Hi guys i'm back from a long long hiatus like more than half a year? lol. so sorry cos after my exmas i dotaed like mad lol... but now i'll be more active in updating this. since i havent written in quite long, if you noticed some quality difference pls point it out and i will try my best to improve. although i am already trying to improve so if there is some inferior quality juz review it :)
ok thanks enjoy!
Act 1: Securing the scroll
So, this is why they call it the 'Dark Wood'.
Night had fallen, blanketing the whole wood with its dark embrace. Tendrils of mist rose from the ground, resembling skeletal hands clutching at the roots of the forest. Unlike any normal forest, filled with the melody of chirping insects, this forest was deathly quiet. Not even a breeze cared to caress the leaves hanging limply from their branches.
Thalasi peered into the blackness, his eyes straining to see what lay ahead. His clay golem plodded silently behind.
I can't even see a few yards ahead! But, it looks like the demons cannot see much is this suffocating darkness either.
Thalasi glanced up. Little cracks of moonlight were streaming down through the layer of foliage that covered the top of the forest. After an hour of trekking through the forest, Thalasi still hadn't found the elusive tree, but neither have any demons sprang up to attack him.
Maybe I should travel more during the night.
Thalasi meandered slowly through the woods. There were many entangling roots and potholes on the ground, ready to trap or cripple a careless adventurer. But, Thalasi was far from careless. His training at the dark necropolis enabled him to see clearly even with little light. However, this wood was testing him, forcing him to push against the limits of his vision. As wondrous as a necromancer's sight can be at night, light is still needed for sight.
And there was very little light in the woods.
After yet another hour of trekking, Thalasi spotted a clearing through the foliage he was combing through. Pushing aside branches to get a better view, Thalasi scanned the clearing.
The clearing was completely bare of trees. It formed a rough circle, with radius of around 5 yards. In the middle of the circle stood a gigantic tree, its branches and trunk glowing with an eerie colour. The tree was totally devoid of leaves, and its many branches were reaching up towards the sky. Runes and incomprehensible letters were traced around its trunk.
This must be the tree of Inifuss.
Thalasi looked around the clearing, checking for any demons. As there were no other trees, the moonlight shone clear and strong into the clearing, basking everything in its white light. Thalasi's inner sense also did not sense the stench of demons hanging around in the air.
How am I supposed to get a scroll from this tree?
Thalasi cautiously strode up to the tree. Halfway across the clearing, Thalasi froze. He heard heavy footsteps approaching him. Each footstep sent tremors into the ground under Thalasi. These creatures must be huge to cause the earth to shake like this!
Pulling out his wand and shield from his backpack, Thalasi sent his golem out front, while taking a supportive role at the back.
An ear-splitting roar shattered the calm night air as a trio of beasts charged at Thalasi. They were similar in appearance as the beast he had encountered in the den of evil: oversized hands, small heads, and fearsome strength. Two of the beasts had a dark brown fur but one of them had a lighter coloured fur. It was a wonder Thalasi did not notice them until now. They were hiding in a patch of trees just outside his line of vision, hiding in the shadows of the trees in front of him.
Thalasi's doubts about how the creatures expected to ambush him from so far away came clear in an instant: they charged across the clearing with great strides, gobbling up the ground from under their feet. Thalasi could not believe at the ridiculous speed they were moving at.
Just as the beasts smashed into his golem, Thalasi waved his wand and cursed them:
"Lasci il nero abbracciare del mondo nether engulf la vostra visione!"
Black orbs appeared around the beasts' eyes. They roared as their vision was cut down to almost nothing. The clay golem wasted no time, smashing its rock hard fist through the skull of one of the monstrous beasts. It roared as the golem cracked its skull and was sent flying back with another heavy punch.
The other two beasts wasted no time in attacking the golem. As they pounded hard on its body, Thalasi could see cracks appearing, and clay dust flying into the air. Hardy as his golem may be, the beating seemed to be taking its toll. The beast with a lighter shade of brown fur had particularly huge muscles, Thalasi could see that they outstripped the size of the other beast by at least two times.
With such big opponents, Thalasi wondered if his teeth spell was enough to finish them, as the teeth may only cause a flesh wound. Running forward, Thalasi remembered that he had a dagger. His lips curved upwards an incantation came to mind.
He withdrew his dagger, the blade gleaming with the in-built poison. Thalasi gripped the dagger in his right hand, and bit his left index finger. As the blood flowed, he dripped some unto the dagger and cast his spell.
