Meanwhile, at a few meters from Camille and Josh, there were the other knights, Julius, Brothers Flint, Gabriel, and Fred, who are walking around some abandoned houses and looking around them. While they were walking on the streets of this village, Fred asked Gabriel.
"Should we burn it?"
"No," replied Gabriel to his stupid request.
"Come on!"
"No."
"One little house, please."
"No! Forget it! We do not want to be spotted, Fred."
"Ugh! You are so boring sometimes," says Fred being upset about the fact that he is not allowed to burn the houses from this abandoned village.
The other knights have started to question why do they Fiona wanted to bring Fred in this mission, but it is a good thing though, he did some good things while he was with them. He destroyed some enemies, interrogated enemy knights and got some great answers and also he knows the Turkish language.
After a while, those five knights have stopped in front of an abandoned Tavern and they decide to enter there and investigate, maybe they will find someone there. But today was not their luck because when they have entered the building all they saw there were spiderwebs, dust, tables and chairs that can break anytime, and also a humanoid skeleton who is laying on a table and has a fancy hat on his head.
They look around the room where customers are coming to drink and have a great time, and after that, Julius decides to form teams for investigating this place. Fred and Gabriel are searching the first floor of this building, Louis and Lucian are checking the first floor, and Julius is checking the basement. After that, all five of them are going to search their designated areas, but armed with their weapons, just to be sure nothing will do a surprise attack while they will search.
---
Meanwhile, Josh and Camille left the next house they have investigated and they found there nothing, just the things they have found in the first house they investigated, junks, skeleton corpses, dust, and spiderwebs. These two are walking on the street and finding a random house which they will search up.
"How old are you?" suddenly asks Camille while both of them are walking on the streets in finding a random house that will be changed by them.
"I'm seventeen," replied Josh which made Camille being surprised at this answer. "Why did you ask though?"
"I was just curious."
"Then. What is your age?"
"Somewhere close to your age."
"Huh?"
"A woman should reveal her age to a man."
"Why not?"
"It's generally considered rude."
"How is considered rude asking a woman her age?"
"Never mind. Let's just enter this one." she says stopping in front of an abandoned house like the rest of them which have the same spiderwebs, clouds of dust, and also skeleton corpses on the entrance of this house.
"What is with all of these skeletons anyway?"
"Probably just some decomposed bodies of the villagers. I hope there ain't a curse or something for the people who are entering this village."
"I also hope too." says Josh who is going to the door and he is opening gently because this door has almost collapsed and it is heavy.
When these two have entered the house, they found inside of the house a big amount of dead animals, from rabbits to bears, which looks like that pile it is not quite old because they still have their meat, fur and also, their wounds are not old, that what was Camille said to Josh. Josh heard something, a whisper which was coming at his left ear, he takes a quick turn and he realizes that outside the house, there is a man who is wearing black clothes and have a crossbow, ready to penetrate one of them. Camille also observed the man and right before she was about to ask him something, the man has instantly shot an arrow which was coming to between them.
The arrow did not hit any of them, just a bear who was about to rise from that pile of dead animals and try to attack Camille and Josh. They were quite shocked at the thing what was happening, and the man, enters the house he is probably owing and he is looking angry at Josh and Camille.
"You two are here to take me into the Jail?"
"What?" asks Camille having no idea what does this stranger it is talking about.
"Are you from Turkish Royal Army?" asks the mysterious person again aiming with his crossbow at Camille's face.
"We are here to see what is happening and also, we did not want to remain here, we are just on our way to the Capital."
"Way to the Capital? For what?"
"W-We are bounty hunters and we wanted to live there because in Kingdom of Romania bounty hunting it is illegal." lies Josh to that mysterious person because he cannot tell him the truth.
"Bounty hunting, eh?" asks the person who is looking at Josh, and then he puts down the crossbow. "You two have to leave this place as fast as possible. This place is haunted by a ghost who is manipulating corpses and he is using them to create puppets. The only thing who can stop him it is having houses marked with any kind of animal blood."
"So that is why you got these corpses?"
"Yes. I need blood to mark all of these twenty-three houses before the night will come and destroy everything. You should leave this place quickly, the exit is at a few meters of you straight on the street and you will leave this village."
