The next morning, the group decided to meet at the front of the gate.
The previous quest was marked as a success although Kihet couldn’t carve the materials he wanted. The weather recently got colder and most goods from the village were off limits for him.
“Kihet, you’re late! I thought you were too scared, crawled your lazy ass back to bed or somethin'. Even if you did sleep in, your eyes look rotten as always you know? Why can’t you be on time for once. Did you know how long we had to wait?”
Kihet clicked his tongue as his tired eyes scrolled onto the midget standing at the front of the group. He hated how his quiet morning was ruined by a mouthful friend.
Vol. If he weren’t complaining about something, he’d whine on the fault of others. Kihet’s eye slightly twitched because Vol didn’t help with the clean up of the barbeque he participated in.
“C’mon Kihet. Don’t be such a grumbling bug! Show some spirit!”
A slap on the back suddenly launched Kihet forward. He landed flat on the ground, facing the dirt.
“I admire your encouraging words, but that hurts.”
“You’re being too forceful.” Lemi scolded Draigh.
Lemi had long silvery white hair flowing down to her waist. Her pure expressions would make any man fall for her. With six [Ribbons] floating out of her back like wings, one would mistake her for an angel. Lemi and her family were healers of the village. Although skill wise, she had far surpassed her folks.
“Sorry, Kihet. Are you okay? I got too pumped up.” Draigh apologized.
“I want to go home.”
“Weren’t you the one who said it can’t be helped?”
“Why are you always picking on me like that, Sorah?”
“We all know if I don’t, you’ll just become a lazy hermit.”
“What if I wanted to be lazy? It’s more appealing than being here pushed around by you.”
As he took a glance up, Kihet saw Sorah raising her leg and position her heel over his back. Kihet quickly rolled away before being stepped on and jumped back on his feet. When he turned around, he sensed bloodlust directed at his back.
“Hey,” A visible vein was popping from her forehead. The corners of her mouth twitched upward. “About those treats-.”
-Crap. I forgot I haven’t received them yet.
Kihet knew his only supply of sweets came from her goodwill and if she changed her mind, he wouldn’t be able to eat sweets until next time she felt like baking them. “I-I’ll go. I’m here after all.”
“Good.”
-How can you put a smile on your face when you’re punishing someone like that?
“If you lots are finished chatting, let’s go.” Elius waited impatiently. Behind him, the twins held up a bundle of grass, feeding the Felk. “Scout first, tank second, the rest keep an eye the perimeter.” He reminded. “Kihet, you’re on carriage duty this time.”
“On it.”
Kihet thought it wasn’t all that bad. He didn’t have to walk.
They moved through the forest while the others patrolled around the cart, keeping a sharp eye around their surroundings.
If they were to scout the entire forest for their mysterious monsters it would take days. Thankfully, they were given a lead. Credit was due from the village’s spotter who provided the last known location of these monsters. They followed the tracks of havoc the creatures made through the woods.
Through the environmental damages it caused, the culprit was determined to be large foes. Trees were pushed aside at weird angles and their footprints were as big and wide as a cart.
“Hm…? I smell something like, blood?” Lemi pointed to the direction of where the scent drifted from behind covers of fallen trees and large bushes.
“I’ll go check it out.”
“Driagh wait. Have Sorah and Kihet go with you as well. We can’t bring the cart there, and no one should go alone other than Vol, but he’s gone too far ahead.” Elius said. “The rest of us will continue to follow the tracks. Kihet should be able to find us later.”
-He’s pushing the job on me? Then again, I am a better choice for a frontal confrontation if we do run into an enemy. Vol had already left and was scouting ahead for the party.
Kihet obediently passed the reins into Elius’ hands, following Draigh and Sorah. Walking into the thicket of bushes, a chill ran down his spine, goosebumps quickly form all over his arms. Kihet knew wasn’t the cold since he overdressed for the weather, but it was worrying.
Kihet tapped Draigh on the shoulder.
“Let me lead.”
“Huh? You sure?”
