The Heartstone Journey

Book 2 | Ch. 19 - To Strike Thy Ally

It felt to be six hours later since Nick went to rest and with Cloudy on guard duty he was more bored than the other two while Royal was resting on Nick placing his head on his side. Keeping an eye out Cloudy saw from the distance massive tremors heading their way with debris flying from afar and smoke puffing upward toward the sky. He rushed to the two shaking them harshly and hastily.

"Wake up you two!"

"Wake up, wake up!"

"Huhh~... Mhmm~.. What do you- PFFFFH~- OH MOTHERFUCK-! I'LL GET ROYAL'S WEAPON!"

Nick exclaimed rushing off his mat seeing whatever was closing in on them at high speeds.

Royal stood up feeling good as new while Cloudy was still sore from the healing but was no longer in pain. Nick chucked Royal's weapon up in the air making Royal barely catch it before going into a battle position. Cloudy asked where Nick's weapon was, in return he commented rather strangely.

"It was too bothersome to carry around especially when we fell into the pond, lake thing. So its probably down there chilling out."

"WHAT THE HELL NICK! You are weaponless and we have a monster coming right toward us!"

"Don't worry I'll use my flames to make up for it. It'll be our dinner tonight how's that?"

"Damn it, no time for your jokes right now Nick look ahead!"

"It's gotta be something big to cause this much havoc and destruction!"

Nick repeated twice making sure they got the memo of the threat.

The tremors increased in intensity causing the ground to shake and the walls to rock. The noise was deafening with the wind blowing harder than ever. Groups and groups of monsters piled around forming one massive stampede, treading, flattening, obliterating everything that stands in their way.

"IT'S A FUCKING MONSTER STAMPEDE! WE GOTTA HIDE!"

"We are this high up it won't reach us."

Cloudy commented.

"ARE YOU STUPID! THAT MANY AND THEY CAN JUST CLIMB UP ON ONE ANOTHER!"

Nick screamed in a hurry to prepare what Hunter had told him.

Not more than a minute they rushed into the side of the wall as Nick covered it with rubble and large rocks then using his fire to meld the stone together to create a makeshift wall. They all held in their saliva with their sweat dripping onto the floor below as they heard thousands of steps galloping, stomping and rushing past over and through everything nearby. The rumbling got worse proving Nick's point correct as the wall began to shake more and more losing its durability. Using their quick thinking Royal broke the rocks behind him allowing Nick to continue stabilizing the makeshift wall for them. The space they were in was suffocating but they couldn't leave just yet in case the horde was still nearby. They waited an entire fifteen minutes before they couldn't take it anymore and destroyed the wall allowing them to breath in oxygen. They all let out a long heavy gasp, another minute more inside would be their last if they hadn't left.

They gathered their things and huddled them together and kept their weapons on them for the time being in case any wandering beasts from the horde somehow found their way to them. There was no time to rest though as they all could hear something either flying or dashing at them. There was dust, smoke and debris everywhere that only made it harder to discern where they next threat was approaching from. Suddenly a large impact was made between all of them with no figure to be seen due to all the dust around. Nick shouted for Royal to stay clear and behind him. Cloudy thinking with his body spins away as much of the debris and dust blocking their view as much as possible. Whilst doing so a weapon came into Cloudy's sight from the corner of his eye and barely dodged it by a hairs length.