Black Bloods swarmed the streets of Hensdrake massacring what little pockets of resistance they faced. The Veiled Ones broke into windows and ripped down doors invading the homes of terrified families. One by one, women, children, and men were dragged out of their homes and eaten alive. Cries of the innocent took hold of the suffering town. The Veiled Ones bathed the streets of Hensdrake in blood.

Zrokaan, Kabaal, Rahim, Ana, and Solomon along with a group of soldiers, rushed out of the tavern with swords in hand.

“What is your plan, my Baron!?” Rahim frantically asked, assessing the situation outside.

“Rahim you and your men go secure the western side of town, “ Zrokaan ordered, “Kabaal, you take your soldiers to the east.”

Rahim and Kabaal wasted no time, upon hearing their orders they rallied whatever remaining soldiers they had and split into two groups with one going to the east and another going to the west. Ana and Solomon however, stayed with the Baron awaiting whatever order he commanded of them.

“What do you want us to do, Zrokaan?” Ana asked, watching the two groups head to different directions.

“Ana, you go west. Solomon, you go east. Help in securing the town,” Zrokaan ordered, placing his hand on Ana’s shoulder. “Stay safe. The both of you.”

Ana furrowed her brow, she glanced over at Solomon seeing he also stared at the Baron with a puzzled stare. “And you? Where will you be going?”

“I’m heading back to the barracks to get the Runic. If I can control the Black Bloods then I can stop the attack,” Zrokaan explained, making his way across the street heading to an alley-way. There he would slip inside and use the backstreets to navigate Hensdrake, it was likely the only safe option for Zrokaan.

“He will be safe, Ana,” Solomon reassured, planting a kiss on her cheek. “Now go, and fight well my love,” Solomon said, embracing Ana into a hug.

“I will always fight well, so I can come back to you,” Ana whispered.

The two parted and made way to their respective fights, Ana headed west, and Solomon headed east. The fight for Hensdrake was now.

Zrokaan’ eyes nervously trained forward through the cuts and corners of the narrow alleyways of Hensdrake. The barracks was not far but Zrokaan didn’t want to risk being spotted so he preferred to lay low in the shadows, holding still when he believed he heard Black Bloods nearby.

The sounds of battle erupted all throughout Hensdrake. Men and women both fought back against the overwhelming Veiled Ones. Using the sound of battle as cover, Zrokaan quickened his pace through the winding backstreets.

While turning the corner of a particular alley the Baron was stopped in his tracks. Ahead of him was a group of three Veiled Ones eating an unrecognizable corpse. They dug their long fingers into puncture wounds on the corpse’s torso and ate away at whatever bloody innards they could pull out. Their teeth mashed flesh and blood dripped from their lips down to the ground below.

Zrokaan couldn’t sit and wait for the creatures to finish their meal. He needed to reach the barracks to put an end to this attack. The Baron took a deep breath and readied himself for what he had to do. He unsheathed his blade with the speed of a snail, careful not to alert the creatures of his presence.

Holding the hilt of his sword tightly in his right hand in one swift motion Zrokaan lunged forward and thrusted the weight of his power to plunge his blade into the creature’s spine. The Black Blood let out a ghastly screech of pain dying instantly as the blade made an exit point at its chest.

Zrokaan placed his foot on the creature's back and leveraged his blade out of the corpse letting it drop to the ground below.

The Baron had little time to react as a second creature lunged at him, mounting his back and shoulders, stumbling backwards with its weight. The creature ripped through his black tunic and red shawl violently clawing at the Baron. A third creature charged at the Baron only to be smashed mid sprint by a kick to the chest, dropping it to the ground.

Zrokaan felt the creature mounted on him dig its fingers into his flesh, rearing in pain the Baron quickly came up with a plan. Without warning, Zrokaan slammed himself into the wall using the creature mounted on him as a pin cushion between him and the wall.

A ‘crack’ and ‘thud’ later, the Black Blood was laid on the ground, sprawling in pain. Zrokaan wasted no time and plunged his sword into the neck of the creature before it could get up.

Finishing off the Veiled One, he heard the sound of running behind him. Turning around in a surprise the third and final Black Blood rushed him. With no time to react all he could do was turn his body to its direction. The monster slammed him viciously into the wall.

“Aaugh…” was all he managed to gasp from his lips.

The creature lifted Zrokaan and tossed him like a ragdoll to the floor, slamming the stunned Baron on his back. The Black Blood pinned him to the ground with its own body on top. Its mashing teeth only inches from the Baron's face, spitting vile blackened ooze with every attempt to bite into him.

Using what little energy he had left, the Baron used his forearm and pushed it into the neck of the creature holding its face back as far as possible while using his free hand to repeatedly punch the Black Blood. The two struggled for mere moments before finally, the creature on top of the Baron no longer moved. It laid limp on the Barons forearm with blood leaking from the temple of its head.

Zrokaan pushed the creature off him, its body dropping lifelessly on the ground next to him. Zrokaan rolled onto his stomach and lifted himself off the ground glaring down at the final creature laid in its own blood.

