Chapter 5- A Deadly Dance
Exhilarated, is all I could feel in my bones as my group set up a little camp by a hill. Nighttime came in fast, submerging ourselves in total darkness. The top was so different from the world below. The world below was always lit up from the crystals, that sometimes it was generally hard to tell when it was night. Down below as much I love my home, there was just something special seeing the stars in the black abyss sky.
The top was lighten up by the plants all over the forest, I couldn't make out the colors they all glowed but I knew they must be beautiful. Maybe some violets mix with light blues, and perhaps there were even some greens . The tree's roots inside the bark glowed too, letting you see inside the tree, watching as the roots twisted and turned into every branch, going into the leaves that also glowed due to this. Something about the glow though, it wasn't overwhelming at all. It didn't make the world look day time, but a night that had a luring gleam that brought comfort. It illuminated the dangers, and the beauty that was hiding, but still gave a mysterious vibe. It was still dark but not dark enough. When the light of the fire hid the beauty I snapped out of my trance and turned towards my group.
Karl and Fundy were talking away, while feeding the fire some sticks I gathered for them. Skeepy and Bad were minding their own business, I could see Bad sharpening a blade while Skeepy pointed upwards towards the stars. Whatever Skeppy was talking about must be very interesting seeing as Bad wouldn't remove his eyes from Skeppy. Really all we need is someone who could play an instrument and it would give off a vibe of friends camping. I read many books about horrors, or romance's , about friends doing something like that. Time back then sounded simpler, to the point all you had to worry about was who was having sex with who, if you pass school, dates, and if your neighbor was the murder the whole time. I looked back out towards the forest, closing my eyes as I listened to the fire crack from the wood burning.
It wasn't long though when a whistle took my interest. I looked around, trying to locate the whistle, before I spotted something on a branch in a nearby tree. It's a bird that's perched, not moving one bit. But that wasn't the only thing it was doing, it was staring at me. I thought maybe it was turning its head and just so happened to catch it when it stared at me. That maybe it would stop staring and move on. But it never moved, it kept staring at me, seeming to try to analyze me. I looked closer, when something about the bird hit a familiar image in my mind. I stood up slowly keeping my eyes on the bird.
"I've seen this bird before."
My mind flashed to an image of a bird flying off in the corner of my eye sight, heading towards where the Speed-Runners ran off too.
It then opened its beak and started to whistle, the tone of it, made me tense. This bird was the exact same bird from this morning. The more I think about it, the more I find how odd the bird looked before. But seeing in the fire glow, it really brought out the weirdest things about the bird. The bird seemed to not be fully solid, like if I looked straight at it, I could actually see it clearly, but I moved my eye away from the bird an inch off, the bird was no longer there, like my brain couldn't pick it out. The next thing I noticed was how the eyes didn't seem to be fully animal, but almost humans. Or how the feathers didn't seem to move from the gentle breeze. Or how it would seem to "glitch" out only for a split second, so fast it almost didn't seem to happen, almost. I reached for my sword handle that's been in the baldric tied to my back. If I learned anything from past hunts, and the books about the top, is how to spot real, from a trick of a Speed-runner. I slowly looked away from the bird towards my group, that was still enjoying each other's company. I looked back at the bird. It tilted its head like it knew that I saw the truth
"Well what's your plan now?" It seemed too mocked.
I glared at it, before slowly taking the chance and stepping towards the illusion. Without turning back I yelled, "Speed-Runners!" And that's when all chaos broke loose.
Five Speed-Runners were on top of us at once, popping out of the bushes, or shadows. And one of them was the main target. He looked the exact same from the picture, the blond hair, and the creepy smile mask. The only difference was, one: his hair was no longer long, but had been cut shorter, it now can only go in a small ponytail. Two: his mask has obviously been broken before. Three: He's actually physically and not some picture. One thing I kind of wished they mentioned was how freakin tall he is. Holding a foot or so, and let me tell you having a one on one with a giant wasn't easy.
