Chapter 17
Another morning had arrived far too quickly for the likes of the adventurers. The night was plagued by the terrifying screeches and woeful moaning of creatures that had roamed the darkness. The occasional unseen creature that happened upon their sanctuary would spend several hours mindlessly banging on the barrier trying to gain access to their shelter, as though keenly aware of a presence that did not belong, before eventually giving up and shuffling off into the unknown.
Finally giving up on trying to get any more sleep, the group decided that with the sun starting to rise, they would venture out into the village and attempt to see if they could determine the cause of what made the people of this land flee on mass. Pushing the door open as quietly as he could manage, Fellaroth led the group out into the brisk morning air, only to find that a thick eerie fog had blanketed the village, allowing them to see no more than a few paces in each direction. The bizarre and disturbing calls of the creatures that now inhabited the village filled the air, causing the adventurers to be constantly on their guard.
A soft wind whisked through the village's narrow streets, whistling mournfully as it passed, doing little more than making the adventurers feel more on edge. With their weapons drawn, they slowly made their way between the tall buildings, pausing and peering down every alleyway as they passed. All around them, they could hear the shuffling and scurrying of creatures they had yet to lay eyes on, drawing closer and closer with every passing second.
The disturbed incomprehensible whispers of thousands of hushed voices formed a constant dull hum that haunted the adventurers' every step, delivering a message that could not be received. The thick fog clung to their bodies as though drawn to their heat, making it ever harder to navigate this unnatural place.
"Do we have a goal in mind here Fell, or are we just roaming around aimlessly?" asked Riegert, not daring to speak in more than a hushed whisper.
"I have a destination in mind, though with this fog I couldn't tell you where it might be. I can sense a powerful presence in this place, one that doesn't feel as though it belongs in this world. It is filled with such malice and discontent that it borders on pure evil, and yet there is somehow a sense of joy in it too, a sense of accomplishment that doesn't sit right with me."
"Malice, discontent, joy, and accomplishment, none of these indicate that we are going to be in for a peaceful encounter. Are you able to tell what it is we're up against, or how strong it might be?"
"I'm sorry Calvin, I have no more information than I have already given you, though I fear that whatever it is, it is going to be powerful. Anything that is able to shroud an entire town in a fog like this and hide it from the view of a God is likely a formidable threat." Answered Fellaroth as a monstrous grown filled the air, causing the group to throw themselves against the wall of the alleyway, just in time to see the massive foot of a grotesque, malformed creature that stood nearly twenty meters tall trudge past them through the fog.
"What in the world was that?" asked Jackson, doing his utmost to keep his voice down.
"Something that doesn't belong in this world!" answered Fellaroth with such anger in his voice that the others dared not ask any more questions. Proceeding in silence, the group traversed passage after passage, darting across open streets and squares to reach the sanctity of yet another side alley, where they would hopefully be able to continue unnoticed by the hordes of vile misshapen creatures that now inhabited this once peaceful town.
After nearly an hour of skulking through the hazy streets of this horrifying place, narrowly missing dangerous encounters with terrifying beasts that clashed violently when they encountered any other living being, the dull muffled tone of what sounded like a demonic church bell rang out across the town, drawing the attention of not only the adventurers but of the town's new inhabitants as well.
A collective choir of horrific moans and terrifying screeches filled the air as Fellaroth stepped back from the wall of the alley and kicked in the door of the nearest building, instructing the group to enter the building as he did. Slamming the door shut behind himself, Fellaroth turned to the others and said, "We don't have much time, we need to get to the roof of this building as quickly and quietly as we can!" as he ran toward and up the staircase at the other end of the now empty tavern.
"What is it Fell, what's happening out there?" asked Jackson.
Reaching the top of the first flight of stairs, and before Fellaroth was able to answer, a disfigured humanoid creature charged around the corner with blood and drool dripping from its tattered mouth. Without a moment's delay, Fellaroth dispatched the creature with a single strike of his spear, impaling it and levering it over the balustrade, leaving it to plummet to the wooden floor below. "I don't know what's happening out there Jackson, but I do know that it's not something we want to get caught up in!" answered Fellaroth at last, as though he had not just encountered and killed a misshapen humanoid creature. "Quickly now, we haven't time to waste!" called Fellaroth from a landing high above the others.
Tearing their gaze away from the hole in the wooden floor below, the group looked up and saw that Fellaroth had already covered another flight of stairs and was actively leaving the others far behind. Looking down one last time as the others began to run after Fellaroth, Calvin noticed that more deformed creatures began to appear, not only on the lower floor of the tavern but also from the doors on the same floor as them, clearly having been drawn out by the sounds of the death of one of their own.
