The sun hung high in a cloudless sky, bathing the vast forest below in golden warmth. Ancient oaks and towering pines stretched their branches toward the light, their leaves rustling softly in a gentle breeze.
Wildflowers bloomed in scattered clearings, comprising of crimson poppies, violet lupines, golden sunbursts, while deer with inverted skulls grazed peacefully at the edges, and flocks of colorful birds with human hands and fingers for wings and feathers flitted between the canopies. Their sweet voice was like a bright song with an even brighter chorus.
Rabbits with crimson eyes and teeth as sharp as a small dagger darted through the underbrush, and a distant river sparkled. It was completely transparent, without a speck of pollution and home to silver fish with a pig's nose leaping in the current. The land seemed eternal in its serenity, yet oddly foreboding.
The beauty and hideousness of the nature, in its juxtaposition, made a shiver run down one's spine.
Suddenly, a shadow fell. It was a small dot first, however, in the blink of an eye, it had grown to gargantuan proportions. It crept across the treetops like a living thing, swallowing sunlight in a widening eclipse that darkened the forest's heart.
Frosty winds, sharp as the sharpest knives, howled down from the darkness above, whipping leaves into frenzied spirals and turning breath of the "fauna" to mist. At once, multiple heads casted their gazes towards the sky.
And in the sky, they found the answer to sudden chill in the air. High overhead, a colossal floating island with its underside cragged with ice and stone blotted out the sun like an eclipsing moon. At the same time, a deep rumble shook the earth.
Part of the island's edge yawned open. It was a massive hatch grinding apart like the jaws of a mountain and the ground trembled.
Not long after, from the gaping maw thundered giants in stature, men and women towering on warhorses and stallions, clad in pure, boiled leathers and furs. Lances, axes, and swords flashed in their hands as they poured forth, led by two people.
The banners of someone as ancient as the corrupted lands snapped loudly in the unnatural gale.
Suddenly, the inverted skulls deer, the human hand birds, the fish with pig's nose and rabbits with dagger teeth all scuttled away. They ran, and ran, without looking back. However, for every one of them that ran in the same direction as the stampeding giants on stallions, more and more of unique animals...no, monsters, crept out of the shadows.
They were twisted beasts. pale as bone, hunched and quadrupedal, twice as long as the man in the forefront.
The creature lifted their mantled heads as razor claws dug into soil, rear-facing spikes bristled along their backs, and tentacle-limbs uncoiled from their shoulders, ending in clawed, spike-ringed pads ready to launch bony javelins.
Their jaws parted, revealing rows of blade-like teeth that bent outwards, bridged by rows and rows of sticky saliva as their binocular eyes fixed on the descending horde.
The two people in the forefront, Lyanna Holt and Ser Calen, looked at each other. Lyanna had a complicated look on her face. This was the first time she had encountered Demons so quickly.
While the flora and fauna of the world beneath the Floating Islands were all corrupted, there were levels to it. Animals, or rather, monsters that had been corrupted above the average thresholds were classes as Demons by the intellectuals of Tianqiu and Aenglarc.
The ones that were going to attack back at the stampeding army of Nordhavn were called Bonecrawlers. While not physically that strong, they had a lot of things at their disposal which made them enough of a threat to be classes as Lower Class Demons.
Their bones were hollow so they were not that overwhelming, however, their tails could shoot bone javelins. These bones javelins were fast enough to tear through the sound barrier. An average person who has not yet learnt or advanced past the Three of any suits was guaranteed to be hit. Not to mention that it the bone that it shot out was reverse-serrated, making it impossible to get out without tearing your body apart.
Just as the first batch of Bonecrawlers, around 50 of them, appeared in front of the stampeding Nordhavn residents, Ser Calen lowered his giant war-hammer. At the same time, three golden, shimmering swords formed an arc around him as he opened his mouth, letting out an inaudible shriek. However, it was only inaudible to the people around him.
This was the ability that stemmed from his rune before Rickard had knighted him as Knight of Cups. It was Three of Swords: Shriek of Despair, a psychic shriek that caused physical and mental hemorrhaging.
In the distance, right at the entrance of the Rootfall, the Bonecrawlers were writhing already, their tails flailing around as bone javelins began to squirt out of them uncontrollably. The bone javelins were coated in a sticky substance as they flew towards the people.
"SHIELDS!" Lyanna screamed out as multiple people got off their horses and formed a semi-circle made out of shields. The bones whistled through the air and multiple screams shot out as the booming bone-javelins splintered the shields where it was made out of wood.
A single, illusory cup revolved Lyanna Holt as the rune on her back lightened up. Her senses expanded like an overinflated balloon as she directed it in every direction. This was her ability, Ace of Cups: Blood Pulse. It allowed her to detect anything and anyone, as long as it was alive.
Ser Calen looked at Lyanna. "Princess, we need to charge, I am not sure how longer the mental attack can restrain them." He talked with patience, and without hurry. His voice was heavy like thunder, sharp like the edge of a sword yet offering comfort in its chill like a balm.
Lyanna nodded as she took out Ice and slit her palm, letting it drink her blood. At the same time, she swung her sword towards the incoming barrage of bone javelins. The droplets of blood instantly smoked and expanded, forming a giant mist that enveloped everything in front of them.
Inside the swirling mist, the bone javelins lost their momentum and fell to the ground with almost soundless clicks.
Four of Cups: Fog of War!
This ability allowed Lyanna to instantly shutdown the "senses" of animate and "path" of inanimate objects.
Raising her sword, she directed it towards the Bonecrawlers that were rapidly increasing in number due to the barrage of bone-javelins keeping everyone at bay. As soon as the Fog of War was laid, Ser Calen lifted his enormous hammer and slammed it towards the ground. However, just before the hammer could land, he used its momentum to increase his stallion's speed as he let it go forward.
Right on the heels of that, multiple illusory hammers fell on the congregated mess of the Bonecrawlers got squished to death as acidic blood splattered everywhere, decomposing everything alike. Ser Calen made sure to avoid it as more and more Bonecrawlers climbed atop each other and began stampeding towards the incoming army of intruders.
In the far distance, outside the newly laid Fog of War, Gregan sat on his horse with a serious look on his face. His entire body, despite being as pale as it was, had gone paler.