[https://i.imgur.com/VGCFMQy.png]
Obit was excited. He couldn't sleep. He had spent hours looking at the book about sword fighting. Just as he'd been ready to try some of it out with the stick he'd found, Mommy had sent him to bed. He lay in their crowded house, the sounds of his family softly sleeping around him.
He couldn't resist it anymore.
He quietly got up, wrapping himself in his warmest clothes as he snuck out of the house, stick in hand.
It was late enough that the village was silent, but he could see by the light of the moon in the clear night sky as he made his way to a fallow section of field near the imposing wooden wall. His feet quickly moved as he easily stepped over the ground of the village that had been all he'd known since his birth.
He took the hefty stick in hand, striking the pose he'd seen in the book, at least as close as he remembered. Slightly adjusting his posture until satisfied. He then began working through the movements the book had listed again and again.
He had learned much from the challenge the Old Mother had set him. Tasks like memorization or this required dedication and repetition. They would seem impossible at first, but he was confident that if he repeated each movement enough times, seeking out every flaw until every move was perfectly memorized, he would eventually master the sword as impossible as that currently felt.
[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]
Time passed, and he slowly became more confident in his movements. Sweat formed on his brow despite the cold night's air. Eventually, he stopped to recover and consider what he needed to look at in the book tomorrow. He heard the forest creaking despite the still night air as he stood there thinking. Confused, he went to the wall and looked through a small crack between two of the wall's great treetrunks.
Outside the wall, past the open ground kept clear by the villagers, he looked at the forest, and the forest looked back.
He stepped back from the wall in horror as he processed what he had seen. Moonlight had glinted off of numberless eyes as they looked out of the forest towards the village. It sent waves of instinctual primitive unease across his body as he thought about what he had seen. He was scared, wondering what he should do. He thought, what would the heroes of his stories do, what would Refenial do, what would The Old Mother do?
This was one more challenge to overcome with perseverance and stubborn dedication. He swallowed slightly as he leaned forward to look through the crack again.
His field of view was narrowed by the chunky walls, but he could see enough. From out of the forest, monsters were slowly walking. He could see hundreds through this tiny crack alone. Most were small, simple things, barely more than normal creatures. The sort the children sometimes saw when collecting kindling. A rabbit with serrated teeth, a rat with impossibly long, misshapen legs. Obit felt confident in facing any of them by itself, even with just his stick. This many would be deadly though. Worse still, dozens of more terrible monsters stood above these lesser monsters. They were huge with hints of human features. Many wore crude imitations of human clothes. Some even wore real clothes obviously stolen from their victims. These behemoths were the worst part. Each one walked with a grace and power that put them on par with the wolf that had slain Maxit.
Obit knew he had to act fast, the village was in danger, and no one else knew. It was all on him.
He ran as fast as he could towards the centre of the village, banging his stick against any percussive surface, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Monster attack! Monster attack!" As he ran, there were cries of anger and fright from the houses, men and women tumbling out of their homes into the snowy night half dressed. They carried spears, axes and a variety of improvised weapons. They called to him as he ran, asking where the monster was, but he didn't stop; he didn't have time to. The army he saw. He knew only one person could help. Only one person could save the village.
[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]
He barrelled through the front door of Old Mother Hecate's house, not slowing to knock. The door slammed loudly into the wall with a force that shook the meagre house.
He saw Refenial first sitting up, rubbing his eyes in confusion.
He glanced to the other side of the room. Old Mother Hecate was still lying in bed, but she had turned her head to look at him. "T-this better be important, idiot child, or this will be the night I kill you." She said with such a dead tone that Obit thought she might follow through on the threat.
"There are monsters outside the village. There's hundreds of them, thousands. It's an army of them!"
Old Mother Hecate slowly began to sit up as a crowd of villagers began to form at the door to her house, shouting and talking loudly as they did. "Fetch my sticks, boy." She said to Refenial, who quickly passed the walking canes that were by her bed to the aged woman.
