Leo Messer felt more exhausted at that moment than he had ever been in his 16 years of life. He had trained the sword until his hands bled beneath the hot Toubian sun but even that did not tire him like this.
Not more than an hour earlier he had rejoiced his mission to this place, to the Valley of Mist. He had learnt so much and improved greatly with real experience. He was even thinking about staying for an extended period!
But that naive fantasy had been shattered in an instant. Just two attackers. Just those two people, if he could call them that, were all it took for his exciting trip into the Valley of Mist to become a nightmare.
That faceless demon, he was near untouchable as they battled, exploiting every practiced sword strike, every mastered form that Leo employed. As if Leo had spent his whole life learning not how to fight, but how to perform a choreographed fight in which he loses.
He and his senior brother Steffen were metas, and their talent for cultivation caused some friction with their seniors, Chris and Gunther, but to Leo, they were all members of the same sect, regardless of personal squabbles.
He would lay down his life for the members of his sect, they were his family.
But it hadn't been him. It had been Chris, who bullied and teased Steffen without restraint that threw himself between them and danger. The image of those blood red crystals, growing as they absorbed – stole – Chris' life before their very eyes.
Leo's tired feet stumbled for a moment as held tight to the unconscious Steffen.
He doubted Steffen would live more than an hour. The other attacker, the woman in black who's face remained hidden throughout. She had attacked Steffen first with an attitude that clearly displayed her intent to sever the weakest link.
Steffen had one deep stab and a few cuts, but the worst of the damage with spiritual. She had attacked his soul with her palms, and Leo believed his senior brother would die even if his body did not.
She had tried to kill him too…
Again, Leo's body was wracked with fatigue, as if his very soul was tired and overburdened.
He didn't know what had happened after she tried to kill him. Everything became a blur, and then Leo found himself some place far away, the unconscious Steffen by his side.
'I hope Elder Hermann is alive.' he thought. 'Please be alive, we need your help'
He did not cry, no matter how much he wanted to. He just kept walking. Steffen needed help, and he was the only one left to find it.
**
Lucian and Tess stood nearby the location of their battle, the elder having warped away immediately to find the surviving youth.
Lucian would rather have hunted them down and left no witnesses, but his intuition screamed at him that he needed to focus right now, that danger was imminent.
'Lucky I hide my face.' He thought with a glance to the scarf-covered Tess.
A soft, hissing sound could be heard within the fog, as the smell of rot creeped through the air.
Lucian had his bloodbond form a greatsword with a blunt sword base and additional quillions, holding it as a half sword. Tess on the other hand, approached his side carefully, a dagger in one hand as she spoke quietly.
"If that elder is still nearby he may ambush us while we fight. We're better off retreating for now and tying up loose ends."
Lucian adjusted his grip on the greatsword as he considered. She was right, getting into another fight right now was like asking to be stabbed in the back. But…
The hissing sound echoed once more and Lucian was able to discern two different noises within.
"I don't think we have much of a choice. It sees us." He replied.
"How?" Tess asked in confusion as she put distance between them to ready herself.
"I don't know how. But I can feel its gaze."
He looked to her briefly, and considered again the problem of the lurking elder.
"Tess. I'll be fine here, why don't you hunt down the survivors? You're better suited for it than me."
She gave him a long, contemplative look before answering.
"...Fine. If you're in trouble then shout, okay? I mean it."
Lucian grinned. "I'll be fine, what are you worried about?"
She gave him a look that spoke a silent warning before turning and vanishing into the mist without a sound.
'Don't be complacent, huh?'
His eyes searched the mist until he felt the sensation of locking gazes, at which point he simply stared, readying himself.
The hissing approached slowly, alongside the sound of something dragging along the ground.
Lucian let his life domain explode forth, covering as wide an area as he could as the fog was beaten back 40 meters surrounding him.
A shiver ran through his body as the warning bells in his mind sounded ever louder, and he released a long, frosty breath. He was sure his breath would be visible if not for the shell covering his mouth.
At the edge of the life domain, where roiling mist pushed against the clearing, a large silhouette appeared, darkening slowly.
The surrounding fog began to run black, as if invaded by something miasmic, as a long and red snout emerged from it, followed by a lengthy, sinuous body, like that of a serpents.
Lucian's eyes widened at the sight of the creature. Its serpentine form featured two long arms, like the coiling dragons he had read about, but its draconic face bore spiraling ram's horns.
The entire body of the thing was scaleless, instead featuring highly translucent red skin, revealing the gruesome anatomy of the body beneath. Its eyes had no iris, and were completely black, excluding two white pupils adjacent to each other in each eye, totaling four.
Veins ran under the transparent skin of the creature, and the blood beneath was tinted with black.
Pure white, opaque drool cascaded from its draconic maw as the four white pupils locked onto Lucian, a hissing ringing out not just from the expelled breath of the creature, but the ground beneath it as all things it touched withered and died, expelling that miasmic smoke that filled the mist.
For the first time in a long time, Lucian felt his muscles tense in fear, and his right hand shake slightly. He took a breath to calm himself, as the creature suspended its upper body higher into the air, looking down at Lucian.
When its jaw opened, a cacophony of cries, pleas, wails, screams, laughter, and maddened voices could be heard. The voices of the dead.
It began without warning. The huge creature shot down at Lucian headfirst, as if a striking serpent. Its large maw opened wide, as the voices of the dead became louder in Lucians ears and mind.
