Archer saw an ashen-colored hand grabbing his left leg; it had yellow-looking, rotten-looking claws. His eyes followed the arm up and saw a humanoid-looking creature with a bald head and sharp yellow teeth, and it looked like the thing had eaten its lips.
It was skin and bones with really long arms and bony legs. The stare the thing was giving him sent shivers up his spine. The creature licked its lips and suddenly dragged Archer out of the tree.
As he was getting dragged along, he heard shouts and explosions at the camp. The beast jumped off the tree with a shocked-looking Archer in its claws and sprinted deep into the woods.
He was being thrown around like a toy, his horns bumping into trees and leaving deep scratches. Archer came out of his shock and shook his head as he summoned his sword and started to hack at the beast, but its skin started to slice, and the beast sped up.
It ran for a while before tossing him into a clearing and stood still with more of the same beasts. His Aura Detecter started going crazy as more and more of these creepy-looking beasts appeared.
He stood there dumbfounded as he knew what they were and couldn't believe they were real. ''Wendigos.''
The creatures hissed and cackled as more things came back with the corpses of the caravan guards and some adventurers.
Throwing them into another corner, all of the creatures turned to stare at Archer. He looked around and noticed all kinds of bones: humanoids, beasts, and even bigger bones; he thought these creatures loved to eat.
Archer heard a woman screaming, and even more creatures appeared with Tiefel, whom Sarah introduced to him and another man.
They threw the two of them closer to Archer. As Tiefel landed on the floor, she noticed the boy who had joined them earlier that day standing there with a bored look.
Archer stared at her as he sighed; he had no choice but to test his new spells. He waited for the wendigos to charge at them.
A few minutes later, a howl was heard, and they all rushed in. He stood in front of the two and cast Thunder Wave. A thunderous purple force swept out of Archer, striking all the beasts, sending them flying but not killing them.
As the horde once again closed in on the group, Archer lifted his hand high into the air, calling upon the powers of the storm.
'Lightning Call.'
Dark clouds gathered, crackling with the power of thunder and lightning, and the wind whipped around them with a furious intensity.
With a sudden thrust of his hand, a lightning bolt erupted from the clouds, piercing the monsters with a deafening boom.
One by one, the creatures fell as the lightning pierced through their bodies, smoldering them into nothingness.
Tiefel was completely shocked as she witnessed this attack. She couldn't utter a single word.
He continued calling down the storm's power, driving lightning bolts into the remaining wendigos as the sky rumbled in response to his command.
With each strike, the enemies writhed in agony, the smell of burnt flesh filling the air.
The battlefield shimmered in a chorus of purple and white as the remaining beasts fled in terror, unable to withstand the power of Archer's draconic magic.
The air settled, and he stood proud, his eyes alive with the storm's power. Archer lowered his hand with a frown as he looked around. 'The damn hearts, fuck!'
He wanted the hearts but accepted the loss as he got a lot of experience from the kills, so he quickly checked it. 'Status.'
[Experience: 850/3000]
[Level Up: 44>46]
[SP: 19>25]
Archer was happy that he leveled up twice, so he decided to save the points until he had more. Turning around to face the shocked Tiefel, he smiled at her. ''What's wrong?''
She stared at this strange boy with horns and beautiful violet eyes. Who just showed her a spell she has never seen or heard of and is acting like nothing happened. ''What was that spell?''
He tilted his head with a confused look. ''I got it from a spell book; it's called Call Lightning.''
She didn't know what to say. All she saw was Archer called upon a storm that wiped out the wendigos.
Archer looked around but couldn't find anything, so he returned to the caravan. Before he did, he walked over to the other man and kicked him. ''Wake up.''
The man groaned, so Archer kicked him even more. ''Why are you kicking me!''
''Wake up, we need to get back to the caravan. Get up!''
Tiefel giggled when she saw the boy kicking Cirris from the windwalker's group. The man got up and started scratching his head.
Looking around, the man's eyes opened in shock as he saw all the charred bodies; he looked at Tiefel, but she shook her head and pointed at Archer. ''The boy saved us.''
The man looked at him like he was a monster. But Archer ignored him and started to walk in the direction of the caravan.
The two adventurers quickly followed after him. It was pitch black, so the other two were blind until Tiefel used a light spell that allowed them to see where they were walking.
But Archer was okay because of his eyes. All they could see were trees and bushes. The beasts must have run far with the three.
After a few hours of walking, they returned to the temporary camp. As it was being tidied up, bodies of wendigos piled up high.
A few bodies of the caravan guards were placed off to one side.
But there was a new group here. Ten men who looked like adventures. The leader was talking to Sarah as they approached the camp.
The elf woman's husband, Barador, saw her and started to run towards her. ''Tiefel!''
He arrived in front of her and hugged her with happiness. He wondered how she escaped those vile creatures. ''How did you get away from those things, darling?''
She smiled as she pointed at the white-haired boy. ''He helped.''
The man turned his head to stare at Archer before walking over to him and holding his hand out to shake Archer's hand. ''Thank you for saving my wife, Archer; I'll always be in your debt.''
Archer looked at the man's extended hand. He didn't want to shake it but did in the end. ''That's okay.''
He let go of the man's hand and walked off to find somewhere to sleep again; finding another tree, he quickly jumped up on it.
After he was higher up, he settled back down and went to sleep. Waking up in an unknown bed. Archer looked around, panicked, wondering where he was as the scene before him seemed familiar.
That's when he noticed a young woman in her late teens lying next to him. He recognized the smooth white skin and the beautiful blonde hair that went down to her shoulders.
It was Ella. He went to hug her but was stopped by an invisible barrier.
After that, she sat up and stared directly at him. He noticed blood dripping down her lips. Suddenly, the scene changed.
Recognizing where he was, it was the castle where he woke up that day. But there was one difference it was burning, and that's when he saw Ella's lifeless body lying in front of it.
Archer sprinted forward, but the castle then crumbled as he woke up panicking. Checking the necklace, he saw nothing was wrong, so he calmed down; he looked around and noticed morning was close.
He was covered in sweat, so he cast cleanse on his body as he got up and jumped off the branch. When he hit the floor, he started to look around the camp and saw the pile of Wendigo corpses sitting to one side.
Approaching the pile, he pulled out his knife and looted the hearts. He got twenty hearts in total, throwing all but one in his item box and starting to eat; he was still rattled by the dream, so he didn't reply when some guards started questioning him.
After an hour, he ate all twenty and upgraded his stats. 'Status.'
[Experience: 300/3000]
[Level Up: 46>47]
[SP: 25>51]
He got 2000 experience from the hearts and twenty-six Status Points altogether, so he put eleven points on HP and mana and five on every other stat apart from intelligence which got nine.
[HP: 1200>1310]
[Mana: 4100>4430]
[Strength: 590>640]
[Constitution: 620>670]
[Stamina: 620>670]
[Charisma: 700>750]
[Intelligence: 530>620]
Archer felt his body become stronger as he upgraded his stats. That's when he noticed Sarah rushing toward him. He cast cleanse to get rid of the blood that was all over him before she got to him.
''Archer, are you okay!'' Sarah spoke with a relieved tone in her voice as she checked the boy all over to see if he was okay, she saw him being dragged away when they were ambushed.