Battle with the Beasts

The starry line of light struck the Saint right on his chest and went through it. As Thorn had used most of his essence on the fight with the old priest, he didn't have much essence left to charge up the waxed finger to it's full potential. That's why the attack ended quickly than before, revealing the Saint, a wide hole on his chest.

Everyone looked at the Saint, or rather towards the hole on his chest. *Drip Drip* His blood slowly dripped from his wound to the ground. "...We did it..." A rogue seeker muttered, breaking the silence. "It's over!" Cheers started ringing around the battlefield. But Thorn, Buck and the leaders were staring at the Saint in silence, their faces grave.

The Saint slowly looked down towards his chest. Looking at the gaping hole on his chest, his eyes lost all of it's intelligence. "CAREFUL!" Thorn shouted out. The Saint opened his mouth wide, and a loud screech rang out all over the battlefield.

"UGHHH" Everyone on the battlefield knelt down and closed their ears with their hands. Nerves started appearing on their foreheads, as the screeching didn't seem to stop. After a while, sounds of bones breaking and sounds of muscles cracking and popping. "What's... happening...." Thorn spoke through clenched teeth, still knelt down and closing his ears.

After the sounds around him died down, the Saint also stopped screeching. Hurriedly looking at where the Saint was, they could now see that there was no one there, but the two corpses of Asa and Price. "C-Careful..." Vine's weak and hoarse voice came from behind Thorn, alerting him of his surroundings.

They were shocked when they looked around the battlefield. More than half of the rogue seekers, and even some knights that were rescued from the cell were now transformed into hideous beasts with unnatural physique.

A black claw like that of a wolf came right at Thorn's face. Turning swiftly to the side, he barely dodged the attack. Looking towards the direction of the attack, he saw that a knight who was imprison had been fully transformed into a wolf-like beast, drooling from his mouth.

Thorn stood up from the ground and dodged an attack again. Dodging to the side, Thorn unsheathe his sword from the scabbard and slashed towards the beast, killing it in one strike. He looked around the battlefield and saw the knights fighting the beasts with all that they had. He turned to the back and found his brother on the ground, curled up and grabbing his head, his whole body shaking.

"Brother!" Thorn dashed towards Vine and helped him up. "What's happening?" He looked at Vine who looked like he was barely holding on. "Lunacy.... Knock me out...." Vine spoke through clenched teeth. Thorn looked at him with hesitation. "Hurry!" He urged. In a panic, Thorn chopped on the back of Vine's neck, knocking him out. After placing his brother in a safe place, he ran towards the battlefield, helping the knights fight the lunatized beasts.

While everyone was busy fighting the beasts, Zane, Edana and Slem appeared from inside the church. When they came out from the hole in the wall, the first thing they saw was everyone fighting against the horrid beasts. "What the hell's happening here..." Zane muttered.

Edana widened her eyes when she saw the beasts. She ran towards the battlefield to help her fellow knights. Zane and Slem looked at each other, and they also dashed towards the battlefield, killing any beasts they saw.

Most of the knights that turned were transformed into beasts resembling a wolf. With huge furry bodies and sharp teeth. They looked like werewolves but their faces were hideous and disfigured. The rogue knights transformed into beasts according to their <Arcane> or <Physical> abilities. They could see many types of beasts, some resembled snakes, some resembled monkeys. They even saw some rogues turn into beasts they couldn't describe with any words they knew of. They looked like mangled fish flesh with eyes.

The battlefield looked very flashy as everyone used their <Arcane> and <Physical> abilities to kill off the beasts. A knight parried an attack from a wolf like beast and killed it with his rapier, which was glowing in an ethereal blue light. "Haah..." he let out a heavy breath as he had been fighting the beast for some time. It even took out his friend, who was lying dead on the ground. When he let his guard down for a moment, a long tongue came right at his face. Widening his eyes, he couldn't find the time to dodge or block the attack. *Plop* Just as the tongue was about to blow his face off, it fell to the ground with a plop.

A thick thorn of shadow extended from the ground and cut the tongue in half, saving the knight. He turned his head and followed the shadow, seeing a man with pale skin and white hair smiling at him. "You shouldn't rest until the fight is over..." The man smiled at him before dashing towards the frog beast, killing it with his daggers.

The battle with the beasts raged on for some time before every single one of them were killed. Thorn looked around the battlefield strewn with corpses of beasts, knights and rogue seekers. As he was lost in thought, Edana approached him, "Sir..." Broken from his stupor, Thorn faced Edana and exclaimed in surprise. "Edana! Where were you?" He was happy to see her.

"I was looking for someone sir.." Edana replied, causing Thorn to raise his eyebrow. "Zane? Valentina's brother?" He asked. Edana widened her eyes. "H-How'd you know?" Thorn waved his hand and answered with a question of his own. "Did you find him?"

Edana gave up and nodded her head. "Yes.. But more importantly, what happened here?" She looked around the battlefield. "I... don't know. The knights and rogue seekers you freed suddenly fell into lunacy, turning into beasts... It's a miracle my brother..." He turned towards his brother, who was lying unconscious on the ground. Edana also followed Thorn's gaze and looked at Vine. "Is that your brother?" She asked.

Nodding his head, Thorn gazed at Edana with a thankful look. "Thank you.." He smiled. Edana smiled back. "Should we return back? Oh, where's Haskell?" She started turning her head around the battlefield to find her friend.

As soon as Thorn heard his name, his face stiffened. "Edana..." Thorn called out in a low voice. Edana turned towards Thorn, a confused look on her face. When she turned, she could see Thorn's sad gaze. Following his hand, she looked towards the place where he was pointing. Her gaze landed on the ground around thirty steps from them. "No...." Edana's face lost it's color as she walked towards the corpse with heavy footsteps.

Finally reaching there, Edana could see Haskell's corpse, a round wound on his forehead, a red streak of bloodstain flowing down from it. She knelt down before the corpse and grabbed Haskell's cold hands. "Rest in peace, my dear friend." Tears started streaming down from her eyes, caressing her cheeks and dropping down on the dirt. "May the night guide you.."