The Stag Lord stood at almost the full height of the great hall, its tangled and messy fur appeared completely black in the darkened room despite the daylight outside and the eyes on all three of its heads glowed in a sickly green hue. The wooden floor under it rotted and decayed in seconds once its hooves touched it, and the air around the beast rippled with noxious fumes that reeked like a rotting carcass. Yet, despite all the grime and filth the beast of decay spread in its wake, it appeared proud and stood strong like a buck showing its dominance to a lesser one.
The freezing air flooding in from the forcibly opened door caused the beast’s foul breath to steam and filled the floor with a thick layer of mist.
After being thrown at a wall, Anastacia was in no condition to practice necromancy, or do much else beyond trying to stay awake. Teal noticed the adventurer’s powers waning and accepted that the wellbeing of everyone in the lodge rested on him, which suited his role as the inquisitorial sentinel just fine.
Though obviously a considerable threat to almost anything and anyone by himself, the main purpose of the sentinel of the new inquisition was to provide a rallying point, a safe haven for his allies or a line that cannot be crossed, no matter the foe crashing against it.
The first obvious problem he faced was that the Stag Lord gave no appreciable response whatsoever to necromancy, though this was easily mended as the inquisitor’s swords swiftly returned to their owner’s side. He grasped one in his hand and pointed it at his opponent while the other five blades emulated its movements in the air around him.
“Before you stands the sentinel of the inquisition, this is the edge of your world, for there is no passing.” He stated calmly and rested the tip of his sword on the floor. “So begone, beast! Falling off the edge is no pleasant experience.”
Lady Helia took a step back but continued watching with great interest and lighting the room with her lantern.
The Stag Lord fell quiet for a few seconds before taking a single small step towards Teal, for which it was immediately punished for, as the inquisitor swiped the air with his sword, making the other five repeat the move, but with a far better reach.
The swords cut into the beast’s leg one after another, and when the final one made its way through the bone, the entire leg was cleaved off and the Stag Lord fell on its side, screaming and whining with all three of its heads in the process. This didn’t last all too long though, as the next three swipes carved each of them clean off.
As the massive corpse of the Stag lord twitched a few more times, the mucky brown blood pooled under the mist on the floor and spread all the way to Teal’s feet.
“Well that was disappointing.” He frowned and swung his sword a few times to get the blood off the others.
“Adequately fought, Teal. Perhaps you should become my bodyguard?” The Ouan asked, sounding a bit less impressed than what the inquisitor would have liked and clapped her hands a couple of times in some very modest celebration over the easy-looking triumph.
Suddenly the severed heads of the Stag Lord began screaming and growling as they gasped for air. The bone in their spines grew together once more and the arteries attached to each other again. The rotten neck muscles twitched and were quickly sown together by the strands of flesh and tendons that reached over from the bleeding neck stump.
In only a few moments, all the damage done by Teal had been reversed and the Stag Lord stood tall in front of him once more, corrupting the reality around itself.
“Ah… So it’s like that, is it?” Teal chuckled and prepared his weapons.
“Perhaps Teal missed the vital parts?” Lady Helia suggested. “Could it be sufficient to destroy its brains?”
The beast may have realized that it wasn’t being taken seriously and tried to swipe at the necromancer with the massive antlers on its left head. The inquisitor moved two of his swords to intercept the attack, but instead of his weapons acting as a solid wall as they usually did, the beast came at him with such force that he wasn’t able to keep them completely still. Even though it was only a couple of centimeters, a hasty swipe from the side giving him that much trouble was not a good sign and if the Stag Lord ever decided to just charge at him with all its might, Teal wasn’t sure he would be able to stop it.
With the two of his swords locked with the beast’s horns, Teal used a third one to stab directly through its unexpectedly soft cranium. The gigantic deer reared back in pain and the left head fell limp to the side, but as the beast trashed around, it slowly regained its strength and proved that whatever rotten remnants of brains the Stag Lord had weren’t worth attacking.
“Okay… This might become messy.” Teal sighed and kept slashing at the massive creature to keep it at bay while instructing his allies. “Lady Helia, can you check on Anastacia and see if she knows how to get rid of this thing? I can’t exactly keep dicing it all day long – and If she’s out cold, move her out of the way.”
Lady Helia wasted no time and hopped over the table to kneel next to the adventurer. “Could it be that the human adventurer Anastacia has hurt herself?” She asked and helped Anastacia stay upright against the wall.
“Nooooo… I’m fine. Just dizzy and not feeling great.” Anastacia mumbled and blinked constantly, trying to fix the blurriness of her vision.
“Perhaps human adventurer Anastacia has a concussion? Might it be possibly to remedy this?” The Ouan kept inquiring, as her knowledge of human injuries was less than extensive.
The adventurer tried to stand up on her own but failed miserably several times before Lady Helia made her sit back down. Mumbling incoherently, Anastacia grabbed one of her spears, aimed it at the large moving shape she could see at the other side of the room, and tossed it with all she had at the moment – which was nowhere near enough, as the spear plonked down on the floor only a couple of meters away.
“Did I hit it?” She asked and fell back onto the floor.