“Yeah. It’s a bit hard for you to swing your shield around in these tight spaces. I could at least block an attack if something suddenly ambushes me then you can charge in.”
“Alright. I’ll watch your back. Sorah?”
Sorah gave a nod and readied her bow. The floating quivers carried by her [Ribbons] followed her tightly.
As they closed towards their location, Kihet noticed the air drastically changed. It was murky and strangely humid. After they broke through the last screen of leaves, they saw the land dumped with corpses of humanoid beasts.
“Beastmen?”
The bodies were warriors of Pamalyra, Beastmen. The animal humanoids consist of two major races; Lycanthropes and Mixrels. Werewolves and Werecats respectively.
Before them, crushed bodies and entrails scattered across the plowed area. The innards of Pamalyrians were being scavenged by wild animals taken an interest for this all you can devour buffet. Judging how big the craters in the area were, the mysterious monsters they were tracking were more dangerous than any of them thought.
-Breath through your nose, Kihet. You’ll get used to this.
Then of all things, a familiar scent tickled his nose.
“What happened here? Are those Beastmen bodies?” Driagh asked.
“I don’t like this…” Sorah said as she covered her nose from the stink. “Kihet?”
His face turned pale.
The deaths of Pamalyrians reminded him of the nightmares he regularly had. Old wounds on his arms ached, scorched. It was like an imaginary fire set on his arms. When Kihet side glanced a corpse in his view, an unpleasant budged crawled up his throat and collapsed onto all fours.
He vomited when his eyes locked onto a charred body under a tree. His body was profusely sweating like crazy.
“Kihet! Are you alright?”
“Sorry, just need a second.”
After wiping his mouth, he dumped a few herbal leaves into a leather mask, quickly inhaling the soothing scent.
It was called Stredhime Flower. The fragrance it gave off help calm the mind of an individual and useful in numbing pain and ailments. They could also be grounded down into a paste to further increase their effectiveness. However, keeping them as petals don’t expire as quickly.
He earned money through being the main supplier of it for Lemi’s family clinic. There were no other farmers who was successful in growing this delicate plant found in the highest mountains. It was one of the perks of living out of the village.
“Don’t push yourself. If you see something you don’t like, get Sorah or me to look at it.” Draigh said as he inspected the place of dismembered bodies.
Even though Kihet hasn’t done a thing, he felt useless having them worried. He was fortunate to have reliable friends.
Putting his feelings aside, there was something Kihet was curious about the corpses.
“I’d feel better if I could go home and take a nap. Jokes aside, look at this.”
One of the bodies was cloaked in black miasma. The appearance was something of black fire that didn’t emit any heat and thrashed lively like tentacles. This was identical to patches of black seaweed growing on the Oriks. Did those monsters catch a disease from this body?
“Ew… what is that?” Sorah asked.
“You-, you can see it?”
“Why not? It’s there in plain sight. Anyone would’ve saw it.” Draigh answered. “Any clue on what it is?”
“The Oriks I encountered had the same stuff growing on them. I thought it might be a disease, but it doesn’t seem infectious.” Kihet said, pointing to a pack of wolves lurking on the area. “They’ve eaten some parts of the corpses, but they don’t have anything identical growing on them.”
“Hang on. Oriks have them as well?”
“Just yesterday when Elius, Malth, Megith and I were hunting them. The others didn’t see, but when I killed the one that had them, the black tentacles withered away.”
His question remained. Why were Beastmen here?
“Sorah, what do you think? Why are the beastmen here?” Kihet asked.
“Pamalyra is known to be a desert. I doubt they know of our existence, but they might be scouting for resources. Maybe they accidentally encountered something that attacked them on the way here?”
“I doubt it.” Draigh argued. “This forest is protected by a barrier that turns invaders around. Kihet, you have your own opinion?”
“Maybe. One or two theories. The first one being an expansion of territory.”
“And the other?”
Kihet thought of an old tale passed down from the village. The story contained eight heroes who defeated the Shadow Lord but there was something off from these types of stories. In fact, not just one. Something was missing in all of them. How do heroes know to come together, to know to set on a journey to strengthen themselves then defeat the big bad?
