At first, it was an itching, reaching straight to his bones. Next was a prickling sensation, pricking his flesh in every spot of his body. After that was numbness, his whole body was void of any sensation or feeling. Finally, a calling came from deep within his body. His blood was restless as if it wanted to escape the bounds of his body and go somewhere else. Every thought besides that of accepting the calling was gone, the only thing that needed to be done was to simply stop resisting.

But, for some reason, even though his mind and his body were telling him to surrender his will, he couldn’t bring himself to stop. The waves that pounded his body from within reminded him that he had some kind of purpose and that if he gave in, his purpose could never be fulfilled.

The feeling of submission flooded through his body once more, but as his mind regained clarity, he started to realise that something was terribly wrong with his body. As soon as his mind regained clarity, his body started rejecting the foreign feeling. It was a slow and arduous process, the thing inside of his body had met its match and the two forces inside of his body were in a stalemate.

His mind was getting blurrier by the second, with each pulse of the waves, his body felt frailer. Orou knew if he collapsed, the invading force would take over his body, and everything that he had struggled for so far would be gone. He didn’t know how much time had passed, it felt like hours, but eventually, the conflict in his body was over. The invading force became weaker over time only to be overwhelmed by the waves in the end.

A beam of light shone through the veil of darkness covering his eyes. Soon, his vision was flooded by light and once more, he could see the world around him. The runes on the ground were dissipated, the skulls were turned to dust and a drop of black blood was floating in the air. He could see the blood slowly evaporating in the air, as if under an intense flame.

There was only silence in the room as Orou turned his head to look at Dawn. The singing had stopped, her face was haggard and her body had aged several years. Her hair was snow white and her eyes were wide open, staring directly at Orou. Seeing her in such a weak state provoked Orou’s viciousness, his eyes greedily staring at her, wanting to bite into her and devour her whole.

Unfortunately, even though Dawn was weakened, the collar was not. The collar injected something into his bloodstream and Orou started thrashing in pain. The pain was much more intense and it lasted longer this time. His body was already in a critical condition and the reaction of the thing inside of him was delayed. It wreaked havoc inside of his body for a long time before the wave could arrive and overcome it.

Only now did he realise what had happened to his body. He felt like he hadn’t eaten in days, possibly months. His body craved meat and blood, his instinct told him that if he didn’t eat, he would die. Orou rushed out of the circle as fast as he could, heading directly towards the kitchen. He wrapped the container holding the magical liquid and drank it all in one go. Almost instantly, his body regained some of its vitality and the overwhelming sense of hunger faded. It was like a bottle of water to someone that had recently come out of the desert, but this liquid wasn’t enough to fully satiate him, not to mention quench his hunger for meat.

Orou calmed down and started scouring the kitchen. He couldn’t find any meat, but that was to be expected as Dawn hadn’t gone out for food in a while. Temporarily making the kitchen his resting spot, he started to contemplate on what to do next. The most important thought on his mind was to get out of here. He longed for freedom, meat, and the cover of trees. Besides that, there was Dawn. If she could recover, there was no saying to what she would do next or how she would react to the fact that her ritual had failed.

Orou looked out the window, the sun was below the horizon and magical lights lit the streets. His head was hurting, but he knew that if he wanted to get out of here, he had to risk in all in a single go. He poked his head out of the kitchen, only to see Dawn nowhere to be found. It would be for the best if she had left the house, but Orou didn’t have the time to check where she was.

He steeled himself and used his tail to smash the glass window. Surprisingly, the window shattered as his tail went through the window, easily reaching the ground. Orou thought that it would be magically enhanced, just like the bookshelf, but he was pleasantly mistaken. If Dawn hadn’t left her home, she would surely hear the window shattering, as would others.

Regaining his bearings, he withdrew his tail through the window and used it to propel himself out of the window. He shot out like an arrow and landed like a fish out of water. The second he left the house, he could feel the now familiar sensation of something being injected in him. He continued to move mid-air as his muscles started spazzing and twitching.

