When the heat finally gave way to a breeze, Nikola was the first one to get on his boots and march outside. It was too windy and chilly for the children, but the brunette didn't think it was too cold for a walk.
He had gone out alone. Leaving Dimitri and Jack and Jean with the babies. Rocky was fussing over his potted plant, Silvia, and Tony had just tucked his beak under a wing and given him an angry chirp.
It was 5 am. There wasn't anyone on the streets. They looked strange to the druid.
Too fake. He could hear the roots under the roads. He could hear the song of the lonely trees, spaced too far apart for them to touch the branches of a brethren.
Something told him that he should do something about it all, but he didn't dare.
This place, this strange world, was not like his own.
It was filled with magic. With people who knew their rights and would not hesitate to point them out.
Nikola passed by the fountain. Only to scrunch up his nose.
He blinked.
"Strange. It should have been cleaned." Nikola walked towards it. Looking around.
There was a dead cat floating in the water. Water as black as swamp water during the dead of night.
Nikola sucked in a breath.
"A curse?" He asked himself. Could it possibly be a curse? He knew that the cats and dogs in Oak's Rest were cared for.
Not only that, but they were even welcomed in the shops when it got too hot or too cold.
Nikola took a step back when he saw the wheel. His hand immediately went to his crucifix.
They had blocked Tangra for a month. Could it be that he had gotten a new champion?
"System, what does this all mean?" Nikola asked as he took another step back.
"To be honest, you already figured it out. You just don't want to believe that chaining a god is not the best idea there is," the system told him. Then she offered him a system screen.
"New Quest! Go to the priest in the temple and notify him of this curse! You have 30 minutes! Now go! Run!"
Nikola didn't need any more prompting. He took off running, the glassy eyes of the cat following him.
If he had stayed, he would have seen the skeletal hand that was rising from the water.
The Lich was waking up.
****
Nikola entered the temple with sweat on his brow. There were about 10 more minutes for him to make his case.
But the priest was nowhere to be seen.
"Father Sam! Father Sam! There is a curse in the fountain!" Nikola yelled.
He began to go through the temple. Looking at every nook and cranny. Trying to think up of something, anything, which he could use to find the priest.
The confessional's door creaked open.
A corpse fell through it.
Nikola's blood froze.
"Well," the system told him as she marked the quest as failed. "You don't have time to get help. What now?"
Nikola looked at the altar of the Three Mothers. He took a deep breath.
"I'll probably burn because of this," he said, as he took the scythe from the hands of the Mother of Death's statue. Letting its mana merge in his bow. "But needs must!"
Nikola ran back out.
Would the Lich spare the children, just like the other Lich had done?
But what fate was it to be stored in cages? To be forced to watch as your parents were murdered?
Nikola began to run faster.
When he reached the fountain, there was a skeleton in robes already letting out green fumes into the air.
The trees were wilting. The grass, as little of it as there was, was beginning to turn yellow.
Nikola had only one weapon to use.
He took off his bow, nocked one of his precious arrows, and then fired.
Only for the arrow to sail harmlessly past the Lich's head.
The monster began to laugh. Waving his arms around. Turning the rain clouds, which had finally given them all a respite from the heat, into storm clouds.
Nikola aimed again. He closed his eyes.
The lessons Tangra gave him were in his head. He knew that he had to feel the bow. That he had to stretch the string with all his might.
He felt something from the corner of his eye. There was green mana, with it being darker around the Lich's chest.
Nikola aimed, letting the mana guide him.
He let the arrow loose.
The Lich screamed. Nikola heard it as it fell on the floor.
It was not dead yet.
The brunette kept his eyes closed. He focused on the dark green light.
Another arrow pierced the one that was already in the Lich's chest.
Then another.
The barrier around the dark green light finally cracked.
The Lich gave out a howl. The skies rumbled.
"Please," Nikola said, not even knowing to whom he was praying. "Please, let it die before it can reach my children."
The brunette took off an arrow from his quiver and then opened his eyes.
The Lich was trying to take out the arrows from its chest.
Nikola didn't think. He charged the being with his arrow. Stabbing it again and again.
Turning the being's leathery neck into ribbons.
He wasn't doing this to prove himself. He wasn't doing it to be a hero.
He saw bright-green eyes and a dimpled smile before him. The smile of a child who nearly didn't get a chance to grow up.
He saw brown eyes, just as twinkling, with a lovely, if a bit fussy at times, lady as their owner.
Even Rocky and Tony flashed before his eyes.
He stabbed and stabbed.
Until the stench of rotten eggs finally let up.
Nikola blinked as he looked at the Lich. It was slowly turning into dust.
But now that he knew that Tangra could still send his catspaw at them, Nikola knew that now, more than ever, he had to train.
But first, he had to report to guild master Arnold.
Where there was one Lich, there could also be more…