NOVEL NEXT Chapter 54: Camp Chaos
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Countdown to disaster: Ten minutes.
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Johan dreamt of home. Of the canyon walls the size of mountains, the washed out rainbow colour dividing the hundreds of rock layers, each an indication of times long lost as the years went by.
He dreamt of the rolling dunes and hanging petrified forests, he dreamt of the people, hardy but always smiling. And he dreamt of losing them.
It was a repeating nightmare, of beauty turning to tragedy. Of the shadows of winged creatures darkening the ground and the earth shaking roars that filled the air.
But this dream was different. He ran through the streets of the city he once called home, terror in his heart. As he fled he stepped into a puddle, his feet becoming wet. But it wasn’t raining, in the south it only rained during turbulence, and even then only rarely.
Huh?
He scrambled up and continued fleeing, heart pounding in his chest.
Wind, hot and humid struck his face. He tensed, recoiling as terror leapt into his chest. He expected to look up and see the hungry jaws of the monstrous creature that would soon end his life.
It had happened before, unlike in reality these nightmares often ended in his death.
But there was nothing. He looked around, desperate to see where the danger would be coming from. His surroundings were blurry, washed out and unfocused. Johan blinked, trying to recall, trying to see.
It had been so, so long.
Something struck him in the back of the head and he jerked forward, he yelped in pain and spun. His eyes snapped open and darkness flooded his vision.
What?
Something tall and four legged loomed over his prone body, its wide eyes glinting with madness, its form stretching off into the darkness as if melding with the tent. His mind, half awake and still highly intoxicated saw what it wanted to see, what it expected.
He screamed. Choked on his tongue, gagged, then screamed again.
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Countdown to disaster: 7 minutes.
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Something crunched in the dark. The sound like bones breaking, splintering in a thousand pieces from a devastating impact.
The deer chewed, the ration bar too large to fully fit into its mouth. It was otherwise frozen in place, its eyes fixated on the suddenly awake and screaming human.
This lack of reaction wasn’t exactly indicative of well tuned survival instincts. After all, this placid creature hadn’t known danger for most of its life. From the moment it had discovered the happy tree to the birth of its daughter. The deer had been safe and secure underneath a vibrant red canopy.
Also the animal was colour-blind. But that hardly matters at this point.
With another crunch it broke off half of the ration bar, chunks and crumbs half fell onto the ground, the other half falling into the human’s lap. The man screamed again for some reason as the deer stepped forward and towards the sack. There were still tasty treats within.
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Countdown to disaster: 6 minutes.
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The monster darted forward, clearly going for the kill. Johan scrambled back before he lashed out, kicking it in the face. Or trying to, his foot connected with his ration sack sending the contents flying. He yelped as the shadowy entity once again moved, its motions predatory and smooth.
Johan scrambled to his knees and dove to the side as it attacked. Another sickening crunch came from behind him as he desperately reached for his sword.
His sword. Where is it?
It should have been towards the entrance, but it wasn’t. Vision blurry and mind fuzzy the man completely missed the fact the weapon had simply fallen over. He made a mad dash for the exit, still screaming his lungs out.
In his panic Johan barrelled into what he could only assume was a demon. Both went down in a tangle of limbs.
Something hard impacted the side of his head, the coordinator saw stars and crumpled to the ground.
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Countdown to disaster: 5 minutes and thirty seconds.
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One by one the sleeping hogs awoke as Leif picked them up to see where the missing deer was hiding. But it quite quickly became apparent the creature wasn’t nearby. It wasn’t easy to tell the different animals apart with his perception when they were all asleep.
The spriggan cursed and put down the final hog. The creatures started sniffing around and grunting at one another.
A scream split the night air, Leif jerked his head towards the sound. It had come from the expedition camp. It was a few minutes away, he hadn’t wanted to mix his animals and the humans.
And while he trusted some of the expedition members he most certainly didn’t trust them all.
Several of the hogs all turned in the direction, their grunting becoming more worried. Leif too felt uneasy. As the night had gone on the eerie sense of dread had slowly crept closer and closer from beneath.
Another scream, followed by panicked shouting. Leif took off running, he just hoped he wouldn’t be too late
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Countdown to disaster: 4 minutes.
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The deer zipped around camp as flashes of magical light flared from all around. It ran, but didn’t know where it was going. This was because in its attempt to escape from the final tent it had brought the fabric down atop its head.
Now the deer stumbled, tripped and galloped around as if it were wearing a poorly made ghost costume.
Unable to see, the animal ran in random directions, this just so happened to take it over the ashes of the campfire, embers burst up around its hooves, some landing on the trailing tent fabric.
Elemental orbs flashed by, but the deer’s erratic movements, combined with the casters' disorientation, caused them once again to miss. All except a sphere of dancing flames which burst against the loosely hanging fabric. Now the entity assaulting the camp was both a ghost, and partially aflame.
Yells and cries came from all around, torches were lit and people stumbled out of tents with bleary eyes.
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Countdown to disaster: 1 minute.
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Leif sprinted into the chaos of the expedition camp. His weight, combined with the somewhat unstable ground had made the journey take a bit longer than it otherwise should have. Even having reduced his weight using [Gold Iron Physique] it hadn’t helped much.
While this skill granted a certain degree of flexibility the spriggan was still far denser and heavier than he looked.
Leif glanced around, seeing panicking expedition members and a few nomads running around and shouting. Sieg burst from a nearby tent, the large man was pulling on a shirt, his movements clumsy.
“Sieg!” Leif called, jogging over. “What is going on-”
Then he saw it, and his tree mouth fell as open as it could. Aflame, completely covered in soot, mud and fabric. The deer. It was being chased by almost ten people, all screaming and yelling.
“I have no fucking clue.” The large man said, glaring at the chaos. “But I think that has something to do with it.”
The spriggan sighed. He pushed out his aura and the deer immediately veered in his direction. Sieg looked around for more danger, the man having summoned his axe after he had strapped on his storage bracer.
Then Leif felt it, something was off. Leif could sense the lifeforce of things within his aura’s radius. A radius that had dramatically increased after his advancement and skill rank up.
It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say the Spriggan could feel every blade of grass, the worms in the soil and the bugs in the air. Though not perfectly clearly, more like the wash of vitality now had more defined colours.
It had taken Leif a few hours to properly adapt to this change in ability, but he was glad he had taken the time to do so.
All around him, just on the edges of his perception, he could feel approaching absences of vitality. As if something, or somethings, were veiling their presences. It was subtle, incredibly so. If Leif wasn’t blasting his aura out while deliberately searching for danger he never would have noticed.
“Incoming!” he yelled, flaring warning intent through his aura. Then he grabbed the deer and ripped off its burning mantle. The animal was unhurt and looking nonplussed.
“We’re surrounded!” He called again, desperately trying to get everyone’s attention.
Ice billowed from Sieg, coating the ground in frost. The tiredness in his eyes vanished as his expression became alert. But while he was prepared, there were dozens who were not.
Angry chittering filled the night. Then the veiled things in the dark skittered forward.
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Countdown to disaster: 10 seconds.
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