“One, two, one, two.” Vivi had taken hold of Alhen’s hand and guided him through the notions of dancing.

  He struggled, mainly because his arm was like a noodle, limp and floppy, but at least his feet were working.

  Each step he took made him more embarrassed.

  He tried to improve his technique, but still looked as stiff as an ironing table.

  It didn’t help that he was missing an arm, making his movements more awkward.

  Vivi giggled, watching his motions.

  Alhen prayed in his head for the torture to be over, but the cycle was still young, and there were many things to do.

  He tried searching for an escape, looking for Sloan and Sierra, but their situation didn’t seem to be better.

  They were talking with countless other villagers, which seemed exhausting, even more than what he was doing.

  They practiced for more than half an hour, during which he kept failing, and Vivi made fun of him for it.

  He didn’t want to admit it, but something was calming about all of this.

  He found himself relaxing more and more, letting her guide him, and mostly having a good time.

  The change of pace had raised Alhen’s mood, and in no time, he had forgotten about what had happened on the hunt.

  More time passed, and now he had entirely lost himself in the repetitive motions of dancing.

  That is, until Vivi broke him out of his trance by putting an arm on his chest.

  As he felt Vivi’s thin arm, he couldn’t help but think how fragile she was; it made him want to protect her.

  Not letting himself get distracted, he noticed the villagers had stopped dancing, and now, they approached the bonfire.

  Alhen watched with mild curiosity as they knelt and raised their hands into the air.

  Looking around, he was shocked to find Sloan and Sierra doing the same.

  Their time spent with the villagers made them warm up to them and follow their traditions.

  Alhen compared their attitude from the last cycle to this and couldn’t help but give out a genuine smile.

  Vivi followed the example set by the villagers and urged him to do the same.

  He hesitated for a few seconds, letting his gaze wander to everyone before eventually kneeling next to her.

  Alhen tried raising his hand but couldn’t, so he decided to follow the villagers' motion of looking up and closing their eyes.

  An unintelligible mantra rang out the next second, being told in unison and reminding him of the time he got blessed by Lord Oros.

  His heartbeat picked up he treated this as seriously as possible.

  ‘Am I selling my soul right now? Is it all a trap?’ Alhen thought, frowning.

  The pressure on his chest didn’t disappear as the voices of the villagers grew stronger over time.

  It made him feel as if they were summoning something out of this world.

  As the voices reached unprecedented heights, he couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong.

  Alhen felt observed, his body tensed, and his back drenched in cold sweat.

  ‘I knew it! Someone is watching me right now, a being!’ Unaware of what it implied, it brought more panic than comfort.

  Alhen was about to open his eyes, but stopped, catching himself before he could.

  ‘What am I thinking? I should probably not do that,’ he thought.

  If this was anything like the ritual back in the church, he didn’t want to risk dying or something happening because he couldn’t keep his eyes closed.

  After a couple of minutes, just when the feeling started becoming unbearable, the voices stopped.

  Alhen lost sensation all around him, the silence being deafening.

  He opened his eyes only when Vivi touched his shoulder and told him he could open them.

  As soon as he did, blood flowed through them to the ground, and he felt the same splitting headache from when he had woken up.

  “Agh!” He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, staying still and hoping the pain would pass quickly like last time.

  He felt a hand touching his cheek.

  When he opened his eyes, he saw Vivi wiping away his blood with her hand.

  “Are you alright, Mr. Hunter? Why are you crying?” She asked.

  It took a few seconds to realize she had thought he was crying due to the limited vision of her mask.

  “Don’t worry, these are tears of happiness,” he lied.

  That’s when he heard footsteps behind him, and he immediately knew who those were.

  Sloan and Sierra approached; his time with them had made him remember the distinct sound their footsteps made.

  “How are you feeling?” He heard Sierra ask behind him.

  “I’m good, except my hand is useless. The wiht got me good.” Alhen said before standing.

