The staring contest continued. Neither of the two parties moved. It was an important opportunity for Mannat and the others to re-group.

“He’s strong,” Raesh said. “Can’t we wait till morning to catch him? He’ll be weaker by then, right?”

“He’ll be a wild animal by sunrise,” Mannat answered. “His miasma is crystallizing. We have to catch him right here and take him to the Witch as soon as we can. There is no other way.”

“Let’s follow the plan.” Khargosh pulled an arrow taut on the bowstring and took aim. “I hope you know what you are doing, boy. You will only get one shot to do your magic.”

“I know. Are you ready?”

“Throw the lantern,” Khargosh said, eyes burning with fervor.

Mannat flung the glowing lantern into eh workshop and took cover behind the shield, like everyone else.

The lantern light reflected in little butcher’s red eyes as it flew toward him in an arc. A low growl hung at his throat as light-filled into the workshop. He raised his claws and roared just as the bowstring twanged outside the room. A thin arrow snaked its way toward him and then BANG! The lantern exploded. Fire everywhere. Smoke rose with the temperature.

The arrow continued onward, past Little Butcher’s head while he shielded his eyes with his clawed hands and shrieked in annoyance.

Khargosh pulled another arrow from his quiver. This one had a wider head and serrated edges to penetrate, and anchor. It was heavier than the previous one and could penetrate plate armor. He aimed at Little Butcher’s feet while the boy was still distracted and let the arrow fly. The bowstring twanged for the second time and the arrow struck the target without surprise. It penetrated through little Butcher's left foot, the wooden plank beneath, and pinned him to the ground.

“GO!” Khargosh yelled. They took the initiative this time.

Shield high, Raesh set off with a cry. Hiding his head behind the shield, hunched back, he charged forward. The target was stuck, unable to move. There was no need to see. Multiple footsteps echoed in the room. Pandit followed right behind him with the sword in his hand.

Blinded by the explosive flash, Little Butcher was oblivious to their plan. He didn’t see them coming. Raesh bashed into him with the shield like a carriage rolling down a slope. The shield hummed at the impact and the monster wailed louder.

The arrow shaft broke and splintered. Little Butcher was blown back. He fell to the floor a good few feet away and rolled to a stop near the wall. His clawed hand tore through the wooden floor as he tried to stand up, only for another saw-edged arrow to penetrate his hand and nail him to the ground. His screech was cut off in the middle as Raesh bashed the shield right on his face for the second time.

His hand tore around the arrow when Raesh picked him up with the shield and pinned him to the wall. The monster boy fought back, but Raesh didn’t relent.

Little butcher swung his claws only for another arrow to pin one of his hands to the wall. Pandit came around with the broad sword to take a shot at his free arm. He gritted his teeth, held the sword with both hands, and swung it like a club at his brother without hesitation. Little Butcher tried to fend off the sword and screamed in agony as the sword followed the tear opened by the arrow shaft and sheared his arm in two. Torn in two, the arm flailed in the air like a boneless appendage. It wasn’t over yet. Pandit raised the sword over his head and struck again. His brother wailed and flailed as the sword sheared his arm at the elbow and lodged in the wall behind him, cutting through flesh and bone alike.

“Mannat!” Pandit turned around and called as pieces of his brother's arm fell to the floor behind him. This was what they had agreed on beforehand.

Mannat ran forward convinced he could save Little Butcher, heart thrumming, mana surging. He stopped beside Pandit and stretched his hands forward. Little butcher shrieked louder and struggled harder to escape. He couldn’t sense the mana surging inside Mannat but felt an inherent danger at his confidence.

Mannat, opposite him, sensed his desires, needs, and worries.

“We’ll save you,” Mannat announced to the monster who reacted in overblown anger. He put both his hands on little Butcher’s heart and closed his eyes to concentrate. This was the reason they had cut Little Butcher’s arm. So Mannat could work safely around him. It was a simple plan. They had tried just about everything. The only thing left to do was to attack him from the inside.

Mana surged through Mannat’s veins and flowed to his palm. He didn’t let it coalesce to form an invisible bullet but commanded it to flow into Little Butcher’s body. He had repeated the last step hundreds of times in the past with the vegetables. Little butcher’s muscles held no defense in front of his mana. His confidence grew bolder when his mana entered Little Butcher’s chest. The boy squirmed at the same time, but also grew quiet. Mannat sensed his miasma growing quieter around them. But it was the quiet before the storm.

