The south western part of the human empire was relatively isolated from the rest of the civilization, having little resources and nothing in terms of strategic value it was basically a place where the unwanted go. Harold made a grim smile he was sent here because his superiors didn't like his 'Forgiving' nature, as if not slaughtering everyone was abnormal. He looked around at his small office, no fancy furniture, not of stone or marble, just simple wood furnished with a desk, a shelf and several chairs; still it didn't smell of insanity or blood.
"Mister Harold, I've brought some tea and refreshments." The sound of knocking could be heard along with the quiet female voice.
"Come in," Harold's voice in comparison was rough. A girl in simple villagers clothing walked in carrying a wooden tray as Harold cleared away several stacks of paper to make room on his desk. "Sorry to have you go through this trouble everyday Celia."
Celia set down the tray and poured some tea into a cup, beside the cup was a plate of plain biscuits. "It's the least I could do, you and your men keep us safe from monsters." Harold can't help but have his look linger upon Celia's body, here beautiful blond hair, emerald green eyes, soft pink lips and curvaceous body, if only she has here because of affection and not duty or respect.
"I'm just doing my job, plus the soldiers the royal family sent out are helping a lot too." Harold said as he brought the cup to his lips, a rather bland taste filled his mouth. Five? No probably the sixth time these leaves had been used, the village was a poor one but produced a small amount of tea on the side. Most of it however was exported in exchange for food as more monsters than animals lived out here and the land wasn't very fit for farming, just having tea to drink was a luxury; especially since it was poured by the village beauty.
"We are very grateful to both parties," Celia bowed her head slightly, an unspoken fact floated in the air. Either parties could have taken heavy taxes in exchange for the help leaving the area devastated in another sense, of course the lesser noble in charge of the area being extremely reasonable has kept this area afloat before he had arrived. A smile tugged at Harold's lips, very few nobles even lesser nobles would care about commoners, even less to the point of hiring mercenaries at their own expense to keep the area safe so Harold had high respect towards him.
As Harold was about to say something the door slammed open and a young boy came in, his white clothes dusty and hood down. "Leo what's wrong?" Harold was immediately on alert, standing up and buckling on his silver sword.
"Th-There's a- red demon- heading this- way." Demon? They exist?
"You mean a monster that looks like a demon right?" One of those things from legend can ruin an entire country, well before the empire was made.
Leo caught his breath, he must have ran all the way here from the hills in the east where the villagers were foraging. "I have never seen, read nor heard of such a monster before."
Harold swore if Leo says so it very likely is, he turned towards Celia. "Please tell your father to have everyone gather at the central square," Celia nodded and went out the door, Harold opened a drawer in his desk and took out a crossbow and started gearing up fully, "Leo have you told the soldiers yet?"
"No, I went straight here." Leo wiped the sweat off his face with a scratched up sleeve, blood from the many cuts on his skin dirtying the once white cloth even more.
"Get the others up and ready, I'll let the soldiers know." With a nod Leo sprinted out the door, "Ugh, what happened to my peaceful tea time with Celia."
----------------------------------------
"Find chosen, stay out of trouble, stay out of sight, find chosen, stay out of trouble, stay out of sight." The sounds of trees and rocks being knocked out of the way of Wrath could be heard but strangely enough his footsteps can be barely heard despite his huge size.
"Find chosen, stay out of trouble, find chosen, stay out of trouble." Wrath's started moving faster and stomping could be heard thundering as he gouged out the earth with his strides. Animals were running away from the disturbance as fast as possible but a doe was caught frozen in fear right in his path. Reflected in her eyes was imminent death as Wrath continued advancing undeterred. Just before slamming into the doe Wrath swerved to the right before returning to his original path leaving the doe unharmed although with a severely shortened life span.
"Find chosen, find chosen, find chosen." Three goblins were squabbling, clubs smacking at each other and tiny hand scratching completely unaware of their surroundings. A wet crushing sound could be heard as Wrath passed by, but he had no even noticed anything. The wake of destruction left behind him was complimented by the fearful scream of one lone goblin.
----------------------------------------
"What do you make of it Captain Kal?" Harold was looking through a handheld telescope created by Leo, beside him the captain of the soldiers sent by the royal family was doing the same.
"Not a monster I know of," Kal looked at Harold grimly his weathered face weary, "At the rate that thing is going it'll reach us before the sun sets, glad your boy spotted him." Kal looked at the telescope in his hand, "Handy little trinket, wish I had these back when I was at the front lines."
Compared to Harold who had limited actual combat experience before he was sent here Kal had been fighting against the beast men for years, only to be retired from the front lines due to an arm injury. Harold shook his head a bit, despite that injury and the grey hair Kal can still floor Harold ten times out of ten; just proves how much it took to fight the beast men. "Do you think we could take it down?" Harold asked that question hoping that such a man can think of someone but it was obvious from Kal's face that the answer was something obvious.
