Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

The Hunter and the Hunted

Ereclaw ran through a forest made out of mushrooms the size of trees. He made no sound as he sped across the pink grass. The light in the forest was dim, and there was little sound anywhere around him. The denizens of the forest knew well enough to keep quiet, something was hunting them, and it was not him.

He didn’t know how long he had been here, in the Ethereal Realm. Sometimes it felt like decades, time did not move at a constant rate in the Ethereal Realm, nor did anything else follow the same rules. Even after so long in this place, Ereclaw was yet to figure out how things worked. Sometimes, the entire world would change just because he had taken a step, other times it changed with the spirits that walked this realm. He had stalked a stag once, long ago, that moved with an entire forest following his every step. It had been nearly impossible for him to stalk it, and after… what seemed like months at least, he had been forced to give up.

It was so long since he died in the Real Realm, or at least it felt like it. His immortality was nothing like what Ryun’s was, as it should be. Ereclaw was not the same. Upon his death, he woke up here, in the Ethereal Realm. He was… changed, he was not a soul, at least not as far as he understood it. He had his power and more. He was changed into something that resembled his inner self. Not quite the two-legged form that he had earned, nor the one he had before. Something in between. His limbs were longer, his teeth sharper, stronger. His fur was red and black, with violet streaked through it. His power had changed too, though that had happened after a while, after the first few of his hunts.

His immortality gave him this… almost a spirit form. And in order for him to live again, he needed to hunt. He had a sense of how many more hunts he had to do, although not a precise number, he didn’t have a counter. But it didn’t feel like he had too many more to go. He had hunted at least two dozen times successfully. And he had nearly died a true death a few times. He did not get to go into the afterlife, the Ethereal Realm was his only choice, once he finished his hunts, he would have a choice of embracing the Ethereal Realm fully and becoming a true spirit or going back to the Real Realm. He wasn’t yet sure what he was going to do. He didn’t quite fit in the real world, among the others, he wasn’t like them, but… it was a choice he had made in order to gain power. And he did have an obligation toward Ryun. He didn’t know how his choice would impact that, or if it even would. Could he remain a contracted partner while living in the Ethereal Realm? He didn’t know.

And now it didn’t matter now, not when he had far greater things to worry about.

A while ago, Ereclaw had moved into another territory. Even the Ethereal Realm had them, though their size varied greatly. He had been in territories that were the size of a small room, and those that seemed to stretch forever. The way that he knew that they were different territories was because the rules and the… feel of the world around him, differed between the territories.

He would go from a forest that was filled with deep darkness, to a bright sandy dune that moved like an ocean. The mountains that were made out of tiny pebbles stacked on top each other, to an island on the back of a giant tortoise spirit. He had seen spirits so tall that just their feet were mountains that pierced the skies, moving aimlessly and leaving craters that were immediately filled with water creating lakes, once one was even filled with liquid fire. The Ethereal Realm was filled with wonder, but also danger.

Near his early time in the Ethereal, he had seen a minotaur shade, sitting as still as a rock next to a waterfall, whispering to himself. It was the first shade that Ereclaw had seen, so he had observed it for a while, trying to decide if it would be worth to try and fight it. He had… a sense of the opponent's that were worthy of a hunt, and that one had made his sense ring loud. Before he made his final decision, though, a spirit wandered into the area.

Ereclaw had seen some pretty powerful people, had fought against them. The shade tore the spirit apart in moments. It was one of the first moments here when he realized that the danger that was everywhere in this realm.

But danger and adversity allowed for growth, and Ereclaw wanted to take advantage of what he could. He had been cautious, perhaps overly so, but it had kept him alive so far, or rather it had let him keep his second life. He had slowly traveled, searching for prey that he could handle.

He fought spirits made out of fire, and others that were too strange for him to even try to comprehend. He had survived all of those encounters; he had learned more about himself and his power.

Once, he had thought himself as a wolf, then as something else, something more. Now, in this Ethereal Realm, he understood. He was Ereclaw. There was no need to think about anything more, he was. He didn’t need to be like anyone else, he didn’t need to try and fit in with other people, to try and understand them. That was a lesson that he had learned in life and understood in death. It was how Ryun lived his life, what had drawn Ereclaw to him in the first place.

He remembered that first moment when he laid his eyes on him in that forest, standing with his eyes closed and face turned to the sky. Ryun didn’t care about making himself fit, he carved out a place for himself on his own.

Ereclaw came to a stop, his ears twitching as he scanned for any sound. In the distance he heard a crunching sound echoing through the forest. He knew better than to rely on his hearing, the rules in the Ethereal sometimes changed from moment to moment. Right now, he couldn’t trust that what he was hearing was in fact real. It could just as well be an echo of a something that had happened ages ago, only now being heard.

Still, it was something, and he proceeded with caution. He couldn’t afford not to, for there was something in this forest far more dangerous than him or anything else that he has encountered in the past. Something was hunting spirits and shades and Ereclaw was in its territory.

