As mentioned earlier in this book, monsters are ranked based off of what tier of dungeon they may appear in. Anything below F- rank is generally considered a magical pest rather than a monster. An F- rank creature is usually considered to be something capable of defeating a level ten adult man or woman without combat training or abilities. Equivalent creatures in our old world might be tigers or crocodiles. These creatures are generally seen as threats, but are regularly handled by untrained militias with little danger to the militia members’ lives. An F rank creature is a qualitative leap in strength by comparison. These creatures are known to be deadly to any untrained group and it is highly recommended that they be avoided until an adventurer deals with them. Few creatures of this ranking or above lack magic. – History of a New Age, pg 60

As Elijah’s blade cut deep into the Ghoul Bears left foreleg, he felt the magic of his strike go to work. It began to drain blood from the wound, forming a stream of the ruby liquid that ran out of the pommel of his sword. The flow of ichor fed into a rapidly forming bubble above and behind his head. The spell description called this bubble a “Blood Well” and the Voice had said it could be used to fortify his other spell or as fuel for his Sacrifice spell.

The blow roused the beast’s ire, releasing a growl of rage dragging its attention away from the large set of steel jaws digging into its rear leg. It tried to lunge toward him, but multiple chains ran from the bear trap and connected to multiple trees in the area. The monster was strong but the restraint held, preventing the beast from simply tearing away and ripping Elijah to shreds. Straining at the cage for only a moment before recognizing the futility of the situation, the creature grunted and turned. The action was savage and caused the wound to tear further open, but it also ripped Elijah’s sword out of his hand. At the same time, some of the purple and silver cloud surrounding the bear formed large spectral echoes of its already intimidating claws.

It brought the claws smashing down on the first of the three chains, grunting with exertion as it worked to free itself. The deadly ghoul magic sheathing the things claws smashed into the chain, doing nothing before continuing on into the ground below. When the energy made contact with the grass beneath the creature’s feet, it instantly withered and died. While the magic had failed to have any impact on the chains, the physical claws took large chunks out of the metal links. A second contemptuous swipe, this time without the spectral claws, resulted in only two of the beast’s bindings remained.

Elijah had not been idle while it did this. He had begun circling around the monster, hoping to reclaim his lost weapon. Seeing his actions, the creature spun and attempted to gore Elijah with the large horn protruding from its right shoulder. He was forced to jump backwards and out of range of the bound monster, giving up any chance of reclaiming his weapon at that moment. Thankfully the remaining two chains held as it lunged forward, preventing the enraged beast from simply charging after him.

Seeing Elijah escape unscathed and roaring in outrage, more of the purple and silver energy was drawn away from the creature’s aura. The energy congealed into a swirling ball of power in front of the creature’s mouth and Elijah could feel the deadly intent wrapped up in the attack. Fleeing toward a nearby ditch, he flung himself behind cover before the monster had a chance to finish preparing its foul magic.

Moments later a beam of pure black blasted through the spot he had been standing. The magic had been oily and seemed like the antithesis of light, sucking away what little illumination was present this late in the night. Missing Elijah, the beam clipped a tree and a portion of the trunk easily the size of his head was simply gone. Rotted away in an instant. The attack was similar to what the foxes and alpha rats produced, but much more powerful. The only saving grace was how long it seemed to take the bear to prepare.

The creature itself seemed content that it had driven Elijah back, and was turning back to the chains keeping it captive. Taking his chance, Elijah charged back in and ripped his sword from the beast’s foreleg. Much of the blood that had coated the blade was gone now, but he quickly replenished the weapons reserves from his Blood Well. Rearmed, Elijah was just wondering if he had time for another attack on the Ghoul Bear when he heard a great popping sound and watched the monster wrench the trap free of its chains.

Eyes blazing with purple light, the creature charged at him once again and Elijah was forced to continue running and dodging through the woods. The trap hadn’t lasted him long, and the monster itself seemed almost no worse for wear, but he had accomplished his goal. He had landed his first hit on the creature and bought time for his debuffs to take effect. Even now his armor was aggressively draining blood from the bear’s wound, slowly strengthening his protection against the creature.

