"Don't scream like that, I had a terrible nightmare… hey we are both here and the raven is here too"
"Yes, and what did you expect? We must have slept a lot of time, I managed to wake up on my own, I decided to wake you up, because you screamed terribly, your raven decided to help me out in putting you back on your feet. What did you dream about?"
Jason began to stand up despite his aching bones, sleeping on a makeshift bed was even less comfortable than his worn-out mattress at his parents' house.
"Some emaciated old man, in rags. He made fun of me and said I was immature, not ready or something. I felt like it wasn't a dream, everything was happening in a forest like this, but a little different. At the end, this guy blew some smoke into me that entered my skull and that's when you woke me up"
"Hey, strange, but I wouldn't take this dream lightly, we don't know anything about this place. Maybe these dreams have some meaning"
"Now, as you mentioned, I think I had a similar dream in Sunnybrook. You know – before all this."
As soon as Jason finished speaking, they heard the sound of twigs bursting. At the same time, Jason's raven began to caw and flew into the air. The boys automatically turned their heads towards the disturbing sound.
"Mother of god, what is it?
In the Forest on the other side of the hill, a figure in ragged clothes began to emerge, looking like zombies from movies that parents did not allow the boys to watch yet. The creature's body was covered with scars that were covered in mysterious runes glowing with a pale blue light. The zombie was skinny, as if it was starved to death before he died – well sort of died.
"Eeeee" – they heard sounds coming from the long-dead throat.
"It looks like some kind of zombie, doesn't it? Be prepared, it should be quite slow, so we have a few more minutes before it gets here. Maybe we should run away from him and not fight him at all? We should be faster than him," Jason mused aloud.
Unfortunately, as soon as the boy finished speaking, the corpse quickened his pace, he may not have been the fastest, but he was almost as fast as any of the boys. Escaping was rather out of the question as it was very unlikely the zombie would get tired. The boys were very surprised by his speed, they had only one minute to prepare.
"A swarm of wasps!" Jason shouted
"Lesser Protection" – Luc cast a spell on himself and grabbed a branch lying nearby. "Hide behind me, I have a shield, so I'll try to protect you, you command your summons, I hope this creature doesn't get through them."
"Attack, quickly" – The raven and the wasps rushed at the approaching enemy. The raven, flew high, it looked as if he was going to throw himself on the head of the corpse. Unfortunately, as soon as he flew within arm's reach, the zombie hit him with high speed. The raven let out a shrill screech and vanished into the black mist.
Fortunately, the wasps surrounded the opponent at that time and furiously began to bite him with their jaws and hit him with their stingers. They moved in a very chaotic way, which made it difficult for the monster to track them. His body began to be covered with cuts, but it was in vain to look for the blood oozing from the wounds. Although he was covered with more and more cuts, he still advanced towards the boys, fortunately both the wasps and the terrain made it difficult for him.
"Damn, what are we doing, my wasps' attacks don't seem to work on him, you were a fan of zombie movies, how do you kill him?
"Head, we have to aim for the head!" – at that moment when Lucas said this, one of the wasps flew too close and was crushed by a powerful blow from the corpse. Although his speed was barely matched by the boys, after this one blow they already knew that his strength was significantly greater.
"We can't get hit!"
"You think I don't know that? My shield won't stand a chance against it."
After killing the raven and one of the wasps, Zombie was able to accelerate and was only 30 meters away from the boys.
"Attention, it's coming!" - Lucas kept his stick ready, Zombie was approaching very quickly and as soon as he got within a distance of one and a half meters, Lucas swung his stick at his head. A piece of the skull fell off, but it was not enough to defeat the zombie, who in retaliation swung at Lucas, broke the stick he was holding and threw the boy into a nearby tree.
"Ekhh," Lucas lost his breath as he slammed into the hardwood. However, the zombie did not move towards him to finish the job, one of the wasps bit him on the exposed piece of the skull, which must have caused some damage to the monster, because he immediately pounced on it and tried to throw the was off himself. He managed to kill the wasp, squeezing it with both hands. Then he rushed towards Jason, who was standing a few meters away. He hit him with all his might on the right side, tearing off a piece of meat and causing him to bleed profusely.
"Jason" – Lucas picked up another branch and began to run towards his falling and pale companion. "I'll cure you in a moment just don't die Minor Healing!" – A yellowish glow appeared around Jason and his wound stopped bleeding.
"Kill him!" he said in a weak voice at his wasps.
The wasps pounced on the zombie with renewed force, aiming at the exposed and damaged part of the brain. One of them stuck its entire stinger into the brain, which immediately immobilized the caricature.
"Eeeeekhhhh" – The corpse made the last sound and fell on the moss.
"Jason, are you okay? Jason panted anxiously, running up. All of Jason's Wasps dissolved into black smoke. – "Don't die"
However, as soon as Luc ran to his friend, he noticed that he was still alive, he just had to lose too much energy and was unable to sustain his summons.
Lucas focused on maintaining the healing spell, the wound gradually looking more and more healed, but the strength was quickly leaving the young cleric. Just when it seemed that the wound was almost healed, Lucas also lost consciousness from the effort and slumped to the ground.
The whole area began to be shrouded in white fog, the temperature dropped so much that some leaves began to be covered with frost. The wind grew stronger, the thinnest branches crackled ominously. At that time, a slender figure dressed in ragged robes, here and there pierced with gold thread, began to emerge from the forest. The figure walked slowly towards the recent battlefield. She leaned over Jason.
"You can only grow stronger on your own... Either you grow or you die," an elderly voice could be heard. The old man touched the place where Jason had been wounded moments ago, when he took his hand away there was no trace of the wound. He completed the treatment started by Lucas. The figure vanished into the white mist, but did not leave alone, and Luc was also swallowed up by the fog.
Slowly, the temperature began to return to normal, the fog thinned out, until finally there was no trace of it. Only Jason and the body of their recent opponent was there on the ground.