Relictus ran for hours through the seemingly endless forest. Never did the raining leaves stop, as they covered the ground perpetually more. The breeze seemed to pick up a bit, but he disregarded it as natural.

The wind continued to pick up, the leaves blowing and buffeting with fierce winds he had to battle to continue. Deeming this unnecessary, he stopped at a rather large tree, propping himself up on the side of the trunk, to rest and wait out the wind.

This plan was rapidly dismantled as the leaves gave away the intentions of the wind. The endless stream of rusty hues flowed into a circle, the column of leaves seeming to consume itself as it condensed, before growing outward once more.

The wind suddenly settled down, as if stopping in place, and the leaves disbanded, their force rocketing them in all different directions. As they fell to the ground and settled, what was left startled Relictus – a humanoid figure, obviously that of a female. Its… her body floated inches above the ground, body composed completely of leaves, colors varying from a dead brown to vibrant red and yellow. A Spriggan.

Immediately, her arm raised, and Relictus felt an intense air pressure as leaves rose all around him, gathering themselves in a tight orb in front of his foe. It condensed itself, becoming almost completely a condensed energy sphere, and it expanded towards him rapidly, a beam of natural energy. Relictus hardly managed to process what was going on fast enough to draw his sabre, the blade cutting through the center of the beam and diverting its direction. Relictus was hardly able to hold the blade straight as the force constantly threatened to overwhelm him.

As the beam’s power puttered out, its source spent, Relictus charged forward, slashing at the Spriggan with his blade pointed in front of him. It passed through the body of the Spriggan perfectly, a clean hit. The body of the Spriggan detached for just a moment as it took the hit. It was unable to parry or block the hit, but did not need to. Relictus looked at his enemy’s health bar, and she had only lost 1% of her HP.

One thing came to Relictus’ mind instantly. God Slayer. The ability had great risks, missing a single strike meant certain death. However, that was a risk he was willing to take. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he cast the skill, and just as he did so, the world around him slowed down. He could see everything moving around him, and he saw the attack coming towards him in slow motion. He rushed to avoid the attack, but found that he could move faster than the world around him. The roll that he committed to he molded perfectly into a stab towards the head of the Spriggan, and the leaves didn’t have time to part to avoid too much damage, and the attack hit head on, taking down the enemy’s HP by a far larger chunk. He turned the moment his feet hit the ground, this time slashing at the Spriggan’s abdomen, and again landed a perfect hit. Overwhelmed by the ability he gained through the ability, he grinned – it was a grin of malice, and one of bloodlust. He spun one attack into another, weaving a tapestry of death in the leaves of the body of the Spriggan. Its health reached 1%, and to end the combo, he slashed downward on her body, bifurcating the formations of the leaves and leaving the structure collapsing into just two piles. It was completely Relictus’s victory, but he sat down, breathing quickly and raggedly.

“So this is what it feels like to expend all of your energy at once?” Relictus wondered. However, he had little time to ponder this as more whirlwinds whipped around him, spawning the same enemy he had just fought – with one difference. Twelve were before him. Each had a minor difference that identified it – one was far taller than the others, another’s arms ended in not hands but wicked spikes. How could he possibly face twelve of those at the same time? The same pressure assaulted him, and he prepared to take the hit with his blade – but how could he take that from every direction?

As they charged, beams fired from every direction, threatening to end his life once more with their deadly beauty. Relictus lifted his blade, and slashed at one of the beams. With the force with which he slashed it, it diverted the energy of the beam for long enough to allow him to roll forward, aiming for the exact moment that the Spriggans’ spell stopped. Just as they did, he thrust his blade forth in a piercing attack, and his unfortunate victim couldn’t prepare for the attack as it took a full-blown pierce-slash attack. Its HP was reduced by a gargantuan amount – 50%, a number higher than even what he hit for with God Slayer active. With this, perhaps he could defeat them – had his Stamina and Energy not been running on empty.

He refused to admit it, but Relictus was exhausted, and gasping for breath. He spun and ducked again to avoid a concentration of ten Spriggans’ energy, yet it shaved off a chunk of his own HP. If he didn’t do something, he was screwed. He had finally dealt with a single Spriggan after tearing through its leaves. He thought he had reached a point at which he could breathe, but he was still in the middle of the fight, and was blasted in the side by a massive shot of mana. The air knocked out of his lungs, his face contorted as he coughed up blood and the last bit of air in his lungs. His HP bar was smashed, and he had gone down to just 2189/10400. He felt death breathing down his neck, as his reserves went dry. Death creeped in on his consciousness. Closer, closer.

Spoiler : That's it for Ch. 6. Took me long enough to write just another 1k words. Geez.

If there's somewhere you want the story to go, or anything I should improve, tell me in the comments, I just might notice and steal your ideas. Thanks for reading!