Normally only a group of four were allowed to participate in one party, but this quest was granted by the chief of the village with an urgent approved seal. Specifications of the quest required eliminating newly emerged monsters that were discovered wandering the forest.

It might be related to those Oriks with shadows growing on them.

It sucked I couldn’t get my hands on some pelts from the last job. I’d love to make a new cloak. The weather recently gotten colder and most goods from the village were off limits for me. Winter will be as harsh to me as usual.

“Kihet, you’re late! I thought you were too scared, crawled your lazy ass back to bed or somethin'. Even if you did sleep in, your eyes look rotten as always you know? Why can’t you be on time for once. Did you know how long we had to wait?”

That Vol was always mouthful. If he weren’t complaining about something, he’d whine on the fault of others. And he didn’t help with the clean up of the barbeque he ate in. I don’t want monsters move into my home because we had leftovers there.

“You know I live the farthest.” I shot back.

“C’mon Kihet. Don’t be such a grumbling bug! Show some spirit!”

A hand slapped my back, sending me rolling forward. I landed flat on the ground, facing the dirt. Draigh, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but learn to control your strength!

“You’re being too forceful.” Lemi scolded.

Lemi had long silvery white hair up to her waist. Her pure expressions would make any man want to protect her fragile body. With six [Ribbons] floating out of her back like wings, one would mistake her for an angel. Lemi and her parents are healers of the village. Although skill wise, she had far surpassed her parents.

“Sorry, Kihet. Are you okay? I got too pumped up.”

“I want to go home.”

“Weren’t you the one who said it can’t be helped?”

“Why are you always picking on me like that, Sorah?”

“We all know if I don’t, you’ll just be a lazy hermit.”

“What if I wanted to be lazy? It’s more appealing than being here pushed around by you.”

As I took a glance up, I saw Sorah raising her leg and position her heel over my back. Too bad, I’m not the type who’ll take this type of abuse! I quickly rolled away before being stepped on and jumped back on my feet. When I turned around, I sensed aura of bloodlust flowing around her.

“Hey,” A visible vein was popping from her forehead. The corners of her mouth twitched upward. “about those tarts-.”

Crap. I forgot I haven’t received them yet. My only supply of sweets came from her goodwill and if she changed her mind, I won’t be able to eat sweets until next time she felt like baking them.

“I-I’ll go. I’m here after all.”

“Good.”

How could you put a smile on your face when you’re punishing someone like that?

“If you lots are finished chatting, let’s go.” Elius waited impatiently. Behind him, the twins held up a bundle of grass, feeding the Felk. “Tank first, scout second, the rest guard the perimeter.” He reminded. “Kihet, you’re on carriage duty this time.”

“On it.”

At least it wasn’t all that bad. I didn’t have to walk.

We moved through the forest while the others patrolled around me, keeping a sharp eye around our surroundings.

If we’re to scout the entire forest for our mysterious monsters it would take days. Thankfully, we had a lead. Credit was due from the village’s spotter who provided the last known location of these monsters. We followed the tracks of havoc they made through the woods.

Through the environmental damages it caused, the culprit must be massive. I saw trees pushed aside on weird angles and footprints as big as the cart.

“Hm…? I smell… blood?” Lemi pointed to the direction of where the scent drifted from behind covers of fallen trees and large bushes.

“I’ll go check it out.”

“Driagh wait. Have Sorah and Kihet go with you as well. We can’t bring the cart there, and no one should go alone other than Vol.” Elius said. “The rest of us will continue to follow the tracks. Kihet should be able to find us later.”

He’s pushing the job on me? Then again, I am a better choice for a frontal confrontation if we do run into an enemy. Vol had already left and was scouting ahead for the party.

I passed the reins into Elius’ hands, following Draigh and Sorah. A chill ran down my spine, goosebumps quickly form all over my arms. It wasn’t the cold since I knew I was overdressed, but it’s worrying.

“Hey, Draigh. Let me go first.” I called for a role change, allowing me bypass Draigh as I strapped my small shield onto my arm and cut down the leaves in our path with my sword at a strange length.

