"Okay. They are all tucked in and ready!" the youngest girl out of the group yelled from behind. She tapped the back of the cart, telling Zero to go ahead.
Agnis jumped on the driver's side seat of the cart, while the other women stayed behind to take care of the wounded. With a straining pull, he walked forward. At first it was difficult to pull the heavy load, but eventually, when he got it moving, it was a lot easier than he expected. Luckily, he wasn't very far from the city walls, which made the trip back and forth short.
Whenever he saw something glittering on the ground, he quickly whisked it away and stashed it into his inventory. He did not miss a single opportunity of gaining items throughout his task.
When he entered the city and was stopped by a thick crowd, he shouted, "Excuse me." The crowd bustled and pushed as they moved away. People turned their attention to him, wondering what he was. They had never seen such a creature before. Dogs barked and came over, wagging their tails. They even playfully nipped at his feet.
There were streams of players and NPCs that helped each other out, bringing the wounded into the city walls. Shops were converted into makeshift hospitals. Priests and priestesses busily ran back and forth healing the wounded. Women and children helped by making and delivering food, wrappings, and other supplies.
Zero stopped at a makeshift hospital that looked more like a giant tent. Agnis jumped off and lightly landed on her feet. She began unloading the wounded soldiers. People rushed over to help her.
"Over here. We have more wounded in this wagon," yelled the city solider. "Put him over there."
A little girl shyly came over and peered up at Zero. He glanced down and wondered what she would do. She rose up her hands to his face and showed him a small carrot.
"Horsie." She smiled the biggest grin she could ever muster.
Zero did not know how to tell the girl that he wasn't one without starting a very long explanation. So instead, he bent over and ate the carrot out of her hands.
"Horsie!" The young girl was thrilled at what he did and ran off back into the crowd.
Zero silently sat still, munching on the carrot. It wasn't bad; it was actually quite sweet for a carrot. He didn't usually eat carrots, but this was the first time he'd ever tasted a sweet one.
"You ready?" Agnis came over and put her hands on his neck. He nodded, still chewing.
"What are you eating?"
He gulped before answering, "Carrot."
"A carrot?" Agnis asked, perplexed. "Where did you get it?"
"Some kid gave it to me."
"A kid?" She paused for moment. "I'm guessing they thought you were some kind of horse. Kind of funny when you think about it. Well, time to go." She turned towards the cart and got in.
Throughout the next two hours, Zero walked back and forth, pulling the cart. Each time he stopped to unload the wounded fighters, the same child came back running with different varieties of fruits and vegetables. He did not mind. It was free food. He was getting hungry from all of the pulling and it gave him the extra boost to keep going.
In total he went back and forth forty times and brought over eighty people into the city, from the worst wounded that needed speed to the least where he could lazily walk without worrying. It wasn't a difficult task, but it was rewarding in a sense to help out the population. Not to mention that he was able to scrounge around picking up gold and items throughout the whole process without drawing much attention. The only time he had to do extra work was when they put one too many injured soldiers on the back of the cart.
"Agnis. There are way too many people on the wagon." Zero wheezed. "Someone needs to get off or it's impossible for me to get this moving."
"Fine." She jumped off and began walking with him side by side. "How about now?"
"Manageable. Still a bit too heavy. Putting six in the cart is a bit too much. Next time lessen the load by one."
"Well, it's alright. You'll gain some muscles." She smiled.
"I don't think it works like that," Zero said. He was slowly losing his breath from the strenuous pulling, making him winded.
You have gained +1 in strength from pulling a cart with a heavy load.
"No way," Zero silently mouthed. He could not believe he gained strength just from pulling the cart. Does that mean if I kept pulling the cart I'll gain more? he thought. He was debating on the idea to keep going, but just by pulling the cart he had spent a good amount of stamina and needed a constant amount of food to replenish his energy. In the long run it would cost him more to continue on with this task. Not only that, he had just an hour left before he transformed back to his original shape.
It was not enough time to gain another status point, nor was it a good use of his time. He was sacrificing his time to level up to help the people around him, and while he didn't mind that every once in a while, he was on a tight deadline to get the Yami Hikari job.
"You alright?" asked Agnis. She peered over curiously.
"Yeah. Everything is fine."
Just as he stepped inside the gate, the ground shook and rumbled. The rocks jittered with the thundering sounds of heavy footsteps, each step getting louder and louder. Trees snapped and tumbled down with a loud boom. People wobbled and stumbled trying to keep their balance.
