"ITS...ITS... A... A...A GHOUL... RUN!!"As the crowd panicked, Lowen himself was slightly startled. Roland had taught Lowen many things but he had never heard of a ghoul. With Lowen"s surprise, the ghoul leapt forward and grabbed the screaming small child in front of them. Turning around to face Lowen, the ghoul was surprised to see that the person who had grabbed his hood was actually a small child as well.
(This child grabbed my hood, why?)
A woman in the crowd shrieked in horror.
"My baby no! That monster has my child, someone please!"
A few guards heard the commotion and rushed to the scene. Seeing a monster in the middle of the town square, another guard went for reinforcements while 3 guards surrounded the ghoul and the two children.
One of the guards tried to grab at Lowen to pull him out of danger but Lowen casually sidestepped him and continued to stare at the ghoul in curiosity.
(So this is a ghoul? Its eyes are shaped almost like a cat and they"re an odd shade of yellow. Its ears come to a point at the top and its skin is wrinkled and withered. besides its sharp nails and teeth, it looks quite human.)
Lowen looked and looked but to him, he didn"t see a monster. This so-called ghoul seemed more human than anything else.
(How is this considered a monster? it resembles a human more than a monster. The only thing that"s really weird is that aura. Why does it give me the feeling of both death and life?)
The guard who failed to grab Lowen shouted at him in equal parts anger and equal parts confusion.
"Kid! what the h.e.l.l are you doing! Get away from that thing before it kills you!"
Lowen, however, continued to ignore the guard and looked at the ghoul, staring into its eyes, instead of a wild beast, what Lowen saw was fear. Lowen took a single step toward the ghoul and the child in its arms and the ghoul in response held the small girl tighter and placed its sharpened nails against her neck and with it, a small line of red began to fall from the girl"s neck, causing her to cry and scream even harder. The guards already had their weapons drawn but didn"t move an inch they had no clue how to resolve this hostage situation and didn"t want to risk the girl"s death with any hasty movement. All they could do was surround this monster and wait for their commander to show up. Lowen looked at the ghoul and decided to try something.
"Who are you? Can you understand what I"m saying? Where did you come from?"
In response, the ghoul"s eyes seemed to widen for a second in shock before they lowered, filling with sadness. At this time a large squad of soldiers showed up with a man leading in front. The man saw the situation and the guards that had arrived on the scene first gave their report afterward the commander stepped forward and yelled at Lowen first.
"Boy, come here now before you get yourself killed."
Lowen again ignored the outside voices and stared at the ghoul, searching for something. Once more Lowen spoke.
"If you can understand me then release that gir."
The ghoul stood there as though it were in a daze hearing Lowen"s words. Just as it seemed like it was lowering its arm, the leader of these soldiers lost his patience and yelled.
"Men, rush it."
Some of the surrounding soldiers looked hesitant, with a plan as simple as this, won"t the children get hurt they thought. The leader saw the hesitation and roared at his men.
"Whoever doesn"t follow my orders will be dealt with it, now rush that monster."
The guards paused no longer and went in with swords drawn. The ghoul saw this and was visibly upset, releasing its grip on the child, it prepared itself for death.
Lowen didn"t know why but he felt something from this monster he didn"t know if it was just his gut reaction or instinct or what but this ghoul didn"t seem simple at all.
As the guard"s swords rained down toward the ghoul, the ghoul quickly shut its eyes and awaited death. Death, however, didn"t come. Lowen stepped forward and his body blurred and suddenly appeared next to the ghoul. The guards had no time to react or pull their strikes back, it was simply too late to stop their swords momentum but who said they needed to stop. As the swords struck upon Lowen"s head, shoulders, and chest, a sudden metallic ring rang out for each strike.
*Ding Clank Clunk Clink*
The leader, the soldiers and even all of the surrounding people who witnessed this, all had faces filled with shock. The swords had cut into this small boy"s simple clothes, tearing through them quite easily, revealing a child"s chest. After that though, the swords had completely stopped. Lowen"s chest was nothing like a frail weak kid"s his entire body may be on the lean side but it was covered in tightly coiled muscle. His body had gone beyond a normal person"s long, long ago. A metal sword being swung by a normal soldier, to actually leave a scratch would have surprised Lowen. To wound his body with a regular humans strength, you would at least need a magical weapon or something truly special, otherwise, it wasn"t happening.
The ghoul finally opened its eyes and stared at the small boy in front of it. This ghoul as well looked on in shock. Lowen brushed the swords aside and the soldiers stepped back terrified. Turning his head Lowen spoke a few words to the ghoul.
"Hey, if you can understand me then blink twice."
The ghoul at first didn"t respond but after it got over its shocked it quickly blinked twice to Lowen"s words.
