4 Unfamiliar Darkness

The forest no longer had any stones to give it and so it was now done with the forest, it considered the possibility of encountering humans and recalled about how the humans had strange glowing metal sticks that hurt it when they hit it with them. It puzzled through ideas that could help it adapt against this praam and and idea came to mind. When the creature hunted at night sometimes it would notice predators slashing at their prey with claws to defend or kill their prey. The creature now knowing it can extract the stone even after it had killed the prey decided this would be a good strategy and suddenly its fingers extended out into blade like shapes when and returned to normal when it wanted it to. It experimented more and soon discover it could extend and retract the ca-lwas as far and as much as it wants.

It decided to hide its claws for now as there was no prey in the forest anymore and it won't run into anymore prey until it leaves the forest. Deep red eyes scanned the trees as the the creature's body devoid of any light and pitch in colour crept towards the edge of the woods where it saw a strange group of humans on four legged creatures coming towards the forest. It was curious. It was hungry. It was to hunt.

The adventurers had left soon after the girls breakdown all determined to kill the creature that had scarred the poor little girl, the group did not come under manned as they had a variety of different adventurers such as those who could use holy magic called priests and priestesses as well as holy swordsman. The rest were unknowingly unable to harm the creature as they did not possess the means to do so. The group slowly entered DarkWood and they were all surprised at the eerie silence that held its hand around the throat of the forest. No-one dared to break the silence that held dominion over these woods and only began to mumble and have talks of worry when they noticed the bodies of orcs and goblins strewn across the road, all unharmed seemingly but dead as the report had said. They continued onward until they found what seemed to be the refugee group from the village and there was visible signs of battle however all of the villagers seemed unharmed despite being dead with the exception of what was believed to be Adam Pablovich lent up against a tree with a wound down his chest as if he were slashed by a sword or similar weapon.

They continued onwards until they reached the village seemingly showing a similar scene of possible panic, however it looks as if they had died without being harmed externally unless they were trampled upon after death by the panicked crowds. They explored the village and found the diary of Adam Pablovich and Tiana Rose the two medical professionals that initially discovered the disease which had turned out to be something far worse according to the few survivors.

They converged in the town square upon sun down and set up camp each and every one of them sat in an eerie silence listening out for any sign of danger but they found none. Yet it wasn't long before some reported feeling oddly paranoid as if they were being watched by someone continuously without them knowing who or where from. Many complaints were dismissed as paranoia due to the situation they had found the woods in and so it was seen as understandable due to the possibility of the assailant's presence.

The leader of the holy knight squad Marcus noticed something was wrong and so did the other knights and the priestesses noticed something was wrong too. They felt a dark energy in the woods watching them but they couldn't pinpoint where as if there was something jamming their senses. They remained on guard after that and took shifts in sleeping due to the paranoia of the possibility of an attack.

However, soon they noticed something was wrong with the time of day. The class nine wizards and witches were saying it was noon but it was clearly pitch black as if it was a night without stars or a moon. Marcus looked up to the sky and noticed that there was indeed an absence of anything in the sky and it came to his senses that they couldn't see anything further than their fire or lights could reach was extremely unnerving. Not to mention now he was taking the paranoia of being watched with more validity as he rallied the group.

It wasn't long before they started to continue moving towards what they hoped was the Town where they had came from but soon realised they were no longer on the road but deep in he woods which confuse them as they were sure that they were following the road. Marcus then noticed they were missing people and everyone grew concerned as they called out into the darkness for any response from their missing comrades, with no response they continued moving deeper into the woods.

It wasn't long until again more people had disappeared from the group sparking a panic amongst the group leading to the decision to set up camp in the hopes of leading those who got los tor separated from the group would follow the light from their campfire and make their way to camp. Marcus then noticed the sky had changed and now in the sky hung a blood red moong staring down at them like insects, he felt unnerved at what was happening to them and was sure that the lost members were most likely dead but he felt if they kept moving they would lose more to the darkness around them and whatever is lurking within it.

Marcus tired from the situation lied down and fell asleep only to awake to the sound of battle as he looked around him and noticed the bodies of his comrades strewn around the camp with claw marks down their corpses and the remaining the comrades being cut down whilst trying to resist a creature in which he has never seen before. A figure made of complete darkness seemingly in the shape of a little girl with hair and all and looked to be as if it were an eight year old child covered in a cloak of darkness. Its only identifying feature revealed to him after it plunged its claws into the chest of its comrades pulling out stone and absorbing them before looking over at him with demonic red eyes that clawed their way into his very soul.

The standoff lasted for a few seconds before the creature lunged at him and he felt the sharp pain of the creatures claws pierce his chest and blood welled up in his lungs and leaked into his body and sprayed from his mouth as it watched him convulse in pain as the life slowly ebbed away from him.

"You bitch! I swear you will die! Do you hear me?!" The demon just continued to stare at him until his vision started to fade and it tilted its head in disappointment as if expecting something to happen insulting his very pride as his life came to a close when its hand reached into his chest and pulled out his soul stone leaving a corpse lacerated by its corpses with the souls stone removed as if it was teleported from its protective bone structure as it was undamaged. A young witch looked on in fear as the darkness dispelled and the creature disappeared with it and the pitch black sky became a night sky and she was alone on her knees surrounded by her slaughtered comrades as tears of joy streamed down her face. She began to cry out of grief too and screamed out in anguish at the sight of the bodies around her an felt sick to her very core. She swore that she would find that creature someday and watch the life ebb from its demonic red eyes.