"M-My Lord... We... We are under attack!"
As soon as those words left the man's mouth, another explosion took place somewhere outside and shook the whole mansion, this time causing many decorations on the sides to shatter into bits!
Logan, however, just ignored his seemingly costly loss and without any hesitation jumped up onto his feet, his face full of gravity.
"Monsters? How many are there?"
The man, taking a deep breath shook his head dejectedly and spoke;
"My Lord, they are no Monsters. We have been ambushed by... Specters."
"What!?"
This time Rose was the one who stood up and with a deep scowl on her beautiful face she stated;
"Impossible! No Specters had been ever caught sight of within the Shivering Woods, and even their closest Shelter to us is on the very south! There's just no way it's them!"
Specters... People that ate more than one Infected creature's flesh and somehow avoided completely losing their sanity, only turning into a Blighted, something that was between an Infected and a Fallen!
And usually, these people possessed more than one, to be more exact two abilities, Legacies, that made them a truly terrifying existence! Living beings that were renowned for hunting down more humans than Monsters!
Knowing all this, Neo swallowed nervously and glanced at the man in the hope he will start to ponder whether he saw things right or not, but it did not happen.
"My Lady, this is the truth. In fact, to make things even worse, they even somehow succeeded in taming Ice-Claw Panthers and very likely will use them to kill everyone in the Shelter once they succeed in destroying our walls!"
"Tamed Monsters!?"
In a flash, everyone's fave changed and turned graver.
"Tsk! Annoying rats! Fine! If they really want a bloodbath then I will give them just that!" Logan hissed through his clenched teeth and like an angered boar bolted out of the room.
"I will go too." Stella stood up quickly too and ran out after Logan together with the man who notified them about the happenings outside.
"Seems like we should go too." the skinny man stood up also and after grabbing the chubby man's collar beside him, and dragging him behind him, he walked away.
This meant that now only the young maid, Rose, and Neo remained in the room!
"I..."
Watching as the two women looked at him with eyes filled with obvious indication, Neo groaned with distress and pushed himself up.
"Fine! I'll go too..."
Rose nodded and began to walk toward the door together with Sarah.
"Good. If we are really against Specters we will need everyone's help."
Neo nodded silently and after giving one final glance at all the delicious food on the table he sighed and quickly followed after the two.
* * *
Outside the mansion, everything was in total chaos.
In the thick mist, several buildings were set on fire, hundreds of arrows lay either broken on or deeply shot into the ground, and people ran around either trying to put out the blazing fire, bring their children to safety, or help those who were unlucky enough to avoid the arrows in time that possibly had fallen from the sky.
There were even some who grabbed their weapons and ran toward where the gates were and very likely the battle was happening, but the numbers of those who did that were just way less than those who didn't!
"Vermins! They will definitely pay for this!"
Running out of the mansion and seeing how things looked worse than expected, especially how many innocent was struggling for their lives thanks to the arrows deeply impaled in their bodies, Rose clenched her teeth in rage.
Sarah behind her also had a grim expression, but she shortly calmed down and asked;
"My Lady, what should we do now?"
Taking in a deep breath, Rose exhaled for several seconds to calm herself down too, and only then did she reply;
"You go and help the wounded. Neo and I will... Huh? What?"
Turning her head around to look at Sarah, Rose froze before her eyes widened scarcely.
"W-Where did he go?"
"Eh?"
Sarah too looked around, only now realizing that at some point in time Neo had gone missing. No, it wasn't right to say that he had done missing. It was like he all of a sudden became a ghost and vanished into thin air as there was not even a single footprint visible in the snow that could have shown where he had run away!
Just like that, he had been lost to sight almost as if he hadn't even been there, to begin with!
"This..."
Rose was speechless but soon her anger resurfaced on her pretty face once again.
"Bastard! I was right it was a mistake letting him in! I even bet he is the very reason why we are all in this mess!"
Seeing the burning rage in Rose's eyes, Sarah tensed a little before a flash of coldness appeared in her eyes.
"My Lady, should I go and find him instead?"
Sarah glanced at the young maid, pondered for a few moments, then shook her head.
"No need. This Shelter has only one entrance and exit, both the same, which at this moment is sealed shut. Unless he has a way to climb up on the walls and survive the fall in one piece from several tens of meters high, he can't leave. Though, if he is who I believe he is, I doubt he will."
Sarah glanced toward the Shelter's wall in the far which was so tall that even from that distance their top was clearly visible, and nodded.
"I see. Then I shall help the wounded."
"Good. Though, make sure you keep your guard up at all times." Rose hummed and once Sarah was no longer around she looked at the spot where Neo would have been.
"Just you wait... Once this is all over you will definitely pay the price you have to!"
And with those words, she dashed toward the gates from where explosions and shouts as well as screams came from time to time.
"D-Did they go away?"
After several seconds of silence, suddenly, the mist not far away from where Sarah and Rose stood moments ago began to swirl and soon Neo's figure appeared out of nowhere, his face holding a mixture of disbelief and fear.
[Yes, they did, Master.]
"This..."
Feeling utter disbelief, Neo looked down at the now-empty syringe in his hand with an awestruck expression before he shifted his attention to the flickering words above it.
_________________
• Legacy Capsule {Mist Camouflage}:
▸ Tier: 1
▸ Stage: Infected
▸ Description: A simple Legacy that allows you to hide completely within the mist.
_________________