"What a pain in the ass…" Aven complained as she pushed her way through the mud.
She tried using the trees to travel like she would usually do on scouting missions, but all the branches she used would crumble under her weight.
Every tree in Rotmere was on the verge of death.
"Where is that guy?" She was waiting for Eidolon so they could start looking for the children. He was running late.
In the three days the knights spent preparing for the expedition, she attempted to investigate Eidolon's identity and failed.
Surprisingly for her, the knights' academy had a great influx of commoners join. The special recruit program, once meant for the most exceptional people without a background, had started letting in anyone with a hint of talent in weaponry.
Finding Eidolon would be like searching for a grain of sand in the desert.
Luckily for her, he had to join this expedition, lowering the number of potential suspects to nine. That number should've been smaller, but the Hero had chosen only special recruits for some reason.
'I wonder…' She couldn't shake the feeling that Eidolon wouldn't make it that simple. What if he disguised himself as another knight to throw her off?
"Stalking people is rude, ya know." Mimicking his tone, Aven said as she looked back.
"Quite ironic coming from you…" A strange voice resounded from the darkness.
'So he knew too…'
Cael was the only one who could see through her stealth. But now, even a washed-up Hero and a creepy shadow had figured her out.
Every time she crept near their camp, the Hero's helmet would turn toward the exact branch she perched on and linger there, as if warning her not to move.
"Are you ready?" He said, finally revealing himself.
"What took you so long? I've been ready."
"The knights were trying to show off to the Hero that they're not scared, so I couldn't leave…" A sigh escaped from his mouth. "Did you at least find something while waiting?"
"There's a fight happening in there." Turning her head away from him, she looked where the skirmish was supposed to be.
Turning his head with her, Eidolon focused on hearing.
Klang! Boom!
Metal and magic clashed, echoing through the swampy wind.
"Who would they be fighting?"
"I don't know. Themselves?"
"Let's check for ourselves shall we?" With that, both of them leapt towards the ruckus.
Balancing atop of a sunken roof, their figures looked dazzling under the moonlight. Aven's silver hair and blue eyes and Eidolon's crimson mane and his glowing eyes, they were like moons.
In the distance where their eyes landed, a fearsome battle raged.
"Is that Eryndor?" Aven asked, squinting her eyes.
"The drowned knight? What is he doing here?"
The platinum adventurer was single-handedly fighting ten cultists that surrounded him.
His long blue hair flowed like waves with each movement; every time his spear sliced the air, a torrent of water crashed down on his targets.
The cultists weren't backing down, each one wielded a different element, attacking in perfect rhythm to give him no room to breathe.
However, their fire power couldn't compare to Eryndor as he easily summoned walls of water to block or reflect the incoming magic. It was just enough to hold him back from completely destroying them.
"Let's help him out." Aven raised a brow in suspicion at his words.
"Did you make him come here?"
"Technically?" He shrugged, "He probably heard about the mission and that it's in his home town and came on his own."
"How should we do this?" Aven turned to him.
"Do you even need to ask?" The darkness surrounding him deepened.
And they both disappeared.
Eryndor's spear never stopped moving and his water followed it, he wasn't overwhelmed with the barrage of fire and earth but his hands were full. If he were to try and land a blow at one of the cultists the pressure on him would decrease but he would definitely be hit by another attack, and he couldn't afford that.
As soon as he caught word of Rotmere being used as a den for kidnappers, he dropped everything and came as fast as he could, yet it wasn't fast enough, as he reached the ghost town right before the knights.
If he didn't want to be entangled with them, he would have to finish things here by tonight.
Lost in thought, he searched for a way to break the stalemate.
"Hm?" He noticed a delay in the strikes.
Looking up and narrowing his eyes, he counted the people around him.
"Eight…Five?" They seemed to disappear.
The reason didn't matter, he can finish things now.
The spear danced through the air, drawing tides as it slashed the final five blasts. The dying sparks rode the wind, lighting his tall figure.
