Entering the mist was easier than expected for the three ships. There were no restrictions and the only problem was the light. Each ship had multiple blue colored lamps spread across the sides but only managed to light about three meters around it. The darkness was silent and ominous, slowly increasing the anxiety of the people in it.
Marthen the Naval captain was not afraid. Years of fighting in the sea taught him not to let the lack of light get to him. His instincts told him that there were no threats nearby. According to the investigations there was a landmass in the center of the mist. Avian creatures would travel above the 300 meter or so mist and exit through the otherside after spending a day inside. This was also the reason why few were aprehensive of going on the mist. If birds can do it, why can't they?
Marthen looked at their line up. At the center was his ship covered in a light blue transparent barrier. Enough to whithstand thirty blows of a gargant class or five leviathan class blows. The two ships had the same setup. The barrier was developed during the third daemos invasion in the east, due to its versatile applications it became a common requirement for every mobile transportation to have.
At the speed they were going it would take two days for them to go through the mist. It couldn't be helped that they move slowly, any rushed investigations would look as if they neglected proper procedures. If Marthen came back without solid proof he would lose his Job, Leaving the kingdom was difficult if there were people coming after you.
While The Naval captain was lost in his thoughts a sound was heard.
*Thwump*
It was surpressed and felt like it was a collision of something with their ship barrier. Using his trained senses Marthen turned his body to face the source of the sound. A majority of the crew were already staring at a certain spot in the barrier.
The source of the sound was a creature unlike any they had ever seen. It had a humanoid body with elongated limbs. Its body was in a shade of extremely dark purple. The creature was extremely thin to point where one could see it's ribs. The head had no signs of having any mouth but it seemed to have its eyes closed. The creature didn't make any sounds and stayed connected to their barrier outside. Maybe because it wasn't moving, the people thought it was dead giving someone enough confidence to exclaim,
"what the fuck is that!"
suddenly, the creature snapped it's eyes open towards the person who shouted. Its eyes glowed in an eerie purple scaring the guy making him fall to his ass.
A few meters away from the guy was a naval captain who had alarm bells ringing in his head. At first his instincts told him the unknown creature wasn't hostile but the moment it opened its eyes and locked it with the person who shouted Marthen felt goosebumps rise on his back.
"Don't look into it's eyes!" he shouted.
But no one listened they were busy being shocked at the creature ripping a meter cube hole on the ship barrier. The only protection they had against their fear in the dark was ripped of just like that? Fear, the unknown creature and its ability to damage something even leviathan class monsters would fail to destroy with multiple hits scared them.
Marthen had his trusty sword already in his hand glowing in a slight green aura. His eyes were looking intensely at the slender monster. Before he could rally the men to ready their weapons the monster dissapeared.
'what!?'
"JAMES NO!!"
James was the name of the guy who shouted a while ago. Marthen turned his head towards James but found a headless corpse instead, The monster beside it carrying James head with both its hands. The creature travelled a distance of 8 meters and beheaded someone in less than 2 seconds, a speed that shocked the naval captain.
The crew came back from their previous scare of having their barrier ripped a hole. Now they saw one of their allies losing his head, naturally they, were angry. Some pulled out their swords charging towards the enemy while others powered their etherno guns and aimed. They had experience in fighting single enemies as a group and the best way was to swarm it leaving no openings for evasion. It was a simple and effective plan, melee weapon holders would ground its range of motion while their allies in the back would riddle it in bullets. It would have worked if not for the monster blink out of existence and appear a distance away from them as soon as a projectile came close to it.
Marthen who was observing the creature this entire time knew that this was one of the monster's abilities so he shouted at his people,
"Do not look into its eyes! the monster has an instantaneous movement ability and is suspected to be responsive towards sound!"
The naval captain did this with the intention to warn the crew and draw the monsters attention towards him. But the monster did not move, it walked slowly looking around it's vicinity. It did nothing in response to the captain's provocation so the captain would come to it instead. He rushed towards the nine feet tall abomination at a speed impossible for the common man. His sword left a trail of faint green before it was stabbed at the monster's back.
"Hmpf!" Forcing the sword through the monsters body, Marthen hypothesised that the instant travel ability the monster had could not be repeatedly done within a short period of time. Activating the swords function, Marthen pushed the ambient ethero into the sword making it explode in green fire. The tall monster made gutteral sounds of screaming as it suddenly a stabbing and burning pain. It tried to attack the naval captain behind it but to no avail. The experienced Marthen had many experiences fighting monsters with long limbs and he was able to deflect the strikes away from his body.
In a desperate attempt to get away from it's suffering the dark purple monster teleported away. Unfortunately, since Marthen was holding onto it he was brought along.
Marthen felt as if the world warped infront of him and sucked him into a different place. 'it wasn't speed!' he thought. The creature had the ability to teleport. Feeling the potential danger of the ability, Marthen pushed more of the ambient energy into his sword and incinerated the beast. Completely roasted, the monster fell to ground with a charred hole in its chest. Marthen faces the crowd and shouts words of success,
"It is dead! the monster had a teleporting ability that it can control. It is most likely aggressive towards people that look in its eyes. The strength is similar to mine but it is not impossible to kill!"
the crew respected their capatain's strength because of moments like these. He was the first person to calmly analyze the monster's capabilities and kill it. The crew was feeling happy and the previous tension was gone.
"HOORAY! long live the captain", cheers echoed through the ship.
