POV: Anastasia

I quickly woke up after having another nightmare.

"Are you ok Anastasia?"

On the other side of the room stood Elder Flora who was tiredly rubbing her eyes, most likely awake because of me.

"Sorry for waking you up Flora, it's just another nightmare."

She slowly got up sitting on the edge of the bed trying to stay awake.

"Was it about the attack?"

I stayed in silence thinking about how all of this had happened.

It was in the middle of the night when all of a sudden I heard the door of my house open with force.

With confusion, I got up and heard how the rest of my house was getting ransacked, which quickly made my guard rise.

With an alert mind, I went towards the chest in my room and took out an enchanted iron sword and some splash potions.

Suddenly, the door of my room was smashed open, and a man with gray skin looked eyes on me.

"There she is! Quickly kill her before she can escape."

Then he took out an iron axe and attacked me.

Out of reflex, I threw the potion that I had at him, which quickly broke.

"Ahh, my eyes, I can't see!"

The man quickly swung his axe trying to hit me, but I was already getting further away from him.

Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy my small victory as I heard other's steps quickly getting closer to me, so I drank the invisibility potion that I had.

The effects worked right on time as two more invaders entered my room.

"Where is she, what are you doing?"

"I don't know, she's in the room but threw a potion at me and now I can't see!"

Before they could give him a bucket of milk, I sneaked up behind and stabbed one of them with my sword.

Luckily neither of them had armor, so my sword went straight to the heart.

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to finish him off, but it was enough for him to be on the ground crying In pain.

"Careful, she's invisible!"

I tried to attack him as well, but he was better at combat them me, even though he couldn't see me, so instead I stabbed the man who was still blind.

This time I learned my lesson and aimed for the head killing him instantly.

"Nooo! I'm going to kill you!"

This seemed to be enough to make the man lose his cool and attack my sword which I quickly hid in my inventory, making him lose my location.

"Coward, where are you?"

I didn't answer, instead I walked to his side and punched him in the head.

My punch was powerful enough to send him to the floor, so I quickly took out my sword and finished the job.

Blood was rushing through my veins, as I felt the adrenaline working, but suddenly a grown of pain caught my attention.

It was the first man that I stabbed in the chest, I thought about leaving him here to die in agonizing pain, but in the end decided to kill him for good, since I didn't know if he had a potion of regeneration.

I looked closer at the attackers, and to my shock I recognized them.

They were Piligers.

But how could they get here? The mist was supposed to keep them afar.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay here to think how this happened as I heard screams outside my house, realizing that I wasn't the only one getting attacked, but the whole Clan!

I quickly went outside and saw more of my fellow witches getting chased by laughing Piligers.

Some of them were fighting back, others were captured as prisoners, and I didn't know what to do. I killed whoever I could, but that only put a dent in the attackers.

As I walked along the chaotic streets I finally found someone that could help me, it was Elder Brutus and a few others.

Unfortunately, they were surrounded by Piligers and one specifically that wore a robe instead of the usual warrior clothing.

Brutus knows how to fight, so if I manage to free him and give him a weapon he could turn the tables and boost the morals of the other witches.

I slowly got closer to the man in the robes, who I suspected was the leader, when all of a sudden something else caught my attention, or more exactly someone else.

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Elen was walking towards the group with an enchanted iron sword, making me wonder if he was going to try saving the Elders as well.

But instead, something else happened, when he got closer, no Piliger took a fighting stance, instead let the man pass through until he arrived at Brutus.

"Elder Brutus, the casualties among both parties are too high, I don't think the others were intimidated enough to surrender on sigh."

"That is indeed troubling, we want to catch them alive if possible, what about the Elders?"

"We managed to kill them all with the exception of Elder Flora and Elder Anastasia."

"Exactly the witches I wanted the most. How should we deal with this Mage Frogeye?"

How could this happen, did Elder Brutus and Ellen betray us?

But Ellen was rescued from the clutches of the Piligers by Brutus himself, he swore to kill every Piliger in his path. That's why he trained so hard.

But all of that was a ruse?

Was Ellen a spy for the Piligers, was Elder Brutus a spy!?

For how long was this going on?

"What's this gotta do with me? It's your plan that failed."

"Maybe my plan wouldn't have failed if your soldiers weren't so easy to kill."

The two of them stared at each other intensely for a few moments and then the mage took out a goat horn.

"Fine, I'll bring out the Ravager."

And then he blew into the horn, which made a loud sound that could be heard throughout the whole compound.

My blood froze once I heard that name.

Ever since I got the position of the Elders, I got a brief history lesson about our past with the Piligers and what they were capable of, and the Ravagers were one of the most powerful living weapons that helped them bring terror and fear through out the battlefield.

And as I expected, when the monster came, everyone could feel it in the air.

The tension, the fear, THE RAGE.

He came closer towards the mage held in a leash by four Piligers, and that was bearly doing anything.

