Animals

(What are goals if I can not achieve them? I see my life's cause before my eyes and hear their screams...but nothing is too far for me...)

"I don't know how you got through my barrier but I applaud you. The reason you're writhing in pain is because you're weak. Well, at least not as weak as my little puppets. I just have to touch them once to make them mine, but you, you have managed to drain my strength. Your fighting spirit is extraordinary, I have never seen such a specimen."

Leo's vision became increasingly blurred and he was barely able to speak. With every passing second, his body was becoming even more paralyzed. The inner rage that was inside him was being sucked out.

"As you have noticed, I am not the usual strongest or biggest, but I am by far the best. Ever since I was a child, I always had a great interest in dark elves, in our enemies, for the cause of disgrace. I had to watch for years as they were killed and carelessly disposed of. It pained my heart to see how their corpses were treated especially by my parents. I always thought to myself: What if they could still be used? What if I can give them a home? What if I can do something to help them? You must know, I never really liked my parents. Never could they understand me and my art. Then one day I came across the reason why I can do things like this. Not only only is there magic or spells, there are derivatives and mixtures which are forbidden in this world. Thus I discovered the gift of curses. I couldn't read the name in the book so I gave my ability its own name: Tamer. I must confess patience is not my strong point, so perhaps that is why I killed them both. I wasn't sad but rather motivated. They gave me the inspiration to make my dream come true. Those were my first two dolls and by far the most beautiful, a memory I will never forget.

This person was a complete psychopath, a sinister evil that should have no place in this world.

"Oh how embarrassing of me. Talking for so long is one of my biggest faults. It wastes oh precious time that I could have been using. I see you are tamed as well, don't worry, you are about to be released of your mind. I shall turn you into a wonderful piece of art.

Leo was completely rigid and slowly lost consciousness. To become unconscious here would mean his death. Although he himself had long since come to terms with it, his fears and the will to survive came back. He himself was no longer able to say anything, though he still had his eyes open. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the glyph in his hand light up again. Then a voice whispered in his ear. It wasn't a familiar voice.

"Your time has not come yet. We still require you."

The anger that had been sucked out of him came back and turned into heat. The color of his arm returned to normal except for orange veins that remained. His pupils turned black glowing on all the time. As he tried to stand up he was pierced by the dagger of the panicking dollmaker. However, the wound closed immediately and he threw the weapon away. His opponent showed both fear and fascination.

"Can it be? Did you really manage to subdue it? For me to witness something like that, now I've really seen it all haha urgh-"

Leo grabbed him and lifted him into the air. The young man didn't say a word but kept breathing faster and faster. His aura was that of a fierce monster. The Dollmaker didn't beg for his life but cheered Leo on even more as if celebrating this outcome.

"Hahaha, yeah that's it, keep it up. Let the madness, this passion, this curse, this blessing guide you. Let's show everyone what this ability means. Oh, my work is not nearly as beautiful to look at as you. A real beauty."

Leo pushed his opponent against the wall and picked up a hammer that was lying on the table. For a moment he looked at the tool until he swung it far out and struck his opponent's head. The doll maker was trying to laugh the whole time but the life was being hammered out of him. Leo was relentless and kept hitting his head for minutes until it was undistinguishable from slush. He generated incredible strength and threw the remains of the corpse into the middle of the room. He picked up his weapon and left the room.

Meanwhile outside the building.

"We can''t just do that! They belong to us, they are our people!"

"You heard him, they've lost their minds. If you want to keep your life then fight them dammit!"

As Leo suspected, the slaves remained on the enemy's side and attacked their rescuers as soon as they were freed. They didn't care about their own bodies and acted like wild animals who only had their opponents in mind. In terms of numbers, the group of fighters was far outnumbered. Among the slaves were some experienced warriors who were able to defeat opponents even without weapons. Thus, they had no choice but to kill their brothers and sisters in order to stay alive. Not a single prisoner was on their side, all of them acted like wild beasts and recognized no kindred spirits. Mutually they began to tear each other apart. Finally, Nadal was surrounded by his people. The guard's sword broke and he was standing with his fists raised.

"Shit, that didn't go as I hoped. Ha, now I'm dying here at the hands of my kind without having accomplished anything. What a fool I was, had we simply not been captured. It all doesn't matter now, maybe it's better this way than to keep watching their lost faces..."

As the crowd almost engulfed him, a flaming arrow suddenly landed at his feet. All at once the whole mob backed away, even though it was only a small projectile. In the distance a loud ringing sound echoed, to which the large crowd of slaves blindly responded.

" Seems like you're still in your right mind, good. That means we're not too late!"

Suddenly a tall dark elf was standing behind Nadal, giving him a sword. The next moment he took his bow off his back and shot the next fire arrow to push the crowd back.

"They haven't lost their minds, it's just been reset. In their heads they are like animals and so they show it in their behavior. Blazing hurtful fire is the best way to scare them."

"Who are you?"

Off in the distance, he saw a bell tied to a tall pole. A lot of the slaves jumped up as if the gadget was a toy for them. Indeed, they now looked like wild animals.

