With a new appreciation for the Taldarian Juggernauts, we travel onwards and away from the fighting unhindered. Weaving in between the landscapes abundant boulders.

However, we are anything but safe.

Hearing the sound of loose stones being disturbed I dive in a small crack between two large rocks, with the rest of my squadron finding similar places.

A minute after this, hearing the sounds get louder, countless dire wolves jump directly over my hiding place, continuing running towards the sounds of battle.

After confirming no stragglers will run into us, we leave our uncomfortable positions and press on.

We had to do this on two other occasions, though both of these were groups of gnolls, around 100 in number. Both of which coming from the west, in the supposed direction of the witches.  

The foreboding clouds overhead block out most the sunlight, threatening a heavy storm. Personally I prefer these conditions, makes you less likely to be seen, though it doesn’t help the morale of some others.

Namely, the kingdom’s soldiers fighting a few miles back.

The wind suddenly picks up, blowing southwards and almost taking me with it.

One of the many lovely features of the Forgotten Lands is the sudden and extreme weather changes. The whole Sky could cloud over within minutes, lightning strikes without and rain to accompany it, sometimes even without the clouds. As well as almost all of the water being undrinkable, any fruit or plants growing here are likely to kill you. Especially so if it actually looks edible.

So the general idea is that the Forgotten Lands is shitty in every regard.

The weather is awful, the food is worse, the locales are rude and are constantly at your throats.

Suddenly a familiar howl splits through the air, much less shrill than that of a dire wolf.

But the sound didn’t come from the east from which we are coming from, or our destination the west, like the rest of the enemies we’ve had to hide from.

No, this howl came from the south.

The direction the wind was blowing, and therefore our scent.

“Shit hellhound! Scatter into the narrow rocks to lose them!” I hear someone shout over the chorus of ever-nearing calls.

With this we separate, travelling roughly west through the maze-like stone, occasionally taking a turns one way or another.

Hopefully if I lose myself, they’ll in turn lose me.

Very flimsy logic, but I’m relying on it to keep me alive.

Running further west in the most inconvenient pattern conceivable, I begin the hear multiple hounds run past nearby, lowly growling in frustration in being close to me, yet being separated by a couple of narrow walls.

HaHa!! No way these animals could ever figure out my advanced tactics.

“Crap!!!”

I duck whilst running straight through a small intersection in the stone maze, a huge black wolf narrowly jumping over my back. Allowing me to briefly catch the scent of sulphur as I pass it.

I immediately hear an enraged roar, as it struggles to turn around in the narrow passage only just wide enough to fit its body.

By the time it does so and turns into where it last saw me go, I had already turned right and then left again a few metres forwards.

Shadow Blend

The shadows envelope me, increasing my speed slightly and allowing me to glide over the rocky ground. Both producing no sound and making it impossible to lose my footing on loose ground.

Stolen story; please report.

I should be able to maintain this for another 15 minutes before I begin to suffer from mana exhaustion.     

After travelling for a couple of minutes, never going in a straight direction, I deactivate my ongoing magic since I have no idea how much longer I’ll have to run. Though the wolves aren’t directly at my heels, I can definitely hear them scrambling through these narrow alley’s, slamming between walls and hitting corners when turning at fast speeds.

If we were in this situation on an open plain, this would all be resolved within a minutes, with our charred bones being gently gnawed on by a group of hellish monstrosities.

I decide to take advantage of that fact I’m not and stop to take a short breather, with the soothing sounds of angry beasts around me.

A few moments later a pair of burning-red eyes appear down the path I had came from, locking with my own blue eyes.

No rest for the wicked I guess.

Shadow blend

I have no choice but to continue running, with my pursuer not only keeping up with my amplified speed, but steadily closing the distance between us.

Reaching a T section, I turn right shortly followed by a loud noise as the black mutt behind me gets a crash course in momentum.

A less punny part of my situation is the hellhound 20 metres in front of me, followed by it deeply inhaling as light begins to shine through its throat.

With this I sharply turn, left with a sensation of blistering heat that strips away my shadows.

The sudden transition from slightly gliding to contact with the ground, caused me to stumble and almost fall. But more importantly, it stripped away the precious moments lead I had, returning me to having ever-nearing dogs mere metres from me. Literally snapping away at my heels.

In addition to this, I had to repeatedly turn corners in order to prevent one of them from having enough time to incinerate me. Not to mention the futile task of remembering which direction’s west, or at least trying not to go around in a large circle.

I’m beginning to get a headache, indicating I have around five minutes of Shadow Blend left before I pass out.

With this in mind, I pull out the dagger kept just below my right hip, turn a corner and slow down slightly to get me as close to the monsters gaping maw as possible.

Seeing what I guess to be the hungry look of anticipation in the beasts eyes, and the slight tensing of its muscles as it prepares to pounce.

I throw my dagger, hitting it in its rear leg and causing it to fall over, snapping angrily at the dagger in its leg as it blocks of the monster closely behind it.

Now with a more comfortable distance between us, I randomly navigate around multiple corners and am greeted with a gift from mother nature.

A extremely narrow passage between two rocks, only just big enough for me to squeeze through.

Getting to the other side with relative ease I move on further, briefly stopping to glance behind me at the injured hellhound staring through the gap, glaring at me with a ferocious bloodlust.

A silent vow for revenge.