Chương 58: Arsenal Of Fear

Vraxious- Hopes Path Vrax looked up and down the side street milling with enchanted people; a few townsfolk were shaking friends or spouses. One woman in particular slapped what was presumably her husband.

"Snap out of it, you weak-willed fool; it's just an enchanted music box or something…" She trailed off for a moment, succumbing to the song as well, before her gaze sharpened as she broke free again and started to pull him down the street. There was a singular town guard toward the end of the street snapping his fingers in front of a man's face trying to get a reaction. Well, I don't think they saw me yet... V rax slowly closed the window and went back to the Sirens Call, adding it to his garden.

The moment it was gone, shouts of confusion and alarm could be heard out on the street. Haha… yeah... I should leave town. Torvalds's heavy footfalls raced up the steps, and he threw the door open with far more force than necessary.

"Are we under attack, Vrax?" Torvald asked quickly; he had his hammer in his hand, ready to defend them. Vrax's guilty look was all the information Torvald needed to immediately piece together what had happened.

"So... I think I should leave town now. I mean, I doubt the guards will figure out that was me, but either way, I don't want to be here with the attention I drew." Vrax said, a bit miffed. Torvald rubbed his brow in mild frustration.

"Yeah, probably a good idea. I'll deal with the guildmaster tomorrow for us, and then I'm going to look high and low for a quest that can let me pass my trial. It might be a little bit before I come back to Hopes End." Vrax gave him a big hug after quickly packing his bag.

"I'll miss you ya big lug, but I figured we might be splitting up for a bit with our trials looming. I'm going to be camped out in that city trying to clear out the market square for gods knows how long, and of course, experimenting." Vrax pulled his hastily packed bag onto his shoulder. Torvald slapped him on the shoulder heartily.

"I'll come meet up with you in your new kingdom as soon as I beat my trial." He promised.

"Deal," Vrax said and slipped out the door, down the stairs, and began making his way quietly and quickly from the town. Vrax made great time in his first couple of days of travel, but for some reason he had this nagging suspicion he was being followed. This tingling sensation that trailed down his spine in a primal way. But even when he used his talents to seamlessly blend into the tall roadside grass and circle back, he couldn't spy a single out-of-place character.

It was just your normal assortment of merchants and adventurers who would regularly have a reason to be this far east on the king's road. Vrax trusted his instincts; despite his lack of proof, his borderline paranoia had kept him alive this long. He waited until the deepest shadows of sunset and cut off the road heading sharply south towards an unfinished mining town a league from the road. It had been abandoned a few years ago after a large monster attack and not yet reclaimed.

He had camped there before, and the forest had already started retaking the place. Vrax didn't know who was following him, but he intended to turn the tables and become the hunter. Vrax swept into the abandoned town down the grass-covered path; there were four finished homes, squat wooden things with two stories covered in ivy with boarded-up windows. They were eerily empty, having never been furnished. A warehouse built from stone sat at the head of the town, filled with unused lumber and empty shelves.

Strewn around the town were trees that had broken through the hastily graveled road and thorny bushes that pushed against the shade of the man-made intrusion. The standout feature of the town was the thick angled tower overlooking the shallow quarry; only half of the walls were finished, and a large crane jutted out from its peak, ready to haul stone from below. Vrax looked around thoughtfully; he probably didn't have much time before whoever was coming after him got here. Alright, I have plants and time…

let's see what happens when I don't hold back against human opponents and have some prep time. Between the looming crusade, the dungeon misadventure, the likely ire of the duke, and gods know what else, I think it's time I really sent a message that the paladin of the forsaken lands isn't to be fucked with. Vrax began quickly skirting across the village, adapting anything he could quickly make more dangerous. Thorned bushes now twitched eerily as he walked past them, undulating in excitement.

The grass across the road glowed with a faint green luminescence, highlighting its sharpened blades. [Mana 80/163] Alright, I still have a bit more fuck-you energy left in me. Vrax worked feverishly as the sun's rays disappeared; the few trees that peeked around the homes were given roots that grasped out towards water, just like the ever-thirst. The ivy on the buildings took on wicked thorns to thwart anyone who thought they would have an easy time climbing to a vantage point.