An Oracle would be passed down. However, this Oracle wasn’t handed down as a revelation or a message, but instead of a person overseeing the Creator’s will be done. The Oracle was tasked to unite the group of Heroes to defeat the Shadow Lord when the Creator was unable to act.
“That’s my guess.”
“A legend?” Sorah cocked an eyebrow, throwing Kihet a suspicious look. “I mean, that’s just a tale for children. I doubt other races know that story.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“That still doesn’t explain how they got past the barrier.” Draigh added.
Kihet understood their concern, but it was impossible to guess the truth on limited evidence. Were they trying to get to the tower? One can see it as clear as day from here. There wasn’t a reason to not visit something one would find eye catching in a land of trees.
“Before we go, there’s something I’d like to do.” Kihet hovered the knife over the body.
“You couldn’t be thinking of cutting them up, right?” Sorah shrieked.
“If that lets us know what we’re up against, someone’s got to do it. If you don’t want to watch, turn around and keep an eye out.”
Right before his knife dug into the body, his arms flared up similar to being wrapped in fire. Kihet’s forehead was suddenly covered in sweat and his knees went weak. An imaginary claw grasped his heart, making it stopped beating for a second and his eyesight blurred for a moment.
Was the engraving on his arms reacting to it?
“Hey, Kihet! The shadows are disappearing!”
Kihet quickly dug my knife into the Beastmen corpse and quickly cut out a patch of its fur. unfortunately, the shadow vanished before he was able to preserve it. It left his hand soaking in blood and hair.
“Not good. It disappears after I cut it off.”
“Could it be that it dies when someone removes it from the host?” Draigh muttered. “What should we do?”
“We’ll tell Lemi about this.”
Kihet stare at his blood soaked hand thinking what he just experienced.
----------------------------------------
Thanks to his guidance, the three of them were on track to find the others. They small breaks from following hoofed prints hidden under the fallen leaves eventually leading them to the direction of the lake.
“Kihet, something wrong?” Draigh asked. “You’re staring at the tower awfully a lot.”
“Huh? Oh. I’m fine. Just thinking about something. It’s time for me to change bandages on my arms.”
“Speaking of which, you had them since forever. Shouldn’t they have healed? Maybe we can help?”
“Thanks, but I’ll be aright.”
He turned around to hide the disgusting pinkish stripes that ran up to his elbows. Although his injuries were healed, he received headaches whenever he saw them. There’s also a magic seal on them Kihet intended to hide from others. The only person that knew was Elius as Kihet asked him to look for a way to remove it.
“Kihet? Kihet!” Sorah snapped her fingers at him. “Are you sure you’re okay? Don’t pass out on me now. Get it together.”
“I’m sleepy.”
“Hey now. We went through this already.” Draigh replied. “You can sleep all you want after we finished the Elder’s quest.”
“Fair enough.”
“How come you’ll listen to Draigh but not me?”
“Why do you think? If you weren’t always dragging me or forcing me to work all the time, I might listen. Oh, and I take bribes too.”
“You’re the worst.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Hey now. You two can flirt elsewhere. It’s making feel awkward by standing here.” Draigh laughed. “Come on, let’s find the others.”
The three resumed their journey and found the location of where the carriage parked. Lemi was alone, mixing a batch of herbs as the others had went ahead. Before Kihet had the chance to question Elius’ poor choice, he noticed he installed monster wards in the vicinity.
“It’s nice to see you three safely made it.” Lemi greeted.
“Say, where are the others?”
“They’re keeping an eye on the Giants stationed by the lake. Anything to report?”
“Giants? There are Giants here too? We found bodies of Beastmen.” Sorah answered.
“Beastmen?” Lemi adorably tilted her head to the side. “And you said bodies of them? Does that mean the Giants…”
“There might be a war brooding between them.” Draigh added.
-And I wanted to add my opinion of the Oracle. Doesn’t look like anyone will spare a second for it.
“Listen to this, we found a body covered in these weird black tentacle thingies. Kihet tried to cut it, but they vanished.”
