The Graveyard of Karthas as mentioned before is tainted by demon blood. Lands such as these are known as Tainted Lands and like the Darklands, monstrous creatures spontaneously take shape within such locations. Some of the archmagi has theorized that it is how the demonic planes propagate. That the planes within the Abyss are living creatures themselves of immense power and they create demons to go to other planes and turn them into new layers of the Abyss. The only evidence of this theory is that the ancient records of the Abyssal planes depict them having demons spontaneously appear like the tainted creatures do within tainted lands. These lands also grow and become more twisted and demonic as blood is spilt within them.

Lykou

After deciding to leave the bear with Naliya I head westward towards the strange entity that I found when I cast Detect Life. I don’t know what it is but I should be fine.

It takes me roughly thirty minutes before I notice something different in the woods. It is a lot quieter as I approach the clearing. That is not a good sign, that means there is something dangerous. So I move slower and leave the game trial that I was on to conceal myself in the bushes. It’ll slow my progress but it is better for me to be careful than find myself the target of a sneak attack.

Another ten, maybe fifteen minutes pass as I approach what turns out to be a clearing. Nothing strange about it save for the pair of white cloth tents that stand out and some sort of winged reptile that is chained to the ground next to the tents. I can see two men in white tunics with a symbol I do not recognize on them. Something within me feels uneasy about them, like something is wrong and that they are dangerous. Along with that strangely enough is that I begin to drool even though they are not cooking anything.

I move to get a better look as I am confused but shortly after moving I hear a voice above me and look up at it, “stop where you are boy. You are trespassing in a camp of House Tyris.”

I frown at the language that he uses. It makes me feel uneasy, like I am unconsciously associating it with something bad. The voice I heard comes from a man in dyed green leather. The poor dye job seems to act as camouflage though I probably would have seen him earlier if I had looked up. The man is pointing a crossbow at me but I am not sure the bolt will hit me as it seems tilted, as if he only knows my rough location. I stop moving, maybe he is testing me and is unsure if the movements that I made in the bush were caused by an animal.

“By Althaen law you are to come forth and present yourself for the punishment for disturbing the camp of your betters. If you do not I am going to shoot you” the man in the tree once more says.

I glance at the two men in white tunics but they do not seem to be paying attention. There is no way I am going to submit myself to being punished for walking close to their camp. Who does that man think that he is?

The man frowns and fires his crossbow at the bush I am behind, the quarrel piercing into the dirt roughly a foot to my left but I keep quiet and still. He should give up thinking that I was never here if no sound or movement comes from his attack. If he comes to retrieve his bolt I can ambush him with a knife and some magic. Hopefully before the two men in white tunics join the fight.

Luckily, the man does not move from his perch and I begin to think of another plan. A way to kill these people, they make me feel threatened and one of them did try to kill me for no other reason than being nearby and not subjecting myself to his will.

Now, I need to just wait until he looks away for a few seconds. . .

As the man in greenish leather pulls out a bolt to reload his crossbow, I take a step back from the bushes and use one of the major advantages that a bow has over the crossbow. The faster draw and reload speed lets me have the arrow drawn and aimed before the man notices me due to his focus temporarily being on the crossbow. I loose the arrow and the relatively short distance between us along with him being a stationary target graces me with a hit almost exactly where I was aiming.

The arrow lands a little low but slips between two of his lower ribs. The man drops the crossbow as he yells out in pain and I move myself behind a tree and hear him fall to the ground shortly after his crossbow did the same. There is some panic and whatever that large lizard like creature is wakes up adding much noise to the running of the two men in white tunics.

A sound I recognize as the chanting of spells reaches my ear and I peek around the tree as I hold another arrow knocked. One of the two men is chanting something, magic but I can’t recognize what it is that he is trying to cast. Even so, I know that it cannot be something that is good for me.

I draw the arrow all the way back before quickly taking aim and firing. My arrow flies true only to divert unnaturally to the side at the last moment after the two men had finished their magic. Shit, something that blocks arrows. New plan, I need a different way of dealing with them. Their spellcasting took several seconds so it is probably either divine magic or arcane magic that is beyond what they are comfortable casting.

I set my bow down and draw a knife while whispering the words of a spell that I’ll have to follow with another if I am going to cross the distance in time. The two men look at each other and then the fallen but still breathing man with a now broken arrow in his chest. The two of them begin to draw swords that hang at their waist and move towards me as I race through the words for another spell. I only have about half of my mana left so I need this to work.

Much as the I did with Bleed I gather and shape mana within my left hand, but the shape of the construct is different. A bolt of needlessly bright fire forms and I toss it towards the two and begin another spell as this Flare temporarily blinds then. They don’t drop their weapons or panic but I take advantage of the short few seconds to use Burst of Speed to close the distance.

