Forest Dwellers

After killing the terrifying beast and resting for a bit, he was feeling quite refreshed. An aspect of his mystical armor allowed him to siphon a portion of the Soul Aether from whatever he killed. He'd realized this only after reaching this dreadful forest.

Leto began to reminisce over his time in the North. It was peaceful, he was fed, warm, and Mara was there, she was the only person besides Halia who had ever shown him genuine warmth. He respected her. He still wasn't exactly sure what she did whilst she wasn't at the manor or the border, which was quite often, but he knew she was an important figure in society. There would always be people visiting the manor and striking deals with her confidants, others sending gifts, invitations, and much more.

And Halia's grave was there.

Nearly every day, Leto would visit her grave and simply sit there, just being near her filled him with warmth as he thought about her warm hands, soft voice, and sisterly love. Many other emotions were also prominent whilst there, hate, regret, longing.

'I should get some sleep.'

With that, he cooked some meat he harvested from the large beast and went to sleep. During the night, it was quite dangerous. There were two main types of abominations in the forest, ones who ruled the day, and those who ruled the night. The night beasts were much more harrowing than most day beasts, many were imperceptible, blending in with the dark ambience that permeated the night.

But, there was a simple trick to keep them at bay which Leto recently found out. Simply kill one of the abominations that ruled the forest. These creatures, such as the one lying dead behind Leto, were truly terrifying. There wasn't much of those such beasts, the few who grew powerful enough to rule night and day mostly fought each other, but oddly enough, rarely killed each other. It was as if they did it for sport, sizing each other up every now and them.

There were many being in the forest that Leto refused to fight due to either gap in strength or their insidious abilities. Some are able to completely hide their presence, some burrow in the ground and strike with sharp tendrils, some mimic other creatures or wildlife, and some have no corporeal body and instead are incarnations of elements, such as an elusive flame, flowing water, or whispering wind.

By morning, Leto's Aether was restored and he felt well rested. He harvested a bit more of the Jackals meat, the creature he'd killed the previous night, and started out once again.

Leto had been trying to find anything that could help him out of this dreadful forest. After fighting the Behemoth at the Northern Border, Leto was severely injured. His arm was right arm was broken, his left thigh had a large stick piercing through it, and he sustained a terrible concussion.

He ended up passing out and when he awoke, he was being dragged away by a small group of fiendish monsters whose bodies were partially decayed. On the parts that were still flimsy hanging to their bones, dirty fur and rough skin hung, they carried crude weapons made of stone and wood. Leto was still in too much pain to fight and his head was spinning due to the concussion. As he was being dragged through the mud, his head was bouncing off the stones protruding from the ground, causing even more pain, and he passed out again.

When he next awoke, he was in a dark cave with heavy air. There were piles of bones, dead creatures, and a few who were hardly alive all around him. The vile creatures were closer to the exit and there was the warm glow of a fire ahead. Eventually, one walked back to where its stash was and noticed Leto attempting to get the large stick out of his leg. The walking corpse let out a grating screech and rushed toward Leto, with a stone hatchet in hand. Leto channeled his Soul Aether into his armor to reinforce the area where the creature aimed and absorbed the hit, it still hurt nonetheless.

Now that the corpse was within reach, Leto was able to manifest a dagger. As fast as Leto could move his battered body, he plunged the foot long freezing blade through the beasts head. It's body froze, convulsed, and swung its hatched in a slow and deranged manner. As it's weakened body swung left and right, it lost hold of the hatchet and it flew to the wall of the cave, clattering loudly.

The monsters body fell to the ground and then… caught fire?

'Wha- what? I- I'm using ice… how?'

The other animated corpses were attracted to the clattering and began to make their way to Leto, four of them. Leto began to overuse his distorted mind and his headache was piercing his thoughts. He decided to summon a light a light and sturdy claymore instead, extending his reach nearly 6 feet. Since he was heavily injured and the strength in his arms was diminished, he needed the extra reach. As the four carcasses appeared, Leto managed to get to his feet with a little help from his sword.

The goblin-like corpses weren't tall, only about 3 feet in height, but they were fast… though Leto was still faster, even in this weakened state. After all, he trained as a boy and to make up for lack of size and strength, he needed speed, a lot of it. Luckily, the four goblins rushed toward him at the same time, and in one long, wide swing of his sword, Leto was able to slash across their faces, severing the top half of their empty craniums.

After that, they too fell to the floor and caught fire.

Leto was too tired and injured to do anything else so he simply made his way toward the fire - the one made by the goblins when they were alive, not their burning bodies - and lay down to rest.

Coincidentally, his birthday was that same day, he'd turned 13. And now exactly four years later, he was celebrating his birthday by surviving another day in the dreadful forest, eating the spoils of battle with the various abominable creatures, and looking for an exit to this damned place.