“Hey, there someone coming.” Said Sierra in a hushed but loud enough for the others to hear tone. After a few seconds the others heard it. Out of the other side of the clearing in a random path was a group of nine adventurers. “Shit.” I heard Kalum say as I also soon realized who it was.

It was the Storm Blades. Our party came here to get away from them and for the fact that this place had a good supply of monsters. I shouted. “RUN.”

But before we could make an escape, I heard a shout as an arrow comes from the other path for our escape. We’ve been surrounded. A man in hie late twenties with long red hair and a pretty face step forward from the group of twenty.

The man in heavy enchanted plate Armor then says. “Laria, my dear. Why oh why did you leave me?” Laria our healer ducks behind Guldur trying to hide herself from that lecherous gaze. “She hates you Huron, you killed her family. Why would she ever love you.”

The man just tilted his head to one side and said with a demonic grin on his face. “You are demons who have kidnapped by beloved Laria and are trying to corrupt her like those filth that tried to keep me away from her in the first place. I must take her back before I have to cleanse her to. Fear begins to run through my body as I realise tonight is the day I die. I glance straight at Guldur who I am looking back at me with a similar but different look in his eyes.

I turn my head to Laria and say, “Run, run, and don’t turn back. Into the forest and don’t stop. If you keep moving most monsters will leave you alone.”

I then turn back to the two groups of twenty who have blocked our two routes of escape. I know we can’t stop them but at least we can buy her sometime. I hear a rustle behind me as Laria scampers off.

Both sides stare at each other as if waiting for the other to pounce. The sun has just begun to touch the horizon as the trees cast long shadows on the ground. Within the next twenty minute the sun would have completely set.

“Send forth our holy lances and turn these cretins to ash.” Says Huron as his men begin to advance. I close my eyes and profess a haste prayer to whatever gods may have listened. As I open them, I hear a smooth melancholic voice come from the depths of the forest. It was in a voice that projected pure boredom and uncaringness. It sent shivers down my spine as it sung its chorus of death in a language that had never graced my ears.

“♪♪♪Do not sleep, my darling. Sleep, my doe.
She is wrapped in curtains laid in snow.
She will bury, you inside her fur.

Do not sleep
She waits for you to sleep
Do not sleep
She waits for you to sleep…♪♪♪”

The voice stopped as everyone was staring into the forest looking for the voice. It seems to have dis-nerved the paladins as well. The sun broke through the treetops for one final light as it finally went off to wherever the sun goes at night. I noticed a black figure shrouded in the dark be illuminated for a second, but it disappeared out of thin air from the branch.

Suddenly one of the paladins fell with blood spurting from their necks as they fell, whatever had hit them had gone straight through a crack in their Armor. The paladins tried to advance towards us but were blocked because the two at the front again collapsed like there strings were cut with blood coming out their necks.

A voice then came out of the woods again but this time there was nothing melodic or melancholic about it but more like a growl. “As I tread upon this wretched soil, I shall cleanse this realm of your existence, for I am the vessel of divine retribution, the herald of righteousness! Your sins shall be expunged, your soul eradicated, and your name forever condemned to the abyss!"

One of the mages under Huron began to wildly cast fireballs for the back of the formation that had now reorientated itself to face that side of the forest. After about seven fireballs had set ablaze to the canopy as if they were expecting this to make the spectre reveal itself. I tensed as I noticed a figure appear behind the mage and send a long thin sword that glimmered orange in the fires glow.

The mage collapsed as a few around him noticed the tall figure clothed in black standing behind them. The three who turned and shouted immediately collapsed as the figure threw something. The entire group then charged him but just as they were about to pierce his body he disappeared again from thin air.

They crashed into each other as the figure reappeared behind an archer who was looking for a target. Their blade went for the ranger’s neck, but the ranger ducked and tried to get the assailant into a choke hold. Instead, the shadow dropped his sword and with rapid strikes had stabbed the archer a dozen times in the gaps of her Armor. She collapsed as they once again began to approach him but with more caution.

Mikael then shoots an icicle out of fear straight at the figure. Just as its about to hit he appears right behind Mikael, and I lunge to block whatever strike he may send but instead he lets out more words which even chill my bones. “I’m here to claim corrupted souls and those who stand in my way. Do that again and join your enemies in purgatory.”

He then disappears and reappears behind a mace wielder and slices their neck and they collapse. Every strike this shadow commits sends another soul to their judgement. This process repeated until only heron was left. The figure appeared on the other end of the clearing and began to walk slowly as that eerie melody came out of their lips again.

“♪♪♪ My breath, you breathe
It will carry you.
My breath, you breathe
It carries you.

Do not sleep,
She waits for you to sleep
Do not sleep, my starling
Do not sleep. ♪♪♪”

As if Huron was waiting for the melody to finish as the shadow continues it gentle stroll towards him. “What are you? Why have the divine seen fit to punish me?” The figure stopped its steps ten feet away as Huron pointed his sword that was almost as big as himself straight at the figure. The figure responded after a deafening ten seconds where the only sound was the crackling of the blaze behind us. “I do not know of how many crimes you have committed but my powers tell me that the world will be a better place without you in it.”

I watch as Huron lunges at the figure. He is strong and so far, the shadow has refused to attack Huron once. A handful of dart like objects shoot forward straight at Huron as the figure again disappears. Huron deflects all of them with his blade. The figure instantly reappears behind him and lets out a sound of contemplation. They then draw a short but thin sword and begin to engage in a flurry of blades.

We watch as the two go back and forth with Huron standing in place with an almost perfect defence and the shadow darting around and reappearing at different sides of him and trying to plunge their blades into a crack in their Armor. The figure then backs off to the other side of the clearing and spoke. “It appears I am not yet strong enough to face an orichalcum rank. Unfortunately for you I have more than just my own power.”

Huron seemed to perk up at the first part of the statement as his face went place at the second bit. The shadow with swift movements reached behind their back probably for some artifact. Huron seemed to decide that his final move was to charge at full speed at the figure in one desperate last hope of surviving. As he was already half-way the figure had levelled somekind of artifact straight at him. A loud bang resounds in the forest as a piece of metal fell from the artifact.

The bangs continued as Huron get within a metre of the figure. Then just as he was about to thrust his sword into the shadow it disappeared and appeared behind Huron. Huron collapsed as his heavy breathing could be seen even through his Armor. The shadow pointed the metal object at the back of Huron’s head and with one more bang Huron stopped moving.

(Song: Anti-Lullaby by Karen-O)