ALL NOVEL Book 3. Chapter 8 “A Dark Presence” Part 1
Book 3. Chapter 8
“A Dark Presence” Part 1
“I can’t believe that goblins actually exist!” Natasha exclaimed excitedly. “Although they are much taller and less snub-nosed than in the video games.”
Kalysto, Sakura, and Katia turned to look at her, unable to believe what they were hearing as they remained on their knees, hiding behind a group of thick bushes.
“Didn’t you notice that about half an hour ago?” Sakura questioned while Kalysto was still too surprised by what the queen had said.
“I was too busy trying to get out alive after Kalysto said we should kill them! I didn’t have time to observe them!” The teenager complained, “But they’re ugly as hell!” Before Sakura could begin to plead with Natasha, Kalysto intervened.
“Focus!” The saintess scolded them with a low hiss, “There are people being kidnapped by monsters and you still haven’t awakened the system even though both of you have killed more than three monsters!”
“I’ve already killed seven and nothing. Are you sure we can wake up one?” Sakura intervened.
“I killed three monsters, but I did it alone. Maybe when you receive help, you need to kill many more,” she meditated. “I will freeze those on my left, decapitate those you can, and let me know later how many monsters you need to wake up the system. I’ll take care of the ones on the right and then I’ll go to the ones near the altar.”
“Is there an altar? Where?” Natasha asked with a frown.
“In the whole middle of the village.”
“How can you see it? I can hardly see a few houses!” The young woman mumbled and squatted down behind her to get a better look.
“It’s a skill I have. It’s called eagle eyes. Katia should have it too.” the little blonde immediately checked her list of skills and activated it.
“Oh, that’s right, I can see it too!” The little blonde girl cheered up, also positioning herself behind the saintess to see better between the space that was between two huts and a group of goblins that were cutting firewood.
“I’m going to get their attention first. Ready?” Just as she turned around to confirm that the others were in agreement, Tsuki came out of the bushes and let out a powerful howl that alerted all the monsters in the area to their presence.
“Tsuki, stop doing that or I’ll put you back in the inventory!” Kalysto growled as she came out of her hiding place and positioned herself in front of her pet while watching the horde of monsters running toward them. “Stay behind me!” She ordered as the little Fenrir tried to position itself in front of her. “Katia, switch to bow and arrows! Natasha and Sakura, be ready to attack!” She shouted as she waited for more monsters to join the fight and pulled out the enormous axe from her inventory. At the same time, she signaled them to come closer to her.
The goblins that had been chopping the firewood took their small axes and ran to meet her together with thirty other goblins while a small group raised the alarm and the rest of the population went in search of weapons to attack them.
Kalysto clicked her tongue, annoyed at having to waste one of her skills on so few monsters, but seeing that the group of orcs that had brought several tree trunks ran towards them, she could no longer wait for the rest to come and attack them.
“Ice creation! Ice manipulation!” She squealed, freezing the bodies of the first thirty goblins to mid-chest. “Girls, I’m sure you’ll achieve your goal today with these! I’ll get the rest!” she shouted and jumped over the wall of ice she just created and rushed at the first of the orcs with her axe raised high.
The orc intercepted her attack but to his surprise his axe broke, causing Kalysto’s axe to easily bury into his head, splitting it in two.
[You have gained 10 experience points!]
As the body of her enemy fell, the saintess used it as momentum and lunged towards the second orc, but this time the other five that accompanied him also lunged to attack her. Kalysto dodged the blow of one of the axes as it cut off the arm of one orc, and another axe was thrown at her head. The saintess dodged it and threw a punch at her attacker, knocking him back as another orc attacked her from the side.
Kalysto dodged it, and while doing so, interrupted another orc’s attack, broke his axe and chopped off his head.
[You have gained 10 experience points!]
[You’ve gained 2 experience points!] x6
“Water blades! Ice blades!” She conjured, blinding two of the remaining five orcs while dodging the continuous attacks of the other three. “Tsuki, electrocute the other two!” And just as she ordered, her pet electrocuted the two orcs she had blinded while she cut off the heads of the other three.
