Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia - Chapter 165 - Dread.
🕑 Added 2024-08-31 14:09:38 +0000 UTCThey grouped there, gazing into the soulless, blank, carved eyes of the statue which peered around the tree in front of them. Ulric couldn’t move. The sounds of heaving breaths and the smell of sweat were the only things that registered in his mind.
Bron had lost his confidence. He was shaken, no doubt about that, but still functioning.
Too bad all that confidence disappeared when he looked back over his shoulder. Behind them, the original statue of the man was slinking forward, crouched—Prowling. He jerked, spinning around fully to face his foe, but not having the tools, skills, or abilities to fight back.
Ulric stumbled in a panic as he twisted and turned. The sound of ruffling leaves surrounding their small group sounded like a hammer hitting an anvil; loud, thunderous, and edging toward completion. With a blink, another set of solid stone eyes peered around a separate tree, much lower than the other. With a finely carved ponytail and dainty hands which clasped the gnarled bark, this stone child gazed upon them with its unnerving eyes. He tore his gaze away, quickly scanning for others. Finding several sets of eyes peeking around trees.
He had heard of monsters, everyone had, but putting words to reality was oftentimes hard. Not all the monstrous statues were human in look. There was one in particular; clearly a goblin going by the descriptions he’d been told about since his childhood. It was grotesque, sending his stomach roiling at the mere sight. Even carved from stone, Ulric could make out its bumpy warty skin, big oval eyes, long pointed ears, and its stretched, gaping, needle toothed maw stretched wide in a sickening smile.
The sound of Eddy’s whimpering drew him out of his panicked daze. “Wh—What do we do? Why aren’t they killing us?”
He turned back to the child statue, finding it standing several feet away, frozen in the process of walking towards him. A mocking, evil smile carved upon its face.
He soiled himself as he lay knelt there on the ground—At his resting place.
“I—I can’t see th—them move. They only move when you can’t see them?!” Bron stuttered, but what he said was factual. He also hadn’t seen them move.
Ulric could hear Eddy hyperventilating behind him, but he was too afraid to turn around and see what was happening.
“We just gotta stay here and watch them. Just like this, like a triangle.” Ulric whispered, afraid that his raised voice would draw others near.
“I—I can’t fucking do this! I’m sorry!” Eddy’s crazed announcement, then the thudding of heavy, frantic, sprinting footsteps was the cold dagger that sealed he and Bron’s fate.
“YOU FUCKING COWARD!” Bron screamed, but didn’t turn away from the statues.
Ulric shakily stood up then slid his body around to place his back against Bron’s. “Maybe he will get us help…”
“HE’S GOING TO GET US FUCKING KILLED!” Bron, in his outrage, turned to Ulric.
Not the brightest move, as white hot pain and the loss of strength to his left leg caused him to collapsed, knocking Ulric over in the process.
Thankfully, Ulric only lost his eye sight for a moment, but when he looked back up. The statues had come closer. Some were only a few feet away at this point. With the child being the closest. “Bron! What happened?!”
Bron had quickly rectified his actions, rolling over to face his attacker. In front of him, the prowling man had his head lowered and tilted to the side like some animal. It had Bron’s left calf’s flesh, blood, and muscle dangling from its stoney jaws. Bron couldn’t even risk looking down lower to his own leg, but seeing his calf in front of him let him know what had happened. In his periphery, another unseen statue had taken a few steps further as well. Which was that of a very tall, Elven female.
It was a good thing the emotional cocktail of fear and adrenaline masked the, what was surely, overwhelming pain. If Bron blacked out or clenched his eyes, they would both be done for.
“Eddy will get help… He’ll get help…” Bron quickly backtracked on his prior statement, but Ulric couldn’t help but feel like they were prolonging the inevitable.
—-------------------------------------------------
One thing was for sure, having a skill for something did not mean you were good at it. You still needed to practice the skill and apply the knowledge of the craft or action while using it. Lee’s previous crash course for tracking wasn’t very sufficient, and the skill was trying to help him, but he wasn’t doing a very good job.
He’d lost the previously very obvious tracks about thirty seconds after entering the forest. He’d backtracked, then retraced his steps several times and was just now getting into the hang of things.
Stealth was a much easier to use skill, as hiding was something that everyone knew how to do at some level. He never would have thought that the skills of Hide and Seek would come into real world applications, but lo and behold… it did.
It’d only been ten minutes since he started ‘hunting’ his quarry, and he was just getting into the groove of things, when the panicked breaths, snapping of branches, and rustling of leaves came towards him. He slunk behind a nearby tree and waited for whatever was coming.
To his surprise, it was one of the boys, and by the looks of things, something terrible had happened. Abandoning stealth, Lee swung around the tree and stepped into the young man’s path. The relief which poured over Eddy’s face was both alarming and worrying. A weird stranger appearing before you with rainbow swirling eyes in the middle of a forest wasn’t something to be relieved about. “What happened?” Lee asked with a raised voice of concern.
Eddy stopped in front of him, turning sideways to point a shaky finger back the way he came. The matter of his eyes wasn't important at the moment. “Mo—Monsters! They were everywhere! Hu—hunting us! Statues!”
Lee’s mind blanked. “Statues? In the form of a person or monsters? Were they moving?” Lee asked, grabbing the young man by the shoulders and looking him in the eyes.
