The Necromancer's Cauldron

Chapter 6

AN: Finally! We're getting to the fun parts of the fic :3c Enjoy~

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Chapter 6:

"Egar!" Drayce called out to the guildmaster, who was stood at the bottom of the stone steps. "What's going on?"

With a half turn, Egar tilted his head in Drayce's direction. "I am not entirely sure," he admitted.

Taking a moment to pinpoint the direction of where the sounds of surprise and terror were originating, Drayce turned to look down the street. And what he saw startled him. Other than the crowds of panicked locals, there was what could only be described as a spectral figure. A ghostly entity in the form of a fully armoured knight on a loyal stead. They had an illuminous glow to them, granting them a truly otherworldly appearance.

Yet, as the entity grew closer, Drayce was able to make out that the armour was rusted and badly damaged, and the horse appeared to be in the midst of natural decay.

It was little wonder that the residents of Iorys were shocked into fits of fear.

"The hell is that?" Blayke muttered under his breath.

Drayce couldn't answer. Was it a wraith of some kind? It wasn't...alive in a physical sense.

That...that couldn't be a wendigo, could it? Had it been created? Summoned?

Whatever it was, whatever the purpose, they needed to stop it before someone was hurt. Or worse. Drayce truly didn't want to fight the entity, but he might not have a choice. If only Zohar was around. He may have been able to give them some insight as to why a ghostly entity felt the need to charge through town.

...Was it looking for something?

Drayce was immediately pulled from his thoughts by a shrill cry of fear. A high-pitched sound, one that only a child could make. He snapped his head up, his gaze somehow instinctively narrowing in the direction of the voice.

It was a child. A young boy, having fallen onto the centre of the road. In the anticipated path of the entity.

Without a second thought, Drayce dashed down the steps. He summoned a Decoy Shield to be a deterrent or a distraction, granting him enough time to make it to the child before the ghostly entity did. Hopefully.

With the shield manifesting just feet from the still crying child, Drayce scrambled over the stone cobbled road and reached the boy's side. He stooped forward to pick the child up off the ground, just as the knight reached the shield. And his stead reared onto its back leg, whinnying chillingly, the sound truly unworldly.

Instinctively, Drayce wrapped his arms around the child in an attempt to shield him. And grew tense, waiting for an attack.

"Stop! He is not a threat to you! His soul holds no malice!"

Drayce snapped his head up, his gaze locked on the tall figure that stood before him. His back toward him, shoulders tense, and legs parted in a power stance. Unflinching, even as the otherworldly entity reared threateningly before him.

Zohar...?

Drayce quickly turned his attention back to the child he had been shielding. The kid, snot-nosed and crying, was up on their feet. The boy appeared otherwise unharmed, thankfully. He was young, likely no older than five or six. Too young to understand what was truly happening, but old enough to be scared.

"Hey, you're ok. Don't cry. You need to find your parents now, ok?"

The sound of someone yelling another's name gave Drayce the confidence to release his shielding hold on the child. And he felt reassured as the boy immediately turned away from him, taking off in a toddling run toward a young man. Who was hopefully family in some way.