"Gli alcoolici del mondo di sotto, prendono la mia offerta dell'anima! Lasciste esso filtrisi nelle ferite di molti e funga da veleno mortale!"
The red drops of blood on Thalasi's dagger started to bubble, as if they were boiling hot. The liquid itself spread out, defying the law of gravity as it encompassed the blade in a boiling red sheath. The red colour then seemed to fade off the blood, leaving a greenish looking residue. Thalasi quickly went behind the biggest beast, his dagger now giving off green steam.
With the dim vision curse and it being distracted by the golem, the beast never saw Thalasi rushing at its back. What it did feel, however, was the poison enchanted dagger pierce into its hide.
Thalasi viciously dragged the dagger down, inflicting a deep, ragged gash on the back of the beast. It roared in agony and swung its fist around, smacking Thalasi squarely in the chest and launching him toward the tree. By golly, this beast is strong! The bone armour on Thalasi's chest shattered upon the impact of the huge fist.
Wheezing, Thalasi picked himself up to view how effective his poison was. The dagger, already having poison blended into its blade when being smithed, was even deadlier after Thalasi coated it with another layer of poison from the spell.
The beast roared and collapsed, its limbs flailing wildly. It uttered incomprehensible growls and grunts as it was thrashed wildly on the ground. Its companion turned its attention from the clay golem to regard the dying creature, and the golem seized the opportunity to counter attack. It rained heavy blows on the beast just as the dying creature had its last spasm.
Thalasi watched from the base of the tree, his chest heaving as he caught his breath.
The second creature tried to defend itself from the barrage of punches, but unlike the golem, the beast was capable of feeling pain. It howled in agony as the repeated punches took its toll on its defensive posture. The golem, noticing that the beast was weakening, increased its attacks twofold and pounded the beast into the dirt.
Thalasi stood up and spent several minutes trying to regain his breath. That act completed, he summoned 3 skeletons from the corpses of the beasts and forged a new layer of bone plating for his chest.
Thalasi turned around to regard the tree. How am I supposed to grab the scroll off this tree? He traced his hands over the runes that ran across the trunk, trying to make sense of it.
All of a sudden, the tree shuddered violently. Alarmed, Thalasi hopped backward and whipped out his wand, pointing at the tree. The skeletons and golem moved in concert, the golem guarding Thalasi's back while the skeletons formed an arc around the tree, encircling Thalasi.
A yawning gap appeared in the trunk around Thalasi's shoulder, gaping like a human yawning. Remarkably, the trunk itself did not seem damaged but rather seemed to compress the layers of bark around the gap so that it formed a rough circle. A hollow sound emitted from the depths of the tree, much akin to a human coughing, only much deeper in volume. One end of a rolled-up piece of parchment slowly started to emerge from the black depths. Thalasi narrowed his eyes and hesitantly reached out and removed the parchment.
So, Akara literally did mean for me to find a scroll on the tree.
Thalasi unravelled the scroll. It was blank. A blank scroll. Now that is interesting. How is Akara going to interpret this?
Thalasi realised that pondering about the scroll out in the open would not be an efficient use of time, nor was it safe. He shrugged and rolled the scroll back to its original form and stashed it in his pack. At his mental command, the golem took the point and the skeletons flanked Thalasi as he proceeded back towards the waypoint.
Unlike the peaceful trekking he had experienced, the return trip was more unsettling. Thalasi could feel the hairs on the back of his neck prickling up as he continuously glanced from side to side, trying in vain to spot whatever was bothering him. The stench of demons had filled the air. It looked like the deaths of the three beasts had somehow awoken many of the demons in the area.
Thalasi did not have long to wait. Just as the moonlit glade faded from his vision, he heard the galloping of hooves coming in his direction. He wheeled around; trying to ascertain what enemy was advancing on him. His skeletons tightened their ring around him as his golem uprooted a small tree to use as an impromptu club.
Thalasi could hear the whining of goats becoming louder. This is strange. Why didn't I notice the goats before? The answer became clear when 5 goat-men charged at him from the side.
The goat-men seemed to be a combination of both a goat and a man: it had a human chest and torso, with 2 arms waving a huge axe. From waist down it resembled the back half of a goat, complete with hooves. Its head was the head of a goat except the eyes, which were blazing with red flames.
