19/6/337

Audra

Audra and Vasuki both grabbed their weapons, and pulled up their boots as quick as they could, before running out of their tent. What they saw in front of them was what she imagined hell to be like. The smell of blood and decay was heavy in the air, like a thick mist weighing everyone down. The demons that were attacking were ones Audra had only ever seen in the memories from her ascender.

The demons attacking them were wolf-like demons, some on hind legs, others on all fours. Bone extruded from their skin seemingly at random. Noel and Selene ran past the two of them into the fray while they stood in fear.

“Look out!” Vasuki screamed, Audra turned around to see one of the demons in the middle of jumping at her. Luckily for her Vasuki had seen it coming and smacked it in the side of the head with the scales on his arm. It fell over on it’s side and immediately began to circle the pair. Audra turned at the sound of snarling to see another one on the opposite side of them. The pair of demons began to walk in a circle around them, Audra and Vasuki felt their backs hit each other.

“Stay calm.” Vasuki said, his voice was shaky and she could hear the fear seeping through, cold air escaped in small waves from behind her. The demon she faced began to lunge at them. Memories began to enter Audra’s mind, memories of a life that wasn’t her own. The first time she was learning to cut rope with water, these were those demons.

Audra called her magic, pulling the strings like a harpist, she felt the air bend to her will, the humidity accumulating itself into what she asked for. She could almost feel the demons breath on her face when water sliced through it’s neck. The demon fell to the ground it’s body beginning to fade. She looked back at Vasuki to see a spire of ice rising through the demon’s chest. Vasuki was breathing heavy, she almost didn’t realize she was as well, something clicked within her, some primal instinct she didn’t know was there. They nodded to each other before running into the outskirts of the battle, too caught up in the flurry of fur and steel to realize they had ran different directions.

Audra ran with a small body of water following close behind her. She threw it at one of the demons slicing it’s head in half vertically. She jumped on a demons back and stabbed it’s head as it fell underneath her. What was this energy? Was this her ascender? Could people just begin doing this? She was beginning to feel sick from the smell of demonic blood.

Standing straight Audra felt something whiz by her face, she looked back to see an iron stake embedded into another demon’s chest it’s skin was sizzling at the touch of iron. It fell on the ground and clawed at the stake like a panicked insect taking it's last breath. She looked back at the person who threw it to see Noel with his sword stuck through a demon’s jaws, more skin being fried under the touch of his blade. She heard a roar of pain, her heart dropped as she searched for Vasuki. A large structure of ice emerged from him, impaling three of the different demons. She made a beeline to the origin of the wave of ice, she ducked under a wave of fire loosing her grip on her sword. She reached for it before one of the demons jumped on her, she put her arm up to defend her, it’s teeth unable to pierce the hard scales inside of it’s maw. It's breath smelled like rot. She kicked the demon in the chest, then cut into it’s side with the water. She breathed heavily, the water no longer coming to her aid, she grabbed her sword and staggered to where Vasuki was.

Kayd stood with his back to Vasuki, blood seeped from his left forearm where he had been bitten. A demon had just been impaled on Kayd’s spear, he was protecting Vasuki as best he could, but they both look exhausted. Three long gashes ran down Vasuki’s shoulder, there was no cold air coming from him, he looked dazed. Audra knew this was Magic Exhaustion.

“Are you okay?” Audra asked.

“I’m...fine.” He claimed, that was a lie, she slapped his face a bit to get him to focus so he wouldn’t fall asleep. Audra looked around them. It was absolute chaos. There was no order, simply people and demons coming to clash. Blade and magic cutting through fur, claws and teeth shredding skin. Tents had burst into flames, people screamed in pain, demons whined.

A loud howl came from the forest, it caught the attention of all the other demons in the area and they began to scatter. The sound of something extremely heavy began to grow more distant.

“We need a head count, now!” Kayd yelled.

“Put your weapons down and help the wounded, the Varulv have made a permanent retreat!” A woman, possibly Cella ordered.

“We need someone over here!” Audra yelled.

“Bastards caught me...with my back turned.” He mumbled. Audra compressed the wound as much as she could.

The wound wasn’t too deep and would thankfully heal without any scarring or cause any unnecessary scale growth. They wrapped his arm with a tight cloth they got from the first aid kit that Cabana had packed for them, while they waited for medical attention Audra looked through Cabana’s journal for information on the demons that attacked them. It was pretty early on in the journal, unlike the shallow.

Varulv are pack demons, similar to wolves, I’ve never fought any less than 5 in a group. They’re the bottom of the barrel in terms of the demon hierarchy. Part of the Unadorned grouping. Though they seem to have some kind of thought process that isn’t found in normal wolves. They have an ever cycling pack mentality. A normal Varulv is easily bottom rank hierarchy but there is always an Alpha amun amonst with the pack. When the alpha is killed one of the others immediately begin to morph into one, we don’t know what determines which one will change. They’re bigger, badder, and more armored. I’d put an Alpha Varulv at the level of Embellished or Apex. There’s not really a good way to kill the bastards, just hope you hit them before they hit you. One good way to counter them is a very good defense. If an attack lasts too long the Alpha will usually call them for a permanent retreat, fearing they’ll lose too many numbers, thankfully the Alpha values their life and doesn’t want to die for the pack, otherwise it’d be a never ending battle of Alpha’s until the entire pack is exterminated.

“Demon hierarchy?” Vasuki, having mostly recovered from the exhaustion queried looking at Audra. She shrugged her shoulders. She began to flip through the pages looking for an explanation. She flipped all the way to the end of the journal before flipping to the beginning from the page about the Varulv. “No explanation.” She claimed.