He flailed mid-air, but that only made his landing even worse. If no one was alarmed by a window shattering, the sound of something heavy crashing into the ground surely would alarm them. Thankfully, it was soon over as the waves reached the source of his pain and engulfed it. His body sprung into action as once more, he propelled himself forwards.

Another wave of pain came a few seconds after the first one. He had moved a few meters but the collar didn’t seem to be affected by that. Orou could barely catch a breath before he was lying on the ground, twitching in pain. The only thought if his mind was to escape this horrible pain, his eyes glancing back towards the house, thinking that it wasn’t too late to turn back.

The thoughts of returning dissipated after the next wave that soothed his body. Who knew what Dawn would do to him, after she came back and learned of his escape, what if she was acting right this second, casting mysterious spells to track him down? As he reached that train of thought, he didn’t hesitate to push his body to its limits and with a burst of speed, move several more meters.

The third, fourth and fifth wave of pain hit him, each time leaving him sprawling on the ground. Orou could feel the speed of the waves becoming slower each time, the time he spent on the ground becoming longer. Despite all of this, he continued to move, continued to desperately rush forwards, hoping his body could last until he gained some distance.

Orou went through dark alleyways, often times crashing into a wall when he couldn’t stop himself in time. Slowly but steadily, he made his way towards the north-west, towards the ruined district. After the tenth pulse of pain, the waves of pain almost left him permanently paralyzed on the ground, not having any opportunity to move. Using the single second he had between the waves, he rushed forwards, trying to make as much distance as he could each time.

The anticipated eleventh wave of pain did not hit him. It took a few seconds for Orou to realise he was in total control of his own body and that his body wasn’t twitching. Both his mind and his body had almost broken down from the torture inflicted upon him by this collar, but he preserved through it and finally, he was free from the impact of the collar.

He had bet his life on the fact that the collar would stop working after some distance, and he was absolutely right! The thought of this reckless endeavour came from seeing spirits linking the ring and the collar. Whenever Dawn gave an order, the ring would always react and reach out to connect with the collar using spirits, thus Orou bet on the fact that once he was a certain distance away, the previous orders would be invalidated.

A lot of things could have gone wrong. What if the collar kept the same orders even when the ring and the collar couldn’t be connected? What if he couldn’t make it out in time, his body not being injured from the previous ritual? Orou wouldn’t have made this choice if he saw another way out, but try as he might to wrack his brain for any solutions, he simply couldn’t come up with any.

His body was motionless for a few seconds relishing in the pleasure of being in control of his body. Orou wished for nothing more than to coil up and go to sleep, but that would most likely be his end. He looked for any signs of life in the area and started feeling for any vibrations, but the area was eerily quiet. The horrifying thought of Dawn approaching him and the ring connecting to the collar once again cleared his mind of any distractions and once more, he pushed himself to start slithering forwards.

As much as Orou would like to stick to shadows, in order to move from district to district, he had to cross streets lit with magic. It would be much easier if he could pass through the city square and move directly to the ruined district, but that area would surely be patrolled by guards at night.

Orou wasn’t moving as quickly as he hoped he would be. His body was weakened from the pain and the fact that he had to wind through alleyways and take various detours, simply to avoid the light was slowing his progress. A few minutes later, he was lurching in the shadows and looking straight ahead, thinking of how he could avoid getting noticed when passing through this wide road.

There were guards at the east of the road, standing guard near the gate and guards to the west of the road, patrolling the city square. The fact that they weren’t scurrying around and searching for him relieved Orou, but the situation wasn’t getting any better because of that. The two guards standing near the gate were staring directly down the street and they would definitely notice Orou if he dashed to the other side.

Using this moment to catch his breath, Orou started moving through the shadows, trying to find a spot that was less illuminated than others. Unfortunately, the magical lights lit up the entire street, not leaving a single spot covered with darkness. Orou stopped moving and simply started observing the two guards at the gate, patiently waiting for them to slip up.

Time passed as the guards stood there, their weapons lying against the city wall. They weren’t like the obsidian statues by the mage’s tower, perfectly still and always watching, instead, they chatted with each other and occasionally took a sip of alcohol, getting rowdier with each sip.

