Chapter 7: 7 – Voidlings

Ruith tensed when the screeches reached his ears. Vaeri picked her sword up and slapped him on the back.

“It’s just some Voidlings, the weakest monsters. Nothing to worry about, they’ll be easy to kill even for you.”

Ruith nodded, making sure he still had his dagger in its sheath. The two of them proceeded to exit the house, waiting for the Voidlings to appear. Ruith sent his mana into the ground and soon took control of two trees at once, which would consume more of his mana but he didn’t want to take any chances with the monsters.

Soon, the first of them appeared. It stood about four feet tall, and had a hunched back. The skin was almost pitch black and very wrinkly, two oversized eyes were on its head that seemed too large for the Voidlings body. Its arms were long, almost dragging on the ground and had fingers that were basically just spikes, and its mouth had rows of pointed and extremely sharp teeth.

Another one of the vile little creatures appeared. Then five. Ten, twenty, and eventually there were 60 of them.

“Oh, a larger pack this time. They aren’t very intelligent, but have decent speed. Don’t let them surround you.” 

Vaeri lowered down a bit after speaking, her thighs tensing. And then she shot forwards.

SKREEE!

Their maddened cry resounded, hurting Ruith’s eardrums.

In under a second she cleared the few dozen feet, and a red line drew across the first Voidlings neck. She pierced another through the head, and a kick shattered the upper body of another.

‘Well, I can’t let her have all the fun!’

Ruith let loose five Root Pierce’s at the same time, and five Voidlings fell to the ground dead, their black blood soaking into the soil.

This attack drew a lot of attention, and 30 of the little creatures ran at him. 

Root Pierce after Root Pierce burst from the ground, holding the little bastards at bay for a moment.

‘Shit. Half of my mana is gone.’

Ten of the monsters had been killed by him alone, but he didn’t have enough mana to finish the thirty off solely using his ability.

Ruith let them get a bit closer. They tried to spread out and surround him, but he made sure to move in a way that would prevent that. 

The first Voidling entered his melee range.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

It swung wildly, entering a maddened frenzy. The attacks were easy to predict, but their speed was a problem. However, it was nothing compared to Vaeri.

Ruith saw a pause in the attacks. His dagger slashed across the Voidling’s eyes, and it screamed in pain, defenseless. Another slash and the creature gurgled before slumping to the ground.

He took too long to kill it. Three Voidlings were currently jumping at him.

The boy managed to kill two with Root Pierce, but the last one was too close. Ruith raised his left arm, and the Voidborne’s sharp teeth dug deep into his skin, hitting the bone.

“ARGH! SHIT!”

He clumsily stabbed at it. His dagger sliced into the shoulder of the creature, too many things happening at once. He was still sending Root Pierces at the other monsters so he wouldn’t get overwhelmed.

The next dagger strike went into the neck of the Voidling, but it still held on even as its life started to drain away.

“Little shit! DIE!”

His dagger plunged several times into the side of its head, and even when it finally fell Ruith stomped on its skull, brain matter oozing out into the grass.

His face was covered in the black blood, a vile stench penetrating his nostrils.

He hated the Voidborne, and the anger inside of him burst forth after being injured by one of them. 

Ruith went into a frenzy almost no different than these creatures had, completely losing himself.

His mana ran out quickly having missed several of his root attacks, but there were still ten Voidlings to kill.

He lunged with his dagger, abandoning almost all of the training he had done. Deep cuts and bites covered his body, and he began to become lightheaded from blood loss.

But the Voidborne were dying, and that was what mattered. Their bodies lay on the grass, some cut completely open with organs and blood pooling on the ground, radiating a vile stench.

Suddenly there were no more bodies for him to cut into. He looked around, but all he saw was dead Voidlings. A sick smile rose on his face, but then quickly faded. He collapsed to his knees.

“RUITH! WHAT THE HELL!?”

Vaeri yelled at him while rushing over. Ruith looked up. He had forgotten about the girl.

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The bodies on her side of the battle were far more than his, it seemed more of the Voidlings had appeared while he wasn’t paying attention.

