Silence.
For one suspended heartbeat, the village seemed to freeze in time and space. There were no cries, no clashes of spear and bone, only the brittle crackle of burning wood.
Amon stood on the Chief's hut, the Black Stone thudding against his ribs like a second heart. The scent of iron and ash filled the air.
'It's here.'
The treeline bowed. Trunks shuddered. Then, like the forest itself had been split in half, the trees folded and snapped.
SCREEECH.
The sound peeled the air. Goblins dropped to their knees, ears pressed flat; even Hobgoblins staggered, teeth bared in pain. Fire bent in the shock-wash and guttered sideways before righting itself. Amon and Akane, due to their ears, felt intense pain that instictivelly made their hands move to hold their head.
Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Amon. All stood to watch the creature's appearance.
It waddled forward on limbs too thin and too long, a hulking body like a turtle stripped of its shell and skinned, fused with a featherless bird. Torn black flesh hung over wet corded muscle. Bony ridges ran down its spine. Where eyes should have been, skin had melted and sealed. The face lifted and sniffed instead, lips drawing back to reveal a jaw that split an inch too far, raw at the edges, strings of black saliva stretching and snapping.
The stench rolled ahead of it. The stench of rot, bile, and death.
The nearest Goblin hurled a spear with a barked curse. It hit true, and sank deep between ribs.
The creature didn't so much as flinch.
Black meat welled up around the weapon like tar, gulped it deeper, then sealed over with a rippling shudder.
'Fuck…'
Amon had expected something fearsome to come for him, for the Black Stone.
But he didn't expect that.
'What the hell is that?' Amon asked the System telepathically.
[Unknown Entity Detected.]
'Unknown?'
[The Entity does not have a Name.]
[It does not belong to any one Species.]
'Seriously?'
[It could be classified as an Undead Monster.]
[It could also be classified as a Demon.]
'An Undead Monster…' Amon was reminded on the mild effect that the Black Stone had had on the Hobgoblin's corpse. 'What was it before it died?'
[The Entity died as an Embryo.]
'What kind of embryo?'
[A Dragon Embryo.]
The words made Amon's eyes widen. His gaze went back to the creature.
"Fuck me…" He muttered with a gulp. "Does that mean there are Dragons around?"
[The Egg was laid long ago.]
[No Dragons remain in this area.]
[Would you like to name the Entity?]
'Give it a name, for convenience's sake.'
[Species: Corrupted Draconic Spawn.]
[Rank: ??]
[Stats: ??]
[Skill: ??]
'That's a first.' Amon's lips twitched. 'Why can't you tell me its Rank and Stats?'
[Additional Information is unlocked by witnessing the effects of that information.]
'The effects?' Amon was suddenly reminded. 'You didn't give me Akane's Species either. Why would you give me information about Goblins, Hobgoblins, and others, but not about Akane or that thing? What is it that I witnessed when it comes to the formers, and not when it comes to the latters?'
Amon quickly shook his head. Now wasn't the time to think about it.
'Now that I think about it, the System doesn't give me information about the Skills that other creatures have. Wait,' He held his chin momentarily. 'That dead Horned Hare. Show me its Status Window.'
[Species: Horned Hare[F Rank]
-Status: Dead.
-Skill(s): Horn Projection[F+ Rank]
-Stats:
Strength: 1
Agility: 7
Perception: 5
Endurance: 3
Vigor: 1
]
'You didn't show me the Skill category before. But because I've witnessed that Skill, it's been added to the Status Window. Because I saw Horned Hares use that Skill.'
Amon's gaze went back towards the nightmarish creature in the distance.
'To obtain its Stats and more of its Status Window, I need to look at it. To bear witness to its Strength, Agility, and Endurance.' He nodded, convinced by the logic.
The Corrupted Draconic Spawn sniffed again. Its head tugged left, then right… then lifted. The sealed sockets turned straight toward the Chief's hut.
The Black Stone pulsated once, hard enough to ache.
[The Black Stone Resonates.]
"Form up!" Syl's voice cut the paralysis. She strode through the red-lit smoke, hair tied back, knuckles around her spear. "Low. Aim for the joints! If it ignores the spears, cripple what carries it!"
Hobgoblins snapped to motion. Goblins followed late but loud. The first rank braced, the second rank angled for a throw.
Amon's claws flexed. 'If I let it smell the Black Stone properly, it'll come straight to me. I'll hide it for now.'
The creature pushed one leg forward, and Syl hurled her spear.
'Its skin…' The female Hobgoblin frowned. 'It's like the skin moves on its own. Is that what it is?' She clicked her tongue. 'It's too dark to see properly, and it's staying away from the flames.'
Amon dropped from the roof, landed, and slid into the shadow between two huts.
[Disappearance is no longer on Cooldown.]
He had ordered the System to always notify him when this Skill, and future Skills, were out of their Cooldown span.
Amon breathed in through his teeth.
'Looks like it's staying away for now. It's scared of fire and heat? Even from here. I can see that its eyes are fucked. It probably can't tell what's going on.'
The Corrupted Draconic Spawn's head snapped sideways, nostrils flaring. It loosed a sound like a saw screaming.
'It can tell that it's close though.' Amon smirked.
The mutated monstrosity thundered into the lane between the burning huts, knocking a post aside, shouldering sparks into the night. Hobgoblins, standing ready, could tell its trajectory. Four spears were thrown, their sharp tips piercing the air.
Screech!
With a lightning-quick 180-degree turn, the four spears were shoved aside and broken.
'Let alone the turn, that tail flick was lightning-quick itself!'
The Corrupted Draconic Spawn raised its head up and screeched once more.
The hunger, the heat, the flames, it was all infuriating!
Still, it had to gain back its treasure, its precious.
Focusing on where the shouts were coming from, the Corrupted Draconic Spawn could precisely tell where its enemies were standing.
The dark skin over its long tail slowly started tearing, peeling back.
Screech!
"Careful!" Syl shouted as that elongated tail was flicked into one of the burning huts, causing burning wood and ash to be launched towards the Goblins and Hobgoblins.
Shrieek!
One by one, each of the four burning huts was destroyed and used to launch burning projectiles at them.
'What kind of strength is this?' Syl gulped as each flick of the creature's tail destroyed huts that weighed hundreds and hundreds of pounds. "It's too bizarre." She whispered. "We can't seem to injure it, and its strength is extraordinary."
A Goblin shrieked too close; the creature's head scythed that way, mouth opening into an impossible crescent. It took the Goblin at the waist and bit down.
Bones crunched. The shriek stopped.
The village lurched backward in one breath. Lines wavered.
"Hold!" Syl's voice cracked like a whip. 'If we want to run away, we will need the Goblins to keep it busy here. How do I make that happen? We don't even have our mounts anymore. It's like we have no choice but to fight!'
Meanwhile,
[Species: Corrupted Draconic Spawn.]
[Rank: ??]
[Stats:
-Stats:
Strength: 21
Agility: 15
Perception: 15
Endurance: 14
Vigor: 25
Mana: ??
]
[Skill(s):
-Corrupted Skin Manipulation[D Rank]
-Corrupted Healing [D Rank]
-Corrupted Scent [D Rank]
-???]
'Corrupted Healing is what patches up its wounds. Corrupted Scent is what allows it to precisely follow the Black Stone. It's about smelling Mana, or that kind of Mana. The dark and corrupted kind.' Amon nodded to himself. 'Its Stats are high, but this isn't impossible just yet.'
He turned his gaze towards the Goblins and Hobgoblins.
'I need to witness a bit more of its strength before jumping in.'
His lips curled upwards, noticing the scattering of the flaming debris.