"You damn Heroes."
The beast growls in anger, his black hair arching upwards with the increase of Energy release.
"It's all because of you damn Heroes."
(A knight with oversized shoulder pads stands at the door) flashes in his mind.
"It's all your fault, all of this."
(The knight turns, showing his emotionless mouth, one which doesn't seem to be worried or feeling guilty about what just happened.)
"I hate all of you."
(A shocked boy looks at himself in the mirror. Blood oozes from an open cut going from his forehead to his chin, drips to the floor, and splashes on a poll of red where a couple of corpses lay.)
"If any of your kind didn't exist we would still have a home, a family! We would be at peace!"
Nate, the leader of the wolfkin village, touches the scar on his stern face.
"And where are they now!? A pathetic excuse of one is taking my son away, the other ran, and the rest left this world to rot. This is what heroes are supposed to do?"
His entire war armor is black, with a few faded red lines at each plate's corners, a mix of knight armor and metallic patches of fur.
Nate puts his closed helmet on to ready himself, having only two straight gaps for his eyes to see, going all the way down his chin, and two more at the end of his nose to his mouth, creepily resembling a mask of a crying muzzled wolf.
"If so, I don't need them. Take them back to whatever end of the world they came from. WE are strong! THE WOLFKINS ARE STRONG!"
He draws his sword, pointing it to the sky and screaming to his men, all below the first droplets of coming rain.
"WE SURVIVED THIS LONG BECAUSE WE FIGHT! NOT BECAUSE OF HEROES! WE REBUILT THIS VILLAGE WITH OUR OWN EFFORTS! WE REBUILT OUR LIVES WITH OUR OWN EFFORTS! AND WE ARE THE ONES WHO WILL RECONQUER EVERYTHING THAT WAS LOST!! LET'S SHOW THEM WHAT WE ARE MADE OF!"
Nate points his sword at the enemy charging on the horizon, flooding the plains downhill like black water in the distance.
"LET'S PROVE THAT WE CAN WIN THIS FIGHT WITHOUT ANY HELP!! ARMS UP! PREPARE TO FIGHT, AND GIVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT! THIS IS THE TIME WE HONOR LYCAN!! MAY OUR PROTECTING GOD LEAD THIS BATTLE!"
Everyone screams in a solid war cry.
"CHARGE!"
Nate is the first to go forth, running faster than any other of his men. His sword is positioned horizontally, cutting the rain as he closes the distance from the many orcs, trolls, and dark elves at the enemy's frontline.
"I'll kill all of you in a single strike!"
His sword shines black, all the light around swallowed by its blade, then a hundred animals burst out like a cloud of dark fire, and with a heavy swing, they are pulled to follow his blade. Their souls scream for vengeance as their shadows eat everything in their way.
At the end of his attack, only the wind was left, and hundreds of enemies' feet and spear's heads drop to the ground. Not a single body was standing on the attack's path anymore.
"NO MERCY!"
He leaps forward, his sharp canines grinning at each other as he swipes his blade to kill one more. His men follow clashing blades, mounted warriors pouncing forth, arrows sizzling in the air, and heavy trunks descending from the sides. All to kill whoever enemy was in front.
- - - - - - - - - - -
The extreme height is scary, and being on top of a giant bird-like creature wasn't helping it at all. The thought of hopelessly falling from high up was a hidden fear of mine since I was a kid. For some reason, every time I see a high descent, my body gets cold and I feel anxious to move, a mixture of uncertainty and an urge to get as far as possible off the edge.
But now… seeing the birthrill heavily beating its wide wings on my sides, the thousands of enemies covering the forest below like ants, and going forward with the plan to disrupt their chain of command…
My guts are indecisive as to what to be afraid of.
I'm starting to doubt if following the plan is really a good idea, every muscle in my body is screaming to keep on flying away toward the west and never look back.
Well, if it wasn't for the two behind me, I'd probably have done so. Tasah, our magic shield, with the blue mage's cape I gave to him; our sword Apaw, with a nonchalant face even in a situation like this;
And I, I am the leader of these two idiots. Our plan: charge to the center of the enemy army, and kill their commanders.
Suddenly, the birthrill steers to the side and almost goes upside-down to turn. The wind strengthens, swiping through our faces with the droplets of rain, and in a flash, a lightning strikes right where we were but a moment ago.
Tasah: "AAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!"
The hell, it almost got us, my eardrums are sizzling.
Tasah: "OH MY GOD, ARE WE BEING ATTACKED!?!? THIS IS SO SCARY!" – the sheepkin cries burying his horned head into my back.
"GAAH!! Stop it! That fucking hurts, you dumbass!"
But the sheepkin only grabs my clothes even tighter and pushes his head even harder.
"STOP IT!"
