Oblivious to the earthquake, the huge crowd of townspeople did not react at all, nor did any of them fall over. They continued staring at the well.
“What is going on?” Thorm asked.
As if in answer to his question, the well at the center of the square cracked violently. It rented apart and the ground beneath it heaved.
“Something is making an entrance,” said Feign, he held a cluster of snowballs in the crook of one arm, and one in his hand at the ready.
“Not good, my sweet!” Phlixx said, as he perched on my shoulder, little crossbow with a flaming bolt pointed toward the crowd.
The gap of the broken well widened with the force of something underneath pushing upwards. Then a humanoid figure emerged out from the large hole, cobblestone and earth crumbling around it.
It was clad in black armor. Fiery yellow eyes smoldered from within its helmet and it held a massive wooden staff in one hand. The being now stood towering above us in the center of the square. Everyone looked up at it; so tall that its head was higher than the buildings.
We stood frozen in shock. This guy was big. Really big.
“I think we should be leaving now,” said Feign as he hefted a snowball.
Before I could say anything, the being spoke.
“My children,” it said. Its voice was deep and resonant. “The time has come for a new beginning.”
I recognized that voice. It was the same which the mutant-mayor had used.
The being continued. “For thousands of years I have waited. Waited for the opportunity to return to this realm and cleans it of the vermin which has overrun it.”
The townsfolk stared up at the being with obvious reverence. Their black-veined affliction making mindless worshipers of this being. They hung on its every word.
A name appeared above the head of the being. ‘Demon King’ and then in brackets beside it ‘GOD’.
“FILTERED!” said Mudhoof.
I couldn’t agree more.
“I am the one true overlord of all. To show your supplication to me you must cleanse the world in my name,” the Demon King said. He turned his huge head and leveled our group with a hot yellow glare. He pointed at us. “Starting with them!”
Every individual town person immediately whipped their heads around to lock onto us. The sight of a thousand angry stares unnerved me.
Then I said the only logical thing that came to mind at that very moment.
“Run!”
CHAPTER NINE
No one reacted the instant I yelled. Instead, everyone looked to each other to see who would run first.
“Let’s go guys, no heroics now,” I said. That seemed to get them walking backwards, weapons at the ready.
The horde of town folk continued to glare at us, but unmoving. The Demon King still pointed at us, his yellow eyes smoldering fiercely.
Then, with some unspoken command, the people suddenly shrieked and screamed at us. Eyes wild, hands now clawed at the air but they didn’t move.
“Come on, go!” Mudhoof shouted. He was trying to be the last to leave.
As we all began to head back to the main street, the Demon King shouted, “Die!”
Like a pent up wave of energy the town folk surged forward.
“Go! Go! Go!” I yelled.
Thorm was to my left and Feign was in front of me. Mudhoof was only a few steps behind, huge ax at the ready. His hooves clomped on the cobblestone as he ran to pick up the pace.
We’d barely made it a few buildings down from the square entrance when the crowd of people crashed into the street like a human wave. Frantic, angry and insane with whatever evil infected them, they scrambled over each other to get to us.
Feign lobbed rapid fire snowballs at them. The ones which struck the ground instantly created a large patch of ice on the cobblestone. People tumbled and fell onto the ice patch, but the ones behind simply clamored over their fallen comrades like they didn’t exist. When Feign hit a person, they became an icy statue which the others surged around.
I called up a full quiver of arrows, choosing simple ones which I could fire en masse. Running backwards, and shooting a bow wasn’t easy, but the thick cluster of people ensured I always hit someone. When they fell, they simply vanished under the ceaseless wave of feet.
“Where do we go?” Mudhoof called to me as if I had any idea. At that moment a crazed black-veined woman got within reach of him. He swung his ax, and the woman screamed and collapsed. There was very little blood because I had my blood-and-gore setting turned down to the minimum available.
“Back to the lake?” Thorm shouted over the screams. When someone got too close to him, he opted to pulse his protective shield which acted like an invisible wall for them to bounce off of.
“The old mine!” I said. “There is nowhere else I can think of. We don’t know of anywhere else!”
We continued to backpedal, barely keeping the pursuing crowd at bay. For a moment, something caught my eye, and I looked up. Perrin was looking down from a window in horror. Then he backed away out of sight.
There was nothing I could do for him, even if I was supposed to help him at all. Right now we were in pure survival mode.
“I hate getting zerged!” Mudhoof said, swinging his ax back and forth. Cleaved halves of crazy town folk tumbled away in his wake.
We reached the edge of the town at the point we first entered. A cheerful little bridge arched over a river here.
“Get to the other side, quick!” Thorm said.
Not needing encouragement we stopped attacking, turned and ran across the bridge.
As we got to the other side Feign said, “I’m going to try something.” The mage stopped and turned back to face the horde of people racing toward the bridge.
Our group stopped, tense and breathing heavily. “Why are we stopping, my love?” Phlixx said as he clutched at my shoulder. He looked more nervous than I was.
Feign raised his arms and called out a spell. Suddenly, a dark cloud formed above the bridge. “Stand back,” Feign warned.
As the first of the rabid people crossed the bridge, the dark cloud erupted with hail. But it did not produce ordinary hail stones. These were huge, the size of basket balls.
Gigantic hail stones bombarded the bridge and crushed everyone underneath it. But despite the obvious damage it did, the people still ran frantically into the storm and were crushed.
“It will only last a few moments!” Feign called out over the horrific noise the hail made.
Down the trail we fled, and into the forest.
CHAPTER TEN
As we ran, the noise behind us subsided.
“So, the mine? That’s where we’re going?” Thorm said.
Muttering with frustration I called up my quest log while maintaining my run.
’You must escape to the Old Mine or perish.’
I barked a laugh and closed the screen. “Well, that’s helpful,” I said.
“This is crazy!” Mudhoof said. “Since when did quests go all nuts like this? Where’s a princess to save? A dragon to slay?”
“Legendary Quests change things up,” Feign said, his robes whipped around him as he ran. “I think what just happened reflects that.”
We reached the fork with the signs. Without even slowing we all turned onto the northern trail and kept running. Behind us, distant but closing fast, came the screams of our pursuers.
This trail took us through to the other side of the valley. The forest ended, and we emerged at the foot of the mountains. Sheer, steep rock walls towered above us. Ore carts sat on a short rail line which led to the foot of the mountain. A large entrance could be seen.