Two figures streak through the muted and dark grey realm of shadows, their figures crashes into each other.
Only a muffled plop emerging from their destructive impact, they enter into a state of free-fall, kicking and clawing at each other.
With the smaller figure aiming at escaping more than attacking as opposed to its imposing counterpart.
Rain gulps for air, kicking the treant and peeling his figure out of its embrace, a wooden splinter jutting out of his thigh.
His mouth opens to scream, yet no sound emerged.
He'd miscalculated.
He wasn't suppossed to jump in after the treant but scurry away and let the realm of shadow do its job in killing his prey.
Only to be forced to jump in lest he get impaled, then having an astoundishing realisation that the disorienting effect of the shadow realm wasn't as pronounced to treants as it was to other humanoids.
And that wasn't the end of it.
He was now forced to fight here dispite the odds, since shifting back to the origin plane would screw him over.
It would be courting death.
The treant would recover before he could capitalize on its disorientation.
Now he had to grit his teeth and hold on–- hoping for the better.
Guh!
The treant delivers a blow to his stomach, knocking out the breath he'd been holding.
Rain swings his uninjured leg, counterattacking with a knee to the treant's solar plexus.
His knee slam showed minimal results, yet still sending a painful throb up his knee as it struct the wooden chest.
*Fuck!*
Shik.
He strikes with his dagger, barely denting the treant's wooden armour.
Boom.
A muffled boom crackles, sending the clutched dagger out of his grip, disarming him.
Fortunately, the blow sent him flying through the expanse of darkness, making distance so that the follow up strike missed.
Urrgh.
Rain grunts, swiming away from the treant.
Or rather, he attempts to–- a winding vine slithers akin to a serpent, coiling around his ankle and dragging him back.
His figure gets tugged back towards the treant waiting, its other limb transformed into a spike.
*Fuck!*
He curses, his fingers fumbling, attempting to dislodge the crossbow secured behind his back.
He comes face to face, streaking towards the spiked limb.
Twack!
A muted crossbow twack sends a bolt streaking into the treant's face.
Skreech.
The treant erupts in erratic and frantic motion, twisting and thrashing.
Rain reigns in the momentum, pivoting as his figure streaks, he turns, his leather armor grazing the spiked limb.
Splinters fly, whizzing as they streaked through the expanse of muted colours.
Guh.
Rain grunts, his body spinning and wrapping his thigh around the shoulders of the treant.
His wrist twists, one had grabbing the treant's head whilst the other delivered a barrage of dagger strikes to the treant's neck.
His sight blurs, the barrage halts, his consciousness gets plunged into darkness.
****
Moments later, the shadows churn and spit out two figures.
They both crash into the moist earth, the impact throwing them up akin to ragdolls, a head streaks making an arc across the air, green sap spewing from its gnarly severed neck.
The two silhouette hit the ground, unmoving.
~Silence~
Hours pass before a gurgling cough sounds within the expanse of the jungle.
The incessant chimes of the system woke Rain up long before his body could acclimatize.
[Ding! Soul fragment obtained.]
[Ding! New title gained...]
[Ding! Achievement earned.]
[Ding! Conditions met.]
[...]
[Initializing]
[Shading process beginning...]
[...]
[You have gained a new shade!]
Rain coughs, spitting out globules of blood clots and pieces of flesh.
He ignores the chimes, dismissing the notifications.
At the current moment, his body was in shambles–- painful throbs pulsating all over his figure. It was only through sheer will that he was standing at this moment.
*Istch!*
He winces, his fingers running above the wooden spike jutting out of his thigh.
Urgh.
He grunts, his fingers grazed the spike, sending nerve- wracking pain up his spine.
He exhales, steeling his resolve before turning his head and biting his cloak.
Skrrch.
A sickening squelch rents the air.
Urgh.
He lets out a muffled grunt, the wooden spike dislodging from his thigh.
His fingers tremble as he reaches for a green vial, biting its cork and pulling, opening it with a pop.
Shhh.
His flesh sizzles as the green liquid burns through his flesh, a pungent and noxious fume rising, coupled with the smell of roasted pork.
Urgh.
[Ding! You have been poisoned]
Rain ignores the prompt, his fingers clutching another vial, opens the cork and chugs its contents.
He exhales, a warm feeling surging through his body.
He rests his back against a tree trunk, wincing with every movement.
His eyes darts around, locking in on the headless treant, his gaze sticks to it for a while before sweeping through the foliage, straining with the creeping darkness.
There.
He limps, grunting as he made way for the head, he leans over– a nerve wracking pain shooting through his figure.
His jaws grit as he steels his resolve and picks up the head.
Rain recoils when he notices the anguished expression of the treant head.
He turns his back, wincing and jumping into the shadows.
His silhouette streaks and flickers again and again shuttling through the jungle in unfathomable speed.
He sputters, crashing into the oak that made his burrow home.
"Kai." His hoarse and weary voice calls.
His call gets no response.
He hurls the treant head into the burrow entrance– it crashes and thuds as it falls into the lair down below.
Rain drops with a thud, crawling and squeezing through the narrow entrance.
After what felt like eternity, he makes it into the dark expanse of his lair, blindly crawling towards where his makeshift straw bed was suppossed to be.
Shhkh
The grass and straw that made his bed rustle and ruffles under his weight.
"Kai?" He calls again, still getting no response.
"Kai."
His hoarse voice calls, slowly fading as the darkness took him into its embrace.