Shadow starts making his way there. Keeping his guard up and watching what’s around him. He walks through Yequn field again and sees nothing much but a few track marks.
He inspects it and thinks “These are tire marks… getting close to where it might be.” He continues onward.
Elsewhere Enella struggles to make it back. She makes it finally to the camp to only see what’s left of it. the camp is destroyed, bodies lie on the ground with marks, missing limbs, splatter of organs and meat around, all surrounded by blood and small fires. The smoke is slowing filling the sky above the camp. The tents and covers are torn and shredded with little inside that is intact. She is shocked in horror and begins walking towards the camp. But she can’t handle the sight and shortly faints and lands on the floor.
Shadow can see some smoke in the distance, he begins to slowly pick up speed and soon after, begins running. He makes it close to the camp and can see what remains. The bodies and the destruction, he checks out the place.
He whispers “this kind of madness… it has to be them. Wait, what the hell.” He begins to run to what looks like the only survivor.
He goes to Enella and checks if she is alive. He sighs knowing she is breathing, but badly hurt. He picks her up and brings her to a mostly intact bed. He begins checking his backpack for medical supplies. He gets a few things from his bag. He starts using some bandages, potions and medical herbs. Being careful to treat the injuries. Soon after Shadow has done treating the wounds. He stays close by watching if anyone shows up at the camp.
Enella slowly wakes up and yawns, she is wondering why she is on a bed in a half destroyed tent. she tries to move but barely can. She sees her wounds and cuts have been treated, but doesn’t know by who. She hears something coming and pretends to be unconscious. Shadow comes to check on her, and can tell she has moved a little. He goes back to his spot to keep watch. Enella tries to quietly get up, she struggles to do so. But manages to get on her feet with some strength and energy, she moves to see who the person is. She looks at him and wonders who this person is.
Shadow can sense Enella presence, he spoke in a friendly tone “I can tell your there…” She tries to find a weapon unsure if he will attack. He doesn’t move and continues on “relax, I’m not here to steal anything. I found you unconscious on the floor and found this place destroyed. Seems the person in town was one of your companions.”
He turns his head, Enella is surprised to see its Shadow knight. He gets up and walks up to her and holds out his hand. She breaths out, knowing she is safe and will be alright. They shake hands and shadows can see she knows who he is.
She introduces herself “My name’s Enella. I can’t believe you’re around this area. Thanks for helping me before.” Shadow turns to see the camp. And added “No need for a thanks. So do you know what happened here.”
Enella looks around and shakes her head. Shadow thinks and starts looking around to see of any clues and finds some burnt symbols that are hard to make out. Than he can see something at a distance. Three soldiers show up and enter the camp. Enella is worried now, knowing Toqan was fighting them before. She tries to get her sword but Shadow puts his hand in the way and looks at her with a look that she can see means stay back. She wants to fight them but doesn’t have enough energy for that. Shadow draws his sword.
One of the soldier’s points to him and began speaking in a surprised tone “That’s Shadow knight. Be ready he won’t go down easily.”
Shadow takes one step forward and two soldiers charge forward straight at him. Enella moves back as Shadow moves forward and dodges the soldiers’ attacks while slashing both of them by the side. Blood following behind Shadow as the soldiers fall dead. The last one is unsure he can take Shadow on. Enella is shocked how quick the soldiers she struggled to face died. He puts his armour on from thin air, he waits for the soldier to make his move. The soldier uses berserker magic, causing him to attack with increased speed and heal faster. The soldier charges and attacks without stopping. He is un-phased and still unhurt. Blocking most of the attacks and dodges the rest and only moves back slightly as the soldier attacks faster. He dodges out the way of the sword narrowly missing his face and uses his darkness magic to grab the soldier with his shadow. The darkness tears inside the soldier as blood is slowly dripping, and rips his stomach open, organs and blood fall with the soldier. He finishes by swinging his sword to remove the remaining blood on his weapon and proceeds back to Enella.
Enella is still shocked and can only mutter “You defeated them… With ease.”
Shadow replies “They were nothing.” He turns to see if any others are showing up. He then checks the bodies to see what they might have.
She moved closer and wondered “Tell me. What’s your name?”
He replied slightly quieter in tone “I prefer to keep it to myself.”
Enella thought and raised an eyebrow in curiosity to why he didn’t give his name. Shadow meanwhile can’t find anything meaningful from the bodies. He checks the camp again for anything he may have missed. Enella rests on the remains of a log nearby a fireplace that has only smoke. She worries for her friend, unsure what might happen to him. She thinks that he will be fine since Toqan is one of the best fighters she has known. She proceeds to Shadow, who is still searching for anything that might help find who destroyed the camp.
Enella asked “Can you help me find my friend, he was with me and was also badly hurt. He could be killed if I can’t get to him.”