I distance my back away from my companion's pointy horns, which, whatever, does not soothe the problem as Tasah hugs my back and appears to not listen to my complaints. Who does understand something out of me though, is the birthrill, which after sensing the increasing pressure of my legs and my body weight going upwards, it understands as a critical command to descend, and so, the beast suddenly dives sixty degrees in full speed.
The blazing wind slashes our faces and I see the raindrops go upwards as we build up speed.
Tasah: "WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!! WHAT DO I DO!? WHAT DO I DO!?"
Seeing the treetops getting closer, I use all the muscles in my body to seat and push my weight backward. The dark-silver dots between the trees transform into distant coin-sized shapes, and then into helmed humanoid demons.
{One green-skinned demon in the middle of the marching army looks to the side, curious as to what was the whistling noise he was hearing, noticing that it was coming from above.}
I activate my echo ability and invisibility. My hands on the reins fade to an almost transparent material together with the birthrill.
{From below his iron helmet, the curious demon stares at nothing in the cloudy sky, scratching its chin and questioning himself if the wind was the cause of such noise.}
"DON'T PUSH YOUR DAMN SHEEP HORNS INTO MY BACK!" – I scream after stabilizing things back to normal.
The sheepkin startled, only now realizing he was the one being called upon.
"That was just a damn thunder! We are in the middle of a storm, you fucking idiot!"
Tasah: "I-I'm sorry."
His voice was so low that I hardly heard it midst the wind.
I sigh with heaviness.
Good thing the bird knew it was coming though, or we would be fried chicken right now. But I guess Vute would have warned us if the storm was going to be a problem. Huh, maybe it has some sixth sense to pick up the electricity in the air.
I relax my grip on the reins and try to locate myself by looking at the distant ground.
"Be a little bit more confident, will you?" – I side-eye at Tasah. – "I've been stroke by two thunders since I came to this world, and look at me, I'm all well and fine. Get your stuff together, we ain't going to die while we are in the air."
Tasah: "O-Okay… I trust you Strider." – He lowers his head.
"Now we need to find that commander!" – I say as we ascend in altitude. – "Search around, anyone who stands out in the army, a group of better-armed guards, anything! If the invisibility ends we will fly in circles until the cooldown refreshes. We have a little more than one minute!"
I take my spyglass out of my inventory as I look down with my vision on, only the enemies' blurred magic silhouettes appear in orange, I put more energy into my eyes until the nametags pop up.
<[ (x999+) Summoned Skeleton, Shadow Army (Level 30-90) ]
[ (x999+) Moonlight Darkelf, Shadow Army (Level 60-100) ]>
<[ (x999+) Lawrish Troll, Shadow Army (Level 80-120) ]
<[ (x999+) Underground Orc, Shadow Army (Level 50-80) ]
I've never seen those nametags before, it's grouping enemies together and having a curved cone going transparent as it went to the ground. Like some sort of explaining CGI panel, it remains stuck on the surface level like a surreal semitransparent board.
There are a dozen or so of those nametags, some enemies ranging over to a hundred and twenty in level, the majority with the "x999+" before its name. All I was looking at was the main stream of the army, but there are two other secondary marching lines, one on each side, full of "Summoned Skeletons", its lighter-grey color hiding within the forest from the skies.
I wasn't sure how many we were against down there, my mind simply couldn't grasp the amount only by looking at it, but now, I felt dumb. I was expecting a minor army that would try to clean up the village, somewhere in the thousands, but with all these numbers popping up my world fell apart, as if all the heat in my body vanished in one swift wind.
What the hell is this? How didn't I realize this before? They are at the five digits mark, somewhere above ten thousand, no, I would say thirty thousand at least, this is more than a one hundred to one difference ratio. I've been in many disadvantageous battles before, but a hundred to one? That's insanity, even if I was with my main character it would be impossible. This… This isn't going to work.
Sixty seconds of invisibility left.
My grip tightens on the leather reins.
Why I'm going through this… to begin with? This is such a risky plan and yet I didn't think twice before promising I would do it. How dumb am I? This is impossible. These two behind me only followed me because they are trusting a Hero. As if I could do anything in this weak character… I'm the leader of this mission, I'm the one who needs to call it quits if I see so. That's what I need to do.
But… should I go back?
To where? To the bloodbath? Anyone who fights this head-on will die, there's no way we will win on those numbers. Even if we retreat now, people will be hunted down. In the best-case scenario, the majority of them are going to die. Flying in this mount is the best shot we have to leave unharmed, but it is already full, three people is already overloading its maximum capacity.
The only logical conclusion is to escape now, and don't look back. I just need to explain to the two behind me that this is insanity and it won't work. They are going to understand it, right?
No, they wouldn't.
They only trusted me this far because this is the only hope for victory. Maybe Tasah would accept leaving his kin behind, but Apaw definitely won't. If he has inherited anything from his mad father, he will cut me down the instant he realizes we are off the track, then fly back to the battlefield and die fighting.
