The Incident at Grenzberg - FULL

THE INCIDENT AT GRENZBERG 

It was a cold autumn day. The first snows were already starting to fall in the Siewersk mountainside. The Intercontinental Train was spewing clouds of grey smoke as it was making its way over the Eisberige Pass, near the South border between Siewersk and Sredinah.

The train was comfortable. Passenger wagons were comfortable enough, with traveling compartments that could each fit eight people inside. This train was not very full, since at that time, most people in Siewersk were preparing for the upcoming winter, and many of them didn't want to travel away from their country. Only the ones who had business outside of Siewersk were traveling regardless of the season.

In one of the compartments, six Hunters were stuck in idle conversation, as they had been traveling for the past four days. They were a newly formed Hunter squad, who had been sent on a mission to investigate a haunted house in one of the border towns near the Siewersk border. Two of them, William and Raziel, veteran Hunters by Hunter standards - serving for the past 20 years - have been together since before that mission and they were in charge of the group. They had recently completed one Crystal Removal inside a Siewersk forest, and upon the successful completion of the mission, August, Khameni, Jasper and Ripley were attached to their party. Khameni and Jasper were Hunters who had a few years of experience, August having completed only a few missions and Ripley being the newest member of the Hunters - this being his first mission.

William was telling them about some of his past missions, as the others struck up a conversation around them, asking questions and passing the time. The train had stopped at mountain station, the last stop before their destination. They were watching the newly arrived passengers make their way inside the Passenger cars. A few men and women with their families went into another car. Next was a Jagkommando, and almost every Hunter recoiled at the sight of the man who hunted mages for living. He was in his mid 50s, with a thick, grey handlebar mustache, leisurely walking into the last passenger compartment in the car where the Hunters were. They didn't like this because - almost all of them were mages. But they knew that, that station was the last one within the Siewersk borders, so his jurisdiction as a Jagkommando was as good as gone.

The last one to enter the car and to go past them was a tall man, in a dark coat, carrying a briefcase. This man struck William as very odd, because there was something about him he couldn't exactly place. It was as if there was some kind of darkness around him, something unnatural that screamed danger. Whatever it was, William decided to ignore it, but he did give the man's face a good look. An empty gaze, almost lifeless, on a skinny face with skin almost pale-white. The man seemingly didn't notice them, and he passed on into his passenger car.

The train was moving again, The journey would be over in a few hours, as soon as they cross a gigantic bridge that was built high over a profound chasm between two mountains. The six Hunters resumed their conversation - all except one. Jasper. He was intently listening over to what the four passengers across them were talking about. Jasper suddenly seemed alarmed by something, and this was noticed by Raziel.

"Hey Jas, what's the matter?" he asked.

"The men over there", Jasper nodded in the direction of the four passengers, "just mentioned a bomb on the train.". Now all of the Hunters were alarmed, sitting up straight and preparing themselves for something.

"What do you mean a bomb on the train?" asked William.

"From what I managed to overhear, they're doing something in the name of mage freedom. Something or other about the directive they received from Elderhearth - that they need to blow up the bridge that's right ahead." Jasper said quietly, as to not disturb the suspicious men across them.

"Damn it." William cursed under his breath.

"What's wrong Will?" asked Khameni.

"That sounds familiar. I don't know how much you know about rogue groups within Elderhearth, but that sounds like they are mage terrorists." William's face was growing angrier with each word.

"Yeah, you mentioned them a few times. You'd know about them since you're from Elderhearth." said Raziel. "But I thought they only operated in that part of the Continent. I never would've guessed that they came this far."

William was preparing to get up. "You'd be surprised how far they've stretched out their ugly hands. And to think that they would do this in Siewersk - if they truly want to help mages then this isn't the way to go." William got up. "Alright, I know this isn't what we do, but since that there's a possibility that a bomb is present on the train, that means we have to act. We'll surround them. Jasper, you take control of their bodies, and I will render their magic useless. The others - pay attention to our surroundings. There may be more of them."

Everyone nodded, and in a matter of moments, they were inside the compartment where the four terrorists were sitting. Jasper had whistled a few notes and three of the men went limp. William raised his hand to cast a few spells of his own, but he was stopped by an invisible barrier that had formed around the fourth man.

"I told my men that they shouldn't talk so loud, but here we are." the fourth man said in a calm, threatening voice.

"You will disarm the bomb or you will die." William said simply.

The terrorist's hand started glowing. "When I close my fist, we all blow." Raziel noticed that they were on the bridge. It was now or never he thought, so in a matter of seconds - he swung his fist and cracked the man with the glowing hand square in the face. His body went limp as he was instantly knocked out. William uttered a few commands under his breath, as some invisible force settled around the unconscious man.

Jasper couldn't keep his spell up for long, so he ordered the three remaining men to start questioning their life decisions and to feel horrible remorse and insecurity for themselves - tying down the spell. One by one, they began sobbing uncontrollably, uttering regrets and calling themselves names.

The Hunters got out of the terrorist's compartment.

"Okay, Raziel and Jasper - I have control over their leader, so I will wake him up and have him lead you to the bomb. You follow him and secure the device. The rest of us will stay here so we don't raise any suspicion." William gave them orders and in a matter of moments, the terrorist mage was leading Jasper and Raziel into the Luggage Car.

Inside, under control by William, the terrorist mage was removing luggage that was stacked in the middle of the car, and at the bottom was a large chest. He pulled it out on the clearing and opened the cover. Inside was a cylindrical container with a large Crystal that was glowing faintly.

"It's an armed Essence Crystal. I was to activate the mechanism which would cause it to overload and explode." said the mage, his eyes warily looking at the bomb.

"Disarm it." said Raziel.

"I can't." the mage said.

"What do you mean you can't? You made this bomb, didn't you." Jasper sounded angry.

"Yes, but I made it so that in case something had happened to me, the bomb would still go off. We have about two minutes before it activates." he said without emotion.

"You hear this Will? What the fuck do we do?" asked Raziel.

The mage started talking in William's voice: "Get rid of it. You can throw a barrier around it. When you do so, wait for me to arrive."

Jasper and Raziel were silent. "Fine, I think I can manage that." said Raziel.

"Wait - what if we..." Jasper stopped.

"What if we what?" asked Raziel.

"Throw it out the window. As far away from the train and the bridge as we can." Jasper was stroking his chin, thinking.

Raziel stared at him for a few moments. "Well, we don't have the time to wait around for William. We'll do that. Jasper, open that window and stand back."

"You idiots, I said wait for me-" the mage voiced his protest in William's voice.

"This thing is gonna blow in a few moments, we don't have time for whatever you've had in mind. If you can, use your powers to push the bubble away from the train as far as you can!" growled Raziel.

"Okay. Yes, I can do that. Throw the damn thing then." the mage said.

Jasper moved to open the window on the side of the car, and stood close to the door. "Standing back won't help me if that thing blows, you know." he said jokingly, with genuine fear in his eyes.

"Oh, shut up. If we die, it's because I listened to your stupid idea." said Raziel and he closed his eyes. A glowing energy bubble suddenly formed around the bomb, and it flew up in the air. Drops of sweat had formed on Raziel's forehead, as he was concentrating on moving the bomb bubble toward the window.



"Okay, I am going to fling this damn thing as far away from as as I can." said Raziel, and took a deep breath. The bubble flew out the window, and as it started falling - an invisible force pushed it far away from the train and the bridge, deeper into the ravine. Raziel and Jasper were staring at it, slowly falling towards the bottom and suddenly - there was a blinding flash. The bomb went off, but the explosion wasn't as big as they had expected. Raziel's barrier had managed to dampen it somewhat.



They both exhaled a sigh of relief, and just as they were about to turn to the terrorist mage, they were stunned to see that he wasn't where they left him. The back door to the luggage car was open. Jasper and Raziel confusedly looked at each other when a dull thud had made them turn their heads to the door again. The mage's limp body was lying there, crumpled.



They were startled as they both heard heard William's voice in their head. I lost contact with the mage. Something's happened.

"We know. He's dead." said Raziel, confused.

What do you mean, he's dead?

"Well, his body is lying in front of us, not moving. I wouldn't say that he was dead if I saw him dancing, would I?"

Shit. Be careful out there - I'm coming over.

Jasper and Raziel moved carefully toward the corpse that was limply laying on the floor, his legs splayed on the inside of the car, his torso on the outside.



"Pull him in." said Raziel.

"No - I have this condition where I can't really touch dead bodies, They, um, give me allergies." said Jasper.

Raziel smacked him on the head. "Pull him in."

"Damn, you're no fun." muttered Jasper and quickly pulled the dead mage inside the car.

His body looked dry. As if someone had sucked all the blood out of him.

"Vampire?" asked Jasper.

"Vampire aberrations aren't found in these areas. Plus, he doesn't have bite marks. Look closely. His skin is intact." Raziel pointed a finger towards the mage's neck.

"Maybe it's hidden, his head is in a weird position." Jasper squatted and moved the mage's head to the side - which caused his entire body to turn into dust.

"WHAT THE SHIT!" Jasper exclaimed and jumped back at his feet, and as he was disgustedly brushing off the dust off of his hand while repeating "I have dead guy powder on my fingers, this is the most disgusting thing ever" - the door to the luggage car opened from inside the train and William carefully walked in.



"What the hell did you do?" he asked immediately, after seeing clothes filled with grey dust.

"Hey Will, this guy turned into dust the moment I touched him, look!" and he pushed his hand into William's face. "Get that away from me you idiot." William knocked his hand aside and stepped towards the dusted corpse.

"His entire body looked like it was sucked dry. It was as if he was dead for years." said Raziel.

"Vampire?" asked William.

"No bite marks, no breaks in his clothes, nothing." said Raziel.

"That's certainly strange. I have never seen this before." William was moving around the car with his hand stretched out in front of him.

"I can't sense any magical residue, save for your barrier." he said shortly after.

"A mage who can cover his signature?" Jasper asked.

"Possibly, but only the most powerful mages can do that. If there was a powerful mage on this train, I would've sensed his presence at least. There is literally nothing here." said William.

"What do we do now?" asked Raziel.

"I'll go through the other passenger cars, and I will scan every passenger for magic signatures." said William. "You two, go back to the others. We should be arriving to our destination in less than an hour."

All three of them nodded to each other. Jasper and Raziel quickly made their way back to their own car and compartment, sat down and started telling the other Hunters what had just happened.



William took a deep breath. He opened himself to his magic sight - a spell that had allowed him to see magical auras around living things.

He went back into the passenger cars.

Looking all around, most of the people there weren't mages at all. A few small traces of magical healing, or a minor magical trinket here and there - but nothing major. In the next car, he had only found one mage, and it was a mother who was sitting with her daughter, and they were both sleeping.

In the third car, as he was scanning the people, he noticed something strange. One of the seats that were occupied didn't have any magical response at all. It was as if there was a break in the flow of magic there. A void - a darkness, in place where a human was supposed to be sitting. William at first glanced over that spot, but then - when he realized that it wasn't natural - he focused on it intently.

After a few moments of staring at the darkness, William shut off his magic sight. He was looking at the man with the briefcase.



And the man was looking back at him - with a smile on his face. There was color in his face. And he had light in his eyes. Which was certainly strange. The man looked like a walking corpse when he walked in the train, but now he almost looks like a regular human. No emotion touched his eyes as he was smiling.

"Mind if I join you?" asked William, sitting down across the man.

"Oh, I mind. I'd prefer if you didn't disturb me." the man said coldly.

"Well, I must insist, I'm afraid." said William.

The man said nothing, with the smile was still on his face.

"You wouldn't know anything about the luggage car, would you?" asked William.