Eddy frantically nodded. “We never saw them move, but they did! Only when unseen!”
Well, shit. Lee thought. His little escapade into the forest to watch over some kids ended up being needed after all. “Where are the other two? Bron and Ulric?”
Eddy shifted his eyes and patted down his now dirty clothes. “They got trapped between a group of em, I was running to get help.”
While not a genius, Lee could see through that facade of heroism. The boy ran for his life and left them behind. A smart move, but foolish all the same.
You have been the target of a failed Ident—
Lee canceled the prompt, as it was just Eddy. He ignored the widening eyes of the boy as he asked for information. “How far, and where are they? How many statues?”
Eddy, like a bucket with a leak, spilled all the information he needed. “Half a mile! Straight that way! There was, like, fucking four or five? Maybe more?”
“Take me to them,” Lee commanded, turning the boy’s shoulders around and shoving him forward.
“What the fuck!? No! I just esca—”
“You gonna live with yourself when your friends are dead because I couldn’t find them? You’re lucky I even saw your little group climb the wall. Lead me to them. Show them you didn’t just leave them to die.” Lee said as he continued pushing Eddy along. Eddy’s heels ground into the ground, creating divots as Lee’s measly baseline adult strength was more than the teens.
‘Fine! Hurry!” Eddy relaxed, took a few deep breaths, hyping himself up, then sprinted back the way they came. Lee followed along, his twenty dexterity showing its colors as he was at a light jog as Eddy was nearly full speed.
When they neared where Eddy said his friends were, he slowed and looked around. Lee stopped beside him and scanned around as well. Eddy, worry clear in his voice now, started rambling. “I don’t remember! I’m fucking lost!” He pulled at his hair as he twisted and turned.
Lee was calm, but also worried for the fate of the kids. Hopefully, they learned the trick of keeping them in their vision. Using his tracking skill, finding Eddy’s old footprints was easier than before. When you ran for your life, you made quite a track. Lee jogged ahead, eyes toward the ground. “This way!”
As Lee followed the path, he was surprised as a statue appeared before him. It was a human woman dressed in what he would call a simple set of clothes—a former house wife if he had to guess. It stood in front of him as he slowed to a stop. Its head was tilted, almost as if it was curious about him.
“Oh gods, it’s one of em! I told yo—”
Lee pointed a finger forward, releasing a hyper pressurized beam of water which crashed into the statue's chest. Flakes and stone chips crumbled downwards, the unrelenting, never-ending pressure doing its job on the hard and durable stone. He couldn’t afford to be throwing Spears of Eternity willy-nilly, as it cost way too much mana to cast rapidly. Depth Pressure would have to do, but it was proving to be slow.
Eddy stared at the act of magic with a mouth agape. “Who the fuck are you?”
“A mage.” Lee ignored the shocked look as he narrowed his eyes at the statue. He couldn’t afford to sit here and waste what was turning out to be a solid ten minute process to shatter this thing.
Then, after a minute as he had carved half way through its chest, he had an idea. “Eddy, close your eyes.”
“Why?” Eddy asked, fear clear in his shaky voice.
“Because I said so. Now, close your eyes. Open them when I tell you too.” Lee’s eyes were locked onto the statue, so he couldn’t make sure the kids' eyes were closed. “They closed?”
“Yes! They’re fucking closed!” Eddy spat, obviously not liking not being able to see the monster in front of him.
Then, Lee closed his eyes for one second.
While he couldn’t see, he could feel. He was aware of what he was hitting. All thanks to a skill he had taken for granted and never really used—Spacial Spell.
He felt as his pressurized beam of water cut through the monster before him like a hot knife through butter as soon as no eyes were upon it. But, strangely enough, no screaming, pain induced growls, nothing… could be heard. Lee wagged his finger, sending the beam around, cutting up the flesh of the unseen statue, before opening his eyes.
Oh, he’d killed the thing. That was for sure.
“Eddy, it’s dead. But, turn around and watch our backs before you open your eyes. You don’t want to see the corpse.”
Eddy followed his order and did as was told, but as Lee walked forward to inspect the actual corpse, he heard Eddy hack, gag, and vomit. The kid had turned around.
It was a corpse of a woman, just… old, barely recognizable from the state of decay. The needle-like teeth remained, but her body was in several-different sloshing pieces from getting sliced by his spell. It was a grisly sight, but what was more interesting was using Identify.
Dread Replicant (Dead) - Level: 47
The Dread Replicants are ancient, malevolent entities that appear as lifeless statues when observed, blending seamlessly into their surroundings to deceive and trap their prey. In this petrified state, they remain undetected, luring the unsuspecting closer with a false sense of security. Once a gaze is averted, they spring to life, striking with terrifying speed. Upon killing their victim, they hollow out the body and use it as a grotesque vessel to reproduce, spreading their terror through the corpses they commandeer. To encounter a Dread Replicant is to face a fate worse than death—becoming an unwilling host to a relentless horror that knows no mercy and is ageless.
Well, that’s nightmare fuel. He thought as he looted the body, earning himself a few silver coins and nothing else.
“Okay, let’s hurry.” Lee said, and he and Eddy continued onward.
Comments
Wintermelody
Thanks for the Chapter
Magnuss
Thank you for the chapter
