The castle was dark in the morning. The only light able to seek through came from the small windows on either side of the spanning halls. It was too big for its own good and it didn't make things better when the head of the castle was deathly afraid of fire. So no one could light a candle in the entire manor, except for at night when the master was soundly asleep.
The head of the castle was the aptly named Count Burnered. He was the head of the Merchants Guild, and he regulated most to all of the markets in the Kingdom of Forr. To any trader or merchant he was a big deal and to anyone who wasn't a trader or merchant he was still a big deal. Some say that he was one of the richest men in the kingdom, even richer than nobles and kings, but others say he's just a sad old man rotting away in his castle. Both were true, and both were wrong, for his time to be both sad and rich was coming to an end.
The shadowed man snuck into the castle and walked through the long dark hallways. His sword hung by the left side of his belt as he rested his left hand on the hilt. The pathways through the castle were eerie and the place was littered and swarming with servants and slaves as they cleaned up kept the castle in tip-top shape. The shadowed man moved swift through the manor. He dipped past the eyes and gazes of the servants and slaves, while simultaneously searching for the Count's sleeping chambers.
After a while of searching, he eventually landed himself at a massive eight-foot door, that led into the bedroom of Count Burnered. He opened the door as a loud creak echoed across the dark hallways and into the room. Inside stood a man whose face shined in the small window light, he looked at the shadowed man, his body cast in a black flat image, a deathly monster, or maybe just death itself.
"Who- Who are you! Servants! Guards!" He screamed as loud as he could before-
Zap!
He fell to the floor numb, his body like a rubber chicken, with his limbs and head lax and unmoving.
"Wha... Wha did... You..."
He could barely speak through his numbed mouth as the shadowed man leaned forward, his ripped cloak blocking out the light from hitting the old man's chubby face fat face.
The shadowed man spoke with a great menace, "you worked for Sariel. Tell me where he is or I will kill you."
The Count bobbed back and forth in fear as footsteps echoed fast down the dark castle hallways.
"Speak up now!"
"I- I... I don't... Kno-"
"I said speak-"
The door to the room slammed open in an instant as five guards entered the Count's chambers, but to their surprise, there was no intruder present in the room. Only the dead body of Count Burnered remained, with his head cut clean off, laying next to him in a puddle charred blood.
"Who- Who did this!" screamed out one of the guards as he searched the room.
"There's no one here sir!" yelled out another.
"Call the police, call the city guard! It's another terrorist attack! An assassination on Count Burnered! We can't let the one who did this escape!"
---
Outside the city walls. Along the outskirts of the Outerlands, Ceauli, Lin, the angry woman, the large man, and I all walked in a line across the empty dunes. It was hours and hours of walking from village to village. There was nothing in all directions and I had no clue where we were going.
"Where are we going?" I asked Ceauli as she turned back to me.
"You're lucky. Were going to see the monster hunts."
"The monster hunts?" I asked back.
"Yeah, Minda got some good intel from a Mercenary group. They should be just over this ridge."
"Minda? You mean the lady who slapped me? Her name's Minda?"
"Yeah, but don't be mad at her for the slap. She... She was born in Stofentall but moved out here six years ago. Her family was still there when... When it was destroyed. The Shorebringers to her are her mortal enemies. So please don't get angry at her Hoefen."
I suddenly felt horrible for the things I said, "oh... I didn't know that..."
Ceauli flipped back and forth while smiling and frowning like she was trying to keep the negative emotions as far away from her as possible, "yeah, you should apologize. Hahahaha, nah, I talked to her earlier, I told her you didn't know about that stuff. She's a nice person... But damn, you really messed up back there. Hahahahaha!"
We reached the ridge of the large dune. The five of us all looked down on the steep hill that reached into a valley of sand and stone. But... What was more amazing than the vast valley view, was what was inside the valley. Hundreds of Mercenaries, all in sparkling armor and wielding large weapons. They were fighting monsters. Snake monsters, undead monsters, skeleton monsters, monsters of undefined looks, some just mounds of flesh, others just arms and legs, beings of undescribable natures, beings of evil natures, the natures of humans.
