‘Something’s seriously wrong here!’ Dante’s senses were warning of potential danger, he just couldn’t determine what it was or where the danger would come from.

He had been following Waya through the Woods for a short while. The whole time there was a lingering smell of blood in the air that grew increasingly worse as he continued to follow behind the wolf. His eyes darted around the woods, trying to sense the source of the danger. His heightened anxiety didn’t help, everything looked like it could be the cause. Shadows cast by trees and bushes were causing him to imagine all sorts of dangers, he still hadn’t quite recovered from the trauma of being hunted.

The lingering fetid metallic smell permeated throughout the woods. He was preparing himself mentally for the worst.

Waya began to slow down, she was panting heavily and steam was visibly rising from her body. She was clearly tired from rushing ahead and her frantic searching. Her body language indicated that she was anxious about something too. Dante slowed his pace, walking up to her side to check on her.

A nauseating wave of fresh blood rushed into his nostrils, he practically choked on the thick smell of it in the air. ‘Whatever it is, it must be nearby!’

Taking a more proactive approach, he dashed ahead of Waya, making his way to the source of the smell. Visible not too far away was a silhouette of something that vaguely resembled the corpse of a wolf. Dante cautiously approached what appeared to be the cause of the smell, intending to investigate and gather clues.

The silhouette began to reveal itself to be the remains of a wolf, it appeared to have been killed by some horrific means. He knelt before the distorted husk of a wolf's body, he couldn’t quite make sense of what he was looking at.

The corpse as best he could tell, seemed to have been squeezed or crushed to death. The contents of this wolf’s body were not immediately visible in the surrounding area, by the looks of it, something must have eaten this wolf while it was still alive. There was one eye dangling from its socket, dried blood crusted around its mouth. 'This is fucked up, what could have caused this?'

The smell was too strong to account for this one corpse, there had to be more nearby. Lifting his head and tearing his vision away from the unsightly corpse, he started to survey his surroundings. Having a rough idea of what to look out for, he was aghast at the realisation that the woods were littered with wolf corpses, scattered around him and Waya were the ragged remains of multiple wolves that had all suffered a similar fate.

As he scanned around them for the potential perpetrator, his eyes settled on a slowly shifting figure that could be seen in the distance. The silhouette of a large creature was hunched over itself, Dante had no idea what it could be. It didn't take long for him to figure out that this must have been the cause of all the horror that surrounded them.

His senses were screaming at him to run, but his curiosity overrode what his body was telling him to do. Dante tried to focus his perception in the direction of the movement, what he saw caused him to tremble.

There were distant muffled whimpering noises accompanied by slurping and crunching. The monster lifted a wolf that weakly struggled in its grasp, it brought the wolf above its head, then started squeezing the unfortunate creature like a tube of paste. Dante watched in frozen fear and disgust as the whole grotesque event unfolded before him. The insides of a wolf spilt into the creature's gaping void of a mouth, it shook out the last few drops until it was satisfied there was no more to be had. It carelessly tossed the remnants of the wolf aside. The creature started to shift and look around for its next prey

It must have sensed that it was being observed, its head swivelled around in their direction. A ghastly alien-looking creature faced Dante and Waya, from the distance it didn’t appear to have eyes. He could make out its mouth which shifted and rotated with rows upon rows of teeth that were in concentric rings like lampreys. Small flickering tentacle appendages moved around its head, taking an interest in Dante and Waya, they appeared to frantically flail around to determine their exact location. He didn’t allow himself the time to take in the rest of its appearance, his screaming senses finally overrode all other thoughts. “WAYA RUN!!!”

Dante took off running, not daring himself to look back. As he rushed ahead his senses allowed his vision to pierce through the darkness. Everything was more a dull grey, with different tones and the smallest hints of colour. There was a wind blowing into his eyes that made tears spill down his face, his speed must have been at least 60 kilometres an hour. He had to dodge and weave through the branches, bushes, trees and other obstacles that seemingly threw themselves at him as he was travelling so fast.

The fear of the unusual creature caused his brain to short circuit, it was so alien to him, nothing he had ever recognised. At least he could interpret what the kobolds were but this creature was beyond his comprehension. ‘It’s a real fucking monster! A monster!’ His panicked thoughts scrambled his brain preventing him from coming up with a coherent plan. ‘Wait, where’s Waya?!’

****

Waya heard Dante scream and then take off at a speed so fast she could barely keep up. She didn’t see whatever he had seen, but the fear and panic in his face were enough to know it couldn’t be good. Dante was gradually disappearing into the dark of the woods, fear started to grip her as she felt abandoned again, which seemed to be a habit of Dante’s.

She was so tired from her earlier run, so caught up in anticipation of finding her brother, she had tapped into reserves that were usually saved for situations like this. Her muscles started seizing, her breath was getting caught in her throat. Waya had to take long deep breaths as she ran as fast as she could, but she could tell that it wasn’t enough. A crashing sound of something tearing its way through the woods was following directly behind her.

