Chapter 11: A Story’s End

“I wonder how the village is holding…”

“I think they should be fighting right now…”

“I hope everything will still be there when the news comes through.”

“I heard that there was a Rank C monster in the horde monsters… it’s apparently a Kobold surprisingly.”

“A kobold? Shouldn’t that be classified as a horde monster as well?”

“Well Rank C monsters are basically horde monsters but with intelligence. Afterwards, all the monsters above are individuals who live in the wild or pack monsters that classify them at their rank.”

“Interesting…”

Ben sat on the edge of the carriage watching the horizon in the far distance. A wave of smoke fell upon the carriages. The stench of death that lingered in the people's mind immediately brought forth the potential horrors that could be awaiting them back at Rerne Village. Causing the people within the cart to lose hope and become fearful of their imaginations.

“... the village…”

“It’s gone… oh god…”

“I hope my friends see the letter before coming over…”

“All those years… living there… is now gone…”

Ben’s heart grew cold as he listened, his fist clenched, his mind flared in anger, disappointment, he felt directionless and lost within his own mind.

Ben quickly got off the carriage. His feet stumbling on the small loose pebbles in the road, yet his legs continued to run towards the smoke. The weak mumblings of the people in the carriage warned and beckoned Ben back, but the words were carried off from the wind.

(Grant… Abbs… such nice people… I can’t believe that the village would simply disappear like this... )

Ben thought about Abbs, when he was seeing Ben off.

************** Before the village attack******************

Abbs: “Ben… I’ll be staying behind. So farewell… this may be the last time we see each other however, take this.” Abbs handed a pendant to Ben. “It’s a magical pendant that can resist the dark elements of magic. There won’t be any dark magic here… so take care of it. I have no other relatives and I only knew you for a few days. All my friends are already dead from fighting the horde in the past… so I’m prepared to join them… take care, Ben. It was nice knowing you.”

Then Ben thought about Grant’s back that faced towards them while he looked onwards towards the forest. The adventurers were gathered around the village walls placing the spikes on the ground. Grant simply held his left hand out into the air towards the forest. His back towards the village, his fist in the air against the wind. The giant man known as Grant, had an unspoken grace to his stance, all the while the wind gently supported him as he faced towards the never-ending forest.

*************** -Village battle- ************8

“Everyone prepare for battle! Archers! Check your bows and arrows, be sure to have extras!” A blue armored knight yelled from the podium, his sword aimed upwards, signaling the archers.

Everyone held their breaths as they saw Grant on the horizon, his left hand was still up in the air. He continued to look at the forest, the sounds of nature were silent… as if life has never existed, yet the sound of trees crumbling in the distance echoed through everyone’s ears. Iron swords were unsheathed creating a crisp sound through the small army of fighters, the bows began to tighten as the archers prepared their arrows.

Grant in the front wielded his Greatsword with his right hand…his left hand that was left up in the air formed a fist, immediately fell downwards, signaling the Blue knight who then shouted “FIRE!!”

The archers unleashed their arrows, and continued to fire from the wooden walls. There was no orderly fire, simply a mass of arrows continually fired from the wall.

“Fire all you have! Continue firing into the backlines! Knights! Soldiers! Adventurers! With me!” The blue knight got onto his horse with one swift move and led the troops out of the village walls through the wooden gates.

The arrows fell upon the monsters. Some creatures fell, others simply walked over their dead brethren. Grant immediately held his Greatsword upwards and yelled out loud, his body covered in a red burning aura. The soldiers and villagers’ shouts followed Grant’s as they ran from behind him standing onto the plains.

“ONWARDS!” The blue knight yelled out.

The wave of creatures met Grant as he immediately charged in alone.

Grant’s greatsword immediately swung a huge arch and severed several heads of dire wolves. The troops from behind immediately clashed with other types of creatures, goblins, giant spiders, and kobolds.

Grant’s greatsword continued to pierce into the line of monsters. Their blood scattered upon the greatsword and onto Grant.

“Give me space! >!”

A gush of air from above shaped in a large sword enveloped Grant’s body and pressured off all the monsters around Grant and knocked them in all directions. Knocking them down on the ground.

A gold kobold with a well-made bow and arrow from the backlines immediately pointed at Grant. Several other kobolds with similar bows came from the brushes and aimed at Grant. Arrows were unleashed, each with deadly precision.

