Skeletal Dragon Avatar

Specter

Matt watched the show with an interested look on his face, the fact that the nun from the Right’s temple had stabbed a fellow member of their own temple seemed to carry a whole lot more weight that the actual stab, it seemed to be an expulsion from the temple, and a rather nasty one at that, if the recruits face was anything to go by, that is… But the nun was clearly not done yet and spoke

“As for the rest of you—”

Felicia hurriedly spoke up

“I think an example has been made, as for the others, what do you say we leave their punishment till we return safely?”

Felicia spoke to both the nun and Matt, Matt waited a bit, clearly thinking it over before he appeared to reluctantly agree

“Alright, fine…”

Felicia appeared clearly relieved and let out a sigh before she looked sternly at the other recruits that had attempted to seal Matt’s kills before she spoke

“Alright, back to camp! We need to pack up and be out of here by midday!”

Matt quickly called out to Felicia

“Felicia, mind if I borrow Ike?”

“Sure, no problem, I’ll wake him up and send him over”

“Thanks…”

Matt stood and waited as the others left, only the nun didn’t leave at once, she spoke to him with a slightly seductive tone

“Our temple always welcome talented people, if you have any interest please come find me Matt”

Matt nodded and gave a vague answer

“I’ll keep that in mind”

Only then did the nun leave, Matt watched her leave for a bit before he sighed, then when Ike arrived the two of them worked to strip the valuable parts of Matt’s kills, Matt was a diligent student even in his old world, so he learned quickly and by midday they had finished, Matt gave Ike a portion of the materials as payment before he looked at the makeshift backpack made of branches and robe that had all his materials bound onto it, right now it was the size of a regular backpack, Matt swung it over one of his shoulders before he walked over towards the camp that had, at this point in time been packed up entirely, Felicia stood in front and yelled when Matt arrived

“Alright, let’s go, people! The faster we walk, the faster we’re out of this godforsaken forest!”

The group began moving, matching slowly in the direction away from the river, Matt took note of this and followed along as a rear guard, the first half day of walking was uneventful, Matt climbed a tree and got a few hours of sleep during the night. The next day the walking through the forest continued Matt didn’t relax his guard, for some reason he felt like he was being watched by something the entire day, but by evening nothing particularly exciting had happened and so the second day of walking ended, as the others made camp Matt climbed into a tree and attempted to get some sleep…

Matt woke up with a set, he didn’t know why but his heart was beating a mile a minute and he was detached with cold sweat

‘A nightmare..?’

Matt looked around without making any noise, as he did he spotted ‘it’ moving in between the trees, at first glance it seemed like a dirty gray rag floating in the wind, but then why would it set off all his alarm bells inside his head? Matt’s instincts were screaming at him to move, but he kept entirely still holding his breath as it came into view under the faint moonlight, an illusory figure wearing a dirty gray robe holding a scythe that seemed to be made of flowing blood, as Matt kept still and stifled his breath it floated right in front of him, it was muttering something

“---Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why…—“

Matt felt his heart run cold as it inched closer to him, Matt could feel its ‘eyes’ red specks of light was all they were, even though they were looking at him, they didn’t appear to see him, this thing, whatever it was, simply happened to be gazing into what it thought was empty space, when in reality it was Matt keeping very, very still

“---Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why…—”

Matt could feel his heartbeat slowly increase, it was like a hammer in his chest, beating faster and faster as ‘it’ inched closer, just as it was about to touch foreheads with Matt a sound came from the camp not too far away, that seemed to be the catalyst as the thing that were right in front of him let out a ghastly scream that numbed his entire body before it suddenly disappeared, then came another ghastly scream from the camp followed by screams of panic and fear, someone yelled, voice oozed with panic

“A specter!”

This seemed to wake up the entire camp, though the screams of pain and panic didn’t listen, they only increased and then a few minutes later it was all quiet again, Matt held his breath as his heart beat loudly in his chest, he heard a familiar sound, the sound of flesh being torn and bones being broken, it was the sound a beast eating its fresh kill, he knew he had to get out of there at once, he wanted to fell with all his might, but having seen how the thing, the specter moved earlier he knew he could not outrun it, so he kept very, very still as the sound of flesh being torn and ripped apart continued… Matt didn’t know how long it had been, but the sun had risen an unknown time ago, still the sound of flesh being torn had not stopped, nor had the feeling of dread he felt, then a ghastly scream sounded out once more before the feeling of suppression disappeared along with the presence of the specter, though Matt still didn’t move, his instincts were still screaming for him to run, escape and that mean one thing

“---Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why… Why…—”

Sure enough, it was still there…

‘Of course it’s still here… Shit…’

Then the sound of glass breaking sounded followed by the scream which Matt recognized as the nun from the Right’s temple, though it was quickly cut off, then the specter appeared in Matt’s line of sight again, it was dragging the headless body of the nun back into the depths of the woods, Matt kept still for another few hours after that until finally around midday the feeling of suppression disappeared, Matt wasn’t going to stick around and find out if it would return though as he quickly grabbed his makeshift backpack and sprinted off in the direction the group had been heading for the past day, he ran until his legs were numb, his lungs felt like they were on fire, still he kept running, as for the rest of the adventures? From the brief look into the camp Matt had taken, he knew none had survived, not with that unholy ‘flesh’ structure that had been crafted in the middle of the ruined camp, thinking about it now Matt still felt sick, so he kept running, just running… About 2 days later, he finally collapsed…

When he woke up the first thing Matt felt was his hunger and thirst, luckily one of the problems were solved right away as he had a water skin he had borrowed from Ike secured on his makeshift backpack, then after quickly emptying it he found some fruit in a nearby tree, then he kept walking in the same direction while desperately trying to unsee what he had witnessed 2 days earlier, around midday he finally appeared to have an end of the forest in sight, the vegetation began getting visibly less dense and by evening he was overlooking grass plains, there was also a walled city in the distance, Matt hurried along and just before sundown he reached the walls of the city, at the gate stood a few guards dressed in uniform metal and leather armor, one of them noticed Matt approaching and greeted him

“Hey there, stranger, aren’t you cold?”

Matt shook his head, even though he was only wearing pants he wasn’t cold in the slightest, he spoke

“No, not at all… I am just thankful that I made it out of that forest…”

The guard nodded before he spoke again, or at least he was about to when another guard arrived, she wore more refined looking armor than the rest, she gazed at Matt before she looked at his makeshift backpack, then her eyes stopped on the water skin Matt had attached to his backpack before her eyes widened before she yelled

“Where did you get that water skin!?”

The other guards quickly realized something was wrong and drew their weapons before they moved to surround Matt, Matt assessed the situation, he wasn’t worried, the only one he felt even a little pressure from was the female guard captain that had yelled at him, he sighed before he spoke

“From a friend, Ike”

“Where is Ike now!? Tell me!”

Matt sighed before he delivered the bad news

“He’s dead”