" He yelled as he slashed down, drawing some marks on it. "Die!" He pushed the beast into the raging flames of the fallen branch.


    It howled with pain as it started to flail around and roll on the ground. It slowly extinguished the fire. Steam visibly twirled from its body. The creature''s skin looked melted, even more so than before.


    The lightning magician inched forward and peeked at the beast lying down in front of him.


    The beast was seemingly dead.


    Garret took one more step forward and his leg was suddenly separated from his body. The beast tore it off with a single swing of its claws before it hit him with its other arm, sending him flying and crashing into the wall.


    Even when an entire pack of blood came from his mouth, the man still refused to accept what had just happened while the beast slowly crept toward him.


    And then, a dagger fell on its head. The man glanced up excitedly. "Just sizzle away, will you?" A magic circle lit up on the dagger and the lightning came from the sky, striking the beast.


    Another howl came from it, but it remained standing, looking furious.


    "You survived that, ha?" He chuckled to himself, "But two minutes are up so, bye, you rotting bastard."


    [Tidal God''s Ballista]


    Tristan fired his attack, a continuous high pressure of water that almost sent him flying. It hit the beast and didn''t stop coming. Lasting only a few seconds, it was sent back to the pile of stones blocking the path. It flew right in and got crushed by the stones before Tristan''s attack finally stopped.


    The white-haired man instantly collapsed.


    Garret pulled himself forward, using his elbows to drag his body through the mud. He got to Tristan, seeing him gurgling his blood, slowly choking on it.


    "I think you did it, buddy." He placed his palm on his chest. "We''ve won!"


    Tristan closed his eyes and tried to chuckle, but it didn''t come out right. "P¡­ Plea¡­ Please, Garret."


    "Yeah?"


    "Marry¡­"


    With tears running down his face, Garret closed Tristan''s pain-filled eyes. "Okay, okay friend." He raised his dagger, taking in a deep breath, and as he exhaled, the blade was already stuck in Tristan''s chest. He was dead.


    Tears slowly filled the man''s eyes.


    But before he could cry, a loud sound came from behind him. Rocks flew into the air and from the dust came a wolf-like deformed creature.


    ''RAWR!''


    Garret looked at it in disbelief. It survived?! He quickly pulled the dagger out and threw it at the beast. It hit its head and once again soon enough; the lightning came down on it, but it marched forward.


    The mercenary looked left and right, before finally sticking his arms into the ground. Tristan''s attack created a massive puddle in which the beast was now standing. Garret placed his hands in the water before releasing lightning from his arms. It quickly traveled to the creature, momentarily stopping it in its tracks. Garret put even more in his attack, his arms slowly burned. They became black all the way to his elbows.


    Yes, I need to do this. Tristan lost his life for this victory. I have to at the very least risk mine.


    The lightning filling the water became even stronger and raged around fiercely.


    Garret''s entire arms became black.


    It then spread to his neck.


    But he continued till he used all the mana he had, and then he collapsed.


    Did I get him? He thought to himself, but as if his words jinxed him, growling came from the direction of the beast. Fuck. Garret forced himself up and got into a fighting position, though it looked fragile, weak. He barely remained on his feet. There were no more sparks around him. He gave it all he had. "Come at me you¡­"


    Before he could finish his sentence, his torso burst, turning into nothing but flying organs and blood. There was nothing left of him but his legs.


    The beast took a few steps forward before looking into the sky and spreading his arms.


    ''RAAAWR!''


    ''RAAAAAAAAAAAWR!!!''


    The loud victory cry echoed through the whole canyon, and the field outside it.