Throughout my young teenage life, I had never really received the change or inspiration to go out and explore. There was always just so much to do, either relating to schoolwork or video games. However, these past few days had been quite the experience for me, as I was able to travel to new places, meet new people, and make new friends. As I passed through I treeline I had met a number of odd occurrences.

Firstly, starting off was the wildlife, as I had entered further into the forest I noticed both the trees getting thicker and the animals getting scarcer. This continued as I went deeper and deeper, finally coming across what I had to assume was causing such a disturbance. Monsters. Within the forest hid powerful monsters, even stronger than the Lion, I had originally slayed back in Loam Lake.

The monsters all appeared to have gathered into one place, lured by some mysterious object emitting foul odours. The creatures seemed to be drawn to it, almost as much as I was drawn away, but I pressed on, determined to see what would happen if I crouched down and waited. Even if the monsters seemed to be falling asleep and getting weakened, I wasn’t prepared to fight any of them, it was practically suicide considering their number.

Waiting even further I barely managed to pick up that the scent of the mysterious item was fading in strength. It was hard to imagine this as the air still smelled of a putrid stench, contorting the air like snakes around my throat. I had been struggling just to breathe, let alone run away. As the last monster collapsed upon the ground I noticed out of the corner of my eye a person walk out from the bushes, followed closely behind by 3 armed men.

The guards seemed to be closely examining the ground for any moving limbs, as even a hint of such an action would practically mean death with the amount of bodies collapsed around the mysterious item. Delicate hands seemed to pick up the object slowly, as I watched I saw her slowly place it into her pouch, this however was deemed a mistake by the Gods of Fate as behind her slowly rose a monster. The guards seemed to not notice however as its hand reached further, and further, narrowly closing the gap between her neck from behind and its paw.

Caught in a stiff state, I didn’t know what to do, my body wouldn’t function as the air in my lungs seemed to suffocate me. My body pulled with conviction, fueled fully by instinct I yelled out, “Behind you!” as the guards, quickly took notice of me soon afterwards. Shifting their gaze they saw the claw approaching the woman in the center.

Swords slashed like lightning as with my shout, many more monsters had woken up. Vicious roars and yells could be heard along the battlefield as I retreated, ‘fighting in that is practically suicide’ I thought to myself. My eyes darting along the fields ready to make my narrow escape as my body carried me forth with more speed than I could ever keep up with. Seemed my stats were having a large effect on my body as I could feel myself running at astronomical speeds. This regardless, was not enough for the superior beasts of the wild, as they had much more practice with dealing in speed than me. Afterall it was an essential hunting asset.

As my body charged full force forwards, a monster rearing double my size from head to toe, impeded my advance as it charged at a staggering sprint towards me. My eyes vaguely seeing the blur, managed to allow me to nimbly dodge out of the way. This was not the least of my worries as another beast appeared to the right of me, seeming to spray some form of acidic substance towards my chest. Managed to dodge with a Void Walk I threw away the notification that greeted me saying it had leveled up, however feeling joyful of the extra attributes it had given me. I had least managed to somewhat control my Void Walking as it left me with some energy left, as least so much that I wouldn’t fall into a coughing state whenever I used it.

Without the chance of escape I decided to run forward, charging the acid spitting monster, it’s dark grey skin seemed to fade like paper as my sword managed to slice through it completely, as an effect of my recently increased strength. The sword however, didn’t come out so great I had thought, as what was left consisted of mainly a bubbling mess, whilst still displaying its average shape, the sword obviously had nowhere near its original sharpness.

On the contrary this I refused to faze me as before the secondary beast could turn around for a second charge, I managed to implant my sword within the neck of the creature. It was fair to say that I wasn’t such the useless, good for nothing I was when I had first arrived here, however I still didn’t like killing these monsters. Regardless of what they were or how scarly good I was getting at it, as if my emotions where almost numb to it in the heat of battle.

Looking around I noticed that the guards were having a fair amount of trouble, as they had been caught up in the centre of the conflict and protecting a woman, who seemed to be all the too afraid of entering the fray out on the frontlines, instead I could see runic symbols, entering and fading within the palms of her hands. Only hearing the last words as a jumble of information I saw a nearby creature, consisting mainly of plants and roots, combust into sinders.

Seeming effectively turning the tide of battle on their side, I decided to rush in as well, of course not wanting to see them die, regardless of how little chance it had of happening. With a male guard placing his sword into the creature’s eye, the fight was over. However as all heads turned to me I knew the war was only just beginning.