22 Chapter 22

The next morning Tylin and Sera were waiting for him as he made his way downstairs.

"I packed you some cooking utensils, clothes, and a blanket. Ah yes, the enchanted staff is with the pack as well so don't forget to take it... Anything else... Sera i'm not forgetting anything am i?" Tylin was seemingly flustered as he turned to Sera.

"No father, that should be everything-"

"Ah! That's right, that's right. Potions!" Tylin exclaimed and ran off to his lab.

"We'll walk you to the gates whenever your ready. There's some bread and salted meat in your pack in case you get hungry on the trip as well." Sera added with her usual warm smile.

"Thank you Sera."

Aerwyn sat down and ate some nuts and berries for breakfast before they left to walk to the gates.

"Be careful not to be too rough with the pack i added five healing potions, the same kind i used for your burns. They're wrapped in cloth but they may still break if you're careless. Ah, also i'll be stopping by the ruins every couple of weeks to check up on you. Do your best not to die else you'll make a fine addition to my death knights."

He was already skin and bones much like the death knights, the only thing he was lacking was the undead part. The thought of becoming one of those shriveled creatures gave Aerwyn even more motivation to become stronger.

"I'll be stopping by with Jeren too. We often scout the forests near the ruins so now we'll have a place to stay when we're nearby. Don't forget to practice what Master Ferlin taught you as well."

"I can't thank you two enough, i owe you my life." Aerwyn bowed deeply.

"Nonsense dear boy, this isn't goodbye. I told you once before, you won't be getting rid of me that easily."

"Yeah! We'll be seeing you often. Just be safe." Sera added as Tylin patted him on his back.

Aerwyn handed the enchanted staff to Bon and the pack to Velk. Their reactions were vastly different with Bon thanking him nonstop while Velk simply let out a bestial grunt. Aerwyn waved at the pair of elves one last time before exiting the gates.

He still didn't know the forest well enough so he had Rorik and the hobgoblins take the lead. They traveled uneventfully for most of the day, only seeing a few curious creatures who darted away the moment they laid their eyes on the undead horde.

The trip took longer since they were walking at a casual pace and they reached their destination with only a few hours of sunlight left in the day. They came upon the ruins from the south where the battle had taken place days prior and Aerwyn quickly realized he had forgotten something rather important.

The bodies of the dead goblins were left out and seemed to have attracted dozens of dog sized creatures.

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"Shit... Bon what are those?"

"Forgive me master, i do not know their common tongue name but we goblins call them 'tenri'. They travel in large packs and often attack us in the wilds. We discovered their nest nearby but the creatures were too numerous for us to attack."

"Should we attack them or go around?"

"With this number, masters undead can easily deal with-"

"Kill..." Velk interrupted in a deep bestial voice giving Aerwyn a chill.

"...Alrighty then. Good input Velk, way to come out of your shell. Kill it is." Aerwyn patted the lumbering hobgoblin on the shoulder as he continued.

"Bon, Rorik, Rin, and Ren stay with me. The rest wait of you wait until they get within twenty meters before attacking. Oh Velk, leave the sack here... Gently! There's potions in there!" Aerwyn yelled at him as he dropped the pack like a ton of bricks.

The loud yell echoed across the field causing dozens of tenri to stop feasting on goblin meat and look in their direction. The silence that followed was deafening as Aerwyn and the creatures stared at each other from across the field. All it took was one tenri to begins its charge for the whole pack to spring into action.

They were unbelievably fast, clearing thirty meters in the blink of the eye. Aerwyn began firing his flame lances as quick as he could but only managed to bring two before they reached the twenty meter mark forcing his undead to attack.

Now that Aerwyn could get a closer look, he could see the tenri had a massive oblong head that was barely smaller than the rest of its body. Their neck was short, almost as if their head connected directly to their torso. They didn't have tails which gave them a very top heavy look and made them seem as though they would be plagued with poor balance.

There was only a small slit on it's glistening black scales where the creatures eyes should be, making the creatures look even more menacing. Their mouths took up more than half the creatures head and was filled with ten centimeter long fangs that hung out openly, not being blocked by any appendage such as lips.

Aerwyn immediately felt three connections get cut as soon as the tenri and his undead clashed. He watched as a tenri opened it's massive jaws before clamping them down on a goblins head bursting it apart. Aerwyn called out for the goblins to fall back and only attack when the tenri were tied down. He didn't want to lose anymore goblins since it appeared to be a bad opponent for their smalls frames. Taking aim, he fired at the creatures but they were much harder to hit now that they had broken into a melee.

Aerwyn shot at the tenri while they darted around the battlefield but only managed to hit a few. After many missed shots he decided it would be better to find easier targets and scanned the battlefield. One of the trolls had two tenri chomping down on it's leg but seemed to be ignoring them as it flailed the massive tree trunk around.

