Russel walked into Navarre's tent and was immediately met with signs of a struggle. Things were thrown all over the place and there was a large pool of blood on the floor, both slightly different in shade. Both human and elven blood had been spilled here.
Russel walked over to a small chest in the corner and saw its contents spread across the floor. He leaned down and started rummaging through them. It was a mix of books and small artifacts. He opened a few of the books only to find they were written in a language he didn't know. He stood back up and stared off towards the bed that had been set up.
He looked under the bed and found a thick book with a golden bracelet sitting on top. He pulled them out and looked at the cover of the book. It was called The Basics Of Magic: The Fundamentals. He opened the book and saw it was written in the common tongue. He smiled and started flipping through the book, until he arrived at a page with a sketch of the bracelet next to him.
Cancelation Bracelets: Very rare and useful artifacts that can cancel out magic used against its wearer. They come in many different classes with the lowest being class five which cancels out magic with a consumption under eight. Each class upgrade increases by three.
Russel looked down at the silver bracelet with the number five engraved upon it and put it on his wrist. It started to glow brightly and he felt his wrist being squeezed tight. He closed his eyes to the light waiting until it dissipated, he re-opened his eyes and saw that the bracelet had shrunk to a point where it was tightly attached to his wrist, just enough to ensure no harm or pain and making sure it wouldn't fall off. He admired the bracelet before getting up and leaving the tent.
He walked outside and saw Elizabeth waiting for him. He looked at her quickly before brushing past her continuing back to the others.
"Rude!" Elizabeth protested.
Russel sighed and watched as the blind ran straight in front of him.
"What?" Russel asked.
"Really? Why are you being so cold? I thought we had made some progress!" She whined.
"What do you need?" Russel repeated.
"I just want to know if you found anything." Elizabeth stated.
"Nothing. Everything was destroyed and no one could discern what exactly happened there." Russel lied.
He stepped around Kathleen and continued along his original route. She grabbed his arm causing him to sigh and try to shake her off of him.
"Let go." He muttered.
"I don't want to." She pouted.
"Let go." Russel growled, trying to shake her off once more.
"No." She insisted.
Russel growled and continued to walk, dragging her forcefully behind him.
"Why are you so uptight Russel!?" She complained.
"In case you forgot, we just got attacked by monsters and most of the group died. And no we might have to deal with that curse…" Russel trailed off.
"Right… I forgot about that." She smiled.
"You really are an idiot." Russel stated, finally shaking her off and walking into the carriage where the others were waiting.
"Find anything?" Rachel asked immediately upon Russel's entry.
"Nothing of any consequence. The place was trashed and there was both human blood and elven." Russel explained.
"Damn… So whoever killed him is just going to get away with it." Oliver presumed.
"I'd say it's safe to say that whoever attacked Navvare was injured to the point of near death. The monsters probably finished them off." Russel mused.
"So what now?" Frederick asked.
"I don't know… If we do have to deal with this alleged curse in the forest we have no clue what we are in for." Rachel asked.
"Did you ever get any specific details out of the man who survived the forest?" Elizabeth asked.
"All he said was that he and the others were suddenly in a new place fighting for their lives. The man killed himself a night later." Rachel explained.
"Were they teleported somewhere?" Oliver asked.
"It sounds more like an illusion to me." Elizabeth explained.
"Do you have any idea on this Russel?" Frederick asked.
"I'm only good with a sword. I am out of my depth in this conversation." Russel scoffed.
"Regardless, we should prepare for the worst. We know that this curse activates the night after someone is injured, but with so many of us dead… It might become stronger." Rachel mused.
"I'm going to go find those kids I was with, make sure they stay safe." Russel informed the group.
He got up and walked out of the carriage. He walked over to the group of people that still lived, trying not to heed the carnage around him any attention. He saw one of the boys approach him followed by the young woman whose ears had been cut off.
"What now mister?" The boy asked.
"We get ready to fight." Russel answered.
The boy looked confused, and the earless girl spoke up.
