The sudden death of Sir Li left the Nisari traders in a frozen state of shock. They didn't react until the bone filled flesh monster began squelching its way towards the group.
The slaves screamed in their cages, the traders drew their longswords in fear and the monsters screeched even louder.
Zero sat a distance away, chained to a tree. Did he have any hope in escaping before those things noticed him?
He shimmied as silently as he could in chains so he was behind the tree, hidden from sight at least. He made sure he could still lean over to see the scene behind.
He looked at the chains on his hands and feet.
' What do I do? '
Back at the camp fire, the monsters were making a banquet of the slavers party. Some of the traders had managed to escape, running from the situation without second thoughts.
The others that had remained, were in a deep one-sided battle with the three monsters.
Lanky man and Stone were among those who could not escape.
Stone brandished his spiky club up high, delivering surprisingly strong blows to the first flesh monster. Covering his back, Lanky man used a thorned whip to tear through the face creature. The last one was being held off by the other men.
The slaves in their cages had long since stopped screaming, refusing to draw any attention to themselves.
The traders seemed to be doing fine for a while. But at the end, these were unknown Mutated creatures. Spikes and spears could not possibly hold them off.
The Face monster let out a deafening screech. It had been toying with its food.
This was only a game to it.
The very next moment, one of the contorted faces stretched out from the flesh. It was groaning in pain and somehow laughing in pure, unadulterated happiness.
It opened its wide gaping mouth, revealing a toothless interior and a wart filled tongue.
Screech!!
Drops of a gooey, dark spittle was blasted in all directions, staining the snow and all who stood in it. It sizzled as it touched the snow and burnt the flesh of the men who were unlucky to recieve it on bare skin.
Lanky man was frozen, staring into the void that was this face's mouth. His expression was that of pain and shock. The spittle had fully covered his face in burns. His nose seemed to be slipping out of place. Melting.
In the next instant, the grotesque face descended on him, swallowing his head while the rest of his body dangled outside.
"Help me! Arghhh!!" His voice was muffled.
"Argh—"
Squelch!
Lanky man's head collapsed inside the monster's mouth and the rest of his body was slurped in like a rice noodle. His whip fell to the snow in silence.
The two other monsters had made a feast of a few more men.
Zero was running out of time.
He looked around the heaps of snow, dead leaves and twigs but he couldn't see anything that would be of help.
Drip...drip.
On the branch of another tree opposite to him was a clump of spittle burning through the wood and falling to the snow.
' That's it! '
Zero had a dangerous idea. He observed the gooey acid. It would work. He knew it would. He just had to somehow reach it without being seen. He glanced behind him again.
The bone covered flesh monster had made its way to the cages. It scratched against the bamboo with its many teeth.
The slaves inside with their variety of mutations screamed and wailed, hoping for the horror to end. Not many traders were left. Infact, only Stone and four more men stood.
The cages were dangerously close to where he sat in the cold snow. Which meant he could easily be spotted by the bone creature if the acid did not burn through the chains as planned.
' If I stay here, I'd die anyway. What do I have to lose? '
Zero took a breath, ready to make his move.
He looked back again. The bone monster was occupied with breaking the first cage it had stumbled upon.
The moon was out and its soft, beautiful light made horrifying shadows of the monsters underneath her gaze. The goddess sitting on the star, if she even existed, did not care for the ants being slaughtered by the dark mana creatures.
Zero wondered if these were the rumoured shadow beasts. He couldn't give it much thought.
He lowered himself to the ground, using his elbows to draw himself forward. His goal was to get across the small path to the other side without being noticed.
His breaths shook as he struggled. The chains clinked but not very loudly. The chaos in the camp covered the sounds. He had a chance. A slim one.
He wanted to look back. He so desperately wanted to see how close the bone adorned flesh mass was to him now.
But he clenched his fists and ignored his beating heart.
What were these things?
Living in the village, he had never come across anything but a few mutated rodents. And even at that, the strangest things he had seen were an extra eye, or bulging limbs.
He remembered his father mentioning how the dark mana in the air was a reminant of a great battle of the immortal cultivators and monsters from another realm. His father was a poor man who had little access to accurate news. But it was clear that there was a time the world had no such thing as The Mutated.
He was never told but he knew that the so called disease that had ravaged the village was a result of the dark energy in the air. This corrupted mana.
But even at that, they had never seen monsters like these. Ghouls, yes. Harmless spiritual occurrences, that too. But monsters like these were unheard of.
What changed? Zero had a vague idea, thinking of the eyeball that sat in the chambers of his ribs: the thing he that had replaced his heart.
He could feel it pulsing. Responding to the spewing dark mana from the creatures.
The boy was losing focus. He grunted and dragged himself forward.
Not too far behind him, the first fleshy monster had joined its bony counterpart. The two masses slammed against the cages until the bamboo gave way and snapped.
If someone stood on the hills in the far distance, they'd still be able to hear the wails of the petrified slaves.
The snow had begun to fall again, and the dark clouds shielded the moon from the gruesome sight, leaving the world in the darkness it so craved.
Zero was feeling unbearably weak. He had managed to reach under the next tree, a few inches from the dripping acid. The thick branch was almost burned through.
He exhaled heavily through his mouth. It was unbearably cold.
Why was he feeling so weak? His periphery was blurring. What was he to do again?
' The chains. I have to escape. ' His thoughts were slowing down.
He raised his shackled wrists to his face and banged the metal against his head hoping to gain some semblance of clarity.
He extended his hands as far as it could reach. The chain was already taut as it was still bound to the other tree.
He carefully positioned his hands so the drops of corrosive slime only hit the linking chain between both wrists.
Zero looked up, gasping impatiently. He didn't dare look back. The wild screams had not stopped. He could be next.
' Come on. Come on. '
The liquid dripped down very slowly. It was a pain to sit in the open bound to a tree and an easy prey for those things.
Slowly it fell on the chain, and slowly it ate at the metal.
Zero stayed there in the snow, listening but not turning. The screams were dying down, he could hear a few brave traders still fighting. How long till he was seen?
His answer came roaring his way.
Zero turned at once.
Squelching its way over was the nine foot tall flesh of faces. It was much grander than before and seemed to have acquired a new collection of faces.
Sir Li and Lanky Man's fearful expressions in death were part of the vile monster now. They moaned in pain and in greed for more food.
The clearing smelt of rot. The dark mana corruption had caused some of the remaining traders to mutate on the spot only to be consumed immediately.
Zero watched the Face monster make its way towards him and what scared him was not the hugeness of this creature.
Nor was it a fear of death. He was not even afraid of the fact that the acid had not eaten all through the chain.
Zero was afraid because he was hungry.
As he looked upon this grotesque being, the hunger he had long forgotten since the chaos ensued came hitting back with full force.
This was not even hunger for food. It was something else.
Just then, the voice slithered its sly way into Zero's head after a long while.
/Yin Spirit, the dark mana of this shadow beast calls out to you. Your mortal form wavers and you have chanced upon three great sources of Yin/
There was a pause. Zero shook his head no.
/Eat to retain your form or face internal consumption and disintegration into a lower hell denizen, assuming the form of a shadow beast. Beware: The flesh shadow beasts are hungry manifestations of evil. Eat or be eaten/