Six Warriors

Forest Semi-Deity - (Arthur)

After they ate a little, despite the ogre stench in that camp, Arthur fell asleep for a short while, he doesn't know exactly how much...but he woke up suddenly when Marcus shook his body and called him alert. When he realized the others on his team were also already awake and they were very alert. A huge creature seemed to move through the trees, eyes as big as headlights shone in that darkness, Arthur felt chills when the creature began to speak incomprehensible things.

"So little humans killed couple of ogres, huh? Killed couple of ogres, huh?" Said the creature still not revealing itself.

"Stay alert!" Brown Beard ordered, "I think I know who is there, it's Zrevij the troll, remember he's very dangerous and Iacomostem asked for special attention with him."

"Iacomostem?" The troll asked with anger in his voice and then mumbled things in that grotesque language, somehow Arthur knew it was the Language of the Giants. "That miserable one! Forest spirit, you say? You fools he is far more dangerous than me or the ogre couple, he has fooled you for centuries!" Then the troll laughed hideously.

"Be careful with him, he's dangerous" Gradslaw warned, "remember, he's worth twenty-five goblins."

"Twenty-five?!" Zrevij asked as if it were an insult, "Me being offended, I'm worth a lot more! Me being offended at Iacomostem not put it as a priority!"

After saying this, with heavy steps, the troll advanced.

!!!

With one blow he threw one of the warriors to the side like a puppet, the next moment he tore the shield of another with his claws, Gradslaw started shooting his arrows at the monster and one hit the eye, the monster advanced with a bite against the archer who managed to dodge in time, but a piece of flesh from his shoulder was still in the monsters mouth and blood began to ooze from the archer wound. Brown Beard rushed forward with his ax and with a quick s***h cut off the arm of the great troll, who let out a roar of pain and cursed in the language of the giants. Arthur lunged forward with the hammer and slashed it right in the middle of the troll's knee, which roared in pain once more, the knee cracked and then bent over backward in a horrible and disgusting way. The troll dropped to its knees, Arthur was preparing to hammer the creature's head with a hammer, when something caught in its leg. The boy felt nauseated when he saw the creature's severed arm hold his leg, moving on its own, the next moment the troll tried to bite Arthur and end his life right there, but Brown Beard arrived at that moment and cut off the head of the troll. Pitch-black blood splashed, the troll's head rolled, and the monster's body fell.

"Thanks." Arthur thanked Brown Beard.

"Your welcome." Brown Beard gestured to Arthur.

"Wait, it's not over yet!" Marcus yelled at them both and Arthur noticed a clawed hand slam into Brown Beard's side and he was knocked away. The monster's living arm joined the rest of the body on its own and the knee returned to normal, all the creature's wounds healed very quickly in its rubbery flesh and skin, the arms caught the head that was still smiling with wide eyes and then they snapped the head back to the neck.

"Grungabar!" The troll smiled, speaking some teasing word in the language of the giants, and in the next moment he gave to a stunned Arthur a claw stroke. The boy felt the claws tear his hide armor and wound his flesh, it burned and hot blood began to flow down Arthur's body, which was now on the ground.

"PAW OF THE FLAMING TIGER!!" Marcus advenced with his special attack,  hitting Zrevij's body full on. "A troll only stops regenerating when it's hit by fire! No other attack will work as well."

Zrevij cursed in the language of the giants and his body was burned in places. He looked furious for the first time and attacked Marcus with all his fury. The troll advanced with several claw attacks that Marcus dodged with great dexterity, in one of those the troll hit the trunk of a tree and split it in two, Marcus jumped and dodged the blows, but he needed an opening for an attack and was also failing, Brown Beard rose again and managed to deliver a blow to Zrevij's leg, Marcus took advantage of this moment to attack with his firepower.

"PAW OFTHE FLAMING TIGER!!!" He hit right where Brown Beard had hit with his axe, preventing the creature's regeneration, roaring in pain and hatred the troll attempted a blow with his arm, but Gradslaw cut him off at just the right moment with a quick swing of his long sword, Marcus pointed his finger at the creature, "with this, you will no longer raise yourself a monster!"

The troll roared some things in the language of the giants and then said:

"You may have defeated me, but the one you think is the protector, Iacomostem, will consume your flesh, your souls and then decorate his palace of terror with your bones! Ha, ha, ha, silly little humans!"

"LUNGE OF THE FLAMING TIGER!!" Marcus' hands blazed into flames and the fire seemed to take the form of tiger's paws, Marcus leapt and then lunged forward, in fact like a tiger attack and hit Zrevij in the neck, slicing his head off with flaming slashes, making it impossible for him to regenerate. The troll was dead.

