The gaze of three eyes focused on the frightened students. Ash felt his body freeze in place as his gaze locked with that of the gigantic snake’s. It’s large, golden eyes were mesmerising.
Threads of faint blue mana reached out from the creature’s eyes, they reached for the students frozen mid-step. Their frightened expressions slowly began to relax, their tense posture changed, their breathing began to calm.
As his mind began to numb and his racing thoughts began to crawl to a halt, Ash’s lazy eyes followed a fireball slowly moving through the air. He watched absentmindedly as it soared up and hit the underside of the gigantic snake’s mouth with enough force to make it fall backwards into the water.
Suddenly, the world sped up again, and his numbed mind returned to normal. It felt as if a web holding his thoughts in place had snapped, allowing him to think again.
“Focus!” The older mage shouted at the top of his lungs. “The hunt is on, don’t let it catch you off guard again.”
The snake’s tail followed it into the water, and for a few short moments silence covered the Shimmering Woods. Not a single bird chirped, not a single leaf moved. Then, the water’s surface rippled.
There it was again, a dark blue mass of mana gathering just below the surface. “Look out, something’s coming!” Ash shouted without a moment’s hesitation.
The mage smirked, and as the water’s surface broke again, his crimson mana gathered around his palms. Thick, easily visible streaks of red mana weaved into a simple spell. The snake leapt out of the lake, lifted up by two gigantic wings that weren’t there a moment ago.
It was beautiful. He could see the complex weaves of mana forming the wings on the creature. If only it moved a little slower, gave Ash a little longer to study it.
Two beams of white-hot fire hit the creature as it soared up into the sky, piercing through its wings and destroying the complex weaves of magic forming them. Like a bird whose wings were broken, the snake plummeted into the ground, crushing the trees below it as it crashed down.
The mage cast the same spell again, and as soon as the snake reared its head, two more white-hot beams of fiery magic hit it, knocking it back down again.
“The problem with powerful but stupid beasts like this,” The mage let out a sigh, “Is that they can’t really adapt. So, all you need to do is knock them down once. Once fear takes over they become easy prey.”
Despite the mage’s words, Ash couldn’t help but feel on edge. As beams of his mana hit the snake again, the mage seemed almost relaxed, as if the hunt was over already. But Ash still felt that disturbing feeling – they were still being watched, he was sure of it.
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The sound of metal clashing against Kira’s crystalline blade echoed in the Howling Valley, where no sound but the whispers of the dead would be.
Dad!
He’s gone…
They did this, I know it.
Why do they send you, instead of their prince?
Victor gritted his teeth. The whispers of those whose souls were trapped here grew louder as the Spire’s light began to dim.
Leave – Their punishment is not yours to bear, Twilit.
The words rang in Victor’s mind, seemingly forcing his attention away from Kira’s battle. The twilit! Had he heard that correctly? Without thinking, he turned around hoping to see something, anything. Yet of course, there was nothing but a mist slowly rolling downhill from the mountaintops.
He was surprised to feel disappointed, but a grunt forced his attention back at the clash. Fighting right at the edge of the veil separating the Howling Valley, Kira was being slowly pushed back by the three masked figures. In the distance, the Apostle sat upon her steed, the visible half of her mouth curled up with a smug smile.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to turn back if you want to leave the Valley, Inquisitor.” She declared before riding off eastward.
Victor pushed aside the disgust that he felt when she spoke. Now wasn’t the time for emotions. He reached for his boot, and pulled out a small, thin knife and rushed forward – Kira was strong, but not strong enough to take out all three of these people. Especially when she couldn’t get away from the Valley to cast spells.
Tightly grasping the hilt of the dagger, he slashed at the masked person closest to him. As the blade drew close to the masked person, his motions slowed down, as if his blade was stuck in mud. His eyes widened, and he leapt back a split second before the masked man threw a punch loaded with dark mana at him.
“Your minds are just as corrupted as hers!” He hissed, retreating into the veil.
Kira clicked her tongue, and followed him, putting a few meters of distance between them and their opponents. “Keep them busy for fifteen seconds?” She asked, throwing a glance at him.
Victor hesitated. He wasn’t a fighter – not really. Without using his magic, he wasn’t sure if he could hold his own against three people who were corrupted by dark mana. “I can try.” He breathed out a moment later. Kira wouldn’t ask him something like this if she didn’t have a plan.