"Luggage car? Sir, I have no luggage with me."

William was looking at the briefcase that was placed near the man.

"And what is that?" he asked.

"This? This is my briefcase." the man said.

"Well, that's your luggage then, isn't it?"

"It would seem so." the man laughed in a joyous tone.

"Now, sir - I do not know you. Nor do I want any trouble. I'm just a traveler, and I wish to be left alone. Please, leave." the smile turned into a smirk, and his eyes grew darker.

"Yes, you're right. I apologize - I have no right to intrude on you this way." William was subtly directing flows of magic scanning towards the man, but he got no response. Instead, he suddenly felt tired. As if his body was losing strength - and in response, the man's cheeks grew redder with color. William immediately stopped with his magic scan and abruptly got up.

"If you'll excuse me. I will be taking my leave now." he said.

"Yes." the man said nothing else, his smirk completely vanishing off his face, as he turned his head towards the window. The strangest thing about the man was the fact that he seemed like he was not breathing at all. William made mind notes about everything that he had seen and quickly moved away from the man, back towards the rest of the Hunters.



The bell announced that they have arrived to their destination. A Sredinah town, called Grenzberg. The six Hunters got out of the train, and had gathered in front of the station. They started walking toward the station, when Khameni suddenly asked: "Jasper, did you remove your spell from the three mages?"

"Oh shit, I forgot. I'll go do it now." said Jasper, turning on his heel, running back to the train.

Inside the train, Jasper was relieved to see the three mages still sitting in their seats. But his relief quickly became a shocked gasp as he suddenly noticed that their faces looked dry. Just like their fourth companion in the luggage car. All three of them, dead.

"That's not good." he muttered and ran out of the train.



"Jasper, what's wrong?" asked William.

"Dead. All three. Looked just like the fourth guy." Jasper quickly said.

Now all six hunters were looking at the train, thinking. Raziel pointed a finger and suddenly said: "There."

Everyone looked at where he was pointing, and they all managed to see a blurred figure, streaking across the ground towards the forest with inhumane speed.



"It's the briefcase guy. I just know it." said William.

"Well, whatever it is - we better get lost before people start suspecting us of anything." said Ripley.

"He's right, let's go do what we came here to do." said Raziel, and they went into Grenzberg.





As the Hunters made their way into Grenzberg, the first order of business was to find themselves a place to stay, and something to eat. So, the first (and only) tavern they came across was their stop. They went inside, and were greeted by a half-full common room. It wasn't dark just yet, but nightfall was nearing.

They sat themselves down at the nearest table with enough places where the six of them could fit and waited until the innkeep came to take their orders.



"Welcome, welcome masters! What will it be?" the tall, fat man said in a brisk voice.

"I'll have something strong." ordered Raziel.

"Tea for me, master inkeep." said Jasper, taking off his hat.

"Meat for me, and something to drink." said Ripley.

"Do you have Elderhearthian wine?" asked William. "Of course master Hunter." replied the inkeep, "Then I'll have that."

"A herbal tea for me." said August.

"I would like hot coffee." ordered Khameni.

"Right away masters. Right away!" exclaimed the inkeep, and went behind his counter to prepare the orders.



"Seems like people here know about the Hunters already." Raziel was taking off his coat.

"Well, we're not that unknown. Plus, this is a station town. Wouldn't be uncommon for some of our brethren to have passed here before us." replied Jasper. "Now, the real question is - are they in need of a bard?" he said, as he was pulling out his instrument case.

"We're here to investigate a story, not to entertain the people of this town." said William.

"The best way to pry out information from the common folk is to regale them with song, and when they're nice and soft around the edges - you ask the hard questions then. It's how us bards operate." replied Jasper.

"He has a point there." said Raziel.



The inkeep was back at their table, serving them their drinks. "Your meat shall be ready soon, master Hunter." he told Ripley, who just nodded.

"Master inkeep -" began Jasper, "I wish to ask, do you have any performers here tonight?"

"Ah, yes. Our good pianist, Rodrik shall be coming in in about an hour to play for the guests tonight. It is a special occasion after all." replied the inkeep.

"Special ocassion?" asked Raziel.

"Yes, master Hunter. Tonight is the full moon. Or, as the denizens of Grenzberg call it - the Slaughter Night." said the inkeep, obviously undisturbed by the fact that the people of Grenzberg named their special occasion "Slaughter Night".

"It's a bit dreary of a name, don't you think?" asked William.

"Well, to newcomers - it may sound a bit gruesome, but it's somewhat of a tradition here in Grenzberg. So we don't really mind the name." said the inkeep, scratching his bushy beard.

"Why do you call it that?" asked Raziel.

"Well, my good master, it's just a made up tale, I am sure - but seeing as you are Hunters, I figure you would be interested in such tales." the inkeep said, as he pulled a chair to their table, and sat down.

"Right you are, good master inkeep. Do tell." said Raziel, as he was lighting up his pipe.



"It began on the night of a full moon - just like tonight. It was around 30 years ago. Our mayor - who is a bit of a strange man - has organized a celebration for his family and close friends in the forest near Grenzberg. His son had just returned from a major battle with those Konquestian savages. Having won a major victory, he was promoted to a Captain rank in the Sredinah army and his father thought it would be a great reason to throw a celebration in his son's name." the inkeep stopped to pull out his own pipe, fill it with tobacco and draw on a big puff of smoke.

"Now, the story does start off regularly. Nothing strange here. But, as they were having their celebration in the forest, something had happened. Something - and no one in this town ever found out what - had attacked the party in the forest. I still remember that night clearly. I was working, since the Mayor gave me caskets from his personal storage and told me to serve the people so we could have ourselves a little celebration as well. It was all going so well, everyone was happy, people were drunk, the music was playing - when suddenly - a screech - louder than anything we've ever heard in our lives had pierced the night. Everyone went quiet -" the inkeep stopped to take another puff of smoke, while the Hunters were all intently listening to his story - except for Ripley, who was busy eating the meat he was brought by one of the inn's workers. "Everyone went quiet, and the screech came again. It was terrifying. The type that freezes you in place, and makes you unable to sleep at night." the inkeep's eyes were staring into the distance, and his entire face was twisted in a fearful expression as he was vividly recollecting that night.



"What happened afterwards?" asked William.

"Well, the party we were having here was instantly disbanded. People went back to their homes and locked their doors and windows shut. I did so with the tavern, as well." the inkeep took a deep breath.

"The next morning, some of us went to the Mayor's house. We found him in front of the door, sitting on the stairs and shaking wildly. When we asked him what had happened - he only managed to mutter a few words. Tendrils. Darkness. They died. He's gone. They're all gone. I should've died too. Tendrils. Darkness. They died... and he kept repeating them, as tears streaked down his face. His head was bloodied, and he had a nasty gash on his back. We took him to the doctor, who had inspected him and tended to his wounds. The mayor fell asleep and didn't wake up for the next few days. During that time, some of the town's guards went into the forest to investigate -" the inkeep stopped.

"What happened to the guards?" asked Khameni.

"Killed. I think. We heard screeches and calls for help coming from the forest, but no one was brave enough to go get them. Since then, the forest has been off limits to everyone in the town. Time passed and we just don't really think about the forest as much. The reason why tonight is a special night in the town is - well, on the nights of a full moon, weird sounds and growls can be heard echoing throughout the night - scary like - from the direction of the forest. And we just drown ourselves in drink and cheer so we don't have to listen to it." finished the inkeep.



"What happened to the mayor? Is he still alive?" asked Raziel.

"Alive. And he still is the mayor. But, I wouldn't count on him being friendly - or very sane - especially around full moons. The poor sod suffered the most of us all."



"If you would excuse me gents, the tavern is filling up and - I have been telling you this horrible story long enough. You enjoy yourselves." the inkeeper said, as he rose from his chair.



"One more question, master inkeep. If you would be so kind?" asked Jasper.

"Yes, master Hunter?"

"You knew we were Hunters. Have Hunters been here already?" Jasper asked.

"Ah, yes. Exactly one month ago. Three of them." the inkeep said, reluctant to say what the six Hunters at the table have already suspected.

"They went into the forest, haven't they?" asked William.

"And haven't returned, master Hunter. Maybe they just continued on their way, since they were horsebound, but - we can never know. I never saw them again." said the inkeep, clutching at his apron.

"Thank you inkeep. Your story was a very informative one." said William. The inkeep swiftly nodded and went behind the counter with a quickened step.



"This certainly sounds like we have ourselves an aberration -" started William

"Or multiple aberrations.", Khameni interrupted.

"OR multiple aberrations, at hand. The HQ was right to send a bigger squad." finished William.



They all looked at each other. "The mayor's house?" asked Raziel. They all nodded to each other, except Jasper. "Jasper?" said Raziel.

"Yeah, um - I think I'll stay here and talk to the people more. Maybe I find out some new information. Surely, you five are enough to talk to one crazy old man?" Jasper said.

"Fine, that's fair, I guess. But you're being a coward." said Raziel.

"I'm not the type to socialize with men who watched their families get slaughtered, on nights when they vividly recollect their traumas. But, I don't judge you guys. You can do that for however long you like." said Jasper, unpacking his guitar.





The five Hunters went out of the tavern, leaving Jasper alone. After talking to a nearby guard about the whereabouts of the mayor's villa, they were on their way there. Night had already settled over Grenzberg. The air was cold, and carried a weight in it. Ripley, who was a notorious mercenary before his Hunter ordeal had stopped to let the cool breeze wash over him.

"Smells like death." he said silently.

"Ripley, stop being weird and let's go." Khameni told him, and Ripley glared at him in return.



The streets were unnaturally empty for that hour. In most towns, this was when people walked around, letting off steam from a day of hard work, visiting friends, heading into taverns - but Grenzberg was deserted. A few guards posted on select corners, and an occasional someone scurrying across the street, trying to reach the safety of their home as fast as possible.

The full moon was out in the sky, glowing with a silvery glow. The translucent clouds that had covered the sky made that glow look dimmed and ominous.

"I don't like anything about this place." muttered August. "It...reeks."

"You're the nature type, aren't you?" asked Raziel.

"Yes. I have spent many years inside of forests, honing my skills, learning. It's a path that requires devotion - and ultimately results in becoming one with your surroundings." August was as quiet as ever, but talking about this subject put some fire in his words.

"So, correct me if I'm wrong, but, you can...smell what's wrong with this place?" asked Raziel.

"Not exactly smell. It's how I can best describe it to others who do not posses my set of skills. It's more of a gut feeling. For example, if I come into a forest - or a place where humans live - and if everything is okay with it - it doesn't disturb me. But, if there was a rabid wolf within that forest, or a man who has decided he wants to commit murder - I can sense that somewhere around me, there is someone or something who wishes to do something that would disturb the neutral peace of things." August finished.

"And you can feel that here?" asked Raziel again.

"I felt something odd when we first came in here. Now, that feeling has become so apparent that I can feel a dull pain stalking behind my eyes. I can feel that this entire town is the cause of the disturbance. Be alert." August said.

"Whatever it is - it first must go through me and my blades. And I'm positive that not many things can go through those." said Ripley, fingering the pommel of one of his shortswords.

"Whatever it is, must first face five Hunters who are always at the ready. Just think back upon the events earlier today. Instead of walking around murder-town, we could've been at the ass-bottom of a deep ravine, along with the carcass of a train." said Raziel.

"I'd rather be walking around murder-town, to be honest." added Khameni.



"We're here." William stopped.

In front of them stood a small mansion. The garden around it wasn't kept at all. Shrubs and vines covered the ground, and the stone around the mansion - some even climbing up the walls. The mansion itself looked like it wasn't lived in. Some windows had wooden boards nailed over them, with a cracked facade that had visible bricks at some points.