“We’ve never had an incident at the gates, stop worrying so much,” the bigger looking man said to his partner as he took another swig and clapped him on the shoulder. Those words relieved his partner as he followed the man’s example.

Orou’s blue eyes constantly stared at the two, waiting for an opportunity to slip past this street. Finally, an opportunity presented itself. The bigger man was messing with his heavy suit of chainmail and after a minute or two, he got increasingly more frustrated with it. He called his partner over to take a look, and that was the exact moment Orou used to spring into action. Mustering all the strength he had left in his body, he launched himself forwards.

It was almost like watching events in slow motion. Each second was painfully slow as Orou urged his body to exert more strength and propel himself to the other end of the street. His attention was on the two guards, intently watching their expressions for any unusual changes. When the bigger man abruptly moved, Orou’s heart almost stopped. Fortunately, the man was too busy with his armor to notice Orou as he safely passed through.

Orou didn’t stop or relax as he reached the other end. He continued moving with the highest speed he could muster, navigating through the alleyways, afraid that he might have been spotted. He couldn’t maintain his top speed to that long, so he slowed himself down a bit, choosing tight and narrow alleyways that humans couldn’t pass through comfortably.

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This time, he was heading towards the west. He wanted to return back to the ruined district and hide in one of the ruined buildings until he could find a way to escape, but the actual method of escaping the city still eluded him. Each time he had to turn a corner, his body would be on edge, ready to react to any potential ambushes. Even though he could sense vibrations in the area, a single misstep would mean the end of him, so he couldn’t avoid being stressed even if he knew the area was safe.

Constantly being on alert, he made his way through the district that he had never really been to. The houses here looked bigger and in better condition than the ones in the south. While most of the buildings back south were plain and uninteresting, each building here had a different style of carving and each of them had something unique about them.

Orou had no time to appreciate the superb carving of these buildings and even if he did, he wouldn’t care about these things. Slithering through another alleyway, he sensed vibrations coming from the west and Orou could tell it was more than a single person coming in his direction. In a panic, Orou rushed forwards into a more shadowy alleyway and hid in the shadows, hoping that the rapidly approaching figures wouldn’t notice him.

He noticed that the vibrations had spread out and it was only a single creature heading his direction. Soon, he saw what was making such noise running through the alleyways. It was a guard, similar to those he had seen on the street. Even if Orou couldn’t detect vibrations, he could hear the guard’s armor clanging as he made his way through the narrow path.

Having made sure that the guard had passed him, Orou started slowly moving, this time keeping an ear out for anyone approaching his way. A narrow encounter with the guard had almost made Orou lunge towards the guard, but he didn’t spare Orou a single glance as he continued moving north.

The shift in districts was very noticeable, one moment he was standing before a house with flowers engraved in the stone, the next moment he was next to a half crushed building, ruined beyond repair. Orou could feel the distance between them growing, the guards not nearing anywhere close to the ruined district.

Orou could finally relax, the ruined district had no magical lighting illuminating the streets, so Orou could freely move about. He quickly found himself on the path he had once travelled together with Dawn. Orou wanted to make his way deeper into this district before laying down to sleep, but before that could happen, he saw something that attracted his attention.

A young woman was sleeping on the ground, probably not older than twenty years old. She had multiple cuts and bruises on his body, her eyes still wet with tears. She didn’t have much for clothes, only some rags that were stained with blood and were torn up. Orou’s stomach growled, his eyes glinted with a dangerous light. Very slowly, he slithered up to her and opened his mouth wide opened.

It was a quiet process, up until the point where the woman woke up from having her throat bitten. He made a few guttural noises before once again closing his eyes, this time for good. Orou was currently as happy as he was when he first discovered a spell. He couldn’t wait to dig in, but he had the mind to drag the woman in the nearest building, without a care if anyone was in there.

It was a small building, semi-preserved through the ages. Orou gave it a once over just to see if no one was here, and he began to dig into his meal. As usual, he coiled around the body and slowly but surely crushed her, making sure the woman was dead. Oh, how he had missed the taste of meat and blood.