“It appears human adventurer Anastacia is thoroughly indisposed, but perhaps you know of a way to defeat this malignant creature of dark?” Lady Helia said and glanced at the inquisitor, who was still holding his ground but obviously unable to cause any lasting damage against his massive foe.
Anastacia groaned and tried to remember how the hunters had gotten rid of the first beast in Stel’s story, while Lady Helia dragged her from her foot across the mist into the cover of the corridor leading to the kitchen.
Meanwhile Teal was having an increasingly bad time fighting the Stag Lord. Clashing against the unbreakable antlers, his swords were starting to lose their edge and the beast was learning to occupy more of them by locking antlers with them before attacking with another head. Each time he cut off a piece or incapacitated the beast to catch his breath, his opponent seemed to grow in strength as well.
“You are the inquisitorial sentinel, it is upon your shoulders that the full might of the inquisition will be built, for they do not falter. Waves will wear down the rocks on a shore, ice will split a cracked stone, wind will keel the mightiest of trees, but your enemies will achieve no such feat. Stand your ground, Teal, always stand your ground.” He repeated the words Coquelicot had whispered to him as the new inquisitors received their dedicated roles based on their gifts, a few days after the defeat of Amaranth. While it did help him keep his head cool and to a degree restored his strength, it didn’t change the fact that he was fighting a losing battle.
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Anastacia tried to picture the first carving in her head to jog her memory. All she could remember was that all three of the hunters were there to fight it. “I think the hunters hit it in the throats? One each or something, and with bows.” She tried to explain what she knew.
“The throats have been cut several times over. Perhaps the secret lies in the number of fighters?” Lady Helia reasoned. “But where are we to find a third capable warrior?”
“Just give me like a couple more minutes, okay? I can wait here while you get Lumira, so Teal, Her and I can try killing it.” The adventurer said.
The Ouan seemed confused. “What is the human adventurer Anastacia saying? We fully intend to join the fray, for what good is a shield without a sword?” She said and commandeered the enchanted knife from Anastacia’s belt without feeling the need to ask whether she could or not. “We do not place much trust on the dark elf vice commander Lumira, so while human adventurer Anastacia gathers her strength, we will be relieving Teal from some of his burden.”
Before Anastacia had the chance to respond, Lady Helia left the corridor and calmly walked over to the inquisitor, who was currently wrestling against two of the three heads only barely holding off the third with a single sword.
“Our guardian, how fare you?” She asked without flinching even though the Stag Lord lurched towards her immediately.
“I will hold for as long as I need to. Did the twerp know anything useful?” Teal grunted and used the sword he held to stab the middlemost head in the eye to get a moment of rest from it. Breathing heavily and dripping with sweat, he readjusted his stance and positioned his swords in a more advantageous way.
“Perhaps, there might be a way to fell this wretched beast of darkness by combining the forces of three warriors. Human adventurer Anastacia assured that her prowess will return in mere moments, so it falls on us to buy that time.” The Ouan explained, twirled the knife in her hand and handed over the lantern. “Would Teal be able to shine this on the vile beast for a while?”
Teal couldn’t be bothered to question Lady Helia’s intentions and held up the lantern with his free arm, which immediately angered the Stag Lord and made him its target once more. Soon enough the massive deer was once again locking antlers with the inquisitor’s swords, neither of them willing to back down even a bit.
Suddenly the Ouan effortlessly vaulted over Teal and landed on one of the Stag Lord’s heads. The beast reacted to this by rearing back once more, almost hitting its antlers to the ceiling. It trashed around and flailed its head wildly, trying to rid itself of the new pest on its back, but Lady Helia hung on to the tangled fur on its neck without too much trouble.
Once the beast had tired itself out for the moment, Lady Helia climbed back up to its head and let out a strange gurgling sound that appeared very out of character to Teal. He then watched with equal amounts of intrigue and horror as the Ouan vomited a considerable amount of faintly glowing green slime that let out a hissing sound as soon as it touched the Stag Lord’s skin, and began melting the flesh right down to the bone. The bubbling acidic mess seemed to at least slow down the Stag Lord’s regenerative abilities and excruciating pain it caused to the beast gave the inquisitor a much-needed break.
Lady Helia kept dangling from the stag’s fur and hopping between its heads while slashing and stabbing whatever she could reach. Though she didn’t know why, the liquid flooding from the cuts she made smelled sweet and had a slight alcoholic tang to it, instead of the rotten slop that had flooded the floor earlier.
All in all, the fight appeared to be under control once more. The Stag Lord’s movements were severely limited by its huge size compared to the hall’s, and it frequently slammed against the walls as it trashed and wailed miserably over all of its grievous wounds that were cut open once more as soon as they healed. Though the walls were made from trees far sturdier and larger than your average hut’s, they still shook and creaked under the beast’s weight.
All of a sudden, the Stag Lord’s footing in the slippery pool of foul blood gave out, and it made an unexpected stagger at the most unfortunate moment, as Lady Helia had just let go of the tuft of hair she had held on to and was thrown off balance by the slip. She tumbled down, slowing her fall by grabbling on to the fur again here and there, but couldn’t get a proper grip and ended up on her back in the gross muck.
