It was early in the afternoon.
Life in the forest was the most active during with most predetors hunting for prey during this time of the day.
Three people were making thair way through this deadly forest.
One who was blessed by the many elements of the worlds Cain Lynn.
One who was cursed to the core by the eternal darkness Erisha Lynn.
And the last who was leading them a veteran of the hundred year war with the demons Luthor Dawn.
They started their journey in the morning.
The tension between them could be cut with a knife.
The elfs only spoke to eachother and avoided adressing the man who was leading them.
They got off on a bad start to say the least since they have tried to kill eachother.
Suddenly Dawn raised one of his fists signaling to stop.
He then closed his eyes and relaxed his body.
Then suddenly he stomped on to the snowy ground sending shock waves through out the earth.
In the beginning humanity mainly developed technology since magic was scarce until the arrival of the demons.
Even during the uprising of magic every soldier was required to undergo surgery to enhace their bodies.
It was in the later sections of the war where these type of enhencments were considered outdated.
The type of surgery you underwent depended heavily on what unit you served in and what your role was.
Dawn when he finished his traning and was promoted to a full fledged soldier was first appointed as a scout in his unit.
Thus in Dawn's case his ears have been drasticly enhanced to the point that they functioned like those of bats, allowing him to adjust his hearing capabilities.
Soon Dawn found what he was looking for.
It was a munching sound produced by a pack of mutated foxes with mouths that opens four ways
Dawn heard as bones were crushed and flesh was torn.
"Just what the hell are you doing again?" Asked Cain in an annoyed tone.
"Making sure we do not have an encounter with a beast."
The child raised an eyebrow at his answear.
"Why? With your power surely you can handle them."
Dawn then turned back and looked at him.
Then out of nowhere he threw his axe towards the elf.
The elf could barely dodge it and fell to the ground.
"What are you nuts?!" Cain exlaimed in suprise.
Erisha was also troubled by Dawn's action as she glared at him ready to pull out her runed sword at any moment.
However they soon heard a faint screech behind Cain.
When he and Erisha looked back they saw a spider the size of their heads, dead and stuck to a tree by Dawn's axe.
"To answear your question. There are many creatures in this forest. Not all of them are big bad monsters who hunt in plain sight. There are those like the spider over there who wait for the perfect oppertunity to strike." Said Dawn as he bagan to walk towards his axe.
When he got there he removed the axe from the spiders corpse and with a thud it fell to the ground with green blood spewing out of the wound.
Dawn started wiping the green blood off his axe and continued.
"If we stop and fight every monster we see we will get tired at some point and when that happenes we might fall prey to something like that." Dawn said as he kicked the corpse away.
Cain then looked at the spiders corpse and began imagining what that could have done to him and he got goosebumps.
"If you think that is horrofying then know that spider was only a freshly hected child who was on their first hunt. If you do not want to meet the mother then I suggest you stop complaining and follow me."
Hearing this the two elfs swallowed loudly as they bagan following Dawn without asking questions.
As they walked there were times when they came across beasts not even Dawn could hear.
In those times they needed to fight side by side.
One of those time was when a mutated wolf pack was trailing them.
Dawn knew of this variant.
He encountered them a few times.
They could change their fur color making them blend in to the surroundings and hold their breaths for almost half an hour to silently approach their prey.
The one who noticed them was the cursed woman Erisha.
While they were resting she noticed them due to her unique eyes.
Because of her curse her eyes fell out of their sockets and new void like ones replaced them.
She sees everything in black with white outlines as she put it.
With the discovery of the elf Dawn knew the wolfs would just follow them until nightfall and strike when they least excpected it.
So how do you deal with them?
Dawn found a simple solution.
"Can you tell me where they are hiding?"
The elf then pointed south.
"About 50 meters from us." Said the elf.
Dawn then walked up to Cain and asked.
"How much can you control your fire?"
Cain then puffed up his chest and answeared arrogantly.
"I have complete control over all fires created by me!"
"Good and how much do you like being in the air?"
The elf was confused and found the question strange, but answeared regardless.
"Not really."
Dawn then put a hand on his right shoulder.
"Unfortunate"
The elf was starting to get nervious for some reason and rightly so because in the next moment he was in the air shooting his fire everywhere.
Turns out Dawn's plan was simply to throw him in the wolf's direction and trap them using fire while Erisha kills them when they panic.
