Kael and Serin burst out of the cave, the swarm of blighted insects screeching behind them.
Upon checking their details, he shuddered at the thought of getting caught by them; each of them was a blighted beast, and there were at least over a hundred of them—each as big as a bat.
Each of them possessed a stinger that was nearly half an inch in length.
Their ability was [mind drag]; Kael was sure he didn't want to wait around to find out what it was exactly.
"What exactly do those creatures do?"
"You see those dreadfully long stingers? A single sting makes your mind blur, which gives them enough time to sting you to death without you being able to fight back.
If you're not in a team, then you're dead."
Terror crept up Kael's spine as he heard her.
"Have you experienced it before? You seem quite knowledgeable about them."
I encountered them once back in Lumeryth; one of my friends was surrounded by them.
It took us a few minutes to save him, but in that time he was severely wounded, and his mental blur lasted for about a week.
'Quite terrifying indeed.'
He was going to ask Nyx to hunt a few to boost his stats, but that wasn't happening anymore.
It was too big a risk for such little reward.
As they reached the edge of the cave, the pair had to come to a halt.
The cave is rather high up in the mountain, so even for an awakened person, jumping down would lead to more than just a few broken bones.
Serin turned to him.
"Let's jump, I can heal us after—"
Before she finished her statement, Kael summoned his cloak.
The girl was visibly surprised but tried to manage her expression.
"What a lovely cloak, but it won't do much for us because the wind at this altitude is rather treacherous."
Kael smiled a bit.
"Who said anything about a free fall?"
Without wasting a moment, he grabbed the bewildered girl by her thin waist, wrapped the oversized cloak around himself, and leaped off the edge just in time.
The creatures didn't chase them any further.
"They've stopped following us. Is that normal?"
They were jumping from a cave a few thousand feet tall.
After falling about a quarter of the distance, the cloak unwrapped and then rewrapped around Kael's shoulders with one end as he adjusted to hold the serin properly, who was still rather surprised by the turn of events.
The trusty cloak spread its other end to trap air and maintain a slow but steady descent.
"That's a rather convenient armament."
Kael smiled as he looked away in the distance.
He looked calm, but he was still scanning the area to confirm if they were safe.
"Yes, it really is.
I got it during my first challenge."
"First challenge? What's that?"
He kept looking around just to be sure, just as he was about to repeat his previous question—he saw something that made his blood freeze in his veins.
His breathe felt labored as if a mountain suddenly rested on his lungs—fear crept his body slowly.
A primal fear he hadn't experienced in a long time.
Though at a distance, he spotted a group of
'What is this heaviness I'm feeling now? It's just a pack of shadow hounds.
I've seen worse things in my short life.'
Even with his half-hearted determination, the creeping fear just wouldn't go away.
The only difference this time was that the size of this pack was massive.
More than twice the size of the one he fought in the past.
His body was trembling silently as he quietly clenched his fists and gritted his teeth tightly.
Serin noticed this shift in behavior and suddenly became worried about her newfound partner.
"Kael, what's wrong?
You're shaking."
She looked in the direction Kael was looking, and immediately the next sentence fell dead in her lungs.
"I see.
That's a lot of hounds alright, but don't worry—with me here, we'll at least have enough time to escape."
"That's not the issue.
I've faced before; they're the reason I ended up in that state you found me in.
It was difficult to say the least; they were definitely a force to be reckoned with, but I still killed them all.
But for some reason, I feel an unexplainable fear in my chest right now."
He hadn't felt anything like this in a very long time.
Serin looked away and down at their landing spot, not knowing what to say to him; the spot looked safe enough.
She understood very well what he was saying; she had also experienced such fears when she arrived.
It wasn't the kind of fear caused by an overwhelming foe; it was the kind that was caused by a scar—the effect wasn't something that could just be shaken off by willpower, and she more than anyone understood that very well.
"You see, Kael, that's something called trauma, and it's something I understand very well.
To most, what you fear most is something that wouldn't even faze them.
But everyone has something deep down that they fear, something that paralyzes them.
And the only way to get over that feeling is closure."
They had safely landed at the feet of the mountain; Kael was rather lost in lost for a bit while Serin looked around once more just to be sure of their safety.
"Trauma? So that's what it is."
He hadn't realized that his encounter with the hounds inflicted wounds beyond the physical.
Serin was done scouting and returned to his side.
"This area's safe for now; it'll probably take less than half a day at least at their current speed to reach this mountain."
She realized that this piece of information didn't reach the young man.
"You know, when I first fell into this realm, I was already an ascended, and I still met creatures that gave me a very hard time.
'Ascended?
I guess she's even stronger than i thought.'
One time I ran into a particularly nasty creature, an umbra viper.
