Awarang, a small elven town in Gretharea Kingdom, 56 Gearro 3982

Were they enemies?

I realized that I had stopped my run once I saw those obscure figures. The four children behind me had done the same thing. Should we continue our run?

“They are the elven guards,” the librarian’s daughter said excitedly. “They are here to protect us. We are safe!”

She was right. Now that they were closer, I could see that these figures were the elven guards from their uniformed armor, seven of them. I still could not see their face clearly, but they were the elven guards alright. I let out a relieved sigh.

“Watch out!” The front most elven guard shouted while he pointed to my right side.

I turned my head and saw an undead wolf dashed to our location… probably a straggler from the battle against Wal’gon.

“DIE!” I shouted as I swung my hammer-axe diagonally to the monster. And… it missed. Damn!

The wolf dodged my attack, but… a sword pierced its side, halting its movement. The boy, to whom I gave the sword, managed to stab it from the side. Obviously, I would not waste this opportunity.

I swung my weapon again, vertically this time, from the top. And the axe part of my weapon cleaved the head of the undead monster… killing it instantly, although well, it was an undead… it had died already before.

My hammer-axe was stuck again. I had to use two hands and considerable effort to take it out from the monster’s head. I’d better not use the axe-side for now. We were lucky that there was only one straggler. If there were many and my weapon got stuck… I would be in really bad trouble.

“Are you okay, Kids?” One of the elven guard shouted that question when they came closer. The voice was quite familiar…

“Yeah… We are fine now, Maika-ka,” I responded.

“Khael? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me alright,” I said. “We are alright. But, there were many victims behind us… children. These four are the only kids that survived that damn attack from the damned undeads.”

My face turned dark when I remembered that merciless assault to the helpless kids. If only we got there a little bit earlier.

“No… how… how many died?” Maika asked with pale face. “My sister? Is my sister alright?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. And then, turning my head to the kids I asked, “What about you, kids?”

The librarian’s daughter said to the guards with pale face, “We were fourteen before the attack… but, but… now we…” She sobbed and could not continue her answer.

“My sister?”

“She was not with us,” said the boy beside me. “She went earlier with a pair of dawn elf twins. They said they wanted to practice [Ealong] earlier.”

“Oh, thank God. She should be safe in that dojo,” said Maika. “But ten children… these casualties…”

“… were very bad,” said another guard. “Damn that dwarven oracle! Why couldn’t she predict this catastrophe earlier?”

“We can’t do anything about that. It is lucky enough we have one oracle here in the town,” said another guard.

“Is it true… an oracle told you about the attack?” I asked curiously. I knew from the history books that there were some people who had the strange ability of precognition, a magic-like ability that could not be learned or trained. Those people were called pramualle… oracles. But, I didn’t know that there was an oracle in this town.

“A dwarven oracle,” said Maika. “Her precognition ability is not very strong. She only knew about the attack this mid afternoon, not very long before it happened. And when we also count the time it takes for her dwarven messengers to tell us…”

“There was a dwarf there… still fighting the monsters when we left,” the boy beside me cut her words in worried tone, pointing at where we were before.

“Ah yeah,” I responded, not that worried about the dwarf’s struggle. He was a dwarven miner after all.

“Tell us about it,” said Maika.

“He was talking about a dwarven miner called Wal’gon. He was with me when we saw the monsters attack the children. We tried to help but… we could save only these four. He stayed behind, fighting against the undead monsters.”

“Chelva, Olyo, Hifrant… You three go there and help the dwarf. Also, try to recover and protect the remains of the fallen children.” Maika quickly gave order. Three of the guards immediately dashed away from the group once they heard that… moving to the direction we left the dwarf.

“Where did these undeads come from, Maika-ka?” I asked the question that had been disturbing me since I saw those monsters.

“I don’t know,” said Maika. “If they were just elven undeads, I would say some necromancers broke into the town graveyard, took the corpses, and revived the dead bodies. But the undead monsters we encountered on the way, although they were just low level ones… It was hard to believe that they were gathered from inside the town walls…”

“But it’s impossible to smuggle the dead bodies of those monsters into the town. The gates are tightly guarded,” said another guard.

