Branches tore at my cloak as I ran toward the scream. I had no reason to follow it just enough curiosity to know what was going on and the blood was still wet on my hands from my last slaughter, crimson droplets marking my trail like breadcrumbs
A second scream ripped through the silence, much closer this time. I vaulted over a fallen tree and slid down a slope, my boots skidding over dead leaves as I stopped everything went still, and I saw it
It floated above the earth, silent and enormous not massive in the way a beast is massive, but in the way a shadow is present suffocating, inescapable, like death itself was standing before me like a inevitably truth
Its torso had the vague shape of a man, but the illusion shattered when I saw its arms. Dozens of them, pale and serpentine, sprouted from its back like a nest of vipers. They twitched and writhed in the air, curling as if sniffing for blood each moved independently, as though each knew its own way to move...kill
When my gaze shifted on its face or the lack of one was worse it had no eyes, no nose, no mouth. Just a smooth canvas of wax-pale flesh, like something that had never needed to see or speak tendrils slithered along its scalp and neck like living hair, undulating with deliberate, sentient motion
Its lower half unraveled into what at first seemed like robes, then I realized it had golden eyes opening and closing inside the folds like tiny predators in the dark, blinking with malevolent intelligence
And above its head a ring, Black, metallic, rotating slowly, as if orbiting an unseen sun Three small beads floated beside the ring, smooth and polished like moons i didn't know what they did, but their mere presence sent ice through my veins
Looking at it, one specific thought overshadowed all others regret I...I shouldn't have followed the scream
My fingers tightened around my blades
The girl lay half-conscious behind the creature, slumped against the roots of an ancient tree.
She was bleeding from the shoulder, barely breathing, but still seems alive around her lay hundreds of knights, torn in half or with perfect holes punched through their armor. The ground was saturated with blood
Jaipa emerged beside me that creature still hadn't noticed us yet, and that was the most relief I'd felt since entering this cursed place i turned to my companion and whispered, "Run" greeting my teeth
I said it not out of concern for him there was a reason behind it we move at the same time, we could be discovered without much efforts i could escape using my square and move between trees, but Jaipa couldn't do that i was merely ensuring my life wouldn't become further entangled with this monster
He hesitated "You're joking "
"I said "RUN ! "
Something in my voice must have cut through, because the next second he was gone, vanishing into the trees. The moment his presence disappeared, the monster's head twitched, and those beads moved...
I didn't blink or i couldn't but they were already gone vanished from the air with a sharp crack of displaced wind and in that instant, my instincts screamed to run, to do anything but fight
I dove sideways just as a jagged spike tore through the air one of the beads hit the tree where I'd been hiding at its impact, the massive trunk collapsed, leaving a gaping hole i landed hard, rolled, and sprang to my feet, staring at the destruction in horror
" Crap ! "
One of the beads hovered beside me now, shuddering with kinetic energy a moment later, the other two reappeared before me The sheer power of these beads far exceeded my own
They started to hunt me like living things
Before I could reposition, one launched toward me like a arrow i twisted and draw my blade slashing upward steel rang out as the bead redirected in mid air, changing its angle, moving as if it had no concept of inertia and it was fast too fast
It slammed into my shoulder, barely blocked by my blade Still i heared a sound of bone cracking, I was thrown backward into a tree as my eyes become clear again Pain lanced through my body as bark exploded behind me i hit the ground and coughed blood
Without giving me even a second's rest, another bead came flying
I pushed off the ground with a grunt and gathered my Tai energy, forcing it into my limbs, The air grew sharp, the forest distorting around the edges. I barely had dodged the next strike by inches, then lashed out with a pulse of Tai from my palm
The bead veered back but didn't fall. It didn't even bear a scratch
" Again this same things !.... this worthless luck of mine " They seemed immune to direct force. Looking at the monster, it still hadn't moved
It floated there, twitching its arms its head was tilted slightly to the left, watching me as a predator watches its prey not because it feared me, but because it was curious about how much I could struggle. Like a child observing a trapped insect
The third bead blurred toward me i was ready this time. I stepped in instead of away, ducked under it, tai energy coiling through my legs. Then I slid low and threw my blade at the creature behind
The blade spun with deadly precision, slicing through air with a whisper, heading directly toward its featureless face. The monster tilted its head again and, with a single arm extended lazily from its side, caught the blade mid-flight
The metal vibrated against its hand, the edge of my weapon sparking against its pale skin. Then it let it fall my blade like it was saying to me Play with your toy and entertain me....
The ground beneath my feet cracked with a sound that echoed through the forest.
I formed my square, drawing my wodden blade. If the beads were immune, I'd go straight for the source
I crossed the distance between us in an instant and struck my blade connected and it just passed through its body with no resistance, no impact i felt like I was slicing through fog. It wasn't an illusion I definitely felt the resistance of the air, but there was no mass
And then pain exploded in my back
I was hurled forward by a whip-like arm that came from behind me i hit the earth, tumbling, and struggled to my feet, coughing as blood spilled from my mouth
It had let me come close, just to see what I'd do just to learn as a child lets an insect run across its palm. That was the moment I realized two things one, it was still playing with me if it wanted, I should have died a thousand times by now and second, this wasn't just a beast it could think like an intelligent being like a upgraded version of monster's
The three beads floated back to it, circling the ring above its head like loyal familiars
Then again, those fuckin... beads moved
I shouldn't say fucking I am not an adult yet...haaaaaa
One moment it was floating thirty feet away and the next second, it was inches from my face
I couldn't even see it move. I " felt " it like gravity shifting, like the air folding in on itself ahead of me
It raised a hand no, five hands and struck down i threw everything I had into defense Tai energy exploded outward, a dome of compressed force wrapping around me. The first impact shattered it. The second broke my ribs like candy
And the third flung me like a ragdoll into a tree trunk
I collapsed, unable to breathe my Tai energy sputtered around me, wild and unstable Within a heartbeat, dozens of arms twisted in the air above me like reapers
That creature still hadn't made a sound
Then it turned its head toward the girl
Its limbs moved toward her, and for me I saw an opportunity to run....