A Second Look

Kies had Sirks extremely worried for a second there, pointing his finger at them without giving a warning or even saying anything. Thankfully, he arrived just in time, and he was also still on their side too.

"You scared the life out of me... Next time, give us a heads up when you point your finger at one of us."

"My mistake." Kies headed back into the room and the other two followed.

"No herbalist? I told you that you wouldn't be able to convince her," he said, though he had been hoping that Kies somehow did manage to bring her back.

"She became one of those monsters. I couldn't do anything."

"She did!?"

"Yes."

"That's... Regretful to hear." So that old bat was dead. The two of them weren't on the best of terms, but that was still a pretty harsh way to go, turning into one of those monsters.

"By the way, did you take care of the fourth guy?" Kies asked, not seeing the body of the fourth thief anywhere.

"The fourth what?"

"Oh..." Kies quickly sent his winds out to find him.

"What's going on!?" Sirks and Wompa both didn't know what he was doing or what he meant by a fourth person. There were only three, weren't there?

"Found him!" Kies used his winds to push Sirks and Wompa to the side. The floor underneath them burst open and a pair of arms almost grabbed Kies. The creature jumped up from the first floor and landed in front of them.

"What in the world!?"

"Can't leave me alone, can you?" Kies recognized the hybrid as the thief that he killed before. He beheaded him but somehow he was still alive.

Sirks scrambled for his sword and Wompa ran over to her two sisters, using her body to shield them. The hybrid jumped up and landed in front of the girl, swiping its claws at her. "Not on my watch!" Kies created a barrier in front of Wompa and deflected the attack, forcing the hybrid to turn around and go for Sirks instead.

"Think I'm easy prey!? Think again!" Sirks parried the hybrid's claws but was surprised when he fell down to one knee, overwhelmed by the monster's strength. "Rrrugh!" Sirks pushed the blade to the side, dragging the claws away from himself and towards the wall. He then twisted the sword and moved out of the way as the claws dug into the wall.

While Sirks was fending off the hybrid alone, Kies moved everyone else into the room across from them, opening the door from the inside with his magic. It was Nyana's room, but he was pretty sure that the elf wouldn't mind considering that it was an emergency. With the non-combatants out of the way, Kies returned back into the room to assist Sirks.

"I got this, move out the way!" Kies told Sirks. preparing to blast the hybrid with his magic. It was going to bring the entire room smashing down as well. He needed to use magic this powerful if he wanted to kill the thing.

"I can't! It's in the way!" The hybrid was blocking the way and Sirks couldn't get to the door without having to go through him.

"I'll cover you!" Kies cut off one of the hybrid's legs, crippling him. "Run, now!"

Sirks made a break for the other side of the room, dodging the hybrid's hand as it tried to grab him when he ran past, barely avoiding it. The claws scraped his skin and Sirks almost pushed Kies over, stumbling into the door.

Kies moved to the side and let the man out of the room before enveloping the entire room in a powerful spell. A sphere of wind formed in the palm of his hand and he threw it into the center of the room, directly above the hybrid. It sensed the danger and started crawling to the hole it came from, abandoning its severed leg to escape before it lost more than just that.

But it was already too late. Had the hybrid wanted to live, it should've never shown its face to Kies again. The vortex sucked in everything in its proximity without discrimination. The hybrid, Sirk's sword, the bed, even pieces of the wall and floor. Everything was taken by the winds and torn apart until nothing remained of them. The hybrid screeched, grabbing ahold of the broken wooden floor, doing its best to prevent itself from being pulled into the ball of death, but it was hopeless.

The hybrid was only able to delay its death by a couple of seconds. The floorboard cracked and broke, sending the hybrid to its death. Kies turned away, choosing to not watch the monster get blended into a giant ball of flesh and blood. Luckily for the hybrid, it didn't feel much pain since the death was quick, giving very little time to suffer.

Kies threw the mess outside of the inn in some obscure alleyway that no one probably used. It was not a sight he wanted to see, and no one else wanted to see it either.

"By the Gods..." Sirks watched the entire thing happen, for some reason choosing not to turn away. *Erpp!* He covered his mouth, sounding like he wanted to puke.

"If you're going to throw up, do it out the window! Wait, no! I use the window. Do it in the hole!" Kies directed him to the giant gaping hole in the center of the room which was made even bigger by his magic.

"I'm f-fine." Sirks closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breathes, calming down his stomach and trying to unsee what he has just seen. "I'm fine. I'm fine..." he repeated a few more times, his stomach settling down. "Ugh... Do you have to be that brutal!?" Destroying the body beyond recognition.

"Have you tried killing one of those things? They just heal themselves," Kies pointed out, arguing that he did what was necessary to kill one of them. Well, it was gold coming from him, who can literally do the same exact thing. Regeneration... It was definitely a handy ability to have.

"...Just don't do that in front of the girls..." Sirks said, still holding his mouth. It was going to take him a while to recover from seeing a sight as brutal as that one.

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise you. Protecting them comes first."

"..."

Sirks understood Kies' point and hoped that he wouldn't have to show them anything gruesome. "Just try not to, alright?"

"I know. And speaking of them, why don't we check on how they're doing."

***

Ashes. That was all that remained of the one grand castle of Otane. And to make matters worse, the soldiers were hit by something while they were inside the castle. A strong force destroyed the walls on their right, blasting all the soldiers into the walls.

"Lentis!" Rui shouted!

Lentis got the message and would've done something even if she hadn't called his name. He created a wall in front of them to block out the fierce currents but the winds were too powerful and his wall broke away from the edges, piece by piece until the entire thing ultimately shattered.

