Chapter 402 - The end of a war (Patreon)

"S…S…So…n…n? Ish…Tha…You?'' The creature's voice was cracked and gargled, barely able to make any complete words. Yet, Malva stopped in her tracks for a moment. Even through that odd, mismatched string of sounds, she could recognize a voice behind it. It was the voice of the previous chief of the centaur, Khagril's father. She looked to her brother, hoping that this was just a trick and that she was the only one who heard that sound.

"Father? Is that you?" Khagril asked, but his eyes lowered to Jaithe, who was now with a hole in the middle of his human torso. He looked back to the trunk and noticed the flesh-like egg sac. Looking towards the wendigo once more, he saw how on its right arm, the arm that it used to stab Jaithe, was covered in a tattoo with the patterns of his tribe. Right on where the picture meets the shoulder, Khagril saw a specific image. The picture of two young foals running through a field. Before the fire wall vanished, and before these white monsters appeared, his father told him about this drawing. It was what he wanted to pass to the next chief. It was a way to remember Khagril and his brother, to remember to take care of the children, for they would run the field with their memory in their hearts. Seeing that, Khagril felt a flaming rage consuming his entire being, the picture was proof that his father had died. That was the condition for the pattern to be added to the tattoo, "Don't you dare use his voice!"

With that scream, the centaur forgot all of his strategies and dashed towards the monster, slamming his body against the creature sending it flying towards the trees and breaking a few of them before the beast was able to stop. Vond was going after it right away. He pulled his heavy two-handed Axe and brought it down on the creature, who stood up on its hind legs and slammed both claws in the weapon, stopping it before it could reach the wendigo's skin. Despite that, the force of the attack was enough to sent a blade of wind that made a small cut on the monster's head and left a gash on the ground beneath its feet.

Halros rushed towards Jaithe and started yelling, but everyone else was consumed by Khagril's rage. Malva galloped at full speed, pulling her glaive from her back and starting to spin it on her side at such speed that it wouldn't be a surprise if she flew away. Calgera was now right by them and jumped to the side, using a tree as a stepping stone to go higher into the air, before coming down with two spears in hand, sinking the weapons deep into the monster's left side. Malva reached the monster in the following moment, her glaive swinging in an upwards slash as she activated her [Ice Breaker] skill that was capable of cutting blocks of ice that were more than 50 meters wide. Khagril was the last to arrive, pulling his longsword from his waist and stabbing the wendigo in the midsection of his horse torso. Everyone stopped when they saw the blood coming out of the monster, expecting that it had died.

"Weeaakk," the wendigo spoke again. Its voice sounded less and less like that of a person and yet, it sounded almost like it was enjoying this situation. Its four front legs slammed against Khagril, sending him flying back to the clearing and making him break two trees before stopping. Now that Wegoron paid back the initial strike, it could stop playing around. With a mighty roar, the creature pushed the remaining three centaurs away. Its wound was already starting to close, and even some of the blood seemed to be sucked back inside its body. It looked around, and its eyes locked with Calgera's. The hyena head started laughing hysterically as its six legs dashed through the snow, moving so fast that it caused a sonic boom in the air.

Calgera pulled two more spears to fight off the creature, but he was only able to reach the weapons on his back when the monster arrived in front of him. Calgera quickly created a barrier made of spectral spears between the two. That was just enough to slow the monster down for the hunter to pull his weapons and slash at it using his [Weapon Break] skill. Both spears exploded in contact with the wendigo's arms, cutting it off. However, the arm still had momentum, and it was more than enough to pierce Calgera's stomach. The centaur held in a cry and went for another set of spears to use the same skill once again. Wegoron wasn't going to let that happen. It quickly jumped toward Calgera, biting one of his shoulders while the two front legs started to stomp the hunter's knees.

