Alvin's breath quickened as he blinked, his gaze fixed on the spot where the dice had been.
But there was nothing.
His fingers curled into fists.
'Was I imagining things?'
'Am I just being paranoid?'
He let out a slow breath, forcing his heartbeat to steady. 'The mories are surfacing...'
He exhaled again.
"It's already morning," he muttered.
Or at least, it should be.
Thick storm clouds lood overhead, casting the forest in an endless twilight. But Alvin had learned how to tell day from night in this forsaken place.
Even on a sunny day, the Black Forest remained shrouded in darkness. Its towering, gnarled trees blocking out the sky. But at night, the true void descended.
There was only one clear difference.
The thunderstorm.
The rain never stopped in this place. It poured relentlessly, a never ending drizzle soaking the land. But thunder? That only ca at night. It was the one pattern Alvin had noticed.
And right now, the skies were silent.
That ant it was day.
Alvin's stomach growled, a sharp reminder of his hunger.
He sighed and reached inside his shirt, pulling out a small, worn book.
The manual Exile had given him.
He had no proper place to store it, so he simply kept it tucked against his chest.
"Veiled Tempest Battle Art."
The title was scrawled across the cover in sharp, flowing script.
Alvin flipped it open and began reading.
Minutes passed. Then an hour.
The hunger, the cold, the dampness of the cave. They all faded into the background as he lost himself in the manual's pages.
Finally, he snapped it shut and exhaled.
'Enough reading. Ti to try it again'.
Alvin stood, rolling his shoulders before stretching out his arm.
He closed his eyes.
'Concentrate.'
'Will it into existence.'
A breeze stirred, rustling his long, damp hair.
He opened his eyes just in ti to see it.
A faint swirl of air hovered in his palm. A wind sphere.
His first real success.
Excitent surged through him as he flicked his wrist, sending the wind ball toward the cave wall.
But before it could reach, it dissipated into nothing.
Alvin frowned.
'That was too easy.'
For two days, he had struggled and failed to manipulate wind. No matter how hard he tried, nothing happened.
Yet now, after that mory... it had just happened.
'Was it because of the resurfacing mories?'
Alvin clenched his fist.
If so... then what else had changed?
Alvin's stomach growled again.
'Ti to hunt.'
He stood, stretching his limbs before stepping toward the cave entrance.
The rain had lightened to a drizzle, but the thick canopy of the Black Forest still drowned the world in shadows.
Alvin climbed a tall tree, his movents careful, deliberate.
Reaching a sturdy branch, he scanned the area.
His gaze locked onto a herd of sheep grazing in a nearby clearing.
They all have a single horn, and they are eating the grass peacefully.
Or at least... that's what he thought.
His eyes narrowed. Sothing was wrong.
One of the sheep lifted its head, and Alvin's breath hitched.
Its muzzle dripped with blood.
The "grass" they were eating wasn't grass at all.
It was a horse carcass.
'No freaking way.'
'How could they take down sothing that big?'
Alvin's mind raced. These weren't normal sheep and sothing was seriously wrong.
But before he could process it, a shadow shifted in the treetops.
He wasn't the only one watching.
From the darkness, sothing lunged into the center of the herd.
Alvin's breath caught.
A creature that twisted and unnatural.
It had a spider like fra, but its legs were disturbingly human, bending at wrong angles.
Its face resembled a wolf, yet it was covered in eyes, dozens of them, twitching and darting in all directions.
A pure, hideous chira.
'What the hell is that?'
The sheep barely had ti to react before the chira exhaled a thick mist.
A suffocating fog swallowed the clearing.
Then screams followed.
The agonized bleats of dying animals. The wet sound of flesh being ripped apart.
Alvin couldn't see, but he could hear it.
The mist thinned.
And what remained was slaughter.
The ground ran red. Torn bodies lay scattered. The herd was wiped out and so still twitching, barely clinging to life.
But none of them would escape.
The chira slunk away, dragging several sheep wrapped in its sticky webs.
Alvin waited.
Only when the forest had gone still did he move.
'I wish I had stealth.'
He climbed down cautiously, his footsteps light against the damp earth. The stench of blood hung thick in the air.
The surviving sheep twitched weakly, its body torn but still clinging to life.
Finally. A al.
Alvin stepped closer, ready to end its suffering.
Then suddenly,
His instincts scread.
Before he could think, before he could even breathe, his body jerked away.
He hit the ground hard, rolling in the dirt.
When he looked up
The Chira stood exactly where he had just been.
Right where he had just stood...
The chira.
Alvin's breath hitched.
His mind raced. 'Wait... wasn't it gone?'
'Why did it co back?'
Then it clicked.
The chira never left. It didn't finish off the sheep because it didn't need to.
They were bait.
A bait.
For anything foolish enough to think it had found an easy al.
'For '.
He reached for his pocket, fingers grasping for the crude knife.
Empty.
A sinking feeling settled in his gut. Then he rembered, it was still back in the cave, where he had slept.
'Damn it'.
"I can't run, can I?" he muttered, his breath unsteady.
His body was drained, exhaustion pressing down on him like chains. Running wasn't an option.
He braced himself.
For what was about to co.
The Chira moved first.
Its many eyes locked onto Alvin, gleaming with hunger. Then it lunged.
Alvin barely twisted his body in ti, rolling to the side as one of its grotesque human like arms pierced the earth where he had stood.
Dirt exploded around him.
Fast. Too fast.
Alvin stumbled back, breath ragged.
His body scread in exhaustion, but he forced himself to move. He had no weapon. No advantage. Nothing but sheer will.
The Chira reared up, baring jagged fangs in what seed like a twisted grin. Then, without warning. It spat.
A thick, white web shot toward him.
Alvin threw himself to the side, the sticky mass grazing his arm before latching onto a tree. If that had hit him, he would've been trapped.
'No ti to think.'
The Chira skittered forward on its many limbs, reaching for him. Alvin grabbed a fist sized rock from the ground and hurled it at one of its eyes.
The impact made the beast flinch but barely.
'Not enough.'
It swiped at him again, and this ti, Alvin wasn't fast enough. Clawed fingers raked across his chest, shredding his already tattered shirt and drawing blood.
Pain ignited through his body, but he gritted his teeth and staggered back. He couldn't let fear paralyze him.
The Chira lunged again. Alvin ducked under its strike and, in a last ditch effort, drove his fist into one of its many eyes.
A wet, sickening pop.
The beast shrieked, recoiling.
But there was no ti to dwell on it. The Chira was already recovering, its many eyes seething with rage.
Alvin's vision blurred. His limbs felt like lead. He had nothing left.
The Chira leaped.
'I can't move in ti'
A whisper of steel cut through the storm.
A flash too fast to see.
Then blood.
The chira froze, its body still mid lunge... before splitting apart.
Alvin collapsed to his knees, gasping for air.
A shadow lood over him.
Exile stood there, staring down at him, his blade dripped with blood.
"Still alive, huh?"
Alvin sucked in a breath, chest burning, vision still spinning.
Then, with all the strength he had left, he said,
"Are you fucking kidding ?"
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