A squad of fiends!
At once, the predatory eyes sparkled with agitation.
The famished soldiers swiftly followed the two unfortunate souls and chopped their heads off in one swing. The actions were swift and mute.
Without even sparing a moment to check whether these beings are edible, the soldiers skinned and stuffed the red-coloured meat into their mouth. Unlike the ravenous fellows, Thalia and Aaron were reluctant to participate in the feast but their stomachs grumbled with discomfort.
"Join in." Aaron gestured at the earthling to come and partake in the meal, but he hesitated. But after sparing a few seconds to ponder, he complied.
In actuality, Adam wasn't hungry. But if he didn't follow the flow, the soldiers would grow doubtful as to why he is not eating anything when a mortal should be craving for food.
[Adam, the meat of the fiends are not completely appropriate for consumption. But they can provide the necessary energy to stay alive. Please refrain from eating too much.]
'Noted.' With a faint nod, Adam received the meat strips Thalia passed onto him. After chewing down a few pieces, he returned the remaining flesh.
"We don't know when we'll come over another meal." Thalia frowned and advised. Her voice indirectly asked Adam to consume it without hesitation.
"I know, but..." A short pause and Adam added, "We are in a foreign land. Hostility is around us. We are roaming, escaping the detection of the brutes. We don't have anything to eat and don't know whether what we are eating is safe to consume.
It is better safe than sorry."
Adam slowly rose and walked to a boulder. He climbed onto it before scouting the area. There was nothing in the vicinity and Endevil confirmed his opinion.
"Hey look, there's something in the fiend's hand."
A hushed exclamation rang in his ears and he turned around to see a soldier picking up some green leaves from the grasp of the deceased. The tiny individual stalks resembled the shoots of a Golden Sedum Plant. Furthermore, the crowd was delighted to know that the hostile world can nurture flora. Not a tinge of doubtfulness existed in their minds as they quickly shared those stalks and chewed down in delight.
'Wait a minute... How the hell does green plants grow in the absence of sunlight?'
Raising his head, Adam noticed that the heavenly body hadn't budged a bit from its spot. An inauspicious feeling enveloped his heart and he cried out to stop them.
"Don't eat it!"
Though he toned down the volume by an extent, Adam's voice still was able to jolt them up. Aaron and Thalia turned around and stared at him, only to witness horror on Adam's face. Luckily, they had a tint of reluctance in their hearts.
As if waking up from a trance, the duo realised something and their eyes widened.
But it was too late.
The other five had disregarded Adam's bellow and already swallowed the stalks. As soon as the paste disappeared down their oesophagus, the five burped in unison. As they stared at each other while savouring the sense of satisfaction, their brows knit when a sweet sensation filled up in their throat.
Puh~
The knight commander and the elf saw their faces turning livid. They immediately retreated and evaded the dark-red blood that exited their lips like a fountain.
"Comm-" A soldier couldn't complete the words as he fell down clutching his chest. His face warped in pain and dread. Within seconds, blood gushed out of his seven orifices and he breathed his last.
"The hell!"
Those who shared the leaves with that dead soldier jumped up in fright and shock. Their faces were pale as if staring at the grim reaper itself. The words they spat disclosed their ghastliness.
Thalia immediately threw the stalks away and wiped her palm on her fabric. Beads of sweat were already appearing on her face.
A deathly stillness enveloped them and none one uttered a word until Aaron recognise some changes with those soldiers. He quickly pointed at them and spoke, "Your skin."
A purple hue was slowly yet steadily spreading over the skin of those who consumed the shoots. The men stared at each other and staggered backwards in fear.
"Let's leave this place real quick."
Aaron commanded and paced away from the corpses. Though he was as clueless as to the dumbfounded crowd, he felt that the need to distance themselves from the location comes as the first priority.
Adam quickly got down to the ground and walked at the back of the pack. As he walked past the dead soldier, the horror of death was still evident on that face.
'Rest in peace, brother.' Kneeling on one knee, he closed those eyelids. Sighing at the poor soul's misfortune, Adam got up and followed the crowd.
That's how their wandering began.
...
The aimless pacing through the barren land wasn't pleasant at the least. While braving through the unexpected offence of the elements, their count began to dwindle.
Adam voluntarily suggested the use of his healing potions, but they couldn't avert the unavoidable.
...
"Let's move on."
Thalia placed her palm on the pommel of her sword as she scanned around. Aaron could only nod as the warmth of the dead slowly replaced by a deathly coldness. Placing the lifeless hand on the ground, he stood and turned to walk away from the deceased.
The last one of those five poisoned soldiers were trembling for no reason. Adam saw this and approached him. After conversing with him, he realised that this guy is also at the end of his lifetime. His body was standing upright only because of his sheer will power.
"...let's walk." Adam wanted to console that man but he couldn't find any words to alleviate his pain. Thus he could only stare at those sunken eyes and ask him to walk ahead.
...
And just like that, an hour or two went by in silence as the gang trudged through the uneven terrain. Due to safety issues, they used the cover of hills and mounds to travel, before finally entering a narrow valley.
Adam was about to heave a sigh in relief when the armour's voice rang in his head.
[Adam, spectres above.]
Endevil's sudden alert caught Adam by surprise and the headgear instantly manifested around his head at the slightest fluctuation of his heart.
"Spectres above."
The hushed voice fell in the trio's ears and their eyes rose. Up above them at an altitude of about three hundred metres, two apparitions were floating with a faint sway. As if a breeze was blowing, they slowly rotated as if scouting.
'Walk to that rock and hide. Don't make a sound.' Thalia gestured at Adam and the soldier who replied with a nod. As she advised, the duo tiptoed to a nearby rock and squatted behind it.
At the same time, Aaron and the elf had sought shelter behind another one.
The four pair of eyes stared closely at those ghosts. Perhaps they felt something locking onto them, those two lowered their pupilless eyes.
Nothing.
Finding the valley below them empty, the two spectres raised their heads and turned in a direction and departed.
'Stand down. Don't come out.'
Thalia gestured at Adam and conveyed that the spectres are smarter than what meets the eye. A few seconds after she retracted her hands, the same apparitions appeared again.
'Good god! Who would have thought that these wisps are more dangerous than their brutish counterpart.'
The misty white beings remained suspended in the air for a while. They kept shuttling their focus from one to the other. It was as if they knew something was hiding down there, but reluctant to do the hard work.
It was then...
BOOM!!!
An earth-shattering blast resonated in the air with an extraordinary sensation sweeping past the four. The shockwave that the sound reminiscent of a thunderclap emitted created networks of cracks on the stones.
Even the two spectres were blown away in the pressure.
'What was that?' Adam stared at Aaron and expressed his curiosity through gestures.
'How would I know?' The reply was simple.
Yeah, right. I forgot that we are aliens here right now.
The rumbling that followed the deafening wham eventually died out. After confirming that the spectres fled the spot for real this time, the survivors stepped out of the shade.
"You three, stay here. I'll go and take a look."
Without waiting for counterarguments, Aaron tiptoed like a cat and walked to the entrance through which they came in. he squatted down and crawled to the edge before peeking out. Pivoting his head around for a while, he finally saw the culprit behind the explosion.
Although the knight commander and the trio were separated by a distance of about three hundred metres, Adam clearly perceived the emotions flickering across his face, thanks to Endevil. What was initially a deep knit frown suddenly transformed into a pair of astonished eyes open wide!