“These undead monsters are here, inside the town,” said Maika. “And since it is unlikely that they were originally from inside the town, there must be a way to bring them inside.”

“How did the Bhalafaeth bring the monsters inside the town nine days ago?” I asked. “Perhaps they are now using the same…”

“Nope. Definitely not,” cut Maika confidently. “The monsters outbreak at that time was a simple attack on the Tamer’s Association, which were holding a special trade inside the town. Those bastard terrorists simply poisoned the association’s guard and let out the monsters.”

Another guard said, “Hey, come to think of it. The oracle’s messenger said that the troubled zones for today are the outer south district and here, the inner north-west district. Does that mean…”

“Damn! The graveyard is in the outer south,” said Maika. “So that is…”

“And the postal-service is in this district,” I said with pale face. “That was really clever…”

“What do you mean?” asked Maika.

“Postal-service! They sent the monsters from outside the town using spatial delivery window!” said a guard who seemed to have the same idea with me.

“The spatial delivery window cannot… Oh damn it!” As she was about to argued against the idea, Maika seemed to suddenly see the light.

The magic window in the postal-service could not be used to transfer living creature. But in this case, the enemies did not need to transfer living monsters. Instead, they only needed to transfer dead monsters. And the necromancers here could simply reanimate them.

Maika gritted her teeth and quickly made a decision. “Jereo, Kunyanera… You two escort these kids to the library. It should be safe there. Balkirey… You go with me to the postal-service.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” said one of the guards assigned as our escorts… a female dusk elf carrying a scary halberd. “Follow us, Kids!”

We ran again, following the two guards running in front of us. The library was not very far now. I could even see the roof of the library already. But…

“Enemies!” said the female guard. “Get ready for battle, Jereo!”

Many undead monsters suddenly appeared around us… from behind trees and bushes. It was an ambush.

“Don’t stop here, Nera!” responded the other guard, a male half elf carrying sword and shield. “Keep moving forward. These are just weak cannon fodders.”

“Right!” said Nera, swinging her halberd to decapitate an elven zombie while doing so. “Keep following us kids!”

The two elven guards were in front of us, dispatching the enemies easily as we kept moving forward. The enemies that attacked this time were pretty much similar to the one we faced previously: slow moving zombies, the awkward skeletons, vicious undead sragallae, and the cat-sized undead rats.

Without saying anything, the boy and I took the role of protecting the sides. The boy moved to the left side of the group, while I moved to the right. Not that we had many things to do… the only enemies I faced so far were a few numbers of undead rats which was really easy to handle.

“Watch out!” Jereo, the guard, suddenly shouted to Nera.

Something that moved really fast blitzed to the female guard, attacking her with great ferocity. Nera attempted to dodge the attack. But her attempt was not really successful. A sword pierced her left shoulder, penetrating her metal armor as if it were made of soft wood.

“Damn Bhalatoyol!” Nera shouted and swung her halberd with one hand, forcing the attacker to jump back.

The attacker, a shadowy figure with black outfit with tree-like white symbols on the chest part, let out ugly laugh and jumped away, disappearing in the darkness.

“Don’t chase!” Jereo warned, while his sword pierced the head of a zombie which tried to attack Nera.

“I know,” said Nera, gritting her teeth and slashing the undead monsters around her ferociously to release her anger. Her wounded shoulder didn’t seem to weaken her at all.

“The Bhalafaeth is behind all of this?” I asked as we moved forward once more.

“Who else?” replied Jereo. He bashed a skeleton’s head with his shield as he was saying that.

“Nobody…,” added Nera, hacking an undead wolf with her halberd. “… but crazy people…” She kicked a zombie head violently. “… like those damned terrorists…” She shoved the butt of her halberd up another zombie’s mouth. “… will do stupid things…” She cleaved an undead rat into two pieces with one handed slash. “… like this.”

Note to myself… I wouldn’t want to offend this female guard.

