My blood was pumping so hard I could feel the veins in my arms throbbing as if they were trying to burst free from my skin, my chest pounded as my body went into fight or flight mode. There were two many terror’s to count initially but I could see in the corner of my menu that 4/20 was displayed against the bonus quest of killing all twenty terrors.

“Sixteen to go,” I said to myself as the terrors continued to descend on me. A wave of crude black spiked helmets rushed towards me, they were all different sizes but they were no taller than just above my chest in size, they all had different fvarients of leather material or armour. Some were even bare chested, large purple scars decorating their skin.

They didn’t scream in tandem as a unit, they were shouting out and screaming at me individually, their screams sent a chill down my spine, there were so many of them to fight at once. A arrow bolt, barely missed my shoulder and I looked up at one of the turrets.

I hadn’t even considered having to deal with ranged attacks. There were two terrors up there, pushing and shoving each other as the second one readied their arrow to fire at me. Before they had chance though Raven dived out of nowhere from the side, knocking one of them over before springing up and taking down the second one before disappearing out of sight again. The counter in the corner changed to 6/20.

“Yes Raven,” I said before switching my attention rightly to the oncoming swarm of terrors. The shrieks were feral, almost guttural growls escaping their throats, green glowing eyes charging at me. They looked humanoid, they had arms and legs, but their behaviour was anything but and I wondered just what st behind those spiked metal masks, that covered their heads in their entirety.

Sensing if I was going to use my swordzerk ability this was it and I channeled my energy and my focus into triggering my berserker skill. Nothing happened at first and I started to panic, the terrors now getting dangerously close.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I said, cursing myself for practicing this more. I had been that focussed on levelling up I hadn’t given a moments thought to actually triggering my skill. I didn’t know how.

“Come on you bastards,” I focussed harder than I ever had, I wanted to get angry, really angry so I focussed on the thing I hated more than anything. “FUCK, YOU, JERRRY” I shouted out as my voice boomed, my feet pressed into the earth like I was a super charged superhero and a red glow of energy wrapped around me. The berserker symbol triggered in the corner of my menu with a thirty second timer. That’s all I had, that’s all the time I had to take down all these sons of bitches. The terrors started jumping onto me before I had chance to swing but it was strange it was like having puppies jump at me, they were making contact but they were barely affecting my movement. I just started swinging, grabbing hold of the little bastards and tossing them away from me, hacking and slashing with my cleaver as they continued to swarm around me. It was suffocating but it wasn’t overly tiring, in this form I felt as though I could take on the entire world, like there was no stopping me. I felt so strong, so powerful, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before and I dod not want the feeling to end.

The bodies of the terrors flew through the air as I continued to throw them around as soon as they landed on me, a sudden pain in my leg reminding me that they were in fact carrying weapons and that this wasn’t a game. They were actively trying to kill me. My timer continued to drop and I knew that I dodn’t have long left, about twenty seconds now.

With a roar I threw everything I had as the terrors continued to slice away at my skin, I knew they were hurting me, I could see my own blood on their weapons as well as theirs on mine and my hands. But the damage felt more like needle sticks, their strikes more uncomfortable rather than painful. The berserker skill was numbing down the pain that I was feeling and I dreaded to think how this would be when the timer eventually ran out.

A smaller terror dived at my face and I grabbed it with one hand, it swung around in my arm as it frantically tried to break free, despertely swinging its arms at me but unable to reach. I drove my cleaver straight into the side of its head, piercing its metal mask. Its green eyes stopped glowing instantly and it fell limp. Another icon lit up next to my berserker icon which now sat at ten seconds. It was a heart, with multiple plus signs floating up from it. I figured it must have been my region skill from the one point I had allocated to the hammer heart skill tree. I was grateful, the five second timer started counting down as the throbbing, stabbing pains in my legs slowly vanished and I felt like my injuries had completely healed. I continued to hack and slash at the remaining terror as their bodies started to pile at my feet around me.

I continued to punch, kick and scream out loud until the terrors stopped coming striking the last standing one with a roar as my berserker timer reached zero. I stood panting heavily as the red glow about me vanished and all of a sudden I felt as though I was on the mother of all comedowns. The terrors lifeless bodies lay strewn everywhere in about a ten foot radius off me, some limbs were at natural angles others were just led in a pile of their own blood but I was still alive. The counter in the top corner of the screen now sat at 18/20 and I looked around searching for the last two terror’s.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I couldn’t see them anywhere. Having my wits about me I moved further into the far side of the terror camp, there was a ramshackle hut again made clumsily from the wood sourced from the forest, the entrance way led into a larger thicket of trees however and something about it drew me inside. There was the random shanty huts around me, but something about this drew me in, it looked different. There were skills lining the top of the door frame, some looked human, some looked like animals and some looked like things I could not under stand. One had an elongated face with tusks protruding from the bottom corners of its jawline. Orc like, shit is that something I would have to deal with here, do Orcs exist? I couldn’t see any sign of Raven and I had no clue where she was, I was just aware of the side quest, ‘Find the whispers of Raven’s past’.

