Upon having arrived on the other side of the wall, the wizard realised, that he would not have a way of knowing where north was, seeing as his surroundings were covered by thick fog. However, as the gate behind him was known as the west-gate of the town, he decided to just follow the road that led away from it. Before he did so though, he was startled by squeaks coming out of his pocket.
Ignis retrieved his rat companion, who agitatedly squeaked at him, shivering all the way as if in fear of something unseen by him.
"Hm? What is it? Scared of some undead?", the wizard asked with a smirk, but the rat had none of it, jumping out of his hand and biting him in the ankle, in an attempt to drag him back towards the town.
"No can do, Mira. I'll tell you what! If you don't want to go, I'm not holding you up, but I already said that I was going to look for those guys! I can't just go back on my word, that would be rude!", he tried to reason with the rat, who still tried struggled to move the wizard to what she thought to be a safer place.
This caused Ignis to kneel down and remove the rat by force, though not to a point where he would hurt her. He placed her in front of the earth mould, and walked back a few steps.
"Alright, Mira, that's it! You hold the fort until I get back, hear me? Don't worry I'll be back immediately, as you know full well, I'm a master of stealth!", the old man exclaimed full of pride about his skills.
"Smell ya later!"
And with a last wave of his hand, the wizard continued forward, leaving his furry companion behind.
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In Apomónosi, the dwarven brothers Noín and Zaín, who completely out of their own will decided to let bygones be bygones, and were definitely not forced by Haris to do so, were currently debating on reinforcements of the earth-mounds, as they agreed completely with the earlier comments of Ignis.
"Hmm... 'suppose we add some mud to slo' down anyone trying ta climb them? Shood work, at least for a while, don' ye agree?", Noín asked, but Zaín shook his head.
"Eh, what would ya do if they had a ladder or something to even ta ground?"
"True, I guess. How about adding the rubble to make em higher and more stable?"
"...how about we add the rubble and make it less stable? Cood make for a good trap, don't ye think?"
"Not half bad an idea! We could-", but Noín was interrupted by a small, fuzzy intruder, who jumped on his head.
"OI! WHAT IN GIDEON'S NAME!", he yelled, as Zaín began to burst out into laughter, but before he could grab the vermin, it had already jumped off, heading straight for Ophelia, who, startled by the dwarf's yell, stopped mid conversation with her granddaughter, and now looked at the small white rat.
"Hey, ain't ya the rodent of that insane spellcaster? Where's ya owner?", she barked at Mira the rat, who now started to squeak at her.
If she had tried to converse with anyone other than a beastkin, her squeaks would have fallen on deaf ears, but the 3 lykans in front of her were such beings, thus being gifted with the language of nature, and therefore the language of all beasts at birth.
"ME? HELP THAT OLD FART? He can eat shit and die, for all I care.", Ophelia growled, before spitting on the ground before her, but the rat kept insisting.
"Giagiá, are you really going to ignore her pleas for help? Can't you hear the fear in her voice?", Sara asked, but her grandmother had made up her mind, looking away from the rat and crossing her arms to signal that she had spoken her last word.
The rat, however, continued to her squeaks, the meaning behind them causing all three lykans to flinch in shock.
"The smell of fresh blood? 'One who commands over death'? A LICH!?", Haris inquired, the mere thought causing his fur to stand up in distress.
Another squeak confirmed his worries.
"Ophelia, this is no longer a case of aiding the old man, this is a crisis of yet unseen magnitude! Sara! Call for all that are able to hold a weapon and gather them here! Karagast brothers, I hope you guys are able to hold your own against enemies as well as you are fighting one another, as you two will follow me!", Haris barked out commands, before facing Ophelia.
"Now that it has come to this, what will you do, Ophelia?"
She knew how much the white lykan had looked up to her during his younger years, even causing him to join the royal guard to become a hero of Chóratonippotón just like her, only to get crippled on duty, forcing him to retire and become the mayor of this remote village, a fact which filled her with guilt to this day.
