Soldiers of Ultimate Loyalty
"That was your master plan? Using our teammates as bait!?" Sarah whispered, anger visible in her tone. "How can you be so heartless?"
"For once, I agree with her," Eugene admitted as he formed an expression of guilt. Simon could only cringe as he watched the two goody-two-shoes attempt to offer Alex, the person who murdered over a thousand people, lectures about morals and ethics.
"Are you going to respond?" Sarah spoke in a thunderous tone, attracting expressions of anger from Eugene and Simon. "Oops."
Whoosh! Crack!
An arrow darted towards Sarah at extreme speeds and her eyes widened. As the arrow approached her face, a hand interjected, catching the arrow before shattering it with a single, fluid motion.
Alex, who prevented the arrow from piercing Sarah's face, spoke in a calm yet resolute tone that made others voluntarily want to follow him. "Yes, I'm planning on using our teammates as bait. If you don't like my methods, you're welcome to leave at any point in time. However, your survival will then be your responsibility."
As he uttered those words, he grasped Sarah and Eugene's hands before motioning Simon to escape. As Simon disappeared into the distance, Alex moved alongside Sarah and Eugene, practically dragging them to a safer location.
As the four met up once again behind a different bush, they gazed at the tiny civilization of elves in the distance. Thankfully, the civilization was fairly new and possessed mostly children or elderly elves, instead of middle-aged warriors.
The houses were crafted using wood, while the only sturdy monument was the temple of Demeter, one of the Goddesses of Nature that was worshiped by the elves. Alex was visibly concerned about his survival when he first spotted the temple, but his worries vanished when he noticed that the artifact that connected the elves to the Goddess was missing.
'There should be no connection to Demeter, which means no blessings of prosperity,' he concluded. 'But the fact they survived and came out triumphant over the other species inside this dungeon indicates they at least have some firepower if not much. The question is… how much firepower?'
Eugene observed the village with great interest while Sarah recovered from the shock of being shot at without her knowledge. Simon, on the other hand, kept a suspicious gaze on Alex, who returned the favor.
"What's wrong?" Alex asked as he sat leisurely, searching the area using only his senses for monsters he could hunt to recover from his wounds.
"Why are you helping us?" Simon finally asked the question that Sarah and Eugene had wondered, but had never had the courage to ask. It had been several hours since they arrived in an unknown place surrounded by greenery. Dangers loomed everywhere, and Alex could have easily abandoned them, but he didn't.
They were useless. They possessed no qualities that could assist Alex in this endeavor, nor did they have any talent for the future. They were baggage and would only hold Alex down as he soars to new heights. They would eventually be a thorn in his path. However, despite Alex knowing all that, he hadn't abandoned them.
'I don't know why I haven't,' Alex admitted inwardly. 'I truly do not know why I haven't left these weaklings to die.'
It was humiliating that the former Head and Founder of the Ryoujin Clan was worrying about such petty things. It was even more humiliating that such a figure was carrying dead weight alongside him.
As Alex noticed the stares of both Eugene and Sarah, who had now placed their attention towards Simon, he finally spoke, "Honestly, I–"
However, before he could finish his sentence, the ground beneath the group shook profusely as Alex leapt upwards. Eugene and the others moved towards different directions as they scrunched their eyebrows, trying to detect the source of what seemed to be a mini-earthquake.
'It's not just an earthquake,' concluded Alex as he detected movement under the soil. His eyes narrowed as an arrow approached his right oblique. Realizing that the elves had detected them, Alex pushed his body weight onto the arrow as he narrowly avoided it while in the air.
Landing on the ground, he glanced at the others, who were struggling to maintain their balance on the unstable ground. Alex sighed as he headed towards them, but as he approached Eugene, the noise of a projectile moving at speeds throughout the atmosphere entered his ears.
His expression froze as his eyes widened to the size of saucers. With gritted teeth, he prepared to parry the attack instead of futilely attempting to avoid it. As he unsheathed Durendal, however, he noticed a fatal flaw in his plan.
"Fuck."
*
Maxwell sat against the boulder he had been pushed to, silently suffering through excruciating pain in his upper back. However, despite the pain weighing down on his body, a smile remained on his face.
His effort to awaken the slumbering monster had succeeded. A wild beast had been born; a wild beast that would rescue them. He watched as the element of darkness wrapped itself around Eric's body, coating it with protection.
'I wonder if I looked that cool,' Maxwell thought. Despite having retained a meager amount of memories from when he awakened, a large part was missing. The only vivid memory was of him murdering his brother in cold blood. 'I hope he doesn't lash out at us, but there's nothing I can do about it if he chooses to.'
As Maxwell stared at the now majestic figure of Eric, chills shot down his spine. Eric's previously short hair had elongated until his neck, covering a good part of his face. Despite half of his face being hidden under his dark hair, his handsome facial features were still visible.
'He… his expression seems similar to Alex's!' Maxwell observed as his eyes widened. He believed no one could imitate the stoic expression Alex frequently plastered on his face.
Eric's body had evolved to accommodate the overflowing power emerging from the depths of his soul. He seemed more like a caveman than a modern human as he took rather awkward steps towards the creature, who possessed similar energy to himself.
Eric ignored all humans as he took slow, pressuring steps that seemed to be capable of levelling Earth in a single blow. Eric then flicked his wrist in a swift, fluid motion, causing thick, black viscous liquid to shoot towards Maxwell's teammates.
Maxwell's eyes widened as he realized who Eric was directing his hostility at, but the former did not have enough strength to shout. Petrified due to fear, Maxwell wondered if his awakening had been so… terrifying.
'Can Alex handle Eric's current state?' Maxwell wondered as he stared at the figure.
The liquid came into contact with the skin of the petrified humans, draining all moisture from it as if it were a vacuum. The skins of Maxwell's teammates dried as their bodies aged several decades to the point where bones were visible. Soon, the skin melted completely, leaving behind skeletons that had maintained the shape of their body.
Eric's eyes released a dark light as the skeletons moved according to his will, gathering before him while kneeling. The skeletons were soon coated in a shroud of darkness as they bowed sincerely, determination visible in their non-existent eyes.
At Eric's non-verbal command, the skeletons lunged towards the creature, who attempted to claw them. However, with no skin remaining on their bodies, the claw was useless as it scraped the hard surface of the bones.
The skeletons inevitably surrounded the creature as they charged from all directions, ripping the wolf/tiger-like creature apart as if it were a rotisserie chicken.
As the shroud of darkness disappeared from the skeletons' bodies, Eric charged towards Maxwell, whose eyes widened once again. The latter desperately stood up as he prepared to sprint, despite the intense pain radiating from his upper back.
However, as Eric's figure quickly approached his own, a bright light flashed, shrouding both Maxwell and Eric in warmth and comfort. Soon, a ball of white light permeated through, landing gently on Maxwell's palms.
Immediately, both of their figures disappeared as if their existence had been a lie, leaving behind nothing but hot air.