Sylvia Talgan's POV.
Rumble.
Rumble.
"An earthquake? In a dungeon? What is going on now?" I grumbled as I steadied myself.
Once the rumbling stopped, I let out a deep sigh. A part of me hoped the fog would lessen, even if just a little. But as I continued to go deeper into the forest, the fog became denser to the point I could no longer see anything in front of me. Even waving my hand directly in front of my face just disrupted the fog. Couple that with the darkness and the forest overhead, if I didn't blast the fog away with a large amount of blood to see the stone in the ceiling, I wouldn't know where I was going.
And I often—
Damn.
I bit my lip in frustration as I gripped the cold soil to push myself back up. I lost count of how many times I had tripped over something: a bush, a root, or a stupid rock. I could feel the dirt in my hair and clothes, and I imagined I looked like some kind of wild woman stuck in the jungle. I wanted to curse, but I didn't dare make any noise.
So far, whether I was lucky or the little noise I tried to avoid making was saving me, I hadn't run into any more of those creatures yet, which was also worrisome. Did that mean I was going the wrong way? Or was the fog meant to be a trial in and of itself? There was a chance I wasn't even going the right way, as the center might not even be the key.
I had a lot of thoughts; that maybe I should go and try to find Kaladin and his group instead of chasing something that may not even exist. But the truth was I had no idea where he was, and I had no way of finding him in this fog unless he started to bleed. And if he were lying asleep somewhere, it would all be useless.
I just had to trust him and hope that he would be okay because I can't rush off into the unknown when I have these two to protect so I—huh?
I stopped as the fog in front of me wavered slightly. It was still as thick as it was before, but there was a noticeable difference. I reached out with my hand and waved away the fog, but it felt….thicker, I suppose, was an apt way to describe it. I stepped into it, and for the first time in hours, my vision cleared.
Behind my back was a looming fog wall and a large clearing in the shape of a circle, whereas another fog wall was set up in what seemed to be an even smaller circle. The grass was devoid of trees or shrubs and trimmed unnaturally as if someone was taking their time to maintain it.
I brought the others along and waited to see if anything would happen. But the dungeon was eerily silent—that was until something moved in the fog wall.
I took my sword out from my ring and waited as the figure took a vaguely familiar shape. I tilted my head and squinted my eyes as I called out to the figure, "Kaladin?"
However, no response came.
The figure walked out, and it did indeed look exactly like Kaladin. He wore the same black armor, cape, long black hair, and even his weapon. And for some reason, he had a wooden mask on his face. But that wasn't all. There was just something off about him.
He sprinted toward me, and I frowned as I dodged backward from his spear thrust. He came at me with a flurry of stabs, but I easily avoided them. I knocked one of his thrusts to the side and raised an eyebrow. His strike felt so…lackluster. I continued to dodge the attacks for a while until I finally took one large leap back.
What is this? This can't be Kaladin. It's not fighting like him at all. It lacks his aggressiveness, speed, strength, and even magic.
There was also something else off about it all. I closed my eyes and listened carefully as I dodged its attacks, and even the noises it made confused me. It didn't have the heavy footsteps of armor or the heft of his spear. It was weak, almost pathetic.
It's like a poor imitation—imitation, huh?
I was worried that maybe the fog had taken control of Kaladin somehow, as it was clear the dungeon knew what he looked like, and visually speaking, outside of the mask, it was a near-perfect recreation. But whatever had copied him couldn't use even his most basic abilities. If it were Kaladin facing me to kill me, he wouldn't even entertain the idea of getting close. He would stay far away and blast me with magic until I couldn't fight.
At least that's what I imagined he would do…not that I ever plan to find that out.
I bit down, slicing my finger open, and let the blood drip down my blade. There was a chance that it at least had Kaladin's memories of me, so if I was going to end it in a single move, I had better do something Kaladin had never seen before. When the figure came at me, I swung my blade early.
It must have thought it was out of range, as it didn't even bother to dodge. But my blood came off my blade like a scythe and cut straight through the creature. It dissipated into fog, and the wooden mask fell to the ground along with some drift wood and a rusty old spear.
"What a waste of time…was this just meant to get in my head? Who would fall for such a meager trick that took me a few seconds to see through?" I grumbled.
The circular fog wall at the center faded away, and I sighed deeply. Another Kaladin clone was waiting for me.
