Nick was bending over to tighten the straps on his boots when a wispy tendril of darkness flitted across his vision. That was weird. A jolt of adrenaline mingled with his bloodstream when the realization of what he had just seen washed over him.
Nick spun around, ready to find out how fucked he was, part of his mind already searching for the closest shelter. But instead of the marshlands, all that was there to meet his gaze was a solid wall of midnight. A writhing bank of impenetrable blackness that was rushing toward him like an avalanche of oblivion, erasing the light of the world in its wake and concealing the contours of the bog within its inky depths.
Knowing that he was in serious trouble, he desperately sought out a path that would take him to solid ground before the blackmist broke over him. Half a heartbeat later, he discovered that it was already too late. The mist had risen as fast as thought and was reaching out to engulf him.
Nick had just enough time to scan the ground by his boots before the yawning void swallowed him whole. A lack of light so complete it made ordinary darkness seem grey by comparison. It was as if an alchemist had distilled the very concept of lightlessness, then poured the concoction out over the bog.
Nick could feel the onyx vapor gliding across his skin. An oily caress that made the hair on his arms rise and stand on end. The unnerving sensations didn’t stop there. In addition to blinding him, the blackmist distorted the local soundscape, warping the ambient music of the bog into something haunting and sinister.
Calm down Nick, he fought the urge to panic. This isn’t as bad as it looks. If you just stand still and wait, the bank should pass you by before long. It was moving fast, and it can’t go on forever. Besides, none of the beasts should be able to see in this stuff either.
So far, you haven’t run into another one of those creatures that brushed up against you back on that first day. You might be safer now than you were before.
He knew that he shouldn’t have thought that last bit the moment that he did. While Nick had never been the superstitious sort, he didn’t want to give the System ideas. Not that the impersonal entity needed an excuse to fuck up his day.
After a long, tense moment, he let out a sigh of relief, laughing at his own contradictory nature.
The instant that he lowered his guard, Nick felt something massive brush past his shoulder, a rubbery tendril that felt cold and clammy, followed by a segment covered in soft feathers. The moment that it touched him, it jerked back in response. A piercing cry broke out, warped and twisted by the billowing mists.
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The raucous caw was followed by another, then a third. That can’t be good. His fears were confirmed half a heartbeat later, when a System prompt flashed across his vision, the only thing that existed within the all-consuming void.
System message: Global event.
10% of participating contestants have entered the Tower of Rizzen. As a result, a new danger has been introduced to the bog.
Event: Hunters in the mist.
From this point forward, the redfang hunters populating the blackmist will become far more aggressive. Their numbers and strength will grow as more contestants enter the tower. The hunters will become actively hostile in approximately sixty seconds.
Note: for global events triggered by tower entry, survival is its own reward.
Nick had been doing a decent job of fighting down his fears thus far. But now he began to panic. Whatever the redfang hunters were, one of them had just brushed past his shoulder. In a little less than a minute, it would start stalking him in earnest.
In short, Nick needed to get out of here fast. However, he was surrounded by water and wasn’t sure which way he should run.
Now that he knew that something was pursuing him from within the mist, he needed to either make his way out of the inky haze before he was caught or find a place to hole up. Somewhere he could hide or defend himself until the bank blew past. The hunters seemed to be confined to the mists, so the danger they posed should end when the light of the world returned.
He reached for the state of icy clarity that had come to him in the past. But on this occasion, only a trace of that frigid awareness answered his call. It was enough to keep him from losing his shit, but only by the narrowest of margins. What should I do? What can I do? What options are there other than pray and stand my ground or start running blind?
He was certain that either of those choices would lead to his demise. But then he remembered that moment back in the tutorial, when he had been able to visualize the battle on the hilltop without needing to see it with his eyes. That time in the safe room, when he’d been able to imagine his opponents so clearly, that they had appeared before him in lifelike detail. Maybe, just maybe, that ability could save him now.
With no time to waste, Nick desperately latched onto his last memory of the world of light, superimposing it over the impenetrable darkness through sheer effort of will. To his surprise, it almost worked. He could see the vague outlines of the surrounding channels and lakes, even the contours of his own body when he held his arm out in front of him.
Unfortunately, in this case, almost wasn’t good enough. After taking two steps, his boot came down onto water instead of dry earth. Nick nearly fell into the swamp then and there, wheeling his arms before recovering his balance with a horrified gasp.
It turned out that this was only the beginning of his trouble. Because that was when something cried out only a few feet away from where he stood. Something big and headed his way.
Nick drew his dagger and began swiping blindly at the air around his head, as taunting caws reverberated across the marsh like mocking laughter.