...

Arthur and the others now numbered seven, plus he, Brown Beard, and Gradslaw were injured. They did some bandages, but they weren't going to fight anymore as if they didn't have any more wounds. It was time to regroup.

"You guys look awful!" Bjornson said upon seeing them, in a good mood to hide his concern.

"What did you find? Were you guys luckier than us?" Gradslaw asked the other group. They had the number of ten members now.

"A bunch of goblins and a trio of bugbears." Bjornson shrugged, "what about you guys?"

"An ugly couple of ogres and Zrevij the troll." Brown Beard laughed with some difficulty.

"Very good, I think that with this we can already head towards the Stone Temple of Iacomostem."

"Yeah, I think so."

"We'd better tell you what we saw too." Hana spoke, her voice and expression serious. Everyone looked at her. "We saw the Rottur tribe team find Drohorot, the Cyclops, but when they were about to face them the Refar tribe team arrived there, not caring about Drohorot the Rottur said they found him first, but the Refar didn't want to move away. Drohorot was angry with those humans ruining his peace, so he advanced attacking them all, but one man stood out among the Refar tribe... he wore a mask made of deer skull and a traveling cloak in a moss green color, he was ...very powerful... he wiped out Drohorot quickly. The Rottur tribe, rather than intimidated, was furious, as if their pride as current champions were wounded, so Agrokk, the champion of Groto, charged against The Mask of Deer... Agrokk died easily and only then the Rottur started to get scared, many asked for mercy, but The Mask of Deer had no mercy, he seemed to be feared even among the members of the Refar team."

"S-so the current champions, the Rottur team... they're..." Brown Beard babbled in disbelief.

"All dead." Hana completed, everyone seemed to be frightened there.

After that bombastic revelation, Arthur and the others headed towards the Stone Temple, even without saying anything it seemed to be a consensus that if the Refar team found them, they would be dead. Arthur's wound from the troll still hurt. As they walked, they heard a noise. It seemed to be stone breaking and people struggling and screaming.

They decided to move closer, just to watch and then saw the Kettir team fighting the basilisk. In fact, most of them were now broken stone and only a few stood, among them was Sir Avash of Casteland, but he already looked tired.

"Vile creature! Ye will die under my blade!" He then ran two fingers along the sword and a green and garnet fire engulfed the blade, "FIRE OF THE KINGDOM!" he scream. And then he moved forward, trying not to look the creature in the eye or he would be turned to stone. The battle continued fierce, but Arthur clearly saw that the young knight would not last long. Arthur then came out from where he was watching the battle and came forward with a shout, Hana yelled at him not to go, but it was too late. He didn't look into the creature's eyes either, but it was difficult... it was like there was a spell on the part of the basilisk that bound Arthur to look into his eyes and the boy had to have a lot of willpower not to do that. The basilisk, which looked like a large lizard with bone thorns in its back, eight legs and eyes that emitted an unearthly and somehow beautiful glow, then turned to Arthur and began to move towards him.

"Don't look in those eyes, don't look in those eyes" Arthur repeated to himself in thought. It would be a great irony for the chosen one of the earth to be turned into a stone statue, "die at once!" yelled Arthur, hitting the basilisk with a big smack in the side of the monster's head with his hammer, the creature let out a horrible squeak and then Arthur repeated the blow, unleashing another attack on the creature. Sir Avash took advantage of Arthur's move to also deliver a blow with his sword of green fire and grenade to the side of the creature's body, it squeaked again then Arthur delivered the final blow from above with the hammer, it echoed in a hollow sound and then as the thing was crushed, the glow in the basilisk's eyes went out and he was finally dead.

Sir Avash sat down on the floor, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, I think." Said the young knight.

"You think? Don't let the grudge over your dad's death get the better of you man, I just saved your life." Arthur then turned to go his way, "besides the man who killed your father was killed by another very dangerous guy, be careful."

"Wait, where do you think you're going?" Sir Avash asked Arthur, rising. Arthur pressed his hand harder around the hammer's handle, preparing for another fight, but the knight just said, "You've killed the creature more than I have. It's your and your team's right to burn it with the holy oil ."

...

The facade of the stone temple was not so sumptuous, it was actually quite simple, a raised entrance that led to a staircase that led underground, the entrance had some patterns and drawings of warriors kneeling before an idol, on the sides of the doors there were columns carved into the head shapes of a lizard with deer antlers.

"The Refars haven't arrived yet," said Brown Beard, "but I imagine we've killed more monsters than them, plus we've killed the troll and we've killed the basilisk, if there's anyone worthy to enter this temple, it's us."