"Shut up! check the ship for damages, someone repair the barrier and take care of James' corpse" An annoyed Marthen shouted.
"Sir, the barrier has already been repaired and James' corpse has been secured". A man wearing wearing the standard uniform of the kingdom's naval army responded.
"Good, go message the other ships about what happened and relay our discoveries"
"Yes sir!"
The event was finally over, Things like these wasn't good for the 48 year old Marthen. Fighting was his specialty and it was something his wife told him to stop jumping into. Recalling his wife, he suddenly had the idea of teaching his daughter fighting skills as soon as he goes back. The idea of his daughter bringing home heads of daemos excited him. maybe he cou-
"...yre not respondi...."
"Hmmm? what did you say?" Marthen looked at the officer who disrupted his train of thought.
"The other ships sir, they're not responding" the officer said in a slightly shaky voice as repeatedly turned the communication device on and off.
Marthen raised and eyebrow but before he could inquire about the specifics he heard multiple thumps outside the ship barrier. With his fast reaction time he shouted orders quickly,
"ORDER WE ARE BEING ATTACKED BY MULTIPLE CREATURES, DO NOT NOT LOOK AT THEM USE DIRECTIONAL ETHERO MANIPULATION TO OBSERVE THEM!"
The crew scattered across the ship closed their eyes as they operated the ambient ethero to send waves in all directions. Everyone was silent and only the sound of breathing and something else echoed.
thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*thump*thump*thump* thump* thump*thump *thump* thump*
Everyone heard the same thing but it was the feedback of their ethero sonars that freaked them out the most. Multiple slender monster were splattered all over the shipbarrier. If these monsters got in, a complete massacre would occur. Just as the crew were starting to feel hopeless they heard their captain,
"Calm down! as long as you don't provoke them by looking at their eyes they won't come in"
Everyone was calmed by the statement, all but one naval captain. Marthen knew that it was just a theory, what he said wasn't a confirmed fact and for all he knew the monsters could just swarm in instantly kill them all. Luckily they didn't, the monsters had no signs of movement and only sticked to the barrier. The logical step would be to turn the ship around and leave the cursed mist. They had potentially lost 2 ships with the high chance of losing theirs, It was time for Marthen to accept the loss.
He would lose his Job at this failure but didn't care about it. He was more concerned at the people who would take his wife and seven year old daughter. Marthen had backuplans for his family in case he died in battle and it was time to take those plans into action, but he would be alive this time.
"Turn this ship around" Marthen said in a calm tone towards a nearby officer.
"But sir, the mission"
"we've already seen and lost enough" the inability to communicate in this context meant that the other ships failed to realize the enemy's capabilities. It was most likely many of them panicked when the monster arrived and got finished of in the following swarm. There was no need to confirm their survival, if they were smart they would turn their ship around as well.
nodding his head, the officer tapped an operator in the shoulder in a sequence. A Non verbal expression that meant "reverse ship". The ship began its slow swerve on its starboard side with the monsters still attached to it.
The crew members felt the ship's movement and "saw" it with their ethero sonars. Happiness was an emotion commonly felt at the moment, they could finally get out of the place. On corner of the ship however was a new creature making its way towards an unsuspecting crewmate.
Marthen who had a superior sonar detected this anomaly. The feedback showed a vertically elongated creature with four small legs in each corner of it's body. It stopped moving when it was near the crewmate and violently vibrated its body while making a hissing noise.
The crewmate also felt something behind him but noticed it later due to him focusin on the ethero sonar feedback infront of him. He heard a hissing sound unlike any snake he had heard in his life
*Tssssssss*
Before he could focus his sonar behind him or even jump out of the way, a loud explosion split his back open and threw him far away.
*BOOM!*
Everyone near the vicinity was thrown away while the ones unaffected from it panicked and opened their eyes to look at the explosion. From there chaos occured. Some accidentally locked eyes with the monsters outside which caused multiple holes to appear in the barrier allowing the slender humanoid monsters inside. Those who didn't look at the monsters outside noticed a new enemy colored in camo green creeping up to them. The crew tried to fight back and managed to kill a few of the purple monsters but they were suddenly met with explosions behind them. There were now different kinds of monsters going through the barrier; giant spiders and skeletons added to the already large pile.
Marthen was looking at the chaos infront, his face warping into expressions of helplessness, sadness, anger, and finally resolution. He knew what he had to do and he had the strength to do it. These men had families of their own, he could fight alongside them and maybe survive. He knew he couldn't fight long enough to massacre all the enemies and if he died, what of his wife and daughter?
With clenched fists and blood shot eyes, Marthen pulled out a necklace from under his chest plate and a Multimedial recorder from his wrist. He said a few words to the recorder before he pressed it on the pendant of the necklace. The necklace was a long distance communication device capable of sending any amount of information towards a set reciepent. At the cost of overdrafting ethero through the sender's body and ultimately killing them.
Marthen hoped the transmission would go through and prayed for his wife and daughter. Channelling ethero above what his body allowed was painful but he managed to do it. His body was slowly disintegrating into pieces, he had at most half an hour of life left because of what he did. The necklace had crumbled into dust.
Marthen turned his attention at the monster creeping behind him and the sword carrying skeleton infront. He may be dying but that doesn't mean he was weaker than before. His sword ignited in green fire, and his spirit rose like a tide.
"Bring it on you fuckers."