0040 Playing Until Death

"We managed to get to the warehouse passage without any problems...".

"Yes, Oscar let us close to the road before he disappeared, so it wasn't difficult, but we still need him for us to get down...

... I don't know why no one completed the mountain road to town! It just makes our job harder!".

"Stop complaining! No one finishes the road because of the Faction Leader's house that is on the mountain!".

"Really? I thought it was just a rumor and that he lived in the castle!".

"No, he lives in a house made in the middle of the mountain...

... You follow this road, and his house is over there... What is that?!".

The men in charge of fetching the goods managed to reach their destinations even after Oscar abandoned them to roam the mountain, they easily found the beginning of a dirt road that climbed up to the warehouse where Alberto's group had arrived a few hours ago.

Still arguing amongst themselves, one of the older men commented on the Faction Leader's house and pointed to a part in the middle of the mountain, and when everyone looked, they noticed a point of light in the sky, and not only that, a line of intense light went out from the point in the sky towards the ground.

"Fuck! That's an Angel!". "Let's capture them!".

In the midst of the dark scenery, the men didn't need any help to see the things around them, everyone's eyes began to glow crimson red, from their bodies, thick veins rose over the skin and began to stand out, and they ran at inhuman speed, leaving terrible footprints on the ground.

**************************************************

*"Don't worry Fathers, if anyone tries something funny I'll cut their heads off right away!"*.

*"Jardel, This is not the time for this!"*.

*"Shut up Freddy! Father Alberto who decides things here!"*.

*"Quiet you two, you're Watchers, so you're here to watch and protect us! You are not here to kill people on the run!"*.

Noting the concern of the Fathers, Jardel wanted to use this as an excuse to take some more violent action.

Alberto knew Jardel from other missions and liked him for his ease in following dubious orders, but at this moment, Alberto didn't want to follow such a path, he needs to alleviate the doubts in his mind, and that's why he wants to follow the more difficult path, to debate the ideas with the different ones.

Deep down he knows that the church does not encourage the discussion of the ideas and concepts that follow, nor does it accept the beliefs of the different, and now Jardel was much angrier than he normally would be, and the hatred in his eyes, seen beneath his helmet, reminded Alberto of some of the words Lucius had said earlier.

^"Yes, a person from another world! What kind of culture, thoughts and things do they have?"^.

*"Forget it, Watcher Jardel, do your job!"*.

"Hiiih hihihi hi!". "Hi hi hi hiiih!". "Hee he he hehe!".

The laughter began to echo, outside the caves it was easier to locate where they were coming from, and because of that, everyone looked up, in the mountain, in the countless holes that everyone had seen when they were on the other side of the gorge, canine-shaped skulls emerged like a snake peeping its head out of the hole.

Like terrible and large beasts, after the skull, a hairy animal body of various colors, among them, some were brown with black spots, or beige with yellowish spots, their bodies were larger than those of horses, and the terrible nails on their paw were like iron claws.

*"Does it look like a giant hyena wearing a skull for a helmet?"*.

*"Those are Skull Hyenas!"*.

Seeing the animals' claws, Lucius remembered the claw marks on the cave walls, and looking at the animal's body shape, he thought it was a giant hyena.

But this time it was Father Alberto who clarified the minds of the others, even Father Alcione didn't know the beast, making him look momentarily at Alberto.

*"It's in the book, The Necromancer's Book, if I'm not mistaken!"*.

*"There is no time Father Alberto! Let's run away!"*.

Alberto opened his backpack to take the book and check the information, but the Skull Hyenas began to slowly descend from the mountain walls, seeing this, Alcyone urged everyone to run, and so the group entered the cave attentive to any ambush made by the boy.

From one of the caves further up the mountain, a Skull Hyena larger than the others appeared, this Hyena was black with gray spots, and the skull surrounding its head was much larger than the other Hyenas.

Beside him, smoke emerged and took the form of the boy Oscar who floated up and stroked the fur on the Hyena's back.

*"See, Little Bone, lots of people to play with us today!

Go there! Get them!"*.

"Hiihi hihi hi!".

At Oscar's order, all the Skull Hyenas leapt off the mountain walls and dove to the ground as if the ground was made of water, disappearing.

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Under the helmet, Jardel's expression was furious, he stayed last in the group with two would-be soldiers, and walking past him, Freddy shook his head negatively, a little further on, Freddy stayed beside Maycon and Sara.

The Envoy entered the front, he led the way along with two other would-be soldiers, one on each side, behind them, Alberto ran while trying to get the book out of his backpack without tripping over any of the bones scattered on the cave floor.

