We move forward in bursts, stopping every few seconds to make sure nothing had spotted us or moved into our path. My Stamina pool is fairly large, but Hide hasn’t gotten almost any training since I got it, and I think it actually drains me faster when Kaythe is on me. The combined effects make sure I’m sweating and barely resisting panting after only a few minutes. Lauren seems mostly unbothered, of course, and I’m sure it’s only in the interest of not exposing us that she doesn’t tease me mercilessly.

Before we’re even halfway there, my Stamina bar is blinking red, and I tap Lauren to call a rest. We wait silently, but without the system’s help with hiding, I notice the static-laden figures start to gravitate towards us, gathering into a kind of mob. Lauren wasn’t kidding earlier, there are a lot of these things. Now that they’re moving with more purpose, I start to get a general idea of their body shapes, and everything I see horrifies me. They shouldn’t exist. Their bodies are too thin to support themselves without breaking, and yet, they move with surprising grace. I don’t know what they look like without the static covering them, but I’m sure I don’t want to. After just a minute of rest, we move out again. My Stamina isn’t full, but the static creatures are getting too close for comfort. Hopefully they lose track of us, but we stop less frequently anyway. With about a quarter of the way left, I have to stop again. My muscles shake from effort I don’t quite understand. For my part, I’m just moving low to the ground, but every step feels like twenty steps through deep snow. I don’t know how the system hides me, but it’s one of the best workouts I’ve had since I’ve been here… if only I didn’t desperately need every ounce of strength to survive right now. The one saving grace is how, periodically, notifications alert me that I’m getting better at hiding, and the steps drain me a little bit less each time. The static monsters are almost everywhere now, and the moment we drop out of stealth, the shapes start moving quickly towards us. It’s no longer a question of stealth, they’re too close and closing too fast.

“Lauren we need to run. Now.” Without waiting for an answer, I take off. I try reaching into Kaythe’s vision to make sure I’m not about to run into anything, but I end up stumbling the moment I start to transition. I have no breath to curse, but I desperately want to.

I hear Lauren’s steps close behind me. “Kaythe, steer me away from the static.”

*Clack* (I will)

Our path snakes, even doubling back once, and the terror that grips my heart is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. All around me, I can hear an almost friendly laughter, accentuated by the occasional sound of a step too close for comfort. Our path becomes more and more complicated as we move deeper into the pressing fog, and although Kaythe’s eye can pierce it, mine struggle. I can only rely on my friend to guide us. I don’t want to think about how fucked we are if he fails.

The laughter suddenly gets very loud, and Kaythe nearly knocks me over while shifting his weight. I feel a slight breeze on my skin, hearing a fast moving object passing right where my head had been.*CLICK* (Sword now!) I don’t pause, but I only get halfway through drawing before I hear a rapid series of Kaythe’s noises, but instead of words, they communicate an exact area in space, and an angle. I’m confident that my normal intelligence would have been insufficient to handle that much information while actively running for my life, but my brain holds information like a steel trap now. I turn my draw into a diagonal, one-handed slice through almost the exact area Kaythe conveyed, and meet with immediate resistance… then blood. My shock isn’t enough to interrupt me, up until the moment the vision disrupting skill this monster was using to conceal itself falls. My instincts scream at me to move back or keep running, but I’m frozen, looking at the now bisected halves of the single most horrifying creature I’ve ever seen. The skin is wrong, the body has sharp edges that stick out through it, creating horrifying wounds that drip yellow pus. The laughter also changes, becoming darker and lower toned. Even as its legs fall aimlessly to the ground, this terrifying creature lashes out, grabbing my leg.

[Warning! Y-]

The notification cuts off as I slice through its head and arm, along with a lot of dirt. Fortify pounds through my body, and I couldn’t say when it activated. My mind is blank with fear, and only a shove and scream from Lauren get me moving again. I run, fighting to return enough presence of mind to let Kaythe guide me better. I hear Lauren grunt, and the sound of flesh being severed, followed by the telltale popping of her fire poison. The laughter has been getting slower and deeper as we’ve been running, and at this point, it sounds like a record being played far too slowly. All of a sudden, Kaythe stops guiding. *c...click* (Surrounded by danger… I fear.) Fortify has been running nonstop, consuming all my Energy, and I’m dimly aware that I don’t have much left… but the fear won’t let me drop it. It won’t turn off.

“Lauren! Fight! We’re surrounded!”

“I can’t see anything!”

“I know- I can’t- There’s nothing-” Something grabs my arm, and I’ve severed the source before I even know what’s happened. Only the hours of training are with me now, almost no thought. Kaythe tries to indicate places to attack, dodge, whatever, but my brain isn’t working properly, and it’s been getting worse.

My Energy reaches the last few points, and the world around me explodes with light. Around me, tens of the horrible, rotted messes recoil with pained laughter, and I waste no time slaughtering as many as I can. With something disrupting their camouflage, they fall like flies. They rely too heavily on being unseen, so they’re inept at dodging, and whatever’s blinding them keeps them from doing even that with any frequency. The seconds tick down, and I feel my consciousness struggling. I can’t stop. If all of these aren’t dead before I fall, that’s it. And with Fortify still refusing to deactivate, I have no time.

My vision darkens, clouding in from the edges until all I have is a tiny window right where I’m focussing.

“-okay, it’s okay. Shh… calm down. We’re good, they’re gone.” My sword falls from my grasp, and I see Lauren’s bloody, smiling face.

“Oh.” I mutter, dumbly. “Good.” My last sensation is of arms wrapping around me as I crumple.