It wouldn’t be enough to save him of course, not if he was caught right now. The bear’s claws would tear through him like he was paper. Its strength had to be absolutely herculean to tear through inch long steel links like it had. Dodging and weaving through the trees while being chased by the enraged bear, he couldn’t help but laugh a little. This is what happens when you just dive into things Elijah. You get nasty surprises.

That had not been the only bear trap of course. He had been rather thorough in filling the surrounding forest with as many traps as he could. Limited only by how many individual locations he could remember, he had aggressively spent points to turn the entire area into a maze of sixteen inch diameter, spring powered steel jaws. If he stepped in one of the traps himself, he was as good as dead. Remembering every location, or creating some other warning for himself, was absolutely vital. All told, about two dozen of the metal jaws were hidden near various memorable landmarks in the surroundings.

Alright, there is the dead tree lying on top of the boulder which means the trap is…there! Sprinting quickly, he leaped the bear trap hidden right at the end of the fallen log. He slowed as he passed the spot, turning into the blind spot the trunk provided on the other side. He dove into a bush and waited to see if the monster was caught a second time. Unfortunately, this time the bear managed to avoid the trap as it came crashing past. Tearing through where Elijah had been moments before. It’s alright, I can just try to lead it through this area again. If it fails a second time, I’ll just move on to the next location.

Taking a moment to cast Bleed at the beast while it searched for his location, the red glow of his magic instantly causing the creature to lock in on his hiding place. That was fine, his spell was done anyway and small rivers of blood were beginning to flow around the previous bear trap’s teeth and out of the sword puncture he had left in the monster. He had used the last of his Blood Well to fuel the spell with Sacrifice, most of it already consumed by his Blood Drinker Armor to quickly enhance the defensive spell.

#

Long minutes and seven bear traps later, Elijah’s spells finally seemed to be having an effect on the colossal beast. By now his armor was as solid as he had ever seen it, creating red scale mail between the metal parts of his physical armor and layering larger red plates across his chest and over his greaves. The leather itself was almost black with the blood that had soaked into it, the beast producing more of the stuff than it had any right to. More than even his Blood Drinker Armor could effectively use.

He had built up a substantial Blood Well over time as well, a lightly glowing crimson orb twice the size of his head floating just above the small of his back. Between his own resistance, which he had spent quite a number of stat points increasing, and the stacked enhanced regeneration effects of the Blood Soaked enchantment and Blood Drinker Armor, he had been powering almost all of his magic with Sacrifice. If he hadn’t, he would have run out of Mana long ago.

The beast in turn was a mess of slashes, cuts, and punctures, each oozing blood every second. Any creature of similar size from earth would have run out of the vital liquid by now, but this thing’s undead heart just seemed to constantly make more of the congealed black goop that ran through its veins. He was glad his magic liquified the stuff rather than maintaining its gelatinous form. It was bad enough to know he was wearing probably gallons of liquid blood without imagining it as a jelly like paste covering his body.

Three of the bear traps still clung to the beast, trailing lengths of chain. Large chunks of flesh were ripped away where the monster had torn off the other steel jaws. Underneath the peeled away skin, on one of the bones of the right rear leg, Elijah could see scrape marks. Deep grooves in the monster’s tibia. It was a testament to how durable this thing’s bones were that the leg had not simply snapped in half under the power of the spring-loaded steel. Rather than trying to break the chains on that particular trap, the beast had simply torn itself free without regard for self-preservation.

One eye was blinded from a lucky strike with Elijah’s short sword, the previous flames deep within the black orb guttered out. At least, that was what he assumed it meant. He had cut off half the things nose and entrails fell out of a slit he had made in the beast’s stomach. Any normal creature, any living creature, would have collapsed from the pain from now. Not the ghoul though. It felt nothing, simply continuing its mad chase of Elijah.

At least nothing from the physical injuries. Blood Roil Aura had finally started having an effect on the massive bear. It was a little less steady on its feet, swaying slightly whenever it came to a stop. The charges were even less controlled than they had started out as. Reminding Elijah of when he was a child running down a steep hill and had to keep going because if he tried to stop, he would just fall on his face.

