Bab 15: Mind Wraith
With surprising reflexes Roger reached out and drew his sword, bringing it up just in time to block the creature's powerful jaws from biting down on him.
The ditch he was using as a bet let him lean back against the dirt, giving him some leverage as he pushed the small beast away.
Having a better look at it, Roger realized it was some kind of mutant dog. It was small, not even tall enough to reach his hips, but had vicious teeth.
Blood dripped from both the creature's empty eye sockets and the holes the tentacles wiggled out from.
The canine leaped at him again, and this time Roger managed to hit the side of its head with the flat of his blade.
The tentacles wrapped around his wrist pulled him towards the beast as it flew, and he quickly cut the slimy tendrils, recoiling as a strange fluid leaked from the appendage. The fallen beast let out a high-pitched whine, writhing where it had fallen.
Realizing he had a moment to analyze the situation, he looked across the clearing and saw Lila was still soundly sleeping. Her arm was at a strange angle, however, as it was hanging outside of her ditch.
He focused on it and realized slime was dripping down it.
'So it got to her too! But how did it reach both of us? Unless…'
He realized a moment too late as two strong tentacles wrapped around his throat, yanking him off his feet.
Reality faded, and when it returned Roger found himself falling. Sheer stone cliffs rose beside him as he reached terminal velocity, his long arms and legs flailing in the wind.
He opened his mouth to scream and a deep voice escaped his throat.
'Wait, that's not my voice! What's going on?'
Remembering how he escaped the last one, Roger focused on the colors around him. This time he found the swirled ones much faster, leaving the nightmare and returning to the waking world.
His eyes snapped open and he saw the second beast slowly approaching him, a strange attempt at a smile on its face.
The canine's jaw was twisted unnaturally, and sharp fangs threatened to cut its own lips.
This time, Roger was more prepared, gripping his sword firmly as he swung it to his side, cutting the creature's cheek.
Surprising Roger, it didn't react, and instead jumped at his now exposed side, biting down hard.
Unlike the muted pain of the nightmare, this pain felt very real, causing Roger to scream.
More out of desperation than strategy, he shoved the beast back with his other hand as he rolled over. Fresh waves of agony spread across his body as he lifted his sword and swung it at his enemy's side.
He found purchase as it cut deep into the hide, but it once again showed no signs of pain.
Roger jerked the blade free, jumping out of the ditch and narrowly avoiding its retaliatory charge.
'What am I missing here? The other one clearly felt pain! What am I doing wrong?'
He thought about what he did to cause the first canine to whine, and it hit him.
'The tentacles!'
With renewed vigor, he lifted his blade and watched as the 'unharmed' creature turned towards him, fresh strings of drool falling down its lips.
Taking the chance, Roger stepped forward and swung his blade at one of the tentacles protruding from the beast's side, neatly severing it.
It reacted immediately, falling to its side and screaming into the wind.
Pressing his advantage, Roger lifted his blade again and sliced down on another tentacle. The beast's body began to convulse as Roger chopped away at it like a macabre butcher.
Only when he stabbed the canine's brain did it stop moving, finally resting after its nightmarish attacks.
A prompt appeared in front of Roger after he killed it.
[You have killed: Mind Wraith]
[Rewards: Progress Towards Beta.]
He read the words quickly, not wanting to spare much time before finishing the other creature too.
The name of the beast, Mind Wraith, however, did stand out to him.
'It must be some type of nightmare producer! That's what it was doing to me, messing with my mind!'
Dismissing the screen, he hefted his blood-stained blade and eagerly approached the still-squirming body of the first canine.
Not knowing why, he spoke to it as he approached.
"I am really going to enjoy this, vermin."
He raised his weapon, and brought it down quickly, piercing the skull and brain in one motion.
Again, the screen appeared.
[You have killed: Mind Wraith]
[Rewards: Progress Towards Beta.]
Roger exhaled with exhaustion as he dropped his sword and fell to his knees.
He wrapped his thin arms around his shoulders and hugged himself, shivering in the night cold as he processed what had just happened.
He felt the slime of the tentacle on his arm stick to his body and he recoiled, disgusted by the creature's discharge. He doubled over and began to heave onto the ground, his hand landing in a nearby puddle of blood.
Roger quickly removed it and flung it in the air, covering his clothes in the vital fluid.
He screamed his frustrations into the night sky, but nothing answered.
For half an hour Roger sat there in embarrassment and anger at what had happened, before deciding to check on Lila.
He remembered the sight of her being butchered by the Mind Wraiths, and his thoughts ran cold as he slowly walked over to inspect her still body.
He knew it was all a nightmare, but he hadn't seen her move since waking up.
Approaching her shallow bed, he leaned down and put his finger under her nose. He audibly exhaled as he felt her breath on it, despite how weak it felt.
'At least she is alive!'
He felt elated at the discovery, surprising himself with how much he cared.
'I must have been more afraid of being alone than I thought…'
Unsure of what else to do, he lightly touched her shoulder. When she didn't react, he touched it again and began to shake her.
It took Roger a lot of effort until she woke up, which happened with a blood-curdling scream, scaring him half to death.
"It's okay! It's me, Roger!"
Her eyes were wide and unfocused as she looked around the meadow, finally landing on Roger.
'Well, this feels familiar.'
To his shock, she rapidly backed away from him, grabbing all around her for her sword.
Once she found it, she stood and pointed it at him.
"Prove it! Prove you're the real Roger! Do it or else I'll run you through right here!"
Roger raised his hands placatingly, just as he had done the day prior, and tried to convince her in whatever way he knew.
"Uh, that's difficult as we just met but I found you in this clearing yesterday, you ordered me to get wood, then you cooked for me and we talked until we went to sleep! That's all that I really know!"
She grew calmer with every word until she finally lowered the sword when he finished speaking.
"That's good, very good. The other… you… didn't speak. At least not properly. It was like trying to piece a puzzle together to understand him. At first, I thought it was a nightmare, but it felt too real…"
She looked up suddenly and began to back away.
"Did you find it? Whatever was causing the mental attack?"
'She knew it was a mental attack? Do all citizens get taught about the different kinds of threats on Avar? That would've been useful information!'
Roger pointed towards the nearest dead Mind Wraith.
"I did, there were two of them. They were some kind of mutated dogs called Mind Wraiths. At least, that's what the System called them."
Lila blanched at his words.
"Mind Wraiths… That shouldn't be possible! The System never sends people to parts of Avar where Mind Wraiths could appear!"
That drew Rogers' curiosity.
"You know what they are?"
His tone tried to be light-hearted to defuse the tension, but he knew it wasn't doing its job.
She began to hyperventilate and her whole body shook as she stumbled over the words.
"Why are you not freaking out? Don't you know what Mind Wraiths are? Or are you so poor you couldn't afford basic schooling? Don't you get it? We are dead! Dead! We would be lucky to survive here for a month, let alone long enough to get strong enough to fight our way through the zone to a neighboring one!"
She spoke faster over time, her words mixing together in her blind panic.
"Mind Wraiths are one of the number one identifiers of an Omicron-tier zone! We are way out of our depth here! We should be in an Alpha zone as newcomers! The worst I've ever heard of was a Theta one, but Omicron? We might as well sit here and let the depraved beasts of this hell kill us now!"
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Trim_2cool
Trim_2cool Hey guys! Hope you're enjoying the book! Sorry for the lack of updates, I was recently hospitalized with a pneumothorax, otherwise known as a collapsed lung! If it wasn't clear by how that sounds, it was very severe, and made sitting for long periods of time to write very difficult! I promise I will write more to continue the story though, don't worry!
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