Runes - A Tale Of The Abyss 44 Chapter 39 - The Day the Ground Shattered

The plan was simple. Griff had light up a branch and given it to Galvain who would ignite the Magnesium, creating a fire. Griff would march from the western side of the forest, burning the western forest as he did. This would drive the Wolves north.

This way they could single out the packs leader...

Griff slowly started walking through the western forest. His hands were on fire.

'Let's just hope this works...'

Smoke rose from the souther part. This was the signal.

'And go!'

Griff condensed his flames and shot them out with an explosive sound! The magnesium had also been ignited, and another fire was rising in the south.

Galvain was sitting on top of a tree's branch. The wolves had all jolted awake from the smell of burning wood. They had already started to frantically run towards the north, the only part without flames.

"It's working!"

"It's not over yet Gal! Watch out for that thing Griff felt in the middle."

Gal slid down from the tree, and grabbed the short sword Dan threw him. They both drew their short swords and started walking slowly into the open.

Griff could see the plateau now. The flames would most likely burn this section of the forest for good, there was nothing he could do. As he took his first step into the open he came across with an almost empty plateau. There were few wolves left, mostly the hunters of the pack.

He could see Gal and Dan who were nearing a brave wolf who had stayed behind. They knew the drill. The two dashed towards a wolf that was running towards them. In the blink of a second Gal crouched and slashed the Wolf's feet, but the Wolf leaped back. Dan lost no time, and he slashed another Wolf that was running towards Gal, holding it back.

Griff grinned at the scene. They had good teamwork. A few wolves tried lunging at Griff, but the flames were enough to terrorize the feral animals. They were after all only animals, not demonic beasts or a mutated creature. However... just then a blur ran across the field. Whatever it was though, it was not a wolf.

'Holy shit thats fast... It's heading to them!'

"DAN! GAL! THE PACK LEADER! IT'S HEADING TO YOU!"

Gal quickly turned around after he had injured the wolf he was fighting, and raised his blade to slash at the blur. But in an instant a leg kicked him back, and he hit the back of a tree trunk.

"Shit!"

Dan twisted his body to slash with his blade, but a punch to his stomach threw him back several meters.

"What in the name of... that's no fucking wolf."

From the smoke it was hard to make it out, but that. That was a human. And a female. She was howling to the sky over the defeated Galvain and Danyell.

Griff wasted no time and used his flames to create a blast behind him to lunge at this enemy. He blasted through the smoke, and raised his flaming fist.

The humanoid girl turned back to look at him, but his momentum was too big for her to react. Griff's punch landed across her face, sending her back.

With the thought that he had beaten the Wolf he ran towards Galvain.

"You got to be fucking kidding me."

Galvain coughed a bit and looked at Griff.

"You moron I'm not dead yet. And so the fuck isn't that demi-human!"

"Demi-?"

Griff's sentence was cut short as two hands grabbed him from behind and tosses him back. He fell on his back, but managed to stand up. He could now see his opponent clearly.

It was a human? A human girl. Well... not exactly. She had a pair of wolf ears, and a tail? Her hair was silver, and so was the fur on her tail. She was wearing some ragtag clothing made with leather. She was growling at Griff like a rabid animal.

Danyell had managed to stand up, and had pulled Galvain away from the fight that was about to occur. He shouted at Griff.

"Griff! That's a demi! A humanoid with the powers of a demonic beast! She's got wolf blood! They have extreme-"

Danyell couldn't finish his sentence because the demi-human had ran on all fours, and punched Griff's stomach in an instant, sending him flying.

"-speed..."

Griff spat out some blood as he hit a tree. It was burning, but that was the least of his concern.

"Yeah! I noticed!"

He shouted back, and took a fighting stance against the wolf-demi human. The girl was still growling. Threatening him, perhaps? They did attack her pack.

Griff grit his teeth.

"Sorry lady-wolf-person, but I can't let your pack stay here... I'm getting paid for this shit."

He then held his hand forward and in an eruption of black flames his magic blade that was infused with mana appeared.

The demi-human girl stopped growling all of a sudden and crouched, and she leaped forward on all fours. As she leaped for a frontal assault with her hands, Griff raised his blade to block her hands which had sharpened to look like claws.

He kicked her in the stomach, but the demi-human girl immediately grabbed his leg, and twisted her body along with his kick. Griff used his blade to slice her off, but she simply leaped back nimbly.

Griff cracked his left and right shoulders, and raised his blade over his head, pointing its tip towards his enemy. This wasn't going to be easy.

Words were unnecessary in a fight to the death. The girl ran forward full throttle, but Griff imbedded his mana into his blade and sliced forward to her direction, causing his flames to fly out. The girl, however, kept running, and she jumped through the fire, slightly burned but mostly unscathed.

'Is she fucking cr'

The girl used both her legs to kick Griff back into the middle of the plateau without giving him a chance to think. Griff's lungs were suddenly empty and he had a hard tome breathing for a while.

He twisted his body to avoid hitting the boulder behind him, and swiped underneath to counterattack his opponent who had caught up again.

This time he was successful as he cut the girl's cheek slightly.

He stood up. His blade was cracked all across it, and crumbled to pieces. He snorted and tossed the hilt. He took a fighting stance with his bare hands. Alatar always drilled this into him, even though their time was extremely short... improvise, adapt, survive. There were bound to be enemies he couldn't win against. He just. Had to. Survive.

Suddenly the demi-human's body bursted with mana. Her strength was obviously increasing. Seeing that scene, Dan and Gal quickly started to retreat into the charred forest as fast as they could. They'd only die if they stayed.

The girl ran on all fours, and leaped towards Griff, her veins ready to burst from the magic she was using, whatever it was. Griff's hands coated in flames also collided with her fists. Just in the nick of time, as the strength from her punch created a shockwave that sent Griff flying backwards, and Griff's punch burning the demi-human's hand.

The demi-human slowly approached Griff who had collided with and broken a charred tree trunk. She raised her fist to finish him off, still growling.

However, that was when something unexpected happened. Something that would shake the foundations of this world...

The ground started shaking. Violently. The girl stumbled, and held onto a nearby tree, looking at Griff in confusion, but he was also looking in confusion to what was happening.

Suddenly the ground of the plateau fractured into hundreds of cracks! The plateau had been destroyed? But that wasn't the truly weird part. Hundreds of chains had sprouted from the ground. Golden chains. The thing that caused this was these chains?

The demi-human girl suddenly realized the danger, and attempted to run away, but one of the chains wrapped around her ankle. Griff was looking in shock as the chains that wrapped around her ankles started pulling her down. As he was distracted another chain wrapped around his ankle this time, and started to pull him down!

The girl was horrified. The demi-human girl who had shown no emotion except for anger was scared. She tried holding onto the ground with her hands, but for naught as the chains dragged her slowly. She shouted in terror, and Griff finally heard her speak for the first time.

"...I don't want to die!"

And she got pulled down into the crack. Griff gritted his teeth and started blasting the chains with his flames, but they had no effect!

"Damn it damn it damn it! WHAT IS THIS! This wasn't how my mission was supposed to-"

Suddenly he was pulled with greater strength by the chain as several more chains wriggled around his body... and in great speed pulled him down the crack...

Hearing the rumbling was over, Danyell lied Galvain down and ran back with his sword drawn to help Griff... but they were no where to be found. The gaping hole that the plateau was, however, suddenly gone... as if nothing had happened.

"What in the..."

Griff, and the demi-human were gone...

Chapter end