Many screams could be heard in a void full of darkness in the distance. The cries of dozens of people, the sounds of metal clashing, everything sounded so far away, but he felt it too close.

The boy looked to his left, then to his right. He felt like he was waist-deep in cold water. He dipped his hands in and let his fingers flow with the water. Then, pulling them out, it seemed full of moss and dirt.

Moving slowly through a swamp, the marked boy watched as, in the distance, a bunch of torches was going out or moving in various directions in a frenzied mode. The screams grew louder as if he were right next to the screaming people. Soon, his muscles tensed as the clash of metal became more noticeable as if he were brandishing a weapon...

Something was happening, and he wanted to get closer to see it, not just feel it.

The boy crawled his feet on the bottom of the water, as placing one in front of the other became really difficult. Then, with his hands, he moved closer to a wood path.

He almost fell into the water with fright when he wanted to climb onto the lumber. However, nothing was what it seemed.

A group of people passed him with swiftness. Then, when he turned to look at the fleeing people, another group of men ran through him again. In that darkness, he only realized that the last ones were wearing armor because of the constant sound of moving pieces. He didn't understand what was going on, but none of it seemed fitting.

The boy continued along with one of the paths.

As he reached the center of the road, he heard men, women, and children frantically throwing themselves into boats.

"Hurry!" shouted a man.

"Come on!" screamed a girl.

"They're getting away!" shouted a man in armor carrying a torch. Next, the marked boy saw a man in black armor, shoulder pads adorned in gold as it lit up.

That man and several others approached one of the boats with swords in hand and cut through a couple of them without seeing the passengers.

Then, the torch illuminated the boat as it set sail amidst screams of pain. A woman and child had been attacked, and now the desperate wails of a man could be heard drifting away with the tide.

"No!" the marked boy shouted.

As he approached that man, trying to snatch his sword from him, he realized it was in vain because his hand went through that person's hand.

"Shoot!" shouted another man.

In the distance, a trio of soldiers was firing blindly in the darkness at some boats that had managed to get out.

He was only a witness during that small shower of bolts. Yet, he could almost feel the pain and desperation of those people; he could practically feel it on his skin. He could hear the despair of losing a loved one before your eyes and the screams of people trying to move on. He could feel the pain of the bolts stabbing into his body, and yet they didn't seem to make him fall from the pain.

The boy followed the group of soldiers, who seemed to be heading back to land following the wooden plank road.

On reaching the shore, the boy stopped; the shock of the massacre paralyzed him.

The boy didn't understand what was happening around him. He only saw people being massacred by a more powerful enemy, who begged for mercy but only received the sharpness of swords and axes.

Amid fires and screams, the place seemed reduced to ashes and blood everywhere. Fierce fights, slaughter, people wearing black armor camouflaged in the darkness and clashed their weapons with people carrying swords and shields.

However, among them, one creature seemed to stand out, for it was the only one that appeared to be well equipped and perhaps the only one that could stand up to them.

A tall creature wore heavy metal armor and wielded a sword and shield in each hand. Its breastplate appeared to have several bolts embedded in its chest, and several more were jammed into its buckler. The boy could barely make out any features in the darkness, so he was only sure that the thing was huge. The creature gave a loud, guttural roar from the helmet it wore.

A trio of men lashed out at the creature, but it disposed of two of them in a swift clash of swords. One soldier met his end when the beast pierced the armor he wore with its sword. At the same time, another one lost his life when the fighter smashed its projectile-filled shield into his face, coming to hear a despicable bony crunch.

The third panicked because that creature was in front of him.

"Come on!" exclaimed that creature in a guttural voice. From the muffled tone of its voice, the boy realized vaguely that whoever was behind that helmet could be a woman.

Gripped by fear, the soldier gathered the courage to attack the creature, but he could not even swing his sword correctly. Finally, the girl turned her weapon and slid the blade of her sword across the man's neck. The man dropped his sword, recoiled as he gushed blood from his throat, and fell.

The boy witnessed a massacre, and the paralyzing fear didn't allow him to move. At the feet of that monster lay numerous bodies. There were men, women, children, and dozens of these men in armor. Several of the latter had several weapons embedded in them; arrows, axes, swords, and even spike maces.

The creature growled as another group of men charged at her. The boy watched as the monster moved swiftly in the gloom. Steady and quick, she dropped her shield and sword; as she did so, the boy could see an ax of great immensity materialize in her hands. Then, pressing one foot hard on the ground, the creature spun on itself and split three of them in half with a mammoth force. Screams from the last two flooded the battlefield where many people had lost their lives.

One of them slipped in the mud.

"Help me!" he shouted in desperation to his companion, who was fleeing.

Because of that, the creature caught him.

The boy witnessed how she lifted that man from the ground from his head in the darkness.

"Let go of me!" shouted that man desperately, devoid of weapons. He was trying to cling to the monster. He was trying to kick it, but all in vain.

The creature watched him silently.

The man began to cry disconsolately, "Mercy! Please!"

"Mercy?" The creature's voice took the boy by surprise. It wasn't guttural or monstrous but had a tone of disbelief.

The man cried silently, for he knew that would be far worse.

"You ask for mercy?" the woman said, drowned out by her helmet. It was then that the latter removed it, and in the darkness, his eyes caught sight of the creature's face.

It was a woman with grayish-green skin. Her facial features were hard, her cheekbones were pronounced, and she descended into a maw of two long fangs protruding from her mouth. Her eyes were yellow and had long pupils, like a snake's.

"You killed many people here, and now you ask me for mercy? Come on, try to kill me, just like you did to them."

"Please don't hurt me," the man pleaded, "I have a wife, I have a child waiting at home."

"They had children waiting at home too. They had children here too, and they died here with them."

The creature growled and threw the man to the ground with one violent blow. The boy saw where it had dropped that man. A man was hugging an infant near that man's face, and both were full of bolts.

The man was placed in a fetal position, crying disconsolately, like a child seeking the safety of a mother's arms.

"Not so brave anymore, are you?" expressed the woman with some mockery in her voice.

The woman let the man cry for a few more moments. Then she seemed to have had enough of him.

Without meditating further, she gave a fierce stomp to that man's head, who in a single second ceased his crying.

The boy saw a scene that should stick in his mind.

Soon, a fine drizzle began to bathe the place. The huge green-skinned woman let out a heavy sigh; it was not exhaustion but frustration. She loosened the breastplate's straps and let the rain wash over her to cool off and clean all the blood she had on her. Finally, the woman removed her gauntlets, wet her hands, and washed her face.

The creature lowered her watch again and planned to step back and pick up her colossal ax again. There was still a long way to go before the battle was over.

In a rage, the woman breathed heavier and heavier until, at last, she let out a furious, guttural roar.

That last roar, full of fury and pain, woke him up.