A Guide to Kingdom Building

Urfaal placed his hand over his injured ribs. The things he did earlier aggravated his injuries and now, it felt like there's a dagger poking at his side everytime he breathed.

"Are you alright?" Orphella signed.

"Y-yes." He smiled and stood as straight as he could. "I'm just hungry."

Orphella squinted. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am."

"Fine." She took out her satchel and gave him a piece of hard salted meat. "This is not much…but I am hoping this will do."

Urfaal reluctantly took the meat from her. He wanted to refuse it; from the looks of things, she needed it more than he. But refusing the elf's offer might confirm her suspicion and he doesn't want that. The last thing he wanted was to let his injury hinder their campaign.

"Thank you." He took a bite of the salty meat and swallowed it as his rib jabbed his side. "I-it's delicious…" He grinned.

Orphella nodded and went back to surveying the golden hall. Urfaal carefully sat on the floor and nibbled the salted sinew. His eyes marveled at the tall golden pillars and intricately painted glass ceilings, a stark opposite to the dark and desolate place outside the doors. The wonderful images of men and beast popped out even more through the playful colors of lights and hue.

He let his mind wander and bask at the beautiful architecture his eyes beheld. There was something otherworldly about the design and even though he hadn't seen any other palace aside from it, he was more than willing to argue for its unrivalled beauty. It was also a good way for him to numb the pain. He needed that kind of distraction, a sort of drug to numb his pain.

"Urfie…oi!" The dwarf appeared in front of him.

Urfaal was startled at the sudden appearance of his friend. His sudden movement sent another bunch of stabbing pain on his ribs and this time, he had no time to mask his pain.

"Yer rib isn't it?"

"No it's noth—ow! Nothing!"

The grimace on his face said it all. Ghwynmyr tried checking the injury and wanted to unravel the cloth wrapped on his rib, but Urfaal insisted not to do it. He shook his head as he gazed into the eyes of his dear friend.

Ghwynmyr sighed. "Tis only get difficult from 'ere."

"I can manage." He lied.

He stood up and smiled, masking the pain on his ribs. The dwarf looked at him, worried. He caressed his beard and nodded.

"Hang in there, Urfie."

"I'm doing my best."

"Know dat you are!"

Ghywnmyr smiled and raised his eyebrows, they're moving forward now and not a moment too late. Urfaal felt the stabbing pain with every step he took. He focused himself to the unearthly designs again. The hall was vast and with white stone pillars holding the beautiful arched canopy filled with colorful portraits of people and creatures he hadn't seen in his entire life.

There were braziers intricately made from bronze lit up in between the pillars and gold-colored flames gently shone their way. The floor was made with the same stone, etched with lines and colored with pitched. It looked like senseless lines at first, but the more he investigated it, the more it became clear to him that it was modeled after veins. The pathways of their lifeblood. It was chaotically beautiful and mesmerizing.

Adaloun raised his hand and signaled them to a halt. He turned to them and placed his finger over his lips. Just a few moments later, they heard a loud gurgling sound. They immediately huddled with their backs against each other.

Urfaal knew at that point, it was about to get messy. He readied his claws and bared his teeth as the serene golden lights change into an ethereal green glow. The bat-like creatures shattered the glass ceiling and landed on the floor surrounding them.

His heart beat erratically as the swarm of monsters were beginning to close in on them. The monsters even had the audacity to step even closer with just an arms-length away from their claws. Sweat trickled from his forehead as Adaloun and Ghwynmyr exchanged tactics on what to do on this situation. His throat started to feel parched as the human told them to stay calm—he can't.

He stared the monsters straight in their eyeless heads as he contemplated on his doom. Ghwynmyr figured out a plan, just in time to see the bat-like creatures' grotesque maws opened and about to attack.

"Duck!" Ghwynmyr threw a rune mid-air and activated it using his fire magic.

The rune exploded and turned into pin like projectiles searing the monsters surrounding them. The creatures from the front rows weren't able to flinch at such quick attack, they burned themselves to death.

As the flaming monsters squirmed in pain, Adaloun signaled their attack. He took a deep breath and rushed towards the monsters on his side. His ribs hurt badly but that was not the right time to complain; let alone feel it. He focused his pain on his attack and hit the first monster with a powerful punch, it flew off the ground hitting a few of its kin who stood behind its back.

Urfaal rushed towards a ganged up Ghwynmyr and tore his way along the mob, hitting them with a barrage of punches and kicks. The pain slowly numbed away as their battle went on. As he ploughed through the remaining monsters, his mind became more unencumbered from his worries.

He ripped the monsters into pieces and as their black bile blood squirted from their bodies, Urfaal became more unstoppable. Drunk from the blood and carnage of the battle, he let out his inner monster to play.

It was clear that the bat-like creatures died from becoming nothing more than rag dolls to him. He charged towards the monsters Adaloun was fighting against and gored them out of his sight. Urfaal was unstoppable to the point that the monsters cowered just seeing him from afar.

The bat-like creatures tried to retreat, but Urfaal and his comrades made sure to trap them all and decimated them all. The bat-like monsters that terrorized them during their campaign was no more. They were victorious against them, but something didn't feel right and Urfaal could feel it.

"Phellie, d'ya find it strange?" Ghwynmyr addressed the elephant in the room.

Orphella nodded. "Those monsters usually attack strategically. This would have been the perfect ground to kill us." She signed. "The canopy was a good place to hold enough sound to crush us with their numbers but instead…"

"They fought us head on." Urfaal answered as the hairs on the back of his nape prickled. "Is this a trap?"

"No, of course not!" A familiar voice echoed out of nowhere.

The gurgling sound returned once again and this time, the black ink running on the root like carvings on the floor began to flow to one single direction.

"W-what's going on?!" Urfaal looked at Adaloun.

"Just brace yourself. The bastard is here." Adaloun raised his scythe and braced himself.

The black liquid flowed towards the center of the hall and rose up, forming a body made of the liquid and muck. 

"I was just testing you!"  The liquid slowly took shape of a person. "I want to make sure you are all worth my time."

"Have I proven that to you already?" Adaloun said.

The black liquid only laughed.

"Arellin, that was just a test." The young knight came out from the bile liquid donned in armor with swords on each hand.

"Tristam?!" Urfaal exclaimed. "I-I thought he was—"

But before he could finish, the floor shook violently and suddenly two serpent-like monsters emerged from the ground; barricading them from seeing each other. Urfaal looked in horror as he saw the two missing Orkamuus on top of the monsters' head, stuck from the waist down.

One of them slammed its tail to the ground and flung Urfaal away just from the impact. He watched in horror as the monster began to attack his friends, while his vision was slowly fading away.