The Heartstone Journey

Book 2 | Ch. 12 - The Hollowed Lands [Outer II]

From afar Hunter could sense an oozing bloodlust coming over from the safe area they found and knew Royal was the one emitting that atmosphere.

"Good luck Nick. Take it as karma for running away before hand when you made me deal with him."

Back to where the three were Royal approached Nick with creepy intentions with his body screaming the word pissed with his expression showing the opposite. He whipped his hand onto Nick's shoulder afterward gripping tightly jolting Nick to open his eyes and lock eyes with him.

"What the hell?!"

Nick shouted confused.

Royal didn't so much as say a single word having enough of his attitude. Nick was having a battle in his head thinking he screwed up enough to get Royal furious and wondered what he should possibly do.

"I fucked up didn't I? Shit do I kneel and stay quiet? I have no fucking idea!? He's literally unreadable when he gets like this! Fuck it! I'll intimidate him."

"What? You want to have a go at me~?"

Nick wavered having second thoughts on messing with Royal more but it was already to late. He tightened his grip harder than before forcing Nick to the ground shrieking in pain like a little girl.

"A fuck! Are you some kinda masochist?! Alright-alright stop please! AHAH-AHH~! You're gonna tear my shoulder off if you keep going!"

Royal said nothing turning his head as he dragged Nick where he was by his shoulder with no intentions to let go just yet yanking him away from the safe area away from where Hunter could hear them. Screaming for Hunter Nick looked for anything he could use to deny what was coming for him.

"FUCK, HELP MEEEEE~! I DON'T WANA DIEEE~!"

Silence was the only thing to be heard from that area after Nick's last words for a while. Once Hunter's shift was over Royal stood on guard for the time being while Hunter and Cloudy rested, aside from a certain someone. Later Cloudy woke up wondering what had happened not knowing where he was as Hunter filled in the blank spots for him and also warning him that Royal was still in his 'mood'. Cloudy began to shiver out of nowhere, Hunter looked away already knowing the source of his worries as the two questioned where Nick had went thinking he would rather be lazy and sleep. They came to the decision to look for them while not telling Royal in case he was the reason and sneaked away in an attempt to find him.

Over with Royal he just arrived where Hunter told him to be on guard and saw there were numerous corpses stacked onto one another from afar while pools of blood were scattered all over him but not near the wall of corpses itself.

"D-did Hunter do this? I never heard any kind of battle going on. He's the only reason why we were at ease that entire time. We would've been food if not for him."

He slid closer searching for anything interesting and found multiple interesting things about the creatures. All their vital organs are either non-existent or rearranged completely. The supposed blood oozing out of them couldn't even be considered blood seeing as to how it would melt the ground beneath them albeit slowly.

Their skin was a shade of purple with black lines and dots on some of the faces. Their teeth were sharp and pointed giving them a predatory look. The size varied from being smaller than Royal all the way up to the size of a carriage. Added to that a few in the mix were the height of a tall tree at twenty feet tall and each one has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. He took out a few vials from his bag scooping up samples he could experiment on later with some being the blood and the rest being the monsters skin and fur.

"There's a lot of different types. I wonder what's the point.. Why do some of these have horns and spikes on top of their heads making them quite dangerous while others don't."