‘He’s leaving me behind!’ Her worried thoughts about being abandoned, first her brother and now this hideless who she was just beginning to make friends with. ‘No, he won’t leave me!’ She retracted her previous thoughts, recalling how she thought he had left her in the church before and he saved her at the crucial moment.

Waya then heard something that made her hackles rise, a resonating cry that hurt her ears, screeched through the woods. The cracking of tree branches from above her gave her cause for panic. She dared to glance at the trees above her, to her dismay, she saw a disgusting creature with patches of fur that obscured a lizard-like body. This monster was easily leaping between the branches, jumping from tree to tree as easily as she ran on the ground.

Every so often a tree branch would break under its weight, it would dig its claws into the bark scrambling for balance before continuing the chase. She happened to also catch a glimpse of its head, flailing tendrils around its mouth seeking out its prey, leading it towards Waya. ‘It’s face! What in the name of Fenrir is wrong with its face! It has so many teeth!’

Waya fought past the seizing muscles, breaking through the wall of her tiredness and pushing her body past its limits. The creature easily kept pace, frustrated that it hadn’t caught her yet, it let out another screech that reverberated through the woods. She winced when the soundwaves struck her, all she felt was excruciating pain, like claws digging deep into her ears. The pain caused her whole world to twist and turn as if she had been chasing her tail, she stubbed her paw into the ground and felt the world spin as she tumbled over herself. Waya quickly regained her footing and took off again, for a moment she felt the slightest breeze on her back as the creature’s clawed hand tried to seize her.

Squeezing her eyes shut temporarily in a vain attempt to ignore the pain for just the briefest of moments.

The woods that was supposed to be her domain, her home, a place she felt safe in, suddenly betrayed her. A low branch reached out into Waya’s path of escape clipping her forepaws. She tripped and tumbled, rolling over herself several times.

The woods and starry sky spun in circles, flecks of stars flickered into her vision. She shook her head and tried to get up. But the creature was already descending on her from above, the teeth in its mouth rotating in circles, ready to shred her body and suck out her insides.

Its hand reached out to her as her paws scrambled on the soft earth trying to gain purchase to escape her predicament. A hairy long lizard-like claw stretched out almost reaching her chest in an attempt to impale her.

A bright orange beam lit up the woods, it appeared like a shooting light falling from the sky at night. So fast and gone before she had a moment to realise what was going on. Blinking her eyes to clear her vision to see what had happened. Her eyes quickly regained clarity, taking in her surroundings in the darkness. Her ears were numb and bleeding from a constant resounding screech. The creature held its arm, its claws were crumpled with orange shards of crystallised mana embedded in it. The creature’s head shifted towards the source of the orange beam, locking onto the thing that caused its anguish, it bolted off the ground heading towards Dante.

****

In Dante’s frenzied attempt to escape the monster he had outpaced Waya, it was easy to forget how much his attributes had enhanced his body in the past few days. He turned around, not ready to abandon her regardless of the circumstances. Heading back towards the frightening nightmare-inducing creature, he calmed his mind and readied himself to confront the monster with his recently acquired abilities.

He saw Waya heading towards him, she was looking up into the trees. He raised his eyes to intercept what she was looking at, it was the abomination hurtling through the woods above her. Awed by the sight of the dextrous creature that scrambled and jumped between the trees, easily keeping pace with Waya. It appeared to be a cross between the Kobolds, Wolves and maybe some other things he couldn’t pinpoint. ‘What in the hell is this thing?’

Internally he was cheering Waya on, he needed a moment to try and come up with a plan. He took several spears out of his ring and stabbed them into the ground around him. Crouching he took aim, directing the palm of his hand towards the creature, ready to shoot an enhanced mana bolt at it.

Waya seemed to get tripped by a branch, his heart skipped a beat as she rolled and tumbled, coming to a dead stop. The creature seized the opportunity and jumped towards her with its hand outstretched. Dante worried about hitting Waya but he had to take the chance.

He spent 3 points of mana charging up his shot and releasing it in an instant, his arm lashed backwards from recoil. A twinge of pain in his shoulder. The orange projectile streaked through the air smashing into the monster's hand, to Dante’s astonishment, the projectile shattered. Fortunately, The hardened mana mangled the creature's fingers, rendering them useless and causing it some distress.

In response to his attack, the creature retaliated with a deafening sonic attack that caused him to clamp his hands on his ears in pain. ‘The projectile shattered? It’s not strong enough?! It blew a fucking deers head off!’ his thoughts spun, unable to reconcile the fact that his new ability wasn’t up to par to tackle this creature. It could maim it but not outright kill it.

Seeing the creature look in his direction, it shot forward faster than before as if previously it was only playing when it was chasing Waya, but now it was serious.

‘Fuck this! I’ll get serious too then’ as the thought occurred to him, he grew light orange claws from his hands readying himself to get into a melee fight. While the creature continued speeding its way towards him. He grabbed a spear and launched it, hearing a whistling sound as it shot through the air towards the monster. The monster attempted to dodge, yet was clipped by the spear, drawing a tiny scratch across its shoulder.