A mage from behind Grant immediately casted a spell.

“ Barrier!” A wind barrier quickly casted the arrows out of their path and fell uselessly onto the ground.

Grant: “Abbs… why are you here. Mages should be in the backline.” Grant said

Abbs:“Have you forgotten the existence of magic swordsmen?”

Grant: “From what I see it's a magic spearman.”

Abbs was holding a spear as he fended off the monsters.

Abbs:“Well.. magic spearman doesn’t sound as remarkable as a magic swordsman”

Grant “We’ll have to take out the golden kobold. It seems that it’s the C rank monster.”

Abbs looked at the hill, seeing the golden kobold ordering his archers to shoot at specific enemies and ordering the spiders to shoot webs at nearby fights. The spiders shot the web into a group of adventurers who were grouped up. Yells of panic erupted from them as they felt their skin being latched up by a strong, disgusting layer of web. They struggled for a few moments until the kobolds nearby immediately stabbed the adventurers with spears with a group effort. The adventurer's let out gasp of pain or grunts of resistance before it fell silent.

Grant: “The kobolds are the ones who are controlling this situation.” Relay to the knights! Prioritize the kobolds.”

Abbs nodded and enhanced himself with the wind. Taking one last look at Grant, Abbs quickly slinked back into the battlefield. With him gone, Grant felt everything turn into a blur once more. The faces of the corpses were faceless, the monsters were faceless, all he see are the bodies that stood or lied down on the cold hard ground.

Grant breathed in and yelled once more.

Grant: “Feast your eyes upon my Blade! All shall perish within my sights!”

The creatures around him became enraged and charged at Grant. Grant swung his sword with one hand while using the other hand to knock down any creatures near him. The swing from the sword was enough to break through the bones and meat of the creatures, a clean slice with each stroke. Throwing the creature off of the bloody scene and allowing another to take its place.

Meanwhile, the troops behind Grant were slowly falling out. Some tried to run away but were mauled by the creatures who chased after them. Limbs and blood spattered under the creatures’ ruthless slaughter. The defensive lines started to fall at one side and the village wall was under attack. Some dire wolves with great strength managed to climb upon the wooden walls and jumped into the fray of archers and mages, teeths and daggers were drawn. The tender flesh of the archers were fragile, while the hides of the wolves were strong against the decorative daggers that hanged on their belts. Most are newly made, and well kept.

“The wall has been breached! Spearman on the walls now!”

The militant spearmans swiftly ran up the stairs and brushed off the direwolves from the walls. Some fought them and successfully repelled, while others were having a troublesome time as the goblins started to throw hatchets at the archers. Some of the hatchets managed to find its way to unsuspecting archers as it lodged itself onto the heads or shoulders. Seeing this event occur, the blue knight on the ground started to shout an order.

“Knights! Follow me! Route the goblins off the archers!” The blue knight led some of the knights off of the scramble and into a group of goblins off to the side. The hatchets thrown at the knights were blocked off by their shields, the knights advanced forward and brought down their swords into the heads of the goblins. Lopping off their heads as if they were chopping a head of cabbage. A single wave of knights was enough to clear off the goblins as they galloped off into the forest towards the golden kobold. A flank to the golden Kobold's side.

The golden kobold immediately ordered a group of spiders, kobolds and a small platoon of goblins to head off into the forest. Eventually, seeing something the golden kobold howled through the sound of the massive battle, the kobolds immediately looked at the golden one with determination. Two large turtles came from the bushes, alongside with two large groups of giant silver direwolves. The large turtles immediately sat down and lifted its head from the shell.

Adventurers who saw these monsters, yelled out their names.

“Tremor Turtles and Guardian dires!

“Mages uproot those turtles!”

“They’re too far away!”

“It’s going to hit our guys!”

The mouths of the Tremor Turtles opened wide, a green glow emitted from their mouths. The ground summoned earth spikes onto the crowd of humans, skewering them and showering the area around them with small puddles of blood. The panic caused by the troops led them to spread out. Letting the small horde of monsters to pick them off one by one. The Guardian Direwolves rushed forward into the battlefield and tackled the troops, enough to dislocate their spines and render most of them useless in battle, leaving some to be finished off by tearing off their throat, stabbed, or stepped to death by the rampant battle.

