206 CHPT 206: Bane of the Undead, Bane of her Existence.

Rikah lay strung up like freshly hunted game inside the confines of her own base. Her arms raised high above her head tied tightly to a cold metallic beam, the same for her legs. Her fellow Raiders were in similar positions. The position of sitting ducks.

In the beginning, she was terrified— sure of the fact that the man who chased her through the forest was the same man she'd killed the teammates of. The same man who stalked silently in the shadows of her nightmares.

But after being caught and strung up— forced to sit and listen to his inhuman ramblings while he hid from something outside, she was sure of it. He wasn't who she thought he was.

This man was openly fearful— and he spoke and snapped at himself like another voice pestered the inner refines of his consciousness. And the most glaring difference that told her she was being hunted by someone else was his motives.

He spoke of changing them— and using their newly transformed bodies as vessels….or carriers for the dog-like monsters he ordered around to hunt them.

The graphic detail and ice cold calculating tone his voice took before briefly exploding into pure predatory excitement made her break out in fearful cold sweats while tears fell from her eyes— only to be quickly soaked up by the black cloth over her eyes. He was mad.

She was too. She was known to have psychotic breaks when revealing herself to the groups of Heroes she'd posed as a member of, finding it hard to find her old self again after playing as someone else for so long. But the monster in the base with her was an entirely different kind of sick.

When the sounds of violence hit, her tears fell even harder.

With her vision canceled, she was forced to hear it all in a level of detail she wished she hadn't. She could hear it all. The tears, the rips, the snarls, the roars. It sounded like hell rose from beneath the earth and settled on the clearing outside.

Then, there was only silence. The monster in the base with them became erratic. The inner monologue of his mind filtered from his mouth like an uncontrollable stream of verbal vomit.

With a spam of the table, smashing through the wood effortlessly, he was gone. Making the promise to make them all like him when he returned.

The last thing she remembered was hearing the fabric of the tarp crinkling like a stiff sheet as the WereWolf passed through to step outside, letting in the horrifying scent of blood, death and burnt hair. She was begging to truly think hell had risen.

***

Minute after minute passed. Among the angered grunts and whines from her fellow Raiders, she could hear the distant sounds of speech outside. Then a snap, a gruesome sound of bones cracking that silenced the wild for miles.

Every Raider in the base quieted their attempts to escape for a fraction of a moment, and she listened. It felt like time froze in the dark room. The only thing splitting them from the outside was their own crafted thin animal skin walls— yet, it felt like an entirely different world was on the other side.

After a few seconds, they were sure something had died. Any number of things could've happened. But hope skewed Rikah's thoughts in one direction.

"H-He's dead." Rikah said confidently in a hushed whisper.

"You…think so?" A fellow Raider questioned in between heavy breaths brought from viciously trying to escape only seconds before.

Rikah turned her head, trying to listen again before speaking, "He was talking to someone or something before getting angry. Then… the snap. Now I can't hear anything…."

"W-w-what do you think killed him?" Another fear stricken Raider asked.

"I don't know….could be anything. Most likely a monster based on where we're at. Nobody knows this location— not even the Enforcer bastards. That means we're not safe yet. Focus on escaping and gathering all the loot you can after we can still make a turn in. Those of you that can't keep up are getting left behind. No heroics, you hear me? If any of you try some savior shit, I'll feed you to whatever's out there myself." Rikah demanded, her tone being lined with its usual flair of heartless authority in tandem with the rising sense of fear.

The Raiders shakily agreed verbally before everyone started working on freeing themselves from the cold metal beams that lay flat against their spines.

They worked intently, droplets of sweat hitting the floor like thick raindrops as they worked to free themselves in the presence of the unsettling silence that settled over the outside clearing.

As Rikah worked on trying to grind the rope over her hands against the beam, the hairs on the back of her neck rose. The whole time she worked while not knowing what the outside held, it felt like she was running in the dark with the monster's talons only inches from her back. It made her work faster, more frantically.

So frantically that the sound of something being thrown inside the base caught her so off guard that she shrieked like a damsel in distress and laid frozen against the beam for another stretch of silent seconds.

"What was that?!"

"I-I don't know I can't see! I can't see!"

"Is it in here? T-the one that killed him?!"

The Raiders began to panic, followed by their heads swiveling around the room trying to hear or somehow notice if something else was in the base with them.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Rikah snapped after gaining her composure.

The Raiders quieted but continued fighting to escape. Rikah ignored her binds for a moment and rubbed her head against her left shoulder, working to pull the blindfold down from her eyes.

