CREATURE OF THE NIGHT

Two weeks had passed quickly since Lynne and the monkey left the southernmost part of the Rolyhard Kingdom, moving northward. On their way, they stayed out of the cities and public places and mainly moved through forests and mountains, which accounted for their low speed. While traveling during the day, Lynne would immerse himself in studying profound truths behind ‘Elemental Blade’, still trying to bridge the short gap between the rank of an Archmage and Dao Magus. At night he’d take out materials and herbs he’d stolen to try and concoct pills and potions, but each and every attempt ended as an utter failure. If other Alchemists knew the way Lynne was trying to concoct potions and pills, they would think he was a madman; after all, most consider it an impossibility to do anything without a proper workshop – furnace, smelter, grinder, and myriad of other things, including assistants. In addition, Lynne’s control over fire was still slightly sub-par, as he couldn’t control temperature with perfect precision, which is why nigh every Alchemist uses furnace to filter out the tedious process.

While under the barrage of curses and insults from the monkey, Lynne couldn’t say anything back. Even he himself felt it was pathetic considering just how many times he had failed, but the light at the end of the tunnel was there, as he almost ran out of the ingredients. On the fifteenth night since their departure from the southern parts, they were camping in a rather dark and thick forest, laced with ancient trees and colorless wedges and bushes. The ground beneath was creepily dry, with countless cracks spreading about in a web-like fashion. Yet, the trees appeared lush, as their branches struck out for dozens of meters, intertwining with the branches from the other trees. Leaves were vibrant, but extremely dim, blocking off any ray of sunshine directed at the forest. Lynne paid it no attention as he hunched over the small campfire, one of his fingers creating strange seals mid-air as the whisks of red flame were left behind as a trail. A short moment later, one meter long herb that was floating above the campfire suddenly burned and, within a blink, turned to gray ash. Dejected, Lynne nearly screamed out into the sky; Two hundred! I have failed two hundred times in a row! Do I really have absolute shit of a talent in Alchemy?!

“Again?” the monkey snickered from one of the branches above. “Damn kid, even I wouldn’t have been so bad.”

“Shut up!” Lynne growled, his eyes bloodshot red. “Screw Alchemy! I’m gonna become a Monk instead!”

“What, you wanna shave your head that badly?”

“I’ll skin your skimpy butt and make a stinky soup out of it!”

“Ye, ye, ye…” although the monkey snickered at him, even the little creature was surprised; from what he knew, most of Alchemists, even those utter beginners, would need at most one hundred or so attempts to concoct the first finished product, however low in quality it may be. Lynne had doubled that, and it made absolutely no sense, considering that his innate talents and Gifts nigh guarantee that he can become an amazing Alchemist. Of course, what neither the monkey nor Lynne knew was that working without proper tools was akin to increasing difficulty by at least a thousand times. Even the greatest of Alchemists wouldn’t boldly claim that they can concoct a pill or a potion by relying on a cheap, campfire and no tools to speak of.

“… why is it like this?” Lynne suddenly fell onto the floor and crumbled like a little child, sniveling and sucking on his thumb. “Is it because of that time when I spanked Liu even though I didn’t know he was a guy? Or is it because I saw Sylvia bathe even though she was married? Or is because of that night in brothel that everyone has sworn to never speak of again? Why? Why is life so cruel to me?”

“… boy, what the hell did you do in your life?” even the monkey found himself flabbergasted listening to Lynne’s woes.

“Can I become a bird?” Lynne suddenly said, his voice rather creepy. “They are so free… they don’t care about the herbs and about Alchemy. As the matter of fact, they just eat and poop. I want that life! Ah, perhaps if I swing myself off the edge of the world, I may be reborn as a bird...” He’s really going insane…

“Cheer up,” the monkey said, his voice cracking as he tried to hold back from bursting out in laughter. “Let’s forget about the Alchemy for now. How about you try to comprehend that spell of yours, huh?”

“~Auuuu~,” Lynne suddenly howled out in pain, seemingly withering away with age when the monkey said those words; Just how many soft spots do you actually have?

“Hm?” the monkey’s expression suddenly turned serious and even Lynne stopped his whimpering immediately as he leapt onto his feet, his expression extremely serious. “Can you discern how many?”

“Twelve?” Lynne muttered lowly. “Hm… they’re not on our path.”