"I understand. Also, have you seen the other five warriors when you have come into this village?"
"Five warriors? Like you two? No. I haven't seen it. But you have to take them quick before the night comes."
"Are you the only habitat of this haunted village?"
"Of course. All of my prophets and also priests have died in different reasons, but these reasons have the same motives, they have contacted the outside."
"What do you-"
"It doesn't matter. You tow and your companions should leave immediately this place!" says the man who is guiding those two persons outside from the house this hunter is storing those dead animals to make the ritual to stop that creature taking his life and also making sure that the village will not be destroyed.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Camille and Josh are running around to search those five warriors which are now in a Tavern. Josh and Camille do not know where the other five are, but they will not give up, they have to find them to leave this place and fighting against the Turkish Emperor.
---
Meanwhile, on the Abandoned tavern, those five warriors are continuing their searching around this Tavern. On the first floor, Gabriel and Fred have just found some manuscripts, old ripped clothes and a few destroyed materials which is they were not destroyed, they can value a lot by selling them to someone. The ground floor, Brothers Flint have not found out anything great, just dust, junk and a few bones which resemble animals ones. And in the basement, Julius has found something, which is quite terrifying. He saw on the floor of the basement a deer, which is now having a weird and also gross shape of her body, all of the interior organs are now exterior and also, her legs and the eyes are completely gone. Julius takes some courage and decides to touch that dead animal, but when he saw touched something grabbed his shoulder, he takes a turn back he breathes a sigh of relief, the person who has touched Julius's shoulder it is Lucian.
"What is this thing?" asks Lucian to Julius.
"I don't know." says Julius after he takes a short break to think, but it will be better to run from this place."
And quickly, Julius and his fellow teammates are leaving the Tavern and they are running to the exit, and nobody was even worried about Josh and Camille, which we're looking around the whole village, just to find them and to tell them that they have to leave this place, as fast as possible.
***
Meanwhile, on the east side of the village, Camille and Josh are continuing to search for their teammates, while not knowing that they are already on their way to the exit of this dammed and abandoned village which is possessed by a ghost who wanted blood. These two have passed by many houses, and many destroyed ones, but they did not see or hear about their teammates while they were searching together.
"Where the hell they could be?" asks Josh while and Camille are starting to run around to find their teammates because the night is about to come and it has started to snow because close to Winter which is about to come.
"I don't know! But we have to find a way to search for them." says Camille after she and Josh have taken a right turn. "this village it is not that big where the hell they could be?!"
Then, in a few mere seconds later, a big and loud crash has happened. Josh and Camille are stopping for a moment and they are running in that direction while they are preparing their weapons. Camille is preparing her sword she has used to fight in that operation and Josh is also preparing his spear who can transform into a sword. Josh thinks that a spear might be useful in a situation they will encounter.
---
Meanwhile, on the Tavern, these five warriors heard that loud crash too and they are running from there because the crash was not happening at the Tavern, but most likely outside the village. Brothers Flint are preparing their weapons, Julius he is also preparing a big sphere which contains gravitational magic, Fred is burning his entire hands and Gabriel is running together with his teammates in the direction where the crash has been heard.
While they were running, the crash has started to hear again, but also some others scream, but no screams of terror, more like the ones you heard on a battlefield. And when those five knights are running into that direction, Camille saw them and she runs to them, and also Josh follows Camille.
"Hey! Did you provoke that crash?" asks Camille while she is running at the same peace with other knights, and also looking at Fred because he may be the one who caused that crash.
"No I didn't." says Fred to Camille. "But I wanted to."
"Then who caused?" asked Camille again.
"Whoever caused must be someone who has started a battlefield." responds Julius.
All of these seven knights, they arrive later in the area where those noises are heard, but to their surprise, there was only a battle, but not one of the Kingdoms, but the skeletons. There are dozens of skeletons fighting each other using normal swords, shields to defend themselves from arrows which are launching by other skeletons, or even the limbs of some of his comrades. One of them even took a femur from his fallen comrade to break the head of an enemy skeleton and stole from him the head which he is throwing to one of the enemy archers, but he misses, and eight archers are soothing him until all of his bones are laying into the ground in different places and being broke which enemy and his allies are stepping o them because they wear some hard steel boots.
