Our group ran towards the fading glow in the dark forest, our boots silently traversing over the forest’s mossy floor. Thankfully, we’d all talked about sleeping in our gear in case we came under attack during the night, else it would have drastically slowed down our response. The glow grew fainter with each passing second as the party rushed to the rescue of whomever was holding the light source. Fighting against a pack of four feral dogs was hard enough as a group. In a rare moment of humanity I could imagine the fear this person felt as they were chased through the night alone. I drew my sword and slashed through the thicket separating our group from the grove in which the light was emitting. I could hear the snarls of the animals as they realized that their attack was being interrupted.

The blade of my sword shown silver in the dim light of the grove, its metallic sheen standing out like a beacon in the night. Seconds later I was flanked by Orion and Shiza both holding their respective weapons at the ready. In the dim glow of the light four dogs stalked just beyond the cover of the trees, their eyes glowing red as they snarled the group of newcomers. They formed a semicircle around the center of the grove as if trying to terrify their victim back into the blackened forest.

Their victim spun around to face the new threat our group presented, a small amber light swiftly darted in between us. Unexpectedly, the creature sitting in the middle of the grove and controlling the light was not the damsel in distress I’d been expecting. In front of us stood a small drake-like lizard no bigger than a housecat, it’s teeth bared as its eyes surveyed us as potential threats. The floating orb of light quickly centered itself above the drakes head as the feral dogs started to move into the opening. Turning back to the dogs while still trying to keep an eye on us the drake growled, its back arching in fear and anger. The creature itself was dark blue in color and had cobalt colored streaks running down its sides. Its leathery left wing was bent at a weird angle and it had several long gashes running down its tail, still bleeding profusely as it faced down the feral dogs.

The dogs, while more cautious now that we had shown ourselves, seemed undeterred by our presence and were slowly advancing on the small drake. Beside me I saw Shiza lift her staff up slightly and a faint glow surrounded the drake, the wounds on her tail sealing with the healing spell she had cast. It twisted its back to observe the newly regenerated scales. Slowly realizing what had happened, the drake started to back towards us while keeping its eyes on the dogs.

About halfway to us with the dogs shadowing its slowly closing the distance there was a loud crack from the forest canopy above us. Before they could react, two of the four feral dogs had been bisected. The other two began to flee on instinct but made it less than ten feet before they too were killed. I watched as the last dog was dragged backwards by its back two legs before its head was crushed between massive black jaws.

My vision lit up with notifications as the experience from the feral dog’s deaths leveled me to 3. I quickly slotted my ten new points into health before focusing back on the threat in front of me. The huge black figure in front of us turned its attention our way after finishing its quickly acquired meal, its red eyes locking on mine as the gore from its recent meal dripped onto the ground below its maw. They way it attacked, the way it stalked, and the way it looked all pointed to one creature that I’d encountered before. As I realized what I was staring at, a name appeared at the top of my vision, “Alpha Tardog”.

It had been a dangerous fight when we’d fought one before. My hand gripped my sword tighter as I remembered the speed at which the monster moved and the difficulty I’d experienced tracking it. Beside me Orion was shaking, likely thinking the same thing that I was. If it had been that hard of a fight during the day when we could see it, how were we going to combat this entirely black monster in the dark!?

The little drake seemed to have noticed the danger too, its single good wing flapping as if to test out whether flight was a viable escape. Unfortunately for it, the healing spell seemed to have not repaired the wing so it was stuck here with us. Shiza was entirely clueless about the situation initially, but after seeing the fear emanating from the rest of the group she began to understand the danger we were facing. Slowly, the Alpha receded past the edge of the illuminated meadow, disappearing into the pitch black recesses of the forest.

We stood there for what felt like hours, dew forming around our feet as we maintained our positions, ready for the assault we knew was to come. As if to make our situation worse, a thick fog had rolled over the forest, further hindering our ability to see. It was quiet, our small group standing in an outward facing circle. The drake’s eyes were beginning to droop under the strain of the night, who knows how long it’d been chased by the feral dogs or how much rest it had gotten.

Every small sound in the dark fog was met with flinches and darting eyes, paranoia filling the grove as if the fog itself had become its physical manifestation. Calmly I tried to focus, pushing out the fear and apprehension I tried to sense any skills activating. In that second I felt a one on the side Shiza guarded.

