"have you seen any beasts?" a female, carrying a priest staff asked "no I can't even feel any beasts within our proximity at all..." replied another girl holding a mage staff, a boy holding a bow approaches them and sadly shook his head, the girl holding the staff frowns "did the chief make a mistake on saying that there will be abundant beasts today?" she wondered as she walked slowly "but Mari.. Clieve heard it himself" said the girl holding the priest staff to Mari while pointing to the Clieve. "Yes yes I really did... I even knew that this will be the best spot of the hunt" Clieve responded, the three walked farther away from the 'best spot' without talking, Mari was the lead.
As they kept on walking the sky suddenly grew dark. "I think it's about to rain.. let's make camp for a while and--" Mari stopped talking and gripped her staff and prepared a fire spell, there was a rustle from the bushes just now. "Ophelia, Clieve prepare yourselves, I can't sense this beasts level.. it must be stronger than us" Mari stated in a whispering tone.
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Shocked that her colleagues didn't reply to her order she looked behind her, no one was there. No Ophelia, no Clieve, not even a trace of their staff and bow. Confused of what she just saw another rustle came from the bushes, this time, it was louder. Mari listened closely and shot her fireball to the exact Bush that made the rustling sound. "Ophelia? Clieve?" Mari shouted, still alert and inspecting her surroundings. A horrible pungent stench wafted in the air, disgusted by the stench Mari placed her left hand to her nose and mouth covering it. "!!! whose there?!" she shouted after hearing another rustle, a silhouette of a man dropped from the trees, Mari examined it closer, the body was rotting, the skin purple and black in color, no blood went out of it but instead a horrible smelling black goo. Mari almost gagged off her intestines after seeing the man's face and what he was holding. He was holding a bow on his left hand, and his intestines on the right. "C...Clieve?..." Mari couldn't believe here eyes, the man is undoubtedly Clieve, but how did he die like this? Level 1 hunting grounds are labelled safe for any classes because it doesn't have strong enemies and the highest labelled beast only reach up to level 15, Clieve was a great archer already and he was able to kill some of those level 15 beasts before, how did he die like this.
Trembling with fear, another rustle could be heard, it was surrounding Mari already. Mari couldn't bear it anymore, she was about to call for help by sending a flare spell up to the sky, however as she looked up, she was struck with great fear.
Hanging by the trees branches, were different hunters, dead and rotting. Mari opened her mouth almost ready to scream, but there was no voice, trembling more and more she felt a strong spiritual aura behind her.
A black foggy smoke reaches up to her, slowly engulfing her, she couldn't move, she couldn't scream. As she was fully enveloped with the fog, the light from the sky slowly returned, the rustles from the trees stopped. The three was never found again, not even a trace, other than their footprints in the soil that abruptly stopped in the middle of the dirt path. The forest was silent once again.
Back at where Rululan and Mymyrr was, the forest was as silent as before, carefully walking forward, Mymyrr already holding his daggers was more alert than before, Rululan also looked and listened coloser to their surroundings. None dared to talk. The two kept on walking, alert and observant on their surroundings, they unkowingly entered the dirt path where Mari and her colleagues were killed. Rululan held out his left arm, stopping Mymyrr from his tracks, he was about to ask why they stopped when Rululan clearly placed his index finger against his lips telling to not to speak or make a noise. Seeing the seriousness on Rululan's face Mymyrr nodded and they proceeded to walk backwards, back to safety. After 20 steps backwards, Rululan quickly grabbed Mymyrr's wrist and dashed away from the path.
"What did you sense there? I didnt feel anything at all" Mymyrr spoke as he huffed while running alongside Rululan. "I didn't feel anything either" he replied, they finally stopped running and Mymyrr sat down the grass "then... why did you-" he got cut off because he needed to breathe in alot after running fast, Rululan sat beside him huffing as well "that's the point, all along the paths we took there's always a low spiritual aura wandering around, because this forest is only a level 1 hunting ground people don't usually mind the low spiritual aura that's always around the place. As we entered that dirt path, I suddenly never felt any of those spiritual aura. So I automatically thought that there was something warding off the forest's spiritual energy" after hearing Rululans explanation, Mymyrr's eyes widened in disbelief "you mean..." Rululan nodded grimly "everyone in this word knows that there's no other creature that's able to ward away a natural spiritual energy other than demons..." Both were speechless, their minds revolving around the thought of how a demon showed up in a hunting ground like this and why. "I dont understand this at all..." Mymyrr sighed and continued "Just a while earlier everything was doing fine, a lot of beasts were showing up and we caught a lot of them, it was even better since all of them are either radiant type beasts or faerie types" After hearing what Mymyrr just said, Rululan held on his capture pouch and stared directly at Mymyrr. Both were suddenly enlightened. "This forest is abundant with normal class beasts yet we kept on catching rare ones like radiants and faeries, this isn't normal at all..." Rululan sighed almost a whisper "let's get out of here first" Mymyrr suggested, Rululan nodded and they silently yet swiftly made their way back to the entrance finally escaping the unkown demon resting within the forest.
As they were nearing the entrance, heavy smoke welcomed them, it was black with shades of gray and upon closer look of the source its color changes to Orange. The two boys stood still, mouth gaping due to stock while their minds still processing what just happened. "f-f-fire!" Rululan shouted, woken from the daze, Mymyrr hurriedly ran towards the town with Rululan tailing him behind when a man taller and bigger than them blocked their way, Mymyrr quickly recognized the figure, it was a General from the main City of Elfied, Rendure.
The man stood there, staring at the two boys that only reached his chest. Without giving them a time to speak or explain anything he whistled and quickly took Rululan and Mymyrr to his arms, a huge Griffin came to them and he mounted it then flee away from the scene still holding the two boys. "Let go of us! my town is burning!" Rululan shouted with anger on his voice as he tried to escape form the man's grasp "If I let go of you right now you'd be dead when you hit the ground" the man said in a stern and cold voice, Rululan was still struggling and Mymyrr was too shocked of the turn of events that he was still dazed.
From the air, the destruction was clear as day, the whole town was burning to the ground, there was no way it could be saved anymore. As they continued to fly away from the small town with tears in his eyes Rululan noticed something in the middle of the forest. A huge dark fog enveloped the trees, as if a hole in the middle of a map, it was wide enough to be seen from high up in the air, and as Rululan wiped away his tears he saw a glimpse of a terrible being. A huge horned demon with wings as big as the Griffin that they were currently riding. Rululan wasn't able to speak to the man about what he saw, his throat was hoarse and his mouth was trembling, of all the year's he had lived, he never thought of his small quiet town to burn down to ashes in just a blink of an eye. The peaceful town of Maldore was no more.