027 Guardian Of The Forest

The pale moon above meagerly gave out its radiance. It's star companions were too distant tonight to aid in its perpetual duties.

With almost no visibility available we found ourselves to be slaves under the guidance of this darkness.

Unaware and exposed as we danced through its blinding uncertainty.

There were no real or potential dangers for us here on the first floor. So we welcomed its sweet whispers of howling winds and the gentle embraces it gave us with the perverse shadows of the surrounding nature.

With cold and captivating arms the darkness enticed us as Ventus and I continued forward. Rushing to move past the plains and into the forest ahead, we pressed on ignoring all else in our path.

The night time in the exposed Luna of the first floor was an almost perfect parallel with its brilliant counterpart. The only scar to differentiate the two was the amount of Afos that would appear. That and their increased savagery.

A crazed blood thirst powered by the opaque luminescence of the moon above would drive them mad with the need to hunt.

Alone and surrounded by hundreds of Afos in such a state could quickly be detrimental for anyone. For us however-

BOOOOOOOM

The story was different.

Another explosion had gone off as Ventus used the effects of her ring Will Of Flame

to blast yet another group of Afos into oblivion.

She carried a smug look of satisfaction as she gazed down towards her most recent victims.

Not wanting to fall behind, I swung Death's Favor straight ahead. Brutally mutilating another group of these miniature lizard like creatures.

Limbs flew off the bodies as a flashing sweep of my sword flourished through the air. Heads rolled and the ungodly screams of the deceased echoed across the plains, singing their final haunting chorus.

Fountains of crimson dyed the open field as the onslaught, both ours and theirs continued.

The longer this genocide kept up the more radiant Death's aura seemed to become. Almost like a gluttonous devourer, unsatisfied and forever wanting more, it begged for the souls of these lowly monsters.

Blatantly it exuded it's aura. Menacingly releasing an uncontrollable fear which froze its victims in their place making my job much too easy.

Eventually a system notice put a halt to my massacre.

PIIINNNG

[Death's Favor Continues To Grow In Power]

[Continue To Harvest The Souls Of The Weak]

Well I was doing that before you interrupted.

I sighed as I waved the system notice away.

Looking up and around I saw torn apart corpses strewn about, but no matter how hard I looked, no more living monsters could be seen.

Did we really annihilate the entire species of Afos?

Well even if we did it wouldn't matter, they would just respawn within the day.

No worries there.

With this new found silence once again caressing us, it seemed we had finally arrived at a moments respite.

My eyes found Ventus at the same time that hers met mine. She didn't look the least bit fatigued. Instead she seemed to almost be...glowing as the look of satisfaction refused to leave her face.

Should I be worried?

The staring contest between us continued with awkward silence until Ven finally took the opportunity to ask what was on her mind.

"Em do you mind clarifying something for me?"

"Sure Ven what is it?"

She neared me as she spoke.

"So Otto made you this incredible, amazing weapon right?"

"He did..."

"And you like it a lot?"

"I totally like it a lot."

"Well why aren't you using it? You went back to using your original weapon. Why?"

I chuckled smugly before continuing.

"That's an easy one to answer. I don't want to callously expose the cards my hand."

Ven gave me an incredulous look.

"I get that but you do realize we are literally in the middle of a field. There is no one around. Who even would be spying on us right now?"

Several moments of deep thinking and silence on my part passed by before I gave my reply.

"...the bad guys?"

"Are you serious right now Em?"

"Yes...wait!...Is this a question I should answer? It feels like I shouldn't answer it? Can I vote skip or are you looking for an answer?"

She rolled her eyes at me and beckoned for me to follow.

"Whatever. Let's just go, we are almost at the edge of the forest anyway."

She was right. We had somehow managed to fight our way all the way to the edge of the plains and into the beginning of the Forest Of Luna.

We continued forward again passing several lone trees along the way. This didn't last long and very quickly we found ourselves facing a sea of shadowed green.

These towering emerald monarchs of nature spanned across the horizon for what seemed like forever.

I decided to collect my thoughts before we moved forward.

This is it. I thought to myself. I'm finally clearing the floors again.

As I continued to look into the deep forest, my train of thoughts took off.

Now that we are here all that is left to do is reach the middle of the forest and kill the floor boss and move on to the next floor.

The idea of making progress made me smile.

I continued my train of thought.

If memory serves, the path to the floor boss is a straight shot. Take no turns whatsoever and we will eventually arrive to what should be a clearing that houses—

OWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Almost as if it had been summoned by mere thought, the animalistic howl was reverberating through the branches of the forest.

The Guardian Of The Forest Of Luna.

What a mouthful.

OWWOOOOOOOOOOOO

I was met with another howl at the thought. A more passive and alluring one. This time it seemed their beastly roars were inviting us in.

I turned to Ven and received a curt nod. That was all the indication I needed. We briskly made our way through the dense foliage of the trees.

True to my memory, what seemed to be the main path of the forest would often split to the left or to the right. Ignoring these options we remained straight on our path, refusing to waver to any other direction.

Trekking ahead we pushed through the thick branches. Dried leaves and shriveled twigs would snap at out footsteps.

OWOOOOOOOOOOOO

OWWW OWWWW OWWWOOOOOOOOOO

More beastly howls rang on within the sea of trees. It seemed like the masters of this place knew about a set of lurking intruders.

Their noise didn't bother me. Let them know I'm here.

I purposely made no effort to conceal my presence.

As we got closer to our goal, The howls continued to harass us by get louder and louder.

Eventually the howls began to merge together and create an almost dissonant medley. It rang with an unknown passion which assaulted our senses. Attempting to disorient us, instill fear deep inside, and cause us to stray from our path.

It was a futile effort and within moments we finally broke into the forbidden clearing within this forest.

The assault on our senses stopped.

Before us in the open space stood our enemy.

With fangs bared and glistening sharp claws ready, a pack of silver colored wolves began to eye us down.

Ven and I stood tall with no inclination of fear at this sight.

Suddenly without warning they parted to the side and from the middle came the leader of the pack.

A giant Wolf. Black with silver streaks adorning it's body came walking between them. It was five times the size of the others. It possessed a silver diamond in its forehead and had a luxurious mane of fur to decorate its body.

I kept observing the leader. Just above its head was a name followed by one health bar.

Brizza, Guardian Of The Forest.

It barred its fangs and let out a relentless howl.

OWOOOOOOOO

All the other wolves got into formation.

I smiled as I called forth Death's favor.

This was going to be too easy.