I could hear my group fighting as my blade crashed against Dream's axe. He leaned in close as our blades made an 'X' between the two of us. He pushed into his blade harder, forcing me to bend my back so his blade wouldn't cut me.
"Hello Gerogy~" He whispered. A shiver went down my spine. He must have eavesdropped with his stupid bird illusion.
"Dream." I snared. I kicked him in the shin. And with the force, it brought him to his knees. He was faster though when I tried to bring my sword down on him. He swiped his leg, easily hitting my ankle and kicking me under. I didn't stay on the floor though, I rolled backwards and back on my feet. He just pushed up and was ready to go. We circled each other, waiting for one of us to make a move.
"Not bad for a small Hunter."
"Do you usually talk with your enemy?"
"Meh, only if their cute~"
He was trying to distract me, I can tell that he was looking for an opportunity to strike. In a way he reminded me of a snake, just ready to launch. I glared harder at him, even though he wouldn't be able to see under my goggles. He tilted his head a bit, his mask still giving me the creepy smile.
"Shut up!" I launched first and like before our blades collided. My arm took the force of it, but with the years of training it didn't bend. It still shook but nothing more. I pushed with my upper body trying to get his weight off of me. It worked when nature seemed to be on my side and he tripped over a tree root.
But like before he was back on his feet before I could even think about moving my sword. Is this what makes him dangerous? Because he's fast? Surly there has to be something else that makes him dangerous. His movements were predictable, and he wasn't even the best one on one fighter. I seen the way Techno fights, the way other hunters work, how on earth did Dream survive them all? My body was on autopilot, dodging his attacks, and making my own. In a way it felt like a dance, a very deadly, very sweaty dance. His axe would move right, my sword moved downward, colliding again and again. I hit his arm as his axe grazed my calf, but did we stop? Of course not, if anything that added fuel to the flame. With his left arm hurt, and bleeding from the wound I made, he held the axe with his right very tight.
"Oh come on George, is that all you got?"
I grind my teeth together, I hate how he said my name so freely. How he made it sound like he knew everything about me, like he knew even the darkest, of secrets in me.
"You wish." This time I hurriedly grabbed a throwing knife that was strapped to my side, and let the blade fly straight at him.
Dream by a curse or a miracle caught it,but in doing so he dropped his axe, not expecting me to throw something at him. I ran forward before he could react, and drugged my sword into his stomach. It was silent between us, as we both took deep breaths, his blood going on my sword. Even under the mask I could tell he was surprised, staring at me with those dots for eyes. I pushed my blade deeper as he let go of the knife and held on to the blade of the sword.
"You l-lost." I couldn't even celebrate my victory of not just killing Dream, but winning the game. My blood was pumping too fast, and my ears have a weak ring to it. I couldn't help but slump my shoulders a bit, sweat gently starting to layer over my skin.
Dream groaned as his legs shook a bit, almost losing his balance.His blood was now touching my hands, it felt warm as it ooze over them. Then he did something, something that made my heart stop. He started to laugh, like a full on kettle noise laugh. He pulled up suddenly, digging the blade deeper inside him. He pushed forward as I held on the blade stronger, watching as his belly met the base of the sword. His face was so close to mine again, I wasn't sure what to do other than stare at him with pure shock.
"W-What?"
"I've been doing this for way too long George." He flicked the sword, "You think this toothpick could kill me?"
Then he was gone. I jumped back as even his blood that I thought was seeping into my hand was gone, the warmth though still lingered.
"What the hell?" I whisper.
"OHH GEORGE!"
I turned (Which was a huge mistake) because my stomach had officially met a foot. I stumbled back as the grip on my sword was lost, flinging my sword in a random location. I groaned from the pain from the force, pain shooting into my stomach. I couldn't tell if anything was broken because everything became very horrifying when a cold touch of a blade met my neck. I looked up to meet Dream, the mask no longer looking like a creepy smile but a sinister one. I glared harder at him as he chuckled.
"This is fun." He chuckled out.
I snapped out, "Nice party trick."
