Chapter 10: A Huge Problem

A village somewhere in the Continent of Mycelia

"Get down!" yelled a voice from behind Zeph, which he immediately proceeded on doing. The scythe's blade clashed with the blade of the overgrown hoe that was held by one of the guildsmen, causing the cat to jump back and glare at his new opponent.

The man that stood before Zeph bore a resemblance to a knight that had once visited Mooshville a few years in the past. His armor was jet-black in color with a silver cross design on his chest. His helmet had a similar design on his vizor, with the exception of a blue T-shaped horn on the helmet's forehead. The guild's symbol shone in the moonlight on the man's left shoulder. Two more guildsmen entered the room, each of them wielding an enchanted iron sword.

"What's that Hellcat doing here?" asked one of the men, his sword enchanted with the fire aspect enchantment.

"I don't know. But whatever the reason, we need to take it down before it's too late!" replied the other newcomer, his sword enchanted by the smite enchantment. The two men then proceeded to charge towards the hellish creature, only to have their enchanted swords broken with one swipe of the creature's scythe.

"What the-?" asked the man with the broken fiery sword. As he continued to look at his broken sword, the creature immediately slashed at the man's sword arm, completely severing it and leaving a stump in its place. The man screamed as soon as his blood gushed out of the hole. The other man quickly drew him back from the creature while the armored figure stepped to block the next attack from the creature.

"Hey kid!" yelled the armored figure at Zeph, causing him to jump up in surprise. "I need you to do me a favor."

"What favor?" asked Zeph. Yaro took another swipe at the armored figure, which he quickly evaded with ease.

"I need you to get me a bucket of milk," said the man, who proceeded to barrage the creature with a series of swipes with his hoe.

Zeph immediately dashed out of the room and proceeded to head outside the infirmary. Seeing one of the guildsmen from earlier, he approached them.

"Excuse me," said Zeph. The man with the smite-enchanted sword stopped to look at him.

"Do you need something?" asked the man.

"Yes. Do you know where I can find any cows nearby?" asked Zeph, causing the man to look at him strangely. Suddenly, as realization began to dawn on the man's face, one of the windows of the infirmary shattered as the armored man's body was tossed out of the window with the hellish creature jumping out after him.

Before Zeph could watch the next scene unfold, he was grabbed by the guildsman who then began to lead the way towards what appeared to be a huge dome. As they entered the building, a lady approached them upon seeing the wounds of the duo.

"We need a bucket of milk now!" ordered the guildsman, earning him a strange look from the lady. "It's an emergency! Another one of them is loose within the village." Upon hearing this, the lady quickly ran towards a room and after a few seconds, she came out with a bucket of milk. She then gave it to them, which they gratefully accepted before dashing out of the building.

After arriving back at the infirmary, they were shocked to find the creature pinned down by blocks of cobblestone on each limb. The creature gave a cry of agony as the guildsman poured the contents of the bucket on the hellish creature, causing it to scream in utter agony as it began to burn. With one last push, the creature freed itself of its bonds and was about to strike the guildsman when it dropped to ground, completely reverting to its original form as Yaro.

"What happened?" asked the felyne as it sat up groggily. Upon seeing the destroyed village, he became shocked. "What happened to the village? Did they win?"

"Don't worry, Yaro. Everything is going to be okay. There was just a slight problem but we managed to handle it," replied Zeph. The felyne then smiled before collapsing onto the ground.

Suddenly, a violent gust of wind knocked the others back, causing them to stumble at the sheer power of the wind. The clouds then began to darken before letting loose a barrage of icicles which Eve and Mod narrowly dodged. It was then followed by a rain of fire, causing everyone to seek shelter. Many buildings burned while some unlucky villagers got impaled by the icicles, killing them instantly.

"What's happening?" yelled Eve as she barely dodged an icicle that was aimed for her head. She then heard a groan behind her and turned to find a horde of zombies approaching her from a huge hole on the floor. As she drew her bow, she felt a strange tremor on the ground below her. She rolled away just at the nick of time as the place she stood on before exploded and from the hole came out what appeared to be a golden sphere with twelve rotating rods surrounding it.

