Tread Lightly

Slowly, I move forward while staying close to the ground, careful not to be heard, seen, or sensed by the monsters ahead. After just a dozen steps or so, Virgil completely fades from my vision and becomes impossible to notice.

As I move forward, the man's new ability to disappear is both concerning and reassuring. On the one hand, it's nice to have someone watching over every step I take and who can help at any moment, but on another, it reminds me just how bizarre monsters, demons, and even people can be.

Like his skill Mask isn't invisibility, it's so much more. Even if you saw him before he used it, unless you stay incredibly close and constantly keep your eyes on him, he will fade from both your mind and eyes eventually.

So, with this Darkstalker nearby watching my back, I approach the region where the monsters were last seen, the Nightmares, Jenu, and the single Uktena slowly coming into view. I stay as quiet as possible as my eyes take in the massive creatures.

The Nightmares are, as Virgil said, giant horses, much larger than average, probably twice the size. Their hair is pitch black and absorbs the light from the sun without fail. The nightmarish creatures chew on small critters that they catch, like mice and birds. It's pretty disturbing to see a meat-eating horse. Nightmare is quite a fitting name; I cannot lie.

Near the Nightmares are their companions, the hair humanoid monsters, the Jenu. They are around eight to nine feet tall on average and absolutely covered in shaggy fur, but through that fur, one can still see the bulging muscles beneath. Each one also carries a giant club made of wood to put those muscles to work. As Virgil put it, these simple creatures just loaf around and smack things here or there with a chortle.

The final species of monster within the area that I can see is the Uktena. A serpentine beast of enormous might and proportions that makes the Short Horned Serpents look like children. Tiny wings that are incapable of granting flight but instead point to something more significant in the future rest on the sides of this snake that must be at least fifty feet long and six or so tall.

But its gargantuan stature is not what truly makes it dangerous. Unlike the Short Horned Serpent, Virgil told me that they have the Mentalist Sigil, increasing their intelligence while at the same time giving them another terrifying trait. Upon their head rests a gem, called the Ulun'suti by the first to discover it many years ago, that draws in any whom the serpent lays its eyes upon with hypnotic power.

That is why Virgil is here beside me, for he can disappear at a moment's notice and keep the Uktena's gaze away from his body. A large number of monsters, roughly fifty or so, are guarded by this massive serpent in a clearing of the dunes. Sadly, the clearing is missing any hills or drops like usual, making it riskier than it should be to approach.

At a distance of about a thousand feet away, I activate Chain Eyes, curious as to what I'm dealing with. And within my gaze, I see dozens of creatures with red chains, a dozen or so with orange ones, half a dozen with yellow, and a single serpent with a gem on its head with green manacles.

A deep inhale enters my body in preparation to amp myself up. I don't need to fight this army of monsters; I just get close enough to control one or two Nightmares with Ghosteye. Slowly, I get close, close enough to use the artifact from the Bakwa that was slain by Virgil, Vernon, and me.

While I do so, I very carefully shift myself forwards, doing everything I can to stay low to the ground. All the monsters are in an open clearing of the dunes that lacks any hills for me to use as cover, so I just do my best to keep myself out of any sightlines from the monsters.

Here or there, I see a rock or stone hit a Jenu or Nightmare that turns to look in my direction, which distracts them and keeps them from spotting me. Instantly I recognize it as Virgil watching out for me.

Sand shifts beneath me as I drop to my stomach from a low crouch and pull out the Ghosteye, a glassy and crystalline eye that holds controlling spirits within. With the artifact out, I crawl forward about another hundred feet or so, constantly being saved in this game of stealth.

Should Virgil have just done this himself? Would it not have been much easier? It feels dumb to have me be the one doing this, but the man hasn't done me wrong yet. So, I give him the benefit of the doubt and continue onward.

Eventually, I reach within a hundred feet of a Nightmare; near it are many Jenu, and the Uktena is not far, but I take the risk. For Earl, Elizabeth, Leonard, Esther, and all the others in Rustbank who deserve to live.

I hold the Ghosteye out toward the nearest Nightmare covered in red restraints and flow Ether into it. Gradually, I feel a connection grow with the inner sanctum of the eye, where the spirits dwell. It gives me a rudimentary grasp of controlling the spirits within, and I follow these instincts.

Pulling out a large number of spirits causes a spike of pain in my mind with the surge of Ether drawn out from me, I send the spirits toward the dark horse that towers over me.

Remarkably briefly, I hear whispers from the spirits assault me as they exit from the eye and fly toward the Nightmare, but my Daydream, more vital than ever, shakes them away without a moment of hesitance. The negative must be similar to the Bloody Palm's. Mental fatigue, takeover, or something similar.

