[The Whispering Forest – Day Two of the Journey]
The "Whispering Forest" was no place for green trees or sunlight; it was the physical manifestation of a geological and biological nightmare. Here, beneath the massive stone ceiling that choked out both the sky and hope, the fungi reigned supreme. As the "day" began, the bioluminescent spores suspended in the air shifted from a pale blue to a sickly, rhythmic purple, bathing the cavern in a diseased glow that shivered with every cold draft exhaled by the cave's depths.
I sat in a crouched position in a dark corner, distanced from the rowdy soldiers. My chains did not hinder my observation; in this world, the eye is the first weapon, far more lethal than the blade. Beneath the light of a mushroom dangling from a jagged ledge, I spotted a "Cave Rat"—a monstrous creature with translucent skin and atrophied eyes. It was gnawing on a piece of glowing blue fungus with a focus born of lethal hunger.
I watched it for a few seconds. Suddenly, the rat convulsed. It wasn't a mere spasm; it was a total transformation in behavior. The small creature lunged at a solid rock in front of it, biting the stone with its fragile teeth until they shattered and blood sprayed from its jaw. It let out high-pitched shrieks, as if hallucinating dragons in its shattered mind, spinning in frantic circles before dropping dead—a carcass resulting from a total nervous system explosion.
"Blue Oblivion Powder..." I whispered in the depths of my mind. "Turning reality into a slaughterhouse of illusions." With a swift movement unnoticed by any but a master hunter, I reached out, gathered some spores from that fungus, crushed them into a small scrap of cloth, and tucked them into the folds of my battered armor. I didn't plan to kill them with poison; I planned to let the forest do the killing... by my hand.
[The Law of Silence]
As we ventured deeper into the woods, I began to notice a peculiar pattern. The soldiers marched with provocative noise, clashing their shields against rocks and laughing boisterously. At that moment, I saw a large flying insect pass near a grey, silken cocoon suspended from the ceiling; the cocoon remained still. However, when a soldier tripped and his sword let out a sharp metallic ring, I saw the threads of that cocoon "jerk" and tighten suddenly, like the strings of a musical instrument responding to a frequency.
"Shadow Spiders..." I concluded coldly. "This place is called the 'Whispering Forest' because its inhabitants have no eyes; they hear your heartbeat through the vibrations of the air. These soldiers are beating the drums of their own deaths with their voices."
"I'm starving! Curse this place!" roared Garim. His voice was thick, echoing through the stone hall as he kicked a supply crate that was empty save for some moldy bread. "This dried meat tastes like boot leather! We need warm meat!"
Captain Borjan turned toward me. He gestured with his whip, a malicious smirk playing on his lips. "You... Hound. They say you killed the 'Crushers' alone. Go find a catch worthy of the King's men. I want something fat, and if you return empty-handed, I'll chop off your arm and grill it for my soldiers."
I rose slowly, my metal chains letting out a cold clink against the stone. I bowed slightly in a perfectly acted display of submission. "As you command... my lord."
They unchained me from the main rock but kept the shackles on my wrists, tethering the end of the long chain to Garim's belt. "Move ahead," Garim snarled, yanking the chain violently. "I hold your leash today. Show us your beastly hunting skills, freak."
[The Encounter: The Sulfur Beetle]
We pushed into the forest. I was in the lead, breathing in air tainted with sulfuric gases. After half an hour, I felt a strange pulse beneath the fungal soil. A pungent smell of sulfur filled the area. I stopped and signaled with one hand. Garim shoved me from behind. "Why have you stopped? Starting to tremble?"
At that moment, the ground exploded beneath us. A Giant Sulfur Beetle emerged—an armored beast with a black and yellow shell, its mandibles moving like steel shears, dripping a green fluid that dissolved the very rock.
"Kill it!" the soldiers shouted, retreating several steps and leaving me face-to-face with the monster, the chain still linking me to the terrified Garim.
I didn't use the $Eyes\ of\ Sin$. The beetle lunged with its right mandible; I ducked beneath it with precision and leaped onto its armored back. The shell was searing hot. The beetle tried to shake me off, but I looped my chains around the junction between its head and body. I tightened the chain with every ounce of my muscle until I felt the fibers in my arms screaming.
"Craaaack!" The shell fractured. The beetle collapsed into a lifeless heap.