"Come here." She commanded Obit, making him stand before her as she sat on her bed, looking him hard in the eyes. "Is what you said the absolute truth?" she asked, staring into his eyes with such cold intensity that a small part of his mind questioned if it might be safer outside the wall with the monsters than inside with this woman. He quashed the thought, knowing how silly it was.
"Yes." He said with every ounce of gravitas he could convey.
The Old mother aged still further as she rose gracefully off the bed, once more moving like a marionette. Furs and sheets fell to the side, her tired and patched black robes becoming visible.
The villagers stepped back in fear at the sight of her magic that they rarely, if ever, had seen used.
"There's monsters at the gate!" a villager's voice called, echoed a moment later by several more calls of distant voices who saw monsters approaching the walls.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Move back." The Old Mother commanded, her voice magically enhanced and now carrying an inhuman timbre.
The Villagers almost fell over each other in their haste to obey, combined with their confusion about where to head with monsters seemingly surrounding the village.
She flew forwards and then up into the sky.
Obit Rushed out of the house, looking up as he did, seeing the Powerful Old Mother above in the sky. Her robes fluttered as she hung there silhouetted by the moon.
[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]
There was a crash as the village gates exploded inwards. A thick pall of debris and dirt obscured the cause for a moment. Within seconds Obit could see the beast that had so quickly obliterated the gate. A deer monster so tall its antlers brushed the frame that had once held the gates stood there, slowly panting, a look of glee on its face as an unending horde of monsters streamed around it.
Above them, bright orbs of light shot out from the Old Mother. There were more than he could count. They flew in every direction, each one like a miniature sun in the sky. The stars faded away as the orbs locked into place across the village and forest, creating an unnatural day.
There was another crashing sound, Obit looked round, and A wiry fox monster was picking up the logs that made the wall in the distance and heaving them to the side one by one, systematically dismantling it.
There was shouting and alarm all around him as Obit watched the unfolding chaos. A moment later and the fastest of the monsters that had raced through the gate collided with the first of the villagers. Teeth and claws met desperate, cornered villagers who fought with as much savage ferocity as the monsters, knowing if they fell, it would be their children next.
Obit saw a squirrel monster jump into the air, landing on a villager's head before it jumped again, launching itself at Obit. Instinctually, Obit swung his pretend sword in a poor approximation of the directions in the swordsmanship guide. The stick connected with a crack of breaking bones, and the squirrel hurtled away, propelled by the blow.
He saw in the distance his father, axe in one hand, ripping a rabbit monster off of his little brother as it tried rabidly to maul the bloodied toddler who had snuck out of the house drawn by the commotion. Obit could do nothing to help. The distance might as well have been infinite, as too many monsters stood between him and his family.
The already daylight-bright sky lit to almost blinding brightness as dozens of streaking, screaming, brilliant white magical attacks rained down from Old Mother Hecate, obliterating many of the more powerful monsters who had made it into the village and anything near them. But even as they fell, more terrible beasts ran through the now dozens of holes in the walls.
Obit felt lost to the chaos and destruction, scared as he saw friends and neighbours being mauled. The village, the only home he'd ever known, was being torn asunder by both monsters and as collateral in Old Mother Hecate's attacks.
"Obit!" Old Mother Hecate's magically enhanced voice suddenly cut through the screams of those dying and roars of those killing. He turned and saw her hovering only feet above him. She had aged horribly, the last of her white hair gently drifting away from her scalp as she spoke, her eyes so sunken as impossible to make out, even in the strange day of her artificial suns.
He noticed she was holding her plain copper single-bladed sword. He had seen her effortlessly wield it in the fight against the wolf monster. Her easy victory that day seemed so long ago to him.
She let the blade slip from her hand, and it fell tip first, biting deep into the frozen earth.
"Take the sword, find Refenial, tell him..." she paused, unleashing another blinding bright wave of destruction upon the monsters. "Tell him that you both need to go to the ruins now. He'll understand what it means. I will watch from above and protect you as you go."
