Chapter 17: Undying Beasts
1137 Words
Ada stood awkwardly, shifting her gaze back and forth at Zeya and Jaxx. Zeya seemed to be upset with her comeback, and she wanted to explain her side, how she wanted to be anywhere but here.
Isn’t there any good place to have this argument? Hello? There are so many monsters roaming around!
She then looked at Cloy and Xena, both kneeling on the ground, checking on the swords they picked up while having a pleasant conversation she couldn’t hear. Cloy then laid the blade back on the ground before grabbing a handful of soil and examining it.
What the heck is he doing?
Meanwhile, Xena looked intently at him, and Ada could almost see pink hearts flashing in her eyes. Nissa, on the other hand, is puzzlingly silent while her contemptuous eyes are fixed on hers. Nissa looked at her as if she’s strangling her in her mind.
She avoided Nissa’s deadly glare and shifted her eyes back at Cloy and was startled when she saw his gaze on her with a loving smile on his lips which she couldn’t quite discern if its a friendly or flirty one. Her eyes automatically darted to Xena, who’s now looking at her too, with a noticeable display of jealousness on her face.
Now, why is everyone staring at me?
Then, she saw a cloud of dense smoke rising from the ground behind Xena and Cloy, and she squinted her eyes in confusion when a figure is starting to shape. She realized it too late when the still-headless figure already gripped the sword laid on the ground, and it randomly brandished it, cutting Xena’s head in the process.
She cupped her gaped mouth as she wailed in fear as Xena’s chopped head rolled towards her. The whole group was stunned by the incident, especially Cloy, who was just beside Xena.
“Rezogs!” Zeya roared. Cloy sprang up to his feet and ran beside the rest of his team, who are now huddled together. The formed figures resemble that zombie-looking beast with a flexible mouth that attacked her before. There were about a dozen of them around, and they started charging at Zeya’s team. She automatically hid behind them as tears began to well her eyes while she trembled in fear. The beast who almost devoured her before was terrifying enough, and now they are wielding swords.
“Everyone, transform!” Zeya commanded while dealing with a pair of beasts. Ada couldn’t believe her eyes as Zeya transformed into a beast herself. Zeya was still in her bear clothes. Her head grew a crown of horns, and the ones on her temples are the longest, probably a foot long, and on her forehead, she counted about five three-inch-sized horns. Her body was no different. From her neck to her shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees to her ankles, everything has grown a pair of horns. And, her skin cracked up into moist blisters, as if she just got out from a boiling lake, and it was terrifying to look at.
Not a single soul in here is normal…
And, she doesn’t want to see the rest of Zeya’s team’s transformation anymore. Jaxx and Zeya’s hideous transformations are traumatic enough.
Then, a pair of hands suddenly gripped hers, and she was alarmed at first, but when she saw it was Cloy still in his human form, she somehow felt relieved. He then sliced her bind using his Scimitar sword before he stared sadly into her eyes for a couple of seconds as if bidding her a painful goodbye. He then spun her around and gently pushed her towards the direction where there’s no enemy. “Run straight that path. Don’t stop, and don’t look back,” he instructed her. “It’s nice seeing you, Ada.”
Oh, no!
Though it felt heavy in her heart to leave the beastly strangers who saved her, she didn’t hesitate to. She’d absolutely die if she stays here, just like what happened to that redhead. She glanced back at the team and saw Cloy still in his untransformed self, already clasping his blades with three beasts.
Thank you, everyone…
She fled the scene and sprinted to the thick shades, hoping she’d find her way out of that hellish forest…
***
Upon eradicating the newly formed group of rezogs, Zeya quickly picked up Xena’s head and slowly shut her still gaping eyes with her hand.
I have failed again...
She wanted to scream and smash everything she could see, but she knows anytime from now, another set of enemies might appear. They need to retreat so that she can guarantee the safety of her remaining team.
Not even a couple of minutes have passed, another pack of rezogs formed and quickly charged at them.
“Something’s controlling these things, Zeya,” Cloy slurred. She was startled at the idea, but he could be right. If that's true, then they’d be fighting with these resurrecting rezogs all night long. She couldn’t help but worry about her team. They don’t even have their healer anymore.
“Let’s fall back as soon as we finish this pack!” she hissed at them.
However, a puzzling thing happened. As soon as a dead rezog warrior vanished into thin air, it resurrected quickly in a second.
Someone’s not so eager with her plan to withdraw.
He’s just nearby!
“Nissa!” she screeched, and the grotesque demon snarled at her as an answer. “Once you find an opening, lead our team back to town! I’ll find the one resurrecting these puppets!”
She took off as soon as she butchered her personal dolls. She ran and sniffed every possible scent she could find. And, alas! She found traces of scent and quickly followed it.
She leaped towards the top of tall shade where she got a whiff of the strange scent the most and found a thin, pale, smiling man with long, flowing, black hair perched on one of the tree’s branches. He was wrapped in a bandage all over his body except for his pale arms and face. She almost missed that tiny black dot in his pale eyes.
“Aha! You found me!” The man gave her a piquing cackle that echoed through the vastness of the forest.
Her assumption was correct. It was an ifer all along. And she believes that he wouldn’t be an easy one to eliminate.
- Writer
