The Realm of Shadows - 25

"Damn" said the Prince, before untangling himself from the corpse of the Shadow Walker, as he heard the thud of the creature's body he looked at his status card:

[Name:] ********

[Race:] Human

[Titles:] Card Wielder, Prince of Swords, Archer, Inhuman Will, Fanatic, Ruthless

[Rank:] 11, 2167/12500 (17%)

[HP:] 1135/1135

[MP:] 721/919

[SP:] 859/859

[Affinities:] Lightning, Ranged Weapons, Body

[Attributes:]

[STR:] 83

[DEX:] 85

[AGI:] 82

[INT:] 87

[WIS:] 81

[PER:] 80

[LUC:] 4

[CHA:] 79

[VIT:] 79

[Cards:] Knight of Swords, Golden Eagle, Sword Kingdom Bow

[Unique Skills:] Heir of Swords: As the owner of the face card, Knight of Swords the wielder is granted an extreme weapon talent for ranged weapons.

Inhuman Will: By repeatedly gaining attributes without ranking up you have shown the strength of your will. In order to reach your goal, pain has become a doorway to walk through, instead of a wall to climb over. Gain an affinity for your body.

Fanatical: You are either crazy, or ancient. You have ignored the exponential decrease of stat training and taken it to your very limits anyway. Someone as insanely driven such as yourself deserves to have it a little easier. +1 LUC

'Wow… 4 rank ups from that little expedition… I'll have it easy for a while…' he looked around.

'Yeah, easy…'

It was completely silent, and took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Beneath his feet was a layer of fallen pine needles, with each step he took it roused an overwhelming scent of cedar. As far as he could see, which in this darkness was fairly little, were the towering trunks of ancient evergreens.

He looked above the trees, and saw an unfamiliar sky. One without stars or clouds, and with a surprising lack of a moon. If he wasn't certain before, he was certain now. He was in another plane.

He decided that the best plan would be to just wander. Without the moon or stars to help him navigate, he might as well be completely blind. He could barely see his hand in front of his face anyway.

Every step made his heart ache. The crunch of the pine needles beneath his feet provided a sudden and stark interruption of the perfect silence that existed before he arrived here. The only noise native to this plane was the sound of the soft breeze, and the creak of the towering trees, at least as far as he could tell.

The Prince's mind was a whirlwind of emotion.

'How will I ever get out of here… I had never heard of someone visiting an elemental plane and returning. Maybe they just liked being here too much to leave? Right? It certainly is peaceful… Oh, who am I kidding, this place is horrible. It feels like I am constantly being watched by something right next to me, but I can't see far enough to tell.' he thought, before quickly whipping around to look behind him.

'Yeah right. Like I would be able to see anything anyway…'

The Prince slowly turned back to face forward, and thankfully nothing was in front of him.

He kept walking and walking, forward in a straight line…

'Ugh… how big is this forest! I've been walking for hours and I haven't even gone up or down. It's been perfectly flat!' he thought angrily.

It wasn't even scary for him anymore. His eyes had long since fully adjusted, and there was nothing in sight, only tree after tree after tree. The only sound he could hear besides his own footsteps was the wind in the trees, and the creak of the old wood.

'Oh no…'

The Prince was shocked by a sudden, and dark omen. It was a familiar sight. At his feet was the now cold corpse of the Shadow Walker, still singed by his lightning. The thoughts of the Prince shifted from angry to thoughts of despair. Had he just recently turned around? Or was he going in circles the entire time and only just now noticed?

Whatever the case, he felt like he was about to cry. His stomach grumbled. He was tired, and lost, and now he was hungry.

His breathing quickened as he took off running in a single direction.

His steps thundered as he sped through the forest, brushing past low-hanging branches, and snapping some. He ran wildly, and just kept going. Eventually he was out of breath, and he slowed down as he entered a small clearing.

At the center of that clearing was that same familiar sight. The cold corpse of the Shadow Walker. He trudged up next to it and lay down on the ground staring at the sky. How was he supposed to get out of here?

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!" he screamed. It made him feel a bit better.

…

He began to focus on his breathing.

If he wanted to find a way out, he needed to be calm and not sprint through the woods like a crazy person. He sighed.

As he stared into the inky black sky, he began coming up with ideas. They all varied in usefulness, but they were ideas nonetheless.

They ranged from calling for help to starting a forest fire. Now it would take a while before he started getting into the extremes, but he thought that it was better to have a plan of action than to just run around blindly like he did a while ago.

He decided to start with the most simple, and probably one of the first things he should have done when he arrived here. He was going to climb a tree and look around. Deep down he really hoped that when he climbed to the top of the tree, he would be able to see some lights off in the distance or something, but reality is often disappointing.

He looked around for the tallest tree he could find, and after examining what looked to be the tallest and sturdiest tree, he decided that this would be the perfect one.

Slowly and carefully, he began to climb to the top of the tree. He gripped each branch tightly so that he wouldn't slip, and kept his feet as close to the trunk as possible so his footholds wouldn't break beneath him. Then finally he approached the top, and his head popped out from beneath the canopy.

His fears came true.

Around him was a perfectly flat canopy of evergreens, dark as the ground below. Not a semblance of light was visible from above, whether that being due to there being none, or because of the thickness of the canopy, he would probably never find out.

As he looked all around him, he finally looked to his right, which happened to be the very tip of the tree he had climbed.

He came face to face with a bird, and not a little friendly looking bird. His face was mere centimeters away from the gigantic mangy crow's face. The bird opened its large beak and released an ear piercing:

CAAAW

Right into the Prince's unprotected face.

…

On the forest floor a strangely humanoid silhouette sped through the underbrush, glancing behind over their shoulder every so often. They quickly rocketed through the forest, navigating over, under, and between any obstacle on its path. After a while, the silhouette began to slow down, finally stopping to rest beneath a giant tree.

"Haha!" exclaimed the silhouette in an abrasive masculine voice.

"Finally! I've escaped that wrecked place!" it exclaimed.

Suddenly, the deafening cry of a bird echoed above him, immediately followed by a gigantic human slamming into the ground in front of the silhouette.

BAM!