Obit's face scrunched up as he considered what she was saying. "No! I won't leave my family behind."
"There's no time. I'll protect them. I'll protect everyone here, but you need to hurry."
Obit nodded in determination as the old lady flew away. He reached forwards and grabbed the sword. Looking down at it, he was surprised to notice that it hadn't just buried itself into the earth. It had cut a stone the size of his foot in half before even reaching the earth.
He pulled the sword free.
[Rank up!]
[Rank up!]
[Rank up!]
[Rank up!]
[Rank up!]
[Rank up!]
[Rank up!]
The systemic messages flashed across his eyes, distracting him momentarily as he looked around the carnage for Refenial. His eyes lingered momentarily on the faces of the first few dead around him.
He didn't have time to work out what to do with the system. He needed to find Refenial.
He noticed the older boy a moment later. Refenial had a cleaver he'd acquired from somewhere and was cutting wide arcs desperately through the air as a Badger monster that was slightly bigger than him advanced menacingly.
Obit could see That refenial was struggling to keep the monster at bay, and, without a second thought, he charged forwards screaming at the badger. The badger noticed a moment too late and raised its arm to block.
Obit expected to meet resistance as his sword met the arm, but instead, it cut through the arm as smoothly as if there was nothing there but empty air. The blade carried on downward, cutting through the monster, almost bifurcating the creature. Only the back of the beast being out of reach of the sword saved it from falling to the ground cut in half.
Even still, the damage was more than enough to instantly kill it.
Refenial stared wide-eyed at Obit with shock, and Obit stared wide-eyed at the sword with shock. "How, how?" Refenial asked him, too astonished to articulate his question further.
Obit remembered what he'd promised the Old Mother and shook his head to clear the confusion. "Old Mother Hecate has a plan. She said we need to go to the ruins quickly."
Refenial looked confused. "How will that help?"
"I don't know, but she said she can keep my family safe if we do!"
Refenial nodded. "Let's go."
[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]
As the boys began to run towards one of the holes in the wall, magical attacks streaked down ahead and around them, obliterating monsters faster than they could appear. The screaming whistle as the spells flew through the air and the bright lights they gave off drowned out the world, leaving Obit unable to see how the villagers were doing in their desperate fight. A wave of destruction from above destroyed the last remaining monsters near the hole and several of the beasts that were pursuing them from behind.
"Thank you, Old Mother Hecate!" Obit screamed as he ran, but the noise was lost in the chaos of battle.
The pair ran and ran, Refenial leading the way through the forest. They ran til their lungs burned and their feet ached. At last, they made it to a spot with two strange red stones.
"We're... here..." Refenial said, panting. He grabbed Obit's arm and pulled him between the stones.
Obit looked around in amazement as he found himself no longer in the forest but a substantial round clearing, full of old stones and vines. The sky was still alight from the orbs created by the Old Mother but dimmer now they were away from the village and the directly lit forest. The spheres winked out of existence without warning, plunging them into sudden darkness.
"Old Mother Hecate," Obit said, worried that something had happened to her.
Then a light flared into the sky. It was lighter than even the sunniest day. Obit instinctively closed his eyes, covering them with his hands, but even then, the light was so bright it stung. After several moments the light faded back to a more manageable darkness.
He opened his eyes, blinking at the fading strange blobby shapes the bright light had left behind.
[Name updated: Obit Crowchild]
Obit read the system message confused. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he had a chance to do so, the forest shuddered and shook under the assault of a wave of annihilating force. The trees were stripped of their leaves and branches before their whole trunks were launched skyward in a terrible second. Despite this, not even a single vine twitched within the clearing, and no sound from outside competed with the silence of the clearing and the soft sound of his breathing.
In a moment, the wave of destruction passed, leaving a ruined forest in its wake.
The sky burned a fiery red as an ominous cloud floated in the distance above where he knew the village was. It reached high into the sky and then expanded outward suddenly into a bulbous top, reminding him of a mushroom.
[https://i.imgur.com/3vZaHAB.png]