"I doubt a damn group of them beast men can take it down, us? Not a chance." Kal started walking back down the simple but sturdy wood wall, "I've sent a young lad off to ask for reinforcements from the noble."
He won't make it in time, looking over at Kal, Harold smiled wryly, "That's considerate of you." The kid he sent away was probably Kyle who was barely seventeen and had no experience with fighting.
"At the very least he shouldn't have to be dragged into this, he's got along life ahead of him." Twenty one soldiers clad in various types of armor were waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, many older than Harold himself; off to the side his group of six was looking anxiously over. Kal faced the group most of them grim but with determined faces, "We'll take on the demon here, Jerry, Tal you two help the hunters out with extracting the civilians to the Master Geram's house." Jerry nodded in affirmation while Tal stood up, displeased with his posting.
"I will stay here and fight with all of you," Before Tal could say anything the other soldiers slapped Tal on the back.
"Get going Tal, evacuating the villagers is an important job."
"That's right, prepare some drinks for us when we get there."
"You can have all the fun next time we go hunting alright?"
The group of soldiers left carrying a resisting Tal, Jerry stopped halfway and turned back towards them, "Thank you for everything Captain Kal." He bowed deeply then quickly ran after the group of soldiers.
The hunters that watched the commotion with Leo in the lead walked up to Harold, "We're in charge of evacuation? We know what is going on and our chances of winning are practically zero... so please let us fight with you till the end."
This time it was Harold who spoke, "And who will protect the people? We have a bad enough reputation as a whole already, the people always comes first, before glory, before honor, befor-"
"Anything else." Leo finished what Harold was saying, looking depressed. "We-We're like family this is just." The group was thrown out here for helping people, being too nice, questioning the hunter's morals and ever since arriving they've bonded together; there was nothing left for them but here.
"We're not planning on going down without a fight, but our chances are destitute that is true. All the more reason you can't die here. More so since we're family and I will protect my family, so get going. And help me protect Celia." Harold ruffled Leo's head, who was trying desperately not to cry; looking around the other five were doing the same.
"Come on, we've got a lot to do before nightfall," Kal patted Harold's shoulder and pulled him away towards Harold's office. They'll have to try everything to at least slow down the demon when he gets here.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
----------------------------------------
The wall of the village was pretty impressive considering the size of the place. About two men tall of solid wood it had repelled many goblins and the few ogres that appeared sometimes. The soldiers had planted even more stakes in front of the wall that Wrath was heading towards and nailed metal parts made up of pans, shields and armor to the wall to reinforce it. Behind the wall was a small ring made up of wooden fences and stakes, they held no illusion that their makeshift wall could stop the demon.
"Has he changed course?" Harold asked Kal who was looking through the telescope, before Kal answered however Harold already knew the answer for they have been checking every hour.
"Not a bit, still heading in a straight line towards us." Kal snickered, "don't know if I should be happy or sad about that."
"I still think we should try to talk to him first." Kal gave Harold an annoyed look.
"I've told you before he probably can't understand you, even if he did he probably won't listen."
Harold shrugged, "There's no harm in trying, at the very least there's no reason not to." They had four archers up on the walls at either side of where the demon was headed, the archers would lose the chance to shoot one or two arrows but Harold highly doubted that the arrows would do much if any damage at all.
"Do whatever you want." Kal looked down the wall at the fifteen soldiers in his command, "Get ready, he'll be here in less than an hour." A chorus of acknowledgements reached Kal's ears along with the sound of swords bashing shields, "Lively bunch even heading to their deaths... I'm a terrible captain." he muttered under his breath.
----------------------------------------
Leo was overseeing the evacuation along with the rest of the hunters, Jerry and Tal. He wanted to be back at the village with Harold who was like a father to him, but he had an important mission given to him; to protect Celia. Leo will make sure Celia was okay when Harold meets up with them again because he definitely won't lose even if the opponent was a demon. Leo looked up startled when a pair of hands griped onto his arms, "Wha-"
"Leo, have you seen Celia? She left me this letter." The village chief was holding a plain piece of parchment where a bunch of neat letters were written, to anyone who knows how to read it would be immaculate writing but to Leo it was just mysterious scribbles.
"Chief, calm down, what does the letter say?" Celia's missing? But where could she be during an evacuation? A single location came to Leo's mind, she couldn't be...
"She thanked me for taking her in and that the demon is probably here for her so she's going back," The chief was in tears, "Please, please bring her back Leo."
"Leo? Chief? What's happening?" One of the fellow hunters came over in concern once she heard the chief crying and saw that he was on his knees clinging to Leo.
