5. SilverQuill Swamp Exam

It's been 4 days since the exam started Rhode and clarre made there a way to the deepest part of the swamp and found a huge cypress tree overlooking the majority of the exam grounds, they never encountered any of the other groups or the 3 boys that abandoned them at the beginning of the exam but could see smoke and at night flickering lights from fire, the cypress tree was surrounded by deep swamp waters filled with crustaceans and fish which rhode caught and prepared for clarre daily 'rhode you're so skilled and seem like your at home in this situation i'm glad i stuck with you i don't feel scared or in danger at all' rhode was glad to hear that come from clarre but he could sense something big was in these waters and would circle there tree daily it didn't have any bad pressure or bloodlust towards them but it was still an unknown possible threat to them if not careful.

rhode finished building his tree base and covered it in leaves and vines to blend in, incase of possible raids from monsters or other groups with the base completed rhode planned to head out and investigate the ruined cities in the area to find supplies and useful items and just to stretch out his body he was feeling caged up and needed to test out his now fully healed body, clarre was scared to leave the tree base, rhode explained he could be gone for an hour or until the exam ends and she would be left alone to any possible attack from the other groups or even monsters that have broken into the swamp, she quickly changed her mind and was thrilled to go with rhode to explore the overgrown terrifying ruins of a city.

rhode and clarre left the little safty they had when they left the deep overgrown part of the swamp to go exploring and scavenging in the surrounding area clarre was stuck to rhode like glue scared of every noise and shadow but rhode was excited to be out in the swamp exploring a new area with a friend hes never had this before in his life, the pair quickly came into view of the ruins where the 3 olympians walked into on the first day, 'rhode we shouldn't go in there arass has already tried to kill you just for being on the same team don't aggrevate them by going into there area we still have 10 days to go before we can leave' rhode understood her concern and agreed to go around that section and find a different part of the city to explore, the walked for another 30 minutes on the outskirt of the city looking for an area that looked relatively safe until rhode seen movement in the shadows of a broken store front, he advised clarre tostay down and don't move, he picked up a rock and threw it at an old vehicle wreckage the noise rang out through the city and after a moment the city became alive with movement, 100s of puppeteer zombies emerged from the shadows to investigate the sound.

rhode was intrigued he had never seen so many in one place but in his area the mercenary groups did daily clearings of potential puppeteer zombie areas, rhode went to tell clarre the plan of clearing them but clarre was frozen with fear this was the first time she had ever encountered any sort of creature besides animal pets rhode tried to snap her out of it but her gaze was set on the creatures and was to scared to make any movement incase it would alert them so rhode jumped up and walked towards them, rhode wasn't able to bring a weapon due to his mask being the item he selected to bring but he didn't need it he had killed many puppeteer zombies that wandered to close to the orphanage as he approached the horde he found a downed street sign that still had a chunk of cement attached to the bottom and the sign had weather damage giving it a rusty sharp edge almost like it was a war axe, rhode found it weird he knew it was meant to be heavy and have an uneven balance but it was like he was holding a perfectly balanced blade in his hand, after a few swings and twist he was comfortable to take on the puppeteer zombies, rhode has never been scared of them because they aren't an evil creature they are a corpes that been taken over by a parasitic worm that fuses to the brain of dead creatures and takes control of them they are slow and weak and have no real threat even if they bite you they can't infect you the are just referred to as a zombies due to being a reanimated corpse.

rhode began banging the sign axe on the ground to draw in the attention of the zombies they began shuffling towards him at a fast pace while snarling and grabbing towards the sound of the sign axe rhode swung the crude weapon and he expected the sign axe to get stuck in the creature but it glided through them like butter taking out multiple creatures at once he couldn't believe his own strength and damage he had just done, it lit a fire in him and he just started cutting down the creatures as if they were ants under a giants foot just waiting for their destruction without any hope, rhode finished the horde of over 200 puppeteer zombiers in less then half an hour the ones that still had the head intact were trying to crawl back towards the safety of the shadows of the building but rhode was dropping the cement end of the sign axe directly on top of the head finishing off the creature completely rhode turned to tell clarre that its now safe to come out but she now had a new face that made rhode studder, she was in awe, eyes sparkling and red faced she rushed to rhodes side and couldn't hide her excitement anymore, 'rhode you were absolutely amazing you were took those creatures down like they were nothing how are you so strong and stayed so calm I was frozen in place and you just walked up and cleared the area without fear' rhode was shocked to hear how excited she was especially over a defeat to such a weak and fragile creature but rhode was happy to have any praise given to him, the atmosphere quickly changed when clarre remembered that other teams could be in the area and she quickly tired to hide back in the bushes, rhode laughed 'clarre no one is in this area if they were they would have cleared out the zombies and explored the area must be some good things in this area that horde would have been here for a long time so lets get searching before something else stumbles upon us' clarre had a gleam in her eyes and hurried to rhode to start exploring the area.

the duo searched every building within there area found all sorts of pre and post world items from food and water to homemade flares and trapping items, rhode even found a stash of make shift weapons from daggers to clubs but one set caught his eye, a pair of knuckle duster trench knives the handle had a bear and wolf engraved on them and the blade had weird swirling pattern on it, the knuckle duster metal felt extremely strong and solid but it was such a light weapon like holding a pillow rhode kept the weapons and hid the rest back in the building he found it in he offered clarre a weapon but she was proud of her staff and its power, rhode was yet to see her fight anything but he didn't mind he was happy to have company that didn't hate him.

as they went to leave the area rhode could feel something staring at him again he turned to try and spot what it was but was nothing but a raven perched on a building they haven't been in it, rhode approached the building and looked at the bird its eyes were as white as snow this bird had a familiar feel to it but rhode ignored it and went into the building to look around, but it was surprisingly empty and clean, clarre walked into help look around as she walked in rhode heard something old about her foot steps, 'rhode why are you staring at my feet... you aren't one of those creeps wholoves little girls feet are you' even though rhode wore a mask clarre could tell that rhode pulled a very disgusted look at her, ' no clarre when you walked in I could hear something odd about the floor it wasn't solid where you stepped and something might be under it' they both began trying to pull up the floorboards clarre tried to gently remove it, she got all red faced and flustered trying to move it, rhode just punched through the floor and removed the debris and found a locked wooden box but it had weird symbols on the lock the symbol looked like 3 triangles interlocking with each other rhode and clarre were confused but took the box and put it with the rest of the items they found today and figured it would be best to leave for the swamp as they left the building they seen that the sun was setting fast and they still had to get back to the swamp before something actually dangerous showed up as they walked around the corner to where the corpse of the puppeteer zombies were they heard a crunching and snapping sound and came into view of a giant creature eating the corpse it had long arms and long legs with long boney fingers and toes was extremely tall and skinny and had a mishappen head it didn't have eyes but weird looking horns were coming through where the eyes should have been and had a mouth full of jagged broken teeth clarre didn't see it and asked rhode why he stopped walking he quickly grabbed her mouth and pushed her to the corner of the wall as he did the creature was already in the spot where clarre had made noises its lightning reflexes showed that this creature adampted well with no eyes and was nothing like the puppeteer zombies the creature felt around the area and then made a sound so horrifying it brought rhode to a cold sweat the sound it made was a mimic of screaming children but it had a distorted grim pitch to it, the creature eventually went back to the corpse and grabbed 2 as it disappeared into the near by swampland, before clarre could say anything rhode picked her and the items up and ran, he ran to the swamp and didn't look back not until he knew he was gonna be safe and with the sun setting fast he knew that he was in for a rough trip back to basecamp.