Indigo had just finished off the last of the zombies by the time Emrys had come to help.
"How are...your injuries?" Emrys asked.
Indigo was a powerful creature for sure, but everyone had their limits. "I am just fine. But how are you, guardian? I saw you get hit by that magical attack."
"In most...situations...I can regrow...my body."
"I see, that's good then. Where did such creatures come from?" Indigo wondered.
By now the sun was starting to rise and bathe the forest in light. As soon as the light touched the corpses of the zombified creatures they began to disintegrate into nothingness.
"Someone was...controlling...them. A...demon." Emrys said with hatred flashing in his glowing yellow eyes.
Indigo was surprised at first to hear that another demon was behind this attack, but after thinking for a moment it made perfect sense. He also noticed the guardians anger when speaking of demons.
Indigo couldn't imagine what the guardian had gone through.
Sadly they had no time to rest, they needed to leave this area before more enemies arrived. They were currently in no shape for another fight.
With battered and bruised bodies, and low mana, Emrys and Indigo kept moving through the corrupted forest.
After finding Indigo in the east side of the forest, their next goal is to move north towards the dire wolves territory. If any of them survived then they would be of great assistance in fighting the demons.
Although they were always hard to deal with. Most creatures in the forest had been helped by Emrys in one way or another and had a good opinion of him. But the dire wolves were different. They were a proud species, even more so than the griffins.
They felt that relying on the guardian of the forest was a sign of weakness and refused his help time and time again.
It didn't make much sense to Emrys but he had to admit, this line of thinking definitely made them much stronger than the other species in the forest.
What made them into the formidable creatures they are today was their absurd speed and tenacity.
They were so fast that even Emrys wouldn't be able to put up a fight even if he wanted to. Even if you could land a hit on one of them, they would bounce back with little effort. They had an insane amount of defense for a creature that relies on speed.
Emrys just hoped they had survived the demons invasion.
"Come...Indigo."
"Right."
They started moving to the north. The journey would take a few days at the least. After the first day had passed Indigo's injuries were visibly healing. Thankfully griffins were able to heal much faster than others.
Their trip was going smoothly. So far they hadn't run into any more demons or zombified creatures. That was until Emrys felt the forest calling out to him. Something it hadn't done since the demons took over.
They were just walking through the forest when Emrys suddenly broke into a sprint in a seemingly random direction.
"Guardian! Where are you going?!" Indigo called out but Emrys didn't respond. Indigo was able to easily follow behind him because griffins had much more speed then Emrys did. Almost all creatures were faster than Emrys unfortunately.
They ran for a few minutes. Just when Indigo was getting annoyed, they saw a wagon up ahead.
Emrys thought to himself. "What was a wagon doing here in this forest of all places?"
The only ones that use wagons are humans but they hadn't set foot in this forest for hundreds of years. It was simply too dangerous for them and not worth the risk. They were not strong enough to survive here.
But for a wagon to make it this deep inside the forest was impressive.
When Emrys got closer he was able to get a clearer picture of their situation.
The wagon was on fire and there were people in all black clothes surrounding it. Emrys didn't know enough about human affairs' to know that they were bandits that were the cause of the fire.
They all brandished sharp swords or daggers and had unsettling grins on their faces. This was definitely the area that the forest was calling out to him from.
Just when he got close enough each of the humans dressed in black turned their heads in his direction. They heard him coming from a mile away.
That was to be expected. Emrys never had a reason to be stealthy, plus his heavy wooden body made a lot of noise when running.
When Emrys got within twenty feat of the humans, he stopped and tried to figure out what was going on.
Other than the humans in black, there were a few others dressed in gold and white clothes. They looked like they might be royalty but Emrys wouldn't know what that is.
A few awkward moments passed by as they just stared at each other. Before Emrys could make a move one of the humans spoke up.
"Look what we have here boys! That's gotta be a rare monster! Its our lucky day!" The human spoke loud enough for everyone to hear him then he pointed to two other humans.
"You and you! Take it down so we can sell it when we get back. The rest of you finish off these filthy nobles."
The two humans he pointed at started walking towards Emrys with their weapons drawn. They seem to not know who or what Emrys was or they would've had second thoughts about attacking him.
Emrys knew it had been a long time since his race died out and even longer since they had any encounters with humans so maybe they truly didn't know what he was and had mistook him for some rare monster he guessed.
Just as the humans moved to kill him, they also moved to kill the humans in white and gold. It was hard for Emrys to tell the humans apart. If it wasn't for their clothing then they would all look the same to him.
He quickly decided he would try and protect the humans in gold. They were all huddled together with looks of terror on their faces.
Emrys used his telepathy to tell Indigo to stay hidden in the trees a short distance away in case something were to happen.
Humans were weak creatures, but they were tricky and often had ways of taking down much stronger opponents with little effort so Emrys just wanted to be prepared.
Although it looked like Emrys was standing still, he was actually pushing his roots underground. He extended them around a foot deep and then moved them under the two humans that were approaching him.
Before they even got close enough to attack, his roots emerged from the dirt and wrapped around the humans legs.
"What the hell!"
"What is this? I can't move!" The humans yelled out in confusion.
Emrys then disconnected from his roots but still leaving them tied up. He tried to get close to them but they both swung their weapons around wildly. Their legs may be tied up but their arms were not.
Emrys walked closer with no hesitation. One of the humans swung his sword down towards Emrys's head but he moved just slightly enough to make the blade hit him in the shoulder instead.
The human tried to pull his weapon back but it was stuck. Emrys grabbed the humans arm and with a small burst of strength he snapped his forearm in two.
"GHHAAA!!! MY ARM!" The human screamed in pain. Tears fell from his eyes freely. The sound of his bone breaking could be heard throughout the entire area.
His screaming was so loud and guttural that it caught the attention of all the humans dressed in black.
The human that was giving the orders earlier had an annoyed look on his face. "You idiots! Cant even take out some lowly monster. How do they expect me to get anything done with these dumbasses." He sighed. "Forget about the nobles for now. All of you attack that monster!"
All of the other humans hesitated for a moment. That was all the time Emrys needed. He intended to strike fear in their hearts.
The screaming human knelt down while holding his arm like it was his newborn baby. Emrys turned his gaze on the other human that he caught with his roots.
The look on the humans face was one of desperation. He tried using his dagger to cut away the roots wrapped around his legs. It was working, he was able to cut them away but not fast enough.
Emrys calmly approached the man and grabbed him by the throat. The man was lifted off the ground while trying his hardest to draw in a breath.
Emrys swept his gaze menacingly between each of the humans before morphing his left hand into a pointy wooden spear and impaling the human he was holding. The spear went clean through his abdomen.
He didn't even make much noise before passing away.