Luckily for me, my mind is currently heavily guarded within a fortress of psychological might. And while that fortress will eventually run out of the Ether that pays for its upkeep, that won't happen for quite a while. Based on prior experience, I can probably keep this Daydream up against the Bloody Palm for another day or so. Just enough time to make it to Rustbank.

With this empowered mind, I force the spirits into the Nightmare, and the second that the spirits enter the dark horse, I see it flinch and shift its feet. The horse then turns and immediately looks at me with visible air that exits its unnaturally sized nostrils.

My heart sinks instantly. But after a short moment, a heartbeat filled with adrenaline picks me back up, and I stare back at the horse, desperately pushing more spirits into the beast. I must not have used enough at first.

This second surge causes an even more enormous headache, further decreasing the time I have left on the defense in my mind. But the wave shows a result because just as the horse lifts a hoof toward me, it sets it back down, full of confusion as if dazed.

A sigh of relief comes out of me but is quickly suppressed. Making sound is not an option. For another twenty seconds or so, I continue pushing these ghostly apparitions from the Ghosteye into the Nightmare just before me. Eventually, I feel a measure of control over it enter my mind, along with very dull and quiet whispers of the spirits within it.

Ignoring these whispers, I carefully turn myself and the glassy eye that is the Ghosteye to point at another Nightmare and convert it as well. This one goes much smoother as I push a much larger number of spirits out of the Ghosteye at the start, and I quickly gain control over this one as well.

Having control over both of the monsters with 1st Sigils gives me a constant spike of pain within my brain; not the worst I've ever had, but still really bad. Gritting my teeth, I command the two Nightmares to slowly approach me without alerting the Uktena.

The Nightmares obey my commands through the spirits as the whispers grow a bit louder from them, but still within manageable levels. I feel as though my time with the Bloody Palm has made me quite resilient to the touch of another on my psyche.

The two dark horses, at least ten feet tall, clomp toward me as I lay down with the Ghosteye pointed at them, still using it just in case. After just a minute or so, they reach me, and I immediately follow the part of Virgil's plan for after I acquire the horses.

"The second the horses exit the Uktena's "Domain" or where it deems the other creatures can go, the Uktena will come after them. Full force. So, our best bet is to haul ass out as fast as you can when you get them. Hop on one of the Nightmares and head toward Vernon. I'll have your back, don't worry. I'm quite Wonderous now; I can handle whatever comes at you."

In one smooth motion, I stand from laying on the sand, reach up to the Nightmares side, and grab on while ordering both of them to break into a run. With one firm hand on a Nightmare, I am pulled from standing still to instantly moving dozens of miles an hour.

Using this momentum, I swing myself onto the back of the giant horse, careful not to fall or mess up my movement, but the precision from my short time as a Philosopher keeps my hands steady.

When I sit on the horse, I notice that we are moving incredibly fast, probably just as fast as my speed under Strugglers Gasp. The second one that I didn't hop onto is just ahead of me and my ride. These Nightmares are incredible, their speed alone is insane. I bet their power isn't far off, either. I wonder what it would have been like had I taken a 2nd Sigil Nightmare.

After a few moments of moving at this incredible speed toward where Vernon was, drunk with exhilaration because I always love cruising fast and the cool winds that flow over me, I hear a loud rumbling behind me. Turning around toward the sound, what I see makes me sober up and awaken from my joyful moment.

The massive Uktena is moving toward me, much faster than the Nightmares with the size of the supernatural serpent of the 4th Sigil. Adrenaline instantly flows throughout my whole body as I rush the Nightmares to move even faster, using the spirits to push them to their limits.

They obey unwillingly, but nevertheless, they do heed my orders. The Nightmares speed up toward Vernon, but after a few seconds, I realize it's not enough. The Uktena with the gem-encrusted into its head is gaining on me.

Gradually the serpent nears me, and I feel a repeat of the time with the Short Horned Serpents, but this time it doesn't appear like anyone is here to help. Virgil is nowhere to be seen, possibly unable to catch up to the Nightmares or Uktena, and Vernon is waiting for me.

I see the Uktena open its jaw, and a tremendous amount of sand enters it, but the massive serpent ignores the distraction and slithers toward me. At the same time, I feel its gaze lay upon me, and instantly, I feel an attraction toward the gem on its forehead.

The feeling is entirely different from the Bloody Palm or Ghosteyes' abrupt and apparent attempts at mind control but is more subtle. It feels like a gradual inclination of greed toward the gem on its forehead that grows every second the serpent lays its eye upon me. It makes me want to stop running and instead rush into its waiting maw. I'm also sure that if I wasn't Daydreaming to strengthen my mind, it would be both much worse and grows much faster.