Soon, we reached the courtyard of the library. But this place was… a strange battle-zone. A man stood alone in front of the library’s front door against a great number of undead monsters. He was decimating any undead coming at him with magical icy arrows which unerringly always pierced the enemies’ heads.

“Father!” shouted the librarian’s daughter when she saw him.

“Don’t rush!” Jereo stopped the girl as she was about to dash to her father side. “We’ll get there, but not recklessly. Nera!”

“Yeah! I understand,” said Nera. “LASHOM! We are going there! Cover us!”

As she said that, she moved forward, forcefully opening a path by destroying the moving corpses separating us to the library’s front door. Jereo followed her closely, in no less destructive force against the undead enemies.

I hesitated for a moment. Wouldn’t it better if we moved someplace else? Why would these undead monsters attack this place anyway?

“Khael-ka…” the boy’s call took my hesitation out. I didn’t have time to contemplate about it now.

I rushed behind the guards, swinging my hammer-axe at the enemies they missed, staying true to my role… protecting the right side. I glanced at the other kids. The three girls were between me and the boy. They were fine, probably not mentally, but physically… they were fine. The boy, who was guarding the left side, was also alright. Surprisingly he wielded a pair of swords now… He probably took another sword from a fallen enemy.

It was surprisingly easy for us to get to the front door of the library. The two elven guards’ reliable charge surely was the main reason of that ease. However, Lashom’s accurate icy arrows should not be overlooked either. Many undead monsters which tried to attack from the sides were stopped by those infallible arrows.

When we got close to the front door of the library…

“Father!” The librarian’s daughter flew and hugged her father’s waist, crying uncontrollably.

“Good lord, guys! Sezbeiku pana! Thanks for escorting my daughter. Sezbeiku pana!” said Lashom, without stopping his chant for sending magic arrows to the horde of undeads. “What happened to the other kids? As I recall, sezbeiku pana, lots of them were planning to play together in the nearby meadow. Sezbeiku pana! I was about to go and get them when these abominations attacked.”

“These four were the survivors,” I simply said with grim face. The gruesome sight of massacred flashed back in my mind.

“No… don’t tell me those children… Damn! How many?”

“Ten children!” said Nera in a restrained yet furious tone. Her halberd decapitated a zombie as she said that.

“Ten? Ten children? And my daughter could have been one of them?! Bastard Corpse Lovers! SEZBEIKU BADAE!” Lashom screamed a magical chant furiously. His dark red eyes glowed eerily and countless ice arrows appeared around us… blitzing to the undead enemies in a barrage of great destruction… wreaking havoc among the multitudes of moving corpses.

Many of the monsters dropped down instantly once the magic arrows pierced their body. That was… awesome. Yet, I noticed that the accuracy and effectiveness of the attack significantly decreased. One arrow one victim… that was what Lashom did previously. But in this raging magic attack… in average each victim was pierced by two or three arrows. It was less efficient… but it was a flashy and incredible to see.

“Calm down, Lashom! You were wasting your mana,” said Jereo as he did a shield bash to a charging undead wolf. He seemed to notice the same thing as I did. “Why would these abominations attack this library by the way?” Great! That was what I wanted to know too.

“I don’t know,” said Lashom, trying to control his rage.

“Is there anything special that was kept here?” I asked as I kicked an undead rat away. Right now, we were all in front of the library’s front door. Lashom, Jereo, and Nera were protecting us. And together with the boy and me, we made a kind of half circular formation where the girls were guarded inside.

“Sezbeiku pana! Nothing that would attract necromancers,” answered the librarian, casting another ice arrow as he did so.

“What about the sealed section underground? You always forbid me to enter there.” I asked another question.

“It contained a grimoire, sezbeiku pana, which would be useless, sezbeiku pana, yet extremely dangerous for anyone, sezbeiku pana, but a warlock, or an evil archmage,” he said. Magic arrows kept coming from this red-eyed librarian. How much mana did he have?

“An infernal grimoire?” I asked in surprise. Damn! If I had known about it before, I would have surely chosen a different magic specialization.

