As he ran towards his apartment, Noah lifted his head and looked down the alley that led directly to the backyards of the buildings where he lived. Suddenly, a gray cloud formed at the end of the alley, and a figure began to emerge; looking at me, it shouted:
—I found you, you are the last bearer of the mark.
It wasn't walking, it was gliding across the pavement.
As he watched that thing approach, he said to himself: I never wanted this life, I didn't want this responsibility, I just wanted to be a normal person.
But none of that mattered anymore. (It's the same work as the chapter I gave you before).
The war that would determine whether humanity would remain free had already begun.
The Claimoor showed a sadistic smile of satisfaction.
—You will come with me, my masters have waited centuries for this moment— I watched as the tentacles on its back reached out towards me. I used my magic again as quickly as I could; I raised a small wall of ice, but it was destroyed by the tentacles as if it were paper.
But that gave me a few seconds, enough time to reach into my back pocket and pull out something I always carried with me.
A piece of paper with the drawing of my family's shield, a coat of arms with two overlapping hexagrams; inside them, the drawing of a wolf and a bear.
I shouted with all my might:
—Protection!
Instantly, a figure formed in front of me. It was in the shape of a bear, which stopped the advance of the tentacles. Without time to think much, I shouted again:
—Attack it!
And the figure transformed into a wolf.
With a speed that a normal person couldn't see, the wolf pounced and, in an instant, bit the Claimoor's neck. The tentacles surrounded it and began to struggle. I took the opportunity to escape; I had to get to my apartment no matter what.
I was about five minutes from the apartment, so I couldn't waste a second. I knew that wouldn't defeat a Claimoor, one of the strongest warriors of the Kartnod family, a being created with magic and the body of what was once a person.
My only way to survive is to use my family's relic, which was given to me when my aunt died (she was the bearer of the mark at the time; when a bearer dies, the mark disappears and chooses a new one; to the astonishment of the whole family, it chose me).
As I ran, I started hearing explosions.
Until that morning, ordinary humans couldn't see anything of what was happening.
The world was protected by a magical veil created by the Supreme Beings millennia ago.
This hid magic and supernatural creatures from the human eye, allowing ordinary people to continue with their normal lives without perceiving the chaos that was happening in parallel.
But with the seal partially broken, that veil began to give way. For the first time, normal people could see the battle, the ice rays, the fire explosions, and the nightmarish creatures roaming the place.
Chaos erupted: screams, confusion, and fear gripped the town's inhabitants.
Suddenly, all the alarms started sounding. Chaos was unfolding in the center of the small town; a wolf-shaped shadow and a creature with tentacles were destroying everything in a brutal fight. It was a scene that could only be seen in horror movies.
I looked up and saw the door to my apartment. I was almost out of breath, and I felt the cold air burning my lungs with every breath. I used my magic to destroy the door, ran to my room, and looked under my bed for a box.
I opened it and took out what was inside, an ancient relic; no one knows how old that thing might be. It was a bracelet with the ÓBroin family crest.
Suddenly there was a huge explosion; it was so strong that it sent me flying.
Feeling the shockwave, I activated a magical barrier; That helped me avoid getting hurt when I went through the window. The explosion was so strong that it completely destroyed the apartment. The Claimoor had already finished with my protection spell, leaving the town almost destroyed and many people dead.
Chaos was spread throughout the town, and terrified people wondered what was happening.
The Claimoor, who was about ten meters away from where I landed after the explosion threw me through the air, looked at me with an expression that paralyzed me with terror; he growled and gnashed his teeth, and at the same time, he snorted like a beast from hell.
"You've made me angry now. My masters ordered me to bring you back alive, but they never ordered me to bring you back with your whole body intact. I'm going to tear off your legs; that way I'll release all the fury I have right now."
I was lost. I hadn't managed to put on the bracelet; that was my only hope of defeating that monster.
Suddenly, out of nowhere...
Spears of fire and ice began to rain down.
The Claimoor used its tentacles to cover itself, and someone shouted:
"I always knew you weren't a warrior, but I never thought you were so useless that you couldn't even defend yourself."
Still stunned and dizzy from the explosion, I thought: that voice, that tone, it can only belong to Eleonor, the person I hated most in this world.