Monsters Horde

It took a few minutes for the girls to get a hold of themselves, Jack simply standing on the side and analyzing the situation. They then walked in the ruins, spreading with the undead looking for stuff to scavenge and the students for people to save. However, They found nobody, neither alive nor dead. There wasn't even a single trace of blood or a piece of tore cloth on the ground.

When they joined again in the center of the village, the only one happy was Jack who seemingly had managed to steal the offering box of the church. He had also found a few pieces of edible food and it would help them for at most three days, but it wasn't enough for them to reach the next city.

With a hopeful look, Laena asked the undead if it was possible that the citizens went away before the calamity arrived in their home. Yet, the skeleton simply laughed at her and said :

"Aren't you an adventurer? You should be able to track such a huge bunch of humans if they walked on the roads together, yet there are no footsteps. Furthermore, look at the state of the village : No house is standing up, it's looking like a tornado went through here. Even the sturdy stone church has been razed to the ground."

The girls seemed to understand that there was no more hope for the inhabitants of this place and silently mourned them, trying to do at least this for those poor people.

"Whatever did this is way out of our league, we should get away as fast as possible. You can't see the lingering souls in this place but I do and oh boy do they seems to have suffered before dying." The undead added while looking at the broken ghosts around him. They seemed to have been burnt, boiled or smashed into pieces, holding a grudge against their killer and wishing to give back this pain.

'They would have been helpful if I was strong enough to raise wraith, what a waste. Hopefully most of them will linger here and not dissipate too fast.' The undead thought.

Since souls are made of mana, they return slowly loose part of themselves and dissipate in the earth. Only will can keep them together, whatever kind of wish they have does not matter.

Jack's students were still silent, pondering his words while feeling the horror growing in them. For something to raze a village this clearly while being brutal, it must have been truly powerful. Crying a little, Evelyn asked with a feeble voice :

"So... What do we do ? Have you an idea of who or what did this and where it went ?"

The skeleton smiled inwardly, proud that she didn't lost her focus and wanted to know where the menace was in order to stay alive. He then replied with a cautious tone :

"That the next part of my report. I got a bad and a good news, what do you want first ?"

"Let's start with the bad news, it can't really get worse after all." Laena sighed.

"You have left this village five days ago, right Laena?" She nodded, wondering what he was going to say. "So our dear beasts destroyed this whole in place in a window of three days, then went away. The question is : Why is there nobody here ? There should be adventurers, robbers or knights scavenging the place right now, yet we are alone here.

It doesn't mean that we should linger though since there could be other people and it would escalate to a fight but I digress. Seeing the footprints, I believe that the monsters went in the direction of Grandia and have murdered whoever crossed their way."

Despair washed over the two girls face went they understood what he meant. Monsters don't murder this cleanly, neither do they walk on roads. Something was guiding them in order to destroy and ruin the world.

Feeling the undead's hand on their head gave their white faces a bit of color, but they were still in shock. An event like this only appeared in the history books and was described as a calamity that befell on humans for their foolishness but what had they done to deserve it this time ?

"The good news is that I know what they are, their average number and the danger they represent." Jack continued while smiling wryly when he saw the two raise their head at the same time, a silver of hope shining in their tearful eyes.

"They are merely Thunder Komodos, a sort of lizard-like monster. Imagine a huge lizard with green skin, four eyes, twelve legs and shards of yellow crystals running through its spine. The whole thing is usually around 6 meter long for two of height and width. They can throw bolts of thunder around as they wreck havoc and have a huge crocodile-like head who only want to spew acid on you. Overall, a nasty little crap. However, there are only around fifty of them so the city should have any trouble to defend herself, right ?"

Seeing Laena face drop further and further with his explanations and Evelyn simply freaking out, he suddenly felt some doubt and thought in doubt :

'Don't tell me that this is a calamity for them ? it's just a bunch of overgrown lizards which throw around thunder, a team of one hundred knights with one magician to support each of them can easily clean up those reptiles with a single loss. Heck, you can just destroy them from the distance if your fighters are this bad.'

When Laena's knees gave up on supporting her, Jack quickly grabbed her and sighed :

"Don't tell me that with such a little threat the city will fall please." The elf looked at him like he was crazy and asked, quite a bit furious :

"Little threat ? What little threat ? There is a whole bunch of coordinated monsters that seems straight out of a history book, how could you describe that as a little threat?"

"Wait, you are telling me that those little lizards are things you are not used to see ?"

"Yes !" The swordswoman replied, exasperated. "Those things are Mythical Monsters, only appearing alone really rarely and are taken down by the cream of the adventurer's guild."