“Huh? You sure?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit hard for you to swing your shield around in these tight spaces. I could at least block an attack if something suddenly flanks me then you can charge in.”

“Alright. I’ll watch your back. Sorah?”

Sorah gave a nod and readied her bow. The floating quivers followed her tightly.

As we got closer, I noticed the air drastically changed. It was murky and strangely humid. After we broke through the last screen of leaves, we saw the land dumped with corpses of humanoid beasts.

“Beastmen?”

I saw several bodies from residents of Pamalyra, Beastmen, we call them. The animal humanoids consist of two major sub-races; Lycanthropes and Cait Siths.

Before me, crushed bodies and entrails scattered across the deforested area. Innards of cats and dogs were being scavenged by wild animals taken an interest for this all you can devour buffet. Judging how big the crater in the area was, the mysterious monster we’re up against was more dangerous than I thought.

Breath through your nose, Kihet. You’ll get used to this.

Then of all things, a familiar scent tickled my nose.

“What happened here? Are those Beastmen bodies?” Driagh asked.

“I don’t like this…” Sorah said as she covered her nose from the stink. “Kihet?”

This smell. I know this smell well. It reminded me of the nightmares I regularly have. Old wounds on my arms began aching, scorching. It was like an imaginary fire was set my arms. When I turn my eyes to the source of the smell, I felt a budge crawling up my throat and out my mouth.

I vomited when I spotted a body charred black within burning debris. My hands trembled and the scars on my arms ached. The magic seal hidden in my burn marks felt it was going to roast my arms off. I was profusely sweating like crazy.

“Kihet! Are you alright?”

“Sorry, just need a second. I felt woozy there for a second.”

After wiping my mouth, I dumped a few herbal leaves into a leather mask with the smell of a plant I grew back at my garden.

It was called Stredhime Flower. The scent it gave off help calm the mind of an individual and useful in numbing any injuries or symptoms. It was something Lemi asked me to cultivate.

I earned money through being the main supplier of it for Lemi’s family clinic. There were no other farmers who was successful in growing this delicate plant found in the highest mountains. I’m sure they didn’t spend as much time as I did to farm it.

“Don’t push yourself. If you see something you don’t like, get Sorah or me to look at it.” Draigh said as he inspected the place of dismembered bodies.

Even though I haven’t done a thing, I felt useless having them worried. I was fortunate to have reliable friends. I was grateful but it was humiliating.

Putting my feelings aside, there was something I needed to find out about these bodies.

“I’d feel better if I could go home and take a nap. Jokes aside, look at this.”

One of the bodies not too far from the remains was cloaked in black miasma. The appearance was something of black fire that didn’t emit any heat and thrashed lively like tentacles. This was identical to patches of black seaweed growing on the Oriks. Did those monsters catch a disease that came from this body?

“Ew… what is that?” Sorah asked.

“You-, you can see it?” And after all this time, I thought I’ve been hallucinating it.

“Why not? It’s there in plain sight. Anyone would’ve saw it.” Draigh answered. “Any clue on what it is?”

“The Oriks I encountered had the same stuff growing on them. I think it might be a disease, but it doesn’t seem infectious.” I said, pointing to a pack of wolves lurking on the area. “They’ve eaten some parts of the corpses, but they don’t have anything identical growing on them.”

“Hang on. Oriks have them as well?”

“Just this morning when Elius, Malth, Megith and I were hunting them. The others didn’t see, but when I killed the one that had them, the black tentacles withered away.”

My question remained. Why were Beastmen here?

“Sorah, what do you think? Why are the beastmen here?” I asked.

“Pamalyra is known to be a desert. I doubt they know of our existence, and they might be scouting for resources and accidentally encountered something that attacked them on the way here?”

“I doubt it.” Draigh argued. “This forest is protected by a barrier that turns invaders around. Kihet, you have your own opinion?”

“Maybe. One or two theories. The first one being a territorial war.”

“And the other?”

There was an old tale passed down from the village. The story contained eight heroes who defeated the Demon Lord but there was something off from these types of stories. In fact, not just one. Something was missing in all of them. How do heroes know to come together, to know to set on a journey to strengthen themselves then defeat the big bad?

