Chapter 70

Lykan

Home-Coming

Dust, ash, and sulfur those were the smells that filled Lykan’s nose as he made his way forward through the burnt forests. Patches of ash and salt could be seen in the fields that surrounded his once home of Abberty.

Before he even realized what he was doing, he was running. Ash and sulfur filled his lungs as he charged forward. With so much dirt in the air he knew he had to be close, that the perpetrators of such events had to be close. That such states of catastrophe needed catalysts to continue burning, to continue destroying.

Finally, he saw figures off in the distance. A squad of mages burning the fields, arm outstretched, while soldiers carrying bags of unknown white substance into the fields.

Lucky for Lykan they had grown lax in their defenses. All the regular soldiers were busy carrying the heavy bags of unknown substances. While the mages seemed to be content with their work burning the fields. An entire season’s worth of work being burnt low and laid to waste.

Lykan saw the field and instantly knew it belonged to the Welker’s. Off in the distance he could see the remnants of the Welker house. Burnt boards and charred stone were all that remained of the once impressive structure.

Lykan for his part never stopped running. Even as the ash and sulfur filled his lungs with burning pain, he welcomed the sensation. Part of him wondered if he was in hell if he had died somewhere and this was his eternal reward. These thoughts were quickly discarded when the words of the confused soldiers who had spotted him pointed out.

***

“What is that?”

“Is it a beast of some kind?”

“No you fools, it’s a person.”

“How can he move so quickly?”

“Clearly he has some type of movement magic.”

The officers and soldiers spoke to each other in Azani. Their voices carrying easily over the wide flat land. Even without Lykan’s advanced Awareness attribute hearing these people speak would have been easy.

“Should we get help?” One of the soldiers who dropped his burlap bag to the ground asked.

“No need.” The Azani shaman who seemed to be in charge said. “I will take care of this mongrel.”

With that the lead shaman began walking casually forward. He turned to gesture for his people to continue. The soldiers and shaman under his command were well disciplined, as they went back to their tasks. Only occasionally looking up to see what would happen to the mongrel.

From the soldier’s perspective this was likely a villager who was off on an expedition who just came back to find his home being destroyed, this was an all-too-common occurrence. The doctrine said, eradicate any form of resistance and continue to cleanse the land.

Their rules for invading lands that they did not wish to keep were simple and devastating. Kill the enemy, burn their lands, salt their fields, take anything or anyone of value back. The officer for his part was still dealing with steps two and three. So for Shaman Commander Khelion to have to go back to step one was more of an annoyance than anything. This was why he had his soldiers continue cleaning and salting the fields. There were a lot of fields to clear out in this far away village, and he eventually wanted to go back to the garrison where some real relaxation could occur.

Shaman Commander Khelion sauntered out, each step a show of power and annoyance at having to deal with such a set back to his plans. While this was a minor inconvenience at best, he had already sent back word that all hostile forces had been dealt with. While random stragglers were nothing to worry about, it still meant he had to send an updated report back of these events: how many, how powerful, how coordinated. The entire thing was a huge headache. Fortunately, it seemed that this mongrel knew his fate as he just charged straight forward, not even waiting to come in the dark of night. Not that such a tactic would be possible with every field being burned down, clearing all sight lines for kilometers around the village.

“Heathen. You are being granted the chance. Stand down now and submit to the will of the greatest or die.” Shaman Commander Khelion yelled out in a booming voice that seemed to echo over the open field.

Normally the voice alone would be enough to cause even the most savage of mongrels to stop or pause, but not this monster. Instead, the monster just kept charging forward.

“So be it.” Khelion said, as he directed his hand out and locked eyes on the target. The quickly advancing mongrel. Though to his surprise there was nothing to target. Normally magic was easy, find a target connect sympathetic bands to the object at the end of your sight release enough energy to destroy a building, move on. Yet something was off with this one. As much as he tried to target the beast running straight towards him, there was nothing to latch onto. Undeterred, Khelion fired a stream of electricity that arced and flared as it went past the still charging beast.

Shock.

There was a moment of shock as even wild animals stopped or paused when being presented with bolts of lightning.

“What?” Khelion stammered, managing to catch himself before he spoke loudly enough for his soldiers to hear his fear.

Shaking his head, the beast was now within a few dozen paces and would be on him within seconds if he didn’t do something. He called forth his will and set a torrent of fire to burn everything between him and the beast. Within seconds, flames that were twelve feet tall surged forth from the ground like hell itself was finally let free upon the lands, if only for a moment.

Khelion let out a sigh of relief, as the beast had been close enough. He had seen the look of wild anger in its eyes. Fortunately, nothing could withstand hell-flames, it was a point-blank attack spell that was meant as a last resort as it could just as easily target friendly forces as well. The hell-flames were wild and chaotic seeking to burn everything and everyone who was not the caster of the spell.

Shuffle, shuffle.

There was a sound coming from the flames. Khelion wondered if that strange beast was still moving through the flames, its inertia carrying it forward as it dove wildly into the flames.

Khelion took a half step back, on instinct more than anything.