The casting of this spell is quicker than the cantrip that preceded it even though it costs more mana. Bits of grass and dirt fly into the air around my feet as my mana wraps around them and augments the kinetic energy of me pushing off the ground. I reach one of the two before he recovered from the flash of light from the Flare. I sink my drawn knife in my right hand into his gut as soon as I am inside of the reach of his blade.

He screams in pain and drops his weapon but I leave it where it lies as I do not know how to use a sword very well. The man I shanked stumbles and I grab his right arm and pull him towards me to keep him between me and his ally, a shield against the other’s sword. Unfortunately, such a move was expected by the man who shifts to go the other way around his ally. Shit, I didn’t even get enough time to finish one of them off during their momentary blindness.

I quickly twist the blade to widen the hole before stepping back and letting the man fall to the ground where he is too occupied holding his innards inside him to continue the fight. I back away from my last able opponent slowly as he looks for an opening in my stance, there are many of them but he does not immediately attack.

A few seconds pass before I dodge a lunge only to be knocked to the ground in a bull rush. As I fall I lose my grip on my knife. Prone and left unable to defend myself, I begin to panic, I don’t have anything to block. The only thing I can think of is to roll to the side to dodge the sword that comes down to end my life. A stinging sensation crosses my back as I only barely get out of the way, at least enough that only some of my skin gets cut.

I can’t think of anything that can save me as I roll the opposite way to dodge a second attack. The man moves to block me and I stop with my shoulder against his. The world seems to slow as the pointed blade gets closer and closer to me. The short month that I can clearly remember flashes through my memory as I throw my mana, more than I thought I even had, outwards in a futile attempt to defend myself.

Then in an instant something clicks in my head. Mana magic does what it does based on the shapes and flow of mana. Incantation, somatic gestures, all of that is just to shape it. Only the shape and flow matters, not how you get to it and just before the descending blade pierces my chest the wave of mana I threw out in a panic changes as I nudge it. A flash of heat and torrent of flame surrounds me, a scream of pain fills my ears as my skin is seared by the heat as dozens of half formed flares erupt around me.

The descending sword continues to fall but its direction shifts, it still cuts into my as it lands on me but only slices at my flesh rather than impaling me, the blade dulled by stabbing the ground unable to cut too deeply without the force of a person’s strength behind it.

I push the blade off me and roll away from the now burning man as a feeling of extreme discomfort fills my body. I feel sore, weak and tired but I can’t stop yet, I pick up m knife from where it fell on the ground and walk towards the two that are still breathing, ignoring the guy who is currently burning to death as he rolls around on the ground. I guess magical flames are harder to extinguish.

I ignore the partially disemboweled man’s pleas and add additional holes in him until he ceases to breathe. Which does not take long as he had been bleeding from his gut the entire time that I was dealing with the other man in a white tunic. The crossbowmen that fell from the tree had stopped breathing by the time that I got to him which I find convenient. Now there is only two things left to do.

Deal with the awake but chained lizard thing and go through all their stuff. I wipe off the knife on the crossbowman’s clothes before picking my bow up from where I left it.

After brushing off the dirt I frown at how the wood has absorbed some moisture. I’ll need to wax it but not right now. Instead I turn to the horse sizes winged lizard and spend a moment to get a better look.

It isn’t a dragon, the tail is wrong. That part of the creature seems more like a scorpion. It struggles against the chain that holds it in place and after a moment of thought I knock and draw an arrow. If I let it go it’ll attack me. If I leave it it’ll likely eventually get away or be released by allies of the three men I just killed.

There is also how I am drooling at the sight of this creature, like it is some sort of fancy food. It must be really good or I am really messed up. Only one way to find out. . .

I take aim for what should be softer areas and fire arrow after arrow into the creature, swallowing at the sight of its spilling blood. I want to drink it and feast. Every now and then I find that I’ve taken a few steps forward and have to walk back to make sure that the lizard cannot attack me. Each arrow causing a cry of pain as the beast slowly learns that it will die here.

I all but empty my quiver into the creature before I am certain that it’s dead. It stopped breathing and the flow of blood has likewise ceased. I find myself taking steps forward but unlike before I do not force myself to step back, only to do slower.

I reach the horse sized lizard and touch the warm blood before smelling it. It smells different. I find my finger entering my mouth and a strange taste like a warm spice yet sweet but also neither. My stomach growls and in an instant a ravenous hunger fills me. I need to eat and whatever this thing is I adore the taste.

I rip out and toss aside an arrow that punctured the creature's and rip out a piece of meat and put it in my mouth before I even realize what I am doing. I don’t gag on the raw meat as I barely chew before swallowing. It’s delicious, better than anything I can remember and I can’t stop myself from ripping another handful one after another from the corpse.