In Pursuit
Days passed, and supplies were getting even lower. There was plenty of meat and edible plants, but not everything they needed could be hunted and gathered. They made another detour to a village further down the line, hoping that this time, they wouldn't arrive in the middle of a human sacrifice. Unfortunately, there was no one left to throw onto an altar. The entire place had been leveled, every building smashed and burned, and suffice to say, this town had also been emptied of inhabitants.
"What in the world happened here?" Seraph gasped.
"The village must have been raided," said Shannon.
"I don't think it was that simple. I'm getting a really bad feeling," said Valia. Noah climbed off of Shannon and walked around, investigating the scene. The earth, the rubble, they all held clues.
"Noah, what do you see?" Seraph asked.
"It's strange. All this wood, everything that's been damaged looks burned, but fire didn't do this. It looks more like it was corroded, as if by acid. And the ground... these formations in the dirt are unique. I don't see any hoofprints from horses, no imprints from heavy boots, or even monster tracks. It's all smoothed out, as if someone had come through here with a giant broom, or something huge was being dragged through here.
"We need to get out of here, now. This place is cursed," said Bojena.
Noah picked up a handful of soil. It was blackened, just like the debris of the destroyed homes, and gave an unpleasant sensation against his skin, a toxic sensation he had felt before. "Yeah, it is cursed, Cursed Earth."
"Cursed Earth?" Seraph asked.
"It's a Profane ability, one I encountered in both the library and the field. Just as they can corrupt people with their venom to bolster their ranks, they can corrupt the environment to their advantage. The land is saturated with dark energy, making it utterly toxic and draining the vitality of all who stand upon it. It weakens our bodies and magic, while they enjoy a boost in abilities. All of Welindar was turned into Cursed Earth when Kaisen died, and it can never be reclaimed. You can feel it, can't you? That sensation of cold oil in your stomach, that sudden heaviness in your limbs, that feeling of your mana leaking out of you like blood from an artery? Walking on Cursed Earth is like walking on your own grave."
"If the Profane are really out here wiping villages off the map, we have to stop them," said Valia. "We can't let this continue unchecked, regardless of Lumestada."
Noah wanted to refuse her. For him, the mission mattered more than the civilians, not to mention two members of their group were magic deficient. However, the threat before them wasn't something they could just ignore. If not stopped, it would continue to wreak havoc and chip away at Uther, killing its inhabitants and befouling the land. At the very least, they had to identify the source of the phenomenon and assess the situation. With any luck, they'd could pass the job off to someone else. He removed his hat and sealed it in his ring, releasing him from the headband restraint. He had a feeling that whatever awaited them wasn't something he could face while bound.
"Let's go take a look."
They set off from the destroyed village, following the trail of Cursed Earth, with Shannon and the horses trying to avoid stepping on it. Riding up a grassy hill towards a ridge of trees, they spotted something moving in the brush, and it was big.
"What is that thing?" Seraph asked.
"Damn it, I had hoped I was wrong," Noah cursed. "Be ready. I'll try and lure it out."
He took aim with a phantom gun and shot the shaded mass with a mana bullet. Instead of flinching or falling over from the sensation, the creature lunged in the direction of the shot as if it had been waiting for it. It burst into the light, facing the group without a face. It was slime, a common enough monster in these lands, but they could not compare to this abomination. The most enormous slime Noah had ever seen was the size of a beanbag chair, but this black mass was close to a garbage truck in stature, like a mountain of living tar capable of swallowing their whole group at once. Despite its dark shade, it was also translucent, and within its murky depths, the bones of countless people and animals could be seen floating, the multitude of skulls staring at Noah's group with empty eye sockets. Rather than dissolving the bones, it seemed to be collecting them. The mystery of the missing villagers had been solved.
"They found a way to attach a parasite to a slime core," Noah muttered.
"Making it just weak enough that it can survive in the sunlight," Valia added fearfully.
The slime again lunged towards them, moving with frightening speed, while the ground it rolled across was left tainted. "Everyone, scatter! Shannon, that way!"
The group split up, though the horses didn't need to be told to flee for their lives. Shannon took off in a gallop, following Noah's directions and circling the slime from a safe distance. Noah continued firing mana bullets at the creature, but none of them slowed it down, regardless of the caliber. If anything, they seemed to draw its attention, sending it chasing Noah and Shannon with greater and greater speed. Having no sense of fear or pain, this monster was immune to the effects of his guns. Flashbangs were similarly useless, for the slime had no sight and sound receptors, and any clones or illusory animals he sent running off to distract it were ignored, for they put out no vibrations for the slime to follow.
Seraph tried shooting a beam of light, and though it succeeded in burning away some of the slime's mass, the bones swirling within it, once exposed, helped shield it from his magic, and with his low output, what damage he did inflict was inconsequential. A barrage of wind rings was hurled by Bojena, ripping through the slime like a load of buckshot, but the core remained undamaged, and the slime healed itself instantly. Still not done, Bojena clapped her hands together and separated them, with a sphere of compressed air forming between her palms like glowing smoke. She then raised her arms above her head, with the sphere growing ever bigger.
"Tempest Hammer!"