Making sure to enjoy every second of the process, he started to eat her, from her head to her legs. At this point, there wasn’t any trouble swallowing humans and he could even do it quickly if he wanted to, but he didn’t. He was done with half of the body in ten minutes, and he had reached the legs by fifteen. Even though he had spent some time with Dawn, he felt no remorse from eating humans, after all, how were they different from every other creature of flesh and bone.

Just as he was about to finish his meal, something disturbed him. Although he was distracted by eating, he felt movement pretty close to him. A few moments later, a man holding a lantern came in through the door. At first, the man heaved a sigh of relief, but as he looked down and he noticed Orou, his eyes went completely wide. He dropped his lantern on the floor and he began to sprint out of the building as fast as his legs could carry him.

Orou had no idea why he would walk here, but Orou didn’t want anyone to know of his presence here. Quickly stuffing the last bit of the woman’s legs in his mouth, he started to chase the man. He had just eaten and his strength hadn’t recovered yet, so Orou was definitely not in his best shape, but Orou could see where the man was heading.

Combining both his thermal vision, his sense of smell and his sense of vibrations, he was able to track down the man. Orou flickered his tongue in the air to get a sense of how far away he was and he started moving. He had dashed several hundred meters by now, but Orou wasn’t about to give up because of that. His body accelerated and he shot forwards like an arrow, closing the distance considerably.

Orou’s burst speed was great, but he couldn't sustain it for a long time. After closing the distance by two hundred meters, his speed slowed down to match the human’s speed. He continued to desperately sprint through the darkness, and Orou wondered how he could make out the road without seeing it.

The stalemate continued for a bit. A few minutes later, the man started gaining the upper hand, Orou’s speed slightly dropping. Once more, the man made considerable progress and turned a corner, sprinting towards the right. If Orou couldn’t sense his vibrations, he would have lost him, but Orou had all night to hunt him down, and if there’s one thing he’s best at, it was hunting in the dark.

A few more minutes later, the vibrations abruptly stopped. Orou picked up his speed, determined to catch the damn human. Turning around another corner, he could finally see the man fiddling with something on the ground. Orou slowly approached him, noiselessly approaching the man’s back.

As he rapidly approached lunging distance, the man finally got the thing unstuck. Orou could finally see that the man was fiddling with some metal bars. He removed the metal bars and quickly hopped down into the hole that Orou didn’t notice before. A hand reached to grab at the metal grate, and that’s when Orou decided to strike.

His two large fangs bit down on the hand that was groping for the metal grate. As soon as the fangs pierced flesh and drew blood, he started to pump venom into the screaming man’s hand. Orou tightly held onto his hand, but the man’s other hand erupted with unexpected force, forcing Orou to release him from his hold.

The man was running now, but he wouldn’t get far. Just to be safe, Orou dropped down the large hole into a place that smelled of filth. He quickly looked around for anyone else, and when he couldn’t find anyone, he continued to slither over to the man’s location. Orou could feel the vibrations becoming less frequent until eventually, the vibrations stopped altogether.

Surely enough, the man was lying on the ground, unconscious. Orou felt a shame that he had recently eaten, otherwise this man would make a great meal. Just to make sure, Orou started wrapping around him and in a few seconds, a limp body was lying on the floor, thoroughly crushed.

Having killed the man, he took a look around to see where the man wanted to escape to. The walls of this place were old, even older than most of the houses in the ruined district. The most important thing was that this place smelled of all kind of trash and waste, Orou wondered how anyone could stay here for longer than a few minutes.

On one hand, he despised the smell, on the other hand, he was curious about where this underground path leads. Orou had chased him for quite a distance and they weren’t that fall of the walls, so this place could possibly lead to the outside of the city. Having reached this train of thought, Orou got excited and, slithering over the dead body, he started to move forward.

It was still and quiet in this place, with an occasional drop of water from above. Eventually, he reached a path that split into three ways. One lead straight, one to the right and the other to the left. Looking through both of the paths, he found nothing of note and decided to simply keep going straight.

Another branching path presented itself to Orou, but this time, he could feel vibrations coming from the left room. It wasn’t one or two sources, but multiple sources walking towards him. Not wanting to deal with multiple people in his semi-weakened state, he continued to move straight, this time, moving much, much faster than he did before. The multiple figures were walking at a brisk pace and they were some distance away, so Orou quickly continued down the dark tunnel.