"This certainly DOESN'T look like a mayor's house." said Khameni.

"It looks like a place where a crazy person lives. Jasper was right." said Raziel.

"Everyone - this place is foul. It reeks of aberrations." said August, putting up a hand over his mouth and nose.



"We remain on alert." said William, and climbed up the stairs to knock on the wooden doors.

After a few moments, the locking mechanism clicked - and the doors cracked open, revealing a pair of glistening eyes and a lantern light from within. "Y-yes?" came a tired voice.

"Are you the mayor of Grenzburg?" asked William.

"I am. Who might you be?" the voice asked.

"We're Hunters, on official Hunter business. We would like to talk to you about Slaughter Night - if you would like to talk." said William.

The person behind the door was silent for a few moments, and the answer came. "Yes, uh, come in. You may come in. I will talk to you about it, yes." and the lantern light dissapeared in the darkness of the opened door. Moments later, proper light was shining from the inside of the house, like a fire at the end of a chasm. Everyone except Raziel went in.

"I'm going to look around the mansion. Maybe I find something." he said to the others, before he silently snuck away, towards the side of the mansion.

_______________________________________________________



Back inside the tavern, the atmosphere was lively. It was now chock-full of loud, rowdy patrons who were ordering drinks, laughing and enjoying themselves - making Jasper wonder if everyone suddenly forgot about the fact that this night is called Slaughter Night. Strange people, he thought to himself. And then, his attention drifted towards the piano, with a man sitting in a previously empty chair. Jasper went towards him and before the man could start playing, he raised his guitar and asked: "Mind if I join you?"

The man at the piano gave him a warm smile and nodded approvingly, which in turn made Jasper smile. He climbed up next to the man at the piano and just gestured that the man start playing.

Graceful piano notes pierced the rowdy noise, as the tavern's patrons quieted down. Those graceful notes began transforming into a jolly melody and soon after, the pianist was playing a jig. Jasper, hearing the notes decided upon a backing melody that would fit with the pianist's melody and he began strumming. The duo was playing perfectly, as if they had rehearsed this particular bit thousands of times. The pianist's had flailed wildly over the piano keys, seemingly striking random keys - but it sounded perfect. Jasper in turn did the same with his guitar. The melodies rose and fell, changed rhythm and flow, and they had everyone in the tavern up on their feet, dancing, singing and laughing.



This went on for a while, and when both Jasper and the pianist were drenched in sweat - they nodded to one another, deciding it's time to take a small break.

"That was some masterful playing, master pianist." said Jasper.

"Likewise. You handle that guitar as if you were born with it. Name's Rodrik." Rodrik smiled with a wide grin, thrusting out his hand.

Jasper shook his hand, smiling back: "I'm Jasper. Nice to meet you Rodrik."

"Likewise, Jasper." Rodrik said.

"Where did you learn to play the piano like that? It has been years since I've last seen someone with half of your skill. Inkeep, give us two cold ones!" said Jasper, pulling a chair near the piano and sitting down.

"I didn't exactly have a teacher." said Rodrik. "My late father had shown me some basics, and from there on - I have been experimenting with the piano for the past 10 years."

"A self-taught pianist who would put some master players to shame. You, dear Rodrik, are not a very common occurrence among us musicians. Having talent is truly a blessing." said Jasper.

"Thank you - thank you." said Rodrik to the fat inkeep who set down two kegs of beer.

"Thank you, master inkeep." Jasper took a long gulp before resuming with his questioning. "Is it often that you come here to play?"

"Oh no, they have Wilbur for that, I just come on during celebrations or special occasions. Like tonight."

"Oh. Yeah - the inkeep told me that tonight is some...murder evening? Something like that?" Jasper was faking his ignorance, which caused a flash of anger in Rodrik's eyes.

"Slaugher Night, you mean." he said, with a jolly voice.

"Yes, that one. Awful name for a special occasion, in my opinion. The inkeep also told me a story about an old fool who got some people killed in a forest some years ago." Jasper took another swig. "Spooky stories for children, if you ask me. Don't believe in that bunch of horseshit. Besides, I've made up worse stories for when I wanted to scare lousy customers away from the tavern I was playing in."

This had made Rodrik's eyes seethe with fury, but in a matter of seconds - it was gone. He took a drink of his own beer. "I can agree with you there, Jasper. I was but a child when that whole thing in the forest happened twenty years ago, and I can't really place my finger on whether it was something that had truly happened or if I just had a bad dream." he said, with an expression that was saying that he didn't really believe in the tale.

"I bet even the story about the mayor is false. He either killed his family himself because he snapped, or that part is the one you tell to scare newcomers who come into your town." Jasper finished his drink. "I bet the mayor's family is alive and well." he said, looking Rodrik directly in the eyes.

Rodrik took a slurp. "I told the inkeep that we should change the story a bit." he chuckled. "You can't fool a fooler, am I right?" and he burst out laughing, patting Jasper on the shoulder. Jasper gave a few laughs. "So tell me, Rodrik. Did you and the inkeep make this story up by yourselves? Because, I do have to give it some credit, it's a good story. Until the part where you let the mad mayor remain your mayor - that kind of breaks it for me, to be honest."

Rodrik scratched his head. "Ah well - that part is something the mayor's son wanted we include. Had a fight with his father, and this is his form of revenge. Tarnishing the good mayor's image - which, I fully support. I'm on Bert's side."

"Bert is the son?" asked Jasper.

"Berthold, yes. We're very good friends. In fact, he's going to be here any minute - which gives me an idea..."

"What kind of idea?" asked Jasper.

"Come with me, out back. Let's scare him, as a prank." Rodrik was already getting up.

"Well, let's go do that then." Jasper said and followed Rodrik towards the back door.

______________________________________________________



William, Ripley, August and Khameni entered the mayor's mansion. The inside was even worse than the outside. Thick layers of dust covered every surface, including the floor. They could clearly see the mayor's footprints in the dust. Cloth covers covered almost every piece of furnishing inside every room. The floorboards creaked. Some were missing, and the others were rotten. The walls were moldy and cracked. The entire house looked abandoned, but that impression was broken by the living room, which was the only room with lights.

Ripley and Khameni gestured something to one another and broke off from William and August, heading for the stairs leading to the floor above. William gave them an approving nod.



To their surprise, the living room was clean - in comparison to the rest of the house. There were a few papers thrown on the tables, empty bottles and glasses were randomly thrown about, resting both on the floor and the tables. It looked like the room of a man who was silently waiting out his days, hoping for death - because he cannot bring himself to take his own life. It's how the mayor himself looked like. Patchy, unkempt beard, wild hair, droopy eyes and sunken cheeks on a face with yellowish skin - he looked like he was one foot in the grave already.

The weirdest thing about the room was that the fireplace wasn't burning. The room was colder than the weather outside was, which struck William as a bit odd. The mayor himself sat in a thin robe, showing no signs of feeling cold.

"I really don't like this place." muttered August to everyone.

"Be still, we'll just ask some questions and be gone as soon as we can." replied William, equally silent.



"You wanted to ask some questions about the event that had happened twenty years ago, is that correct?" the mayor asked in a tired voice.

"That is correct, mayor." replied William. "Now, could you tell us, what exactly had happened on that night?" he asked.

"My son, Berthold - who became a Captain in the army - was coming home from his latest battle. At the time, I was constantly fighting with my wife, due to some personal reasons, so I thought that if I managed to round us all up on one place, where we could celebrate Berthold's safe return, and perhaps have some fun with our friends - I could make up for some transgressions towards my wife on my part. And I just wished that everyone was together in one place. So I organized that party, in the forest." the mayor sighed painfully.

"What happened in the forest?" asked William.

"Well, our son had arrived and the party was going smoothly. I even danced with my wife. She laughed. We all laughed." the mayor's eyes stared out into nothingness. "And then, my son gathered us all around a fire. He said that he wanted to show us something he had found in one of his battles. He took out a large sack which looked like it had something heavy inside it, and opened it.

Inside was a gigantic Crystal. Something I have never seen before in my life. It was the size of a man's head and it was perfectly round." the mayor was gesturing with his hands, showing how large the crystal was.

"What color was the Crystal?" asked William.

"Every color! It had reflected and gleamed with all the colors of a rainbow. I can swear I have never seen some colors up until that point!"

"That's strange. In all my years as a Hunter, I've never even heard of a multi-colored Crystal, let alone seen one. Are you sure it was as you say it was?" asked William.

"Yes! It was unbelievable! And then, my son said that he wanted each and every one of us to have a piece of it, so we could have a piece of his victory for ourselves. His plan was to sell it to the highest bidder, and use that money to turn Grenzberg into a rich city. But, as you can see for yourselves - nothing came of it." said the mayor.

"What happened when he suggested his plan?" asked William, now sitting at the edge of his seat.

"My son, he...took out a spike and a sledgehammer that he brought with himself. He got one of his cousins to hold the spike in place, above the crystal's surface as he swung the sledgehammer." the mayor was silent. "All I can remember, from that point on, is waking up in the middle of the forest, and seeing everyone who was at the party on the ground. It didn't take long for me to realize that they were all dead. They had been murdered by something - unknown. Their bodies were covered in gashes, and there was blood everywhere. The Crystal was gone as well. I fell down to my knees, and I cried for hours - and then I came back home." the mayor's face was contorted in a painful expression. "I haven't been able to sleep properly ever since.".

_



Outside the mansion, Raziel was making his rounds. He found nothing except more overgrown bushes and vines covering everything. At the back end of the mansion, in the garden which looked more like a jungle, rather than a garden, he managed to spot a rusty chain laying in the grass.

He came near it and found that the chain was actually chained to the basement door that was hidden in the thick overgrowth. He looked around himself a few times, and took out his sword. In a few strong pommel strikes, the rusty chain fell apart and Raziel had removed the chain from the basement door.

Readying himself for potential threats, he quickly threw open the basement doors.

Nothing happened, and Raziel sighed a sigh of relief.

The moment he stepped with one foot into the basement, something screeched horribly from within the darkness and Raziel was struck in the chest by a large, black silhouette that had suddenly erupted from the hole in the ground. He was on his back, and his sword was knocked out of his hand, so he immediately shot a blast of fire from his outstretched hand in front of himself, hoping that he would hit whatever it was that knocked him over. The small streak of fire hit he veiny growth on the facade of the house and nothing happened.

Raziel could hear something that sounded like sloshing liquid to his right, so he immediately recoiled and got back up on his feet. He summoned his sword back into his hand, and prepared himself for a potential strike.

His eyes widened in terror as a gigantic, black heap of fleshy liquid rose above his head, towering him. He was an expert fighter, so he managed to evade the wet, fleshy tendril that erupted from the heap and streaked towards him.

"You are the ugliest thing I've ever come across, and I have been traveling with Jasper for a few days now."

The black mass let out a sound that could be described as nails dragging over a chalkboard, mixed with the dying screams of a wounded horse - and oddly enough - human screams.

_



Upstairs, in the mansion, Khameni and Ripley were going from room to room, looking for whatever could be of use in solving this mystery. But each and every room was the same. Furniture covered with cloth, dust settled in thick layers everywhere - the place looked abandoned.

Except one bedroom.

Inside, they shone their torch on everything, and saw that the bed was neatly made, and the room looked lived in. There were no traces of dust anywhere. It was surreal - as if they were not walking through a house that looked like it was abandoned for years. On the wall that was facing the bed, they found a painting. On the painting, they presumed, the mayor and his family were painted. The only problem is that, they couldn't recognize anything that resembled the face of the man they saw downstairs.

