Finally, the snapping of dry leaves and the splitting of branches from shrubs could be heard. Over the passage of time, they grew more aggressive and louder. A sharp shriek reverberated across the woodland, disturbing the sense of tranquility. The noises were more intense, and they seemed to be coming from the direction in which Alicia and the guy were looking.Alicia's limbs were weakened by another shriek that echoed through the open field It was right there, just a few inches into the night it approached. A shrub gave way a few seconds after the screech and its impact died down, revealing a massive monstrous foot walking into the light. The entire leg and an arm were then covered in scales. Finally, the figure wanted to stick out its whole body.With a massive mouth ripping up half of its face and huge arms and claw-like claws poking off the end, it was vile. Its canines protruded from its muzzle, one of which was entangled with a vine, most likely from running around in the forest
"Lora!" Lisa exclaimed joyfully as she dashed over to her, arms outstretched. She greeted her with a warm embrace. Lisa's little legs flared out and her feet knocked down the leaves hanging across the pathway as Lora picked her up and they pirouetted.Since they were so far apart, the others couldn't hear their conversation, but when it was over, Lisa took her hand and dragged her towards the rest of the crew.Under the scorching light, her black armour gleamed. Her black glinting hair, which crowned her head, went well with the armour. With each stride she took, it bounced lightly on her shoulders. Lora had a beautiful smile, almost too beautiful. Her thick lashes rolled up, hiding the creases beneath her brows. She had brown eyes that one would get lost in when gazing at them and her sonsy lips arced upwards, emphasizing her smile whenever she decided to pull one off. Her pronounced cheekbones protruded from her face. Her face quickly shifted as she approached Daito. She walked up
UNDISCLOSED LOCATIONDrom stood up and began making his way over to the dinner table. He was confronted by a knight guard who was near by.The dark bender emblem may be found on the upper right part of his back. Check it out.”The guard confirmed its existence as instructed. “Sir, it's there.”“Then release those restraints,” The councilmen were in a frenzy.“ But the slave emblem! It's possible he's still suffering the effects!”“Come on, you should've worked it out by now,” Drom said, almost chuckling." In the entire kingdom, the most powerful gifted. He would've done it a long time ago if he wanted to be free of those constraints and burn us to ashes. I believe it is safe to say he is no longer under the slave emblem's spell.”The chains were released and tossed away by the guard. To relieve the discomfort caused by the shackles, Daito rubbed his wrists. Every single person in the room was staring at him.“The meeting has been deferred; we will meet again tomorrow. Slejj will b
“Of course I do. Do you think I havent considered the outcome! I am well prepared for what is to come if it fails. But now Im not so sure if you are.” “The chances of failure far outweigh the chances of success, and even if we succeed the victory will be bitter sweet, you know that. You know one of us is going to end up really hurt, or worse.” Lora walked closer to him and rested her hand on his shoulder. He was still watching the fold of slaves working their lives away. “This is my plan Jrue, if it fails I'm ready to face the consequences on my own. Trust me on this.” “What about the other prisoners?” “Leave them to me. I will find a way to convince them. All you need to worry about is setting up the stage, do things right on your side and I’ll do things right on mine and I promise there's nothing that will go wrong, promise!” “Okay. On the next moon, Ladzgery Tyndale will not be able to use his soul magic. That is the day we begin the coup d'etat.” SALS VILLAGE IN DISTRIC
The chains were released and tossed away by the guard. To relieve the discomfort caused by the shackles, Daito rubbed his wrists. Every single person in the room was staring at him.“The meeting has been deferred; we will meet again tomorrow. Slejj will be led to the cells in the meanwhile. You are free to disperse.” The councilmen, together with their maidens, made an appearance. Martha went up to her daughter, hugging her so firmly that she was on the edge of crying.“ Are you alright? “Are you in pain?”“ Mom, please stop! “Mom, you're humiliating me!” she said as she shrunk her voice even more.Alicia was flanked by Lisa. Since they were seized from the defectors' state, she did not talk a single thing.Alicia smiled as she stretched for her hand and clasped it hard.“Everything will turn out fine.” Turning to her mother, she said,“This is Lisa, Mother; she will be staying with us for a while.”Martha descended to welcome her, but her heart crushed when she saw her face. Her pen
The crowd fell silent. They had no knowledge of the man’s origin, nor of his identity so they were in no position to speak.“Do not trust this man! He was with the others during the attack. I saw him, we all saw him!” Thomas said, referring to his two other colleagues beside him. “Look do you want my help or not? Because I am a man with little patience. I have other things to attend to…”“I say we listen to the man!” one of the men from amongst the crowd shouted. “Are you out of your mind? Did you not just here what I said he is with them!”“I say we vote, whoever wants to hear what the man has to say raise your hand.” the man in the crowd said. Numerous hands were hoisted, and it was clear most of the people wanted to hear what the man had planned for them.Thomas looked at the crowd, reviled by the hands in the air. “This man is dangerous can’t you see that?!”“In this uprising democracy rules! In here we are all slaves with no leader so we go by the majority Milner, you waving yo
