{Chapter Three} The Power of Humanity.
Time: «One day before Anas's awakening.»
It is early morning.
The only sound heard is the sound of rain showers hitting the ground and almost stopping.
Hiiiieh, brrrrf.
A man with a huge body stops with his black horse.
His short brown hair is arranged and his blue eyes shine with something of confidence that transfers from him to his horse.
He wears practical clothes with a black cloak embroidered with a snake coiled around a sword and a crown.
Behind him stand approximately 20 soldiers on horses, wearing the same cloaks.
"Brave ones! Today we will show those bastards the power of humanity! We will make the name of the Crimson Squad rise above everyone!" the man shouted with a loud voice.
When the man stopped, the soldiers' cheers began to rise.
Among all the noise a female soldier whispered to a soldier beside her:
"It is true that the commander Walter is strong and from the nobles, but is it really safe to go out on a mission this quickly?"
The soldier stares at her and smiles a confident smile:
"You have not seen the commander's strength yet. He is one of the strongest people in the colony. He did not even listen to the words of the cowardly Senate council. Heh."
The female soldier does not smile.
Instead she looks at Walter and thinks inside herself:
'Damn you, Walter von Crimson. If you were not a duke from the nobles they would not have allowed you to gather all this number of soldiers.'
The female soldier sighs in fatigue and whispers to herself:
"Why is my luck so bad like this? Perhaps I should have married someone and stayed at home instead of coming to this nonsense."
Whooosh.
The sound of drawing a sword echoes.
Walter has drawn his personal sword.
A sword of strong metal, a mixture between the hardest metals in the colony of Vingard.
Its serrated edge that resembles shark teeth and its night-blue color.
Walter raises it into the sky and shouts:
"Come on heroes, I will lead you to victory!"
The gigantic gate of the wall surrounding the colony of Vingard opens with the sound of friction and turning gears.
The army looks very small compared to the size of the gate and the walls.
The hooves begin striking the ground and the army begins advancing outside the walls.
The features of the land change from stone buildings to green plains as far as the eye can see.
But despite the beauty of nature...
All the soldiers including Walter place their hands on the handles of their swords.
After a period of marching they reach a forest.
The sun has begun to spread some of its warmth.
But the forest is dense with trees and branched.
Walter dismounts from his horse and signals with his hand for the rest of the soldiers to dismount and turns to stare at them and says with a loud voice:
"The objective of this mission is to obtain more medicinal herbs in addition to attempting to cleanse the place of danger!"
Walter turns and begins walking at the front of the soldiers.
While they walk improvising inside the forest, the sunlight begins decreasing slowly until shadows cover the place.
The smell of mud and humidity fills the place.
But... there is also... the smell of old rusty metal.
Everyone appears tense.
Walter smiles and looks at his deputy who walks at his right.
She wears short military trousers with long tight trousers under them.
She wears chainmail under her white shirt and over it the cloak of the Crimson Squad.
"It seems those elders of yours were exaggerating when they said that most who go outside the walls will die. Or did the monsters become afraid of me? Heh." Walter said to his deputy with excessive confidence.
The deputy stares at him.
Her golden eyes stare at him while her blonde hair tied in a ponytail sways behind her.
"I do not know. But commander, we have been walking for about half a day and we found nothing. Perhaps we should return." the deputy said while matching Walter's pace.
Walter looks at her and frowns slightly:
"Why among all the employees in the Hunters Guild did they send you? You possess neither a beautiful body nor high morale."
The deputy continues walking in silence.
Suddenly one of the soldiers shouts:
"Commander, I found some medicinal herbs. They are here."
Everyone turns and begins collecting the herbs by Walter's order.
Walter begins laughing and looking at his deputy:
"Did you see, you fool? We indeed found what we want and we did not face even one attack."
The deputy sighs and thinks internally:
'Calm down Ba Bianca, calm down. Killing this stupid noble will benefit you in nothing.'
