The amber glow of The Heart fell to the far horizon. It’s cold light falling to the depths of the dark trees and the shadow canopy that now covered the sky. A swirling mist covered the dirt path ahead of us as Elfred, Meren and I fell away from the safety of the Hearthlight and deep into the woods. A notification appeared and shared with us the name of the woods.

[Ethrell Forest]

“Be wary wear you step,” Elfred said. “I’m not sure how but I believe the enemies of the forest are drawn to you if your steps take you off the path.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my eyes scanning the darkening woods.

“On a few of the attempts I tried to travel through Ethrell, whenever I stepped off the path the spirits attacked me sooner. It’s almost like they have an aggro trigger for anything that attempts to bypass the boss fight.” Elfred’s body shook as he walked and despite the night crawling our way it wasn’t that cold. Or at least I thought so.

“Got it,” Meren piped in. “The game doesn’t like scaredy cats. You gotta take these challenges head on. Elfred any other tips you can give us before the fighting begins?”

“Umm.. Yes let me think. Each of my runs through the woods I got a bit farther than before, but as is obvious I never made it all the way through. But…” Elfred paused, his eyes drifting to the outlying shadows.

“But what?” I prodded.

“Oh sorry. But every time I walked through these woods I was sure I was almost to the city on the other side. It was like no matter how far I traveled I could never leave the forest.” A rush of wind picked up around us and it caused the Ardor to jump, pulling his spear and pointing it at the woods. Meren and I stopped and propped up our own weapons waiting for something to emerge from the trees. After a short pause Elfred let out a sigh, dropped his spear and continued forward.

“There are lights dotting the path. Lantern lights, not Hearthlights. So if we die we respawn outside the woods. However I think there is something about the lantern lights. Maybe a gimmick we can use but I’ve yet to figure out how we can use them. There is one there.” Elfred pointed ahead and as we came to our first turn of the path we were greeted by an old stone arch and broken walls. Before the arch was a lone lantern, its light an ominous green that flickered with life.

“I don’t like the look of that.” Meren said, and even though she had a calmness to the way she spoke I could she that she had her blades held at the ready below her cloak. “Why’s it green?”

We came to a stop before the light of the emerald lantern, and I tried to inspect it. I didn’t receive an option for further insight and figured it was probably nothing but environmental decorations.

“Let’s keep moving,” I said.

“Right.” Meren nodded and pressed forward with me.

“Wait for me,” Elfred scuttled up behind me, his talisman shaking in his hand.

“Elfred?” I asked.

“Yeah?”

“What’s your talisman do? I didn’t read on it when I was picking my class.”

“I can use it to give weapons temporary buffs.” He continued to watch the trees as if he expected something to pop out at any time.

“What kinds of buffs?” I asked.

“Umm a few different ones. But I can’t use all of them yet. I think I need to enhance it before I unlock its full potential. Plus I can only use it to buff other peoples weapons not my own. Currently I can only give a single elemental buff. A small damage bonus of fire.” Elfred jumped at the sound of an owl singing in the trees.

“That’s pretty cool,” I commented giving him my best smile. I felt like I needed to boost his confidence. He was so skittish and full of fear I felt bad for the guy. It felt weird feeling that way because he was older than me but he gave me a sort of nerd-in-his-parents-basement kind of guy.

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“Shh listen,” Meren said, motioning for us to stop. “I hear something.”

“What is it?” I held up my warhammer, ready to strike at a moments notice.

“I can’t. I can’t do this.” Elfred pushed himself between me and Meren.

“Calm down, Elfred. We all need to be on ours toes. You want us to protect you? Then be worth protecting,” I urged. “Meren? What do you hear?”

“I’m not sure. It’s sort of like the wind but deeper and more purposeful. There!” She lifted her blades and pointed off the path ahead of us. We all turned to look where she was pointing. I almost missed it at first but before it disappeared behind a nearby hill I saw the name Elumbra, The Goddess of Dusk. The boss had showed itself. The fight was coming.

“Not again!” Elfred made a run for it, but instead of running back the way we came he sprinted forward as if he could outrun the forest and stumble into safety.