The swings of its massive paws were wilder, less controlled. Where before it would take one or two strikes to break through the chains connected to a bear trap, now it took three or even four as the strikes missed or only grazed the steel link. The beams of deadly energy were often off course, not truly requiring him to dodge. He still got under cover whenever it started to breath in the silver and purple cloud, he wasn’t an idiot. One hit of that attack and he was dead. The poor aim was a good sign though.

Glaring at him the beast chuffed and growled before doing something new. The cloud of mana it wore began roiling, but rather than head towards its mouth or claws this time the energy seemed to almost compress in on itself. The cloud shrunk and a layer almost like black dew or droplets of melted tar began to appear on the surface of the beast. Just as Elijah began turning to run, fearing a physical attack of some kind, something in the energy gave and a wave of power burst out from the monster.

In a purple and silver explosion, he felt the energy wash over him and every muscle in his body lock up for a moment. He swayed as his body tried to lose consciousness and black veins began appearing on his skin, beneath the protection of his armor. The Blood Drinker Armor itself visibly thinned, losing much of its solidity and beginning to revert to a more gaseous state. The ruby liquid simply dried into a fine black powder that blew away in the slight breeze. His Blood well visibly shrank and the blood covering his sword entirely disappeared.

Thankfully the beast itself seemed incapable of moving immediately after the attack, staying so still Elijah had almost thought the attack was a suicidal strike against him. Then he felt the blackened heart of the monster give a single, shuddering pulse. Shortly later a second one occurred and pushed the gelatin it called blood through. A third occurred. Stronger, like a sputtering engine finally getting a full pump of gasoline.

At the same time, the stored blood in his leather armor was working overtime to heal him. The blackened veins receding and the light headedness disappearing. Some of his Blood Well fed into his sword as he recast Blood Blade. The remainder disappeared into his armor, stabilizing it. It was still visibly thinner than before but had returned to a liquid state.

Taking his opportunity, Elijah charged forward and empowered his attack with a vampiric strike. His blade dug deep into the chest of the Ghoul Bear, mere inches from reaching the fetid heart at its core. Then he was forced to retreat as the beast brought a large, ponderous claw in for a blow. The monster was still obviously weakened after exerting itself with that last spell, allowing him to easily avoid the attack, but proved the monster was not yet entirely helpless. The cloud around the monster had thinned significantly, barely more than a haze at this point, but he could see spark of purple and silver rising from the creature’s body and he assumed the cloud would reform eventually.

Then something changed in the beast’s eyes and he knew it was fully back in control of its own body. Guess I am back on the defensive. The beast roared in challenge and began its loping charge toward Elijah once again.

#

He and the beast must have been fighting for at least half an hour at this point. The thing was even stronger than he had anticipated and the only reason he had had any chance at all was because he had the perfect powerset to counter the thing. The beast was strong and could tank a lot of damage, but had a hard time actually hitting things. Elijah, in turn, had powers perfect for long, drawn out fights that did not require him to put himself at a lot of risk as he wore down his opponent. He also had prepared well, littering the ground with traps and purchasing a small number of health and stamina potions from the shop.

By this point the monster was barely skin and bones. After the third time the Ghoul Bear had used that strange burst of energy, he had taken the opportunity to cut into the stomach of the monster from the opposite side. Almost all of what would be the vital organs on normal creatures had long since fallen out of the monster’s stomach cavity, leaving the skin around its middle flapping in the breeze. The thing still had its heart and brain though, and Elijah believed one of those would need to go to actually kill it.

The monster had regained its cloud of deadly magic, but was swaying on its feet and barely able to put one paw in front of the other. Even with no sense of pain, the thing was obviously moments from death. He just needed to make one final push.

Then something changed. Its eyes blazed purple, the blinded one returning to functionality in an instant. Silver and purple flames burned across the creature’s body and plants around it rapidly began to wither. Li felt power flow from the monster, beginning to corrupt and destroy the blood in his armor. It was less concentrated than the effects of the creature’s other spells, but continuously weakened his own magic. The spectral claws were back as well, growing to an absolutely massive size as the creature rose on its hind legs and roared. The things black heart pulsed at a frantic rate, pushing the beast into an even greater frenzy.

