Rex and Dorian are breezing through the Bloom forest with speed, following the
storm. The wind seems to have gotten stronger when they headed east, towards the Bloom river. Slight drops of rain started tickling their faces. Suddenly Dorian stops in his tracks.
"There is a fire 2 miles from here, another camp perhaps"
Rex stops and turns around. He also sensed it, and with it he sensed the presence of multiple people sitting around it.
"Should we pay them a visit?"
"Yeah, at least check in on them. I want to know what they are doing in the middle of the woods with a storm brewing in the horizon."
The two men head towards the source of the campfire, in no less than a minute they reach their destination. Rex hides behind a tree while Dorian stations himself in the bushes behind the camp. Indeed there was a camp fire, and the rain has not reached this area yet. Surrounding the fire there were five to six armed men feasting on a game they just hunted. Rex noticed cages behind one of the men, and what he saw surprised him. Dead men and women boxed inside wolf cages like cattle. Beaten and tortured. Those six were no ordinary men, they were organ traders. Rex looks at Dorian and the latter nods, he saw it too. They both knew one thing, those men shall not see the light of day. The traders are sitting around the campfire. Eating and laughing around. Their lives could not be any better. The gold they would make for selling those carcasses would change their lives.
"Can't believe we just got away with this much meat", said one of them looking at the cages.
"Yeah, no ghouls or shadowy fuckers have appeared this time. Heaven is smiling down upon us", added another, with a big axe on his back.
"Heaven smiling down on scumbags like us?", another one added, "Nah, that's the devil's work alright".
The men laugh in pride and approval. They know damn well that their dealings are ungodly, why not enjoy them?
"I'm taking a leak, my crotch been itching since this mornin'", said the man with the big axe.
"Oi, don't poison the whole woods while you're at it you stinky rodent". The men laughed.
He walked approximately ten steps, before finally finding an adequate stop. As he was about to open his trousers, Rex decapitates him with one swing of the Cannibal. Piss started flowing uncontrollably to the ground, mixed with warm blood. Rex picks up the trader's head and walks toward the camp, with Dorian following from behind. The men are still enjoying the warmth of the fire.
"This fucker is taking his damn time"
"He doin' more than just pissing, I know the horndog", He laughed.
Suddenly, their comrade's head comes flying through the sky, then falls into the campfire, setting its flames in an enraged spectacle. The men backed down, spooked and frightened. They stand up with weapons in hand.
"What the fuck was that?"
"That was Ruben's head that came flying I saw it"
"Shut your trap Nalsen, you're talking out of your arse"
"I know what I saw goddamn it"
The men are panicking, set into a state of paranoia. What could have possibly happened to their comrade? They are alone in the eerie woods of Bloom forest, there is one being capable of such dread.
"Ghosts, it has to be a fucking ghost." Screamed Nalsen, "Get the damn scrolls and start praying".
Unfortunately for them, what hunted them was worse than any ghost. Rex emerges from the dark, blood in his hands and raises the Cannibal preparing for a throw. The men, shocked, could not utter a word.
"What the….."
Before the trader could finish cussing, the Cannibal penetrated his skull and hurled him back to a tree, planting him there, like a notice board planted with a nail. The remaining four men scream and charge at the unarmed Rex. Before they could reach him, a swing came from behind and decapitated all of them.
"Again, ruining the fun", said Rex heading towards the planted skull to retrieve his sword.
"We don't need unnecessary risks", said Dorian, unsheathing his sword.
"How boring". Rex unsheathed his, then went to open up the cages, "Let's see what these poor folks have left for us"
"Make it quick, we should move"
Rex rummages through the dead bodies' pockets, but to his unpleasant surprise, he finds nothing of value. Those victims were poor villagers and peasants caught at the wrong time and place. Dorian is sitting on one of the men he just killed, waiting for his partner. Rex reaches the last body and finds a small note in one of its pockets. As he reads the note he stands there contemplating it.
"Dorian, here, read this", said Rex, handing his partner the note. It was a letter from a young girl wishing her father a good day at work at his inn. The men quickly established the scene. This corpse lying before them is none other than Margery's missing father. Of course, his disappearance occurred way before the storm hit, how could the higher incubus get to him. Nonetheless their conclusion was the same, he was long gone. The purgers exchange stern looks and decide to bury the body, in honor of the woman who saved them.
They hurry back following the storm and suddenly feel a presence behind them. The constable's search party made it to the forest. They are being chased. A lot of things happened with the two being out of the scene, they immediately thought it to be the deacon and his minions, coming for revenge for the slaughter of his men. It was bigger than that. With the storm and whatever calamity descending with it approaching, and with the armed forces following them, the pair continued on their race against time.
General Bronn is the man leading the search party after the purgers. He searched every corner and cranny in the nearby villages and towns looking for the two men. Last Light, Strollen, Morningdew, all destroyed and burned down. He finally reached the Bloom forest, which seemed to be the only logical step after many failures. He unleashed the hounds and followed after their trail using torch lights to illuminate the darkness of the woods. The hounds started barking uncontrollably, they caught something. The search party hurries to join them, and what they found was the gruesome spectacle that the purgers left. Decapitated and slain bodies with their blood decorating their destroyed camp. This was not the work of ghosts and ghouls, the general is on the right track. He does not pay much attention to the cages and the cadavers, he is after something else. The search party continued their chase, with the hounds picking up on the trail closer and closer, till they stopped midway. The trail is gone, vanished like thin air. The hounds sat and looked at their handlers. The men looked at their general. He knew the purgers altered their scent. With the trail lost, the men, with their ravenous dogs, are stuck inside the dark woods of the forest and the storm is getting stronger and stronger. Will the general fulfil his duty to the bitter end and apprehend the running purgers? Or will he go back and favour his and his men's safety?