The knight wasn't exactly happy, but he also couldn't say he was angry–maybe a little frustrated, though. The knight had run into many trees–much greater in size than he was while trying to evade the bird that was still chasing him through the darkness that never shifted. The knight had been in this forest for some time now–a few hours was his current guess, but there were certain things that gave it away. He was feeling a bit of fatigue from running around the forest for as long as was, but the knight was nothing if not a ball of energy–something he was told he got from his mother–must've come with the strength in a large physical enhancement package the knight had inherited–at least it didn't come with the bloodlust his mother was said to have.
He was trying his best to weave through the forest, but it was hard when there was nothing to really go off of through the darkness, so, more often than not, the knight found himself shoulder tapped by a broken branch, or just running into trees–wasting precious moments. The bird was still hot on his tail, tracking him through the darkness like it knew the forest better than any other–which made sense. This was an apex predator who knew the land, and had killed numerous things throughout its probably extensive life–maybe even where he stood the bird had massacred some poor floor dweller–scooping it into its body-evisorating grip it probably had with talons that large. The one thing the knight had over the unrelenting fiend of the upper level was his speed–speed that was able to outpace a giant, even if only for a few seconds, so outspeeding the bird was the easy part. It was keeping the bird off of him that he found to be the more intricate of his issues currently. Without sight, it was not a good idea to go much faster than he was going, so he dashed about, a slightly cumbersome speed being his constant, dodging the snatch attempts the bird had lashed out with on numerous occasions in the short time they've been in this situation, with relative ease and only minor follies.
Although the knight was still raring to continue–the bird seemed to be running out of juice. With its attacks becoming rather sluggish in the past couple of attempts. It was still fast as a bullet–much to the knight's annoyance, but with a slowing of the fury, the knight now found himself slightly enjoying the cat and mouse situation he found himself in.
Ducking a talon filled grab for his torso, The knight quickly pivoted in the darkness and dashed to the left, while the bird continued forward in its assault to where he would've been. He didn't look back at the bird, but instead, he dashed forward into his new direction with blistering speeds. He may not be able to see much in the incredible darkness, but could barely see the elusive outlines of the ancient trees that towered over the land for far longer than the serpent who reigned over the dead lived, so he expertly ran around the trunks, leaving the bird behind in no time at all. Ducking, swerving, pivoting, and dancing were the things the knight found himself doing the most in the minutes following the successful, momentary escape from the apex raven.
In the heat of the moment and the mutedness of the darkness, the forest lit up. Somewhere where the knight could not see, in the highest part of the third layer, the canopy, a raging battle between kings of the forest continued, and through that battle the forest lit up. Flashes of fire consumed the forest from the top down then it surged back upwards as the flames shot out the tops of the trees, and saturated the land. In the eyes of the knight, which were adjusted quite well to the darkness of the surface, the world went from one side of the spectrum to the other side of it. The trunks, branches, grass, even the skies lit up beyond the endless jumble of twisting branches that knot each other at the ends. The flash of light was startling for a moment, but the knight wasn't shocked by the sudden visual of his surroundings–he simply analyzed. Though he was sprinting through a small clearing, sparse with the peaceful flames that were perhaps not strong enough to feed the entire forest, there was still an obstruction in his path as he continued running at an acceptable speed to keep out of the bird's range of perception for the time being.
Over yonder to the right of the knight was a zombie-like figure. It stood frozen still in the light for a few moments. Its torso was hunched over with a teal human-like skin color, as if oxidized with age. Its arms hung limply from the hunched spot, with arms that stretched all the way down to the floor from their spot–showing the disproportionatedness of the humanoid creature. There was a cascade of onyx black straight hair, disheveled, frayed, and disgusting. It was a greasy creature, with great welts across its body, aching with a pulsing–disturbing white, and just as the knight was crossing the statutory creature, the giant swelling, slightly glowing pimples across its saggy, oxidized skin popped and uncontrollable, white, powerful flames erupted across its body. The knight had to pause in his sprint as fast as possible, as the creature of the surface activated like a sentry at the scent of flames from the top of the fiery forest and more specifically the battle that seemed to stretch for an indeterminate amount of time.
