After they crossed the threshold, the darkness was so thick that without the light given off by the plants they wouldn’t be able to see their hand in front of their faces. With the light the plants provided they were only able to see the faint silhouettes of their surroundings.

“Fuck this is creepy.” Maymun whispered. The forest was completely silent. There was no wind gusting, no birds chirping, no insects flapping their wings, only the sound of their boots crunching leaves and twigs underneath them.

“Wait, I think I see something.” Ilon whispered in a hurry. He had seen a dim light in the distance, before it had disappeared behind something. “A light to the upper right of us.”

He saw it once again moving closer towards them. He wasn’t able to make out what it was or even the shape of it, all he saw was a lone spot of light in a sea of darkness coming closer and closer.

The three of them got into combat stances and prepared themselves for whatever was coming. It was only a couple dozen feet away, yet they still weren’t able to make out what it was, just that it was walking on four legs.

They tensed up as it came closer. The light faded as they heard the rustling of leaves. They were only able to faintly see a large bush in front of them of some kind that the light had walked into. Silence reigned over them for a couple of seconds, their pounding hearts the only thing they could hear. Their surging adrenaline overtaking their minds and preparing them for the fight to come.

They prepared to attack as they heard the rustling once more, nearing them. The plants near the bush lit up as the thing they were waiting for sauntered out of the bush. Ilon was about to strike out with his whip on whatever came out, but stopped himself in time.

What came out of the bush was a cat that was only just a bit larger than a regular house cat. It was a light brown colour with black stripes and dots decorating it’s coat. The only thing that was irregular about it was it’s face. A portion of the left side of the cat’s face where the eye was, was completely gone. There was no blood or muscle exposed, it was just gone. A black void staring directly into their souls.

“An ocelot.” Quyon said, which startled the cat. It let out hiss and ran away. It’s silhouette quickly disappeared until all that remained was a lone light in the darkness, just like theirs.

“What was that?” Maymun said in a slightly disgusted tone. “Why is everything here so creepy, it’s giving me the shivers.”

“Think it has to do with the Horror?” Ilon asked. It was his best guess, because something like that was definitely not natural.

“Probably. It also means we’re probably moving in the right direction then. And that we’re going to be seeing more animals and monsters, so be prepared.” Quyon said as she watched the light fade out in the distance.

“What do we do if the Horror doesn’t trigger the plants?” Ilon asked even though he already knew the answer, hope it doesn’t ambush and kill them instantly.

“Let’s change our formation.” Maymun suggested. “We’ll move in a straight line, Ilon in front so you can attack the light preemptively, I’ll be in the middle so if the Horror ambushes us like that I have a chance of responding and guarding you two. Quyon, you’ll be responsible for our backs.”

“Alright. Ikiyoka, please let our luck be good.” Ilon let out a little prayer as he got into formation.

“Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve heard that. Picked it up from the Master?” Maymun asked. It was common for people to pray to the totems that blessed villages, but she had only heard of the Master using that prayer.

“She sorta forced it onto me, and it’s been a habit ever since.” Ilon replied. “All ready?” He asked Maymun and Quyon.

They continued on in their new formation. They advanced at a snail’s pace, mainly because they could hardly see anything in front of them, but also because they were worried about the potential ambush from the Horror. They had to take as many precautions as they could in order to raise their chance of survival, and if that meant going at a slower pace, then so be it.

As they combed their way through the forest they saw several other dim lights in the distance, yet none ever came closer. They attempted to go to those dim lights, but everytime they tried the lights disappeared off into the distance.

They continued for what seemed like several hours, slowly roaming the forest. It felt like hours, but there was no way to tell because there was no way to see the sun because of how thick the canopy was. Hours of being in complete darkness in a constant state of tension had worn away all of their concentration and grated their nerves.

“Let’s take a break. We can’t keep going like this.” Quyon said, her shoulders rife with tension and anxiety racking her brain.

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“I agree. I’m walking on thin ice here.” Maymun agreed as she continued to survey around them.

“Let’s find an opening clearing where we can sit back to back, that way we can see all directions.” Ilon said as he led them further in, trying to find a clearing. After a while Ilon was able to find one that was of decent size.

“We can rest here.” Ilon said as he stared into the darkness around them. “Let’s gather some easily breakable twigs and place them around the area. If something that doesn’t activate the plants gathers then at least we’ll potentially have some warning.”

“Good idea.” Quyon said in a tired voice. “We’ll have one person eat at a time. If you want to go to the bathroom then take another person.” They quickly got to work and gathered suitable twigs, which were easy to find in a forest as large as this one. They spread them around the opening and settled down in the center of the clearing. They rested their backs on each other and took a moment to relax and calm themselves.

“This is a mess.” Maymun said as she ate some of her rations. She was the first because she had the toughest job out of the three of them. She had to be on constant alert and focus her attention on all sides. She had the best reaction time out of the three of them by far and would be the only one able to react in time if the Horror did manage a sneak attack on them.

“It’s certainly not sunshine and rainbows.” Ilon joked to try and lighten the mood. “It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve seen the sun.”

“It’s only been half a day at most.” Quyon retorted.

“Then why does it feel like it’s been half a month?” Ilon had never felt this drained from walking before. He had been in a lot of tense and life threatening situations, but something about being in an endless ocean of darkness wore him down like nothing else.

“We might be in over our heads.” Quyon said as she stared into the darkness. A couple of dim lights far away would appear for a couple moments before fading away. “What do you think we should do?” She questioned.