“Sezbeiku pana! It was sealed with an advanced architecture magic. Sezbeiku pana! Nobody could take it unless the library was demolished completely. Sezbeiku pana!”

“Wait! If these damned undead monsters are sent to attack here… doesn’t it mean that there is a warlock or an archmage in their side?” Jereo suddenly said something that brought a horrible idea in my mind.

“Warlock? In their side? Shit! Shit, shit, shit!” I furiously swore. “I had thought that it was strange they kept sending weak enemies like these monsters rather than a few strong ones.”

“What’s wrong?”

“If there is a warlock involved, this must be for a demon rising ritual. These corpses were for demon rising ritual,” I bleakly told them my deduction.

As if to confirm my suspicion, six ghastly figures appeared behind the mass of the undead monsters. All of them wore something like dark overcoats or robes with white tree-like symbols on their chest. Four held skull-tipped staffs, one equipped a sword, and the other one carried a demonic looking rod.

“Damned Bhalatoyol!” Nera spontaneously cursed those people.

“That is… Damn it! How can’t I see that?” Lashom groaned. “Get inside, Kids!”

The two younger girls pushed open the front door of the library and moved inside immediately, followed directly by the boy and Lashom’s daughter.

“Girl! My blade!” I said to the librarian’s daughter, who immediately gave the slingshot blade at me before entering the building. I did not have any plan to go inside the library. Nope. Getting enclosed inside a building when there were enemies trying to break in from the outside was not my idea of being safe. The image of people trapped inside a burning building came to my mind when I thought about it. If worse came worse, I could play dead outside…

“It’s dangerous, Khael!” Lashom warned me.

“Yeah… It would not that much different inside, if you three died out here,” I replied, as I dropped my hammer axe, took a bullet, and prepared to shoot with my slingshot.

Meanwhile, the four necromancers of the enemies’ side chanted something incomprehensible from my standing place. And surprisingly, the fallen undead monsters started to rise again.

I shot a nearby rising zombie. My bullet penetrated its forehead but it did not stop the monster.

“Damn!” I swore. These rising undeads were directly controlled by the necromancers. They were much slower and weaker, but brain was no longer their weakness. They would keep moving even after I cut their heads and chopped their bodies to many parts.

“Kill the necromancers! Sezbeiku pana, sezbeiku pana, sezbeiku pana…,” said Lashom, sending three ice arrows to three of the necromancers.

Surprisingly, the sword wielding enemy moved in front of the necromancers and blocked the arrows with his thin sword. That was an amazing swordsmanship… which was spoiled by the man’s infuriating laugh.

“That annoying bastard!” Nera roared and dashed heatedly to the direction of that sword wielding person. Her halberd wreaked havoc against the undead monster standing between her and her target.

I took an aim at one of the necromancers and shot my bullet… and it failed to hit him. The enemy swordsman cut it too with great accuracy. How could he do that in a dim light like this?

“Move aside, Nera! Sezbeiku bwala!” Lashom shouted… and a spiky ball of ice as big as a bowling ball appeared in front of him. When he pointed his fingers to the necromancers’ direction, the spiky ice ball blitzed in a great speed and rotation, literally blowing away anything in contact with it.

It was lucky that Nera jumped aside when she heard Lashom’s warning, or else she would be blown away too by the incredible impact of the magic spear.

The spear failed to damage the necromancers though. The swordsman managed to destroy it with the slash of his blade, even if he was thrown away by the impact.

I didn’t miss that small chance. My next bullet zoomed to the necromancer I was aiming previously before the swordsman could recover from the impact.

Smack…! A loud voice was heard when my bullet directly hit the head of the necromancer, forcing the corpse controller to drop down instantly… either unconscious or died. Well, who cared about that bastard? The image of the children’s death was still fresh in my memory.

As the necromancer collapsed, some of the controlled undeads dropped down too. Great, now three more… nope, two more…

Right after my bullet hit the necromancer’s head, an ice arrow from Lashom’s magic pierced the forehead of another one. That was simply… incredible, to send an arrow straight after hurling such a strong spell… How powerful was this librarian? Should I use my [Matjiwa] to check him?