I rolled back away from the blade, and with my legs kicked upwards hitting his arms away from me. It worked for only a second, his axe almost hit my knee which would have caused serious damage. But thankfully the blade didn't make contacted. Soon Dream and I were circling once again. With my sword gone, I had to use the last two of my throwing knives.
"So are you actually here, or are you still being too much of a coward to face me?"
"I don't know oh Gerogry poo. Am I actually here? Being the monster everyone claims I am? Or am I playing around with my food? Enjoying watching you struggle to keep up with something not even real."
Then there were more Dream's. I yelped as I watched as all the Dream's created a circle around me, trapping me in a death trap. I held my knives tighter, my grip turning my hands white. Dream, well one of the Dream's started to speak.
"What are you going to do George?"
Another one said, "What's your plan?"
"How are you going to get out of this?"
Everything was happening so fast it was hard to concentrate, I didn't notice my teammates were gone. I wasn't expecting Dream to even show up the first night, much less care that I'm here. If what Phil and Ranboo had said, then Dream had more hunters at his tail. Yet here he was, messing with me. This pisses me off the most, he might be messing with me because he probably thinks I'm the weakest of hunters out here. So I get in my fighting stance, ready for one of them to charge. I lowered my guard then when I watched as all the Dream's grabbed their heads suddenly. All of the extras faded away, and only one was left. I glared while I smiled, taking a step closer.
Dream looked around noticing he was the only one, "Well fuck." He groaned again, grabbing his head once more.
"Ohh Dream~" I mocked.
"Ooh George." He said back, this time no mockery hinted.
I charged at him. And like before our blade collided. With his axe, and my knives, sparks flew off. We went at it once more, I should have realized something while the fight dragged on, but Dream only kept backing up into the forest, that he was not backing off but leading me somewhere. But my eyes, my anger was aimed only at Dream, and him alone. My arms aced, while my hands felt like they would fall off due to us still fighting. He backed into a tree, and for two seconds I thought I had him, but like before he had something up his hands. I threw my knife, he grabbed a branch and pulled himself up the tree, missing the fatal stab from the knife.
I walked over and pulled the knife out of the tree.
"You little-" I curse under my breath.
Dream leaned against the trunk while keeping his "eyes" on me, "Sorry George didn't hear you what you say?"
"Why don't you come on down, you'll hear me better."
Dream shrugged his shoulders, "Na, I'm good. It's a beautiful view up here, unlike you would know."
I kneeled down and threw a rock his way. He just laughed as he caught it.
"Nice throw."
"Go to hell!"
Dream didn't say anything but kept staring at me, analyzing me. I don't know why I all of a sudden wanted to cross my arms and hide my body away from his gaze, but something about him looking at me with that stupid mask was very annoying.
"Are you going to keep looking at me like a creep?"
"Like I said George, I'm just enjoying the beautiful view."
My face felt hot all of a sudden, "You're an idiot."
"I have been told, but my IQ said's differently." He grabbed another branch and pulled upwards, climbing the tree higher. I was about to follow but my legs felt like lead just then. I looked back up at the tree and realized that if I wanted to even touch the branch Dream easily grabbed I would have to jump for it. Dread hit me in the face, he wasn't trying to kill me, he was trying to wear me out. I gave a low chuckle as I shook my head, whipping the sweat away from my face. Now that I had a minute to breathe, I realize how tired I really was. How long were we fighting?
"You planned this didn't you?"
"Yes and no, kind of just went for it." He responded. Sitting down and letting his legs dangle.
"I can still throw my knife at you."
He raised his hands up. "You won't. You weren't expecting a fight so soon, so you have no other weapons on you or supplies. And with your toothpick lost somewhere at your base your knives are all you got. You throw and miss me, then you'll be left with nothing in this forest. Not just that, if you throw them at me all you did was give me an extra weapon to use against you."
This is when it finally hit how screwed I was. I looked around to see I really was no where close to my base. Just glowing plants, and wildlife. I did a full three hundred sixty degrees looking around, I was completely lost. I was so into the fight I should have noticed.
