Chapter 7: The Mishanter
All of them fell silent. Grak'Mar's face was serious. Liraen had to stop for a moment, remembering it was like tearing open a wound.
All of them, except one. Kael. His face still carried that spirit, still demanding the answer. He was afraid of it, sure, but he needed the answer.
"Continue, Ren," Kael demanded.
"Yeah, sorry." Ren spaced out.
He blew out a breath before continuing.
"As I watched, all the Realm Protectors were struggling in the war. Screams filled the air, weapons clashed, and Might abilities lit the battlefield.
But the other side was no different.
Their raw weapon skills, stamina, endurance, physical strength, and speed all stood on par with the Realm Protectors. The only thing that truly set them apart was the Might Ability.
Unlike the Realm Protectors, the enemy could not wield Might of their own. Yet, some displayed the terrifying ability to mirror and reflect the Realm Protectors' powers. Others could nullify them outright, while a rare few went even further
turning that Might Ability against its wielder.
"That's insane. What do they even look like? Are they… like us?" Nylum asked, his voice wavering like water.
"Not at all," Grak'Mar replied, his expression grim.
Liraen continued the explanation.
"All of the enemies' shapes were so random. Their bodies couldn't be called normal. Sometimes they had one head, sometimes three, and at times none at all. Their arms and legs came in random numbers and positions.
I can't even explain how they moved floating, jumping, flying, crawling, running and all of it while screaming.
Their colors varied: blood red, deathly pale white, and dark purple. Their sizes were random too small, large, massive with no specific shape. It was like one decaying body mixed with another, the stench of corpses clinging to them.
And yet… they brought terror to my eyes.
Then as afraid as I was, I knew I needed to find him.
I needed to find Commander Aeronis.
I told Grak'Mar
"Grak'Mar, let's look for Commander Aeronis!"
"Yes, elf." Grak'Mar nodded.
We leapt from the ruined door and slipped between the shattered remains of the castle, trying to stay hidden.
The war unfolded right before my eyes.
I glanced left and right until
"Yo, elf." Grak'Mar pointed at a figure with a red cape.
There was no doubt. That was Commander Aeronis.
Grak'Mar and I ran toward him.
But suddenly, our feet froze.
My legs trembled. Even the muscular ogre beside me couldn't move a single muscle.
Before my eyes, Commander Aeronis gripped his large bluish-golden sword with both hands, his arms shaking a bit.
But… if I were him, I would be more shaken than that.
Because standing before him was a creature.
A humanoid.
This time, it had the shape of a body.
Taller than him
The body of this creature is black, the sickly color of a rotten corpse. Red, jagged stripes ran across its body like untreated wounds, some fresh, some festering. I couldn't see the face clearly; because its head was bowed low, angled toward the ground.
What I can tell is the creature was painfully thin, nothing but skin and bone. No clothes covered its body, only a few red crystals scattered randomly across its midsection, shimmering with a faint red light. What is more terrifying is that its ribs gaped open, exposing rotten organs that pulsed and throbbed before the cavity closed back up again. Both of these creature hands ended in dark claws with slightly purple edges, sharp and menacing. Chains still clung to its feet, as if they had only just been snapped apart.
And the smell—! The stench of decay hit me so hard I nearly vomited more than once.
Then it started to move its body slowly at first, almost sluggish.
But within moments, its pace quickened unnaturally.
Its body bent in every direction forward, backward, side to side so violently that its bones started to crack, broke, and splintered.
CRAAACK!
CRACCK! CRACCK!
The noise drilled into my skull as I watched in horror.
Suddenly, with a single sharp motion, its spine snapped straight.
KREK!
The sound echoed in my ears like a loud strike.
Now it stood tall, Infront Aeronis, its body rigid and looming.
But its head… its head still hung downward, staring at the ground.
Then, with unbearable slowness, it began to raise its head. Then this is where I saw the meaning of horror myself
I saw its face.
I only lasted a second before I had to shut my eyes
because what I saw was beyond horrifying
Three eyes sat on its face, but they weren't aligned like those of a normal being. They were stacked horizontally, unevenly, twitching out of sync. Only the middle eye burned red, its pupil glowing with a bright, unnatural purple. The other two were half-destroyed, scar tissue crawling over them like living veins. This creature has no nose on its face.
But it had one enormous mouth that consumed nearly half its face. The teeth weren't merely sharp; they were broken and mangled, yet somehow reshaped into jagged blades jutting from its jaw. Black-green saliva dripped between them, splattering onto the ground like something ravenous.
Its face was a canvas of scars, twisted and torn by burns. Strands of white hair hung straight down in a wild, chaotic mess. Its ears were nothing more than charred remnants, as if fire itself had devoured them.
Then I heard Aeronis speak.
Pant… pant… pant…
"Damned Mishanter" he growled, wiping blood from his forehead.
The Mishanter smiled with those jagged, broken teeth. It tried to speak, but I couldn't understand a word; it sounded like someone who had just learned to talk, forced to scream instead.
"Kkk… WARRGGHHH!" The roar came from its deepest throat, vibrating the air around us.
