2024-07-04 22:36:56
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The Guild Of Shadows The Bird's Eye View
Shambala listened partly as Krystal narrated his story. It was not like he was not interested in what he was saying, but his relief at seeing Krystal turn out just alright was greater than his curiosity about the details. Besides, he had this gut feeling that what actually happened was not very different from what he knew to have happened.Krystal may never really understand how worried they have been. It was not just because they had been unable to continue with their journey, but out of genuine concern for their friend and comrade.They had even begun contemplating whether they would take him for treatment in the nearest village if he still did not wake up on the third day. Now that he has woken up, they are simply happy and relieved and can continue their journey.Shambala’s attention once again returned to Krystal, who was still narrating his ordeal. He was glad that Vladimir had taken the initiative to ask him what exactly had happened to him because he did not want to. He did n
The Guild Of Shadows The Bird's Eye View II
After the happy reunion, the group had eaten, and everyone was happy in the moment. Vladimir was thinking about all Krystal had said, and it was a lot for him to take in. He remembered feeling a strange tug of emotion each time he was beginning to wield a new artifact, but nothing as dramatic as Krystal’s experience. Also, he remembers experiencing difficulty wielding each artifact, but nothing as difficult as Grover’s. This also left a few questions lingering in his mind. Why were their experiences so different? Was it because they were exposed to varying degrees of power? Or because of the varying manifestations of the powers? These thoughts plagued his mind as he looked on.He remembered when Krystal spoke about how the artifacts relied on the emotions of their holders and how negative emotions were adverse to anyone using them. No more angry rages, inordinately desperate moments, or despondent emotions for too long. Emotional balance was the only way to make the most of his gift.
The Guild Of Shadows Seeking Among The Dead
As the sun set, the Guild had set down for a feast of their own making. They spiced the meat, which was sufficient to feed all three men with herbs they found, and ate it with some portion of bread from their rations. Grover had found water by a stream that flowed not too far from their camp while he was wandering around the nearby forest when Krystal had been out cold and unconscious. A stream that they had somehow not observed all the while they had been fighting with the beast.The following morning, the group was all rested and had eaten well following the fox hunt, which had been successful. The group had willingly agreed to take the rest of the previous day off to eat, rest, and blow off some steam via the hunt.The first spear had gotten the fox, so it was not much of an exhilarating chase, but who needed excessive excitement when they were tired and hungry?Krystal had volunteered to do the roasting while Grover assisted him. Vladimir did the skinning, while Shambala used fli
The Guild Of Shadows Seeking Among The Dead II
The sun had come up and was heating up quickly. The group had been walking for hours, with Shambala occasionally turning to discern the way left and right. As they moved, they took brief sips of water from their water caskets without stopping. With their long strides and hours behind them, they finally arrived at a portion of the forest that they believed led to the crypts. The area looks almost surreal. The entrance was fenced with a small gate. The structure had an ancient appearance, but it looked almost new. There were ancient runes and carvings on it that looked almost too perfect to have been done by human hands. The structure, of course, had a deeper underground section, but the entrance of the crypt and its surrounding buildings looked like a set of four peas in a pod.These structures looked like they were made of red clay, with some parts finished with white clay and gold, but they looked majestic. Almost surreal. As they neared the crypts, they sensed its atmosphere, which
The Guild Of Shadows Crypt
The guild was surprised to hear Shambala say they were to prepare for a fight, but they still got ready to fight. *‘He would not tell them to prepare to fight just because of a noise he heard in the background, right?’* Grover thought.Vladimir’s mind was more focused on how anyone could have gotten there before them. What way could they have followed?They all got vigilant and searched the place in pin-drop silence. Just as they were looking around, searching for the danger that made even Shambala so serious, two figures appeared in front of them."It's you guys!” Somehow, Shambala, Grover, Krystal, and Vladimir managed to scream the same thing at the same time, with a combination of fury and anger. The guild was shocked to see the figures that appeared behind them from an entrance they had not opened before. Just recognizing these two men made their blood run hot with vexation. ‘How were they already here?’ Krystal tried to reason.It turned out that these men had been sent from th
The Guild Of Shadows The Crypt II
Shambala, Grover, Krystal, and Vladimir stood on one side of the enclosure, while Skinny and Chunky stood on the other side. They looked like they were about to have a face-off. Some face-off this might be. It looked like a lost battle. To the guild, it appeared to be a critically uneven match.Shambala had decided that they would play along with the two clowns in front of them, thereby hooking them into their own trap.Shambala said, “I hear you want to take us on in a fight in order to get the artifact, right?” Chunky spoke up rather loudly and said, “He speaks!” turning to Skinny to exclaim, as though making a new discovery. When they both laughed, Skinny asked Chunky, “So what did the old man say?”Grover, angered, answered them, “Are you too timid to fight, or all you know how to do is laugh?”At this, they laughed even louder. They may not have realized it, but they had just successfully confirmed Shambala’s theory on the fact that they were only sent to stall the guild. The or
