David was just starting to get into his stroll on the old trail. Tonight the woods seemed exceptionally clear. David assumed it was due to the bright moonlight from the full moon. Regardless, he could clearly see the trail as he hiked along the path.

After a few minutes of walking, David started to realize that he felt very comfortable. It wasn't a relaxing on the beach sort of comfortable either. It was similar to the comfort he felt when his mother hugged him earlier today. He felt a lifting of some of his life's burdens and worries as if someone was looking out for him.

"Maybe this is the "help" she mentioned," David couldn't keep himself from thinking.

After experiencing the feeling for the first 20 minutes of walking, David had the urge to just sit down and enjoy the night. He remembered that there was a nice rock outcropping a bit further down the trail. He always recalled this rock formation because it would reflect the moonlight nicely and was wonderful to lay down on for a break.

In a few minutes time, David saw the rock outcrop ahead and started to walk off the path to go relax. David laid down on the rock and closed his eyes. He felt wonderful relaxing on the rock at night. It was if he had become a part of the night. Slowly, he began to focus on the exceptional feeling.

David started to sense the hustle and bustle of the night time animals in the woods. He could feel everything around him in the darkness of the night. An owl's mostly silent wings beating the air as it chased down a mouse. The opposum digging into the nest of some ground dwelling bird to have a meal. The family of racoons moving like a pack along a creekbed to scavange for some food. A snake sitting motionlessly at the base of a tree waiting on something to walk by it. The predators were out in full force tonight. David enjoyed laying there watching the show through his special mental sense.

As David laid there relaxing, listening and watching the creatures of the night, he started to feel himself drift off and become a part of the night. He could feel everything going on around him as if he was some sort of omnipresent being. Nothing escaped this notice. If someone were to be able to see David in the darkness, all they would see is darkness with two starry eyes.

As he was sitting there feeling the best that he had ever felt in his life, an odd sound of static caught David off guard. He heard what appeared to be a radio break the natural sounds of the night. Sure enough, David could feel them moving through the night. There were a group of men spread out and walking through the woods as they just entered David's realm of perception.

These men seemed like soldiers and were decked out in various equipment from swords and bows to guns and grenades. Focusing in on the men, David began to get some clear information. The group of around 15 men were around 1,000 yards away and were slowly walking through the woods towards his family home.

David couldn't help but feel that something really bad was going to happen and worried for his parents. Just when he was about to stand up and run back to the house, he clearly heard one of the men speak.

"Grover, how long until the arrival time?", one man carrying a long sword on his back asked.

"The two cars that left the Carmine Estate should be here in around 3 hours. They should arrive just around midnight. We need to hurry to get in place for the ambush.", another man responded.

"What are we supposed to do with the people in the house?," the same guy asked.

"The boss said to leave no witnesses, so they can be killed once we are done with capturing Karine Carmine and killing the guards. We'll just burn the place to the ground before we leave," the other man responded.

David's mind went blank and he seemed to revert back into some sort of primal mindset. Someone was just casually talking about killing him and his parents. David felt an urge to violence build within him at the thought. He would not let someone hurt his mother and father. He would not allow it.

David slowly stood up on the rock and knew what he was going to do. The starry light in David's eyes began to shift from the light of stars to a dull red color of dried blood. He was going to stop these men from hurting his family at all costs. There was no thought of his own safety. He was the night. He was retribution. He was violent battle. David ran off into the dark woods in the direction of the group of men. If anyone was around, they would have been surprised. David shadow like form did not make a single noise when he moved off into the darkness. He had become a part of the night.

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After several minutes of stalking his prey, David finally figure out what the people's plans were for their attack. The group of 15 was going to split into five groups of three. These men weren't the strongest. By David's guess they were a mix of Class B warriors and mages. Two of the members seemed to be stronger than the rest. One older guy named Grover and one young mage named Winston seemed to be stronger than the rest. These two guys were probably Class A's.

Per what David could make from their discussions, two groups would be responsible for attacking Karine and her three personal guards. The other three groups would handle the other car full of other guards that had accompanied Karine on her trip. Apparently, she was on her way to see David which Kind of took him by surprise.

David had about two and a half hours until Karine's group arrived and all hell broke loose. After thinking the situation over, David finally decided upon a plan. He would try to kill them all for coming into the property...he didn't care about their strength...he had strength of his own.....and after all....Tonight was a night for predators in the dark.

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David had fought large groups of guards in his favorite repeater dream in the past. He had some confidence that he could at least take the majority of them down, so that Karine's group could easilily handle the rest. That way, his parents would be safe even if something happened to him.