Without thinking I grabbed her arm and yanked her towards me and onto the ground. A black mass blurred past my vision as I jabbed my sword into its side, slicing muscle and pelt as the monster passed. The alpha soared over the small drake who’d been opposite of Shiza but short enough to avoid the lunge and landed on the other side of our circle. It roared in pain as it spun to face us, its red eyes again locking onto mine as it lunged again. Dodging to the side I was able to avoid a direct bite to the neck, but a glancing blow by its shoulder sent me flying over the still grounded Shiza.

Dazed, I tried to get up, my head raising to see the alpha charging my position. Separated from the group I was easy prey as long as I was on the ground. Suddenly, a small flame appeared on the side of the tardog’s face and quickly spread around its epicenter. The alpha wore a surprised look as he plowed his face into the ground in an attempt to snuff out the fire. I stored the knowledge that these things were weak to fire for another time as I got back to my feet and regained my composure.

I felt a small amount of relief as I began my charge forward again, the damage I’d taken began slowly regenerating as I worked out I was being healed. My sword came down on the monster's head while it was still wrapped in rapidly extinguishing flames. The creature yelped before jumping backwards and unexpectedly taking another wound from Orion’s spear tip. Leaping to its side to escape the onslaught it once again disappeared into the forest.

Reforming our circle we once again waited. Beyond the fading glow of the orb of light we could hear the monster yowling in pain while dealing with the seared skin on its face. After a few minutes of silence the small drake summoned another orb of light, much brighter than the first. The drake immediately fainted from lack of mana and the circle closed around it.

I felt another ability activate right above us and grabbed Orion’s spear out of his hands, barely managing to lodge its butt in the ground before feeling it rend its way through flesh and bone as something landed on top of it. The weight slid down the shaft before landing on top of my head and knocking me unconscious.

The dreamscape was filled with horrors of all kinds. Clashing giants in arenas filled with blood, hounds of fire clawing their way out of the ground, and black serpents the size of buildings flooding villages with their venom. The truly hellish landscape was as vivid as it was brutal, as the terrified clung to the dead in vain attempts to end the horror. Black tar ran through the streets as the city walls acted as both a faucet and a bowl, spewing the tar forth and filling the city with the toxic liquid. People of all races drowning in the thick gooey substance as they struggled to keep their heads above the surface. Just as the bowl was half filled the tar ignited charring the bodies of anyone who’d managed to remain above it and choking the air with deadly fumes. I could hear a soothing voice beckoning me to wake up, “Ancient terrors never rest.” The fire burned brightly as my vision faded to black.

I gasped as my senses returned to me, suddenly hyper-aware of the pain coursing through my body. The worst pain was coming from my left arm which after further inspection, I found to have multiple deep puncture wounds that had punctured between the plates of my armor and serrated the muscle underneath. I likely would have lost the arm without the armor which had been heavily dented in a straight line across front and back. My neck ached from the impact it had taken prior to passing out and the dizziness I felt was probably because I had a concussion.

My back was against the ground laying next to the spear shaft. The spear had been embedded into the ground by the weight of the alpha that was now impaled by it, its body suspended halfway up the length of the spear. The light of the morning illuminated my hellish surroundings. Red blood mixed with black tar was scattered under the carcass, still dripping down onto my body from above. A pool of my own blood streamed from the openings in my shoulder, blanketing the grass underneath me and seeping between the segmented back plates of my armor. My health blinked rapidly at a measly three.

Unable to move I began to survey the still foggy grove with my back against the ground. Orion laid a few feet away, knocked out but seemingly unharmed. Shiza was lying about 20 feet away from the spear, the right side of her clothes soaked in the blood seeping from a gash in her arm, also unconscious but she would live. The only one that was stirring was the small blue drake tat had passed out before the end of the fight.

I watched weakly as it approached me before gathering up enough strength to speak, “Quite the fight we put up huh little one. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t attack me while I was down.” I laughed weakly.

When it finally got to my side it looked down at my arm before meeting my gaze. Turning around it trotted towards Shiza. Before I knew what was happening my vision started to fade again, my health had just dropped to two. I struggled to keep my eyes open as I watched the creature jump on Shiza’s arm.

The yell of pain wasn’t even enough to bring me back to my senses as I watched the drake tug on the ripped portion of Shiza’s clothing. What was left of my willpower shifted my focus back towards my own health.

I faded to black as my health hit 1…

Alyx

Wrorine (Level 3)

63/300 Experience

60/60 Health ----

60/60 Stamina ------

20/20 Mana --

30/30 Spirit ---

‘0’ Stat Points Available

Racial Ability - Locked

Skills: (Rapid Experience) (Dagger G) (Botany G) (Healing G) (Activation Detect) (Sword G) (Shield G) (Corrupt Rage)