The Record of Unusual Creatures

The sudden turn of events threw the area near the Greenwood Gate into total chaos as the charging Ebon Blade knights clearly had never spoken with the nearby sentries before, and the latter’s reaction was slow, and that gave Hao Ren the chance to break out.

The originally disguised ‘magic caravans’ suddenly exploded into a speed not expected for a vehicle of their type as the three carriages accelerated and charged towards the raised barricade and the gathering guards. The personal guards masquerading as merchants quickly dropped their guise and drew their weapons as they engaged the blades and spears from all directions.

A loud crash rang out as the barricade was smashed by the carriage into splinters while the guards by the side of the road were sent tumbling.

“Shut the gates! Lower the barriers!”

The imperial officer in charge of the gate yelled his orders, and as his voice rang out, the mages activated the gate’s magical mechanism and following a series of ground tremors and mechanical clanking later, that ten-meter tall green gate was slowly closing as a layer of light green energy barrier appeared near the runic bricks and started descending.

“Leave none alive!” An Ebon Blade knight roared. He saw the target were about to pass through the Greenwood Gate and immediately leap from his horse. A series of complex golden runes appeared on his armor as two magic wings appeared out of nowhere to support his mid-air glide. The knight raised his sword as he slashed violently at the third caravan, “The Emperor wills it!”

The chainsword roared as it ran at full speed and the powerful heat coalesced into a crimson half-moon shock wave and fly headlong towards the caravan’s roof!

But the attack was blocked by a semi-transparent barrier as a shield generator hidden within the carriage was activated and deflected the powerful heat attack to the side of the carriage as the sturdy greenstone surface swiftly redden and exploded into a storm of pebbles!

The third caravan’s cover, using a mechanical device quickly folded and reformed into a low barricade. Hao Ren switched Grungnir’s into blaster mode as Lily took a gulp of saliva as light glowed between her fangs while Vivian summoned lightning as the three of them taking cover behind the barricade, aiming and throwing all sorts of ranged attacks towards the pursuing Ebon Blade knights.

Three of them immediately fell to the attacks and turned into a balls of flames and fragments, yet the other knights did not show any signs of fear as they leap from their horses and activated their ‘Dragonmark’, and exploded into a strength and speed hundred times a normal human as they flanked the caravans from both sides.

At that moment, the three caravans had reached the bottom of the closing Greenwood Gate, a personal guard yelled as he fought, “Milord! There is a magic barrier ahead! We are going to crash…”

Rheia looked up at the barrier that was blocking their path and shot out a tiny energy bolt. “Stop disturbing my study session!”

And with that, the magical defense system created by the combined efforts of thousands of elven smiths and countless of human mages shattered into millions of tiny light orbs without a sound.

One of the pursuing Ebon Blade Knight actually managed to chase up to the speeding caravan as he menacing swung his blade at Charlemagne who was guarding Awenna. The latter had cold sweat all over him, he knew the power of the chainsword, as the superheated blade could easily melt metal, and the rapid vibrating blade could split walls and armor-like melted butter. But without any recourse to retreat, he bit hard and raised his heirloom blade against the menacing armored knight!

The next second he saw the terrifying knight smashed face-first against the caravan’s barrier as the armor and bones crumpled in a very painful fashion before his entire body slid down the barrier. The entire caravan shook violently under the sudden shock and caused everyone to worry if it would come apart the next second, but this weird carriage absorbed the shock well before darting deep into the Black Forest.

The pursuing knights and the gate guards could only look on at the originally ‘slow’ magic caravan blasting off in an incredible speed as they broke through every barricade and into the thick forest and could only exchange blank glances.

They, of course, could not take this lying down as an imperial officer ran up all agitated as he saw the caravan disappear into the distance, “Form up the riders! Inform the rangers in the woods! Release the lockdown signal! Do not let them leave the Black Forest alive!”