Lucian's primed legs let loose the energy they had gathered as he shot backwards to avoid the fierce snapping of the jaw, so powerful that sound of metal beating metal rang out in the surroundings.
One of those long clawed arms swung down at the retreating Lucian, the muscles and tendons visible through the murky, translucent skin shifting and producing power.
Lucian kept his greatsword in a half sword grip, stepping left, towards the center line of combat as he lifted his left hand holding the blade high and striking across, pulling his right hand inwards as he turned to force the fiend's claw away.
The other claw came striking at him now, from the other side, but Lucian ignored it, instead dashing in towards the fiends head, and drooling maw. He morphed the greatsword into a javelin he held in his right hand as he hurled it at the head of the creature.
The throw was slower than Lucian's best, and the fiend easily moved its sinuous body in ways a human could not to avoid the projectile. Lucian smiled as he willed his bloodbond, flying away at only a moderate pace, to stop in the air as it turned to face the fiend from the sky behind it, and pierce down.
The grotesque monster gave what could only be considered a cruel grin with its reptilian face as it opened its maw wide, featuring two rows of sharp, pointed teeth, and a tongue as thick as a humans, but half the width and many times the length, split in two neat the base.
The cries of the dead became deafening in an instant, and Lucian felt his mind and soul shutter beneath their wails. His connection to the blood bond vanished for a moment, and his domain of life disappeared, the fog falling back in towards them.
With its open maw, the fiend snapped at him once more, the opaque while drool flinging in the air. Lucian forced a great deal of his blood to push its way through his skin and join his shell, morphing it into a full set of crimson plated armor as he escaped the maw by jumping backwards as much as he 'willed' his armor to fly backwards.
Just as he again escaped the ajws of the fiend and regained control of the bond and domain he had lost, the creature's claw struck down on him once more, and this time Lucian could only defend.
With a small explosion and the sound of rending metal, Lucian's armor was torn to pieces, as long gashes cut through the front of his body, exposing his internals slightly.
Lucian had positioned himself well enough that the force of the blow sent him flying backwards, away from the creature, but it chased swiftly, using its claws to pull itself as its sinuous body slithered along like a snake.
"Strong lesser."
"So much life."
"So much blood."
"Rend it, kill it."
Among the mournful thoughts and wails of the dead were a few that seemed aware of what was happening, and none of them were kind.
Lucian's body was healing, but slower than it should. As he forced himself to his feet, Lucian realized something about the wounds was wrong. There was something eating away at his lifeforce, and a miasmic fog seemed to faintly emanate from the gashes.
If he were not a veritable ball of life, he was sure the wounds would be worsening by the second.
Before his wounds had completely healed, but after they had recovered enough for him to try and defend himself, the fiend reached him again. It did not attempt to bite or claw at him as it had before, but instead opened its maw wide and exhaled a billow of miasma that blew past him in an instant.
Lucian yelled in pain as he felt the black fog seeping into his body, and into the shell. He tried to exert his domain of life to push it back and expel it from his body, but before he could tell if it were working, a long tail came whipping around from the side and almost caught him in the ribs. Lucian managed to call his bloodbond back just in time to root it to the ground as a shield. The tail tore straight through it and hit Lucian regardless, but he had jumped into the air, and only his legs were hit, as he was sent tumbling away.
Landing hard on the ground, Lucian felt his broken left leg repairing itself, which only caused more pain. His left hand reached into the pouch on his swordbelt, and found the Knight's badge. From it, he withdrew the platinum badge and called for helm as he stood.
"This is Lucian Valaran. I am in the Valley of Mist, requesting immediate aid–" Again the fiend snapped at him with incredible speed. Lucian fell back and called his broken bloodbond to reform and fly to him, catching it as a longsword in his right hand.
The shell he had formed as crimson plated armor was having trouble reforming. The blood was being tainted by something as miasma spewed from it and the lifeforce within vanished bit by bit.
Lucian covered his sword in golden flames, burning with life as he clashing with an incoming claw. The fiend shrieked in pain, and Lucian confirmed his suspicion. Whatever this was, it was probably a type of undead. After all, withering had no effect on it, but the golden fire produced an exceptional reaction.
Lucian stepped forward, still trying to force that taint out of his body and shell, to stop the corrosion of his lifeforce as he fought back against the fiend. Gradually, he adapted to the fight and learned to shield himself against the tainted properties of the the fiend with his will, as if resisting the influence of a spirit.
It wasn't perfect, and he often needed to sacrifice great amounts of lifeforce to destroy or expel the taint early, before it could wreak havoc over time.
As the battle continued, Lucian never yelled for Tess' return. While Tess had the healing attribute now, she did not cultivate lifeforce, and he didn't know if she would be able to resist the miasmic taint. After all, he barely could and he should be considered a good counter for this.
Lucian drove his sword into the body of the creature, and absorbed its blood, only realizing his mistake after the fact. The fiends blood was filled with that taint, whatever it was, and it soon tried to spread throughout his bloodbond.
Lucian swiftly abandoned any blood within the bond that was tainted in order to save as much as possible, only to be struck again by that tail.
This time, he landed well, and was back to his feet in under a second. Gradually, he was learning how to combat this thing, and his martial training was proving increasingly effective over the fiend's bestial attacks.
He just hoped for no more surprises.