The shard was only an hour away from the village. Another reason that it was so detrimental to close it as soon as possible. If not, then more and more beasts would be released. Threatening the safety of both the villagers and my own. My party members had an excitement growing within them. One of the follies of youth, the romanticizing of violence and war. That illusion would undoubtedly be broken soon. I was the first to notice the shard in the distance. I walked at the forefront of the party, the familiar weight of the nodachi by my side. With my hand never drifting far from its hilt. A similar crack in reality stood in front of us as we came to a halt. The wild shard was less like a mirror and more like a murky puddle. The energy it radiated was far less pure than the memory shard I entered earlier.
I turned towards my part members. Their nervousness was plain to see. The earlier excitement had become somewhat muted as they finally laid eyes on the shard. "Listen up! From this point onwards, my word is law. When I tell you to jump, you jump; when I tell you to run, there is no room to question me. These choices will be the difference in whether you will see your family again. Or your body will be lost in a broken world when the rift is closed." My words were harsh, and they did nothing for morale. However, these were not experienced soldiers where such things mattered. They needed to understand the severity of the situation.
I did not want to face their weeping parents because they were too thick-headed to listen. My words resonated with most of them, but one in particular did not seem to care. He was the shortest of the group, standing at only 5 foot 6. The excitement in his eyes had only grown when he laid eyes on the shard. "Tjorval, get your head out of the clouds!" I barked at the young man, breaking him out of his reverie.
Understanding had entered the eyes of most. I was pleasantly surprised to see that both Bjorn and Magnus were acting extremely cautious. Their eyes were observant, but their will was unbreakable as they drank in the small bits of knowledge I imparted. "Let's go, no use dallying." With that, I turned back towards the shard. The subtle pull on my mind was unmistakable. I felt drawn in as I laid my hand on the murky crack in reality.
A feeling of displacement hit me. Nausea and lightheadedness struck me at once. I found myself in a strange, unfamiliar forest. Gone was the humid wetness of the frontier. In its place was a tall forest of redwoods that reached towards the heavens. The ground was made up of red clay, with bushes and various fauna forming a strange ecosystem. It was an entirely different world that I found myself in. It was not long before I felt fluctuations within the space of the area. Before my party members appeared one after the other. A frown split my face; it should not have been possible for me to feel the fluctuations in space. Was it to do with my high affinity? That was the most likely scenario.
I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind. Turning my attention to my internal world, focusing on my source. I pushed small amounts of prana into my eyes, forming a geometric pattern. Sight of Life would be an invaluable advantage within the shard. I noticed a discrepancy as I watched the prana move towards my eyes. 25% of the prana never reached my eyes as they instead vanished somewhere between my source and my heart. My frown deepened as that should not have been possible. The familiar itch at the back of my throat reminded me of the presence of my sickness. Before I had a chance to think deeper about the ramifications of my discovery, a message appeared before my eyes.
[You have entered Wild Shard - Wolven Woods (Stage 1).
Participants (6/10) - Drakkus El Drakkar (Stage 1)
Bjorn Odinson (Stage N/A)
Magnus Odinson (Stage N/A)
Tjorval Lias (Stage N/A)
Mordial Venonan (Stage N/A)
Lieber Mustral (Stage N/A)]
The information was about what I had expected, but it was the next message that held my attention.
[Quest: Defeat the Denizens of The Wolven Woods
Lesser Lycans Defeated (0/3)
Wargs Defeated (0/15)]
Worry gripped my heart as I looked at what we needed to accomplish. By the looks of my party, they had all received the same message. Some were excited, while I noticed the twins were more reserved. I watched as a lean man with a bald head prayed with fervor while holding a totem depicting a roc. The bird of thunder and storms, an interesting choice. If I was not mistaken, it was a symbol of the ancient goddess Yevenna. I could not understand why he would pray to her. Yevenna left this world long ago; he was better off praying to one of the newer gods. Although if it were up to me, he would not have been praying at all. The so-called gods cared only for themselves. A bitter taste in my mouth ruined my mood as memories resurfaced. "Hey, Lieber, snap out of it. This is not the time to get distracted." Lieber reluctantly put the totem away as he nodded at me.
