In the pallid moonlight that bathed the area, a figure detached itself from the darkness. Its form was humanoid, two arms and legs, but also terribly other, draped in shadows that seemed to drink in the light. Its elongated limbs unfurling like the legs of a grotesque spider. The moonlight revealed its dense black fur and multiple eyes that glinted like orbs of onyx.
The mood had already shifted. With a glance Relar knew they had seen it too. The teenagers, who had arrived in a loose semicircle, could only stare, hearts thudding in a mix of fear and adrenaline. Completely unexpectant of the immediate danger, the only saving grace that the creature seemed surprised as well as it hesitated.
Kian was the first to break out of the trance, whispering to the forest, sought guidance or perhaps an ally in the foliage underfoot. "It's a Shadow Stalker, melee focused." Vines, coaxed into existence by his will, slithered across the forest floor a moment later.
Lorena, with a quick gesture, summoned a gust of wind, an attempt to buffet the creature and force it back into the shadows from whence it came. It rocked the creature back, but wasn't enough to force it back or down.
Mai's earth magic, when called forth with spikes of rock and soil, they erupted clumsily from the ground, telegraphed and easily avoided by the shadow that seemed to dance between the moonbeams. They also left Kians vines in tatters before they could reach their opponent.
The creature's retaliation was swift, a blur of movement. It struck with precision, its limbs extending with unnatural agility. Lorena stepped forward, raising her hands. Her air spell whipped around her like a tempest. She met the creature's assault head-on, her power clashing with its dark body, succeeding in driving the strike off target.
The Shadow Stalker, undeterred by Lorena's bold defiance, matched her tempest with a surge of speed. The clash between air and the shadow creature sent leaves and debris spiraling into the night. Lorena, her figure lithe and determined, maneuvered through the chaos expertly.
Relar, finally succeeded in connecting with his pages. With a shout, he summoned Fletch, his spectral crane, into the fray. The bird, swooped at the Shadow Stalker, its ethereal talons raking through the creature's form. The Stalker flinched back at the added attack, its attention divided between Lorena's relentless assault and the new, ghostly adversary.
Kian, seeing an opening, redoubled his efforts. His vines, those not shredded by Mai's spikes, now surged with a renewed vigor. This time, they found their mark, wrapping around the creature's legs.
Mai, fueled by frustration, pounded the ground with her palms, sending a wave of compacted earth towards the Shadow Stalker. The strike slammed it hard as it collided with the moving wall of earth. Stricken, it stumbled before regaining it's stance. And with a roar that seemed to shake the very air, it burst free from the remaining vines that had subsisted through the earthen attack. Suddenly free again, the Shadow Stalker targeted Lorena once more, its form a blur of darkness. Before Lorena managed to launch another volley of air spells, the creature was upon her. In a blur of black, her body found itself impaled upon its appendage.
A cry pierced the night, raw and guttural, as Lorena's body slumped to the ground, the life within extinguished by the Shadow Stalker's lethal precision.
Party Member Lorena has been removed from the group and the challenge upon death.
Mai, her face a mask of anguish and fury, let out a scream that was part battle cry, part wail of defeat. Earth wrapped around her like armor, she lunged forward with a violence born of desperation.
Relar, finally found his sword. And followed to move as if through a nightmare with a white-knuckled grip. The blade felt clumsy in his hands, too heavy and too real for this surreal dance with death. But he couldn't—wouldn't—stand idle.
Mai's earth magic pulsed around her in an elemental fury, her rock plating renewing as she confronted the creature head-on. The Shadow Stalker had turned its myriad eyes upon her, its attention shifting from the fallen Lorena.
Kian was there beside Relar, vines again creeping forth at his command. Relar swung his sword in broad arcs, more to distract and to limit the freedom of the creature than to harm. His blade met only loose fur and air as the creature continued to move just beyond his reach, continuing to circle and harass Mai. Its movements were erratic and unpredictable, a deadly whirlwind of darkness.
The three of them—Kian, Relar, and Mai—struggled to synchronize their attacks. Kian's vines strained to ensnare their foe while Mai's earthen shield absorbed blow after blow. Relar's sword added to the chaos but failed to find its mark.
In this dance of desperation, they searched for an opening—a momentary lapse in the creature's relentless assault. It was a fleeting hope that they might land a telling blow amidst the tumult of battle.
