Only, there were just four of them now.
I shuffled forward, coming to where we had split apart, and my eyes immediately widened. Raffyr lay on the forest floor, blood running across his white robes.
“RAFFYR!” I yelled, running to his side.
The old man’s eyes looked at me, and I could tell he was almost unconscious. He had lost too much blood.
“They took Viola and Oris away,” he mumbled. “They took them away.”
“Who?” I knelt down.
He looked at me, his eyes strengthening for one last instance.
“Dragon Imps.”
***
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The old man’s eyes rolled up in his head and he dropped to the ground, letting his hand fall limp to his.
“Raffyr!” I yelled, but it was no use. He was out. I reached out to grab a health potion for him, but there were more important things to do.
“Freya, take care of him!” I said. “Irmeia, Acnologia. Spread out. We need to find Viola. Immediately.”
They nodded at my words, and I charged off, picking a random direction and heading forward. Dragon Imps, I thought to myself.
“I don’t recall seeing such creatures before,” Nyx said.
If they exist in this time period then we must have seen them at some point in time, I said. We probably just forgot.
“How strong are these creatures to take away Viola and Oris like that?” Nyx asked.
Viola and Raffyr are not the strongest when it comes to levels, I said. And if Oris was still knocked out then there’s a high chance the Imps literally just carried him away.
“Dragon Imps are sly creatures, Eternal,” Acnologia’s voice echoed, even though the great Dragon was far from me.
I’ll keep an eye out, I said.
“It would do you well to do so,” he said. “Those creatures may share the Dragon name, but our code of honor is something they do not.”
Ouch, I thought, but knew Acnologia was right. A race of Imps wouldn’t have any kind of loyalty system in place, even if they did have a Dragon prefix to their race title.
“Why do you think they attacked us?” Nyx asked. “There’s no obvious reason that I can see here.”
“There is no obvious reason required,” the Dragon said. “These are primal creatures to their most basic instincts. There is rarely any logic about them.”
Wow, you sound like you hate the imp. I jumped over a fallen log as I moved deeper into the forest.
“I do not appreciate when another race takes the Dragon name,” he said. “Especially if the race is nothing like the Dragons.”
How strong will these creatures be? I asked.
“I haven’t the faintest clue. But I doubt we will find it hard to take them out. Even if it was one of us versus them all.”
Okay, that’s better than what I assumed. I pushed forward.
The canopy above me was covered with thick leaves, and the darkness before me was causing even more trouble than before. It was getting to the point where my Night Vision skill wasn’t helping much. I could see well into about twenty yards around me, but nothing beyond that circle was visible to me.
I caught something in the corner of my vision. Wait. I stopped. I stepped to a nearby tree and looked closer. I touched its surface, and felt the sharp grooves struck into its wood.
Acnologia, I said. Do the Dragon imps have three-finger talons?
“Yes,” he said. “Why?”
I think I found a lead, I said, pushing forward.
“What?”
A tree with three deep gashes in its surface, I said. All perfectly parallel.
“I’m making my way to you,” the Dragon grunted.
DING!
Congratulations! You have advanced a skill.
Tracking Level 5!
You are now more perceptive of objects in your surroundings. Good time to get those stalker skills up a level huh.
Effect 1
The chance of finding target’s trail increased by 3%
I dismissed the screen and moved forward. I used my Night Vision to keep a check on my immediate surroundings, but also kept an ear out for any sounds that came from further away. A part of me wished Raffyr had mentioned something about when this had happened, but the old man had fallen unconscious before I’d gotten to that part.
Honestly, we were fortunate he was able to tell us what happened to Viola and Oris in the first place. I couldn’t imagine figuring out something like this on my own if all I saw was an unconscious Raffyr and two missing people. It would have been pretty hard to arrive at this conclusion from just that image.
The wind brushed past me, running through the narrow corridors between the trees. I still smelled the scent of sickly blood, but I knew it wasn’t from here. This was something that was just in my mind, lingering from that incident with the dragons.
Though just labelling it an ‘incident’ wasn’t the half of it.
I should have added Viola to my party, I muttered as I ran through the forest. It would have been each easier to find her.
A Party system allowed each user to access additional information about the people they were partying with, and one of those additional features was the knowledge of where each party member was at all times. They just showed up as a different colored dot on a person’s map. Such a thing would have been the most useful resource for me at the moment.
“Wait wouldn’t Raffyr and Viola be in a party together?” Nyx asked. “I’m assuming they would, given they are so close.”
They probably are, I said. But the old man is likely still unconscious. If he isn’t, I’m quite certain Freya has the presence of mind to ask him for that information and send it to us.
The wind blew past us once again, but oddly this time, the scent of blood was thicker.
And different.
My eyes widened. It isn’t just my mind. I rushed forward. I glanced to my sides and saw more claw marks on the trees — three-struck gashes wrung into the barks around me.
