CHAPTER 38

Stepping out of the foliage, Ramul calmly walked into the small glade which bordered the mage’s house. He looked around the glade with a calm and detached expression, observing how the peaceful and lively forest bled over into that dark and withering stunted tree with the house of that wizard at its base.

He felt disgust at the sight of this beautiful forest being influenced by the foul taint of that mana, yet he repressed his disgust. He was on a mission to retrieve some innocent hostages, and he was going to succeed.

Focusing on the ring on his right middle finger, he felt the positions of the others around him.

Two dark elf mercenaries and Falril on his left, while Alryd and the other mercenaries were to his right. They were all concealed either with shadow or camouflage enchantments, as they blended in with the foliage, becoming one with the hedge.

Ramul pushed onwards, taking several more relaxed steps before he felt a thin membrane of dark mana brush past him, signalling the discovery of both him and, most likely, his companions.

He clicked his tongue in disgust, as he felt the dark mana wash over him like a river. He had felt this dozens of times, yet he still had difficulty stomaching the horrid feeling of that foul energy touching him.

He abruptly stopped, returning the glade to its former state of tranquillity. He calmly raised his left hand, while his right reached for his blade strapped to his lower back.

The glade was shrouded in silence for several moments as everyone awaited Ramul’s signal. Loaded like a spring, both the mercenaries and Alryd and Falril awaited his signal.

To Falril, it felt like an eternity as he awaited Ramul’s signal with anticipation. He went over the plan again and again in his head, going over everything that could go wrong with Ramul’s very simplistic plan.

It came down to attacking the mage with all of their might, destroying his home and distracting him long enough to get the hostages.

It wasn’t the most spectacular plan, but it was dubbed the most likely to succeed, as they didn’t think the mage would be moving anytime soon, they wouldn’t be able to lure him out without attracting unwanted attention and they didn’t have the resources nor the manpower for a prolonged siege, so they settled on this straightforward strategy.

Blast a hole through the defences, assault the mage and secure the hostages while he is preoccupied. It wasn’t awfully complicated, but Falril believed that they could succeed with this strategy, they simply had to distract the mage’s minions long enough to get inside and get the hostages out.

His head shot up as he finally saw the boss’ hand go down, signalling the beginning of the bombardment. He looked back and saw several of the dark elf mercenaries mounting earthen pots on small catapults, before they were shot off with a velocity that didn’t seem to befit the small catapults.

They traversed the air in a hyperbolic movement, before crashing into the side of the building and detonating. The earthen pots were shattered as the contents came into contact with the air and quickly heated up, before rapidly expanding and engulfing the house in a mixture of shrapnel, smoke and explosions.

Falril’s expression lightened, as he looked upon the house surrounded by smoke in relieve. For but a moment, he thought that they would be able to complete this quest without trouble, he thought that he could show his family that he was worthy enough to inherit the heirlooms.

The smoke cleared and this sentiment was reinforced, as the front of the house had caved in under the explosions. It was clear that the building material was stronger than usual, yet they had still been able to punch a hole through the reinforced stone and wood. The hole wasn’t very large, as at most one grown man would be able to fit through, yet the small victory gave a boost to morale, as his eardrums were overwhelmed with stimuli coming from his right.

Alryd’s war cry echoed through the small glade, spurring on both the mercenaries and Falril to charge. Falril had a smirk plastered on his face, as he shot out from the foliage to follow Alryd in his sprint towards the building.

The party naturally formed an arrow formation. Falril and the archers stood in the middle in a wedge at the back, while the other melee oriented mercenaries stacked up behind Alryd who stood at the helm of the charge. He acted as the arrowhead to the charge, making it seem like he was ready to pierce through anything they could throw at him.

Yet not everyone had joined the charge. There was one person in the glade who hadn’t even moved an inch. Towering above his companions, Ramul simply observed their charge with a frown, as he knew something was amiss. A mage’s house was akin to a fortress, it would simply be impossible to break through the walls with such ease, especially considering the mage’s strength.

Focusing on his left middle finger, he began to plan out his strategy, as he knew that a dark mage wouldn’t leave any holes in his defence.

Yet his worries weren’t shared by his companions, as the dozen of charging warriors in front of him released a collective warcry. They had reached the walls and they were about to enter the mage’s fortress, only to experience immediate retaliation.

