Aldric did not stop running for an instant. His feet touched the damp forest soil, branches scratched his face, but he did not care. The old man advanced like an arrow, the staff firm in his hand. Each step was driven by the dark foreboding that grew in his chest: the putrid, dense energy now polluted the air, and with it, the roar of an unnatural creature echoed through the trees.
"What is this presence...?" Aldric murmured, eyes alert, sweat marking his wrinkled brow. "Something like this should never be this close to the village."
Yet, before he could reach the clearing, four Shadow Grusks emerged, living shadows slithering through the forest like hungry serpents. They surrounded him, with eyes glowing red and long, deformed limbs. Growling like puppets, they seemed to be there only to block his passage.
"You think you can stop me?" Aldric said, with a threatening calm in his voice. His staff vibrated slightly. In the next instant, one of the Grusks shot toward him, seeking his throat with its claws.
But Aldric did not hesitate. He held the staff with both hands, and the muscles of his arms, once flaccid, swelled as if arcane forces restored to them the vitality of a young warrior. With a precise and vigorous spin, the staff cut the air, emitting a sharp whistle, and collided with the Grusk. The impact was so brutal that the monster was hurled into the sky, its limbs twisting grotesquely.
The three remaining Grusks hesitated, growling low, their bodies stiff with visible doubt and fear.
"Since you won't come to me, I'll come to you." The old mage planted the staff into the ground, drew a circle with his foot, and touched an engraved rune on it. The staff's crystal shone like a blue lightning bolt. "Rays of the Three Blades!"
Three shining beams advanced like serpents, striking the Grusks before they could even react. They fell heavily, their bodies trembling, their life force drained by the magical blades.
Aldric did not waste time. He knew his strength, now intense, was only a temporary flash. "If I don't arrive in time, it will be the end..."
He advanced into the clearing and, as he emerged from the dense foliage, his vision was filled with a nightmare in progress.
"JOREN!" Gareth's scream echoed from inside the barrier, laden with a pure horror that made the air itself seem to freeze.
It was the only warning.
Aldric saw Joren the sturdy lumberjack, his face a mask of desperate determination twist in a final motion, throwing himself through the translucent glow of the protective barrier.
Almost all of him.
The Borak's club descended in an arc wrapped in a corrosive purple aura that distorted the air. The barrier did not block it completely. The tip of the weapon, the last centimeter of its devastating swing, grazed Joren's heel the exact moment he crossed the threshold.
And Aldric, with his perception sharpened by adrenaline, saw.
Not a crushing. Just that part disintegrating.
The part of Joren's body the foot and a portion of the leg simply ceased to exist. It glowed for an instant in a cloud of ashen particles before turning into dark dust that dissipated in the wind. Joren fell on the other side of the barrier, his scream cut off mid air. He wasn't dead his chest still rose and fell in spasms but his leg now ended in a smooth, perfect stump, smoking, bloodless, as if it had been erased from reality.
The club, however, did not stop.
Its monstrous momentum carried it forward, and the tip of the arc now reduced, but still deadly came straight to where two boys were.
Konstant was a few steps ahead, trying to place himself between the threat and Rady, who was further back, paralyzed against a tree. Aldric saw Konstant's face, pale but determined, at the moment the tip of the purple aura struck him.
It was not a direct blow. It was a touch. The aura merely grazed his forehead.
It was enough.
Konstant did not fly backward. He simply gave way. His knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground like dead weight. A guttural, broken sound more a shiver than a scream was all that escaped him.
Aldric saw enough: the fallen boy, his face already obscured by a black fluid that was not just blood, and the Borak, satisfied, turning its bony skull toward the next prey Rady, who was crawling on the ground toward his friend.
It was then that the void on the monster's face swept across the clearing and… found Aldric. Stopped on him.
For an instant that seemed to last an eternity, monster and mage stared at each other across the bloodied clearing. In Aldric's eyes, the Borak did not see the fear it expected, but a deep cold, an ice that promised a different end.
And then the monster acted. It ignored the mage for a moment. Its eyes or whatever existed in those points of purple light in its sockets landed again on Rady, who was still crawling toward Konstant. The club, still wrapped in its corrosive aura, was raised again. This time, the target was clear: the defenseless boy on the ground.
"Not so fast!" Aldric roared, and the words were not just sound they were a command laden with power, making the air vibrate. He released the reins. The arcane energy, until then contained and channeled with care, erupted like a tide within him. It was not heat; it was raw power converting his rage into palpable force painful.
The Borak hesitated for a fraction of a second, the club hovering in the air. Its skull turned again to Aldric, and this time, the void on its face seemed… interested. The destruction of the children could wait. Here was something new. Something that shone. Something worth breaking personally.
Aldric did not wait for the attack. His hands were already in motion, and he channeled his energy, his index finger wrapped in a bluish light. He touched the runes on the staff, tracing them to the tip. The rune grew, shining intensely, becoming the size of his palm.
"Let the darkness be purified! Purge Ebenus!" he shouted, his voice echoing with unquestionable authority.
