Chapter 11: 11 – Path

Two days later, the group of five were trekking through the dark forest. However, it was now covered in white. The blizzard had arrived an hour earlier, and it got more intense with each minute. Ruith could not see more than twenty feet in front of him, and their tracks were covered nearly instantly. He was shaking slightly, his hands and face numb despite the gloves and face covering.

“We need to find cover quickly! We won’t survive at this rate!” Lia’s voice was quickly drowned out by the wind.

“We know! There isn’t shit around here though!” Nalen yelled back.

The wind grew even more violent, nearly pushing the group off balance.

‘Shit. I should’ve told them about the clouds I saw.’

The boy was beginning to think that they might not make it back to the village. The snowfall blocked out the stars, so they could not even use them for direction.

Linne stumbled, crashing into the snow. Ruith stopped, grabbing her hand and pulling her up. 

“T-thank y-you.” Her teeth were chattering, and her face was pale.

The group continued on, until they felt something. Tremors went through the ground, and screeches faintly echoed through the trees.

“Shit. Voidlings and something else!” Nalen paused for a moment, drawing his daggers. “We can’t fight in these conditions, RUN!”

All five of them began to sprint, being caught by Voidborne in this weather would certainly result in their downfall. Luckily, their bodies started to heat up a bit from the exertion. However, the snow was getting deeper, their steps sinking far down.

Ruith’s thighs burned with each step. But suddenly, the group halted.

“What? Why aren’t we going?” Ruith knit his eyebrows together.

“Fuck. Prepare for battle!” Lia screamed.

And then Ruith looked to his right side. The snow was coming down heavy, but he could just barely see up onto the ridge.

Voidlings. Hundreds of them at the least, and that was just the ones that weren’t concealed by the snowfall.

SKREE!

They poured down the short cliff like a waterfall. 

Their bodies rolled around on the ground before they jumped up, shooting towards the group of five. In an instant, hundreds of them were assaulting them. Lia, Vaeri, and Nalen were having a much easier time than the other two. Bodies fell around them, some slashed to pieces and others pierced straight through the brain.

Linne and Ruith on the other hand, were already struggling. Linne was rapidly firing arrows, but many of them plunged into the snow. They were too close. Ruith was using the thinnest roots he could in order to conserve mana.

Black blood flowed onto the ground, creating a nauseating black sludge. 

“Start moving back! We can’t let them surround us!” Lia’s voice boomed through the battlefield.

Tens of the little creatures fell each second as the five started to move away from the Voidlings. They stuck close together in a triangle formation. Linne let loose a barrage of arrows at the monsters that tried to flank.

Vaeri’s silver sword flashed through the air, three hideous heads falling to the ground. Nalen left light cuts in as many Voidlings as he could, letting the poison do the rest of the work. Lia’s spear left holes in multiple creatures each second.

Ruith tried his best to slow the advance of the Voidlings, making roots shoot across the ground near the legs of the monsters, tripping them. Smaller roots quickly shot through the eyes and into the brains of those that were unlucky enough to fall face first into the snow.

Hundreds of small bodies lay on the ground.

“Shit, why won't they stop coming?” Ruith muttered inaudibly.

And then, howls resounded from the darkness. From over the ridge came ten massive wolves. They were not normal beasts, but instead Voidborne, their black fur sprinkled with white snow.

They jumped down, the ground slightly trembling.

“Wolves incoming! They are all at the white core stage!” Nalen’s voice shook, his eyes opened wide.

“We’re fucked…” Ruith said to himself. Ten Voidborne at the white core stage, while the group only had two white core warriors.

Voidlings were crushed underneath the massive paws of the wolves, bursting open in a rain of gore. Ruith silently backed a bit farther away from the front of the group. 

The boy quickly glanced at their surroundings.

‘The wolves will be stuck at the front line for a moment…’

Ruith moved closer to Vaeri, speaking quietly right next to her ear.

“Stay close to me.”

“Why?” She said back breathlessly.

“Just trust me.”

The girl nodded and fell back a few steps.

And then, the ten wolves were upon the group. 

SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

The swipes slammed into Lia, she blocked one with her spear, but the other crashed directly into her. The thick material of her right sleeve tore open, crimson glistening from shallow cuts. She stumbled back, the ground underneath the snow cracking from the force.

Three of the wolves began focusing Lia, but the other seven bolted towards the rest of the group. Nalen engaged in a flurry of strikes and stabs with one wolf. A threatening aura emanated from Linne’s bow, and within five seconds, five blurs shot through the air, and five wolves yelped in pain. They tumbled to the ground, each one with a shattered front leg. 

Linne let out a heavy breath. She wobbled, threatening to slump to the ground.

Now five wolves were out of commission, but so was one of the group, at least for a while.

The final wolf had charged at Ruith and Vaeri.

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50% of Ruith’s mana vanished, roots wrapping around one of the hind legs of the monster. It jerked to a stop for a moment.

RIIIP!

The roots tore apart, but Vaeri had gotten close enough to it. Her sword blurred through the air, slicing straight through one of the wolves eyes. However, that was far too little to stop it. The Voidborne did not falter, and a flurry of strikes descended onto Vaeri. 