Grant looked at the losing battle, he gripped his greatsword harder. The leather handle furled from his grip. He started to run towards the golden kobold. Masses of monsters started to surround Grant. Claws, bites, dagger marks accumulated as Grant plowed through the group of monsters. Heads and bodies split splendidly no matter how effortlessly he drew his greatsword. Grant grabbed a spear from a dead kobold. His red aura immediately burned with flames, affecting all the monsters around him. Seared by the flames of his the monsters flinched whenever he came close to them.

The golden kobold immediately issued the Tremor Turtles to attack Grant.

The spikes exploded from the ground but Grant simply jumped up and covered a great distance, thrashing into the monsters in front of the golden Kobold, limbs flew from the dirt that was shaken by the large force. The kobold archers immediately fired arrows into the dirt fog. As the dirt slowly parted away, the giant Man slowly stood up from kneeling on the ground.

Covering him from the arrows was his greatsword, only some arrows hung from his thighs. The golden kobold immediately fell down backwards in fear as Grant’s visage came out from the dust, his walking pace was slow and confident. As Grant stood in front of the golden kobolt, his eyes were the only thing that moved. Attaching it's gaze towards the trembling golden kobolt.

Grant simply stared at the golden kobold. The great kobold was in fear, it's knees were weak, it's eyes now knew of fear. His hands continued to gestured towards the guards that stood in front of Grant, yet the guards did not move.

Grant:“GRAHHHH!!!”

Grant charged through the lifeless kobold guards, lifting his greatsword high in the air and swinging it downwards onto the golden kobold’s head.

********************

Ben rushed over the small hill and saw the devastation of the town. He was sweating and panting with exhaustion. Ben knelt down as he watched over the remnants of the monsters scattering from the devastated town walls. Some of the troops cheered, holding onto each other for support, however most of them simply knelt down next to another watching the scene around them, trying to grasp the point of life and death and ultimately ask themselves a common question.

(Grant… Abbs? the battle is over… so I can probably search for them now right?)

Ben ran down the small hill and slowed down towards the multitude of bodies on the torn up, bloody plains. The smell and odor covered his face as if it were trying to choke him, and the feeling of a ghastly warmth made him sick on the inside as if there were something holding his stomach down, giving great discomfort. Eventually the feeling within his stomach came up and out of his mouth.

Ben threw up, the feeling and the smell was nauseating. He cleaned up his mouth with a napkin from his pocket. The backpack on his back juggled as he walked across the bloody field. He wielded his dagger on his side.

“Anyone seen Sir Releign, the blue knight for the Kingdom of Lanners?” an injured knight called out.

People around him simply ignored him as they continued to settle down from the large battle. There were some gathering the bodies of their fellow allies, lining them up side by side near the wooden fence. Some bodies were torn beyond recognition, some without a limb or two.

Ben continued to walk around and saw Abbs standing near the fence talking to some of the remaining knights.

“We’ve lost around 12 men… and Sir Releign isn’t here.. this knight patrol is done… we will be reporting this to the kingdom, and the guild.”

“I appreciate your help…”

The adventurer next to Abbs talked about how they were still counting the dead bodies. Abbs suddenly looked to the side and saw Ben walk slowly towards them. He quickly ended the talks with the others.

Abbs: “Hey… why are you here? Shouldn’t you be back in the carriage?”

Ben: “I… I don’t know.”

Abbs:“.... are you looking for Grant?”

Ben: “Yes…”

(I don’t know why… but I’m worried about Grant regardless of us only meeting several times)

Abbs' eyes closed for a short moment, as if he was resting his eyes. His head tilted downwards and eventually he gazed at the hill, where a giant man stood against the sun's ray.

Abbs:“He’s on that hill…. don’t talk about his wounds…”

Ben looked at the hill where Grant stood, arrows were latched on his back, his legs, and his leather armor was in tatters, the greatsword was stabbed into the ground. Grant’s entire body was covered with blood, dark, light, red, blue color blood. Some were drying off, while the other patches of blood were fresh.

(He’s … heavily injured.) Ben slowly walked up towards Grant, he could see the red aura slowly seeping out of Grant’s wounds and off into the air. The handle of the greatsword emitted a red aura as well.