Their warcry was met with a chorus of feral roars, as several horrid looking monsters and abominations met their assault with a charge of their own, displaying a greater ferocity than the battle crazed Alryd could even hope to muster.

The mercenaries accompanying Alryd flinched from the feral aura that the monsters carried, realising that they were mere men in front of the towering beasts. The charge quickly grinded to a halt as the men’s moral was being ground down, leaving only Alryd to charge the monsters with a wicked smile on his face.

He had sought salvation from his boredom, he had searched for the thrill of battle, the adrenaline that accompanied challenging a more powerful opponent, and he had found it.

He felt the adrenaline course through his body, he felt his mind clouded in a red haze, and he felt his heart beat like a drum. He raised up his axe, he released his warcry once again and he charged into the fray.

Yet the thrill of battle didn’t last long for him, as he was pounced by a giant bone covered gorilla the moment he entered the fray. His axe was cast aside as the gorilla used its enormous mass to violently smash him aside, launching him into the air and out of the battle. It charged past him into the mercenaries that were following him and it wreaked havoc upon them.

It grabbed one of the mercenaries by the arm and by the opposite shoulder and pulled. It ripped the mercenary in twain, only to throw the sellsword’s remains at his comrades and continue its slaughter. It grabbed another mercenary and threw him around, it grabbed one of the archer situated at the back and smacked Falril aside with it.

Alone, it could massacre the entirety of the mercenary unit, yet it wasn’t alone.

The other monsters had also joined the fray, fighting both the mercenaries and each other.

It was quite a surreal scene as a large crustacean creature slammed its body into the gorilla, trying to snap off its bone covered arms by snapping at them with enormous its pincers, only to be assaulted by a scorpion with a large venomous snake for a tail.

The last two joined the fray, as the bodies of a large snow white lion with the head of a jet black panther and a three headed hound rolled out from the building, biting and clawing at each other as they were entangled by their struggle.

Naturally, these strong creatures didn’t notice the puny existences that littered the glade, as they were too busy fighting each other. These puny existences weren’t noticed or only used as make-shift weapons, as the gorilla bashed the other creatures over the head with them several of the mercenaries.

The five monsters seemed like titans in front of the mercenaries, as they had never experienced such a crushing defeat from collateral damage created by another’s fight.

With their morale shattered, the mercenaries tried to escape, mostly succeeding. They were lucky that the five titans in front of them were too busy trying to gouge each other’s eyes out, as each of them could have easily hunted them down as an afternoon snack.

Falril and Alryd couldn’t escape, as they had already been flung out of the battle by the gorilla’s charge. They had travelled several dozens of metres through air and foliage, only to hit one of the enormous trees that permeated Eleanor.

The one observing this all was Ramul, he sighed as he watched the dark elf mercenaries retreat. He hadn’t expected them to retreat so quickly, yet they had seemed to serve their purpose. The enemy was clearly showing most of its strength.

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Ramul retrieved a small blue stone from his left pocket, he felt it buzzing with energy as he held it in his hand. The vibrations made it seem unstable and ready to explode, ready to engulf everything in an ocean of vibrating blue energy.

Ramul smirked and fed it mana.

The stone released an intense blue light, before the energy it held burst out like a shockwave, visibly driving back the dark mana that had previously coated the glade in a thin film. It continued its path, until it reached the house where it was dispersed against the stone walls.

Ramul watched on in fascination and relieve as the mana created a visual spectacle by driving back the dark mana, only to disperse into the air, making it seem like nothing had happened. The only indication that it had ever been there was the now dull stone in Ramul’s hand.

Glancing up, he found that the five monsters were still fighting both the mercenaries that were idiotic enough to remain and each other. This scene caused his brow to furrow, as he didn’t understand why the monsters hadn’t run off. Why were they still fighting? The mana crystal should have weakened the connection between them and the dark mage enough for them to break it.

Suddenly, his face lit up with understanding. They weren’t connected, he had fallen for the damned mage’s scheme, biting into hook, line and sinker.

His face was filled with rage as he focused his mind on his left hand once again. He had just wasted their most powerful tool on what he had assumed to be the enemy’s vanguard, only to find out that it was just a pack of crazed monsters that the dark mage had sent out.

