Path Of A King

The Adventurer Party Known As Desolation Act I

Chapter 5

In the northwest part of the Darkwood Forest, a party of six adventurers arrived at a stone building that housed the soldiers. Only an eerie silence hovered over the area. The building was the barracks that once housed 10 men as they trained inside the forest.
"Well, then guys, time to begin our investigation."
"Syki . . . The place really is abandoned."
"Yes. We are here to investigate the soldiers that were housed in this barrack. The cause of the disappearance is still unknown. The reports estimate that the building has been abandoned for about twenty-two days now, we need to look really carefully for any clues on their whereabouts. Be very vigilant and cover the area thoroughly. We will split up into partners of two, Erien and I will search the west side of the building, Lylia and Meli will explore inside the building, and Norma and Berym will cover the north side of the building."
Syki gave her orders and the rest of the party immediately moved to complete them. The party of adventurers split up and started the investigation.

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Lylia and Meli entered the building, slowly opening the massive wooden double door, they began to look around for clues. They first entered through the mess hall. A long wooden table with ten chairs greeted the girls. The table had a spoiled meal served on a wooden bowl seemingly untouched. Though now the worms had begun eating away at the spoiled lunch. The chairs around the table were disorganized as if the men left in a hurry.
"Lylia. Seems like the soldiers left in a panic. By the look of this setting, it must've happened around their meal time."
"Y-yeah, your right Meli. I was looking forward to some bread and cheese but this horrible stench is just awful! It's killing my appetite. "
The girls began to walk further into the building entering a hallway seemingly leading toward the sleeping quarters of the men. When they arrived at the end of the poorly lit hallway, they spotted a door. Perhaps because they were adventurers with experience or maybe a gut feeling? But Lylia and Meli readied themselves in case someone or something was on the other side of the door. Meli slowly opened the door, peeking inside. The room had two beds on each side overall nothing looked out of the ordinary. After carefully inspecting all five rooms the girls had no luck finding any clues. They reached a sixth room that was used as an armory. The armory was empty, all of the swords and equipment were gone. The eerie atmosphere hung over the building as the girls pressed forward neither couldn't put their finger on it but something was off. They returned back to where they had started and headed towards a door on the right. The two girls readied themselves and quickly swung the door open. Inside the closet was the body of a man, blood covered the stone walls and floor. A strong stench of rotting flesh quickly filled the girl's nose. Lylia let out a big scream as she laid eyes on the bloody mess that filled the closet room. Meli was taken aback and gasped unintentionally, both girls recovered mentally and began to inspect the body. Twisted, stabbed, and smashed, the reason why there was so much blood on the floor was that simple. The body received a lot of trauma that led to the man's horrific and painful death.
"What could've caused this Meli?"
"I don't know but the body is clearly one of the missing soldiers."
Lylia and Meli wrapped up their investigation and closed the closet door. They then exited the building, still keeping a sharp eye around their surroundings to spot any other clues they might have missed along the way. The girls searched the outside of the building and discovered three giant footprints on the west part of the building. Roughly around 80cm X 80cm, the footprints were massive only belonging to an unknown three-legged beast. Meli prepared her bow and launched a flare bomb into the air to let the others know that something important was found. The flare brightly exploded in the sky into a green glowing fireball. Meli sat on a log nearby to wait until the others arrive, taking out a cloth from her pack containing food rations. Meli then made an invitational gesture to Lylia to join her. Lylia declined Meli's offer. The newly discovered body was still fresh on her mind. How Meli could seemingly eat after what they found inside the building? Baffled Lylia.
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Syki and Erien walked west in search of clues. Erien walked proudly beside Syki, it was his chance to show off his skill to Syki. They entered a dense grove of trees, only a 10 meters radius around the barracks had been cleared of trees and vegetation. The trees were tall and very thick making it very hard to see ahead of them. They slowly walk while looking for anything that led them to the disappeared men.
"S-Syki listen . . . When we get back to blackthorn, can we go out for a drink? or maybe something to eat?"
"Huh? Yeah sure, I'll treat everyone when we get back."
Syki was focused hard on the task, she had heard Erien but she hadn't processed his words carefully. Erien had something different in mind when he boldly asked Syki out. He had developed a crush on Syki since joining the party three months ago. Hearing what Syki said made him a bit depressed but even going out with everyone made him happy as long as he was with Syki. After walking for around 10 minutes into the Grove of trees they finally found evidence of people.
"A battle shield..."