"Your base is south, maybe a few minutes or so from here. I bet if you go now you'll find your friends looking for you, and to see what the other Speed-Runners took or destroyed from your base-" I glared harder at him, "Or you can keep chasing me like the little lost puppy you are, and maybe this time I won't go so easy on you."
"So you are letting me choose." I say.
"Yup! Think of it as a little Game if you will."
I smiled at him this time. A hunter getting trapped in their own game was humorous and very sad, "This is not over Dream. I still have two weeks to kill your ass."
"I'm very aware. And my ass will be here when you're ready to face me again." He got up, "Well it's late. I got the information I need, so I'll call this a see you soon." Then something happened, his body disappeared like before. I jumped back as I heard something ruffling in the trees behind. I turned just in time to see a figure swinging away tree by tree, going the opposite direction of my base. I shook my head as I watched the figure go.
"I'll see you soon Dream."
Walking back to my base was a pain. Every step I took felt like needles were forced into my calf, that was still bleeding. It wasn't bleeding as much before but it still hurt alot. But my mind wasn't on my wounds or really on the surrounding, but on Dream. How long was I fighting a fake? I never left my eyes from the target so when did he use his ability on me to make me think it was still him? I finally get why he was dangerous. It wasn't because he could fight, no he was decent but being decent would get you killed. It was because he's a trisker, a thinker. He somehow was able to use not just my own anger on me, but he made me think I had him. That he was wrapped around my fingers, but that wasn't it. If I was a puppet, he would have had the strings.
I punched a tree, how I even got to the tree, or why I punched it I have no idea. But that pisses me off, his words echo in my head.
"Am I actually here? Being the monster everyone claims I am? Or am I playing around with my food? Enjoying watching you struggle to keep up with something not even real."
He was just playing with me, like the true monster he was. This was worse than what I have been told about Speed-Runners, the ones that killed with no mercy. He was just messing with us, showing truly how "weak" we are by falling for a simple trick.
"Dammit." I looked at my knuckles seeing that they were now bruised, and bleeding, "Oh dammit."
When I reached my base, it was left in shambles. Skeepy was treating Fundy's wounds, while Bad and Karl were trying to put back up our tents. I walked closer to them, noticing that Fundy's left ear was a bit clipped, and had a small cut on his cheek but that looked about it. Skeepy left arm must have been hurt by the look of the wrap around it. Other than that, everyone seemed pretty okay. Karl noticed me first, he walked over after making sure the tent wasn't about to give out.
"Hey, where did you go?"
"Chasing Dream." I took a seat, still shaking slightly.
This brought everyone's attention. They walked over when they finished their little project.
"Dream was here?" Fundy asked.
"Yeah, what, you didn't see him?" Skeepy handed me some bandages, while gently grabbing my leg.
"No, I didn't see that muffin." Bad pitched in, "Did anyone else?"
"Well I wasn't really paying attention to anyone but the one that decided to throw a knife at my ear." Fundy grabbed/flicked his ear, "That hurt."
I flinched giving out a his as Skeepy started to bandage my leg.
"Did he do this?" Skeppy asked.
"Yeah. Him and his stupid axe." I looked back at Karl, "Did you really not see him?"
"It might have been because everyone had their own Speed-runner on them, but I didn't see Dream." Karl looked out in the forest. I followed his lead only seeing the forest.
"Do we know who the others were?"
Fundy sign, "Yeah, I think it was, Eret, Hbomb, Sapnap, and Tommy."
The name lingered in the air a bit longer before I said, "T-Tommy?"
"It was definitely him," Skeppy stood up while continuing, "Stole some apples, that little Raccoon."
"Wait you know who Tommy is?"
Skeepy nodded but the way he nodded was like he wasn't so sure, "I mean, Ranboo offered him to me once. I don't know-know the kid but ya."
I nodded understanding, I wasn't sure what to feel. My mind was over excited that Tommy was still alive, growing, aging. While the other part was mad that he was found working with Dream. Then my heart, a part ache while the other was over thrilled. Ache that Hunters were going after him, that people were signing up to take his life, and thrilled that it seemed like he never truly became fully a monster. He might but stealing was such a Tommy thing that I had to hold in a chuckle.