  “Your hand was in rough shape. What I gave you before you fell asleep healed your body, with the problem being…” Sierra’s expression turned into a grimace.

  “You will not be able to use your hand ever again,” she said.

  His body froze, assimilating the words that he’d just taken in.

  Had he heard right? That couldn’t be possible.

  With a shaky breath, he asked, “What do you mean? How can you be so sure?”

  Alhen waited patiently for an answer despite his internal panicking.

  “It’s just like I said, your arm suffered heavily. Being honest, the doctor told me last cycle that he didn’t know how you were not screaming from pain, considering that your arm was mangled, completely destroyed.”

  “What I gave you last cycle was not a miracle potion; it has its limits,” Sierra explained.

  “There has to be a way, right? It has to be impossible for there not to be a way.” Alhen’s tone of voice rose, his words shaking.

  He didn’t care about appearances anymore; he just wanted to be reassured.

  Vivi heard attentively everything from the sidelines, looking worriedly at him.

  Someone touched his shoulders, and he turned to see who it was.

  The face of the village elder came into view.

  He had a pitiful look and said, “We will never forget the sacrifice you made to save this village. We all thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

  “What is he talking about? Why does he sound like everything is lost?” Those words felt heavy, as if a hammer had struck him.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ‘I thought that since Father Vincent had given me the artifact, I would be able to use both arms. But I guess that it was too much to ask,’ he sighed.

  ‘I’m forever destined only to be able to use one hand, and this time, I’m on a time limit,’ he thought.

  “Well, now that I think about it, there is a way,” Sierra added.

  Alhen’s ears perked up.

  He looked at Sierra expectantly, taking his gaze away from the elder.

  His gaze didn’t diverge from her eyes, afraid of being told it was all a joke and there was no way to recover his arm.

  “I have no doubts that something exists that can heal your arm, but I don’t know what. The only thing I know is that the ‘Church of Healing’ can fix it, but it will cost you a fortune.”

  “Only nobles and the royal family can pay, and commoners or rejects are denied healing because of their status,” she explained.

  His shaky breathing stopped, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

  As long as there was a way, he could at least hope and dream.

  ‘I will have to tell the priest about my situation, maybe he has something that could bring me back to top shape,’ Alhen thought.

  “Thanks for telling me. I was worried that I would truly be a cripple for life. If that were to happen, I don’t know what I would do, and I don’t even want to think about it,” Alhen bowed in her direction, showing his thanks.

  “Do not thank me, I was the one who dragged you into this mess in the first place,” Sierra responded.

  “You are being too harsh on yourself. I was the one who accepted, so accept my thanks as well. When I come back from this, I would love to take more missions with both of you,” he said.

  “Very well… Sometimes I feel like I am not talking to a boy, but someone much older. You are already very mature. Keep being who you are.” She said with a smile.

  Alhen thanked her again and said his goodbyes to her and Sloan, who only nodded in response.

  He turned to leave, but Vivi stopped him.

  He didn’t know how, but he saw the look of expectation on her face behind the mask and wondered what she could want.

  His instincts, however, told him it was nothing good.

  “Mr. Hunter, please play with me,” she said.

  Alhen had a conflicted expression, his energy had been depleted, and all he wanted was to rest and fill his luna signum.

  He was about to deny her request when her parents called her over, and he got some room to breathe.

  Alhen breathed a sigh of relief, and before she left, she turned around and waved her goodbye.

  “Mr. Hunter, do not forget to play with me before you leave!” She said excitedly.

  Her parents gave him a nervous smile before leaving the area.

  Alhen sighed, but deep down, he didn’t mind.

  He left and headed to the house provided by the village elder.

  Noticing no one around, he took off his jacket and basked in the moonlight.

  Thinking about the events that had happened earlier, his face twisted into a grimace.

  He closed his eyes and lay on the ground, feeling the energy of the moon being absorbed into his sign.

  He allowed himself to relax, at least his body; his mind was running rampant with thoughts.

