*sssssk…
The ear piercing whispers carried out from within the mists, stretching in every direction like a thousand unseen voices and whispers…
Clawing at the mind.
Dark, rotting trees loomed on every corner, their twisted forms swaying faintly as if alive… watching.
The air itself was foul and thick with decay—each breath scraping like smoke against Saiga's lungs.
*fwoooooosh!
The wind came next.
It lashed hazard against his cheeks.
And roared into his face like a surge of a tidal wave.
Saiga gritted his teeth until his jaw ached, eyes narrowing in defiance.
His hands tightened around the hilt of his longsword, its steel gleaming faintly beneath the fractured moon light.
"DIE!"
Saiga roared, his voice cutting through the whispers as he hurled himself downward, descending like a falling star upon the towering abomination below him that writhed in a grotesque motion.
Its bloated, half rotted framed convulsed tendrils of corrupted flesh lashed out as it sensed Saiga's fury.
The abomination tried to turn for a counterattack.
But before it could even successfully strike back—its massive blade of an arm already mid swing—
*Shhhhhk!
One of its ankles was cleaved open in a single stroke, the steel carving through rotted sinew and corrupted flesh.
A torrent of blackened steaming blood gushed out in a violent spray, hissing as it hit the ground, eating away at the dirt like acid.
The beast staggered,
*thud! *thud! *Thud!
Its footing faltered beneath its immense weight.
*ROAAAAAAAAR!!!
It then released a roar—
No,
A scream,
An ear splitting cry that rattled the very ground.
The trees shuddered violently, branches snapping as if the dark forest recoiled from the sound.
But it was short-lived.
Saiga had already closed the distance.
His strike—true and unrelenting—drove his blade deep into the abomination's skull.
The steel sank through rotted bone and matter with a wet, sickening
*CRUNCH!
Pushing all the way until the blade bursted from the roof of the abomination's mouth in an eruption of gore.
The beast's shriek was cut off instantly, replaced by a guttural tremble as its body convulsed.
Saiga's longsword, bathed in dark blood, glinted faintly in the moonlight as it remained protruding out between the jagged teeth of the monster.
But Saiga wasn't finished.
His grip tightened around the hilt, knuckles turning white, muscles straining as he planted his feet on the back of the abomination's head.
"RAAAAGH!"
With a powerful roar, he yanked the blade.
Not outward to free it.
But upward, dragging it through putride flesh and corrupted bone.
*SHHHHRRRRK!!!
The sound was sickening, like fabric being torn apart, mixed with wet cracking and guttural crunching.
The sword carved a merciless line, tearing from the creature's mouth up through its skull.
*hisssss!
Black, corrupted blood erupted in a violent spray, splattering across the trees, soaking the ground, and even raining down in sticky acidic droplets.
The abomination convulsed, its massive body twitching a faint gurgling sound escaped its ruined throat.
Then there it was.
Its head split grotesquely into two halves, sagging and folding under its own weight before the beast finally collapsed.
*BOOOOM!!!
The beast hit the ground with a resounding crash, sending tremors rolling through the forest floor.
At the same time, the stench of decay thickened in the air, escaping through the tiny wounds that the abomination suffered prior to Saiga delivering the final bow.
Speaking of, Saiga landed on his feet as the beast fell, his boots pressing firmly through the ground.
*phew
A sharp exhale escaped his lips as he steadied his breathing, before he lowered his blade and slid into its sheath.
*shhhk!
"Well done… well done," he whispered under his breath.
Then, tilting his head, he turned towards the figure who assisted him.
"That should keep the area slightly secure. That makes it… what, sixteen of these undead abominations now?"
Veryda, his mentor, twirled her sabers with practiced ease—
*fwiiip!
Blades singing as they cut through the air before smoothly sheathing them at each side of her hips.
"Next time," she said, tilting her head with a half smirk tugging at her wrinkled face.
"Don't alert every nearby denizen within earshot, would you?"
The wrinkles along her cheek curled as she smiled knowingly, the look of someone who had seen far too many battles to let the youth's—like Saiga—recklessness pass without comments.
Saiga only shrugged, offering no excuse.
"Regardless," Veryda continued, her tone softening as the wind caught her long strands of grey hair, "well done."
"This would allow us… perhaps a brief respite.' she added.
