Fates of Grenora: Return of the Night

All around Aldrin, the Orcs and water elementals clashed. The Orcs were losing the battle as their weapons were ineffective against the magical constructs. In Aldrin's case, they had found a weakness they exploited. The weakness being overwhelming his senses and awareness. Three of them had ganged up on Aldrin, dipping in and out with their attacks, attacking from blind spots when he was distracted by one, and attacking through each other.

With their bodies being made of water and held together by magic, they held no fear of dying nor any hint of feeling pain, which presented an issue for those who could. Luckily, Evie took charge of the Shamans by having them use their elemental affinity abilities with her runestones to enchant the iron and steel weapons of the Orcs. It worked, but they only lasted for three strikes, which taxed the Shaman's Magic points.

Aldrin couldn't pay attention to them as the three water elementals he was facing started their trio of attacks again. Their attacks seemed like one long continuous attack that Aldrin barely defended against. They shaped their hands into hardened drill swords that rotated with the force of a miniature whirlpool. One had gotten lucky and struck Aldrin in the thigh from a hidden feint attack. The crimson and black blood seeped down his leg, but he had to ignore the minor pain as they bypassed his Undead Body skill. Unlike the Orcs, whom they drowned by encasing them in a bubble of water with their hands, they attempted to do the same to Aldrin but quickly figured out he didn't need air.

Sin-Screamer, being an Artefact weapon, and classified as a magic weapon, held its own. Aldrin was relieved it could damage the water elementals. Each swing took away a chunk of their mass, shrinking them slightly until they diminished into a small puddle. His victory over the water elemental was short-lived when a forceful kick from behind threw him off balance as he was busy deflecting a powerful overhead strike in front of him.

Being off balance, the water elemental weaved its drill blade past Sin-Screamer, grazing Aldrin's cheek. He tried to get up, but his senses worked tirelessly, prioritizing which attack to deal with first. He growled in frustration as he turned into black fog, letting the drill blades strike into the earth, reforming behind them while swinging Sin-Screaming with his Cleaving Strike skill.

The water elementals surged forward, sacrificing one by pushing it farther ahead of the others that took the brunt of the force from the skill. Aldrin stopped himself mid-swing and changed into a piercing thrust that went through the two Water Elementals.

'Feast upon the magic!' Aldrin mentally commanded the blade, which it gleefully obeyed. The purple runes along it glowed brightly as the magic keeping the water elementals was greedily sucked into the blade. Aldrin had no time to be surprised that it worked as the magic within the elementals dissipated. He looked at his blade with newfound respect, which it gave a soft hum of acknowledgment.

He took the time to look around the battlefield on the plains of grass. There were more Orc and Terror bird bodies than puddles of water saturating the grass. A part of him became enraged at the sight of his followers lying lifeless on the ground. Then his eyes snapped to the nearest Orc with a large gash in its shoulder, desperately fending off two water elementals. Aldrin rushed to him, appearing in front of the Orc with his Dread Charge skill to save him from a killing blow. The Orc whom he saved turned out to be the brave Orc who questioned him, Buramog-Kurdan. Aldrin pushed back against the drill blade with a riposte. Then he did something he had only done once before. He shifted into his newest direbear form.

The change was quick and painless. Gone was the vampire, and in its place stood the 12-foot tall black furred direbear with savage red eyes and serrated blackened teeth. Aldrin roared, his sharpened serrated teeth on full display as he lunged, crushing the lone water elemental between his jaws. He swiped with his claws, easily diminishing the mass of the next water elemental that stepped forward to attack.

The scene caused every remaining water elemental that wasn't occupied with fighting to converge on Aldrin's form. Seeing this, there was a glint of malice as Aldrin reared up on his hind legs and activated Roar of the Apex. The Water Elementals stuttered like the world had glitched, giving a brief reprieve to those who were wounded. It didn't take long for the water elementals to regain function as they still attacked. However, ‌those who needed the break could at least chug down a health potion or two, restoring some fight to them.

"Evie! How are you looking Magic wise?" Aldrin asked through the Servant Strand, opening it up to be open for the other two to join in.

"Not good at all! The Shamans are almost out of Magic and I'm running out of potions to keep them filled!" She responded with a hint of stress edging beneath her voice.

"There's too many!" Jared relayed before one of his Explosive Arrows shook the earth beneath them.

"Pierre, give me some good news at least?!" Aldrin directed to the Alchemist.

"I've tracked them down, but you aren't going to like it!" Pierre replied, sounding out of breath.

Aldrin sensed where Pierre was before he could even say anything. He turned and grabbed the wounded Orc in his jaws as gently as he could. The Orc, who yelped in surprise at the sudden force, was then thrown onto Aldrin's large back as he trampled through the water elementals converging on him.

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They raced past the small skirmishes, watching more Orcs die or be saved by their brethren, but it wasn't enough. This was a losing battle. He needed to hurry and cut the head off the snake before they could summon anymore.

That's when Aldrin's keen hearing picked up rushing water again. He dreaded to see, but he still turned in time for the wave to collapse against the shore, spitting out another batch of thirty water elementals. The Orc on his back subconsciously gripped the fur tighter as they both stared at the new water elementals.