  ‘Saved once again… It’s frustrating; when I go back, I will focus on my training.’

  ‘I can't let something like this happen again… Well, despite what happened, we managed to complete the contract, even if my arm is like this now, it’s… only temporary,’ he nodded.

  After almost half an hour, he could feel his sign returning to peak energy.

  Standing up, he entered the house and lay on his bed, going to sleep.

  Even though he tried, he couldn’t; the memories of what happened were keeping him awake.

  Alhen then opened his eyes and narrowed them, staying still while not breathing.

  ‘This sound… Don’t tell me…’ He shot up out of the bed and left the house in a heartbeat.

  ‘There’s no doubt.’ Alhen headed towards the village center with tunnel vision.

  Once he arrived, he saw chaos.

  Villagers were screaming for their lives, and the siblings were nowhere to be found.

  'What happened!? Is there another wiht attack?’ He asked in his mind.

  His gaze swept past everyone and everything, trying to make sense of the commotion.

  The ground trembled with a powerful force, and the villagers fled in all directions.

  His body froze for a second before a hand found its way to his shoulder.

  Looking back, he saw Sloan, who yelled at him to follow them.

  Sierra stood right behind her brother, and she, too, urged him to follow.

  Despite not understanding the situation, he activated his sign and got ready to run.

  Before he could, however, someone grabbed his forearm.

  When looking back, he saw the village elder, who was kneeling on the ground facing his direction.

  “Please! I’m begging you! Save our village!” His spit landed on Alhen’s arms, but he paid it no mind; the tremble in his voice showed his terror.

  Despite the elder’s limited vision, he could understand that they were in trouble.

  “THUD!” For the first time, Alhen saw what everyone feared.

  A huge wiht, about thirty meters in size, walking on two legs, slowly approached the village.

  It looked like a giant skeleton with deformed extremities that twisted in all sorts of wrong directions.

  Barely any skin covered its body, and its face appeared to be melted into a red blend of meat, showing its unaligned teeth.

  The eyes on its face didn't seem to hold any feelings, looking lost into the distance.

  On its chest, there was a mark that resembled a creature that gave off a bright purple shine, making him realize that death would swallow this village whole.

  If that wasn’t enough, he estimated that it would arrive in less than two minutes.

  “Now you realize that there is nothing we can do?! Run, Alhen!” Sloan yelled.

  Returning to his senses, Alhen gritted his teeth, saying sorry to the elder and trying to run.

  His arm, however, was weak, and the grip of the elder was strong.

  “I will not let you go! Please save our village!” The elder shouted.

  “Release me! I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do,” he said.

  Alhen struggled to break free, but the next second, Sloan arrived and kicked the elder hard enough in the body to let him go, avoiding unnecessary injuries.

  The elder grunted and weakly fell to the floor.

  “Old man, command the villagers to flee to a safe path. As Alhen said, there is nothing we can do. I truly do hope that this will not be the end of this village,” Sloan said.

  With those words, he ran away, and Alhen’s gaze lingered on the old man for a second longer before following after him.

  The guilt inside him was strong, but there was really nothing he could do.

  If his arm worked as it should or he was more powerful, he would have tried to do something, but in his state, he would be lucky if he survived himself.

  The villagers, running for their lives, could barely see, and many bumped shoulders and tripped.

  Alhen was constantly pushed around, and not even with his sign could he stop the force pushing at him from all directions.

  He maintained a constant eye on Sloan as he passed through a panicked crowd, not wanting to get him out of sight.

  Sierra was nowhere to be seen, but he assumed Sloan was following after her.

  “Thump!” The earth shook, and Alhen lost balance, falling to the floor and being trampled by all the fleeing villagers.

  He could not protect himself; many tripped over his body and stepped on him, not caring at all.

  Alhen gritted his teeth as he felt the weight of countless villagers pressing on him.

  Every time he tried to stand up, someone would step over him and bring him back down.