Since he could feel himself blended into the darkness of night, David was going to do a modified version of the hit and run tactic that he enjoyed so much in his dreams. He would attack quick and aim for the most damage right away. Thankfully, the groups of assailants had spread out into different locations around the house and driveway. To David's delight, some of the men had even started to sleep to rest up for upcoming battle.

"Sleep", David thought as a grin emerged on his face, "that was very stupid on their part."

David walked back to safe distance away from the group of attackers. Finding a cozy spot in the crook of a tree, David sat down and snuggled into the crevice. His presence disappeared from the world as he closed his eyes and willed himself into the darkness of his dream realm. He was instantly floating in the darkness of his own personal dream space. With a quick focus, lights began to pop up all round him.

He could sense four lights in the nearby area and two lights off in the distance. Realizing who the two lights belonged to, David was thankful his parents were still okay and sleeping. His dark world seemed a bit different than in the past...or it would be safe to say that David saw it differently. He had an instinctual knowledge of how to use the space now, so the darkness felt like home.

"Some more of her help," David thought in recognition.

With this information in mind, He made his way over to his parent's dream orbs. He concentrated on the two orbs and reached to touch them. Somehow he knew that he could influence his parents through their dreams. With a few injections of his will, they would not wake up unless he wanted it to happen. He didn't want them to wake up from any noise related to the fighting. He wanted them to enjoy their sleep. He didn't want them to know about this Other world.

After a quick thought, he began to focus in on the other four dreams. He only had a little bit of time. Two of the lights were floating very close to one another. David realized that one group of three actually had two members that were asleep. This is perfect.

David floated over to the two glowing spheres. He wanted these people dead. Not just a normal death. A very violent death. But he had to be quick. Looking into one of the orbs, David saw a man sitting around a campfire with three other men. It looked like a few buddies on a camp out. It looked like it was a nice dream.

David instantly knew what he wanted to do. Reliving the dream where he first attached that man in the woods, David turned into a beast to massacre the group of men. When David felt that the originator of the dream was trying to wake up, he willed the dream to stay in place. The man couldn't resist David and was trapped within his own dream. David violently tore the man's body to pieces as the man screamed in pain and misery. As if David could feel it, the man's life was slowly fading away.

As the man was died, David reappeared in his dream world and felt a the man's residual mental strength wash over his body. It felt very nice to kill those who plotted against him....and it also made him stronger.

David then drifted over to the other dream orb. Peaking inside, David saw something that was unspeakable. This man was abusing children. Unending rage filled David at the sight and he reached up to grab the dream orb. Unlike before, he did not appear in the dream. His hands gripped the outside of the orb as it started to crush in David's grip. As the orb broke and shattered, David felt another surge enter his body. He had destroyed the man's soul. This time the power increase wasn't just a relaxing comfort like the others. It was if his soul's essence was strengthened. It had a much greater impact on his own mental strength and he could feel his mental power rising.

After coming back to his senses, David quickly proceeded to take out his retribution on the other two orbs. It only took around 20 minutes for David to kill four of the men that were planning to attack his house.

Now was time for the actual combat. He needed to move quickly before those still alive realized that they had already lost four teammates. David exited his dreamworld and quickly opened his starry eyes to sense the groups near him. Sure enough, one group had two corpses laying on the ground and one man standing a few yards away without any clue that his two team members had just been killed.

David quietly blended into the night and began to move towards the lone living team member. Slipping his knife out of its sheath on his side, David silently appeared directly behind the man. Before he could realize it, the last team member fell to the ground with a knife cut across his neck and a hand crushing his mouth into silence. David was thankful that he had practiced a few assassinations during the party dream, so he knew the basics of how to conduct himself. The key to assassinations is being quick and quiet.

"One group down, four more to go," David thought as he walked toward the next group.

David was surprised how easy killing had become to him. Honestly, this night was the first time that he had killed someone in real life. In the dream world, he had killed hundreds, but he never imagined that he would actually need to apply those skills to hunt people in the real world. Letting his thoughts distract him only for a second, David quickly went forward and dispatched the two groups that only had two members remaining. He used the same strategy for both groups.

He tied his knife to his walking stick to form a spear. David infiltrated the group in the location of the one dead member. Each group of three had positioned themselves in a triangle shape formation with a man at each of the corners. They expected that one of the team members would alert the other so no one could sneak up behind them. That formation didn't work if one of the team members was already dead and David easily get near them in the darkness.

Using the night, David would appear behind one man while thrusting his spear at the other man's throat. When the first man reacted to getting stabbed in the neck, David would drop the spear and get the other man in a headlock. It was pretty effective. After the man in the headlock passed out, David would go grab his spear and finish the pair off. After killing both pairs of remainders in this fashion, he was very pleased with the way the plan succeeded.

"Only 6 men left," David thought as he headed toward the two remaining groups.