Vrax wasn't happy with how much he got done before his mana ran out, but much of the town's vegetation now had the malignant green glow the world would learn to associate with The Paladin. As the sky grew dark, the town took on an otherworldly glow, welcoming prey into its arms. Vrax summoned Duchess slightly away from his adapted plants and started speaking to her in a serious tone.

"Okay, here's the deal: go ham, be as fucking awful as you can, but leave one survivor!" Vrax looked at Duchess waiting for a response.

"Time for the peasants to learn their place," she responded before lifting her tounges into the air, tasting for something.

"Alright, I'm going to hope that means you totally understood what I said…" Vrax laid a last few surprises around town before climbing into the nearby unfinished tower and settling into the wreathing shadows of a patch of vines to watch for his prey. Reese—Abandoned Mining Town Reese wasn't sure how the fuck this cagy mark had caught on to them. They were well hidden as caravan guards traveling nearly a league behind the cloaked man.

Collin had used scrying magic to confirm that the cloaked figure was the man named Vrax; that could have been it. Some especially cagey bastards got an off-putting feeling when they were scryed. Honestly, it didn't matter much; the target had isolated himself, and that was damn helpful. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Reese looked at the men with him. This was a bit of a rush job, so he and his regular partner Collin were the only men past the thirtieth level.

The other three with him were all competent but new to this lifestyle. Being a paid cutthroat wasn't for everyone. Reese was a thick man with long, unkempt hair and a fancy for hooked daggers paired with a shield if necessary. Collin was an oddity, a mage through and through, but he always wore plate mail like a damn fighter. The new guys were a preexisting team.

Ronald the shield warden, a fat fellow with wild eyes; Paul, an archer with stealth talents of all things, hidden beneath his prized cloak that was chamelionic—he would be a fucking nightmare if he survived to the second tier; and their leader, Grey. Grey was decked out in thick chainmail with a jagged longsword he knew how to use damn well. Normally Reese would have just gone with Collin instead of some barely trustworthy new blood, but the fact that this might be the paladin was concerning.

There were already a lot of bar tales swirling about this guy, and they ranged from "He summons demons" to "He has a class that lets him craft dungeons." But all of the stories suggested he had some absolutely fucked-up monsters at his beck and call. Reese's gaze fell upon the mining town and the ethereal green glow tracing its way down the street and over buildings.

"Great... he didn't come here to hide," Reese said with a weary tone. Collin channeled power into his gaze and began scouring the town from a distance. Suddenly he seized, brutally coughing a mouthful of blood.

"Motherfucker! He has some kind of anti-scrying ward in there; he's definitely waiting for us." Collin hissed out. Reese turned towards the other three.

"Alright, let's stick together in teams for now; he's almost certainly got some surprises hidden in there for us. We want him dead; don't bother with capture, and remember if you see any bullshit floating in the air, take the potions we have. He's supposed to have some nasty airborne spell that tears you apart from the inside. Also, if any plants move, fucking stab them." They crept into town, splitting up as they neared the green glow of the grass.

Reese stopped and lightly tossed a bit of rope onto the odd-looking grass; the rope shredded as he dragged it back to himself. Everyone nodded in understanding and carefully avoided the grass. Reese and Collin approached the first house on the right side of the street when the singing started. A motherly voice slightly shaking in fear began singing a folk lullaby, "The night may be dark, the day may be far away, but don't you cry, my child…" The voice trailed off in a shaky sob for a moment.

Reese's hair stood up on end; something was here with them, something dark. He held a dagger in one hand and pushed the first house door open, sweeping a lantern across the empty room; nothing but dust greeted him.

"Motherfucker!" Collin cried outside, and Reese rushed out the door. Collin was being dragged around the corner of the building by a bundle of roots latched into his leg. With a burst of speed, Reese exploded around the corner and pinned the roots to the earth. He twisted his dagger, and a skill activated, sizzling acid burning the roots free. The bubbling stubs retreated into the nearby ground.

"Fuck!" Collin cursed, brushing himself off and ripping the roots from the shallow stab wound in his leg. The lullaby started again, terrifyingly clawing its way into their ears in the eerie green dark. The voice gasped for just a moment, then with an obvious effort began the shaking singing, "For the day will be bright, the day will be long, my child. The monster may come a-calling, but we won't answer the door!"