"...Tch. Very well. Can't say no to both my granddaughter and the kid she ogles with hearts in her eyes now, can I?", she growled mockingly, her remark causing both Haris and Sara to blush visibly through their fur.
"Ahem...yeah...let's...yeah.", the white werewolf stammered, at loss for words as he avoided eye-contact with Sara, who hid behind her claws in embarrassment.
"Ah, to be young again!", Ophelia howled in laughter at the scene before her, with the two dwarves behind the trio not being able to stifle their amusement either.
"Enough time wasted with jokes, let's go after that old bastard, can't have him get all the glory now, can we?", Ophelia announced before leading the way, the other lykans and the dwarven brothers following shortly after.
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The path through the Xifidio mountain-range connected all mining-towns and pit-stops with one another, from Apomónosi all the way to Chóratonippotón' border in the west. Thus, the roads were in relatively good shape, despite them having been abandoned for centuries, though they were anything but straight, making it hard to tell where one was facing after following them for a while. It was these roads Ignis decided to follow, as it was the only sure way for him to find his way back upon having completed his mission. His plan, though reasonable enough, was soon thwarted by the path splitting into three.
'They said west, but how am I supposed to know where west is? There's fog everywhere! Hmm...what was it that people do in these situations again? ', he wondered, but, seeing as he could not remember, he decided on a method that never seemed to fail him. The wizard stuck his staff into the ground, making sure that it was levelled out and not driven in too deep, and let go, letting fate choose where the staff would drop and thus deciding where he was to go for him. To his surprise, the staff fell into the direction he came from.
'Eh, guess I'll go the opposite way then. The middle it is! '
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"So, where do you think he went?", Sara asked Ophelia, as they arrived at the crossroads, with the left path leading to Okra village in the south, the middle one towards the abandoned watchtower atop the highest mountain of Xifido, and the last one leading off the mountains, to the north.
"Middle, probably, since it's the most dangerous one. That guy has an attitude that just screams for a quick death.", her grandmother grunted.
"Maybe...I'd say we should split up in three groups, just to be sure.", Haris proposed.
"And let me guess, you and Sara are in the same group, eh?", Ophelia grinned mischievously, causing the dwarven brothers to snicker and the two werewolves to blush.
"Just messing with ya, you're a good match, I'm not gonna say anything about that. Since I don't trust the shorties over there, they should go down the mountains, I'll take the middle path, and you two lovebirds go towards Okra, since we don't know if the village still stands, how'sat sound?", she continued.
As Ophelia had the most experience of them all, none objected her suggestion, though Sara still hid her face in embarrassment as she nodded to show approval.
"Thought so. If ya find nothing, go back and towards this point so we can regroup. Now git!", she barked her instructions, all of which were acknowledged with a quick salute before they split up.
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"So, why'd ye think the old hag sent us down the mountain, and not towards Okra? We could'a asked our brothers there ta join us! Cousin Nílab would'a given us a royal welcome.", Noín exclaimed, annoyed by the old lykan woman bossing the two of them around.
"Didn't ya listn? She thinks we's stupid or something.", Zaín grunted back.
"You maybe..." his brother grumbled, barely audibly, into his beard.
"Hrmph, can't ye let the past stay in the past already? Not me fault that pa's favourite hammer broke and he blamed yis fer it.", Zaín stated, holding up the very same hammer given to him by their father.
"Yer secretly used it fo' years and never told 'im, it was yer fault not min!", Noín lamented loudly.
"Tch, I reforged it, didn't I?" Zaín replied with a huff.
"AND GOT OL THA CREDIT FOR IT, MAKING YIS THE NEXT 'EIR!", the other dwarf shouted in anger, which made Zaín whince. He knew that the whole matter had affected his brother, but he did not expect him to be this mad about it.
