An Unfortunate Encounter

The wind was howling deep through the valley, and wolves could be heard rushing around the thick forest for prey. In this scenario, the wolves weren't the only predators sneaking about.

As Alaric's party on 6 demons and one unknown person were bolting towards the castle, they encountered multiple obstacles along the way.

"Alaric, that's a Blood Bear" One of the demons nervously warned the party stealthy.

An obnoxiously large bear was enjoying a nice dinner consisting of 3 wolves who had all gotten slaughtered by the superior magical beast. From behind you could see the bear was equipped with large claws comparable to small daggers on each paw. It had bushy fur, but the experienced party knew that the pelt more of a problem than anything else. The bear's fur was often bored by kings and heroes throughout time, it was a symbol of high status and also used as protection from nearly anything as it was almost as tough as wyvern scales.

The party knew that this bear would be able to mess up their tight schedule, but they were forced to either slay it or try to sneak around it. Luckily the wind was facing them, so the bear had yet to detect them through smell. Alaric was good at making swift decisions, so he led them around to evade the potential danger of a full-grown blood bear.

You could almost hear the heartbeat pumping hard against their chest, as they were making their way around. They continuously looked at the bear and back down at their feet to make sure they didn't snap any branches. The dirt was wet, muddy, and loud. It caused the demons to anxiously look each other in the face and gulp down the tremendous pressure there were on their life at the moment. One of the less experienced demons suddenly bumped into the one sneaking in front, and the whole party froze and stared terrified in the direction of the mad blood bear.

"RAAAAAWR" Was heard echoing through the never-dying woods, and the Bear was growling and showing off its intimidating canines, you could see the drool painted red in wolf blood as the bear had taken an aggressive stance ready to mold them down in one fast action.

The group on 8 had a short moment of panic, but they assembled themselves rather quickly and scattered out surrounding the bear. They knew that if the bear was to charge at them in one large group they would all be devastated instantly. This way they had a higher possibility of surviving, yet there was also one fatal flaw that could mean death for them.

'A cornered beast is almost as dangerous as a wounded one' was a saying that was always taught as the first thing for every adventurer. However, as it stood right now, they didn't have a choice.

Another battle cry was furiously roared out as the Blood Bear went charging in for the weakest. And in a flash, the mountain of a bear was standing dooming over the almost crying demon.

"Pull yourself together dammit!" Alaric yelled to his comrades. "We can slay this monster as long as we act as a group instead of individually!" he struggled with the last sentence as he dashed forward towards the bear soon accompanied by others. In the speed of his lightning-fast dash, he used the momentum for a super-powerful stab in the bear's thigh, the sword went half through and was pulled out again with little struggle considering the amount of adrenaline that was flowing through his strong body.

A vicious roar was heard being shattered across the battlefield as multiple swords were hacking and slashing on the Blood bear. It twisted its massive upper body and revealed two blood sprung eyes soon followed by a fierce paw crushing through the air aiming straight for Alaric.

'No time to dodge!' was the thought that ran through the twisted mind of Alaric Hearthstone as he prepared for a wild ride through the forest.

The paw was stopped inches from his chest when his focus flicked from the paw to the bear's eyes.

A moment of silenced confusion was held in the small clearing where the fight was being taken on, as the bear apparently had a more confusing face than Alaric himself. From behind the group was heard a drop noise. Evidently, the man in robes had used a great amount of his power to stop the fierce swing from hitting Alaric.

Bear and demons stood dumbfounded for a moment, looking at the unconscious body.

The demons faced it, they couldn't take down the bear with the time they had on their hands. "We're fleeing follow me!" Alaric yelled as he took off and jolted towards the castle's back entrance.

Some yet remaining demons were conflicted about if they should leave the still alive unknown man behind considering he had just saved Alaric's life, while others prioritized their own safety and dashed right in their master's footsteps.

Those who thought twice about running were now being slaughtered by the crimson red Blood Bear as was it a game.

'We need to stay right above the trees to not get detected by the guards at the castle' he thought while speeding towards the dungeon with a dangerously low altitude. They had preferred to walk through the forest than fly because of the risk of being noticed. Alaric Hearthstone's nerves nearly exploded as he heard the alarms go vivid in Eichenwalde, in worry over having been noticed he reduced his speed and let himself free-fall through the tree crowns, a roll was made over the soft and muddy ground to take the impact of the high drop. He wore a dissatisfied expression because he knew he had lost too many valuable men in this flank, but he was determined to go through with it.

With his most loyal men by his side, Alaric was making his way to the dungeon, he began to see flaws in the report his scout had given him, it was as if he wanted him to enter the dungeon before going straight to the castle. For now, he decided to trust his scout and continue with the plan. All of a sudden a big blueish light lit up around the whole castle, a magical barrier had been activated, and you could hear a loud uproar in the distant building as well as explosions and whatnot. Alaric couldn't see the bridge from where he was, but he knew it had begun.

