The Messenger of Death

-Blleee!!!

The unusual but familiar Cry of the berserker assaulted the ears of those resting in their tents.

Camron thought his eardrums were going to rapture.

'The berserkers.' He thought.

'Why didn't Lenny alert any of us before they arrived?' He questioned as soon as the cry of the berserker ceased to assault his eardrums.

Camron rushed out of his tent, and so did everyone else. They were all stupefied to find out that they were all back in the misty forest once again.

"What's going on," Drake shouted. It took him a second to process everything in his sight.

-Bllee!!

They saw the hoard of berserkers quickly closing in on them.

"Run!!!" Amelia screamed out and immediately took off.

"Wait!! Where's Lenny and the other girl that stood on the lookout with him?" Camron asked and looked around.

"Over there!" Sara pointed at Lenny, who was still paralyzed on the ground. Camron turned and stared at his elder sister in her eyes.

"No, Cam, We need to leave now." She urged her brother as she knew what was running through his mind. She knew that he wanted to at least try and rescue them, but that wasn't something she could allow him to do.

"Move now!!" She pulled him along.

They all scurried away and left their tents behind...

Amelia, who was the first to scurry away had gone far ahead of the rest. Without the torch, Amelia's line of sight had gotten worse than it was before.

She was running blindly through the forest, forgetting her subordinates behind.

-Whoosh!!

Something passed by her side in a flash, and because of how bad her sight was she couldn't tell what it was.

-Thud!

Someone had grabbed her neck and put her in an abrupt stop.

-Hrrrk!!

Amelia choked painfully. Being put to stop in such a way was hell, she looked down at who her assailant was; it was a berserker.

"No – Hrrk!!"

She tried to scream out but the berserker tightened its grip on her neck and choked her harder. Tears started to run down her cheeks as she kicked and threw blows at the berserker. Her pitiful attempt to hurt her assailant was to no avail.

It did nothing but made extra noise to any – who was listening. She held the berserker's hand that was gripping her neck and tried to crush its bones with her hand.

Surprisingly, the berserker's skin was as hard as steel, her second attempt to free herself was also to no avail.

While she was still trying to free herself, she felt the five fingers of the berserker puncture the skin at the sides of her neck. Slowly, but evident, Amelia started to feel her hands and legs getting heavier with each kick or punch she hurled at her capturer.

Soon, Amelia couldn't move any part of her body, she could only remain as she was with tears running down her cheeks. The berserker threw her over its shoulder

******

The rest of the team was not too far away from where Amelia had been captured. They were heading straight to where she was.

Roughly a minute after she had been captured they arrived at where she was, though they couldn't hear or see her.

-Blleee!!

Multiple berserkers Cried out and made them stop in their tracks. Being that the sound came from their front instead of behind, where they had left the berserkers.

"When did they get in front of us?" Emma who was already panic-stricken, asked.

"Everyone, scatter, and charge at the exit from different directions," Sara suggested. She pulled Camron along with her as she departed from where they were.

Sara kept on thinking of how to keep her little brother safe, she didn't want anything to happen to Camron.

She was the one that brought the mission up to them, expecting it to be an easy mission to complete but it turned out to be a horror they never expected. She felt regret and sadness deep inside her heart.

Camron knew that his sister wanted to protect him but he felt like a burden to her. Sara could run faster than she was, but she chose to run at a speed that was comfortable for her brother.

"Cam, I think it's better I carry you on my back. We'll be faster that way."

"Okay." He said with a flat tone.

They stopped running and Sara stepped In front of him. She bent her knees, "Get on."

Camron was about to get on his sister's back but was stopped halfway when she pushed him away. He couldn't understand what had happened.

-Thud! Thud!

Sara hurled combinations of kicks and blows at the berserker that had almost successfully attacked them in incognito. She made sure that it wasn't enough to kill it but enough to leave it stunned for a few seconds.

She broke the berserker's elbows and threw it far away from their position.

"Quickly Camron, get on my back." She prompted.

He was about to do as his sister asked but his hand got pulled by a force that he couldn't put up a fight with.

"Argh!"

He felt a sharp pain in his wrist. Camron turned and looked at who dragged him back, much to his dismay, it was the berserker that Alex had set on fire. It penetrated Camron's wrist with its fingers.

"Camron!!" Sara screamed out and rushed towards her brother.

-Shoosh!

The berserker disappeared as quickly as it appeared behind Camron.

"Are you okay?" Her concern could be heard in her voice.

"No, it scratched me." He answered. "Quickly leave here Sara, please." He pleaded with his sister.

"I am not leaving you behind, if anything is going to happen to you then it's going to happen to me too." She declared with determination.

"Behind you!" Camron warned his sister.

The berserker appeared in a distance behind her but did nothing to her, Sara turned and stood at battle stance. She brought her sword out and gripped the handle tightly. She knew that she wasn't a match for this particular Berserker now.

It looked at Sara with a wicked grin on its deformed face.

-Thud!

Camron fell to the ground.

"Cam!"

Sara ignored the berserker and faced her brother that had fallen to the ground, she wasn't concerned about her safety anymore.

-Thud!!

The berserker closed the distance between them and knocked Sara out by hitting her at the side of her neck. She fell to the ground with the image of her brother's face as the last thing she saw before she completely passed out.

The berserker carried the two of them on its shoulders and left the area.

********

['Damn it, we've been walking for quite a while now.'] Al complained.

Since they stepped into the cave, Xander had been walking following the instructions of the holographic arrow. Although the journey had been peaceful, it only made him feel agitated.

The cave itself was an entrance into a human-sized maze, with long and sturdy stone walls as demarcations. Xander looked up at the stone wall wondering if he could scale it, but he decided against doing that because the wall had no end.

At first, he thought that it was another kind of illusion, then he remembered that he had the outlook from his mask as live video.

['We keep on moving like this then.'] Xander said.

-Grrkk!

"What was that?" Xander questioned

-Grrkk!

He heard the sound once again.

['It sounded like a stone, moving?'] Alex mentioned, but he was unsure about his answer.

-Grrkk!!

The stone wall that was beside Xander suddenly moved and blocked his path.

['The hell!'] Al shouted.

"What's happening. The walls are moving." Xander stood where he was and thought about what was happening. The holographic arrow was still pointing forward.

"System, switch the outlook back to the default."

*Changing outlook.

Now what was in front of Xander wasn't a stone wall, but a door, a shoji door to be precise. There was nothing but a shoji door in front of him. He attempted to open the door, and to his surprise it opened, but he couldn't see what was in it because it was pitch black.

"System, change the outlook back to live video."

The system did as it was commanded to do.

Now the stone wall was in front of Xander once more. He stretched his hand out and tried to touch the wall that was in front of him.

"Huh?"

Instead of his hand stopping as soon as it touched the wall, it passed through it like it was made of air.

Xander walked to another part of the stone wall and stretched his hand to touch it.

-Tap.

His hand made solid contact with the wall.

"Hmmm."

['What it is? What do you think we are facing now?'] Al questioned.

Xander walked back to the part he saw the shoji door at.

"Hmmm."

['C' mon, tell me.'] Al was eager to know his thoughts.

"I think it's…"

Xander suddenly charged at the wall.

-Whoop.

He entered the stone wall.