Fight in the Woods

The monster's eyes dimmed as the electricity coursed through its huge body. The Traveler used his staff to create a barrier of Light around himself. The Traveler cast another spell to create a powerful wave of energy from his feet. But the massive monster with the large teeth and glowing purple eyes took the attack head-on.

Once the barrier dropped, the monster swiped its claws and sent out a powerful wave of purple blaze. The flames reached out and wrapped around the Traveler's body, burning his clothes and making him fall to his knees.

The wave of purple fire that was burning the Traveler's clothes singed away his shirt and cloak. Underneath the clothing, he wore a breastplate with magical runes written in glowing blue ink across the metal surface. Another burst of purple flame exploded from the monster's mouth, but the Traveler raised his staff and created a magic barrier.

The barrier stopped the purple fire, but it pushed the Traveler back and slammed him painfully into a wall of rock. The wall began to crack, and the sound of a massive tree falling was audible. The monster let out another roar, causing a blast of wind that battered the Traveler's body.

"I can still fight! I won't stop until I extract the answers I need." The Traveler declared with a confident smile.

He used his magic to summon ice armor on his skin, making the monster's claws shatter when they struck it. The magic gave him a few seconds to think, but the beast was relentless. The Traveler could feel his armor crumbling apart beneath the monster's assault. He needed another plan.

()()()()

On the other side of the forest, Captain Arion and the rest of the company were shaken by the roars of a terrible creature that had appeared deeper in the woods. The Captain's first thoughts were of Meg and Fendos' safety. He knew there had to be crawlers moving in to attack his comrades, if they had not done so already.

The Captain drew out his sword, and his fellow soldiers fell in line behind him, readying their spears as they entered the dense forest. The sound of their armor was drowned out by another roar, this time a closer one than before. "Get ready!" Arion warned.

Arion knew this was going to be a suicide mission. He would not be able to defeat whatever lived in those woods on his own. He would need to trust himself and his men to help him bring down the creature. He was prepared to sacrifice his life if necessary. "Onwards!" He shouted.

His plan was bold and daring, and all of his men knew that most of them wouldn't make it out alive. But as Knights of the Order, they were prepared for it.

The men marched on through the forest, ready for battle. The horses marched in lockstep, like a trained army.

()()()()

The monster was much more powerful than the Traveler could have ever imagined. It had almost destroyed him, and there seemed to be no end to the fury it commanded. The Traveler was exhausted, but he knew he had to fight on.

The Traveler created a large magic barrier of ice and wind in front of him, which reflected the monster's powerful strikes back at it and wounded the beast further. The monster retreated, and the Traveler was given a moment's respite.

The large monster swung its massive claws again, aiming for the Traveler's neck. The Traveler spun out of the way, landing nimbly on his feet. The monster let loose a deafening roar again, but this time, the Traveler used his own magic to counterattack. He fired a blast of ice shards at the monster, which embedded themselves in its black fur.

The monster paused, its eyes narrowing in pain. The Traveler raised his staff again and summoned another barrier of ice. This one was larger than the first, large enough to completely enclose the monster in ice.

Unfortunately, it did not good, as the massive creature easily melted off his cage with a burst of purple, flames that came out of its nose and mouth. It blew a giant torrent of purple fire at the surroundings, as if it were challenging the Traveler not to flee.

The Traveler stood his ground, summoning more ice to defend himself. He fired another blast of ice shards at the monster, and then quickly jumped out of the way of the purple flames.

The monster let out a roar and charged forward, but the Traveler did not flinch. He raised his staff and unleashed a ray of blue holy light, which hit the monster and sent it flying.

The Traveler did not relent in his counter-offensive, summoning an even larger magic barrier of ice and wind around the monster. It tried to break out in the same way it had before, but the Traveler was confident in his ability to reinforce the barrier with his staff, as he kept feeding Mana into the ice, fortifying it.

()()()()

As Meg and Fendos stood up after being sent crashing by the shockwave, Fendos was the first to realize the great danger he and his junior knight were exposed to right now. From the darkness of the bushes, a significantly tall humanoid monster with long arms and legs was smiling at them with its sharp teeth. Its pale skin reflected the tiny amount of moonlight that reached them in this part of the forest.

The humanoid monster raised its massive arms. Its claws gleamed from the faint, blue moonlight. It wore no armor and no clothing, and its muscles were large from the constant strain and struggle of its battles. A low growl emitted from its throat as it approached the knights.

"A crawler!" Fendos shouted, as he moved to attack the beast with his huge battleax, before it could attack them.

When Fendos was about to make his attempt, the humanoid monster grabbed him. A huge, hairy hand closed around his neck. The smell of decay and bile emanating from its mouth stung Fendos's nostrils as the creature smiled.

The monster let out a long low sound. It was a cross between a growl and a scream. The crawler slowly dragged Fendos toward it. He smiled.

"Eat this!" Fendos was quick to draw a small dagger with his left hand, and got a cheap shot at the crawler's neck with it. As the creature released its hold on his neck, the elder knight took advantage and used his battleax to do a full swing against the beast's exposed chest.

The sharp edges of his battleax tore through the skin of the monster's bare chest. Its eyes widened at the pain that Fendos inflicted on it as its blood gushed out onto the ground. The crawler let out a long, deep howl, but was unable to finish, as the final slash of the battleax severed its head.

