The monster loomed out of the mist, and Alex fired off an Identify.

Mist-Fouler Spirit

Information Hidden

"Oh, perfect." She grumbled, pondering the name even as her Technique urged her to advance and strike. Lacking any further information, and indeed the willingness to peacefully resolve the matter like she would have had she been on Earth, Alex gave in and found herself hurtling forwards towards the creature.

It, unlikely everything else she had fought so far, did not attempt to dodge. Instead, when her spear sank into it a foul mixture of fats and ichor spurted out, ejecting the spear and instantly sealing the wound. At the same time, the a vaguely unpleasant odour began to fill the air.

"Ah." Alex muttered. "Well, that's not good."

A few more testing attacks later, and the fog began discolouring in obvious ways. Instead of the off-white that pervaded everywhere else, greens, yellows and even purples slowly slid out of the fog trailing unnaturally after her as she dodged around the large monster.

The only time it really moved was when she would have a direct line to the shrine behind it, which made her way out of this mess eminently clear. The only problem is that when it moved it was strangely fast, and she just could not get around it.

She did recall the clerics advice, not to make general calls to her new gods. "Omvorthox" She... intoned. Which was odd, since she had intended to merely sound out the name. Instead she pronounced it, emphasising every individual syllable so that the word almost seemed to hang in the air.

She was suddenly, desperately thirsty. Her throat was parched, her vision became blurry, and flashes of hot and cold ran over her body like molesting hands. "Consumption" She rasped, and the pressure abated almost instantly although she was still desperately thirsty.

The mist in a wide cirlce around her and the spirit was blasted away, the ground dried out, the trees twisted and balckened shedding leaves that even then were curmbling from a vaguely healthy green to brown dust, and the spirit howled in agony as its bulbuous watery flesh began to dry out.

Then, the last of the mist between the pair of them and the sky faded, and Alex suddenly felt a very different, familiar kind of attention on her.

Killing intent poured out of the sky itself, which was now truly black. Lightning flared between vast towering clouds, which themselves were only visible due the radiance of celestial fury bouncing between the two of them.

She hurled herself back into the mists, heart thundering in her chest and vision blurry. The spirit followed after - or at least half of it did, for when it arrived in the mist glittering frost covered a third of what was left and it only had two legs left.

Momentary silence shattered when the mist around them collapsed into a thousand shining snowflakes that drifted down, once more revealing the utterly lethal sky.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Blue lightning surged down, bouncing between hundred of spears formed from ice. Alex and the spirit could only stare at the approaching death as the vast heavenly killing intent pinned them to the ground like insects beneath a needle.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A roar, a wall of sound that shattered her eardrums and sent her through the nearby trees, and an invocation of some primal force that made every moment of fear and terror she had ever felt in her life seem meaningless broke the word.

Space broke apart, and atomic fire in otherwordly shades poured out. The remaining mist in the valley surged skywards as someone or something went to war with the sky above.

Witnessing a Dragon's Art: +10AP

Witnessing a Dragon's Tribulation: +10AP

Alex and the spirit both gained more strength in moments than ever before, the sudden surge of strength snapping them out of their entranced states.

They stared at each other, and then Alex broke out into a sprint. The spirit heaved itself around, and the pair raced for the shrine. Thirst and hunger gnawed at Alex, and she almost missed the twinge of her developing sense for catastrophy until it was right on top of her.

She slammed the spear down and stopped her momentum dead a moment before stray bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of her.

The spirit leapt straight up, and Alex copied it, legs screaming in agony.

The ground froze solid, icy raced up the spear and Alex lost a two fingers on her hand as she was a moment to slow to let go of the weapon. Their shattered remnants fell to the pale ground, and the two of them crashed down.

Alex forced the breath out of her body and into the lantern, and a flash of lurid light freed her spear and cost her precious moments. When she looked up again, the spirit once more stood between her and the its shrine. Finally though, she had had a stroke of luck - the spirit had been caught in the momentary warmth of her lantern's flame, and was now haemorrhaging its foul innards.

Alex ran in a wide arc around it, and it was not able to follow. She reached the shrine first.

"Oh Evil Ones, Behold My Offering" She intoned, and the stone bled. The spirit screamed, the shadows deepened, and Alex nearly lost consciousness as twin waves of spiritual filth errupted around her. She could feel a hole somewhere around her heart, a metaphorical hollowness from which something dark and violent flooded the world around her.

The filth freezing solid around her was unexpected, and she felt her heart freeze in her chest before a halo of pink-red flames exploded out of her.

And then it was over.

Mist-Fouler Spirit defeated: +2AP

The shrine crumbled into black dust, and Alex was freed from her foul prison, collapsing into a ball of disgust and pain while the sky above continued to war against...

She stared at the 'mountain' that had unfolded into a dragon. Its wings covered the other half of the valley entirely, flames poured in a raging torrent from a dozen tendrils that jutted from its neck. Its head was impossible to see behind a baleful crimson glow, and even from where she was Alex knew that it was searching for her amidst the unfolding chaos.

Alexandra Johnson

Faction: Monster

Subfaction: Itinerant

Species: Human

Blood: 37(+11.1% Endurance, +37% Bloodline)(+1.37)% Bonus Bloodline, Total:(38.37%)

Bone: 10(+3% Tool Use, +10% Aura)

Flesh:10(+3% Technique Efficiency, +10% Regeneration)

Blessings: [Identify(Justice)][Omvorthoxan Devouring Eye]

Techniques: [Spear-Fishing][Walking]

Equipment Slots: [Weapon: Spear][Offhand: Tarnished Lantern]

Bloodline: First Serpent