“Q’s doubting herself? What has this world come to?” Maymun asked with a smirk. Quyon could hear the smirk in her snarky tone of voice and gave her a quick elbow jab. Maymun smiled and enjoyed their moment of peace, which didn’t last all that long.

“Get up, we’ve got company.” Ilon said as he noticed several spots light up in the distance, getting closer to them by the second. He couldn’t exactly tell how many enemies there were, but judging from how big the light was he figured there were a decent amount.

“This way too.” Quyon said as she stood up and prepared for battle.

“Nothing from this way just yet.” Maymun said. “Quyon, can you hear how many are coming?”

Quyon closed her eyes and focused all of her concentration on her hearing. Violet energy surged within her as she focused it to enhance her hearing. She could hear every step from every monster, every breath they took, every beat of their heart. From her side she could tell that there were 7 monsters, 3 of them were lighter than the other four. On Ilon’s side there were 5, four of them were trailing behind the fifth. She could tell the fifth was a lot stronger than the other four. She quickly relayed the information to Ilon and Maymun

“Maymun focus on killing the strong one in the pack, Ilon provide her support. I’ll deal with the seven as best as I can. Ilon split some of your attention to my battle and if it looks like I need some help then I’ll be counting on you.” Quyon took the role of the leader again. They all got into their positions and waited as the light from both sides got closer and closer.

The first to breach their way into the clearing was the group of seven. The light provided by the plants wasn’t the best, but it was still enough to see and figure out what they were dealing with. The first thing that Quyon noticed was that all the monsters had one similarity. All of the monsters had missing left eyes, similar to what they had seen with the ocelot.

The second thing that she noticed was that one group of monsters were a large feline species called Night Striders, mainly because of their pitch black fur. The other group of monsters were a large canine species called Star Hounds, because their fangs glinted like stars in the night sky. There was one major problem. These two species were mortal enemies that were always at each other's throats. They would never work together no matter the circumstances.

Are they being controlled? Quyon questioned in her head. She unfortunately didn’t have that much time to think about it as the two groups started sprinting towards them. Quyon was about to go meet them in battle, but before she could she felt something whiz past her towards one of the Star Hounds.

She recognized Ilon’s whip as it soared towards the far Star Hounds right eye, successfully hitting it. The eye exploded as the hound lost it’s balance and toppled to the ground.

“Nice one.” Quyon shouted at him as she moved to meet the others. A dark grey energy, the signature of monsters, sprouted out from their paws and jaws. In an instant the six of them sped up, shooting towards Quyon.

Quyon jumped into the air and raised her legs to her body, putting her in a crouching position. Her boots shone with violet light as she pushed off the air, shooting forward. She did a half flip in the air, building momentum in her foot as she landed heel first on the middle Night Strider.

She felt it’s skull crack and felt the squishy brain matter give, their blood a dark red ichorous. She pushed off the remains of the head in a backflip, landing in front of the remaining five monsters. She took the opportunity to look over and see how Ilon and Maymun were doing.

Maymun had a Cheshire smile on her face as she brandished her staff. The monster before her was an Alpha Ironback Gorilla that stood at close to three meters tall. The other four Ironback Gorillas were smaller, sitting at around two meters tall. All of them also shared the similarity of a missing left eye, a black void in its place instead.

“I got the big one, try and keep the smaller ones off of me.” Maymun said as she rushed forward.

Ilon focused most of his attention towards the other four. The alpha let out a big howl as it rushed to meet Maymun, while the four started to circle around it. It didn’t look like they were going to interfere with the alpha’s fight as they seemed more focused on him and Quyon behind him.

“Let’s do this.” He whispered softly to himself. Dark grey energy exploded from the fists and legs of the Ironback Gorillas. The four of them seemed to have perfect cooperation as they all exploded forth in a synchronized manner.

Ilon’s whip shone with a violet light as he flicked his wrist forward, shooting the whip out towards the right leg of the gorilla on the far right. He pulled as hard as he could left after the whip curled around it’s leg, sending it into the path of the second gorilla on that side. The two smashed into each other causing them to fall into a heap. It wouldn’t injure them that much, but it did buy him some time to deal with the other two.

He started to pull his whip back as the two gorillas on the left reached him. The first punched forward with it’s massive hands which were as big as Ilon’s head. He agiley dodged to the right while swinging the dagger in his left hand towards it’s exposed wrist. He noticed the other one full-body charging at him so he jumped forward, and using the gorilla as a step-stool, jumped out of range of the charging gorilla.

As Ilon was in the air he noticed that Quyon had taken down another one of her opponents, leaving four left. Maymun seemed to be handling the alpha just fine, parrying his attacks with her staff and getting some hits in. He also noticed that the two gorillas on the right side seemed to be getting up.

He threw his dagger with perfect precision into the ear of the gorilla who had just gotten up, killing it instantly. As he landed, his whip shot out behind him, wrapping around the neck of one of the big cats that was sneaking up on Quyon. He twisted his body and his whip glowed even more strongly with violet light as he pulled in an arcing motion.

The big cat got dragged into the air unable to do anything. It’s body flipped and came crashing down on the remaining gorilla to the right, back first. Ilon watched as it’s spine snapped and the head of the gorilla caved in.

Two smaller gorillas were left. He controlled his whip to retrieve his dagger that was in the ear of the gorilla as he took note of Maymun’s fight.