"Good, since you can understand me then do exactly what I say and you might just get out of this alive. Blink twice if you acknowledge what I just said."
Once more the ghoul blinked twice before staring at Lowen in surprise, a glimmer of hope flashing across its eyes. Lowen took a step forward and calmly spoke to the leader.
"This ghoul can understand me and has agreed to be my servant. So there is no more need for you guards. With that said, we will now be on our way."
Lowen grabbed the ghoul by the arm and started to walk away. The leader couldn"t believe what he just heard.
(So it can understand you, so the f.u.c.k what.)
"Wait, stop right there."
Lowen"s footsteps paused for a moment and he looked at the leader as though he were confused.
"What is it? I"m busy."
"Busy, what the h.e.l.l are you talking about kid? I don"t know who you are or where you come from but that"s a ghoul, a monster. We can"t leave a monster in the middle of town with a child and expect everything to be hunky-dory. Now step away from that beast so we can slay it."
Lowen didn"t move away from the ghoul by even a single step.
"This ghoul is mine and no one here will lay a hand on it or they will suffer."
Once again Lowen stepped forward with the ghoul in tow.
The leader was having none of it though, how could he, this was a monster we"re talking about. Monsters are to be destroyed always it doesn"t matter if it can understand you or is smart, as a matter of fact, those types of monsters should be priority number 1. The leader shouted at his men.
"Surround them."
The men didn"t know what was going on anymore but orders were orders and they followed them swiftly. The leader grabbed a soldier by the collar and said a few words in a hushed tone before that soldier turned around and rapidly rushed away to who knows where.
Lowen stood still and allowed himself and the ghoul to be surrounded. Nia and the others arrived during all this commotion and wanted to step out to help Lowen but Benjamin grabbed his two children up and told them to not get involved but this only made Nia and little Ben grow panicked. Benjamin, however, rea.s.sured them in a hushed tone.
"Nia, Ben, stop, if Lowen wanted you involved, then he would have said something, besides, I believe in him, don"t you?"
To this question, the two settled down. Believe in him, of course they do. Lowen went ahead on his own and if he truly did need them then they would jump in immediately.
The opposing groups stood silently for a while not making any moves. The soldiers didn"t move because the leader seemed to be waiting for something before he gave an order. While Lowen waited because he was genuinely curious to see what they would do. Lowen knew that this kingdom had battlemages in it, while the people with the most destructive capabilities in this kingdom were the 3rd circle mages. Battlemages, Lowen could deal with and 3rd circle mages shouldn"t be out so far in this remote town. So Lowen was really curious what this small town could do to prevent him from just walking out of here. Finally, after a few minutes, a loud rumble of hooves pounded the road. A group of 6 horses pulling an all-white carriage with golden tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs showed up before suddenly stopping at the scene. The door was kicked open and an old man stepped out.
"Sir please let me go first I am your guard."
"Shut up, the day I need a guard is the day I die."
"But sir, we don"t know what the enemy is capable of and..."
"I said shut it, another word and I"ll send you off to some s.h.i.t duty, ya got me?"
"Yes sir."
"I said shut it."
Lowen was caught off guard by this weird conversation. As he watched two people climb off the carriage, he saw one old and one young and a smile stretched across his face. The young one who looked to be somewhere in his twenties was a battlemage.
(So this is what they were waiting for, too bad it won"t work.)
The old one who seemed to be in his late 50"s early 60"s walked over towards his subordinate who had ordered for Lowen to be surrounded and without hesitation began to yell at him.
"What the h.e.l.l is taking you so long? You still haven"t solved the situation are you trying to make my town look bad on purpose or are you just that incompetent?"
As the old man roared at him the leader of this squad began to shrink back and as each word landed upon him his head sunk lower and lower in depression. He couldn"t help but think.
(How is this my fault? I didn"t know this troublesome kid would get in the way.)
"Can you do anything right? Do you want to be demoted you sorry sack of skiz juice? Huh huh huh. What do you have to say for yourself."
By the time this old commander was done chewing out this squad leader, the young leader was almost in tears. As he finally got a chance to defend himself, his voice couldn"t help but crack due to fear.
"I...I...It"s not my fault. That kid is too strong, his body wasn"t even cut when my squad slashed at him with their swords and his speed is incredible as well. Before when that monster was about to be cut that boy appeared in front of that ghoul while my soldiers were in mid-swing. There...There was nothing I could do, so you...."
before the squad leader could finish his words, the commander quickly interrupted cutting his words short
"Huh."
The commander looked at Lowen and pointed at him almost accusingly before he shouted.
"You...Aren"t you that Lowen brat from Bren"s reports. Hmm, you"re pretty short for a goblin slayer."