Heavy iron cuffs dug straight into Noctis's wrists. The prison cart violently jolted over a massive, hardened mud rut.
His scarred shoulder slammed against the rusted bars.
"Look at the grand noble bastard." Rolf leaned heavily against the iron grate separating the driver's bench from the cage.
Rolf uncorked a dented leather flask with his teeth. The pungent stench of sour ale and cheap grain liquor flooded the cramped cart.
"Boy can't even tame a rabbit, let alone a shadow wolf," Rolf sneered.
The second armored guard laughed loudly. He spat a thick wad of brown tobacco directly through the bars. The spit splattered across the toe of Noctis's right boot.
"A defect," the second guard agreed. "And he spends his time reading fairy tales. Primordial ghosts and giant world-ending beasts. Absolutely pathetic."
Noctis kept his breathing completely even. He stared at the brown spit on his boot.
The harsh smell of alcohol and blood forced a memory instantly to the front of his skull.
The freezing winter air in the servant's quarters. Thirty years of accumulated dust clinging to the damp stone walls.
Liana laying perfectly still on a rigid wooden cot.
Noctis remembered the exact sound of her lungs collapsing. She hacked violently. Thick, black blood shot from her pale lips and splattered heavily against the thin white linen.
Elara stood over the bed. The head servant's hands glowed with desperate, unauthorized healing magic. The warm green light washed over Liana's chest.
The magic did absolutely nothing to slow the black rot.
Liana's chest simply stopped moving. Her eyes rolled back into her skull.
Lord Alistair had strictly forbidden a proper healer from entering the lower levels. A servant is replaceable. Medicine costs gold.
Noctis tasted fresh copper. He ran his tongue over his split lip and swallowed the blood.
The draft horses suddenly let out a shrill, panicked whinny.
The heavy cart slammed to a permanent, jarring stop.
The massive tree canopy towering above grew incredibly thick. It strangled the afternoon sun completely. Only a gray, bruised light filtered down to the rotting forest floor.
Rolf jammed a long iron key into the cage lock. The heavy metal door shrieked open on rusted hinges.
"Get out," Rolf ordered.
He didn't wait for Noctis to move. Rolf grabbed Noctis by the front of his torn tunic and violently ripped him out of the cart.
Noctis hit the ground hard. His knees smashed into the wet, decaying leaves.
Rolf unlocked the wrist chains. The heavy iron cuffs dropped into the mud with a dull thud.
The second guard unhooked a torch from the side of the cart. He looked out into the impenetrable wall of twisted gray trunks.
"Lord Alistair gives you a fair chance," Rolf mocked. He rested his hand on his steel broadsword. "Survive one day out here, maybe you live to tell the tale."
The second guard spat another wad of tobacco into the mud.
"Don't give the defect false hope. The shadow walkers will strip his bones by midnight."
Rolf kicked a clump of mud directly into Noctis's chest.
They locked the empty iron cage. They climbed back onto the wooden bench.
The driver snapped his leather whip. The draft horses turned the heavy cart completely around.
The two guards laughed loudly as the wheels rattled back down the dirt road. The sound of hooves faded out rapidly.
The massive iron gates of the border wall cranked shut in the distance. The heavy metallic boom echoed through the woods.
Noctis stood up in the freezing, dead forest.
Absolute isolation swallowed him immediately. The temperature plummeted twenty degrees in a matter of minutes. Frost instantly formed over the dead, black leaves scattered across the ground.
He had no weapon. He had no coat. He had no mana core.
He turned away from the distant wall and walked straight into the dense treeline.
Thick, thorny bushes tore relentlessly at his trousers. Dead branches whipped against his face, leaving thin red scratches across his pale cheeks. He pushed through the tangled undergrowth strictly by force.
The air smelled intensely of wet rot and ancient, undisturbed soil.
The bruised daylight vanished entirely. Pitch black darkness bled into the forest.
Noctis needed shelter immediately. The freezing wind cut straight through his thin linen shirt. His teeth chattered violently against each other.
He stumbled down a steep, muddy incline. His boots lost traction.
He slid ten feet down the embankment. His back slammed hard into a massive, petrified tree stump. Pain shot straight up his spine.
He grabbed the rough wood and hauled himself back onto his feet.
A sheer rock cliff face loomed just twenty yards ahead. The dark stone stretched upward, vanishing into the tangled tree canopy.
Noctis spotted a narrow, jagged fissure at the base of the rock wall. A small cave entrance.
He sprinted toward the cliffside. His lungs burned furiously in the freezing air.
He reached the rock wall and pressed his frozen hands against the cold stone. The fissure was just wide enough for him to squeeze his shoulders through.
A low, vibrating hiss echoed from the canopy directly above him.
The sound carried no biological rhythm. It sounded like two rusted iron blades grinding slowly against each other.
Noctis froze. He pressed his back flat against the jagged rock face.
The tree branches directly above began to snap wildly.
Heavy, muted thuds hit the forest floor. Something massive moved rapidly through the darkness.
A Shadow Stalker. Rank three.
It dropped from the canopy in total silence.
The beast landed directly between Noctis and the forest. It possessed four elongated, double-jointed limbs. Pitch-black fur and overlapping obsidian scales covered its gaunt, starved body.
Three pairs of multi-faceted yellow eyes stared straight through the darkness. They locked entirely onto Noctis.
The beast's jaw unhinged with a wet, sickening pop. Rows of translucent, needle-like teeth dripped thick black saliva onto the dead leaves.
"No," Noctis grunted.
He grabbed a loose, jagged rock from the mud. He tried to squeeze backward into the narrow cave fissure.
The monster lunged forward.
It moved faster than Noctis could process. A heavy mass slammed directly into his chest.
The kinetic force drove Noctis straight into the dirt. Mud instantly filled his mouth and nose.
He twisted violently to the side.
The monster pinned his shoulders to the ground with its massive front paws. The obsidian scales scraped deep grooves into Noctis's cheek.
Noctis drove his right knee upward. He struck the beast directly in its hollow, armored chest.
The monster didn't even flinch.
It raised its right paw high into the air. Five curved, razor-sharp black claws extended fully from its knuckles.
The paw swung down in a vicious, tearing blur.
The claws tore effortlessly through Noctis's leather belt and thin tunic. They sliced straight through the muscle and tissue of his abdomen.
Agony exploded instantly across his entire midsection. The sheer heat of the pain robbed the air straight from his lungs.
He let out a raw, guttural scream.
Hot crimson blood completely sprayed outward. It coated the Stalker's face and dripped rapidly onto the freezing mud.
The immense momentum of the strike threw Noctis entirely backward.
He tumbled over the hard dirt and slammed violently onto the cold stone floor just inside the mouth of the cave.
Noctis clutched his stomach instantly. His hands sank deep into the massive, open laceration.
Thick, hot blood poured seamlessly through his frozen fingers. It pooled outward, soaking his trousers and staining the cavern floor.
His vision blurred violently at the edges. The yellow eyes of the Shadow Stalker advanced slowly to the cave entrance.