"Take care of the chief please Ruby," Leo pried the chief's hands off of him and sprinted back in the direction of the village, ignoring Ruby's shouts.
----------------------------------------
Talking to the demon had failed, the thing just kept asking where the chosen was, what chosen!?!? Harold was knocked off the wall with the others when the demon barreled through it tearing apart the wooden structure. Shaking his head clear he looked around to regain his surroundings, Kal was unconscious a few feet behind him along with the two archers that were with them, one of the archers on the other side had fallen onto the stakes and the other had his head crushed by the demons foot.
"HOLD!!!" the demon had been stopped by the soldiers that were behind the fence, or more correctly slowed by the human wall blocking it's path. Despite the fact that they were bleeding and probably had many broken bones from withstanding that impact they kept pushing with their shields with their utmost might. The demon uncaring about the various weapons that were being broken over his red scales continued to move forward, now slowed to walking speed.
Harold got up unsteadily and drew his sword, his crossbow was lost when he fell. If conventional steel won't work, how about SILVER!!! Running at the demon Harold jumped with the sword held high point downwards then impeded the silver sword into the brutes shoulder.
----------------------------------------
Celia was sure the demon had come for her... demon's don't exist in this world, at least they shouldn't. The only reason they would is if another chosen had come for her life. Celia, Celia, Where are you?
"I'm sorry Echo but I can't... If I go he'll just follow me and hurt more people, if I just go to him maybe he'll stop." Tears were running down her face, the soldiers, Captain Kal and Sir Harold who protected the village shouldn't be dragged into this mess because of her. To begin with she was adopted by the village chief when she was thrown away as a baby. She rounded the corner putting the wall or what remained of the wall into view and screamed.
Harold had just stabbed his sword slightly into the demons right shoulder before being slapped with the demons left hand into a house. Enraged the demon started pounding on the previously ignored soldiers, crushing and smashing them against the ground. "Where is the Chosen!!!"
"Stop!! I'm right here, please just stop." Celia shouted at Wrath, who looked over with his eyes. Dropping the soldier he was about to throw he slowly walked towards her. As Wrath reached out a bloody hand for her she was thrown to the side and a silver bolt was shot into Wrath's hand.
"Go Miss Celia, I'll hold him off." Leo was standing there sword drawn with his legs shaking.
Wrath roared in range plucking the bolt out of his hand, "That HURT!!!" He slammed his fist down shattering the ground where Leo was a moment ago, a silver flash and a small cut appeared across his chest.
"NO! Stop Leo, you can't win." Small cuts were being inflicted on Wrath but Leo was slowly getting sluggish, the toll of having to dodge Wrath's heavy fast attacks was wearing his body down faster than anything he had experienced before.
----------------------------------------
Annoying insect keeps poking him and running, making it hard for Wrath to hit him. The ground in the area had been filled with holes and cracks all over the place, burnt and melted where his blood fell. Left punch, right punch, stomp here, attack there.
"RAAAAAAGH!!" Wrath swung his tail around slamming it into the bug's side knocking him into the wall of the building to the left. The annoying sword was the same as the one the man used earlier but now it lay broken into pieces, as Wrath advanced towards Leo he pulled the sword that was embedded in his back and tossed it away. Now to finish him off, Wrath grabbed the heavily breathing Leo up the sound of hoarse screaming could be heard as he tightened his grip. Lifting his hand over his head Wrath threw Leo expecting to hear a splat as he collided with the ground, instead a high pitched scream of pain was heard.
----------------------------------------
Celia had put herself between Leo and the ground suffering the brunt of the impact. Go Miss Celia! Celia looked up with blurry eyes at the silhouette of Wrath as she lay there bleeding and coughing.
"Pl-please, let hi-m go." There was no acknowledgement from Wrath but he picked up her broken body and started walking before stopping.
"... What now?" Wrath looked at the unconscious Celia then scratched his head, he was just told to find a chosen not what to do afterwards. Maybe Lust or Pride would know?
Wrath lifted his head and let loose an extremely loud roar, one that could be heard from across the continent but only understood by the other two demons. "Err... Now we go this way." Wrath looked at Celia again to check on her, when did she get pointy ears? Then he threw her over his shoulder and stomped back the way he came.
----------------------------------------
Sorry for the delay, ranked games in league as well as the content change in the chapter ended up with this being a bit late. Originally this was supposed to be just a short chapter on people's status's. Err.. somehow it turned into this (Wrath was originally supposed to be walking across the ocean floor smacking sea monsters and what not). So... because of this might not get back to Shin for a bit.
Note* Just for clarification Celia isn't dead... yet, she's just unconscious and... well heavily wounded. Also as a clarification of Echo's speech, she can only say words from the last few words she hears. Maybe there'll be a short chap about Celia and Echo meeting in the future :P