In a dreamy haze, Damon perceived a vast, unfamiliar forest drifting through his consciousness field.
The ancient trees loomed above, their frozen leaves covered in pure white snow whilst a crescent moon bathed their tips in a pale, silver light.
In one secluded area of this winter land, shattered and aged stones littered the surroundings of a partially fallen shrine that far dwarfed any he had ever seen in books. Half of its clay roof tiles lay cracked and battered across the terrain. Withered, frost-ridden support beams stood slanted from a fractured concrete platform, scarcely holding up what remained of the grand structure.
At this moment, a dull ache ran through Damon's feet from the chilled ground beneath him. His consciousness stirred awake, and his eyes snapped open instantly.
His vision blurred for a few seconds as he was struck by a throbbing pain that flooded his skull. As if he had bitten down on a block of pure ice, a bitter cold spread rapidly across the roof of his mouth.
"What is this place?" Damon groaned, rubbing his forehead. His brows creased tightly together as he spun around in a fluster, taking in his surroundings.
Filled with confusion, he discovered the structures before his eyes were entirely different from the brownish-red brick and wood architecture he regularly saw at Redhill. Yet, despite the obvious damages, he could not shake a strange, deeply buried sense of familiarity.
T-this place resembles one of those artworks the librarian is always staring at…Subconsciously, Damon shifted his gaze to a crooked signboard hanging precariously from one of the wooden pillars and narrowed his eyes.
He was completely unable to derive any meaning from the sharp symbols carved into its weathered surface. But he had certainly seen them before, thanks to Mr. Ying's occasional canvas paintings.
The instructor was known to have an unorthodox teaching style.
...
As someone who descended from a long line of nomadic eastern tribes, Mr. Ying regularly preached the value of personal studies over the rigid restrictions of a formal classroom. The man always strived to ensure all the children of Redhill possessed a reasonable amount of knowledge regarding any foreign cultures or landscapes he had personally explored during his youth.
...
The voice said something about a dimensional shift. Was I somehow sent to Mr. Ying's home country…?Damon muttered to himself, exhaling a sharp wisp of white vapor into the freezing air.
Maybe this place is a lost ruin…?
While deeply apprehensive, he could not restrain his natural curiosity. He decided to scope out the perimeter with light, quiet steps. He carefully avoided the damaged path leading up to the main structure, pausing as his eyes fell upon a pair of eerie stone cat statues painted in stark red and white.
Their slanted eyes, solid and unmoving, seemed to betray lifelike emotions, as though they were silently laughing at his predicament.
These things can't be normal house decorations… right?Damon felt his heart skip a few frantic beats.
He instinctively quickened his pace in an attempt to widen the distance between himself and the unsettling temple statues. If he weren't so afraid to approach them, he would have definitely smashed their stone heads into pieces instead.
Tearing his gaze away with a touch of regret, he turned a sharp corner by a shabby stall covered in thick snow and moved toward a damaged well. Suddenly, his eyes fell on a wide patch of snow, heavily soaked in a dark green color.
Immediately after, the bitter wind carried the pungent smell of rotten eggs directly toward his face.
"Is that… blood?" Damon whispered, wrinkling his nose in disgust. Though the fluid was distinctly non-human, it looked fresh—as if it had only bled into the cold white canvas minutes prior.
Hunching his back to minimize his profile, he took a shallow breath and surveyed the area for a few seconds. Once he confirmed there were no other hostile creatures lurking nearby, he inched around the stone masonry to get a closer look.
As he rounded the well, the source of the stain finally revealed itself.
Resting on a thick layer of snow lay the mutilated carcass of a giant insect.
The creature was nearly the size of a human child, its segmented body an unnatural, monstrous combination of a hornet and a praying mantis. Blue icicles covered most of its frozen frame, though large portions of its armor had been violently shattered apart. The dark green fluid seeped continuously from jagged cracks running across its shell, dripping heavily into the snow.
The sight filled Damon with sudden revulsion, but at this point, the rancid smell had become even more unbearable.
"Urgh..." He raised a trembling hand to cover his mouth and nose, desperately resisting the urge to empty his stomach. A second later, a ragged sigh escaped his whitening lips, and a small realization struck him.
Guess it was a good thing I didn't eat breakfast...For a few moments, Damon simply stared at the corpse with a conflicted expression.
