The Lord of the Rust Mountains: Primus
Content
Prologue
Deep in Beast Woods, the domain of its great lord — the Lord of Holly — had been transformed into a hell of swirling miasma, rotten leaves, and withered trees. Misshapen figures spilled out in droves from the paths ahead leading into the center of the lord’s domain. They were low-ranked demons called Spawn.
Under refreshing early summer sunshine ill-suited to this place, we sprinted through dead trees that reminded me of the ribs of a rotten corpse.
“Menel!”
“On it!”
Silver hair fluttered. Menel came to a halt, spread his arms, and called out to the fae in a clear voice.
“‘Fairies of all kinds, faint spirits, those who play in the twilight and the morning mist—’”
As I listened to him incant behind me, I moved forward with my favorite spear, Pale Moon.
“‘Awaken! Your gentle guardian, the lord of the woods, is in crisis! Now is the time to repay the kindness you have been shown!’”
Nature’s power had been weakened in this place swirling with noxious gas.
The fairies here had lost their power, and their sense of self had begun to dissipate, but Menel’s strong call began to restore it. Even I could feel the fairies beginning to congregate around him, as if drawn to his clear voice.
A natural power great enough to send shivers down my spine was beginning to gather where he stood.
“‘Grip your blades, nock your bows! Arrow of Salamander, Hammer of Gnome, Spear of Undine, Blade of Sylph…’”
Knowing I could count on him, I focused all my attention on the approaching Spawn, which were shaped like vaguely person-shaped clay figures made by children. Brandishing my spear, I impaled them and swept them away one after another.
“‘Now the horns of war hath sounded! These arrogant invaders—’”
His incantation had come to its final line. With a powerful yell, I tackled one of the Spawn with my shield, sent it flying into the incoming horde, and then took a huge leap backwards to the side.
“‘—May the Great Four damn them all!’”
The instant he finished, a storm of death erupted before my eyes. Flaming arrows, suddenly fired, struck the enemies like a volley from a team of professional archers. Huge hammers of rock rose, blowing away miasma as they lifted into the air, then smashed down upon the demons. Clear water spurted out of lakes of sludge, drew helices in the air, and bored through the demons’ chests.
And in the distance, blades of raging wind scattered the miasma and sent head after enemy head flying. It was a full-scale attack by the elementals who had responded to Menel’s call with furious cries of their own.
“Will! Let’s go!”
“Got it!”
We rushed onward, stepping over the fallen corpses of the Spawn. Whatever had poisoned the Lord of Holly’s domain and corrupted the natural cycle of these woods was just ahead. We ran, kicking up the sickly, fallen leaves.
Just in front of the old stone arch that formed the entrance to the center of the lord’s domain were two demons, both of which looked like a cross between a person and a crocodile. One had a hooked spear in hand, and the other a long, sharp sword. I guessed they were about two meters in height. Their heads brought dinosaurs to mind, and they had tough scales, rubbery skin, and thick muscles. There were sharp spikes on the ends of their peculiarly long tails. They were Commander-ranked demons called vraskuses.
“Watch out for the tail spikes!”
“Ya. You take the spear one!”
We kept it brief and split to the left and right. The vraskuses followed suit and headed towards us, each aiming for its own opponent.
I took a single breath and slowed down before finally stopping in a defensive stance and pointing the blade of my spear directly at the vraskus as it closed in at a speed halfway between a walk and a run.
We were almost within a spear’s distance of each other when it abruptly stopped in its tracks, as if it was unsure of itself. Its reptilian eyes rolled unblinkingly over me, and the vraskus tried circling around to my right and then my left, thrusting its hooked spear in my direction several times. With slight foot movements, I kept myself facing the demon and my blade pointed towards it.
The vraskus growled, seemingly frustrated. It couldn’t find an opening to attack.
While keeping that distance between us, I very slowly relaxed my stance in a way almost too subtle to notice and created an opportunity for the vraskus to exploit. Sure enough, it lunged out with its hooked spear, trying to take that advantage. With a grunt, I slammed my own spear against it so that it caught and forced the hooked spear downwards. Refusing the vraskus any time to react, I thrust Pale Moon forward in retaliation and penetrated straight through the vraskus’s hard scales and then its heart.
The demon let out a choked cry of pain. I drew my spear back swiftly and stabbed twice more for good measure, still not allowing a counterattack.
When it came to demons of this rank, it often took a lot more for an injury to be fatal than it would for a human. If I didn’t make sure the vraskus was dead, it wouldn’t be surprising if it continued to fight me like mad, even with a hole punched through its heart.
I pulled the blade out once more and watched. The vraskus collapsed, its large body hitting the ground knees first. The corpse turned to ash and crumbled away. I breathed out, and a nostalgic voice revived at the back of my mind.
— I could just charge straight in there and lop its head off.
I chuckled to myself. That was what my dad, Blood, had said when he’d once rated the strength of a vraskus. Unfortunately, I had yet to reach his level. I didn’t know how much more training I’d need to catch up with Blood, but I felt as though I was at least close enough now to see his back in the distance.
An energetic shout from beside me told me that Menel’s battle was also finished.
After the two sized each other up for a while, Menel’s vraskus had shielded itself with one of its arms, which it was obviously prepared to lose, and charged at him. However, gnomes had grabbed its ankles from behind, causing it to lose its balance. Menel hadn’t cast a spell to do that; he was in perfect communion with the fairies, and they were carrying out his will. It was something only an expert could have pulled off.
Menel stepped forward decisively and forced his dagger into the demon, then channeled some kind of spell down the blade, causing an explosion in the vraskus’s torso. The creature twitched and convulsed, expelled some kind of white smoke, and collapsed. It was over.
“Sweet. And I’ll take this, too.” Menel showed no hesitation in snatching the longsword from the body as it crumbled to ashes. It looked like quite a fine weapon, with a shiny, metallic gleam to the steel of its straight blade.
“The altar for the lord of the forest should be… through here,” I said.
“If Commander demons are the gatekeepers, then…”
“Yeah.”
Whatever had come here was a force to be reckoned with. We exchanged looks, renewed our sense of caution, and stepped through the stone arch into the true heart of the Lord of Holly’s domain.
The domain had been turned into a stinking, toxic bog. While Menel was busily casting Waterwalk on the two of us, I increased our resistance to the toxic air with the prayer of Anti-Poison.