Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will-Chapter 41: Outwitting the Abomination

Jonan remembered seeing them, beasts cloaked in furs darker than the soil, with eyes that glowed amber in the moonlight, he could feel their presence in the trees the night before. It looked like they had their first target.

They moved that very night.

Under the shade of darkness and ash-colored cloaks, the four moved silently toward the Nightfur tribe’s settlement. Marla laid a thin line of scent-masking oil beneath their boots. Edric had prepped his twin axes, their blades were shining with a sharp luster. Elias led them through the old paths between the rocks, avoiding the creeks that gave away sound. Jonan had his sickle sheathed and his spear slung across his back, as they kept moving forward.

Each step closer to the Nightfur tribe’s settlement tightened the air around them. The forest grew quieter unnaturally so. Even the insects had gone silent.

When they reached the edge of the Nightfur camp, they lay low on a rocky bluff, looking down over the clearing. Firelight flickered below, and members of the Nightfur tribe were circling it in slow, rhythmic movements, chanting in a low, guttural voice, filled with intent.

"They’re preparing something," Elias whispered. "That’s a ritual fire."

Jonan narrowed his eyes. "We need to catch their shaman, he is one of those weaker ones with a bit of intelligence."

Others nodded in response, and moved into infiltrating the tribe quietly.

Edric swiftly sprinted under the night and dropped three Nightfur members who were on patrol with his sharpened axes before they could alarm other members of their tribe. Marla rushed through shadows like a phantom, knife in each hand, swiftly taking care of her enemies with stealth.

Jonan struck a guard with his sickle, slicing its neck in silence, who was gasping for breath, meanwhile, Elias circled behind and tackled a lone Nightfur, wrapping metallic wires over its neck, and gagging its mouth before it could howl.

Successful in preventing chaos from erupting in the camp, all of them heaved a sigh of relief, but they weren’t done yet, they still had to find and capture the shaman of the Nightfur tribe in complete covertness. Their footsteps were ghost-like moving around the bushes in the inner area of the tribe.

Finally, they noticed one of the shamans of the tribe, who was moving towards a hut, with greed etched on its face.

Licking its tongue it said, "Slurp, damn all of them, working me to the bone in helping them increase their strength, anyway those bastards will simply turn food once all of this is over, who knows, I may be able to follow that great being."

Lost in his thought, with an unconscious grin, the shaman didn’t notice shadows moving closer to him, unfortunately before he could open the door, his body froze and his mouth was shut by a large hand, and the rest of his body was covered in sharp threads at the same time, moving around them was proving to be difficult for it.

"Let’s move back, we can now see what this creature will have to say for us." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

By dawn, they were miles away, hidden in a cave where moss dripped from the ceiling and the only light came from Elias’ crystal lamp. The Nightfur tribe member who was a shaman named Oologg, whom they’d captured was bound, gag removed but arms locked in place.

It hissed through broken teeth, black blood on its lip.

"You know what we want," Elias said. He knelt, slowly, the blade glinting in the pale light. "Start talking."

The Nightfur sneered. "Humans, you will be the perfect sacrifice, far more potent than us beasts hahaha."

Elias drove the blade shallowly into the beast’s thigh. "When did I say, you could speak whatever you feel like, just let us know what is happening, and why are the rituals taking place among most of the tribes, when it should be a secretive affair as well as quite a rare thing to do, due to fewer resources."

The interrogation went on for hours.

They kept the creature on the edge of consciousness, there was no pleasure in torture, just a mind-numbing process until they could get the answers they wanted to hear. Elias asked the same questions in different ways. Edric watched in silence, leaning against the stone wall. Marla kept guard at the cave mouth, her hand resting lightly on her hilt.

Eventually, the Nightfur broke, not with pleas, but with disdain and anger.

"We offered sacrifices... yes, flesh and blood of our own, also from others, but not to please it, to strengthen us, that was the deal."