"By Gorsh-Nik…" the Orc whispered in disbelief.

Aldrin whipped around and raced to the back of the line that was slowly thinning and being pushed back as the water elementals charged. He saw Evie first, pushing a blue magic potion into the hands of a Shaman who quickly chugged it and flung out a lightning spell not a moment after that zipped through at least five water elementals. The other Shamans followed, and a blitz of lightning arched through the water elementals, diminishing their numbers down to forty-seven.

The Shamans almost attacked Aldrin, seeing a massive direbear charging towards until Evie held out her hand to stop them. He shook off the Orc who was on his back. The Shamans caught him before he hit the ground, then Aldrin wheeled towards Pierre's location, pinpointing it through his Servant Strand. The screams of the dying and the yells of defiance faded into the background as he raced to Pierre.

"Keep them busy! I'm going to end this!" he said through the Servant Strand.

He arrived where the river split into two. Pierre was locked in battle with a Mer-Man. The top half was human except for being covered in shimmering blue scales. On his ribs were gills that opened and closed with each movement. He had no nose except for a slit and large dilated black eyes. One long, deep blue, ribbed fin started from the top of his head and snaked its way down. In his webbed, clawed hands he held a coral staff covered in algae and adorned at the top was a decently sized pearl.

Aldrin couldn't see the bottom half of the Mer-Man, but he could only imagine. He bellowed, stunning the Mer-Man while Pierre released a breath that loosened his shoulders. "Guess you're shit out of luck now!" Pierre said with a tired grin.

The Mer-Man took one glance between the two and hissed, showing needle teeth that reminded Aldrin of an eel. He dove beneath the water, flashing his fin, obscuring himself from Pierre but not from Aldrin, as he could still see his life force swimming fast away.

Aldrin shifted back into a human. "He's getting away!" he said and morphed into a swarm of bats, taking off after him. He followed him up the widening river, gaining on him until he was right on top of him. Still in his swarm, he dove into the water, encircling the Mer-Man.

Realizing how tremendously stupid it had been, Aldrin shifted back into his human form, trying to wrestle away the staff, but the Mer-Man was in his element. A surge of strength from the Mer-Man surprised Aldrin as he was pushed away first. The Mer-Man followed up by weaving his staff in a figure eight motion, gathering the surrounding water into a condensed water ball and shooting it at Aldrin. The force of the water ball knocked Aldrin further away, sending him head over heels into the deepened river.

"Hishtas will be pleased! This was only a taste of his power! His will endures even when he's been asleep!" The Mer-Man spoke in a gargled language in Aldrin's mind.

Aldrin stopped himself from tumbling through the water by his will alone. There was a shadow of a shape that morphed and loomed behind the Mer-Man. All he could make out was the bulbous head and long drooping tentacles that dwarfed the Mer-Man until he was an ant. Amber-yellow eyes glanced at him, brushing up against his mind that overwhelmed his mental defenses, giving him a headache. Aldrin grabbed his head at the throbbing pain, but pushed through it in order to see, and he regretted it immediately.

"Progenitor," it said in a deep, booming voice that overwhelmed Aldrin before blasting him nearly unconscious, letting him hit the riverbed of rocks beneath. "Unworthy," was the last thing he heard before he completely slipped into darkness.

Aldrin came too on the rocky shore of the river. He spat up water and looked around to see a panting Pierre lying flat on his back. "Where is he?" he asked quickly, scanning around for the Mer-Man or the Progenitor.

"He ran off. Where? I don't know. I lost him after he knocked you unconscious." Pierre said ‌between breaths.

"It wasn't him that knocked me unconscious," he murmured to himself as he realized just how little he mattered compared to an older progenitor. Shaking that thought off, Aldrin took a minute to look at Pierre's blue-black hair plastered to his forehead, his clothes and armor were drenched, and the way he tried to catch his breath made Aldrin feel guilty. "Thank you, but you didn't have to, you know? I don't breathe," Aldrin sheepishly said.

Pierre waved his hand weakly. "Doesn't matter," he said as his hand flopped back down. "It was only a scout, by the way. We got our asses kicked by a scout, and it was alone. We aren't ready at all."

Aldrin grimaced. "We sure the fuck did, didn't we? We definitely aren't ready at all." He admitted as he lay back down. "A scout of all things did that much damage…"

"And we gotta cross an ocean with more of those things." Pierre said, finally sitting up on his elbows.

Aldrin nodded as he stared up at the sky. His first skirmish against another Progenitor. Not even an actual Progenitor, but just one follower, had almost decimated his following. The Black Bazaar came to the forefront of his mind because of it. He needed a quick power-up for his followers if he intended to survive at all. So he pulled out the keycard and held it in his hands. All light around it, sucked into it like a never-ending void.

"I'll be back, Pierre," he said, then placed it on the ground and stood back as it unfolded itself, opening into a massive pitch-black hole in the ground. Aldrin stepped in, vanishing into the hole, leaving Pierre there alone.