'How the hell did it reach us this fast?! When did it start? What the hell even is it?'
These panicked questions flew past as he pulled out his spear and began summoning the Unfaithful Blade. A mundane spear wouldn't be enough to handle the creatures that would rain down on them soon, so he needed to give himself a shot at defending himself and Hectre from what was to come.
Ripping a strip of cloth from his attire, he tightly secured the long dagger to the end of the spear and aimed his weapon at the sky.
"Hectre, you remember where the forest is?"
She simply grunted in response as she worked to keep their mount sturdy, drawing her longsword as she did so. The light was quickly fading from the world around them, threatening to plunge them into pitch blackness. Nyiko contemplated whether to summon the Ember Heart, but quickly gave in to the idea.
It wouldn't matter if the Ember Heart produced the only light in kilometers; the creatures from his vision could likely see through the dark anyway. The need for it far outweighed the possibility of being a signal flare.
Only a few moments after the Ember Heart came into being, light left the world. Everything beyond the small corona of light that held the two of them and the horse was a blank canvas of aberrant darkness. He held his breath, focusing on catching the sound of movement other than the galloping of their horse.
Then, he felt droplets of something fall on him.
It began to drizzle.
And in that mist of light rain, something dove from the black sky.
Nyiko struck at it with all his might, and he felt his weapon pierce something.
There was a sound that was between a caw and a guttural yelp as he felt the creature fall off the end of his makeshift dormant spear, only catching the smallest glimpse of the nightmare creature's dripping, inklike form.
It disappeared as it hit the ground and left the halo of light, not dead, as indicated by the fact that the spell didn't confirm the strike as a kill.
He strained his ears to hear more incoming creatures, and they did.
It felt just like the vision he had; they rained down upon them endlessly. For every creature they killed or injured, two more would dive upon them. The ones with injured wings did not give up on chasing them either, giving chase to their horse and easily catching up, nipping and tearing at their mount's flesh. That forced Hectre to focus on the monstrous corvids beneath her while Nyiko had to struggle against the ones that dove at them.
[You have slain Dormant Beast, Ruin Carrion]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
His arms burned.
So did his lungs.
'Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it!'
"You're getting tired."
That was true. He never used a weapon for so long, nor with this much effort. The spear was getting heavier in his hands; he could imagine it becoming too heavy for him to lift if the onslaught continued.
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
"You're in pain."
That was also true; he couldn't stop all of the abominable birds after all. Each failed attack brought on a fury of claws and toothy beaks, which led him to have to throw them off with his shield or to rely on Hectre to save him. He was bleeding from many places, but either because of luck or his innate attribute, the gashes were shallow, though he had a feeling that not all cuts came from the Ruin Carrions.
[You have slain…]
[You have received a….]
Arms shaking, he kept fighting.
"You will die here."
On the surface and deep down, he felt like he was, like the probability of him surviving this situation was just too unlikely. But for whatever morbid reason, he kept fighting. Kept trying to live.
He froze mid-thrust as he felt Hectre grab him by the waist and pull him close, bringing them both standing on the horse before she leaped forward. Far forward.
The horse crumpled under the force of her leap and was made a sacrifice for the Ruin Carrions as they swarmed it. Nyiko's heart actually ached for the horse as he heard its frightened whines, before being frightened by the wall of bark they were flying towards them.
Hectare twisted the two of them through the air, letting her back face the tree trunk while she held Nyiko to her front. They hit the tree with little impact before sliding back down to the earth. When they landed, Nyiko noticed how the earth was much softer than what was expected of a forest.
Hectare was already on her feet, wasting no time lifting him and dragging him deeper into the woods till he could run on his own two feet.
Their progress through the woods was slow; the mud they marched through became less solid the further they went, till they were trudging through waist-high waters. Roots of large mangroves blocked their paths and further slowed their pace, and though the leaves that hung high above them served as a roof to protect them from the black rain and the Ruin Carrions diving at them, the ones they left behind caught up soon enough.
