The five jagged tears in the sky pulsed with a sickening, violent crimson glow. Down below, the air instantly grew thick and suffocating, reeking of sulfur, rot, that made the skin crawl.
From the yawning depths of the rifts, figures began to emerge.
They were not the mindless, bone-armored beasts the students had just fought.
These were tall, terrifying silhouettes clad in jagged obsidian armor, their skin pale as ash or deep as twilight.
Cruel, curved horns sprouted from their foreheads, and their burning crimson eyes glinted with a cold, sadistic intelligence. In their hands, they held weapons wrapped in dark, cackling flames.
Silence fell over the Rainwood encampment for one horrifying second.
"What... what are those?" a fourth-year student stammered, his sword trembling violently in his grip. "Horns? Obsidian armor?"
