A Path of Bone and Poison 77 The war begins

In the underground sanctuary the normal citizens had been gathered. It had been over a week, and they were growing restless. Fortunately they had come here often enough over the years for this place to have the most basic on necessities. The sanctuary came complete with bathrooms, and even a bath house. Food was delivered by E rank adventurers.

The sanctuary had become a necessity due to the large number of beast tides that happened. On average in a single year At least one would happen. These beast tides usually happened just before winter, when food became scarce.

The beasts would look for any available food, which usually meant the intelligent creatures. This did not mean they did not attack eachother, because they did in the beginning. But without fail a stronger beast would emerge, taking control of the panicking beasts. The beast would then lead the beast tide to attack the cities. A place with an abundant source of food.

This is how the shelter came to be. It was a necessity, as were the adventurers. This was not the only form of attack a city could recieve, but it was the most common.

The guild had used this reason as an excuse for the citizens to hide in the sanctuary. The members of the guild only repeated what they had been told, they did not know the truth of the situation. So while there was an air of nervousness in the sanctuary it was not filled with panic.

But the citizens had become restless. They longest they had to stay here before was only a few days. The sounds of battle would be heard from above, and the ground would shake from the massive spells cast by the few wizards the city had.

None of this had happened. Their had been only silence. Some of the more vocal citizens began to protest their prolonged stay. Rumours had spread that the beast tide had missed them. That they had taken action in time and no longer looked like an appetizing meal.

The four junior members of Morningstar Shadow corps had been assigned to bring food to the citizens today. They were bombarded with questions from the citizens. Questions they had no answer to. After all, they were merely low levels adventurers. That and they only had a superficial connection. to the guild. their true loyalty lies with the shadow corps.

A group of the more vocal of the Citizens began to shout at the boys, demanding they be released. The boys could only shake their head in response. They were but grunts, and could only follow the orders they had been given.

The group of citizens seemed to grow more frantic. Demanding they be released. When their words were met with silence they became violent. Their bodies began to change, shifting into a hybrid of human and bug.

Unlike the traitor who had attacked our hero earlier, These bugs came in a variety of different species, all of them appearing more insect than human. The only way they truly resembled humans any more were that they stood on two feet. Some of them retained their arms and hands, some of them gained more. All of them were grotesque.

Their species varied highly. There were spiders and ants. Some of them resembled Beatles, and some of them flies. The one thing they had in common was that there were none of the friendlier insects. There were no butterflies or lady bugs.

There were however moths. An abundance of moth men was intense. their faces were disturbing with long trunk like mouths and huge eyes. They had massive wings, capable of giving them flight. But they were not pure moths. This became apparent as their trunks attached to humans around them. They began to suck the fluid from their bodies like a leach, leaving nothing but a husk left.

The bugmen were like gods to the regular people, their strength was far advanced compared to the regular humans. Even the E ranked adventurers that were stationed down here were not their match.

Bodies began to pile up at an accelerated pace. The bugmen did not care if they were regular people or adventurers. all of them were simply victims to their slaughter.

The shadow corps were better off then the rest of the adventurers. They had recieved training from an elite party. and blessings from the gods. They did not directly confront the bugmen. They did not dare. Instead they utilized their stealth to sneak away. Perhaps only their escape could prevent such a catastrophe from happening elsewhere.

As the crept away, narrowly escaping the the fields of death they did not notice the bodies behind them. The bodies they had presumed to be dead began to twitch. As they twitched the began to mutate. Silent screams filled the air. Screams that noone could hear.

The victims bodies began to mutate. and their souls suffered the same fate. From the ashes of the victims rose like a phoenix, they rose as newly mutate bugmen.

A new army was about to arise. An army that was not purely beast, and not human. An army that had the innate power of beasts, but the ability to level and get classes. An army that would bring chaos to Kaos.

Chapter end