This time the sleep came without any additional nightmares or other dreams for that matter. He did not know how much time had passed when he woke up once again.
Most definitely an hour or two had passed. Still tired he took some moments to garner the strength to get up, he quickly crawled out of the tent and stood up.
Covering his face against the sun that was still standing tall. It was close to midday? Perhaps early afternoon.
"Hey there sleepy sleep head?" Zalbas laughed while placing his arm around Samuels shoulders, he shook him a bit before realizing, "Oh you still look plenty dead!"
"Well good news is that we are all allowed to leave, finally!"
"So once we get back you should get some proper rest!" Vuldara chimed in and made sure Zalbas didn't manhandle Samuel any more.
Samuel looked around and saw that many of the tents were being disassembled and some were already gone. He gave his team a nod and they all started taking their goods.
"That sly fox woman didn't show herself anymore thankfully!" Vazmarx threw out when he finished packing up his belongings.
Both Vuldara and Zalbas seemed to nod in agreement while Samuel hoped that she was okay. With the recent events and people dying, he was only hoping that she was alive.
The team took their time making sure they had everything before departing towards one of the exits in the camp.
They finally found a queue towards a new checkpoint made to leave the camp. It wasn't awfully long because many had already left, but it did take some time never the less.
Samuel minded his own business and just tried to rest as best he could while standing waiting, but when the line suddenly started moving to the side and people were stepping aside it caught his attention.
He looked up to see a fully armored figure making his way through, there was something about the armor that covered the person. Blue and almost sparking with blue like lightning.
The person walked onward but stopped for a quick moment and turned his head in Samuels direction, but because of the armor it was hard to tell where he was actually looking.
But Samuel felt like he was staring right at him. But the figure quickly continued his pace and turned to walk away.
Samuel thought it odd for sure, but he was in no mood to question anything and simply let the figure walk onward.
But he noticed that Vazmarx had gone a bit pale, he wasn't the only one as Vuldara asked, "Whats wrong?" Her question turned Vazmarx back to reality as he let out the breath he was holding in.
Vazmarx pointed at the armored figure walking further into the encampment, "That was Tyklion!" He turned to the rest, seeing none of them react he expressed himself by throwing his hands in the air and loudly exclaiming.
"The most powerful warrior of the Dawn... He is literally the strongest warrior around!" Vazmarx quickly lowered his voice to not attract any more attention.
"If he is here, then something big is definitely happening!" He said while wearing a worried expression. The other two looked at eachother and shrugged.
Having no idea who this person was the others didn't show as much emotion. But hearing that he was a supposed 'strongest' warrior made them interested to some degree.
Samuel wondered how different this Tyklion matched up against Alsian. With all the times he had trained with Alsian and seen his strength up close, it made him wonder how strong this other person truly was.
It seemed like Khazan had stuck to his word of solving things for him, because even as they passed through the leaving checkpoint, nothing of interest happened.
They were sent on their way and all took the teleportation back to the academy where they decided to split up and meet back up later as all of them were quite tired, it had been quite a lot of events so they all probably wanted to get some rest.
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Back at the camp other things were happening.
Khazan was inspecting the area and had already found weird shadow essence left behind by the creature. He had collected a good sample in a bottle to be certain, it had been the correct call.
Because the moment that the sunlight touched whatever remained it all evaporated like water, "Hmm! Weak to sunlight!" He made the statement out loud.
"What was that sir? Did you need anything?" One of the nearby guards asked, they were assigned to guard both him and the area.
Many of them looked on in confusion as the shadow ichor evaporated in the sunlight. "No If I need help I would ask for it!" Khazan scoffed. All these guards, there was no way they could really help him anyway.
Maybe if they were Praetorians instead of the regular Varnguard Soldierds. "Actually there is one thing!" Khazan remembered and smiled.
"Can someone fucking check when I am getting some competent help?" His cheerful demeanor changed instantly into a glare as he stared down the guards that all seemed embarrased, they were aware that they couldn't really help much in the matters of magic.
