Darkness filled her space as its large legs descended upon her, coming in fast. She quickly rolled out of the way with her heart in her throat, still clutching her sides with her watery eyes that kept forming pearls are they rolled down her eyes.
The dress she was putting on had been torn in different places and had become dirty.
A wave of its palm and she was sent flying once again. Yes, her senses had come alive but it was no match for the Nightwalker. It's not like she had been expecting some formidable power-up that would make her knock out the creature with one punch.
All she could hope for was for the pearl to do something.
Valyrian Steel. That was what was written in the book. The weapon that can kill a Nightwalker.
Damn it, it wasn't Pearls.
She was doomed.
As she crashed on the harsh and hot ground and rolled, she thought of what next to do before it takes hold of her for the second time and tries to extract her essence. Aaliyah wasn't so sure she had the strength to loosen his grip, or if it'll allow her to do so for the second time.
Just then, another thunderous growl fell out of the monster's tongue with its head facing up. From the sound and looks, this did not sound like the other angry bellows it had raged out, instead, it sounded more of a scream of pain.
Intense pain.
That was when she saw its lower part dissolving into dust, rising and spreading all over its whole body. It kept telling and snarling in pain until its body was completely gone...and then two pearls fell to the ground.
Holy shit!
Aaliyah just laid there, constructing with pain. She had watched as the walker had turned into nothing, and now she was left with the pain. She couldn't even begin to count how lucky she was to have defeated that walker with just hope and two pearls.
Maybe those pearls were made of Valyrian Steel.
And slowly, she sunk into the depths of unconsciousness.
.
.
Opening her eyes, she prayed the nightmare would be over.
But, it was only the beginning.
The skies were still a void, and she was lying in the middle of the dark forest. She thought she was still in a daze, feeling so cold in such a hot environment till she actually woke up completely to see that it had become so cold, and she was shivering like a wet kitten.
The dress wasn't doing anything to help with the cold, and her Injury had bled so much it had finally stopped flowing and dried.
How much she would have loved to just stay in that position, but the cold would not let her. Her teeth chattered and grinded from the cold as she pushed herself up, and unbearable pain from her wound brought an even more agonizing feeling.
Crawling as fast as her body could carry her, she got to one of the trees with large leaves and plucked off some to cover herself, but they were too light to cover her up. Instead, she curled up into a ball under the tree, freezing and shivering from the cold winds that blew.
She wanted to cry. The tears were already forming in her eyes, but she thought they might freeze once they fell off. Alone, she glanced around, recalling how she had suffered at the hands of the Nightwalker. It's only been a miracle that she had managed to defeat such a monster.
As time passed, and the silence reigned heavily... Aaliyah knew she couldn't continue sitting there. If she wanted to survive, she would have to walk around and try to find a way out of this... haunting forest or hope she comes across something to protect her from the cold.
Forcing herself to her feet, she staggered as walked forth, rubbing her shoulders frequently. Her skin had turned pale, and her sight was not as good as before. Plus, she was having a terrible headache.
"Yuan...," She cracked out weakly, looking around. Her heart was breaking with every passing second, and she was so afraid she was gonna fall and that would be the end of her story.
No! She was just beginning to write her story. It can't end like this. At least, not in this gruesome manner.
"Alastair...," She cried, but it came out as a choked whisper. Her voice was almost gone, and her strength was depleting very fast.
Not to mention, but the recurrent and spontaneous shuffling that she could hear coming from around her. Something had been following her, and she knew all this while but her scare had already gotten to a height that she couldn't get even more scared than she already was.
But had she accepted her fate? No.
"Who's there?!" She voiced out, breathing hard.
Somewhere in her mind, she was wishing Yuan would be the one to step out with that beautiful smile on her face and run up to hug her. But she knew that would only happen in her dreams.
The trees shook again, and Aaliyah kept glancing around for any sign of where it was going to come out.
Again, nothing could have prepared for what popped out next right in front of her.
It stepped out from behind a tree, about ten feet away from her, and Aaliyah was convinced for a second that she might just actually be hallucinating this one for real.
In the face of so much cold, her insides boiled with so much fear that sweat literally rolled down her back, and she instantly regretted why she had called it out in the first place. Why didn't she just keep on walking since it didn't attack her?
But then again, from the look on its face, it was going to attack sooner or later.
It was a Skeleton. A walking Skeleton holding a sword, and had a set of teeth that could tear down a house.
The Undead.
It stared right into her eyes with its... empty large sockets and made a screeching noise with its teeth, so loud it got her disoriented for a moment. It sounded as if steel was gnashing against steel at an insane speed, and she just had to cover her ears before her eardrums burst.
As it continued to make noise, More skeletons began to step off where they had been hiding themselves. Some were even running around, exchanging positions and they were running so fast it looked like they were one with the wind.There were so many, about a hundred and more.
She had been surrounded, and her heart had gone Into a frenzy.
As if on cue, they suddenly came for her with swords in the air.
All...at once.