"Finally we honor our ancestors! Finally the Gravsfin have won The Great Hunt again!" Gradslaw celebrated.

The temple door magically opened. In a mysterious way Roven the druid was already there to receive them.

"Come in, my children, the great Iacomostem waits to honor you!" He said.

"You come?" Arthur asked Sir Avash.

"Only those who won can have that honor." He replied seriously.

"I think I should stick around too. Maybe I'm not worthy of the Hall of Warriors, and I even can't now." Arthur said.

"Arthur, you must come, you and your friends." Said Roven, "everything will be fine." Arthur, Marcus, Seraph and Hana looked at each other, Arthur decided to give Roven a vote of confidence and they entered that place. When they were halfway down the stairs, the stone doors behind them closed. It was weird, but maybe it was to keep the ritual a secret? When they reached the underground, Roven mysteriously disappeared. They were in a cave that also looked like a great hall of a temple, the columns were made of stone, but there were two main columns next to the altar, they were carved in the shape of a lizard. They had a mysterious sap running through it, as if tiny holes were spread throughout the bodies of those idols. Behind the columns/statues, two large green eyes glowed, an unearthly green, wild and…almost poisonous

. "Behold the Great Iacomostem!" Roven declared, already on a stone scaffold that was there. Brown Beard, Bjornson, Gradslaw, and the other villagers knelt in honor.

"You honored me, honored your countrymen, honored your ancestors and above all honored yourselves with this victory." Said the voice coming from that altar, belonging to the creature with the great green eyes, it was a deep and very heavy voice, inhuman, almost... divine... or perhaps demonic, "come closer, my children, draw closer so that I honor them by taking them to the hall of their ancestors, the great Hall of Warriors."

"Who will be the first to want such an honor?" Roven asked, "who will be the first to go in peace?" Arthur felt something very wrong in that place, it was as if the stones wanted to warn him of the nature of something evil. The vault of the cave was full of stalactites and bones, lots of bones.

"Very well, I will!" Brown Beard rose soberly, "I've long been waiting to see my ancestors, there's no better time." He then looked at Gradslaw and Bjornson and nodded, then handed his ax to Arthur and his friends, "take it to my children and may they one day be able to be as honorable as I was."

"Goodbye good friend." Arthur said goodbye trying not to get emotional.

"Brown Beard, the pioneer, may he be honored!" Said the voice of the creature, as the warrior climbed his altar, passing through the stone idols and then disappearing into the darkness. In the next moment, Arthur thought he heard a laugh from the creature, and then something he witnessed something terrible. A toxic green luminosity shone in that darkness behind the idols, Arthur saw glimpses of the creature and it appeared to be made of vines, Brown Beard was surrounded by a luminescent mist in that sickly green color. In the next moment they heard Brown Beard let out desperate screams, as if in excruciating pain and the green luminosity seemed to shrivel up his flesh and muscles, while glimpses of the creature, a face that looked reptilian or crocodile almost smiled, but the images of the creature were very confused, all Arthur was sure of was that Brown Beard was suffering. Everyone there looked stunned and confused by the scene, it only lasted a few moments, nothing left of Brown Beard but a jumble of bones, and then the light went out. Everyone was stunned. The creature said in a mischievous tone;

"So…who's next who wants to be honored?" And then he almost seemed to laugh.

Arthur then shouted at Roven, as if he had unraveled everything so far, the troll warnings, the bones in the vault, that scene from Brown Beard... Arthur shouted what was going on and his voice echoed through the cave.

"Very well then," Roven said in a voice as if he always knew it, or as if he didn't care, "I'll tell you the secret of the cult of Iacomostem, the secret of the druids of our villages. Since time immemorial this creature, Iacomostem lived in this forest, in a way he is the spirit of this forest, he got his powers feeding on other creatures, but what gave him strength was the absorption of bold, brave and powerful warriors. The spirit then made a deal with the first druid of our people, he would share his power with him, in return he would convince the bravest warriors to surrender to the spirit's feeding and the deal was made. For generations my druid ancestors have been telling of the benevolence of Iacomostem, for generations the warriors deliver sacrifices with the sacred oil and feed the power of Iacomostem... and for generations, Iacomostem consumes these brave warriors personally. When I was an aspiring druid and the secret was revealed to me, I was also in shock, but then I realized that it was the natural order of things, humans consume the nature that the forest spirit willingly gives to them, in return, a sacrifice is made every ten years, so everyone wins, the humans who use nature, the spirit who is fed, the druid who gains his powers and the people who gain a protective and benevolent god, so the warriors are honored and they enter the hall of heroes, then all the young warriors to come are inspired by them, creating a new generation that will feed Iacomostem. Understand, it's a natural cycle, nature feeding itself back. Everyone wins with it."