"I can't! We need to get away!" Lentis told everyone. But they were all stuck here. The winds stopped them from taking even a step. They could do nothing but close their eyes and wait for the winds to get, pinned to the walls.

Nyana was the only one who was still standing her ground against the winds and she used one of her most powerful spells to create a way out of this. Chanting in Elvish, she summoned a massive tree in front of her to absorb the winds.

"I got us! We need to move away, now!" The tree could only block the winds for a short time. There was no soil here, only sand, and the roots of the tree were not firmly planted in the ground because of it. Very quickly, the tree was slipping and losing its grip.

"Everyone, we need to move now!" Rui barked at the soldiers, telling them to get away from this spot. They all ran back to where they came from, rushing back to the entrance, dodging falling rubble from the castle.

Luckily, all the soldiers made it out without any injuries. Gathering around the entrance, they all took a moment to catch their breath.

"Did a tornado pass through here!? What just happened!?" The soldiers were looking at one another, stunned by the sight and questioning what they should go right now. They were all panicking, clueless about the current situation.

While they were calming down, Lentis took a quick assessment of the situation. "We can't go back in until 'that' ends..." he said to Rui, staring that the sky. There was a huge wind barrier surrounding a large portion of the castle. It was destroying everything around.

"Isn't that..."

"Yes, could be our ally... Though, I don't know what he is doing."

"Engaging the enemy," Rui supposed. Why else was there a sandstorm going on over there. "We're stuck here for now..." They couldn't go back in or go towards the wind storm. They had to wait for it to end. But it wasn't like they should be doing nothing either in the meantime. "Attention!" Rui shouted, getting the attention of the soldiers again.

"We can't enter for now, so instead, spread out and look for clues!" Rui ordered, waving her hand in front of her. They didn't have time to waste. They needed to figure out what happened here. From the looks of things, their enemies weren't just limited to the anti-mage corps. To be forced to use magic on such a scale... Rui continued looking at the wind barrier. Who in the world were they up against?

"D*mn those traitors..." She cursed them under her breath. How could they do something like this? Invading the castle and putting the rest of the city in chaos with those monsters!? If she didn't know better, she would've thought that all of this was the work of demons. Maybe they were involved... They needed to get information right now.

All the bodies from before were buried by the castle rocks. Lentis helped the soldiers with the search, lifting all the massive pieces of rock that were too heavy for the soldiers to move aside. With his magic, it didn't take long for them to discover something. "Hey Rui, I think you need to see this!" he called out to her, his voice and face both cold.

Rui hurried to where Lentis was and took a look at what he found, and once she did, she clenched her fist, wanting to punch a nearby wall at what she saw, but there wasn't one for her to punch. Everything was blown to bits. "How could this have happened...?"

The few soldiers that were close enough to see what was under the giant stone slab were all stunned too. A number of bodies lay on the ground, crushed by the weight of the stone. But there was no mistaking their armor. It was definitely the wyvern riders. She knew that they got defeated but this was worse than she thought... All the bodies belonged to the riders, meaning that it wasn't just a simple defeat, but that they got annihilated. The enemy didn't have a single casualty.

However terrible this looked, Rui was certain about one thing now that she saw this, and it was that the anti-magic division had allies on their side. They were not good enough nor did they have the weapons to deal with the wyvern riders so well, no matter how skilled they were. There were broken arrows in some of the bodies. Nyana hopped down and picked up the shaft of one of them, noting its unusual shape.

"This arrow... I know it..." How could she have overlooked this the first time?

"You know where it came from?" Rui asked. No one else here other than the elf knew. This wasn't an arrow from their armory.

"Yes... These arrows are made for killing big beasts. They're a kind of elven arrow," Nyana explained.

"What!? Elven arrows!?"

"Yes."

"Your people are involved!?"

The soldiers immediately drew their weapons and surrounded the elf. However, Rui told them to stand down. "Wait!"

"I can't guarantee you that these arrows weren't supplied by my people, but I can tell you that the people who shot them weren't elves."

"How are you so sure?"

"I told you, didn't I? These arrows are made for taking down big beasts. There are no wyverns here, are there?" The people who shot these arrows didn't shoot them at the wyverns, but instead at the riders. Although it is great for penetrating steel armor as well as it was designed to pierce the toughest hides of beasts, it was a great waste to use such a precious arrow on a soldier when there was a cheaper variant of this. It was a terrible waste. No elf would be so foolish as to use this kind of arrow on something other than a beast.

"So, the people who shot these are likely human..." Rui didn't know how Hanroh got his hands on these elven arrows. Trade was open between the two races, but the elves were very reluctant when it came to trading their weapons. They were not cheap nor massed produced. They were the opposite actually. They were carefully crafted by their artisans with the best material. Each weapon was tailored to its user to serve for life.

Rui shook her head. She called the soldiers to return to searching the rubble. These arrows were most likely stolen from the elves. Other than these arrows and fallen soldiers, what other things were buried under the rubble of the castle? "...Let's see what else we can find."

But that wasn't necessary. The howling of the winds died along with the storm. All the soldiers stopped and looked to the sky and then to Rui.

"Never mind... Everyone, prepare to move in!" If the fight was still going on, they needed to help their ally. But most importantly, "Find the queen. That's our top priority! Whether she is dead or alive, bring me her body!" As much as she hoped that the queen was still alive, she was doubtful. It would be a miracle if she was somewhere under all this rubble, still alive and breathing.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!