[You have gained 10 experience points!] x3
[You have gained 3 experience points!] x2
[You have gained 2 experience points!] x4
As soon as Kalysto finished with them, she turned around to see how her friends were doing, but they hadn’t even killed half of the goblins.
“Master, I’m already level nine!” Tsuki reported in her mind.
“Well done, but don’t jump into battle again before I order you to! I don’t like to work with those who have hero complexes. We are not here to save the world and it’s not my intention to do such a thing! Understood?” She scolded him as she waited for the next group of goblins armed with shovels, spears, and axes to come out of several huts and run towards her.
“Yes, master," the little boy muttered, with his head bowed. “I only wanted to be of use to the master.”
“I’d rather have you alive than playing hero," she clarified, causing Tsuki to shake his head in excitement.
“I’ll make sure I don’t die then, master. I won’t let you down," he assured her, but before Kalysto could answer, she was interrupted.
“I finally got it! I have a system!” Sakura shouted excitedly as she checked the blue window that appeared in front of her, completely forgetting about the rest of the frozen monsters. “I’m a warrior!”
”That’s not fair! I want one too!” Natasha complained, viciously punching another monster’s neck.
[You’ve gained 2 experience points!]
“Congratulations, Sakura! But if you want to level up fast, I suggest you take advantage of the banquet I prepared for you!” Commented Kalysto, who got tired of waiting for the rest of the goblins to run to where they were and ran to meet them, jumping towards the center of the group. “Tundra!” she said, freezing them all.
[You have gained 7 experience points!] x30
[You have gained 5 experience points!] x20
“Tsuki, protect them! I’m going to go destroy the altar and get the rest! When you’re done here, go free the prisoners!” Kalysto shouted with her axe in hand and launched herself against the weakling monsters that ran to meet her, cutting their bodies in two and separating some heads from their bodies as she went deeper into the village.
[You’ve gained 2 experience points!]
[You have gained 5 experience points!] x5
[You’ve gained 2 experience points!]
“Yes! I got it! Now I have a system too! I’m not the only one without one anymore!” Natasha shouted and Kalysto smiled at her enthusiasm. But her smile was erased when she found more than a hundred goblins and another thirty orcs waiting for her before she reached the middle of the village, where the altar was.
“Fire Blast!” She conjured, burning the monsters and houses alike until she ran out of air and had to stop her attack to answer the onslaught of monsters that rushed at her.
[You have gained 7 experience points!] x3
[You have gained 5 experience points!] x10
[You have gained 2 experience points!] x3
“Lightning!” She squealed after dodging an orc’s axe and slicing the bodies of five goblins in two.
[You have gained 5 experience points!] x5
“Ice creation!” She conjured again by throwing a lot of mana into her taunt and freezing most of the monsters in her path.
[You have gained 5 experience points!] x85
[You have gained 7 experience points!] x25
She then lunged at one of the two remaining orcs, leaping over its head and plummeting down. Although the orc tried to defend himself, his shield was split in two by Kalysto’s axe, as was his body. And immediately she swung her axe at the head of the second orc, whose body fell lifeless to the ground shortly thereafter.
[You have gained 7 experience points!] x2
Without wasting any more time, Kalysto retrieved her axe and ran towards the center of the village where the screams of a group of girls as they were dragged to the altar where a group of orcs and hobgoblins dressed in tunics and skin painted with strange symbols, some of which were also carved against the stone of the altar whose dark energy bristled the hairs all over her body.
Oddly enough, she could have sworn she had seen some of those symbols before, in one of the many books in her father’s study.
But she had no time to be distracted.
As the little girl sobbed and tried unsuccessfully to free herself, her tear-drenched eyes met hers while they forcibly dragged her onto the altar, her mouth covered with a dirty cloth.
At the same instant, another group of orcs, this time armed and dressed in thick armor, equal to that of the orc that almost killed her the day she made the deal with the queen, rushed at her.
And the chanting of the monsters under the robes grew louder.