Sylvarina's Forests

Screams of agony arose throughout the forest. Cries of help filled the night sky.

The platoon of soldiers tasked with patrolling the deep forests of Sylvanira were scattered by an unknown enemy. With relentless attacks coming in from all sides of the platoon, these lightly armed soldiers fled in fear as their comrades started hitting the ground, lacking heads or several limbs, drenching it crimson with blood.

No one knew where the attacks were coming from; the torches had puffed out with the first wave of assaults. All the soldiers heard before the attack was a flap of wings and a screech that rendered them immobile for several seconds.

Two soldiers managed to escape fairly quickly from the confusion and terror, never to look back. Sprinting as fast as possible, they managed to put the screams and shrieks behind them only to hear it die out.

They looked at each other and understood what the silence meant. Everyone was gone and both their faces had become pale, urging them to run ever faster, in an attempt to get away from death.

A loud shriek filled the air once more and both of their bodies froze mid run, resulting in them crashing down to the earth, one of them smacking into a tree, the other falling face first into the dirt. Try as they might, their bodies wouldn't move. It was as if they were paralyzed completely from head to toe, even their breathing had stopped.

The flapping of giant wings was heard again as they regained control of their bodies. One of them, with a face full of dirt got up and managed to continue running, while the man who crashed into a tree was still trying to make sense of what happened to him only to be taken down in one fell swoop.

The mere silhouette of this creature forced the runner to stop in his tracks, too scared to move, too afraid to look away.

The dark hue of blood splattered on the nearby trees as the fallen soldier screamed his last. The silhouette folded its wings and stood up. It was slightly taller than a regular man, with what appeared to be two ears protruding from the side of the head, pointing upwards. The creature turned towards the frozen runner. Its dark skin being barely visible under the moon light which made its way through the cracks in the tree tops. Its large sphere-like eyes shined a golden green and gave off the distinct feeling of peering into a man's soul.

The runner didn't even try to escape anymore, as the creature lifted its right arm as if to point at him, his body froze yet again but this time, he was being pulled towards the creature, his feet dragging in the earth until he was a hair's breadth away from the creatures face.

Up close, the monster's features became apparent, a hideous face like that of a bat, paired with gigantic leathery wings attached to the body of a man. Its hands and feet were humongous and ended with claws the size of small daggers, it was as black as the night sky. 

The creature opened its mouth, revealing fangs that gleamed red with the blood of his comrades and as they sank deep into the side of his throat, the soldier managed to let out a whimper, a final plea, in the hopes of reaching the ears of anyone or anything that could help him out of this death trap.