|
Part III: The Toads
The journey was rather smoothgoing. We had become friendlier towards
one another. The joyful young girl was really capable of melting
people's hearts. Throughout the journey, she had removed her chainmail,
wearing only a brown robe. Initially, Crack and I were exceptionally
wary of her. However, the very moment we saw her remove her armor,
we relaxed, knowing that we could handle her. We started to laugh
at the way she tried to catch butterflies along the way. The rest
of the journey went smoothly till we reached a rocky path. Ramona
began to wear her armor. Both of us looked at each other and nodded.
We had to be careful now.
'We're reaching the place. Remember, this isn't going to be easy.
Crack, remember to cast a 'sanctuary' spell on me upon reaching
there. Gil, do whatever you can to inflict the maximum damage on
the toad. I'll initiate the fight. Get it?' Ramona asked. We nodded
dumbly. I felt stupid, as if I were a child listening to a mother's
instructions.
'Good, let's go.' Ramona lifted her bag and followed the trail.
We followed likewise. Suddenly, Ramona gave a loud gasp of shock.
In a haste, Crack cast the spell on Ramona. I sprang forward, sword
drawn, all set to strike. To my horror, I saw a pair of red eyes
staring at me. The eyes belonged to a knight in shadowy black armor.
As I looked intently, I realised that there was nobody in the armor!
It was a trapped soul. I glanced at the area. Blood was everywhere
, and the ground seemed to be totally turned up. Bits and pieces
of armor and weapons laid on the ground, suggesting a great battle
being fought not long ago. I gulped nervously.
'Think we can kill this?' I asked quietly. I was startled by Ramona's
reaction.
'NO!!!!' She screamed nervously! I looked at Crack who shook his
head profusely as well.
'In that case, think we can pass it without being attacked?' I
asked again.
'I sincerely hope so. Otherwise, we're as good as mincemeat.' Crack
answered. The voice was shaking. For once, I saw Crack in fear.
I guessed the knight must be very powerful. As a fade darkknight,
I knew no fear in battle. Faced with numerous warriors and paladins,
I had never trembled in front of others, no matter how powerful
they were. Hence, in my eyes, the knight was just another enemy.
For that, I did not experience as much fear as Crack and Ramona
were having.
'I'll lead the way. Hopefully, it won't notice us.' The words came
from Ramona. She had managed to regain her posture despite her white
ghastly face. We nodded as we followed her past the knight. Fortunately,
the knight left us alone even though it saw us. We ran and collapsed
only after the knight was out of sight.
'That was close!!! Whew!' Ramona panted heavily. Crack fell onto
the ground, whilst I slumbered onto a rock. The heavy armor we wore
had really worn us out.
'Rest! I need rest!' I exclaimed.
'We'll all rest for an hour before we move on.' Ramona replied.
With that, the three of us slept.
The three of us stared at the rock toad in awe. Never in our lives
had we seen such a huge toad. It was greyish with the size of a
cow! Horns grew all over the body. As we examined it, we realised
that the skin of the toad was as hard as a rock. Ramona considered
the toad, which started to laugh at her mercilessly. We looked at
her questioningly.
'Sanc me and I'll whack.' She said. Crack nodded, as he raised
his hands, muttering the words of the spell. Almost instantly, a
white aura of protective field surrounded the female warrior, blinding
the toad. Shouting a warcry, she bashed onto the toad. I joined
in, casting a harm spell on the ugly creature, demolishing it. Crack
followed last, constantly checking on Ramona's injuries. Whenever
Ramona had many nasty wounds and cuts, Crack would mutter 'parl
pzar', healing Ramona to only a few scratches.
As for me, I only had to aid in the killing without much injuries,
since the toad was only concerned with the one who struck it first.
The toad was indeed a hard core to break. The battle lasted hours.
Looking at the health of the toad, we could roughly judge that it
was almost twice as healthy as the health of the three of us put
together. Finally, it was Ramona who delivered the fatal blow which
eradicated the beast. With a cry, the toad fell, dead. I looked
at Ramona. She only had some small wounds and cuts.
'Sacrifice the corpse, and we'll continue.' Ramona urged Crack.
Crack hastily sacrificed the corpse before Ramona moved on.
We followed silently. As we approached the hills above the shoreline,
we found another toad. Ramona was considering the health of this
toad when the toad suddenly screamed and attacked us, putting us
into total disarray. I could see that Ramona was fighting frantically
and helplessly. The sanctuary spell was no longer there, and Crack
could not cast such a spell whilst fighting. I pondered the reason
for the toad to attack us without any reason or so.
There could only be one reason for it. The whole world had been
thrown into chaos! In order to convince myself, I tried healing
myself. As I muttered 'cure serious', I felt a soothing feeling
flowing into my body. Indeed! The world had been thrown into chaos!
I laughed victoriously. The world was mine to kill now!!!
Without hesitation, I muttered something, as I raised my hands
towards the toad. As I concentrated, the insides of the toad appeared
in my mind. As I finished the magical words, I sent a blast in the
internals of the toad, destroying most of the internal organs. The
toad screamed in great pain.
Ramona, battered and torn, stared at me weakly. Crack, on the other
hand, was too concerned with healing Ramona. I cast another psionic
blast at the toad again. The creature screamed again. Realising
that I can only cast one more time, I sent a final blast into the
toad's body, as Ramona, partially healed by Crack, jumped onto the
toad to plunge her sword into its body. That marked the death of
another toad. The corpse crashed onto the ground, flinging Ramona
towards the rocks. Ramona crashed onto the rocks and fell onto the
ground, looking awful. Crack was at the verge of exhaustion. I sat
heavily on the ground, totally drained and severely wounded.
'We need help.' Crack spoke weakly.
'We'll have to recall and pray for transportation.' I replied.
In silence, we prayed and found ourselves lying outside the Temple
of Kiri-Jolith. Painfully, we dragged ourselves into the temple
to seek aid.
|