“I’m sure there’s someone that can help us with that kind of information.” Vasuki pointed out.

“Might be best to wait until we get to Daemerall, I doubt the people here will want to be talking about demons.” Audra recalled. Twelve bodies had been found, the attack lasted only a few minutes, if they had been anywhere else tonight they might have been included.

It took another hour or two before someone could get to Vasuki’s wound, it was cleaned and quickly stitched and bandaged. He was then given a vial of distilled willow bark for his pain. He took a few drops and the pair laid down in the tent ready for sleep. Audra’s body was tired but her mind was racing. Why had they been attacked? What other kinds of monstrosities were in the world? And the Demon hierarchy, what was that all about? She assumed that Apex was at the top of the list, with Embellished under it, and Unadorned after that. Was there anymore below or above though? What name could possibly sound more deadly than an Apex? She jumped in her skin when she felt arms wrapped around her. She looked at Vasuki, his brows were furrowed. She rubbed his good arm.

“You okay?” She asked.

“I’m glad I didn’t lose you.” Vasuki claimed. “I was worried something would happen to you.”

“I’m here.” She said, comforting him.

“I know.” No cold air escaped from him. It was strangely calm.

It didn’t take long for both Audra and Vasuki to fall asleep, a mutual feeling of safety as they held each other.

20/6/337

When Audra woke up it was late morning, and Vasuki still had his arms wrapped around her she realized what it would look like to someone that may peek inside to check on them, her face went red as she tried to disappear before someone did that. Her heart was pounding quickly when Vasuki began to stir.

“G-good morning.” Audra claimed as she quickly got out of his arms.

“Morning...is it still morning? I slept like a rock.” Vasuki claimed, rubbing his arm.

“Yeah, I did too.” Audra said, looking away from him to keep the red on her face hidden.

The campsite gathered in a circle around the sixteen men and women that died the night previously. Audra assumed it was from injuries, but there was such a mess that she wouldn’t be surprised if they had found them later in the night. Cella and Kayd stood next to the wrapped bodies. Kayd’s arm was bandaged, and Cella had a large bandage over her right thigh. They had waited for everyone to arrive before Kayd began to speak.

“We let you all get your rest last night, usually we would do this immediately after an attack. But last night was time for grieving and gathering our things for the road ahead. We will grieve over our fallen soldiers as we set their souls to rest. Cella if you will.” She nodded and pulled a small stone tablet from the bag resting on her hip. “The Light of the Tundra thanks you for your service against the Tyranny that plagues Tristal. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.” She said as she placed her hand on the tablet and slowly swiped her hand towards each body. A small flame emerged and slowly made it’s way to the wrapped bodies. She forced her leg to stay steady as she went one by one to each and every body wrapped in cloth. The small flames slowly dancing to their destination before lighting it ablaze. Before the flames connected and got out of control she placed the tablet in the middle of the bodies before walking out of the grave. “On our travels we will hold a moment of silence to the brothers and sisters we lost last night. We will also have someone make a memorial to them, to mark where they made the ultimate sacrifice for our cause. Thank you.” Cella claimed.

Vasuki and Audra had started packing their belongings when Noel’s exasperated sigh from nearby finally broke out of him, they weren’t really paying too much attention to the strange duo but it was hard when Noel seemed like he was enduring a form of torture by conversation with Selene.

“You okay over there, Chiryn?” Audra asked.

“Fucking peachy! What the hell do you think?” He retorted. Vasuki and Audra shared a small chuckle at his response.

“There is no need to be so fucking pissy about everything Mister Demon Hunter.” Selene complained.

“When we get to Daemerall I am going to leave you there!” He threatened. Daemerall? Were they going to have to deal with him along the way there?

“You heading to Daemerall too? Why not travel with us? Safety in numbers.” Vasuki reasoned. Audra looked back to see Noel’s reaction, the color drained from his face.

“Actually you know I could head to Kiaveen first, the order doesn’t matter all that much.” Audra looked away and simply smiled.

“But I thought that you didn’t have business in-” “Shhhhhhhhhhush.” Noel interrupted.

After finishing their packing the dragon duo approached Kayd and Cella. They seemed to be busy managing some of the groups orders. Cella saw them and limped over to them.

“Hey, we just want to thank you for taking us in. If we hadn’t stumbled in we would have probably been a meal for the Varulv last night.” Vasuki said.

“Eh, don’t mention it. We’re pretty nice to people but have a hard time accepting people that find us when we’re camping. You two did a good job last night. You have the spirits of fighters on your sides...sorry about, you know, almost killing you yesterday.” Vasuki waved it off.

“Where you two headed?” Cella asked.

“We were heading to Daemerall. Why do you ask?” Audra replied.

“Well that dragon is still in the area, I figure the best course of action is to get there as soon as you can without making it see you as prey. I figure I can lend you a horse and a hooded wagon. Not that we need a couple of them now.” She said sadly.

“We would really appreciate it.” Audra said.

“Anytime, know that you both have made a friend with the Light of the Tundra.”

Audra and Vasuki waved at the group. Vasuki grabbed the reigns, put his foot on some of the loose rope before sitting with his back straight.

“Off to Daemerall.” He said before lightly tapping the horses behind with the rope.

“Any idea how long it’ll take to get there now?” Audra asked, resting her feet on the board of wood in front of her.

“End of tomorrow if we’re lucky...I think.” Vasuki said. “Look for a road of some kind, maybe a trail, make it easier on the horses.”

“Didn’t they say to just keep going north and then turn east on the trail when we find it?” Audra asked.

“I...think so...yeah I’m sure they did.”