Dashing up the stairs as quickly as their legs would allow, the group found themselves being attacked on all sides, leaving them to have to fight with all their strength for every foot of ground they managed to cover. With far greater speed and strength than the average human, these creatures proved to be a formidable challenge for the adventurers. Axes and swords were being expertly wielded in the confined space of the staircase, with each of the adventurers taking it in turns to strike down any creature that got too close, perfectly timing their strikes so that none of their attacks interfered with the attacks of their party members. It wasn't long before the numbers of the attacking creatures had begun to thin enough for the adventurers to finally make their way up the stairs to seek out Fellaroth, who had seemingly left them to fend for themselves.
Seething with rage and mistrust that had been building for a while, Riegert turned and ran up the stairs, ready to give Fellaroth a piece of his mind, when he caught his first glimpse of the upper floors. Here before him was a scene of utter horror. Mangled bodies littered the hallways and the stairs above. Dozens of malformed corpses told the story of a battle that was happening at the same time as their own. The story of a single man facing off against a horde of monsters far greater than they had managed to fend off. Making their way silently up the stairs of the building, Riegert and the others came to see the bodies of what must have been nearly one hundred monsters that Fellaroth had not only singlehandedly killed, but also prevented from reaching and attacking his fellow party members from behind.
"Who is this person that we have allowed to join our party?" asked Riegert, loud enough so that only Calvin and Jackson could hear. "We fought with all we had to fend off just twenty of these things, and you're telling me that he was able to kill this many in the same amount of time. I don't care what the guild says, there is no way he is only rank-A!"
"What are you getting at Riegert? I've seen the way you've been watching him lately. Ever since we entered the Lonely Bastion, you've been keeping a very close eye on him. Is there something you're not telling us?"
"It's nothing, I'm just being cautious. We know so little about him and yet we have let him join our party so easily. How many other adventurers have we encountered over the years, each showing great potential to be a part of our party, and one after another we turned them away. Yet along came Fellaroth and without so much as a second thought we allowed him to join us. It just doesn't sit right with me, that's all."
"Fell has done nothing to earn your mistrust Riegert, if anything he has proven to be the driving force we needed to propel this party forward and finally break through the ranking barrier. We're now a D-ranked party Riegert, something that we've wanted for so long and with his help we were able to reach it. He doesn't deserve this Riegert."
"I know Jackson, this is just something that I am going to have to work through on my own."
"See that you do Riegert. Our party is stronger now than it's ever been, we need to be united in everything that we do, if we want to keep growing stronger that is!" said Calvin before walking off in search of Fellaroth.
The fourth floor of the large wooden building was a scene much like all of the others. Dead bodies were scattered about, some had been knocked through open doorways, others had crashed through the wooden walls and were lying limp from the gaping holes they had created with their own bodies, while others carpeted the floor of the hallway. At the end of the hallway, Calvin saw Fellaroth down on his haunches studying the remains of one of the creatures he had killed. Stepping over one dead body after another, Calvin noticed that very little energy had been expended with each of these kills. It was clear that Fellaroth had struck each monster with only enough force as was needed to kill it, before moving on to the next. It was an artful display that showed the other members of Hidden Fury what was possible with the right knowledge and experience, though just where this man of roughly the same age as themselves managed to earn such knowledge and experience was a question that burned in the back of all of their minds.
"Is everything alright, Fell?" he asked upon drawing closer to Fellaroth.
"Have any of you noticed the symbols that seem to have been branded onto each of these creatures?"
"Do you mean the balanced scales? Yes, I've seen them in different places on each of the creatures that we've killed. Do you think it's the mark of their master?" asked Riegert, turning the nearest corpse over with his foot to reveal the image of a branded balanced scale on the left cheek of its misshapen face.
"I think I have seen this symbol before, though for some reason I'm not able to place it. It's so familiar and yet so foreign to me, almost as though my brain knows what it's seeing yet some external force is making it so that I am unable to place it." Interjected Calvin.
"Then it's not just me. I too have a sense of familiarity when looking at this symbol, and yet I still cannot place it." Said Fellaroth while pulling a piece of parchment from his pocket and placing it over the mark on the forehead of the creature he was examining. With the parchment in place, Fellaroth placed his palm over the mark, causing a faint light to shine from his palm, he then lifted the parchment to reveal a perfect representation of the mark that had been etched onto it. "I will keep this with me for now, at least until I can properly identify it." He added, before seeing the parchment burst into flames and disintegrate before his eyes.
"What just happened?"
"That Jackson is the doing of the very same charm that is preventing us from identifying this mark. Apparently, who or whatever it is that has cast this charm, fully intends to keep the origins of this mark a secret. There is nothing more we can do here, particularly now that we know we won't be able to identify this strange symbol. For now, we need to proceed to the roof of this building, with any luck we will be able to move across this city more freely from up there." Added Fellaroth before entering the room to his left which had in it a window that opened directly onto the low-sloping roof.