Wendigos

The sun was starting to retreat behind the horizon as the darkness slowly crept into the forest. Multiple growls of terrible abominations could be heard from deep within the forest.

Near the forest's perimeter, smoke was rising high into the sky as a smell of roasted meat could be smelt. Achilles was sitting next to the bonfire while munching on some meat greedily.

After finishing his meal, he immediately put out the fire to avoid the Corrupted's attraction. He silently sat in the dark while gazing at the starry night sky as he murmured to himself:

"I should get back soon..."

The last two months had honestly worn him down both physically and mentally more than he had originally anticipated. With each battle he went through, Achilles could feel himself being driven one step closer to madness, making his sanity corrode slowly but steadily.

...Well, a part of his rationality had already been broken down prior to this, so he wasn't a completely sane man before either.

However, the last thing he wanted was to lose his mind entirely and turn into some kind of beast in human skin.

Achilles was deep in thoughts about the plan to return to the city, along with his next steps in order to exact revenge on those who brought all that sufferings onto him.

Suddenly a spark of white light appeared on top of a monster's corpse that Achilles had laid out earlier which drew his attention.

'Finally, a new one!'

He immediately ran to the creature's body which turned out to be the mantis he had killed this morning. He touched the item on the mantis' corpse and it instantly flew into his head as a response.

A flux of information poured into his mind which made his head hurt a little.

'Mantis' Armament — Tier E.'

'Summon an armament that temporarily strengthens my defense and attack damage.'

"Not a bad one, not going to lie."

The "Mantis' Armament" would provide him assistance when facing against enemies that had strong defense or attack and increase his survivability by many times.

...Of course, everything had its own limits but that didn't deny the fact that the soul artifact was quite formidable.

Achilles was happy with his harvest after such a long time since his armor was pretty much battered that it almost reached the point of just being scrap metal.

He sat back to his former position and tried to summon his armor. A layer of green armor covered his body and he felt his strength increase by a little. He dismissed the soul artifact while feeling satisfied by the result.

All of the sudden, an overwhelming sensation of exhaustion invaded all the fibers of his being. His eyelids turned heavier and heavier in seconds as he thought before his mind shut down:

'...Maybe I should rest a little...just a bit.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mark~" A female voice that was oddly familiar to Achilles made his eyes open wide.

"What the..?"

"Come here son~" A deep male voice called him out.

"How on earth...?" Achilles looked around frantically as he tried to discern the source of the voices, but they seemed like they came from everywhere.

"What are you waiting for son? Come here~"

Achilles felt his mind become sluggish as he unconsciously replied:

"Mother, father...is that you?"

"Yes son, come to us~" The female voice spoke again.

Achilles stood up and started walking slowly towards the forest, he looked like a mindless zombie that was enticed by something.

"Walk faster, son~" The voices spoke simultaneously.

"...OK." He answered with a bit of hesitation.

'Shit...what's...going...on?' Achilles felt panicked inside but he couldn't control his body.

He was unconsciously moving closer and closer to the forest, his instinct was alarmed by what was happening but he was unable to resist despite all of his efforts.

'No....wait...there's...still...a...way.'

Achilles concentrated and tried to use the essences in his body. His pupils flashed a bright red color and his body halted in his place.

Achilles used this momentarily second of clarity to stab his left arm, blood slowly trickling down as he regained control of his body.

"What are you doing son? Come...here." The voices that were calling out to him began morphing and changing, it now resembled a slow recording that was slowly being played backward, creating a creepy vibe.

He analyzed everything that just occurred and a conclusion came to his mind within seconds:

'The ability to mimic an individual's love ones' voices in order to entice them...only one species is capable of doing this!'

"Come here...Come here! COME HERE! COME HERE! COME HERE! COME HERE!"

By now the voices had completely morphed into multiple screams that were similar to Achilles' parents, but at the same time terrifying and inhuman.

Achilles remained standing still with his bright red eyes that were gazing deep into the forest, as if trying to peer through it.

Moments later, he put on his skull mask and like a response to his action, multiple shadows jumped at him from the dark. Achilles had expected this and instantly retreated faraway from the four shadows.

The shadows began revealing themselves and even though the night was dark, he could make out every single part of their bodies.

They were humanoid creatures that had charred skin color and were at least two meters tall. Their legs were bent backward and the most notable feature was the heads that resembled reindeers and humans at the same time.

Although they were blind, they still stared intently at Achilles as they let out low growls that spewed saliva out of their deformed jawline.

"""""GARGHHHHHHH!!!!!"""""

[...Wendigos.]