Knights of Ferlonia

CHAPTER II

The two knights of the Royal Order of Ferlonia had no choice but to return to Petratonna in dejection, refresh themselves for the night, and resume their assault the next day. They could only hope that the first snow of the year, which the two had not even remotely anticipated, would not make it impossible to carry out a new sortie.

That expedition had also had a positive outcome: they had confirmed the shepherdess Emia's story and had not activated any traps or alarms that the disgraced knight Viryl of Zelfiria might have sown along the way. Furthermore, having found recent traces of the use of spells along the path, they could be reasonably certain of his presence on the Horn of Morghorou.

All that was left was to begin the descent. First, the two knights returned to Onyx, then they began to walk along the stretch of path dotted with caves, after which they would reach the collapsed section. Unfortunately, they never got there.

They were about halfway through the first section when Onyx gave its warning signal for predators in the vicinity. There would have been no need, as the two knights had already sensed unmistakable vibrations in the ground coming from behind them. They turned around and saw that two vespertine bears, emerging from one of the caves, had fixed their sights on them. They were little more than cubs, but at the withers they were already almost as tall as Madja. The path was narrow and bordered by a cliff, and the two bears could barely walk side by side.

<<Anker, we're a couple of yards from the collapsed part. Do you feel like jumping?>> Madja asked.

<<Do we have any other options?>> he replied, bringing his hands to his belt.

Madja saw images of Anker smashed at the bottom of the chasm flash before her eyes, and she was sure that Anker was imagining more or less the same outcome. They were both well aware of the limits of his athletic abilities.

Madja first took a Fuligine Stone from her pocket and embedded it in the bracelet of the Symbjorm she wore on her left wrist, then she drew her sword. She had decided to fight. Anker, slightly relieved, imitated her movements and grasped the weapon he considered most suitable for the occasion, a magically triggered pipe armed with steel balls.

Madja raised her sword to the sky, and its tip began to glow with a faint reddish light. She then charged towards the bear that had advanced the most. Anker, on the other hand, moved to the side, took aim at the other bear's head, and visualized a shock wave emanating from the sphere that would shatter everything in its proximity. He then fired.

At the sound of the explosion, Madja jumped, trying to land on the target's back. However, the bear was not caught by surprise and stood up, opening its arms and jaws to grab her. Madja, however, was high enough to jump over the bear's snout and land a kick on the back of its neck. Of course, the bear did not feel the blow at all, but Madja was able to use the support to push herself to the ground behind it and turn suddenly, using the kinetic energy of the rebound to push the sword with all her body into the base of the animal's left ribcage, where the blade sank in like butter.

As the bear tried to turn around and grab Madja, she gripped the hilt and its fur more tightly and shouted: "Burn!" and a heat of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit instantly dug a tunnel a few inches in diameter into the beast's back, carbonizing its diaphragm and the back walls of its heart. Once the bear had finished turning, Madja pulled out the sword and let it go, covered in the blood that sprayed from the enemy's back. Within seconds, cerebral hypoxia set in, and the bear collapsed to the ground.

As for the other animal, Anker's single attack had already been enough to neutralize it: the steel ball had embedded itself in its skull, and the discharge it had released had knocked it out in convulsions.