The shadows get closer and something strange happens. Lights split the trees at random, the trees burn with these lights, an icy wind dominates the environment and water flies through the wind-blown amid the convoy, the wind dances changing direction as if it were looking for a exit.
The mud becomes more slippery and the convoy's displacement reduces to almost nothing, there is no way to keep a fire burning in these conditions, the trees that catch fire do not take long to go out, everything that emits light seems doomed to be put out, they have no torches and they can only see something by the flashes.
The leader tries to call the dwarf unsuccessfully, his voice is drowned out by the bangs that follow the flashes, the leader can easily see where the dwarf is, the only remaining light source are those damn stones the dwarf is pushing on his wheelbarrow.
Besides the stones only the dim light of Krastinaff's eyes can be seen in the distance, the leader goes to the dwarf personally, the most stubborn dwarf is the one who is walking in front of the convoy, the dwarf was wise to make the wheelbarrow wheel very wide, even now having to exert a lot of strength he can still push it, the leader touches the dwarf's shoulder.
"Distribute these damn stones, and give one to the starving one, maybe it can be used as a living torch" the leader yells in the dwarf's ear to ensure he hears.
The dwarf with regret nods his head, his long battle is over, most of that charge is sure to be lost in the hands of the combatants who will die on the way.
"And hand the cart to the food cart, let's save what we can, the weapons have already been distributed, the trinket cart will be left behind as well" the leader shares the dwarf's regret at leaving these precious goods behind, not for the stones which have so far proved unworthy, the only use the stones have shown so far has been to drive Krastinaff crazy.
The dwarf obeys and goes out distributing his stones, he leaves the smallest stone to give last to Krastinaff, the dwarf's fury is watched by Ramon, Krastinaff and the squire who are the only ones who can see reasonably well amidst the blinding flashes and the oppressive darkness that quickly returns after each of these white or bluish glows.
The troop continues on the march, Susano pushes the troop with all the food they could put in the wheelbarrow, they left almost half of it behind, even dividing part of the food for the troop to reduce waste of. The ex-cook helps Susano with a rope attached to the carriage, he goes ahead pulling so they can keep up with the rest of the troop that is carrying a little weight.
They were able to save a little of everything by distributing the items among the interested parties, Krastinaff stayed behind lolling with the remains of the abandoned food cart, Amira enjoyed a little too, but did not wait for the troops to go far to return to shelter among the fighters.
The most interesting thing at this point are the stones and as these seem to echo in response to the glare from the flashes, whenever a flash goes out the stones glare suddenly increases so they fade to the default glare.
The cold is intensified by the water that condenses or falls from who knows where, some drops can be sucked in by the breathing of a normal person, others fall to the size of a bucket of water, the water lashes them relentlessly.
The creatures this time are slow to make themselves heard, but they do, the sound of this near cataclysm drowned out the sound of their squeaks, roars, screams and stomps.
And who hears first is Krastinaff who ignores them, but it doesn't take long for the troops to hear, the sound speeds up troops march, they want maximum distance between them and the creatures, Krastinaff is seen as something useful after all, a distraction to grant them a chance to escape.
The dwarf laughs sadistically, he has broken Krastinaff's arm, he won't have a chance to defend himself, better than that, only if the dwarf had killed Krastinaff himself with his bare hands.
Before long Krastinaff is surrounded, but the creatures don't stop at him, most of creatures keep their relentless pursuit of the convoy, the creatures are also slower due to the terrain, but they still move much faster than the troop.
Few creatures move through the trees and none fly, this time it will be a fight on the ground, or more precisely in the mud, the mud of survival.
Krastinaff ate as much as he can now turns to the creatures, he puts the stone in his mouth and attacks first like an animal, as fierce as the monsters he faces, his broken arm hurts with every move, he can only fight with one arm imbued with the same light mixed with shadows as when he ate the first stone, but this time he keeps the stone in his mouth, which gradually melts.
Krastinaff dances amidst the creatures' attacks, and if it weren't for the light surrounding his body, even a skimming blow of those creatures would kill him, the creatures attack him mercilessly, Krastinaff is covered in mud without having fallen to the ground.
Krastinaff is barely aware of his actions and dodges blows coming from all sides as if he could see them, the creatures do not go unpunished, Krastinaff is not only dodging but counterattacking, with each dodge one of the creatures is unlucky to be splited into at least two pieces, not even Ramon cuts those creatures so easily.
The flame in Krastinaff's eyes isn't more intense than usual, it isn't brighter or more vivid, but now that flame carries the change that place has come over so many cycles causing in Krastinaff's soul without his realizing it.
The flame Krastinaff's eyes refuse to extinguish this time, he who has longed for his death a short time ago and now doesn't care about living, he is driven by that flame, the flame that has become almost a second soul to Krastinaff.