The older girl reached him, kneeling down and inspecting his state.

His entire body was covered in black blood, making him smell terrible. The clothes he had received as a gift were completely ruined and in tatters.

But most worryingly was the sheer amount of gashes and chunks of flesh that were missing from his body. He was losing blood fast, his skin somehow becoming paler than it already was.

“My god Ruith, it’s a miracle you are even conscious. What the fuck happened?”

He was in no state to answer questions. Ruith couldn’t make out the words, and his vision swam. By now the adrenaline had faded away, and all that he felt was unimaginable pain. 

His consciousness faded away, and he fell limply into Vaeri’s arms.

“Shit. Not good.” Panic was evident in her voice as she picked him up, rushing into the house.

Vaeri laid Ruith stomach down on the couch, ripping off the remains of his shirt. She burst into her fathers empty room, searching for something.

She ran back to Ruith, now holding a small jar of transparent and slightly glowing blue salve. She spread it all along the boy's spine and up his neck.

This salve contained insane amounts of mana, and had cost her father tens of gold coins. The mana was absorbed into Ruith’s body, and the bleeding of his wounds slowed, eventually stopping and starting to close. Even then it took a few minutes before his condition stabilized. 

Vaeri let out a sigh of relief, laying on the floor and closing her eyes to wait for Ruith to awake. She had a lot of questions for him, he had acted extremely recklessly against the Voidlings.

Two hours later, Ruith finally stirred. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. The events of the battle flashed through his mind and he frowned, looking for injuries.

“Finally. You’re lucky my father bought that salve, or you would be dead by now.”

“Salve? What do you mean? What happened?”

Ruith remembered the battle, but not the true extent of his injuries. Vaeri gladly explained to him the condition of his body with an angered look.

“How could you lose control of yourself like that? What if you had died!?”

“I mean, I’m not dead aren’t I…”

“Shut the fuck up Ruith! You completely lost control of yourself, the salve that cost my father at least twenty gold coins is the only reason you’re alive by the way. Now explain what happened.”

The young man’s face paled at the mention of twenty gold coins, and he finally realized just how severe the situation had been. But he put that aside for later, and decided to tell Vaeri why he had acted like that.

He explained how his father made him run away while the man brawled with the Voidborne. But he continued, describing how when he went back to check on his father, what condition his body was in.

His father was mangled, limbs twisted at odd angles. His throat was torn out, and shattered bones poked from under the skin of his upper body. The old man’s lifeless eyes still had tears in them. 

Ruith chose to not go into any more detail of the gruesome scene before he broke down.

“When that Voidling’s teeth tore into my arm, it reminded me of that scene, and I couldn’t control myself after that. I simply wanted the Voidborne to die.”

Vaeri nodded, thinking. She now understood the reason behind Ruith’s actions, and he himself seemed to be well aware of why he acted as he did.

“In any case, you need to be able to control yourself next time you fight. If it was any other kind of Voidborne, you would have been easily torn to pieces.”

“I’ll try.”

The reality of his situation finally set in. He barely lived. If he died, there would be no revenge against the Voidborne that killed his father.

The door to the front of the house opened. It was late at night, and Vaeri’s father had finally returned.

“What the hell happened out there? I’ve never seen so many Voidlings before…” The man trailed off, staring at Ruith and his daughter sitting next to each other on the couch.  The young man still didn't have a shirt on, and his pants were not in the best condition.

Vaeri quickly explained the situation before her father got the wrong idea. 

“Wow. I don’t mind that the salve is gone, at least it was put to use. Try not to almost die again though, Ruith.”

Teran rubbed his temple and closed the door before saying something else.

“You two should sleep now, early tomorrow morning the King will be announcing something. Every citizen of the bastion is required to be there.”

Ruith felt Teran likely knew what this announcement would be, but didn’t question it. Him and Vaeri were mentally exhausted, retreating to their rooms.

Teran headed back to the Bastion, The night was far from over and many Voidborne needed slaughtering. 

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