Beside Alberto, a would-be soldier used his torch to help the Father find the book, while Alcione and Lucius followed closely behind, Jenany was between them and Sara's group, with Jeffrey at her side and the last would-be soldier lighting up the middle.

As they ran, the laughter never stopped, and with each open passage they passed by, more laughter echoed.

^"Right, this Jenany doesn't seem to know how to open one of those magical passages...

... And between the two Fathers, this Father Alcione seems to be the easiest to cooperate with...

... I already know... If I take this Jenany with me maybe Alcione will come along, he seems to be very protective of her... But I want the books too..."^.

*"Father Alberto, let me take the backpack for you and give you the book to read!"*.

Lucius took the opportunity to pretend to be helpful, Alberto looked back suspiciously, but in the end he dropped the backpack to Lucius who quickly wrapped a strap around his shoulder and opened the backpack extremely easily.

With a few more seconds of running, Lucius handed over the book Alberto had mentioned earlier, and started to think about what he could do next.

*"I was wrong, it's not this book! Quick give me the Spiritualist's book!"*.

Putting the book away and looking for the other one that the Father asked for, Lucius soon noticed that it was the book that had two copies, so he handed the book to Alberto and closed the backpack, wearing it on his back, he slowed his running speed and let Jenany and Jeffrey catch up with him.

*"Jenany... Do you come here often?"*.

*"Ahn?!"*.

Managing to get the girl's attention with a nonsensical question, Lucius smiled and tried to strike up a conversation with her, meanwhile, Maycon and Sara got ready.

*"Maycon, I'll try to pull Thomas to one of the entrances and you try to pull Jaffrey to the other..."*.

*"Yes, let's do it!"*.

*"Who's there at the front?!"*.

Everyone's thoughts were interrupted when on the other side of the corridor another bluish green light illuminated a curved passage, when they got close, they found the other Envoy of their group.

The Envoy had his armor all dented or broken, he was without a helmet and his face was completely dirty, it was impossible to distinguish the features of his face.

He bent his body downwards using his sword as a support on the ground, the light coming from his body flowing from inside his skin and rising upwards like a liquid fire, slowly decreased.

Because he was very panting, he ended up not responding to his teammates' scream, but despite his current appearance, he didn't seem to be hurt.

Taking a little more breath, he glanced at the group that had slowed running towards him, and held out his hand in a waiting sign.

Rrrrhoul

A terrible roar sounded, a Skull Hyena leapt out of the ground, with both front paws spread as if the beast was going to give a hug, as its size was enormous, its body covered half the way of the passage, the claws of its right paw scraped on the side wall, leaving scratches meters long.

When the Hyena embraced the Envoy, he couldn't resist the weight of the beast's body and disappeared with it sinking to the ground.

The laughter echoed even closer, and everyone stopped when they saw such a scene, the path they should follow seemed dangerous and with that everyone looked at Alberto who turned the various pages of the book until he stopped at a specific page.

*"Skull Hyenas, friendly and extremely playful beasts, have mastery of the Light Brown Path, some can master Crimson Path skills and the rarest can master the Gray Path...

... Your blood can be used to train the Crimson Path..."*.

*"Father Alberto, please look for customs, characteristics, weaknesses, something that will help us!"*.

*"Yes, calm down Father Alcione, I'm reading!

... Here, here it says they... They walk and live in packs with over a hundred individuals, they like to play with each other and with their victims until they get tired or in the case of victims, until death, they play pranks and make natural traps...

... Their weakness is... Can they become attached to the victim and create a bond of friendship? But what the fuck is this weakness?"*.

Brrough!

A slight explosion occurred on the ground, a small crater formed and inside it, the Envoy who had disappeared into the ground was inside the small crater with the lower half of his body still buried.

He got even dirtier, his armor was even more damaged, and he looked a lot more tired, barely opening his eyes, the glow of his power had completely gone out, and he lay still, breathing deeply.

*"Don't get distracted Father Alberto, keep reading!"*.

Alcione screamed, but soon a skull sprouted from the wall near the Envoy pinned to the floor, this skull looked a little smaller than the others they'd seen before, quickly, a teenage Skull Hyena appeared and spat a ball of earth in the Envoy's face who couldn't even move an arm.

*"I'll kill you!"*.

*"... Injuring a puppy or teenager of its breed, makes the game over, and all the Skull Hyenas in the pack become cruel and deadly... "*.

*"Oh no! Envoy, Stop!"*.

The Envoy in the lead was furious at the humiliation of his fellow Envoy, he rushed forward along with the would-be soldiers at his side, his legs and arms lit up even more, and with a swipe of his sword's point, his body glided through the air at high speed and reached the teenage Skull Hyena's body in an instant.

Caainnh!