"Well, better than nothing I guess," Saiga replied, rolling his shoulder to stretch it as he walked closer to Veryda.
"Now Let's return back to—"
*rustle!
The sound carried sharply through the heavy mist, loud enough to snap both Saiga and Veryda's instincts to action.
Saiga and Veryda slid both of their hands to the hilts of their weapons, fingers curling tight.
Saiga could hear it with his sharp hearing.
Footsteps.
Heavy.
Uneven.
Pounding the forest floor in desperate rhythm.
Whoever it was, they were running hard, each stride quick but at the same time, clumsy.
Each breath of the creature was ragged and broken as if their lungs burned with exhaustion.
Saiga's eyes narrowed, scanning the veil of mist in front of them.
His senses sharpened even more as every fiber of his muscle primed to move, every nerve screaming in instinct.
And then, like a blade slicing through silence—
A void rang out.
"HELP ME! ANYONE!"
The voice cracked with intense panic.
Desperate and raw, echoing through the mist and forest as if the wind carried it along.
Saiga meanwhile flinched at the sound, his body instantly coiling, ready to spring forward as his boots dug into the dirt—weight shifting low.
He was ready to move.
Ready to surge.
Ready to strike if needed.
Or ready to save.
Then, as if on cue—
a shape of a man staggered out from the mist, his steps clumsy and desperate, his eyes wide in terror.
His mouth opened to speak again,
But he didn't need to.
Because above,
*FLAP! *FLAP!
*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!
Casting a massive shadow across the clearing, something big moved.
Not footsteps.
Not the shuffle of a beast.
But wings.
*FWOOOOOOSH!
The mist moved as a colossal shape swooped low, a rushing gale tearing through the trees as its shadow slightly revealed its figure.
"H-Heeek—"
The man's scream cut short as a massive maw, lined with razor sharp teeth, descended towards him.
*ROAR!!!
"Tch!" Veryda clicked her tongue as both her blades sang free from their sheaths.
This time, the steel wasn't plain—
But carved with ancient runes, flaring along their edges, glowing faintly with the shift of the blade's silver light.
A mark upon her blades that will only reveal when the threat was beyond dire.
Saiga didn't waste a breath.
His legs coiled, and with a powerful burst of strength—
*Bang!
he launched himself forward, his gray cloak snapping violently in the wind.
He snatched the man's arm and yanked him away just in time,
*skrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk!
his boots skidding across dirt as a massive jaw snapped shut where they stood.
*CRUNCH!
The beast's bite splitted a tree in half, the trunk exploding into splinters as the creature's massive body swept past.
"Tch! Undead Wyvern!?" Saiga clicked his tongue.
The gusts of the supposed wyvern's wings howled through the area, ripping branches from their roots and scattering the mist.
As the mist scattered and the beast's figure slowly revealed itself—
The air turned foul.
More fouler than decaying flesh left to rot for a couple of days, more rotter than any undead roaming the forest of Kelios.
Then there it was.
Saiga heard it.
Veryda too.
The monster's voice slithered through the air, twisted and dreadful, carrying decay with every word.
Black smoke coiled and hissed from its jaws as it spoke.
"Filthy mortals…" it rumbled, its words vibrating the very bones of Saiga, as if his whole being was trembling against its voice.
"You dare steal from Morgroth himself!?"
Its maw spread wide in a snarl,
*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!
before unleashing a roar so loud the ground shook beneath them.
Mist shredded entirely under the force of its roar, revealing its full, terrible form.
Scaled blackened with rot.
Horns jagged and curved like broken bones.
Flesh in places that was eaten away, revealing glistening sinew and parts glowing necrotic magic.
Its wings, vast and massive as every gust it made with each flap, carried spores and ash.
Veryda's eyes narrowed.
Her grip on her sabers tightened until her very knuckles whitened.
Her stance lowered into a poster of one who had seen these nightmares before.
A nightmare that belonged to species of creatures that ruled the entire world of Drakmyr, enslaving the entire mortal race.
"Dragon…" she said with clarity, her words laced with venom, dread, and anger.
Though, in this case, this dragon was not like any dragon.
But it is one of the corrupted servants of an Ash Sovereign—
An elder wyrm,
Morgroth,
Lord of decay and rot.