He had first noticed something strange when he walked into a clearing only to find pieces of a spirit. Too mangled for him to even be able to piece together what the spirit was or even just what it looked like. It was… pulled apart, methodically, with pieces missing. It was as if something was harvesting it in some peculiar way. It wasn’t a hunter, at least Ereclaw didn’t think that it was. Bodies of spirits were strange, some were all made up of a single element, others were more akin to monsters, except that their lifeblood was different. He had fought and killed a spirit of a small shrine that was made out of cloud and strange green stones. When it died, the cloud remained, changing into a soft but thick substance.

But whatever was killing here didn’t seem to have any pattern that a hunter could see. Ereclaw had found pieces of trees, of mushrooms, of even the ground itself torn apart. The Ethereal Realm was mostly made up out of things that came from other realms, earth was here only somehow different. If Ereclaw knew more about what connections there were between souls and the Ethereal, perhaps he could’ve been able to figure out more. But in the end it didn’t matter to him beyond the base curiosity.

He had more important things on his mind now.

He had tried to escape the territory, but… the edge of the forest was covered in a mist, and every time he tried to go through, he found himself back where he started. He knew that it was something that happened in the Ethereal Realm, sometimes areas just closed down. But this was the worst possible time for it. He was trapped in this territory until the Ethereal Realm decided to shift and change again, or until he found another way out.

The sounds faded away, and Ereclaw continued. His eyes scanned everything around him looking for anything out of place. One could never know what things really were in the Ethereal Realm. Once, he had entered a small burrow beneath a tree and exited in a cave at the bottom of a lake. He hoped that he could find something like that again. Because whatever was in this territory was killing everything off, and Ereclaw wasn’t sure if he could continue to be one step ahead.

His stealth abilities were great, more powerful, even in this spirit-like form. Ryun’s power’s influence was greater, the void seemingly devoured all of his presence when he wanted it to. But eventually, his skill and luck would run out and he would get caught.

An hour later, he had crossed an incredible distance, but the surroundings barely changed. For a moment he feared that the Ethereal had screwed with his perceptions and that he had just been running in circles, it wouldn’t be the first time, but then his sense alerted him to something nearby.

The sense that told him that something was near was the newest one that he had. The one tied to his immortality, that told him that something or someone was worth a hunt. Usually, it ringed softly in his mind, but this time it throbbed, a loud sensation that nearly drowned everything else. Whatever he was feeling, it was more dangerous than anything that he had ever encountered.

He wanted to run, but he also knew that if he was going to survive, he needed information. Slowly he started making his way toward the source, all his stealth powers active. It didn’t take him long to reach a small cliff, with a clearing beneath it. He crawled to the edge and then looked over it.

The clearing was a scene of death. Three shade and multiple spirit bodies were arranged in a circle, all dead. The spirits had their bodies torn apart and pieces removed, and the shades were all stripped of their gear and one—a large four-legged and two-handed one—had fingers missing on all limbs.

In the center of them was a being, a yeti. It wore gear that seemed to be clobbered from pieces of all kinds of different parts. It was mismatched, with parts of it glowing with symbols that Ereclaw didn’t understand. The yeti was leaned over something in his hand that Ereclaw couldn’t really see, and all around him items and pieces of the spirits floated in a circle, falling apart and clicking together with other pieces, glowing symbols flashed into existence and then disappeared just as quickly as they appeared.

Ereclaw wasn’t sure who the yeti was. They were monsters, like he used to be, so perhaps it was a shade or something similar, but beings from the real world could visit the Ethereal as well. Who the yeti was, wasn’t important, only the fact that Ereclaw knew deep down that this was someone who was extremely dangerous.

Ereclaw started to pull back when the floating objects froze, and the yeti tilted his head. A moment later he turned and looked straight in Ereclaw’s direction.

It was a shade, Ereclaw’s eyes saw the rings even from the distance. For a moment he stilled, ready to run, but then the shade’s eyes slid over him and looked around, but still in the same general area where he was hiding.

“What is this?” The yeti spoke as he stood up and turned to face him fully. Ereclaw could tell that he couldn’t quite see through Ereclaw’s stealth, but he knew that he was there.

“This tastes like…” Yeti closed his eyes and tilted his head, his hand rose, and he drew a symbol in the air that flashed and disappeared. “Tastes like nothing. Ah, void, and… hunt? That could be useful. There is no use in hiding, I know that you are there and that you can hear me.

Ereclaw wondered what he should do, the yeti seemed to be looking intently, searching for him. He gestured again and several pieces of his armor broke off and twisted around clicking together into something that quickly started to resemble a window. Ereclaw realized that he was making something to help him look for him, when the yeti started to look through his creation. Immediately he stood and started running away.

“Don’t run little gnat! It will only make things worse once I find you!”

Ereclaw didn’t dare stop. That monster was more terrifying that anything else he had ever seen. He needed to get as far away as possible and hope that the yeti doesn’t come after him. Something told him that he wouldn’t be able to remain undetected if they ever met again.

No, Ereclaw had to find a way out of this forest, or meet his true death.