In dark place deep underground, a young man was bound by machines that restricted his movement. He had the look of someone who hadn't slept in a few days, which was true in itself, since he indeed hadn't been able to sleep for a while now.
This was because Henry, that is his name, was currently infected by the Nightmare Spell.
a/n: i wont be explaining what the nightmare spell is and other pointless stuff since everyone who is reading this knows what it is already.
The young man had brown hair of medium length that had a slight curl to it. He wasn't exactly handsome, but the unique shape of his face was pleasant to look at.
'I can't hold on any longer, this is my limit.'
And with that thought, Henry finally closed his eyes and slipped into a deep slumber.
Everything became black.
And then, in the darkness, a voice rang:
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your first trial.]
***
Henry dreamt of a very dark place.
It seemingly had no start and no end. The only thing that could be seen was the dark sand and a crescent moon in the sky that illuminated the surroundings.
Suddenly it was as if time started moving backwards, and hundreds of human skeletons in armor started rising out of the dark sand.
Then, these skeletons grew flesh and skin, thus morphing into humans, who rose and started killing each other in reverse.
Time slowed, stopped, and then resumed its usual pace.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your first trial.]
Suddenly, Henry found himself in the body of one of the people that were fighting on the black sand.
'Huh, so thi-'
Without even letting him think, a tall man in steel armor attacked Henry with his greatsword.
'Damn it!'
As Henry dodged, he evaluated his situation.
Although he had been trained and prepared for this moment, he still couldnt adjust to the situation straight away. A battle to the death is different from sparring, after all.
Henry noticed that he had a sword in right hand, and a round shield in his left hand. He was wearing the same steel armor as the man who had just attacked him.
'How kind of the spell to give me a shield. Especially since I never held one before in my life.'
Henry had trained with a double handed sword since a young age, so using a shield was awkward for him.
'Now is not the time for this.'
Ditching useless thoughts, Henry concentrated on the enemy in front of him.
Although the man wore steel armor, he swung like a novice. Which was all the better for Henry.
He ditched the shield, and waited for the tall man to attack him.
The man stared at the shield for a second, and then charged recklessly at Henry.
That's when Henry noticed that his something was wrong with his eyes. They shined with a bright a color of red.
'Weird'
Henry gracefully sidestepped the man in steel armor, and plunged his sword straight into his neck.
Blood spilled all over Henry's face.
'Not the first time this is happening'
[You have slain a dormant beast, Thrall of Zor]
As the corpse of the man fell to the ground, Henry took the sword out of his corpse.
Henry didn't waste any time and analyzed his surroundings.
All around him, soldiers in steel armor were battling to the death.
The closest bout to him was five meters away.
Two men with spears were battling to the death. Both of them wore the same steel armor and had the two same green cloaks.
'Something is wrong with these people. Evidently, someone is influencing them to kill each other, since they should be on the same side if we look at their armor. Must be that guy named Zor.'
Seeing that no one was rushing towards him, he recalled the teachings of his tutors and tried to summon the runes that he so wished to see.
And once he thought about the runes, they indeed appeared infront of him.
'Hmm, interesting'
-
Name: Henry
True Name: -
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: -
Echoes: -
Attributes: [Coolheaded], [Child of War], [Spark of Divinity]
Aspect: [Footsoldier]
Aspect description: [You are a footsoldier that serves a temple of the War God]
'...'
Without giving Henry time to think about his Aspect, a man suddenly attacked him from behind with a spear.
Narrowly dodging the attack, Henry counterattacked with his sword without wasting any time, throwing the attacker off of him.
Looking at the man who had just attacked him, it was clear that he wasn't in his right mind. His eyes were also glowing in a color of red.
Henry readied himself for a reckless attack, and sure enough, the man launched himself at Henry.
Using the same trick from before, he sidestepped the man and plunged his sword into the neck of the mad soldier, killing him.
[You have slain a dormant beast, Thrall of Zor]
'These people are not in the right state of mind. For a master of the sword like me, they aren't that much of a problem.'
Henry, being born into a Legacy Clan, was taught the way of the sword from a young age, and was a flawless swordsman by all accounts for his age.
Well, maybe not flawless.
Nothing could be flawless after all. Even the Gods.
'In order to pass the test of the Nightmare Spell, I must resolve the main conflict.'
Looking around, he couldn't see anything but crazed soldiers killing each other. There were about a hundred of them. Maybe more. The rest were corpses.
'I can start by clearing out this field'
Grabbing his sword, Henry looked for the nearest soldiers, and then dashed straight to them.
***
[You have slain a dormant beast, Thrall of Zor]
Henry stood over the last of the soldiers that he had just killed.
As soon as he took the sword out of the dead soldier's corpse, he collapsed on the dark sand.
'That should be it. It's over.'
Waiting for the announcement of the spell, he sat, sword in his hands, catching his breath at the same time.
'Why is it taking so long?'
As time passed and Henry waited for the Spell to tell him that he beat the Nightmare, it became clear the Henry, in fact, had not beaten the Nightmare yet.
'Ugh, why shouldn't the First Nightmare be easier than this? Do I really have to kill that entity that goes by 'Zor'?
As if answering his question, A very loud voice from above called to him:
"Well done, child, well done!"
Henry looked towards the sky and saw a crimson figure descending towards him.
It was a skeleton, with bones as white as snow. It wore nothing but a tathered red colored robe that covered its entire body except its hands and skull.
The skeleton slowly landed in front of Henry.
It looked like an ordinary flying skeleton in a robe, if that could be called normal.
Henry also noticed that there was a crimson gem on the forehead of the skeleton.
The skeleton, which was presumably Zor, stared at Henry for a while without speaking.
As Zor stared at Henry, the latter avoided eye contact and stared at an opposite direction.
He already had a plan. He just prayed that the skeleton wouldn't think that him looking upwards would give anything away.
'That thing has the feel of an Awakened Beast, is that thing, perhaps, a human? It sure talks like one.'
Finally, Zor decided break the silence.
"Ah, let me take a look at your face, I want to see the face of a victor."
As he said those words, he moved towards Henry, who still stood motionless like a statue.
"All of that sweet accumulated essence will be mine now, heh."
The skeleton went up to Henry, and right as he was about to notice that Henry wasn't enthralled like the soldiers by looking at his eyes, the young man thrusted the sword in his hands towards the skeletons skull.
Right into the center of the crimson gem, shattering it.
Zor, who had moved to react, but was a fraction of a second late, froze, and then fell on the black sand.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Essence Stealer Zor.]
[Wake up, Henry! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal...]
a/n: I am writing this story simply for fun, i wont actually try hard, so it might feel rushed/too fast paced and forced sometimes. also english isnt my frst language so dnt be too hard on the grammar