They had to work faster if they were to use the moment of surprise to pass through the dungeon unnoticed. As they were nearing the edge of the large hole, he took a moment to speak with his comrades. "Listen up soldiers, We have lost brothers and sisters today, and more will die. But we can hinder their death from being in vain." He spoke in a serious tone and studied the face of each one of them. They had been with him up to now through thick and thin, but he couldn't get this eerie feeling of guiltiness away, whenever he asked himself if he would abandon them to reach his own goals he would never think twice.

"Ahead of us might be a trap, I don't know, and I prefer not to meet Amon in that spooky dungeon". A deep breath calmed his nerves a bit and after collecting themselves they took flight for the cliff with the dungeon inside.

The wind was flowing through Alaric's hair, it was a calming feeling, he couldn't stop worrying about what he may face inside that dungeon.

--> The Dungeon <--

"Splash". Water was dripping from the roof in the dungeon, it was a cold time. The walls were usually heated up by the sun outside, at least that was what I imagined assisting my back against the cold wall as I sat down in despair. It was as if the sun had focused on another place than this particular wall.

My senses were on their highest alert. I didn't know what was happening but Mr. Gibbs rushed out of the room as if he suddenly forgot something important, he even forgot to chain me up again after today's third session. I had the usual taste of metal in my mouth as I choked some more blood up from my pinched lungs. Today's session had been him hammering long nails into my breast, and impaling my breastbones. It was awful as ever but for some time ago I simply stopped complaining and just thought about things while he tormented me.

I could see it was annoying him, he got more and more agitated and up to multiple times ended up getting so flustered he just left the dungeon. At this point I could tell I was winning, winning the right to my death.

As I was sitting against the dungeon wall struggling to breathe in clean air. I still mourned over my right arm as it was a large project to regenerate, I was being starved as it was already, but my mind was going crazy about the level of overwork it put in the process of rebuilding my arm. The hole in my stomach had never been any bigger, and I felt like it would swallow me anytime now.

It was like if a bomb with a random timer was strapped to my back and I wasn't allowed to know anything about the set time except it would detonate soon. My anxiousness over my own body was at its limit.

I heard some voices coming down the stairs, however, something was wrong. There were multiple voices and the steps were walking relaxingly slow. I held my breath and listened closer. I wanted to know if 'he' was there. I waited, 5 seconds passed by and my lungs were about to collapse from utter exhaustion, I let out a loud exhale and began to hyperventilate.

No 'Clink clonk' could be heard, so my interest peaked, and I tried to lift my head since I wanted to see who would be coming out of the dark. One of the men stopped in his tracks, then another and the rest fell in line. A deep voice broke the awkward tenseness in the air.

"I see, finally good to meet you in person subject 69? I hope Mr. Gibbs has treated you well. You have brought me many successes I thank you for that." a tall and broad man stepped out of the dark. He had white hair that reached his shoulders and his skin looked horrible like he had lubricated his face in venom. He wore a white overcoat with a nice pelt on the end of the hood as to show off his wealthiness. Matching trousers and some weird looking boots were lastly observed.

Above his left shoulder, you could see a long handle with some gemstones in, it was probably a greatsword and it looked damn heavy at that.

"You see, my name is Amon, and you've probably heard of me from Mr. Gibbs?" He said expecting some kind of reaction from me.

There was an awkward silence in the air as I tried to search for the name Amon in the furthest corners of my head but couldn't find any relation, I had my suspicions but nothing I was too sure about.

Amon sighed, and tried again "Maybe he told about me under the name master?"

you could see how his pride was hurting from being observed trying to convince this slave he was an important person, however, the second time seemed to ring some bells.

My pupils turned vivid for a moment before I realized I was in no condition to try and start a conflict. I let out a small laugh before it turned into a wild dry cough attack along with even more newly pumped blood. I had lowered my head while staring at the ground, and a small pause followed. I raised my head in newly faked confidence as I cursed the master in front of his face.

"F**k you, don't come bursting into my home like that you unmannered brat" Was spat out of my mouth with an uncaring tone along with blood that eventually made it look like he had just come inside after standing in a rain of crimson red liquid.

You could see his face turn red in anger before calming down. "And here I was, about to heal your now punctured lungs". I would kill you if I didn't have more pressing tasks at hand, and besides, I still have use for you" He smiled at having resisted my attempt to get myself killed.

Time passed by slowly as the 3 men and Amon stood completely still staring at one of the walls.

At first, I thought they waited for me to pass out to do something but they just kept staring at the wall with about 4 meters between the group and the surface. I studied Amons face and noticed how he had his eyes closed. It was as if he was waiting for something to happen.

And suddenly something did happen, they all with perfectly matched time opened their eyes and in a flash had their hands on their sword hilt. Not even 2 seconds after, the very wall they had been staring at was blown up by an extreme force, knocking the bricks long back in the darkness, causing a big smokescreen to appear. After some awkward choking by me, the dust finally calmed down, and standing where there once was a wall was now 4 just as armed soldiers. The leader looked at me weirdly, as if he knew me. But the next thing he said threw a storm of once-forgotten memories into my head.