“Fuck you,” he spat on its corpse and turned to grab his sword still by the wall.

The Baron left the corpses to rot and continued his way to the barracks, determined to put an end to this attack hopefully with the Runic’s power. Something he was yet unaware of how to wield, but in his mind it was worth the try.

Zrokaan reached the end of the backstreets and snuck the rest of the way to the barracks door, nudging it open with his shoulder. Walking into the dark room, Zrokaan heard the sounds of rummaging. A dark figure was digging around in the dresser next to his bed.

“Hey! Get away from the dresser,” Zrokaan ordered, raising his blood soaked sword up to the person.

The person stopped looking through the dresser and turned to look at Zrokaan. The face that turned to meet him was Gremoris, and cupped in his hand was the Runic, humming and glowing.

Zrokaan couldn’t believe his eyes. He was puzzled as to why Gremoris was holding the Runic. His eyes wandered down to gaze at the sickly green stone. Its symbol was illuminated in a pale light.

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“What do you think you're doing?” Zrokaan asked with disappointment

Gremoris said nothing. He simply began to approach Zrokaan.

“I command you to stop walking. I’m warning you.” Zrokaan said, gripping the hilt of his sword tighter.

Gremoris ignored his warnings and approached closer. While walking towards the Baron, Gremoris’s eyes rolled to the back of his head. The area around his sockets deepened with blackened veins. His skin bubbled violently, the sound of tearing flesh could be heard as five oozing tentacles ripped themselves out of his back to flail around aimlessly.

Zrokaan was frozen with fear. His eyes glued on the creature that was once Gremoris.

“You are in the way of the Great Plan Zrokaan,” the creature uttered in multiple voices at once. “You must die.”

Zrokaan widened his eyes in absolute shock, but no matter how much his mind screamed at him to turn and run he stayed and stood his ground. He tightened his grip around the hilt of his blade and swallowed a pained lump in his throat, “the Great plan?” Zrokaan asked.

The Baron got no response, instead, the creature stared at him for a moment. An eerie silence was shared between the two, but without warning, the creature lunged into a sprint towards him, flicking its oozing tentacles at beds, stools, and other obstacles that were in its way pushing them aside.

Zrokaan turned and slammed his shoulders into the door behind him running out of the barracks, taking a right down the sandy street. The street was riddled with corpses and bathed in blood, it looked like a battle had taken place. Yet, there were no soldiers or commanders laid on the ground. Only women, children, and the elderly. Zrokaan wanted to stop and mourn, his eyes watered with sadness. These were people he was supposed to protect, but all he could do was run.

Zrokaan’s chest heaved in pain from how heavy he was breathing. He was desperate to lose the monster chasing him. He took a quick and sharp turn down an alleyway between houses. He looked over his shoulder to see the creature was climbing on the walls crawling towards him, using its tentacles as legs much like a spider.

“Fuck that thing!!” Zrokaan screamed out, realizing sharp turns or quick maneuvering wasn’t going to save him.

Hearing the sounds of fighting, Zrokaan quickly took another turn down an alleyway sprinting as fast as he could back out to the mainstreet. Directly to his left, Kabaal, Solomon, and a handful of soldiers were fighting a group of Black Bloods.

“HEY!” Zrokaan shouted, waving his arms in the air, sprinting towards them.

Amongst the fighting, Kabaal heard shouting coming from behind. Wiping the blood from his face he turned to see the Baron sprinting towards them like a mad man, and to his surprise something was chasing him. “MY BARON!” he shouted back, getting Solomon’s attention.

Solomon’s eyes glossed over his shoulder seeing the Baron was in trouble. Without hesitation he left the fight and ran towards Zrokaan with sword in hand. Kabaal turned to the soldier next to him, placing his hand on his shoulder. “Hold them off, the Baron is in trouble!” he ordered, then took off running behind Solomon.

Seeing the two of them running at him, Zrokaan placed his right foot and pivoted his heel to turn his body a complete one eighty degrees in order to face the creature that was chasing him. He held the hilt of his sword firmly in both hands, bracing his shoulders forward.

The creature buried the sharp ends of its tentacles into the ground and leaped several feet into the air, lunging over Zrokaan and landing behind him with a heavy thud. Before Zrokaan could even turn and face the creature, he felt a violent thwack smash into the side of his head flinging him off his feet and sending him tumbling like a ragdoll in the dusty streets.

Coming from behind, Solomon swung his blade perfectly angled to the back of the creature's neck, but to his surprise the Black Blood motioned forward just out of the blade’s reach. In one quick motion it sent the back of its elbow to drive into Solomon’s face, cracking his nose and stumbling him.

Kabaal, noting the speed of the creature, decided to go for its lower body, using the momentum of his running he swung his sword for its right leg cutting the back of the distracted creature’s knee.

The pained screams of the monster echoed as Kabaal managed to injure it. In vile retribution it turned its attention to Kabaal who stood his ground face to face with it. “Come on you ugly fuck.,” he taunted.