“Vanished as in…”
“Like a ghost.” Kihet instantly felt Sorah glaring daggers at him by mentioning ‘Ghost’. “What?”
“Don’t just think it’s g-ghosts when you don’t have any proof-!”
Suddenly, the forest was hit by a violent quake then an explosion erupted nearby. Sorah jumped and coward into Lemi’s arms.
Kihet spotted a continuous branch of lightning flashed the skies, smoke billowed behind trees, then loud unintelligent howling. With every roar, the ground shook, and we heard felling of some trees. After the initial spark show, more lighting bolts rained from the skies.
Kihet and Draigh dashed off without a second thought. Draigh brought his shield to the front and bulldozed branches and brushes out of their way. When they arrived, they saw two Giants laying on the ground, one of them was bleeding a pool of blood.
From the country Rozzosea, their big frames were as large as two storeys tall wearing heavy suit of plated armor. Each time it took a deep breath, armor creaked from all the metal plates rubbing against each other. One of them look to be in pain, but the other laid still with no signs of life.
“Elius!”
“Get back!”
Elius raised another thick wall of ice in front of the Giant. He snapped his fingers, converting the flying ice fragments to bunch up into icicles he used for a counterattack. The icicles weren’t aimed towards the Giant.
The hail of [Ice Needles] flew into the cloud of dust before Vol. Vol was seen tumbling out of the smokescreen with bleeding cuts over his arms and one of the blades from his daggers snapped.
Another quake shook the ground, then a boulder was lobbed into the sky at them.
With perfect timing, Draigh heroically jumped in. His inhumane strength smashed the rock to smithereens.
“Ouch! I forgot to wear my knuckle dusters!” He held his hand and jerked his chin towards the Giants. “So, those the thing the Elder mentioned?”
“Wait, Draigh! They’re not the enemy!” Vol shouted.
“Whu-?” Draigh raised a brow. “Elius, isn’t this an enemy?”
“As much as I hate to admit it, the Rozzalians are casualties.” Elius clicked his tongue, raising [Glacial Wall] over Malth and Megith. “We have proceeding matters. Kihet, can you give those two first aid?”
“I’ll do what I can for Megith and Malth until Lemi gets here. What’s the situation?”
“The Rozzalians are friendlies. I accidentally paralyzed them with my water and lightning elemental combo before I realized what the real threat was. They defended us against that monster.”
The cloud of smoke slowly settled, revealing a figure clouded in black miasma.
It was a creature from the abyss. By looking at it, Kihet felt a darkness invading his mind with a pair of hands yanking on his soul. Anyone setting their eyes on it knew it was cursed, but somehow mesmerizing. It was like its presence was pulling his consciousness away from his body.
Within the cloak of black smog, Kihet managed to make out an armored caped silhouette. It held onto a uniquely designed saber of pure white energy with a black hook on the bottom of the handle.
“That’s…”
“Don’t stare at it for too long. It dulls your ability to think, and you’ll make yourself wide open.” Elius pointed at the Giant bleeding out. “That’s how we found out. We couldn’t save him because of those shadows around it.”
“Got it.” Kihet gulped.
Kihet quickly bandaged cuts and applied healing ointment wherever needed. In terms of damage, Malth took a hefty beating all over his body. Megith on the other hand, suffered a large cut on her leg and a bruise on her exposed shoulder.
“Careful, guys. That shadow creature knocked out Malth and Megith with one blow and it can block a Giant’s hit. It’s stronger than all of us combined. It’s suuuper strong.” Vol warned.
The Shadow Knight raised its sword to a middle guard posture. Everyone hesitated to make the first attack since neither of them have a clue of its capabilities and kept a close eye on its movements.
Its blade gently tilted down towards the ground, pushing a small breeze toward them. After the wind died down, the rustling leaves, birds, everything was silenced. Kihet spent decades wandering the forest and this was the first time he witnessed something like this. He could hear his own pulse.
“It’s getting ready to attack. Get ready.” Elius warned.
