The fake sun rose to the sky, and the dark sea retreated back to where it came from.
On top of a small mountain, Faraam stood up after six hours of sleep.
It's been a while since he slept this much. This area was marked by the Corrupted nightmare creature as its territory, and very rarely a nightmare creature would enter this area.
So, Faraam took his time. Readying himself for today.
He knew that he wouldn't escape this easily. Even though his plan is to hide and not be noticed by the Corrputed nightmare creature, he didn't bet on it.
Nightmare creatures somehow... could sense humans. It's like they're attracted by something.
Maybe it's just bloodlust, or maybe something else. Faraam didn't know.
What he knew is that today might be his last day...
After around seven hours, Faraam stood up.
Smiling, he went down the mountain, glancing at the Corrupted abomination from time to time.
"The distance to the new path should be around thirty-six kilometers. If everything goes as planned, I should reach it in two to three hours."
Stepping on the nearly flat earth, Faraam unsummoned his armor and ran with caution, hiding behind rocks, coral blades, and other things.
For more than an hour and a half nothing happened, but then something changed.
The dark-transparent tentacles moved. They stretched to the mountain next to it, covering it.
Faraam knew that it detected him... so he threw his caution away and ran as fast as possible.
From the main body on top of the middle mountain, white stones moved inside its body, heading toward its tentacles.
As one of the white stones reached the end of one of the tentacles, it split and fell down covered with the slime-like thing.
Then it rose, taking the form of a carapace. Other white stones fell down and materialized in different forms and creatures.
From the moment he saw the white stone, he knew what it was. He saw it multiple times every time he killed a nightmare creature.
The white stones were... soul shards.
Faraam finally understood what the Corrupted nightmare creature was. Even though it was Corrupted in rank, a Fallen nightmare creature can kill it.
It was weak physically and had few to no attacks at all.
The only thing it can do is to create an army... an army made from the soul shards from those it kills and finds in its long life.
Then how much? How much did it gather in that long life?
Faraam shuddered at just thinking about it.
The Corrupted nightmare creature created more and more of these slime-like creatures.
In mere seconds the number reached a hundred.
'I knew it! I knew something would go wrong.'
Cursing beneath his breath, he ran faster.
What could he do? Fight an army that will only grow stronger with time?
Jumping from a mountain might be safer than this.
The good news is that Faraam crossed half the distance; the bad news is that there are eighteen kilometers until he reaches his goal.
Looking back for a moment, Faraam saw a large dust cloud; inside of it was a legion of slime-like abominations... the legion were heading toward him, and they were fast, unbelievably fast.
"Fuck, fuck, damn it, curse them! This is not fair!"
He screamed every curse he knew, which was a whole dictionary.
Minutes passed, and the dust cloud was growing nearer by the second, but Faraam was also getting closer.
Though his speed was nothing compared to what was chasing him.
And after a few minutes, one of the slime-like abominations reached him.
Faraam dodged its claw and turned around, cutting the abomination's chest and the soul shard inside of it.
The abomination lost what was holding its body and fell down on the earth like water.
Faraam didn't give it a second look and continued running.
More and more abominations reached him, and he cut them down effortlessly.
Most of them were Dormant, and some were Awakened.
Either the Corrupted nightmare creature saw no need to send the Fallen and the Corrupted ones, or it was playing with him.
Though Faraam wasn't sure if nightmare creatures can think like that.
Blocking another attack at his shoulder, Faraam ducked down and stabbed his sword at the soul shard, killing it quickly.
If he had been wearing his Nightfall armor, he would have killed them in a second. Unfortunately wearing it will slow him down a lot, and he was barley keeping up.
Finally, after four hours, he had reached his goal, but he didn't leave. Instead, he ran to the closest mountain near him and started climbing up.
Reaching a certain height, he stopped and looked beneath him.
There the legion of slime-like abominations had reached him and started climbing, but they couldn't.
Their slime-like body was simply not built to climb, not to mention their large numbers, which will only make it harder to not fall down from the chaos.
And since the headless statue crushed half of the mountain, the side he was standing on was built like a wall.
Glancing at the sun, he took a deep breath.
'Forty-three minutes until the dark sea rises again, killing them all.'
He didn't wait for seven hours for nothing; that was his plan from the start.
Faraam thought of every possible scenario that could happen and made a counterplan for it.
That was how he did everything in his whole life.
Summoning his Nightfall armor, he kicked one of the abominations, letting it fall down and dragging others with it.
He then stabbed his sword at the soul shard, killing one of them and kicking the one behind it.
Time passed, and Faraam killed more and more of them. His armor broke in some part, and even his flesh was burnt from their touch.
Focusing on the battle, Faraam didn't notice the disappearance of light and the rise of the dark sea.
He only noticed when the slime-like abominations were swallowed by the dark sea.
Looking around and not seeing anything, Faraam weakened his grip on his sword and fell down, taking a deep breath.
He somehow survived...
***
As the sun rose again, the Corrupted nightmare creature sent his army again with all of its strength. Awakened, Fallen, and even Corrupted ones went to where Faraam was... but there was no one.
The human had escaped... killing half of its army.
The Corrupted nightmare creature struck down the mountains near it, nearly destroying them.
As for Faraam himself... he stood in his place, his hand on the hilt of his sword trembling a little.
Far in the distance, a Crimson Spire cast its shadow on the land beneath it...
***
Finally the end of the West Forgotten Shore is done; you don't know how much I suffered!
Leave a review on this fanfic and chapter and some power stones so more people can read it.
And see you again tomorrow.