Now that the fighting had stopped, Rinero took some time to reflect on the events of yesterday. He had nearly died twice and there was also the issue of the lost ten seconds within his memory. Rinero was thoroughly shaken from these experiences and there was a new insanity in his eyes. His thoughts were scattered trying to grapple how close he was to death and trying to figure out how he beat Krieger and where his wounds went.
"Perhaps Zetarnu could know what happened to my memory. He is an expert in magic and unusual things after all," thought Rinero. He trotted his horse up to Zetarnu's and whispered in his ear, "Hey Zetarnu, I want to talk with you privately for a second."
Zetarnu's eyes shifted to look at Rinero. The two slowed down their horses until they fell to the back of the traveling group. Once they were out of earshot Zetarnu looked at Rinero with a tired expression.
"What would you like to discuss Rinero?" asked Zetarnu.
"Well, something strange happened to me last night. It happened while you were knocked out," said Rinero.
"What happened?"
"I was fighting this really strong guy, the one who took my tournament money. We were fighting until he suddenly stabbed me though the chest, I think he hit my lungs. I was dying on the ground, choaking on my own blood until all of a sudden my mind went totally blank for about ten seconds. Everything was hazy and red and I couldn't understand anything and my body was acting almost independently as my mind shut down. Once those ten seconds were up my mind returned back to normal I was standing above my opponent's chopped up body and all my wounds were gone."
Zetarnu's face darkened dramatically.
"I couldn't possibly be! I've heard these of symptoms in the curse encyclopedia back in mage school," thought Zetarnu.
Zetarnu activated his enhanced magic sense and focused on Rinero. His eyes entered the immaterial dimension and the world around him warped and twisted into shifting sacred geometry, endless spirals of vibrant color, and entrancing vortexes of ethereal energies. It was a psychedelic assault on the senses which would have driven any normal man to insanity.
He saw the rough outline of Rinero's body through the maddening carnival of arcane energies and dancing spirits. Around Rinero was a dark crimson shadow, a malevolent energy which was immensely powerful and attached to Rinero by blood. The shadow was one with Rinero, it was a part of him passed down to him by some distant ancestor from the days before the coming of Terra's earthly vessel.
Zetarnu slowly tuned his senses out of the immaterial realm and was sure of what Rinero had. Zetarnu's vison returned to the material world and he shot a hard glance at Rinero.
"Rinero, you have the blood of the berserker," Zetarnu said.
"What? What is that?" asked Rinero.
"It is a curse which is passed down through bloodlines. Some distant ancestor of yours must have made a contract with a demon and gained the power. As the curse flows within your blood and is thus a part of you it can't be removed lest you be seriously damaged mentally and spiritually or even die."
Rinero blankly stared at Zetarnu as he was talking.
"WHAT THE HELL! You mean I've got a demon curse which can't be removed? Why did I not experience or know about this before?"
"The curse only activates once you have taken the lives of more than five people, once that condition is met you then must be dealt a mortal wound which will nearly kill you and begin dragging your soul out of the moral world. As you are on the borderline of life and death the curse activates causing your primal, animalistic instincts to take over and your physical abilities to double. In this state you can take deadly wounds and still fight. One key aspect of the curse is it allows for the regeneration of wounds via the consumption of human flesh and blood."
Rinero was too shocked to speak at this news. He had become comfortable with killing people but eating them was a different matter entirely.
"Well there is a silver lining to this Rinero. If you can learn to control the curse and not let your primal instincts take over then it could prove a valuable weapon in battle," said Zetarnu with a wide grin as if he didn't just drop some devastating news on Rinero.
Silently the two moved up to join the rest of the group.
"It's been our fifth day on the road. We are a whole day behind schedule since we should have entered Whitelake yesterday. As long as we encounter no problems today we should enter Whitelake by noon," thought Zetarnu.
About five minutes later they encountered a problem. In the middle of the desolate, grey grass fields they saw a large black tree with twisting branches and no leaves. Around the tree was a scattering of 50 or so dead bodies.
The group cautiously approached the bloody scene to inspect it. The dead bodies were clad in crude iron armor with rough hides and leather. They held spears and axes along with tall rectangular shields. Tattered banners were sprawled out on the ground. Oddly enough there were no vultures or rats around the scene.
