บท 14: Flaming Crucible

Blood soaked snow lay under Venator, standing, wounded and out of breath. The orb of ice in his hand continued to glow while his sword dripped blood down.

"You put up good fights, nice." He muttered. He walked to the dead bodies, inspecting them one final time before departing, seeing their faces, eyes and body lifeless, snow beneath them became red tinted in blood.

He walked away, limping onwards as the battle came to an end, corpses slowly starting to become buried under the snow as it began picking up once more.

Venator's wounds healed as he tended to himself, the blue aura swapped by a green glow. A sense of relaxation and bliss hit him, despite the cold he felt it, a few seconds of relaxation as his remaining wounds healed.

The walk was not long, approaching near to the choking smoke, catching more of it's toxic scent.

"Gotta try finding an opportunity to take more of them out." He thought to himself.

The area was flat, presenting no elevated height to walk on, only small mounds of snow.

Wooden walls surrounded the camp, taller and thicker than the ones before, the gate inside was closed while two towers stood above it, observing the entire area around it. Loud clattering of metal and the shouts of people were heard from inside.

"No good place to observe other than those towers." Venator thought. Looking further, the towers were empty.

Venator began moving, quickening his pace as his legs pushed through deep snow. The shouts of people inside became louder and louder as he arrived at the face of the gate, deafening any other noise around him.

From cracks and gaps on the gate, he began climbing up, getting closer and closer to the top.

He gripped on the boards, pulling himself up to the tower. The tower was empty other than a small wooden hatch on a corner of the tower.

Creeping low, Venator stepped forward slowly, the voices only getting louder. As he approached the opposite end of the tower, he peered down below. A large bonfire burned on in the center of the place, tens to nearly a hundred scattered around it drinking or even clashing as a small crowd gathered around each fight. Venator continued peering around. More buildings of wood stood along with smaller tents scattered about, but Venator stared at one in particular. A small shack built near to the wall with barrels standing or stored outside of it. A few wolfskins were already standing nearby, grabbing bottles from the inside as they drunk.

"Hope the god doesn't get mad for what im gonna do to that." He whispered to himself, fearful as he planned on.

Looking back, a few hooded figures parted the crowd of wolfskins, their shouting ceased as they faced them.

"BROTHERS AND SISTERS!" One of them yelled.

"THE CAPITAL RUNS HIGH WITH WINE AND JOY, ALL AROUND WAGONS BRING MORE AND MORE, IT IS TIME WE TAKE THEM AND CELEBRATE OURSELVES!" The hooded figure raised his hand up. The crowd roared as he finished. Venator stepped back, laying lower than earlier as he continued peering at them.

The group of hooded figures headed to a larger wooden building behind them. Wolfskins soon returned to celebrating around the fire, resuming fights and drinking,

"If that's all of them, maybe i can burn the place with them left inside it, for the wolfskins maybe they will run to their burning wine, becoming easy targets for me to pick off with a streak of fire." Venator planned, looking back and forth at the crowd, the house, and the small building.

"Forgive me god of this world." Venator mustered the strength he had, forming an orb of blue light in his hand, as it grew more and more bright, he threw it at the building. The orb crashed into a barrel, as the wood on it shattered, it's contents caught aflame, before the entire barrel caught aflame. Wolfskins checked the fire, investigating it. The fire rapidly spread from the barrel, causing barrels around it to begin burning, the wood shattered and splintered as the burning contents leaked out.

The sound of glass shattering followed the flames burned higher and higher, consuming the shack entirely. The crowd soon ran towards the burning shack. Venator, with his plan working, his hands began bursting into a blue flame. As they brightened, he aimed from the tower towards the crowd. A streak of blue flame crashed onto the crowd, in seconds, the entire group was set ablaze, running around the place, screaming.

Venator exhaled deeply, his plan nearly done. He made his way down in the crucible, embracing the intense heat emanating from the bonfire, the screaming soon ceased as the final wolfskin fell down.

He ran to the building, hoping they're still inside. A blue flame spawned on his hand.

As he was about to burn the building down, he felt as his mind fell into confusion, forgetting the plan he made as he stumbled around drunkenly, his vision was blurred while stumbling around.

Stepping outside the building was one of the hooded figures, their hand glowed a dark purple hue.

Venator knelt to the ground as he held his head, feeling dizzy and drunk on the snow.

"You're gonna pay." The figure spat, walking closer to Venator as he continued trying to fight the daze.

He could see the figure's blurred appearance walking towards him, trying to muster up his strength, he removed his blade, but he couldn't raise it up, struggling as the daze felt strengthened.

The figure stopped near Venator, the dark aura on his hand darkened as Venator struggled more.

"So weak, did you kill the other ones as well or did you get past them?"

Before the figure could continue, Venator, still in a drunken daze ran up, swinging his sword once at the blurry figure, the figure narrowly dodging it. Venator knelt back down as he continued to be bombardment by dizziness.

Venator attempted to get back up, feeling as the blurry vision and the sense of drunkenness worsen inside of him.