Chapter Two- Zone One- The Forest
Tim and Eric followed a path into the forest, while still in earshot of the other guard, Tim began by explaining away a lot of Eric’s initial questions.“First off,” Tim said, “By now you’ve probably been in the red zone right?”
The trees of the forest were bare and the twisted branches swayed in a breeze that tormented Eric but didn’t seem to bother Tim.
Eric considered this while giving a wickedly formed tree a wide berth, god this is freaky, “Red zone, you mean-”
“Yeah,” Tim interrupted, “the place where all the random encounters happen. Monsters called echoes exist in the red zone, invisible to you or I right upuntil they drag you into their world.”
“But why?” Eric asked, speeding up to be closer to his armed guard. His feet didn’t appreciate this, sending a spike of pain up at Eric as he passed somekind of stone.
“Echoes,” Tim answered oblivious to Eric’s discomfort, “like the name would suggest, are spirit like creatures that kill animals in order to take theirform.” Tim explained, looking around at his surroundings, “The stronger and more intelligent the form, the more powerful the echo becomes, in the end,that’s all they seem to care about.” He stomped onwards in his armoured bronze boots, “If an echo becomes strong enough,” Tim continued, “it becomes aman-eater, beings that exists both in the red and blue zone preying on those that cross its path.” With that Tim stopped in his tracks.
“The blue zone is this place right?” Eric asked, stopping besides Tim and looking at the face under Tim’s helmet. At this point they had been walking forat least ten or fifteen minutes, and at a relatively fast pace, which would put them well beyond earshot of the first guard. Tim seemed to considersomething, then grimly move on along the path, “Come on,” He said as he led the way.
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked.
“Nothing.” Tim said, then he put on a smile and asked, “So what was your name again?”
Eric got embossed after realising that he still hadn’t said even that much, “Uh- Eric. My name’s Eric. So, where are we going?”
Tim simply said “There’s a town, an eternal blue zone where the echoes can’t get to you,”
“And why are we out here then,” Eric asked
“We were protecting the spawning centre, that’s where you came from. New people won’t come unless we give it enough room, that’s why the gates are there,”Tim said starkly.
For a while, the two continued to walk, all the while the sun was rising and the sky was growing brighter.
“Well Eric,” Tim finally broke the silence. Tim stopped altogether, his back faced away from Eric. It was faint, but Eric could see something shimmeringoff of him. Tim was giving off some kind of red mist, “DIE,” Tim unsheathed the spear strapped to his back and turned, “WIDE SWIPE!” Time called out andsure enough, he swung his arm, pulling the long pole of the spear behind it. It all happened so fast, it almost seemed as if the spear was bending with howquickly it was being swung. The bladed tip of the spear was a blur of iron fury cutting through the air in a deadly arc.
Fortunately, Eric had realised Tim’s plan a while back and had already backed away. Eric wasn’t sure why, but Tim had wanted to kill Eric from the momentthey met and at the same time, Tim wanted to do so outside of the view of his armed companion.
The red mist, spilled from Tim’s body, giving everything around Tim a reddish tint. This confirmed Eric’s suspicions. The person once called Tim, had beenkilled by an echo and replaced without anyone noticing. Still, much like the giant frog before him, Tim paused after his first attack. Eric assumed it hadsomething to do with the numbers. The same numbers that determined whether or not Eric would live, also determined how often Tim could use that techniqueof his.
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Despite that, Tim jogged towards Eric and experimentally jabbed at Eric, there was no commitment behind the attacks and Eric was able to avoid them withoutany real difficulty, side stepping around one attack after another.
At the same time, the red mist had grown to a point where it had enveloped the surroundings of both Tim and Eric. However it had stopped being a mist, fromtheir perspective, the entire world was given a thin layer of red paint, from the sky to the ground.
Eric watched the spear closely, all the while thinking of a way out of this. From what he remembered, his own number, the second set especially, wouldn’timprove while he moved. Meaning that Tim probably won’t be able to use that move again, that or he can use if and this Tim was only playing with Eric. Ifthat was the case then Eric’s as good as dead the moment he enters Tim’s’ range of attack and even if its not, unlike Eric, Tim had armour which wasnaturally covering the especially vulnerable spots like the stomach and crotch. He could try running away, but that would mean turning his back to thisdeathly spear. Shit, shit, shit, Eric thought to himself. He just couldn’t see this ending well. He was going to die to this thing and they both knew it.
19 became 17, then 15. Crap, Eric thought, his stamina was depleting, he couldn’t keep this up. He looked at Tim’s face, one which had been perfectlyordinary not so long ago, and saw the twisted face or a murderer. One filled with glee. Eric was convinced that Tim here was up to something and wasn’tgoing to let himself die easily.
So Eric threw a hand back to feel for a tree. After meeting the bark of a bare tree, Eric kicked off against the tree and reeled behind the tree, puttingit between himself and the murderous being between them. Eric didn’t stop there though, feeling relatively safe Eric turned and tried to run. Horror sentEric into a sprint and he glanced back to find Tim falling behind.
Eric could have guessed that the armour that Tim was wearing would naturally slow him down. For a moment this actually comforted Tim.
[Stamina has fallen to 14]
Somewhere behind Eric, Tim screeched, releasing a twisted monstrous sound, a mix somewhere between a piercing squawk and a powerful roar. Eric didn’t darelook back, he ran through the forest until the sky fell back into blue. By the time Eric finally stopped running-
[Stamina has fallen to 7]
-Jesus, that was exhausting, Eric thought to himself. He was all but heaving. He leaned against a tree and stared out, “Di-” Eric huffed, “Did I loose-him.”
That being said, Eric wasn’t about to forget about to forget this. He looked around for some kind of record, ultimately he found a branch that had fallento the ground. Eric striped it down and then struck a tree, it held together, “Good enough…I guess.” Eric commented.
[Equipped: makeshift wooden short-sword]
Wow, Eric thought to himself, this interface was getting awfully sophisticated. Eric took this and hid under a thicket of greenery. It was ratheruncomfortable, but beggars can’t be choosers and Eric rested for a while.