Glancing at the surroundings that seemed devoid of anything but himself, Dan clicked his tongue. It was as though he had just eaten something sweet that had long since lost its sweetness.
He was wondering how he should go about facing an adversary that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.
For some unexplainable reason, however, he had been able to react to its attacks before they reached him. A strange sensation of danger had warned him every time.
What exactly was it?
The human brain was said to be capable of processing an incredible amount of sensory information, most of which never reached conscious awareness.
Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch were only the five senses people commonly talked about, but the brain was constantly receiving and interpreting signals from the body and its surroundings. Even when someone wasn’t consciously aware of something, their brain could still notice subtle changes such as a shift in air pressure, temperature change, inaudible sounds that travelled through sound waves, et creteria.
Naturally, the brain could process these fragments of information almost instantaneously, combining them into a rough prediction of what was happening before the conscious mind even had time to understand it.
Which was one of the reasons people sometimes reacted to danger before they could explain why. Maybe that was what was happening to him.
’But... that doesn’t explain everything.’
The problem was that he wasn’t merely reacting to some vague indication of danger.
Every time the creature attacked, that strange sensation appeared a moment beforehand, almost as though something inside him was pointing directly toward the source of the threat.
And there was also the fact he couldn’t hear or see the rotten bastard. He couldn’t even feel the slightest wind displaced by its movements!
Furthermore, one had to consider the fact that the brain was extraordinary but not omniscient. It could infer things from incomplete information, fill in gaps, recognize certain patterns, and even generate sensations that weren’t caused by an external stimulus. But if no sensory information existed, the brain couldn’t simply manufacture accurate knowledge about something it had no means of detecting.
So what exactly was he perceiving right now?
In any case, that mattered little. Not only because it was meaningless to think about something he couldn’t understand, but also because this wasn’t the time to think about such things.
’Shit!’
Dan abruptly threw himself to the side and rolled across the ground before quickly rising to his feet.
He vaguely felt something move past his head, as though it were trying to slice it apart. Luckily, the strange sensation had appeared just before the attack, allowing him to react in time and prevent himself from losing his head.
But this couldn’t go on. He was basically a sitting duck!
With a growing sense of urgency, Dan retreated and used [Darkness] to shape a pair of claws.
As they manifested around his hands, he quickly climbed one of the nearby trees in search of higher ground before settling on a sturdy branch. His breathing was slightly ragged as he looked down at the forest below.
’Where is it?’
He had hoped that gaining some height would give him a better view of his surroundings. If anything, the dense canopy made the situation even worse and more damning.
The unseen creature could be anywhere in the vicinity.
Stealth skills were really annoying.
On one hand, they were extremely useful when you were the one using them.
Being able to approach an enemy without being noticed, strike when they least expected it, and disappear before they could retaliate was practically the perfect hunting method.
On the other hand, being on the receiving end of such an ability was an entirely different matter.
That said, he wasn’t completely helpless.
Although the creature might have erased anything that had to do with its appearance, that didn’t mean it was capable of completely erasing its presence. Just like all land creatures, the thing would still need to touch the ground in order to move about, so it would inevitably leave footprints behind, whether it liked it or not.
Coincidentally, this part of the forest just happened to be muddy and filled with shallow puddles.
Narrowing his eyes as he studied the scenery below, he noticed several disturbances scattered across the mud, barely noticeable at first glance but unmistakable.
Something had been moving through the mud. And judging by their position, it had been moving around him for quite some time.
Wait a moment... why did they suddenly stop below the tree?
Dan shuddered upon experiencing a bad premonition. He immediately changed the shape of the "claws" into a "sword" and swung it backward.
But it was already too late.
"Argh!"
Terrible pain erupted as something sharp stabbed into his side. If any doubt about his situation being nothing but a delusion lingered, then it was soon crushed from his mind. This wasn’t some strange hallucination. Everything was real, and he could clearly feel the claws digging into his insides.
Gritting his teeth, Dan twisted his body and brandished the sword around in a desperate counterattack, striking something hard with the blade.
A shrill screech rang out beside him and withdrew.
Dan seized the opportunity to pull back as well and pressed one hand against his side with a grimace.
"...Fuck."
It hurt like absolute hell.