Mai unleashed another boulder towards the beast with an anguished roar; it rose from the ground only a short distance from it, only to shatter against an outstretched limb and grazed Relar in the process.
Relar found himself panting, each breath heavy with dread and exertion. He was coming to the end of his physical strength with the heavy sword, and given the collision with the bolder on his side, his movements were too slow to follow the creatures agility. His connection with Fletch was still there and he directed the crane in a dive that distracted one of the the creature's attack.
The creature reeled back, it hadn't realized yet that the spirit wouldn't be able to actually divert it physically. In that instant, Kian acted. With a shout that mingled rage and triumph, he summoned vines that converged on the Shadow Stalker, finally entangling it.
As the Shadow Stalker, momentarily halted by Kian's verdant prison, thrashed against the binds, a collective breath held in anticipation evaporated into the night. The creature's limbs, flailed. The boys eyes widened as the expected boulder didn't arrive. Mai, her face set in grim determination, was visibly straining with her incantation for another crushing boulder, her hands weaving the fabric of the spell with frantic urgency.
But time, cruel and unyielding, seemed to slow for Relar as the creature, in a surge, lunged towards him. His sword, a burdensome extension of his weary arm, was no match for the beast's ferocity. The impact was immediate and agonizing; the creature's limb, like a spear forged from night itself, pierced through Relar's shoulder. A scream tore from his lips, a sound so raw.
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Kian, amidst his struggle to maintain control over the ensnaring vines, glanced towards Relar, his expression full of horror. The vines tightened, creaking with the force of Kian's will.
The standoff, a moment stretched into eternity, was broken by Mai's spell reaching fruition. With a deafening roar that echoed through the forest, a boulder tore from the earth, hurtling towards the ensnared creature with lethal intent. Kian, his focus unwavering, managed to pull the creature slightly off balance, ensuring the boulder's path was true.
The collision was cataclysmic. Stone met meat and bone. For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath as dust and debris clouded the air.
When the dust settled, the creature lay still. The vines slackened, their purpose served, dissolving. The fight was over, but its toll was etched in their faces and in the blood-soaked ground. Relar, his arm grievously wounded but having survived their first fight, looked upon the spot where the Shadow Stalker had fallen. The teenagers stood in the aftermath, breathing heavily, nursing wounds both physical and mental.
As the forest reclaimed its silence, an ethereal light shone in Relars vision. It was a subtle blue radiance, akin to the first light of dawn. A slight warmth. For a fleeting moment, pain and exhaustion receded, replaced by a shared sense of accomplishment. They stood together, bathed in this otherworldly glow, each acutely aware of what it meant. Their first receipt of Ascension Points.
This silent communion was their first collective breath after the chaos. As quickly as it appeared, the light faded, but the words would stay with Relar for a long time.
You have defeated a Shadow Stalker. You have received 5 Ascension Points (AP) for your contribution.
Kian, his hands trembling as much from adrenaline as from exertion, hurried to Relar's side. The moonlight revealed a grim tableau: Relar, pale and grimacing, his arm bleeding profusely from where the creature's limb had impaled him. The two points in Vitality he had seemed inconsequential now, a stark reminder of their inexperience and vulnerability in the face of the tower's dangers.
"We need to stop the bleeding," Kian muttered, more to himself than to the others. Mai, her earlier fury now replaced with concern, knelt beside Relar, her earth magic useless in this aspect of healing. Their eyes met in a silent agreement: they were out of their depth.
As Relar's breathing grew labored, the shadow of another attack loomed over them, turning the once mesmerizing forest into a maze of potential threats. The thought of another Shadow Stalker emerging from the underbrush sent shivers down their spines. The environment had transformed from an alien beauty into a haunting expanse of danger and death.
It was Kian who finally broke the tense silence. "We still have a quest," he said, pulling up the notification from the system. "Find a golden idol statue hidden at the end of this path, and then bring it to the Witch cult in the swamp. More or less."
Relar was in no position to think about any of this, he just laid on the dirty forest floor, trying to get through the pain that thrummed from his injured shoulder. Mai, nodded solemnly. "We're not in any state to continue," she stated flatly, voicing their thoughts. Her announcement hung in the air, stark against the backdrop of their dire situation. Mai stood and walked cautiously over to the corpse of the creature. Just then, as if the tower itself sought to add insult to injury, her gaze fell upon a glimmering scroll lodged in the body of the fallen creature. Slowly, carefully, she retrieved it. "It might be for healing," she murmured, hope threading through her words.
