Exion

Chapter One

Everything. Gone. Fading away. Where did we...I...go wrong? Now I lay in my own pool of blood, while my allies face an unbeatable foe. How could we have been so foolish as to think, we, a bunch of amateurs, could take down such a ferocious beast. Now we're awaiting our demise to the wretched thing, along with the inevitable destruction of Castilia. My town, the one I had promised to protect. It's all my fault.

Let's start from the beginning. My name is Cruz, just your average adventurer. I live in the town of Castilia and I always have for as long as I can remember. Ever since I started exploring the outside of my lovely town, I've always been fascinated by adventuring and so I joined the Adventurer's Guild in hopes of becoming a great adventurer one day. I tried to be a lone wolf for a bit but that never worked since I was inexperienced at the time. So I decided to start a party, and before I knew it I had a party of four: Kael, my best friend, also my party's mage. He's quite handy at spellcasting, primarily healing spells; Roon, whom was a bit of a wild card. You could never predict what he was going to say or do next. But he's one hell of a distraction and can come in handy in any situation; and Luz, he wasn't much of a fun person to be around, being as direct as he possibly could be, but he was pretty smart and a vital part to the party.

"I found him, but he's badly wounded! He's going to need a large healing spell!"

"Leave it to me! HEAL!"

And just like that, all my wounds had been healed. All my worries had just vanished and I regained senses. To think I was already giving up.

"Well Cruz, I might have saved you again, but this time I used up all my magic, so the best I can do is wave this staff around and bop the cyclops on the head."

I thanked Kael. Without him, most of us would be dead. Well all of us would be dead now that I think about it.

"Hey Cruz, get your lazy arse up and help us fight this thing!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever, I'll just devise some sort of strategy." I said to calm Roon.

A few seconds of thinking and a foolproof strategy arose: the others distract the beast, while I whack it till it's dead! There wasn't any way as to how this could not work.

"OK, I got it! You guys, Kael and Roon, distract the cyclops along with the others, while I come in undetected and try to slash the back of its head."

"While that sounds nice and all, how the hell do you expect this to wo-" stated Roon right before I cut him off. He always was one to question my authority.

"We're wasting time here, just do as I say and it'll work, trust me!"

They both grudgingly nodded and rejoined the others. I surveyed the area. My team was doing a mighty fine job at being a total distraction. They were leading the cyclops straight to a cliff.... wait... NO! I have to think of something fast before they slip up and end up losing their footing near the cliff and fall to their deaths. I looked around for any way to get up to the cyclops quickly and to my surprise there was a boulder, somewhat shaped like a ramp headed towards the foul beast. I sprinted as fast as I could and once I reached the end of the "ramp", I took a great leap, wielding the sword in my right hand, ready to strike the beast.

*SLASH*

One clean cut to the back of his head and he was down. The large beast fell with a large thud resonating throughout the area.

"You know what they say. The bigger they are... "

"..the more we get paid."

"You were supposed to respond with 'the harder they fall', Luz" said Roon in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Yeah? Well I couldn't care any less."

"Anyways" I added, "let's just get our pay and rest at the inn for the night."

We walked back to town, and as we entered it's gates, we were greeted by the townsfolks. They were cheering. Turns out they watched the whole thing, from the safety of their walls. We were heroes. This was the start of something big. Never would I have thought that some random kids could defend the city.

We continued our walk to the castle, to retrieve our reward. As we got to the gates of the castle, we were once again greeted by more townsfolk. Cheering, once again. We ignored them and continued heading to the king's chambers. A bit of negotiating and we were able to increase our payment to a million gold coins. Quite a lot of currency to be carrying around. We split it up between the four of us and headed to the inn. Opening the door, we were paralyzed.

We were surprised by the sight when we got to the inn. Blood. Everywhere. It was splattered all over the floor, the walls, even the ceiling was dripping blood.

"What happened here!?" we all exclaimed in unison.

We checked around for anyone but to no avail. We checked every room, every nook and cranny to the place. Nothing. That was until I heard some banging from underneath the floorboards. Abruptly, sharp claws arose from underneath the floor, impaling my allies. I was shocked. In an instant. They were all killed. All of them, except me. Something crept out from underneath the boards. It walked on all fours, in a horrible fashion. It was almost as if it had no skeleton. It was just, limping around, towards me. It got closer and closer, until it was a mere inch away from my face.

"Soon. Soon you will all be devoured by the ashes. And we will rise." said the monstrosity before stabbing me in the heart with its vicious claws.

I awoke. A dream? No. A nightmare. But it felt real. A bit too real. I checked my surroundings.

"Was it really a dream?" I asked myself.

Then, in a moment's notice, Kael barged into my room.

"Hey! Wakey wakey! You ready for another day of work or not?"

"Oh right, I almost forgot the job. Rid that old coot's farm of goblins? Let's get to it."

Of course it was a dream. I mean, that explains all the abnormal things that happened. A cyclops? Really? As if we could take that down with our wooden weapons. Yes, that's right, wooden weapons. If we wanted real weapons we were to either purchase them or earn them from a quest. And that thing. What was it? Soon. It said something about them rising and us being devoured by ashes. Could that have been all just in my head? I don't really know at this point. It's just best if I just went on and finished up this little job. The others are probably at the farm already.

I headed out with Kael to the farm. There were only a few bothersome goblins here at this point. Seems like Roon and Luz can really handle themselves.

"Hey! Arseholes! You guys just gonna stand there and watch or are you gonna help out?" yelled Roon.

"This will be fun." I thought to myself. I really enjoyed beating these things.

A few hours of combat, if you could really call it that (these fellows are pretty harmless) and we were done with the job. Ten gold coins. That was it. That was all the money we made today.

"Well that was a bust. Only 10 damn coins?!"

"Calm down Roon, sure it isn't much but we have enough for a bed each at least. And we can just hunt tonight's meal. With the remaining two gold, we'll just save that somewhere for now. We'll be okay." I reassured.

They all shrugged it off and we headed back to town. The trip back went uninterrupted for the most part until we heard a large thud come from somewhere behind us. The ground shook. Trees wobbled in place. And there. We saw it. The horrible beast.