No. It was not the time. There were still enemies there. I quickly took an aim at another necromancer, but something unexpected happened.

The dead bodies of the undead enemies suddenly emitted dark smoke-like substance which gathered at one point in front of the one carrying demonic rod. Damn! That must have been the warlock. I should have taken care of that person first.

I quickly changed my aim and shot the warlock. My bullet and an ice arrow flew straight at the warlock’s head. It seemed that Lashom had the same way of thinking.

But our attack failed. Both my bullet and Lashom’s magic arrow seemed to hit an invisible wall. That warlock set a damned barrier around his body. Shit! Barrier was supposed to belong to restoration magic, not infernal. Did he use an enchanted item? But they are very expensive…

A loud clang distracted my attention… and irritation. Nera’s halberd met with the swordsman’s weapon. She managed to reach him and forced him into a melee battle. Wait… that impossibly quick movement, and the way the swordsman was thrown back… how strong was that female guard? She was much… much stronger than what she had shown previously. And she was already strong before that.

“Damn it, Nera! To enter berserk mode at such time…” Jereo cursed to see her like that. Berserk mode… that was what happened when an elf ignored everything including pain, safety, and even life to bring down the enemy. Shit! That was… amazing.

“Watch out!” Two voices suddenly shouted at Nera… from both Lashom and Jereo.

A monstrous clawed arm appeared from the gathering smoke in front of the warlock and pierced Nera’s ribs. And before she could do anything, another monstrous clawed arm appeared, gripped her neck, and broke it as if it were just a thin twig.

“NO!” The scream came from Lashom, Jereo, and me.

A barrage of bullets and ice arrows flew to the hideous figure which appeared following its two deadly arms. Those ammunitions bounced away harmlessly when they hit the creature’s body. Were we doomed?

No! I refused to believe that.

I needed to concentrate. That orc-like face and tusks, the excessively large all-black eyes, the stubby horns, the huge muscular body, the disproportionate limbs, the granite-like skin… I had read about this. This revolting monster was just a low ranked demon, a Bhuto. I knew that even the lowest rank, if it were a demon, it would still be too much for me… for us. But still, there must be a way to defeat this demon.

The bhuto charged forward in a shambling, unsteady gait.

Jereo charged forward to meet it. His shield protected him from its powerful arm swing. But he was still thrown back, losing in power… and size. The monster was more than twice as large as him after all.

“Sezbeiku tomba!” Lashom shouted. A magical ice lance zoomed and crashed against the monster’s face, stopping it for a moment.

I used that instant to cast [Matjiwa] at the demon. I felt a throbbing headache and great strain over my eyes. Fortunately it lasted just for one or two seconds. Better still, I managed to acquire a great amount of information about the demonic monster.

“DIE!” Jereo shouted as he jumped and swung his sword with great power at the still-stunned monster’s neck.

There was a loud clang… the sword bounced and the demon’s neck was fine. I knew it would be pointless. From the information I acquired, I knew that the demon bhuto was idiotic and violent. The problem was… it was also highly resistant to physical and magical attack of most elements, except light and fire.

The demonic monster had recovered from its condition and slapped Jereo’s body hard, slamming it into the ground. As it was about to stomp the guard’s body…

“Sezbeiku bwala!” A rotating spiky ball of ice hit the demon’s stomach, hurling it back and sending it down on its back.

But it didn’t save Jereo’s life. The enemy’s swordsman appeared suddenly and stabbed Jereo’s heart. His sword penetrated the guard’s armor as if it was nothing.

“NO! SEZBEIKU TOMBA!” Lashom screamed in anger. A great ice lance zoomed to the swordsman’s direction. But with annoying laugh, he easily somersaulted sideways to evade the attack.

The demon sat up groggily and was hit by the evaded ice lance right at its chest. It roared in anger, but it didn’t seem to be hurt at all. I was not surprised. I knew its sense of pain was almost zero. In fact, I knew most of its senses were bad. The sensitivity of its sense of smell, hearing, taste, and touch was really bad. Its sight was also not very good. It mostly depended on its eyes’ ability to see aura to detect its prey.