Skeppy pointed at the tent behind him, "The other three just destroyed a few things."
I wrapped my knuckles in the bandages, "Like what?"
"Our maps, and a few weapons, knock over our tents of course but that's about it." Fundy said, sitting down to remake the fire.
"And put out our fire." Bad added.
Karl sat by me, "So what happened between you and Dream? No offence or anything, but how are you even alive?"
I touched my knuckles, "Good question. I mean we fought, for a second there I even thought I did win, but it was a flunk. Speaking of-" I got up wobbling a bit but making my way towards the tree. "Have you guys seen my sword?"
"You lost it?" Fundy yelled.
"I didn't lose it! I just lost my grip and it decided that it wanted to fly."
"George you muffin."
They helped me look around the tree, and a bit into the forest, but after two minutes of looking we all called a quits and looked for it tomorrow if we don't get attacked again. When the base was somewhat in order, and we marked down all the supplies that were destroyed I helped Fundy put up traps around the base this way no more Speed-Runners would attack us again. Usually we would put the traps father from our base but we decided to put a few closer by. It was about midnight when I found myself in a tent, laying down on a white sheet that floated off the ground a bit. I rolled in the sheet a bit, turning left and right trying to get my mind to turn off. But no matter I laid wide awake as Karl next to me snored. My fight with Dream kept flashing in my head, trying to figure out when I was fighting a fake. When he changed into an illusion. I almost sat up when something finally clicked.
"Am I actually here?"
He told me, he straight up said it. At the very beginning he wasn't there. That's why when we were fighting and the other Dream's faded and he was left gripping his head, it wasn't because he was in pain from a headache or something like that. No, he was trying to force that illusion to stay in place, to not glitch. That's why he was probably leading the illusion deeper in the forest, to make it closer to him so it didn't restrain himself. He really was just a game master.
"Nice trick Dream" I say in my head, "But don't worry the Hunter always has a few traps up their sleeve too."
That night, the air seemed to drop ten degrees as I let my mind wander to all the possibilities of how I would kill Dream. Because the Game is I am the Hunter and he's the Prey, and I will kill him, this I swore under the stars, before closing my eyes and letting myself rest up.
Green eyes blinked under the mask as he held the branch harder, "Now I understand why Phil said you could be the one." The blue sword illuminated the white mask. The sword was cracked, and unlike numbers of the points the Hunter had gathered, it showed everything about the Hunter.
Name: George Found
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Powers: Not Found
Race: Human
Status: Hunter/Reporter for Jschlatt
"Who knew that this puny Hunter could be quite useful." The man put down the sword looking over at the tents.
"Hope."
"Yeah bud, we might actually have a chance. See you soon George." He then this time actually headed home. Already planning his next tricks to use to play with the hunter.
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(Hello everyone! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has been patient for this chapter to come out and been very excited for it! It made writing this very long chapter worth it and very fun :D. I also wanted to thank you all for getting this story very close to 1k reads, it probably will hit 1k when all of you guys read this chapter, so thank you for that! Also a few asked if I would tell them the answer of the question of what Dream made, and sadly I won't JUST BECAUSE I WANT IT TO BE A MYSTERY! I want to put this creature back into a the book and maybe by then confirm what it is, so to the winners please keep it to yourself.
Also to the Winners don't you worry my promise will happen, just stay patient and you'll see.
LASTLY! VERY IMPORTANT! I'm leaving Wattpad for a bit, I know sad and right where I left it at a cliff hanger. So this Monday NO UPDATES! Just some personal stuff came up, and finishing this chapter was a huge struggle so I'm just going a way JUST THIS MONDAY! BUT next Monday I'll be back don't worry.
Anyways Happy (early) Valentines, and if you don't have a partner or anyone just know I love you and just love yourself, you deserve all the chocolates!
See you all soon.
-Wolf )