2024-07-17 23:37:47
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The Guild Of Shadows Way Back Home II
They finally arrived at the town after two days of steady trudge work. They began to see familiar sights and scenes, and though they were not particularly excited about returning home, the overall feeling was that they were glad they were back home. As they approached the city gates, the guards, who had been alerted of their presence by the sole sentry on duty in the watchtower, drew the wide metal gates open to let them in, and that was where their greetings began.Immediately after they arrived, the atmosphere of the village changed. By word of mouth, practically everyone was made aware that the three nominees who had followed Shambala on a mission to be trained by him had returned. As they entered the village, they were hailed on every side. Theirs was the welcome of great warriors and good friends who had returned home. Grover wanted to be happy that they were back, and he really did. The problem was that he could not help feeling a little despondent. Maybe more than a little de
The Guild Of Shadows Welcome Back Home
As Vladimir, Grover, and Krystal stepped into the hall, the hall erupted with cheers and huzzahs from the guild members. The night was just beginning, and their arrival was the herald of the celebration since they were the guests of honor. Despite the loud noises that filled the hall, the trio made their way to the head of the table, where three conspicuous chairs had been laid out for them. Vladimir took the seat to the right, Grover took the seat to the left, and Krystal took the middle seat.The hall had been cleaned and decorated for this celebration. Every surface that could possibly gleam was gleaming after having been properly polished. It was obvious that a lot of effort and resources had gone into planning this event. It warmed the group's hearts to see that their guild sought to celebrate them so greatly.Krystal pressed down a chuckle that wanted to escape from his mouth as he thought of the state the hall would be in at the end of the night. This group knew how to party!H
The Guild Of Shadows Welcome Back Home II
The next day, Grover woke up with a slight headache, but it was nothing he could not handle. He knew it had a lot to do with the celebration of the previous night, but he had made sure not to overindulge in the wine, as it had been a while since he had tasted wine. Also, he determined to dilute his cup after each refill because wine as potent as this could make a fool out of him as it did with some of the others.He thought of how much more chaotic the celebration hall got as the night wore on. Before long, the voices of some men were raised higher while the speech of others began to slur. Of course, this was not obvious at first but began to show with time.For most people who were very self-conscious, they simply got up to leave when they noticed that the wine was beginning to affect them. These were those who were more seasoned and did not simply lose their heads to the gourds.As for the trio, they wasted no time in leaving as well, using the excuse that they were tied after a lon
The Guild Of Shadows Courtyard Recap
The members of the guild listened to the numerous stories with keen attention, enjoying every bit of it as though they were there to experience it by themselves. They had to suffer the sweet pain of experiencing it vicariously through Grover, Shambala, and Krystal."Grover, how did you begin to make use of your second artifact?" one of the comrades asked suddenly. These were the kinds of questions that Grover had been asked all day.“Hmnnn.” Grover said it meditatively. “At first, There was no need for me to do much because it seemed quite easy to me. In fact, I did not have the dissonance that a lot of people face in trying to merge two artifacts because my first artifact spirit seemed to have accepted the Raven's Spirit. Though summoning the Raven at first was a problem, as the Raven is a proud creature, I would say it went fairly smoothly for me.”When Grover told them the details of how the Raven dealt with them while he struggled to summon it to defeat the last artifact beast b
The Guild Of Shadows Courtyard Recap II
By the time the others were done narrating their tale, they had rested enough to actually learn what they had set out to learn that morning, but at that time, it was almost noon.The trio had listened without the slightest hint that they knew about the scroll’s ability to re-ink itself. They simply engaged in the conversation and listened with rapt attention so that the others would have an opportunity to say something new as well.This also gave the whole group the opportunity to rest. Grover noticed a group of people join earlier on when they were sparring in pairs and realized that they were the last group of people to leave the banquet hall this morning. They came late, but they looked more tired than anyone else. ‘Alcohol’, Grover thought wryly.Krystal was the one who led the segment of illustrations of some of what they had learned on their journey with Shambala. They executed some moves, perfected some strategies, and practiced using certain aspects of aura and sensing. He had
The Guild Of Shadows Pressing On
It had been a week since the group had been back, and Shambala had disappeared. It looked like he was never going to come back again because one day had gradually turned into two days, three days, and now a whole week! These uncertainties contribute to the force that worked to drain the energy of the team.On the seventh day since Shambala’s departure, The guild was in a meeting with worried looks and deep frowns on their faces. It was Shambala, so they knew that he was safe and almost invincible, but they could not help but think that something could have gone wrong with holding their teacher from his charge.Dark circles were under Krystal, Grover, and Vladimir's eyes. They consistently felt like they had grains of sand in their eyes, as they could hardly recall when they last slept soundly through the night. They maintained their nightly dueling in the forest clearing they had discovered, but the cost of that commitment was beginning to become obvious. The other members had also
The Guild Of Shadows Pressing On II
Grover finished cleaning up and joined Vladimir and Krystal in front of his room. They had been waiting for him so that they could go into the hall together. When they got to the hall, they found the place more sober than they had ever found it, though they found that almost everyone was already seated. There was only one explanation for this, and it was that everyone wanted answers. They sat at the long table in the middle of the hall just the way they had sat on the day they had gotten back from their journey. “Good evening, all.” Krystal greeted me sombrely. “Good evening.” Was the general answer that wafted around the table.“We are not here to eat this evening, and neither are we here for a celebration. Not just yet, at least. We will eat eventually, but there are certain issues that need to be settled first. I know you are all tired. We all are. And this tiredness is beyond what a single meal can cure. We are here to discuss the next step.And just as they were about to discus
The Guild Of Shadows Trouble In Paradise
When Vladimir heard Grover’s question, he was immediately interested in the answer, just like every other person on the table at that moment.They were done eating their meal and drinking their watered wine; they just wanted answers.He chuckled at the fact that Shambala had successfully prevented anyone from getting drunk that evening so they could both have a very important meeting tonight and be clearheaded for what tomorrow held.As Shambala looked around the whole table, looking into the eyes of each and every person, his breath caught in his throat as those piercing eyes rested on him briefly before moving on to the others.When he had looked at everyone, Shambala sighed, and he then began to talk. “When I left these three lads in a small village library, I went to consult other sources as to the current state of affairs. The news I heard was not pleasant at all. In summary, what is coming?“Even though we have not done anything to contribute to the war that is coming, we have
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