But suddenly the beast looked at me like he could see through my invisibility potion.

"What's the beast looking at?"

The mage narrowed his eyes and scanned the area around me.

"I think he sees someone that Is supposed to be invisible. Let the beast go boys, let the beast Rage!"

As instructed the beast was let go, and it quickly started to run towards me at great speeds.

"Wait, why is it coming here?!"

What they didn't expect was the fact that I was hidden among the Piliger group which made more chaos for everyone involved.

Because of that, I could sneak away without getting squashed, but I can never forget those eyes filled with Rage looking through me.

"I have to find Flora, she's the only one left alive."

I quickly went towards her house, and it was in flames like the others which made my heart beat more wildly.

Was I too late?

Then beyond the sound of burning wood, I could hear metal clashing which gave me some hope.

I was still invisible so every Piliger that I killed had a face of confusion or surprise, not knowing how they died.

Soon I was at the place where the battle was in full swing, five Piligers were fighting Flora and her butler, and the man knew how to wield a sword, while Flora was using the shield blocking the incoming arrows and shooting back with her crossbow.

While it was impressive how well they fought with such a disadvantage in numbers, they were growing more tiered as the battle was dragging longer, it was only a matter of time before they would lose.

"For the last time, surrender and well-agh!"

One of the Piligers tried to speak to their opponent but was quickly killed by me.

Everyone froze in fear, so I took advantage of this opportunity to decapitate another Piliger.

This was enough to bring everyone back to reality and started to attack me.

"Careful, the enemy is invisible!"

But now the fight was fair in numbers, so soon we emerged victorious in this battle.

"Thank you warrior for saving our lives."

"Flora it's me, Anastasia!"

"Elder Anastasia? This is a good strategy to fight against those Piligers, do you know what happened?"

"I don't know exactly what happened, but I know that Elder Brutus is working with those Piligers!"

"He did what?! That madman and his obsession with our great past would be the downfall of our Clan! We have to get the survivors to the mines, it's the only chance to escape alive."

I nodded my head, but she couldn't see that, so I confirmed it out loud.

"We should split so we can cover more ground."

"That sounds good, also be careful since there's a Ravager as well."

This made her freeze for a moment but then continued to run and warn the other witches.

For me it wasn't that hard to run along the chaotic streets, stopping from time to time to kill Piligers.

The harder part was convincing the other witches that I was not a ghost and that they should go deep into the mines with the others.

In the end, I decided to just be a guiding ghost for them since it would be faster than convincing them that I'm actually their Elder.

Suddenly I heard the Ravager scream in pain, which made me curious about what happened.

I walked along the streets of the Clan one more time and saw nobody that I could warn anymore.

I need to get to safety as well.

Once I arrived at the entrance, I saw a lot of corpses on the ground, from Witches to Piligers.

But what truly shocked me, was the corpse of the Ravager, how did they manage to kill this beast?

I went inside the mine and saw Flora together with Sara and Walter ready to attack anyone that was getting anywhere close to the mine.

"Guys, it's me, Anastasia, there are no more witches in the Clan, we can retreat deeper into the mine."

My voice startled everyone but calmed down once they realized who I was.

"Ok, we should guide the others as well, the injured ones should stay in the middle, I'll lead everyone and Anastasia will break the torches behind us."

We all nodded our heads and put the plan into action.

-

I stayed in silence for a few minutes remembering that awful night.

I keep waking up in the middle of the night, hearing my door being broken down by a Raveger.

"Yes, it's the same dream again, the one with the Ravager."

"You don't have to worry about that, if we managed to kill it, with Trader here that killed the Zombie Lord, it would be a breeze."

But the Ravager was killed because your butler sacrificed himself.

I could only give a sigh, she was right after all.

We don't know too much about the Zombie Lord, only that he brought the Stone Nation to its knees, and we also don't know how Trader managed to kill that creature.

I was skeptical at first when I heard that, but once I saw his hidden base I'm starting to have second thoughts.

I'm still angry that he hid such treasure from the Clan!

If only a portion was shared with us, we would be much richer than before, we wouldn't need the other kingdoms so much.

But unfortunately, he was right, he didn't have to help us, he didn't need to keep us company and guard against any other threats that could be coming.

But he's still here, for better or worse.

He feels pity for us, mostly towards Froggy and Flora, which makes me feel disgusted.

We are proud witches who raised ourselves from the ground, we could do it once more.

I shook my head trying to shake those emotions off, we could do it for sure, but how many more lives would be lost, I'm also not taking into consideration the fact that he's willing to help us get revenge on those Piligers.

We are thankful for what he does, but I only have one complaint about him.

He's scary.

He has riches that would make any man mad, but he just shares it away like it's no big deal, he somehow managed to escape death from what Froggy was talking about, and he has knowledge from the ancient times.

A man like this doesn't work without a plan, so the question is.

What was his plan?