Harwin stared down, from the top of a small ashen dune, at a pair surrounded by six or so undeads. These corpose like creatures were quite resilient to the strikes from a blade but were highly susceptible to fire spells. Harwin had decided to help the pair, after all, they had spotted him. He would have felt terrible if he had walked away now.

  Still, an intermediate fire spell could have dealt damage to anyone near which meant that he might accidentally kill the rescuee. There was not much choices, however. Harwin decided to attract the attention of the undead to himself. It was a risky move, but he was willing to take the chance.

  Harwin chanted a basic earth spell which launched a stone projectile towards one of the twisted monsters. As if poking a hornet, all of the enemies began to charge towards the assailant immediately.

  The young mage remained calm. Instead of panicking, he began the incantations for the 'flaming death' — an intermediate level fire spell which blasted and burned everything in its path.

  The terrible creatures were significantly slowed down, having been forced to climb a small hill made up of the blackened sand. This gave their opponent enough time to launch the fire ball right at the target. In an instant, a small blast of blaze consumed the area. The shock-wave was enough to even make the caster take a step back.

  Now, Harwin was almost out of magika. He had packed almost the entirety of his capacity in the singular spell. However, this was not the end of trouble. One of the undeads barely managed to escape the deadly attack. Now, it charged towards the young mage with ferocity.

  Once again, the lad saw his life flashing before his eyes. That was when the hound, he had helped earlier, lunged at the terrible creature. The undead was a bit injured from the blast radius of the spell already which made it easy for the hound to throw it off balance.

  Harwin could not have just sat around, so he dashed forward with his stygian blade. The hound withheld the monster down while the mage-sword basically dismembered its already twisted body. Yes, the undead could have survived a strike to the heart, but it could not have reattached or regrown its limbs. In a matter of seconds, the twisted being was taken down, having been torn down limp by limp.

  The fight had ended quite swiftly, but it was also true that it could not been won without external intervention. Harwin fell on his back, he had just arrived in the new land and was basically left exhausted in a matter of moments. The hound came near but the lad was not scared of it, instead, he petted the beast which did not mind it, either.

  The pair slowly made their way towards the tired mage. They had a humane face and body. The two owed their life to the man, so they rushed when they saw him on the ground but came to a halt upon sighting the creature sitting near it. Their reaction was valid as the hound was not just an everyday dog, no, it was dangerous monster. As soon as they had closed some distance, it had began to growl at them with crimson, demonic eyes.

  Harwin signalled it to stand down, something it immediately obliged with. The dog-like monster was more intelligent than the undeads, at least.

  "Who are you people?" The young mage asked the pair who were basically petrified at the scene.

  There was no reply for sometime at which Harwin's newly acquired pet barked. This brought the pair back to their senses.

  "We are adventures. I am sorry for being useless. Eiza! heal the man!" The man ordered his female companion who tried to abide but was stopped.

  "No need, I am not injured, just tired. You should heal your comrade, although, his arm looks beyond saving." Harwin said.

  The man had a limping arm, blood was constantly trickling down from it as well. It was certainly astonishing that this man was not even showing it on his face of how severely injured he actually was. Grantal had lost consciousness from a similar wound yet this fellow was moving and speaking as if nothing had happened.

  "This is not something to be worried about. Eiza here is a priestess, she can basically heal anything and everything."

  As he spoke, the girl began to chant spells that Harwin had never heard or read before. Just in a matter moments, the man was able to use his arm without any trouble. This was, at least, an advanced level spell but the girl was hardly exhausted. Harwin was surprised, but he did not bother questioning.

  It was only now that he made out their appearances. The man was as tall as Harwin with brown hair that was kept short. He wielded a long sword in his right hand and had a rather muscular build. His attire and equipment made it clear that he was the striker of the group.

  The girl was short and petite. She had sunburned skin, something common between the two. She also had long curly hair. The girl held a small staff in her hands which appeared to be enchanted. Her attire was simple, and she also wore a cloak. As already mentioned, she was a priestess — a mage specializing in healing spells.

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  The man gave Harwin a hand. After this, the former introduced himself:

  "I am Winston. This here is Myeiza, but I call her Eiza. Who are you, oh savior?" Winston asked in a humorous way. Eiza just glared at her carefree companion.

  "I am Harwin. I am glad that the two of you are alright." He decided to share his real name this time. It was difficult to manage the same facade in a foreign land, after all.

  "Thanks to you, otherwise, we would have met the same path as the rest." Winston pointed down towards several dead bodies.

  His eyes showed no regret or remorse. That was the life of adventurers, they had more experience dealing with death than even warriors.

  "Your friends or party members?" Harwin asked with a concerned look.

  "Nope. They were just random adventures stuck with us in this 'Inmourti' infested territory." He replied.

