Chapter 16: Midnight
A thundering bellow woke Axel from his sleep.
In less than a second, he was on his feet, scanning his surroundings.
"Task"
[Tasks]
[Slay the Goblin King in the Castle] - (Time remaining: 707:59:55 hours)
All around Axel, the Summoned jolted awake at the deafening sound.
A thunderous crash followed the wail, and the ground shook moments later.
Axel looked toward the gate and noticed the guards frozen in the middle of changing shifts. The gate had been left wide open, giving him a view into the Obsidian Forest. But from where he stood, with the forest shrouded in darkness, it looked as if nothing were there.
Then the forest fell silent.
Not even the Summoned dared to utter a peep.
Ten seconds passed, and Axel breathed a sigh of relief.
It didn’t take long for that relief to turn into unadulterated horror.
One of the new guards, standing half a step inside the camp, started to scream.
Nobody could tell why he was screaming or what he was seeing. It was too dark.
Then the man’s leg slowly started to slide toward the gaping darkness. He hopped on one foot, leaning back with all his weight.
Something was pulling him...
Then his leg was yanked out from under him, and he crashed to the ground.
People rushed over to help, but something continued to drag him away.
Another thunderous crash sounded, and the ground shook again.
The man clawed desperately at the dirt, his nails carving lines into the earth. His mouth opened wide, unleashing a torrent of screams that ripped from his throat.
"Ah-arrragh!"
At the sight, most gave up on him out of fear.
But two people reached him.
Mikhail and Huang Gao.
They grabbed the man’s outstretched arms as his body scraped along the ground, temporarily halting his abduction.
They spared none of their strength as they tried to wrestle him free from the invisible force. It became a life-or-death tug of war.
Mikhail and Huang Gao planted their heels in the ground.
Even then, all they accomplished was slowing him down.
Then...
The man’s body started rising into the air.
Huang Gao continued trying to pull, but at the sight of the man lifting off the ground, he let go and fell onto his back.
Hope drained from his face.
He didn’t know what the hell was doing this, but he sure as hell didn’t want to be next.
Huang Gao stumbled to his feet, retreated inside the enclosure of black wood, and gripped the edge of the open gate.
Despite being alone now, Mikhail held on.
The kid with shaggy blond hair refused to give up. He had watched someone die earlier and hadn’t been able to do anything. But now, there was a chance.
A chance to save a man he didn’t even know.
The man was lifted higher and higher until Mikhail, still holding his arm, was also pulled off the ground.
A desperate man pleaded:
"Close the fucking gate!"
Huang Gao hesitated, then slowly started to move his fingers.
Mikhail noticed the movement with a fleeting glance, but he wasn’t ready to give up.
He pulled, now using gravity to his advantage, and managed to regain some ground.
What Mikhail didn’t know was that all he had accomplished was dislocating the arms and legs of the man he was trying to save.
The man continued to screech.
Then Mikhail saw them.
Tendrils of pure black coiled around the man’s body beneath his clothes. They snaked from his feet up his legs, over his groin, around his waist, and toward his shoulders.
Mikhail still wanted to save him, but now he knew it was fruitless.
He looked back and saw the gate closing.
Finally, he let go, whispering an apology in his head.
Mikhail collided with the ground, rolled, sprang to his feet, and sprinted toward the gate.
Then something stopped him.
He looked back at his hand.
"Shit..."
A thin black tendril was wrapped around his left ring finger.
On the ground, a thicker tendril slithered toward him like a snake.
Mikhail pulled away, ready to sacrifice the finger. He fought through the pain and yanked his hand back, but the flesh and bone wouldn’t tear.
"Grab my hand!"
Axel’s voice reached Mikhail’s ears.
Without looking, Mikhail threw his arm back.
Axel caught it and yanked.
The sound of flesh ripping tormented their ears, and blood splattered across Mikhail’s face.
But he was free.
The two looked back at the people who were no longer hesitating to shut the gate on them.
They dove through the narrow gap that remained.
Then the gate slammed shut.
Three more thunderous crashes sounded in quick succession, shaking the ground and sending nearly everyone tumbling.
They didn’t know if closing the gate would make a difference, but it was their only option.
Their only hope against the nightmare outside.
Mikhail fell to the ground and began screaming in pain.
"Get a fire going, hurry!"
Axel stood and screamed at the faces shrouded in darkness before him.
Quickly, Didier, the man with the lighter, held it to a black stick and set it alight.
While the fire caught, someone threw a fresh shirt at Mikhail, who pressed it over the wound while letting out one blood-curdling scream after another.
"Ack! Ergh!"
Still, his screams were joined by another.
"Help! Please!"
The man they had failed to save was still alive, being slowly hoisted into the air. Even in the pitch-black darkness, Axel and the others could make out his silhouette as it rose above the wall, then higher.
"Mom! Dad!"
The group had gathered sticks and was ready to light the bonfire.
Then Axel looked up.
A faint gleam shone among the trees that towered above them.
At first, he thought it was one of those shiny stones, but these were a different color. The stones they had taken from the goblins were pearly and iridescent.
The two gleaming lights above were yellow.
"Put out the fire, now!"
Axel’s shout only confused and panicked everyone more.
Cory, scared out of his mind and holding a burning stick, threw it away.
In the next moment, something as black as night itself swooped into the camp, snatched the torch, and flew off with it.
Cory cried out:
"W-what the hell?"
Nobody moved.
Nobody talked.
Nobody dared to.
Someone shoved another fresh shirt into Mikhail’s mouth to quiet him.
His wound would have to stay open.
No cauterizing it. No stitching it. They didn’t have the tools, the calm, or the hope.
The man being lifted into the air continued to cry out for help. For thirty minutes straight, his voice was the only human noise besides the sound of people crying.
Then a creaking sound came from above the Summoned.
Finally, the man’s screams ceased.
Another harrowing bellow sounded from the forest, followed by more ear-splitting crashes that shook the terrain.
Axel looked up at the sky.
Far above the black leaves, an enormous shadow drifted through the dark.
Another crash sounded.
From that point on, nobody slept.