Syki whispered under her breath. The shield had major damage and was also stained with blood. Though the blood looked like black ink by now. Syki concluded that at least one of the missing men would be dead from the sheer amount of blood that was evident around the area. Erien unsheathed his dagger and flipped the shield over with it, revealing a severed hand still holding onto the shield's strap. Erien fell on the ground, breaking away from the crouching position he had adopted earlier when inspecting the found shield. Syki let out a small gasp at the discovery of the severed limb. Small drops of blood followed further into the trees, leading away from the shield on the ground and leading further into the trees.
"I guess we have to go further in."
Syki whispered. As they followed the trail of blood, they came into a clearing, the ground soaked in blood along with a powerful stench that pierced the nose. Scattered everywhere along the ground were swords, shields, and pieces of armor but the bodies were nowhere to be found. Syki walked near the scene where most likely a hard-fought battle had taken place and keenly inspected one of the shields that littered the ground, concluding that the sigil painted on the shield belonged to that house Baylor of Blackthorn. A sword with blackthorns that entangled the blade was of house Baylor no doubt.
"Syki . . . The missing soldiers are probably dead."
"Yes . . . But what in the world would defeat ten men in such a way? Also, why haven't we found any bodies? Besides the severed arm we found earlier and the blood-soaked ground around us, we don't have much evidence to support the claim."
Syki and Erien suddenly felt an enormous pressure coming from the opposite side from where they were standing. In the shadows near the tree line, they could see a humanoid outline staring back at them with a piercing gaze. The shadow began to walk towards them slowly, coming out of the thick tree grove and into the clearing towards Syki and Erien.
"A person? Could it be the one responsible for the death of the soldiers? Erien! Stand on guard!
The stranger walked calmly towards them, giving off an immense pressure that made Syki's body react instinctively. Syki had more battle experience, she was particularly sensitive to the pressure of enemies especially when they harbored malice towards her, she could even sense the blood lust that a killing intent would give. This was a particular characteristic a lot of monsters or lower demi-humans would give off when such creatures wanted to attack and kill. Smarter foes such as humans or higher demi-humans would control such bloodlust to avoid being detected. This reminded Syki of the time her father trained her to hide her bloodlust by hunting lowgers in the plains where she grew up. Lowgers were four-legged creatures that had incredibly big horns that grew out similar to tree branches, most people hunted them for their hide and their incredibly tasting meat. At first, it surprised Syki the ability of such prey to detect such feelings as bloodlust even when she was far away. Eventually, she learned to control her bloodlust and was able to hunt lowgers without them detecting her and running away. Syki even learned to detect bloodlust when she would witness predators stalking prey in the wild.
The stranger had bronze-colored armor that covered his whole body. The helmet had its bevor closed, making it impossible to see facial features. As the armored stranger got closer, Erien began to sense fear for the first time since signing up as an adventurer.
Erien hadn't yet learned to detect someone's killing intent but his skin was covered in goosebumps as the man got closer. Suddenly, the armored stranger stopped, reaching for his head from the sides, then lifting his helmet up revealing a face that looked non-human. The man held his helmet carefully tucked between his arm and body. The bronze-armored stranger had pale skin similar to a corpse, short-cut blond hair, and red eyes with wholly blacked-out pupils. The man looked to be in his late twenties with a height of 189cm tall and a moderate body build.
"What do we have here? More test subjects for the master, though I wish there were more of you. No matter, you'll just have to do it for now."
"Who are you? Did you kill the soldiers?"
Syki yelled loudly at the strange man. Though the man just smiled back in response. His grin was impossibly wide, almost reaching from ear to ear. Erien turned to look at Syki he had never seen Syki with her current expression. Her eyes wide opened with not so much as a single blink. Erien felt cold water sliding down his cheek until it reached his neck and into his armor. Erien had started to sweat in fear. His body was reacting on pure instinct, something that had never happened before, not even when he saw a dark minotaur near the northern woods when he was out hunting as a child. Dark minotaurs are feared beasts that would stomp your limbs to prevent escape and then devour you alive, you'd feel every bite until you died. With lightning speed, the man launched incredibly fast toward them. The man's right arm was in such a way it resembled a blade. He pointed said blade at Syki aiming for her arm. When the bronze man almost reached Syki, Erien jumped in front of Syki with his dagger drawn, colliding it with the stranger's hand creating a sound that could only be created when iron hit iron.
"Syki Run and warn the others! I-I'll buy you some time!"
Syki nodded in response and retreated into the tree grove, she had to warn the other at any cost. Running as fast as she could towards the barracks where the others were.
"Who was that man? And why is he so powerful!?"
Syki thought. She started to get lost in her thought in search of an answer. Syki knew, that the only way to defeat the bronze man was to regroup with the others, only then did they have a shot at beating the stranger. As Syki continued to run at top speed all the while thinking hard for an answer, she heard a bang above the sky and faintly saw a green light forming a circle. Meli! Syki knew the signal came from Meli and so she headed towards it at full speed.