The Beast Appears

As the frightened hero ran away, Mors heard something behind him. The rapid snapping of trees stopped him for a moment before he quickly turned his head to look. But all he saw was a purple blur before it shot into the trees once again, leaving behind a path of destruction in its wake.

Turning his head back towards Genn, he found the dead hero had an even paler as he saw whatever had run through. Then, looking toward Mors with slight fear in his eyes, he quickly shook it off before gravely asking one simple thing from Mors, "Run, please."

Breathing swiftly in, Mors got back onto the trail and chased after the fleeing silver knight. Stress filled inside of him as he quickly shuffled over, trying to catch up to the hero in heavy silver armor.

Feeling something enter him again, Mors ignored it to focus on his heaving chest as his chest began to burn. The cold air he breathed in was just like a spray bottle trying to put out the burning fire in his lungs.

Surprisingly the old man found that the silver knight was actually slightly slower than his old bones. But before he could even reach the young hero, something peculiar happened. This thing was so odd that it caused both Mors and this hero to stop in their places. Strangely the ground beneath them seemed to be illuminated in a blue light.

Turning their heads towards the sky, they found a small blue sparkle across the sky that seemed to dance merrily around in the air. But seeing that blue sparkle, Mors and the hero both became shaken and frightened by its calm illumination.

But how could such a happy little thing bring both the hero and Mors such feelings? Simple. It means that a monster hoard was on its way and that the party sent there had met a heroically died.

Such a thing was rare to see since usually monsters didn't break through the defensive line of heroes. But what was even more rare was those flares that are used to alert since they are extremely expensive to have. Usually, only senior heroes on missions from the town's minister get those flares since they had to be made by the combined effort of an alchemist and an enchanter.

Looking into the black sky that the little emergency flare was dancing in made Mors incredibly worried about whatever had run through the trees a few moments prior. As Mors turned back to the hero, he found the man removing parts of his armor as swiftly as he could, revealing what he looked like.

With electric blonde hair that became slightly blue in the light, he looked toward Mors as he quickly commanded, "Hurry up, old man! We got to go if we want to live! Hurry up, or I will leave you!"

Trying to shake himself out of his slight shock, Mors felt a sharp wind pass by him as something exited out of him. Looking around, he found nothing different about his surroundings before chasing after the already-leaving blonde hero, making sure to bring the stone sword he had.

As he stumbled forward swiftly, the sound of the gravel beneath his feet echoed out in Mors's frightened mind. So to fill the air, Mors decided to talk to the great hero before him, "So great hero… What was that thing that came barreling out of the forest before diving back into the dense foliage?"

Looking back at the weirdly quick old man, Mort quickly announced, "It's a weird hill troll… it looks like a normal hill troll, but… this one is purple and is a lot stronger than any other I have ever seen."

Dragging forward on the crisp winter night, the two continued under the eerie light that illuminated the surroundings for around a minute. Listening to anything new. Anything at all. Every forest sound would set off an alarm in their heads as they quickly looked towards anything.

Unable to handle the stress anymore, Mors decided to fill the air again, "So what was your weapon? I saw you don't have one right now…."

Stopping from his frantic running, Mort turned to the annoying old man as he breathed in with a raging fire in his body. Everything hurt at the moment, but he decided to ignore it right now to get as much air into his body as possible.

Feeling his head becoming fuzzy, he decided to tell the old man the grim truth, "I lost it. How could I keep ahold of it with this monster around… I would have had my rapier… but that beast flung it away with ease… That beast is unholy… Unlike anything, I have ever seen… If I didn't break away, I WOULD HAVE DIED ALREADY… Nothing we had would have hurt that thing… They called me a fool for running… Now, who is the fool… They are dead, and I am alive… hahahaHAaHAHhAHAHHAHAHA."

As the adventurer's echos rang out in the dark forest, under the illumination of the moon, a new sound crept up from behind the pair. Something big. Very big seemed to be close. Looking towards the sounds, Mors moved backward, behind this adventurer, as he saw a chilling face.

Under the quickly dimming moonlight, Mors couldn't make out everything, but the potions of the hill troll's face that were visible were gruesome to view. Sharp, irregular fangs plastered across its hideous smile, with its grimly glowing green eyes staring at the pair. Fear crept up inside seeing those shearing teeth and those blood-thirsting eyes.

It seemed to just stand there, smiling with its blood-covered body. It seemed excited, as if this was all a grim game to play. A demented game of cat and mouse or tag, maybe. Who knew what was spinning in its giant head. It seemed to naturally tower over the pair as it peaked out of the forest.

With its eyes beaming towards the frightened duo as both Mors and Mort were seemingly stuck in place. As it left the cover of the tree, a deep bone-chilling shiver passed through both of the duo as they practically became a statue. As its gruesome breath exited its horrendous body, the little cloud seemed to be green in the chilling moonlight.

Feeling like there was ice in his veins, Mors started at the slowly approaching deep purple figure; he wished to return home. Or at least see Genn again. He was so scared. He had never seen an actual monster like this before. With how shaken, Mors didn't even notice that Mort had turned around with a grave expression as his hand dove into his side bag.

Mors never noticed the adventurer's side handbag on the blonde adventurer's side. But seeing that adventurer had something up his sleeve, Mors felt slightly liberated as he felt like he could move again. As he mustered up his bravery to look at the monster before him. Its long muscular arms with weird claw hands probably broke the blonde adventurer's armor.

It had some small bits of cloth on its body, which covered the important regions. But Mors could see the hideous scars across its whole body. Like it had been stitched together by someone far fouler than the monster before him.

Whatever the adventurer was looking for, it gave Mors enough confidence to speak loudly to Mort, "You got this. We can do it!"

But as Mort turned towards the old man with fear in his eyes, as if he realized what he should do, he quickly pulled out the emergency flare that he had. Even though it was expensive, it might give him some time to escape. So taking it virulent in his hands, he pointed the magical flare at the fearsome beast.

Blaring red light filled the surroundings as it practically blinded Mors with its brilliance. Quickly he shut his pained eyes as he listened for the hero's successful cheer. Whatever he had pulled out must have been powerful since it was so bright. But all he was met was silence. Then, listening closely, he swore he heard something shaking quickly.

Deciding not to wait, Mors quickly opened his eyes to first found out that the red thing was a magical flare as it soared in the sky. Becoming confused he looked towards the hero to find that the shaking was coming from him practically vibrating.

Looking toward the monster, Mors found it completely depressingly undamaged. Staring at it, he didn't notice the hero quickly backing up. Before he could even react, the brave hero pushed him out of the way, screaming, "GET OUT OF MY WAY, OLD MAN! I AM NOT DYING HERE! NOT NOW! NOT EVER! THE GREAT MORTUUS WILL LIVE!"

Being pushed by the frightened adventurer, Mors didn't have time to protect himself as he tumbled down the side of the path, right into a bush, losing his sharp stone.