Some soldiers had the faces looking at the wooden floor. Some walked out of the shack once they realized she was conscious again. She wondered what the reason could be. The semblance of emotional control the soldiers were charading quickly decayed, their faces turned pale and they were reviled at the sight of her.“What is happening?” she asked her fellow State Guards around her. Salron swallowed bitterly and looked away, as if he was ashamed to ask the question he intended to ask.“The soldiers… they want to know the whereabouts of the cavalry that accompanied you to…”One soldier emerged from amongst the crowd and pushed his way through towards Alicia. He stopped behind the State Guards and spoke with a discontinuous voice.“My brother, he was a lancer! He accompanied you when you headed out for the search and he has not come back with you! Tell us what happened to him, what happened to the others!” he asked, the rest of the soldiers’ eyes looked at Alicia, desperately waiting for h
Alicia felt like slapping some sense into that overpowered simpleton, even with god magic he was no match for mother nature. She picked up an empty cup beside the tents and took some dried tea leaves, throwing them into the cup and working her magic. She did everything as loud as she possibly could to grasp his attention, but not loud enough to wake the others snoring their fatigue away inside the tents. Though she tried as much as she could to clank those cups together Daito didn't shiver one bit. Moments after the brewing tea whistled through the hot kettle Alicia picked up two cups and filled them with the overheated liquid she walked over to him and handed one of the cups over.“Just take the damn thing you foot face, it's not poisoned,” Alicia said, trying to balance the fervid crockery between her burning appendages. Daito reached out slowly like he wanted it to burn her fingers a little bit longer. He swayed it severally before taking an elegant sip. Alicia nearly showed her sm
They rushed into the palace, two awls trailing behind them, holding a huge wooden box. When they were climbing the flight of stairs, one of the awls relaxed his grasp on the case's side handle and it slid off, falling to the ground. The case's housing broke open and objects spewed out, including several scrolls, a large book with a lock restricting the pages, and a fairly long dagger. "Wait, I'm familiar with both the book and the sword. They are normally at my father's place. He's been devoting a lot of time lately to reading that book." "And what is the purpose of the blade?" "It's for, yeah, I read about it in my father's library a long time ago, it's used for the rite when when...no!" Daito's eyes abruptly opened as he realized what the intention of the visit could be. He made a hasty descent down the trunk, losing his balance and slipping off several times. Drom pursued him blindly. "Hey! Dai, what is it tell me!" "Come on Drom! We have to hurry before it's too late." They
Needle-like pain reverberated across her skull. She lost her orientation, the world began spinning. As she tried to straighten to her feet another powerful blow landed across her frame, knocking the air out of her lungs, sending her spinning and spiraling across the floor. She collided with the wall, breaking her momentum. Jrue swung his twin blades with malicious intent. Though it wasn’t him succumbing to all those terrifying blows they were so brutal that he felt the impact of his raw strength. Before his blades could gain momentum he was rudely picked off the ground with an inhumane tackle. He was driven to the wall, the impact so violent it pushed the bricks out of position. Once he was pinned to the wall a flurry of punches started coming his way. The iron-like knuckles dug into his face, he felt like a hammer pounding his cheeks. His mouth filled with blood. The relentless attacks were halted by a deafening sound of a metal bar striking Tyndale’s skull. It seemed to have less
“A paralytic Poison. I see I taught you well my son…” “Don’t you ever dare call me that again!” He picked up his right arm and slit his wrist across, doing the same to his left hand. Jrue wanted him to suffer. He wanted him to bleed to death knowing that he was powerless, unable to do anything about it and save himself. He left him outside and limped back into the house. All the soldiers guarding the house had evacuated, deployed to handle the uprising of the slaves in the mines, giving the two siblings all the time they needed to execute duties assigned to them by Anato Strider as part of their escape plan. He managed to reach the room where the fight had begun. He shook her sister to wake. “Lora, Lora! Wake up, it is done!” All Lora felt was an unrealistically powerful force driving her to the ground. She landed with a thud, her head bouncing off the moldy floor. Needle-like pain reverberated across her skull. She lost her orientation, the world began spinning. As she tried to s
