Forgotten Heroes

CHAPTER EDITED 1 TIME

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In the middle of an old and forgotten forest, a thunderous explosion burst the millennial calm. Around the epicenter of the blast, all the trees were smashed into hundreds of splinters, and several rings of electric fire formed with the passage of the sling that caused the magical detonation. As soon as the smoke dissipated, the dim light of the fire illuminated two huddled and wounded figures with their clothes full of tears.

"Arg! Are you ok honey?" asked the deep spoken man.

He had a woman in his arms. He held her as if by carelessness she was going to disappear forever.

"My love, your arms," she exclaimed.

The woman's voice was filled with infinite love. The sound of her words was to this man's ears the equivalent of what pollen is worth to bees. The woman's reddish eyes pointed sadly at her husband's charred arms. The powerful magic he used to escape was above his level and worse yet, it was not suitable for humans.

"If I haven't run out of power." The woman began to cry.

"Calm down, calm down, thanks to you we all survived." The man hugged her tighter and tried to get up.

But he couldn't, he sneezed blood and almost fell. He stood by pure will. His knees trembled, the side effects of forced teleportation magic not only manifested in his burned arms up to the elbows, but his internal organs were also affected by the adverse reaction.

"We have to move; we don't know where we are. Magical radiation can attract unwanted creatures."

The man tried again to get up but failed. At that moment when his knees touched the ground, a metallic growl sounded to the right of where they were. They both turned and gasped at what the magical emission from the explosion drew.

"A moissanite bear." The beautiful woman said clutching her husband's neck tighter.

The huge bear measured 2 meters on all four legs, its gray fur was covered in black spots and pieces of greenish-black moissanite protruded from its body. These pieces of metallic rock were almost as strong as diamond.

"Darth, let me down. I'll take care of it." The woman said, but this time with a voice that would freeze the soul of the bravest.

"No, you've already wasted too much energy," he answered.

The woman was angry.

"Darthañan, you can't even get up. If you don't let me go right now, I'll let it devour us both. Anyway, I always dreamed of dying next to you," said the woman seductively with a frown.

Darthañan's face color faded, they were not in a situation to say that kind of thing <I will not let anything happen to you,> he thought with resolution.

"I know when you make that face." The woman untangled herself from her husband's arms and pushed him to the opposite side of the bear.

Darthañan fell flat on his butt, his wife just looked at him, stuck out her tongue, and prepared to face the animal that was starting to go through the first ring of the electric fire.

To make matters worse something that none of them expected happened, the moissanite on the bear began to absorb the electrical fire with which it came into contact. The animal's fur began to darken and its eyes turned sapphire blue, steam began to escape from its snout. The magical stimulation and a large amount of absorbed energy excited the bear making it much more aggressive than normal.

"I have to kill it or incapacitate it in one attack," the woman said in a small voice.

The vampire's slender body tensed with concentration. She inhaled by closing her eyes to calm down and properly circulate the little remaining energy in her body, and then exhale opening them without any emotion reflected in her beautiful red eyes.

The huge bear, which was between three to four meters tall, begun to breathe heavily. The magical energy of electric fire, contrary to what would be expected, when absorbed began to accelerate its metabolism, whetting its appetite instantly.

Its heavy steps left traces the size of an adult human, the metallic protrusions of its body began to slightly burn everything around it, including its internal organs and fur. The painful wounds unleashed the beast's aggressiveness. The animal launched itself covering several meters in a few seconds, each time it passed through one of the rings of electric fire its aggressiveness increased.

"Frigglene!" Darthañan shouted in anguish when he saw the bear throw itself over his wife.

"Grrrr ...!" it roared.

Frigglene formed claws of blood on her hands and partially turned her body into smoke. She countered the onslaught of the beast with her claws.

"Boom!"

A small cloud of dust rose, the bear flew to the penultimate ring of electric fire, forming a deep depression in the ground with its weight. Frigglene was thrown to the opposite side of the bear and was caught by her husband, who ignored all the pain and limitations of his body and launched himself opening his arms without hesitation to catch her.

Darthañan grabbed her and diverting all the remaining energy from her body into his right foot he propelled himself out of the area where they appeared. The force he exerted to make that desperate leap, though limited by consuming the vast majority of his energy in teleportation magic, was large enough to break his leg bones. His body, being a human, was much more delicate than his wife's.

They both shot out of the crater that the magical explosion had left. Darthañan hugged his wife trying to protect her from the electric flames that they were going through. Then, he tilted his body to force himself to land.

"Paf!"

"Ahhhg!"

Darthañan's back hit the trunk of a huge tree causing him to lose air and spit blood. However, the first thing he did was to check Frigglene's condition.

"Frigg, Frigg How are you feeling?"

The blow between the bear and his wife made him nervous. If she lost her life, he would lose all meaning to continue alone. At that moment, a soft hand caressed his cheek.

"I never thought that our anniversary honeymoon would be so exotic," she said with difficulty.

"Hahaha all the best for you," he answered.

The loving couple helped each other up, the pain and anguish they felt in this desperate situation reflected in both their eyes, but neither of them said anything. Just the fact that the person they loved the most was still alive was enough. And suddenly, naturally, as if they were magnets, their lips came together.