The Guild Of Shadows The Crypt III
While the fight progressed, the scene was one of chaos. Manifestations of artifacts, shouts, growls, and grunts—and as unexpected as it was, there was also laughter. Loud, crass, and riotous laughter. The two men from the organization were laughing while everyone else was fighting.The other members of the guild fought with all they had in them, while Shambala fought only to protect them from this foolishness. He had warned them not to fight these people because he knew something was just not right, but they did not listen. He, however, did not hold it against them enough to let harm come to them. They were practically helpless and blinded by pride.As soon as Grover and Vladimir saw Krystal use this power, they were shocked. As he began to use his power more, they saw reason to commend Krystal for unlocking the true potential of his artifact. Or so they thought.He manifested an extent of his power that they had not seen before. Not even when he stood before the beast of the artifact
The Guild Of Shadows The Crypt IV
Krystal fought not to listen to what the pair were saying: “I will actually admit that with all your fancy artifacts and all your fancy display and sword skills, you’re much improved.” After laughing, he added, “But no matter what you do, you will still remain weak in our eyes, and there is nothing you can do about this.” How dare they! He shut up his mind not to pay attention to it. But as the fight wore on, he realized that he had heard what he had not intended to hear. His spirit was growing weary.And as he looked around, noting the mannerisms of his team members, he realized they had lost their zeal. They were tired!Their spirit as a group was being attacked by the words of their opponents, who knew just what to say to discourage them from fighting further.The only person who seemed not to be affected was Shambala. His moves were perfunctory, aimed at one thing only: keeping his team from harm. As he did so, he thought exasperatedly, ‘Ob the annoying vigor of youth! Look where
Latest Chapter
Fini
Grover sat meditating in the house of shadows. One of the most unlikeliest places that he thought he would be at this time. Not quite surprisingly, it had been a year since their adventures with the members of the guild and the Ore organization. He smiled gently because, at least, that was something to smile about now—because those were terrible days. Days in which they lived for months on the brink of the end of all humanity, only one step away from one wrong move. Beside him, Shambala was levitating. It seemed as though both of them were communicating through telepathic means without even saying any words. Not too far away from them, Vladimir and Krystal had just finished dueling that morning, and while Vladimir had stopped to clean the perspiration from his face, Krystal, who had won the match, was feeling a bit more excited and was walking away with a smile on his face.On Krystal’s side, it seems like after everything, their lives went back to normal. But, of course, he knows th
In The Enemy's Lair IV
Krystal, in getting out of his stance, quickly lunged at the man, whom he quickly identified as a member of the organization. He remembered the horrible things this particular individual had done to him in the past few hours and was not only going to pay back, but was also going to take the opportunity to punish him for his offenses against mankind.The man quickly realized that he was in a dire situation with three of them facing him, but being a typical member of the organization, it did not even occur to him that there was any other way out of this. He was possessed by the kind of pride that could not ask for mercy. He braced himself for battle and began to fight ceaselessly, even as they attacked him mercilessly on every side.Several times in the short period, they would look at each other’s faces and, without saying a word, deploy the strategy on how to teach this fellow lesson. All he knew was that he bore the brunt of this skill technique, but he did not know how they arrived,
In The Enemy's Lair III
As Grover and Vladimir fought with the guard, Krystal simply looked on without saying anything. Grover realized that, at that point, he was unstable and also very vulnerable. It could easily be tilted in any direction if he stayed in that trance, so even as he fought, he thought of the scheme to get them out of this situation.“Krystal! Krystal, we’re here.” He yelled, but there was no response.Seeing this, they immediately continued to fight with the man once again while they kept trying to use physics on Krystal so he would awaken.Krystal remained where he was standing and didn’t quite pay attention to them, but the man they were fighting with did not like the idea that they were trying to wake Krystal up. The man was annoyed with the way things were going. It was his fault, but there was nothing he was going to be able to do about it. He had caused it. In that moment, he thought of a number of things. The first of which was the reason why he did not call for backup as soon as he
In The Enemy's Lair II