The shaky voice raised in pitch slightly and then cut off abruptly as the bloodcurdling scream of a mortally wounded man cut across the silence of the town. Reese was afraid as he rushed back to the front of the building, and not afraid in the way he normally was on a job; he had this deep pervading sense of wrongness, like the very air around him might reach out to pluck his soul from him at any second. He peeked around the building, struggling to calm his breathing; what he saw didn't help.

Paul was wandering around in front of the house across the way with no fucking hands, just trailing blood in a small circle and moaning in pain and shock. Paul's voice was chillingly even, that level of shock beyond fear where the mind was near breaking.

"Guys, guys, it got me. I, I don't remember what it was…something ate my…" His voice ended in a choking gag as something long and thin crept from around the back of the building and pushed him forward lightly, sending him tumbling face first into that bladed grass. He screamed briefly, struggling to push himself up with his stumps before he sagged into a twitching puddle. Reese looked back at Collin with wide eyes.

"What the fuck just happened... I... can't remember what pushed him…"

"Get in the fucking building; this psycho paladin is fucking hunting us," Collin said in a panic, rushing into the building they had just cleared. Reese rushed in after him, peeking through a boarded-up window to watch Ronald and Grey run to the next building; they looked even more panicked than he felt. The awful song started up again, whispering against his fraying nerves, sounding like it was coming from just behind him. This time he whirled, but there was nothing there other than Collin.

The motherly singer let out a wet, rasping, bloody cough before the song began again, this time overwhelmingly tinged with desperation.

"So my child, don't you cry. Oh no, don't you cry. The day will be long; the day will be bright." The sound of a little girl's scream cut off the mother's song and was followed by unintelligible begging and sobs.

"Get it out! They are inside me, please! Just fucking kill me, Grey!" Ronald's voice echoed out from somewhere outside. Followed by the sounds of bursting flesh and an inhuman low moaning noise. Reese looked all around himself in panic; his eyes were starting to lock onto every shadow in fear.

"Collin, we are going to die here, aren't we?"

"Bullshit, we've taken on stronger foes and won!" Collin said in a shaky voice and cautiously stepped out the front door slightly to get a better view of the other team. There was a flash of blood and a low moan of pain from Collin. Reese froze and wiped some hot gore from his face.

"Collin…Collin…" Reese practically begged his friend to answer, but he just stood there facing away for a moment before slowly turning towards Reese, holding his hand tight against his stomach, a look of pain and confusion across his face.

"Reese I think it got me…" Collin said blankly, and his eyes ran from his protruding intestines upward to where his guts were pulled taut somewhere above. Reese started to respond when whatever was above pulled, slowly unraveling his friend's guts upwards a stride at a time. Suddenly it jerked faster, and Collin was pulled off the ground and reeled upwards.

"Please, please, no Reese. Kill me, please; just don't let it take…" Collin disappeared from sight as a dark claw slowly closed around his head, muffling his cries for help, and dragged him the rest of the way onto the roof. Reese fell backwards, crawling against a wall, waving his dagger at the darkness around him. He held back sobs trying to escape his lips; he had almost certainly soiled himself.

"Fuck, fuck, this isn't how I was supposed to go…" He hissed out. Something massive and omnipresently evil crept past the doorway. Reese saw rows of teeth and bloody scrawlings that clawed at his soul.

"Fuck, fuck!" He looked at his dagger for a moment and put it against his own throat. He flinched as the cold metal touched him.

"This will be better, quicker this way." He closed his eyes and tried to find the courage to do it. The dagger was snatched from his grasp by something cool and wet. When he opened his eyes, he just saw the flicker of something slithering out the window. He froze; the fucking thing had taken both his daggers. It wouldn't even let him die quickly. Steady light footsteps echoed across the porch as an armored figure dripping predatory intent stepped into the room, spear in hand.

"You don't get to die. You get to bear witness to why we don't fuck with the Paladin Of The Forsaken Lands." The voice was so cold, with such a barely restrained hate, that Reese couldn't even respond if he wanted. The monster that had toyed with him and his friends oozed from the darkness behind the paladin.