Maybe go back, leave them there, and then escape?
That's too damn risky. They are already in combat, the crossfire could hit me in the way. Besides, it's not like they would let me take their precious mount and fly away afterward on my own, like a coward.
I should drop them here, then. Escape right after.
Forty seconds of invisibility left.
I look behind with wide eyes and sweating cold.
Both of them are semitransparent to me and their silhouettes emanate a thin layer of orange energy. They search downwards with their spyglasses, carefully gripping their hands into the clothes of the one in front to not fall.
I stare at the sheepkin's hand tightly gripping my cloak from my left side.
If I do it fast enough, they won't be able to react.
I free one of my hands from the reins.
That's right, they are just NPCs, I'm the real person here. My life is the only one that really matters.
Apaw: "Did you find it?"
"Huh--?"
Apaw: "Where is it!? Did you find the commander? Why are you looking at us?"
Thirty seconds of invisibility left.
Strangely enough, Apaw's sharp eyes calm me down, the idea of running away on my own suddenly fades away. Maybe his confidence in this plan is making my mind reconsider.
No, wait… that's not exactly it, I'm thinking this the wrong way.
Tasah: "--I FOUND IT!"
Apaw: "Hah? Where?"
Tasah: "There, right there! I think that's it, right?"
Apaw turns his spyglass in the pointed direction.
Apaw: "I see it. It looks like a moving tent."
I zoom my spyglass to where they were facing.
Tasah: "And some strong guards too, see?"
Within the river-like mat of soldiers in the plain field, just after the forest end, there's an empty squared area moving inside the march, where a tend of black cloth ceiling moves with four stronger demon-like humanoids with yellowish sand skins carrying its sides.
[ Elite Sun-Orc, Shadow Army (Level 101) ] [ Elite Sun-Orc, Shadow Army (Level 98) ]
[ Adiana Bigrand, 7th commander of the Shadow Army (Level 100+) ]
[ Elite Sun-Orc, Shadow Army (Level 107) ] [ Elite Sun-Orc, Shadow Army (Level 105) ]
I wasn't expecting it to appear in the nametag, but there you go.
"That's the commander, alright."
Apaw: "So, now we attack?" – He goes for the sheathed sword on his back hip.
Fifteen seconds of invisibility left.
"We lost too much time. When the invisibility recharges we do it, that's when we can take them by surprise--"
While I'm checking the commander's surroundings, a white-cloaked person comes from behind the moving tent and walks to the middle of the square space.
[ ??? (Level ???) ]
"…it's-- a girl?"
Tasah: "What? Where?"
The short girl in the white cloak looks up, piercing my spyglass with her eyes.
"What the-… she's seeing us?"
There's no way--… Actually, does my passive that immunes my invisibility against vision affect my allies? Shit, I don't remember.
She opens a friendly smile, the front of her silver long hair dancing with the wind as her hood falls back and her nametag flickers.
[ Lelitt Wihet, ??? (Level 72) ]
Her friendly smile molds itself to speak.
Lelitt: "###"
…
"Is she talking to us?"
Five seconds of invisibility left.
Tasah: "Huh? What is she saying?"
That's strange. There's no way I can hear her, so why bother? Does she want to negotiate? At this point, I doubt it, I can hear the battle going from here. Whatever it is, these spyglasses don't come with a stabilization feature nor it has enough zoom to read her lips, so even if I knew how to, it would still be pretty hard to pull it off.
The invisibility effect lifts.
Even so, my attention is entirely on her mouth, but to no avail, she only holds her annoying friendly smile and narrow eyes towards us.
I give up and put the spyglass back into my inventory.
"Tsk, it doesn't matter. Not all of them have vision, even if one can see us, we can still surprise their army with--"
An electrical shock runs through my entire body and the world freezes.
Everything stops, the wings from the birthrill at its lifting, the army's march, my heartbeat. It's all static.
I can't move anymore.
Lelitt: "Die."
Her voice explodes in my eardrums, echoing inside my head as a screaming thought.
-\-
(I'm lying on top of the inn's wall, all the way back in the village. The starry night is calm and silent above me as I sleep.)
(The same short girl in white descends from the sky as a peaceful gliding leaf at the other corner of the wall.)
(As she slowly walks, a friendly smile covers her face as she looks at my hooded self.)
(She gently takes something out of her cloak and bends down, extending her hand to me.)
(Over the palm of her gloved hand, a small red vermin with only a mouth with tiny teeth for a face squirms. The creature is lifted by its tail between the girl's index finger and thumb, precisely managing to position the vermin inside my hood and over my closed eyes.)
(She lets go of it, dropping the vermin over my eyelids. It twitches to the inner corner of my eye and writhes until it found itself between my eyelashes, opening it and burying itself in. It goes deeper and deeper, eating its way through until it reaches the middle of my head, all I do is grunt as if I was having a bad dream, and once it reaches the bottom of my brain, it stops and falls asleep.)