Little Butcher’s pupils dilated when mana and miasma made contact. He started thrashing like fish out of water at the same time. He knew what Mannat was trying to do, and he absolutely loathed him for it. He screamed and tried to bite Mannat’s head off, pumped his chest against the shield, or kicked it. He didn’t remain idle while Mannat moved his mana inside his body to find the source of his miasma.

Raesh had a tough time keeping him pinned to the wall.

Pandit saw him struggling and went to help push, leaving Mannat alone to fend off his brother.

Mannat also had it tough. Since his Mana sense was stuck at level nine, he couldn’t sense the situation inside Little Butcher’s body. He could only feel the feedback of his mana and work his way around. If mana was a stream of cold water, then miasma was a red-hot piece of metal. The two caused explosions inside Little Butcher’s body whenever they met, but Mannat couldn’t say he was winning.

His mana was not strong enough to overpower the hatred burning inside little butcher’s veins. He was too far away from the source. The miasma was not crystallizing at his heart. He opened his eyes and looked up. Their eyes met. He saw madness in Little Butcher’s scarlet red pupils. The monster boy opened his mouth and bellowed. His hand came free on the other side.

Khargosh fired another arrow at his hand, but he couldn’t pin him down. Not this time. The arm swelled as miasma flowed into it. The arrow couldn’t pierce through his flesh.

His claws flashed and blood bloomed. A shriek rang. Pandit cried out loud as the claws tore into his shoulder. He was lucky to have survived. He fell away and the pressure behind the shield slackened by just a tiny bit. Little butcher didn’t miss the chance. He curled his legs. His arms shriveled as the miasma flowed out of his arms to the legs and filled them with power. He kicked the shield and both Raesh and Pandit were blown out of the room.

“BOY!” Khargosh yelled, firing another volley of arrows. One pierced Little butcher's chest, stopping him mid-way but only for a second. The wave of miasma flowed to his chest and pushed the arrow out. It also sealed the wound.

Mannat stopped breathing for a second. Little Butcher was coming for him. The monster stared at him; the gaping holes that were his nostrils flared. He sensed their fear.

“Run, Mannat!” The boy heard, but that was not what he wanted to do. He had no chance of getting away. Mana flowed to both of his palms. Their plan rested on him to act his part.

Little butcher lunged at him. Raesh was too far away t save him. Nobody could save him. Mannat focused. The world slowed to his eyes as his focus grew and he noticed everything that happened around him. He heard a bowstring twang, feet shuffle, a faint heartbeat, and the monster's growl. There was no chance to getaway.

Mannat could force back the monster with ‘Mana strike’ and save his life. It would be foolish, but he could do it. They wouldn’t lose the way to catch him though. Little Butcher would escape and become a real monster, continue growing, leveling up, and kill them all one day.

Mannat raised his hands, not to force Little butcher back, but to accept him.

He grabbed Little Butcher’s head and forced the mana gathering at his palms to flow into his skull. He felt confrontation, but couldn’t see how it went. He sensed Little Butcher growing desperate as his mana flowed into his head, but that was it. To stop him was beyond his control. His mana was far too weak and the channels of miasma he was against were far too broad.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

If only he could see the flow of mana inside Little Butcher. He was close. Why couldn’t he do it? He wanted to see. He needed to see! He pushed his mana inside the monster. He desired it with all of his being. He would die if he failed. Everyone would die. Everything he wanted to protect would then burn and turn into dark soot, a stain on the land.

“Let me see!” He yelled.

Then he saw it, not sense, but saw the streaks of mana inside Little Butcher’s body. If his mana was like rays of light, then Little Butcher’s miasma was like a shroud of pure darkness. At the center of the rapidly retreating, concentrating shroud was a speck of pure black no bigger than a grain of sand. It was the core of everything evil; it was the thing turning Little Butcher into a monster.

The shroud was not solid. It had gaps and he saw those gaps, pushed his mana into them, and forced his way toward the core of the center. Little butcher panicked at this moment. The two of them collided. Little Butcher tried to run away like a scared animal, but Mannat wrapped his legs around him and locked him in place. He was close to it.

A notification flashed telling him his mana sense had evolved into Mana vision. Mannat ignored it.

There was a huge difference in the quantities of their energies, yet his mana only needed to touch the solidifying core at the center and the shroud of darkness around disappeared instantly. Neither his control nor the force behind the mana was strong enough to even chip the miasma core, but that didn’t matter. They weren’t trying to cure Little Butcher, but to make him weak so they could take him to the clearing.