"These men appear to be savages," said Zetarnu.
"They seem to be of the same clan, look at their banners," said Simon.
Indeed the banners were all the same, green and inscribed with a large mystic rune.
"It could have been internal infighting within the clan but we also must discuss this tree," said Simon.
"Perhaps it was a sacred tree for them. They are pagans after all," said Zetarnu.
"That is a possibility."
The group got closer to the tree to inspect it further. Zetarnu jumped off his horse to inspect the bodies.
"These wounds are strange. They don't match the weapons here." Zetarnu said.
The wounds on the bodies were large holes that went completely through the savages' bodies. Some of the bodies had large chunks of flesh or limbs missing. All the bodies appeared to have suffered severe blunt damage with whole skeletons broken and skulls bashed in. They all lay twisted and contorted unnaturally.
"There's blood on the branches master," said Noname.
"There is?" responded Zetarnu.
On the branches there was dried blood, hard to see due to it blending into the tree's dark color. Zetarnu immediately understood what this meant.
"Everybody back away slowly," said Zetarnu cautiously.
The group began backing away on their horses and Zetarnu slowly approached his horse. As he did his leg accidentally brushed against a spear tip and he cut his leg on it.
"Dam it I've drawn fresh blood!" thought Zetarnu. "EVERYBODY FULL GALLOP! GET OUT OF HERE!" he shouted in panic.
Zetarnu sprinted to his horse as fleshy tendrils burst from within the tree. The bark cracked and splintered slightly in a few places revealing a slimy, pale pink mass with black, beady eyes and sharp teeth within the tree. Zetarnu mounted his horse and looked behind him to see the tree crawl out of the ground carried by many pink, slimy tendrils.
The entire group was galloping away as fast as they could as the beast rushed towards them, still mostly concealed within the tree bark.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!" shouted Rinero.
"ITS A TREE MIMIC, IT USES HOLLOW TREES AS A SHELL TO HIDE IN!" shouted back Zetarnu.
Despite the tree mimic's massive size it moved just as fast as the group's horses. They rode through the plains under the bright yellow sun of the early morning while being pursued by the massive tree mimic. At the back of the group was Zetarnu, significantly more behind than the rest. He urged his horse forward yet it was already at its limit. He looked behind him in terror as the tree mimic slowly caught up with him, fleshy tendrils flailing in the air.
"Son of a bitch! That tree mimic is catching up with me. If I don't do something that thing is gonna tear me to bloody shreds!" thought Zetarnu.
He could not use any powerful magic attacks for his magic reserves were depleted from the previous battle and he was tired from a terrible lack of sleep. His magic was low to the point that he could not activate any of his scrolls as they were all high level and still required a fair bit of arcane energy to unseal without having the scroll implode. If he were to use any large amount of magic he would surely pass out or even die.
Lazarus looked behind him and fired off a blazing crescent which was quickly dodged by the tree mimic. Lazarus followed up with another one which was also dodged. Lazarus then fired a third blazing crescent which got slapped away by one of the tree mimic's tendrils.
"ITS GOT MAGIC RESISTANCE!" shouted Lazarus.
"IT SURE DOES!" responded Zetarnu.
Zetarnu's mind raced with possibilities, his great intellect quickened by the surge of adrenaline in his body. With how much is horse was bouncing about drinking a mana potion would be near impossible. He then remembered a quote he once heard "When chased by a beast one need not outrun the beast but merely the person next to you."
"There is only one way I can survive, by sacrificing another. After all, I am the leader here and my life should take priority. I need to take someone who is close enough to me that the others won't notice."
Zetarnu looked to his right and saw Noname's horse slowly lagging behind and separate from the others, out of their sight.
"He may be my apprentice and have great skill yet he appears to be the only available option as the rest of the others are packed together closely. It may hurt to lose him but I must survive. So long half-breed, you were always hard to look at."
Zetarnu carefully lowered himself on his horse from to where his arm could reach the ground and picked up a rock. Zetarnu carefully calculated the speed of the horses, wind resistance, and throw speed and angle in order to hit Noname's horse as was still quite a distance away. He looked around and saw no body was looking at him and threw the rock with all his might.
