Immediately Ren burned his mana, empowering his eldritch eyes. Within the darkness of the forest, he saw far better than on a clear day, though any hidden threat was now revealed to him.

  Phantom Stalker Lvl 15

  Phantom Stalker Lvl 16

  Two more of the hounds remained lurking in the depths of the forest. Previously unseen to him, their odd forms were now clear to him. The two beasts were similar to the weaker variants that stalked him thus far, but the phantoms were made of shadow itself. Their bodies only looked partially corporeal.

  They remained back as the six weaker hounds came closer to him. Atop the stone face in front of Ren, the three black hounds slowly crept towards him.

  It was time to make a decision, Ren didn’t know if he could evade so many at once, or if he could even outrun them. Making his decision, six shots fired off into the night.

  The bodies of the Stalker Hounds collapsed, those who still lived barely hanging onto life. Ren avoided using Eldritch touch, fearing it may allow the Paladin to begin tracking him again. Even burning mana to increase the strength of his eldritch eyes actively was a risk, but one he couldn’t afford to take.

  Using his mana to regenerate his bullets, he took off at a tangent from the phantom hounds. With the weakest dead, it gave him a small amount of breathing room. The stalker hounds were far from a threat, though even a minor distraction could cause a fatal slip while fighting the true threats here.

  As he ran, the power from the amber was nearly nonexistent. The mana he burned to see far better within the dark forest actively decreased the value of the amber heart. The choice to gain speed and endurance in exchange for his sight was tempting, but it wouldn’t do against the phantoms.

  All three black hounds were close on Ren’s flank, though the strongest amongst them was gaining on him. Unable to turn around and look, he couldn’t tell what the phantom wolves were doing. Pushing forward Ren summoned flames into his hands. As he lept over a fallen tree, an array of fiery bolts slammed into his pursuers.

  He gained vital breathing room as the three dark hounds were slowed for several moments. It wasn’t long though, as soon the hounds were gaining on him. Sparked by his attack, they seemed to be getting fast.

  Ren narrowly slid past a tree in his path before entering a large clearing. Dead fungi and infected trees stood bare under the dying sun and young moon. The last vestiges of light were leaving the world, and Ren’s heart dropped in his chest.

  The young crest of a moon early into a new cycle was rising into the sky above them. The dark hounds only came at him faster.

  Empowered under the light of the rising moon, two figures of purest black came unseen from the shadows. Like scythes of purest black, they lashed at him. Their shapes were warping and unstable, Ren struggled to move out of the way.

  The shadows cut deep into his flesh, as he fought to continue onwards through the two scything shadows cutting into him. Managing to move with alacrity, two deep gashes across each arm were the only damage he took from the twin attacks.

  His blood quickly drained down his upper arms onto his forearms, and he raised one of them. Another flame came into one of his hands as he threw the fireball behind himself. The two shadows writhed as an explosive torrent of flame caused them to take on their hound forms. Struggling in the dead grasses of the clearing, the two beasts burned.

  Ren felt himself gain a small advantage as the black hounds were delayed by the explosive fire. Gaining ground on them, he prepared. A great deal of his mana coalesced as his head began to throb.

  Spreading his hands before him, Ren imagined a ritual. Instead of using symbols and runes to create formulas, his will burned.

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  The three dark hounds came charging toward him, his will became manifest. With his mind aching, he brought forth fire. It erupted from the earth below the charging hounds. At first, it was a half-circle around them. As the hounds paused, and then moved to run around the wall of flame, Ren allowed his mana to travel further along his imaginary ritual of fire. It burned as high as the Inn he stayed in so long ago. Its walls were as thick as an ancient oak. It burned with a passion and hate that could melt steel.

  Every part of his hate for the paladin, his hate at his own weakness burned within the wall. He gave it all of his hatred. An emptiness took the void left by it. His mind was empty but the throbbing pain of him overusing his mana.

  It bought him time. Standing there and thinking of the emptiness he felt would only give them time to kill him when the fire faded. With the last portion of mana that remained within him, he activtaed his empowered stealth. It had not allowed the paladin to find him before, so he felt it was safe.

  Ren ran into the blackness beyond his flame. The darkness beyond his hate.

  The phantoms remained. As he ran into the depths of the forest beyond the burning wall he erected, they made themselves known to him.

  What would have been a killing blow was imperfect, and far from precise. The phantom struggled to aim at him properly as his shape was so distorted and strange in his empowered stealth. The very light of the moon reflecting from his skin was changed, warped, and corrupted.

  Ren stumbled as thick, hot blood came pouring down his back as two slashing blows tore his flesh open. His ribs were cut with deep grooves, and a segment of his spine was severed. His lower body was numb as his vital energy rushed to repair the damage.

  Ren summoned fire around him as the two lashed down at him again. One of them pulled back and managed to refrain from igniting itself on Ren. The second of the two was caught in Ren’s grip. Its scythe body returned to an emaciated black shadow that resembled a hound. Ren fell atop the being. It was neither flesh nor a construct of magic. It was something wrong, but so was he. His flesh bubbled as his fat became oil. Immolating himself, he stopped himself from being executed, but now his recovery would be far from swift.

  Holding down the squirming hound, Ren burned the creature as his flesh charred and darkened. With his blade, he stabbed into the skull of the hound. As the blade drove deep into the head of the creature beneath him, Ren felt no bone crash or shatter.

  Shifting, Ren still could not use his legs. His body was rapidly weakening. With a partition of his will, he pulled the burning flames from his body and into his palm. A swirling concentration of flames moved into his palm. He was blinded by the fire, his eye burned. With his lightless eyes, charred and ruined, but the smallest trace of it caught his attention. The oddity of the being, the uniqueness of its being caught his attention. The eldritch eyes did not see, for they needed no light. In the depths of the Underdark, he read the energies of those who dwelled in the darkness. Here too, Ren felt the trace of its being. With the torrent of flame leaping from his hand, Ren scorched the phantom hound that yet lurked within the darkness. It fled into the shadows deeper within the forest, its body burned again and again by its greatest fear.

  Ren knew the black hounds would soon be free from the prison he crafted for them. He was fast, he had made it far from them in the minute he had. They were faster. He had left no trail for them, but now he was burned and crippled. His only solace was to have already burned away the nerves of his skin. Only the deeper parts of him could feel, though they screamed.

  With his mana completely burned away, his mind was numb. At lower levels of ascension it had left him unconscious, though, in his current state of agony, he wished it left him unconscious.

  The amber within him was the small salve that kept him sane as he sat crippled and all but blind. To soothe himself he felt the warm glow of the amber. Never before since when it was first placed within him had it been so strong. The warmth of its glow only became stronger as the antagonistic mana no longer coursed through his being.

  The black web that formed inside of him at gaining the onyx gem was as thin as spider silk. Though so thin, it still held strong. The amber’s glow slowly warped the black strings, they were difficult to perceive within himself as the light grew ever stronger. Though his body could not feel it, Ren could see his stamina draining rapidly. Though it was far more steady than his rapidly declining health.

  Name: Ren Race: Human Alignment:C/N

  Class: Rouge level 17, Tier 2 Skill: Ritualism

  Marks: Gate-Walker

  HP:76/220 SP:111/225 MP:0/245

  Without being able to feel his lower body, nor feel anything with his upper half, his sense of touch was almost entirely gone. It was nearly serene as the warm glow of the amber overpowered the sense of pain from his inner injuries. The minuscule sense of touch he did have told him that something was moving around him. It was tough and strong. Solid, but not like stone. His mind faded as he felt himself finally drift off.