Players and NPCs gasped in shock. A giant silhouette loomed over the trees. Dawn was breaking, making it difficult to see because the sun was directly behind it. The only clear features were the gleaming golden eyes that pierced through peoples' souls like a knife through butter.
A large sandstorm boiled up on the horizon for as far as the eye could see. It spread miles upon miles wide, coming from the east side of the castle, sweeping towards the city in a heavy gray cloud. Thundering roars of thousands upon thousands of ghastly looking land sharks followed closely behind the looming monster.
The sound of war horns blew to signal the oncoming waves. Zero's ears perked forward, listening to the wailing horns' call. Everyone still out on the field rushed to the city gates with other wounded soldiers in tow. Aldran barked orders towards his guild mates, who reorganized themselves without hesitation. They did not disobey or falter, because his high fame and leadership skills lessened the effect of the monster's mesmerizing terror.
"Move! Get into position!" Aldran commanded. His left hand was on his hilt, and Angrist was right behind him.
Aldran looked out into the distance with a stone-cold expression. His whole appearance had changed—only his voice was recognizable. He wore gryphon armor, gold and pure white. Feathers accentuated his helmet in the back, and a large glowing blue crystal was embedded in his armored chest. It was an amazing set of armor that covered him from head to toe, and not a single spot showed a gap of skin. A blue feathery cape blew across his back. On it was a wing-like design in golden ink. Tuffs of white feathers adorned his shoulders.
The morning light brought forth a mesmerizing shine that made the armor sparkle in the sunlight. He looked like a hero that stood proudly against the dark demonic creature that was coming towards them.
With every step the giant monster took, more of its appearance could be seen, from its large ugly claw-like hands to its muscular but deformed female body. It had two female-looking faces conjoined together, one on the front and one on the back of its head. On each face, two long horns protruded from the forehead and two along the line of the jaw. Long, thin spines grew out of its back, and small bursts of fire erupted out of them. Two goat-like hooves supported its massive, hunched body. The monster's steps were sluggish and slow. Its skin looked like molten lava mixed together with greyish-black.
"What is that?" Zero gaped at the creature and the dust clouds that were being blown heavily around in the distance.
"I swear I've seen that before." His eyes widened. A dark memory resurfaced from the time he visited the Mansion of Dion's underground secret hideout.
"What?" Agnis asked.
"I know that monster. I saw it sleeping under the Mansion of Dion. What is it doing here?" More unwanted memories of the fat man were brought forth. He shuddered to remember the time he spent fighting for his life when he slew the fat man who was experimenting on people. It was something he did not want to recall, but the past still stalked him, not letting him go.
"It was the exact same monster that was sleeping in the giant egg-like test tube."
"Test tube?" Agnis cocked her head.
"I never told you, but underneath the mansion they were doing some kind of human experimentation. That monster you see there was present when I was looking for Tyrell."
"You serious?" She was baffled at what she was hearing. "Why didn't you destroy the monster then? It could've saved us a lot of trouble."
"Our mission was to save Tyrell, not cause a ruckus to bring the guards down and get all of us caught. It's not easy to dodge the guards when you have a group you need to protect. I was not strong enough to fend off an army at that time. It was a better idea to keep a low profile and get out of there safely."
"But…"
"And I didn't want to chance waking up something like that by breaking the only thing that's protecting me from it. I like my life," Zero said. During that time, he was too busy thinking about getting out of that place. Especially when he was seeing shadows move by themselves.
No. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Shadows don't move by themselves. Once again I was hallucinating.
Trouble was coming their way and this was not the end of it. From manslaughters, to Dion, to now an unknown giant monster, and following after the land sharks. He didn't know when the waves were going to end; he only knew that he had to survive them all.
Amidst the chaos of citizens shouting and preparing for a fresh battle, Zero's pace increased to double time. He needed to get the wounded soldiers to safety. It would become impossible to defend the warriors because of the attached cart on his back. The cart wobbled and even flew off the ground as it bounced off the rocks and slammed back down with a heavy thud. The road was making it very difficult to pull the cart.
Time was of the essence. He was not sure if it would be possible to run back out to grab a couple more wounded soldiers. By the time he did, the land sharks would be on them. It was not a favorable outcome, and he was no superman.