The soldiers immediately moved upon hearing the command as they shuffled quickly to their positions, but just as they were about to move, an Ebon Blade knight suddenly raised his arm as a formless pressure stopped everyone in their tracks and looked hesitantly at the direction the knight was looking at.

A gray mist had formed out of nowhere before the entrance to the vast forest, and the mist was roiling and swirling across the entire woods and sealed every known path in a blink of an eye. Within the sea of mist in the woods, it had become a wall-like barrier.

A soldier who had been stationed at the entrance into the Black Forest muttered to himself as he saw that scene. “What… the hell is that?”

“The world order is disrupted and the Black Forest will descend into the realm of the mist, and the shadows of the void will consume everything within it.” The Ebon Blade knight’s rasping voice rang under the helmet, but the words he spoke sounded more like an old wizard in trance, “They will never leave there alive.”

One of the officers spoke wearily, “That mist…”

The knight glanced at the officer, “Lock down the Greenwood Gate. Inform all pioneer cities, no one is to enter the forest. We will inform what happened here to his Majesty. The ones who had escaped were extremely dangerous that even the Ebon Blades are not able to stop them. You don’t need to worry about being faulted.”

The lower echelon officers of the imperial regular army were of the same rank as a normal Ebon Blade knight, but usually, the knights who only answer to the emperor himself were given much more difference and reverence by people of the same rank, so this ‘gate officer’ did not question the command given by the knight, and he was even nodded with a weary thankfulness.

He did not need to know what was going on in the Black Forest, this ancient and mysterious forest had all sorts of secrets hidden deep within it, and even the long-lived elves did not necessarily understand those secrets, and researching these secrets was the domain of those robed scholars and the emperor himself.

The immortal emperor seemed to have a grasp of knowledge beyond the understanding of mere mortals, so the officer believed that what was happening in the Black Forest was not worth a dime before Emperor Berentine.

The Ebon Blade knight turned away from the forest after giving his orders as he looked at the messed up Greenwood Gate.

Three of his comrades had fallen to magic and some sort of weird blast, their bodies totally immolated and the fragments of their armor were twisted beyond recognition, while three unharmed black chainsword fell not far from the bodies. A few squires carefully picked the sword arm as they solemnly placed the blades into a special container.

The chainsword was the most important possession of an Ebon Blade knight, and it was valued even more than the knight itself. These three blades will be sent back to the sacred armory in Blacksteel Fortress, once a new knight has been chosen, they will have another chance for glory on the battlefield.

And that knight that had run face-first into the steel membrane shield and gotten his body broken for his efforts struggled to climb him. His armor was rent in all places, and many bones too were broken, but yet he was still alive, and simply lost mobility the moment he slid off the shield.

After a normally impossible ‘joint recovery’, the heavily injured knight stood up awkwardly as he limped back to his companions.

“Have an idea of the shield?” the commanding knight asked hushedly.

“A type of energy shield never seen before, totally different from any magical shields we know. It is very powerful, and it has very excellent defensive capabilities against magic or direct physical attacks.” The knight that had ‘personally’ tested out the shield said, “Even the chainsword could not pierce or slash through it. The anti-mage enchantments on the blade were ineffective against that shield.”

The questioning knight did not seem too happy with the answer. “Any weakness?”

“It probably has one, that shield has a set vibration frequency. I have recorded that down, you can weaken it more effectively by using the same frequency against it, and aside from that, a strong and continuous attack could also deplete the shield, it is not impenetrable, but the attack needs to be a very powerful one.”

The knight nodded as he turned towards the forest, there was a steel-like coldness to his voice, “They can never leave the Black Forest alive, but that mysterious shield and attacks were only part of their arsenal, the knights will probably run into enemies like them again… and we need to prepare.”

“For the will of the dragon soul.”

“For the will of the dragon soul.”

The knights exchanged the words of oath, and this was the oath that was engraved into the hearts of every Ebon Blade knight, and when it was spoken by a few knights in unison, there was a rasping sound of flesh and metal…