That kiss, which lasted a few seconds that seemed like hours, allowed them to relax their bodies. Frigglene effortlessly placed one of her injured hands on her husband's chest.

"We have to move."

Darthañan took a deep breath and nodded.

"Based on my experience, and how everything looks the same. We should continue straight, getting as far away from the crater as we can."

"Don't tell me." Frigglene smiled, the joke was so bad that only Darthañan would think of it.

The couple supported each other to start walking, their bodies were at their limit, their energy was depleted and they were in an unknown place. And from what they had just witnessed, it was full of dangers.

After walking for around two hours in constant fear, that the bear from before or a new creature would appear, they reached an area full of crystals that emerged from the ground as if they were trees.

Thanks to this change, the foliage above them stopped being so dense and they could see a huge mountain range in the distance. The couple only needed a glance to confirm that they could continue walking straight until they reached one of the mountains.

With the help of the rigorous training they both received in their respective families when young, their bodies continued to function despite the injuries. However, the deadly limits of both were beginning to emerge. Darthañan began to feel hungry from the lack of energy and the dispersion of adrenaline that had kept him afloat made him exponentially, with the passage of seconds, unable to resist the pain of his injuries.

Frigglene, for her part, despite enjoying immortality as a vampire, having consumed all her energy and receiving so many wounds, needed to consume blood to recover. For immortality is not the same as invincibility, if you do not take care of your body you could easily starve.

It was after another hour when their bodies and minds were already worn down and their will was no longer enough to continue moving their legs, that they reached the foot of the mountain. Huge columns of Crystal of various colors stood skyward, decorated with various plants that survived by parasitizing the minerals in the crystals. And at that very moment, they heard the sound of moving water.

As if they were animals, they instinctively lunged toward where the sound came from. And in less than five seconds they found a small stream that came down the mountain zigzagging between the crystals. The couple fell to the ground and crouched down to drink desperately from the river, and as if agreed upon, both bodies gave way to exhaustion and collapsed.

Neither of them realized how long they slept, fortunately, no life-threatening forest creatures found them. They both woke up at about the same time and tried to smile, but couldn't. The physical and mental fatigue was such that they could no longer draw strength to motivate each other.

"Ahhh!"

"Fuuu!"

Darthañan took a deep breath and with great effort sat down.

"Frigg, my love. Drink from my blood, if you regain your energy you are more likely to survive."

Every word that came out of his throat seemed like a knife ripping his insides. However, Frigglene knew very well the state of her husband, to feed on him in the condition they were in would be condemning him to die.

"If we find something for you to eat I will. Otherwise, I will die with you."

His wife's words moved and saddened Darthañan, in their current state they could not catch even a wounded mouse.

"Look!" Frigglene pointed towards a spacious cavern a few meters ahead "if we find an insect that does not poison us, you could recover enough energy to survive."

Darthañan looked at the entrance of the cavern, then towards the sky, it was still night, or maybe they had slept all day.

"Ok, let's go," he said, drawing strength from who knows where to get up with his wife.

They staggered and with great difficulty they cross the few meters that even a small child would walk without any problem. When they arrived, Frigglene, because her eyes were more developed for the darkness, noticed that the cavern was incredibly empty, it could even be said that it was even clean; if not for the large ovoid sphere in the middle of it. That looked like a reddish crystal egg more than a meter and a half high. When Darthañan got used to the darkness of the cavern, he couldn't help but be surprised.

"What is that?"

Frigglene didn't know what it was either, but at that very moment, a scent reached her nose that she would recognize anywhere.

"Blood."

In an instant Frigglene vanished from where she was, appearing next to the crystallized blood egg. Darthañan lost the support of his wife and fell to the floor. And with what little strength he had left, he began to crawl to where his wife was.

Frigglene broke a piece of the crystal with her claws and began to feed on the nutritious blood crystal. Then, regaining enough energy, she was able to breathe easily, her hands returned to her refined and delicate appearance, and then she turned to see her husband.

Darthañan had lost consciousness while waiting next to his wife. Frigglene approached him and carefully lifted him, placed one of her hands on his forehead, and shared energy with him. The difference between transfusing energy and feeding properly is like the difference between heaven and earth, but for an emergency like this, it was like a blessing to the poor human who was about to leave for the world of the dead.

Miraculously both were able to survive thanks to the crystallized blood egg. Frigglene consumed pieces until she was satiated and then infused energy to her husband. Unlike Darthañan, she regenerated her wounds, and the next day she was in a normal state. The human body is not as extravagant as that of the vampires, so Darthañan seemed just as bad as when they arrived, even though he was already with his internal energy in a stable condition.

It was on the second night inside the cavern, while Frigglene was feeding on the crystallized blood egg that they were able to see that there were two infants inside. Both were quite surprised, Frigglene did not hesitate to transform one of her hands and carefully break the egg, releasing the two small bodies. A boy and a girl, twins who were surprising of mixed race: humans and vampires. It seemed that they had some other mixture, but for the moment neither Frigglene nor Darthañan could recognize what it was.

<What are these two children doing in the middle of nowhere?> both wondered.

The surprise was such that neither of them made any sound for several minutes. The silence of the cavern was only broken when the cries of the babies echoed in the cavern as they awakened.