The intention of that flame is not noble, it is not extraordinary, it is sincerely quite mundane, it is the desire for survival, the refusal to give up, the stubbornness to persevere, the flame guides Krastinaff's moves, the flame that he and that dungeon shaped, the flame shaped by fear, hunger, pain, weariness, sadness and hatred.
The flame he inherited from his father Rastinaff, but now this flame obeys something far beyond the powers he inherited from his parents, the flame obeys the call, obeys the curse that awaits him, obeys something he did not desire and cannot choose, a curse that chose him, his greatest misfortune however, is that this future is still far away.
The troop sees in the distance the glow of Krastinaff's attacks, and perceives from the noise the imminent arrival of the monsters, the ferocity announcing that the leader was right, fight or die.
Fear will take many lives before the enlightened period begins, everyone fears for their own life and teamwork will be much more limited to those who are immediately by their side.
The creatures delight in the stench of fear emanating from the troop, and the troop perceives the happiness in those nefarious sounds.
The glow of Krastinaff's blows are getting more distant, his friends say goodbye to him, they already feel very little for Krastinaff, now they can only think about themselves.
The fighters fall one after the other in a few minutes between each death, the creatures delight in each victim, the sound of bodies being torn apart and broken is heard clearly, all that noise of the sounds of creatures and flashes seems to make a point of not muffle the sound of brutality that happens to those who aren't strong enough.
The three groups with guide stones, the leader and his squire, the dwarf and the former useless, are the only ones who can really fight, the leader realizes that he was optimistic, half can survive, wrong! Not even a third, he thinks through gritted teeth and snorts.
The leader's tongues of fire are far less efficient due to environmental conditions, the squire manages to remain efficient with precise moves, Ramon remains faithful to her style of shredding everything in his path, Susano and Amira use the weapons of the fallen to avoid from being fatally hit, weapons are wearing out more quickly.
The three groups of stone guides are defending themselves better than the others and start to attract the attention of the creatures unintentionally, apparently the interest of the monsters is the priority extermination of the strongest ones, these combatants can barely hear themselves, but they hear clearly the suffering of those who fall, including their own suffering when being vilified.
Now it's not just the weaker fighters yearning for the enlightened period, they're all anxious, after a huge creature hurled the dwarf away they really were terrified, nor the leader can claim to be sure of himself, their tongues of fire don't represent much for those giant creatures, the trail of collateral damage is huge, if they could see clearly they would be even more frightened, the escape is just a strategy, the fear will only be dissipated by the light of the new cycle that is approaching.
Krastinaff is exhausted, he remains surrounded, but now he sees that there are no many creatures left around him, killing a few is enough to escape, but no, he decides this, his light has almost disappeared and his blows are no longer hit kill.
The flame in Krastinaff's eyes doesn't show the way to cowardice as the solution, he'll have to end that clash, he can't run away forever, his survival demands more than running, his fate cannot be reached by running away.
The flashes cease, and before the period of light begins comes greater darkness, the shadows have already begun to shrink, but the creatures persist, for there is still no light, and there will be no other opportunity for them to exterminate those wretches.
Krastinaff steps on the body of the last creature that fell not by one of his attacks, but fell from being exposed to light, this was a very strong creature, some fell with the slightest amount of light, it's just when it was perfectly clear it finally succumbed.
Krastinaff watches the bodies of those creatures disappearing as if consumed by light, the creatures have varied animal forms, some are large, some are small, but all are incredibly ugly and frightening.
Krastinaff gathers in the cart that Susano was using to cook all the supplies for the other three carts, not much, interestingly after abandoned the carts were not attacked by the creatures, apparently destroying the carts was part of the evil game played by the creatures.
Krastinaff doesn't think much and yet comes to the conclusion that those creatures wanted to destroy the carts to destroy their owners' hopes, those carts represented their expectations of surviving, and this was something that needed to be eliminated.
Krastinaff begins to understand the evil mind behind such an ominous place, he begins to believe in the evil king, he begins to believe that that drunken bard might be something more.
Krastinaff follows that trail of destruction, recovering what's still good from the bodies of the dead combatants, the stones they carried are still in good condition, he's in no hurry, he doesn't have a place or people waiting for him and it's difficult to pull the cart, and really a lot of mud after all that water.
When the enlightened period is about to end Krastinaff reaches the point where the trail of destruction ends and the trail of survivors begins, he is not a good tracker like Susano, but he knows there must be more than a dozen.
He has no idea where those tracks lead, but he has no better idea than to follow the tracks of those who might have a clue where they're going, unlike Krastinaff who knows he has a lot to cover, those tracks know how to walk that path, but not where they must go.