Shadow doubted “If your friend was fighting these guys in numbers and his injuries are bad. I can’t see how he could be alive.”
She shouted in return “What!?” she than quickly calmed down to try to get his help and continued “You won’t help, I thought that’s what you do?”
He replied in an arguing tone “Yeah, for money. I’m a mercenary for hire.”
She replied coldly “Fine than. I can find him without your help.” Than left Shadow there.
He called out “You won’t get far if you get yourself beaten again…”
Enella walked away feeling insulted to where she was before to hopefully find where Toqan might be. Shadow watches and sighs thinking about the situation and sighs. He thinks she is crazy to head back right after being injured, knowing she hasn’t recovered fully. He eventually walks to Enella, slowly keeping up.
He kept up and can see her close by. He hides from her sight to not make her run away in anger, he also watches the area unsure what could be in the forest. He knows how dangerous it is here. Enella finds some blood still visible on a tree. She knows where to go and runs, Shadow sees the blood and swiftly follows without stopping or caring of being seen. Enella can see something nearby, she eyes widen when she sees something pass by again. But it seems faster. And runs to where Toqan might be before the figure is. But Shadow appears in front of her.
He raises his voice “Stop.” He stands there seeing Enella is annoyed that he is in the way.
She began to try to past him, yelling “Out the way!”
Shadow stops her with a wall made of shadows just from his hand and replies “Hold on… You don’t even know what you’re doing, you came to a camp site but head back? Why? You only just recovered your wounds as well. Your energy isn’t even fully recovered either.”
Enella stopped and explained “I went back to get help. To report what we saw… But without them I can’t get back without being attacked and without Toqan We lose one of our best people, they got the upper hand. I Know he is hurt but he could be alright. I just want to see. They attack any who are a part of The Phoenix Arms.”
Shadow is surprised and decided “huh. Your apart of Phoenix Arms. Interesting… Alright, I help you look for him.” Enella slowly begins to smile but he explained “But if we can’t find anything leading to him. I will bring you back to your guild. Deal?” he extends his hand for a handshake.
Enella looked unsure, but knew there were barely any other options. She begins to be serious about this and agreed “Deal.” She shakes his hand and they start to look for Toqan.
Shadow follows her, she tracks her path she ran from and found more blood. Soon after she found where Toqan has been, bodies of some soldiers lie on the ground with blood covering them and the snow. Some split in half others sliced open. Enella sees that this isn’t the full squad that was chasing them. She checks for any clues but can’t find anything but she spots a trail of blood and becomes shocked that the blood leads away and Toqan might have been taken and alive. She quickly scans the trail and follows what she can. Shadow doubts that will lead far. The snow begins to fall, very slowly covering the blood and bodies. Shadow can see Enella is running and catches up to see she has stopped. Shadow tries to stop her by grabbing her shoulder, but she tries to move further.
Shadow suggested “Why not see if any of the soldiers have anything to say? If they are alive…” He makes Enella turn around and think about the idea and decides to check the bodies.
He finds one breathing and proceeds to shake him up while saying “Wake up.”
The soldier wakes up in pain, unsure what’s going on, he tries to get up but can barely move from the injuries. He sees someone in front of him and starts to panic, Shadow just stares at him wanting answers.
He demanded an answer and shakes the solider to make him feel more pain “What happened to the man you were fighting here? What happened here?”
The soldier coughs up blood that starts flowing down from the mouth and drips to the floor, he turns to Shadow and coughed “Ha… We got him already. Phoenix arms will fall, they will… Know hell.”
Shadow finishes the soldier off by snapping his neck, he gets up and mumbles “Arrogant bastard…”
He turns to Enella who is searching for any equipment or any alive soldiers and adds “Looks like they may have captured him… At best, but don’t rush off, even this will be a tricky task for me. It’s better to report this incident.”
Enella gets up and breaths in, she explained “This isn’t the first time, they have been hunting guilds down for ages. But we are their top priority, they destroy villages just for the few people there who have joined the Arms. We saw some crazy things when we found one of their largest bases.”
Shadow thinks, then commented “One of their bases? Interesting, never thought anyone could survive after getting close to any of their territory’s. But they must be preparing for more of their goals to be achieved. I Suggest we head back and better prepare ourselves as well.”
She hates the idea of abandoning the search. But nods in agreement, with her expression being serious. Shadow simply turns and heads back to the town to see what happened to the Phoenix Arms scout. They make their way back slowly.
Somewhere else, In The Vast Lands. A rocky place with higher hills and close to a mountain, where minor quakes appear all the time. A person comes out a cave covered in drops of blood. And has some equipment with him. He moves away and the cave explodes and collapses the entrance. He grins as he hears the place fall.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