  "I see." Harwin said. The lad had never heard of a being called Inmourti before, but the being itself was similar to the undeads he had read about in his world.

  In the meantime, Eiza was trying to pet the hound as well which growled everytime, scaring the lady away.

  "So, where are you headed?" Winston asked.

  "I am lost at the moment. I do want to head to the nearest settlement." Harwin replied.

  "Oh! You can come with us then. We are heading to 'Yugsolvia'. It will be great to have someone as yourself in our party." Winston said without consulting his companion who glowered at him but could not say against it either, after all, they owed their lives to the man.

  "I do not want to burden you." Harwin claimed, however, it was just out of courtesy.

  "None sense. Let us form a party until we reach the town. It is tough to venture in these lands as a sole traveller." Winston insisted.

  The two shook hands once again.

  "Before getting on our way, should we collect the gyestones? You certainly deserve all of them, having slain the immourti by yourself. We can help you extract them considering your condition." Winston offered.

  "Sure, I am grateful." Harwin shrugged, he had no idea what the man was talking about.

  Winston and Eiza began to inspect the charred bodies of the hellish monsters. They dissected their chests to obtain a strange dark violet orb, it shone bright once extracted. Harwin did not question but just observed. Soon the pair brought all of these strange orbs back to him, the latter just accepted them without any knowledge of what to do with them.

  Once the trio was ready, they decided to begin walking, Harwin had his magika almost depleted, but it was not enough for him to lose mobility — at least for now. The hound followed behind Harwin, which the latter did not mind. It was certainly true that the beast had helped the young mage, such a trusty guard would be of great assistance in such a land.

  It took quite a while before the trio came to a stop. They stood in front of another ruin, this one had a huge entrance. Winston went inside while Harwin and Eiza remained behind incase of another ambush. The vicinity was way quieter than anything Harwin had ever witnessed before, these new lands appeared to be accursed to him.

  "Where even am I?" He said under his breath which Eiza heard.

  "Um, have you never been to the shadow ruins?" She asked.

  "Oh, excuse me, I was talking to myself. But yes, I do not know how I even ended up here. My caravan abandoned me while I was unconscious but that worked out, considering I was able to help you two." Harwin half-lied.

  "To abandon is not the action of a companion, you must have chosen the wrong fellows to travel with, I suppose. Coming back to where you are: these are the shadow ruins — these have been claimed to be cursed by the people of the old times, but it is also the bread and butter for us adventurers." Eiza was quite chatty once she began.

  "That is a dangerous profession. Forgive me for dwelling in a personal matter, but why do you not have more party members?" He asked.

  "Ours is a small group. One of our member died few months ago, but we have not been able to find a replacement due to limited resources and facilities that other groups and parties provide to their newbies." She said with a sorrowful expression.

  Harwin had the bad tendency of reaching out with a helping hand in such moments, but he remembered why he was here and who he had left behind. So this time, he answered logically:

  "Maybe join another smaller party? That way you would be much safer?"

  "Leadership troubles. Winston is wise but head-strong at the same time. It is impossible for him to listen to another's opinion much less an order." She replied with a frown, obviously frustrated with her companion.

  "I see. Well, it is incredibly risky, so it will be best if you can choose another profession."

  "That does not concern you!" She raised her voice but immediately regretted as well.

  The man had saved their lives, it was certainly rude and impudent to talk to him in this manner. Harwin just stood there, having no reply. Without wasting anymore time, Eiza bowed her head and said:

  "I apologize for my words. I have the tendency of being impatient and quick to anger so do forgive me. Please."

  The young mage was not used to dealing with such situations, so he just told her to not worry about it and then turned towards the hound, as an escape. Eiza understood the awakwardness of the situation, so she tried to ease her way through:

  "What is his name?"

  Harwin only then realized that the hound was a male, "I have not really thought about one. Can I even keep him? They might tell me to get rid of him at the gates of Yogsolvia." He inquired while petting the beast.

  "I do not think so, the guards are good friends of Winston. They will turn a blind eye, if you wish to keep this fellow in the first place, that is."

  Harwin pondered for a while, eventually claiming:

  "You will be known as Stein. Let us work together to survive." He said to the the hound who was more than happy to play along. Eiza smiled at their interaction.

  It was then that Winston returned with a small cart being pulled by a average sized horse. The cart had enough space for only two people at most.

  "I will ride the horse. You two can ride in the back. The hound can follow us, after all, these creatures have great endurance and are swift as well." Winston offered.

  Harwin immediately accepted. They began to move without a second of delay as even the limited sun light had begun to vanish with dusk approaching.

  Not even an hour had passed that another trouble crept behind them. Something was burrowing through the ashen sand, rapidly following behind the cart. It was tough to spot, as it blended with the environment; its intentions were certainly mischievous.....