My sense of unease grew stronger with every second that passed, it felt like the darkness was closing on me trying to devour me. The enchantments shone bright as much as it could dispelling some of my fears.
The forest was an abyss devoid of any sound, the silence only disturbed by the sound of my raging heartbeat. The sense of something ominous watching me only grew stronger and stronger.
With their twisted branches resembling skeletal fingers reaching out to grab, the trees, enveloped in an ethereal mist, appeared to hunch closer. I didn't know why I was being so paranoid and afraid, it was an abnormal situation to me.
There was nothing to threaten me as long as the barrier stood but it felt like something was forcing fear in me, trying to break my mind and harm me.
The fear inside me only grew, I was breathing in shallow gasps. The oppressive silence was like someone was enclosing me in a dark room filled with ominous and dangerous creatures.
A beam of light suddenly cut through the inky darkness, and the world felt like it had come to a stop. The forest which had become a habit of mine now became a menacing labyrinth which was trying to cage me.
With every crunch of a twig, every rustle of leaves, a shiver ran down my spine making me aware that something was coming towards me, my saving grace was that I knew it couldn't harm me.
Then out of the shadows came two eyes. These eyes belonged to a creature of the night, not to a human. Like two burning coals in the dark, they radiated an unsettling, alien light. They seemed to pierce through the darkness, demanding attention because they were so large—almost unnaturally so.
The creature let out a low growl, sending a chilling sound through the night wind. I felt as though their bright eyes locked onto mine, imprisoning me. I suddenly understood what was happening and the reason for my unnatural fear.
I controlled my breath and looked away from the monster, the fear started to subside as I broke eye contact with the monster called Shadowfiend.
Monsters are generally creatures or animals who are infected by the miasma generated from the dark continent and mutate. There are many different kinds of monsters but this type of monster called Shadowfiend has the ability to bring despair and fear upon anyone in their presence and its effect highlights on people who look towards it.
They generally live in packs and most of them are 1st Star and the leader of the pack is 2 Star. They might not look dangerous to a 4th star Enchanter like me but these monsters usually live in 1000s with their comrade.
Even a strong person who has combat ability at 4th star might die not to mention me someone who has specialised in the support abilities like enchantment.
The creature took a step forward, I assumed it was the leader of its pack due to its humongous size compared to a normal Shadowfiend, it was probably hunting for prey as the leader of the pack like this likes to hunt separately.
It looked at me from across the barrier with a predatory look in its eyes, even though I knew it was because of its ability I felt fear but the fear still kept crawling on my skin after I again started to look at it.
For an instant, I thought I saw a small, inconsequential reflection of myself in those glowing orbs, dwarfed by the predatory nature of the creature.
I felt it enjoyed watching me drown in fear, the cold eyes of it felt like he was looking at a clown in a circus. I was surprised by my imagination, so surprised that the fear subsided a little for the moment.
There was no way a 2nd star Shadowfiend would have such intelligence, it was a preposterous assumption due to the fear in me caused by its ability.
Even though I knew it was a delusion of mine, I still glared at it and locked eye contact with it ignoring the chills creeping on my body. I had to tell it that humans are not afraid of the creatures lurking in the dark continent even though I knew it wouldn't understand anything I still did it.
For a moment I felt like the beast was chuckling at my intention but it was impossible for that to happen, I had to keep my delusions in control they were getting out of hand.
I looked away from it and started to check everything was fine with the enchantments. I subsided the doubts about the beast as it was impossible for a Shadowfiend to grow beyond a 2nd star.
The academy had taught us to keep every assumption in mind but those assumptions should be made with ground reality and if by chance a miracle happened and a shadow fiend beyond 2nd star appeared the barrier would still block it.
I started to back away as I had checked and made sure the enchantment was working properly while avoiding looking behind the fence. I reached my home after some time and started to sigh while drinking tea.
It was not of good quality and taste but I didn't have any other choice as I couldn't get anything better than this and the tea leaves I had brought with me from the capital had long ago been consumed.
The encounter with that beast had made many bad memories of mine resurface, there was a reason people told me never to look at a shadow fiend, it crawled into my heart and amplified all negative emotions by its ability. irrespective of its low rank its ability was very strong.
I thought about my family and started to feel sad, I still hated them-I hated how he betrayed me- his own brother but after so long I started to miss them even though I shouldn't. I wanted to remove them- throw them away but they were just like a stain that never goes away.