Chapter 26: False Alarm
The party ended. I headed back to the inn, swaying unsteadily as I walked. Lia had to occasionally guide me to prevent silly accidents only a drunkard could get himself into. I clutched the railings and ascended carefully similar to an elder citizen. I fumbled my pocket and fished out my key. After several failures, Lia snatched the keys away and opened the door. She went in an opened up the window slightly in order to provide some ventilation. I got into my room, calling out "Timber," as I dropped like a tree to my bed and instantaneously fell asleep.
That night, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, the sound of thunder boomed and startled me awake. It had been raining. Hard. I wasn't really sure as whether I'm awake or not. But what I'm sure about, is that I really wish that it was the latter, and that this was all just a nightmare. Because right now there's a monstrosity hovering right on top of me. Another flash struck and illuminated the room for an instance. In that brief moment, I caught a glimpse of the creature. A translucent humanoid twice my size loomed over me. It didn't have eyes, but I can see round objects like marbles scattered inside its torso. The rest of its snaky body elongated all the way from my window. It stretched it two elongated arms and reached for my neck. I tried to struggle, tried to scream, but nothing. My voice were muted and my limbs won't respond. It was like having sleep paralysis, except that it was real, and that the demons could actually hurt you. It held my throat with its wet, cold, slimy hands and started to squeeze the life out of me. Droplets of water dripped from the edge of its head to mine. My mind ran around in panic, not knowing what to do. So I shouted for internal help.
"Ellariel! Ellariel! Wake up!" I called out frantically, searching within for her.
No use. She isn't responding. I tried calling her again, putting more will into it, calling as hardly as I can for dear life. I felt myself fading away - the life sucked out of me. I called out again for the last time, "Ella-"
A burst of light exploded forth from within me, searing the creature's skin, filling the room with the smell of burning hair. It shrieked wickedly and released me. It pulled back, slithering away in reverse out the window. Power flushed away its influence from my systems and I regained the ability to move my limbs. Sobering me up and healing the bruises on my neck. I brought out my soulblade and jerked up standing. I rushed out to the window and try to see where it went, and caught a glimpse of it fleeing towards the direction of the woods. At the same time, I saw people start peeking out of their houses. The murderous shriek of the creature had apparently woke up half of the neighborhood. The glow slowly faded away from my body, before flickering and went out - so did the blade's. Returning to its former dull shine. I heard footsteps bounding towards my room and dismissed the soulblade. I went by the door and opened it. I had expected several men with pitchforks to come , but to my surprise, the first responder had actually been Lia herself, wearing nothing but a nightgown. "I heard a scream coming from your room. Are you okay?"
"I am now." I felt touched, having her rushed to my room without any preparations.
"What happened?" she asked worriedly.
"Something tried to kill me whilst I was asleep. I used Ellariel's power and fended it off."
She covered her mouth in horror. Soon after, the innkeeper and his son arrived. I apologized for the ruckus and explained to them that I only had a terrible nightmare. They seemed to accept my statement happily and promptly went to bad.
"Sorry guys, false alarm," I expressed earnestly. Wouldn't want myself to be dubbed as the adventurer who cried wolf.
"Why didn't you tell them? Shouldn't we try to warn them at least?" Lia asked.
"No point. There's no guarantee they would believe me. And even if they do, I don't really think it's wise to cause unnecessary panic."
She looked at me grimly.
"I'm not exactly sure as how powerful it is, but I did gave it a run for its money. I should be fine for now. You should, uhh, get some sleep," I averted my eyes as I started to notice how her curves were vividly accentuated by the thinness of her gown with nothing underneath. She paused momentarily before looking down and realized what I saw. She blushed furiously as she tried to cover her body uselessly with her slender arms. Maybe almost being murdered wasn't so bad every once in a while. She bid me goodnight and scuttled back to her room.
I released an exhausted groan. Don't get me wrong, I'm doing well physically. The angelic power that coursed through me hadn't only healed and detoxify the booze. It also left me feeling energized, as if I could go on for days without a need for any shut-eye. Kinda like a heavy dose of caffeine, bringing clarity to my thoughts, but without the side-effect of a pounding heart. The tired groan I let out, had instead came from the exhaustion of the thought of almost dying a few times since transcending here.
I walked by my bed and sat down.
"So, what do you think about it?" I said out loud.
My door swung open and a familiar figure stepped in.
"How did you know I was listening?"