"We need to get moving," I told my squad as I started walking forward. The more we walked, the more eerie the forest became. There was a sense of wrongness that radiated from this place like a palpable presence. At first, I could not place where this feeling came from. After a while, it finally hit me. The forest was completely quiet. There was no chirping of birds, nor the subtle buzz of bugs. Forests had this way of making you know that it was alive, from the leaves swaying in the breeze to the constant sound of animals. Yet there was a distinct lack of anything here.
I could see how the longer we walked, the more on edge my party became. The entire time, my eyes were working fervently in search of any lifeforms. So far, there had been no luck; besides my part,y the forest seemed dead. We walked for another hour without finding anything. Right as I was about to make the decision to rest. My eyes caught movement from small blobs of life in the distance. "Get ready for contact!" I yelled at my party. Watching as the blobs drew ever closer. They looked at me in confusion, but once they saw me draw my blade. They also began taking out their weapons and standing at the ready.
Mere seconds after my command, the first warg appeared. His black fur was patched and decorated with many scars. Two rows of dagger-like teeth met us when it growled. Two more wargs approached from behind it. They were slightly smaller but no less dangerous. Tjorval released a war cry before blindly charging forward with his battle axe. He threw a mad swing to the lead warg. His recklessness almost cost him his life. The black warg dodged his clumsy swing and pounced forward to retaliate. Within seconds, I appeared between them after activating Blink. My nodachi was held between its teeth. I could feel the immense strength of the beast within our tug of war.
It did not last long as an arrow pierced its side, causing a yelp of pain to escape its lips. The other wargs were not passive either. Both of them had already started assaulting the rest of my party. Bjorn held his warrhammer with both hands, using his impressive blacksmith's physique to wield it. His strength rivaled that of the beast as he swung again. The beast jumped to the side to evade, directly in front of Magnus. The zweihander in his hands moved forward with deadly precision. He struck the unaware beast directly in its softer belly. The distraction allowed Bjorn to dash forward and bring his large hammer directly on the warg's head. Squashing it like a watermelon.
The few seconds I spent observing the fight were more than enough for the black warg to recover. Tjorval moved forward again with his axe in position for a horizontal swing. Before his blade even had a chance to touch the beast. A crackle of red lightning shot past him into the beast. The smell of burnt hair and scorched flesh wafted into the air. The beast was in so much pain that it could not react in time to the swing. Decapitating the beast in an instant. A minute amount of bloodlust radiated from Tjorval as he roared in approval, already looking for his next prey. But Mordial and Lieber had already dealt with the remaining warg. Lieber had bludgeoned the beast with his bo staff, while Mordial peppered it with arrows. Resulting in a deadly battle of attrition that the warg lost. A minor headache started forming from my mana expenditure. It did nothing to quell my anger as I turned towards Tjorval. He stood above the corpse of the warg, looking proud of himself.
I blinked in front of him, my fist punching into his gut. Before grabbing him by his tunic. "What the fuck was that? Do you have a death wish? Is that it?" I dropped him to the ground as he looked at me in disbelief. Anger flashed in his eyes as he tried to get up. I kicked him back down.
"What… the fuck is your problem? We killed them, didn't we?" He responded in between breaths.
"What was the first rule I gave before we entered?" I paused for a second, but right as he was about to respond, I continued. "It was that my word is law. If I had not been here to save
your worthless behind, you would have already been scrap in that beast's belly. Do that again, and I will leave you to die. I will not jeopardize the safety of everyone else just because you think yourself infallible." I spat at his feet before turning to the others. "Let this be a lesson to you all. Now clean this up were setting up camp for the night." I was beyond annoyed, but I still helped skin the wargs. Bjorn and Mordial started a fire while we processed the meat for a roast. I could see that Tjorval kept shooting me glares when he thought I could not see. Yet I could not bring myself to care. I had a feeling that things would only worsen from here. And I'd be damned if I was not prepared.
Darkness had already descended on this strange forest. My only source of light was the campfire by my feet as I kept watch while the others slept. I opened my quest, and just as expected, it had already updated.
[Quest: Defeat the Denizens of The Wolven Woods
Lesser Lycans Defeated (0/3)
Wargs Defeated (3/15)]