Chapter 216 – Armor Of Vengeance.

He should have listened to everyone. He should have listened to his father when he was told to leave the moment the horns sounded. But when the screaming began, his legs locked beneath him, and he could not stop himself from looking back. There, he saw the horrors unfolding, his people being cleaved apart by strange armored raiders.

“Teral, move! Do not look back!”

Screams cut through the night air, sharp and wet, echoing along the wooden log bridges of the village. Torches flickered as something heavy struck a home behind them. Wood cracked, and beams snapped. A burning lantern rolled across the walkway and tumbled into the branches below, instantly setting them ablaze.

“Do not let any of them escape. Kill them all!”

The shout came from behind, belonging to an armored man. Teral looked back and caught a glimpse of his face. It was similar to theirs, yet the ears were much shorter. The humans had attacked. His mother gripped his hand and pulled him forward until strength finally returned to his limbs.

“Keep going!”

His father shouted as he ran ahead with a young girl in his arms. All of them had long ears, and their forest village was going up in flames. Teral had heard his parents warn him about the bloodthirsty humans, yet he never believed such people truly existed. Now, with the walkways groaning under his feet and fire swallowing everything he knew, he had to admit that his father had been right.

His mother never let go of his hand. Not when a spear hissed past her cheek. Not when the raiders’ laughter rose behind them.

“Do not look down, Teral. Keep your eyes forward.”

Her voice trembled, but her grip stayed firm. His father, broad-shouldered even for an elf, sprinted ahead with his sister held tightly against his chest. She sobbed loudly, her cries lost in the roar of the flames.

“There. The last ones. Get them.”

The shout echoed from below as they neared the village exit. Teral forced himself not to look back. He ran beside his mother while his father led the way. Soon the trees thinned and the clearing opened before them, the space dominated by the statue that overlooked the village. They were almost free, or so he believed.

“Run.”

His mother pushed him forward with both hands. A heartbeat later, she screamed. Teral turned in time to see a sword drive through her chest, a long human blade blackened at the edges. She slid off the metal, her blood spraying across his face, warm and glimmering in the firelight.

“M-mother?”

His voice trembled as she staggered forward and collapsed near the statue.

“G-go, my Teral.”

These were her final words before she fell still. His head slumping forward, blood pooling around her and the statue she rested against.

“NO! YOU BAST…”

His father’s cry resounded from nearby, but it was quickly interrupted by a swarm of arrows. Teral turned just in time to see him swaying, arrows jutting from his back as he tried to shield the baby sister in his arms.

Teral’s breath hitched as his father staggered again, knees buckling under the weight of too many wounds. The arrows quivered with each trembling step, yet he still tried to protect the tiny bundle pressed to his chest.

“Father…?”

Teral froze. The sight of his father bleeding out was too overwhelming for him to comprehend. His father looked at him with fading eyes that no longer recognized the boy in front of him.

“Run, son. Run.”

A sword flashed in the firelight. The raider swung without hesitation. Teral watched the steel bite into his father’s shoulder and carve downward. Blood splattered across the burning grass. His father collapsed, curling around the infant one final time. The baby gave a hushed cry before a spear drove through them both.

“No… no, no, no…”

Teral’s mind cracked. His breath stalled, yet his legs finally obeyed him. He ran toward them without a weapon, without strength, without any chance of survival. Tears blurred everything. His mother. His father. His baby sister. All lay before the ancient statue as if cast there as a sacrifice.

One of the armored humans stepped forward, his sword dripping with fresh blood.

“Well, look at this one. Still breathing.”

An arrow pierced Teral’s shoulder and sent him stumbling. He slipped in his mother’s blood, fell hard, and clawed his way forward, desperate to reach his family.

“P-please… someone! Someone help! ANYONE!”

The words tore from him with raw despair. He knew no one would come. His village had been destroyed, and he might already be the only survivor. The man behind him sneered as he raised his blade and brought it down on the youth’s back.

The strike ripped across Teral’s back. Pain exploded through him and he screamed. He rolled onto his side between the bodies of his mother and father. His vision blurred, yet he could still see the raiders’ faces twisted into cruel smiles. These were not people. They were monsters who took pleasure in slaughtering everyone he had ever known and loved.

Something broke inside him. A tide of anger and hatred surged through his chest, fiercer than anything he had ever felt. He wanted to tear into them and return their cruelty a hundred times over.

The world dimmed around him. It was not from blood loss but from something ancient and powerful. A warmth pulsed beneath his palms, soaked in the blood of his family. The statue seemed to tremble, as if something within it had awakened.

“Do you feel that?”

One of the raiders stopped mid-stride as the air shifted. The others scoffed and closed in with raised blades.

“It is only the forest burning. Finish the brat.”

Teral’s fingers curled against the earth. He did not understand what was happening. He only knew that he wanted them dead. Every one of them. Every last human who had touched his family and something had answered that desire.

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“What?”

A sudden burst of crimson light erupted beneath him, forming a glowing circle etched across the soil. The raiders jumped back in panic. Some shielded their eyes as the radiance grew stronger and brighter.

“What is that? Something is coming out!”

A massive figure rose from the circle. It was broad and heavy, shaped entirely of metal. In one hand, it held a shield large enough to cover a wagon door. In the other, it gripped a halberd that crackled with lightning. It remained still as it fully emerged, its polished plates catching the glow of the burning forest.

‘A spirit?’

Teral had no idea what he was witnessing, but he remembered the old stories his parents had told him. Elves had once called upon spirits to protect their people, yet the ability had deteriorated with time. His family had lived quietly in this forest for multiple centuries, and no one he knew had ever summoned anything like this.

His gaze drifted to the bodies beside him. His mother. His father. His baby sister. Rage surged through him once more, so strong it shook his entire body. He looked back at the strange being and reached for it with everything he had. He did not know what it was or why it had appeared, but he no longer cared. He would give anything, even his soul, if this creature would help him destroy the monsters who had taken everything from him.