Looking to the right, the knight was nearly startled by a creature bathed in an aura of white fire so vast only the shape of the black body could be seen from inside the fire. Its soulless, boundless, black depths that could once have been called emotion-filled eyes stared into the knight, hungry for the flame that had sprouted. The knight was the rival for the food, but the creature wouldn't lose to him. Its long arms stretched outward, as it dashed towards the knight, coming across as more of a streak of white as it slashed its spindly limb towards the knights torso, only to meet a material that it could not cut through with such a simple attack–but, sadly, the knight was prepared for such an attack. As claws met the metal of his armor, the knight executed a simple sideways slash, slicing the very fire in half as the creature split not a few moments after as well. The fire dispersed into the world, before gravitating towards the giant trees, feeding the land–even if only a little. Falling to its knees, it didn't make a sound, from behind the current of unkempt hair that shielded its face from all things. No blood left the body. It simply laid there, but that wasn't the end of the knight's fight. The darkness claimed the land once again, and in the darkness, the knight saw small tornados of white fire across the land, beacons in the dense abyss that hid the world and then the entire world flashed white again, then it went dark once again as the many walking–living corpses of the pineforests forest floor, invaded him in the small space he had to himself and his second opponent in the forest.
The knight got into a stance, something that he knew that he used to use a lot when he was younger–something hyper aggressive–something to end fights quickly–if extremely cruelly. It was something that his mother had specialized in when fights weren't to her appreciation–though he never learned it directly, it was something that he always felt quite comfortable in–which had scared him enough into not using it often, but now was not one of those times. Openings were a given–an exploitation method of the knights, letting the enemies use these openings, so that's what he did. He waited patiently as the stumbling fools shoved each other out of the way in the darkness, knocked each other to the ground, some even outright starting battle with one another , but most of the lit matches in the void teamed up with their fellow creatures to attack the knight with speeds that varied greatly among the enemies–but none truly remarkable–or even on par with the raven, for that matter. They all found their end in their own gruesome, disgusting ways. The knight lashed out with his sword on most occasions, letting the blunt weapon knock a skull into nothing more than a dust incinerated by its own fire, for others, the knight launched his weapon about the small arena, allowing his tectonic strength to eviscerate multiple of the white hurricanes at once, and lastly, after throwing his weapon into the darkness that would occasionally flash with vibrant color for fractions of moments, the knight would simply go into hand-to-hand mode.
His mother was a master of the fist, oftentimes throwing the Longinus at enemy leaders on the battlefield just for an excuse to go retrieve it with her fists. It was an aptitude that he had inherited–though fists weren't something he trained in regularly, but his proficiency was still great enough to flawlessly execute the enemies without a hitch of resistance. These were the footsoldiers of the forest–the bottom feeders–it's no wonder they were this easy to deal with. His fists didn't even burn from the heat that the soulless beings were surrounded by. He threw straight punch after straight punch, caving skull after skull, dodging to the right, left, or even ducking on occasions just to make it more interesting than simply tanking the creature's weak attacks. They were weak by themselves, and numbers didn't help much either, but the knight did notice the rather endless amount of them he expunged from reality. These were humans at some point in the last, but they changed–morphed into something else here. The fire in those cysts kept them alive for as long as they were, but now they were husks without fire rather than husked with fire like they were previously. They could not be called living before, but now they were without life.
Sighing, the knight looked around not bloody, but deathly quiet clearing with a strange expression behind his helmet. Tracking the creatures when they were lit on fire like that was easy enough–probably more so in the darkness than the light, so he half a mind to try lighting his enemies on fire, but that didn't seem possible the second time thinking that over. Then his mind grinded to a halt. How long had he been fighting these beasts of fire? On queue, the knight's vision filled with color for longer than any period of time he had had while fighting the abominable human remains. His eyes darted about as he pivoted, making sure to scan every single inch of his surroundings–it was right there. Talons were stretched above him–ready to reach out for his still form. The raven had arrived at some point, deciding to observe him in his massacre of the lessest creatures of these lands, then, the moment he finished the bloodless blood bath, it made its move. Their eyes locked for a moment, but the knight wouldn't allow himself to fall for that. He dashed forward, still not one hundred percent sure he was ready to take on the fiend of the lowest hanging branches of the forest. This was round two, and just like the first, he was going to win.