Blood streaked down Bone's massive back as cords of heavy Beast muscle rippled through his body, the great ape was forcing the large fortress doors both shut at once with brute strength. A somber silence filled the former battleground, except for the hushed sound of heavy breathing as the survivors tried to catch their breath and calm their adrenaline filled bodies.
After the initial shock began to wear off, the fortress inhabitants began to slowly pick up the pieces. Over the next few minutes Leor witnessed a strange and savage ritual taking place among the Beasts. They gathered up the bodies of their fallen, handing them off to the surviving kin. Then, with grief clearly visible on their faces, the Beasts began to devour their own comrades, tearing flesh and breaking bone as they consumed their fallen brethren.
Alina stood beside Leor, covering her mouth with both hands as she watched the morbid affair, a single stream of tears dripping down her pale cheek. As the two turned their faces away from the uncomfortable scene, they were met by another unexpected sight. One of the mutated dark elves wasn't dead, and had suddenly risen up from the ground. It was the young male that Leor had defeated.
A flash of thin steel split through the air as Alina drew her rapier, stepping toward the mutated elf to finish the job. However, as the dark elf turned to face her his brows furrowed deeply, a look of utter confusion filling his face. Alina watched in astonishment as the once defiled mutant slowly raised his hands up in the air and spoke.
"Human! Please, I must know! Which great Willpower Master has freed me from the curse of defilement? Has a human Master come to this place, is he here with us now?" The young dark elf questioned her.
Alina slowly lowered her weapon as she glanced back toward Leor with a questioning gaze. Leor was as shocked as she was, he had assumed that the Dark elf was dead when he gained a burst of new Willpower during the fight. The idea that the defilement had been cleansed didn't even cross his mind, mostly because of how much Willpower it would normally require to do so. It turns out his new talent adaptation had one more surprise in store for him today.
"Uh, I suppose I'm the one who cleansed your defilement. You can call me Leor."
The young dark elf looked Leor up and down with a dubious gaze, his brows knit together deeply as he slowly shook his head.
"Don't take me for a fool, human Leor! If you don't want to reveal your master, you can simply say so. Is there a need to insult me with such an obvious falsehood?"
Leor let out a sigh as he spread his hands to his sides, "Believe what you want, I don't have time for you right now. Stay out of the way if you don't want to end up dead, the Beasts are hardly in a forgiving mood right now and you look exactly like the enemies who just slaughtered their friends."
The dark elf wore a startled expression as he glanced between the Beasts and himself, examining the long black nails at the ends of his fingertips with a sorrowful expression. Leor did feel bad for the elf, it must be a difficult thing to suddenly awake in a strange place with no memories of what transpired, but he was far more concerned with Drelk and Rynn right now.
The old dark elf was struggling to push himself off the ground, it was clear that he'd suffered at least a few broken bones from the nasty hit he'd taken. Even so, he was determined to drag his injured body off the floor and rush after Rynn.
Leor and Alina arrived by the desperate old elf's side and helped him into a sitting position, carefully maneuvering his broken leg to ease the pain, but the old elf was fighting them every step of the way, almost delirious in his desperation.
"Forget about my injuries! Quickly load me on your back Leor, we must set off after Rynn right away!" Drelk demanded.
Leor wore a sad frown as he glanced down at Drelk, slowly shaking his head.
"Drelk… That mutated Twisted one disappeared into the night sky. How are we supposed to track such a thing down, we cannot even begin to guess which direction it might have headed." He explained.
Drelk did not seem deterred. The old elf hastily waved his hands through the air, shaking his head vigorously at Leor's words.
"No No No! You're wrong! Look here!" Drelk pulled a small black crystalline orb from his pocket, it appeared like a highgrade spirit crystal that had been refurbished into a new purpose, subtle elvish inscriptions running all across the surface. "I made this just a few days ago so I could let Rynn play around the fortress by herself without worry, it can track her location up to a dozen miles as long as she's wearing the matching ring!"
Drelk injected a wisp of Willpower into the crystal, and it began to softly glow on one side like a compass. No matter how he turned it around in his hand, the light always pointed in the same direction.