The girl had an extremely powerful ability, but in the end she was a brown core and the monster was a white core. She raised her sword to block, bracing herself.

CRAACK!

Vaeri’s long, silver sword let out a terrible sound. It bent, cracks spreading along its surface, almost like it was made of glass. It held, but that was only the first strike.

It completely snapped in two. Vaeri’s mouth opened and her eyes widened, she dropped what remained of her blade and threw her arms up in front of her.

“AGHH!” The girl let loose a blood curdling scream. The claws of the wolf sliced into her forearms. Deep gashes tore through skin and muscles, digging into bone.

The events happened too fast for Ruith to react. Vaeri crumpled to the ground, gasps of pain escaping her lips. The snow was dyed red with her blood, and the wolf shot towards her.

Ruith grit his teeth. The remaining mana in his core vanished, and he used Constrain on Vaeri, hoping to stop the attacks of the wolf long enough for Lia or Nalen to help.

Thick roots encapsulated her, and the wolf swiped a paw. Deep gashes appeared in the defense.

But just then, the ground shook. Ruith looked over, Lia had finally killed one of the wolves and it fell to the ground, greatly reducing the pressure on her. She glanced back, seeing the situation. The woman tensed, looking back and forth from the wolf attacking Vaeri to the ones she was fighting, losing her composure for the first time. She made a decision.

Two powerful spear strikes forced her enemies back for a moment, and she turned towards the Voidborne attacking the young girl. In the next second, a streak shot through the air at an insane speed.

A long spear went completely through the wolf’s head. It froze. Brain matter leaked out the edges of the hole, and the huge corpse crashed to the ground, quickly becoming covered in a layer of snow. The roots surrounding Vaeri slipped back underground.

“Linne, help Vaeri!” Ruith commanded the quiet woman, who rushed over and helped the younger girl to her feet. Vaeri stood, but her arms dangled limply at her sides. Her face was contorted, and veins were nearly popping out of her forehead.

Linne rushed to retrieve something from her pack, pulling out a salve. It was similar to what had been used on Ruith, but obviously far less powerful. The woman put most of it on her hands, lifting the back of Vaeri’s shirt up and spreading it all along her spine.

The girl felt her bones heal and the muscles slightly repair, but not nearly enough to be able to fight again. She could just barely move them now.

Ruith had regained a bit of mana by now, and turned to help with the battle once again. Voidlings still ran around wildly, though compared to the wolves they were just a pest, being destroyed by the strikes of wolves and humans alike.

Ruith sent several Root Pierces out, a few Voidlings finding themselves choking on their own blood. He glanced over at Nalen and Lia. The woman had no weapon anymore, throwing punches and kicks out. But even with her superior strength and durability, the loss of her spear was too much. More and more gashes appeared all over her body, her clothes becoming tatters and exposing her skin directly to the biting cold.

Nalen was faring no better. The wolf he was fighting wasn’t even dead yet, and he also had to deal with Voidlings trying to eat him alive.

And then another howl echoed throughout the gruesome forest covered in blood, though this one was much deeper.

‘Oh shit.’ Ruith thought.

He looked up onto the ridge. Another wolf-like Voidborne. It was absolutely massive, rivaling even the size of a Dread Bear. It jumped down. The ground shook beneath its paws, its gaze sweeping over the battlefield. It spotted several of its brethren lying broken in the black sludge created of snow and Voidborne blood.

It snarled. A tightness gripped Ruith’s heart, blood pounding in his ears. 

It disappeared from its position, shooting through the air like a black blur. It appeared before Lia, a strike that seemed to carry the weight of the world with it bearing down on her from above. She raised her arms above her head, dodging this blow was impossible.

BOOM!

“AH!”

Lia only offered a split second of resistance. A sickening snap resounded from her arms and legs. Her limbs twisted at unnatural angles, the jagged edges of broken bones ripping through her skin. She was still alive, but unable to even move at this point.

The enormous Voidborne leaned down, gazing directly into Lia’s eyes for a moment, as if mocking her. 

“LIA!” Nalen roared, his eyes bloodshot. He lunged at the wolf.

With a casual swipe of its paw, the man was sent flying off somewhere into the forest. The wolf opened its maw, picking Lia up. 

“No, no…” She whimpered weakly.

CRUNCH!

Lia’s life was over just like that.

All while this happened, Ruith stood frozen. He stared at the wolf. He felt a faint recognition looking at it, and he realized why. Though much larger and more powerful than it had been two years ago, there was no doubt about it.

This was the Voidborne that had murdered his father!

It looked over to him, the gaze of a predator staring at its defenseless prey.

‘Curse it all…’

Ruith wanted to kill it right now, but that was a death wish. Instead, he dashed over to Vaeri and Linne, who were both looking at the scene before them. The wolves' muscles tensed.

“Sorry, Linne.”

“Huh?’

Ruith grabbed Vaeri, pulling her towards him.

Just before the wolf moved, the boy grabbed Linne’s arm.

And pushed her into the path of the Voidborne.

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