Chapter 4:
Kitezh the Invisible Phenomenon
“It happened again. I have been deceived. No, not deceived. I walked into a trap with my name right on it. I really am stupid...”
Kitezh thought this as she was staring at the swamp wolves like a deer in front of headlights.
“Hey, what do we do? We’re going to die!” screamed Marigold.
“Relax, we’re invisible. Just walk away,” said Frigyes casually.
Normally, this would be the perfect use for invisibility in a dire situation like this. However…
“The wolves can’t use their eyes. But…”
Kitezh frantically whipped her arms in the air to find her partners.
“They can still smell us!”
Kitezh pushed, or pulled, whatever she could feel.
“Get to the river, now!”
Kitezh sprinted past the bastion and down the steps to the pier.
“Follow my splash!” yelled Kitezh.
Without waiting for a response, she cannonballed straight off the pier, hoping to make a mighty splash.
Completely underwater, she looked up at the sparkling surface of the rippling river. Although she was waiting for a few seconds, her heart was racing, questioning what happened to her party.
SPLASH!
SPLASH!
SPLASH!
One after another, she saw larger circles explode on the surface, and bubbles blew from the dark blue water.
Kitezh swam straight for one of the wooden support beams under the pier. She pushed her legs against it to send herself shooting to the surface
BONK!
“Ow! I did not see how low that pier was!” Kitezh grumbled to herself as she felt a lump on her head.
Kitezh didn’t have time to rest. She began smacking the water surface. Eventually, more splashes were reciprocated back to Kitezh. She was momentarily pulled down for a bit, but was relieved to see, or not see, an invisible figure.
“Kitezh, it’s you! It’s a good thing your big boobs were easy to grab!”
SPLASH!
Nevermind, Kitezh was back to her moody self.
“Marigold is present!”
“Lev is alive!”
Kitezh caught her breath and lifted herself up.
“Okay, we don’t have time to figure things out. Those wolves are after me, the one person who has a scent. but can’t be seen. Unfortunately, that goes that same to you three. Whatever is invisible with a smell is a Kitezh to them.”
“What?! This whole invisibility was specifically to make use dog bait? Now that’s just foul play!” whimpered Frigyes.
“The demon lord, or whoever summoned those swamp wolves, definitely gave them orders to go after anyone invisible. Uncovering is clearly pointless as well. Those things want us dead. God damn it!” said Lev angrily.
SPLASH!
SPLASH!
Kitezh couldn’t see it, but she knew her whole party just turned around to locate the sound. Two monstrous hairy blobs breach up to the air. Kitezh and the rest held their breath.
“Hold still. Do not move an inch,” said Kitezh. “The slightest ripple could set those wolves off right where we are.”
“Kitezh, if we can’t move, we can’t even fight back!” Marigold quietly cried. “They know we’re in the river. We have no way to swim back up!”
The swamp wolves looked around, but weren’t swimming. Suddenly, they opened their mouths. Out they vomited a black sludge.
“That quest. It said we were supposed to stop them from destroying the crops and contaminating the river! That sludge is from the magic of the demon lord. It will definitely kill us!” exclaimed Lev.
“It’s all your fault Lev for grabbing that quest! You made us all dead men now!” yelled Frigyes, now in a panic.
Ripples were showing. Frigyes accidentally exposed his location. The swamp wolves darted their eyes at the pier, and dove underwater.
“I-I’m going to attack! Electricity will do massive damage to the wolves, but we might not make it ourselves. If we’re going to die, they’re going down with us!”
Marigold was being serious.
“She wants to kill all of us, just to save a small town.” thought Kitezh. She looked at Marigold’s wand.
“Ice magic. Can you do that?” quickly said Kitezh.
“Yeah, but what’s the difference? We’ll freeze to death instead in this water!”
Dead men. Are they all going to be dead men? The black crept closer to Kitezh and the others. The wolves were weaving their way around the pillars. I no time, they will be caught and mauled by the large terrifying jaws.
“Yes, we’re all dead men”, said Kitezh. “And that’s exactly what we’ll be”
SPLASH!
A large eruption splattered the pier. The swamp wolves have locked on. There was a spear in the water. They paddled right to the spot, mouths wide open.
The wolves have snatched something in their mouths. They shook their heads rapidly, ripping apart what they have grabbed. The flesh they tore apart did not matter. They wanted to kill.
They opened their mouths again, and snapped back in the water, grabbing more they could find.
“FREEZE!”
ZAP!
Marigold shot a freezing magic beam into the water! In a puzzling situation, Marigold was standing on the pier, and blasting an icy ray straight into the water where the wolves were. A while cloud shook the water, until it settled into a clear block of ice. The two swamp wolves were frozen like statues.
“You did it, Marigold!” yelled Frigyes.
In a more puzzling situation Frigyes was completely naked in his underwear. In fact, Marigold was in her bra and panties. Lev, and even Kitezh were down to their underwear.
Kitezh put her hand on the ice. Slowly, she could see the colors of armor and the clothes fill the spaces in the ice.
“They were after anything that was invisible and had a scent. But, throw in one visible thing, and that’s all they were after. Once they grabbed the clothes, they were fully convinced they have gotten us.”
“It was a close call though. We were literally naked and exposed without the invisible clothing, if that makes any god damn sense.” Said Lev. “They were so distracted by the splash and the spear. In addition, the scent of the clothing on the surface was a great diversion as we swam underwater. One would be convinced they killed us.”
“Hey, um, I know you want to boast about our escape in great detail, but I’M NAKED!”
“Marigold, keep freezing the surrounding ice!” yelled Kitezh.
“But I’m freezing! Achoo!”
Marigold continues to blast the water with her freeze spell. It was like burning crème brulee with a blowtorch, except it was ice magic on water. While the blast of ice was white, the resulting ice became more black.
“We’ve got to contain as much of the poison vomit as possible.” said Kitezh. Marigold looked back and smiled at Kitezh, only to frown back at the ice as she was still fully exposed.
Kitezh looked at the wolves, and faced the bastion that faced the river.
“Both of those Swamp Wolves are the same size. They both tried to attack us in the same spot. Something isn’t right,” said Kitezh. “Frigyes, stand by Marigold. Lev, come with me to the bastion.”
“Can we switch spots, Lev?” pouted Frigyes.
“I’m okay with you staring at me, Frigyes. Are you getting flustered from my cute panties?” said Marigold in a cheeky way.
“Trust me, I won’t enjoy being around her”, said Frigyes to Kitezh despondently.
The stone stairway spiraled up to the upper level of the bastion. Kitezh felt the walls on the stairway.
“If those wolves went directly for me, then they aren’t just some dumb animals. They harbor intelligence and commands from someone from the demon lord.”
Kitezh turned to Lev.
“Can you listen to the walls?”
Lev slammed his head against the walls.
“The demon lord wouldn’t just give the same commands to a whole army and let them loose. There must be something leading them.”
Lev’s eyes widened and audibly gasped, like getting Kitezh’s attention. He quickly grabbed Kitezh and carried her on his shoulder.
The ground suddenly turned dark. There was a loud howl.
Kitezh jerked her head up in the sky. She saw it. And Swamp Wolf, but even more terrifying. One that was battle-scarred across the face. It was the size of the bastion itself, and leaped over the walls with ease. It was the alpha of the pack!
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