The goats brayed and clashed into combat with Thalasi's minions. They wielded their axes well, using the blade to chop into the skeletons' body while parrying the return attack by blocking the sickle blade with the flat of the axe.
The skeletons were having a hard time, but the golem managed to stand its ground. One of the goat men slammed its axe into the golem's shoulder, only to find it lodged there by the regenerating earth. In return, the golem brought its club in a wide arc and smashed the goat man hard on one of its legs. It brayed as the bone snapped and teetered on its remaining leg. The golem promptly smashed its fist into the goat man's chest, sending it flying backward.
The one remaining goat man charged at Thalasi, bringing its axe into a vicious overhead chop. Thalasi raised his shield to block but the axe cleaved through the head and struck the bone plating on the side of Thalasi's forearm. Thalasi grunted at the pain of the blow and leaped backward, raising his wand at the same time.
"Triplicare i denti!"
Three teeth burst out from the tip of the wand, rushing towards the animal. The goat man brayed and brought its axe into the same blocking manoeuvre that its companions used to deflect the sickles. Its aiming was correct, but the metal of the axe simply could not withstand the magical teeth.
One tooth struck the flat of the axe, cracking the metal. The other two smashed into the wooden handle of the axe, splintering it and causing the metal head to fall uselessly to the ground.
The goat man roared and came rushing at Thalasi, but this time Thalasi drew out his dagger. He waited until the goat man was in a full tilt charge before attacking. Instead of sidestepping the attack and striking from the side, Thalasi stepped forward into the rush and shot his arm out towards the throat of the goat man. The goat man brayed and raised its hand to block, but the momentum it was travelling at was to quick for it to block fully. The dagger grazed its throat and Thalasi accepted a heavy blow to his shoulder in return. The goat man wheeled around, but Thalasi knew it would not fight for much longer. The cut at its neck was green and infected, as the poison had already entered its bloodstream.
It started to wind up for a second charge but growled and fell to one knee. It grasped its neck with one hand and glared at Thalasi with hatred in its eyes.
Thalasi sent a tooth into its face.
His minions had also managed to dispatch the remaining attackers, as the golem could overpower the goat men easily. Although the skeletons had a hard time initially, like the golem, they also could overpower the goat men due to the simple reason of not being able to feel pain. As such, although it caused the bones to crack and become less stable, the skeletons managed to launch into very aggressive attack routines that neglected bodily defence, and as such could damage the goat men.
A braying howl split the night as Thalasi regrouped his forces. I had better flee before more enemies arrive. Thalasi threw caution into the wind and sprinted towards the direction of the waypoint, his golem and skeletons following suit.
The leaves rustled as Thalasi plunged into the forest. It seems that he was not the only one, however, as the nearby trees also started to shake. Out of the darkness charged more goat men, along with many humanoid figures. They were similar to the corrupted rogues like Blood Raven except that they had yellow skin. Thalasi could see that some carried bows while others deftly handled spears.
The whistle of arrows was the only warning Thalasi had before he heard the thunking of the arrows around him. Although he was presenting a moving target, he kew that sooner of later one of the arrows would find its mark.
Time for another layer of defence, then.
"L'osso puro bianco, la comando! Sorgere su dalle profondità e proteggere il suo padrone!"
Little specks of bone came rising out of the ground, flitting around Thalasi. They were so small it seemed like specks of dust or sand where flying wildly around Thalasi.
"Portare la sua vera forma!"
The specks of bone dust immediately came together and solidified into 3 huge slabs of bone. They were around 5 centimetres think and vaguely ovular in shape. One slab could easily cover around half of Thalasi's body.
The external bone armour started to revolve around Thalasi, blocking the arrows that were becoming dangerously close as the enemies started to estimate his speed. The arrows started to come in more frequently, and the slabs were starting to resemble pincushions. The golem and skeletons also had several arrows sticking out from their bodies.
Thalasi increased his speed slightly, but was already moving at his maximum. Come on, I know the waypoint is around here somewhere!
A few minutes later, Thalasi could see the trees getting thinner. Yes! Just a little more, I'm getting close… the arrows where also pouring in now, making the slabs to spin to fast around Thalasi that the trees nearby were losing branches.
Thalasi broke free of the tree covering and dashed towards the waypoint. The archers followed, and having no trees to block their shots, more arrows started to rain on him.
One of the slabs crumbled back into dust, and the other two where showing many cracks running up and down the whole length of bone.
Thalasi was panting and feeling his stamina drain.
Can I make it in time?