He cursed under his breath, not able nor willing to stand the shame of falling for such a simple trap. He cleared his mind and focused, he regained his calm and collected his thoughts.

The difficulty had risen a bit, yet the mission was doable, regardless of the mana stone.

He raised his right hand once again while he gave out orders through the ring on his left hand. He stood there, silently waiting on the perfect chance to attack. He felt the confirmation of his orders stream into his mind through the left ring, he felt his troops’ anticipation as he held his hand raised. He felt their silent cries of excitement, yet he continued his silence.

Inhaling slow and long breaths, he silently awaited the perfect chance to strike. Patience was as much a weapon as it was a virtue to him.

He observed the ferocious battle in front of him. He observed how the scorpion bit its snake tail at the gorilla, only to be somersaulted by the gorilla as the snake head was bashed away. The black panther chimera snapped its jaws at the gorilla in an attempt to tear out its throat, only to be brutally somersaulted by the giant crustacean as it somehow rolled over the scorpion and slammed its body against the lion.

Completely baffled by the monstrous battle, Ramul stood still for several seconds, before his gaze darted out and caught something in the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he came face to face with the most fearsome and intimidating of the five creatures, the three headed chimera hound.

Ramul stood frozen as the creature bounded towards him. Its large strides seemed odd as the two heads situated to the side seemed to rebound at the impact of every step. It seemed more like the main body was dragging the two along for the ride, making it clear that while it was powerful, it was flawed.

Ramul didn’t have time to think about the creature’s flaws, as he drew his blade with left hand while he held his right raised. He lowered his posture as he readied his blade in front of him.

His right hand twitched as he was ready to lower it at any moment, the knuckles on his left hand turned white as he tightened the grip around his blade, preparing for the ensuing battle with both adrenaline pumping through his body. He held his place without moving a centimetre as the large creature bounded towards him, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

His patience payed off, as the large creature lowered its posture and leaped at him.

He lowered his right hand the moment the three headed monstrosity left the ground, and dived to the side, putting the monster between him and his hidden battalion.

His troops had understood the message as the creature was assaulted by several dozens of spells and arrow. The arrows whistled through the air before they buried themselves into the monster’s hide, the spells of light and fire shot out from the foliage with great ferocity and engulfed the monster’s side in a sea of explosions.

It yelped in pain and surprise as it felt the coordinated barrage hit it, yet it remained focused on Ramul, charging the sun elf with even greater ferocity. It snapped its maws at him, it fired off pillars of fire from the left head, and shards of ice from the left.

Ramul kept evading the monster as he rolled under its claws, evaded its magical attacks, and returning the favour by getting the occasional nick in on the monster’s hide.

He dove away from the monster’s claws as his troops commenced another magical barrage, focusing on the creature’s right head this time, reasoning that ice would take the most damage from fire and radiance based attacks.

Noticing their intention, the flaming head on the right placed itself above the middle head, and fired its fiery breath at the incoming projectiles, neutralising most of them. The coordination between the heads only let a few weak radiance spells drop on the snow white head. Surprisingly, it suffered more damage from the flaming head’s flamethrower than a barrage of spells and arrows, as the small radiance spells had only nicked its fur while the flamethrower had completely charred a part of its neck, exposing burned and mutilated flesh underneath.

Not wasting a second, Ramul jumped on the monster’s back and stabbed his short sword into the singed and exposed flesh, eliciting a cry of pain from the snow white head as it desperately tried to shake him off.

He kicked off on the pummel of his sword, driving it deeper into the ice hounds neck and launching him away from the three headed abomination.

He gracefully landed on the ground, skidding to a halt. Turning his attention back towards the three headed Cerberus, he met its sneering glare with an unwavering will. The three heads stared at him in pure hatred for inflicting harm upon them. The pain from a sword being stabbed through the neck had transferred to all three of them, making three different beings feel the same pain by being interconnected, causing them to collectively focus their anger on Ramul.

Ramul met their glares with glee in his eyes, as he felt the adrenaline rushing through his body. It had been quite some time since he had been able to lead his men against such a powerful beast, and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.

He flinched as the large creature suddenly averted its gaze, and sped off into the forest. Carving a path through the thick foliage with its sheer mass and muscle power, while taking Ramul’s sword with it.