His expression was dull, as if he didn't feel anything, his eyes only sparkling because of the fleeting embers.
The muscles under his green montsuki tensed as he turned the spear and dug its head to the ground.
The muddy ground cracked and a massive tsunami broke out, taking out the remaining five enemies.
"...Show yourself." He scanned the surroundings with his eyes and all of his senses but couldn't find anything.
Which made him more wary.
'There had to be someone behind it.'
"Chill out, stick in the mud."
Following the voice, he turned around and raised his spear. To be met with a silver haired woman and a masked… man? He couldn't tell.
"Blight? What are you doing here? The guild hasn't declared this a quest." His expression didn't change, his fish-like eyes had a darkness as deep as Eidolon's shadows.
"They kidnapped slum kids, I think that's enough reason for me to act." She shrugged.
"Understood…" Turning to the side, a slight wrinkle appeared between his brows. "Is he a new friend of yours?"
Following his gaze, she said with a smirk, "He's a creep that followed me here."
"Should we take care of him?" Pointing the spear at Eidolon, he seriously asked.
"Hey, hey, that's no way to greet a new friend, is it?" He raised his hands at the threat.
Cael and Aven called Eryndor "Stick in the Mud" for a reason, his personality was as dry and straightforward as they came.
"Haha, he's not a friend but he can be useful."
"Eidolon, at your service." He gave him the same dramatic bow he gave Aven before.
"Eryndor." The drowned knight didn't like his nickname.
"Anyway, do you know where the rest are?" she asked, glancing at the bodies around them.
"That should have been all."
"Only ten?"
"They were around thirty. They hid well but I know every corner of this place."
'That's a platinum adventurer for you…'
"Are you sure?"
"No. I couldn't find any children."
"So there could be another hiding spot?"
"One that I don't know of…" An actual frown appeared on his face, to Aven and Eidolon's surprise.
"Let's start lookin–"
"HOW DARE YOU!" A manic scream rang out from one of the drowned houses.
Moving their eyes to its source, they saw a disheveled old man shaking erratically.
"YOU DARE DISTURB OUR HOLY RITUAL!?"
"Hey old man! What the hell are you talking about?" Eidolon's voice rivaled the old man's in uncanniness.
"AH MOON! WHY DO YOU TEST US WHEN WE ARE SO CLOSE?" His hands were raised high as he looked to the sky.
"I'm not that creepy am I?" Eidolon asked the other two.
"..."
"..."
Only to be met with silence.
"I can pierce him if you give me a second." Eryndor ignored the strange shadow and turned to Aven.
"No need. I'll take care of him." Holding her hand to the wind she said, "The wind is with us."
Aven was called Blight because of her affinity to wind and darkness, she would carry poison in her wind like a virus, and an unsuspecting target was perfect for her.
"WE HAVE SPENT SO LON—Cough cough— W-WHAT—Cough" Falling into a fit of coughing, he fell to his knees as blood started dripping from his crooked nose.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DON—Cough COUGH"
"That was one of my most potent poisons. He'll be dead in a minute." A confident smile appeared on her face.
"I guess the old man wasn't anything special." Poison didn't work on most advanced adventurers, Eidolon thought that he would be the same.
"We should search inside all the houses." Completely forgetting about the dying old man, Eryndor proposed a plan.
"HAHAHA—Cough—I SEE! SO THAT'S WHAT YOU WANTED ME TO DO! HAH–Cough Cough…" His laugh faded with the bellowing of the wind as he stood.
A red glow flared from multiple spots around them, blood-drawn sigils lighting up one by one.
The ground rumbled.
And the old cultists body twisted.
His bones cracked, his body twisting in impossible ways as blood poured from every orifice.
The laughter never stopped.
"Do your poisons usually do that?" Eryndor asked flatly.
"What kind of poison would do that?" She replied in an irate voice.