"That should keep them busy for a while. Have you found it yet?"

"No, there has just been another problem around here, too. Look young warrior, we came here to rescue you. Have you seen a human, dressed in dark clothes and playing supersmart?"

"Y-yes, a human released us. I couldn't make out his face much but with him we were able to take out the guards a lot faster."

The two rescuers glanced at each other and agreed.

"Where did he go?"

Nadal was stunned by what was happening in front of him let alone a dark elf and human traveling together.

"He went straight into the building to confront that bastard. That was a while ago, I don't know if he got out somewhere else."

Again, before they could get going, the large crowd of slaves was in front of them. There was one of them with the bell in his mouth.

"Oh, it probably wasn't fastened tight enough. Ah, my bad..."

"Tsk, you can't be trusted to do anything either!"

Suddenly, before the crowd attacked, quite a few of them dropped to the ground. For the rest of the mob, they retreated as more and more of them fainted. The tall dark elf approached one of the bodies.

"He's still alive, his pulse is normal. I think something was controlling him, and I have a guess as to what exactly."

As the three peered more closely into the eyes of the prisoners they noticed an orange glow going out, causing them to faint. However, some remained fierce beasts even after the glow faded.

"And what about these guys?"

"...I'm afraid their minds have long been lost..."

"We can still save them though, right? Let's just tie them up and try to talk some sense into them later."

"Out of the question, we won't take any chances. Besides...it's better if we release them from their current fate."

The remaining prisoners gathered in a heap and attacked their three opponents together. Just before they got close, one of the doors blew out of the building. Out stepped Leo, the orange glow in his eyes by far the brightest. The captives looked around as if he were their new leader. However, Leo was anything but friendly to these wild animals. The curse that the puppet maker had imposed upon himself and afflicted his victims stimulated the mind in various ways. For years, the doll maker himself carried it within himself and domesticated the effect. As time went by, he lost his mind increasingly until he finally ended up like this. Leo had the curse just placed on him, his mind was infected yet he was still able to function. With his willpower and the help of the glyph, he remained conscious, which in no way solved the problem. He himself was not a wild animal, though his mind was stimulated more and more as time went by. With each passing second, he fell even deeper into madness. Right away he rushed towards the group of prisoners, lifted his sword and started to slaughter one after the other while laughing.

"Hahahaha, perish! Give me more blood, there is no end to my hunger! You are parasites, you have to get rid of parasites. Kiss your lives goodbye, lower beings! Die, die, die!"

In one sense, Leo became a fierce monster since he was unable to distinguish friend from foe. As he was about to strike down the next one, another sword blocked his blow.

"It's time for you to stop Leo. This is not you, wake up!"

The tall dark elf fought the fierce creature that was once his comrade. Leo didn't say a word an got angrier.

"What's wrong with him Ryu? How come he doesn't recognize us anymore?"

"Because he has become the part of a curse, of one of the most powerful curses. Master told me about this vicious condition many times. Unless we get him out of this state soon, he'll be completely exposed to the curse.

"Shit, doesn't nobody have an answer about this idiot? What happens when he is completely infested?

"Something very bad: an endless bloodlust. If we fail we will have no choice but to kill him."

Nadal didn't know what to think anymore. Due to the two rescuers, he was able to survive. What was clear, however, was that Leo mattered to these people.

"The bulding, maybe there is something in the building that can help you."

"He's right Connor. Search the building for books, it has to be completely black including the pages."

"And how are we supposed to read what's helping him? Are you sure it's a book?"

"Connor! Get on with it, I can't hold him off forever. He's not going to hold back, all Leo sees are victims standing in front of him. You there, make sure the rest of those beasts don't charge again. I can't have several more enemies attacking me!"

Connor ran into the building while Nadal ran to find another bell. He attached it to a piece of wood that he kept in his hand.... He swung it in the direction of the slaves. At once their eyes lit up and started running towards Nadal. The latter made a path and ran away from Ryu. He realized what Ryu was talking about when he said that the curse strengthened the individual. Although they were not as athletically built as Nadal, they kept catching up to him. He made it to the edge of the forest and lit before throwing away the bell.

"They're not coming back anytime soon. All I have to do now is keep them here somehow...great..."

In the meantime, Connor found the abominable room. The sight of the corpses along with the smashed head of the doll maker caused Connor to vomit. Beside the table, he saw a small bookshelf. While holding his nose, he pushed the body parts off the table and looked through the shelf.

("Black book, black book...Fuck, there's no black book here.")

Frantically, he flipped through the other books. They were all in an ancient writing that Connor couldn't understand. One of the books consisted not of pages but of various lists. He quickly realized that this was a list of the number of victims and their remains. It was sorted by name, age, appearance, gender as well as head, torso, arms and legs. Nearly everywhere, everything was ticked off. In frustration, he tore up this gruesome document and flipped through more books. A sentence was written in blood on one page: "I bear the curse inside me for eternity, no one can take it away from me!"

Initially, Connor had no idea what this meant, however, he then had an idea that he did not like at all.

