NOVEL NEXT Ch 32 : The Reaper
The runt wolf let out a howl, encouraging us to follow closely.
“We trusting this guy?” Indena asked.
“I don't know...”
It felt weird trusting a monster wolf, especially since we weren't even sure where he'd take us.
Following a few paces behind, he took us down a path that seemed to have the least amount of trees. That made it much harder for the locust demons to jump us. At first it was making a world of difference, but...
SPLASH!
A locust demon suddenly sprung out from that sludgy water with a splash, biting onto the side of Indena.
The lightning wolf noticed the attack and struck the demon with an electrified tackle, freeing her from its clutches.
“Yo, dog, you saved me,” she took a breath, examining the sludge that covered half her body. “Yuck! Ah, hell…now I'm covered in shit.”
It was that sludge water we saw before. We kept passing by big puddles of the stuff. Very nasty looking.
With a single burst of her fire aura, she blasted away any worms and yucky stuff that coated her cloths.
The lightning runt took a few sniffs of the water, then looked at me and whimpered. He must not have been expecting that to be here. Knowing dogs, he probably got a good enough smell now so he'd be able to avoid this stuff in the future.
Looking into the puddle, I saw small versions of the locust demons swimming around along with other ugly bugs.
“Wait, I think these are spawning the locusts!”
That had to be the case. I could even see a few of them growing bigger in the sludge by the second.
“I hate water,” Indena felt the need to comment. “Hey, I'm not gonna get sick from touching that, right?”
“I'll keep an eye on your health,” I said, pressing my hand to her shoulder and linking her vitals to my system. Now I could see her condition, just like I could with daddy's. “Just watch out for more puddles.”
“Yeah,” She nodded.
We kept following the runt after that.
It looked like he was taking us to an open field of ice, just before the glacier. We were on the edge of the crazy dark snow storm. A pack of lightning wolves were waiting for us out there, and we were heading their way.
None of those wolves looked ready to attack us, so they we assumed they were on our side.
"Remember when I said I hate dogs? Yeah, I love dogs now."
I was coming around to that too. Still, why attack us before at all?
"Woof!"
*Growl!*
All the wolves started barking at the sky. The runt looked up where they were facing, then he stopped in his tracks trying not to slide across the ice.
*Weeeeaaaaaoooooooaa*
That siren started to sound again, but it was much louder and heading this way.
"What the…?" Indena blurted out.
The runt started viciously barking at us. He ran up to me and locked his jaw on my arm, tugging me to keep moving. It was like he was telling us to keep running.
Failing to get us away fast enough, the runt zapped forward like a lightning bolt and headbutt me. I fell down and slid across the ice back toward part of the forest edge. He did the same with Indena.
"Ahh!"
Sliding across the ice, I felt a deeply disturbing presence above, followed by a shadow grazing the ice like a bird of prey.
The runt was gone when I looked back. Dust scattered across the frozen lake.
Indena recovered quickly, then helped me stand back up.
"Did you see that?" I asked.
"I don't know what the hell that was, but let's get going!"
We started running the way the runt pushed us, and we ended up back in the forest. Some of the wolves were there, and they were battling off the locust demons.
Strobes of lightning struck everywhere, hitting just about anything but us. The whole area was on fire.
"Now we're talking!" Indena stretched out her arm, using her magic to make the fire spiral and burn each of the demons.
They got crispy, burned as black as coal! Those nasty demon didn't die though.
*Weeeeaaaaaoooooooaa*
Suddenly the siren rang once more.
That shadow was back, swooping across the ground. Anything in its path wilted and died.
Indena pulled me to the side, keeping both of us out of its way.
My sensors weren't even picking up whatever that was.
Before we had a chance to keep going, we noticed that all the monster wolves were gone. It wasn't just them though, the demons were gone too. That thing must have killed them both.
Oh no…this couldn’t have been what the book was warning about, could it?
“Indena, is this the…”
“Yeah, it has to be.” She had an angry look. Cold beads of sweat dripping down her forehead.
Things became deathly silent, like the sounds of reality had been switched off. I didn’t need sensors to tell me something evil was near.
It got hard to breathe through the cold ash that filled the air. Things were so stale and stiff, frozen in time.
I hid behind Indena, and we both scanned around to see what was causing this.
A shadow finally revealed itself, descending from high above.
It felt like a black hole, constantly devouring life indiscriminately. Its physical form was warped behind rippling clouds of mana energy. Behind the clouds were bright red eyes. What I assumed was his head bobbed back and forth, the red glow leaving an after image trailing in the air.
The lensing effect around his body eased, and a bone hand stretched out of it. An overwhelming pressure filled the air.
Rotting soil and plants turned into fly infested muck before becoming ash.
I wanted to throw up, but stayed strong.
Indena couldn’t keep the same composure. She was leaning over, holding her stomach in pain. Her eyes were closed tightly, and she was tearing up with fright.
*SRRRrrrereeeeeeeaaaaaaaa!*
The horrible creature had been the source of the siren. No doubt this was the Reaper.
-WARNING! THREAT SIGHTED!-
-IFF tags activated-
-Reaper tagged; Foe-
-Advisory : fleeing is advised-
A gross looking fog fell down from the shroud of the Reaper. It spread quickly through the air, dissolving everything it touched.
The fog was reaching for us, getting closer by the second. If we didn’t move, it was going to touch us!
I tried to grab Indena’s arm, but she was just dead weight. Her legs weren’t even moving, just dragging along. She was too heavy for me to carry!
“Indena, you need to move!”
She just wouldn’t budge!
Not a peep came out of her mouth, but she was shivering like a leaf, she just wasn’t getting a hold of herself.
There was a weird little icon next to vitals, it looked like the scared face of a stick figure. If my video game knowledge had anything to say about it, this must have been some kind of ailment she was suffering from. Probably fear.
Or maybe worse…terror…
Darn it! This was really bad! I didn’t have anything to get rid of her ailment.
The fog was mere meters from touching her, closing the distance fast. No way she was going to get out of the way in time.
I had to do something quick. But how was I supposed to stop this fog?
Wait, I remembered something! Uncle and I were practicing using our wings to make gusts of wind! Maybe I could fan away the fog with my wings.
I summoned my wings, sparkling dust puffed out of them as I stretched them out. Once they were deployed, I made a waving motion to fan away the death fog.
Fwoof! Fwoof!
Not good enough! The fog was still heading this way. These wings of mine had to flap faster. I put some real effort into getting them going.
Still not enough! The fog was creeping closer, now about fifty centimeters away!
COME ON YALDA, GIVE IT YOUR ALL!
“HAAA!”
I gave it one powerful gust of wind! Suddenly the fog started to get forced back! Yeah!
But the nasty Reaper wasn’t done yet, he upped his ante too by raising his arms and forcing the fog to spread faster.
Not on my watch!
Calling upon muscles I didn’t even know I had, I fanned my wings even faster.
“I’m gonna huff, and puff, and blow away your stupid gas!”
I almost said a bad word…
After realizing I wasn’t giving in, the Reaper’s death gas attack stopped, then he lifted off into the air with an oddly graceful motion.
The moment he left, that terror icon also vanished from Indena’s vitals. Not that she looked any less horrified. If only I had a remove fear spell, I could help her!