No more branching paths presented themselves to Orou. He has been slithering down this path for what felt to be minutes, but he still couldn’t see a way out. He felt the vibrations coming closer to him, now on the same path that he was minutes ago. There was no turning back now, but fortunately, he could vaguely see moonlight shining down and illuminating a dead end.

A renewed burst of speed carried him all the way over to it in a few seconds. A metal grate, just like the one earlier greeted Orou’s head and through the cracks, he could see that he had made his way out of the city. He used his head to slowly move the grate out of the way, but it would budge. Shoving it a bit harder, it seemed to be stuck there.

Panic overcame excitement as he could hear footsteps approaching him. Throwing all caution to the wind, he used to tail to smash against the metal grate. It went flying in the air, and close to it was Orou. His body practically flew out of the hole when he saw the forest and without a second thought, he started rushing in that direction.

A sharp pain from his back made him snap out of his trance and observe his surroundings. The area around him wasn’t dark but illuminated by light. In his back was embedded a single crossbow bolt and he could see more heading his direction. He avoided two, but he couldn’t avoid the remaining three that struck his body, sending three waves of pain through his body.

Orou finally turned his head and looked at the wall. Several crossbowmen were standing on the wall with their crossbows raised and aimed at Orou. He saw several more men standing before the ballistae and loading them, preparing to shoot them towards Orou. He had a mere hundred meters to cover before he would be out of the light, but these hundred meters were not so easily crossed.

His body moved thirty meters before another wave of bolts shot at him. Orou’s body twisted as best as it could, but these men were clearly experienced, leaving him no room to dodge. Taking four more bolts to his back, he crossed another twenty meters, moving slower due to the bolts striking his body.

He tried his best to evade the bolts, but his body was practically giving out before him. These weren’t ordinary bolts, each one of them digging deep into his flesh, almost entirely sinking into his body. Although Orou had felt danger from these bolts, nothing was as scary as what was currently aimed at him. Moving thirty more meters, he saw that one of the ballistae was loaded up and aimed at him, an enormous bolt notched and ready to skewer him to the ground.

The bolt was easily twice as fast as regular bolts and if that thing hit him, he would be pinned to the ground, making him target practice for the men standing on the walls. More crossbowmen had arrived to stand on top of the wall, and Orou had to choose between taking countless bolts or the ballista shot.

The choice was made almost instinctively. The danger he felt from the bolt was much greater than the bolts that shot at him, so without thinking about it, his body twisted and bent, and made an S shape, barely avoiding the ballista bolt that deeply embedded itself onto the ground. He felt the wind blow on his face as it landed on the ground and he desperately tried to make the final twenty meters, but before he could move further, he was skewered by more than ten arrows.

Orou had more than twenty bolts sticking out of him, one could even call him a pincushion. While the pain from the collar was gradual, the pain that he was feeling right now came all at once. He was profusely bleeding, but his body didn’t stop, he couldn’t stop. He crossed the most painful twenty meters of his life and made his way into the soothing darkness before him.

Although Orou wanted to lie down and rest, the crossbowmen were still aiming their crossbows in his direction. He made a sharp turn towards the right in hopes that they wouldn’t be able to see him. His guess was right as ten more bolts landed to where he would be if he kept fleeing straight ahead.

Moving in a diagonal, he continued to look at the men aiming their crossbows at the darkness. One of them waved his hand and, to Orou’s relief, they slowly lowered them. There were a few hundred more meters until he reached the edge of the forest, but as he kept looking, he saw people emerging from the same spot he came.

First was a bald man with numerous scars on his head. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to see the outside for long as the man leading them raised his hand, and soon after, the man’s lifeless body dropped down into the hole. No one came out of it again, but the men still had their crossbows aimed at that spot, waiting for anyone to emerge.

Orou didn’t wait around to see what happened next. He dragged his exhausted body towards the edge of the forest and desperately tried to stay conscious. Despite the fact that he was exhausted and injured, in his mind, he was celebrating. Finally, he was free from the city!