[You have slain…]
The nightmare collapsed into liquid darkness after he skewered its head. He vaulted himself over a large root right after and ducked behind it as the Ruin Carrion that was beelining towards him crashed into the blade of his makeshift spear instead, splitting the creature in two.
[You have slain…]
[You have received a….]
He continued moving blindly forward, following the only person he could see at the edge of the lantern's light.
"Can you see ahead of you?!" He shouted over the noise.
"Yes, in a way. Just keep going!"
They advanced deeper and deeper into what Nyiko could now tell was a swamp. They found themselves in deeper waters, where another Ruin Carrion almost drowned Nyiko. Thankfully, that seemed to be the last of the ones that followed them. Wading through the waters, the two of them found an island solid enough to stand on.
Nyiko fell onto his back, trying his best to catch his breath as Hectre stood by and took watch. He hugged his spear close as he filled his lungs with air. Next, he replaced the cloth that held the Unfaithful Blade since it was barely attached to the spear. Finally, he assessed the wounds he received.
Surprisingly, he was still, relatively, in one piece despite being chased by a flock of Dormant beasts. He was marred with countless talon marks that oozed drops of blood, not enough to make him bleed out soon, but if this nightmare somehow lasted for any longer, he'd have to worry about an infection.
'Can't believe I have to worry about infections in this day and age.'
Well, he wasn't in the modern day, so getting an infection here made sense.
The only other thing of note besides his wounds was the fact that his clothes were in tatters, leaving him to wear a mantle of shredded linen.
"Nyiko, get up. Now!" Hectare urged as she drew her sword.
Nyiko jumped to his feet and pointed his spear into the darkness, shield raised high.
"Is it another one of those birds?"
When he looked towards her, he saw an expression he'd never thought he would see on the proud, noble Awakened's face. Dread.
Whatever could give the most confident person he knew to not just pause but to freeze in place? Her hand held the hilt of the sword, but she seemed to struggle to pull it out of its scabbard.
He strained his ears to hear what horror lay beyond his small field of vision. The darkness was oppressive, like a physical wall.
The world was silent; the only thing he could hear was the distant pitter-patter of rain and the shallow breaths of him and his companion.
Then there was heavy thud that sank into the mud with a soft squelch. Another Squelch came after that, and then another and another, each wet thud slow and deliberate.
It stopped right at the boundary between the Ember Heart's warm light and the darkness that clung to the creature as if unwilling to let it leave its embrace. Nyiko only grasped the creature's humanoid outline, but within that, there was no sign of humanity.
Only a stillness that did not belong to anything alive.
"Friend or Foe?" He asked, foolishly believing there was a chance to get out of this encounter without a fight.
The figure did not answer with words but with a gesture, striking its sword against its shield twice before raising the same shield high and placing its sword on that shield's rim.
Nyiko took a long, sobering breath and copied the creature's stance, raising his own shield to his torso and saddling his spear next to it. Meanwhile, Hectre finally drew her sword and held it forward, its sharp point aimed at the humanoid threat.
Each second that passed felt like an eternity of dread for what was to come. It was most definitely a creature of the Awakened rank; nothing besides a dormant devil would have made Hectre act like that, and its presence felt similar to the Awakened in the Fourth Frontier. He knew better than to strike such an opponent first, but the creature did not seem to want to initiate either.
So Hectre made the first move.
She lunged forward, the powerful motion causing the mud beneath her to solidify and then crack.
A loud clang sounded in the dark, followed by a grunt.
He took the opening he assumed Hectre had made and thrust his spear into the creature's silhouette, the maneuver bringing the creature into the paper lantern's light.
He saw the tip of the Unfaithful Blade ping off the stone-like alloy armor of the humanoid.
He saw that in the time of a second, it shook Hectre's blade off its shield and pivoted to swing its blade down on Nyiko in a deathly arc.
Seeing his killer in all its glory, his mind did not go to the common things that are thought of; 'I don't want to die!', 'What about my loved ones?', 'I still have so much to live for!'
Instead, he thought:
'Is that a stone Saint?!'
He slipped on the mod and fell face-first into it, avoiding a decapitation at the same time.
Hectre crashed into the living statue, which gave him time to pick himself up.