Meanwhile, Mod found himself surrounded by balls of slime that seemed to have lives of their own. As he struck down one of the creatures, he found it splitting into two smaller ones. He then swiped at them both at once, only for four smaller creatures to emerge from each destroyed one. Hearing a hissing sound from behind him, he turned around to find four creepers heading towards him. As he muttered a curse under his breath, he felt something whiz a few inches past his face. The creature that was hit by the arrow immediately burned and disintegrated. He then turned around to find Eve launching arrow after arrow at each mob that came at her. He then proceeded to assist her, only to find a creeper blocking his way. Gritting his teeth in anger, he charged towards the creature.

-0(-_-)0-

Back at the infirmary, while Zeph and the others hid themselves from the rain of icicles and fire, an intruder had snuck into the building and began making his way towards the unconscious armored man's room. He smiled to himself as he had easily located the target without any hindrances and was about to take the man with him when he felt a chilling presence in the room. As he glanced around, he suddenly drew his weapon and blocked an incoming projectile that was hurtling towards him. He then found a silhouette of a man standing behind one of the curtains in the room.

"My, my! It takes you this long to complete this mission? Maybe I should have been the one to take on this quest!" said the silhouette. The intruder then lowered his weapon and smiled.

"You make it sound so easy! There was a bit of a problem that I had encountered and if it weren't for a certain distraction, I wouldn't have been able to make it this far!" he replied.

"Hmph! Only a fool would rely on a vile creature for backup! But then again, this might be the diversion we need to ensure the success of this mission," said the silhouette. He then moved away from the curtain and was about to exit the building through the window when he paused and took one last glance at the intruder. "You better be finished as soon as possible. The Master would not like to be kept waiting any longer!" he said, before departing, leaving the intruder to grit his teeth in frustration and after a few seconds, he resumed his task of abducting the unconscious man.

-0(-_-)0-

Meanwhile, both Eve and Mod had successfully obliterated most of the mobs that came at them, leaving only a handful left to deal with them. Eve continuously let loose a barrage of flaming arrows at the slimes that drew close to Mod while he sent many of the zombies flying with the knockback-effect of his weapon. As the battle drew to a close, Eve couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right. She then looked at the direction of the infirmary to find a silhouette carrying an object in the mist.

"Something's happening there," said Eve, causing Mod to take a glance at the direction that she was looking at while an arrow struck the last mob in the head, causing it to catch on fire and disintegrate. Realizing that the last mob was finished off, the two proceeded to run towards the direction of the silhouette, only to find an unexpected sight that awaited them. There stood a giant creature on the spot where the silhouette was spotted on.

The creature looked like a zombie, only it was ten times larger and it seemed more powerful compared to one. Its eyes were lifeless and its body slowly rotting away. Its horrid stench seemed to stretch for miles and its odor was ten times more powerful than the spray of a skunk. Both Mod's and Eve's eyes widened in terror upon seeing it.

"I-Isn't t-that a z-zombie?" asked Eve, who drew her bow.

"No, it isn't. But it definitely is five times more powerful than one!" replied Mod, whose sword arm trembled.

"I-If it i-isn't a z-zombie, wh-what is i-it?" asked Eve.

"It's a giant!" replied Mod. Upon seeing them, the creature let out a roar that shook the foundations of every building in the village and caused Zeph and the others to snap into attention. They trembled in fear as well upon laying their eyes on the creature.

Suddenly, the creature began to charge towards them, causing everyone to draw their weapons. Upon nearing them, it brought its fist down onto the earth, causing a terrible earthquake of all sorts and causing all of them to stumble and trip.

"This isn't looking good at all!" said Zeph, as he stood back up, followed by the others. "But we can't give up now! We must attack it!" he yelled before charging towards the huge creature while letting out his battle cry.

A/N: And that ends this chapter! I definitely promised to reveal details of the new OC on this chapter but all I placed here was a description of the man who wielded the overgrown hoe in the last chapter! Wait a second… that guy IS the OC and his name is T.K., which was contributed by a very dear buddy of mine (not revealing names!) If you still feel like being part of the story, then it's not too late! Just PM me or leave it in the reviews somewhere! (though I find it best to PM me instead because I can definitely reply back! Know what I'm saying?) Anyways, the story just keeps getting better and better! In fact, a boss just appeared! Will Zeph and the others defeat the huge menace? Or will it crush their chances of saving the world? Who is the mystery abductor of the unconscious armored man? All these questions and more in the next few exciting chapters of MATOW!

P.S. I have a question for all my very faithful, handsome/beautiful readers: What would you like to happen on the next arc of the story? Feel free to write your responses in the review section of the story! Thank you and see you next time!