Sprinting at full speed, he rushed through the gate.
"Move! Move! Move!" yelled Zero constantly towards the running crowds. Some people dove out of harm's way, and a couple almost got hit for not paying attention. Agnis hopped on, making the cart even heavier. But somehow from the adrenaline rush, he was able to pull the wagon with no problem.
Arriving at a familiar signpost, he skidded to a halt. The wagon pushed him hard from the momentum, causing him to be pushed forward and almost squashed in between the sign post and the wagon. He was in front of the makeshift hospital where dozens of wounded soldiers were laid out in rows. Priest and nurses ran around in a hurry, trying to heal them quickly.
"Quickly! Get to the ones that are most wounded. We do not have time," the head priest shouted out to the group of nurses.
Agnis jumped off the cart. The priest and a group of people rushed over to help carry the wounded soldiers off the cart.
"This person here needs the most attention," the priest yelled out. "Quickly, the enemy is upon us. We must be ready!"
Agnis quickly went over to Zero and began to untie the ropes. "I can't believe they're already here. Time sure does fly. What should we do?"
"What can we do is the better question." Zero turned towards Agnis. He patiently waited for her to untie the ropes. "If what Aldran says about how we can't damage them is true, we are in deep trouble. So far the other guilds have not arrived. I haven't even seen a single Grand Legion guild member anywhere."
"Even so, we need to help out. We should try different attacks to see what can work or not," Agnis said. She pulled the ropes over his head and began to work on the other side.
"No. That's a waste of time. If we cannot hold them back with normal means we must find a different way. Other people will be trying such methods, and having hundreds of people doing the same thing is wasting our time."
"Then what should we do?"
Zero pondered for a moment. She had a valid point. Staying alive was a priority, but completing the quest was something that must be done. If they didn't, the cities would be destroyed and civilization could revert back to the dark ages. The game life would be a hundred times harder, or so he'd read on the forum.
"I think I might have something to go with. Come on, get on. We need to get there quickly."
With her task done, Agnis pulled herself up onto his back. She tried to sit comfortably without a saddle because she did not have enough time to strap it on.
"Where are we going?" she asked as she pulled herself close to his body.
"You'll see." With a spurt of speed, Zero bounded forward, weaving through the crowd and jumping on top of obstacles to avoid slowing down.
"Are you sure that wherever we are headed to is going to help us?" Agnis shouted. The wind blew harshly against her face, making it difficult for Zero to hear her.
"I'm not sure. It might not even work. But it's better than nothing."
"Well then, what are you trying to do?"
"Bringing a legend to life."
"What? A legend?"
"The legend of the guardian that protects the church," he said calmly. He wasn't too sure if it was going to work. He remembered hearing the story from a passing disciple, and the best people to ask about the legend were the twin bishops themselves.
"Are you serious? We're going to chase a legend?" She was appalled at his answer. "Are you nuts? At a time like this?"
"Do you have a better answer?"
Agnis could not think of anything else. Instead she sat quietly on his back, her hands clenched tightly on his fur, making him slightly cringe in pain.
"If this legend works, it might buy us some time, which is what we need till Jergorien finds an answer."
Zero jumped off the stairway that led toward the church and landed softly onto the ground. He was like a cat that did not get hurt even from jumping from a twenty-foot stairway. But he could feel slight cramps forming in his legs from sprinting too hard. The burst of energy needed to run at high speed was something he could not maintain for a very long time. It took too much of his stamina. The longest he could run at his top speed was under five minutes.
"Do you think there really is a guardian?" Agnis asked, pulling in even closer to his ears for Zero to hear her voice without screaming.
"I hope so. If not, I have nothing else up my sleeve."
"We could always fall back on my plan to try out our skills. Who knows? We might find an answer during the fight."
"That's a last resort," Zero stated. Grinding away on monsters was okay, but time was of essence, and he wouldn't receive a reward if he was dead. The stakes were pretty high. He needed every level he could get his hands on.
Upon arriving, groups of priests and priestesses were running around taking care of wounded soldiers and players. Many were wrapped in bandages as they lay out on the ground resting.
It was like a crowded honey bee hive where the wounded soldiers were the larvae and the nurses, helpers, and priests were worker bees.
That's quite a lot of people, Zero thought. Now where is one of the bishops?
He scanned around, trying to find the blue and white robes that they usually wore.
Nope. Wait. Is that them?