“Hunger. From the moment we were born, twin spirits have guided all beast and man alike. Death and Desire have molded the lives of creatures and chained us into an eternal cycle of ceaseless repetition. They have birthed a creature so foul and beautiful that no creature has ever grasped it’s shape and no mind can ignore it’s name. It is hunger, violent hunger, cunning hunger, brutal hunger, hunger that drives all to madness. Everything hungers and everything falls to it eventually.”

  -Church of Voracity

  Nymphs of the Dreedun Forest

  The forest was the home for many beasts. Ones that flew, ones that grew, ones that breathed poison, and ones that burrowed. The nymphs were reflections of the state of the wilds and their beauty were accurate mirrors of nature’s grace.

  But for the past few days, they were getting hungry. Their round eyes filled with trickery and secrets were now slits of predatory fury. Their hair filled with blooms of petals and pollen, now grew barbs and javelins. Their hands and fingers that were lithe and elegant were now bent and many limbed, like those of beastial huntresses.

  The change only took a few days, yet even they wondered what could have done something so abrupt to them that they lost themselves to hunger.

  The forest that was once home to peaceful creatures of graceful majesty, now morphed into a land of carnage. It was as if a thousand morsels of enfleshed bounty dropped from the sky and called the beasts of the land to feast upon it. It has transformed into a land of untamed fecundity, where carrions multiplied and predators mated in the sky. Many nests of bloody flesh sprouted from the ground and made hunters of them all, killing to feed and feeding to kill.

  It became a land of fertile gluttony that arose as a beacon of primal fury. It became a paradise for predation and a temple for the hunt. And the nymphs were starting to enjoy it.

  Caravans and armies that marched for invasion noticed the scent of sterile rot. What once was floral and light, now became an omen of the huntress nymphs, ferocious, wild, and cunning. Everyday their forest expanded as the land they grew fat with spilled blood and more life bloomed from the ground. They were never this powerful before, never this cunning.

  Men, mages, and kings would capture them for their own uses and starve the land they used to frolick on. But now it was different. They were prey to them no longer, and now they relished the hunt for flesh.

  Slowly but surely, their strength grew with each hunt, expanding the reach of their roots. They were never meant to hunt like this before, and now they knew why. With every prey felled and feasted upon, the wilds grew as every pierced heart multiplied the birds that perched in their canopy. Each neck bitten gave rise to a new den of wolves. And every ounce of blood became a spring of abundant life.

  They knew, they learned, and they hunted.

  They were ever so grateful at whatever caused them to hunger, whatever warped them to such beasts. And now they stalked the undergrowth, grinning with maws far larger than what they had before, stamping with padded paws with bladed claws, and watched with eyes of cold calculating fury.

  Now they hunted.

  Elizei Rustrata

  2 hours. 2 hours for an entire company of elite soldiers to get swallowed by a forest. She stepped on a dozen bodies clothed in leather and steel, trackers from the looks of things. She twirled her sword lazily, swiping the dead bodies of robed magi that were sprouting ironwood branches from their orifices.

  It wasn’t her company though, so she didn’t really care. She was sent here as an essential asset to stop two enemy armies from passing. She was strong enough to do that anyways, which made her expect another boring engagement filled with bribes and threats.

  Stolen story; please report.

  What she didn’t expect was the whole miles long forest morphing into a deathtrap filled with wild beasts and monstrosities that eliminated the very target she was sent to ‘peacefully’ discourage from continuing onward. Although she was very powerful, she knew that even she couldn’t eliminate whatever thing caused this.

  She laughs and thinks that maybe her brother would like it here. Maybe she could write to the others to convince him to join her here. Afterall, it was only a few days away to Olipas.

  Maybe she could even get him hitched. There’s bound to be someone for his idiot brother there, maybe even the city lord could be the one to charm him. She has heard rumors of the enchanting woman that could bewitch all secrets out of men and women alike. If he could get her, imagine how useful she could be for the family. Elizei laughed.

  A dozen javelins made of wood and hair whizzed past her, moving in supersonic speeds. She dodged each one with ease. Something was hunting her. Something unseen and cunning was watching her. A huntress nymph was on her tail.

  She smirked. She welcomed the challenge.

  They were constantly watching her, laying ingenious traps to starve and exhaust her, to make it easier to subdue her. What foolish things, she wouldn’t fall for such childsplay. Though they were getting better and better as time went by, so she made it a point to let atleast one survive and learn from their mistakes. It was thrilling to see what they could come up with to kill her, so she could excuse such insolence.

