After that whole ordeal with the tree and crows, I’d like to have a whole night to myself in my room. Our band strolled through the misty road and realized, there’s no single soul in the path. The houses are lit with a subtle green glow but there are no people inside of them. I peered inside of the houses and I saw a shadow moving about in the kitchen. It noticed me and fled off in a screech. Creepy.
We’ve reached a tavern with a burning mug of beer as its sign. The Infernal Mug it’s called. We went in and saw that the place is as desolate as the one outside, except for the barkeeper who’s looking at us with blank gray eyes.
“We’d like to take a room. How many are available?” Carim asked
“Everything. Available. Yes.” The barkeep said in a monotone voice.
“Then uhh- we’ll take three.” Carim brought out three silver coins and laid it in the table.
The barkeep screeched and screamed. “No silver! Bronze. Will do.”
Carim shrugged and gave the barkeep what he wants.
—
We went inside our respective rooms and rested for a bit. I wanted to sleep but something is bugging me about this town. It’s that damn mist covering the streets. It’s making me queasy inside my stomach. It’s not even my stomach but it’s so discomforting. I laid down the bed and tried to focus on myself. My mind is all to my mind, everything else is nonexistent. I find myself wrapped in a warrior’s soul dreaming to rich the top. Inside that soul is another soul taken from another world. But suddenly, there’s another presence clawing outside my skin. It’s weak but the influence it emits is noxious and choking. I focused all my willpower to trace this presence to its source.
And there it was, dark kin hiding in the most reviled place of the town. A mausoleum of the dead. A holy place desecrated by an evil that resided inside. It’s a woman with skin as pale as the tree on the road. Her hair is radiant as the yellow sun and her eyes ware bloodshot red. Her lips are adorned with the most crimson shade and a golden fang ready to bite at her victims. She stands meters taller than me and her magnitude figure rocks me to my core. Suddenly, her head craned unnaturally in my direction. I could hear her neck bones crack one by one as she stared closer into my soul.
I awoke from the dream of tears and sweat.
A scream came from the other room and the crackle of lighting and glass sent me in a swift marathon. I opened the door to see that Carim is out in the air being carried by a gargantuan bat. Carim tried to stun it with a hex but the spell merely grazed the foul creature. Aylwin also heard the noise and he tried to lunge from the window and rescue Carim. But the bat is too far away, Aylwin couldn’t grab anything so he fell to the ground and thudded with his huge muscled body.
“Carim!” I screamed but he couldn’t hear me. He’s too far away.
I ran to my room and grabbed all my armor and weapons. I dipped my daggers in Almarian Fire Arthur gave us and saw it give a radiant green glow.
“Give me some of that too,” Aylwin said behind me. He discarded the mercenary body in exchange for the female knight’s. His fingers are clawed and sharp. He dipped every digit in the concoction and saw it give the same green eery glow. I hid a vial of the stuff in my belt and left.
We went outside and saw that it’s blocked by a horde of townspeople. I called them off and even showed Gren’s warrior badge but they wouldn’t budge. Their eyes are glowing yellow and their skin seems to be peeling off.
“It’s no use, Jon. These aren’t humans anymore.”
“Can we save them?”
“No. These people are in the last stages of the transformation. We can save them by killing them.”
Aylwin lunged in the air and slashed the nearest kid he could reach. Before the townspeople could hit him, Aylwin has already sliced off their heads and limbs. It was odd that there’s no blood spouting out of their broken bodies. It only dried up innards and flesh underneath the skin. They could barely grasp the weapons they are carrying.
I dashed through the horde and sliced as many husks with my flaming dagger. Carim was right when he said that using Almarian fire is a fickle thing. I’m fighting these horrors while also evading the splash of the green liquid. Nevertheless, the fire is so effective that it sets a husk aflame with just a single touch of the blade.
“Where are we going?” Aylwin asked.
“In the direction where Carim got taken. To the East.”
It was a long fight to the east and even a longer fight reaching the Mausoleum of the dead bordering the town. My arms are sore and my feet are tired of running. But if it was me who got kidnapped, Carim wouldn’t give up rescuing me. We pushed through and came bursting through the stone mausoleum doors.
Carim was there, bound and unconscious. Beside him is the female monster in my dreams.
“Ahhh…” the monster breathed.
“It’s a Sanaedhel,” Aylwin said as he bared his nonexistent fangs. “It’s trying to suck Carim’s blood.”
“Yesss… His blood would do most kindly.”
“I assure you, lady, Carim isn’t tasty.” I japed. Maybe a little joke could catch her off guard.
“Silence! This prey is mine.” The Sanaedhel bared her fangs and lunged towards Carim’s neck. Before the creature could bite, Aylwin reached in with her concocted claws and made the creature bite it instead. The hard chitinous claws broke the Sanaedhel’s fangs and made her mouth fell over to Almerian Fire. Her lips blistered and seared from the chemical and she recoiled in pain. She tried to wipe it off but the concoction merely attached to her skin and help spread the fire.
“AHHHHHH!!!” The Sanaedhel screamed in anguish. She called upon a murder of crows to remove the chemicals. The crows burned but the Sanaedhel didn’t care. She called upon the rest of the flock and shot it at us. I rolled to the left and slashed the birds in my wake. Aylwin faced it head-on and diced any birds that came near him.
With the birds behind us, this is my chance. I ran straight to the Sanaedhel and…