All who were members of the tribe were desolate, their faith and the faith of their ancestors had been crushed in a few moments, everything they believed was a lie, they were just sacrifices to a selfish entity.

"So... there was never a Hall of Warriors?" Bjornson asked, as if he was distressed, as if it was hard to believe.

"You will be part of my forces now," said Iacomostem's voice, "that's honor enough!" He then laughed.

"Bastards!" Arthur shouted angrily "Bastards! You'll pay for this! Onward fellows, let's fight for our lives!"

No one dared move.

"It's useless, young Arthur," Roven said, "try having all your beliefs and those of your ancestors filed away so suddenly, you'll then get a piece of the idea of what they're going through now."

"My belief has always been in myself!" Arthur growled, "and that no one will ever get away from me!" Screaming with fury he lunged towards the altar, but lightning erupted in front of him and in the next moment, Roven was there.

"Not so fast, young Arthur, don't be so impetuous." He was getting ready to cast magic, but someone arrived giving him a flyer blow and it was then that Arthur saw Marcus in a fighting stance.

 "Marcus, you and Seraph take care of the shameless druid, me and Arthur are going to eliminate a certain spirit from the forest!" Hana said impetuously, also going on the attack.

"So that's how we're going to play it, huh?" Laughed Iacomostem, "Very well, let's see what they're capable of!" Iacomostem emerged from his shadowy altar and began to descend the stairs slowly, beginning to reveal himself. He was a kind of crocodile or lizard very big and very fat, his body was all covered with vines, branches and thorns, his eyes glowed in that mischievous green and his teeth were big as razors, which made it look like he was smiling in a way dark and mocking. The monster opened its mouth and small creatures started to be born from that stone floor, they were like menacing little creatures made of vegetables, Arthur was already preparing to crush them all, but Bjornson, Gradslaw and the other villagers found their fighting spirit and started to fight. Arthur smiled at them and continued advancing against Iacomostem. Iacomostem again opened his mouth and thorny vines snaked out of his mouth, they caught the boy's arms and began to squeeze, but Hana cut them off with her axe. 

"RAIN OF STALACTITES!" Hana shouted invoking his magic power and a shower of sharp stones fell over Iacomostem, who as he was very heavy, could not dodge, the stones went through his body and pinned him to the ground, he roared furiously and then fired a poisonous stinger which he spat out of his mouth, the stinger went towards Hana and hit her in the side, piercing the girl's body from her waist. Arthur started to help the girl, but she yelled at him to continue, to finish off Iacomostem. Arthur ran, Iacomostem's eyes seemed desperate, the monster spat acid at Arthur and hit him without a hammer, which began to melt and then the boy dropped him, but still kept going.

"Damn it, I'll crush you with my bare hands you miserable creature!" Arthur focused his magic on his fists, "STONE PUNCH!" Then he jumped on top of the monster and started to deliver a series of blows with his hands covered in stone crust, the monster howled in pain and the vines around his body seemed to want to fight to defend him, but Arthur didn't care , he just continued punching until he made plant porridge, until the glow in Iacomostem's eyes went out...

"Great god spirit, no!" Screamed Roven wailed on the ground, defeated and with his staff broken in two, Seraph stepped on his head and said "shut up cretin!" Arthur breathed a sigh of relief as the rock that covered his arms began to crumble with the end of the magic. He thought it was all over there. A mistake. Roven started laughing out of nowhere, apparently for no reason. Before he could look back at the monster body, Arthur took a hard s***h from a tail and fell to the ground in pain. Iacomostem's body began to change, the plants began to take on a more or less humanoid shape and very large, that crocodile head was now where the stomach should be, and it still seemed to smile mischievously, at the top, where it should have been the head, was what appeared to be a mask of an androgynous and expressionless face.

"Surprised? Scared? Should be!" Laughed Iacomostem with the voice that seemed to be of several people of many different genders. Iacomostem now had four arms, two of them with huge stingers protruding from their wrists. The monster advanced with one of them trying to hit Arthur, who was still down, but Gradslaw got there and blocked the blow with his sword. Iacomostem's arms looked like they were made completely out of vine, he slashed out his second arm with the stinger and hit the side of Gradslaw's body, who howled in pain.