Dante repeated the manoeuvre, launching one spear after the other, each time leaving mere scratches on the creature as it easily utilized the environment to avoid his attacks. Climbing through trees, jumping to the ground, launching to a tree then immediately springboarding itself off a tree towards him.

The monster was almost upon him. He ceased his attacks that were nullified by the monster's incredible defences and quick movements. The attacks weren't entirely useless, they managed to slow the creature down a small amount, giving him the opportunity to move behind the thick trunk of a tree. He kept one eye on the creature, ensuring he was aware of its current position, but to also prevent it from using its momentum to crash into him.

He could hear the creatures unnatural rattled breathing now, it dropped to the floor and ran dragging its useless hand behind it. The monster used its one good hairy lizard claw to grab at a tree branch, its momentum suddenly shifted allowing the creature to move to Dante’s side. The creature was trying to flank him, Dante responded by sidestepping around the tree to maintain a barrier between them. He felt the ground rumble as the horrific creature barreled towards him with ground shaking footsteps.

The creature collided with the opposite side of the tree, small broken branches and leaves rained down around them. The tendrils around its mouth sought out Dante with frustration, knowing he was nearby. The monster then lashed its clawed arm which stretched out and wrapped around the tree, sharp claws barely missed him.

Dante stumbled backwards to avoid more blows, the creature seizing its opportunity stepped past the tree, removing the obstacle that separated them and causing Dante to lose his advantage. Dante’s heart thundered, he felt suddenly exposed now that he no longer had the benefit of cover, the creature screeched and charged at him. The stench of blood and carrion blasted towards Dante, stifling his senses as he tried to hold back his gag reflex.

Dante took a defensive posture, lowering his centre of mass and giving the creature less of a target as it charged towards him. They collided into each other with a bone-cracking crash, his claws barely penetrated the creature’s stomach, drawing a small amount of blood.

His free hand met the creatures as they both attempted to attack each other simultaneously, when the hands collided a thunderous noise rang out in the woods. Dante felt his fingers snap back and several of the claws on his hand cracked and split, breaking off pieces and reducing their effectiveness. Two of his fingers were snapped at odd angles, causing his hand to become almost completely useless in this fight. They both stared at each other with their injured hands, Dante grimacing and the creatures thoughts unknowable. ‘Fuck me?! I can’t catch a break. First the projectile and now my claws!’

The creature leaned forward, giving Dante the pleasure of a clear view of the lamprey face, causing him to retch at the smell. His eyes reflected rotating concentric rings of shark-like teeth, its rancid breath blowing flecks of rotten meat and saliva onto Dante’s face. Removing his hand from the creature's stomach, twisting his body and using all the leverage and weight into a clawed upper-cut. His hand struck its face, shutting its mouth in an explosion of crystalized mana, blood and teeth, shoving its disgusting head away from him.

The creature let out another bloody screech as it stumbled away from Dante, startled by the sudden pain as it clawed its face, trying to remove shards of crystalised mana that had remained embedded in its skin after the strike.

Dante took a moment to look at his hands, between both of his hands 6 of the 10 claws were shattered or broken off completely. He only had four left. “Fuck, FUCK!”

The creature's hide was proving to be far too tough. It continued to stumble backwards, grabbing onto the trees around it to regain its balance. The lamprey monster recovered from the blow then stared at Dante, lowering its centre of gravity in preparation to launch itself at him again.

A shadow leapt out of from behind some bushes, jumping to his aid. Dante felt relief that she had recovered from her tumble, but concern for her well being after the trouble he had fighting this creature.

He watched as Waya landed on the creature's back and tried to bite into its neck and spine, the tough hide resisted her attempts to clamp her teeth down. Her teeth just slipped on the creature's hide, flossing her teeth through its disgusting matted fur. Using her body weight she dug her claws into its back and slid down, as she slid down she managed to leave long raked claw marks. Although the distraction proved effective, the actual damage was negligible.

“Get back Waya!” Dante waved his arms, gesturing for her to get away from the monster before it retaliated. Understanding flashed across her face and she moved far away from the creature, she hid partially behind a tree using the same tactic Dante had used earlier.

While Waya had been distracting the creature for him, Dante had made preparations for his next attack. He made some distance between himself and the fighting pair.

Readying himself for what was to come, he reached behind his back, removing the staff from its sling. The creature was indecisive about who to attack before another orange bolt of mana struck its face piercing its beady black eye. The projectile shattered again, embedding many broken shards of hardened mana all over its face. The creature thrashed and released a wretched screech that caused Dante to clasp his head between his hands, blood dripping from his ears and nose. Waya dug her head into the ground trying to fold her ears down and cover them with her paws.

Once Dante had recovered, he saw the creature was about to run towards him while he and Waya were distracted by the debilitating attack.

Dante recovered his senses enough to take a firm hold of the staff, he thought ‘This has to work!’

“FUCK YOU! FIREBALL!!”