Leor and Alina glanced up at each other in surprise. Such a development was truly too good to be true. Leor hastily accepted the crystal from Drelk's hands, holding it firmly as he nodded his head.
"Thank the light for your abundance of caution Drelk! Your protective nature has surely saved young Rynn's life this time." Leor glanced over at Alina, the young woman nodding at him in approval without speaking a word. She had already accepted the fact that they would set out into the night after Rynn, there was no need to convince her at all.
"Good, good! Help me up onto my feet. Bone! Come and collect your father! We need to save your little sister!" The old elf shouted across the fortress.
The great ape lumbered his way over to Drelk's side. By now Bone had returned to his humanoid form, his terrible injuries slowly starting to scab over already. It was clear by his rapid healing that he had taken part in the cannibalistic ritual of consuming the fallen Beasts.
AS the group of two humans, an old elf, and a Highblood Beast prepared themselves to head out into the dark night after Rynn, the newly cleansed young dark elf man hesitantly approached them.
"I can see you're in a rush, so I'll make it fast. My name is Thale, I nearly survived the defilement until those mutated bastards ambushed me in the night. They captured me and used that strange dark corruption to overcome my Will. If you're going out to face them, bring me with you!"
Alina looked the young dark elf up and down, frowning lightly as she considered his request. "You're injured and you've just awoken from a decades long defilement. Your armor is falling apart and you have no weapon. You're more of a burden than you are worth. Why should we bring you along?" She questioned him emotionlessly.
The dark elf Thale blinked his glowing red eyes a few times, a look of pain filling his face as he heard how much time had passed since the defilement spread. But the young dark elf didn't let that revelation distract his current purpose. After quickly shaking off his despair, he stepped forward toward Drelk. The much younger elf placed his black clawed fingers on Drelk's broken leg and released a wave of gentle green Willpower.
Drelk's pained grimace slowly eased as he watched the young elf curiously.
"The pain is greatly reduced. The boy has a talent for the healing arts it seems. Fetch him a weapon and take him along, he can surely be of use to us. Besides, Rynn might be in need of healing when we find her!" The old elf spoke the last sentence with more than a twinge of fear.
"Good! You won't regret this! My healing talent is limited by my beginner's Willpower, but I can heal light injuries in just a few hours as long as I'm able to meditate!" Thale explained eagerly
The group made a quick visit to the armory, where Thale outfitted himself in a set of heavy guardsmen's armor and picked up the elven steel guardsmen's mace from the weapon rack. With that the group was prepared to leave. As they made their way to the fortress entrance, Bone and Drelk left instructions for the remaining Beasts to close and lock the doors behind them.
Bone handed Drelk over to Thale so the young elf could continue using his healing talent on him, then set about opening the great doors. As the cool night air drifted into the fortress once again, one last companion stepped forward to join them. It was the old grey wolf. Leor had realized by now that the grey wolf was one of the strongest Beasts in the fortress besides Bone, and was surely in the high Dire tier by now.
It seemed like the old wolf wanted to get some revenge against the Twisted mutant for the death of a member of his pack. That suited Leor just fine, he was quite certain that they would need all the help they could get on this dangerous mission.
The last thing they did before leaving was pass out cloaks to each member of the group who needed one. It was not wise to move about the mountain at night, but it was simply impossible to do so without the protection of the dark elven cloaks. As Leor wrapped the soft dark blue fabric around his body, he instinctively summoned the item's information into his mind.
Leor was momentarily surprised by the item's valuable enchanted nature, though in retrospect it should have been obvious. The cloaks held no inscriptions or spirit crystals, so they could only have been enchanted items. His curiosity about how Drelk acquired so many valuable enchanted cloaks was piqued but he put that aside to focus on the more important issue.
As they stepped out into the chilly mountain air Leor held Drelk's repurposed spirit crystal up high before him as he directed the unlikely group of companions into the eerie darkness. The eclipse had long ended, but the sun had set and the true night had come to settle over the mountain fortress.