"Go tell William." Ripley ordered Khameni, who nodded and ran out.

Ripley stepped towards the painting, inspecting it closely and no matter how long he looked at it, he couldn't recognize the mayor's face. Suddenly, the eyes on the painting moved. Ripley took a step back, his shortsword screaming as he tore it out of his scabbard. The eyes started moving, and after them the faces. They became bloated and started growing in size - started to grow towards Ripley, and in a split second, the growth stopped, which gave Ripley enough time to react by throwing himself to the side, as the painting became a huge, black, oozy tendril that smashed into the bed that was behind Ripley. He stood up immediately and ran out of the room, thinking about possible fighting strategies.

_



Khameni was running down the stairs, as suddenly something crashed into his side - hard. He was pinned to a wall, with a searing pain in his side. Miraculously, he somehow managed to hold onto his torch and with a swift move - he stabbed the burning end into the black, fleshy tendril that was holding him pinned.

It screamed in pain and immediately let him go, retreating away from him a little. He inspected his arm and his side and saw that the first layer of skin was almost completely burned off. He immediately activated his powers of rapid healing, and took a few steps down the stairs with the torch pointed towards the tendril that was seemingly aiming at him.

All of a sudden, there was a loud crash from upstairs - the room where Ripley was, and the split second he looked towards the sound, the tendril smacked into him, throwing him down the flight of stairs. His vision went black.

_



William stood up, after getting the information from the mayor.

"Thank you, sir. I truly am sorry for what has happened to you, and rest assured - we came here to help this town in resolving this matter that you have with the haunted forest." he said and signalled August that they should go. August looked furious.

"I'm afraid you won't." the mayor said, in a deep, guttural voice. "The moment you stepped in here, you signed your death warrant, Hunter." William turned towards the mayor, only to discover that the mayor now had a black tendril coming out of his neck, while his entire body was bloating and growing in size. Soon, the human skin was replaced by a black exterior which reflected the light in the room. It oozed with some kind of liquid, and three massive tendrils extended from the main mass, pointing at William and August.

"I'll make sure to listen to you next time, August. DUCK!", William yelled and threw himself to the side, along with August. The black tendrils were flailing and stabbing at the two of them, but it could do little damage as William threw magic shield up in front of them, stopping the tendrils.

"There's the aberration." growled William.

They could hear the noise of wood breaking and crashing from upstairs.

"Aberrations." said August simply.

"Aberrations." confirmed William.

_______________________________________________________



Rodrik held the door open for Jasper, who walked out onto the cold, evening air. "So, how do you propose we do this?" Jasper asked and turned towards Rodrik who didn't look like Rodrik anymore.

His eyes were pitch black, and there was a long, black tendril coming out of his mouth, as well as two more forming up where his hands used to be.

"Oh, I see." said Jasper as he drew the sword from his belt. "I sure hope I couldn't see right now. You're uglier than Raziel, and that's saying a lot." Jasper immediately stood in a guard, as Rodrik became something that didn't even resemble Rodrik. He turned into a tall mass of black, shining flesh with tendrils that were menacingly pointed at Jasper.

"Let's do this then, you ugly piece of shit!" growled Jasper, and took a step forward evading tendrils as they streaked past him.





Raziel was sprinting around the tendril monster that had attacked him out of nowhere. Its tendrils were like a repeating crossbow - slamming into the ground in a quick succession just behind Raziel's feet - but he was moving faster. As he was running, he opened himself to the flows of magic around him - and he pulled the flows of Fire into himself, forming a few Command Words in his mind. Focus. Orb. Fly. Explode. A small, white-hot orb, glowing with a bright, fiery glow suddenly appeared above Raziel's open hand. He threw himself to the side, and pushed the Fire Orb away from him, into the monster, as he fell to the ground.



The ensuing explosion was loud, but the screaming and screeching of the monster was even louder. Raziel had to cover his ears, protecting his eardrums from rupture.

He had seen that, using fire against that creature was extremely effective, since, it now looked as if it was melting. It's structural integrity, or body integrity was compromised. For a split second, Raziel saw a glint of something in the middle of the black mass that was probably the creature's torso - but it immediately started to heal itself back up, with tendrils pointing towards Raziel once again.



"So that's where your heart is, you heinous scumbag.", Raziel thought for himself, as he began to pull on more flows of Fire - but was abruptly stopped - as he was suddenly turned over on his head and raised up from the ground. He did not notice a tendril that had been near his leg as he shot the monster with his Fire Orb, and the moment the monster knit itself back together, the tendril coiled up around Raziel's leg and violently jerked him up in the air.



"And my heart is in my fucking throat right now." he thought again, gritting his teeth. His sword had feel out of his hand when he was tossed upwards - but it was not a problem. The tendrils were now shooting at Raziel. He twisted and turned, curling his body in order to evade most of the tendril attacks.

But some did strike home. Due to Raziel's constant moving, they didn't stab into him too deep - the wounds he received were cuts and shallow gashes - but they stung terribly. It was probably the mucus that had burned the skin. In all of that twisting and turning - Raziel had managed to pull flows of Air, Mind and Essence into him. His Essence Compass pointed him to the direction of his sword, and he could clearly see an energy sigil, visible only to his Essence enhanced vision, he had left on the hilt all those years ago. Suddenly, an identical sigil glowed on his hand. He uttered Command Words of Air and Mind: Fly. Straight. Join. Sigil. His sword rose up off the ground, flying directly into Raziel's hand - and as his fist closed around the hilt, he used the momentum of the sword's flight to make a sweeping cut at the tendril that was holding him by the leg.



The tip of the tendril was cut clean off, and Raziel fell to the ground, landing hard on his side. That caused him to loudly groan in pain, as it took the wind out of him. He tried to summon Fire into him, but he was still stunned from the fall. Knowing that the monster wouldn't wait for him to catch his breath, he braced his arm against the ground and pushed himself back with all the strength he could muster. A tendril stabbed into the ground where he was not moments ago.

"Time to finish this." grunted Raziel, as he slowly stood back up, pressing one hand to his pained side. The black monstrosity stuck two tendrils in the ground in front of itself, and had braced itself - a clear indication that it wants to lunge towards Raziel.

He looked at the monster, as his lips curled into a devilish grin.



He closed his eyes, and opened himself up to the gigantic ocean of flowing magic around him.

He found the flow of Fire - and pulled.

His entire body was felt hot. As if the ends of his fingers were stuck inside a blazing furnace.

The heat was so strong that he felt it behind his eyes. And he knew, that this was power.

He began to utter the Command Words.



The monster jumped.



-



Ripley threw himself over a covered table, hiding behind a cloth. His breathing and heartbeat were under perfect control, as this wasn't his first time being stuck in an unfavorable battle situation. "Unfavorable for my enemies." he chuckled to himself, and drew his second shortsword.

The sound of cracking wood and flying of debris filled the second floor. Ripley counted to three, and smacked the table upwards, overturning it. "Not a shield, but should be enough." he thought, and began to push the table towards the monster. He saw a tendril shoot overhead and stab into the floorboards behind him. Another shot past him, stabbing into a cupboard.

"DIE!" he screamed, as he sent the table flying directly into the monster. The table was obliterated not moments later, but that gave Ripley enough time to lunge into the air and furiously cut at the tendrils that were destroying the remaining wooden pieces of the table.



Ripley landed behind the monster, as four tendril pieces fell around him with a wet splat. The monster screamed in pain as the the stumped tendrils sprouted new sharp points and dove towards Ripley.

He threw himself into a backflip, landing back into the bedroom from where the monster came from. The door was completely gone, with a monster-sized hole in place. Ripley ran towards the right side of the room, where he saw two chairs and a large mirror.

"Hm." he grunted and slammed his two shortswords in their scabbards, as two tendrils slammed into the wall with the painting, and the monster furiously pulled itself inside the room, slamming in and crushing the fireplace.



"HYAH!" Ripley yelled as he heaved the large mirror overhead and sent it flying at the monster. In a split second, the mirror was shattered into hundreds of pieces, that were falling over the room like sliver rain, reflecting the light of the full moon that was coming in from the window.

And through that rain of glass, Ripley dashed with full speed, holding a chair with its legs pointed at the monster.



He felt the wooden legs stab into the monsters torso with a squelch - and a moment later he felt that the monster was lifted off the ground.

Ripley screamed as he felt his muscles tense up to the point of breaking, as the wet tendrils wrapped up around his torso, beginning to crush him - but a moment later they were sent flying through the large window with a loud crack. Ripley quickly curled his body backwards and braced his legs against the chair's padded seat.



They hit the ground, with the sound of breaking wood mixed with a wet splat of something large and fleshy. Ripley managed to absorb the blow by bending his knees, and throwing himself into a somersault, away from the monster - one of his shortswords already in his hand. Ripley was probably the most agile person of the six Hunters, and these stunts were like walking to him.



The monster was silent and unmoving for a few moments - but then, tendrils exploded out of it, making it look like a spiked bush for a few moments. The monster writhed and screamed, and was back up, immediately launching an attack towards Ripley. Ripley managed to dodge the first few attacks, cutting off the tendrils as they streaked past him, but he realized that he was soon going to be overwhelmed, so he started moving. Fast. He ran towards the manor outer wall, and started running close to it.



As he moved, he saw a vine lazily hanging off of the manor wall. Following its pathway with his eyes, Ripley realized that it connected to an interlocking net of vines - and his mind made a decision. He launched himself upwards with a strong jump, managing to grab onto the hanging vine. He let himself fall to the ground, pulling the vine, and with it - ripping the vine net from the walls. He dashed away from the manor, seconds before the monster launched itself at his previous position. It crashed into the outstretched net of vines, entangling its tendrils and itself in the thorny overgrowth.

"That's gonna keep you steady for a while." he said.



His attention was quickly shifted to the sound of a small explosion, and monstrous screaming that was around the corner of the mansion. He looked back at his trapped monster, that has already started to melt away the vines with its toxic mucus, Then he ran towards the corner.

_



As soon as he blacked out, Khameni's rapid healing magic jolted him back to wakefulness, giving him enough time to react to the sight of a large, black mass of writhing tendrils launching itself at him from the top of the stairs. He kicked at the first stair with both of his legs, sliding himself away from the point of impact. The monster slammed in the wooden floor - its weight making it fall through the floorboards with half of its body.

Khameni quickly looked around, and smiled when he saw that his torch was on the floor - and it was still burning. He looked at the monster, and saw a tendril stabbing at him. He managed to twist his hips and upper body, but a tad bit too late, as the tendril singed his chest and arm - stabbing itself into the wall behind Khameni. His healing was already knitting his wound back together - a little slower than usual - but still working. "Damn it! I can't stay this reckless!" he cursed and threw himself towards the burning torch. As he picked it up, another tendril streaked past him - singing his thigh with its acidic mucus. He brought the burning torch down onto the tendril - and to his surprise - it got cleaved in two, as if he wielded a blade. "So, you fleshy bastard can't take fire, can you?", Khameni yelled as he ran towards the monster's torso, wildly flailing his torch around.



Whatever part of the monster's flesh came near the flame, it dissolved instantaneously, as if it was never there - sending the monster into a screaming fit, making it pull itself away from Khameni. But he was relentless. He ran into the furious storm of stabbing tendrils, and apart from getting singed and cut a few times - he managed to sever all of them from the main body.

He was breathing heavily - his chest heaving up and down from the amount of flailing he'd done. The sleeves from his arms were almost completely gone, and most of his arms were covered in small, bleeding cuts and fresh burns. The monster was screaming - and Khameni's heart froze in place as he managed to recognize the sound of human screaming coming from that wounded mass of black flesh. The severed tendrils that were on the floor suddenly turned into black puddles of liquid, that slowly began to move towards the main body.