An Oracle would be passed down. However, this Oracle wasn’t handed down as a revelation or a message, but instead of a person overseeing the Creator’s will be done. The Oracle was tasked to unite the group of Heroes to defeat the Shadow Lord.

“That’s my guess.”

“A story?” Sorah cocked an eyebrow, throwing me a suspicious look. “I mean, that’s just a tale for children. I doubt other races know that story.”

“That still doesn’t explain how they got past the barrier.” Draigh added.

I understood their concern, but we really didn’t know the circumstances based on limited evidence. Were they trying to get to the tower? You can see it as clear as day from here and I don’t see a reason to not visit something you’d find eye catching in a land of trees surrounding you.

“Before we go, there’s something I’d like to do.” I hover the knife over the body.

“You couldn’t be thinking of cutting them up, right?” Sorah shrieked.

“If that lets us know what we’re up against, someone’s got to do it. If you don’t want to watch, turn around and keep an eye out.”

Right before my knife dug into the body, my arms flared up similar to being wrapped in fire. I felt my forehead covered in sweat and knees went weak. An imaginary claw grasped my heart, making it stopped beating for a second and my eyesight blurred for a moment.

Something told me it had something to do with my arms and the tower. The magic seal on my arm reacted when I touched the Shadows. I don’t have a lot of information regarding the shadows, nor the method the Beastmen used to overcome the barrier.

“Hey, Kihet! The shadows are disappearing!”

“Wha-?”

I quickly dug my knife into the Beastmen corpse and quickly cut out a patch of its fur. Surely enough, the shadow moved disgustingly then vanished before I was able to preserve it. It left my hand soaking in blood and hair.

“Not good. It disappears after I cut it off.”

“Could it be that it dies when someone removes it from the host?” Draigh muttered. “What should we do?”

“We’ll tell Lemi about this.” I stare at my hand thinking what I just experienced.

Thanks to my guidance, the three of us were on track to find the others. We took a small break from following hoofed prints hidden under the fallen leaves that led us to the direction of the lake.

“Kihet, something wrong?” Draigh asked. “You’re staring at the tower awfully a lot.”

“Huh? Oh. I’m fine. Just thinking about something. It’s time for me to change bandages on my arms.”

“Speaking of which, you had them since forever. Shouldn’t they have healed already? Need some help?”

“No thanks. I’ll be aright.”

I turned around to hide these disgusting pinkish stripes that ran up to my elbows. Even though my injuries were healed, I get headaches whenever I see them. It was why I cover them up. There’s also a magic seal on them I don’t want the others to see. The only person that knew was Elius as I asked him to look for a way to remove it.

He’s well versed in magic research unlike me. When I dabbled anything that needed magic stones as it’s core, I always went and consult him for advice. If it’s anyone, he should at least find a way.

“Kihet? Kihet!” Sorah snapped me awake. “Are you sure you’re okay? Don’t pass out on me now. Get it together.”

I was shocked how close Sorah had approached that I instinctively took an awkward step back. “I’m just sleepy.”

“Hey now. We went through this already.” Draigh replied. “You can sleep all you want after we finished the Elder’s quest.”

“Fair enough.”

“How come you’ll listen to Draigh but not me?”

“Why do you think? If you weren’t always dragging me or forcing me to work all the time, I might’ve listened. Oh, and I take bribes too.”

“You’re the worst.” Sorah sulked.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“You two have good chemistry. It brings a tear to my eye.” Draigh laughed. “Come on, let’s find the others.”

The three us resumed the journey. We would eventually end up at the end of the trail and find the carriage parked. Lemi was alone, mixing a batch of herbs while the others went ahead. Before I got the chance to question Elius’ poor choice, I noticed he installed monster wards in the vicinity.

“It’s nice to see you three safely made it.” She greeted us.

“Say, where are the others?”

“They’re keeping an eye on the Giants stationed by the lake. Anything to report?”

“Giants? There are Giants here too? We found bodies of Beastmen.” Sorah answered.