Aeronis reacted to that scream.
"Let's see how far you can go with this," he said, smiling grimly.
I saw him clench the Red Dragon badge on his right shoulder with his left hand until it shattered into pieces.
The moment it broke, a surge of energy erupted. A Might Influence so strong it pressed down on everything around him, far stronger than anything I had ever felt. Aeronis's entire body began to glow with a greenish-blue aura, his eyes, his silver-white hair all charged with awakened Wind Might.
Both Grak'Mar and I could feel the overwhelming pressure. My chest tightened, breath catching in my throat. Grak'Mar's face had gone pale, eyes heavy with strain.
"Huff… huff… Grak'Mar, we need to move," I gasped, struggling to catch my breath.
"Yeah, Elf, I can't stand this" he said, his face drained of color
Almost by instinct, we staggered back step by step desperate to put distance between ourselves and the clash that was about to unfold.
Yet even as we retreated, we could not look away. The battlefield belonged only to them now.
The Mishanter was the first to attack; its instinct drove it like a predator sensing prey before its eyes.
Its skinny frame leaned toward Aeronis position, muscles coiling.
Then, in a blur, it lunged forward.
SWOOSH!
So fast it was as if it had suddenly appeared right in front of Aeronis. The very air seemed to bend around its movement.
As soon as it was in range, its claws lashed out, left and right, slashing simultaneously, aiming straight for Aeronis's chest.
KTANGGG!
But it wasn't that easy. Aeronis reacted faster, his massive sword swinging up to block. Sparks erupted as steel clashed against claws.
Their faces drew close, locked in a tense clash.
"Ceh! You think it'll be that easy huh?!," Aeronis said with a grin.
Then
"HARRGHH!" Aeronis screamed.
With a powerful push with his sword, Aeronis forced the Mishanter backward, the sheer weight of his blade shoving the creature off balance.
The creature staggered, struggling to steady itself as Aeronis pushed it backward. Its feet tore across the ground, scrrrrch!
carving deep furrows in the dirt as it fought to resist the force of the blow.
Aeronis didn't stop there. He dashed forward faster than the Mishanter had moved earlier, almost as if he had teleported.
SWOOSH!
His massive sword came crashing down, swung with terrifying ease like it weights nothing
The Mishanter jerked back to dodge, but it's too late the blade grazed across its face. The edge carved through its only open eye, and a spray of blood burst into the air.
"KWAAARGHHHH!!!" it shrieked, thrashing in pain.
The Mishanter backed up slightly, trying to put some distance between them, blood still dripping from its injured eye.
Its mouth twisted with fury, enraged by the wound.
Clenching its hand tighter, the Mishanter's claws extended, their edges glowing with a sickly purple hue.
Now, droplets of liquid oozed from the tips. One drop fell to the ground—hissss—burning the earth like toxic acid.
It let out another scream, even louder this time
"WARGGGHHHH!!!"
Then it drove into a frenzy and without warning
SWOOSH!
The Mishanter dashed forward, even faster than before appearing almost instantly in front of Aeronis.
With both of its long, poisonous claws, the Mishanter slashed straight at Aeronis's green-bluish chestplate.
SCREEECH!
The claws dragged across, carving a jagged X into his green blueish crystal chestplate.
"Gah!" Aeronis gasped and tried to block using his massive sword again but he failed, unable to react to the sudden burst of speed.
Sparks erupted as the Mishanter's claws scraped deep, piercing through Aeronis's armor.
Shards of green-bluish metal scattered into the air, glittering like broken glass.
"Tch!" Aeronis hissed, quickly stepping back. A chunk of chestplate broke loose and fell with a heavy clang onto the ground.
The jagged chestplate makes a sizzling sound as it melts where the Mishanter's purple poison ate through the crystal armor.
Aeronis stood his ground, his hand still holding his massive blueish golden sword. Even with his crystal chestplate shattered and melted, he knew this was just an ordinary Mishanter.
Aeronis lifted his head, locking eyes with the Mishanter. His expression sharpened into a deadly calm and then, a faint smile curved on his lips. A silent message passed between them reminding the Mishanter that Aeronis was never afraid of it.
The Mishanter froze for a breath, unsettled by that defiant smile. Aeronis's gaze wasn't just fearless, it was a warning.
With a guttural snarl, the creature shifted its stance, lowering its body as venom dripped from its claws. The ground trembled under its weight as it prepared to lunge once more, determined to crush the warrior who dared to mock it.
The Mishanter hurled itself forward with insane speed, aiming straight for Aeronis's body.
SWOOOSH!
Aeronis didn't move.
Its claws tore through him with ease
or so it thought.
The Mishanter's injured eyes widened. It had gone straight through Aeronis body.
Confused
And with a sudden flash its both hands with claws on it were severed clean off. Blood sprayed, black and red, painting the air.
"WARRRGHHH!" the beast shrieked in so much pain.
And then the Mishanter turned its head and saw Aeronis, standing calmly behind it.
The truth hit. What the Mishanter had attacked wasn't Aeronis at all, but an illusion woven from his Wind Might.