"That's a summoning circle." Eidolon pointed down, where a faint glow could be seen under the mud. "This maniac is sacrificing himself."
A grave expression appeared on Aven's face
Crack
A final crack echoed, his neck was broken and his head fell.
The ground shook harder and a deep chasm opened.
A huge hand clutched at the edges of the gash.
And slowly a terrible maw rose.
"They revived a fragment of Iskalor the Sleeping Maw, the first Ashborn general." Cael recognised those sharp teeth instantly.
"Shouldn't the Hero be cleaning up his own mess?"
"Do you want him to come here?" Said Eryndor in a bland tone.
"Fuck no." She didn't even hesitate.
"Well why are you asking for him then?" Eidolon's tone was full of sarcasm.
"Can't a girl complain?" Her annoyance was clear on her face, "And since when were you so talkative stick in the mud?"
"People change. And can you stop calling me—" A boulder the size of his body cut him off mid-sentence.
"Stick in the mud!"
Gesturing with his hand to the ground and pointing his fingers to the side, the mud underneath his feet slid to the side, moving him out of the way.
"I'm fine. But stop calling me that."
"I'll keep it company." Eidolon stepped toward the towering golem, shadows rippling at his feet.
"Eryndor, focus on dealing one devastating attack on its core, the one inside its mouth."
"Understood."
"Blight, see all those glowing sigils? Break them all as fast as you can."
"Why are you suddenly giving orders?" Her expression was one of disgust.
"Do you have a better plan?" His eyes glowed brighter as he faced her.
"...No." Turning her head away from him, she went towards the closest sigil.
"Good. Let's do it!"
Blight and Eidolon disappeared in a flash.
Eryndor stood in place floating slightly above the mud, he held the hydra spear with both hands, water starting to surround it.
A silver assassin appeared by a bloody sigil, destroying it with ease she disappeared again.
The darkness around the golem writhed as Eidolon's figure crept up towards it. Taking out his daggers, he dodged the falling push with a single step.
Iskalor was the first Ashborn general he faced with Arlen, and the one that took them the longest to defeat.
"How about some payback, you mother fucker?" He had already killed it once but that wasn't enough to give him peace of mind.
"Now that I know all your moves, you can't do shit to me!" Cael never forgot how his enemies fought.
He replayed every fight in his mind time and time again to find the most optimal way he could've tackled the enemy. And this particular enemy he thought about for months.
'Hm?' Looking closer at the general it seemed to be smaller and missing limbs.
"A failed summon, huh? Even better."
Eidolon dodged and weaved through every snap of the maw, striking with precision as he waited for the drowned knight to be ready.
"I'm done…" Aven appeared by Eryndor breathing heavily.
"Eidolon!" The water he called revolved around his spear at a rapidly increasing speed.
Hearing the shout, the shadow dug his dagger at the underside of the golem's maw.
Letting out a devastating roar, Iskalor's fragment opened its mouth wide.
Jumping on top of its teeth, Eidolon opened it wider, revealing the dark core deep inside.
"What is he doing!?" Aven was taken off guard by his actions.
"SHOOT!" Not minding her surprise, he ordered Eryndor to take his shot.
Clenching his jaw, Eryndor focused at the core and raised the spear to his eye level.
Pulling it back like a bowstring, he held the pose for a heartbeat.
Then sent the spear flying.
Before the spear could hit him, Eidolon jumped back, letting the general take all the damage.
The golem was no more.
Its pieces fell like rain around them.
"You're a crazy bastard, you know that?" Aven was still baffled by what he did.
"The plan worked so you can't complain."
"What if I missed?"
"How would the renowned Eryndor Thale miss?"
"..." Eryndor fell silent at his reply.
"We should look around. I've got a bad feeling about this place." Eidolon's senses screamed at him that he was missing something.
As if to answer those feelings, the falling pieces of debris glowed in white.
"Wha—"
BOOM
Then, all of them exploded at once.