“Beastmen?” Lemi adorably tilted her head to the side. “And you said bodies of them? Does that mean the Giants…”

“There might be a war brooding between them.” Draigh added.

And I wanted to add my opinion of the Oracle. Doesn’t look like anyone will believe me though.

“Listen to this, we found a body covered in these weird black tentacle thingys. When Kihet tried to cut it, they vanished.”

“Vanished as in…”

“Like a ghost.” I turn to Sorah finding her glaring daggers at me just by mentioning “Ghosts.”

Yes, Sorah has always been afraid of ghosts. It must’ve been the haunted stories I told when we were little.

Suddenly we felt a violent quake followed by an explosion. A continuous branch of lightning flashed the skies. Smoke billowed behind trees, then loud unintelligent howling. With every roar, the ground shook, and we heard felling of some trees. After the initial spark show, lighting bolts rained from the skies. The only person in our group who could use that level of offensive magic was Elius.

Draigh and I dashed off without a second thought. He brought his shield to the front and bulldozed branches and leaves out of our way. When we arrived, we saw two giants laying on the ground, one of them was bleeding a pool of blood.

Their big frames were as large as two storeys tall wearing heavy suit of plated armor. Each time it took a deep breath, armor creaked from all the metal plates rubbing against each other. One of them look to be in pain, but the other laid still with no signs of life.

“Elius!”

“Get back!”

Elius raised another thick wall of ice in front of the Giant. He snapped his fingers, converting the flying ice fragments to bunch up into ice needles he used for a counterattack. There was one problem. The icicles weren’t aimed towards the Giant.

His ice magic flew into the cloud of dust before Vol. I couldn’t see the target from my location, but I heard a loud crash of metal rending. We saw Vol bouncing out of the smoke screen with bleeding cuts over his arms and one of the blades from his daggers snapped.

I felt another quake, then saw a boulder hurled into the sky.

With perfect timing, Draigh heroically jumped in. With one punch, his superhuman strength smashed the rock to smithereens.

“Ouch! I forgot I didn’t bring my gauntlets!” He held his hand and jerked his chin towards the Giants. “So, those the thing the Elder mentioned?”

“Wait, Draigh! They’re not the enemy!” Vol shouted.

“Whu-?” Draigh raised a brow. “Elius, isn’t this an enemy?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, they’re casualties.” Elius clicked his tongue, raising an ice dome over Malth and Megith. “We have proceeding matters. Kihet, can you give those two first aid?”

“I’ll do what I can for Megith and Malth until Lemi gets here. What’s the situation?”

“The Giants are friendlies. I accidentally paralyzed them with my water and lightning elemental combo before I realized what the real threat was. It defended us against that monster.”

He pointed, and I looked. The dust cloud slowly settled, revealing a figure clouded in black miasma.

It was a creature from the abyss. By looking at it, you can feel a darkness crawling in your mind and a pair of hands yanking on your soul. Anyone set their eyes onto it would know it was cursed, but somehow mesmerizing. It felt like it was pulling your consciousness away from your body. Within the cloak of black smog, I managed to make out an armored caped silhouette. It held onto a uniquely designed white saber with a hook on the bottom of the handle.

“That’s…”

“Don’t stare at it for too long. It dulls your ability to think and you’ll make yourself wide open.” Elius pointed at a Giant corpse. “That’s how we found out. We couldn’t save him because of those shadows around it.”

“Got it.” I gulped.

I quickly bandaged cuts and applied healing ointment wherever needed. In terms of damage, Malth took a hefty beating all over his body. Megith on the other hand, suffered a large cut on her leg and a bruise on her exposed shoulder.

“Careful, guys. That shadow creature knocked out Malth and Megith with one blow and it can block a Giant’s hit. It’s stronger than all of us combined. It’s suuuper strong.” Vol warned as he resumed his battle stance.

The Shadow Knight raised its sword to middle guard posture. We hesitated to make the first attack since neither of us have a clue of its capabilities and kept a close eye on its movements.