We needed to find something, what was difficult was that Raven clearly knew what she was looking for, I didn’t and I couldn’t help but feel frustrated that this was a big barrier. After all how could I find something when I didn’t actually know what it was that I was looking for. I stepped through the ominous doorway, it was darker when I stepped inside, the shut was larger than I had expected, it was a large rectangular room, tables and benches scattered around. More skulls were mounted on the walls like hunting trophies but there was no order to them. It was like being in a log cabin that had been neglected for twenty years, there were gaps in the walls where panels had been broken or simply crumbled under decay and rot, a section of the ceiling had a big whole in it, where the forest had pushed its way in, with branches and leaves reaching in and stretching across the ceiling like a living canopy.

I had to have my wits about me after all, according to my terror counter there were still another two of the little bastards somewhere around the camp.

“Raven?” I said in hushed whisper, hoping to catch her attention, was she in here or was she looking else where. There was no answer and I called out for her again.

“Raven?” I whispered again, I wasn’t in berserk mode but if there were any terrors in here I felt confident enough to take them down.

I continued to look around the room, but it was bare apart from some flasks and bits of half eaten fruit and meat that were scattered hastily around the table. I couldn’t help but think I had inter opted their meal time when I ambushed the camp, given this was the room they had all run out from

I was just about to leave when I noticed something in the corner of the room, it looked like a box, it was strange in design, it was white in appearance and as I approached I realised that it was made of bone, it was surprisingly clean, given the state of the mood and decay in the rest of the room, a few vines stretching over the surface as if the forrest was trying to take back something that was its or that it was claiming.

*Bone box*

The notification came up and I was surprised to see what it was. Aloot box? I thought to myself as I instinctively reached forward to open it. It was easy enough to open up, a small latch which I unclipped before lifting the lid of it.

*2x healing potion*

*1x stamina potion*

'Sweet,' I thought to myself as I reached in and added the two items to my inventory. It was better than nothing. My health bar was at about seventy five percent so I I grabbed hold of the vial that had red liquid in it and instinctively glued it like it was a jello shot. The potion was thicker than I expected, it had an iron tanginess to it that instantly made me panic that it was blood, but a sweeter taste, similar to strawberries greeted me which allayed my fears.

The thick potion had the consistency of treacle as it continued to make its way through my body, giving me a warm fuzzy sensation, my health bar retuned to 100%.

“I’ll take that.” I said as I looked over my stamina which seemed to have replenished naturally as time had passed, which made sense. I wasn’t as pumped up, my breathing had slowed down to a more normal rate. My hands still trembled from the fight but I thought that was more because of my nerves at this point more than anything.

By the time I noticed the heavy breathing behind me it was too late, the two remaining terrors screamed out at me ready to strike at me. I stumbled backwards when they startled me and my foot snagged on some tree roots that had forced there way through the a gap in the wooden walls. I banged my head on the floor and for a moment the room shook as I tried to grab my bearings.

One ion the terrors had a spear pointed at me in a threatening manner, jabbing it forward as it spoke with the other, I still had no clue what they were saying to one another but judging by the second terror’s body language it was encouraging it to stab me with the spear.

Out of nowhere a knife flew through the air and pierced the second terror’s mask, his glowing eyes faded and he fell to his side with a thunk as his heavy mask hit the ground. The terror with the spear spun to its side looking for where the knife had come from. No sooner than he turned, Raven dived into him, her sythes already stretch out as she slammed them into each of the terrors shoulders. The terror cried out in pain but before he could continue Raven pulled out her sythes and slammed them together decapitating him as he dropped the the ground, the metal head clanging against the other dead terror’s mask.

“Thank you,” I said as Raven turned to face me. “Again,” I added before clambering back to my feet. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Raven shook her head, looking perplexed, she scanned around the room looking for something with a steely intent in her eyes.

“I’ve already looked around in here,” I said, “All I found was a couple of health potions and a stamina potion. Do you need any of them.”

Raven shook her head, other than being covered in blood, she looked absolutely fine, like all of this was all in a days work. We really were in a messed up situation.

In my menu I could see that the terror conter now sat at 20/20, but other than that nothing else had changed, we still had not completed the side quest and I could feel my own frustrations rising up.

“Come on, let’s go look in the huts outside, maybe there is something out there.”

As we left the room and re-entered the large clearing something felt off, and the terror counter vanished from my menu.

Defat the Leader of the terror camp of doom

“Shit,” I said as the ground started to rumble around us. Was this a god damn boss battle?