Kian huddled closer, their faces a canvas of mixed emotions — hope, and excitement. Their first loot. As Mai examined the scroll, it unfurled into a temporary spellpage, its symbols foreign yet oddly comprehensible.
"A booster," Kian deciphered, his voice tinged with a mixture of excitement and intrigue. "Iron," he added, as the realization dawned upon them that it wasn't the healing spell they had fervently hoped for, but rather an enhancement. One very suitable for Mai's earth magic.
Despite the initial disappointment, there was a unanimous decision to let Mai integrate the Iron element with her pages. The boost, albeit temporary and confined to the challenge's realm, offered a sliver of victory to their dire situation.
Mai, her reserves of Aether nearly depleted from the battle, concentrated on the new element. The scroll page fused with her existing spell in a display of sparks and metallic sheen.
Relar, his breaths shallow, watched using his last energy as Mai channeled her newfound power. He gritted his teeth against the pain in his shoulder and pushed himself up slightly to get a better view as Mai begun. The forest around them held its breath, the only sounds the soft rustling of leaves and the distant hoot of a nocturnal bird.
Mai stood with feet planted firmly on the forest floor, her hands outstretched before her. She closed her eyes, focusing inward, and a deep hum resonated from her core. Her fingertips began to glow with a soft light that pulsed in rhythm with her concentration.
With a sudden inhale, Mai's eyes snapped open. She thrust her hands forward and the earth responded. Multiple spheres, gleaming with a metallic surface emerged. Mai exhaled sharply and one of the spheres shot forward, striking a tree with unerring precision. The impact resounded through the woods, a testament to her newly acquired might. Bark splintered where the sphere collided, leaving an indentation that glistened with metallic residue. She wasn't finished yet. Flexing her fingers, Mai shaped another sphere into shards of metal and stone. A legion of jagged, flat pieces hovered in formation above her open palm. Mai flicked her wrists and the shards darted toward another tree. Thunk-thunk-thunk—they embedded themselves deep into the wood with a series of dull thuds.
Relar felt his own Aether stir within him in response to Mai's display of power—a mixture of admiration and envy coursing through his veins. The demonstration was brief but enlightening.
"That booster would be a game changer for any coming fight. But I don't think it gets us out of this today." Kian said, glancing back at Relar.
With heavy hearts and the shadow of Lorena's loss and Relar's critical condition weighing upon them, they acknowledged the predicament: they were not yet ready for more. Kian initiated the return, the same magic that had brought them into this pulled them back to the safety of Moraine Academy.
When they reemerged, the academy grounds greeted them with the newfound familiarity of stone, greenery and a bright sun, a stark contrast to the moonlit forest they had left behind. Relar immediately sat down. The sudden change from unbelievable pain to being once more healthy and hale was disorienting. Phantom pain lingered and he kept touching and massaging his shoulder to make sure it was alright.
Lorena approached them with a light jog, her eyes flickering over the group, assessing their condition.
"Looks like you guys didn't make it much further without me." she said jokingly.
Kian managed a wry grin, his gaze settling on Lorena. "How's death treating you? Any grand revelations from the other side?"
She laughed, shaking her head. "Felt like getting yanked out of a dream. One minute I'm fighting, the next I'm standing here wondering what mess you are making."
Relar couldn't help but smile at the banter despite the lingering adrenaline. "It was chaos after you left, but then it was chaos before too" he began, recounting how the Shadow Stalker had nearly overpowered them and telling how Mai overwhelmed it in the end. Mai proudly chimed in with details of her booster trials.
They spoke over each other at times, their words tumbling out in a rush to share every harrowing moment—the snap of Kian's vines, the gusts from Lorena's attempted wind barrier before her departure, and the crushing force of Mai's earth magic.
"It's strange," Relar said with his voice low, "a moment ago, we were ensnared in darkness, fighting for our lives. Now, here we are, basking under a sun of all things. And I am already getting used to it. The sun I mean, not the monsters."
"We should get going. You think, we are going to be the first ones back? We really didn't get far or long." Mai said.
Kian shuffled his feet, kicking at a small stone. "Yeah, but we took down a Shadow Stalker," he said. "That's got to count for something."