"YOU BASTARD I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS RAAGH! REALISE ME SISTER I WILL SLICE HIM UP WITH MY WIND!" Said Cain as he was held back by his sister.
Dawn not even batting an eye to the angry child continued to walk forward.
"Can you belive him? He dosent even apologize."
They were traveling west in the direction of the first city they needed to get through Cladia.
Night finally came and the group decided to rest by campfire.
Dawn laid on the ground using his bag as a pillow.
"Huh, I thought you hated this kind of magic since you were so judgemental of my sister. But I see you are wuite fond of it now." Said the young elf in a spiteful tone.
Dawn didn't answear.
They were now in a bubble of darkness.
Dawn suggested this idea since using this they can make a campfire and not worry about the monsters lurking in the night.
In truth Dawn didn't mean what he said when they first met.
It was a simple tactic to lure them out or make them make a sound.
Dawn knew what it was like to be judged and felt sorry when he saw Erisha's tears trailing down on her brown face.
Hovewer it was too late to apologize now and to put it frankly he did not say a single lie.
"I regret nothing." Said Dawn
Now both of the elfs looked at the laying Dawn.
Cains face distorted in disgust.
"The audacity of this lowely hum-
But before he could finish Dawn cut in.
"However if what you said is true that you maintained your sanity it is honestly unbeliveble. We humans have experimented with the Abyss many times, but they always turned out to be disasters."
Hearing this Erisha felt an unpleasent memory try to enter her mind.
But soon she pushed it away trying to focuse on what Dawn was saying.
"The final experiment created monsters so horrible that it cost us thousends of lives to put an end to them. And thus the late first emperor made a law supported by all. The law states that everything related to the Abyss must be destroyed and those who meddle with it killed on sight." Said Dawn
Worry slowely started making it's way to Cain's face as he looked at his sister.
However Erisha's face was still the same.
No doubt she was also worried, but she didn't want to show it on her face.
And that only made his brother worry more.
Instead she focused on the present, how she and her brother are lucky to be alive.
"If we keep up the speed we can get out of this forest in about 3-4 days." Said Dawn
Dawn then glanced at Cain from the corner of his eye and sighed.
The boy had a troubled look on his face. No doubt behind all that arrogance and pride he was still a child.
"Rest for now. I will be the first to stay on watch. We will change in 2 hour shifts." Dawn said as he got up.
The elfs at first were reluctant to sleep, but once they closed their eyes they instantly fell asleep.
Dawn sighed and pulled out the bottle he stole from the bald man.
As Dawn began to drink in another location at another side of the foresf a village burned.
Screams of pain and agony flew in the air as people were mercilesly killed or burned alive by men in dark robes.
The old and sick were killed, while the young and healthy were put on to carrigies being sent somewhere unknown.
Those who opposed were tortured and killed aswell.
One of the men knelt infront of another as he began his report.
"My deepest apology sir, but we couldn't find the promised sacrefices!"
The man was sweating heavily with fear in his eyes.
No doubt he feared for his life.
The one who appeared to be the leader was of smaller build yet he gave off an unsettalingly dark aura.
Strangely he was quite short.
His hight was the same as the kneeling man.
He looked dissapointed and bit his mouth in anger.
As blood slowely dripped from his mouth he asked the one who knelt in before him.
"What of the bald one?"
The subordinate quickly continued.
"We found him and several others buried near a nearby cave! The bodies were well burried and they were hard to find, but using the locater we placed on the bald one we found them!"
Upon hearing this the leader's mood lightened up.
"Excelent, bring their coprses to me."
The subordinate nodded and quickly signaled to another to bring the mutilated bodies.
Once they were all lined up on the ground the leader stepped in front of them.
Then suddenly the blood from his mouth darted in the direction of the corpses each having their hearts pierced by blood.
Then blood red fog started coming out of the corpses as they started recovering their missing limbs and heads.
Once it was done simultaneously all of them opened their eyes and slowely started getting up to the horror of the villigers nearby.
Their eyes no longer contained life and were pure white with emotionless faces.
Once they rose up they dropped down to one knee and asked in union.
"What is thy bidding, my master?"
The leader then pulled back his cowl letting the world see his white skin and hair paird with blood red eyes that were like rubyes.
He wore a wicked smile showing his 2 fangs and theeth for all to see.
"Why don't you start by telling me what happened after you went to the cave you died in?"