I lay here, submerged in a shallow pond of water, it had rained a few days back, but I had lost my desire for water, so it just stuck around.
Now that I can see clearly, as clear as my mind is cloudy, this hole is really strange. In all that time we had not frozen to death because of it keeping the heavier air above, and the lighter below, it even provided fresh air. This place had kept its conditions habitable. It got me thinking, which only happens when I'm lucid, which had been a long time. This hole couldn't have been made by the bandits.
I mean just look at it, intricate carvings, a deep enough hole to keep things inside. I am sure it was not made by them, but it makes me wonder, then who? And why? It couldn't be a trap. It feels more like a broken shelter, repurposed by the bandits. Come to think of it I haven't seen them in a while, just where could they have gone…
Sorry, I keep blanking out at the scent of human, my cannibal skill can now make me connect to their senses using the follow skill, by force this time, and slowly lead them to me. The strange part is that I wake up every morning, to this clean view. I have even come to appreciate this view from the bottom. Trust me, it's wonderful, way more alluring.
Each time I wake up, the morning sunshine showers me with praise for making it through yet another day. Now that I took the time to analyse the patterns, they looked so stunning. I have travelled across the world, or at least I think I did, and in all that time I had never once come across anything so mesmerising.
The way the lines flow, the way the light enters at midday, during the rainy times, all of it looked so entrancing. It was at times so hard to put into words. It had come to look renewed every time I saw it, as if I was starting the same day over again. I tell you this view looks to surreal, it's all just so… so… beau…
``` And this is how Argnus was born. ```
***
The monster that carries a package fused to its chest. He later went on and ate the walls; his teeth had gotten that strong. Chewing through jade was hard, but it melted like butter, the patterns themselves were even delectable, not the carvings, the power contained within. Soon after the patterns were destroyed, he escaped and began his descent on the world.
The immediate area was cleared of any people eventually it was named a danger zone K. That's when quests started pulling in adventurers across the lands, the whole thing was disturbing the trade routes. The disturbing part is that the adventurers themselves started disappearing.
At first, they had reported a monster that lulled people to it and consumed them, but now it was actively hunting. Villages were being wiped out. The people were used to monsters sometimes ignoring the strong pull of the dungeon and opting to attack people, but this was just strange, it was attracted to people by nature.
The term 'disappeared' was not used in vain; it was the most accurate way of describing the scenes left by the monster. They were clean, almost pristine, not a drop of blood in sight. It would have been classified as a spectre if not for the fact that it had been appraised at some point, it was not very good with hiding its tracks, more like it never bothered to, why would you not want to leave a trail for willing prey to follow?
Well, the monster was appraised to be at a low level, but the following week it butchered a party of level 100 adventurers, this is when the city started taking it seriously and sent the soldiers. The group sent had been wiped out.
This was not before some descriptive details came in. The monster had a humanoid figure, and had a square fitted in its chest, and by the looks of it, it was a package of sorts. The thing kept saying something in a distorted voice, which would screech something, warning of its presence, 'rwan.' That is why Fowour and his party were party were sent, they were going to handle this thing once and for all.
"I have been hearing about this thing the whole week, is it really as strong as people say it is?"
"Who cares? The city is going to pay us very, very generously if we can get it for them." Said Ferris, the red dragon kin. She was really more up for making values, and this job just happens to be it.
"Ferris is right, the big buck for a small-time monster? I say let them."
"My brother is right, just one of my chaos spells will do it in… I do have just the one, so please make sure it hits, I don't think I can do it twice." The siblings were Rasde, and Zasde.
These adventurers were known far and wide for their feats of bravery. Over the years they had been so demanded that hiring them had gotten quite pricey, but even this price tag put those ones to shame. Their leader is Fowour, a human tank. He has nice short black hair, brown eyes, and a very cautious for a tank.
Ferris was the red dragon kin, her whole back was red with scales, and fashioned holes for the folded vermillion wings in the clothes, and a complimentary tail to complete the look. Her hands could become claws, but mostly during battle. She was the one who had come to their town in look for an escort, they worked so well together they eventually formed an adventuring party. Rasde is a tall man with a set of twin silver blades with a pattern carving that allowed them to cut even ghosts/spirits.
He has deep black hair, indigo eyes, and is tall for a human. His sister is a six-element mage; she can learn spells in all the main elements and even combine them. She had cut her hair completely, so a purple layer of hair growths was all that remained. Her eyes are green, and she has the blood of a mage in her. This bunch are known as the Bright Stars.