The rock hit the horse's left back leg causing the horse to trip on itself and tumble to the ground. Noname looked in horror and despair as his horse dropped beneath him and he was left behind by the rest of the group. He shouted and cried in terror as the tree mimic loomed over him. One of the tree mimic's fleshy tendrils slapped Noname breaking most his bones in a single hit. His body was flung into the air like a ragdoll and was caught midair by the tree mimic. Rinero and Simon looked behind them, hearing Noname's screams of pain and terror just in time to see him get impaled on one of the tree mimic's tree branches.
The limp body was taken off the bloody branch and into the tree mimic sharp maw. The tree mimic stopped its chase to feast on the half-orc's body. The sickening tear of flesh and pop and crunch of bones filled the air as Noname was consumed. The tree mimic quickly then bashed in the horse's head and began eating it to. The smell of blood was in the air. Once the tree finished it's gory feast it burrowed its lower tendrils into the ground and slipped its higher tendrils back into its tree shell. It closed its eyes and the bark regenerated magically, once more looking like a regular tree.
Rinero and Simon were thoroughly traumatized by what they saw and turned away from the gory scene. The group kept riding for several minuets before stopping when the tree was out of sight. They had ridden deep into a dense pine forest which was surrounded by grassy hills. The group stopped in the middle of the forest and jumped off their horses to gather their wits.
Simon sat next to a tree and took off his kettle helmet. He took out his whisky flask from his pouch and took a long drink. Rinero also sat down and took off his sallet, running a hand through his long black hair which glistened with sweat. Zetarnu hopped of his horse and took a long sigh. Lazarus jumped off his horse to sweep dust off his uniform. They were all sleep deprived, tired, and hungry.
There was an uneasy silence in the air, they were all in denial that one of their number had just been eaten alive by an eldritch tree monster right in front of their eyes. Lazarus may have not seen Noname get devoured but he sure as hell heard his desperate cries and the sickening sounds of flesh and bone being crushed and shredded in the tree mimic's maw. Zetarnu however maintained a cool demeanor an was now guiltlessly strategizing what he would now do without the apprentice he murdered a few minuets ago. Nobody saw him do it, and he didn't feel particularly bad about it, but now it was time to thoroughly cover his tracks to eliminate any suspicion. To him the action was nothing more than sacrificing a pawn in a game of chess in order to save the king.
He collapsed to his knees and forced himself to begin sobbing. He was a great actor and knew how put on a great emotional mask.
"Gods have mercy! Why must my apprentice die! Why must have his horse fail him! May Terra give him peace in heaven." cried Zetarnu.
"Didn't know him for long but he seemed to be a pretty good guy," said Rinero somberly.
Simon muttered a prayer under his breath as he drank his whisky.
"We must continue our journey and make sure Noname's death was not in vain!" shouted Zetarnu in an inspirational and uplifting voice.
"Hell yeah! Those Black Dagger Bandit fuckers burnt down my village and then that nice guy Noname died on our quest to take them down! They'll pay with their blood all right!" shouted Rinero.
"May Terra's wrath fall upon the cruel and the greedy Black Dagger Bandits," said Simon.
"Excellent, I have turned this misfortune into fuel for their hatred. Losing one of their comrades will make them vengeful upon the Black Dagger Bandits and they will fight harder than ever with their new motivation," thought Zetarnu.
Lazarus merely listened on to Zetarnu's speech not caring much for Noname's death. He was then suddenly grabbed by the shoulders by Zetarnu.
"You Lazarus shall be my new apprentice. Fill Noname's former role with honor and make sure his death was not in vain. Under me you shall study the arcane arts and refine your abilities to their greatest potential. Terra bless Noname and may his soul in heaven protect and guide you on our perilous journey," Zetarnu said with an inspiring tone.
"Yes sir," said Lazarus caught off guard.
He may have not cared for the affairs of the lesser races yet Zetarnu's words held a strange grip upon him. He felt an importance in the role he was taking and felt inspired by Zetarnu's cunning persuasion and wordplay.
"As of now we appear to have lost our way to Whitelake as we were driven off course. We shall scavenge this area and wait for nightfall when we will navigate using the stars. But first we must survey our surroundings in order to get a good grasp of the situation at hand," proclaimed Zetarnu.
The group mounted their horses once more, now with a new motivation and driven by righteous rage and set off deeper into the forest.