"Hrmph...I guess", he replied meekly.
"Ye guess, yeah, aight! I'm the elder one, ye stole me place in the family!", his brother continued.
This caused Noín to sigh deeply.
"...look, I'm sorry, but I didn't plan for it! I tried tha get pa tha reconsider, but he literally took his last breath while appointing me tha next 'eir! Ye know as well as me that he decided on stuff without much thought!", he explained.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"...heh, the only thing he never changed 'is mind on was mum, innit? Ha...I miss our old man.", Zaín recalled with a sad chuckle.
"Yeah...the ol smithy got mighty quiet without 'im tripping over stuff and yelling at us because o' it, eh?"
The two continued on in silence, thinking of their late parents, until Noín decided that their little disagreement had gone on for long enough.
"Look, we both knew that I can't just undo his decision. The rest o' tha family won't allow for that tha happen. However, if ye still want, I can offer ye the smithy. I'd take on tha whole representative role, and you get both the smithy and the hammer, seeing as I's been the better one when it came to words anyway. So? Will ye accept it and we cross the grudge outta the book?", he offered his brother, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.
"Wouldn't that technically make me the 'eir, in a way? Why'd ya give that up?"
"We're brothers ye dunce! I didn't care about the whole 'eir to the family' shite ta begin wit, and it was yis in ta first place, innit? So what ya say?", he asked again, offering a hand to his brother.
Zaín looked at it for a moment, then took it with his own.
"Of course I'd take it, ya old codger, consider this grudge settled!", Zaín exclaimed, before drawing his brother in for a headbutt, the traditional way for dwarves to show their brotherhood.
The sound of skulls connecting loudly with one another reverberated throughout the mountains, followed by the bellowing laughter of the two, who now continued following the path before them.
"...hey, ain't that Illdan over there? And tha two guard wolves?", Zaín interrupted their joyful moment as he pointed at the figures waiting some distance in front of them. Dwarves were known for their excellent vision, making an error in his assessment next to impossible.
"Now that ye say it, it sure does look like 'im. But who's tha tall bloke next to em?"
"Nothing but trouble, that's for sure. Grab yer hammer, I'll buff us with >Earth's Grace<. This might turn ugly.", Noín said as he started to gather anima in his shillelagh, which he used as a catalyst for his magic, but his movements did not go unnoticed, as the four figures now approached them at high speed.
"Brace for impact!", Noín yelled, releasing the magic of the earth element, which hardened their bodies and increased their vitality, as Illdan smashed the ground in front of them with his bare fist, releasing small projectiles from the stone beneath them and shooting them their way.
Behind the attacker, the two guards closed in, followed by a tall being in a black robe carrying an obsidian-coloured staff which ended in the head of a dragon with amethyst eyes.
"My, my, my. Is that any way to greet old friends?", the being chuckled as it removed its hood, revealing a pristinely white skull, its eyes replaced with a bright, purple glow.
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"...So, is what Ophelia said true? You know, about you liking me..", Haris started, but was interrupted by Sara.
"Could we discuss this later? I mean, we're in a life-or-death situation right now, aren't we?"
"I know that, it's just that...never mind.", he trailed off, before letting go of the topic with a deep sigh.
Despite this, Sara decided to address it, seeing as how the topic seemed to nag at him.
"Okay, let's assume it is...true. What would you say?", she asked sheepishly.
"...well, hypothetically of course... I wouldn't be too...", he started, however, before he could continue, he noticed something in the distance.
"Sara, over there! There's smoke rising from Okran!"
"Shit, we better hurry up!", Sara replied, and the two hastened their pace towards the burning village.
As the two arrived, they were greeted with the stench of burning flesh, as well as two seemingly severely wounded liontari in black leather armour and each of them two scimitars in their hands, standing at the ruins of the villages north-gate.
"Hey, Castor, are those the guys we're waiting for?", the left one, whose face seemed to have been partially ripped off, asked the other.
