CRIMSON GUARD

Stellar stared at Harry while waiting for his expression. A smile had appeared as expected but it was short lived as a feeling of disappointment had crawled over his body.

'How are we going to defeat them without any source of power? It's going to be like a suicide mission', Harry's pessimistic thoughts had decided to force themselves into his head in the last moment.

Stellar noticed the sudden change in demeanor and was ready to lighten the mood once again. She quickly stood up from where she sat with her legs crossed into an 'x' shape.

"Don't feel disheartened, I also have all of them planned out—- the way we are going to fight back and the way we are going to defeat them.",she said while pointing out at a dark space within the cave.

Though the space where she had pointed was drenched in darkness, the light created by the dimly lit campfire had brightened the space up a little giving Harry an idea of what was at the area.

Stellar stretched her hand upon reaching that area and grabbed something with her right hand. It was a long rusty black sword with several holes within the length of the blade which shone bright red at its edges. She threw the sword towards Harry with a heavy and warm smile as her fingers left the hilt of the sword.

The sword spun effortlessly through the dimly lit environment of the cave. Its mere presence had caused the air around it to split open as it continued its journey towards Harry who was thinking about how he was going to catch such a fast moving projectile.

Due to desperation and nightmares from what Frank had done to him, he had hesitated a bit before grabbing the sword by its black hilt which glistened with a malevolent glow.

Finally the smile which had once left his face had find its way back to his face when he had felt power surging through his body.

Mmmmhm!

The feint moan had emanated from his side and he could see clearly who it was coming from. At last the squad leader had woken up.

————

Two days had already pass after the infightings in the squad which had led to the death of the two squad members. By this time though, Harry was back to full health because of the kind of situation they were in.

He still had the bandage around his abdomen and he was left bare chested because it was his clothes which had been used as bandages for him.

He currently was walking at foot of the mountain after moving down it using a narrow path which spiraled around the mountain until it reached the bottom where a group of tall trees were widely spread across the area, giving it that same feeling that place had. The place where they had landed.

Though the setting was that of an evergreen forest, the ground was covered by green grasses which carpeted the whole place like a football field on earth.

Harry had the black sword in his hand and was ready to fight if he came into contact with any beast like before. The leaves of the tall trees rustled while those of the grass vibrated slowly as the winds passed by slowly. It brushed it warm hands around Harry's chest causing him to inhale a handful of air involuntarily into his chest.

His hair also wavered with the incoming stillness of the warm wind blowing about. On impulse he brushed his left hand throughout his hair straightening up and preventing the persistent air from getting its way with him.

Several moments had passed and he continued to roam the woods without knowing where he had reached and where he was going, Harry tightened his grip around the sword as he progressed towards the insides of the forest.

His feet scraped against the surface of the ground with each time his fingers' strength increased around the swords hilt. Due to this he tried his best to put the sword on the ground after some few steps into the forest and sat on the ground.

Rats of light had persevered through his eyelids and were easily burning away on the surface of his eye. The burning sensation from the sun's light had caused him to brush the back of his hand against his eyes to lessen the pain a little.

'I need to continue or else the sun is going to burn my eyes away', he said to himself and hopped up from the ground while picking the sword.

Harry bit his lower lip a little when the intensity of the sensation increased and had crawled all over his chest which was naked at the moment.

Before he could find a solution to this problem though, he could spot something move from behind a tree at the corner of his eyes. Moving his body to the side in accordance to the way the figure had moved, he noticed a long black tail slowly moving up and down behind a tail tree.

The sight had caused his body to shudder a little. He quickly reacted on instinct by stepping back slowly, step by step with his hands tightly gripped around his black sword.

It was all that he could depend on at the moment. He understood the consequences of dying within this environment and wasn't ready to take chances.

Harry waited for sometime, thinking about when the hiding monster was going to act and how he was going to act when this monster did so.

The expected and anticipated outcome he had wanted never came to pass so he had immediately decided to do what any human being would have done upon meeting up something this dangerous.

Tap!

Tap!

The sound reverberated throughout the forest when Harry had bolted back through the path he had emerged from with all the speed he could muster out of his legs.

The monster had immediately realized what Harry was doing and wasn't ready to lose its food. Pouncing and moving from the back of the tree where it had hidden itself stealthily, it dashed and bolted towards Harry at an incredible speed which was even mesmerizing for Harry.

He looked over his shoulder while running as fast as he could. What he had seen though had caused the hairs at the back of his neck to stand upright and goosebumps to appear over his forearms. Sweats of beads dripped down his forehead as he swallowed whatever saliva was able to build up within his throat.

'What the hell did I do to be in this kind of situation, I only wanted to take a better look of the orc village…', he said to himself with tears filling up his eyes.

Paw!

Paw!

The sound emanated from Harry back causing him to look over his shoulder once again. His heart skipped a beat after taking into consideration the full grotesque image of the approaching monstrosity.

The monster on his tail was a sleek great cat around the height of a garage door. Its abdomen stretched intensely like that of an earth cheetah. It was covered in blue-black fur which explained the color of the tail he had seen behind the tree.

Though this great cat resembled an earth cat otherworldly origins were clear in its six legs and two tentacles sprouting from its shoulders. Both of the ends of these tentacles ended up in pads tipped with spiky protrusions. Its eyes glowed with an awful malevolence that looked like it would even persist in death.

What was bone chilling enough to scare Harry to the bone was how the tentacles on its shoulders created powerful sounds each time its padded tips clashed against the air.

Out this though, Harry had noticed that its speed increased as if the padded tips of its tentacles were serving as propellers.

Harry swallowed down his saliva after the monster had quickly decreased the distance between them. Harry wanted to run towards the path which led into the cave but he knew that going there meant sudden death for those within the cave.

He had to do something in order to ensure that his people survived enough to complete the mission. Maybe they will acquire a reward later on which can bring him back to life. This was his way comforting himself.

After several minutes of running through the path he had emerged from, he had changed his path and was heading away from the one which led towards the cave.

He had finally decided on his resolve which was to battle this monster to death.