Grover lay on his side, thinking about how he had probably broken a few ribs and how tired he felt. This fight had gone on seemingly forever. He knew they could not give up. But he had to admit that he was getting tired. He looked to Vladimir, who was unmoving with his face in the dust, and did not like the silence, which was only interrupted by the heavy breathing of the guard. If there was any consolation in this situation, it was the fact that the heavy breathing was an indication that the guard himself found them a worthy challenge and was also tired.Just as they finished fighting, as they lay in the dust, they heard a mighty sound as the wall behind them cracked. Grover mustered all his energy in time to see what had made that sound, and he noticed Vladimir also tried to do that, regardless of how tired he was. Not knowing what was beyond the wall, he did not like it that the man behind it had been fighting. He was excited about whoever was coming behind it and looked at it with
In The Enemy's Lair
Grover and Vladimir had been fighting the security person they had seen by the gate to the cave, and it looked like he was getting the better of them. In fact, he had begun gloating, teasing, and making fun of them about how weak they were despite being two and coming against him as a single person.Just as he thought that he had defeated the two, a loud yell came from deep inside the structure. When Grover heard it, it took a minute to sink in, and he then became excited because he would know this voice. Anyway, this was Krystal’s voice. Krystal was yelling that he was not going to agree to be used.“ Arggg!!! Leave me alone! I will win! I have already won! I will always win.“ He kept shouting these over and over again, warding off whatever entity it was that he was fighting, saying that he wouldn’t give up and he'd keep fighting. The more they listened to the exchange, the more they realized that he wasn’t fighting with someone outside of himself but with something on his inside. It
Battle At The Gates Of Doom II
Grover and Vladimir have been deployed by Shambala to go find Krystal and his father, rescue them, and bring them to safety while he and the rest of the guild had a face-off with the members of the organization at the gate. Aside from the unfortunate fellow who had seen them attempting to escape and had paid for it dealing with his life, no other person had seen or been accosted so far because of the chaos they had left at the gate. Grover did not think that they would intentionally make such a stupid decision as to drain the entire facility of its fighting force to only one location to fight an enemy.He thought that the decision to concentrate their entire fighting force in one location was born out of the mindset that they had never been attacked here and, with the exception of the members of the guild, might never have even been discovered at this location. Grover also thought of how it was such a good feeling. Nobody was lunging at him to take his life or were trying to fight wit
Battle At The Gates Of Doom
As soon as Grover noticed that the portal and the gates had started shutting them in, he quickly shouted, “Fight for the freedom of the five continents, oh ye men! This is a fight for the earth!”This charge, as innocuous as it sounded, was just the right encouragement that his comrades needed as they warded off their enemies with physical strength and artifact strength. They fought as though recharged by an invisible force.While he was fighting, Shambala found a way to distance his mind from the fight and then his thoughts. And as he did so, he realized something. That one, when the bell was rung earlier, had a code to it. One strike alone would have been a major indication that the barrier had been reached. Two strikes would have been a call for reinforcement, being that the intruders would be too strong. Three strikes were a summons for every possible fighting person in the structure to come out and join the reinforcement. And if that was the situation, it means that every single
The Gates Of Doom III
Open, open, mother of horror, and let the children come in. Kin or foe, you shall decide. For to kin your cleave and on foe you will feast. These words reverberated in Grover’s mind as he heard the crack of the opening of the Gates of Doom, and indeed, as they opened, he understood why they were known as the gates of hell. The others have been clearly amazed that the poem he heard in the atmosphere turned out to be the key, and as Shambala said the words, the gate opened. However, before they could jubilate, some figures flew out of the building, looking at them angrily; they did not look like they were pleased to see them.Obviously, since no one knew the location of the gates of doom, it was understandable that they had not had guests in a long time. Not like a place called the Gates of Doom would have many visitors at any rate. In Vladimir’s mind, as he looked at these figures, he quickly realized that this was where the battle was to begin. He only hoped that their fate did not e
The Gates Of Doom II
Following the suggestion by one of them, they fired at the barrier until a building started to reveal itself in bits as they hit it. And as they persisted, the whole building was shown to be a gate. At some point, no matter how hard they hit, the building wouldn’t budge but continued to reflect their energy against them. It’s only made him get tired faster.Shambala had come to the front of the company and was able, after some time, to interpret the inscription on the door. He voiced out the words in the old tongue and then translated them into their language as “the gates of doom." As if the literal meaning of the words was not terrifying enough, the horror on his face as he said those words made a chill run down the spines of his men. Some of them, who had invariably been to close the door, moved further away from it.Of course, they knew that they had no choice but to go in knowing that Krystal was in there, and they would not leave without him. Seeing these things only made them he