Little Butcher screamed. Mannat saw the redness governing his eyes retreat and disappear completely for a second before he closed his eyes and fell limp in his arms. The monster stopped moving and lost consciousness.

“Catch him,” Mannat could barely say. He was exhausted.

They tied Little butcher’s limbs with rope while Raesh brought Bhadur. Together they drove toward the clearing. People noticed them.

Sarpanch’s men followed them and they could do nothing about it. They couldn’t stop. Every second was important. They kept going despite knowing the Sarpanch wouldn’t miss the chance and send an angry mob after them.

Little butcher came awake on the way. His imminent family did the best they could to restrain him, but he was strong. It was but the beginning of their troubles. A storm was brewing behind them.

“Look!” Pandit pointed toward the village and they saw a sea of orange torches slowly burning their way toward them. Something was bound to happen that night.

They staggered and stumbled little Butcher out of the cart at the clearing.

“Where’s the Witch?” Raesh looked around. The tree was glowing and radiating the clearing in its warm light. The hut was closed shut. The Gardens were devoid of life. And the Witch was nowhere to be seen.

Little butcher struggled harder and it took all of them to restrain him.

“Do something, Mannat!” Gande cried.

Mannat frantically looked around before his eyes fell on Witch’s staff, solemnly standing in front of the glowing tree. Goosebumps erupted on his arms. They didn’t need the Witch. He could open the underground chamber and everything would be fine. He could do it now. His mana sense had evolved. The Witch had told him it would be the minimum requirement he’d have to meet to use the staff. Now he had met it. They would put Pandit’s brother to sleep with the roots and he’d be fine.

“To the tree,” Mannat said and ran forward without looking back. His eyes glowed with expectations and anticipation. He didn’t think about failure. He rushed out of the narrow pathway between the garden and ran toward the tree. He was halfway there when a shriek rang behind him. He sensed boundless miasma from Little Butcher. He turned around in time to see Little butcher kick his father, break the ropes and jump into the garden.

Khargosh and Gande tried to follow him into the garden and Mannat’s blood turned cold.

“DON’T GO IN THERE!” Mannat wailed out, heart pounding. He was running back without thinking about it. The Witch had warned him to stay out of the garden after sunset.

“Don’t go into the garden!” He yelled again, a hoarse cry.

Pandit knew something was wrong. Mannat had only once acted such in the past. That was the day his mother fell unconscious. He wasted not a second and rushed to stop his mother. His father helped, though the man looked confused.

“BOY!” Gande cried as Pandit and Khargosh pulled her away from the garden.

“What’s happening?” Raesh asked Mannat when he returned. “Is it something we should be worried about?”

“I don’t know. The Witch never told me anything about it.” Mannat said pushing past him. “She always warned me not to go into the garden at night, even set her raven to after me to deter such thoughts.”

He stood at the edge of the garden, just behind the iron fence. “He’s just standing there.” He said pointing deeper into the garden, near the pumpkins. A silhouette stood without moving. Gande frantically searched the garden and found Little butcher next, followed by her husband and son.

It wasn’t that Little Butcher didn’t move, but he couldn’t move. Roots bound his feet. They were rising up his leg, digging into his flesh, burning him. He was shaking.

Mannat gulped at the horrifying sight. His companions gasped. Gande stopped screaming. She was horrified.

The roots rose up and entered Little Butcher's orifices. He started shrieking, fighting the change. The roots swelled and pumped mana into him, causing his muscles to dehydrate and shrink. The roots picked him up from the ground and turned him around. They imprisoned him. The redness governing his eyes retreated and they returned to normal, along with his reasoning. He looked at everyone in a daze, saw his mother, and his eye filled with tears.

“Ma…” He barely uttered the words when glowing cracks of blue light erupted all over his body. At last, he screamed, and then his body grew limp. His flesh burned rapidly under the blue glow. Gande screamed his name, but he was gone by then. His body contracted until he was in the fetal position and then the roots started retreating underground. One by one, they dug out of his flesh and disappeared underground, leaving his stiff body lying in the garden.

Khargosh threw a looped rope and pulled him out of the garden.

Little butcher didn’t move again. Gande rushed to him, turned him around, and found two burnt holes in place of his eyes. He was gone. She hugged him despite his appearance, closed her eyes, and stopped moving. The truth had gnawed on her conscience for far too long. Khargosh and Pandit hugged her, but she felt nothing. They stayed together.