Those five knights are looking at that battlefield skeletons without saying a word and feeling kinda weird because nobody from there has any idea what do they are doing.
"Can we... Go there?" asks Fred the other knights like a cat who wanted food from the one who has taken her from the shelter.
"No." says Camille and Gabriel.
"So. You seven have discovered the secret." says the unknown person who is coming at them while he is having on his back the crossbow he has used to save Camille and Josh from that bear.
Everyone is turning around and they got surprised by seeing an unknown man who is living in this village who could fall anytime soon, but Camille with Josh was not that surprised because they have encountered him earlier.
"What do you mean by secret?" asks Gabriel the unknown person.
"A few years ago. A plague has been infiltrating in this city. A deadly plague who has killed anyone, but in my case, the plague has not killed me. This plague affects while you are or smelling inhaling, but as you can see..." the unknown person takes out the hoodie he was using to cover his face and he shows to those seven survivors that he doesn't have a nose which he can use to smell or inhale the plague, and they also saw that the person is having some scars on his white and completely bald face.
"But, this plague does not affect us, right?" asks Josh who is starting to feel nervous.
"No. This plague is happening only night and whoever is coming here and he inhales that gas he is travelling around the village, he will die immediately. That's why you seven have to leave this village immediately."
These seven knights did not even question anything, they just said their goodbyes and leaves immediately because this is not the first time when they have encountered some plagues or curse who can destroy lives. After all, they are living a medieval fantasy world with human-animals, dark magic, huge monsters who are living among them. These seven warriors are running to the exit of the village, while that bald was looking at them and he waves at them, but Fred was the only one who waves back because the others were occupying to run away.
---
In a few minutes, these knights have left the village and they are walking straight to the City where the Empire is located. While they were walking, Lucian asks his brother.
"Could we fight the plague by using healing powers?"
"The plague could be inhaled, brother. Even if we were holding our breath or nose, we could inhale the plague. And also, we didn't have masks at us." respond Louis to his big brother and massive brother.
"I see. But why do these skeletons are fighting though?"
"They were most likely possessed." says Camille. "A few minutes earlier we have encountered the mysterious man, and he told us that this village is possessed by ghost and spirit, but most ghosts."
"What is even the difference between them?" asks Lucian.
"One is possessing the others and other just walks around and he is annoying." says Fred. "I had several of them while I work on that pirate ship."
"I see." says Lucian. "Hey, can you do some heat? It is cold here."
"Do I look like a campfire to you?" asks Fred feeling annoyed by that somehow racist question. "Just because I am a human-fire does not mean I can become a torch."
"He can but he will not do it for free!" says Gabriel to Lucian.
"Gabriel!" yelled Fred at his comrade. "I was close to getting their money."
"I would rather go into a Tavern and sleep there instead of walking with you while you are lighting yourself and charging us gold."
"Yeah, well where are you going to find a Tavern?"
"There is one there." says Josh pointing at a Tavern who is at a few meters from them and also it looks like it is opened for them to stay one night.
"You lucky bastards." says Fred to them.
These six warriors, and also Josh are going to the Tavern to book a room for tonight. Right now, they have ten kilometres until they will arrive at the Empire City. They are walking across the path which is leading to the Tavern, while Fred is upset that he didn't get any gold coins from them to light up.
Camille is knocking on the door and the owner of this Tavern, which is a fine lady he is asking all of them with her smile on the face.
"New travellers. How can I help you?"
"We want to take seven rooms, if they are available, of course." says Camille.
"Oh, I'm sorry." says the owner of this Tavern. "We have six rooms who are available."
"Well... I could share a room with my brother if it is alright?" asks Lucian looking at his little brother which is looking at his request and then he is looking at Camille.
"We will take it." says Camille to the owner.
"Fantastic." says the owner who is inviting those warriors, they let them enter and she is closing the door after them.
The rooms they are taking are located on the second floor of this building. Fred took the room one, Gabriel took the room two, Camille takes the room three, Josh is taking the room four, Julius is taking room five, and Brothers Flint is taking the sixth room which is the last one. After they have finished the registration and paid twenty gold coins to take the rooms, they put their things there and a few of them are going on the seating areas to eat something nutritious because they have been into a long journey and they haven't eaten much since they have left the village area, and I mean the first one not the abandoned one.