Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

Aldrich checked up on all his equipment and after making sure that everything was fine he came to the regretful decision that he had to leave his new sword behind on today's hunt.

This time he was going to take the long bow for his main weapon and a short sword as back up in case he had to engage in close combat. Today was all about getting as much orbs as possible.

In the nightmare town the distances between buildings and houses was not that big, at least not for him. His physical might was not just for butchering monsters.

He made his way outside and observed that the safe area was still devoid of husks which was good of course. He entered into one of the empty buildings and made his way to the rooftop.

From he he looked at the new nightmare town and beheld it for all it's glory. It was the sight of many buildings stretching beyond what the eye can see and it was all well lit with candles that grew like grass-shoots everywhere.

The light made it possible for Aldrich to spy on the Malformed husks who now roamed the streets freely.

He jumped over one roof after another and noticed that this was much faster rate than regular exploration.

Before he could leave the safe zone he noticed a disjointed group of Malformed husks moving within the safe zone. Of course, these buggers just wouldn't follow the script.

,m With the husks now free it was inevitable that some of them might find their way into the safe zone.

Aldrich aimed at the husk that was furthest from the rest, he pulled out the arrow. These arrows were from the barracks that he looted clean, they weren't wooden and tipped with some metal they were entirely metallic with forked and serrated heads.

Aldrich had always been good with archery, well in Wakefield he didn't have a sword so all his practice went into the bow.

He aimed at the head which was covered and overrun by wild grey-blue hair and loosened the string.

*woosh!*

The arrow his it's mark but the damned thing wasn't dead yet so he finished it off with a second arrow. The rest of the group came running in the direction of the building he was on.

Aldrich backed off a little but he made sure to keep a look on the husks but they were clamoring like it was a fish market. They were jumping but not high enough and clawing at the building, probably to bring it all down but not hard enough.

He took out another arrow aimed and fired, again and again until five Malformed husks laid dead beneath him. He looked at his bow and thought that this idea might be inspired by the mighty Altunan himself.

It was genius! In the past when it was dark this idea was just stupid but now it was an entirely different story.

He climbed down and after making sure that he was alone he absorbed the essence orbs successfully. This was already thirty orbs!

This whole transformation thing that happened might not be such a bad thing after all.

He also collected the arrows that he killed the husks with, unfortunately only half of them could be used again the rest were too damaged to be put to use again.

Aldrich climbed back up to the rooftops and continued on his way, as he moved on from one area to the next he noticed that the husks were too grouped up like they were moving in herds.

Aldrich tried his luck and targeted a somewhat separated group, after all he had the high ground. He managed to kill one but before he could take out the rest of the group an arrow hissed by his ear.

Aldrich retreated and ducked down. One of these husk was a level two, meaning that it had a weapon.

Before he stood up another two arrows were aimed at where he would have been if he stood up right then. Aldrich took a peak at the husks down there and saw that a swarm of more than thirty husks surrounded the building he was on.

Aldrich gritted his teeth, got up and dashed immediately he jumped from one roof to another four times before he lost the swarm. He had to give up on getting the essence orbs from the husk that he killed.

Aldrich had to come into physical contact with recently perished beings in order to be able to absorb their essence. Alright things might not be as easy as he would have liked them to be.

Aldrich was jumping around looking for decent prey when he noticed a shadow moving by, his eyes followed the figure and he knew what it was. It was a Skinned dog.

It was carrying the head of a Malformed husk in it's mouth. It has been a while since Aldrich dealt with one of these, these dogs were his oldest enemies in this town.

Aldrich watched as the dog cleverly evaded the patrolling husks and he decided to follow it. Some time later he noticed the landscape change around him and the buildings became less sparse.

The dog headed in the direction of a stone bridge that should lead to another ward but didn't go through it but it slipped under it. Aldrich came down and looked at the area under the bridge.

It was big, the further down he looked the wider the area seemed, he carefully climbed down the smooth pavement and looked around for the dog.

There was a huge tunnel that had many sub-tunnels going underneath the the bridge, but even this place was not free of the candles. The smell of this place made the rest of the town seem like a perfumed paradise.

The candles lit up even here which is why he was able to clearly see a statue. The statue was oddly pointing its hand to the inside of a sub-tunnel.

The statue was not of a human.

"What… a surprise… a Lost One.."