Whoosh! Woosh! Woosh!
The wind tore through the clearing, howling across the field as if screaming through unseen mouths. Gusts whipped past with savage force, throwing dust into the air and snapping the trees to their sides. In the center stood a lone woman, her long black hair lashing around her like a frenzy of black ribbons.
Surrounding her on all sides were beasts. Wolves, foxes, wraiths that flickered between the folds of shadow, vampires with slick mouths and cold, pale eyes, and other twisted undead that scraped the ground with claws and bone, each one encroaching slowly . Their breaths came out in ragged clouds, their eyes fixed on her as if she was something that didn't belong in this place.
One of the wolves lifted its head and howled, the sound sharp and grating, slicing through the wind like a blade. Blood began to rise from its fur, twisting in the air, forming an orb of liquid crimson. The mass shot toward the woman with ruthless precision, aimed for her throat. Her hand rose, and whispered an incantation. The blood curved off its path and pierced through the throat of a fox. The fox collapsed to the ground, dying instantly.
The wolf that attacked constricted its eyes, drawing lower. Her gaze swept over the vampires. At once, their eyes lost all clarity, becoming dulled and misty, overtaken by a dark pink glow. They turned and pounced on the creatures around them. Bones cracked. Fangs tore. Flesh split beneath claw and tooth as chaos erupted among the ranks of the beasts.
Another wolf lunged forward through the smoke and wind. Its howl rose above the noise as water orbs formed around its limbs, floating with unnatural stillness. It bounded into the air, twisting high, then fell like a meteor. Its claws aimed straight down at her chest, the force behind it enough to crush bone.
She vaulted backward, causing the claws to miss and carved a deep scar into the dirt where she had just stood.
Shadow tendrils appeared from beneath her and around her. They moved without weight or sound, coiling like vines around trees. The tendrils wrapped around the wolf and dragged it onto the ground, limbs bound tightly. The beast tried to struggle against the binding but was met with more resistance form the tendrils before another one joined and wrapped itself around the wolf. Completely immobilizing the beast.
Abruptly, one of the wraiths hovered in the sky, above the beasts. Its body wavered, like smoke trapped in a humanoid shell. A quiet vibration pulsed through the ground as it raised an arm, activating [Spirit Control]. A transparent limb emerged from its chest, stretching across the space between them. The arm flew straight at the woman, and the hand phased directly into her chest.
From the darkness all around, tendrils made from shadows erupted and wrapped around the wraith, interrupting [Spirit Control], causing the wraith's body to shimmer with green light.
The ground shook very lightly beneath her feet as a beast made from shadow appeared. It was large,13ft tall, with black claws that ripped into the ground before it pounced onto the wraith, devouring the evil spirit.
Four beasts that were lurking within trees looked down at this sight. They showed no sign of fear, but their eyes constricted, focused on the shadowy entity and the woman before exchanging looks. The four of them looked at each other briefly, turned, and ran off, leaving behind all of the beasts, choosing their lives.
The woman raised her hand, and a vampire rushed to her. She stepped forward, met the creature, opened her mouth, and bared her fangs. With a swift bite to the neck, she drank deeply from the vampire's blood. Moments later, the body crumpled to the ground.
She wiped her lips, retracted her fangs, and released a breath.
Naomi Duskvine stood beneath the moonlight, cast in silver as she gazed at the fallen vampire, then turned away. One of her shadows rose beside her and handed her a rolled map. Rather than use the Arbiter: Vault, she entrusted her shadows with her possessions.
Unfolding the map, she laid it across the ground. Shadow tendrils slithered out and pinned the edges down, keeping it steady against the intense winds.
'This Midon's Chalice is supposed to be the easiest artifact to obtain... according to that coachman. I thought it would be much farther away, but from where he dropped off Zay to where he left Rei, there were only two hours between. At least, that's what Rei told me before he left. I counted for myself, and I was only three hours from where Rei got off.'
'The coachman gave me a map since they had already located the chalice but wants me to retrieve it for some reason... It's in a dilapidated building on the edge of the beasts' territory. Since it's supposed to be the easiest, the coachman said he'd return by morning, then head off to assist Rei in finding the Book of the Dead.'
"Come here," she ordered simply, and the large shadow creature bowed before her.
She pointed to a circled spot on the map. "That's where we need to go. It's five minutes east from where we are. I want you to scout the area and report back before I leave."
The shadow creature sank into the earth, fading into the darkness as it began traveling through the shadows.
After waiting ten minutes, the shadow returned to Naomi and gave two nods—the signal she had made, meaning it was clear.
Her dark pink aura erupted around her legs as she took off east, toward the building.
The large shadow reached down, took the map from the tendrils, then sank back into the earth, following Naomi.