While everyone is influenced by the confidence of their commander and they collect herbs, suddenly Bianca notices a shape advancing from the shadows.
She bends and places her hand on the handle of her sword and her features become extremely cautious.
Walter notices her readiness and looks at the shadows with his smile that does not leave his face.
From the shadows advances something that resembles a dog, but it possesses extremely sharp teeth.
The color of its fur is dark black and its eyes are red.
When it takes its first step forward an entire pack appears behind it.
All the soldiers widen their eyes and look at Walter waiting for his orders.
Bianca's eyes widen:
"A whole pack of monsters? I told you we should retreat, Mister Walter."
Walter looks at Bianca then laughs and remains standing waiting for the monsters to advance.
Everyone freezes.
But...
When one of the dogs rushes toward Walter Bianca lunges at it quickly.
She rushes toward it with fast steps and lowers quickly to tear its rear leg.
When the dog turns to attack her neck she pushes the sword inside its mouth piercing its skull and the dog falls like a toy whose strings were cut.
Blood covers Bianca.
Black disgusting blood.
Bianca stands quickly and adjusts her stance again.
But the pack has already rushed toward them.
'It seems this is my end, damn.' Bianca thought while the monsters rush toward her.
But...
Suddenly the ground turns into a wet black liquid.
Bianca's eyes widen and she turns to see Walter still smiling.
"You... a Manifestor?" Bianca asked while she is confused.
Walter moves his hand and the black substance becomes sticky mud that grabs the monsters and fixes them in place.
Bianca rushes without waiting for Walter's order and tears apart all the dogs' heads in a fast motion.
Blood sprays like a fountain.
Bianca's blonde hair becomes contaminated with the dirty black liquid.
"So this is the reason for your excessive confidence?" Bianca asked while wiping her blade from blood.
Walter looks at her and says:
"What did you expect from the first candidate to inherit leadership of the Crimson family?"
Bianca looks at him:
"But you are still at the beginning of age. How did you awaken the Manifestation?"
"Hahahaha. Meditation is not the only way to awaken Manifestation. There are some twisted methods that succeed with difficulty and it succeeded with me because I am special."
Bianca sighs while nodding her head:
"Alright Mister Special. Let us return before worse things than this come."
Before she finishes her words a shadow rushes from between the trees and passes beside Walter.
When the shadow stops the soldiers suddenly freeze.
Walter is standing, but his left arm and part of his shoulder and chest are not present.
Blood pours from his wound heavily while he presses the wound in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding.
When they turn their faces they see a large worm resembling a leech holding Walter's arm and eating it with teeth filling its mouth full of green saliva.
Walter's blood drips from its mouth.
The sound of wet swallowing fills the place now silent.
"Damn, what is this? They did not tell us about something like this." Walter shouts while his mouth fills with blood.
"Commander, activate that ability again. What are you waiting for?" one of the soldiers says while cold sweat begins flowing on his forehead.
Walter tries to activate his ability but all that happens is the bleeding increasing strongly from his eyes and ears.
Bianca turns to Walter and finds him standing and his eyes have become... dead.
Bianca turns and rushes toward the return path quickly.
She thinks inside herself:
'Damn, its saliva is poisonous. From where did it appear? I did not feel it at all. Even Walter died in one strike. Damn, damn.'
While she runs with all the strength she has she hears the sound of tearing and wet chewing behind her.
Before she moves far she notices something behind her.
A huge shadow.
The earth shakes under its feet when it walks.
It bends toward Walter's corpse.
Kraaak.
The monster eats part of Walter's upper body in one bite.
The other half of Walter's body releases a fountain of blood then the rest of the monsters rush toward it and devour it.
Her body suddenly shivers.
She feels the difference of level between them.
It can crush her in the blink of an eye.
Then Bianca increases her speed to escape quickly.
'Damn damn damn damn, what was that? Nothing like it has been recorded before. Why did they even appear in a place close to the walls. This is a very bad omen.'