The same sudden movement by the beast had snapped two of Teal’s swords that happened to be locked in its antlers at the time. Though their bone cores were hardened by the necromancer’s abilities, they couldn’t hold the entire weight of the Stag Lord and gave in before the antlers did. Being down to four swords, his defensive capabilities were severely limited and when Lady Helia didn’t immediately get up, he was forced to lift his feet for the first time in the course of the fight and abandon his usual way of fighting.
As the beast lifted its hoof with clear intentions of stomping on the fallen Ouan, Teal dashed to her aid and swung his swords at the giant deer’s foot, but his blades must have been dulled beyond use and at their limits, as two more broke against the sturdy legbones and the remaining one barely did enough to make the creature reconsider for a second.
With only one sword in the air and a second in his hand, there wasn’t much he could do besides stand menacingly between the Stag Lord and Lady Helia and hope that it was enough to deter the attacker long enough for the Ouan to get back on her feet. Breathing heavily and covered in blood splatters, he dragged the tip of his sword through the mist and drew a line in it, hoping that the ancient creature understood his meaning.
Strangely enough, this did halt the beast for a brief moment but eventually it called the inquisitor’s bluff and reared back once more, preparing to lunge at Teal. However, it never got the chance to do so, as in a blink of an eye, a terrifying surge of necromantic power washed over the area and the entire right half of the Stag Lord turned into a spray of viscera and gore, that painted the wall behind it murky brown, or at least the parts that hadn’t been blown off by the same projectile that liquified a good portion of its initial target.
As lumps of off meat dripped from the ceiling and the remainder of the accursed beast stumbled around in shock before falling over, Anastacia dragged herself out of the corridor and slowly sat down on one of the chairs that had survived the fight.
“Did I hit it?” She asked and tried her best to not vomit.
Teal hastily helped Lady Helia up and together they finished off their parts of the reenactment of the hunters’ story by cutting into what was left of the stag’s two other throats. This immediately collapsed the beast back into dust and snow, aside from the pair of antlers that belonged to its original incarnation.
Once the Ouan had more or less regained her strength and inspected the glaring hole in the thick lumber wall. “What manner of mage was human adventurer Anastacia again? We are not familiar with this technique.” She asked, completely unfazed by the barely avoided death.
Teal sat down to inspect and care for his remaining swords. The one he had held in his hand was still in fairly good shape, but the other one was more of a blunt weapon than anything else, as the edge had rolled and chipped in almost the entire length of the weapon. “Elemental, I believe. Mainly fire and ice.” He answered, too tired to come up with anything to cover up for the adventurer.
“Fire, ice and spears.” Anastacia nodded.
Lady Helia accepted the obvious lie and sat down to rest against Teal’s shoulder. Luckily, her careless tumble hadn’t done much harm besides a bit of a bruised shoulder. “We are pleased with your abilities as a guardian. Perhaps Teal should carry additional weaponry?” She said and closed her eyes to rest them a bit. Fighting without appropriate lighting caused a lot of strain to them.
“Six is the number I carry on me at all times, usually I have more, and one of the other inquisitors is tasked to drop more if I start to run out.” Teal explained while keeping an eye on the hall just in case.
Anastacia still wasn’t feeling terribly good and her head ached with a pulsating pain that increased from each movement she made. “Fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck fuck…” She muttered and cursed the maid, who no doubt had something to do with the monstrosity appearing moments after her own disappearance. “I think it’s safe to assume this wasn’t it. In the story, there are three more beasts and then the hag herself.”
“Don’t forget the murderer, we also need to deal with that.” Teal reminded her.
“Just shut up. We’ll do what we can, but I think the next step should be- AAAA!“ The adventurer started but her speech quickly turned into yelling as a fiery piercing pain spread across the side of her left thigh. It felt as if a red-hot branding iron had been pressed on her skin.
Teal and Lady Helia shot up and were about to rush to see what the problem was, but quickly found out for their own, as the burning pain appeared on their left arms as well.
The Ouan tore off her mead-soaked sleeve to reveal an already healed and scarred brand that closely resembled the symbols covering the carvings in the second floor. Teal rolled up his sleeve and saw that he had gained a similar mark. Once the pain had subsided, Anastacia had the presence of mind to keep her trousers on and just correctly assumed that she had a mark of her own.
Roughly ten centimeters wide and covering the entire area from Teal’s shoulder to his elbow, the mark emitted constant feeling of heat, not enough to hurt, but just enough that it was impossible to forget.
“The hunters have presented themselves!” A raspy voice of an old woman echoed from somewhere.
The greeting didn’t sound like it bounced off the walls of the great hall like a regular voice, but instead like it came from within the trio’s heads, echoing inside their skulls but yet like it had started from somewhere far away. It was impossible to tell if anyone else could have heard it if they were in the room.
“A seed of my being planted in your thoughts, sprouted and grown! Watered with blood and discord, it finally flowers! So, hunters, mighty warriors of mortals, have you prepared for my revenge?!” The voice inquired and cackled before fading away.