“It’s strange that other people would come into this forest.” the monkey speculated.

“Wanna go and check it out?” Lynne asked.

“Hm.” the monkey nodded and then began swinging from branch to branch as he vaulted towards the source of the voices.

Lynne quickly extinguished the campfire and covered it up with earth before following the monkey. They had spent roughly three days in the forest, and this was the first time they even discovered a sign of another life – let alone person’s. Although they were relatively far away, due to the monkey’s spacial awareness, as well as Lynne’s own due to the Void Dagger, they were able to easily pinpoint the location of the voices. As they approached, they slowed down and muffled their movements, so much so that even people standing right next to them wouldn’t be able to hear them. As the forest was extremely dark, they could only rely on their other senses to move forward; suddenly, in the distance, they could distinguish flickering lights, and they approached cautiously, maintaining safe distance.

“Damn, no wonder Brother Lu didn’t want to come here,” a female voice broke out from the group. “This place is absolutely horrid… how the hell did we get lost?”

“Humph, it’s because of him, of course,” a rather coarse and deep voice of a man broke out. “Look at him, still pretending he has a clue as to where we are.”

“We’re not lost!” another voice broke out, guy’s as well, but much younger. “I’m certain we’re moving in the right direction and should be reaching the cave soon.”

“Heh, keep dreaming kid.” the coarse voice replied. Thirteen… Lynne thought to himself. The owner of that kid-like voice is odd… there are almost no spacial fluctuations around him. Unless the person is dead or able to completely lock the space around them, that should be impossible. But… to actually lock the space around himself… just what rank he is? Definitely not like the rest, who all appear to be around my rank or slightly higher. Lynne quickly signaled the monkey to come down and sit next to him.

“That kid, you get the weird feeling as well?” the monkey creased his brows as he spoke in a low tone. “I can barely feel he’s even there.”

“Ahm,” Lynne nodded, his expression exceedingly grim. “Although he appears to be Archmage like me, he’s definitely not.”

“I get a real creepy feeling when I try to inspect him through space,” the monkey shuddered suddenly as if doused in ice-cold water. “However, I don’t think he specializes in the spacial awareness, but is instead using some sort of a ‘Spell Art’. Otherwise, he’d long since discovered us.”

“Let’s keep watching for now...” the monkey nodded and the two went silent immediately.

The group of thirteen moved with slow steps, following frail-looking youth. He appeared to be roughly fifteen, no taller than one-fifty, his back hunched, and his hair extremely greasy and short, dyed brown. His eyes also seemed vacant despite the slight radiance from them. While walking, he firmly held onto the unfurled parchment, studying it with great focus. Twelve others followed his steps, scowling from time to time, the oldest of which appeared to be roughly thirty years old bald man donning black, leather armor. The leading youth suddenly stopped, examining left and right with his eyes, before moving slightly right and pressing forward, through the tall wedges between the trees.

“That’s it,” one of the young girls suddenly exclaimed, her face pale. “I’m going back. We’re definitely lost, so it’s best if we just go backwards instead of going even deeper into the creepy place.”

“I agree with Lina,” another girl spoke. “We’ve already been here for two days, and we’re also running short on supplies. Let’s just go back.”

“Yeah, let’s go back.”

“We should really go back.”

Other youths were quick to agree as they stopped moving forward. Lynne and the monkey carefully observed the leading youth, and as the seemingly frail kid lifted up his head, they felt chills down their spines; his eyes were pitch-black, without any other color within them, and his cheeks suddenly contorted, forehead growing larger and appearing to be cascading from top to bottom. Sounds of bones cracking suddenly echoed out as they saw the youth’s back suddenly dance, his clothes suddenly torn, with two sickle-like arms spurting out like branches into the air. The others from his group screamed out in dread and shock as they all took a few step backwards.

“Why leave now?” the kid – or rather the creature at this point – suddenly laughed maniacally as it spoke. “Ah, you could have just waited a few more hours. Now, now you ruined everything!” he screamed at the girl who first proposed to leave – Lina. “I was planning to simply sacrifice you, but now that you’ve angered me, I’ll skin you alive you little bitch!” Not good! Lynne exclaimed inwardly as his eyes shimmered with cold glint. The aura around the creature changed completely to that of dread, as its body was doused in black, flickering shadows. Lynne suddenly extended his right arm whereas a meter-long flaming blade appeared, its hilt steel-forged. Ignoring everything else, just as the creature leapt towards the group of twelve, he cast ‘Fiery Sweeps’ and bolted forwards like a bullet.