They had been tracking the monster all week, now they were resting because they had come close enough and set camp out of striking distance. They were waiting for daylight, which was a few minutes away. They had discussed strategy, as soon as daybreak began, Ferris flew ahead to scout the situation from the skies. Then their tank went ahead, flanked by the siblings. Then they made it out of the forest, into a huge clearing at the centre. The tracks had vanished.
They had thought this would a trap, meaning that they would just have to use the plan set for this scenario. Ferris had another purpose, which was to warn of sneak attacks, and assist with her flames if needed. In the eventual case one of them does disappear like in the reports, she was going to have to report how does the monster simply make people vanish. A few hours into the day, and nothing. They were still on edge, since this could be its tactic, a waiting game.
They were about to retreat when Ferris spotted it. It had been hiding behind a tree; seems the soldiers had managed to injure it severely enough for it to start hiding from adventurers.
The shadows solidified and pulled it onto the tree, binding it, but it had vanished. Then it appeared in front of one of them and pushed its arm through Rasde, it was slow, yet they moved slower. It then continued to eat him; this was before even the drops of blood that had come from his chest could even hit the ground.
The clothes, the bones, the blades, all of it was gone, it had eaten him.
But the thing is that it did not make sense, they just stood there and watched. It was not fast, not that fast anyway. The key laid in them actually. All they had to do was… Then suddenly, Ferris's roar rang loudly in their ears.
It seems it puts people within its vicinity into an illusion. It had not been injured and by the tree, it had been walking in their fourth view. This meant that it had been standing next to them, and unless someone outside of the infected notice it, they will only see the illusion. Rasde was gone, but the illusion is not how he had died. Ferris was almost close, the thing happening was even more complex.
Once one is around it, all are hit by a trance, but the more they believe it the truer it is. If it added a large monster making those who see it think this is impossible, then it would cease to be. But if it added a tree in the middle of a forest, one would believe in this tree making it real, manifesting it physically as well. This is why it had always made sure to make its illusions fitting, make them believable.
This was helped by two other skills; one made it see what others saw, the follow skill, and the other made it feel just what makes the prey tick, a side-effect of cannibal skill. Then using these feeds, it would create a compelling scene, which would solidify once belief had turned into truth. It played on the human thought, that always assumed the worst, this made it more powerful than it was, because the more rumours the humans spread, the more fear they spread, and the more real these fears become.
It had eaten Rasde before the drops of blood hit the floor, because even though the scene was absurd, this was the amount of absurdity they had come to expect from this quest. This is why this monster keeps killing the beings stronger than it, because they thought that it was. Hunting at first had become hard but it survived, that was because the first batch was as weak as it.
The more of those they sent died, the more the next group feared. Expecting the worst from a situation was the worst way to face this particular foe, and that happened to be how adventurers come to face monsters. Ferris saw the whole thing, she was also affected by the time lag illusion, but then she looked far away.
Being at this heigh she could see far and wide, further than the area of effect, and searched she did, in hope that someone would be nearby. She had no hopes of finding a miracle, but she was hoping for anything to change the situation and she found it.
When she looked away, she noticed the birds were flying just right, she was the only one caught mid-flight and not flapping her wings. It was hard to not believe in an illusion that actually starts becoming real, after all, how was she going to explain her mid-flight floating. She was sure all was real, but the moment she thought this is all just unreal in the realistic way, not that she was thinking that any of it is really not real, she just started falling out of the sky.
She just concluded she had been stuck in an illusion, not knowing that the illusion could become real, but that was all she needed to escape its grasp. She roared off loudly, this sent the others into an alarmed state, so when they saw her moving the thought that what they were looking at was not real, crept into their minds, freeing them from their lag.
First, Fowour pushed forward, with the mallet in his hand, he struck the monster sending it back. Then once Ferris was close enough, she sent a whole breath of crimson flames to where the monster had been standing. Both of them were sure that it would make it out alive but not without taking some damage, so it did indeed get injured. The situation was getting out of hand though, so it made it appear as though it had vanished.
They were staring at the scorched spot, when suddenly in a whirlwind of maroon lighting, a massive ram had appeared. It charged at Fowour, who braced for a heavy hit, and then he was sent flying. It might be subtle, but it had an effect of making things look worse than they are, and by now that part of the illusion had solidified, to the point it had healed its wounds, and since they believed it to be true it was indeed restored, making them steel themselves for an even tougher battle.
They were still convinced of its power though; it did just eat Rasde clean through, leaving nothing behind, just the footprints of where he last stood. Zasde did not have a special relationship with her brother but watching him get eaten while she was powerless to do anything, riled her up.
With her rational out of the box, she was going to attempt the chaos spell that would spiral everything into the disaster it would one day become.