"Nope, Pollux, they're more of those mongrels that live in these mountains. Probably reinforcements or something.", Castor, who was missing his left arm and whose left leg was missing large chunks of meat, answered with a yawn.
"MONGRELS?! I'M THE MAYOR OF APOMÓNOSI!", Haris barked, angered by the uncalled for insult.
"Oh, Cas, I think you made the mutt mad!", Pollux purred in a sickly sweet tone.
"You think they want to play with us while we wait for the target?", Castor answered, slowly extending his claws, his purple eyes beginning to glow.
"Let's add some more presents for the mistress on the pile, shall we?", Pollux, who readied his own claw, replied cheerfully, his own eyes starting to emit the same eery shine.
"BRING IT ON, YOU UNDEAD SANDPISSERS!", Sara barked, as she drew her swords and Haris readied his halberd.
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"OI! Wait up ya old fuck! I'm not as fast as I used to be!", Ophelia yelled as she ran towards the wizard in front of her.
Upon noticing who was behind him, Ignis broke out into a full-blown sprint. After a while, both the lykan and the old man were lying exhausted on the floor next to each other, wheezing and coughing as neither of them were used to sprint without magical aid.
"I...said...wait...bastard...", Ophelia huffed between breaths.
"I...don't...oh by the Gods, my lungs!", Ignis tried to reply.
"I didn't wanna get hit again.", he finally managed to say, before going into a coughing fit.
Finally, after both of them had caught their breath, Ophelia took the word.
"Nobody said shit about pelting ya, I'm here because of that rat of yours."
"Mira? What did she have to do with anything?", Ignis asked in confusion.
"She told us about some lich or something going on a killing spree in the mountains. We thought ya could use some help.", Ophelia continued.
"I see... a lich, you say? Sounds interesting!", Ignis mumbled, a mischievous smile forming on his lips.
"You're really starting ta creep me out, ya know? I met a lich on the battlefield once, those guys are an annoyance and then some!", the lykan exclaimed, but Ignis just chuckled.
"You just have to know what you are doing. Aim a spell at them as they do their evil monologue thing, and bang.", Ignis emphasised the 'bang' by punching his open hand with a fist.
"Tch, whatever, it's your funeral.", came Ophelia's retort.
"Excuse me, are you, per chance, that legendary hero, the Thirío Drakos who brought down the king of Domitor?", a female voice asked, causing both Ophelia and Ignis to spring to their feet in panic. In front of them were two lykans, one female with scarlet fur and a long metal staff, which was just a featureless pole, on her back, the other a blue-furred male in a suit.
"Oh, sorry, I did not mean to startle you! I am Maya Pyrkagiá of the royal guard of Chóratonippotón, and the guy behind me is Michaíl Gyrológos, a merchant. We are reinforcements from Apomónosi, but I'm sure the mayor already told you about us, isn't that right?", Maya asked with a warm smile.
"Oh yeah, you're the two from before, aren't you? I'm Ignis!", the wizard reciprocated the introduction and mirrored her smile.
"Yeah, Thirío Drakos is what they used to call me on the field, but I just go by Ophelia now.", Ophelia snarled at her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that you are a hero of mine, and I wanted to shake your paw, if you don't mind", Maya continued, causing Michaíl to groan.
"Hey, what about me? I'm famous as well, you know!", Ignis sulked, crossing his arms with a huff.
"Hah...alright, want me to shake your hand, old man?", Michaíl groaned even louder, causing the wizard to extend his arm happily.
"...Sure, why the hell not, get ya paw over here!", Ophelia cheerfully replied to Maya, after she barely noticed the wizard winking at her, thus extending her arm as well for a paw-shake.
"Oh, thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me!", Maya said as she extended her own.
Before anyone touched another, however, the wizard interrupted the greeting loudly.
