The air was cold and clung to them like dread, every breath carrying with it a promise of imminent danger. Drake's head was in a whirlwind of confusion as his gaze dodged towards the Fox King, grimacing in monster transformation. Turning to him, Drake gruffly released an urgent voice, like the razor-sharpness in one:
"Ben, what just happened?" Ben held himself back, catching the storm of his worried, curious eyes, before he answered.It's nothing new, yet it haunts us all.
Most know of the crimson rot. All of this began more than five years ago, as both mages and ordinary folk coveted power, forsook sense in their desperation.
Bloodbane, a forbidden poison from shadows unknown, seeped into the world through merchants' hands, sold at exorbitant prices to the weak and needy.
First, it was a forbidden bliss-the strength that it granted blinded those who sought it. But soon, the drug carved them up from inside, leaving them with flesh like torn leather, twisted and crimson.
The powerless who took it fell to madness, but mages who consumed it. they lost their mana rings yet kept their minds. Yet, to this date, only three levels of the crimson rot have shown themselves, and two have turned into our waking nightmares, most of all among us mercenaries.
A flicker of horror passed through Drake as Ben continued in his voice like some heavy storm. "The first level they call 'The Infested.' These are the damned ones without mana who have surrendered their sanity to the poison, their minds shattered, yet still vulnerable to ordinary weapons.
Feral instinct drives them and they are relentless. The second level is called 'The Blight'-this is what happens to mages who swallow Bloodbane. Half-alive, half-dead, shells of their former selves, yet their bodies move with some sort of cruel memory from when they knew what they were doing. Their senses sharpen, just like a beast's, and they grow in strength, resilient as stone. But their minds, they're twisted.
A chill crawled down Drake's back, the air around him seemingly closing in. "So where's the fear if it's old news to you? " he interjected, his voice nearly trembling. Ben's eyes lit up with a burst of comprehension, and the air escaped him in a heavy exhalation. He clapped a cold, shaking hand on Drake's shoulder.
"You've felt it. That fox just broke through to the rare third stage. Even newly transformed, you can feel the odious energy spilling from it."
Drake's face paled; the words went in with a chill finality. His forehead was moist with cold sweat. The instant voice now belonged to Sam, taut and commanding; it cut the terror hanging over them. "Keep your wits about! This beast has just evolved into a Rotwalker. We know nothing of its strengths, so we'll play it very carefully.
Sam surged forward like an unleashed wave, his voice echoing in fierce determination. "Water aura: Aqua Piercer Ocean's Fang." His blade cut the air with lethal grace, but the Fox King dissolved into a blur; its predatory presence filled the air behind Sam.
A feral shriek echoed as its triple-segmented maw lunged, and in the blink of an eye, it locked its jaws onto Sam's left arm-a sickening crunch ripping through the air. Larry sprang into action in an instant, shield at the ready, his eyes cold, hard marble.
"Water aura: Aqua Resonance Shield, Maelstrom Barrier." The shield pulsed with an aura as thick as the deepest point in the ocean, his water aura drawing itself together into a mad whirlwind that made him crash into the Fox King with a shockwave given off like the pulse of the tide.
Thrown off its feet, it spun through the air and landed in an unsteady, unnatural crouch. Sam's face twisted in a mask of agony as the decay within his arm spread like an insidious shadow, clawing toward his shoulder.
With a desperate, swift motion, he cut off the limb, the blade savagely bit into flesh to stop the reach of poison.
The Fox King rose, veins pulsating with malignant glow, eyes afire with feral hunger. It plunged towards Sam a second time with blinding speed, that grotesque maw open wide to rend him limb from limb. In that last desperate second, a thick mana-covered arrow traced across the air, penetrating the neck of the creature.
It crashed to the ground with a guttural growl, but victory was short-lived-the wound sewed itself shut in a trice, the arrow crumbled to dust.
"Is this never to end?" Lilly's voice shook; her words a faint, splintered echo of hope. "Captain's lost his arm… What hope now do we have?" Binter's hand fell gently on her shoulder, and his voice came calm and steady. "Hold fast, Lilly. Captain and Larry are giving it all they've got."
The pitiless instinct forcing the Fox King to circle round, it feigned another attack on Sam, only to wheel with merciless cunning, hurling toward those standing defenseless behind.
Ben had no time to nock another arrow, the Fox King's jaws parted as dark corrosive fluid oozed down in viscous threads from its mouth, mere inches away from Ben. That was when a shimmering wall of water rose, and Drake's voice cut through the panic:.
Water mana: Aqua Shield (1 circle)." Materializing, an encasement of fluid resilience was cast around them, keeping the deadly poison from seeping in.