  A tree, a mighty oak suddenly launched itself towards her. She took a deep breath and felt her artifact in her belt. It was a simple clay cup, one anointed with sacred oils and made with ashes of a saint. It had the uncanny ability to extend a moment by a few seconds when it was drenched wine. Normally it would be useless to soldiers and men of war, but she could still make do with it.

  She had the cup in a small sack made of holy leather, wrapped in plated dragon stomach. She placed an amethyst, one that was enchanted to make any water it touched into wine, and a soak stone, a rock that regularly created water, inside the sack. The artifact gladly drunk from it and extended every second to two.

  For regular soldiers it would rarely make a difference when fighting with waves upon waves of man eating beasts and monstrosities, but for someone like her it made likelihoods into certainties. The oak fell and she evaded the large tree with ease.

  A cloud of bees appeared out of nowhere and began swarming around her.

  She smirked.

  She took out her blade and angled it. Suddenly the airborne insects were pulled towards the razor sharp sword and sliced themselves in half, as if they were pulled out of the air and straight to a cleaver.

  She felt the eyes of the forest huntresses a dozen paces behind her, hidden behind the hostile folliage, and chuckled.

  She took out a flask of emberflood and threw towards their direction.

  The nymphs saw this and ran, but they were to late. An invisible force grabbed them and pulled them towards Elizei. The flask hit them and they began burn in a dazzling conflagration of alchemical fire.

  Elizei playfully wagged her finger in their direction as they attempted to smother the fire with earth.

  “Naughty little girls, you’re good hunters I’ll give you that. But you’re still not good enough.”

  One of them shot a javelin after javelin, while others ran. The one who stayed behind had a fire in her eyes so malevolent that it threatened to burn a hole through Elizei’s skull.

  Oh I like you~

  Elizei parried every single thorny javelin and pulled the ones who dared to escape. They came closer.

  10 paces

  She readied her sword.

  4 paces

  She smiled.

  Contact.

  In a single moment too fast for the naked eye, Elizei made aura enhanced slashes that cut the nymphs to pieces. Each and every one was sliced until they were mushy compost for the ground to feed upon. She could burn them now and the forest would take some time to create a new batch, but where was the fun in that. She let them feel the pain of death so she could face them all over again, but this time a new set of heads that wouldn’t dare to run away from a battle where she was present.

  As she did all this, she made the single nymph watch as her family were easily minced into paste. The nymph’s eyes grew wide and filled with burning rage.

  The nymph commanded all manners of beasts and poisonous flora to assault her, but all of those were easily repelled by Elizei’s slashes. Frankly she might not even need the clay cup artifact for this one, it was just that easy.

  “Aww, are you done?~” She mocked the nymph.

  The nymph roared in fury as she threw javelin after javelin, but Elizei merely pulled her. She clamped her armored hands on the nymphs neck, who viciously clawed at it fruitlessly.

  “I know you can understand me beastie, you nymphs are smart like that.” Elizei grinned.

  “See, I am blessed, unfortunately for you. I was blessed with allure. I can attract anything I wish towards me, and frankly with all manner of beast and creature I’ve slayed, I expected better. Hopefully with this little hint, you’ll atleast get you’re little friends to amuse me a bit longer eh?” Elizei smiled.

  She dropped the nymph with a smashed throat.

  “Oh and a little parting gift.”

  Elizei sliced the nymph’s fingers.

  “AAAHH!”

  The nymph cried in pain and fury as the armored woman waltzed off to some other area, to chop down some other group of nymphs, in some other situation that would play out the same way. Elizei merely walked away to repeat another scene just like this somewhere deeper in the forest with a look that screamed boredom.

  “Aaah~ So boring. Hopefully I’ll get a real challenge soon.”

  Elizei grumbled as she lazily twirled her sword in a land of carnage and predators. She took her time to enjoy the sights of colorful flowers, the nice shade of the shivering trees, and the scream of a pained nymph behind her.

  I wish my brother could see this, aah~

  She heard more sounds in the distance, one made from men and metal, and she smiled.

  Looks like another show to see. I’ll let them enjoy killing a few people first, wouldn’t want them to flee now do I.

  She strolled the pleasant forest as a metal plated predator in a blooming land of violence. She prowled silently hunting the hunters and playing with the prey.

  An apex was walking the land of carnage.