"Jericho" Avon said, pointed at the town. After the night, the boy seemed to be more open to Nile.

"Jericho?" He repeated, wondering if it was the town's name or how they call a town in their tongue.

They came across the fields outside of the town. Golden wheat painted the ground, intertwined with fields of maize. Here and there, flax and cotton could be seen. Gorthor slowed down when they reached the path made by the local. The closer they were to the wall, the thinner the fields. And when they came to the town's wall, a line of grass became a border between the field and the town.

Nile found the pillar used to create the wall oddly familiar. They looked out of place, like some ancient sacred ruins being used to create a makeshift wall. He swore that he had seen it before.

The closer they were to the town, the more excited Avon seemed to be. The boy grabbed at the ox's fur, leaned his body forward and moved around quite frequently. Hard to believe that this boy had been through tragedy.

'This must be an important area then.' Nile turned his gaze toward the gate, and found four guardsmen stood there, with their weapons raised. Simple spears made from wood with iron tips. Round wooden shields held in their left hand. Protecting their body were sets of gambeson, layers upon layers of linen thick enough to block an arrow head. If he was honest, when he saw the goblin, he half expected them to wear leather armor and wield swords like those city guards from YGGDRASIL. But something threw him off. Their helmet was akin to a segmented helmet, what took his attention was the material used. Their spear tips was either iron or steel, as 'steel' as early middle age steel could be. But the helmet was made of bronze.

Gorthor stopped. Nile's gaze still on the guards, questioned about the mismatched combination. 'Are they in a transition period? No, unlikely. They have quite a lot of bloomeries. So why bronze?'

He paid too much attention to their equipment and totally forgot about his current situation. Until Avon nudged him. He averted his gaze to the boy. The boy turned to the gate. Nile followed him, observed the guard once again. This time, he noticed something.

They were alerted, ready to fight and possibly, confused. Their eyes darted from the ox, to Nile, then to the child. Their spears pointed at them, shield raised to cover their upper body. Silence filled the air, left only space for tension. Nile stared at them, they stared back.

Aketon took a raisin out of his bag and put it in his mouth. His teeth slowly bit down the dried fruit. He took his time to enjoy the simple treat.

"Do you want some, Jacob?" Aketon shook the small bag in his hand infront of his friend.

"No, I am good." Jacob pushed the bag away. "I would rather have some of the grape from Phillip's garden."

The two guard was the only one on duty in this side of the wall, unless you count those on the watch tower. Their duty wasn't really tied to the walls, but to the field. Most of the time, their only job was to fend off the critters from harming the field. Once in a blue moon, they might have to fight against some group of goblins, mostly three to six of them, from stealing the crops. The dwarfs from beyond West Mountain said that they had it easy and the Forever Forest's elfs thought that it had something to do with the wall. They told them that the wall had somekind of magic in it.

Did Aketon understood what they said? He didn't. He just knew that after his ancestor found the walls, they were saved. So he thanked the walls for that.

To call them lazy might be too harsh. But they didn't have much to fight against. The worst they had saw was an Orge, which was slain by their captain. Other than that, nothing much.

So that was why Aketon almost choked on his raisin when he saw what was coming at them.

A huge beast. It looked akin to a cow or a buffalo. But it was much bigger than either of them. Black fur reflected the light on it as if it was made of metal. The beast had some form of carapace on it, with the same colour of black. Two great horns, each one as big as the leg of a man. Each step it made was followed by a powerful 'thump'.

Jacob shook the bell next to him. Two guards came out of the gate.

"What is that thing?"

One of them asked. As the beast came closer, they saw something else was with it. On top of the beast was a figure. A humanoid… thing. It was claded in a metallic shell, similar to the dwarf's black steel. But unlike the dwarf, who use the steel to mimic the dragon's scale, this thing was covered from head to toe with that metal. Its body emitted a teal hue, as menacing as a demon.

But it was what in front of it took their attention. A child, a red hair child sat on the beast in front of the thing. He looked just like any other child, but why would a child be with this thing?

They raised their weapons. The beast could charge at them at any moment, and they didn't know what that thing was. They just knew that it spelt disaster.

The beast came to a halt. The thing stared at them. They stared back.

Tension grew.

Would it attack them? They wondered.

Another moment of silent.

It just stared at them. Silently, as still and stiff as a rock.

Aketon turned his eyes to Jacob, only to find him did the same thing.

Then, the child turned to the thing and grabbed its hand. It looked at the child, then to them again.

