Trying to Save my Favorite Character from His Tragic Fate

Chapter 40: The Witch's Game: Ghouls

Laurel had a point. New ghouls were always a headache because they are still in their human form.

"However, they have weaknesses as well," said Imogen.

Kyrie nodded and continued, "They do. For one, they are weaker than a full-fledged ghoul. They also don't have the same apathy as a full-fledged. Since they are newly transformed from humans, they still have remnants of human emotions and past attachments. Most ghouls will not attack humans so easily and devour human flesh. So, they will target something else that can solve their hunger for mana."

Ghouls have an insatiable hunger to eat flesh filled with mana because that is the only way for them to survive. The reason why they attack humans so much is that humans, unlike animals, contain much more mana. New ghouls will not survive the day if they do not consume enough mana because of their changing bodies.

"They will attack the stores that sell potions and mana stones!" Laurel exclaimed.

"How many of those stores are in the area?" asked Kyrie.

"In a total of three stores," says Tobias.

"No, there is in a total of six locations," Laurel corrected Tobias, "There are also medical clinics that have a lot of potions stored."

Since it was too obvious for ghouls to steal potions in broad daylight, most likely, they were going to strike during the night time. So, everyone paired up with someone else and went to their respected locations when the sun set.

Walking in the night with none of the street lanterns lighted, Kyrie and Ian could only rely on the moon to shine their path. They walked quietly. Ian walked in front of Kyrie in absolute silence, and he never turned his head to look at Kyrie ever since they left the inn. Kyrie observed Ian's back the entire way, following Ian's steps quietly. They passed by house after house, but none of them had light coming out of the windows. The streets were empty and quiet contrary to how this town used to be. This town used to buzz with chatter and laughter despite the late hours of the night. Now, the town seems to be emptied out and lifeless.

After a while, Kyrie looked at the pavement of the streets as he walked, but then, the sounds of footsteps in front of him stopped. He took the sign and stopped himself, looking towards the front, lifting his head. Ian stopped walking and finally turned towards Kyrie. They locked their eyes with each other.

At that point, there were so many emotions in Ian that those same emotions seem to cancel out each other. However, Ian is not sure why he is angry at Kyrie anymore. It is not like Ian disagrees with Kyrie's thoughts, but he feels a knot inside of him whenever he remembers the woman getting brutally stoned to death. He thought that it might be his inexperience or maybe even his pride towards the ideals he possessed.

Kyrie drew his sword all of a sudden and ran towards Ian. Kyrie got a hold of Ian's waist and pulled Ian towards him while slashing the figure that sneaked up behind Ian. Ian turned his head and looked at the dead woman on the ground with a pool of blood. It was the same woman who was stoned to death. This woman turned out to be a ghoul. Ian's blood ran cold while he took a look at the twisted expression on that woman's face that stayed even after being almost sliced in half. Kyrie took his sword and finished the job by cutting her head off so that she cannot regenerate. Then, numerous human silhouettes appeared in the darkness. They seemed to have been followed, or these ghouls have been waiting for them.

Although their outer shell looked human, their facial expressions were twisted and perverse. They walked as if they were dragging their bodies, hunching like their head were too heavy for them to carry. Their limps looked longer as they dangled on the side.

Ian drew his sword out of the sleeve. They were surrounded by a horde of ghouls, all of them in different sizes and forms: male, female, old, young, tall, short... The ghouls surrounded them like they already knew that Kyrie and Ian would walk towards the clinic on this very path.

[Heh... Seems like we had a ghoul among us.]

The fight became tricky since the ghouls would not purposefully avoid any injuries and would fight fearlessly since they can regenerate. The ghouls would throw themselves at them, pilling on over one another. Ian couldn't hold their weight and fell to the ground on his back. They clanked their teeth as they tried to reach to take a bite off Ian's flesh. Under the weight, Ian's arms shook while holding against them. Then, Kyrie came to the rescue and slashed them off Ian with light magic. He took Ian's hand, and they ran away.

They went into a small street and hid behind the barrels that were stacked on top of each other. They crouched behind the barrels to wait for the horde to pass by. Kyrie held Ian close to his chest while looking through the gap between the barrels. Ian can clearly hear Kyrie's loud heartbeat and heavy breath. Kyrie clenched on Ian's hand tighter. They remained quiet until they were not able to hear any footsteps. Then, Kyrie looked at Ian's eyes to signal him to quietly walk away.

However, before long, they were surrounded again. This time by different ghouls. Their mouth dripped of blood and pieces of minced flesh. Kyrie frowned when he saw that the victims to these ghouls were people from Laurel's group from their swords and clothing. Their bodies were torn apart and still being munched by several ghouls at the same time. Organs, blood, and flesh spilled underneath the skeletons that were carried up by several ghouls that were munching on them.

Although individually, the ghouls were not hard to handle, in a horde, the sheer number made it hard for them to go against. Kyrie and Ian were both unable to finish ghouls with one strike, which gave those ghouls the ability to regenerate and go at them again. Kyrie started to use ice and light magic against them, but the excessive amount of use against creatures of the undead took a toil on Kyrie's body. A female ghoul crawled rapidly towards Ian and jumped to attack him while Ian was preoccupied with the other ghouls. Kyrie saw it and ran towards Ian, intending to shield Ian with his body. However, a gold strike of light hit the female ghoul flying. A young man with long black hair, carrying a sly expression, jumped in front of the couple. He took his wand and cast the same spell again and pushed back the ghouls a few meters away. Nonetheless, after a couple of times of throwing the same attack and pushing the ghouls back, the stone of the wand dimmed, and the young man was no longer able to use the wand anymore.

"What? It took me seven months to get you off that perverted old man's hands, and this is how long I can use you for?" Nate complained at the dead wand.

The horde of ghouls rushed over again, and Nate ran behind Kyrie and Ian for protection. They braced for the impact against the ghoul when Imogen and Laurel appeared in front of them. Laurel frowned deeply at her unfortunate dead teammates that became these ghouls' meals. Imogen takes out her sword, and immediately a sharp aura appeared around her and the sword. Imogen runs towards one ghoul and rapidly stabs at it on the neck. She slides off her sword and slices the throat of another ghoul. Then, through the bottom of her armpit, she stabs the ghoul on her back without looking. Letting go of the sword, she punches a ghoul that jumped towards her causing it to fly a few meters away. Without looking, she takes her sword off the ghoul on the ground and proceeds to eliminate more ghouls. She fought against the horde of ghouls while Laurel made sure to finish the ghouls that fell from Imogen's attack. Imogen, like the protagonist she is, wiped out the ghouls quickly; most were just one strike KO.

When Imogen finished off all the ghouls that were present, the streets got filled with carnage. Imogen swings off the blood on her sword. Then, she appeared in just a blink of an eye in front of Nate, holding her sword against his throat.

"Speak, why are you here of all places?" asks Imogen.

After Imogen went away intending to get the relic of songs, Nate got caught by Kyrie when he was trying to steal a pendant at the palace. After Imogen's warning, Kyrie kept a close eye at Nate and his movements. One night, Kyrie followed secretly behind Nate when he sneakily went out of the temple.