Astral Flow

Chapter 31

Blood stains the snow upon the ground, quickly being hidden away by the raging storm as Teach pulls his blade back.

Around him were dozens of the defeated Drifters, not a single one had managed to get a scratch on him.

Though he seemed to be in the clear now he refused to let his guard down as he walked through the storm, trying to find anyone else from the ship.

He'd been the very last one off the ship, he'd wanted to await his Lord but with no one returning he could not just wait any longer.

Teach had to know if everyone else had fallen, and now he fears they have, especially with these abominable creatures skulking about the storm.

Drifters were creatures that had forsaken everything, invaded the realm of creation and cast aside their humanity for power.

So why, why were these monsters here?

Drifters were a rare sighting, not this exceedingly common... something must've been drawing them here.

Another Lord perhaps?

That was the only thing Teach could think of while moving forward, it was the only reason Drifters would arrive in such large numbers.

Teach nodded to himself as he marched forward, that was it, that had to be the answer.

Though in that case who was the lord of this area, and why was it so different from what he remembered?

Perhaps the Lord was some yeti? Could that even be possible?

Before Teach could process the thought any further a blade rushes forward, hitting him in the shoulder and surprising him.

The blade didn't penetrate that deeply but was enough to make him look forward confused when he saw a stunned Aranea, her eyes wide as she realized what she'd done.

With a sigh Teach just grabs the shaft of the halberd and pulls the blade out with ease, a bit of blood spilling on the ground but not a lot.

"Be more careful about where you swing that, what if you'd hit someone weaker than me?" Teach's voice is surprisingly calm despite everything going on.

Aranea is a bit taken aback by this, letting her halberd lightly rest by her side. "Right, sorry... I just thought you were another one of those enemies."

"Fair enough, hard to tell a person from a monster in this storm, and I imagine you've been fighting up until now." Teach casually says while keeping an eye out for any enemies.

"Yeah, I did." Aranea begins, finally collecting herself to lift her halberd upright once more. "I saw lots of these strange, lanky, things walking through the snow and then they attacked... I got separated from Laurance and Demea after I got grabbed-"

"You got grabbed?!" Teach shouts, clearly alarmed now. "Where?! Where did they grab you?!"

Aranea can only look surprised before holding up her free hand. "My right wrist-"

"Remove your gauntlets, I need to make sure you're still capable of fighting." Teach says while looking around for anything he could use as material, stopping when he sees an icicle hanging from a malformed corpse.

Not the cleanest material but it'd work.

Though reluctant to follow his advice she did so, pausing upon seeing strange white runes covering her right hand.

"What is this?" she says, unable to contain her horror as she looks at it. "This entire area is different from before..."

Without wasting a moment Teach quickly pulls out a dagger and starts chipping away at the ice, forming it into a strange symbol before rushing over to her.