"It would be great if-" Khazan wasn't able to finish his words as he saw who was arriving on the scene, "Oh..." Was all he managed to utter.
Seeing the familliar blue armor made him lose his composure for a second before his mind reminded himself, with open arms he smiled once again. "Tyklion! Didn't think I would get the help of one of the Awful Five!"
Tyklion remained silent as always much to Khazans amazement. "Well its a good thing I got someone competent to help me with this!"
"What would that count as buddy young kiddo!" Another voice spoke from behind Tyklion, which Khazan quickly took a peek at.
Seeing one of the Awful Five was already a big deal enough, but seeing all five of them gathered at the same time made Khazan freeze up completely.
They were the best and strongest exterminators around, the one that had spoken was Valakas, the mage that was often ridiculed for having an awfully big pointy hat, his tight robes hid the rest of his features.
Always he kept his face hidden in a shroud of magic, he looked like a perfect mix of a magician and court jester.
Valakas quickly skipped forward like a happy child and took the glass vial from inside of Khazans robes. "How did you know?" He pointed at the glass vial, somehow Valakas had know exactly where to find it.
"All in the eye of the peerless abyss! I know where to find everything kid."
Khazan couldn't even retort with his usual pride, there existed a few people that could break his usual demeanor, and now there were five of them gathered in one place.
Valakas inspected the vial for a while before shrugging, "Eh, this ain't my area of exptertise with blood and shit." He quickly turned to his friend, "Hey Markal catch!" He said and tossed the vial.
The other robed person caught it. Another mage whom also preferred to hide his face, dressed in more conventional robes - Markal was a blood mage. A very rare and dangerous art of magic.
"Simple, Shadow fiend, bound by contract!" Markal spoke after looking at the vial for a while. "Unusual for anyone powerful enough to summon a shadow fiend to show themselves, which means that a more important person among the cults have been nearby."
"Give me a few minutes and I can try to track the trace." Markal spoke and his friends moved away from him. All soldiers looked on in shock horror as Markal spilled his own blood with a knife.
His blood didn't simply fall to the ground, it flew out into a circle on the ground, creating a magical formation. He then placed the vial in the center and walked out of the circle.
His wound seemingly closing on its own, he took a staff that was hanging from his back, it had a weird crescent shaped blood moon at the top while the rest of it was a solid black staff.
He tapped the ground twice and the formation lit up in a glowing red.
Everyone stood either silent waiting for results or looked on in amazement at the magic being cast.
The glass vial opened up and the black blood inside slowly lifted itself out and started floating around, being controlled by the magical circle it almost seemed to take shape.
A few minutes passed of this magic being performed, then finally the black blood stopped moving and tried to start moving in a northern direction. It was stopped by the magical circle, but it didn't stop trying.
Markal looked at Tyklion and nodded, for the first time Tyklion spoke.
"Khazan you can come with us, the rest of you soldiers go report back that we are on the hunt and heading north. Don't bother sending anyone else!"
He then turned to his left, "Samara take the vanguard, Klygos you take the rear." His orders were swiftly executed as he nodded back at Markal and started moving.
The soldiers stood in awe for a moment before they realized their duty. Khazan went with Tyklion and the entire team started moving out of the camp as Markal let the formation go.
The black blood started drifting in the right direction, leading the way. Markal took second point right after Samara that was in the front.
Eventually the blood started flowing faster through the air, as if it was waking up the closer they were getting.
After another two hours of moving the blood was flowing fast through the air, but everyone was moving quick to keep up with it. Khazan was the only one that seemed to struggle.
He had cast a flight spell to be able to keep up.
The landscape zoomed past until the blood completely stopped, they had just passed through a small section of forest and happened upon a huge camp hidden in a small valley.
The dark blood just completely dropped to the ground, "It seems whomever summoned the creature realized I was tracking it. But it took them too long to realize, if only they knew we were already here!" Markal let out a small chuckle.
