Chapter 223: Dark Hunters
Chapter 223: Dark Hunters
Jim didn't want to risk having any more injuries and so he followed the old man's advice. He kept training, failing, and training again without any pause or success for a long time.
"Damn!" just as he was hit again with the explosion from failing to do the spell, "who is it so hard to do it?"
'Your mind is quite distracted,' the old man said, 'you need to clear up your mind.'
"I am!"
'Not clear enough it seems,' the old man couldn't help but laugh, 'or your passion and desire to learn this isn't strong enough.'
"Will you shut up then?" Jim was pissed off by his constant failures and the lack of support he got from the old man, "I need solutions."
'All you need is just in you, but you haven't figured it out yet.'
Jim totally ignored the old man and returned to train again. Yet soon after dozen more failures, the old man suddenly said:
'There is something happening outside.'
"What?" Jim stood up from the ground while thinking about his next attempt and how he would master the spell.
'Enemies are approaching!'
"..." Jim paused for a moment before asking, "what about Hector and his team?"
'They seem to be entangled with a hard enemy down that pit.'
"Hold on, you can sense all the way deep down there?" Jim was shocked to notice this, "why didn't you warn me before about that monster? About my enemies? About that cliff?"
'I can only speak about what I know,' the old man said in a very weird way, 'and I retain all the rights to myself to either speak or not.'
"Screw you!"
'It's not the time to curse me,' the old man laughed, totally ignoring Jim's mean comment, 'the enemies are approaching fast.'
"Wake me up then," Jim firmly said, "I need to stand and defend, not lay to the side and hope for someone to save me."
'Wait a moment, I'll wake you up,' the old man said before warning, 'but you won't feel nice about it.'
"Just do it."
The next moment Jim felt like his body was pricked by thousands of needles before opening his eyes. He saw a large piece of rock on his head while parts of it were crashing all over his body.
"What the hell is that?" he stood up while wiping away all the rock parts off his head and body.
'Shh, you aren't alone here,' the old man warned as Jim was speaking out loud.
'Sorry, didn't notice that,' Jim felt quite embarrassed before a sudden booming sound came from the distance and attracted him.
"They... are fighting," he could already see the glaring lights of the spells the team Hector sent outside did while fighting their enemies.
"Are you alright?" one of those standing here to watch him said before adding, "go, hurry and hide."
Just before Jim could say anything, a strange light hit the cave entrance and blinded him for a brief moment. He felt sudden pain all over his body like being ignited by fire.
'Hurry,' the old man urged, 'take out the fire ore... fast!'
Jim didn't restore his ability to see but he followed his old man's instructions. The next moment a large piece of fiery ore appeared in his hand, and the other got his unsheathed sword.
"Sizzle!"
"Sizzle!"
"Sizzle!"
Like fire eating away dry grasses, the light shining from his body coupled with the sudden ignition of fire all over him ate away the darkness and let him see around clearly.
"Damn! What happened here?" as he could see clearly again, he spotted the few members of Hector's team lying all over the ground while something dark was covering up their bodies like a thick spider web.
It kept pulsating, expanding to cover up their bodies with each breath.
'They aren't dead yet,' the old man yelled, 'hurry and save them.'
'What's happening?' Jim urgently asked while jumping all over the place, using his sword and fire to cut away the dark web and free the others.
Each time his sword hit one web, it seemed like it was hot dry weeds. The web got shrunk under his fire and golden light before burning away into nothing.
"It's the dark hunters," one of the disciples he freed said in deep fear and shock while standing up fast, "thanks but let's postpone this for later. We need to go back, we need to alarm them now!"
"What are these dark hunters?" Jim ran alongside him and the four others while noticing how deeply frightened everyone was.
"The silent killers of the forest," one of them said in ragged breaths, "nothing can work over them except for light and fire. It's a blessing you could pull that out in this desperate moment."
Jim turned to the cave where he suddenly was shocked to see all the lights were gone. The cave entrance turned to be like an opened giant mouth of some kind of a freak monster.
"What is that?" he couldn't help but ask while motioning his head to the cave entrance.
"It's them," a disciple said, "hurry and stop wasting your breaths. They aren't yet inside the cave."
"How can you tell that?" Jim turned again against his will and glanced at that scary darkness.
"Because we are still alive... run goddammit!" the kid urged him and Jim just trusted his instincts and followed.
"Jump!"
The moment they reached the bottomless pit the disciples started jumping off the edge as if they were commiting suicide.
One of them shouted at Jim who was stupefied there without knowing what the hell they were doing.
"Just jump!" another kid urged before falling inside the pit.
"Damn it!" Jim was feeling afraid already, but he didn't lose all the will to live. He started jumping over the walls of the pit, clinging to anything he could hold before descending down there as fast as he could.
'It's too late,' yet the old man brought the bad news to him, 'they are here.'
Jim instantly raised his head and there instead of the rocky ceiling of the cave he spotted utter darkness blocking his eyesight. "I won't fall like this," he took out another fiery ore and started to draw energy from it.