Its blade gently tilted down towards the ground, pushing a small breeze toward us. After the wind died down, the trees, birds, everything was silenced. I’ve spent decades wandering the forest and this was the first time I witnessed something like this. I could hear my own pulse.

“It’s getting ready to attack. Get ready.”

After a brief stillness from both sides, it shifted into an attack stance and charged forward. It prepared itself, and based on its posture, it was going to release a diagonal strike.

Draigh threw himself into the Shadow Knight’s path and intercepted the attack. A powerful shockwave shook the air after Draigh drew up his shield to block it. The knight’s attack ran along the curved surface and stopped at the center. Draigh managed to stand his ground and proceeded to battle in a contest of strength. From what I can tell, their physical strengths matched. Neither one was willing to take a step back.

However, Draigh used one arm to do the blocking. He made a fist with his other and threw a right hook into his opponent’s side. He felt punch connecting but frowned when he realized he hit against a hard surface.

“A barrier? That ain’t fair!”

The knight changed stance, stretching its palm out. I suspect it was going to cast magic. As it muttered something under its shallow breath, I acted.

“Everyone, cover your eyes!”

Using this chance, I rolled a flash bomb under it. The flash of light caused the knight to misfire its death ray into the sky. No, seriously. If that magic were to hit us, we’d be vaporized.

Quickly, Vol and I rushed it. We aimed for the vitals. I went to take a jab at its stomach while Vol pounced towards the neck.

In the next instance, my vision whirled and blurred. In the corner of my eye, I caught wind of Vol flying into the forest. While I was still in the air, it caught me by the arm and slammed me onto the ground.

Air rushed out of my lungs, and I choked for a moment.

The knight let out a shriek of anger as took a step back as it held its head.

“Kihet, get out of there!”

I shook my head and began to move. I stumbled on the first few steps to regain balance then was stopped. The knight grabbed my wrist.

It wasn’t going to attack. It stood there, staring at me.

I tried to fight out of its grip. I wailed my sword desperately to get the knight to release me, but I wasn’t strong enough. My slashes didn’t make it flinch or gain some sort of reaction.

“You have it. Return the key.”

“Key? What key? I don’t get it and get off me!”

“Return it!”

At this rate, I’m going to get killed!

I struggled to pry myself away, but then my arm grew intensely hot. No, when I looked down, it was literarily on fire. Silver flames wreathed around my arms then suddenly erupted around the Knight and me. Before I knew it, we were trapped within a spiral of towering flames. While the fire stopped travelling up my shoulder, it fully engulfed the Knight, eating away the black miasma off its body.

These flames were mine? I could feel the burning pain, but it wasn’t hurting me physically. I’ll think about it later. I used this chance to slip free and drove my sword into the knight. I pushed my weight forward, twisting the blade’s crude edge as deep as I could then I fell on the ground.

My ears were ringing. My senses became distorted as I crawled helplessly like a newborn fawn waiting for my deafening ears to recover and my dizziness to clear.

“-ihet! Kihet, don’t sit there! Run!”

I began running as soon as the Knight’s white sabre was replaced by a black crooked sickle. I had a bad feeling if it touched me, it will be the end of my life.

“The key. Return the key to the tower, thief!”

The key to the tower? Was it talking about the mysterious mark that man forced onto me from a long time ago? I knew my arms had a connected to the tower, but I couldn’t find any evidence to support it. If this knight wasn’t hellbent on killing us, I would’ve asked it for answers, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

“I’ve got you!”

It soared into the air, reeling its weapon.

“Stay away from him!”

An arrow punctured its shoulder and then four more simultaneously struck its body forcing it to withdraw.

“Lemi, I got it away from Kihet!”

“Ank, Cirl, Ulos, Foram, Nalus, Maks, Ashent!”

As it landed back onto its feet, a veil of light caged it. The knight slashed it with its sickle, but it bounced off.

Unlike water and thunder attributes, light was in its separate category as the origin attribute. Origin attribute could not be associated with primary or compound attributes. Simply put, those who specialize with light could not use those from other attributes.

It’s to say light magic is very versatile being strong defensively and offensively.

“Kihet, get on!”

