Drained
Flying above the forest, Sera was looking at the map of the area, trying to find the road she had been on.
'Shit, I'm 5 kilometers away and my essence is running low, I can't keep my transformation up for that long.'
She flew towards the road anyway but two more Fiends attacked her. She couldn't even summon the Insatiable Hunger anymore, so had to go hand to hand.
"Let's go you bastards."
Sera moved towards the first trying to grab its leg, but the monster easily dodged it and in the meantime the second managed to cut the back of her right thigh.
"Agh... I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart."
Making good on her promise she increased her speed and tackled the second bat, then felt a piercing pain at her clavicle. The beast was draining her blood, but that didn't stop Sera to start punching and ripping her foe until it no longer moved.
"You have killed a Dreamers Fiend, a Rotten of the 1st Tier! Your Soul is Nourished! You received..."
Sera ignored the rest when she realized something. She was falling, her essence finally ran out and her wings disintegrated. Sera tried to use the bat to cushion her fall, but after hitting the first branches of the trees, she lost hold of it. Hitting every branch possible and scraping her whole body in the process she finally fell to the ground.
"Ahh... So painful..."
But the world didn't give her time for self pity. From above, the sound of breaking branches could be heard. Sera looked up and began to rise from the ground slowly. She didn't care about the sounds above her and began to run, not caring about the direction.
After a good 5 minutes of sprinting she was panting, all she wanted to do was lay down and sleep. It became very clear that the bat can somehow track her.
'It's probably the blood I need to cover it up.'
Her bleeding thankfully stopped, but after the massacre and because of her own wounds she was covered in it. Looking at the muddy ground she thought: 'This will do.' And began putting it on every inch of her body.
Sera started running again. And began to lose her adversary, but it could still follow her. Then it hit her, the creature was blind so it had to rely on its other senses to find prey.
'It's tracking the sounds I make!'
Sera immediately looked around and found a hollowed out tree. She could fit in it albeit very awkwardly. While hiding she heard the sound of wings getting closer. Covering her mouth and holding her breath she waited.
A minute goes by, then another but the sounds were not coming closer. After two more minutes her head was red as a tomato and she was dying to take a breath. Another minute passes and she couldn't take it anymore and begins coughing for air.
'Fuck, it probably heard that! Wait when did the sound of wings stopped?'
Indeed there was no sound of breaking branches or wings coming in her direction. Sera breathed a sigh of relief.
'That was too close for comfort.'
She began to climb out but realized something.
'Wouldn't it be safer to stay here until my essence is replenished? Speaking of essence.'
"Watch how long does it take for essence to fully replenish?"
"Angel Monarch! It takes approximately 4 hours for a Rank 1 Evolved!"
'4 hours?! I'm definitely staying here until then.'
With that she made herself comfortable as much as she could and opened her status window.
Life Essence Absorbed: 110/1000
'12 more Life Essence? Pretty good.'
Then she looked down at the list of items and a grin appeared on her face.
It read: Items:
Type: Clothing
Description: The Dream Weaver was worshipped by a group of people once. But she eventually succumbed to Madness and with her fell the worshipper. They became her eternal servants. The only thing left behind was this ritual clothing.
'This 'Madness' again, what is it? Seems like many powerful things fall for it and become monsters... Does it have something to do with the state of the world?'
A shiver went through her and she quickly dismissed these thoughts. Sera had a feeling that the answers will come in time anyway. So instead she continued reading.
Attribute: The wearer has enhanced hearing and some protection for attacks targeting the mind. Also, it provides immunity against dreamspells.
'Well, that would've been nice to get a couple of hours earlier.'
Then she looked down at herself and sighed.
'At least its a clothing type item. I really needed one of those, even though it would've been kind of funny to arrive at Castleburg naked and covered in blood, the poor guards at the gate would freak out so much.'
Thinking of that scene she chuckled.
'But travelling 300 kilometers naked wouldn't be as much fun. And it would be very cold in the air.'
Sera wanted to summon the Garb to see how it looked, but her essence didn't let her.
Her mind was starting to succumb to exhaustion and her eyes began closing.
'No, not yet! I still have to figure out where I am and how do I get to Havel from here.'
She opened her map and looked at her current position.
'Seems like I ran southwest, it's not too bad just a couple more kilometers to the road. Okay, now I know which direction to go in the morning. I guess there is nothing left to do but wait and sleep.'
With that she closed her eyes and in a couple of seconds was already sleeping. She didn't care if some predator found her or not. With no energy left to fight them, they would kill her in a battle anyway. The only thing she could do was take a chance, go to sleep and face the tomorrow with a clear mind.