The creature took his eyes off Kabaal and looked down to see black oily blood running down his leg. He growled at the sight of it then turned back to gaze his white pupiless eyes at the man that injured him. Without a word, the creature raised its many tentacles and shot them towards Kabaal, cracking them like whips towards him. Kabaal used his blade to block one of the tentacles but didn’t anticipate how powerful it would be. One whip sent his sword flying out of his hands, landing a few feet away. Now unarmed, Kabaal rolled out of the way of another oncoming tendril, playing cat and mouse with the angered Black Blood.

While it was distracted on Kabaal, Solomon wrapped his muscular arm around the creature's neck and plunged a dagger into its head. The blade penetrated into its skull down into gooey brain matter, but instead of killing it, like it would any other Black Blood, it only enraged it. Similar to a bull it thrashed around trying to get Solomon off its back, reaching its arms in a desperate panic to grab him.

Using the moment, Kabaal reached for his sword and ran towards Solomon to help but it was all just a ruse. The creature faked being distracted to get Kabaal a little closer. Without warning, a tentacle whipped at high speeds at Kabaal, cracking him right on the forehead, splitting his head open.

Instantly, Kabaal was dead.

“KABAAL!!!” yelled Solomon who was still desperately trying to hold on to the creature. He ripped the dagger out of its skull and repeatedly stabbed it over and over again, “WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!”

The Black Blood, completely unfazed by the repeated stabbings, plunged a tentacle into Solomon’s shoulder, ripping a hole the size of a quarter into his flesh. Searing pain shot all throughout his body as the tendril dug itself deeper into his wound. Through gritting teeth, Solomon reached for the dagger still lodged in the monster’s skull and yanked it out. Thinking quickly, he slashed the blade across the base of the oozing tendril completely cutting it off the creature.

A blood curdling scream of agony came from the monster's leaking lips. Its tentacles wriggled with pain allowing Solomon a chance to retreat..at least for a moment. Solomon felt a tendril whip around his ankle before he even managed to get a few feet away. “Wh-” he blurted before being violently dragged back to the creature on his stomach.

The Black Blood grinned, slowly dragging its prey back. “You can’t run,” it said in a cold and raspy tone. Without warning, its expression changed, hearing something behind it, it turned to look over its shoulder. It was Zrokaan, running up and stabbing the entirety of his sword down to the base of the blade into the creature’s flesh.

The creature stumbled forward and dropped onto a knee, using its remaining tentacles to keep itself balanced and from falling. Blackened blood poured over its back and chest from the impale of the sword, yet the creature was still miraculously breathing.

“Solomon! You alright?!” Zrokaan asked, rushing to pick him up off the ground.

“I’ve been a hell of alot better,” Solomon gritted through his teeth, being helped up. “It got Kabaal.” Solomon said, jetting his eyes towards Kabaal’s lifeless corpse laid face down in the middle of the sandy street.

“Baron!” shouted voices from behind Zrokaan and Solomon. It was eight of Kabaal’s remaining warriors from the fighting to retake Hensdrake, they were rushing down the street to help.

Relief washed over Zrokaan knowing with more manpower they could finally take down this monster that was once Gremoris. However, the creature had other plans.

Despite bleeding from multiple wounds, the creature used its tentacles to stand itself back up. It glared at Zrokaan with its white pupiless eyes sharing a moment of eerie silence once more, then without a word it turned and ran. Long before the soldiers even managed to get to Zrokaan and Solomon.

“What the hell was that thing?!” asked a soldier between heavy breaths.

“I’ve never seen a Veiled One like that..” added another.

Solomon looked at Zrokaan who was still staring off into the direction the creature fled to. “That thing looked like Gremoris..”

“It is.”

“You’re telling me people can turn into these things?” Solomon’s own question frightened him. It was a wicked thought for him, that anyone could become a Veiled One.

“I’m not sure,” Zrokaan said, turning to look at Solomon, “but he stole the Runic.”

Solomon saw the very moment hope drained from Zrokaan’ eyes. That was something he believed he would never see, there was something so off putting by the glazed stare Zrokaan wore. Solomon raised his uninjured arm and took a firm hold of the Baron’s shoulder giving it a tug and squeeze. “This is not the end, we WILL get it back.”

The sound of a horse's hooves clicking on the street was heard fast approaching the group. Coming from around the bend leading to the very outskirts of the town was a lone scout on horseback, galloping towards the group.

Slowing the horse to a full stop using the reins, the scout stopped right next to the group, his eyes scanned the surviving soldiers, until he noticed the Baron. “My Baron, I was looking for you. I came to report from the eastern frontline. The wards are up,” the scout paused for a moment, clearing his throat. “But we had no hand in it. They just reappeared out of thin air.”

The soldiers jumped and celebrated with swords in the air the moment they heard the scout’s news, but this only opened up another handful of questions for Zrokaan who stood more puzzled than before.

“Thank you scout, for the good news, let the others in Hensdrake know.” Zrokaan turned to look over his shoulder at Kabaal, “also get your regiment’s second in command to have a proper burial for Kabaal. He died an honorable death.”

“Yes, my Baron, right away,” without another word, the man on horseback whipped the reins of his horse and took off galloping down the street.