#

Pain. So much pain. That was all the she-bear felt at that moment. She wasn’t supposed to feel pain. Not when she was like this. Pain was a thing for her daytime self, when she wore the disguise. When her mind became foggy and she was nothing but another beast. Now, at night, she was supposed to be perfect. Stronger. Faster. Smarter. And entirely devoid of the weakness of flesh.

The pain only lasted for a moment though. Just long enough for the not-fire to spread across her body. Then it was simply the memory of pain. One more thing to drive her rage against this prey. Its steel, its magic, its tricks. Each taking tiny nibbles from her strength and wearing her down a step at a time.

Is this thing why her mate had never returned during the last cycle? Was he a pile of bones and meat covered in metal jaws somewhere in their domain? Had it separated them on purpose, knowing it stood no chance against them together?

Well, it didn’t stand a chance against her alone. What she did now would weaken her. It was dangerous. Especially without her mate to protect her until she regained her strength. She would kill and eat this prey though. Taste its delicious life’s blood. Feel the warmth slide down her throat. There was so much lovely life on him, and it would be hers.

Dropping back to all fours, she charged, all the weariness and discomfort of their fight so far gone, and knew she had taken her prey by surprise. It tried to run, but it wasn’t ready. She would be on it too soon. The panic that crossed its face was perfect and only added to her excitement. His flesh would be the source of her regained strength. Bringing one mighty paw down, she slashed across her prey’s chest.

The thing barely grunted, but no matter. One hit had never been the plan. Returning to her rear paws, she began a furious rain of blows down onto her target. She ripped chunks from the strange outer covering of the creature, slowly working her way to the delicious meat within. The thing was screaming, in fear or in pain she did not know. Either way she relished the sound. Then something changed. The protective coating of life around the thing thickened and stiffened, encompassing the prey like a shell.

No matter. She knew how to deal with these. You just had to keep hitting them. The prey could no longer move, totally vulnerable to her own attacks. Long experience had shown her that actions like this were the final refuge of the dead. A turtle pulling into its shell because it could do nothing else. Nothing could stand up against her strikes for long though.

She kept up the barrage, chipping away chunks of red and working for her prize. Each second brought her closer and she could smell the terror on her prey. Then one foot gave. She had taken too long and her strength was abandoning her.

#

Li could only watch from inside his barrier. Covered in cuts and deep gashes that were slowly healing into scar tissue. This monster had left a permanent mark on him, a set of long lines from claws digging their way into his stomach. Only Scarification, his defenses, and a quickly downed health potion had saved him.

When the monster had charged him, he was sure he was dead. All he could do was switch to the Blood Bathed Armor and push all the blood he had gathered into the most solid defense he could muster. At first it hadn’t been enough, the bear had torn through the barrier without issue and he had taken his potion. Then something had shifted in his spell. Like water freezing in place. The result had been a spell called Blood Chrysalis, a pure defense that crystalized the blood he fed it into a shell. He could not move inside the Chrysalis. Could not attack or cast spells. He could only continue feeding blood and mana into the spell, hoping and enduring the onslaught.

Something that had worked in his favor. As he watched the bear attack, he had seen the beasts own body decaying around it. It seemed to be cannibalizing its own flesh for strength, quickly burning away what remained of its life. It was a long, tense minute of waiting and watching for which would give out first, his spell or the Ghoul Bears body. Then the beast had fallen.

Now it was nothing but a defenseless pile of fur and bone, barely moving in its attempts to kill him.

Elijah had no interest in watching the thing suffer, so he cast Blood Blade on his sword and drove the blade through the creature’s skull. With a final huff, the beast died.

Taking a moment to breath, Elijah downed the last of his stamina potions and sat down on the ground. It had been exhausting, but he had won.

Dungeon Alert! An Apex Predator has been slain. Even now, the other Apex Predators sniff the air and recognize something has changed. They do not know just what, not yet, but they soon will. A shift of the balance of power in the outer rings of the Forest of the Final Sleep has occurred.