That half step prolonged his life for a half second. Long enough for him to see the wild beast emerge from the flames, as it let loose a mighty roar of defiance.

“GHHHUHHAARR!” The humanoid monster roared. Flames flowing around the monster like it was forged in the fires of hell.

Shocked for a second, Khelion cut power to the spell. Not that it did much good in the first place. He began moving his hands up to try to block the monster that was still barreling forward, its hands burning with an intense energy. For a second, Khelion wondered if the beast’s hands were on fire. Then he lost track of the hands the moved in a blur.

Suddenly Khelion found himself flying. This was odd, as he had never progressed far enough in his studies to gain the ability to fly. While he had tried, his Meditation skill was not as well developed as needed to gain the Aerial Movement skill. So it was odd to Khelion that now of all times his body would choose to learn to fly, especially as he was moving so quickly. He had wanted to fly, if only to get away from the raging beast.

It was only when he was a few feet up that his mind began to process the different pain sensations that were flooding his mind from different parts of his body. He floated for a second, before he felt the pain of his ribs collapsing in on themselves piercing his lungs and other organs.

He felt a wild surge of pain fill him, as his mana began to burn from its very circulation throughout his body. His veins felt like they were on fire, but he knew this was a false pain. This was a pain caused by his meridians being damaged, but how?

He landed with a thud as his body slid. He wanted to turn, to warn his troops that he had failed.

Khelion turned his head, trying to warn them. Only to see the beast was already upon them. From a distance he could see the movements clearly. Glowing hands that radiated a frightening form of energy lashed out and struck at the different officers and soldiers.

In a way the effects to the officers were worse, as with just one blow the shamans dropped to the ground and began clutching at their chest. He watched as others tried to cast spells at him, only to miss or worse for him to charge straight through such strikes.

Khelion watched as soldiers tried to flee, only to be run down and pounced upon by the savage beast. The soldiers he was gentler to, in that he offered a swift death. One strike to the back of the head for one, that shattered the skull and sent parts of brain and viscera flying everywhere.

Another he grabbed the head of with a flying arm tackle around the head, that ended up ripping the head clean off. After that it was a slaughter, as most stood still shocked by the monster they had unleashed. And they had unleashed it, that much Khelion was certain of. This was a beast of the lands, one who lay dormant for centuries or eons, only to be awoken by their war. By their burning and salting of its fields.

Khelion watched on in muted horror as every soldier and shaman was killed ruthlessly before his eyes. He gasped, trying to rise to his feet, only to find that somehow in his fall he had also broken his hip. With the pieces of bone that were clearly in his lung he would be dead shortly. He knew a bit of healing magic, not enough for this, what he was currently experiencing was well beyond the realm of even the greatest of shamans. No, this was beyond him. All he could do was provide a numbing agent, that stopped the direct pain of his wounds.

There was something else about the use of magic now as it was a bit of a double edge sword with whatever that beast did to him. Each spell he tried to call upon, each circulation of his mana only caused a burning pain to coat his entire body. This was why he only lay still while he watched his men get slaughtered.

They were a war band who was supposed to take out one small village at the outskirts of town. All the men of fighting age had already been conscripted, so this was just a cleanup effort on their part. This was supposed to be a simple money run. Go out burn everything to the ground keep fifty percent of what you take, simple. Yet, they had awoken a hell beast.

The beast turned around, its eyes glowing red with some form of power that Khelion had never seen or experienced before. The mere sight of the glowing red eyes caused the blood in his veins to freeze up.

Only after checking to see that everyone else was dead. A process that involved the beast walking over and then stomping on each downed soldier’s head hard enough for it to splatter like a dropped egg. Only then did the beast come over and lock eyes with Khelion.

As the beast approached a slow shiver ran down Khelion’s spine as he watched the beast come forward. Then was even more frightened to see the glowing red eyes stop, to show simple brown eyes.

“What?” Was all he managed.

The beast moved forward and with one impossibly powerful hand reached down and grabbed the shaman from the ground and yanked Khelion up until he was eye level with the beast. The sudden shift of posture burned, as bones tore deeper into his lung.

The beast looked at him, his head weaving from side to side.

It was clear this being before him was a revenant of some kind, an unbound spirit of wrath that had bound itself to these lands. There were stories and legends of such beasts roaming the lands, children’s tales to scare children to going to bed early or obeying their elders.

In that moment he could see the eyes of the monster roaming over him, judging him. It shifted its head to get a better look.

“Did you find the cellar?” The beast asked in perfect Azani.

Hearing the words, shock filled Khelion, of all the things he had expected this was not the case.

“What?”

“The cellar, did you find the cellar?” The beast asked, shaking his body enough to cause the broken bones to grind and dig deeper into his lungs. By now fluid was coming up his windpipe causing him to choke.

“What?” Cough, cough. “Cellar?”

He managed to ask finally.

The beast looked at him, and then nodded as it seemed to relax for a second. For a second Khelion thought he was saved, as he felt his body slowly lowering to the ground.

Then with lightning-fast movements the beast moved. Its fist glowing and flying faster than Khelion could track. He felt more than saw the attack, but only for a second. He saw a flash of white, then nothing.