Albert was unconcerned about her feelings. He spread the crinkled letter out on the table and began reading it aloud. "The official report. On the second day of the third week of the sixth moon of the year, the commander of the independent states arrived at Defectors State headquarters, where honorary State guard, Lora Deryleen, provided information on the whereabouts of the fugitive, ex-commander, and traitor to the States, Slejj. In the evening, the commander gathered an army to go over to make a stand. "What are you babbling about, is it a fantasy scenario you've been dreaming about?" "Come on...you of all people should know the report never lies," "You seriously can't be considering something this low Albert!," "I made a deal with fugitives Lora, fugitives you wanted to protect. now it seems like their crimes have caught up to them, and there is no way I can delay the inevitable," "You're not going to be able to accomplish it, Albert. We struck a deal!" "Lora...dear Lora, I
The kick was aimed at the shield. Tyndale pushed out the shield with his kick so violently that it broke the teeth submerged into the metal. As the shield rolled on the mud with the teeth sticking out of it, Jericho shrieked in pain. Daito finally came to, getting to his feet just in time before the blast shot the Vurhan's entire face off. He charged forward with a blast of his own. Tyndale reverted his attention towards him which left him exposed to the mercy of the beast. Another swipe of the claws ripped up a shred of his skin, allowing blood to run over his chest. His muscular arms pushed Daito back onto the ground once more. He kicked the vurhan and took out its left knee with a blast of energy, rendering it immobile, momentarily. As the vurhan stumbled to the ground he grabbed its arm and pulled it back up, directing its head towards his punch. The two targets collided, leaving a bloody green stain on the Vurhan's face as it slid across the mud. Tyndale felt a severe force pus
"I made a deal with fugitives Lora, fugitives you wanted to protect. now it seems like their crimes have caught up to them, and there is no way I can delay the inevitable," "You're not going to be able to accomplish it, Albert. We struck a deal!" "Lora...dear Lora, I mean, come on, you knew what you were up to. We all knew this make-believe family you built wasn't going to last." "Albert, you're a jerk!" "Let's not talk about that princess. I'm aware of your darkest secrets!" "Wait... What secret?" He moved closer to her face, leaning in. Her stomach turned at the smell of his alcoholic breath. "You think I don't know about your little secret, Deryleen... you're not from around here, are you?" "You're not selling it Albert...get out of here." Lora bumped shoulders with him as she walked into her quarters. "Get out of my quarters now!!!" "... According to the second official report, Lora Deryleen and Alicia Iko captured the previous commander of the independent nations and we
Alicia dazed in a similar trance. She looked on as her apparently dead little brother reaped his swords and whirled them, chopping off delegates arms and legs. At one point he arced his head and caught sight of her, but ventured on with his slaughter as if she wasn't even there, as if he had no clue who she was. Reene and the others tapped them out of their stupor as they pulled out their swords. Alicia began galloping straight towards Drom, and Lora headed for Deryleen. Before they could both reach their intended targets the rest of the faction popped up under the teleportation circle and dropped to the arena, jumping straight into the action. Outside the castle, the intense battle raged on. The army of undead knights fought relentlessly like they had nothing to lose, mostly because they didn't. They overpowered the knights trying to secure the castle and fell to their blades, most of them cowardly retreating. The vurhans continued their orchestra, by then the whole city had awoken
"You know the truth is I was never your brother you simpleton! I was never your brother!" "... Wha... What did I ever do to you brother?" "NOTHING! And that is why I despise you. You never did anything for anyone, only cared about yourself. Using others to get what you wanted... Using me to become the commander!" Slejj coughed up a couple of times before speaking. "What in the hell are you talking about?" "I do not need to explain myself to you! Have you ever heard of Enkai, the forest deity who supposedly guarded the gates against crossers? Protected the Independent States from the world outside, especially vurhans." Slejj stared back in discomfort as a response. "Well, do you remember the day we were on the battlefield, fighting off the hoards of vurhans? I was the one who called on to him. I corrupted him with the help of some new friends I made. Using the power I made it turn against us... It killed and devoured those soldiers, and it was also to devour you! But I didn't pla
Fear was creeping in and Jrue was re-evaluating his options. A retreat would seem reasonable at that point. Lora had been completely taken out of the equation. “Well! I am Waiting!” Tyndale barked, his voice full of excitement. Jrue charged towards him. He wasn’t that good of a fighter in tight spaces but give him an open field and he would perform his acrobatic stunts that surprisingly packed a punch. He sought to tilt the odds to his advantage by taking him to an open field, and there was only one way he saw how. Running full steam ahead he tackled Tyndale and they both burst through the window, shattering the glass and falling three from a height three stories high. There was no object below to cushion their landing, so they sprawled to the hard ground. Jrue landed on his chest, breaking a bone or two. Tyndale landed on the shards of glass. They dug into his back, yet he seemed not to feel irritated by the pain. Before he could get up Jrue rushed over to him and impaled his leg w