Malva arrived just after that, she could've gotten here sooner, but the shockwave created by the [Weapon Break] forced her to hold her ground before walking. She performed a downward cut with her glaive while charging. The wendigo realized the danger and held itself by the two middle legs to kick Malva away. However, the monster wasn't entirely sure of the reach of the weapon coming in its direction. Because of that, it failed to push her away completely, but its kick was enough to reduce the power behind the attack.

Wegoron let go of the prey in its mouth and spun around, slashing Calgera one more time as it turned to face Malva. Behind this female centaur, Vond appeared in a jump and brought his Axe crashing down at the monster one more time. Having learned its lesson, the wendigo jumped to the side, avoiding the strike allowing Vond's attack to miss completely and hit the ground. Calgera was close, but Vond was proficient in group fights. Thanks to that, his slash didn't reach the hunter, and the impact was completely directed to the ground. Seeing an opening, the wendigo slashed with its remaining claw at Vond while icicles shot out from the dirt towards Malva. It was clear that the monster didn't consider Calgera a threat anymore.

Khagril jumped to the side and charged at the wendigo while brandishing his sword and activating a spell that made the target bleed more when slashed by his weapon. Wegoron jumped high into the air, going beyond the canopy of the 20-meter tall trees in the grove, and landed behind Halros, trying to kick her in the back of her head. All of this happened so quickly that anyone would've been hit by the attack, anyone but Halros. She saw that when the monster was hit by the group, and all the weapons struck the creature's torso, the wendigo looked around and locked eyes with her. An apparent lone centaur just waiting to be devoured. Halros wasn't about to let that happen. She jumped forward, evading the attack, and sent out a couple of arrows at the monster, who wasn't ready for that and ended up getting hit by the two projectiles. That wasn't all. Halros perfected her timing to create a curse arrow inside her arrows, allowing the spell to hit an already exposed wound if it hit.

Wegoron jumped towards her, but the archer stood her ground. She knew the danger of what she was doing, but she had to kill this beast. She couldn't let what happened with Jaithe be for nothing. Screaming while using her skills, she let out a flurry of arrows, each of them with a different curse to hinder the monster's movement. There was the curse of slowness, the curse of blindness, the curse of dizziness, curse poison of fever, and Halros' unique spell that no one in the tribe was able to learn. The curse of shock that would use electricity to disrupt the target's movements. She was the only one who understood how that worked, but even when trying to explain to the tribe that everyone had electricity inside of them, it was something hard to do.

Despite her best efforts, her arrows didn't seem to be doing any damage. The wendigo continued to rush forward, opening its mouth and biting on the centaur. Halros managed to dodge to the side, making the monster miss her head, but it bit down on her horse torso instead. She screamed, not in anger but pain, this time as the rest of the group rushed towards her and the wendigo. Halros used a skill called [Kickback], which allowed her to push away any target as long as it was too close. She leaned back on her hind legs and kicked the wendigo with all her strength. The monster was pushed back a few meters, but it quickly returned to the attack. Luckily, the rest of the warriors arrived in time to stop Wegoron on its tracks. Vond bomb rushed the monster, grabbing its remaining arm, the one with the tattoo, and using his own legs to prevent the creature's legs from moving. Khagril did the same, but instead of the arm, he grabbed the wendigo's head, pushing it back and to the side so the monster wouldn't be able to bite anything. Together the centaurs pinned it to the tree behind them.

Malva was ready to follow up with an attack. She passed by Halros and saw Jaithe, still bleeding and unmoving on the ground. Her rage fueled her body, strengthening her muscles as she triggered several skills to make her body even stronger. Focusing her internal energy on her arms, she triggered one more skill [Immortal Fang]. A stabbing strike that she only used one time before due to the damage it caused and the issues it created with her body. Since Wegoron was being held by the other two, she didn't have to worry about missing the target, and if the skill wasn't enough to kill it, they would need a miracle to survive this.