He shot a flame lance into the first causing the second tenri let go and begin dashing towards him. The creature was simply too fast and he didn't have enough time to charge another flame lance. It jumped up at incredible speed seemingly locked onto to Aerwyn's head.

Bon, Rin, and Ren all dashed to intercept as Rorik's giant paw came in from behind him slamming the creature down to Aerwyn's feet. Aerwyn quickly stabbed his spear through the creatures chest, adding in a few more stabs for good measure until he was able to see the white soul leave it's body.

"Nice save!" Aerwyn gave the barghest a thumbs up but Rorik proudly ignored him acting as if nothing had happened.

"Ya see, this is why you don't get head pats! Bon come here!"

"Yes mast-" Bon's words were interrupted by Aerwyn rubbing the hobgoblins head leaving him slack jawed.

"See aren't you jealous? Bon's getting head pats for trying to save me while you get none, HA!"

"KWEE!" Rin nuzzled his legs and seemed to be the only one out of the four who actually wanted to be pet.

"Good girl Rin. You get all the head pats!" Aerwyn switched to petting Rin leaving Bon to breathe a sigh of relief before speaking.

"Master, we-we're still in a battle. It's not safe for... head pats..."

Aerwyn laughed at Bon's embarrassment and checked the battle. There were still a few tenri fighting so he fired out flame lances to finish off what was left. His undead were simply to numerous for the four dozen tenri to compete with and the battle only lasted a few minutes before they were overwhelmed.

Aerwyn left the goblins behind to gather the mana stones and move the bodies away from the gates. He decided to leave them close enough so that the corpses would attract more beasts that he could shoot from the walls.

Once inside the ruinous city they ran into a few more tenri and Aerwyn used this opportunity by having the trolls and direwolves hold the creatures down while he stabbed them. When they approached the broken spire in the city square Aerwyn took in a deep breathe and took in the view of his new home.

"Kabba, tell Teek to have the goblins remove the bodies inside the city and put them with the others. Once they're done have them kill anything that shows up to feast on the bodies... If a person like me shows up or anything the goblins can't handle i want you to immediately come and tell me. Do you understand?"

"Yes! Yes! Kabba understands master! Kabba will go right away!"

Aerwyn entered the spire with his pack before cautiously emptying its contents. He threw the blanket on the furs and put the potions in the corner of the room, making a mental note to make some simple furniture soon before heading back out.

Sitting down cross legged against the spire he called Rorik over.

"I'm gonna attempt to refill your soul so you better be thankful." Rorik's purple flames lit up in expectation. He sat in front of Aerwyn and began to pant like a dog with his tongue out causing Aerwyn to break out in laughter.

"Pfft, so you are a dog after all!"

"AWOOOOOOOOOO!" Rorik realizing his expression quickly put back on his usual air of pride.

When Aerwyn could laugh no more he closed his eyes and began to search his mind for the connection he experienced when he met the darkness. The recent deaths of his goblins was still fresh in his mind and he was able to make the connection only after a few minutes.

His mind entered the dark place once more, the only source of light was the purple flames of his soul and those of his undead. The many strings of purple light connecting his souls to theirs seemed to dance around the darkness as the souls moved around without aim.

It was an odd sensation, in this place he knew which strings led to which undead and he could feel their location in the outside world almost as if this world of darkness was a copy of it. Directly in front of him he saw Rorik's soul. It appeared to be larger but less luminous than most of the other souls.

He could see Rin and Ren's souls nearby as well and they too seemed larger and brighter than the rest which made Aerwyn curious. He was in no rush to have his soul ripped apart by the darkness so he decided to explore why their souls were so different from the rest.

Spending some time looking at each soul he began to notice a pattern. Rorik, Rin, Ren, Teek, Bon, Kabba, and Velk all had souls that were different than the rest. While the three hobgoblins souls were larger than most they were still smaller and less luminous than the four undead that Aerwyn had named.

He wanted to put his theory to the test right away but if he did, Rorik would undoubtedly howl at him so he put it off for now and got ready to experience the darkness once more. He imagined his soul being ripped apart and sending it down the string of light to Rorik like when he did it with the direwolf and the darkness immediately answered his call.

As soon as the darkness moved he felt like all the air in his lungs was sucked out despite this place being in his mind. The tenebrous tendrils wrapped their way around his soul until all the light was snuffed out. His mind knew that this was a normal part of the process but it still screamed out in horror nonetheless. It was as if the darkness was pure nothingness and he was being sucked in, causing his very soul to scream.

The tendrils began to rip and tear adding soul shattering pain to his feeling of dread. The tendrils completed their task and carried the purple soul along the string of purple light leading to Rorik's soul before enshrouding the two. When the smoke dissipated Rorik's soul was the most luminous of all and seemed a bit larger than before.

Looking down at his own he saw that the darkness had taken much more than he had planned for leaving him feeling weak. Quickly leaving the dark place he opened his eyes to the outside world for a moment before instantly losing consciousness.