"Or maybe because they thought to have led us into a trap!" Khazan panted as he leaned on a tree.
"The young one has a keen mind!" A voice came from the camp, as a wall of illusion was suddenly dropped, the slightly empty camp was suddenly shown as being a camp full of cultists.
Many were armored soldiers and mages, "I was surprised to find someone tracking my shadow like that, but it gave me plenty of time to prepare a good trap!" The one speaking was a high elf woman.
She looked like she had caught the greatest prize.
Khazan saw that she was accompanied by four people in special armor, Khazan could feel the aura of those four, they were way out of his league. It made him swallow hard, "Thats not good..."
"On the contrary, It is very good!" Tyklion spoke up. "Catching a higher hand from the cults, I would say it was well worth the time to pretend walking into a trap."
The cultist leader laughed loudly at those words. "You two, kill the idiot." She pointed at two of the dangerous people that Khazan was worried about.
Tyklion took a few steps in front of his team and simply stood there - Menacingly. If one could see him without a helmet, one would only see a smile.
The two that were commanded to kill him ran forward without hesitation, their armors activating all the magic that were inside of them.
The two both punched Tyklion at the same time, both of them hitting him right on his chest armor. Letting out all the destructive magic that they had built up.
It created quite a shockwave that would have sent Khazan and all the environment flying if it wasn't for the powerful and large barrier set up in an instant by Samara. "This... This is a celestial water barrier!" Khazan couldn't believe his eyes.
He had heard stories about the Awful Five, but to cast such a powerful spell as if it was nothing. With a worried look he turned back to Tyklion, thinking that two such powerful attacks would have wiped out almost anything in its path.
But as the smoke and dust settled, both the two stood there with their hands still on Tyklions armor, their fists still clenched. Tyklion without a single scratch on his armor stood tall and took a breath.
"H-How?" One of them spoke and started taking a step back, but as fast as a flash Tyklions hand shot out and grabbed the helmet of the one that was backing off.
With his one bare hand he crushed the helmet and the persons brain at the same time, it all turned into mush and most of the helmet was obliterated.
"You call that powerful?" Tyklion scoffed and drew one of his swords and aimed it at the sky. "This is what you call power!"
As if answering his call, his sword sparked and crackled with blue lightning, and a few seconds later a massive blue lightningbolt shot out of the sky.
It completely blinded Khazan for a few moments even if he looked away. He would have felt the shockwave if it wasn't for the barrier that was still up.
"Hes overdoing it like always!" Klygos spoke up. "Yeah I know, but I think he was angry about something!" Samara answered.
"I think Alsian tricked him yesterday!" Valakas casually spoke up making everyone turn to him. "Tyke brother might be more powerful, but Alsian is faster and more agile, I think they were racing about something and Tyke lost!"
"Well that would explain why he is going overboard." Markal laughed loudly. While Khazan was just standing in shock as the dust finally settled.
The leader of the cult and those that had been standing closest to her were still alive, all on the ground as they had been thrown down by the shockwave.
But the small army at her back had been completely obliterated in one single strike. The woman turned back with clattering teeth and stared at Tyklion. The second one that had attacked Tyklion had lowered his arm and stood there motionless.
"You! You're him... The one man army... Tykli-" Before he could finish his words his body was cut into ten different pieces.
Tyklion casually put his sword back into its sheath and looked at what remained of the Darkor cultists. "Hmph..." He turned his back to them and started walking away.
But after passing his team he stopped and turned his head half to the right. "The rest are yours Klygos!" And just like that he kept walking. "Aww guess we don't get to do much this time huh!" Valakas seemed disappointed.
But the rest of them all started walking away, except for Klygos and Khazan - whom got to see the work of Klygos finishing the rest of them.
He saw blood and guts flying everywhere and the screams of the ones who were left until only silence remained.
A huge crater had been left in the middle of the ground where the camp had previously been. Khazan started slowly turning away and walking away in silent shock.
Just what was this monster, this one man army. Tyklion...