[You have slain a Dreadform, Ravencroft]
The Writ's message rang in Lucas's ears, he stared upwards his eyes widened in disbelief and his chest heaving for breath.
He sat up, his entire body covered in blood. He looked to the side and saw Karl crouching down beside David, his flames completely covering the younger boy.
'What's he doing?' Lucas thought. The next moment his thoughts were scrambled as he received another message from the Writ.
[You have gained an artifact…]
Lucas's eyes widened in jolly surprise. An artifact would be something good to have at this point in time.
Artifacts were rewards gotten from the Writ when one defeats Cursed Creatures, only Dreadforms and those of a higher rank can drop memories as boosts to people like Lucas and the others. They would help in many ways, like making him faster or stronger or more skilled in battle. A boon that would help tremendously as an armour, a weapon or a stat boost.
[...gained an artifact: Ravens Wings]
Lucas stared, shocked at what he he had just received.
[Ravens Wings: An armour type artifact with the wings of Ravencroft, sturdy and strong, allows the user to soar through the skies like an Eagle and move as fast as a Falcon]
Lucas nearly jumped for joy. He checked the artifact's information.
Name: Ravens Wings
Tier: II
Artifact type: Armour
'A tier II artifact? Well that figures, seeing as that Dreadform was insanely powerful.' Lucas turned to see David seated up, he and Deborah standing side by side in front of Karl.
"I can explain," Karl began, "if he died it would have been a necessary sacrifice. We all need to survive here one way or the other, no. I need to survive one way or the other ans get out of here."
"You bastard!" Deborah screamed, moving to attack Karl but David held her back. She struggled go break free but David was physically stronger.
"It doesn't matter," David said, "he's basically a self-centred bastard." He spat at Karl's feet and then led Deborah away.
Lucas watched all this from afar, and then his stomach grumbled. Why did it have to do that now of all times? So annoying.
Lucas looked around, he walked towards the woods and then came out with a handful of twigs.
He walked over to where David had dropped his weapon, picked it up and walked lazily to the corpse of the Cursed Creature.
The others stared at him with eyes widened in surprise.
"What are you trying to do?" The other three asked on unison.
"Well, I'm going to eat dinner." Lucas replied with a huge grin, he stabbed the body of the creature, tearing it open and cutting out a large chunk of meat. He cut the meat up into smaller chunks and then put sticks through them forming multiple kebabs. He got his twigs ready and started preparing a fire, it immediately ignited and then he put the kebabs by them, leaving them to cook.
"Are you guys hungry?" He asked them.
David shook his head sideways, Deborah threw up while Karl nodded in affirmation.
'Well, just one person eh?' He said to himself. He walked back to the fire, Karl following behind him. He and Karl turned the kebabs around so the other parts of the meat could cook.
When it was done he handed one of the kebabs to Karl who immediately devoured it in one bite, like a hungry wolf.
'The hell!?'
If this was how Karl ate then it wouldn't be enough for the both of them. He hadn't even finished eating one but Karl was basically on the third kebab and just two remain.
Lucas was never that much of an eater at the orphanage, he ate enough to let him carry out his activities for the day. Even as a worker where he never earned that much money to buy whatever he wanted so he stook to eating just a slice of bread everyday. Right now, to him, everything would work itself out.
"What do you think our Imposition is?" Karl suddenly asked, Lucas stared at the fire, there were no more kebabs of meat, he looked up and saw Karl licking his lips.
"To be honeat, I don't know what it is." Lucas replied. "Judging by the scenery and the state of the environment, I'd say it's basically five years ago."
Cold sweats ran down their faces, five years ago. When the great calamity happened, when the greatest group of humans stood together to fight the insane amount of Cursed Creatures that flowed out of the gates. If this was that time then they were in for a whole lot of trouble.
"I saw you smiling earlier… why was that?" Karl asked again, staring intently at Lucas.
'I can't tell him what he wants to hear.'
"Maybe he got an artifact." Deborah chipped in, she turned to Lucas with a look full of disdain, "What did you get Lucas?"
Lucas sighed. "Nothing. I got absolutely nothing."
Karl and Deborah stared at him for a while, and then she walked away to go sit near David who was looking upon them from a little way back.
Karl shrugged and then relaxed his expression.
"If this is five years ago then the things we're going to face will be immensely dangerous even on the rank of World Eaters." Karl stated.
Lucas's entire body shivered at the mention of World Eaters.
World Eaters were immensely powerful Cursed Creatures, a single one of them could wipe out the entire human population without even trying, even the planet wasn't safe, judging from their name "World Eaters". The high tankers say that these creatures embody one concept or the other, the one that came five years ago was a harbinger of destruction and now they were sent to the same timeframe as it was.
"So… what do we do about it?" David asked, he was standing side by side with Deborah, his eyes determined and focused.
"Well…" Karl began. "All we have to do is kill a World Eater."