It was a bloodbath of monster guts and monster death, Mercenaries were chewing through the hordes of creatures left and right as so were the monsters. Mercenaries were dying, but so were people. It was a conflict of life and death.
"Wha- What is this?!" I asked perplexed by this image of bloody fighting.
"It's a Monster Gate. They are rare and randomly appear across the Outerlands and more frequently appear in the Badlands," said Lin as he pointed out at a spiraling hole in the sand and stone where the Monsters crawled out of.
Minda pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked across the battlefield from up above, "it looks like it just started. Chinin get out the bags, we're going down there now."
She quickly put away her binoculars and started climbing down the sandy hill and into the valley of orange rock and stone. Chinin followed as he pulled out five cloth bags from his massive robbed pockets.
"Are you gonna come too?" asked Ceauli with one foot already down the hill.
"Um... I think I'm just gonna stay up here," I replied quick.
"Really?"
Lin followed the other two as Ceauli stayed behind to talk to me. I looked down on the other three as they ran across the battlefield, running from monster corpse to monster corpse, picking the ugly creatures apart with their bare hands for any rare limbs or items.
"Yeah... I'll just watch from up here. I... I'll just watch..."
"Ok, suit yourself, but you're not gonna get any pay from us."
I sat down on the sandy ridge as they ran across the battlefield. Blood everywhere. Monsters' brains and guts littering the rocky gravel grounds. These people were crazy, running around Mercenaries as they swung swords and hammers and spears, yelling at them, screaming for them to get out of their way. They were fearless, like masters of this specific craft, they knew how to get in and out of trouble fast without fully disrupting the flow of battle. And at first, it may sound risky, running through danger to just get parts of monsters, but Ceauli told me earlier that it's all worth it in the end.
She said that most traders who collect monster parts gather them up after the battle's already finished, but if she can monopolize the market by collecting while the mercenaries are fighting, then there won't be anything left for the other traders when they get here. Honestly, I think it's a genius idea, but not an idea for me. I don't have time to fight monsters and become a merchant trader. I came to this city with one goal and one goal in mind. To find the Shorebringers. To find the leader of them-
"You enjoying the show?" asked a deep man's voice from behind me.
I turned my head halfway around to see a large man standing behind me, his whole body was coated in a black ripped cloak, and his head was shadowed by the sun, with his eyes peering through the darkness, red.
I instantly knew those eyes, that cloak, the sword sticking out from behind the seem.
"You- You- You're..."
"If you want to live, kid, stay up here and hid behind cover."
He walked past me and stood on the ridge between the sudden drop and the valley below.
"Are you... Are you him?" I asked looking at the shadowed man as he looked into the abyss of the Monster Gate.
"Hmph. You just said him. Why did you just say that, kid?"
I quickly pulled out my notebook and read one of the names I highlighted in thick pencil, "your him... The Killer of Kings... Tusk... You're Tusk the Killer of Kings, from the Shorebringers!"
He turned his head, his eyes peering through the darkness of black.
Red.
"You know who I am, kid?" he asked in a serious tone.
"I... I..."
For some reason, as he stood before me, the words seemed to slip from my tongue, like all that build-up for five years was for nothing. And then just as I was about to regain my composure and open up my mouth to ask him an actual question, a loud screech echoed from the Monster Gate in the center of the valley.
"What was-"
"Hmph. I thought so. The gates have been getting worse lately."
He took another step forward as all the Mercenaries stopped their fighting in fear of what was below the swirling pit of monster death.
The shadowed man took off his hood as the sun shined down on his bare face. He had pitch-black hair, with rough scares ridden across the back of his neck and cheeks.
He then turned back to me and said in a serious tone, "I'd forget my name and leave this area if I were you, kid." He stared deep into the swirling pit as a devilish hand reached out from it's hellish depths, "the Boss is coming."