Chapter 11

Escape

‘‘Move on! We have to run away.’’

‘‘But what about the commander?’’

‘‘He is dead, and if you don’t want to be next we should go while we have the chance to.’’

That were an officer and Nick who have just stood up and are recovering from the blast.

‘‘It pains me just thinking about what that creature would do to us if we were to stay so get up and go, EXECUTE PLAN B!’’

The escape plan seemed fairly organized. A tunnel was dug just as a backup. A tunnel which they will now take. It was hidden in the grass close to where our heroes were lying and it presumably led to Resville-the nearest village which was about a kilometer away from Locu. It was a grand tunnel indeed, though it is probably older than Nick himself.

The whole city was covered by smoke and ashes, a circumstance perfect for escaping.

The base was populated by about 100 soldiers, most of which took torches and went down the cold, dark tunnel. Others were debating the option of going to fight the monster, but seeing as it leveled half of the city in an instant they probably wouldn’t put up much of a fight, so they went along with the plan.

Nick and his friends were of course first priority so they went in first.

It was a really dark tunnel only lit up by the dim light of the torch Nick was holding. It had a strange eerie feel to it as inside you would hear loud footsteps along with their echo.

They were walking as fast as they could, trying not to extinguish the torch. They still aren’t far in as dim light from the outside could be seen behind them and things that were outside could be heard.

Behind them were soldiers, scared as much as Nick.

At the very back, still waiting to get in were the best fighters, soldiers who had experience and were overall tough physically and mentally.

Numbering four there weren’t many of them.

You could see the hatred in their eyes, hatred for that monster that once took the lives of thousands and today will do the same.

Everyone went quiet as they were lining up their thoughts when a loud stomp hit their ears.

All the smoke around the creature cleared up and it could be clearly seen.

An otherworldly creature, three times the size of an average human. It had strangely shaped head and huge blue eyes. A vicious smile and huge tentacles running from its back. It used these to catch people and slam them into the ground. Though with its huge size it wasn’t quite mobile it made up for it with its strength.

It quickly turned around and launched a sharp gaze at the base and jumped towards it.

‘‘RUN, IT IS COMING!’’

The veterans alerted everyone in the tunnels.

They started panicking and running for their lives.

Only the veterans remained.

They launched themselves towards the monster.

Two of them were caught by its tentacles and squished to death and the other two sliced its neck. It completely healed in less than a second.

After that, it jumped up to one of the two veterans who was in the air and ate half of him.

His body exploded, blood spilled everywhere. The sound of his bones cracking completely disabled his comrade. He fell to the ground with an empty look on his face.

The creature saw that but surprisingly it just bypassed him.

It broke the tough barrier with one hit from its hand and looked around, only to see that no one was there.

The soldiers and our heroes were 500 meters into the tunnel and were running fast. Most of their torches either ran out or where extinguished, but they didn’t have the time to light them up.

The tunnel was wide as much as a stretch of a hand. Though many people were running in it, it still was cold.

The monster was angry that it couldn’t complete its goal so it jumped to where cultists and soldiers were fighting and launched a huge dark beam which flattened everyone and everything in its path. Most of the soldiers were now dead along with most of the town’s people. Those that remained were caught and kidnapped.

After five minutes or so the escapees reached Resville and immediately alerted everyone in town to pack up and start heading out to the biggest city in close distance. Its name was Grasvel and it was a city 30 kilometers from here. Located deep in the Lagven mountains it was a hard spot to hit.

The government was alerted and 10 divisions were sent to Locu.

Everyone in the village (around 300 people) started evacuating alongside the soldiers and our heroes.

‘‘That monster…do you think it is after me?’’

That was Nick, who was confused as to what was going on. He got a reply from the officer that told them to evacuate.

‘‘Most likely so. We don’t know if they’ll continue chasing us but if they do we’ll make sure to be secure. However, they’ll most likely flee the city. This time the attack was much bigger and they were much more numerous. We weren’t prepared for a full-scale attack. And from the likes of it, cultists were in the city all along. They might have a secret communication network that we still haven’t revealed. Ventergia is also facing the same problem. The cult’s objective stands unclear but their numbers seem to be growing.’’

‘‘Do attacks or assassinations from them happen often?’’

Asked Emily, wanting to get as much information as possible.

‘‘No. They don’t. They seem to be very selective with their targets and a lot of planning seems to go into their attacks. Encounters with them are rare and encounter with their leader are even rarer.’’

Today is a dark day for Languinia. No one managed to escape Locu after the attack started. Most of those who tried died, the others were kidnapped.

Who knows what led the cult of the Rising to do such atrocities…