Power feeds on weakness. The Smaller creature gets consumed by the bigger and powerful creature. That is the law of nature and very well applicable to the monsters in this world also.
By consuming the weak, the leader gains power and that power makes him much more different than the rest of them.
The strong survive and the weaker die.
Natural selection.
The arachnid was an ideal example of this fact. The bigger monster had obviously climbed its way up the monster horde. Killed and eaten countless of its kin. That was the law of this world. By feeding on the dead remains of the prey may it be of their own kind.
Everyone starts from the same spot, rebels become hunters and the hunter tends to gain more power upto the extent of evolution becoming the most powerful in the group.
Powerful enough to make these vile monsters submit to itself at a single command. Somewhat bigger ones, which seemed like they had resisted the call of their leader weren't actually called to be sacrificed. Meaning, the arachnid could very well command them too.
A gigantic monster leader commanding a legion of its lesser types was a thought terrifying enough to make the humans before it shiver to the very core.
The vicious gaze of the vile creature was moving here and there, making the humans experiencing it vomit their insides out. Only the mages with rich battle experience and powerful core elements remained unharmed. Though it wasn't as if they weren't affected at all.
The murderous intent and the strength of power behind it spread like an awful stench, making their skin crawl.
The arachnid was calmly observing the battlefield but its vile bloodshot eyes were anything but calm.
Victor signalled the support mages to remain ready. Not so far from there, Damian and May also tensed up sticking close to each other.
Valerius and Sophia stood beside each other as their priority suddenly shifted towards the gigantic creature.
They were ready to unleash any attack or defense spell. Even the horde which seemed dangerous just a while ago looked nothing of a threat as compared to their vicious leader.
The silence before the storm felt quite loud.
However the silence was suddenly broken by a strange noise. Somewhat far away August was done severing the head of a monster clean. Sophia looked at her son with a peculiar expression fearing the worst. Before she could provide words for her strange thoughts, her worst fear became real as she stood there looking at the site with wide eyes.
Before her, August did pull the sword from the corpse of the dead monster and his eyes were following the trail of the arachnid already. As it turned out August's priorities of danger had also changed. Now he only had an appetite for the powerful leader.
His eyes shone with red killing intent as did the runes carved on the matte blade of the fallen star. He immediately rushed forward trying to take on an enemy about ten times of his caliber. Or maybe more.
But he didn't care. August at this moment didn't care at all.
Dashing forward he made a high jump after taking some steps, raising his sword to slice at least a part of this dangerous threat. Everyone around him was worried as the enemy was incomparable to the little boy in terms of size alone.
The arachnid finally seemed to have noticed August coming as its gaze suddenly shifted locking at the boy midair. Under that vicious gaze August felt a strange sensation running through his body. A sudden sense of nervousness overwhelmed his senses. A shiver ran through his spine as his grip on the fallen star became loose.
Every sane part of his consciousness told him not to pursue further.
August gritted his teeth resisting the effect of the vile gaze on his body which felt like his heart could burst from the pressure anytime. The coldness in his limbs was catching up to him.
Gritting his teeth he tried to resist the effect of vile gaze.
August finally steeled his will, his resolve became absolute. He was about to land a strike to hit the enemy down.
When he forcefully lowered his sword to sever the opponent in pieces August felt surprised as his blade didn't meet the thick cuticle of the creature at all. In its place, a thick wall of ice stood in his way blocking the path of his sword, suddenly.
August finally landed on the ground trying to move past the thick wall but then another wall of ice came from above blocking his way from the left as well. Then another came to his right and another one got him completely surrounded from behind.
Annoyed in his murderous frenzy he tried to jump free from the ice cage but at the next moment he was completely covered with ice walls from all sides.
The square cage made of ice kept him from recklessly attacking the arachnid.
From the translucent surface of the thick ice, he saw his mother and father lunging at the arachnid. He also wanted to help them but he couldn't. August gritted his teeth in anger and punched the ice wall as a desperate attempt to break free.
'OPEN DAMMIT'
He fell to his knees looking at his bloodied fist.
Then suddenly, the cage started moving. Sliding, to be precise. It slid backwards making August stumble and fall down inside it. Things happened faster than he could react.
Suddenly the ice cage came to a halt and it broke into pieces the next moment. As if it never even existed. Opening his eyes August saw Lord Victor placing his hand on August's forehead.
August felt something running through his mind. A thought? Memory? Or a command perhaps? Whatever it was August felt dizzy and a sudden urge to sleep. Then finally he fell unconscious.
And never knew what exactly happened after that.
— — —
August, he was asleep. For some reason he was also aware of it. He was fighting a battle just a while ago.
'How did I end up asleep?'
