Jason felt eyes upon him and instinctively spun around. Only then, as he swept his gaze across the vibrant greenery, did he notice it. The forest was silent. Utterly, unnaturally silent. No birds chirped, no squirrels rustled leaves. An overwhelming wave of primal fear crashed over him. He ran.
Without thought, he plunged himself back into the chaos of the battlefield, continuing to run. Shouts and battle cries erupted all around him, but the fear from the forest was too great to acknowledge the new danger.
Then came a roar. A sound that vibrated through his bones, and the entire battlefield went silent. The cacophony of war ceased, replaced by an unsettling stillness. Jason stopped, compelled to look. He immediately regretted his decision.
Standing at the very edge of the forest, immense and terrifying, was a massive black dragon. All eyes on the battlefield, moments ago focused on death and destruction, had now shifted to watch the beast. The carnage and death, once so vibrant, was now utterly silent, waiting, watching, for the dragon's next move.
Jason, however, was smart enough to keep running. Something deep inside him screamed not to stop. He was surrounded by people he didn't know, by creatures who should only exist in myth, and now, magic of all things. He was having none of it. "Fuck this!" he screamed, his voice a desperate, defiant cry on the silent battlefield.
The black dragon continued to watch, its gaze curiously fixed on the strange man running across the recently quieted battlefield.
Jason had never been so scared in all his life! He didn't know where he was going, only that he couldn't stop.
After what felt like an eternity, perhaps a couple of minutes, Jason tripped. It wasn't a graceful fall; he landed face first and tumbled hard. On instinct, he scrambled up, wondering if anyone had seen his clumsy mistake. That's when he noticed he was utterly alone in a vast, empty field. He wasn't sure how long he had been running, only that he needed to get away.
"What am I going to do now?" Jason thought to himself. "I don't have any idea where I am or even why I'm here..."
And then, things got even weirder.
A tiny pixie, who had been observing the entire chaotic encounter, knew full well she could mess with this disoriented human. She darted silently through the air, reaching stealthily into his pocket.
Jason, catching a fleeting glimpse of her in his peripheral vision, reacted without thinking. He smacked the pixie. She plummeted to the ground like a stone.
A clear, resonant notification popped up directly in Jason's mind:
"+10 experience for killing Level 1 Pixie"
Jason was speechless.