The Dungeon Event “Forest of Anarchy” will begin in approximately thirty minutes. During this time, the Apex Predators who have territory adjacent to the slain Ghoul Bear Mates will work to expand the area the control. All Ghouls in the area will display additional aggression as they fight to establish new territory markers.

Congratulation, you have completed the Hidden Quest “Proof of Power” by killing an Apex Predator in the Forest of the Final Sleep. You have been rewarded with the Epic Item “Apex Crown”. This item will dissolve upon exiting the dungeon.

Congratulations, you have killed an Elite Monster. This monster is abnormally powerful for the dungeon and poses a high level of danger. You fought and killed this monster despite no external requirement to do so. You have received additional Evolution Points in addition to that rewarded for the kill in recognition of your effort. You have gained 37 Racial Experience. As you have no class, you have gained 0 Class Experience. You have gained 25 Evolution Points.

Congratulations, you have gained a Rare Reward from the shop for killing an Elite Monster. You have received the short sword “Dreadclaw”. You have received the Armor Enhancement Item “Mana Permeated Ghoul Bear Bones”.

Elijah stared in shock at the alerts for a while before eventually shaking his head and sighing deeply. “Well, that’s probably not very good for me.”

#

“How was I supposed to know the damn thing would only protect three people! Do you have any idea how hard it was to even get the information that the Apex Crown existed? Nobody comes to this dungeon!”

“How were you supposed to know? You’re the fucking intel gatherer! It’s your damn job to know this shit!”

Niels could only sigh as Rory and Seba continued the argument that had been going for almost half a day now. It really wasn’t that big of a deal. They could always just track down and kill another Apex Predator. Of course, finding another one was the problem. Seba had only bothered to find a reliable location for one Apex Predator, assuming that was all they would need. He never was one to make back up plans.

Letting go of his musings, Niels called out to the arguing teammates, “Enough you two. The longer we sit around on our thumbs the longer it is going to take to find another Apex Predator. Finish getting your things together and let’s get going!”

If he’d known they were going to be such children, he never would have brought them along for this. He’d have to have a word with them both later. Seba for being lax in his search for information and Rory for making such a fuss about it. It was important as the team leader to make sure everyone in the party did their job properly, but Rory wasn’t the team leader. That was his job. Just as he was about to make the call for the team to form up, a system message appeared in his vision.

Behind him, the final member of their party spoke up for the first time since Rory and Seba had started going at it, “A Dungeon Event? We prepared for this boss?”

“Of course we are, nothing I can’t handle,” Niels reassured the man. Theo always had been a bit of a worrier, but that wasn’t the point of the question. Theo, capable second that he was, had asked it to give him a chance to reassure the new recruit. Couldn’t have them shaking in their boots and too scared to react if something serious happened.

#

When Elijah had accepted the rewards, large portions of the Ghoul Bears corpse had broken down into motes of light before coalescing in front of him. The reward from the Hidden Quest turned out to be a small crown of twisted black horns, similar to those that had adorned the Ghoul Bears forehead. Dreadclaw, as the message had stated, was a short sword. The weapon had apparently been carved from one of the monster’s massive claws then stained a purple so dark it was almost black. A silver engraving shaped like the Ghoul Bear raised on its hind legs was carved into the blade.

The “Mana Permeated Ghoul Bear Bones” had been exactly what the name said. A pile of large bones obviously taken from the massive beast’s corpse, but with a strange, twinkling surface. It was almost as though each one had been covered with purple and silver glitter. When he looked at the pile closely, he received a message alert asking if he wanted to enhance his Reinforced Leather Armor with the item. He didn’t have a lot of time to make a decision, so he hit yes. Don’t see how this can make things worse at any point.

With a spark of white light and a pulse of magic, the bones once more began breaking down into particles of golden light. At the same time, his armor began to take on a similar glow, quickly becoming impossible for him to make out any details. The small particles began feeding into his armor, each spot receiving at least some of the orbs of light. He could feel the weight of his armor growing as the enhancement took effect and knew he would soon need to increase his strength stat if he wanted to wear this armor comfortably in long fights.