The confusion washed over his mind. He wasn't able to remember what happened, at all.
The cacophony of the intense battle was ringing in his ears some moments ago and suddenly all around him was so… calm. How?
He remembered being in the middle of a blood soaked battlefield surrounded by numerous grotesque monstrosities and also remembered the gigantic arachnid looking like the end of him.
He stood before the leader of the vile horrors. Made a jump at it without thinking it through. His decision of attack was a failure already, devoid of any rationality. Why did he even do that? Has he gone insane already?
Suddenly the gigantic horror looked at him. Making it very hard to breathe for August. It didn't even attack him even so, August felt terrified all of a sudden. His heart was beating faster than ever. The sweat came out profusely. August was petrified.
Fortunately, the horror didn't attack him. But, what if it did?
Thump
He patted his hand on the table beside, waking up with a sudden jolt. Inhaling deeply his gaze fell on the water placed on the table. Ignoring the glass, he lifted the jug itself and drank cold water greedily, without caring much about the mannerism.
He put the container back and then, only then did he realise that he was on his bed, in his own room.
'How did I…'
However in the next moment a pleasant voice grabbed his attention,
"You're awake" she said as she turned the wheelchair in his direction, with a gentle smile on her face she asked as politely, "how was your sleep?"
"Fine" he replied, not looking at the beautiful girl, and asked in a hurried voice as all of the questions and the lost part of his memories became a mess in his mind, "what happened? How? How did I get here?"
"Pfft" she let out a chuckle at his suddenly serious expression, "Sorry sorry. I mean, how do I even answer? It's a very long story."
"How long?" August asked, his expressions never changing.
"...uh" May let out a sigh and spoke, "it has been three days since the day of monster tide. We chased out those creatures successfully but…" she lingered for a moment and then said, "...but their leader …the vile thing escaped when it got injured seriously by a powerful spell of your father. They are looking for the arachnid in the depths of the forest. Well, I mean no one is safe when a monster of that size is lurking around freely."
"Is that right" standing up on his feet despite the pain in his injuries, picking up his sword he said, "thank you for the information"
"You're going back?" she asked without a hint of amuse in her voice.
"If you know, then why are you asking?" he replied, trying to end the conversation quickly.
A subtle smile escaped her lips as if she had expected him to behave this way. Then coming back to her calm and composed self again, May said something which made August to stop where he stood,
"There wasn't any curse placed on your sword" her random statement made August surprised.
"A …Curse?" he asked, expecting an explanation from her.
"That's right, a curse" she said in her tone, authoritatively, "our parents thought you might be afflicted by some curse because of the sword to suddenly lose your sanity and jump in the monster tide like a madman. But guess what, there was nothing wrong with the weapon. You know what that means, right?"
"What?" he asked, not looking at her, "how would I know?"
"Please" she said with a hint of mockery in her voice, and seemed as though offended for some reason. Then she sighed, calming her tone and spoke, "you asked me about what I was hiding? And I told you that didn't I? Then why are you doing this August? Why are you hiding a secret this big from your family? Why?"
"Because…." he said before taking a long pause to sort out his emotional doubts.
At that moment, maybe it was the dominance of his emotions, maybe it was another side effect of the echoes that made him feel the girl's words or maybe he still hadn't recovered from the previous state of insanity or maybe …maybe he just wanted to share his deepest darkest secrets with another person to ease up the burden a little.
"Because of what exactly?" May asked in a confronting tone as she sensed the hesitation in him.
August didn't reply. He sat on the bed calming himself down. Because he wasn't sure if it was wise enough to tell a secret that he had kept from his parents for years to a girl he barely knew. While he asked May to share her bothersome thoughts with him and when it was his turn to do so, he was hesitating.
'That's right, I am a hypocrite'
"B…Because I knew what those vile creatures were coming after and I had to defend that" he replied with an easy going expression trying to make the situation less serious.
"Oh! Is that right?" May asked, not believing a word he just said, "then why did you turn yourself into a bloodthirsty frenzied vile creature like the ones you were defending your town against?"
While August was acting like nothing out of the ordinary happened at the battlefield and making it seem like he did what needed to be done at that time, the truth however was something he himself wasn't fully aware of. It was something out of his understanding, yet.
The things he couldn't comprehend, how was he supposed to explain those to her?
How would a madman explain his insanity to others anyway?
Or was he supposed to tell this truth to her in the first place at all? Something he had kept from his own parents. But also the fact remained, that May had told him about her deepest insecurity. The thought or the fragment of it, she had indeed shared with him.
Whatever it meant. Trust? Or she told him that knowing she would die soon anyway.
The reason didn't matter. And that was the truth.
— — — — —