A few hundred meters later...
"Yeah, Gav..." Lyse starts. "I can't shake this feeling something bad is comin'."
"Ha ha! Arryn's worrying finally got to you, huh?" He chuckles.
"Hey! Blame him for that! The road ain't meant to be this easy. It's a freakin' legend!" she retorts.
"I don't agree with your latter point, but I do agree with the former..." Hector says. "It's quite strange seeing as all the people around here won't even think about using this path, and then the beasts they are so afraid of aren't that strong or that many. Certainly, that can't be right."
"Whatever it is, we'll find out soon enough." Arryn says, and stares at his wristband. "Anything so far, Ely?"
"Nope. Can't make out any human being or monster. just some snowstags wandering about."
"Well, that isn't anything peculiar." Hector says.
"At least there's nothing to worry about for the next two hundred meters or so..." Gavric remarks.
The group of four continue on their journey as darkness fully engulfs the forest. The tall snowtrees block out the light of the moon, as Lyse uses her flame magic to provide light for the group to keep moving.
As they keep moving, there is a loud thud behind them. A large pillar of light erupts just seconds after the sound and the group turns to see the pillar of light pierce into the clouds.
"What in the unholy f-" Lyse says but is cut off by an unseen force that hits her from her left side, sending her crashing into multiple trees.
"LYSE!!!" Hector and Gavric yell in shock and confusion. Arryn's eyes narrow, his calm facade beginning to waver ever so slightly, as he watches the light dissipate.
Lyse coughs up blood as Hector and Gavric rush to her side. "Are you okay?!" they ask with concerned faces.
"Son of a bitch! That fucking hurt!" she curses as she takes of her light metallic breastplate, dented on the back and the left side from the impact.
"What in the world was that?" Gavric asks.
"How would I know?! How didn't you notice it before, Hector?" Lyse asks.
"It wasn't there before!" Hector defends.
"Ely, return back, now." Arryn says into the wristband.
"Okay." She says.
"It's a Wallakki." Arryn turns to Lyse. "Hector didn't notice it before because it was just summoned here. That was the light you saw."
"A Wallakki? what's that?" Lyse asks.
"It's a minotaur-like beast with the physical abilities of vampires." Gavric replies. "I'd managed to fight off a few with my comrades back in the day, but they're strong. Very, very strong. I don't know what they're doing here, though."
"I finally get it..." Arryn says, as the footsteps of the Wallakki draw close. "We aren't dealing with kidnappers here..."
"We're dealing with a Cult." Hector completes his sentence.
"Cult?" Lyse is puzzled.
"We'll explain later." Hector says as he jumps into the air and intercepts the punch from the beast with both his arms. The monster is revealed as a giant, humanoid-bovine creature with huge horns. He is thrown back a few feet by the impact and his arms vibrate from the shock.
The creature makes another sweeping attack with its large arms but they are trapped in ice before they can hit anyone. Elyra stares it down from a tall snowtree a few inches from Hector, before releasing another shot aimed for its head.
In the blink of an eye, the ice trapping its arms shatters and it appears in front of the tree where Elyra is camping. It swats away the tree, casually uprooting it from the ground and sending Elyra flying.
Gavric, chanting cryptically for a while now, finishes his incantation and touches his greatsword with powder from a pouch on his waist. His greatsword becomes much bigger in size, almost the size of the Wallakki's arms.
"En Garde, foul creature!!" He yells and delivers a loud battle cry as he rushes towards the beast before taking a large swing at it.
The sword goes through the arm, but it stops halfway, jammed in the skin of the Wallakki. With a loud screech that reverberates through the forest in its entirety, it screams and breaks the sword in two with its free arm. Gavric is left in shock as the beast kicks him like a toy, sending him flying.
"Azzar's Scorcher!!!" Lyse's voice echoes behind the beast, as a large torrent of flames zoom towards the Wallakki. The magical attack lands and burns the top of its shoulder and part of its head.
In response to Lyse's attack, the monster digs into the soil, through the snow, and lifts up a portion of the earth before chucking it at her at top speed. She manages to evade the attack, dodging at the last second, only to be met by the injured arm of the beast, whacking her a second time, sounding a wicked crunch through the forest, breaking her arms and ribs, leaving her reddened in blood as she is sent flying.
However she is caught by Arryn in mid-air, before he lands next to Hector. "Hey, Arryn..." Lyse says, as Arryn lays her on the ground. "When do we get to go back home?"
Arryn frowns. "Hector, I don't care if you can't use those arms of yours right now, we are getting decimated right now...don't let anything happen to her!" His anger becomes obvious from his voice. "If she wants to die, if they all want to die, it will have to be under the care of someone else!"
"Ha. Not very positive words from you, Leader." hector replies and sits down, grabbing onto Lyse's fractured body.
Arryn takes a powerful leap forward in the direction of the beast heading for Ely and Gavric. Before it can react, Arryn throws a punch at the beast's face and sends it flying in the opposite direction, past where Hector is sitting and guarding Lyse.
The Wallakki rises to its feet and picks up a snow tree, before chucking it at Arryn, even faster than its previous throw. Arryn casually catches it, turns around and lights it on fire, before throwing it back, at a quicker pace.
It narrowly evades the projectile as the tree explodes in the background. The monster goes to moves to attack but Arryn is no longer in its field of vision. A sharp beam of light rips through the monster's body, and it shrieks in pain.
"I've had my fill of this place already." Arryn says. "Rise, Wall." He says, and the monster is caught in a large wall of flames, razing it to a cinder.
"Hey, now. you don't need to show us up that much." Hector cracks a nervous smile, still holding onto Lyse's body.
"The wave energy I have isn't enough to heal everyone, and her potions should still be with the luggage where we left the horses..." Arryn says, walking towards them, as the Wallakki burns behind him. "...but we don't have a choice. I'll just have to try."
"L...let us...h-help." Gavric says, clutching his bleeding side. His arm is disfigured and bloodied. His armor has been shed and his face and shirt is soaked in blood. Beside him is Elyra, bleeding from the fringes of her hair down to her face and her leather armor is torn and bloodied.
"Don't be stupid. Your wave energy is all that is keeping you from going comatose at this point. I can't allow you to expend it. I still have enough to keep three of you healed. Hector and I will handle the Cult." Arryn says.
"But, Arryn-" Elyra tries to talk but he cuts her off.
"No. You stay here and heal. The Wallakki was keeping the monsters away. Its corpse hanging around here will scare away any new ones. We're running out of time, the girl will die soon."
Gavric and Elyra look at each other. "What do you mean?"
"The Wallakki is summoned from the Akka'Dor realm in the First Circle of The Fel..." Hector explains. "...To summon anything from the land of the Fel, one requires a blood sacrifice, and the sacrifice needed to summon a Wallakki is a human being. More specifically..."
"Virgin girls." Arryn completes his sentence. "Wallakki can only be summoned by using the blood of virgin girls as catalysts for the ritual. The girl was kidnapped about five days ago, and the Cult had been using Wallakki to destroy the guards searching for her. The girl is important to them, so they've been using other girls they've taken as sacrifices."
"How can you be so sure she isn't dead already?" Elyra asks.
"She isn't." Hector interjects. "I couldn't feel it before, since we were so far away, but now I can tell the amount of people in the tunnels and the amount of captives there."
"We're going. It'll be midnight in a few hours. Rest up until we're back. we'll need all our energy in running away." Arryn says. He focuses his aura, changing it to a greenish hue, before channeling it towards Gavric, Lyse and Elyra.
"Stay safe, you guys." Hector says. "Let's go, Arryn."
The two dash away, leaving the three to recuperate.