The chill on this windy night seemed to permeate through the bodies of the soldiers that had been moving quietly through the forest. However these men moved with expressionless faces. They clenched their teeth, refusing to allow a single unnecessary noise to be released from themselves.
They were an elite vanguard unit that was sent to take over the villages and towns around cities, so as to cut off any chance of the defenders being able to send for help. This tactic had proven capable time and time again, so even though the soldiers felt a sense of unease, their pace never faltered.
The captain listened to the scouts whispered report.
"Captain, past the small valley is the first village. After that, there are three more villages, totalling no more than a thousand people. The town is directly in the centre, but they have a local force of fifty soldiers".
The captain wasn't surprised, these towns usually had a force made up of some strong villagers, and a few servants of wealthy families. They had little coordination and no combat experience. He had completed tasks like this more times than he could count.
His unit was a hundred strong, all had fought in battle, and survived. Against unarmed civilians, and poorly armed rabble, there could be little resistance. There was just an unceasing feeling of danger that never left him. The scouts he sent were amongst his most trusted, they had watched the town and the villages, finding nothing suspicious, so even against his better judgement, he continued on.
A shadow watched as the soldiers moved uniformly towards the valley, her eyes reflected by the moonlight were full of cruelty and madness. A distorted smile revealing her sharpened teeth, adorned her blood covered face. In just a moment, she flashed and disappeared towards the valley.
The soldiers reached the valley, their senses were heightened to the maximum. A fog had, at some point condensed in the valley, blocking the sight of the path ahead. The soldiers were beginning to become anxious. They felt something was off, but out of trust in their comrades, they pushed forward. The last soldiers entered the fog, as if an abyss had opened its mouth and swallowed them all.
The captain ordered them into two lines, putting their right hands on the shoulders of the soldier in front of them, they continued on without sight, while the scouts led them carefully through the path they had memorised.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a rotten smell appeared. The soldiers had all fought in battle, and the lives in their hands were countless. They knew this was the stench of rotting blood. All at once their vigilance rose to the peak. Weapons were drawn and a defensive formation was enacted. However, their sight was still cut off by the fog.
Soon the smell became stronger, as if it was surrounding them. The hearts of the soldiers were racing, but their formation remained steady. They had faced death many times together, and their tacit understanding was impeccable. At least that's what they thought, before a piercing scream came from one of the soldiers. He didn't even see how it happened, and before he knew it, his arm had been torn completely off.
The soldiers around him asked him what was wrong, and he roared out in horror.
"MY ARM!! MY ARM'S GONE!"
The soldiers around heard this and felt a chill run through their spines, but whatever was hiding in the fog, gave them no chance to regain their composure. Painful cries and horrified shrieks were emitted from the small valley one after another. The sound of bones snapping and flesh being gnawed continued even after the screams of the soldiers had ceased echoing through the valley to the village right behind it.
The villagers had been awoken by the screams, but not a single one even got out of bed to check the situation. They stayed as still as a statue, shortening their breaths as much as they possibly could. The smell of decay wafted into their noses, bringing them unending fear.
On the dilapidated dirt road, with all the surrounding houses darkened, as if they were empty. A solitary figure in tattered armour passed through leisurely. A soft and feminine humming came from the figures mouth. The woman's features couldn't be seen, the area around her was shrouded in darkness, as if even the moonlight was too scared to shine any light on the desolate figure.
As she walked, her humming turned more and more cynical. The soft voice at the start seemed to be filled with pain and despair, by the end it was nothing more than shrieking, full of unwillingness and hatred.
The villagers were weeping as quietly as they could. They knew who the woman was, she had come through this way many times, and were no strangers to her actions. They knew she was a Lunatic, but her strength was completely inhuman, so no one ever dared to even breathe loudly in her presence.
When day broke, and the sun swept over the village. The men and women moved with dull faces. Gathering the supplies needed for what they had done before. The men took shovels and hoes, placing them onto the back of their ox driven carts, and proceeded towards the valley behind the village.
The sight that appeared in front of them was more gruesome than anytime before. The soldiers of Entriss, which bordered them, lay in pieces. Their limbs and organs strewn about. The men couldn't hold back their retching. They quickly calmed themselves down and went to work. They took what could be sold and sent it back to be cleaned by the women, the corpses would be buried by them. When they saw the clear bite marks in the flesh of some of the corpses, they didn't even change their faces, they just hoped that she didn't turn her anger onto them. After they had finished cleaning the valley, they buried the corpses in a place where the villages had chosen to do so before. It was further away from the village than the valley, they didn't want the bad luck from all these resentful corpses to spread to them.