Every step Erin took made a satisfying crunch from the broken branches and leaves. There were plenty of trees, but almost all of them were barren, as though it was the fall season here.

Back home it was winter, heading into summer. Then again it might be different here. Come to think of it, where exactly do these quests take place?

As she wandered around, she nearly fell down a sloping hill, but instinctively stopped right before.

Jeez, that was close. This flashlight barely does anything. I'll bring a more powerful one next time.

Just then, Erin heard a noise that sent shivers down her back. She turned around immediately and yelled, “Who's there?”

She saw a vaguely human shaped figure behind a tree about twenty to thirty feet away. It looked like a kid, and Erin almost moved towards the figure, but something in her told her to back away. The figure began closing in while moving between the trees at high speeds. Before she could react, the figure appeared right in front of her. Erin got her first real glimpse of the creature. It had skin so black that it was like looking at a void and red eyes that held such a fierce wrath in them that Erin felt frozen in place as it struck out with long white claws.

Only two things saved her. First were the cards she'd placed against her t-shirt. Since she'd activated her ability, they were far tougher than normal. And so as the creature slashed at her chest, tearing through her vest, the claws couldn't fully pierce the cards. The second factor was her position. As Erin stumbled backwards frantically, she fell down the slope, all the way to the bottom.

She felt battered, and one of her fingers was dislocated. But Erin didn't bother stopping and began to run away as quickly as she could. She heard someone call out, “Hey, you there!”

She turned towards the voice, and saw a human-shaped figure. She almost ran away again, but upon more careful inspection she noticed that this time the figure actually was human. A dark-skinned girl with short hair who looked to be around her age slowly walked over while waving her hand.

“Hey! I'm glad to see you. I thought I was all alone in this creepy forest.”

Erin quickly ran towards her while yelling, “Run!”

Erin didn't bother to check if the girl had followed her until her feet nearly gave out. While Erin caught her breath, the other girl who'd ran after her said, “All right, why exactly did we have to run like that? I'm Hazel, by the way.”

After a moment's rest, Erin filled Hazel in on the details, who was more terrified of the situation than Erin herself was. Hazel began to pace back and forth while ranting.

“Oh man, I totally should have waited longer to take my first mission. Why'd I listen to Jasper? Just because that fucker lucked out on his first mission, doesn't mean I should have expected the same! I should have just used up my savings to pay that stupid opt-out fee till I could actually prepare properly.”

Erin focused on regaining her energy as she ate some energy bars and drank some water, and once she was ready said, “All right. We should probably focus now. I thought I was alone here at first, but since you're here, there are probably others as well. Missions almost never have only two people after all. Maybe we should search for them.”

Hazel nodded, and followed along despite her fear. To their good fortune, they found the other survivors before the creature found them.

As they wandered around, they came across two guys. One was a bulky black-haired guy. The other was injured, limping along as he was supported up by the other. The injured blond boy introduced the two of them in an australian accent, “Howdy. Man is it great to see others. As you can see, I’m injured. That bloody ankle-biter demon is bloody terrifying mate. Anyway, I'm Oliver and this is Adam.”

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As they settled in, Erin shared her brief experience. Adam frowned and said, “,Is the thing really that bad? This guy here told me a bit when I found him, but I thought he might have exaggerated the facts.”

Oliver laughed and responded, “Seriously mate? I'm from Australia. When I call something terrifying, you better bloody believe that it is terrifying. I saw it tear through somebody right in front of me. I only survived because I have certain skills that let me do that.”

Erin latched onto the comment and said, “Speaking of that, we need to share our classes and skills with each other so we can work together when it comes.”

Hazel replied, “Yeah. My ability is kinda useless here. I'm a manipulator of water, but unfortunately only still water. Stuff like puddles, small ponds, maybe even lakes if the conditions are right.”

Erin frowned.

“But not this mist.”

As Hazel shook her head, Erin sighed and turned to Oliver who said, “I'm a mage. My main chosen speciality is illusions. I can cast them over a certain area, though I need to remain still while I do that. My most useful use for it is invisibility. I was able to hide from that bloody monster, though it was terrifying having to sit still like a statue in front of that creature while it licked the blood off of its claws.”

The image was gruesome, but Erin shook it off of her mind.

I guess that's why its claws were white. It'd licked them clean.

Erin went next, and introduced her ability. They weren't particularly impressed, though they changed their minds when she showed her cards made of steel.

Adam nodded in excitement.

“This is great! I think we have a good chance of killing that thing. You see, I'm a Berserker, with a focus on power. I'm not super quick, but when I hit, I hit hard. I also chose a special skill called Echoing Devastation. I tried it out on a watermelon, and the thing imploded, and I wasn't even going all out. You guys just need to keep it distracted and lead it towards me while Oliver keeps me hidden. Easy.”

Hazel frowned and said, “Uh, no offense, but that plan has many holes in it.”

Adam glared at her. If Erin was being honest, she had issues of her own with it. There seemed to be something about the monster they hadn't realized yet. But before she could share any of her thoughts, she felt the same feeling of dread she had felt before. With a gulp, she said, “Well Adam, looks we're going to have to try that plan now.”

With that, she turned with the others to face the monster.

Erin was the first to react. She'd noticed it first after all. As the human-shaped beast lunged at Hazel, she launched a barrage of steel cards at it. It deflected some, but others struck it all over. But it was barely fazed. It has powerful regeneration, and casually removed the cards and healed its injuries without much of a pause. Oliver dumped out water from all their bottles and yelled, “Hazel, use this water!”

Despite the holes in the plan, it seemed to be working. Hazel and Erin used a barrage of attacks to distract and irritate the monster, with some support from Oliver through nifty illusions, all while leading it to where the disguised Adam was. Despite the creature’s sporadic and irregular movements, where it seemed to close in instantaneously, they succeeded in luring it.

Just as Erin stumbled near the location, the monster lunged out. Right as it was on top of her, Adam moved, ending the illusion, and struck it in the head. Or at least he would have. As he was about to make contact, the monster teleported behind Adam. Caught completely off guard, Adam was just a sitting duck. And so the beast struck at him wildly with its claws, hitting him in the chest, the face, and everywhere else it could. By the end, Adam’s body was a mangled and bloody mess.

As Erin sat there, barely holding back her puke, she couldn't help but curse her own stupidity.

Why didn't I think of this? Something about it had caught me as strange. Its movement has been strange from the beginning, even back in the forest. Its actual movement isn't fast, but its short-range teleportation helped it seem fast!

As Erin sat there dumbfounded, Hazel and Oliver called out for her to run. With one last burst of energy, Erin picked herself up and ran, while the monster engrossed itself in licking it's fingers clean.