The Innkeeper

“Wake up,” said Lex very seriously as took out a flashlight and attached it to his gun. Drum had been sleeping comfortably after stuffing himself. Lex had spent this time reading the array book and resting, making sure that he was ready in case anything happened.

While Drum woke up and tried to understand what was happening while still groggy, Lex went out and searched for the village leader.

“What happened?” Lex asked, his voice somber.

“Nothing, young man,” the village leader replied while chucking. “There seems to be an issue with my house’s internal wiring. We’ll have to wait till the storm is over to fix it, so it’ll be a little tough having to make do with the cold, but it’s nothing too serious. I was just coming over to give you boys some blankets.”

Since he was insisting that there was no issue, Lex did not press the matter, but he kept his guard up. The very next moment the village leader’s house was hit once again, as it continuously had been for the past few hours, but this time, the whole house wobbled.

‘Mr. Innkeeper,’ the Lotus suddenly spoke in Lex’s mind. ‘There’s a wave of very strong spiritual energy heading our way. It’ll pass us by in around an hour.’

As soon as the Lotus spoke, Lex was sure that things would not go by smoothly. He could not tell if the wave of energy was the result of the snowstorm, or vice versa, but he was sure that this would not be ‘just another storm’ as the village leader kept insisting.

Unfortunately, Lex was right. The house suffered yet another attack, followed by a screech so loud it shook Lex to his core, accompanied by the sound of a collapsing wall. The temperature in the house dropped immediately as all the doors were banged open by a raging wind.

It was fortunate that the wall that collapsed was of their living room, which was empty at the moment. It didn’t matter for much though, as the Kalter Flug were already swarming in the house. All Lex saw was the snow carried by the wind, but his protective treasure turned on and covered Lex in a blue light. It saved him from getting cut in half, but could not stop the momentum of the attack launching him back.

Whatever had attacked him was way stronger than him! What the hell kind of test was this? Lex picked himself up just in time to see the village leader get sliced into many pieces. Many ravenous, massive snowflakes piled up on the leader’s body, ready to eat the corpse.

Horror and shock filled Lex’s heart, but not panic. As if he had practiced a million times, Lex raised his gun and started shooting at the snowflakes.

Despite their incredible strength, their bodies were extremely fragile, and each bullet was able to easily kill them. Yet the sound only attracted the snowflakes, and more and more swarmed towards him.

In the Heavy Harley, Lex had loaded the spirit magazine, which could fire up to 100 bullets with one magazine. But while 100 was a lot, it was not infinite so Lex had to be mindful and not shoot endlessly.

Lex failed on his first try, but on his second try, Lex started using Falcon’s relief to speed up his movements as he dodged the snowflakes as he tried to kill him. The raging winds chilled and slowed down Lex, and fought against him to slow him down, the Kalter Flug rushed him in swarms, moving faster than his eyes could track.

Lex was not dodging consciously, but moving around randomly to try to avoid as many as he could because they were just too fast. Suddenly, Drum was beside Lex and he fired a weapon that released some kind of pulse that shattered all the snowflakes in the room, giving them a much needed moment of respite.

“I went… the family… dead…” Drum stuttered between ragged breaths, his face as pale as the snow that was quickly filling up the house.

“We need to hide…” Lex had only begun to say, when more Kalter Flug, this time even larger than the previous ones, entered the room and rushed at them. It was too dark for Lex to have noticed them when they entered, and by the time he saw them, they were mere millimeters away from Drums neck.

A light flashed, and Drum disappeared, causing the clump of snowflakes to fly right past Lex. No longer wasting any time, Lex started running again, but could not dodge an attack that once again flung him across the room.

“Shit,” Lex cursed as he hurried to pick himself up. His protective treasure managed to keep him from taking the worst damage, but it still hurt like hell every time he was flung around like a rag doll.

But this time, despite Lex’s quick reflexes and endless resilience, the Kalter Flug were too strong, too many, and too fast! Smart enough to realize attacks didn’t work on Lex, they latched onto him harmlessly and dragged him out of the house.

At this point, Lex could not even shoot because the snowflakes were hugging his body so tight he could not move and the hand holding the Harley was pressed against his chest, aiming directly at Lex’s mouth. Yet while they restrained him, they made sure not to hurt him to avoid triggering his treasure.

Everything was happening too fast. Lex felt like he was on a rollercoaster that never stopped spinning.

Unexpectedly, once they brought him out of the house, they flung Lex into a pile of snow and backed off. Dizzy, groggy, beaten and in pain, Lex picked himself up, his will still raging to crush some snowflakes! Yet, when he got his bearings, he froze.

Hundreds, no thousands, no millions of Kalter Flug of all shapes and sizes surrounded him, looking at him even though they had no eyes. The village was already gone, the houses already reduced to rubble, with little proof left that humans had once lived here.

He felt their hunger, their cruelty, their desire to consume everything as they surrounded him. Yet none of them moved. Even Lex knew that his treasure could not possibly protect him from such a horde, so what were they waiting for?

Lex was not quite sure why but, slowly, he looked up. Above him, in the sky that should have been as dark as the deepest void, a snowflake as massive as a mountain, with a pattern that drew a face, looked down upon him. The snowflake gave off a light of its own, which is why Lex was able to see that its face was too large to even fit into this valley, yet for some reason, the actual mountains that formed this valley suddenly seemed fragile.

Lex looked at the face that could even terrify death. Then he pointed his gun at the sky and fired.

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