Its abilities completely countered all of mine; there couldn't have been a worse match.
I nearly died that day; its venom was one of the reasons I started becoming corrupted.
It corrupted my core slowly, and it felt like I was losing grip on my sanity with each passing minute.
Unlike you, I didn't even win the fight—I passed out mid-battle, and an inhabitant of the realm saved me and reduced the effects of the corruption.
Ever since, I have been terrified of those creatures, but I still have to fight them again and again because there are many of them around these parts.
I had to find my closure mid-battle because they definitely didn't wait for me.
I'm still a bit scared of them to be honest, but I'd still fight them either way—because I know that at the end of the day, I want just one thing.
To survive."
Serin looked up at the starless sky; a chilly wind blew past them, taking some debris along with it.
"If it makes you feel any better, it doesn't matter if you're ready or not—you'll have to fight them either way."
Kael looked at the gentle elf with a smile spread across his face.
"Wow, thank you for that uplifting conclusion."
She smiled back at him.
"You're welcome."
"Well, now that the sorry period is over, it's time to hunt some hounds."
He raised his hand and folded it into a fist and stretched it out to her.
Serin tilted her head slightly and stood there motionless for a few seconds, not sure what it meant.
It wasn't until it finally dawned on him that she wasn't from earth, so she wasn't familiar with slang and gestures.
The once tense and worrying atmosphere turned awkward as Kael cleared his throat.
"Where I come from, we do a fist bump to raise morale."
"Oh, that's what it was."
They spent a few seconds in an awkward silence until Kael spoke again.
"But why do we even have to go through them in the first place? My main goal is to get out of this realm, and I'm sure yours is the same."
Serin stood in silence.
"Or is there something else I don't know?"
There was a brief period of silence; the sound of the stale wind could be heard—filling the calm.
Although he asked that, Kael knew there must be a reason she was still here.
"You're right, it would be better in a way if we avoided the fight altogether; it won't be an easy one.
I'm sure you've wondered why I've been trapped in here for so long."
I once heard that the shadow realm is more of a prison realm, but I don't really know much about this place or its inhabitants.
Hell, I don't even fully understand how gates truly work in the first place."
Serin looked at him, with surprise clearly written on her face.
"You really don't know anything about the gates?"
"Not really, I know a bit about it—just not much."
She took a deep breath before replying.
"That means there's quite a lot for us to talk about."
She looked over the mountains in the direction of the approaching pack.
"Well, that'll have to wait until after we survive this fight.
Just know that beyond that horde of hounds, there's a civilization in this realm that we need to reach to get to the gate I know about."
Kael also looked in the same direction and smiled.
"Hmm, sounds exciting."
They paused and stared at the silence for a while.
"By the way, since it's going rather 'rough' in a while, you should consider wearing some armor."
Kael sighed as he shook his head.
"Unfortunately, I don't have one.
I haven't encountered that many beasts since I awakened."
He paused for a bit before continuing.
"Well, it's not too strange for a non-combatant who just completed his first spell challenge."
Serin suddenly raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, you've mentioned something about a challenge twice now; what is that?"
This question caught Kael by surprise, but he still kept his calm before responding to her question.
Most people on earth knew about the existence of other species beyond the gates, but only certain groups had actually met these people.
And information about the meetings has never been revealed to the public; before, most never considered the nature of these people and how their abilities fared in comparison to humans.
Even he hadn't thought about it.
'This is intriguing.'
He turned to the confused girl and waited a few seconds before responding.
"Before I answer that question, do you know about something called the system?"
"No."
She answered back almost immediately.
'I see.'
There was also the possibility that the elves had not known about the system until they met other species.
There was an even more absurd one, but still with a slim possibility: that humans were the only species who had the system.
If so, then it filled his mind with questions about a few things.
'First, let's clarify as much as possible.'
"Serin, have the elves ever been in contact with the other realms before?"
The question seemed to have puzzled the girl a bit.
"Yeah, I've been to two others actually.
The first one I went to was when I was very young; I went with my parents for a council meeting.
It was Thal'mora (the sea realm); it was very amazing.
I went on my own a few more times as I got older.
The second was Nocturnis (Vampire realm), that was a rather weird experience, but—
Kael suddenly raised his hand to signal her to stop talking.
"What's wrong, Kael? I was just getting to a good part of my story, you know."
As she kept talking, Kael noticed something at the base of one of the rocks behind her.
It was similar to something he knew from Earth, and if he was right – would greatly help them in their upcoming fight.
Seeing him walk towards the rocks, Serin stops talking and follows him.
"Where are you going to?"
"Just need to check something.
If I do find something useful, this fight just might tip in our favor."