"Oh, no you don't!" Khameni screamed and ran directly into the monster's body, with the torch held straight in front of him. That caused a reaction in the flesh - it spread around the fire in a sphere - and Khameni clearly saw a glint of a small crystal that was hidden underneath the monster's flesh.

A tendril sprang up from the side and knocked the torch out of Khameni's hand - which fell into one of the puddles of black liquid, immediately being extinguished.



Without thinking, Khameni thrust his hand into the monster's body, aiming at the location of the crystal. His hand sank into the body with a liquid slosh, and the sound of sizzling flesh. Khameni closed his eyes, and from the magic flow around him, he pulled the flow of Body into himself - forcing his healing powers to start working again, as he felt the flesh on his hand being gnawed at, slowly dissolving.

_



William was holding his Magic Shield up, as the tendrils violently crashed against it.

"I don't think I can hold it up for any longer!" screamed William.

"I have an idea! When I tell you to put the shield down, you put it down!" yelled August, as he got up and moved away from William and the monster.

"Whatever it is August, hurry up!" William's eyes were glowing, as he was straining to supply the shield with a steady flow of Essence.



August closed his eyes, and invited the forces of nature - Body, Earth and Water - to enter his body. He felt them course inside of him, twisting and turning, melding and interlocking - since he has done this so many times, the preparation for using his powers came to him instinctively. He only needed to utter the Command Words. Turn. Body. Tentacle. Control. And he felt the familiar sensation of his arms numbing, as something bubbled underneath his skin. He raised his hand into a position for a backhanded strike and opened his eyes, that were now pitch-black.



"Release." the words that came out of his mouth carried an echo, as if they came from a deep place.

William let go of the Essence flow, making the Shield dissappear, throwing himself down on the floor.

The tendrils came for them.



But they never landed, because August's backhanded strike landed. His entire arm, turned into a gigantic tentacle, that whipped and struck the tendril monster with such force that it slammed into a wall, almost sending it flying through the thick brick structure.



The monster was stunned for a moment, as a second tentacle slammed a table into it. Black liquid splattered across the wall. August was standing there, slightly taller, with two large tentacles in place of hands, eyes completely black, with black liquid dripping down the corner of his mouth. William looked at him, confused - as he had no idea what August's powers were. He gestured at his own mouth looking at August.

"Don't worry Will, this is just squid ink. A minor side effect of my power." he said, in a guttural voice that sounded like it came from the depths of the ocean.

William just nodded his head and stood back up, but was thrown back as the table that August slammed into the monster - slammed into William with force. Something akin to the sound of ribs cracking could be heard, and William was thrown into a wall - falling to his knees on the floor. He coughed fiercely, spitting blood.



Two more tentacles sprouted from August's back, as the monster had managed to lodge itself free from being pinned against the wall. Black, fleshy tendrils started flailing and slashing at August - who in turn flailed and smacked with his tentacles.

Every blow that August would land on the monster made him suffer vicious burns across the flesh of his tentacles.



Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped even lower than it was before, and a gust of wind blew towards the monster - exploding into a thick wall made of ice - trapping the monster inside it.

"NOW! AUGUST, SMASH IT INTO PIECES!" William was barely standing upright, with blood trickling from the side of his mouth, holding one hand pressed against his chest, and the other hand -which was now glistening from the frost it was covered in - pointed at the monster. The area around his eyes seemed frozen as well, and his eyes glowed with a vicious ice-blue glow.

August nodded and all four of his tentacles shot upwards toward the ceiling - and brought them all down in full force, smashing the frozen monster into a thousand pieces. The ice wall exploded everywhere, and all that remained of it was a fine, frosty mist that was now slowly falling everywhere around them.



One of the broken pieces of ice slid towards August - who retreated his tentacles and let them dissolve - returning his body back to normal and William, who limped next to August.

Lodged in the black flesh frozen inside the ice block was a fairly large Crystal Shard, and the two mages could see that the flesh pulsated inside the ice - giving off signs of life still.

"Could you take it out? I can't do it, yet." said William, holding his side - but this time - he was clearly using flows of Body to give himself first aid.

August squatted down to the ice block, and took out a bone knife. He slammed it into the ice, next to the Shard and lodged it out of the block - letting it clink to the floor. It truly was as they were told by the aberration that was wearing the Mayor's face. It was radiantly beautiful, gleaming with every color imaginable.



This is when the two of them noticed that the ice blocks which still had fairly large chunks of the monster's body trapped inside - including the one that the Shard was lodged out of - were slowly moving towards the Shard. At a snail's pace, due to being frozen, but they were still moving - as if they were pulled by the Shard, as a magnet.

"Here, put it inside of this." said William as he handed August a Crystal Containment Unit - a small cylinder that had its insides laced with Crystallum fiber - which blocked off the radiating energy of the Cracked Crystal. August picked it up and put it inside the Containment Unit, closing the airtight lid. As soon as it was closed shut, the ice blocks stopped moving completely, and the black matter dissolved - alongside the ice.



_________________________________________________________



Jasper twirled like an acrobat, cutting at the tendrils with his sword. Every time he would cut one off, a new one would eject itself from Rodrik's body, who had retained some of his human body - looking like the rejected lovechild of an octopus, a bucket of tar and a man - with black tendrils coming out of his mouth, a side of his face and all over his body. Seeing as this wasn't getting him anywhere, Jasper threw himself back, leaping away from the monstrosity that used to be Rodrik.



"I think I can understand how you managed to play the piano as you did. You obviously have really weird, elongated hands that are black and look really disgusting." Jasper was pretty sure that the monster couldn't understand his taunts, as he was side-stepping in order to evade tendrils that had slowed with their attacks.

"I'm here only to slow you down, so you can't do anything about your friends getting slaughtered in the mansion." said a scrambled voice, which - oddly enough - had a mellow undertone of Rodrik's voice. The tendril attacks stopped, as the monster took a step forward towards Jasper.

"Okay, don't come any closer!" yelled Jasper, holding the monster at sword point. "I really prefer not having my personal space invaded by sewer mutants." He chuckled, as he threw himself to the ground - dodging a vicious blow of three tendrils that struck at the same place.

Jasper opened his senses to the flow of magic around him - and pulled on the flows of Earth and Fire. With Earth - he felt his blade, which was forged from metal that came from the ground, and with Fire - he had used the Heat Command Word. In a short moment, his blade was white-hot, and burning.

With a quick upward cut, he lopped off two tentacles - and made the Rodrik-monster scream in agony. Those tendrils didn't regenerate, like the rest of them did before.



"So, fire's your weakness? I guess the only way to be rid of a disease is to burn it out completely!"

Jasper began his attack, but was stopped dead in his tracks as two tendrils managed to snake past his defenses - stabbing deep into his thigh and side.

"THAT WON'T STOP ME!" he screamed, as he sliced the two tendrils clean off, freeing himself - and launching himself into another series of acrobatic spins and twirls that looked like a dance - with each one delivering a precise cut.

The tendrils came, and Jasper's fiery blade struck.



Jasper was covered in cuts and burns, and the monster had less tendrils than before. Any traces of Rodrik were almost completely gone. And in a moment of pause, a split second when the monster took a step back in order to recalculate its strategy - Jasper lunged forward and started viciously cutting at it. This attack of his had no grace or finesse to it - only violent, brutish strikes that were akin to a butcher cleaving into bone.

Each cut tore open the black flesh, and in one of those openings - Jasper saw a Crystal Shard - which almost immediately closed itself around it.



Jasper took a deep breath, and with great precision - stabbed at the place where he saw the Shard - at the same time uttering the Heat. Expand. Radiate. Command Words, which caused a wave of expanding heat to radiate off of his blade.



All he heard was the clink of a small object against the wooden door of the tavern. Stabbing his sword in the ground, leaving it to cool down, he quickly came to the Shard that was faintly glowing in the mud, in the tavern's backyard - and stuffed it into a Containment Unit, closing off the lid.

The large, black silhouette that was standing above him with tendrils pointed towards the Shard dissolved into dust, blowing away in the evening breeze.



"I have to get to that mansion." he muttered, and started walking, but then realized that his left side and his left leg were wet with warm blood that had trickled out of his wounds.

"But it won't be good if I drop dead halfway." He picked up his sword again, and began to summon flows of Earth and Fire into it, heating the blade - stuffing his wooden flute between his teeth with his other hand, and biting down hard on it.











The gigantic fireball flew into the tentacle monster - blinding Raziel with the enormous flash it created. Writhing and screaming was drowned by the sound of roaring flame. It lasted a couple of seconds, before everything went quiet again. Raziel was standing there, his chest heaving up and down – trying to catch his breath, as he felt the scalding heat fade out from his body – while letting go of the Flows of Fire.

The cold around him settled, and Raziel shuddered a few times. In front of him, there lay an exploded heap of black, glistening flesh. It was unmoving, and Raziel exhaled with relief.
His short moment of rest was abruptly ended as he suddenly heard running footsteps around the corner. Not seconds later – Ripley burst out from behind the corner, running towards Raziel in full sprint.
“IT’S COMING! PREPARE YOURSELF!” Ripley screamed as he was closing the distance between himself and Raziel.

Raziel heard stomping footsteps followed by a shrill scream. And behind Ripley, another one of the tentacle monsters had appeared, only this one was much bigger than the one Raziel killed.

“Fuck.” Raziel muttered, as Ripley threw himself in a slide across the ground, jumping back up on his feet next to Raziel.

“This one yours?” asked Raziel.

“Yep.” Ripley grunted, raising his two shortswords in a cross-guard position.

“You kill yours?” asked Ripley.

“Moments before you ran here.” Said Raziel.

On the ground, the flesh from the downed monster started to pulsate and wiggle. And Raziel noticed in the last second, to the left side – one hunk of flesh had a shiny crystal shard jutting out of it – but it was too late.
The flesh from the exploded monster lunged towards the other monster – as if it were alive, and they started to merge. The monster that was chasing Ripley began to swell in size. Its flesh bubbled and boiled, as it grew and towered over the two Hunters. It formed gigantic arms, with its knuckles slamming into the ground, followed by legs and a proper torso – and in a matter of moments, the monster did not look like a rejected science experiment. It looked like a proper Aberration. An Aberration whose head reached the mansion’s second floor.

“That fucking thing is huge.” Muttered Ripley

“Thanks, I almost didn’t notice that.” Sneered Raziel.

In the center of the Aberration’s chest, two Crystal shards closed in on one another, and with a loud clang – like a blacksmith’s hammer striking an anvil – they fused into one shard. This fusion caused the Aberration’s eyes to glow with a bright blue light, as well as lighting up the ends of its talon-like claws.

“Apparently, you didn’t kill it.” Said Ripley.

“Fuck.” Raziel grunted.

_______________________________________________



Khameni screamed in pain. He felt the flesh of his hand being dissolved by the thick, black, goo it was lodged in. Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, he moved his hand around until his regenerating nerve endings felt a hard, edged object. He growled, clasping his fist around it, and with a quick jerking motion, he tore his hand out of the monster’s body – as he fell backwards on the floor.

The black liquid monster made a sloshing sound and lost its upright shape, falling down into a puddle on the floor. It was seconds before it started to move again, slithering over the floor – towards Khameni, whose ravaged hand was clutching a small crystal shard that was faintly glowing through his exposed flesh.

In a quick motion, Khameni took out a Contaiment Unit from his belt and slammed the crystal shard inside – closing it as fast as possible. The black liquid monster sounded itself one last time, with a mournful writhing scream – and dissolved into dust.

