In the furthest reaches of the Barony, where the lands grew increasingly inhospitable and the sky seemed eternal and distant, lay a small village called Trevalia.
It was a modest hamlet, a place secluded from the rest of the world, where the life of each inhabitant was dedicated to survival, to cultivating an arid land that barely gave them enough to live on.
Without valuable resources or riches, Trevalia depended on hunting and harvesting to survive, a community adrift, isolated and forgotten.
Among its inhabitants, Farlen had grown up with no other destiny than the life of a hunter. He came from a lineage of men and women who had lived and died facing the dangers of the nearby forest, the Cendre Forest, a common place without magic, at least in appearance. It was a place where wild animals did not pose a constant risk, but where the memory of misfortunes persisted.
His father, a veteran hunter, had met his end in the claws of an unknown beast, weaving his name into the history of the village as a hero, one who saved his companions allowing them to return alive.
But for Farlen, the feat that others celebrated was nothing more than a tragedy. His hero, the only one he had known, disappeared when he was still a child.
Farlen grew up with the idea of honoring his father's memory, of protecting his people and of giving the village what his father had given. He trained with discipline, with an obstinacy that some called fortitude, although Farlen knew it was the weight of the void left by that lost man.
However, unlike his sister, Farlen lacked talent for arcanization. His sister, gifted with innate abilities to manipulate energies, had left the village long ago, departing in search of a better life, something that in another context would be a source of pride.
But her departure, for some reason, seemed to open the doors to misfortune.
Shortly after she left, the fields of Trevalia began to suffer a series of calamities. The land became sick, the crops perished, and what was once a reliable resource was transformed into a desolate terrain.
The villagers, starving, were forced to depend on hunting. But the Cendre Forest, once peaceful, began to fill with dark presences and unknown beasts. It was as if the shadows of the earth had spread in all directions, claiming lives and undermining the village's resistance.
Famine settled in Trevalia, and every man who went into the forest in search of sustenance was aware that he might not return.
Farlen, along with two veteran hunters and a handful of inexperienced villagers, formed what was left of the village's hunting group. It was not a formidable group, but a last desperate hope for a dying village.
When on his last expedition he found fresh tracks of a horde of beasts, he understood that Trevalia's fate was sealed. There was no escape.
The village, exhausted and weakened, mobilized, employing the last vestiges of energy to fell the thickest trees and raise a wall of logs around the village. Children, elders, men and women worked together, each with their own prayers on their lips, hoping that the gods would have mercy on them.
But Trevalia's prayers were not heard.
…
Farlen, from the makeshift watch platform, watched the horde rush against the wall with a ferocity that seemed torn from the nightmares of the ancestors.
—To your positions! —he yelled, his voice sharp like a dagger's edge.
Sweat ran down his forehead, but he kept his head cool. The wall was his only advantage, his last line of defense. The hunters and villagers, armed with poorly carved spears, dry wood bows, and rusty knives, formed scattered ranks.
Farlen knew that the key was to contain them for as long as possible. If they managed to get the beasts entangled in the walls, perhaps they could bring down one or two before the inevitable fall arrived.
—Baits at the base! Have your arrows ready to shoot at the eyes! Don't waste time with their bodies! —he ordered, pointing to a group of young men who were beginning to drag raw meat and bones towards the foot of the wall, a desperate attempt to distract the creatures.
When the first beast reached the wall, the impact was brutal. Its muscular and dark body, covered in a thick and strange hide, crashed against the logs like a hammer against metal. Sharp claws began to tear at the wood as an infernal roar filled the air.
—Shoot! Aim for the face! —Farlen raised his own bow and released an arrow.
The projectile found its target, lodging in the beast's left eye. The creature let out a chilling howl and stepped back a few paces.
—Yes! That's how it's done! —shouted one of the villagers, but his celebration was short-lived. The beast, blind in one eye, lunged against the walls with even more fury, tearing splinters and breaking off logs.
"This is not enough." The thought crossed Farlen's mind.
Other beasts joined the attack.
Some began to climb the logs and their claws pierced the wood as if it were wet clay. The villagers tried to knock them down with spears, but most did not have the strength or precision to penetrate the creatures' thick hides.
A heart-wrenching scream drew his attention. One of the beasts had reached the top of the wall, tearing off a young archer's head with a swipe.
Blood splattered on the nearby defenders, who recoiled in terror.
—Don't stop! Hold the line! —Farlen descended from the platform, running towards the breach that was beginning to form.
He faced the creature with a spear in his hand, narrowly dodging a lethal blow. With a quick turn, he thrust the point into the beast's neck, but it barely growled and threw him to the ground with a swat.
—Get up, Farlen! —shouted one of the veteran hunters as he tried to cover him.
Farlen rolled to the side, dodging the claws that shattered the ground where he had been a second before. He got up, panting, and retreated towards the inner wall.
The sound of wood giving way paralyzed him for an instant. A section of the wall collapsed under the combined weight of three beasts, opening a breach through which they began to pass.
—To the inner barricades! Everyone fall back! —he shouted, desperate.
Arrows and spears rained down, but were ineffective against the monsters that seemed immune to pain. One after another, the beasts penetrated the defenses, and the villagers began to fall.
An old man tried to protect a group of children with an old sickle, but was torn apart before he could raise the weapon.
A woman threw an improvised spear that lodged in a creature's jaw, but it killed her with a swipe before tearing it out.
Farlen watched everything, his muscles burning and his mind clouded by helplessness.
—Farlen! The gate! —shouted a hunter, pointing towards the main entrance.
There, two beasts were ramming the gate with inhuman force, while others joined the assault. The wood began to creak and splinter under the pressure.
—Reinforce the gate! —he ordered, but only a couple of villagers responded.
A final blow changed everything. The gate gave way with a deafening crash, and the horde rushed into the village like a dark and destructive torrent.
Farlen raised his bow for the last time, shooting at the head of the first creature that crossed, but it was useless.
Chaos broke loose. The beasts tore lives with ruthless brutality. The screams of the villagers mingled with the roars of the creatures. Blood and viscera stained the streets of Trevalia as Farlen tried, futilely, to organize a counterattack.
"No... it can't end like this..." he murmured, clenching his fists as the world around him crumbled.
He barely had time to dodge a claw that sought to tear off his head. With a quick turn, he thrust a broken spear into the neck of one of the creatures, but the weapon failed to penetrate the thick hide. The beast struck him with its muscular paw, throwing him against a nearby wall.
Upon impact, blood spurted from his mouth, but even so, he got back to his feet, staggering.
—Don't give up! Fight to the end! —he shouted, although his own strength was beginning to fail.
The scene was hell. Women and men armed with makeshift tools tried to defend themselves, but every move was in vain. The creatures destroyed everything in their path, tearing off limbs, splitting bodies in two.
The few children who had managed to take refuge in one of the houses began to scream when a beast knocked down the roof with a single blow.
Farlen watched everything in horror. "Is this how Trevalia ends?", he thought. "Is this how everything we've fought to preserve ends?"
With the strength he had left, he lunged at one of the creatures that was chasing a woman.
His dagger pierced an eye, and this time he managed to cause enough damage for the monster to back off. But when he turned around, two other beasts were already upon him.
The world seemed to slow down as Farlen fell to the ground. A colossal shadow loomed over him, and in the last instant before impact, he thought of his father, his sister, of everything he had lost.
And then, the chaos continued, as Trevalia fell.