As Naomi ran through the beast-filled forest, the trees began to multiply, the forest growing denser while the air grew heavier. The forest was… quiet.
She stopped for a moment and looked around, noticing there were no growls, howls, screeches, or even fights between beasts anymore. The intense wind from moments ago had also dissipated.
'Why… is it so quiet all of a sudden?' she wondered briefly before aura flared around her body again, not wanting to find out why.
...
Naomi came to a slow stop, looking up at the dilapidated building in front of her. It was made of dark stone, with vines crawling up its walls, shattered windows, and a small fence enclosing it. Inside the fence, the grass was dead.
She silently jumped the fence—it was only two feet tall—and landed in the lifeless grass; without pause, she made her way to the door and pushed it open with her hand. The door creaked as it swung inward, and as she stepped inside, a wave of emotion struck her. There was lingering pain—unspoken and spiritually, from spirits that did not reveal themselves. Her chest tightened; it felt as though she were walking through someone else's heartbreak.
She raised her hands, and tendrils of shadow burst forth, sweeping through the house. They grabbed whatever objects they could find, dragging them back to Naomi and placing each one gently on the ground before resuming their search.
Naomi knew it was only a matter of time before she would receive Midon's Chalice through the shadowy tendrils, so she walked back outside, avoiding the pressure she felt inside.
As she stepped out, an arrow barely missed her skull by a few inches; her eyes widened as the air pressure from the arrow whipped her hair wildly, almost knocking her off balance. She glanced back for a split second and saw that half the building had collapsed from a single arrow.
Instinctively, Naomi jolted her body backward; another arrow plunged into the ground nearby, sending dirt flying before slamming back down.
She looked toward the source of the arrows and saw the large shadow appear in front of her. Another arrow struck the shadow, causing the beast to instantly evaporate before reemerging beneath her, enveloping her as the tendrils quickened their pace to find the chalice.
She saw nothing. She felt no aura at all, no signs of a person, or beast. Panic rising, she rushed inside the building. The emotions she had felt earlier within the house had faded, but she didn't have time to think about that as another arrow flew through the stone. Its tip embedded in the stone floor, and fire began to spread slowly from it, scorching the ground.
Her eyes darted around, searching for a place to hide. She knew that without locating her enemy, she wouldn't be able to fight back. She had a general idea—it was from the west—but that knowledge did little good against an archer at night.
Before long, two arrows plunged into the building, changing course as they gained increased velocity, slamming into two long wooden beams of the already ruined structure, causing it to shake violently.
Naomi's eyes widened slightly at the sight. She condensed aura into her fist, struck the wall behind her, then ran out of the building and hid on the opposite side from where the arrows were coming.
'One of the worst enemies to fight... an archer at night. From what Zay told me before, when he warned me about who I should and shouldn't fight—archers were the first thing he mentioned. Most possess a sort of insight into their enemies' movements. It might not seem like much, but for an archer, it can mean the difference between a kill or death. They typically also have special arrows formed from aura, but I've never heard of an archer who can change the course of their arrows after being launched. Especially that fourth arrow, setting the ground ablaze. What the hell kind of archer is this?'
She sat behind the walls of the dilapidated building and looked down, her eyes widened at a chalice made of steel and diamonds embedded into it—the same marking the coachman told her about before she got off the caravan. The large shadow formed again, and without a word, it was going to draw the archer's attention to allow Naomi to run.
Naomi's aura flared around her legs, trying to conceal as much as possible. She took off running north, planning to stop only when she reached the point the coachman said he would be at by morning.
...
A bow shimmered in the night as a man watched Naomi run off, disappearing into the dense forest. The man stood up; the tree beneath him shook before he sighed.
"The damn chalice is lost. That was going to be such a nice payout too," he murmured to himself. Focusing his eyes, he locked onto the giant shadow.
His bow shimmered again, transforming into a longbow etched with a symbol of a sleek, coiled scorpion rendered in deep indigo and shimmering obsidian hues, its segmented tail arching upward like a curved dagger ready to strike. The pincers, sharp and poised, framed a small, glowing crimson gem at the center.
He drew the large bowstring back fully. A dark-green aura took shape as an arrow, resting carefully on the arrow rest. The nock connected with the string as a light green liquid dripped from the arrow's tip.
The man released his fingers. The arrow surged forward, piercing the large shadow. Dark-green lines snaked across the shadow's form as it crumbled into dust. His bow faded away as he drew a blade and made a shallow cut across his pinky, whispering an incantation under his breath. 'Looks like this hunt will be much more entertaining than I thought.'
For a brief moment, his body shimmered in the moonlight, glittering faintly—then vanished, turning transparent.