Chapter Sixteen: A chaotic situation
Screams resounded in the area; flames burnt the surrounding trees, and smoke rose and merged with the atmosphere as the smell of burnt flesh, trees, and suffocating smoke made it too difficult to breathe.
With no hesitation, Dusken untied his rope with rapid speed and evaded the swarms of arrows falling from the sky.
Everything was in utter chaos, no one knew who was attacking and why, but even the beastmen were scared.
They reacted with furious roars as they charged deeper into the forest as if to find the unseen culprits.
"Who dares to attack the lands of the Nura clan?" the beastman king bellowed from his location, a guttural growl escaping from his lips.
Silence, nothing responded, only the swooshing sounds of arrows were heard; the stillness of the atmosphere was palpable, but when everyone thought that no one would respond, a calm but beastly voice rang out as the arrows temporarily stopped increasing like the hidden archers had seized fire.
"Oh, Guro, my friend, how has it been for you? You held a banquet with such human delicacies and invited me; you never did?"
As soon as the voice settled, a beastman manifested into the surroundings; its head resembled that of a frog, and green scales covered its body with an appearance that struck the hearts of the remaining children.
In this instant, the beastman king growled furiously.
"You son of whore, Gartan? So you now have the guts to attack my territory?"
The beastman, referred to as Gartan, didn't respond and slowly shook its head as it waved its hand.
Immediately, from the dense trees all around the forest, creatures and otbeastmen men charged out and began firing arrows.
The beastman king - Guro - charged at Gartan and a disastrous battle between them unwraped in the surroundings.
'Curse it,' Dusken thought, avoiding arrows raining down from the sky, he tried to sense the shadows so that the arrow's movement could be deciphered.
The shadows responded to him instantly without the hesitation they normally give, Dusken stumbled at this discovery.
His head moved back at frightening speed as an arrow zoomed past his previous location, he twisted his body, barely avoiding another shot that came at him.
Every other child was shouting in terror; some were able to get out of their bindings in time and avoid the miserable fate of dying.
Others, though, could only kiss their bad luck, for the arrows rained down on them before they could do a thing.
Everything was in utter chaos, but Dusken didn't care; he summoned his soul script and checked the description of his talent ability.
Talent ability: Darkshadow control
Talent ability description: Darkness and shadows are for you to control, and you can perceive what they sense.
Dusken's eyes glinted as he moved away from a falling arrow. He knew what this talent ability meant for him, normally, the shadows would have to respond to his call for him to decipher an object's movement.
This ability though, could allow him to directly sense the shadow of any object without asking the shadow for help.
It was just like him going to someone's house and eating whatever he liked without them doing a thing, freedom, absolute freedom.
This thought brushed his mind as he rolled on the ground while averting another arrow that barely grazed his rib and without hesitation, hoisted himself back up.
The words on his soul script changed and the information about his spell card was revealed:
Spell name: Nightfall Whisper
Spell Status: Dormant
Spell effect: In the era since the early twilight of time, the world was laced in darkness and shrouded by shadows, drowning in rivers of nothing but loneliness, and from this solitude, a whisper was born, the songs of the night.
Dormant. This meant that the spell card wouldn't deplete his magical energy, at all and could be used anytime, but still…
'What the actual fuck?' Dusken cursed inwardly when he read the description.
'That is bullshit, no actual description of power, just some nonsensical poem,'
It all made sense, some trash whisper wouldn't need magical energy after all.
He reacted once again as his head moved back and an arrow zipped past his face. He began to run and used this chance to move deeper into the forest, but it wasn't only him; some other children were also using this chance to run away.
Dusken's eyes flashed with cold observation as his gaze swept through the children in the area, for he knew that the other eight candidates were part of those children and they were hidden.
Creatures suddenly charged from the depths of the forest as they attacked the children.
A creature charged at Dusken, with maddening hunger reeking from its eyes. It looked like a lizard but different; its head was large, and its slightly opened maws revealed rows of sharp, glinting teeth.
Its spine rose from its back, like a bent rod, with a smooth, rocky tail swaying ferociously. The four legs of the monstrosity were covered with small, needle-like claws that could pierce through anything and everything.
Dusken felt a strong sense of urgency, as the words on his soul script rapidly changed and the description of his Innate ability revealed itself.
Innate ability: [Dark Flame]
Innate ability description: The depths of your soul are lit up with the flames of darkness, a mystical fire that is found in the depths of the abyss and contains mystical powers.
'Damn it! Just fucking give me what the ability could do, not some damned mystical whatsoever'
Dusken lost his cool; these descriptions were angering him; he threw himself on the ground and rolled away as quickly as possible to avoid a swift slash of the creature.
"Kerch!"
The beast made out a weird sound that seemed to echo in the mind; Dusken held his head with gritted teeth as his eyes went bloodshot.
The monster seemed to be able to affect his brain with those sounds it produced. With clenched fists, he commanded and the words on his soul script changed once more.
Material Card Name: Dark Sword
Card rank: Awakened
Card level: 1
Card description: A blade gifted to you by the god of darkness.
Card enchantments: [Flash of shadow]
Enchantment Description:...
Dusken immediately backed away as the creature lunged at him, without hesitation, he dismissed the soul script, as that could be checked out later.
He lept back with relative ease, his leap crossing more than ten steps, becoming a level, one awakened was truly graceful.
Especially the fact that he could now harness magical energy.
"Kreeeech!!"
The beast screamed as it pounced at Dusken - hardening his jaw to the extreme, he immediately evaded.
As the creature flew past him by a few centimetres, he reacted and grabbed its tail, then swung it away to a nearby tree - his lean muscles bulged, but he still succeeded.
With the sound of a resounding smack, the creature hit the tree, and a painful scream rolled out from its mouth, spreading through the area.
Scanning his surroundings with a glance, Dusken saw that some of the children were killed by the beast that attacked them blood dyed the ground crimson, and the stench… was awful while others were running away and some were putting up a fight with the creature.
His gaze once again faced the monster ahead of him, it stood on the tree, its body a little bent as the creature's claw pierced the tree trunk to keep itself stable.
"Kerch!!!"
It flew at him with neck-breaking speed, but Dusken followed it all with his cold glance, and his reaction was faster as his feet moved right and his body followed.
The sounds of winds tearing apart sounded as arrows flew in their direction. Dusken caught an arrow and held it with a firm, hard grip like he was holding a dagger.
The monster who had missed its target was frustrated and kept on screaming. Dusken did all he could to focus, but the creature had an evil grin on its face as it lunged at him, its claws pointing to his heart.