This was the worst possible scenario. There was no way for him to properly treat himself, and even worse, the injury seemed quite deep. Fortunately, none of his internal organs seemed to have been pierced by the brutal assault, but the loss of blood itself was the real issue.
Strangely enough, though, he could still move without much difficulty, and the blood wasn’t flowing nearly as heavily as he had expected.
It was one of those weird and inexplicable things he didn’t understand.
That didn’t mean he could afford to ignore it.
Without much flourish or hesitation, Dan began an assault of his own and unleashed a flurry of slashes and thrusts. Even though he couldn’t see his opponent, there wasn’t much room to maneuver on the branch they were standing on.
As such, he was bound to land one or two strikes if he suddenly unleashed hell and forced the bastard into a corner.
...Alas, his blade didn’t make contact with anything, which meant the sly bastard had either escaped somewhere else or was effortlessly evading his strikes.
On the other hand, the same couldn’t be said for the vile bastard.
Every time Dan swung his sword, the Fiend responded with a vicious counterattack. A claw would suddenly emerge from the darkness. Or, without warning, a fist would emerge from the shadows and smash into his exposed spots. Dan narrowly avoided one attack after another, twisting his body and throwing himself backward whenever necessary while also maintaining his balance as much as possible.
It was a damning situation where a single mistake or lapse in judgement could easily screw him over.
’This bastard...!’
Fighting something he couldn’t properly see was already irritating enough. Fighting something that could apparently attack him from anywhere was something else.
Upon sensing the danger, Dan ducked, narrowly evading a killing blow that merely sliced through several strands of his hair.
He pivoted on his heel and thrust his sword toward the place where the attack had originated.
Again, nothing.
The enemy had already vanished.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
But that wasn’t the end of it. The moment Dan withdrew his sword, another attack came from behind.
Fortunately, he twisted his body just in time.
Shnk!
Something sharp grazed his side, tearing through his clothes and leaving a shallow cut across his flesh.
Dan staggered forward, his expression turning grim.
He swallowed the pain, spun around, and swung his sword in a wide arc, the blade cleaving through nothing but empty air.
Every time he thought he had cornered it, the creature simply slipped back into the darkness and attacked from another direction. On top of that, he had begun changing the black blade into different weapons, hoping to catch the elusive bastard off guard.
But none of them worked as much as he had hoped.
The invisible creature simply evaded every attack with maddening ease, disappearing into the darkness before striking again from an unexpected angle.
In the end...
Shnk–! Shnk–! Shnk–!
Despite his best efforts, he kept receiving more and more damning wounds as the seconds passed by!
"Goddammit!"
Dan cursed and quickly pulled away, steadying himself on the swaying branch.
The last thing he needed was to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
But that was a fatal mistake.
Upon noticing his frantic retreat, the hateful creature didn’t hesitate and instantly closed the distance, tackling Dan and knocking the breath out of him.
"Ack!"
Dan’s back struck the thick bark, and the air was violently forced from his lungs. His hands clawed at the creature’s body, but there was almost nothing to grasp.
It was like wrestling with a mass of living darkness.
Was it actually made out of darkness, though? Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to ponder this question as the branch beneath them suddenly groaned.
A rather ominous omen.
"Curses!"
Unable to contain the venom in his voice, Dan cursed as he found half of his body hanging over the forest below.
As if that wasn’t enough, something sharp suddenly flew toward his throat.
Since he couldn’t see the attack, he could only rely on that strange sensation warning him of the incoming danger. The moment he felt something moving in his direction, he instinctively jerked his head to the side.
Shnk–!
The claws scraped across his cheek instead, leaving behind three thin cuts.
"Damnit! Get... off me!"
He drove his knee upward and landed a devastating blow against where the invisible creature’s privates were supposed to be, causing it to stagger slightly.
That was all the opening Dan needed.
He twisted his body and shoved it away with both hands.
The invisible creature stumbled backward.
...But once again, Dan had failed to account for something.
Since the creature had been holding onto him, it simply maintained its grip and used his momentum to drag him along with it.
Before either of them could regain their balance, their combined weight carried them over the edge.
"—!"
Just like that, the two tumbled over the side together, plummeting rapidly toward the ground below.