The darkness surged inside the cold embrace of the unforgiving night. Deep within the darkness, a huge bestial figure moved with impossible speed. Saint Aireen, who was not far, struggled to keep her spell working.
Thick canopies of the tall trees shuddered as the ground beneath them shook with a violent quake. In the dense darkness, screams of various dark creatures and the rocks falling down on the ground were to be heard while chunks of soil also plummeted down.
August grabbed his sword with both of his hands and braced himself for the impact that was about to strike him with a force five times his size.
The blade hit the dark creature in the lightless surroundings. August did that just by purely relying on his senses, as it turned out he was able to deliver a wound on the dark creature. Surprisingly no blood came out of the wound, to August it felt as though more darkness was flowing out from it.
August continued to deliver blow after blow on the huge beast of darkness, one after another. His matte black blade embraced the darkness and severed the flesh of the giant creature clean at every point of contact, cleaving any resistance in its path.
August moved with precision while dodging the lethal blows from the dark creature which could have ended his life at any point. The force behind its attack was so enormous that August was not able to comprehend how the beast was able to deliver such powerful attacks after being suppressed within the storm.
August was about five times lesser in size, in comparison to the beast. He was also being suppressed by the sheer intensity of the cold violent winds of the storm. And it was evident that the creature should have been too. However, it was attacking too quickly for someone to be suppressed by an external spell.
The spell should've acted more on the beast due to its enormous size but for some reason it did not feel like it at all.
August was now being overwhelmed by the intensity of the powerful attacks by the bestial creature when he suddenly sensed the presence of more creatures on the battlefield, the creature that he had previously killed.
Many of them had already been revived.
'No'
August, under the influence of the fallen star let out an angry growl. The influence of the weapon on him was also growing more by the moment. He was short on time.
He gritted his teeth and engaged in a deadly fight with the beast again. Now, August for a moment had left all the regards for his own life and concentrated solely on getting rid of the creature before him.
August dodged the attacks of the creature. The ground shuddered wherever the powerful blows of the creature of the dark landed. Deep craters were to be seen if there was any light around.
Outside of the violent storm, maidens of the wind were engaged in a deadly fight with the rogue faction of night and some of the creatures of the dark swarm.
At some distance from them, the saint was trying her best to sustain the spell despite the pressure building up inside the storm due to the fight between August and the beast.
During this fight August had noticed something about the bestial creature of the dark, that it was only using its physical strength to attack him. Which meant the only advantage it had was its size only.
Now when he had wasted quite a bit of time already he had no choice but to play a gamble, with his own life on the line.
Rushing with adrenaline and anger, he inhaled deeply. Then, one corner of his lips curled upwards in a devious smile,
"Come at me, you beast"
The ground of the dark forest quaked when the beast of darkness landed a powerful blow down. Only this time August decided against dodging that.
His blade met the skin of the beast carved out of darkness alone and severed it into countless parts. Various chunks of flesh of the abomination fell down from the sky but never met the ground —immediately dissolved into the darkness.
August without wasting much time lunged towards the head of the abomination. As he did in the dark, another powerful blow came from the other side.
'Got you'
The abomination did nothing that August could not have anticipated. Therefore, he was able to get to the neck of abomination before the strike from the dark creature could have reached him.
His blade fell mercilessly on the darkness, carving its way inside the thick carapace of the beast made out of the darkness. Then in a split second the blade of the fallen star came out from the other side after measuring the girth of its neck just as fiercely.
The blade seemed more starved for blood than August was to survive.
The enormous head of the towering giant fell on the trees below with an impact, loud enough to be heard across the whole forest.
For a moment the fight between maidens and the dark creatures came to a halt.
Somewhat far from there, Saint Aireen finally fell to her knees as her spell of the storm vanished.
August opened his eyes and glanced at the sight where the towering figure of the dark beast lay dead, slowly dissolving into the darkness. However, as he expected, there was no light at all. Therefore, nothing to see.
Thanks to his other senses, now he knew that the beast was finally dead. Even if it was the shade of another creature, it will surely take some time to revive a creature of this caliber. Therefore August wasn't worried about it, for now.
Without wasting another moment, he rushed towards where the swarm was already taking form.
Simultaneously the effect of the fallen star was also getting severe on his mind. He was very close to entering the state of insanity again.
'Faster. I have to be faster'
Indeed, if he wanted to get out of this situation, he had to kill all of the shades of the colossal creature quickly. August knew that these shades have no mind of their own and were just creation of something the creature controlling them had killed in the past.