Khameni exhaled heavily, as he sprawled himself over the floor – his healthy hand clutching the Containment Unit – and his other hand, with open wounds showing exposed flesh, muscle, tendon and bones that were slowly knitting themselves back together. He was pulling a weak flow of Body into himself that was working on his regeneration, as he closed his eyes.

________________________________________________



The atmosphere in Grenzberg was unfriendly – to say the least. Jasper muttered curses to his chest, as he limped across the dark street that was leading outside the city. The tavern was unusually quiet, with almost no lights on the windows of nearby houses. “I should have visited the creepy old man.” Jasper stopped and leaned against a wall of the nearest house, breathing heavily. His cauterized wound was pulsating with pain, but he was glad that he was still able to walk. His attention was suddenly caught by two voices that were growing louder as they neared in his direction. He quickly slipped between two houses – stifling a painful groan as he squatted down behind a barrel – with his fist tightly clenched on the hilt of his sword.

Two humanoid silhouettes appeared from the corner and stopped on the street. Jasper could see that their flesh was glistening, as if it was moist. Their silhouettes weren’t actually silhouettes – they were featureless shapes made out of the similar black liquid Jasper fought behind the tavern. In a mere second – the two silhouettes changed their external appearance, and Jasper’s eyes widened as he was now looking at two men in Hunter uniforms. They nodded briefly to one another and began walking again.

Jasper waited for a few minutes until he was sure they’d left his vicinity, before he went back out on the street. This time, he kept himself in the shadows, skulking near the houses – paying attention not to step out onto the street. He was very slow while doing this, because of his wounded leg, but he thought to himself: “Better slow and alive, than quick and dead.”

He slowed down as the sharp smell of horse manure filled his nostrils. To his left, he saw a long building with large openings instead of windows. The faint light of lanterns inside illuminated horse-shaped silhouettes, and Jasper’s mouth cracked in a wide grin as he gazed upon the stables. But his joy was quickly dispersed by voices that were coming from behind the stables. He jumped into the thick shadow of a nearby wall. As he landed, the pain in his leg was so severe that his eyes rolled upwards, his vision almost blacking out, and making him lose balance. He managed to swallow all of his curses, groans and screams – but he couldn’t stop the loud crack of a wooden crate that he fell on. Looking around quickly, the two humans that came from behind the stables suddenly started to morph into black tentacle monsters, looking in his direction – and Jasper had to think quickly. He closed his eyes and strongly pulled on flows of Earth and Fire. He focused himself on a house he could see down the street and felt the wooden structure with his flows of Earth. Pulling on Fire, he commanded HEAT, BURST. Suddenly, a loud crack was heard from the house, as the roof turned into a blazing pyre with an explosion that had shattered the windows. In mere moments, the entire house was engulfed into a blazing inferno. The two monsters shifted their attention to the burning house. They started screaming something that sounded like a warning in some unknown language – perhaps a call for reinforcements – Jasper taught, as they ran towards it.

Wincing in pain, Jasper limped towards the stables as fast as he could. Inside, he almost laughed out loud as he saw dozens of horses lined up in their pens. Skipping around on his healthy leg, he scanned all the horses and his pained face contorted into something resembling a joyous expression as he saw a saddle near one of the horses. Without thinking, he made his way towards it and in a few short moments – the horse was saddled.

Jasper took a deep breath and climbed up on the saddle, groaning in pain as he did. “HYAH!” he spurred the horse and the two streaked out of the stables in a furious gallop. The fire had spread and three houses were now burning. People were screaming, while some were dousing the flames with buckets of water they were getting out of a nearby well. “Sorry.” Jasper muttered, as he directed his horse toward the direction of the Mayor’s house.

_______________________________________________

“THIS IS ONE TOUGH SON OF A…WHATEVER IT’S THE SON OF!” screamed Ripley in frustration, as he was dodging blows from the giant aberration. With a swift flick of his wrist, a throwing knife had flown out of his hand and stabbed into the aberration’s head. It had no effect on it, and the aberration didn’t even try to take them out.

“It’s all part of the job, Rip!” screamed Raziel back at him, as he was circling around the aberration, with three small balls of fire levitating above his open hand. “Okay, hit it!” Ripley had managed to climb onto the aberration’s hand and was trying to make his way towards its shoulder. “That’s one crazy man.” Thought Raziel as he concentrated on the flows of Fire swirling around inside of him. “YARGH!” he growled as the three fireballs flied from his outstretched fist in quick succession. All three of them had slammed into the aberration’s back, blowing out a massive chunk of flesh. The aberration became frenzied, thrashing around like a giant, rabid dog – with poor Ripley hanging onto its hand, wide eyed, and trying his best not to fall off.

“THAT WAS A BAD IDEA!” Ripley’s screaming voice echoed through the night, as he was swung about by the aberration. “IT WAS YOUR IDEA!” Raziel yelled at him. He couldn’t make out the next few curses and angry screams Ripley made. Raziel formed three more fireballs above his fist, backing away from the aberration – whose back began to regenerate, closing the gaping wound. “I hate these regenerating bastard. Sparring with Khameni is so damn annoying.” Ripley was suddenly in the air. He managed to release his tight grip when the aberration’s hand flailed upwards, and he was sent flying with the momentum. Ripley’s shortsword fell to the ground as Raziel saw something long and silvery glisten in Ripley’s hands. It was a long, silver chain.

As he began falling down, Ripley threw one end of the chain to the side of the aberration’s head. He spun in the air and aimed his fall on the other side of the head. The aberration was confused with this, and it didn’t react to Ripley streaking next to it. The moment he was behind the aberration’s head, Ripley caught the first end of the chain, and wound both ends around his forearms. The chain tightened and it hit the aberration in the neck.

It gurgled as the chain wrapped itself around its throat, with Ripley serving as the counterweight on the other side. The aberration lost its balance, as it was pulled to the ground. Before they fell, Ripley released the ends of the chain and lunged himself off of the aberration’s back – falling to the ground, and doing a shock-absorbing flip. The aberration hit the ground hard. It writhed as its body contorted in painful shock. Ripley was back on his feet again, throwing more throwing knives into the aberration. “HIT ‘IM AGAIN!” he screamed. Raziel saw that the left half of his face was covered in blood, and he was limping. In a moment, three fireballs streaked from Raziel’s hand towards the aberration. The resulting explosions tore one of its legs away, as it let out a piercing, shrill scream that was bone-chilling.

The moment the explosions stopped, the aberration’s body began to regenerate. “This will never work. I have to…sparring with Khameni? SPARRING WITH KHAMENI!” Raziel suddenly yelled out loud. Ripley gave him a glare and kept sticking more knives in the downed monster.

“Keep it occupied for just a little more, Rip!”

Ripley grunted.

Raziel closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and pulled on a large flow of Fire, but this time adding in flows of Air and Essence as well. As the elements were being combined, he remembered one particular sparring with Khameni, who would just keep coming at Raziel, no matter how much damage he would take. Nothing short of decapitation would truly kill him, so Raziel had to think. If he couldn’t stop Khameni using deadly blows that would kill anyone else, he could perhaps send such a large shock through his system, that Khameni couldn’t recover right away. That sparring was the first time Raziel used lightning powers, and it was the first time Khameni got truly stopped. After being hit by a lightning bolt, his brain was temporarily fried – rendering him into a useless vegetable for a few minutes, until the brain regenerates.

Raziel opened his eyes, which were now glowing with a light-blue color. The ends of his fingertips sparked with electricity. He felt that the three flows within him had fully combined into something new. “GET AWAY FROM THERE!” he screamed at Ripley, who nodded approvingly and started to retreat towards Raziel. The aberration had already been halfway up on its feet, and as it lifted its malformed head towards the pair of Hunters, Raziel had uttered the command word. STRIKE.

Two streams of blue electricity had flown out of Raziel’s hands. With a sharp crackle, they had fused into one thick rod of lighting above the aberration’s head. And then it connected. It connected with the cluster of metal knives that were protruding out of the aberration. It connected with its wet skin. The lightning had found its target, and it struck with force. A shower of sparks and smaller streaks of lightning had fallen to the ground around the aberration, as Raziel let out a victorious scream, focusing his lightning, pummeling the aberration with repeating energy blasts from above. The streaks of lighting blasted the ground like crossbow bolts all around the aberration, with some going over Ripley and Raziel, and some slamming into the house behind them.

Suddenly, the aberration’s chest grew bigger. It ballooned to impossible proportion and then exploded towards Raziel and Ripley. A small, glistening item had flown from the aberration’s chest, and stabbed into the ground next to Raziel’s foot. It was a crystal shard.

Raziel let all of the flows go, as the lightning dissipated and the aberration’s monstrous body turned into liquid, sloshing into a massive puddle into the ground. Raziel had dug the crystal shard out of the ground and put it into his Containment Unit – which made the massive black puddle writhe one last time, before it turned to dust.

Both Raziel and Ripley sat down on the ground, and exhaled heavily.

“You okay Rip?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure? That cut on your head looks nasty.”

“I’ve had worse. Don’t worry about it. What the fuck was that?” said Ripley as he was bandaging his head.

“That, my friend, was an aberration. As Hunters, we hunt this type of monster.” Raziel was winded. The lightning blast took a lot of energy, and he hasn’t practiced it very much – so every time he uses it, it’s a strain.

“This type of monster? You mean, all aberrations are like this?” Ripley had a grim expression on his face.

“No, I mean this type of creature – monstrous. Insane. Uncanny. Whatever. It wasn’t an animal, is what it wasn’t. Nor was it a human. This aberration, I’d say it belongs in the Symbiotic category, based on what we saw from it.”

“Okay. So we hunt monsters?”

“And strange, unexplainable events as well. Weren’t you briefed before you joined the Hunters?” Raziel was genuinely dumbfounded.

“I was. I thought it was, like, a codename for really fucked up people. Like serial killers and such. Ya know.” Ripley was giving this much thought as his expression matched the expression of a man who was mulling something over in his head.

“Well, my strange friend. We’re monster hunters – to put it bluntly. Actual monster hunters. At least the field agents like us.” Raziel lit a cigarette.

“Want one?” he held the pack of cigarettes in front of Ripley.

“Got my own, thanks.” Ripley pulled out his own cigarettes, and lit one.

They sat there in silence, smoking and thinking.

_______________________________



“Hey, Khameni!” August shook Khameni, who was still sprawled on the floor – and was sleeping. “Is he for real right now?” August looked at William, who shrugged. “He probably went overboard again. It’s one of the side-effects of his magic.”

August kept kicking Khameni’s leg. “Side-effect or not, it isn’t very clever to fall asleep in the middle of enemy territory. GET. UP.” The last kick was a bit stronger than the previous ones, and that one made Khameni open his eyes.

“I’m alive.” He whispered.

“That’s good to know. Now get up, we need to go.” Said William, as August helped him up.

“Where are Ripley and Raziel?” asked Khameni, but the moment the question left his mouth – a blinding, bluish-white light shone through the window that was on the other side of the house, visible from the long corridor.
“Found them.” Khameni started for the front door, and soon the three of them were outside, walking around the house.

When they arrived at the backyard, they found Ripley – with a bandage on his head – and Raziel, sitting on the ground, staring off at the distance and smoking.
“How was the hunt?” asked William.

“Nothing a good jolt couldn’t fix.” Raziel blew out smoke and craned his neck at William.

“We got a large chunk of the Crystal in the Containment.” Said Raziel.

“So did all of us.” Responded William.

“What’s the plan now?” asked August.

“The Mayor – or at least that thing that used to be the Mayor – had told us about a very large Crystal in the forest. My guess is that we should go there.” William scratched his head.