Her glaive was covered in an odd whirlpool of white and black energy, and as it pierced the monsters, it exploded, creating a sound that made it seem like the sky itself was shattering in a million pieces. The impact sent destroyed the entire grove behind the wendigo as well as most of its body. Right now, only the head and arm remained. Even Vond and Khagril, who weren't directly on the way of the attack, felt their skin being slashed by the wind pressure coming from the glaive. Now, the two centaurs that were pinning the monster to the tree were holding Wegoron's decapitated head and its amputated arm. Everything else was gone. Malva fell to the ground, feeling the excruciating pain that accompanied the use of the skill. All her attributes would be reduced for the next month, and she would be in constant pain due to the strain in her muscles. Yet, this was worth it. The eyes in the head of the wendigo were still moving around, and as they finally stopped and the brain ceased to function, a soft blue light covered all of the centaurs in the area. They had leveled up with the combat.

Khagril smiled and started chuckling to himself. It was over. It was finally over. However, his joy was quickly snatched away when he looked back towards Halros and saw the archer crying by Jaithe's corpse. Khagril rushed over and tried to cast some healing spells, but they didn't take. There was nothing left to heal. Tears started to come down his face, but he stopped himself before getting lost in the grief, "Where is Calgera?"

Vond pointed to where they had come from, and the two rushed towards the hunter. Even with their best intentions, and somewhat speedy arrival, it wasn't enough. As one last gut-punch, the arm that Calgera broke his weapon to cut off was still inside of him, and now, it was completely frozen. That spell or whatever it was didn't stop with just the arm, and it had frozen Calgera's blood from the inside, causing him to bleed out as jagged pieces of blood expanded, impaling him from inside out.

Khagril tried to heal him even with that, but just like Jaithe, there was nothing left to heal. He placed his hands over Calgera's eyes and used a weak fire spell to thaw out enough of the frozen blood to close his eyes, "I am sorry, my friend. But your sacrifice might have saved us all," Vond moved to the side and, with Khagril's help, placed Calgera's body on his back. He didn't deserve to be left here. A hero like him deserved a proper burial.

Halros saw them coming back and turned to Khagril, "Can you carry him?" she gestured towards Jaithe.

"Of course. Vond, help me with this."

When both fallen warriors were already strapped to their friend's back, Malva got up having finished her inspection of the wendigo's cocoon, "This one was still evolving. It was a good thing that we arrived when we did."

Vond nodded, "If that is the case, then we saved the entire tribe. How strong would that thing be if we allowed it to finish its evolution?"

"At least three times stronger," Halros said in a grunt. It was hard for her to walk with the wound on her back. It was a good thing that she had a few healing spells. Otherwise, she would be bleeding out right now.

"I think more. We know that in the first evolution, they double their strength. The second they triple. Is this its fourth? Or fifth? I've never seen a wendigo that looked like this. Its face it's the only thing that still looked like one of the monsters. And… it used my father's voice, it could speak," Khagril's voice carried the weight of what he was saying. There was a pause before he looked around, "Vond, do you still have the tattooed arm?"

"There is no longer a tattoo there," Malva turned to Khagril, "I'm sorry, brother," she showed her right arm that now was covered in the tribal tattoo that was passed from chief to chief, "I received some words. I can pass it to you. This is your right."

Khagril shook his head, "No, dear sister. The system has guided your hand. In these trying times, we need a strong leader for our tribe, and I couldn't think of anyone better to take my father's place."

"But you've studied your entire life for this!"

"Yet, the system gave you the tattoo. Even if we can change it, I believe we should follow its signs. I will be by your side whenever you need me," Khagril smiled. In a way, he felt like a weight was removed from his back. Not having the position of chief guide his every move would allow him to be free for once. Not just that, but he didn't know how he would feel about having the tattoo now that it had changed again. Because of this new addition, Khagril wasn't sure if he could live with that on his body for the rest of his life. Surrounding the picture of two young foals running through a field, there were large red fangs, the only design that broke away from the black in all other drawings. That would serve as an eternal reminder of what happened to his tribe, and to his father.