When the light eventually disappeared, he couldn’t help but groan to himself. I look like a goth, thirteen-year-old gamers wet dream… The plates of steel that had previously formed the bulk of his protection had been replaced with sheets of bone, pale white with the occasional glimmer of purple or silver. He had large, humanoid skulls for shoulder guards and the bears skull had been apparently flattened and contoured into his breast plate. He even had what looked like chain male carved from the bones in areas where a more complete plate would be unwelcome. He wasn’t quite wearing full plate mail made of an undead bear’s bones, but it was close enough. Thankfully the inside was still his comfortable leather.

Congratulation, your Reinforced Leather Armor (Uncommon) has been upgraded into Ghoul Bone Armor (Scarce). Ghoul Bone is noted to be the equal of steel in almost all circumstances, along with providing unique advantages. While the armor is weaker to extreme temperature fluctuations and slightly less resistant to blunt force, it is the perfect conduit for Blood, Flesh, and Death magic. Because of this, spells cast through the material by the wearer are often slightly more powerful and significantly more efficient.

Because the bone used in this material was Mana Permeated, the armor may be bound to the wearer. Binding this armor significantly improves the benefits provided, along with greatly increasing the wearer defense against hostile Blood, Flesh, and Death magic.

The Blood Soaked Enchantment has been empowered by the Ghoul Bones. The amount of blood the enchantment is capable of storing has been increased.

#

“Think the crown will keep this from being an issue?” Seba sounded hopeful, but resigned. He probably knew what Niels was going to say next.

“Better safe than sorry. Rory, start setting up some barriers. I want a central safe area at least twenty feet across and obstacles at ten, fifteen, and twenty feet out. Try to herd them into groups. Theo, get some of your special vials ready. Rory will set them up, you knock ‘em down. Seba, get out there and start looking for potential threats. I want at least five minutes warning before anything gets to our camp. I’m going to try to get a view from above. I’ll be back down in fifteen minutes or less.”

Three voices in chorus came back to him, “Yes boss!”

The alert said Ghoul Bear Mates, which explained why this message hadn’t gone off when he killed one the previous night. It also meant he had missed something. He hated missing things. He and Seba would be having a long talk after this mission was over. It was high time he started putting more effort into his information gathering and Niels would run him through as many crash courses on the subject as it took for him to learn to do the job properly.

Casting a spell, Niels began rising into the air. It would take a little while to do without risk, but soon he would be one hundred or so feet in the air. Hopefully from there he would be able to see anything too dangerous.

Below him Rory worked hard to use his Ice Wall spell to build a small fortress for them to hide behind. The walls were only four or five feet tall, but that would be enough to ward off most of the ghouls that called this forest home. Anything that height wouldn’t stop at least temporarily would have the power to just smash through the walls anyway. Except the damn frogs.

Theo, meanwhile, was setting up in the center of the area. It seemed he had convinced Rory to take a moment to build him a small look-out tower, which was good thinking on the man’s part. Rory could be an insufferable ass, but he did his work well.

Somewhere out in the forest he heard the growls and shrieks of various ghouls as Seba came across them in his scouting. From the sounds of it, they weren’t anything too dangerous. Seba would take care of them with no issue. He may have been lazy and terrible at jobs that required time to complete, but he did well in a fight. No way the man would cause problems with his skin on the line.

#

He hadn’t had any time after completing the upgrade. With no idea when, exactly, the Forest of Anarchy event would start, he had needed to get moving as quickly as possible. Dreadclaw had come with a sheath thankfully, so he had both his short swords strapped to his hip. He got back out his buckler as well, a weapon he had decided would be absolutely worthless when fighting the Ghoul Bear. It wouldn’t hurt to have the additional protection now, though, and it was still his best weapon for dealing with any Ghoul Snakes that attacked him.

Quickly gathering up the last of his rewards, he put the Apex Crown on. The weight of the thing was instantly noticeable and something of a distraction. Glad he didn’t have a mirror, or worse Jason around to say something, he couldn’t help but sigh. Definitely don’t look like an evil lich king intent on ruling the world for all eternity. Definitely not.

His initial assumption on where the other party had gone was obviously wrong, but now he didn’t really have a lead on where they could be. He didn’t have a lot of time to look for one either. Well, no lead besides that hidden quest. If this other party knew about that, maybe they had been after the crown. Is it what they were looking for before they headed deeper into the forest?