“Before we go into the forest –“ Raziel got up on his feet. “ – we should go check what’s in the basement.” And he pointed to the opened basement door.

“Yours came from the basement, didn’t it? You opened the door before even checking for traps or possible presence, didn’t you?” Khameni laughed.

“Shut your mouth before I make you grow a new pair of lips.” Raziel scowled at him.

“August.” Said William.

“Yes, Will?”

“You should go back into town.”

“And do what?”

“Fetch Jasper.”

“I’m not a courier Pidgeon, you know?” August made a sour face.

“I know, but you’ll be the fastest. We’ll meet you right here.” William pat him on the shoulder.

“Fine. I’ll go.” August stepped away from the four Hunters and closed his eyes, opening himself to flows of Body. He visualized an eagle in his mind and thrust his hands away from his body. Multiple command words flooded his mind, with the last one being: TRANSFORM.

His fingers elongated, along with his entire hand – as his body grew larger. His eyes moved to the sides of his head, as his nose and mouth coned into a large beak. Feathers began sprouting all over his body as his feet elongated, and in minutes – a gigantic eagle was standing in place of August. The rest of the hunters watched in awe.

“Don’t go anywhere.” A deep voice came from the eagle’s throat. August spread his massive wings, and in a single forceful flap – he had lunged himself into the air. Soon, he was flying towards Grenzberg with speed.

“Eagle-boy is fine and all, but it’s time we saw what’s in this damn basement, don’t you think?” Ripley said with an annoyed tone and went down the stairs.

“You’ll get used to him. He grows on you.” Said Raziel and followed Ripley down.

“So does cancer.” Khameni said to William and went down.

William sighed and descended down, into the darkness of the basement.

Light was absent inside the basement. It wasn’t just any ordinary darkness that sets when there is no light coming in from the windows outside – but an unnatural darkness. A pitch black color so devoid of light that one lost every sense of presence when down there. The only indication there were four Hunters walking around the strange basement was the sound of their breathing, and an occasional throat-cleaning sound from Ripley. Even the sounds of footsteps seemed as if they faded away the instant they were made – as if muted unnaturally.

“I don’t like the feeling this place is giving me.” Muttered William, raising one hand and summoning flows of Fire – summoning a hovering ball of light, which sprang up to life over his outstretched palm. That had produced much desired illumination, and now visibility was not such a problem anymore. But even magical light had been swallowed up by the darkness around it, lighting no more than a few meters around William. He could now see the basement floor, which hadn’t been floored. It was cold, damp ground, furrowed and sunken in places. Raziel, Ripley and Khameni gathered around William’s light, continuing to walk in a straight path huddled around the only source of luminosity.

“Neither do I. But it’s indicative that this entire house has something to do with the Anomaly and the Aberrations in this damn place.” Khameni was squinting, trying his hardest to look at something in the distance, but the darkness was too overbearing. “What do you think we’ll find down here?” he asked.

“We haven’t been walking around for long, but I cannot see the entrance anymore.” Raziel sounded worried. “I fear that we may have walked into the anomaly ourselves.” His voice was laden with ice, as he sounded both frustrated and fearful.

“Going inside anomalies is the worst part of the job.” William said and suddenly stopped. “Can you feel that?”

“It’s a faint breeze. Coming from the front.” Ripley had already drawn his shortsword, positioning his body into a defensive fighting stance.

“Yes. But don’t you think it’s strange? We’re inside a dark, damp basement and there’s a – it’s definitely fresh – a breeze. Everyone, stand ready. I’m going to snuff out the light for a moment.” William said and closed his fist – making his hovering light disappear.

A few moments of dead silence and intense staring had passed, when Raziel suddenly said: “There! I see a faint light in the distance!”

And he was right. There was a small dot of silvery light, like light at the end of a tunnel, faintly glinting in the distance.

“Look down. I don’t think we’re in the basement anymore.” Khameni sounded confused. The pitch black darkness had retreated, and they were now in regular darkness. They could make out each other’s silhouettes. The ground below them was covered with irregular patches of grass. As they walked forward, those patches became more and more frequent and before they knew it, they were walking over grassy ground. The air around them had a thick, wooden smell – the smell of forest that was becoming more and more apparent.

“You’re right, Khameni. We’re not in the basement anymore.” William said quietly.

They suddenly stepped out of the darkness – onto a large meadow, surrounded by looming trees. The full moon was bathing the area in its silver light, giving the forest an eerie atmosphere. They looked around, and they couldn’t make out the place from where they emerged. There was no pitch-black darkness anywhere – except the darkness between the thick overgrowth and the rows upon rows of trees that were stretching out in every direction around the meadow. It wasn’t a large forest, but at that moment, they all thought it was too large. The meadow felt like a deliberately placed trap for anyone who was mad enough to venture into the basement.

“This looks like a killing ground – an arena of sorts.” Ripley commented. “Be on your guard.” He was now holding both of his shortswords in a defensive cross-guard position, slowly turning around his axis, looking for invisible assailants.

Raziel was looking at the sky. The moon was partly obscured by thick, dark clouds – but the wind was blowing, and those clouds were slowly moving out of the way, revealing the large moon in its full, silver glory. It stood in the sky like an overseer, looking down upon the world, silently observing what the tiny humans were doing. As the clouds fully retreated, the glow of moonlight became stronger – and that revealed something in the center of the meadow.

“Look!” Khameni pointed at the large, egg-shaped Crystal that was absorbing moonlight and reflecting it back all around it, in a colorful glow. The glow from the Crystal was so strong that it had illuminated the meadow and the forest completely – creating false daylight.

“So it is true!” William was wide-eyed in amazement, but soon that amazement had devolved into terror as he realized the implications of a cracked Crystal of such size. “It’s true…everything the Mayor-thing told us.” His words felt heavy.

“This means…” Raziel muttered.

“This means we’re inside the anomaly – most likely. Or if not inside, we are definitely being affected by the Crystal’s energy right this moment.” William finished.

“What do you mean?” Ripley asked.

“What I mean, dear Ripley – is that there is no telling if we’re going to walk out of this forest alive. Or if we manage to stay alive, there’s no guarantee that we won’t turn into one of those black, tentacle aberrations.” William was furiously going through his bag.

“That’s something we don’t want to happen.” Ripley wavered for the first time since he had joined this group of Hunters. “I don’t want to be turned into a tentacle monster, only to be burned out by another group of Hunters who come here after us.”

“No one wants that, Rip. The problem is – we don’t have a Containment Unit large enough to isolate a Crystal of that size.” Said Raziel.

“Fuck. The only way we can get rid of this thing is with the help from a Hunter Outpost.” William had a sour look on his face. “And the only way to get help from a Hunter Outpost is to get out of this forest right now, get horses and ride out to the nearest City, Moenitas. It’s a three day ride to the South, from Grenzberg.”

“That’s six days back and forth, or even more – depends if they have enough Crystallum Plates to make a proper Containment Unit for a Crystal this large.” Khameni said. “I’m not very comfortable with the idea of leaving this thing out here for another week, heck – for another hour. But we don’t have a choice.”

“Guys, not to intrude on your brainstorming right now, but I think we have company.” Raziel was pointing at trees to their right. And true enough, there was a sound of rustling leaves and someone’s dark silhouette moving between the trees. The four Hunters had immediately gotten into formation, readying themselves for a battle. From the thick of the trees – a familiar face emerged. A face with sunken eyes, and sunken cheeks – resembling a skull more than a face. The face was attached onto the shoulders of the weird man from the train – the one who was carrying a briefcase. He had a dangerous stride, resembling a predator on the prowl – as he stepped out on the meadow. He didn’t carry a briefcase – instead, a blacksmith’s hammer was clutched tightly in his hand. And it was dripping blood. He looked at the four Hunters, and his head leaned to the side, the motion itself looking mechanical. As if his head was attached onto a series of clockworks. He looked at the Crystal, and stopped. It was apparent he was thinking where to head first – towards the Crystal, or towards the Hunters. William had already pulled flows of Essence into himself, his eyes burning with an emerald glow. That had obviously turned the man’s attention towards the group of Hunters and he had begun walking in their direction.

“RAH!” William grunted as he fired a concentrated blast of energy forward. The emerald beam raced towards the man, but to everyone’s surprise – it was leisurely smacked away by the man’s hand, who continued walking towards them. William stared at him, his mouth gaping. “What the?” he muttered and blasted another energy beam – which ended much the same. With a single move of the man’s hand, the concentrated blast of magical energy was smacked away.

From the left side, a huge fireball crashed into the man. Everyone stood frozen, watching. From within the explosion, a silhouette appeared and turned into the man who walked through it without a single scratch. Raziel, who was already preparing another large fireball, was blankly staring at him. The man kept walking towards William.

“EVERYONE! SCATTER AND HIT HIM FROM ALL SIDES!” William screamed and broke into a sprint, trying to flank the man with the hammer. The man with the hammer responded equally, braking into a run himself, running towards William. His sprint was broken when Khameni slammed into him from the side. That had sent the man flying through the air. The crash was sure to kill him, for he landed headfirst into the ground and there was a loud cracking sound from his neck. Everyone was watching intently. “How in the hell is he still alive!?” screamed Khameni, when the man started to rise up to his feet, with his head unnaturally twisted to the side, with a few bones jutting out of his skin. He cracked his head back into place and his wounds started to heal rapidly – leaving nothing but a trail of purple smoke billowing from the closing wounds. He was back on his feet, and a wicked smile curled on his skeletal face when a knife slammed into the side of his head. Ripley was already throwing another knife, but this time, the man had twisted his body away from the trajectory of the second and third knives. Ripley muttered curses and had lunged at the man with cat-like dexterity. He slashed at him with his shortswords, his blades cutting deep – but to no avail. The man would only step out of Ripley’s reach and more purple smoke would come out of his healing wounds.

But they noticed one thing. As the man was healing, his skin would lose more and more of its color, and he started to resemble a walking corpse. Now both Ripley and Khameni were engaged in melee combat with the man, slashing and kicking and punching and cutting. During one of their exchanges, both Ripley and Khameni had synchronized their attacks and were coming at the man from two sides – but a second before their blows would strike, he threw himself into a forward roll and lunged towards William with his outstretched hand. In a second, William threw up an ethereal shield – only to realize that it was useless. The man went straight through the shield that was strong enough to stop merciless pounding of both magical and physical attacks, and his hand connected with William’s face. This sent a spasm through William’s body and he suddenly went numb. His face contorted painfully, as ghastly wisps of energy started to trail off of the surface of his skin, twisting and twirling directly into the man’s hand. His eyes lit up with an intense purple glow and his skin started to take on color again. His hollowed cheeks became full with meat and his eyes weren’t sunken anymore – while William’s face became more and more hollowed, his skin losing color.

“HE’S DRAINING HIM OF HIS LIFE FORCE! DO SOMETHING!” screamed Raziel, who ran towards the two of them as fast as he could – but Khameni was faster. He jumped in the air, sending a flying kick into the man’s head. This managed to break his drain and the man staggered away from William, removing his hand from William’s face.

Raziel ran into the man, with his blade piercing through his stomach, using the momentum of the strike to carry both of them away from William, who was on the ground, viciously coughing and gasping for air, wide-eyed and horrified – color returning back to his face. Khameni helped him back to his feet, and William held on to Khameni for balance. “I thought I was going to die!” William gasped. “It’s fine now, you’re okay!” Khameni reassured him.

“I think I know what he is.” William was recollecting himself, as both Raziel and Ripley were slashing at the man, whose movement was insanely fast – more so than before. It’s as if he was a blur in the darkness, dodging and blocking their strikes.

“I read about this phenomenon in one of the Librarian archives. They’re called Void Mages. Energy vampires of sorts.” William managed to stand on his own.