  His head spun, and the breath was taken out of him by a strong step on his stomach.

  The only reason he was still alive resided in his sign; without it, he would be a flattened corpse.

  “Thump!” There was another tremor, this time it was stronger.

  Alhen could feel his body rising a few feet into the air with the other villagers before falling on the ground.

  He landed on his back, and he wheezed from the lack of air.

  Thankfully, he landed on top of someone, so the impact was less, but still, his mind was barely working as it should.

  Alhen didn’t need to look to know, many had died, and he was lying over a corpse.

  Despite his condition, he forced himself to stand up, resembling a worm as he used his shoulders and head to do so.

  His arm hung limply to the side, and he looked in the direction of the wiht.

  His eyes widened as he saw a massive foot coming down just above him.

  ‘Shit shit shit!’ Alhen ran as fast as his legs could carry him over the bodies of countless villagers.

  “Gugh! Gah!” grunts of pain reached his ears as he stepped over the villager’s bodies.

  A massive shadow formed and swallowed him, and in that moment, all he could feel was death approaching at an astounding speed.

  The shadow grew larger and larger, his mind raced, and his breathing became frantic.

  In a slight distraction, he tripped on one of the bodies, just as the exit of the village came into view, losing his balance and landing face-first into another person.

  Alhen didn’t mind the pain; he could barely feel it.

  The only thought going through his mind at that moment was, ‘This is it; this is the end.’

  Not even a second later, an ear-shattering sound manifested right behind him, and a powerful wind pressure sent him flying into the air.

  “Ahhh!” He screamed.

  His body was a couple of feet in the air, and he had already left the village, flying over the wall.

  The wind harshly pulled his skin back and threatened to take his glasses from him, but they held on with tenacity.

  As he flew, for less than a second, a brief moment, he processed something.

  The wiht was looking at him with a smile, a smile so perverse that it made his skin boil.

  ‘You– Bam!’ before the thought could finish, he landed with a bang, and the world turned black.

  When Alhen gained consciousness, he could barely feel his body.

  His eyes fluttered open, and his gaze landed on the clear sky, with the moon being big and visible just above him.

  Thankfully, his glasses remained on his head and weren’t lost on the experience, or else he would have turned into a wiht right about now.

  His gaze shifted to his body, and he would be surprised if not for the fact that he didn’t have the strength for it anymore.

  It looked perfect, not a single scratch or bruise caused by his fall besides the ones made by the villagers who trampled his body.

  Without realizing it, he raised his hand to scratch his face, and to his surprise, a second later, he could move it.

  “What happened? I thought my arm was supposed to be useless?” Alhen questioned out loud.

  ‘Could it be?’ Just before losing consciousness, he felt something warm enveloping his body, something that burned.

  “Cough! Cough!” He coughed, and blood came out of his mouth.

  He turned his head and spat it on the ground before trying to stand.

  His body ached and trembled, but surprisingly, he was able to get on his feet.

  He momentarily lost balance, but quickly composed himself.

  Looking around, he saw the village; it was destroyed, and only rubble and destruction were left.

  The wiht was nowhere to be seen; he assumed it had been some time since he was knocked out.

  He felt an uncomfortable feeling rising in his chest, but before it could take place, he hardened his mind and took a deep breath, calming himself for now.

  ‘I have to find Sloan and Sierra; without them, I will not be able to make it back,’ he thought.

  Alhen began walking towards the village with a limp, taking him a long time, but he eventually arrived.

  What was once a big and sturdy wall was now some small pieces of wood on the floor.

  As he walked through the village, the full destruction became visible to his eyes.

  The houses were no longer there, and imprinted on the ground were the flesh and dried blood of the villagers, dying it red.

  He walked through it all, eventually reaching the center of the village where the raghash was celebrated.

  “Hello! Is someone here?” Alhen shouted, but was only met with deafening silence.

  His eyes dropped, and just as he was about to leave, he saw something that made him stop.

  ‘Vivi…’

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