Counterstrike

After cleaning up the incredibly strange mess of words that the king of Rosetta had just spewed out, I finally understood what he was trying to say.

In essence it was the same as the off the Prince and Princess had made a small while ago pertaining to the survival of the kingdom.

On that note where did they go?

Glancing to the sides, I realized belatedly that besides immediately rushing towards the enemy like some sort of wild stallion without a rider.

I kind of just ignored the offer that the Prince and Princess had made without giving an answer as I dealt with the Desert Scourges, all fifty of them in fact.

...Yeah I'm just lying to myself when I said I dealt with all fifty, but a man can dream right?

'Also this thought process isn't at all to hide my panic that the Prince and Princess are gone and I don't know where they are at all as the battle was so chaotic and crazy that I couldn't keep track of them, hopefully they are safe.'

'Why am I thinking like this?'

Thinking back to the Prince and Princess, for some reason I felt incredibly antsy.

The fact that I could feel my skin become distinctly more porcelain like over time didn't help.

'God I'm itchy.'

It was as if several thousand ants had suddenly decided I would make a good home and were now gnawing at my skin while replacing it with the much stronger porcelain.

And fun fact, did you know that ants are blind and instead rely on pheromones to navigate?

Shifting my body weight, I nodded to the king while my eyes darted around for the sight of the prince and princess.

And lo and behold.

Despite not appearing while the king was still up there in the skies battling the storm terror, they had finally appeared when I had just made my decision.

Although I would've already accepted the decision I felt unbearably antsy with the man as my heart burnt with a feeling familiar to heart burn.

Something that I hadn't felt in a long while as spicy foods kind of left my pallet.

On that note why did I ever stop eating food in the first place? WHEN did I stop?

Questions upon questions that would remain unanswered for now as Riley the egg shook in my inventory with an insatiable craving for blood.

'Yeah yeah, I'll get to you later.'

Shaking my head, I verbally agreed to the Kings suggestion before looking around.

'On that note when the hell did I get outside?'

Thinking about the fact that I was now sitting cross legged on top of a shaking carriage heading even deeper into the cold desert I honest to God do not recall how I got up here.

'Oh wait, I actually do'

Recalling that upon verbally agreeing to the kings suggestion of joining the strike group to attack the heart of the antlion swarm I was immediately swept away.

Looking back, the vision of a series of ant carcasses receding into the distance met my eyes even as the people on them looked like the ants tearing the antlions apart.

A strange irony to be sure.

But in the Godforsaken desert where things were oh so unbearably cold that even I could feel it, I had to turn my attention away from the outside and into the inside.

For example, thoughts about the caravan.

The caravan itself wasn't notable as it was nothing but a line of carriages strung together on top of a series of sleds to glide over the shifting sands.

No trouble of wheels sinking into the sands when they just glided over them.

But what was notable however was the people in the caravan.

Travelling alongside the group of people coming from the malaise were people from Rosetta and some supplies.

The supplies were generally just dried food stuffs, water and bandages, nothing fancy besides some items that I don't know what they are for.

Maybe if I get a hold of one of them and see what I can craft with them but I doubt I will get the chance to do so.

'...Maybe if I ask the princess coming along with us.'

Glancing at the carriage set in the middle of the caravan I shook my head.

Unless by some chance that the guards atop camels and giant lizards let me by, then I doubt I would get a chance to interact with the royals.

The fact that I'm being watched by some strange thing in my shadow definitely didn't help.

Glancing at my shadow that was darkened by the setting sun, I shook my head as it undulated behind me.

'Who even is that?'

Turning my attention to the people from the kingdom of the Malaise, I couldn't help but notice that a few others had shadows watching them as well.

And by chance, with my eyes that seemed to see much more than normal, I caught the edges of a person sinking into the underparts of a carriage.

Not sure whether or not that tail was what constituted as human though... hopefully I was imagining things and that was a belt.

Otherwise I think we got a werewolf problem on our hands.

Now I know this is a random thought, but in the desert sun with nothing but sand, dunes, and sky there really is nothing else to think but random thoughts.

But who the hell is even here?

Thanks to the thought that besides the Rosetta knights, Sevallian warriors and the newly arrived shadow people there might be more, I looked around.

Mostly around the Sevallian people who constituted a portion of the actual group.

I wonder how they're doing right now actually.

Thinking those questions, the desert sands unfolded before me even as the camels dragged the modified carriages deeper into the desert.