After a brief stillness from both sides, the knight shifted into an attack stance and charged forward. It prepared itself, and based on its posture, it was going to unleash a diagonal slash.
Draigh threw himself into the Shadow Knight’s path to intercept the attack. A powerful shockwave shook the air after Draigh drew up his shield to block it. The knight’s blade ran along the curved surface and stopped at the center. Draigh managed to stand his ground and proceeded to battle in a contest of strength.
Their physical strengths matched. Neither one was willing to take a step back.
However, Draigh used one arm to do the blocking. He made a fist with his other and threw a right hook into his opponent’s side. He felt his punch connecting but frowned when he realized he hit a hard surface.
“A barrier? That ain’t fair!”
The knight changed stance, stretching its palm out. Kihet suspect it was going to cast magic. As it muttered something under its shallow breath, he acted.
“Everyone, cover your eyes!”
He rolled a bamboo canister covered in yellow crystals under it with a spark travelling down its wick. A flash of light caused the Knight to misfire its death ray into the sky.
“Kihet, with me!” Vol shouted.
“Got it!”
Kihet and Vol rushed it. Kihet took a jab at its stomach while Vol pounced towards the neck.
In the next instance, Kihet’s vision whirled and blurred. In the corner of my eye, he caught wind of Vol flying into the forest. Kihet found himself weightless, floating in the air.
A cold grip snatched his ankle and slammed him onto the ground.
Air rushed out of his lungs.
“Kihet, get out of there!”
Hearing his friends yelling at him, he shook his head and began to move. He stumbled on the first few steps to regain balance, but an icy grip seized his wrist.
The Knight stood there trying to shake off the dazzle of Kihet’s flash bomb.
Kihet tried to fight out of its grip. He wailed his sword desperately to get the knight to release him, his attacks didn’t make it flinch or gain some sort of reaction.
“You have it. Return the key.”
“Key? What key? I don’t get it and get off me!”
“Return it!”
-At this rate, I’m going to get killed!
Kihet struggled to free himself, but then his arms grew intensely hot. A flame pillar suddenly erupted underneath the Knight and him. Before Kihet knew, he was trapped within a spiral of towering silver fire alongside the Knight.
While the fire stopped travelling up Kihet’s shoulder, it fully engulfed the Knight, eating away the black miasma off its body.
Although he could feel the burning pain, it wasn’t hurting him while the Knight screamed in agony. After feeling the grip loosening, Kihet used this chance to slip free and drove his sword into the Knight. He pushed with all his weight, twisting the blade’s crude edge as deep as he could then dove out of the curtain of flames.
His ears were ringing. His senses became distorted as he crawled helplessly like a newborn fawn waiting for his deafening ears to recover and the dizziness to clear.
“-ihet! Kihet, don’t sit there! Run!”
Kihet picked himself up and ran as soon as the Knight burst out of the flames. Its white sabre was replaced by a black crooked sickle.
“The key. Return the key to the tower, thief!”
Was it talking about the mysterious mark forced onto Kihet from a long time ago? Kihet had an inkling the engravings had a connected to the tower, but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support it. Kihet thought if the Knight wasn’t hellbent on killing him, he’d ask it for answers.
Unfortunately, that was impossible.
“I’ve got you!”
It soared into the air, reeling its weapon.
“Stay away from him!”
An arrow punctured its shoulder and then four more simultaneously struck its body forcing it to withdraw.
“Lemi, I got it away from Kihet!” Sorah shouted.
“Ank, Cirl, Ulos, Foram, Nalus, Maks, Ashent!”
As the Knight landed, a veil of light caged it.
Unlike water and thunder attributes, light was in its separate category as Spirit attribute. Spirit attribute could not be associated with primary or compound attributes. Simply put, those who specialize in light magic could not use those from other attributes.
It was to say light magic was versatile being strong defensively and offensively.
“Kihet, get on!”
He almost cried when Sorah pulled up next to him on the back of a Felk. Kihet gratefully grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.
“Thanks, Sorah. You saved me!”
“Save your breath, you’re hurt.”
“I’m not hurt.”