"What deal?" Jonan asked coldly.

"The abomination!"

"It came and threatened our tribe members with high-quality flesh and blood, no matter the source, it only cares for quality now. It’s no longer satisfied with the weak. It gave us time, very little time to purify the offerings, some of them our brethren, to make them better, and stronger, and then it devours them."

Marla stared, horrified. "So it’s breeding better prey to feed on?"

"Yes, to evolve," Oologg spat. "To become more of what it already is."

There was a long silence, Elias looked solemn, and Edric’s jaw clenched.

Jonan sat back against the cave wall, arms crossed. "It’s using them. All of them."

"They’re willing, how can these beasts be willing, even with subpar intelligence, that shouldn’t be the case," Marla said, her voice rising. "They’re feeding it for making it powerful, making themselves into livestock!"

"What else can we do, it can kill us either way, at least now some of us will get to follow him for greatness," said Oologg with a melancholic expression.

"We can’t face this thing," Edric muttered. "It is too intelligent and insidious for us to fight against, it is able to grasp the intrinsic nature of the beasts, and make them feed himself."

Jonan’s voice cut through the gloom.

"Then we tear the stalemate that is going, and play our own game."

"Ok, and what is your idea, genius," retorted Marla with a scoff.

"We will make this guy’s corpse look like eaten and shredded, and leave it at the Nightfur tribe’s door, where upon discovering him, they will be furious, with their low intelligence, they will think that no matter what they do, the abomination will slaughter them entirely, and we will do the same with the other tribes, which will cause all of them to unite and attack the abomination.

Listening to Jonan’s plan, they felt that it could work, but weren’t quite sure, but they didn’t have any other choice, killing the abomination in any form would have their mission completed, and them safe, so what is the harm in that?

They made the Nightfur corpse look like it had been torn by claws. Marla carved precise gashes through its ribcage and face. Elias dumped entrails near the body, planting bones and fragments of a beast they’d killed earlier. Edric threw one of their poisoned blades into the dirt nearby.

"We leave it just outside the Nightfur stronghold," Jonan said. "Let them think it turned on one of its own. That it’s begun to consume the ones helping it."

Elias nodded slowly. "They’ll panic."

"They won’t be the only ones." Jonan turned to the others. "We do this again with the other tribes, and then drop bodies near their borders. Make it look like the abomination’s doing."

"And then we reap the benefits," Edric added grimly.

The days that followed were methodical madness.

They hunted quietly, only taking loners, scouts, or smaller bands. They questioned each other, learning more about the abomination’s reach. Each tribe, it seemed, had made its compromise.

After each hunt, Jonan chose a new message, a fresh body, altered just enough to show signs of madness, each one suggesting punishment, or paranoia. Each one left near a stronghold, a hunting trail, or a sacred shrine.

Rumors traveled faster than they could move, fires no longer burned in the open, tribes started sending their scouts in pairs and threes, and their trust in the abomination wavered.

There were whispers of disappearances within the tribes, sacrifices offered out of fear, not of faith.

On the seventh night, they camped on a cliff edge above the valley, Clouds moved low, smothering the moon. The smell of smoke drifted from somewhere far below.

Then, the sounds came.

Howls, at first distant, then closer, war drums, screeches, and guttural chants, and It wasn’t one tribe but nearly all of them who were in the surrounding area.

Below, the tribes moved, not together, but with a common goal, Hunters, shamans, old, young, strong and weak, all of them moved, driven by fear just for a chance at survival.

Edric watched it unfold, arms crossed. "They don’t know it was us."

"They don’t need to," Jonan replied. "As long as they think it was it."

They all stood in silence, listening as the howls multiplied. The forest had become a battlefield before the first blow had even landed.

Jonan gazed in the direction of the mountain where the abomination had been spotted last. For the first time in days, he gave himself a small, grim smile.

"You turned me into bait without me even knowing, let’s see how you like my gift."