Mannat looked at his father, who was, in turn, staring at him. Both of their fists were clenched and hearts pounding. It would have been them on the ground, holding Noor’s cold body had the Witch not agreed to help them.

Mannat sensed people approaching the clearing. Mana sense no longer limited him; he could sense them and their moods, their desires and anger. He told his father and Raesh grew pensive. They didn’t tell the grieving family.

The people approached carrying torches, shouting curses, angry. Sarpanch walked at the front and looked extra enthusiastic.

“There are they!” Sarpanch pointed toward Mannat and the others. “They are the ones hiding the monster!”

The glowing tree surprised the people, but the familiar group of people surprised them more. Why was it them again? The people whispered and talked about things that the Sarpanch didn’t like.

“Silence!” Sarpanch shouted. He knew the people didn’t have the same confidence in him as they used to because of the boy and his friends. He gnashed his teeth and stepped forward. He might have failed last time because of his flawed execution, but it was true that the butcher's older boy was the monster. There would be no excuses this time. The boy was a monster that killed villagers. He would make sure they all hang for hiding him. There was only one problem. Mannat and Raesh stood between him and the proof.

“Give us the monster!”

“You are killers. You are not human!”

“Fiends!”

The Sarpanch’s goons cursed, while the crowd stood skeptical.

The villagers saw the situation deteriorating and distanced themselves from the Sarpanch and his goons, creating a boundary so no one would be able to escape. Parents pulled their kids away and women forced their men to get back.

“You don’t believe me?” The Sarpanch said. “Wait here and I’ll show you! I’ll bring out the monster and you’ll see that I’m right. We could have avoided this had you all listened to me in the first place and thrown them out of the village as I said!”

The Sarpanch turned toward his goons, that number in the twenties, and told them to go and bring him the monster. His man, who had seen everything at the butchery, had told him exactly what happened. His victory was sealed. His men should be able to deal with two people; one of whom was a kid.

His men hadn’t acted yet when Raesh rushed toward them with the shield. Grouped together in the narrow path between the gardens, there fell like dominos when he bashed into them. He didn’t hold back and took them out one by one. The Sarpanch’s goons were groaning on the ground five minutes later. Most had broken noses, but a few also had arrows stuck in their thighs. Khargosh had stood up to help when Raesh started to get pushed back.

In the end, the Sarpanch remained the only one standing, while his men crawled back to him groaning and jumping on one leg. The crowd snickered at his misery and the veins of his forehead ballooned up.

“Go back, you idiots!” The Sarpanch screamed, but the men didn’t listen to him. They ran away into the crowd.

“Cowards!” He called them. “I’m feeding cowards! Fine! I’ll do it myself.”

Raesh looked cross at him. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He said coldly.

“I will dirty my hands if it means curbing your evi—” The Sarpanch was saying when Raesh punched him in the chin. That was all it took. The man fell to the ground unconscious.

Raesh stared at the crowd that had gathered in the clearing. “Does anyone else want to block our way?”

The crowd grew quiet.

Raesh snickered loudly. He looked over his shoulder to his friend and family. “Let’s get out of here.”

Gande had stopped crying and was swaying with the corpse of her child in her arms.

He went to her and pulled one of her arms. “Let’s go,” He said but she didn’t move. He couldn’t lift her either; he had no strength in his legs. She was unresponsive. Her heart was empty as her mind.

Raesh kneeled beside her and picked little butcher from her lap. “No!” She cried and held his arm to stop him.

Raesh looked into her shivering big brown eyes and told her, “I’ll hold him for you,” and she let him go.

Khargosh and the two boys helped Gande to her feet. Raesh took the boy through the narrow road between the two gardens, while the others followed behind him. The tree quietly glowed behind them, as if everything that had happened had nothing to do with it.

The crowd saw the monster Raesh carried and gasped in unison. The men sighed. Women quieted down. A kid questioned her mother why the monster looked like a boy. Her mother told her, “Maybe, just as there is a monster in every person, there is also a person in every monster.”

Mannat heard her on the way through the crowd. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before. He searched for the woman, but couldn’t find her in the sea of people. The crowd parted and opened a way for them at the center. Some asked them questions, but they didn’t answer anyone.

Quietly, they climbed the cart. No-one stopped them. Bhadur greeted them with silence. Raesh and Mannat took the driver seat, and they drove away into the cold endless darkness that had fallen upon the road.