"You can't be serious man! Urgh, this is going to be gross. I hope it's not for fucking nothing."

Connor took the dagger and approached the dollmaker's body. He could barely look at what condition the body was in.

("Fuck Leo, what were you thinking?!...").

The head of the corpse was non-existent, the rest of the body was completely covered in dark red stains. As Connor lifted the arms of the corpse he felt that they were more lightweight than a normal corpse. Leo must have smashed all the bones with immense force, pulverizing them from the inside. There was no choice for Connor but to carry out his assumption. So he slashed the body of the corpse with the dagger. There was nothing he could see in his chest, nor was there anything out of the ordinary in his ribcage. The next thing he did was to examine the legs, but he also found nothing there except a disgusting sight. Inside his right arm Connor noticed a small spot with a strange object stuck in it. Much to his horror, it was a piece of a finger with a mark carved on it.

("Urgh, don't tell me I need this for something...").

Eventually, he slit open his left arm. Wrapped around the bone was indeed a page of a book, it was the black color Ryu had anticipated. However, for Connor, the issue still wasn't solved. He hurried out of the building and saw that Leo was still fighting like a ferocious animal.

"I found one black book page and a piece of finger with something written on it that I can't actually read."

Ryu used all his concentration to keep Leo at bay. Ordinarily he would have no trouble blocking him, but the immense force behind the blows caused him to have problems. He tried to be as careful as possible but he was running out of resources.

" This is not the way I wanted to fight, but I have no choice. Master, I am sorry, but I will have to reveal one pillar. 4th sword strike: blade storm."

Ryu's blade turned blue and blazed brightly blinding Connor. Within the next moment, Leo was lying on the ground a few feet away. On the surface, it looked like he had received a thousand cuts.

"What did you do?! We could have saved him!"

"Calm down, he's still far from dead. I had to immobilize him for a short time. Those minor wounds will be gone in no time with a little healing magic. Show me what you found, we don't have much time!"

Connor handed him the two items he had found. Taking a moment to think about it, Ryu handed Connor the page and kept the finger piece.

" Now, as I suspected, it's a particular curse. Only by one person can it be ended or initiated. Since this maniac carried it inside him, the finger must have originated from the original creator. The mark is from an ancient language, I have no idea what it means. You keep the page ready, as soon as I get his blood on the finger piece you will touch the page with it. Hopefully some writing will actually appear. Crap, he's already back on his feet."

Leo had gotten up and had an even more somber look on his face. With a broad smile, he charged again. This time Ryu struggled even more, it looked like Leo had doubled in strength. He was no longer able to block all the blows and so he was cut on his left arm.

" Fine, let's try it differently then."

Ryu blocked a blow from Leo and shifted his weight to his front foot. In the next instant, he dropped his weapon and punched Leo in the face with his fist. Instead of falling over, he staggered backward and quickly recovered himself. But the bit of blood on Ryu's fist was enough to smear the finger with it.

" Now, go ahead and pray that it works!"

After tossing the finger piece to Connor, he pressed it directly to his side. The black paint was absorbed by the finger. The mark on the piece lit up orange but the page contained no writing.

" Shit! I can't see anything here. This piece of garbage just purged that stupid color!"

"That's it, that's the key!"

Leo too dropped his weapon. Although he possessed immense strength Leo stood little chance against Ryu in this form of combat. The dark elf not only used his arms but also his legs. Regardless of the fighting style, Ryu had perfected all of them. After countering Leo, he held him down and gave Connor the signal.

"It's now or never! Keep that finger on his skin, if we're lucky we'll finally be rid of this curse!

Immediately Connor ran towards his partner and held his finger on his forehead. Leo's breathing stopped, the orange veins disappeared and his eyes returned to normal. Suddenly, he sank to the ground unconscious.

" My, what a fight that was. If only he had that much strength naturally..."

"That's your first thought? Anyway, finally we've got it over with. Now, what about the other dark elves?"

"I'm afraid their fate has still forsaken them. As I said before, it's best if we put them out of their-"

"We don't have to anymore. They just fainted like the others."

Nadal stepped in front of them and pointed to the pack lying on the ground outside of the camp.

"Didn't you say they lost all of it after all? I thought the curse was over. So why did they keep attacking?"

"I don't know. When you set your buddy free, they fell to the ground with him."

"Does that mean he was unconsciously controlling them?"

"I don't think so, he wasn't the host but just a underling. Nevertheless, it is possible that they may have adopted him as their master thus acting the way they did through him."

"The curse has only just disappeared forever. The possibility that he had something to do with their condition is likely. Although they didn't have the glow in their eyes, there may be other reasons."

"Orange veins!"

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"Orange veins. Did your buddy have orange veins? Cause everyone of that lot had them."

The mystery was now solved as far as the three of them were concerned. That day, quite a few innocent dark elves died. Trapped in this hell, they never had a chance to really escape. The doll maker used the curse to enslave them. It was a very tragic, sad but also hopeful day when hundreds of dark elves were rescued and it was all because of this small group. The magnitude of this situation would soon become clear to them and who really bears this great burden."