“You’re not hurt? We saw you fighting in that fire! Did you know how reckless you were?! I thought you died!”
-I see. I worried them again.
Even though he tried his hardest to be useful, he ended up causing trouble.
“Let Lemi and Elius handle the rest of the fight. They’ve been building their spells while you kept it busy. Good job, Kihet. Just don’t get that reckless next time, for everyone’s sake. Okay?”
“I’ll do my best.”
Elius took the opportunity to conjure a colossal strike. His spell collected the moisture from dark clouds to form a humongous pillar of icicle. It was meant to crush everything below it flat. Normally, ice magic of this scale was difficult to maintain, but thanks to the weather cooling down, he was able to successfully cast it.
“Lemi, I need you to pin it down. Make sure I won’t miss.” Elius said.
“Leave it to me.” Lemi stood tall with six magic crystals held up by her [Ribbons]. “Ank! O’Light Elemental! Bringer of justice, rain judgement upon my foes. Banish the darkness from their hearts and show mercy upon the enemy’s soul. Light, forgive my malice and grant mercy on their souls. Ank, Foram, Maks, Dupil, Cirl, Larv, Exlas, Duph, Val!”
And by adding a prayer, her spells were furthered empowered. A powerful barrier with many overlapping layers trapped the Knight.
“Chain magic: Ank, Ulos, Maks, Holl, Jeltz, Exlas, Brac, Ruo, Val!”
She clapped then slowly separated her hands as an arrow of light materialized between her palms. Once it was completed, she waved her hand and shot it forward.
The magic spear phased past her barrier encasing the Knight. It entered its body and strings latched onto the barrier she previously set up. The more it struggled, the tighter the restraints became with every breaking, more strings reformed to tangle it further.
“I have done as much as I could.”
“I’ll take it from here.” Elius adjusted his glasses. “Kan, O’Glacier elemental that who brings life to slumber! Over decades has it froze and melt as nature demands. I ask your frigid might to smite! As the frozen queen demands, empower my spirit with your glacial fury! Unleash a cold blight onto my foes and befall disaster upon them! Kan, Ulos, Maks, Holk, Nalus, Gruk, Ruh, Val, Dejent, Jeltz!”
The enormous iceberg accelerated downward by gravity’s force. The air beneath the icicle brewed a strong blizzard as it descended. Everyone’s loose clothing fluttered violently in the roaring wind. Cold temperatures gradually created a layer of permafrost over soil.
The tip of the iceberg hit the Shadow Knight with pinpoint accuracy and smashed it against the surface. A massive explosion resounded. Cold air flooded the area as the giant pillar of ice buried everything beneath it.
“It’s not enough. Let’s hope I damaged it somehow.”
“You mean it’s not dead?! No way!”
Even Elius’ best magic was ineffective. Kihet couldn’t believe they been fighting something that’s nearly invincible against all their efforts.
The Knight shook off ice fragments and returned to middle guard posture.
“Holy Creator, as the Hero you have chosen, bless this blade with the fullest wraths of your power. Give me strength to bring down this evil, leave no evil. I wish to lay judgement on the thief who tainted your sacred treasure.”
In response to its prayer, an aura of holy light gently wrapped around its sword and spiralled beyond the dark clouds.
“This isn’t good. A big one’s coming, and I don’t think I can block it.” Draigh warned. “Sorah, shoot it!”
“I’m trying, but it has a barrier!” Sorah yelled. She launched arrow after arrow desperately, but her arrows bounced off the knight’s cursed barrier.
Kihet’s eyes darted everywhere, hoping an idea would spring into his mind. His eyes fell onto the Tower and noticed the Knight facing his way.
“The knight’s only after me, right?”
“Kihet, what are you talking about?”
“Sorry, Sorah. I need this Felk.”
“Huh-? Hey, wait! Kihet!”
Kihet shoved Sorah off and snatched the reins. If the Knight was going to swing his magic beam down, it could only attack in one direction. As Kihet expected, he was the prize as he rode past the Knight and saw it immediately turned around towards Kihet.
“Come get me! I have this Key you wanted!”