15 Irina

Irina POV:

It has been 3 days since my father had me secretly escorted out of the castle. Unfortunately, today we got ambushed. Many companions died fighting and one even died in my arms. I can still feel his blood on my dress. How did it come to this? Why did the servants rebel?

...

I wonder what's father doing right now. I really wish that he could leave his duty's and stay with me. Why does my beloved father have to be so stubborn. -sigh- He taught me how to write, even though it was very hard for me learn, as my eyesight is really bad, but he had a lot of patience and eventually I could write. Thats why I wrote him a letter, but how am I going to deliver it?

After some time passed, I heard some footsteps, perhaps a passerby could help me, so I tried to start a conversation.

"Hello? Is somebody there? Might I bend your ear for a moment, please."

Then I heard the footsteps stop and a deep male voice talk.

"Of course, please speak."

"My name is Irina. I've escaped from Castle Morne to the south.

The servants there...have rebelled.", I spoke with a trembling voice and stopped for a few moments to collect myself.

"Please calm down and tell me what happened."

"I-I can't be sure what it is; my eyesight's been weak since birth you see... But I swear I heard frightful howling from all over... My good father secreted me out the castle but decided himself to stay. He says it's his duty, as commander."

"I see."

"I... I fear for father's life. The servants are full wroth. Filled with hatred for every one of us. They've since come for every one of the companions I escaped with. They haven't spared a soul. I fear it's no different at Castle Morne... Please, I implore you. Would you mind taking a letter to my father, at the castle? My sole wish is that he escapes, even if his honour should be the price. Please... I just want him to be safe..."

It felt strange to ask a stranger for such a big favor, when we only just met, I sincerely hope, that he accepts.

"Fine, please give me your letter. I will do my best."

When I heard him accept, I was relieved.

"Thank you, dearly. Then please, take this."

I proceed to give him my handkerchief, in which I wrote my letter.

"Please, if you wouldn't mind. Deliver the letter to my father at the castle. He can be stubborn, but I'm sure he'll come around."

General POV:

Max took the silken handkerchief, which was lightly stained with blood and went back to Torrent. He always wondered what words Irina wrote to her father, therefore he opened the letter. Unfortunately, Max could only decipher a few words, because her handwriting was truly terrible.

'What kind of handwriting did I even expect from a blind woman. Whatever, I guess her farther knows how to read this.', thought Max.

He then jumped on Torrents back and continued to ride him. While riding he saw even more dead bodies then before. In the distance, he identified multiple Misbegottens, he then decided to kill them, in hopes that Irina might survive long enough.

Max then got of Torrent and did his now standard procedure before a battle. He enchanted his blade and then summoned his wolves. Then he ordered the spirits to just simply attack them while he casted multiple Flame Sling incantations.

One Misbegotten straight up ignored the wolves and charged at Max. However, he quickly met his end, because Max quickstepped behind him, after he attacked. He swung his sword with all his might on the Misbegottens back, consequently the Misbegotten fell and Max took his life by chopping his head off. After killing him, Max saw that his wolves were having a hard time, therefore he told them to retreat, meanwhile he didn't stop casting Flame Sling. As the wolves suddenly retreated the Misbegottens were confused, but they didn't have a lot of time to think because due to the incoming fireballs, they had to react quickly. So, they charged at Max and when they were close, they jumped high in the air. In response, Max quickly told his spirits to take a step back and then immediately attack once the Misbegotten landed. In addition, Max realized that his flame Sling incantation didn't really do so much damage, that's why he put his seal in his pocket and gripped the Bloodhounds Fang with two hands.

He then run at the closest Misbegotten and jumped. In the air he infused both of his arms with mana, this resulted in him splitting the Misbegottens skull in half. When other „servants" saw this, the raged and all charged at Max, he however, didn't panic and just cleverly quickstepped back and even managed to cast Catch Flame multiple times. This pattern continued for a while longer, but very soon some Misbegottens fell due to the fire. When Max saw this he was very happy, because if this were to continue like this, he would run out of mana very soon. Lucky for him, once 3 of them fell, the battle was basically over, because with the help of the remaining wolves the last two Misbegottens were quickly slaughtered.

This fight gave him a total of around 700 runes. Then he got on Torrent and the rode towards the merchant nearby. Even though Max won this battle he had a grim expression on his face. The fight drained a lot of his mana, and his incantations weren't really effective, as he needed to cast Flame Sling 3 times in order to kill one Misbegotten. As for his current situation, he isn't even close to having enough mana to kill all enemies in Castle Morne.

This fact didn't really surprise Max, he already knew that his fireballs wouldn't do a lot of damage, but he still had some hope. The thing he is missing is an incantation that can target multiple targets at once. This would make his life so much easier when he is fighting multiple enemies at once.

Now he was even more determined on getting the incantation, he originally came for. When Max reached the open field where the Night's Cavalry spawns, he took a turn right. He continued riding until he came across a small shack. There the tarnished encountered a few rats. The thing that caught his eyes, were their eyes. They were glowing with a yellow flame. As the rats attacked him he quickly killed them with his sword.

Melina noticed his gaze and spoke:

"These rats had been infected by madness. Also called the frenzied Flame. It is chaos, devouring life and thought unending. It is best to be wary of it. I would recommend thee to not affiliate yourself with the Flame of Chaos."

A helpless smile could be seen on his face, because he is about to do something Melina wouldn't agree with.

They continued moving and soon they arrived at the Ailing Village. A sad sight was displayed in front of their eyes. In the center of the village was a fire and multiple villagers were around it petrified and their hands on their eyes.

Max went up to them and gave his best on getting a reaction from them, but they just stayed the way they were. Only when he pushed one to the ground did he move. The villager took put a dagger and slowly walked towards Max, the suddenly his hands where going to his face. When they were about to reach his head, Max realized the incoming danger and sprinted at him, quickly beheading him. This action alerted the other villagers as they exited their petrified state and began to move towards his position. One of them started performing the action from before. When Max noticed this, he quickstepped multiple times back and took out his seal and started casting Flame Sling.

However, a few seconds later, the yellow flame of frenzy came out energetically from the villager's eyes. The yellow flame burst demonstrated its power and destructiveness. Max couldn't believe his eyes and a chill ran down his spine, because seeing this incantation in real life was really terrifying. And it appeared way stronger than in the game.

Luckily the destructive flames didn't reach Max, but this didn't stop him from retreating even further. Max then proceeded to only cast Flame Sling from the distance. Very soon all of the villagers were dead. Afterwards, Max looted the body's, getting an additional 200 runes and in addition he searched the other shacks. In one of them he found a body holding the Flame Crest Wooden Shield, he picked it up and put it on his back.

He then continued to move towards the Callu Baptismal Church. In front of it, was another villager holding a spear, Max quickly charged at him, and sliced his torso in half, not giving him any chance to do anything. In the church he saw a huge rat accompanied by many smaller rats. Max didn't really want to fight them; therefore, he ran to the corpse and grabbed it and then left even faster than he came.

Once he was outside, he searched the body and there he found it, a scroll explaining the Flame of Frenzy incatation.