He tightened his grasp on his blade and rushed forward again. Three pairs of eyes followed him, dark and emotionless. He snatched a small, fist sized rock off the ground as he ran forward, and threw it at the closest masked man, then suddenly turned right and charged at the other, farther person.
A grunt reached his ears as the rock hit the man’s shoulder. He kicked the ground as he reached his target, rushing ahead with a burst of speed and dug the blade into his opponent’s raised arms. Again, he slowed down, but this time his blade reached the masked man, easily piercing through his clothes.
The masked man grunted. Annoyed rather than in pain, he didn’t even flinch. As Victor tried to back off, he raised his foot and kicked him in the stomach, sending the inquisitor flying back to the Valley.
Pain jolted throughout his body as he fell to the ground on his back. The world spun around him for a split second, but he forced himself back up on his feet anyways. As he stood back up, he spotted a figure behind the three masked men.
He only saw a blinding flash before three heads rolled to the ground, and three bodies followed.
“Disgusting.” The Kira spat. “Get out of the Valley, it’s almost nighttime.”
Victor glared at the three heads on the ground for a moment before walking out of the Valley. “And why exactly did you kill them all?” He asked, annoyed. These people would have been useful if they were alive – who knew how much information they had?
Kira crouched by one of the heads and pulled the mask off its face. “These men were dead a long time ago.”
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The light of the Spire had begun to dim as the mage and the snake’s battle continued. The snake’s previously shiny, black scales were now charred and melted where the mage’s spells hit, and the mage was somewhat out of breath, exhausted from using so much of his mana.
They had eventually come to a standstill, the snake standing between them and the forest. While the creature was the only one really wounded, it also had a lot more mana around it than the mage. With a loud hiss that echoed around them, it raised its tail, and hit the ground at an angle, throwing broken tree pieces, rocks, and dirt towards them.
The mage stopped casting his spell, and instead turned those weaves of mana into a makeshift barrier, barely blocking the avalanche of forest ground raining on them. As the last bits hit the barrier, they saw the snake’s tail through the debris falling down. It hit the barrier with force, the dark blue mana gathered around it burst towards them as well, shattering the mage’s defensive spell and sending all of them flying to the shore.
The water was ice cold, and though it only came up to their knees, that much water was enough to completely be submerged for a few seconds.
Using their momentary disorientation, the snake slid back into the water. “Back to solid ground!” One of the students shouted as ripples appeared on the water’s surface.
Fear gripped Ash’s heart. Knowing the snake was beneath the surface of the water was much more frightening than actually seeing it on solid ground. It could strike from anywhere, and all he could see was the dark blue mana under the water, and the ripples on the lake’s surface.
The snake once again broke the water’s surface, it’s tail splashed a large wave towards them, knocking them off their feet. That same tail rose high, ready to smash them like a human crushing an ant.
The mage raised his arms, his mana spread towards the sky, creating a protective barrier above them. The snake’s tail smashed against it, creating visible cracks on its surface. It rose again, preparing for a second attack.
Ash didn’t even get the chance to breathe out in relief before he noticed three eyes slowly peeking out of the surface of the water. The snake’s mouth followed, and before Ash could even shout to warn the mage, it spat a green, watery substance towards him.
His barrier shattered as he let out an agony filled scream. The spit of the snake ate away at his skin where it touched him. He stumbled away, then fell into the water and tried to wash it off.
Ash looked up, knowing full well they were about to die. The snake’s tail rose high up, then descended.
“Ru-“ He began to shout in a desperate attempt to warn people, but his words faded as the Spire’s light suddenly vanished, for a split second. A lance of pure darkness soared across the sky, cutting off the snake’s tail like a hot knife through butter.
With a dread filled heart, Ash turned around to see a masked woman step out of the woods. He could see silhouettes of others behind her. Dozens of them, if not more.
“Well well…” Her distorted voice rang in the air. “I see lost lamb, and a dying shepherd.” She raised her hand, then curled a single finger down.
The lance of darkness floating in the air slowly rotated, its tip pointed down, then it flew true, silencing its target forever.
With the agony filled wails of the mage gone, silence covered the Shimmering Woods. “Get to work.” The Apostle spoke a moment later, shattering that silence. “The time is nigh.”