"SIKE!", he shouted, drawing the attention of all around him, with the exception of Ophelia, to himself, as he comically raised the hand he extended, and slammed his staff into the floor with the other, causing a small explosion to engulf Michaíl.
"SKATÁ-ARGH!", was the only thing he managed to scream as the spell set his entire body aflame.
Ophelia, who had waited for a distraction, jumped forward and bit into Maya's forearm, ripping it off with one swift motion, causing Maya to emit a blood-curdling scream herself as she jumped away from her assailant.
"You dirty griá poutána, how dare you!", Maya cried out, as the wizard began to cackle loudly at her comrade, who desperately tried to put out the flames by rolling on the floor.
"I don't know what she called you, but I like it!", the old man said between laughs, causing the slightest of grins to show on Ophelia's face after she had spit out Paine's claw, as she herself found the situation they were in to be quite amusing, though she would never admit that.
"How dare YOU, you little period stain, trying to set us up? You're 200 years too early to try and trick me, especially if you got the stench of dying dwarf all over you, hussy.", Ophelia retorted, causing Maya to bare her fangs at her with a growl.
"That reminds me, how'd you figure out that they are going to attack us, old man?", she asked Ignis, who had stopped his laughter and was now wiping away tears with his robe.
"Eh? Oh, that! I figured it out the moment they asked to shake hands. Seeing as all of you beastkin immediately refused to do that with me, it was more than suspicious, don't you think?", came the answer, which caused Ophelia to break her facade, bursting into laughter herself.
"Oh Smaragdina, bless this moron!", she yapped, holding her belly in laughter.
"Ignoring us? Very well. Skeletons, take the head of the wizard!", Michaíl, who had risen back to his feet as the flames went out, and was now covered in burn scars and bald spots, yelled out, causing two segadors to jump out from behind a rock.
"AGH! Segadors! TEGO!", Ignis yelped, slamming his staff into the ground with all his might as he released the
"I'm still here as well, ya know!", Maya shouted as she grabbed her metal pole, and slammed her bloody arm-stump into its tip with a sickening squish, before quickly retracting it, causing a fountain of blood to spurt forth.
However, the blood did not just splatter all across the floor, but stayed in place, forming a scarlet-coloured blade at the tip of the pole, turning it into a scythe. Shortly after this, the blood on her stump began to clump, and a new forearm started to form in its place.
"Eugh, not only a hybrid, but the blood-element? Should have cauterized your arm as I tore it off. I'm getting old after all, eh?", Ophelia cringed at the sickening display.
"WELL, WE STILL GOT SOME TIME, DON'T WE?", Ophelia growled, her eyes starting to glow as if set ablaze and her mouth now emitting smoke as she channelled her anima.
"There it is! I knew we were going to be the ones to hit the jackpot! Serves that old sack of bones and those cat-bastards right! Now show me the might of the beastly dragon!", Maya yelled and jumped forward to deal the second strike of the battle.
"I got your back, Maya-!", Michaíl yelled out, but before he could do anything, another fireball made its way towards him, exploding next to him on the ground. In a split second, he managed to procure a wall of ice between himself and the explosion. He looked at the source of the projectile, and saw the wizard, still behind the barrier, onto which the two skeletons hacked relentlessly with their blades, though to no avail.
"So much for surprise attacks, eh? But ice? Seriously? One bad match-up after the other, it seems.", Ignis sighed while twirling his stuff, before whacking one of the segadors with his staff, cracking its skull.
"SKELETONS! FALL BACK!", Michaíl barked at them, as he saw how effective the wizards attack was.
"You...who are you? A mere spellcaster shouldn't be able to damage a segador with a physical attack!", the lykan gnarled at the wizard, who absent-mindedly brushed the non-existent dirt off his robe.
"I am Ignis the Grey, bane of all undead and scorcher of werewolves!", he answered mockingly with a bow.
"Now then, shall we start as well?", he asked, conjuring another fireball outside of his bubble.