The creature was good two meters up in the air, descending, when it felt strong, fiery aura coming from its back. When it turned its head around, its eyes glimmered in shock; a newcomer was coming at it with immense speed and pressure, with flaming blade in tow. Unable to control its body midair, the creature suddenly shifted its two sickle-like arms upfront and took defensive posture.

As Lynne arrived in front of the creature, he swung his Elemental Blade at great speed, leaving behind arched trail of fire. The blade clashed with two sickles, causing sparks to blush up the dreadful night. The creature was sent flying backwards due to the impact, crashing through a tree and falling on the other side; Lynne was also sent flying due to backlash, but he was much better off, as he simply used the tree behind him as a propeller, pushing forward as he cast ‘Fiery Sweeps’ yet again, not caring about the grace and profound truths behind the spell. Under the shocked gazes of twelve pairs of eyes, he drew a brilliant arc through the air as the trail of golden, shimmering flames was left behind by him. He had absolutely no chance in defeating this creature head on, which is why he disregarded a broken rib and pushed forward; it wouldn’t take long for the creature to recover, and they definitely couldn’t escape during it.

As the creature struggled to regain its footing, it raised its head and saw Lynne falling like a meteor towards it, its blade shimmering with brilliant flames. It screeched in anger and swung its sickle-like arms whereas a black, shadow-forged arc of energy spurted out and began heading towards Lynne. As the brilliant flames and dark energy clashed, immense shockwave swept outwards, causing thick branches to bend backwards and wedges to tear from their roots. Lynne was immediately stopped as he felt immense pressure from the energy, twice as strong as his own. Gritting his teeth, he bent his body unnaturally midair, bridge-like, and released his blade. The dark energy pushed onward like a sword and cut through the trees and branches, fleeing towards the sky. Lynne felt his body fall and roused winds around him to help him land; by the time he did, the creature was already on its feet and was lunging at him. Lynne’s expression grew solemn as he felt fear pincer his heart. Taking a deep breath, he measured that the creature was mere three meters away, and would reach him within a blink. Within that blink, he summoned another ‘Elemental Blade’ - this one completely cyan, shimmering brilliantly as the cold frost swept outwardly from it. As he swung it forward, he also embedded whatever little he understood of the ‘Starcarrier’, ‘Spell Art’ he had gotten from the Headmasters pouch. ‘Starcarrier’s’ main purpose was to enhance another Spell Art, but as Lynne’s swing wasn’t any profound art, but merely a spell created on the spot, it flourished ever so stronger.

The icy blade and the creature’s sickles clashed, causing another massive shockwave, blowing apart two trees closest to the two. Even the twelve that were good ways off were unable to keep their footing and were flung backwards. The monkey stared in shock; not because of the shockwave, but rather because Lynne was still alive. The monkey realized that the creature Lynne was fighting was at least three times stronger than he himself was, yet Lynne was, however painfully, still holding his ground. This kid ain’t ordinary, alright… he thought as his eyes shimmered in profoundness.

Lynne felt extremely dreadful energy coming from the shockwave, so much so that it seemingly wanted to penetrate into his mind and cause utter madness. Biting his lip, he endured, as the two remained in a stalemate; the icy energy, enhanced by ‘Starcarrier’, was clearly being pushed back, but it didn’t break. The dark energy sweeping out from the sickle-like arms clearly had massive advantage and was pushing forward, but was still unable to break through the icy blade. The creature grew restless and angry, and screamed yet again into the sky. Just as the creature lifted its head, Lynne’s eyes suddenly glimmered; Now!

Within his mind, a picture of a small, simple dagger with slight, violet hue appeared, and a moment later he felt the cold blade within his sleeve as he pulled it out from the Pocket Ring. The blade suddenly disappeared, and the creature immediately appeared startled and tried to retreat backwards, as if it felt something was odd. However, it was but a speck too late; Celestial Void Dagger appeared right behind its head and pushed forward, piercing through its skull as if it were bread. The creature’s eyes widened, seemingly in disbelief as to how this little brat was able to kill it. Unwilling, it screamed one last time before its strange body lost balance and fell over with the creature drawing its last breath.