Should I just blast it away? I—wait, what if that's the trick?
What if it lures me into a sense of annoyance and complacency, then actually sends Kaladin out, and I end up hurting him in a rush? Or what if its goal was just to tire me out?
"Well…whatever. I'm a little tired but have plenty of stamina to fight these things for hours," I groaned.
I closed the distance on the second one and prepared to block its thrust. But my eyes went wide as my hands went up, and my arms shook from the impact. I scrambled to block the spear that was nearly at my face and just barely managed to block it with the flat of my blade.
This clone was moving far faster, its movements sharp, and it had a far greater heft behind its blows than the previous one. It came at me like a wild animal, and I met its spear with my sword and, with a free hand, willed my blood into a spike that impaled it through the chest. I steadied my breath as it dissipated into mist, and the mask and spear fell to the ground again with a quiet thud.
The fog wall disappeared again and standing in the clearing was another clone of Kaladin. I gritted my teeth, and instead of playing its games, I decided to attack from range. Blood formed around me into lances, which I launched at the creature, but it dodged the strikes with tremendous speeds.
It was moving so fast that it looked like it was gliding across the ground rather than running. None of my blood spears even got close to making a solid hit. I launched another volley and sprinted toward where it was moving to intercept it. The creature brought its spear up to block, but the sheer power of my strike split the spear apart along with the mask.
I glared as the fog wall disappeared, ready for the next one, but to my surprise, there were now two of the clones. Instantly, the two of them separated as one came straight toward me, and the other took a long path around.
The first one met me in what felt like a few steps, but instead of clashing with my blade, a wall of blood swallowed its spear whole, destroying the creature as it held it. The second one wasn't targeting me but rather the blood sphere still holding Cerila and Kaladin's mother. I smiled to myself, as I had been so focused I almost forgot about them.
Another spear shot out from the glob of blood and impaled the monster as I ran over to it. Without the fog knocking them out now, I could wake them up and get their help. I let Cerila's arm flop out of their sphere and bit into her as the fog wall came down behind me. I had already purged her once of the fog, but regardless, I made sure nothing was wrong before I tried to wake her up.
But there was no reaction, no matter what I did.
I stimulated her muscles, even caused her a minor amount of pain, and then even tried to affect her brain. But regardless of what I did, she was still in a deep sleep.
What the—if it isn't physical…then is it magical? But what could induce sleep when she hasn't been exposed to the fog for hours? I can't find anything wrong with her.
I let out a long groan as I forced Cerila's arm to be sucked back into the protective sphere and looked over at the new enemies. The same two Kaladin clones were present but there was now a third, different yet familiar one. It had the same armor and spear as Ms.Taurus did, but there was something different about her clone. Its wooden mask was white, and its hollow eyes had a faint orange glow.
Her clone pointed her spear, and the two Kaladin clones sprinted toward me in an irregular pattern. I cut my arm and let blood flow out into a wave, and swept it over the two clones. They jumped in the air but were helpless when the spikes suddenly jutted out and impaled them. I let the wave roll toward Ms.Taurus's clone, but it did something I hadn't expected.
It jumped backward into the fog wall at its back. The fog wall came down, and she joined another group of four Kaladin clones and another clone of Ms. Taurus. I grit my teeth in frustration. There seemed to be no end of these things, and I had no idea how many layers of fog were waiting for me.
Five of the six clones came at me from different angles. I flowed my blood into one direction and swept around two of the Kaladin clones in a flash. The clone of Ms. Taurus was moving at twice the speed of Kaladin's, its feet not even moving as it glided across the ground.
I sent a barrage of blood spears at her, but she used her spear to deflect them instead of dodging them. With the blood splattering, I reformed it into tendrils that tried to grab at her. That time, she dodged back, and with a swing of my sword, I cut one of the Kaladin clones in half. The second one thrust its spear at my exposed side, but blood snaked off the blade of my sword and put a stop to it, crushing its mask and head into a mist.
I swept around and blocked the spear of the Ms. Taurus clone and saw that it was trying to retreat. But it only managed to back away into a pool of my blood that impaled it into the air.
They were learning at a rapid pace, their techniques and strategies changing every time. If I continued as I was, I might be overwhelmed and play right into whatever controls everything. I returned the blood and formed it into a ball at my side. I was going to have to try a different approach.
