Even as the words left the young man's mouth, especially as he had been the one to ask the question, the man realised that not only did he already know the answer but that he definitely didn't want to hear it spoken out loud.

"Jimmy from the Seventy-Second said that this beast is a hybrid between a guardian and primordial. Hence the weird lighting we saw earlier. Not only that, because of that weird symbol in the sky, its meant to be an elemental noble, maybe even a royal."

However, even though he wanted to stop, the man found it impossible to control his mouth, the sensation of dread seemingly reduced as long as he was talking.

"I know you were a legend for always getting out of the frying pan when you were in the army old man, but I am struggling to see how we can outrun something like that."

"It's just a matter of experience lad." The older man chuckled as he finished placing and activating his stone before collecting the next one and walking towards the young man. "Who said I have to outrun the beast? I just need to outrun you and, worst case, Bob. While you are a little weak, Bob has enough meat on his bones for me to get away."

"What are you muppets on about?" yelled Bob from the entrance in a friendly manner as he kept a careful watch on the surroundings and other lookouts. "Don't forget that I have a head start. If I see even a hint of this humanoid primordial beast, years or friendship or not, I'm going to cover you two in the best cooking sauces, light a cooking pot, and run as if my dad caught me sleeping with my new stepmother."

"Bastards," laughed the young man, his heart feeling slightly better due to the banter. "And you should really stop fantasising about your stepmother, it's so obvious it would make a pig sick. Your old man is just waiting for a good opportunity to marry you off to that spinster that has been hanging around."

"What can I say, like father, like son," chuckled Bob, crossing his arms in an attempt to appear dignified even though no one was watching him. "And that old bat can take a hike."

Still chuckling at the thought of Bob getting caught by his father or being forced into a marriage, the young man shook his head and refocused on the stone he had half attached to the wall.

However, he didn't maintain his focus for long.

"Old man? Don't be a dick and try and freak me out after I have finally started to feel a little better." After sensing that his friend had stopped behind him, and not walked on to place the next stone, the young man snorted and started to turn around expecting to be the butt of some sort of joke.

However, after setting eyes on the older man's horrified expression, staring into the darkness ahead of them as if he had seen the gates of hell and was about to get dragged through, the young man's blood ran cold.

Snapping his head to face the same direction, letting the stone that he had almost finished installing fall to the floor and crack, the young man drew the short sword and turned his body towards the darkness.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The cracked stone at his feet released flashes of light as its stored energy escaped and merged with the surrounding essence, painting the alley in a weird, spooky light.

Yet, no matter how he searched, the man couldn't see anything except a few boxes covered in shadow and the natural, but dimming, light at the end of the alley.

"You two OK in there?" shouted Bob, also believing that there was some prank going on behind him.

Silence reigned for a few more moments before the young man sighed and sheathed his sword. "We're fine, the old fool is just trying to put me in an early grave. I even ended up breaking a glow stone."

Sighing again, wondering how much of his salary would be deducted, the young man tried to reign in his temper.

The old man had always enjoyed playing pranks on him, generally at the worst possible times and so, even though he was extremely nervous at the moment, he couldn't help but chuckle at how he had fallen for yet another one of his tricks.

Turning his head towards his friend, the same look of horror still etched on the old man's face, the young man couldn't help but frown. "Come on old man, you have already tricked me once, get back to work before the boss catches you slacking and we all end up on shit detail."

Having enough of the old man antics, the man slapped him on the back in a friendly, if a little heavy, manner and intended to continue his rebuke when his mind screeched to a halt and his heart violently constricted.

The friendly tap, which would have been hard enough to stagger the man a few steps at most, had caused the man's body to fall forward just as intended. However, unexpectedly, and in a way that the young man's mind couldn't fathom at this moment, the older man's head had rolled backwards and slowly separated from his body, which had suddenly become drenched in a crimson-red liquid.

With a loud thud, the body of the older man hit the floor, quickly followed by the lighter noise of his head.

The impact caused the head to bounce slightly and roll to the side, the look of terror still evident on its features.

The young man wanted to scream but suddenly found he couldn't as a nerve-wrenching hiss, like that of a snake, caused his head to stiffly turn back in the direction of the dark patch between the opposite street and himself.

Two glowing, light blue spheres, seemingly swaying in time to a heavy, yet soundless beat slowly approached the man.

What only could be described as tiny flashes of lightning constantly flickered across the blue irises while the pitch black, void-like pupils seemed to suck in any surrounding light making the entire scene seem so surreal, the man's subconscious started to believe it was dreaming.

While he felt an intense, life-threatening sense of danger crawling across his skin, the young man couldn't look away from the seemingly floating, blue spheres and had even stopped attempting to alert his comrade as he stared slackjawed.

The heavy beat, which felt like a drum on his soul, caused his dimming vision to waver, yet he didn't notice any of this as he continued to focus on the haunting, yet enchanting eyes, that seemed to be gazing deeply into his soul.

After a few more moments, the man was finally able to look away, a small portion of his mind snapping back to reality as his body started to fall forward.

With a muffled smack, the man's body slammed into the floor, sending the large shard of glass, that had pierced his throat earlier, just after he had replied to Bob, out the other side of his neck.

"Come on old man, don't scare the kid at a time like this." chuckled Bob as he scanned his surroundings, unaware that his companions had already been killed.

After a few moments of silence, Bob started to frown as he sensed something was not right and began to turn, fully expecting that his friends were ready to jump out on him.