That was a risk. He didn’t know for sure they had headed further in, but he was sure that going deeper into the forest would increase the danger. Still, that made sense, didn’t it? When he followed their trail of campsites, fights, and trailblazing they had been working to circle the center of the forest, but there had also been a certain amount of zigzagging. Like they were searching for something. The item itself was obviously related to the dungeon since it would dissolve when he left. Maybe you needed it to progress or it offered certain benefits?

For now, he would head further in. Even if he turned out to be wrong on where this other party had headed, he had seen evidence before that the various Ghouls would avoid heading deeper into the forest when possible. It was as good of a direction as any in his mind, and at this point he just needed a plan. A good decision now is better than a perfect decision later. Besides, worse comes to worst I can just hide in a tree until morning.

Decision made, Elijah began jogging deeper into the forest. Minutes after he left the Ghoul Bear’s corpse, he received the alert that the Dungeon Event had begun and the entire forest descended into Chaos. Everywhere he could hear the sounds of Ghouls beginning to brawl with each other. The distinctive screeches of the Ghoul Raptors intermingling with the squeaks of Ghoul Rats and gruff grunts of Ghoul Boars. Somewhere in a tree above he heard the chittering of a Ghoul Raccoon, something he had only seen once or twice before.

All he could do was continue to run. Avoid staying in one place and becoming the center of attention while he trusted in his armor and magic to keep him safe. Far off in the distance he heard the howl of wolves and assumed they would be making their way into this now unclaimed territory soon enough.

#

That howling is a problem, Niels thought to himself as he continued to scan the surroundings. As far as he could tell, nothing too destructive was going on out there. Seba had made his way back when the event started, and with good reason. The forest was going absolutely mad and none of his companions would be particularly safe alone out there. It was also why the howling concerned him.

Niels was the party leader for a reason, but he was only one man. It would be hard to deal with multiple capable enemies working together and coming from different directions. I’ll just have to deal with tonight being a bitch.

As he thought that, he felt something. Like a whisper just barely within audible range. A slight, echoing feeling of something just lightly pressing against him. He began swirling a small tornado between his hands as he turned in the direction of the feeling. What the hell is that?

“Incoming, my eleven o’clock.” His message was carried by the wind with a simple flick of his magic, sure to reach each of his team’s ears despite the noise filling the night air.

#

While running deeper into the forest, Elijah began to feel…something. It was almost like the feeling he had for blood within his Aura Spell’s range, but more emotional in nature. Like he was feeling another being’s defiance or something. That’s weird. What in the world is that?

Deciding this new feeling had to be related to the crown, and lacking any other clues of where to go in his desperate flight, he changed course toward the source of this feeling. Ghouls ambushed him, chased him, and died by his sword as he ran into the night. Not as many as he would have expected though, given the insanity right outside his view. It was as though something was holding them back.

It was as he was contemplating this that something changed. He crashed through a bush, deciding it was easier to force his way through than try to go around, and found himself in a small clearing. In it was the strangest sight he had ever seen. A pillar of ice rose from the very center of the clearing with a man on top. He had his arm cocked as though about to lob a baseball and was glaring down at him. Around the pillar was a small wall and Elijah could see two other heads peaking out from behind it. Various structures filled the rest of the clearing and he could see the bodies of different types of ghouls in between the many obstacles.

As he was taking this in the man on the pillar called out to him, “Who, exactly, are you?”

Status

Name: Elijah Gabriel Nguyen

Class: NA, Level 0

Race: Human, Level 9

Constitution: 129

Resistance: 133

Resilience: 119

Strength: 105

Endurance (G): 121

Dexterity: 94

Intelligence: 103

Wisdom: 126

Acuity: 98

Perception (L): 82

Charisma: 100

Luck: 98

Evolution Points: 36

Class Experience: NA

Racial Experience: 84/100

Skills

Scarification Tier 4

Self Regulation Tier 1

Endurance Hunter Tier 3

Hysterical Strength Tier 2

Enhanced Charisma Tier 1

Jack of All Trades Tier 1