It was a downpour. We were all in raincoat huddled together under a temporary roof that I hastily made with waterproof materials. Fortunately, it blocked the rain quite effectively.
Our vision were limited. It was white all around. The loud sound of rain and thunder blocked any other sounds.
A single sound loud enough to be heard caught our attention. Voice of something screaming. Is it a monster? A beast? A human? But deep in our heart, we all agreed that that voice is for sure did not belong to a human.
Evelyn increased her vigilance. I told Alex to always be aware of any oddity and stay vigilant at all times.
For us the veteran explorers, this is not something rare or never happen before. We always encountered these events. A voice loud enough to be heard by anyone.
Usually it was a real voice but rarely it was something more like an illusion or a rare species of animal that can mimic and/or produce a loud voice. Either way, all of it are dangerous.
"Alex"
"Yes?"
"Can you bring out a medium size wooden box in the bag? The rectangular one."
Alex nodded his head once slowly. He started rummaging the big bagpack and brought out the item I requested.
"Here sir"
"Thank you. Now listen carefully to what I'll say." I looked at Alex while opening the wooden box. There is a small black bell with a white handle.
"Once I ring this bell, no matter what you heard after that don't, you must ABSOLUTELY not listen to it. Only focus on the ringing sound of the bell. Mark, draw the circle around us."
Mark brought out a stick from his back and started drawing a big circle encircling us inside.
"Now Alex. You must never, ever, ever leave this circle. Not until I stop ringing the bell."
Alex looked at me with an anxious face while nodding his head vigorously.
"Lets start."
I put out the bell in front of me and started ringing it. Once the bell rang, the sound of the heavy rain could not be heard anymore. My assumption was right.
The rain felt out of place. There were no any black clouds or strong chilly wind. It can be a sudden downpour but it felt weird to me. Somehow it felt artificial. The raindrops felt so unnatural.
I rang the bell the second time.
*ring*
The raindrops stopped midair. For Alex this might felt surreal but for us this scream danger. A powerful illusion. To make an illusion of heavy rain is really difficult. Complex I might say. To recreate every last drop of rain and depth of sound of it hitting any type of surface.
'Is it a monster?'
I glance towards Alex. He is stupefied. He didn't moved a single inch from where he stood.
I breathe a sigh of relief. But this was not the time to relax yet. The next one will be a lot tougher than this.
*ring*
I could felt a gush of Vestia rushing towards me. A myriad of voices entered my ears.
"HELP! SAVE US!"
"WE NEED YOUR HELP!"
"I BEG YOU!HELP US"
"HERE! WE NEED YOUR HELP!"
"HELP ME!PLEASE!"
Voices of children, women and old people could be heard asking for help. I frowned. This was a lot more dangerous than I thought. Usually it was a singular voice. Either the voice of a child or woman crying for help but for there to be a lot of different kind of voice.
I could see Alex face. He is terrified. His lips were trembling. His legs were shaking. I called to him before it was too late.
"Alex"
Alex turn his head and looked at me.
"Focus. Remember what I said earlier."
He nodded his head weakly and started to calm down.
'Good'
The next would either be the last or not. A powerful illusion like this usually require more but it can also be a glass cannon. I hope this will be the last, if not I didn't think Alex would last.
I looked at Evelyn and nodded my head. She nodded back.
*ring*
The voices and the heavy rain disappeared almost instantly. It was a complete silence.
*crack* *crack* *crack*
We could see a big crack appear in front of us. The crack start to widen all around us. With the sound of glass shatters , the illusion disappeared. It was night. The surrounding is dark. The area around the campfire is bright.
A weird looking large bird was dead near a tree. This was the one who cause the illusion. The bird has colourful feathers, a very large beak with some sort of dark glands under beak near the throat and has four eyes. No.... is it five? There is one eye behind its face.
"Is this a new species?" I asked Mark. A fairly large book was opened on the ground while he was flipping through the pages with a very excited face.
"No, this might be a variant of a new discovered species. Hmm.... Ah! Here! The name of this bird is Deceitful Stunner. The bird has usually three kind of coloured feather mainly black, white and any other basic colour. This bird has three or four eyes and a large beak. Its most recognizable feature is a gland under the beak near the neck."
He took a deep breath and fix his round glasses.
"It hunt its prey by stunning it with a frequency of sound produced by the gland. The bird is not that great at flying and doesn't like to group together. It is usually alone unless during mating season. It usually attack a lone prey. But looking at the bird in front of us, I think this is a very very rare variant of Deceitful Stunner."
Mark walked to the bird while holding a more smaller book.
"From what I have researched, the most common variant of Deceitful Stunner is having more than four eyes or colourful feathers only not both. There is no record of Deceitful Stunner having both of this! This is great Faust! We have discovered a new variant! This variant can even use Vestia to create an intricate illusion! Ahhh imagining the money flowing in....."
"I don't know if this is good luck or bad one. To encounter this type of monster already is not a good sign. We only ventured for a few kilometers and we are not that deep in the ruins. For there to be a powerful monster.... I'm not sure how to feel about this."