Crowpeak Village

In an instant, the blood red stream of aura burst and a gust of wind passed everyone. Aleyah stabbed her blades into the ground to keep herself from blowing away. She told Yuto to grab on as well. Aleyos did the same with his spear. The wind was so forceful that the wooden posts the soldiers were tied on got released from the ground and fell back, but the hooded people, including the Priest, did not move an inch.

The vast amount of aura was gone, but the sky was now covered with clouds. Snow fell from them and began to color the ground white. Aleyah, Yuto, and Aleyos heard breathing coming from the temple behind them. They pointed their weapons at the entrance and waited. Footsteps, heavy and big, walked closer and closer to the door.

Aleyah lifted her blades, “Get ready!” Aleyos pointed his spear at the entrance and Yuto charged his bow aiming at it as well.

The doors of the temple busted open and because of the forceful push, they broke off their hinges and came flying at Trinity. Aleyah backflipped away while Yuto jumped in the air, dodging one of the doors. Aleyos used his spear and pushed the door coming toward him to the side. The debris and smoke made it hard for them to see what was coming out of the temple, but because of Yuto’s enhanced vision, he saw an outline of the figure.

It was massive and built. Hilts stuck out of the thing from all sides. He even saw the blades of swords, knives, and daggers sticking out of its arms and legs as if it was stabbed inside out. With every step it took, it shook the ground just enough to put fear into a normal person’s soul.

“Is everyone alright?!” Aleyah shouted.

“I’m good,” Aleyos replied.

“What about you Yuto?”

“Watch out!” He cried.

The figure that was once behind the smoke and debris suddenly appeared in front of Aleyah. Her body failed to move when she caught sight of what it was. An overly sized human with multiple edges of swords and other weapons sticking out of it stood in front of her. It looked down at her and she saw that it wore a samurai-like helmet over its head. A glow of blood red light came from the helmet wear the eyes of a person would be. Aleyah felt as if the figure was staring at her and it was.

It lifted its arm and swung at her. She pulled up her blades to reflect it, but its strength was far greater than her own and she was tossed toward one of the houses. The whole house collapsed on her and it turned its attention to Yuto.

Yuto shot an arrow at it, but it bounced right off the being’s hard skin. In the blink of an eye, the figure was behind him.

“Yuto!” Aleyos cried out.

The being balled its hand into a fist and revealed a sharp sword coming out of his knuckles. It pulled back its arm to stab Yuto, but Yuto pulled back the string of his bow and formed an arrow. “Awakened Soul, Soul Swap!”

He shot an arrow into one of the dead bodies and switched places with it. Yuto was now in a pile of deceased townspeople while the dead body took a stab in the back by the massive creature.

Aleyos ran over to Yuto and helped him up. “You okay?!”

“Forget about me, what about Aleyah?!”

They started to hear wood move from the home that fell on Aleyah. A red light glowed from a spot in the fallen debris and Aleyah shot out of it. She was now in the air and screaming with anger, she tossed both of her blades at the being’s shoulders. As it stabbed it, it cried out loud as if it was in pain.

Aleyah landed on the ground and pulled out her arms in front of her. They glowed red as she started to say, “Searing Soul, Burning Judgement!” The blade in the figure’s shoulders started to burn it and it cried out in pain even more.

“I’ll take care of this thing! Free the soldiers and capture those cultists!”

“Are you sure you can-”

Aleyah quickly turned to Yuto, “Go!”

Aleyos grabbed Yuto to pull him away. “We’ll regroup with her when we’re done.”

“Alright.” Yuto and Aleyos ran toward the soldiers. The Priest stood still and was memorized by what he saw. Shai Zou Len was magnificent, and it was because of him, Shai could see the darkness of this world and cleanse it.

Yuto aimed for the guards, but the hooded people ran toward him to stop him. Aleyos rushed pass him and blocked all five of them. “I’ll take care of them Yuto, you free the soldiers!”

He nodded and leaped over the cultists. Yuto pulled back his bow and twisted it in a 90-degree angle. “Awakened Soul, Tri-Shot!” His one arrow became three and he shot each one toward the three soldiers that were tied to the posts. Each arrow had cut through the ropes and freed the soldiers.

