Back at the village, Vazir was resting in his chamber.
'They should be back by tomorrow night.' he thought to himself.
He couldn't tell why, but he was anxious and restless.
He felt like something horrible was going to happen, or more like, it already happened.
He didn't want to dwell too much on it; he put the lantern out and went to retire on his bedding.
He was woken up in the middle of the night to some horrible screams, not just any screams, but the cries of women and children.
'Shit!.' he yelled in his head as he hurriedly got dressed.
1 hour ago
Towards the entrance of the village, two guards could be seen patrolling the area.
"Hey, I'll be back; gotta take a piss." Said one of the guards to his companion.
"Yeah, sure. Don't take long though." His companion replied.
With a nod, he walked towards the forest.
Five minutes had passed but the guard hadn't returned ; the second guard getting worried decided to go check what was wrong.
As he got closer to the forest his heart started beating loudly. He had heard of what happened to the previous guard; he surely didn't want to meet the same fate.
As he entered the forest, he heard the noise crickets and bushes rustling.
Suddenly, all the noise was replaced by pin drop silence.
"Hey!! Are you do-." Before he could finish whatever he was saying, a hand stretched from above and pulled him.
He waa caught so off guard that he couldn't even let out a scream or say anything.
What followed this was a resounding thud, confirming his death.
The beast, which only hunted in the dark forest, finally showed is itself now.
It's greyish skin, bulb like head with a black globe embedded in his face, and large black claws, were exposed.
He made his way towards the entrance of the village-instantly arrived there by teleporting.
He entered the village, which was completely empty, and he started with the house on the right first.
He busted the door open and entered; what welcomed him was the sight of a woman and a man making love.
Wasting no time he appeared next to them and delivered a deadly blow.
His hand passed through the man's back - who was on top of the girl- and then peirced the woman's chest.
Both of them died, staring at eachother in confusion and disbelief.
The Martial retreated his arm, and the man's body fell on top of the girl.
He then made his way to the house in front of him, the house left to the village's entrance.
He materialized before the door and then teleported inside the house without breaking the door.
The room was in complete utter darkness. However, he was still able to see clearly.
He saw a baby sleeping in what looked like a basket, and the mother of the child was sleeping next to the basket.
The Martial wasted no time and decapitated the mother's head, which was sent flying at the wall.
Her displaced head made a thud noise as it made contact with wall and then hit the floor.
The baby, who was sleeping suddenly woke up due to the noise, started crying-searching for the warmth of his mother.
The holllow looked at the child with it's non-existent eyes. Well, they didn't have eyes the same way humans did.
He raised his claw, and then brought it down on the child.
After finishing the business here, he turned around to attend to other houses.
Just as he was about to teleport outside, he heard a horn.
He understood what was happening, his cover was blown.
He had already caused so much noise playing around with these people in the last few days.
Attracting anymore attention might put his master in unnecessary danger.
Many people already were gathered outside to inquire about what was happening.
"Hey...what is that?.." one of the children said trembling, pointing at the Martial.
No one had seemed to hear her.
Just looking at the hollow sent shivers down her spine. He tugged at her mother's gown, trembling in fear.
Before the child could say anything, his head was already sent flying.
It took everyone a few seconds to process what the hell just happened. And when they did, chaos entailed .
People screamed and shouted; everyone started running in hopes of getting far away from the danger. But to no avail, the Martial kept disappearing and appearing-sparing no one alive.
With each slash, a human fell; a mother tried shielding her 10 year old daughter, but no use. The beast pierced her chest and her daughter's in a single strike.
....
Back to the present
Vazir woke up from his sleep as a result of what was happening outside; the screams were enough to shake him to his core.
He immediately made his way out, to see what was happening.
There was no saving them now, they were dead.
Haud, the 2nd awakened council man, lived right next to Vazir's chamber.
He was also woken up by this commotion; he made his way to the door to check on what the hell was happening.
Vazir and Haud got out of their respective chambers and saw eachother.
Their gazes lingered on eachother for sometime, before nodding in agreement.
They knew they had to fight , if it was what they thought it was, there was no one coming to help them.
Vazir had an utility type ability, paralysis, and Haud had an attack type ability, he could shoot a palm size fire ball.
After all, it was a trash F-rank ability; what could one truly expect?
The range of his attack had a radius of 10meters
They made their way to the outskirts of the village where the noise was the loudest.
That is when they finally saw the hollow.
Their blood boiled with rage as they saw their people getting raveged by the monster.
The hollow looked in Vazir's direction, and instantly disappeared, only to appear five feet Infront of him.
Vazir couldn't move. Oh...the irony. The man with the ability to paralyze was paralyzed in the presence of the monster.
"Fucking move!!!" Shouted Haud as he sent a fire ball flying in the direction of the hollow standing Infront of Vazir.
The hollow instantly teleported, leaving Vazir to face the brunt of the attack.
Vazir wasn't able to react in time and the fireball hit him on his chest.
Immediately, his entire body was engulfed in flames; he screamed at the top of lungs, but to no avail, the fire didn't calm down.
He fell on the floor as his flesh was being burned by the hot fire.
'I am sorry....my dear Sofie' he closed his eyes as the memories of his daughter were evoked.
A 17 year old girl, burned alive just cuz od stealing some bread.
'Why is fate so cruel?' he asked himself.
He was born a failure and couldn't protect his family. Not only that, but he couldn't save the kingdom he made with Kaz'er.
He couldn't save his daughter, not his people, and not his wife; what use was he truly of?
'I leave the rest to you, brother.' he said remorsefully, accepting his end.
The fire had melted through his flesh and started eating away at his bones.
A tear formed under his deformed eyes, the tear evaporated instantly.
Haud watching this scene, was rendered frozen. He wasn't able to move or formulate coherent thoughts.
He stared at his trembling hands.
"I-I just killed him...*sob*..I-I..." He was having trouble speaking.
Well, his disoriented state was short lived as a sole made contact with the back of his head, and his head exploded instantaneously.
In the middle of the battlefield stood a boy, with raven black hair pulled back in a half bun.
Next to him stood the hollow responsible for all this destruction.
"Everything is done here. Go to the Southern border and engage in battle. Self-explode yourself if the need arises" Valour said, assertively.
He stared off into the distance, thinking about the the next phase of his plan.
He was as old as 13 in human years.
Academy starts at 14, so he had adequate time to prepare himself.
For now he was heading towards the Capital of the southern territory.
This is where the 'Belmouth family ' resided; he wanted to inter-mingle in the society. Not only that, but, the first stage of his mission was going to start there.
After dispatching the hollow to it's demise, Valour went around inspecting the dead bodies.
He raised his hands over every dead body and extracted some sort of black mist.
The smoke travelled up his nostrils and entered his body; next, he lightly tapped his over the deceased, turning them into dust.
After doing that, he left the village-following a trail that lead to the territory's Capital.
.....
The hollow and Valour had already left the village; the village that once flourished with life, was now desolated.
A cry could be heard near the entrance of the village-a cry, demanding justice...
....