I almost cried when I saw Sorah on the back of a Felk. She steered the deer beside me, holding her hand out and pulled me up.

“Thanks, Sorah. You saved me!”

“Save your breath, you’re hurt.”

“I’m not hurt.”

“You’re not hurt? We saw you fighting in that fire! Did you know how reckless you were?! I thought you died!”

I see. I worried them again. Even though I tried my hardest to be useful, I ended up causing trouble.

“So what now?”

“Let Lemi and Elius handle the rest of the fight. They’ve been building their spells while you kept it busy.

As expected of them. I turn to find Elius charging for a colossal strike. His spell collected the moisture from dark clouds to form a humongous pillar of icicle. It was meant to crush everything below it flat. Normally, ice magic was difficult to maintain form depending on the weather. We were lucky it was nearing the end of fall with temperatures constantly near zero plus rainfall we had a few days ago.

“Lemi, I need you to pin it down. Make sure I won’t miss.” Elius said.

“Leave it to me.” Lemi stood tall with six talismans held up by her [Ribbons]. “Ank! O’Light Elemental! Bringer of justice, rain judgement upon my foes. Banish the darkness from their hearts and show mercy upon the enemy’s soul. Light, forgive my malice and grant mercy on their souls. Ank, Foram, Maks, Ashent, Dupil, Jeltz!”

And by adding a prayer, her spells become empowered.

She clapped her hands then slowly separating them as an arrow of light materialized between her palms. Once it was completed, she waved her hand and shot it forward.

“Chain magic: Ank, Ruo, Nalus, Val!”

The magic spear phased past Lemi’s barrier encasing the knight. It entered its body and strings latched onto the barrier she previously set up. The more it struggled, the tighter the restraints became with every breaking, more strings reformed to tangle it further.

“I have done as much as I could.”

“I’ll take it from here.” Elius adjusted his glasses. “Kan, O’Glacier elemental that who brings life to slumber! Over decades has it froze and melt as nature demands. I ask your frigid might to smite! As the frozen queen demands, empower my spirit with your glacial fury! Unleash a cold blight onto my foes and befall disaster upon them! Kan, Ulos, Maks, Val, Jeltz, Exlas!”

The enormous icicle accelerated downward by gravity’s force. The air beneath the icicle brewed a strong blizzard as it descended. Everyone’s loose clothing fluttered violently in the roaring wind. Cold temperatures gradually created a layer of permafrost over soil.

The tip of the iceberg hit the Shadow Knight with pinpoint accuracy and smashed it against the surface. A massive explosion resounded again. Cold air flooded the area as the giant pillar of ice buried everything beneath it.

“It’s not enough. Let’s hope I damaged it somehow.”

“You mean it’s not dead?! No way!”

Even Elius’ best magic was ineffective. I couldn’t believe we’re fighting something that’s nearly invincible against us.

The knight shook off ice fragments and returned to middle guard posture. I then heard its voice.

“Holy Creator, as the Hero you have chosen, bless this blade with the fullest wraths of your power. Give me strength to bring down this evil, leave no evil. I wish to lay judgement on the thief who tainted your sacred treasure.”

In response to its prayer, an aura of holy light gently wrapped around his sword and spiralled beyond the dark clouds.

Somehow, I can feel the knight’s roar was mixed with sorrow of his losses, pain of his weaknesses and anger.

“This isn’t good. A big one’s coming, and I don’t think I can block it.” Draigh warned. “Sorah, shoot it!”

“I’m trying, but it has a barrier!” Sorah yelled. She launched arrow after arrow desperately, but her arrows bounced off the knight’s cursed barrier.

But what can I do? I could barely lift my sword after all that. If there’s something I can do, I must do it. I couldn’t let the others die. The knight’s only after me, right?

“Sorry, Sorah. I need this Felk.”

“Huh-?”

I snatched the reins form her hand and pushed her off. If the Knight was going to swing down that magic beam, it could only attack in one direction. Just as expected, I was the prize and as I gradually distanced myself from the others, it adjusted the angle of its attack.

“Come get me! I have this Key you wanted!”