There was an air of unease among their party. The woods around them seemed to move and contort like the monsters which had assailed them. Even Dreiki, who could see the monsters, was on edge scanning his surroundings, “So how do you guys plan to track Kaara down?”

“Best we can do is keep an eye out for tracks and activity. I know Kaara’s magical signature, and unless she’s hiding we should be able to pick up on that,” Arik said.

“And if she is?”

“Then it’s better we don’t find her. The Malaki may rely on us to find her for them.”

Dreiki’s heart sank. He needed to find her no matter what. He did not know if Savekio knew about Kaara’s curse, but his connection to Shiira made him believe there was a possibility.

“That’s why we gotta keep an eye out to make sure we’re not being followed.” Tadios added.

“I see, that would make sense.” Dreiki looked around. As someone who often stalked and kept himself hidden, he knew the places to check. It was very rare that people ever looked up, so he made sure to keep a close eye on the branches above them.

What he had not anticipated, however, was for the monsters to be hiding beneath smooth untouched snow. Arik was the first to react, shoving Tadios out of the way as a lengthy spearlike appendage pierced her ribcage. A swarm of sharpened spider limbs rose from the ground and jabbed at their group. Tadios deflected a killing blow from Arik’s head while she struggled to pry the limb free from her body. Dreiki grabbed Sancta and dove for cover as the Oskuutor rose from its hiding place. Arik and Tadios were stuck on its back while the many sharpened limbs struck at them. The Oskuutor loomed over Sancta and Dreiki, its jagged grin widening to show off an endless row of teeth where its tongue should have been.

With an ear shattering battlecry, Arik delivered a spine crunching stomp to it and punched its hardened bug-like limb in half. Tadios leaped, stabbing his spear from the back of its head through its hollowed eyesocket.

The vile creature cackled at their futile attempts to kill it, but Dreiki took advantage of its open maw to send a fireball down its throat.

The fireball, however, did not make it into its stomach for some reason. Instead blowing its neck to a gory mess of flesh. The severed faces it collected slopped off its form into the snow. A loud screech sounded from within its body, a new mouth forming on its torso as the creature now attempted to gather up the leathery faces it owned.

The trees came alive, and slammed the creature between massive logs of wood until its black blood squirted out of it like a squashed plum.

Its limbs wriggled, elongated fingers reaching out to grab and swipe at Sancta before she clenched her fist and crushed it flat.

Arik jumped off, clutching her wound, “Punctured lung,” She coughed, “Broken rib, some blood vessels might be severed. And a pretty obvious stab wound.”

Sancta nodded, “It seems the Tibur at least taught you how to talk to a healer. That’s good.” She hovered her hands over Arik’s wound, closing it within a few seconds, “Better knowledge of where to heal you means faster recovery. Don’t forget it, Noxa”

Dreiki raised and eyebrow. Was this her way of showing concern for him?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“The limbs might be poisoned too,” Tadios said, “Oskuutor will sometimes develop venom for their victims, so check for that too.”

Sancta nodded, the golden glow of her palms turning a sickly green. Tadios thrust his palm out towards the Oskuutor.

“What are you doing? It’s dead,” Sancta said.

“It’s not.” Tadios said. As if it knew it had been discovered, the Malaki tore its body away from the crushing branches, regenerating its flesh in a matter of seconds. Before it could lunge, however, Tadios unleashed a swath of white fire. Even standing back as far as he was, Dreiki could feel the heat tightening the skin on his face. Tadios was not finished, however. As the charred body of the Oskuutor shambled forward, he sent his spear through its head and delivered an even more powerful blast to it.

The creature burned to ashes, its body breaking apart into a pile of steaming charcoal. Tadios kicked the pile, “Now you wouldn’t believe it, but this thing’s still not fuckin’ dead.” He spat, pointing to the regenerating tissue as the Malaki reformed itself.

Tadios burned them away, “No matter how much I burn the things, they keep regeneration’ from even the smallest piece of themselves. What’s worse, the more I burn them, the harder they become to burn. They start getting a resistance to my magic after a while. If I keep doin’ this for long enough, they’ll be immune to my magic.”

“So how do we kill it?” Dreiki asked.

“Dunno. What I do know is that we can’t kill ‘em with magic. They absorb it.”

“Shit.” Arik said, kicking at the reforming ash, “And this is just one of ‘em. I could feel hundreds in those woods.”

“Well what do we do then? There’s no point in risking our lives for Kaara if there are hundreds of them after her for some reason.”

Dreiki cupped his chin. If they were after Kaara, then why did they not all target her at once?

“What’re you thinking, Argo?” Tadios asked.

“Nothing useful. Although I have a question. You two both know about Oskuutor and how to identify them, correct?”

“We do.”

“And yet you don’t know how to kill them.”

“That’s true.”

“How did you learn about Oskuutor? Was it through some sort of story?”

“That’s about right,” Arik said, “There’s a story called ‘The Silver Reaper’ where Oskuutor are besieging a city.”

“How does the story go? Maybe there’s some sort of hint as to how we can kill them.”

Arik sighed, “I thought about that too, but it doesn’t make any sense. The Silver Reaper ends up killing the Oskuutor with a bell if you can believe it.”

“A bell?”

“Yup. It goes something like ‘Twas chilled and sharpened blades, Did fail upon the vile remade. Yet before the Silver Reaper they fell, upon the ringing of his bell.’” Arik said, using her wind magic to blow the pieces of the Oskuutor apart again.

“Sounds like clear symbolism to me,” Sancta said, “Bells are usually meant to symbolize the beginning or the end of something. A call to order, or perhaps a command or warning.”

“So I guess we should just command the Oskuutor to drop dead or something,” Arik said, arms crossed.

Dreiki cupped his chin, “I think Sancta is on to something, but as for how it can help us, I don’t know yet. Let’s keep moving. We can’t afford to waste time deliberating.”

“Agreed.” Tadios said, sending one last blast of fire over the Oskuutor’s ashes, “Arika, if you can remember some more of that poem, it might help us. I usually didn’t pay attention to stories like that. For- Obvious reasons.”

“I understand. The only reason I remember it was because Kaara loved that story a lot.”

“All the more reason to find her,” Dreiki said.

Sancta huffed, “Wherever she is, my brother is likely nearby. That’s about the only reason I have to find her.”

“I don’t remember asking, princess,” Arik said.

“You’re welcome for healing your wound, savage.”

“Quiet, both of you!” Tadios said, “There’s more coming.”