“What do you mean?”

“A mage had written about their ilk. Apparently, their bodies lack the natural flow of magic within them, so they have to drain other mages of their life essence in order to survive. If they don’t, they begin to wilt away and die, so it’s like a constant battle for survival to these guys. It’s what happened in the train with those mages.”

“He drained them of their life essence, of their magical energy.”

“Very true. It’s also why I couldn’t detect him with my Magical Sight. The lack of magic flow in their bodies makes them invisible for mages. They don’t have an aura.”

“He shrugged off your magical attacks like they were nothing. How?”

“Apparently, they are resistant to direct hits with magical attacks.”

“How in the World do we fight such an impossible monster?”

“I think I have an idea, Khameni. But I believe he was lured here by the energy signature of that Crystal right there. We absolutely cannot let him touch it.” William was carefully observing the meadow, the fight with the Void Mage, and the Crystal that was still glowing as brightly as ever. In that moment, the Void Mage punched Raziel, sending him to the ground and grappled Ripley, throwing him over himself. Ripley grunted painfully as he slammed into the ground. When he was clear of his assailants, the Void Mage lunged towards the Crystal.

“Khameni! Go, and grab that Crystal – I’ll stop him.” Said William, as his eyes started glowing.

“What do you mean grab that Crystal? It’s cracked and-“

“JUST DO IT, MAN!” William yelled. “Trust me on this one, please.”

“Okay. Okay.” Khameni took a deep breath and broke into the fastest sprint he could muster. And he was a fast runner. William had invited flows of Earth and Essence, into himself – feeling the ground in the meadow. He focused on one point, in front of the Void Mage and uttered a command word. PIERCE.

A massive spike made out of earth broke out of the ground and smashed into the Void Mage – piercing his torso and lifting him up in the sky. Khameni pushed himself to run faster. The Void Mage broke the spike with his hand, falling to the ground. His torso had a large, gaping hole in its middle – which almost immediately started to close itself, with purple smoke trailing all around it. William didn’t give him any reprieve, sending multiple Earth spikes from all sides into the Void Mage – overwhelming him and burying him alive. William’s face was covered with small cracks that emanated a faint blue glow from within, and he uttered another command word. CRUSH.

The ground that was piled on top of the Void Mage had creaked and rustled – suddenly crushing upon itself, grinding itself back into the ground. Khameni had reached the Crystal, and after a few quick breaths – he had grabbed the large Crystal. Weirdly enough, he felt nothing strange happening to him. But he did feel the monstrous energy pulse that was concentrated within the Crystal. He quickly started running back towards William, and Ripley and Raziel who were back on their feet, breathing heavily as they recovered from the strikes.

As Khameni passed the earth mound under which the Void Mage was buried, it suddenly cracked in the middle and a purple glow shone from the inside. “Give me a damn break already!” he yelled in frustration. Cracks opened all over the mound and it viciously exploded into a thousand pieces, raining down everywhere – with the Void Mage levitating in the epicenter. His entire body was badly broken and twisted – but the twists, breaks, gashes and cuts were rapidly healing, as his face took on the familiar hollow, sunken appearance. His facial expression, which remained mostly neutral throughout the entire ordeal was now a contorted, furious sneer filled with malice and hatred, as purple energy twirled around him.

“This is bad.” Muttered William.

__________________________________________________

August had quickly covered the distance between the Mayor’s house and Grenzberg. His enhanced eagle-like eyes had allowed him to see that a large portion of the town was engulfed into flames. There was something odd about them, though. From between the houses that were nearest to the fires, black tentacles were flailing through the skies, and his enhanced hearing brought him screeches and piercing cries akin to those of the aberrations they’d fought in the house. Who would have thought that there were more of those in the town? He thought to himself. How am I going to find Jasper in all this commotion? But he didn’t have to think much, for his eyes caught sight of a man resembling Jasper, mounted on a horse, galloping towards the Mayor’s house. There you are. He directed himself to fly down and land near Jasper.

Jasper immediately pulled the reins on his horse as a large eagle landed in front of him. “What in the name of everything that’s holy?” He slowed his horse down to a trot and carefully approached the large eagle – his facial expression giving out confusion and awe.

“It’s me, August.” A deep voice came from the eagle.

“And I must be dreaming.” Jasper said carefully. “Last time I saw you, you had much less feathers.”

“I’m a shapeshifter.” The deep voice came once again.

“Yes, okay. Why are you here?”

“I came to get you.”

“So you guys are okay?”

“We had a run in with some aberrations at the Mayor’s house – including himself. But yeah, everyone is fine.”

“Black, slimy, and a lot of tentacles?” asked Jasper.

“The very same. You too?”

“Killed one after it told me that you all were going to die. Stole a horse to come and warn you.”

“The sentiment’s appreciated.”

“Yeah, well I don’t think that whenever we finish this mission we’ll be able to go into town again. It’s filled with the monsters.”

“I know. I saw. The fire is killing them. Did you do that?”

“Yes, it was cold so I thought a little heat wouldn’t hurt much.”

“In any case, we’re losing precious time here. Get on, and we’ll be off. The rest of the guys are waiting for us.” Said August, setting one wing down for Jasper to be able to climb on. “Leave the horse.”

Jasper dismounted. He fished out a candy from his pocket and gave it to the horse, patting it on the head. “Thanks, buddy. You’re free to horse around, I guess.” And he snickered to himself. August groaned at this. “Come on, Jasper.”

“Let me say goodbye to the horse, for heaven’s sake.”

“Fine. But, it would be good to tell you that there are four aberrations coming here – AT SPEED – from Grenzberg, so if you want to take your chances, please. Do say goodbye to the horse.” August’s voice was laden with irritation.

“No need to point your beak at me like that.” Jasper looked in the direction he came from, and he indeed saw four black silhouettes rapidly advancing towards them. “Time to go.” He said and limped towards August, climbing on his back. August spread his wings and lunged upwards. With a few mighty flaps, the two of them were airborne. The aberrations closed in on the horse and tore it to pieces. “Farewell, horse. You were a good horse.”

As they were flying towards the Mayor’s house, their attention was turned to the forest, where they saw light pulsating from within the trees. August’s vision allowed him to see silhouettes on the small clearing in the middle of the forest.

“I told them to wait for us!” he groaned.

“Well, let’s go to them, then.” Jasper told him, and August directed them towards the forest.

_____________________________________________

The Void Mage had lunged himself towards Khameni – rather, towards the Crystal – but Khameni’s quick thinking made him yell “Raziel, catch!” as he threw the Crystal over the meadow, towards Raziel who had caught it. The Void Mage had immediately turned its attention towards Raziel, and began to run in his direction.

“Stall him as fast as you can, don’t let him get his hands on the Crystal!” William exclaimed, as Raziel shouted “Ripley!”, throwing the Crystal to Ripley. Every time, the Void Mage got dangerously close to one of them, they would throw the Crystal to someone else, constantly running in circles, not letting him touch the Crystal. The Void Mage’s face was now twisted into a hateful expression, as his frustration grew to impossible proportions. His face was looking like a skull, with thin, dry leather stretched thin over the bones, with purple, glowing eyes in the darkness of his eye sockets. Khameni was now in possession of the Crystal, and the Void Mage was streaking towards him. “Raziel!” he screamed, and threw the stone to William. The Void Mage got wind of this and in the moment William caught the Crystal – the Void Mage became a blur and disappeared.

“WHERE DID HE GO!” the four of them screamed in unison, as William felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. “Behind me-“ he breathed in to yell, but his words were abruptly interrupted when the blunt end of the hammer crashed directly into his skull. His eyes rolled up in his skull, as he began to fall, but in one last moment of consciousness – he uttered a command word: PUSH as he sent the Crystal flying towards the center of the Meadow. William collapsed to the ground like a limp piece of cloth, unmoving. The Void Mage stood looming over William, with his bloodied hammer raised high up for another strike – but the moment the Crystal left William’s hands, his attention immediately shifted to the place where the Crystal fell.

He became a blur, as the skin from his face completely dissolved – leaving only a white skull, with burning purple eyes, his jaw agape into a vicious sneer, as he lunged towards the Crystal with his outstretched hand.

Ripley took all of it in and decided to act. He was closest to the Crystal, so he ran towards it and threw himself into a jump.

Suddenly, August landed near William in force – with Jasper jumping off of his back, white-hot sword in hand.

Khameni was sprinting towards the Crystal.

Raziel was running towards William.

The Void Mage fell near the Crystal, with his hand falling on the Crystal. The moment the two touched – the Crystal started glowing with a blinding light, and a pillar of ethereal energy stabbed into the Void Mage, regenerating his face almost immediately.

Ripley clutched his shortsword with both of his hands, as he fell on top of the Crystal – with the tip of his blade directed into the heart of the giant Crystal.

The moment Ripley’s sword made contact with the Crystal, a resonant clink echoed through the entire forest – and a shockwave that sent everyone down to their knees.

As the blade pierced the Crystal, a single crack appeared on its surface. The time around them seemed frozen. The Void Mage’s eyes – filled with fear – were pointed at Ripley, who had a sly smile plastered all over his face. A multitude of cracks suddenly broke on the Crystal, as the blade sunk deeper.

A beautiful light started to glow from within the Crystal, illuminating the entire forest. Ripley’s blade pierced the Crystal completely – and another resounding clink was heard.

The Crystal shattered – and from it came a blinding flash of light, colored with every color known and unknown, visible and invisible. More beautiful than any rainbow, and brighter than the sun – this flash grew, and grew, and grew so much that it first engulfed the forest, followed by the Mayor’s house – and ultimately, it engulfed the entirety of Grenzberg – leaving only the Train Station untouched.

In a mere second – the ginormous dome of light imploded, collapsing in on itself.

Grenzberg was completely gone.

The Mayor’s house was completely gone.

The forest was completely gone.

And in its place, now stood a huge, perfectly round crater – laden with a beautiful crystalline crust, covering it completely. It was a perfect inwards dome that glistened with beautiful colors in the silver moonlight. The moon stood over it, like a silent guardian. A watcher from the skies.

___________________________

The energy blast that spread through Pelaraam reached as far as Elderhearth, which stood on the other end of the Continent. Every mage in the area affected by the energy blast had felt it. The flash of white light was seen from kilometers away.

Days later, the area was swarming with Librarian mages, cohorts of Hunters and other curious people who came to see what had happened.

Weeks and months passed. Rains fell, and filled the crystalline crater with water.

Now, during every full moon, on the surface of Grenzberg Lake, people come to watch an ethereal battle take place. Ghastly silhouettes of five men fighting over a large, round object – and when midnight strikes, that large, round object gets pierced by one of the ghastly silhouettes – which makes the crystalline lake start to shine with a beautiful, colorful light, illuminating the water – a light that lasts until dawn breaks.

Many songs and many tales have been written by countless writers and bards about the Grenzberg Lake. It has been immortalized in myth, and the story deduced from the ethereal battle under the full moon is told across Pelaraam.

The Hunters call it “The Incident at Grenzberg”.

But every song and every tale written is a false one.

Every full moon, a lonesome figure of a man stands near the lake, watching the ethereal battle unfold. The one man that knows the entire truth of what happened that night, in the forest near Grenzberg. And as the light starts shining, the lonesome figure quietly utters five names:
Raziel. Khameni. August. Jasper. Ripley, as his eyes start glowing with an icy-blue glow, he speaks an oath: I won’t let your memory die, my friends. My brothers. The Hunt continues.

The man, then, makes a gentle motion with his hand and disappears in a twirling mist of blue smoke, so he can continue doing the work of a Hunter.