Chapter 22: Enough!
Before either Lance or the Count could react, the monster was upon them. Having forced the Count to lose his foothold and fall to the bottom of the gorge, followed closely by the monster, Lance was left alone.
“Count! COUNT!” Lance screamed hoping to hear a reply, but the fog below made it impossible for Lance to know what had happened next.
“Damn it! I am coming to save you, Count!” Without hesitation, Lance jumped off the cliff and plunged towards the bottom of the gorge.
While the Count was trying to regain his composure, the beast attacked again and again. Relentless in its assault, it left the Count with few chances to fight back. However one chance was enough, as the beast prepared itself for a big attack.
“Hey, Jack. Are you ready to taste some blood?” The Count asked as he pulled out the scythe from behind his back.
“Anytime!” Jack answered, as the glow of hatred and bloodlust stunned the beast, delaying its attack even more.
“Weapon skill Ares: Pin wheel!”Part of his mantle connected to the scythe, and just as it did, the Count threw it towards the monster. Spinning, it missed the creature but similar to a boomerang in its return flight, it managed to cut one of the wings and pierced the rocky cliff behind the Count, stopping his descent.
The creature also managed to latch onto the rocky cliffs, and just as it inched closer to the Count for another attack. Lance came out of nowhere grabbing the mysterious creature and pulling it towards the bottom of the gorge together with him.
“Mind if I eat you?” Lance asked as he took a bite from the creature’s body, forcing it to scream wildly as it tried to release itself from Lance’s grasp.
With each new bite, the creature weakened further, while Lance gained the much sought after sustenance needed to survive such a fall.
Worried about Lance, the Count began cautiously descending towards the bottom of the gorge, but soon found himself surrounded by more of the mysterious beasts.
Just as Lance had his fill from the monster, the bottom of the gorge came into view. Covered by a mass of water, instead of slowing down, Lance decided to speed up and pierced the water like a bullet, creating a vortex where he fell.
Falling from such a height meant certain death even for the hardiest of creatures, but Lance soon revived himself after only three minutes, thanks to the beast he ate prior to the impact.
On the Counts side, more and more of the beasts crowded around him, trying to stop him from descending any further.
“Why, only me?”It became apparent to the Count that the monsters were targeting him specifically, ignoring Lance altogether.
“Who cares, their blood is tasty!” Jack said as he pierced another monster with his sharp edge.
“…” Suspecting something strange, the Count prepared himself eliminate all of the monsters in one go.
Lance woke up in the middle of the lake, surrounded by water plants with beautiful blooming flowers and exotic aromas tingling his nose. Just as he began remembering what happened, he started hearing some footsteps on the water.
“So weird, I feel so relaxed, it feels...comforting.” Drained of strength, the short time he was aware of his surroundings started fading, replaced by a need to relax and close his eyes.
It was then that the origins of the footsteps that Lance had heard nearing his location, revealed themselves in the shape of a woman. Wearing clothes very foreign to those that Lance knew about, a blue kimono covered her from the knees up to her shoulders, and with her legs visibly floating above the water line with jade colored sandals.