They got up and ran toward Yuto.

“Thank you,” Ramsey said.

“Don’t mention it. I need you three to find the horses and cargo and grab your gear! Help Aleyos fight the cultists so I can help Ayelah. She won’t be able to handle that thing by herself.”

“Understood.” Ramsey, Seth, and Ren ran to the cargo so they could get their swords and help Trinity fight against the cultist and Shai Zou Len. Yuto turned to Aleyah and the beast and saw that its hands were on the handles of her blades.

It had stopped screaming and started to pull her blades out of its shoulders. Once it became released, he threw it back at her and she widened her arm to dodge it while grabbing them back. This pissed off the beast and blood red aura started to flow from its body. The sharp edges of the weapons within his body started to grow and increase in length.

When the aura stopped, its body disappeared and reappeared behind Aleyah. As Yuto watched this, he realized that this being could teleport. He pulled back his bow and shot another arrow at it in hopes he could switch places with it and save Aleyah, but instead, it turned toward him. The red eye looked behind him and he teleported right behind Yuto.

He thought it was the end for him, but he was wrong. The arrow that he had shot for Shai Zou Len made contact with Aleyah instead. This switched the two, positioning Aleyah back in front of the beast and Yuto in front of them both.

Yuto turned around and watched as the beast grabbed Aleyah’s head and threw her at Yuto pushing them both into the temple. It roared to declare its’ dominance.

Not so far from everyone else, Aleyos turned around and saw that both Yuto and Aleyah were gone. He wanted to go help, but he could not let the cultists escape. The three soldiers that Yuto freed came running toward him with their swords.

“We’ll take it from here,” Ramsey said.

“There’s more of them than there are of you. Are you sure?”

Although he wanted to leave, Aleyos also wanted to make sure they could handle themselves in this kind of fight, but when he had asked if they were sure, they did not respond. Instead, their focus was on the five-hooded people and the priest who killed their comrades.

“Leave them to us,” Ren said.

“We’ll keep some of them alive, but no promises,” Seth added.

“Don’t worry, we only need one,” Aleyos replied and left them to help Aleyah and Yuto.

Within the temple, Aleyah and Yuto helped each other up. “How the hell are we supposed to beat this…thing?” Yuto asked.

“I don’t know, but we have to take it away from here. All these buildings are not helping our landings.”

“I’ll make it chase after me. I was told about a hill near the town. I’ll take it there while you regroup with Aleyos.”

Aleyah nodded her head, “Deal.”

Yuto ran out of the temple and shot Shai Zou Len with an arrow to get his attention. “Over here!” It roared and looked at him. Yuto knew that if the red eye stared at him, the beast would teleport behind him so Yuto faced left toward the hill area. Right behind him was the beast just like he predicted.

He pulled his bow, “Awakened Soul, Enhanced” and shot an arrow in front of him. A gate opened, and he ran right through it. A new one opened, and he was further away from the beast. To gain its attention again, he shot another arrow and continued to do the same thing multiple times until he led the beast to the hill.

Aleyah left the temple and saw Aleyos running back into the village.

“Where’s Yuto?”

“He took whatever that thing is toward a hill so we can get away from all these buildings. Landing on snow after that thing hits you is better than a bunch of wood and stone. Do you have any idea what that thing is Aleyos?”

“Judging by the stream of aura flow and the human sacrifices, I can only guess one thing. It’s a rampager.”

“Refresh my memory a bit.”

“A rampager is a symbolic relic or treasure from an iconic person or thing. If it has any trace of aura flow surrounding it, mixed with an abundance of aura and human sacrifices, it will transform the object into some sort of demon or creature based off its lore or background.”

“So how do we stop a rampager?!”

“We cut off its food source for one. Yuto already did that by leading it away from here. Next, we find its weak spot and hit it with everything we’ve got. Finally, when it’s weakened enough, we absorb all the souls it took.”

“Alright, let’s kill it then.”

“You go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”

“Okay.” Aleyah and Aleyos separated to face the biggest challenge they had ever had to face. Team Trinity had to fight and defeat a rampager.