Hearing Alberto's words, Alcione tried to stop the Envoy's blow, but it was too late, the sword pierced the Hyena's body, and with the cry of pain, all the laughters ceased, only the cry of the beast trying to flee back to the ground could be heard.

*"Come on!"*.

Maycon yelled and pulled Jeffrey by the shirt, they both took one of the paths to the left, going further into the center of the mountain, Sara tried to do the same with Lucius, and to her surprise, he couldn't resist, instead, he took Jenany's hand at his side and pulled her along, the three of them entered one of the paths to the right.

*"Hey no! Let me go!"*.

*"What? Young! Don't take Jenany with you! Wait for me!"*.

*"No, Father Alcione!"*.

*"Come on!"*.

Hearing the screams of Jenany wanting to let go of Lucius, Father Alcione ran after the three leaving Father Alberto not knowing what to do, Jardel took the chance and ran after them along with the two would-be soldiers who followed him with his order.

Freddy also tried to follow them, but his duty was to protect, and as he took the first step, he turned and looked at Father Alberto waiting for his orders.

*"Hey! Do not do it!"*.

The Envoy who injured the Hyena screamed as he saw a skull emerge from the ground beside his colleague who with a last effort managed to remove the earth from his face, the skull was another Skull Hyena, but an Adult Hyena this time, inside its mouth could fit two human heads.

But this Hyena was content with just one head, she opened her mouth and ripped the entire Envoy's head off in a single bite, blood spurted out of the torn neck veins, spraying the red liquid everywhere.

The would-be soldiers were horrified, they raised their swords to the many skulls appearing on the ceiling, walls or floor.

As for the Envoy who watched his friend's death, he got even angrier and started fighting the Hyenas that jumped out from all sides.

*"Miracle! Watcher's Wall!"*.

Freddy screamed, and a thick wall made of bluish green energy took shape, preventing the jump of two Hyenas that would jump on him and Father Alberto.

Aaaaaarrhg!

Beside a would-be soldier holding a torch, a skull appeared and bit into his leg, but instead of ripping the man's leg, the Hyena pulled his body to the ground, and this time, instead of sinking to the ground like water, the man had his leg squeezed into a small opening that the Skull Hyena left in the ground.

The man screamed desperately as his leg was pulled down, the cracks of breaking bones sounded loud, and the blood began to turn into a large puddle on the floor, while the man already had half of his thigh buried and splashing blood to the sides.

The other would-be soldiers tried to fight back, but soon had their torches put out by balls of earth coming from all directions.

*"Shit! Let's follow Father Alcione! We will!"*.

Aberto got into despair and ran to the path that Father Alcione had entered, Freddy ran using his shield of light in front of his body to block and strike the Hyenas in his path, following Father Alberto closely.

The Envoy followed behind as his sword sent blades of light at every skull that came its way, he passed by the would-be soldier who now had all his flesh heaped with blood as half of his body was crushed to the ground, completely unrecognizable.

Beside him, the last would-be soldiers tried to defend themselves as they ran and avoided looking at their dead comrades.

**************************************************

The echo of screams and roars came from behind, Sara, Lucius and Jenany ran without stopping, in Lucius' hand, the lighter he had obtained earlier was used to help light the way, Jenany, who was reluctant to follow him, was fascinated by the practical tool, so she followed Lucius with more interest.

*"Why did you pull me? We should wait for Father Alcione!"*.

*"Don't worry, he should be right behind, we just have to find a way out, where are we going Sara?"*.

*"I don't know! I just pulled you in just as Maycon screamed and ran with Jeffrey!"*.

*"And you didn't think of a plan?"*.

*"That was the plan! Only that we don't think about the way!"*.

Lucius rolled his eyes and almost gave up running, he tried to make a mapping following the general direction they should go, according to the position they entered, but to the surprise of the trio, a better lit part appeared further on.

**************************************************

Brough!

A roar sounded and Jeffrey jumped to the ground in fear as he saw a shadow emerging from one of the entrances he and Maycon were near, Maycon used his fire magic, and a small ball of fire floated over his one hand, helping to light up the place.

*"Oscar boy, please listen to us! We are from the faction!

We were held hostage by the church, help us!"*.

*"Don't stop running Jeffrey! We don't even know if the kid can hear us!"*.

Maycon pulled Jeffrey to continue running, the shadow didn't come after them, and with that they ran for more who knows how many minutes while Jeffrey screamed for Oscar's name, he was already tired of running and screaming.

*"You mean you're part of the faction? Tell me who are you and why were you breaking into my uncle's house?"*.

The two stopped running when the Oscar boy materialized in the air a few feet in front of them, next to Oscar, Little Bone emerged from the ground and sat up like a domesticated dog accompanying its owner, with more than four times the height of the child.