"I didn't know Wind Might was capable of something like that."
But it didn't end there. The Mishanter was still standing on its legs; this fight was far from over.
Even with its arm severed and blood spraying like a dark fountain, it roared in fury.
"WARRRGGHH!"
Fueled by rage, the Mishanter launched itself above Aeronis. Its towering frame leapt high, casting a massive shadow over him. From above, it brought its right leg crashing down.
SWOOOSH!!!
BOOOOM!!!
The impact shook the battlefield, the ground cracking open and collapsing into a crater.
But once again it missed.
Confused, the Mishanter swung its head left and right. The swirling dust from its own strike filled the air combined with its already damaged eyes. It could barely see, its vision swimming in pain and rage.
Even I couldn't see Aeronis anywhere.
Earlier, I could still see him because of the greenish-blue outline glowing faintly across his body, but now… it had completely vanished.
Then suddenly—
BOOMM!!!
BZTTTT!!!
A thunderbolt split the sky, crashing down onto the Mishanter.
The lightning struck with such force that the Mishanter convulsed violently, its entire frame writhing as electricity surged through it.
"WARRGHHHH!!!" It screamed in pure agony, its voice echoing like a beast dragged into hell itself. The stench of scorched flesh filled the air as its body charred black from the strike.
The ground around it smoldered, flames surrounded the cracks beneath its feet.
Then
THUD!
The Mishanter collapsed, its massive body slamming into the ground, lifeless and smoking.
Then the dust began to fade, revealing Aeronis with his massive sword. It was Aeronis who had unleashed the Thunder Might ability, channeling it by pointing his massive sword to the sky, striking down the Mishanter.
Now I understood why he had shut down the green-bluish outline he wanted to conceal his location from the Mishanter.
I was truly surprised by him. He could wield two Might abilities at once.
He was surely a Commander for a reason.
Then he slid his sword back onto his back, then walked toward the burned Mishanter lying on the ground.
Grabbing its head, he yanked it upward to see its face closely.
"Cih! Not this one. What a waste of time!"
Aeronis's expression showed no satisfaction. Aeronis was calm and steady when he trained us but in the battlefield he is a completely different person.
Then what shocked me even more was how he could still recognize the Mishanter, even though its body had been burned beyond recognition because of the thunder strike.
Even after all that Aeronis is not done yet. At last he burned the Mishanter's body to nothing but dust with a surge of Flame Might.
After doing that he clenched his fist tightly, and without uttering a word.
SWOOSHH!
he vanished back into the battlefield to aid the others.
He incinerated a Mishanter into dust.... That's insane.
The ground around the Mishanter's body dust cracked and crumbled.
I was still trembling, the echo of that savage battle burning in my mind.
"Grak'Mar… we need to get out of here. We need to go to Volgran," I whispered, my voice unsteady.
He nodded, pale and shaking as though the Might itself had seeped into his bones.
"Yes, elf."
Even as we moved, my thoughts clung to the clash we had just witnessed. How could I with only this fragile power ever hope to stand against a creature like that?
Fear swallowed me.
"I'm afraid… Let's run, Grak'Mar," I urged, tapping his shoulder.
We sprinted, every step heavier than the last.
Finally, the fractured doorway came into view, the same one we had used to get out to see Aeronis earlier. With a final desperate push, we stumbled through it, into the half-collapsed passage beyond.
As we passed the ruined back door and moved deeper inside, we arrived at the shattered middle hall of the castle. The ceiling was torn wide open to the sky.
That's when I noticed it.
One of the Mishanters lay sprawled across the broken floor, motionless. Likely hurled here by a Realm Protector during the earlier battle.
I didn't know if it still lived or not, but I looked at Grak'Mar.
"Grak'Mar. Stand by," I whispered.
Grak'Mar reached for his massive blue axe, gripping it tightly, muscles taut. I pulled out my sword from beside my waist, and together we crept forward.
And suddenly
Thud!
Another Mishanter came crashing down before us, rubble and dust scattering in every direction.
It lay flat at first, limbs twisted unnaturally… but then
CRACK! Its bone cracking as it rose.
I saw from its back this one was different, not like the one Aeronis fought. Smaller, weaker-looking… yet somehow more unsettling.
Grak'Mar and I froze, but it didn't matter. The Mishanter had already sensed us.
Its head twisted unnaturally, spinning all the way from front to back until its gaze locked on us. Silent. Watching.
And then I saw its face.
It was horribly wrong, five gaping mouths filled with jagged teeth, and a single, pitch-black eye stretched across its right forehead. Inside that eye swam three white pupils like shattered stars.
No ears. Bald. Its skin pale as a corpse, striped with festering red and black wounds.
Then it screamed with his five gaping mouth—
WRACCCCHHHH!
Cold blood surged through my body. I drew my sword with trembling hands, And command Grak'Mar to use his Crystal Might.
"Now, Grak'Mar!"
Grak'Mar slammed his axe to the ground, summoning a crystal barrier around the Mishanter
But it was useless.
End Of Chapter 7
What will happen to them
no one will know the outcome accurately