A high-pitched cry came from ahead, and I rushed toward at the sound. I lifted Dawnbreaker out of its sheath, with the blade of midnight black blending into the darkness, and the purple jewel at the base keeping its presence distinct.
The trees around me turned less dense, the gaps between them becoming larger quickly. I saw dark silhouettes in front of me, dancing behind the trunks, and I heard the sound of blades.
I stepped into the scene. “Holy hell,” I whispered.
Oris stood straight, awake and alert now. A large group of imps stood around him, with wooden clubs and metal daggers in their hands. The creatures were a brownish-green in shade, with reflective scales all over their bodies.
The Knight on the other hand, was still bound by his chains of light, but that had not deterred him. He had a sword in his hands, pointing it up to the sky. He’d somehow managed to keep these creatures back, even though he had a pretty big handicap.
A super unfair one, I thought.
I saw bodies fallen before the circle of imps, bodies of their comrades that had tried attacking the knight in vain. Their blood was spilt over the forest floor, and coated the dry leaves.
That’s what I smelled, I realized.
I noticed a dark shadow right behind Oris, collapsed to the ground, and I immediately realized that this was Viola. She was unconscious, and the knight seemed to be…
Protecting her? I frowned.
Nevertheless, I rushed to the center of the exchange, stepping in front of Oris, and facing the Dragon Imps.
“High time you got here,” Oris muttered. “It’s not the easy fight these things off when you’re chained up.”
“I know.” I glanced at the Imps, and used my Analyze skill on them quickly.
DING!
Race
Dragon Imp
Level
531
They’re not too strong, I said.
“But their numbers are very high,” Nyx said. “We
could use some help.”
“Really now?” Oris looked at me. “You’re still not going to get rid of these bonds?”
“The elf is the only one who can remove those,” I said. I glanced at the Imps. Should I use a Magical Art or a sword attack? I wondered. I realized it’d be best I didn’t draw attention to myself, and the Magical Arts skills would do exactly that.
“Stay here,” I said and shot forward, rushing to the imps. The creatures quickly scattered. Or at least tried to.
I slashed at them before they split apart, and sent Dawnbreaker through every single one within reach of me. I heard yelps and cries fly into the air, but I was utterly merciless. Blood splattered onto my clothes, drenching them in red, but I kept pressing forth, sending strike after strike into bodies.
A clash sounded from behind me, and the sound of metal on metal rung in the air. I turned around to see Oris fending off a strike from a sole imp, expertly blocking the attack even though he was bound tight.
I pressed down on the floor and shot to the creature. I sunk my blade into it and slashed its body into two before it could land its next strike onto the Knight’s blade.
“Wow,” he mumbled, watching the pool of blood flow from the decapitated body. I looked around me, and realized that the imps were slowly backing away now.
Didn’t think they’d get scared that easily, I thought.
DING!
Congratulations! You have defeated:
Dragon Imp Horde (Lv. 562)!
Those things were less of Dragon Imps are more of experience fodder. Reward: 6000000 XP. Reward: 9800000 Sol.
What’s going on? I asked, closing my screens. Why are the Imps backing away?
“Zoran?” Nyx asked. “Where’s Viola?”
I jerked my eyes down, only to see that the girl’s form no longer lay on the floor. I looked back up, just in time to see the imps turn around and break away from us.
Dammit, I muttered. These creatures had tricked us.
“Zoran, where are you?” Acnologia asked. “I will be there in a minute.”
I’m leaving Oris here, I said. You should be able to find him. I’m heading after these imps. They’ve still got Viola.
“Understood,” the Dragon said.
“Stay here,” I turned to Oris, right after making sure all the imps had disappeared.
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re just leaving me alone?”
I grabbed him by his wrists and spoke a word in silence. A flame of black emerged from my hand, and immediately set the young man’s wrists on fire.
However, they did not burn him, and instead cut through the ropes of light that bound his hands. He pulled his arms apart as they snapped, feeling his sore wrists.
“What did you do that for?” he asked. “Do you trust me all of a sudden?”
“You are an expendable resource, Oris,” I smiled. “I don’t want you to die from something as simple as a weak creature attacking you. If you die there needs to be a better benefit to me.”
“Fine,” he said, as I began walking away from him. “You don’t think I’ll run away and come after you?”
“Oh, you’re not going anywhere,” I chuckled as I looked into the forest. “Even you know not to defy the will of a Dragon.”
His eyes widened. “Eh?”
I shot forward, surging through the trees around me. I heard noises come from ahead, about a mile away. These creatures move fast, I thought.
“They’re an odd bunch,” Nyx said.
In seconds, the beings made their appearance before me, huddling around as they carried a form over their heads.
Viola. I grit my teeth.
I quickly pushed off the ground, jumping high above the treetops, and came back down. I broke through branch and leaf as I dropped to the ground, and landed right in front of the imps. The creatures all gazed at me, and I caught sight of their eyes in the scarce rays of moonlight. They were a solid black, the color of death.