Ramul stood still for several moments, as the anticlimactic escape of the monstrous hound dawned on him. He couldn’t have predicted in his wildest dreams that the abomination would simply run off, no less with his sword stuck in it.

Ramul sheepishly watched the hound’s large strides for several more moments, until he heaved a heavy sigh.

“No mana stone, newly forged sword gone and we haven’t even engaged the enemy’s main force yet. This is becoming harder and harder by the second, isn’t it?” The despair resounded through his voice as he quietly complained to the Aether about the unbelievable circumstances he found himself in.

He loathed himself, as he realized that he was at fault for both using the mana stone prematurely and losing his sword. He scolded himself for his stupidity, as he didn’t know anyone but himself stupid enough to bury his sword into a monster without being able to retrieve it.

His gaze wandered as his mind was busy loathing itself, until his blurry vision suddenly focused and revealed the house that they had sieged for about half an hour. It revealed the peaceful and ordinary architecture, it revealed the roots that stretched up to the foundation of the humble abode, it revealed the stained windows, the chipped stone stairs leading to the doorway, the open wooden door leaning on slightly rusted hinges.

Wait, it’s open?!

His mind suddenly cleared as his vision focused on the empty doorway, diverting his full attention to the opened door, subconsciously expecting the mage to walk through it and out into the open.

He felt another wave of dark mana rush through the air, he felt his consciousness being repressed, if only slightly. He quickly shook it off, as he combatted the dark mana with his own, encasing both his body and his mind in a small layer of dense mana.

He retrieved a small knife from his boot and waited. He held the knife at the ready, waiting for any movement in the doorway, ready to strike at any moment. His attention was completely taken up by the door, and then it happened.

A sign of movement, a shining dagger shot through the air and embedded itself with a soft *thud* in the wood, sizzling as the magical energy inside of it was dispersed. The dispersion of magic was accompanied with a quick flash, revealing multiple shields with a wicked grin behind them. It seemed to emerge from the shadows as the yellow teeth expanded beyond what would seem humanely possible, only to disappear into the shadow as quickly as it came.

Ramul’s expression was filled with disdain, as he cursed the mage for his cowardice. He wanted to pursue, yet he knew that entering the lion’s den alone would be a death sentence.

He turned around, only to be met by a platoon of sun elves saluting him, showing their loyalty towards their leader.

He smirked, before barking out orders. He had something that damned mage didn’t have, loyal troops, troops who would offer their lives for the greater good without a second thought, troops who weren’t limited by their commander, troops who didn’t need to be enslaved to work for him. The mage had slaves, he had loyal and faithful soldiers.

Standing in front of the battalion, he gave out three orders to his lieutenants. Surround the two entrances, barricade them, and turn anything that can burn to cinders.

His smirk turned to a wicked smile, as his mind was filled with more and more anticipation and excitement as he saw his battalion fire a multitude of fire spells at the house’s interior and the large tree behind it.

‘Killing a creator of abominations and destroying an affront to nature, today sure is going to be productive.’ He thought as he saw the first cinders burst into flame upon the brittle tree bark, serving to raise the troops’ morale, as they heartfully cheered at seeing such a tainted insult to nature be consumed in a blaze of their righteous fire. They cheered like religious fanatics, their jubilant shouts resounded through the small glade like war cries of crazed berserkers, serving only to fuel their so righteous crusade.

Ramul’s smile only grew as the glade was filled with the jubilant shouts of his comrades and the light of their warding spells, slowly driving back the darkness as they took up a defence position in front of the house.

Inside the now burning house, there was someone who didn’t appreciate their jubilant cheering, nor did he enjoy seeing his age old benefactor being tortured by such crazed fanatics. His fury rippled through the air, as the very reality around him seemed to bend under his will.

Quickening his pace, he sent out rippling waves of energy with each step, preparing for the inevitable offensive, as he couldn’t allow both his disciple and benefactor to burn before his eyes.

He wouldn’t let his loved ones burn, not again. He wasn’t weak anymore, he had abominations beyond the scope of nature, he had magic that could churn the very life out of his opponents, he had power and he was going to be damned if he didn’t use it.

Walking out of the shadows in slow strides, he entered into the light and with it he entered the battlefield he had left several centuries ago.

An old feud was reignited and from the ashes left by the burning cinders, an ancient being would rise once again and take its rightful place at its master’s side.