"Incredible..." one soldier whispered, but Garim stepped forward quickly to kick the carcass arrogantly. "Good work, dog. Now, carve out the soft parts and carry them on your back. Don't expect us to touch this filth."
I carved the meat and hoisted it over my bloodied shoulder. I walked with flies swarming my face and the weight crushing my spine, while Garim yanked the chain with provocative laughter and loud shouting. I smiled beneath my mask of pain; we were nearing the area teeming with those sensitive cocoons.
I saw the massive nest ahead of us. It hung from the ceiling directly over the narrow path we had to take. Garim was shouting and cursing, his voice bouncing off the walls and hitting the cocoons like waves of threat.
"Wait..." I said in a very low voice, stopping directly beneath the nest.
"What now? You want a break?" Garim roared, his voice causing a visible "shiver" in the silk threads above us. He raised his whip to strike me. "Move before I—"
He didn't finish his sentence. I saw the grey cocoon split open like a hungry maw. "Get down!" I shouted in a feigned act of panic, instantly hitting the ground.
Garim's sudden movement and his loud shout, which echoed through the void, were the detonators that set off the nest. A "rain" of small black spiders fell, and in their midst descended the Mother—a spider the size of a grown man.
The Mother landed directly on Garim. Before he could process what was happening, her fangs had sunk into his spinal cord through his neck. The venom paralyzed his vocal cords instantly; he couldn't even scream. He fell to the ground trembling, while hundreds of tiny spiders began to cover his armor and flesh.
The other two soldiers screamed in horror and began firing their crossbows blindly, which only increased the frenzy of the spiders as they responded to every sound and movement. "Help him! Do something, you freak!" one of them shouted as he retreated.
I stood up slowly. I looked at Garim, whose eyes were bulging with silent terror as the spiders tore at his face. I leaped toward the Mother spider and stabbed her in the center of her brain with my bone dagger. Then, I began killing the smaller spiders with swift, brutal movements to maintain my charade.
But it was too late. Garim had turned into a mass of dissolved flesh tainted with black venom. He died with his eyes wide open, staring at me in resentment. I looked at the two remaining soldiers, my face stained with the blood of both Garim and the spiders. I feigned regret and lowered my head. "They... they were too fast. I couldn't do any more."
The soldiers were trembling. "Curse it..." one whispered. "First Turic, and now Garim... this forest is cursed." They looked at me with more fear than ever. I had killed the monster and "tried" to save their comrade; in their eyes, I was the only hope for surviving this filth.
[The Camp – The Night of Delirium]
We returned to camp with only ten soldiers remaining. They sat around the fire with pale faces. I grilled the beetle meat skillfully, and they threw me the burnt, tough scraps as usual.
While preparing the food, I took advantage of their distraction as they exchanged horror stories and scattered the "Blue Mushroom" powder over the portion assigned to a soldier named Rock, who was responsible for the rear guard.
After an hour of sleep, the silence exploded.
Rock rose, screaming frantically, "Get them off me! The spiders! They're under my skin!" He began tearing off his armor and clothes with his fingernails, clawing his skin until blood flowed profusely. "Rock! Stop! There's nothing there!" his comrade tried to calm him, but Rock saw his friend as a giant spider trying to devour him.
Rock drew his sword and swung it with manic randomness. "Stay back! I'll kill you all!" With one strike, he slashed his comrade's shoulder, a deep wound that hit the artery. The camp woke to bloody chaos. Captain Borjan was forced to intervene, plunging his spear into Rock's chest to end the madness.
Rock fell dead, and his wounded comrade died minutes later from blood loss. [Remaining: 8 soldiers].
Borjan stood over the corpses, panting heavily, as suspicion began to gnaw at his mind. He turned toward me; I was sitting in my place, bound in chains, looking at them with absolute coldness, as if I were watching a boring play. He had not a single shred of evidence against me.
"We're moving now!" Borjan shouted in a voice trembling with panic. "No more sleep! We march until we are out of this hell immediately!"
They unchained me and tied me to the wagon again. I walked into the pitch darkness, pulling a wagon that had become much lighter. I walked as I heard their terrified breaths behind me. They no longer saw me as a "hound" that needed a leash; they began to feel that I was the Grim Reaper walking with them on their final journey.
And that feeling... was the greatest victory I had achieved since this cursed journey began.