A grim smile of knowing determination breaks across my face despite the pounding headache and grizzly fate that lies for me, no matter what may occur within the next day or so. Only at this moment, staring, does it truly hit me. Whether I even make it out of the jaws of this monster or not, I am just as likely to die within the next day.

And if not within the next day, then the following week. From Johnny to the Bloody Palm to the upcoming break and the demon that leads it. I feel like any one of them is just as likely to kill me as this Uktena.

It almost seems as though I'm fated to die. Like everything is doing everything possible to push me up against a wall and see how far I can climb to escape the inevitable doom. That Death herself puppets all that surrounds me in some cruel twist of fate.

But I don't care. Death can't be that bad; after all, it's easy to die but hard to live. If I'm honest with myself, I don't much prefer the easy way out of anything. I know that sometimes I even make things harder for myself simply because I'd be bored if I did it any other way.

All these thoughts fly through my mind in a single flash, a single split second, as the Uktena rapidly nears me with its massive maw that opens. The reflection of my internal self happens like a flash just before death as the teeth of the serpent grow increasingly more prominent before my very eyes.

I can also feel the Nightmares struggle against the grasp of the Ghosteye, its hold on this starting to crack and fizzle because of the life-threatening risk to the tall, dark horses. Desperately, I resist this crumbling and command them with another surge of Ether that sends spirits to puppet their bodies further with even greater speed.

It's still not enough, though. The Uktena gets within ten feet of me and the Nightmares before lunging at us with an open jaw, aiming straight for the Nightmare I am riding. I can see the inside of the giant serpent as it jumps at us with a rumble upon the dunes beneath.

Understanding that there is no option in which both the Nightmares and I survive, I flex my legs and prepare to jump off of the Nightmare in an effort to use them as bait to distract the Uktena. But just before I jump off the horse, the impossible happens.

Virgil, the Darkstalker, appears out of nowhere, from completely hidden in everyone's sight to flying at the Uktena from the side with a bowie knife wrapped in visible dark purple Ether. In an instant, he goes from the ground to the giant serpent's head, the speed at which he moves unlike any I've ever seen.

His newest additions to his arsenal of Ether must have made a massive difference in his combat ability. Virgil did say he's been waiting years to advance, so he must have stagnated for quite a while, but now, he's soaring.

The man crashes into the Uktena from the unknown and unseen shadows of his mind. Right before the Uktena bites the Nightmare or me, Virgil stabs his bowie knife covered in his newest skill, Necrosis, into the serpent's eye.

The moment the dagger slides into the eye and the dark purple Ether enters, the eye and all surrounding the area begin to decompose and corrode. Within five seconds, a region of ten feet or more on the serpent turns necrotic and unworking; it even almost reaches the other eye of the snake.

Thankfully for me, because of this deadly strike from Virgil, the Uktena turns away from me and instead focuses on the more significant threat, the Flicker Darkstalker, which quickly proves the title of his Sigil. The snake immediately flails and moves its body to crush the man, but in response, the man turns illusory and ethereal, flickering into another realm to phase through the snake.

Then, he jumps off the snake with a burst of dark, shadowy Ether that emerges from his feet like a propellant sending him far enough and fast enough to land near me. Instantly understanding his intentions, I reach out for the flying man and see him reach out on his own, but instead of using his hands, he uses tendrils of shadows to pull himself to my Nightmare.

While doing so, he draws his lever action and fires multiple rounds that seem to be covered in the same dark purple Ether at the Uktena that continues to bare down on us. Each round makes the serpent flinch and become a little bit more wounded.

Virgil lands himself onto my Nightmare and continues firing his lever action after a short pause. And then, after a full, well-placed volley and a bullet that blinds its other eye, the Uktena stops its chase of us and slows, allowing us to make a narrow escape.

We ride the Nightmares toward Vernon, barely saying a word, but we do share a look. One of complete trust. I never should have even felt worried about him showing up for a second. When we reach Vernon's hiding spot, the younger brother comes out to see if we need help, but for the first time ever, I escape a battle without any injuries, and so does Virgil.

So, without taking even a second to rest, in case the rest of the army that the Uktena was watching decides to chase us down in revenge or if something else more dangerous were to appear, we hop onto the nightmares and ride toward Harmony Town. I share a horse with Vernon, who has no clue how to ride one, and Virgil gets his own.

As we ride away, I keep the control over the Nightmares and look over the dunes that quickly fade and fly past our eyes with the speed of the horses. We don't have any saddles, but hopefully, Harmony Town has a few we can quickly find; it had a stable, after all.

But keeping hold of the Nightmares stresses my already exhausted mind, the headache of Ether growing increasingly worrying.

I'm nearing my limit once more. And soon, I'll need to rest. I hope I can hold on until we reach Harmony Town.

Only a few hours at this pace.