"NOOOO!" Arthur screamed. The huge crocodile mouth that was in the middle of the monster's belly opened and with the hand that had gone through Gradslaw, the monster threw it in and chewed it like a delicious treat. Arthur got up furious, the others came to help him, a deadly battle had started there, but in that form, Iacomostem was very, very powerful and strong, difficult to defeat. There were more casualties, the warriors fighting bravely against those they had once considered a god, clinging with utmost strength to their lives. Arthur was exhausted and with a very sore and bruised body, he had taken many blows and was now lying on the ground, watching Bjornson that even though he had released his legendary berseker form, he still had difficulties against the creature, Marcus and Seraph use their last resources in an attempt to defeat that beast, but it seemed to be impossible, it seemed like the whole hope was running out...

Seraph fell…Marcus next…Bjornson looked like he wouldn't last much longer either.

"Earth... land... stone... soil... rock... I want strength... I want strength to triumph!" He didn't know if his strength came out of the ground or out of his willpower, but Arthur began to rise again, very worn out and broken, but rising again. The boy started humming Bad to the Bone weakly and then slowly started walking back to the fight.

"Still want to fight boy? Just lay there on the ground and wait your turn to be consumed! I will rejoice with so much energy from such a young warrior!" Provoked Iacomostem when he saw Arthur still standing. Arthur, however, didn't go towards Iacomostem, he walked right past the monster leaving him and a tired Bjornson without understanding anything. Only after a while did the spirit seem to understand, Arthur was heading towards the idol pillars, towards the altar from which Iacomostem had come. 

"H-hey, crazy, crazy, silly boy what do you think you're going to do?" growled Iacomosem seeing Arthur heading down to the altar.

"Your strength... comes from here, doesn't it?" Arthur asked, still heading towards the altar, asking this in a serious voice without even turning to the monster. "It doesn't matter if this place turns into my grave, I'll bury you with me!"

"You fool! Stop it!" Iacomostem yelled, trying to go after Arthur, but Bjornson got in front of him, preventing him from proceeding.

Arthur ran to the idol-shaped pillars and then roared:

"EARTHQUAKE PUNCH!!" And the punch shook the pillars, the gooey green sap that leaked from those macabre idols was acidic and hurt Arthur's fists, yet he didn't stop, "EARTHQUAKE PUNCH!! EARTHQUAKE PUNCH!!" and then the first pillar was destroyed and it became nothing more than a pile of stone, the whole cave shuddered. Iacomostem's body began to fall apart, the vines in his body began to rot.

"STOOOOP IT!!" pleaded Iacomostem in a macabre voice, but beginning to fade. Arthur walked to the other pillar, his hands raw and burning with acid.

"EARTHQUAKE PUNCH!!" And then he punched that disgusting pillar. Iacomostem stretched vines and began to try to grab Arthur's arms, but the young man didn't hesitate for a moment, "EARTHQUAKE PUNCH!!!" He struck once more, everything shuddered more and more, Iacomostem now whipped Arthur's back in an attempt to stop him from the pain, to destroy him, but in vain, Bjornson held the monster so it wouldn't advance. "EARTHQUAKE PUNCH!!!" And on the third blow the pillar turned into a pile of rubble, Iacomostem cried out inconsolably, his whole body began to rot and disintegrate, the cavern began to crumble.

"Sorry guys…I think…maybe we won't meet again." Thought Arthur remembering of his friends.

In the midst of all that confusion, the boy could barely notice a figure appearing, coming from the stairs of that cave-temple, the figure wore a deer skull mask and was coming towards him.

"You won The Great Hunt," said the figure, "only you are or yours are worthy to take the scroll... but you will die here. I can help you. The scroll in exchange of your life and of your friends. Think about it. If not for your life, for theirs, or don't you already think you've lost too many companions?"

"The scroll…is it here?" Arthur asked falling to his knees.

"Yes, but you will die. And your companions will too."

"What do I have to do?"

"Do you give me the scroll in exchange for your life and that of your companions?"

"Yes..."

"So be it."

...

Arthur woke up to the sound of children talking and running happily. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was back at Glastro's house. 

"You won the big hunt." Said Glastro, sitting in a chair, watching Arthur, "Thank you, Arthur. I'm on top of everything that happened, Gradslaw, Brown Beard and everyone else who fell will never be forgotten, at least in that Roven's bastard was right."

"What about Bjornson? And Hana? Seraph? Marcus?" Arthur asked.

"They're fine. You all got here very hurt, but a mysterious guy wearing a deer skull mask brought you here and took care of you with some kind of magic. He said you gave up something very precious for it."

"The scroll..." Arthur thought, "who was that guy?"

"If you're ready to get up, everyone is ready to see you." Glastro said, with a smile on his face, "Oh, and Arthur... you have my deepest and everlasting thanks."