"We are all scared. Are we going to die?" She asked.
Russel looked away from her, turning his attention to the bloodsoaked ground.
"I don't know…" He whispered.
He quickly steeled himself and looked back at the boy.
"We may very well be facing the toughest fight yet. Be ready, stay in a group. Don;t give up." Russel told him. "Repeat that to the others."
With that Russel walked over to a tree and slumped down at its base, taking out the book and opening it. He searched for illusionary magic, hoping it would offer a clue on how they could survive the coming ordeal.
Illusionary magic is very troublesome. It is both an amazing way to make someone ex[pericence something amazing, or be used in battle to destroy both the mind and body of an opponent. It is very taxing to cast, so it has various weak points to free a single person from its grasp or everyone. Magic does not work in an illusion, so mages trapped in this predicament often won't survive. Beings are transported as they are in the real world, so warriors will retain their weapons.
"So it is possible to free people of the spell, as long as you find the weak points… So that's our way out… No point in trying to learn a basic spell or so now, they won't be much help if it is illusion magic." Russle pondered quietly.
Still curious, he flipped to the section about the rules of magic and what goes into casting a spell. He was greeted with pages upon pages of writing and closed the book immediately, deciding he would look into it once they were safely out of the forest. Returning the book to his pocket he heard footsteps approaching him.
"You worried?" Oliver asked.
"How could I not be. Only roughly fifty of us survived out of the over three hundred that remained… And now we may be facing something tougher tonight. All we can wait for is the curse to activate." Russel explained.
Oliver sat down next to him and pulled out his blade, resting it on his lap.
"We have no clue what we are walking into and yet we don't run… We must all be insane." Oliver sighed.
"Where would we run to? We are a days ride into this forest, there is nowhere we could reach in time. It's almost sundown." Russel sighed.
"So we just wait for it to start?" Oliver asked.
"Do we have a choice?" Russel replied with his own question.
Oliver looked into the shreds of sky visible between the trees and watched as much of the sunset as he could.
"Too bad that hunting trip was a bust… I could do with a good meal." Russel chuckled.
Oliver looked over at him, surprised at his joking tone, only to see the uncertainty in his eyes.
"Are you ready for this?" Oliver asked.
"Of course not. If I was it wouldn't be a battle." Russel smirked.
Russel saw as the final bits of light dispersed, darkness enveloping the world. He closed his eyes and reopened them, now seeing iron bars in front of him and a stone wall behind them. He looked over and saw that Oliver was no longer with him. He stood up and drew his sword. He approached the bars and pushed on them, causing them to fall away letting him through.
He walked out and looked down the long hallway he was now in, seeing many similar cages around him.
"A dungeon of some kind… How do I get out though?" He wondered.
He started to walk down the hallway and peered into the other cages, they all held skeletons with minimal remains of flesh. He shuddered slightly at the corpses and continued onwards. He heard soft moans up further and carefully made his way to find the noises source.
He arrived at another cage and saw that there was a corpse still moving around. It moaned and groaned as it dragged itself across the floor. Russel broke the bars and walked forward bedding down to the corpse.
"Are you ok?" Russel asked.
The corpse turned and looked at Russel, revealing its rotten face and empty eye sockets. It growled and jumped forward onto Russel. Russel tried to push it off as it tried to bite him. It growled some more and became more intense in its attacks. Russel quickly jammed his sword through the side of the corpse's neck, killing it.
"What in oblivion… A living corpse?" Russel thought aloud.
He patted himself down to check if the thing bit him, the last things he needed was to get an infection from that thing.
Russel walked back into the hallway and continued down the path he was on. He came across a couple more living corpses and killed them, not wanting to take any risk they may pose if someone else came down this corridor.
Eventually he reached a staircase that extended upwards and ascended. He came to a large wooden door and opened it. Emerging into a large courtyard. He walked around slowly, looking for anything that might pose a threat or serve as a weak point in the spell.
"Why are you here!?" A menacing voice yelled from behind him.