“Come on.” I called out running after him. Meren let out a sigh and jumped in line with me.

“This guy is going to get us killed.” Meren said.

“I don’t plan on dying again. Plus I think he can help us out more than he thinks.” I could feel my [SP] draining fast as we tried to catch up to Elfred and was worried I was going to run out before we reached him but just as sudden as he started to run he stopped. His figure had come to another flickering lantern of green light. This time it was beside an old campsite. Broken tents, ashen fire pit and felled logs used for seating.

“Here they come.” Elfred said and he crouched down in a fetal position, hands over his head.

“Back to back.” Meren called. I did as she said, putting my back to her so that we both could look out on either side of the path and prevent any enemies from surprising us. It was a long moment of eerie silence than I expected before I caught sight of something flashing in the distance. Then I caught sight of another flash of misty light and then another and another. From behind the veil of dark trees foul spirits stumbled their way towards us.

They were not your typical ghosts, or at least the ones I imagined. They were skeletal in their appearance, wearing all sorts of varieties of armors and sporting a whole host of different weapons. They stumbled forward, eyes glazed over with a purple light, heads shifting side to side. Their forms continued to fade in and out of reality as they walked closer and closer to us. Being found in one place, disappearing and reappearing somewhere different. It wasn’t till they came within ten feet of us that their bodies solidified and they started their attacks.

Meren and I didn’t hesitate and jumped right into action. She fighting the spirits who came from near the camp and me from the other side. I had about four enemies advancing on me and she had five. I wasn’t too worried about her though as she had defeated Koushinon with no trouble. I was worried about me though. I was still slow and this moment gave me chilling memories of being surrounded by bullies. All of them pushing me around and I was unable to do anything about it. Unlike all those times this time would be different. I was different.

I activated my [War Cry] by spending the remaining of my [SP] as it hadn’t fully recovered from my run and felt my body suddenly feel a lot heavier but stronger at the same time. My [HP] almost doubled again as my [War Cray activated. I couldn’t move from my spot and knew I needed to wait a moment for my [SP] to recover. It was a risky move but I was hoping I could be a wall between these spirits and Elfred who was still crying like a child lost in the woods.

“Come on.” I urged the closest spirit to fight me to which it stepped up, tall, strong and holding a 2H broadsword. I was hoping its attacks would be slow and something I could handle quickly and I was right. The thing lifted its blade and swung it in an arc. I held my warhammer out in front of me in a defensive position and let the sword hit against the edge of it’s mallet. I felt a sudden burst of energy ring up my hands and arms too which I stumbled back a step. The spirit fell back a step as well and with a quick swing of my hammer I launched my retaliation.

My warhammer swung right through the ghost and nearly threw me to the ground.

What the hell was that?

Inspecting the ghosts health bar it had dropped but barely by any amount.

“I don’t think our attacks our going to work on these things.” I called back to Meren. I didn’t hear a response. I quickly regained my composure and barely dodged another swing of the spirit’s blade. I took a few steps back and called out to Meren again. When I turned to face her she was gone. The spirits she had been fighting were wandering around aimlessly in the trees. Whatever she was doing it was at least distracting them.

“Elfred any help would be appreciated.” I yelled at the man.

“It’s useless. All of my attacks barely did anything. They are too strong. I can’t… I can’t…” Elfred continued to cry into his arms.

There is no way these guys can be this strong. I’m doing less damage then I was to Koushinon and he was a boss.

I stepped back again, knocking my back into the pole that held the lantern and it’s green light, as I avoided another attack from the broadsword ghost. The other three had turned their attentions away from me and to Elfred. One had come up beside him and cut him across the arm with a scythe like weapon. The man let out an agonizing scream while simultaneously calling for his mother.

Crap I’m about to die again.

Another attack came swinging at my head. I ducked down and rolled forward with as little [SP] I had. When I came to my knees I heard the spirit let out a screech of pain. Its blade had shattered the side of the lantern and green flames had poured out on its hands. The health bar above the spirits head flashed a moment and its health dropped by almost ten percent.

The fire! That’s it!