In a flash, the rune exploded into thousands of points of blue light, mystical fireflies that flew toward the Borak. The monster tried to strike the lights with its club, but they passed through the weapon spectrally, landing on its thick skin and burning like divine acid.
The Borak howled, its voice echoing like thunder, while Aldric, at a distance, manipulated the points of light with precise hand gestures. Like a puppeteer, he turned his hands, and the fireflies spun around the Borak, forming a sphere of pure energy. Sweat streamed down his face, his entire body trembling from the effort.
The blue energy was now so dense that the Borak's silhouette disappeared, leaving only its roars and the pulse of magic. Aldric gasped, feeling the power draining from his body. "Perhaps... perhaps this will suffice..."
Inside the barrier, Gareth watched open-mouthed. Jorem was down, Konstant was bleeding, Rady sobbed. The Borak seemed defeated, Aldric triumphant, but no one there dared lower their guard.
However, the silence was broken by the sharp sound of shattering glass. Aldric froze. The sphere of blue light cracked, fissures growing like webs. A dense purple smoke escaped through the cracks. Aldric felt a chill, the dark energy threatening to suffocate the magic of purification.
"No..." whispered Aldric, taking a step back, his heart racing.
From within the bubble, a purple ray shot out, breaking through the magical defenses and cutting through the air like a demonic lightning bolt, striking the ground with devastating force.
From within the smoke, the Borak emerged with eyes burning in fury and the hole in its forehead glowing with deep hatred. Its heavy steps made the earth tremble as it closed the distance to Aldric, each movement laden with murderous intent. It raised the club, full of a black aura, sweeping the air with an energy that distorted even the light around it.
"Your magic is nothing before my hatred, old man!" the Borak howled, its voice reverberating like thunder.
It swung the club, which now seemed even heavier, and in a brutal impulse, charged at Aldric, leaving a trail of black energy in its wake.
Aldric raised his staff hastily, tracing runes in the air. A bluish barrier formed in front of him at the last second. The monster's force transferred through the magic like a hammer striking a bell. Aldric was thrown four meters backward, his feet carving deep trails in the ground, his chest heaving with the effort to remain standing.
Aldric wiped the sweat from his brow, feeling the energy draining away. "I can no longer hold back; if I save energy now, we will all die." In a final effort, he channeled all his remaining power into his muscles and the runes on the staff. His eyes shone with an intense blue.
With a cry, Aldric advanced, staff in hand, channeling what remained of his strength. He leaped to the side, dodging the club, and swung the staff against the Borak's leg. The monster looked with disdain, trying to intercept the blow, but Aldric was faster: he struck behind the knee, making the Borak tumble onto one knee, the ground cracking under its weight.
"You dare challenge me?!" the Borak roared, black veins pulsing beneath its bony skin.
"You are the one who challenged the wrong guardian!" Aldric replied, spinning the staff and striking the Borak's face. A crack echoed as part of the monster's skull broke, fragments flying.
The Borak went mad, attacking Aldric with a savage fury, the club cutting the air in deadly arcs. Aldric narrowly dodged, feeling the fatigue and his strength fading. With each spell, he felt his muscles contracting, his lungs burning.
Suddenly, a whistle cut through the chaos an arrow fired by Gareth pierced the Borak's shoulder. The iron tip found the joint between two bone plates, and the monster recoiled with a muffled grunt.
It was the opening the villagers needed. A younger man, with the strong arms of a blacksmith, ran forward. Without hesitation, he lifted Konstant and pulled Rady by the arm, moving them away while Aldric kept the monster occupied.
"Now!" thought Aldric, seeing the moment of distraction.
He felt the little strength he had left the last flickers of arcane energy still seething in his veins and channeled everything into the staff. The ancient wood vibrated as if it would shatter, and the Star Fragment at its tip shone with a blinding light.
With a roar that was as much effort as it was liberation, Aldric struck the Borak's chest. The impact sparked, and a gush of dark purple blood spurted from the wound. The monster staggered, its black aura flickering like a flame in the wind.
For a moment, the Borak's eyes met Aldric's no longer with blind fury, but with a calculated, deep seated hatred. It roared, a sound that was more a warning than defeat, and then turned, yanking the arrow from its shoulder in a brusque motion.
"This is not over..." it growled, retreating slowly. Without further blows, without theater, the Borak vanished among the trees, its body leaving a trail of purple smoke and the smell of burnt ozone in its wake.
Aldric fell to his knees, gasping, his body trembling not only from exhaustion but also from the debt the magic had exacted. He leaned on the staff, feeling its warmth and vibration in his worn hands.
He looked up at the sky, where the moon already slanted, silvering the edges of the slowly passing clouds. The deep night surrounded the clearing, but dawn was still a distant promise; there were still hours of darkness ahead.
The battle had ended, and the village was safe for now. Yet, as his eyes followed the trail of purple smoke snaking toward the forest, a cold certainty settled in his chest, heavier than any fatigue.
He did not push it away. He did not try to deceive himself with relief.
The Borak had not fled because it was defeated. It had fled by choice. And a predator that retreated willingly… always returned.
The flame of hope still burned. But in the gelid quiet of the deep night, it illuminated mainly the shadowy outlines of what was yet to come.