Chapter 5 Transcender

The journey to the forest dividing Erile and Baridor was long taking no less than two hours to get there. Dwayne and Emily had stayed right in front of the forest taking a water break. Dwayne looked at the forest concerned about the feeling he had about the forest. He stared so long at it that Emily noticed his hesitation.

"Dwayne, is everything alright?"

He looked at her for awhile trying to decide what to say. It was clear that no matter what he said she would not stop. Only a person with that type of will would have thought to fight him in the first place.

"Just stay behind me", Dwayne said in response.

After their break they entered into the forest taking each step with caution. Dwayne was skilled at looking out for tracks which was one of the merits of his time in the army. He took glances with each step observing his environment in an attempt to avoid danger.

After few minutes of walking in the forest, Dwayne came across a paw print in the snow. It looked like a wolf's footprint but it was a whole lot bigger. He looked at the trees seeing broken branches and scratch marks on them.

Dwayne immediately knew what this meant. The footprints looked fresh so the animal responsible could not be far behind. In an instant, he felt eyes on him.

"Shit!", Dwayne cursed realizing that they were being stalked.

"What's the matter?", Emily asked him clearly confused at the situation.

Rumbling sounds suddenly erupted with trees collapsing. It was heading straight for them. The beast jumped out of the trees exposing itself. It was a huge wolf with metal plates on it's body and metal spikes sticking out it's back.

Dwayne Immediately pushed Emily out of the way in an attempt to protect her. The wolf looking creature collided with Dwayne's chest hard sending him flying several meters away. He hit a tree which stopped him from going even further. Dwayne squirmed around hard feeling the pain in his chest. His chest had taken damage but it was mostly blocked by his chest plate. As a result of this, it had broken into pieces living his chest defenseless.

The beast turned to focus on Emily. It stalked her which made Emily feel uncomfortable. It pounced in the air heading straight for her but was quickly hit away by Dwayne's fist pushing a few meters away as well. Emily was astonished on seeing him recover from been rammed like that. More impressive was the fact that he had covered about ten meters in just few seconds.

"What is that thing? I have never seen it before", Dwayne said pointing his beserker sword at the beast.

"It's an Armored Lycan, they are beasts made from dead humans through dark magic."

"Then what is it doing here!", Dwayne shouted rushing at the beast.

It swung it's hand at his head but Dwayne dodged skillfully landing a decisive blow with his sword to it's head. It dropped on the floor dead. Dwayne gasped for air trying to catch his breath.

"It's a good thing I was able to take...."

"Behind you!", Emily shouted interrupting Dwayne.

Dwayne quickly noticed another Lycan trying to pounce on him and dodged quickly. However it smacked his head with it's paw breaking his mask and throwing him to a near by tree.

Dwayne groaned in pain at the impact of his back to the tree before falling to the ground. Dwayne sat upright trying to recover the air that was knocked out of his lungs. However the beast ran at him not giving him any time to recover. It made a fast attempt to bite Dwayne's head off but was quickly stopped by a quick push to it's chin by Dwayne with his forearm.

Emily ran forward in an attempt to help Dwayne but was quickly stopped by him telling her to stay back.

The Lycan shaken violently trying to take Dwayne's arm away from its chin to which it succeeded. With it's opportunity it quickly bit his forearm but it's teeth was hindered by the gauntlet on his hand. Dwayne tried his best to remove his arm from its mouth but failed. It's fang broke through his gauntlet passing it's teeth into his flesh.

Dwayne shouted feeling the Lycan's teeth drill into his skin. He quickly hit the beasts throat in an attempt to drive in back but didn't let go.

From nowhere Emily struck hard at it's head with her sword creating a dent in the armor at that section. It let go of Dwayne's arm while it was shaking off the pain. Dwayne was not surprised at this as Emily had held the full weight of his strike for awhile during their fight. It proved that she was fairly strong.

Emily stretched her hand forward in the direction of the Lycan. Her palm began to glow before red symbols appeared in the air. A beam of red light shot out of it making the beast go crazy. Dwayne stood up while observing the situation. It charged at them wildly trying to run them over. Dwayne quickly picked Emily jumping several feet's into the air avoiding it's rampage. He landed on the opposite side before dropping Emily down.

"What did you do?", Dwayne asked confused.

"It's my beserk spell. It won't be able to think straight anymore making it easier to take down."

On hearing this, Dwayne stood in an offensive position with his sword anticipating it. The beast rushed at them once again running wildly. When it got within his striking range, Dwayne swung his sword hard at it's neck cutting it's head clean off. It's limp body rolled forward with the momentum it had built before coming to a stop. Dwayne gasped for air before bringing out a small orb from his pouch. He walked towards the two Lycans sucking their bodies into the orb.

Emily rushed at Dwayne in a hurry

"Dwayne, lemme have a look at your wound."

However she stopped in her tracks on seeing his face. The lifeless look in his eyes frightened her and it was apparent on her face. Dwayne realized this and was disappointed. It proved to him that she was just like everyone else.

"I was careless that's why I got injured, so I will treat it myself", Dwayne said walking away in the direction of Baridor town.