-/-
I wake up from this trance with a gasp, all those images flashing into my mind in a fraction of a second. I feel the vermin sleeping in my head to move, it had grown since it first came in. I can feel it turning around, opening its mouth, and biting into me, all to eat more of my brain and to get even bigger. The idea is surreal, but I feel all of it happening.
The birthrill's wings strike down.
The world is moving again, together with the pulsating pain in my head. I touch my eye with the palm of my hand in hopeless disbelief.
When did she? At that feast--?
*GGRIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
The birthrill screeches, lifting its beak toward the sky.
Tasah: "A-AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! TAKE IT OFF, TAKE IT OFF!"
Tasah desperately touches his nose with tears in his eyes, while Apaw covers his wolf ears in pain.
Apaw: "When… d-did she enter our village?"
Tasah: "I CAN'T TAKE THIS! PLEASE, STOP IT! STOP IT! TAKE IT OFF!"
"You two also saw-;-?"
The vermin in my brain twists even more violently as the world slows down for me to think.
A remote skill that kills with a single word,-;- that kind of power exists in this world?-;- This is bad, how do I counter it? I never heard of something like that in the game before.
But every time my headaches strike, my vision becomes turvy and the world fastens, the wind violently blowing on my face as the other two agonize behind me.
Not only that but they too?-;- A multiple-targeted attack? How did she know the three of us were-;- No, she probably did that to everyone in the village, then why-;- Why didn't she kill everyone from the start?-;- Is she testing us? Why did she use it only now?-;- It's to protect their commander? -;- Does it have a condition?-;-;- Dammit, this pain is killing me-;- I can't think straight.
I hold on to the birthrill's feathers for balance, lowering my head to focus on the reins and control the nausea. But, that's when a popup panel appears right above my fingers.
[ Kanili, Birthrill (Level 81) (Owner: Vute Difivi) ]
[Status effect: Suicidal Delirium Parasite]
Ah, I see.
I turn to the two behind me.
"It's an illusion! The thing in your head is not real!"
Tasah: "BUT IT'S HERE, I CAN FEEL IT, IT's--"
"IGNORE IT!! IT'S A FUCKING ILLUSION!-;-;-"
The thing inside my head keeps on biting my brain and getting bigger with each gulp. All I can do is hold my temple to soothe the pain.
"Fuck!"
Apaw: "A-Are you sure?"
"I can see your health and skills remember!? Everything is alright! Just hold on and it will pass."
Even though I was referring to the status effect, I check my HP bar.
[3710/3710]
It's safe, it doesn't do damage. We won't die.
Hopefully.
*GRIIEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
The birthrill suddenly dives down even deeper.
"Easy there!"
I command it to go up.
*GGRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHHH*
It doesn't work.
"GO UP, DAMMIT! GO UP!!"
But it refuses to. I wasn't paying attention but the creature was already going down the first moment it screeched, just at a lighter degree than now, but steadily enough for us to be currently just above the enemy army.
Tasah: "It's hurting too much… I don't want to die…" – He cries hugging my back.
"WE ARE NOT GOING TO DIE!"
My headache pulsates even harder.
"HOLD ON TIGHT, WE ARE GOING TO JUMP!"
Tasah: "Please, make it stop."
"I'M GOING TO USE BLINK AND STOP THE FALL, HOLD ON TO ME!"
I extend my hand to Apaw, he painfully looks at me before gripping it, Tasah being pressed between us.
A few meters above ground, the birthrill twirls sideways as it dives toward the marching forces.
"JUMP!"
In a spinning free fall, I dizzily search for where the ground is, seeing the birthrill crashing on the edge of my sight before the world warps.
After the teleportation, the three of us fly in an arc until we fall to the ground, roll on the grass, and go our separate ways by harshly bouncing off the ground. My ribs violently hit a wooden structure, making me come to a rough stop.
The spreading pain instantly shocks my entire nervous system and the air in my lungs is pushed out through my mouth.
My hand goes to my throbbing chest, taking me a couple of deep gasps for my sight to come back, seeing myself breathlessly looking at the cloudy sky, and the corner of a fabric layer wavering above my side.
Adiana: "Ah… look who came flying to see me."
I glance over at what I did hit, where a pinkish-skinned grown woman is seated on a makeshift throne over a wooden platform; a dark metal collar around her neck; her straight dark hair contrasting with her shining red eyes, blood chaotically moving within her irises; and two black demon horns shaped like single-edged swords growing out from her forehead towards the cloth ceiling.
[ Adiana Bigrand, 7th commander of the Shadow Army (Level 119) ]
She smiles, showing her pointy teeth and crossing her legs with flirtation.
Adiana: "Such a delightful snack."