Dawn- An age of Darkness

She blocked my sword straight away and I was left there hanging with anxiety. Getting slightly better didn't really help. She was too fast for me.

"Why do all this?" I said as I struggled against her.

She spoke casually. "Why should I tell you?" She had a point.

Every one of my swings was blocked by her sharp swordplay. "Are you done?" She asked nonchalantly. To her, all of this very well might have been a game.

"…" There was nothing I could have said. I didn't have enough potential to stop her or to change her mind. Seeing my silence she started to counter. Her attacks were swift and precise. I couldn't block them: I ended up with cuts all over my body. The torch was on my left hand but even after being cut, I didn't drop it. Swordfight with her was difficult as it was but I as I had to protect the torch, it got exponentially harder. Not to mention I had to fight with just one hand.

"You're not all talk huh? I could see why he was interested in you. You must really be special." She was mocking me; there was no doubt about it.

"Not really." I grinned. It probably pissed her off more.

Stopping her completely could potentially save the people- at least that's what drove me. But she was far stronger than I was.

"Don't be so modest-" As she talked I saw an opening. I went for her shoulder and stroke through. She didn't block. What?

As to show her point, my sword went straight through. For a second I felt happiness surge within only to turn into total dread a second later. My eyes took a few seconds to register her grin.

She wasn't harmed to the least, not one bit. Her shoulder liquefied and the sword had gone through. Not even a speck of blood spilled. All that spilled was just plain water- to my belief. She laughed hysterically for a good minute. Her mouth opened wide and she was about to say something.

But before she could do so…A ball of fire!

She was hit by a ball of fire, her face burnt. I jumped back at the moment of impact but some of my skin got burnt too. The ball came from the same direction as the fire I saw before.

A woman came through the fog with one of her hands dripping blood: she was also dripping blood from her forehead. It was Lianne.

For a moment the governor's face twitched. I still couldn't understand whether she was a demon or something else altogether. She must have not expected to be hurt out here as her face stiffened and she glared back at Lianne. I couldn't help but grin a little.

"This is getting tedious." The governor raised her voice and added, "I'll leave the rest to you mongrels." Liquid surged on her cheeks.

"Hey! What are…?"

Her face recovered and she floated in the air. "Sorry but I don't have time for you. If it weren't for the emperor, I'd have killed you here. Besides, if I waste any more time on you then he might seriously get mad," she said as she flew off.

Lianne couldn't speak properly. "Wai-t"

It was a spectacular sight. Unlike typical demons, she didn't have wings: was she really a demon though? She just floated like there was no such thing as gravity. Meanwhile, the undead slowly came towards me. My sword might have been effective against the undead but given their large numbers, it wasn't enough for me to stand alone. My skills were enough to barely survive let alone handle this many.

Fires from Lianne's direction came and obliterated the undead close to me. She might have seen me afterward, but she still barely missed me.

It wasn't enough to suppress their march: the undead looked pretty pissed. As if I'd eaten their son after kicking it to death: I wouldn't do that though, I hoped. The torch was barely clinging. It wouldn't last very long. Things looked grim.

Lianne herself was surrounded. She was battling undead on her own. Her leg was hurt and she couldn't move much but that didn't stop her from fighting. At that moment, a sprinkling sound surfaced. It was from my pouch. That's right! The Panora water! I smirked. I'd forgotten all about it. I didn't want to thank Gorgan but he was the one who gave one to me before setting out. We bought three bottles using his and my money combined: I was penniless but it was for the sake of the expedition. So although I wanted to hit him, I still had respect for him: in the end, I still had to pay for my portion though. What an irony!

I got a bottle of Panora water out. I had only one bottle. One drop was said to be enough to completely kill one undead, although they were dead, to begin with. So it was some sort of holy water.

I sprinkled the water all over me and my sword. It's safe on humans, right? Too late to ask that question now.

I used some of the water on nearby undead. Scattering water never seemed more fun in my entire life. Very expensive water that is. The water had a floral smell though. I hated the smell of roses. It reminded me of the bitch of a governor.

What a waste of good money. The ones closest to me perished immediately turning to ash. So they'd be back eventually. Meaning the claim of this water killing the undead completely was false. If I survived this, I'd be sure to learn Gorgan's secret to being a holy knight even if that was the last thing I'd do.

With a grin on my face I calmed down a bit. Dead or not, these things were going to be immobile for a few days. And these things knew it too, so they were wary of the water. I took the chance and ran towards Lianne.

The sun had completely sunk. The undead kept their distance from us because of the water and fire.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

At first she was startled to see me. So you didn't know it was me?

"Sorry." She might have thought I was an enemy when she cast the spell. Don't tell me she aimed that spell to kill not…. I didn't even want to think about it. Maybe that was why she cast it without a warning but I didn't really care. However she quickly came to her senses. "No to time to chat, we must hurry." She coughed up blood. She was in a pretty sad state.

All this time the elves were frozen. But one among them had glowing blue eyes and only after the evening did it show. If the sun was still here I wouldn't have noticed. If this is an undead curse…

I took my chances and poured a few drops of panora water on that elf. The bottle had roughly half of its contents left. The volume was close to one liter so there wasn't the risk of running low just yet.

If the water worked on the undead then it might work on their curse as well. I took a leap of faith. The elf started to release smoke and slowly but surely kept regaining life. That was a good sign: no-a great sign. I did the same with all the remaining elves. They too released smoke but dropped on the ground as corpses. None of them regained life. They were dead.

Only the one with the blue eyes broke free of the curse.

My heart tightened a little but at least someone had survived.

I was glad. I was glad beyond words. Lianne was relieved as well. However she had this pained look that I couldn't bear to watch. The thought of someone being there with me within the crowd of undead was enough to ease my heart, but that was just selfish. I should have felt guilty but I didn't.

Upon breaking free, the elf-boy fell on the ground, unsure of what just happened.

"Are you okay? Can you move?" I supported him.

"You…." He looked at me with questioning eyes. His blue eyes and pure white hair were quite eye-catching but not as much as his left arm, for he was missing it. I could see the traces of blood on the torn sleeve of his chainmail. He looked at Lianne. "I see."

"We have to get out of here," I said in a rush.

He nodded. He was unable to speak anymore or he might have been unwilling to. I lent him my shoulder and we kept moving. Lianne was barely standing but we didn't have time to worry about her.

Before we could head out, Lianne said something, a thing that made me grieve inside. "Farewell, my friends. Hope you can forgive me." She lit them on fire. If she hadn't, they'd suffer for all eternity. Although they were already dead, it kind of hurt. My chest tightened even more and it was hard to breathe. We watched them burn.. Lianne in particular had tears streaming down while the elf boy's eyes sparkled with tears but they refused to leak.

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