More than half the cohort immediately stepped back. The others pressed forward, but their resistance did not last long. I targeted every last imp in front of me, and bathed the forest floor in their blood as I slashed through them all.
I turned around when I was done. Or at least when I thought I was done. I heard impish chuckling coming from my right, and I shifted my gaze, just in time to see one of the imps standing next to a tree, with Viola resting unconscious against it.
I walked up to him, and this idiot didn’t notice my approaching presence. I pushed my blade between him and Viola, blocking his sight of the woman. His eyes immediately widened, and he turned to me.
Dawnbreaker’s blade went clean through his neck, and threw his disembodied head far into the forest. The headless imp dropped to the floor, dead.
“You realized it’s redundant to say a headless imp died, right?” Nyx asked.
How do you know? I asked. Maybe there’s headless necromancy or something.
“Sure,” he said. “Why not?”
That’d be a major gag if it was real, I knelt down to the young woman. The art of raising headless beings from the dead. Can you imagine how much fun one could have with that?
I grabbed her wrist, checking for her pulse. Her eyes fluttered open just then, making my job more convenient. She looked at me, then at me holding her wrist. Her eyes widened immediately. She jerked her hand back and slid away from me, pressing her body harder against the tree trunk.
“Well that was…awkward,” Nyx said.
I sighed, and looked at Viola with a smile. “Still can’t look at me, can you?” I asked.
She stayed silent.
I stood up from where I was, and looked around. Do you think Acnologia found Oris by now? I wondered. It probably wouldn’t be too long before he got to us.
“It isn’t you,” Viola’s voice squeaked.
I looked at her, and a part of me reveled in amusement. At the start of this journey I had questioned letting this woman into my village, for trusting her and being betrayed was not something I was going to let happen a second time. Yet here I was, happy that I’d finally heard her voice after what felt like months upon months.
I knelt before her, not looking into her eyes but at the ground beneath me. “What is it then?” I asked. “If it’s not me, then what is it?”
“I…I’m sorry.” Her voice was impossibly soft. I saw a drop of water fall to the ground before me, and I could tell she was crying. Nevertheless, I kept my gaze fixed to the forest floor, and gave Viola only my ears.
“I didn’t mean to turn against you back then,” she said. “When that happened…when they told us you were the Phantom Lord…it was hard to accept it as truth. I just thought there was no way that was the person you were, a man who took away lives like they meant nothing.”
Hitting a little too close to my insecurities here, I smiled, but kept silent.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I haven’t talked to you, not because I hate you, but because every time I see you, I’m reminded of how I turned against you. Back then I was pushed between two sides of the tale, I was forced to choose between my friendship with you, and my loyalty to my faction. I was either your friend, or I was a Lumina Knight. I could not be both.”
By now, Viola’s tears flowed in plenty, and quiet sobs had weaved into her voice. I finally looked up, gazing at her tear-ridden face. At last, I saw her eyes, gazing at the leaf-green color after what felt like ages.
I leaned forward and put my arms around her. Viola hesitated and then did the same, resting her head on my shoulder, her tears wetting on my clothes.
“It’s…fine,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if even I entirely believed that. Am I really okay with how I had been treated? Nevertheless, a part of me was certain this was the right thing to do, regardless of what I felt about the past.
I of all people should know that what kind of a person one was in the past did not dictate who they will be in the future.
“Ah,” A voice sounded as I heard
thumps come from behind me. “Did we come at a bad time?”
Viola lifted her head up, and then quickly pulled away from me. I turned around, and glanced at Acnologia, with Oris at his side. I stood up and walked to them.
“So, did you try anything funny?” I smiled at the Knight.
Oris’ eyes were fixed on the ground around me. “That’s…a lot of blood, Phantom Lord.”
Ah, I thought, but had no response. He was right. That was a lot of blood. And I’d spilt every little drop of it myself.
“You know, you need to get yourself some new clothes,” Acnologia said. “Imp blood is quite acidic. Especially Dragon Imp blood.”
Nyx, find an outfit for me, I said. I probably have some tunic or something in there from when my inventory expanded. I’ll change later.
“Got it,” the spirit said.
“The woman.” Oris’ voice was soft. “Is she okay?”
I nodded. “Thanks to you,” I said.
The knight blinked. “What do you mean?”
“You saved her back there, didn’t you?” I asked. “You could have run away to save yourself, but you didn’t. You were standing over her fallen body, defending her with a sword, even though you were bound up yourself.”
“I did not do it out of compassion, Phantom Lord.” His voice was monotonous. “I do not want to the people that put me in this mess to die without taking me out of it.”
“So you still think it was all their fault.”
“And yours as well.”
“You’ve got a lot of guts,” I chuckled. “I’ll give you that much.”
A few flames emerged from behind the Shadow Dragon, and I saw the Volcanic Fire Bears make their way to us, with Freya and Raffyr leading them. The priest ran down from his steed and toward Viola immediately, hugging her as they met.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 63