Despite his mounting discomfort from the biting cold, his curiosity gradually won over his fear. He swept the dark surroundings once more with his eyes and ears, then crouched low beside the corpse. He had to know exactly how a creature like this had been slain.
Damon carefully reached out, placing a bare hand against the frozen blue shell to test its durability. His fingers traced one of the deep fractures before he knocked against the thick exoskeleton a few times.
Tonk! Tonk!
The dull sound strongly reminded him of striking solid metal plates.
This has to be a mutated beast.Damon murmured under his breath. Naturally, there was no way an ordinary animal possessed armor this incredibly tough.
...
The books within the Redhill archives described mutated beasts as creatures radically altered by toxic radiation spreading across different landmasses and the sky territories over generations. Historical records and journal testimonies explicitly mentioned that they possessed supernatural abilities or physical traits that greatly exceeded normal wildlife.
...
I've never seen one personally, but this thing fits the description perfectly…Damon shook his head wearily to clear his thoughts.
Steeling his resolve, he grabbed a firm hold of the creature's upper body and began to lift. The shifting snow beneath the heavy carcass gave way like sand.
After successfully rolling the creature onto its side, his eyes suddenly lit up as he spotted a viable weapon. It was one of the creature's raptorial forearms. The limb curved inward like a sharp farming sickle, a wicked, jagged blade running along its inner edge.
"Now that's useful," Damon's mouth instantly formed a satisfied, desperate grin.
Without hesitation, he grabbed the savage appendage near its base and pulled with all his might. The muscles in his shivering arms screamed from the exertion.
Yet, the forearm did not budge a single inch.
Seeing this, Damon's brow furrowed in frustration. Unwilling to quit so easily, he adjusted his grip, dug his heels deeply into the packed snow, and pulled again. The limb shifted slightly under the pressure but remained firmly attached, its inner joints creaking like a rusted iron hinge.
Two minutes quickly flew by as his arms trembled, pulling and twisting even harder. His fingers ached intensely from gripping the sandpaper-like surface of the beast's frozen shell.
"...Seriously!?" Damon glared at the dead insect as he drew heaving, ragged breaths. For something that had already been brutally ripped apart, it was proving to be surprisingly stubborn.
With an annoyed grunt, he climbed directly onto the carcass and planted one boot firmly against its thorax. Following this leverage, he wrapped both hands securely around the limb and pulled back with his entire body weight.
Crk!
The frozen corpse creaked loudly under his sudden weight. Dark green fluid bled freshly into the snow as something wet shifted inside the hollow shell.
However, Damon did his absolute best to ignore the sickening squelch.
"Just… break already, you stupid bug!"
As he leaned back with all the weight he could muster, a sharp, resounding crack echoed through the quiet ruins.
The forearm tore completely free a second later, causing him to tumble backward onto the snow before quickly regaining his footing. A moment later, pure satisfaction flushed across his face. He raised his arms above his head triumphantly, tightening his grip on the heavy, makeshift blade.
In his sudden excitement, he had forgotten the most important rule of the wilderness: keep your voice low.
Damon's expression darkened a second later. He nervously scanned the dark treeline before letting out a soft sigh. "I should just finish up and head somewhere else..."
Although he had obtained a half-decent weapon, he did not want to garner the attention of whatever entity was powerful enough to ignore the creature's natural defenses entirely.
As Damon took one last glance at the wreckage, his gaze drifted beyond the edges of the jagged cracks, and he cupped his chin thoughtfully. Without counting the limb he had just forcibly taken, the beast's other five appendages had been cleanly bitten off directly at the joints. Large chunks of the armor shell were entirely gone, exposing mangled internal organs that glistened beneath the moonlight.
Surprisingly, Damon did not feel the same revulsion as before. Instead, a baffling sense of intense déjà vu arose in his heart as he felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand completely on end.
At that exact moment, he noticed a massive, sprawling shadow stretching across the snow, looming over him from the dim moonlight above.
"What is..." Dread gripped Damon's heart as he slowly raised his gaze and discerned the silhouette.
There, perched atop the temple's partially demolished roof, a massive tiger stood balanced on all fours. Ripped, visible muscles and thick black stripes lined its imposing body.
Its thick fur was as blindingly white as the snow around them, and a pair of long, saber-like canines extended down from its upper jaw, heavily soaked in a viscous, dripping green fluid.
Damon's pupils dilated to the size of pinpricks as he stared at the apex predator's form.
But it was at that exact moment that they both locked eyes.