If it is coming at me to learn, then I need to stop teaching it things and overwhelm it.
The Ms. Taurus clone backed off behind another fog wall, revealing a group of six Kaladin clones and three of Ms. Taurus. I let more blood flow from my arm and fed it into the sphere, and let it swell with power. The clones seemed to hesitate and wait for me to do something, but that would be their mistake.
Once the sphere had grown to the size of a large boulder, I shot it out and let it spread into the air like a thick cloud. Spears of blood sprung out from it and crushed the clones under its power. I rushed forward and continued to feed the cloud as my spheres pummeled the ground.
Before the fog wall fully disappeared, I destroyed another clone group. There was a delay between the fog wall disappearing and the clones reacting to what was happening. Almost like what they had learned had yet to transfer over to the next group.
This way, I continued to push forward, destroying the ever-growing groups before they could even react to what was happening. They were helpless against my attack, and now I was able to roughly tell just how far the groups were from the fog wall, and I could preemptively destroy them before the next wall even started to disappear.
By the time there was a change I had cleared seven fog walls and groups when everything became clear. In the center was a horde of clones. Their numbers had swollen to almost a hundred. My preemptive strike crushed half of them, but there were too many now. And I could see what was at the center of all of this madness.
Some kind of twisted, wooden altar. Sitting atop it was a large creature made of wood that looked very similar to the first one I had encountered in the fog, just way bigger. When it stood up it would have towered over a two-story home, and in the center of its chest was a glowing orange crystal. Two people were tangled up with the core and wood. Kaladin and Ms. Taurus.
I see…I'm glad I didn't take a reckless approach and strike out with large attacks in every direction. But now that I know it has them…
"You are definitely going to regret this," I growled at the monster.
I have to split this massive group up and fast. If I'm going to stop that thing from leveraging its hostages, I have to give it my full attention; the clones would only slow me down. I let the cloud of blood drop to the ground with a loud splash, and like a torrent, it ran wild through the clone groups. Puffs of mist came up as they disappeared into nothing more than shabby spears, most of them made of wood now, and their masks.
The giant creature lumbered over, and I watched the fog around it form into arrows and shoot at me. It wasn't just a few arrows either; the sky was blotted out by the sheer number that came crashing down on me, but I did have some blood ready in case of a range attack.
I formed a protective barrier around me, and when I sensed it was over, I released it and went into a full sprint. My blood boiled as I felt power course through my veins and muscles. My speed increased as I watched as the giant creature slammed the ground with its fists. I jumped into the air and landed directly atop its long arms as clones rushed me from all sides.
I let my blood handle them; some of them managed to dodge and get close enough to strike me, but I let them. The spears stung as they sliced me, but they were shallow wounds, and the more blood that flowed out of me just meant the more I could control.
I was struggling to reign in the amount of blood I had at my disposal, but I pushed through as I ran up its arm. The creature raked its sharp claws along its wooden arm and forced me to the ground where more clones were waiting. I sent the blood that was seeping from my wounds out and willed it to crush the clones.
I landed safely, but the monster was already raising its arm for another sweep. It paid no mind to its own minions as it destroyed dozens of them with its swipe. But that was fine with me as it only cleared my path. I formed the blood into a wall and solidified it. The creature hit it and was stopped mid-swing.
As it reared back, I sprayed it with a splatter of blood and felt myself grin in satisfaction. No matter what that thing was capable of, it didn't seem to have a counter to my blood whatsoever. Instead of trying to brute force my way through it like an idiot, I just needed to use what it couldn't handle.
With the blood that had dripped off me and onto it released all the other blood, I was controlling and focused only on the defense of the other two and myself and the protecting of Kaladin and Ms. Taurus. My blood snaked around the two trapped in its chest and wrapped them. At the same time, the blood formed pools and solidified them into giant stakes that exploded into the ground.
The monster tried to free itself, but it was only ripping itself apart and couldn't even manage to free itself. I jumped forward, over the clones rushing in all around me and in between the two spheres holding them, sinking my blade directly into the monster's core. The orange crystal cracked and released a blast that knocked me back. When I got back up, the tree monster was falling apart, the clones were disappearing, and the fog surrounding us was disappearing for good. The dungeon shook with another quake as if to celebrate my victory, and I dusted myself off.
"You picked the wrong enemy today, you bastard."