After a few attempts, the blindfold fell from her left eye and the darkness of the cloth was swapped out for the darkness of the room— partially lit by the night outside.

"OH!— Shit!" She yelled fearfully after seeing what had been thrown inside the base.

It was the body of the man— monster who'd captured them. How he looked before and now were like night and day in comparison. His skin was stretched and fake looking— pulled over a structure from beneath that wasn't human— something larger, more animalistic and meant to be on four legs. His previously disheveled and bearded face was split down the middle to reveal a thick canine snout and his yellow eyes bulged, standing out against his inhuman black sclera like twin solar eclipses.

A pink doglike tongue hung from the wolfish jaws of the face that breached his own while saliva pooled on the ground. Upon further inspection, she noticed his neck was contorted in a horrible angle and the marking of a giant handprint was hard pressed into the thin sheet of skin over his neck.

"The snap…." She murmured fearfully while the Raiders around her begged and pleaded for her to explain what she was seeing.

Their voices were silent as the tarp door fluttered in the wind, drawing her attention immediately. All she saw outside was a trail of steam being taken by the wind.

The sight of it left her oddly uncomfortable— chilled, as the sounds of her fellow Raiders faded back into existence.

"Rik—"

"Quiet! It's a dead body. Focus on freeing yourselves. Hurry." She cut in.

And that's what they did. The odd throwing of the body stayed in her mind— made easier by the corpse laying at her feet while she worked the ropes.

It was tedious work, leaving her shoulder and leg muscles spent after moving them to grind the rope for so long.

"Anybody get their ropes cut yet?" She asked after noticing everyone had taken the briefest of breaks.

"Almost…"

"Ergn!…These damn ropes are made of steel."

"Damn ri—"

Shrrrip!

A pang of fear rippled up the Raiders spines in response to hearing the sound of their animal skinned tent wall being cut open behind them.

The cut must've been large because in place of their silence, the sounds of whooshing cold winds from outside broke in. Followed by the overwhelming smell of something gamey— animalistic.

"W-what….is…that?" A young male Raider with a bald head and dried blood covering his face asked almost soundlessly.

Rikah tried to turn her head but barely any movement was achievable. All she felt was a cold blast of the outside wind on her cheek and sweaty legs.

Adrenaline fueled her limbs as she felt the odd sensation of something else being inside the base with them. She couldn't see, smell or hear a thing— but there was no doubt in her mind that something was behind them. It terrified her— made her want to crawl up inside herself and play dead.

Snifff…..

Something big inhaled behind her— possibly. It could've been the wind outside— one of her Raiders. Anything. But inhaling was the sound it was most akin to.

"Dammit it!….Damn! Nononono….." She mumbled as the tears returned along with her strength and will to escape.

Snip!

Something to her right was cut but she couldn't see due to her eye still being covered on that side. By that time everyone was shouting and panicking while Rikah was the only one to see one of her Raiders running out of the base— freezing only for a second to notice the dead WereWolf in the doorway before hopping over him and stepping outside.

Snip!

Immediately after the tarp fell and masked the freed Raider's fleeting figure, another rope was sliced with ease. Another Raider was freed and left with no hesitation.

Snip!

Snip!

More Raiders freed in rapid succession until she stood alone in the base. And just like the others, there was no hesitation. A light tug on the ropes pulled her arms and legs against the steel beam before the ropes ripped and she fell to her knees covered in a cold sheen of sweat.

Fwoo!

She spun around to try and see who freed them, but there was nothing. Nothing but a trail of steam leading out of the giant hole cut in their wall. The cut had to be at least 8ft long.

The ominous trail of steam left her feeling like she hadn't escaped despite being freed. In a panic she surged to her feet, grabbed an arrow on the nearest table and blasted out of the building.

Woo—CK!

After ripping the tarp from the doorway as she dashed through, she tripped on something and feel face first into the grass.

"Eugh!….fuck." She said while she spit out grass and rose to her feet.

In front of her, the Raiders were heading towards the forest— trying to simply get away from the clearing that was littered with Gnoll corpses and odd spikes of wood that ripped from beneath the earth.

The sight made her question what she tripped over. With a hesitant glance, she checked to make sure she didn't just fall in Gnoll blood— a scent that would leave them hunted by Wolves for miles.

"Oh thank the gods…" She murmured after looking down and seeing a pile of low quality black leather armor scattered at her feet.

The brief sigh of relief she let out disappeared immediately in response to her blood freezing and throat squeezing closed tightly.

Beneath the armor lay two weapons. But only one mattered.

"…..White…s-stone….sword.."