Chapter 398: Shadows of Death
Meanwhile in the small settlement watched by the Death knight.
A group of half-naked ice trolls, each holding axes, and clubs. Their bodies were painted with tattoos of some kind of animal's mouth and their muscles were bulgy despite the lack of food to support such body mass.
But for ice trolls, who adapted themself to such cold and starvation, such physic was only natural in their race.
Resistance to the cold, incredible regeneration, and strength to crash a bolder.
One could consider them the apex hunters of those frozen lands.
And in the group of trolls, in the middle standing above a badly made stage made by crashing a bolder flat to stand, an ice troll filled with a large scar from his stomach up to his left shoulder, has physic far greater than any of those ice trolls and was a good head taller than them.
On his neck was a necklace filled with the huge teeth of some kind of beast and his task coming out of his mouth had a metal ring.
The troll looked at the ice trolls below him before opening his mouth.
"Wronged warriors of the frozen lands!" His rough voice echoed through the whole small settlement. Catching each Ice troll's attention.
"We have waited for our brother's triumph return! And they have yet to return from their hunt of the small tails!"
Hearing that, the Ice troll looked at themselves and started talking to themselves.
*Bough!
The ice troll wearing the bones talisman had enough and smashed his spear which had several large needles on its tip to the stone platform, making a large crack and sound, which brought back the attention of the ice trolls.
"Those brothers are no longer our brothers! They abandon our great goal to glory and run away scared to face our goal!"
Once his words came out, one of the ice trolls who was only a bit shorter than the talisman ice troll spoke up.
"Lies! I have known Axe Chain ever since our warrior ritual! We were sworn brothers and I know that would have never abandoned us or our goal!"
The ice troll wearing the talisman frowned upon such words as he stared at that troll.
"Then are you saying that Axe Chain would have been defeated by some mere small tails!?" He yelled back.
Upon such words, the other ice troll shut up, unsure of what to say.
Agreeing that his brother had been defeated by mere small tails was an insult to his brother himself.
Having him shut up, the ice troll on the stone stage raised his spear into the air.
"I also hoped for our brothers to return! But! We have waited long enough for their return! Any longer and we won't have food to achieve our goal! Hunting down the Thousand Screaming One!"
Hearing that, each ice troll became excited.
"Tomorrow we march! And I! Merloun'gurak! Will use this very spear to bring down the Thousand Screaming One! And together! We will bring it back to the main clan! And reclaim what our honor! And become the greatest warrior hunters of the clan!"
"For honor!"
"For honor!!!!" all the other ice trolls raised their hands as if they could already imagine themself slaying down the greatest beast with their own hands.
The Thousand Screaming One.
"Now go and rest! Tomorrow will be the first step towards reclaiming our honor!" The ice troll with the spear dispersed the grew of ice trolls, who went to do their own thing.
"Hmpf!" The ice troll that was previously against him scoffed and turned his back.
'My brother losing to small tails!? Impossible!' He thought internally as the other ice trolls followed him to one of his tents.
"Daranrock...could brother Axe Chain really have been defeated by the small tails?" Of the ice trolls who followed him asked.
The ice troll in turn looked at that troll full of anger.
"Impossible! Something must have happend!"
He, Daranrock, Merloun'gurak, and the one that Danzel had killed was the strongest warriors of this settlement.
Their strength placed them as the leading figures of the other exiled warriors of the main clan. Originally, he and his brother ruled together over everyone else. Though his brother has yet to come from his hunt.
Merloun'gurak, who was stronger than him stepped up to take the leading spot from him by unifying everyone to their original goal.
His body was getting heated by anger and he had to force himself to stop himself and fight Merloun'gurak right here and there.
"My brother had survived against The Thousand Screaming One, he can't possibly have died by mere small tails!"
Taking his weapon, a large axe similar to a halbert, he went out of his tent.
"Equip your weapons and take your rations! We will go and see for ourselves what happend to that small-tailed village! I refuse to believe that my brother died there!"
The other ice trolls looked at him hesitantly.
"But Merloun'gurak...what about the hunt of The Thousand Screaming One?" One of them decided to speak up.
Leaving now was no different than telling them to not take part in the hunt with the others after all.
"Shut up! Go already!" Daranrock yelled with anger, making the other ice troll reluctantly go and pick up their weapons.
Though Daranrock's goal was to see what happend to his brother, the truth was that he didn't want to take part in the hunt because he was afraid.
Everyone here was an exiled warrior from the main clan.
Who either managed to survive the hunt with The Thousand Screaming One or were too scared to fight it once it was in front of it.
It was a trial to the ice trolls and escaping the trial without any achievements was considered disrespectful and honorless.
Even his brother who was the strongest was gravely wounded and the chief of the main clan only managed to fend off The Thousand Screaming One. But not actually hunt it down.
His brother and he planned to build their own clan, but Merloun'gurak was aiming to kill everyone by facing that beast.
'One day I will kill this bastard!' He thought internally as he went to follow the other trolls.
But once he was about to take the first step, he found out that he couldn't move his one leg.
"Huh?"
Lowering his head in confusion, he blankly watched how a hand made out of shadows and coming from those shadows was gripping his leg tightly.
Before he could make any sense of what that hand was or say anything, he heard an ethereal whisper of a language it never heard of and yet could fully understand.
"[True Death]."
"..." Daranrock's whole body froze in place.
The light of his eyes was snuffed out like the fire of a candle against a breeze.
His whole body then started to fall to the ground like a puppet that had its strings cut. But the next instance shadows started crawling on his body and forcefully keep the dead ice troll standing in his place.
Alas, the axe still fell to the ground, creating enough noise for the other ice trolls to turn around.
"Hmm? Daranrock? What happend one?" One of the ice trolls asked as he stared at the axe on the ground. But the next moment their eyes widen in shock as the shadows were becoming alive right in front of them.
"W-What the hell is-!" Before the ice troll could finish, 5 ice cold voices sounded in unison.
"[Final Word Kill]."
And similar to Daranrock, the 5 ice trolls fell to the ground with their life taken in a few instances.
"You should even have been more careful." One of the shadows spoke as it started to rise with a robed figure, revealing a skull with only its right eye socket.
"I will be more careful next time..." The next shadow rose, revealing this time a skull with only its left eye socket.
"It was a matter of time till they realise anyway." Another robed shadow rose with a skull of no eye sockets.
"We can't keep the creator waiting, it will be faster coming out of the open." The next robed shadow rose. The ground started to rise up and create a sword made out of stone, which soon after was engulfed with shadows.
"Baron is right...the faster the better." Another shadow rise behind all others, which was the tallest among them all.
"It's the first mission given by the creator personally, mistakes are unacceptable." The tallest among them said.
"Hey! What are you doing laying on the ground you all?" One of the ice trolls who seemed to notice the corpses came with another group.
But upon arriving, they noticed the robe shadow in front of them.
"W-What the hell are those things!?" One of them yelled as it equipped his weapons just like the other ice trolls.
"Death to everyone, except 3 and their leader. That is the creator's command." The tallest one said as dark lighting started to come from the robed shadows.
And the next moment, the lighting filled with death was shot out, penetrating the ice trolls' bodies and burning them from the inside.
"Ahhhhhh!!!?"
The ice trolls screamed before they fell to the ground now dead, everyone except one ice troll who was lucky enough to resist the instant death effect.
But before it could scream, the robed shadow holding a stone sword full of shadows, appeared from behind the ice troll despite the ice troll seeing a copy of the same shadow in front of him.
Which was slowly dissipating.
"We must fulfill our Creator's will perfectly." Baron, the Anabast said as it crashed the ice troll's head with his stone sword.