Fendos' weapon was not ordinary. Its honed edge seemed to be perfect for killing dark and evil creatures.

But there came no time for celebration, as Meg immediately shot her crossbow at a second, incoming crawler. Behind the one she had just on the head, there were at least five more.

As Fendos backed up and rejoined Meg, the crawler who had been shot soon recovered as if it had not been hurt by the crossbow bolt at all.

"How are we going to do this?" Asked Meg as she put away her ranged weapon and prepared her one-handed blades.

"There's no way we can kill so many crawlers by ourselves. I'd say we try to incapacitate them and then make a run for it. With some luck, we'll run into the Captain on the way back." The more experienced knight responded, as he gripped the handles of his heavy battleax firmly.

And the two fought furiously. Their attacks were quick, their blades cutting through the air with a whistle as they drew closer to their targets. Meg's movements were strong and confident, yet Fendos's swings were the more brutal of the two. The crawlers moved faster than the knights. Meg took a blow to her right shoulder that tore through her shoulder pauldron, but with a yell she dodged backwards, cutting up the right side of the creature's chest with her dual blades in the process.

Meg rolled onto her backside, kicking out one foot and catching the crawler in the jaw with a stab. The crawlers were strong, but they didn't have the skill to match the knights. Despite his large size, Fendos was surprisingly quick. With the grace of a dancer, he swung his battleax in a great arc, slicing through the air once again and catching two more crawlers in a powerful blow that knocked them down.

"We need to get outta here! Fast!" Called the elder knight, as he grabbed Meg by the arm and pulled her in the opposite direction of where the monsters were swarming their position.

And they ran as fast as they could. Despite their heavy armor, the younger knight matched the elder knight's pace through the forest. The path was long, and full of twists and turns, but Meg and Fendos were persistent. They kept in sight of each other, running through the night. The dark woods offered no peace, and gave little solace.

The sounds and echoes of the crawlers giving pursuit made them restless. These monsters were somehow faster than they should be, as they were closing in a lot quicker than the knights had anticipated.

But then, a sudden flash of lightning lit up the night once more. Dozens upon dozens of silvery projectiles began to fly past the knights, and at the gathering crowd of evil creatures behind them.

By the time Meg had realized what was happening, four mounted lancers had come out of the trees and rushed at the crawlers with the tip of their sharp spears.

When ten more knights flanked them with their crossbows and swords, the crawlers were outnumbered within seconds, and it showed in the way they reacted.

The crawlers' attacks came quick and hard, but the knights held strong, their discipline and armor-piercing weapons doing their job well. One by one the crawlers were defeated, until all that remained were two on the ground, crawling away using their special ability to remain hidden in the brush.

()()()()

The monster let out a deafening roar and burst its way out of the barrier with an explosion of fire and dark mist similar to the one that the crawlers released upon death. The beast slammed into the ground, hard enough to shake the earth. It stood back up, more powerful and angry than before.

The Traveler continued to summon ice shields around himself for protection, but the monster kept smashing them apart, sending massive waves of purple power in his direction.

The Traveler could see that this creature was relentless, but he knew that he had to find a way to stop it, or he would end up dead. He created another barrier of ice and wind, which managed to slow down the monster's attacks. He then used his staff to create a large beam of pure light that hit the creature directly in the face and blinded it.

"Enough of your tricks, human!" Using that same dead language spoken by the Traveler, this giant black monster declared in a horribly distorted voice.

The ground shook as it charged at the Traveler, as a small purple aura surrounded the beast. In a blink of an eye, the monster was within range and swung its claws. A massive purple blast exploded from its open mouth and sent the Traveler flying back.

He didn't land. He flew. The momentum of the monster's blow knocked him up and away from the fight, through the trees and into the sky. The magic barriers he created were blown away.

The monster, in a display of its power, had created a wind vortex that sent the Traveler flying. The Traveler managed to land on his feet and did not break his stride. He continued firing Ice and Holy spells at the monster, and although the attacks were ineffective overall, the monster's speed and agility were greatly reduced.

It was at this point that the Traveler noticed that the moon was directly overhead. A full moon, it bathed the entire area in a faint, cool light. Smirking, he glanced at his staff and it began to glow brightly, as well as the runes on his breastplate.

The Traveler cast three magic spells simultaneously. First, he cast a powerful magic called Holy Rain, which sent hundreds of Holy arrows down from the heavens into the monster's back, each explosion of holy light tearing away flesh. After that, he cast a second Soul Shield around himself, to defend against further blows as well as the collateral damage from his first spell.

And finally, as the monster reared its head to spit more of its cursed purple fire, the Traveler cast his strongest spell, called Light's Wrath.

A brilliant holy light formed around the staff with so much energy that the staff itself began to glow. A bright white beam shot up into the sky, reaching hundreds of feet above the surface of the earth.

The monster let out a deep roar, the purple aura around it began to crackle with electricity, and the Traveler's attack struck down as a cascade of pure holy Light, making for a small representation of the Final Judgment prophesied by the Faith.

The holy attack bathed the monster completely, disintegrating its thick magic-resistant black fur, burning its skin and flesh, and tearing apart its Arcane Core in an explosion of disgusting green blood and purple fire.