Hopefully there would be no problems on the way there.

And by hopefully there isn't I mean hopefully there is, because from past experience, I have realized I do not do well on long, boring trips to a destination without any fun.

And by fun, I mean chaos.

I might actually be a psycho huh?

---

In the far off east where the ship was initially docked.

Before the three bosses had their battle, a good majority of the people on the ship were sea sick and were generally sick of the sea.

Thankfully, due to the sudden fall off of land near the shore, the ship could dock relatively nearby and rowboats didn't need to go far to get to land.

This made them all very happy as their sea legs could finally set foot on solid land.

Land that wasn't tainted by the malaise.

Land that didn't have as many monsters crawling all over its surface.

Land that was... pure...

Well as pure as it could be when the Corruption was still present.

After the battle of three boss monsters that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere however, the landscape had been shifted so abruptly that it was now unfit for docking.

And so they had to set sail once again.

Constituting the size of two full length football fields, the large ship made out of other ships was now peacefully sailing across the seven seas.

Led by the [Fisherman] Bob, all of the people present who had gotten a taste of freedom were content.

Well as content as they could be in a land extremely unfamiliar to them in the fact that it was filled with nothing but the air of sea water.

A few of the people who couldn't adapt to the sudden change of pace even regretted the fact that they rejected the chance to go to a war torn battle front.

But besides those who were unfamiliar to the taste of peace, there were those who had enough of the smell of blood constantly filling the air.

The [Old man] was a part of this.

Silently weaving rough clothes together with the left behind silks that have been accumulated in the hold, the clothes in his hands were given new life.

But despite the silence, an aura of peace surrounded him as he was confined to the darkness of the hold, only the light of a dimly lit oil lamp lighting up his surroundings.

Wandering into the hold filled with darkness, the shadows broiled and twisted as a figure slowly rose from them.

Black tar dripping off of them in big black gloopy bits of ink, the [Old man] paused his movements as the needle and thread paused midair.

Looking up, red eyes and white beard met pure black orbs of void as the liquid man of ink appeared from the shadows.

Oil lamp flame flickering, the ship hit a wave causing the oil flame to cast a light on the figure, revealing ap portion of their body in the dark.

And seeing the black orbs of darkness on the pale face tainted by darkness, a grim tense appeared in his face.

"...What do you want old friend."

Silence.

Rolling his shoulders, the red eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness as the shadows writher and rolled, turning the already dark surroundings a tinge darker.

Even the oil flame which was struggling from the lack of oil began to writhe as if tendrils of shadow were trying to swallow the light.

"...I see the lords skeleton has been cast off of you."

Pause.

The old man set down his needle and thread before opening his white bearded mouth.

"And what is it to you?"

"Did you not say what an honor it was to take upon the lords skeleton onto you old friend? Why did you cast off his mortal shell?"

Seemingly agitated, the inky figure ignored the broiling surroundings and tried to move to no avail.

"Why? Why Why WHY WHY WHY DID YOU DO IT!??"

"..."

Suddenly falling silent, the inky figure of darkness stopped their movements before a gleam of blue filled the pitch black orbs.

"...Well it is no matter." Cracking their neck, the figure's arm raised as he pointed it at the [O!) M@n]

"No thanks to you, we finally have the skeleton of our lord after all of this time and we can use the talent we had sourced from the [Overworld]"

"So prepare yourself... [Tailor]?"

A tinge of agitation rose up in his voice as his hand faltered.

"You... you really cast off your [Name]? Why did you..."

"..."

"...No matter, when the lord descends all things shall come to light."

Snapping their fingers, the blue eyes reminiscent of the moon disappeared into the darkness.

Falling into a heap of black ink that dissolved into the shadows, the [Tailor] was left behind in the darkness of the hold.

With the oil lamp regaining its dim light, it was as if nothing had happened.

And to all those who weren't involved with the meeting in the hold where general supplies were to held as ballast, it really was as if nothing had happened as the world went on its day.

Picking up the needle and thread, the Tailor returned to patching up the clothes, every sinking of the thread giving the cloth in his hands new vibrancy.

+++

Tree note

Sorry for not uploading these past few days.

It was because the health of my dog was getting worryingly bad.

He died yesterday.

Big ol German shepherd that was 10 years old, it's around 70 in human years.

His name was Hammer and I really liked him.

Sorry, just had to get my mind off of him for now.