Chapter 9: Chapter 8: The Master of the Horde

I quickly looked around, desperately trying to get a grasp of the situation.

Another ‘Purifier’ formed out of the ruby haze, one of too many.

“Master!” She said, exasperated.

“Master!” Repeated another.

I didn’t say anything, couldn’t bring myself to do more than stare, frozen even if I was aware of the vague sense of danger somewhere out there. I knew that they could, after some effort, even tell me what killed them in the first place, but I completely and utterly failed in directing them.

Occasional bursts of the bright fire flashed in between the trees as the monsters beyond the camp limit became aware of the assailants, and most likely attempted to fight back.

Unsuccessfully, red mist kept spitting replacements for the fallen. It gave me no idea how many enemies we might be facing, or why they were significantly more successful than before. I knew I should probably do something, anything, but I didn’t know what exactly.

My heart raced, but my mind was blank, I had no solution to this. I was, once again, the observer, unable to act despite knowing I should.

More than twenty, maybe thirty ‘Purifiers’ were down only to be recreated in my vicinity, giving me a sense of this unseen threat.

Luckily for me, the monsters didn’t need my direction. They didn’t need me at all, I thought, overwhelmed by the sense of helplessness and uselessness.

The assembling cohort of monsters didn’t wait though. Tama and Miwah took a back-to-back stance with me pressed in the middle, either to shield me from the attack or to simply imply prevent me from fumbling between them and the enemy.

Tama start lobbing a few fireballs into the forest where they detonated violently, almost at random, evidently trying to blast the large area without me even having the chance to really see what she was aiming at. A shrine and its few supporting structures were still situated in the middle forest, with trees blocking the view from the direction the buildings were not.

Respawned ‘Purifiers’ massed around me and formed a defensive circle. Instead of chasing the unseen enemy hiding in trees, they held back.

There must have been thirty of them, a sizeable crowd, all recreated after the adversary that took them out very quickly. I could feel their restlessness, their anger, twitching tails and ears, ready to release their flaming powers.

Rest took a different approach: All the ‘Eviscerators’ disappeared into their cloak of invisibility at masse, leaving only the floating patches of distorted air behind, impossible to tell where any of the individual shadowy canines were. A sweeping gaze around the courtyard gave the impression of the desert mirage for a short moment before it all went still.

At that point, all the fiery vulpine variants were slain and reborn, gathering around me, with only a handful of survivors retreating back to camp on foot. Those few remained lurking on the edge of the clearing, stepping back and forth, probably the lookout.

Tama threw another few blazing bolts into the surrounding greenery, with a few more explosions and starting a few more localized fires flickering in between the gaps of trees.

For a short moment, there was silence, with only gusts of wind sweeping the forest, carrying the smell of burning everywhere.

Only a few ‘Purifiers’ loitered around at the edges of the camp where they made an easy target, seemingly at random, though I could barely see them sandwiched between my protectors.

“For Master!” They chanted in their screechy voices, taunting the enemy with the only words they seem to speak: “For Master! For Master!”

Then I took a glimpse of it, the movement among the greenery.

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One shadow. Two. Three at the very least.

A figure pounced out of the cover of the bushes, and with a single slash of his blade cut the lone fox monster apart, its blood splattering everywhere.

That was what ‘Purifiers’ waited for.

In an instant, the area was set ablaze in one massive conflagration before the body even hit the ground.

An attacker, a figure in the dark flowing robes, gushed away the flames with a swing of the sword before disappearing into the woods, in almost a dance-like move, only to motivate the fiery monsters to simply incinerate all the possible cover.

“For Master!”

Another lone ‘Purifier’ lurking too close to the trees fell to the blade. As bait, I finally understood the purpose of the stragglers not seeking the safety of the rest of the mob.

The stealthy assailant escaped the flames more narrowly than before as more of the greenery around was being scorched, and another few more explosions swept the offending leaves and bushes, and with it, places to hide.

Another seemingly careless ‘Purifier’ was dead, carved apart by the sword, the enemy even more narrowly escaping with their flowing black robes briefly catching fire as proof they aren’t entirely immune to the power.

An assassin rolled back into the cover narrowly evading being roasted alive.

The next patch of scrubs went away with the blast. The perimeter of the camp slowly turned into an inferno, with the only approach being either through all heat or in between the buildings.

I took a glimpse of them. The trio of black-dressed figures dashed away from the fiery destruction, only to disappear as they left my view once more.

A burning tree collapsed on the ground crushing that ornamental gateway, and both went down in the cloud of dust, rubble and flames.

In another few, tense seconds that felt longer than they actually were, the enemy made a move.

Then, all of the sudden, two of those black-robed assassins, took the opportunity to slip in between the buildings to leap straight at us cutting down whoever stood in their way.

They killed the few ‘Purifiers’ with effortless ease, spraying the area with their blood. I, once again, just froze, couldn’t make myself move regardless of what was happening in front of my eyes. One of the smaller vulpines took the swing intended for me with her own body, while Tama pushed me away.

The Assassins' moment of triumph was immediately overturned as they were jumped by thirty ‘Eviscerators’ appearing from the thin air and attacking them from all directions in a massive, vicious ambush.

Even extensively outnumbered, and surprised, those black-robed warriors could fight. They slew a couple of Eviscerators in an impressive display of the logic-defying sword skills, but ultimately they succumbed to the sheer numbers mixed with the fearless ferocity of the monsters.

As the two mysterious warriors died screaming, literally torn apart by bloodthirsty monsters who tore him limb for limb in a horrifying display of rage, an uncaring system announced another of those messages invading my view once more.

 

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