Aketon held his spear tight. But his shield was shaken.

Finally, the creature did something. It spoke.

"Salve!"

It was… for the lack of word, awkward. Nile felt like he was stuck between a rock, a hard place and a boulder falling from above.

On one hand, he didn't knew what he was supposed to do in this situation. He didn't think about it before. Should he drop the kid and left, or jump down and greet the guards? What if they attack him or the child?

On the other hand, he didn't know a sliver of their language. All he could learn from Avon had almost no uses in this situation. Avon could speak to them, that much was true. But how the hell could he tell the boy to do so? And he wouldn't even know what the boy say to the guards, which could either help them or put them in more trouble.

One his other non-existent hand, he accidentally pushed their tenstion up, at least he thought so. He stared at them too much, he was too silent, too intimidating (as his guildmate often said). And they were ready to fight him at any moment. And the more he pondering around like this, the worst the outcome could be.

"Salve!"

He tried to defuse the situation, only to embarrass himself.

'What the hell did I just say? Latin? Freaking Latin? They aren't even Roman. If anything, their language sounded more like something came from the Norse.'

Not only that, his voice was too loud, too cold, as if he was a tyrrant demanding something from those guards.

The thing said something. It felt like a wave of power surged through them. A chill ran across Aketon's spine.

'What did it say?' His body shook. His spear felt like it would slip out of his hand at any moment.

It was like a curse, a word from ancient monsters and devil.

Jacob fell down. He dropped both his shield and spear and ran toward the gate. So did the other.

Aketon saw them, he wanted to follow them too. But his feet didn't allow him to. So he stood, with spear and shield still raised.

Nile saw the group of guards ran away from him.

He mentally slammed his head to the ground.

'Greaaaat… Way to go, Nile.'

Avon sat on the saddle, still confused by what happened.

Nile jumped down and found a large stone near the wall. He came closer to it to pick it up.

Something came close to him. He turned his head and saw the guard's spear pointed at his head, his face was paled but he still put on an imposing posture. Well, he tried to, but to Nile, it was like a child pointed a toy sword to him.

Nile grabbed the stone, walked back to where Gorthor stood and laid the stone down. He sat down on it as Gorthor also lowered their's body and rested on the road.

'What to do now…'

He could just leave, then find the Archive. But he didn't want to bring the child with him. Maybe he should just let Avon walk in by himself.

Mentally slapped his face, he grabbed the boy then pushed him toward the guard. The boy looked him with a questionable face. He pushed him again.

Avon stood on the middle of the road. He looked at Nile, then to the guard, then back to Nile. For a while, the boy made one step toward the guard, then two stepp back to Nile. A little annoyed, Nile pushed the boy again.

Finally, the boy walked toward the guard and spoke something to him. Oddly, the guard seemed more on edge wen the boy came closer to him. But the boy didn't back up. He tried to speak to him, but the guard didn't response.

This made Nile even more annoyed. But he could still keep his calm. Not until an arrow flew from the top of a guard tower to the boy.

A flash of teal light flew toward Aketon and knocked him away. His back hit the gate, his shield almost shattered. He slowly stood up, felt the pain rant across his bones. Still dazzled, he looked at what hit him.

It was the thing. It stood in front of the child, with an arrow in its hand.

"What…?" The guard on top of the tower screamed. The thing was two fast. They had seen their captain dodged arrow before, but to grab it mid air, that was something else.

It snapped the arrow into two and dropped the broken arrow on the ground. Then it pointed at the guard on the tower, mumured something. A strange light covered its hand, followed by another scream from the guard. Aketon looked up, the guard was coverd in a thick web-like-thing. He struggled to move, only to find himself trapped. Aketon felt to his knees. What ever that thing was, it was beyond human.

"Monster…" He whispered.

The thing came closer to him. He crawled away from it and tried to open the gate. It was locked. He knocked it frantically.

"Let me in! Let me in!" He yelled. The thing came closer to him, with each step brought another pile of dread to his soul. The thing stood right in front of him. It stared at the man. Aketon mustered all of his courage to stared back at it.

He hoped he didn't.

Within the slit on its head, he saw what inside of it.

Nothing. A deep void resided within the thing. The only visible object within that void was the two orbs of light.

The thing's hand reached toward him. He tried to stay away from it, tried to get as far from it as he could. His back hugged the gate, his head turned away, his yes shutted.

Then came a thud as his body fell down.