A fit of laugh came from the undead who seemingly found it really funny to hear those beast called "Mythical Monster". He then asked to the duo which was looking at him like he was a madman :

"Well, let's stop thinking about this city's impending doom and focus on ourselves, what shall we do now? We can follow the monster's horde and hope the city survive, hope the city get ruined so we can plunder it or go somewhere else."

They simply stared at him, silently judging him for his heartless propositions. When they were about to express a stupid idea Jack stated in a cold tone :

"I won't allow you to take any risk when you are this weak. Those things are easy to fight with a coordinated army, not two kids and a disabled grandpa. Furthermore, I don't give a damn about human's lives and justice so don't even try to play those cards."

Seeing their shoulders slump and their frustrated expressions, he knew that he had been harsh but it was for the greater good. Smiling slightly, he then tried to remember where should be the others cities to no avail. The adventurer's description was doubtful at best and completely crappy in facts. Trying to cross the woods to get to another place would simply get them lost and there was only one road in this ruined village, leaving them no choice.

Jack then asked Laena with a silver of hope in his voice if she knew a way through the forest. The only answer he got was that he was racist and that she wasn't really knowledgeable of the place. Evelyn looked really down the whole time, even with her teacher and fellow disciple support so they decided to leave the place and follow gingerly the monster horde. With some luck there would be a cross on the road and they could go elsewhere, without they would have to go around the city whether it was still standing or not.

They thus decided to continue their journey by going onward to Grandia. The trip was mostly silent, the girls working out as much as they could with burning determination to get rid of their weakness while Jack was simply wondering where his mana circuits parts would be. His swordsmanship was also steadily improving even if he had to tweaks the techniques he learnt because they were meant for somebody who weighted more than a pile of bones.

He also learned that the monsters were usually hunted down and their population controlled, news that surprised him greatly. Even if now they were really weaker than at his time, all the immemorial creatures like Dragons, Celestial Beasts or Phoenixes disappeared from sight for no apparent reason.

During their walk, Laena told Jack and Evelyn that the no man's land to the east was a pain to live in because it was infested from undead and other powerful beings, attracting adventurers but scaring the armies since they would die in those poisonous marshes. Only the aborigines knew how to avoid them and prevent their dead from rising up again but they would defend their secrets tooth and nail.

Their quiet journey ended abruptly when on their third day, Jack suddenly grabbed his two companions for them to stop. They were still in the middle of nowhere, a huge forest on their left side and a plain going into some mountains on their right. Looking around, surprised, Evelyn didn't understood what was happening and Laena simply unsheathed her two handed sword, trusting the skeleton's judgment. He then said in a low and threatening voice :

"Either you cancel your miserable spell or I break it alongside your neck."

"Truly worth of a lich, I didn't know that it was possible to see through my Invisibility spell." An old man said, appearing fifteen meters from them. He was wearing a blue robe with a few gems and golden strands weaved in it, probably to show off his status. A long white beard fell down on his torso, coming from a wrinkled and bald face. He seemed to carry a few things in the huge bag on his back but was fine with its weight.

"I am no lich, brat. Now, what are you doing here alone ?" Jack already knew the answer but he wanted to hear it. He was also carefully monitoring the mana movements around the magician, readying himself to murder him if something went wrong.

It seemed that being called "brat" pissed the old magician off quite a bit but he didn't make any comment and humbly replied :

"I am fleeing the city of Grandia since a horde of terrifying monsters was going to attack it. I had to leave my apprentices behind since they would have slowed me down but I managed to get away with my research so it is fine. I came this way after walking through the forest since the city the other way will probably get destroyed too. After all, the safest place in a storm is its eye."

After looking at the beautiful elf and the small girl behind the undead, he thought for a moment then asked, a glint of lust dancing in his half closed eyes :

"Oh, would it be possible for me to buy your two slaves ? I need some hands to drag my stuff now that I'm safe and would enjoy their company. I would pay you one platinum coin per head, I think you have much to win in this trade."

Jack didn't reply, his soul fire simply changing of color while Laena understood what was going to happens and, trying to hide her disgust, she slowly walked backward with Evelyn. Completely misunderstanding the situation and thinking that the undead wanted more money while the slaves were trying to flee, the mage added :

"If you wish, I'm even willing to show you some of my research. I've been researching the truth of the water and ice magic for a long time and it is priceless. Is this enough for you Sir Lich?"

"The only thing interesting me right now is your life, despicable brat." Jack announced in a flat tone, raising his sword toward his enemy. His soul fire was quietly burning and tainting the hood in a vermilion hue while the skeleton was using this as an exercise to train himself to control his emotions.

The magician's visage turned red and he started chanting :

"Oh eternal ice, come forth an-"

A spike of ice was piercing through his throat, letting him drown in his own blood while making pitiful gargling sounds and gestures toward the skeleton, probably imploring his mercy.

"That's how you do an Ice Arrow, idiot." The skeleton simply replied.