The twins were in no way surprised by Agnar's words. They had to face magical beasts. If they died, so be it. What they didn't expect was to be thrown into a beast's den.
"You mean, in this thick forest there are magical beasts?" Kiyan asked. They now stood in front of the dark and foggy woods. Just looking into it made their skin crawl.
"Yes, there are. A lot of them actually," Agnar replied.
"We've lived here for a while now, how come they've never come up?" Raten asked.
"As much as they are territorial and this hill is basically their home, the beasts in there know when they're outmatched and prefer not to die," One-eye answered, sliding his hands over their shoulders with a grin.
"That's true, magical beasts can sense power," Kiyan said.
Raten gazed at the three men and shuddered. 'If I were a beast, I definitely would stay away,' he thought.
"So, off you go." Raymond gave them a little shove as One-eye took a step back from them.
"Off we go to where?!" Raten questioned. "He only has his sword and I, two sickle looking blades. What exactly are we going to do with this and what are we going to face there?!"
"You talk too much," Agnar stretched his arm and picked them up from their ankles. He threw them very easily far off into the forest, one after the other.
"AARRGHHhhhh!"
The scream of the boys drowned out as they fell far.
"Do you think they'll survive this?" One-eye asked, still looking up.
"They will. They have to." Agnar replied. "I threw them in the direction of the basic tier beasts, so they should be fine."
"Basic tier?" Raymond tilted his head. "But, the basic tier dominates the right part of the land, not left." He said judging from the direction the twins fell in.
"Left is the greater beast tier." Raymond said softly.
Agnar flinched.
"Ugh.." he groaned, placing his fingers on the bridge of his nose.
There were five tiers or five levels of beasts in this world - the basic tier, greater tier, soared tier, crowned tier and god tier beasts.
With every rise in tier was a significant gap in strength. The higher they climbed up, the larger the gap. No matter the stage, magical beasts were very tough to beat. Now, the twins had to face creatures with their chances of survival very slim.
"I was actually asking if they would survive the fall." One-eye sighed. "We can only wish them good luck at this point."
"Shall I go ahead and dig their graves?" Raymond asked. "Maybe later in the day we will go in search of their remains."
Agnar scratched his head looking into the woods. 'They should make it out alive if they landed together. Ending up separately will be tough.'
"Ugh.. this is frustrating!" He groaned.
"I'm in the mood for some wine." Agnar said and started walking to the direction of the house.
Raymond and One-eye waited till he was far enough and then began whispering.
"He will definitely bury us alongside his sons," Raymond said in a very low tone.
"What do you mean, us? You're the one who drank all the wine." One-eye defended himself.
"Don't act like you were no partaker in this," Raymond responded.
Just then Agnar came back out with a chug full of wine. The other two were stunned.
He knew they would drink all he had bought, so he had a secret stash for himself and part of it was what he was drinking.
"Why are you still standing here? We need to get started on restoring my powers." He said to them.
They gave a simple nod and moved in his direction. What should be worrisome at that moment, they had little care for. How were the twins?
********
"AAAARGHH!" The twins shouted as their bodies were flung into the sky.
What goes up, must surely come down. Their bodies now feeling the effect of gravity after reaching a certain height, began descending into the forest.
The forest that led downhill into dangerous lands.
Beneath them was nothing but green. Trees, shrubs, grasses, vines, the environment was blooming. If only it wasn't the dwelling place of very dangerous creatures.
Getting closer to the ground, Kiyan stretched his hand and grabbed onto a branch of a tree. He made a flip and leapt onto a lower branch that broke as soon as he landed. But he was quick to grab onto another and jumped down to the ground.
"Tch, that man never sends you places normally." He said annoyed. "I ended up alone," he mumbled.
He looked around for a while taking in the place.
"Okay I flew in from that direction." He pointed south. "That must be the way back to the house. But first, find a beast to kill or at least survive a beast." He said and tied his hair messily at the back.
*Rumble, rumble..
Where he stood, the earth began to vibrate. Something big was coming. He began to hear loud footsteps. Footsteps that sounded like gallops. He looked around trying to gauge where it was coming from.
"I have to hide," he thought, figuring out from the direction of the sound, whatever was coming was coming from behind.
Not knowing where to hide, he just stayed behind a tree and hid by the leaves of overgrown shrubs nearby.
The rumbles became worse, the gallops even louder. He stayed silent in fear. Then he saw it. It moved right past him. His eyes widened in shock. Sweat began dripping from his forehead. He had goosebumps all over his skin.
It was a horse. It looked all so magnificent. Perhaps, if Kiyan wasn't perceiving his possible end, he would have admired it. But, seeing it up close, it was terrifying. Glorious, but menacing.
Where he hid, he suddenly felt the tree being pushed greatly. Running past him was a giant horse. At that height it could be called a giraffe. But the length of the neck was not the only reason for its length. Its entire body was large and it had strong muscles.
Its skin looked darker than black. While it moved, it left a trail of black smoke. From its eyes, tiny streaks of lightning appeared and disappeared. Its hooves glowed white. At the end of its oddly long tail stood out something sharp, it looked like a blade.
The mane on its neck flew back as the wind went past it. Whatever tree it hit was knocked down immediately but it wasn't stopping.
Kiyan was left shaken watching it run past him. The already pale looking skin of his went even paler.
"This forest, that horse.. I've seen it before. In one of the books of tier beasts that father had. That was, that was, a tier king. A by the size of it, the eyes too, that was tier king horse of the greater beasts. This is greater beast territory!" Kiyan began to panic.
"Forget killing, I have to survive and get out of here alive!"