August was at his limit, his breath was ragged, veins were trying to burst open not from the exhaustion of the fight but due to the rage he was feeling because of the fallen star.
As he approached the swarm of darkness, however, something unexpected happened. The swarm suddenly turned incorporeal and dissolved into the darkness.
He spread his senses wide and found out that he wasn't able to sense any creature of darkness around him anymore. Even the rogue faction of the night had also vanished.
August immediately realized and gritted his teeth in frustration and anger. Drops of blood started flowing down from his mouth as he growled and pierced the ground with the tip of his blade in anger, finally letting it go.
"Coward" he screamed, "I will kill you, I will …kill you, I …will"
With that August fell on the ground panting heavily but conscious.
— — —
"I am your son"
"You neglected your responsibility"
"Your responsibilities are mine to take"
"You abandoned our people"
"Your sins are mine to bear"
"You are a disgrace"
Gasp…
August woke up desperately searching for something. Someone handed him a jug of water as he drank greedily.
Taking some breaths to calm himself he found that he was inside a camp that maidens of wind had prepared. He soon realized as he saw the saint standing beside him, her face lit by the pale radiance of the lantern.
They were still inside territory of the night. It has already been two weeks since he fought with those creatures of darkness. They have been travelling continuously for days since then. However, the long journey demands a decent amount of rest too. No one can fight any creature in the state of exhaustion.
That was why the saint decided to set up camps after a certain distance. Obviously they have been resting in shifts, leaving some of them to keep guard.
Surprisingly so, after their encounter with those dark creatures from the weeks before no creature had crossed paths with the armada.
Maybe it was because the armada have managed to defeat one of the strongest creatures of this dreadful place and marked their strength already. According to saint Aireen this was the most possible reason because the only thing these creatures lurking in the dark were able to understand was the power hierarchy of this hellish place.
And no creature was brave enough to ignore that. The dark creatures also wanted to survive afterall.
It was said that nothing remained hidden from these creatures in this place. Darkness tells them all. Their eyes were everywhere, they could see whatever happened here. Which in this case was proven as a good thing for August and the maidens.
However, the creature they managed to defeat was a strong one but it wasn't obviously the strongest in the place, August was sure of it. There has to be more dangerous, unimaginable horrors dwelling in the depths of darkness of this hellish place right?
That's why he had to get out of this place before a creature that dangerous could find them.
Suddenly a strange uneasiness grasped his heart. Shaking his head dejectedly he asked,
"What's the situation?"
"Normal" the saint replied.
"You're saying there are no creatures interested in us?" he asked.
"So as it seems" the saint replied as she sat on a chair.
August clenched his fist, "I should have killed that thing. Ah.. I am still too weak."
"Everyone here knows the word weak certainly isn't you," the saint replied, "as for the creature, maybe it was good that it escaped" August looked at her with knitted brows, "an alive enemy will certainly spread more tales than a dead one don't you think?"
August let out a long sigh, "I hate to admit, but you are right" he remained silent for a while and then said, "when do we move?"
Considering their two weeks of journey in the night territory, this particular rest has been the longest for some reason. It has been three days already and the saint was still bent on making him rest.
"Soon" she answered him with just a word.
August nodded, in the past few weeks he had come to trust her judgement especially if it was about any danger. August was sure if the saint was telling him to rest, he better should.
'Who knows what might be waiting for us ahead'
As if hearing his thoughts the saint spoke, "there are many abominations that dwell in these dark depths of eternal darkness. You were able to figure out how to defeat one which is not a small feat by far."
She lingered for a bit and then spoke her tone seriously, "...however, there are many abominations that do not attack directly but slowly take you away from yourself."
Her words sounded kind of philosophical and there was always a meaning behind them. August could not help but be wary of what the future holds for him.
He knew he was weak. And if any creature more powerful than one from the last time decides to show up, August wasn't quite sure he could defeat it.
'I have to become stronger'
Luckily he was at a place where people, despite not knowing about a core element, were able to use elemental magic. A tiny bit of long suppressed hope which he never dared to fan was now flaming inside him.
What if?
Maybe here it was possible?
August wasn't sure, if it was the right thing to do. But for some reason he wanted to try. He wanted to try his best, wanted to be someone who can also wield magic because deep down he knew whatever he did, no matter how many monsters he fought, he was no match for a mage with a core element.
That was the only hurdle in his life he wanted to clear. And August was determined to see it through this time. No matter the outcome.
— — — — —