'Crap, I think it is…' He lamented as he watched Hectre and the Stone Saint.
'Ok, ok, what do we know about them?'
The information was instantly recalled, and what it brought was devastating. From all the sources on the underworld he had read in the keep's library, very little had been mentioned about them. Just the name, and the rumor they were made of stone, which he could guess with the evidence his own two eyes had gathered, was true.
'I guess I'm technically the foremost expert on this topic.' He quipped.
He jumped back into the action, leaving behind the useless facts that had swarmed his head.
Steel met its strange rocky cousin; each clash sending sparks flying into the darkness of the swamp. The clashes were kept between Hectre and the Stone Saint, with Nyiko striking out at any given chance to harm the stone warrior, all failing.
It was rather quickly that Nyiko realized that just like before, a mundane could not help in this fight. The stone saint was an intelligent warrior; it knew how to pace itself, how to defend. It did not initiate an attack and simply deflected Hectre's blows and countered, drawing blood with each successful maneuver.
Desperate to at least land one clean blow on the monster, he charged recklessly at the creature's back while it blocked a blow from Hectre's blade. The Stone Saint turned faster than he originally thought capable and swatted him away, sending Nyiko flying into the waters of the swamp.
The water cushioned his crash into the swamp bed, filling his lungs with its warmth and murky pigment after he had let out an involuntary exhale. He thrashed about before managing to pop his head out of the water, coughing up water as he did.
He cursed inwardly. Nothing was working for them, and the way things were going, he and Hectre would become fertiliser for this rotten place. He glanced in the direction they came from, or rather into the darkness that held dangers known and unknown.
With a deep sigh, he said a quiet prayer and began summoning a memory, one that would act as his last gambit.
The stone saint decided to chase him while Nyiko was still down, launching itself toward him like a speeding bullet, its stone body easily parting the waters. Nyiko dove away from the living statue and turned to face it. He activated his Hail Mary.
A shrill, guttural cry was blasted out of the Cricket's Choir, which lay beneath the water and right under the stone saint. The Stone Saint ignored the loud noise and tried to move forward to Nyiko, but then a flying black object hurtled towards the Stone Saint, forcing it to pause and cut it down.
It turned to face Nyiko again, but another one of those creatures crashed into its stone figure, then another and another and another. Each Ruin Carrion that had been attracted to the call of their kin through themselves at the meal that was this creature, their teeth-ridden beaks scraping against the stone saint's armor and flesh.
Its vision was blocked by the flapping wings of the inky birds, but it was not immobilized. Its blade tore through the Ruin Carrions with ease, but the short reprieve of their deaths never allowed it time to chase after Nyiko as another Ruin Carrion took a dead one's place.
This gave Nyiko and Hectre an actual chance.
The two of them went for a hit-and-run strategy, chipping away at the stone saint's armor and defense till it would be weak enough to kill. The Ruin carrions were of great help to them, as well as a danger they had to be aware of. Their strange beaks slowly broke down the stonelike armor of the saint, creating vulnerabilities that the two of them could exploit.
They dodged rogue Carrions with each attack, killing those that attacked them instead of the stone saint and striking at the cracks that formed on the saint's armor—slowly making those cracks wider.
But it wasn't enough.
Their weapons weren't enough.
Their strength wasn't enough.
The stone Saint grew to understand the movements of the Ruin Carrions, making slaughtering them much faster and more efficient than before, allowing the creature to divide its attention. This killed all the momentum they had gained.
'DAMMMIT ALL!!!'
They were done for. If they kept fighting, they would inevitably die here, and if they ran, the stone saint, hell, even the Ruin Carrions would eventually catch up and kill them there.
The feeling of being trapped was a horrible one, his head was aflame with the vicious mockery of his thoughts and the endless maze of dead ends that was any plan he feverishly thought of.
Desperate, frustrated, and hopeless, he did something that should've been the last act of a boy soon to die.
He threw the Unfaithful Blade at the stone saint
The Baselard scratched the thigh of the creature, creating sparks in its wake.
Those sparks did not fade.
They ignited the air.
And then the world blew up.