It was pointless for me to attack the demon right now. But that swordsman… I sent my last two bullets at the swordsman but he easily blocked them with his sword. Damn! Now, I was running out of ammunition.

Wait! The swordsman was in the range of attack of the demon, but why did the demon seem to ignore him? Why wasn’t he afraid of the demon?

Once the question appeared in my mind, the answer immediately appeared too. It was because the swordsman was in a party with the warlock. Since the demon was a low ranked one, the summoner could in some way protect himself, and his party, by disguising their aura. Their aura! That was it!

I quickly used my [Silly Sight] magic. I hoped this would work. A colorful ball of light flew in extremely fast speed to the demon which was trying to stand up.

As the ball hit it, the monster’s eyes flashed white for a second. Nothing else seemed to happen.

“Kekekeke… AKHH…!” The swordsman, who was letting out his annoying laugh, suddenly stopped laughing… as the demon grabbed his head and squeezed it till it burst.

“Lashom-ka! Send the demon to the warlock!” I quickly said. My skill had changed the colors in the monster’s eyes. However, the change was random. It was very likely that it changed the aura color of the terrorists into non-friendly color in the demon’s eyes. But, I needed to be extremely lucky if it changed our auras’ color into the friendly one.

“Nice job, Khael! Sezbeiku bwala!” Another rotating spiky ball of ice zoomed and crashed against the demonic monster’s body, sending it to the remaining group of warlock-necromancers. The demon’s body collided with the two necromancers, sending all three of them down to the ground.

The frustrated demon roared as it and grabbed one of the necromancers. Painful scream echoed loudly as the demon’s arms violently tore apart the necromancer’s body.

The other necromancer and warlock scrambled away in fear. But the demon managed to grab the necromancer’s legs.

What happened next was a brutal way of murder. The demon swung the grabbed leg and slammed the necromancer’s body to the ground… again and again, until it didn’t look like a humanoid creature anymore.

I heard a murmured, incomprehensible chant. It was coming from the warlock.

The monster stopped its raging assault and looked at the warlock, ready to charge. But then smoke appeared from all over the demon’s body… And as it roared its defiance, the monster quickly disappeared into dark formless smoke. It was… un-summoned.

As I was still dumbfounded, trying to take in the anticlimax ending of the demon, I could hear another murmured chant from the warlock.

“Sezbeiku tomba!” Lashom sent a large ice lance which crashed against and finally broke the warlock’s magic barrier.

“Yeah!” I shouted in satisfaction.

But, the warlock didn’t stop his long incantation. And, a whirling black hole appeared not far from the warlock.

“Sezbeiku pana!” Lashom casted a magic arrow, but… the spell fizzled. “Damn! I’m running out of mana. Stop him with your slingshot, Khael! He tried to open infernal gate.”

I tried to take out ammunition from my ammo pouch. But it was empty. I remembered sending the last two bullets to the swordsman. Damn!

“I ran out of ammo.”

Lashom paled. “Damn it!”

“I’ll stop him!” I said, dashing straight to the warlock. I would definitely stop him. I didn’t want to face another demon. Once was more than enough.

As I was close to the warlock, I sent out another [Silly Sight], hoping that it could distract him. The rainbow colored ball of light hit him straight at his face, lighting his eyes for a second. The whirling black hole changed into a dark blue one. Great! It was no longer infernal gate. But it would be better if there was no whirling hole at all.

I didn’t stop my run. In fact, I even accelerated it into my fastest sprint… and tackled the warlock. My body collided with his… sending both of us rolling on the ground.

“Genglaph dorona!” The warlock shouted.

A great force threw my body away, made me flying… straight to the whirling blue hole. Damn!

The last thing I did before I was sucked into the hole was throwing my slingshot blade to the warlock. I noticed with great satisfaction that my blade pierced his chest… for a second.

As I was sucked into the whirling hole, I realized a terrible thing. Here I was, thrown into the unknown… without any weapon…