Monsters weren't an uncommon thing nowadays and it seemed no place was safe from them. Maybe the increased monster population was a prelude for something much more sinister, something that was yet to make its appearance. Maybe the world would then be plunged into turmoil, only time could tell. Meanwhile, the creatures of wicked breed would run rampant and bring fear and death wherever they would go. Often they were too strong for common men to fight against, but luckily, some brave individuals had made it their purpose to counter these evil beings and eliminate them from the world. But sometimes, remote locations would suffer for long periods of time, because no great warrior had managed to make their way into the village to help them.

One of such places was Lockbel village. It just happened that one night, a vicious beast had found its way into this small settlement and had then refused to leave. The beast was clearly of evil kin and it would hunt people during the nighttime, hungry for their flesh and blood. Any unfortunate soul that would encounter this creature would be found dead when the sun would rise, body all mangled up. Soon after the beast's arrival, people of Lockbel learned that it was dangerous to go outside during the dark hours and even though the villagers mostly stayed inside, the monster continued to patrol the streets at night, hopeful that somebody would break the prohibition that no one should wander out when it was dark. The creature was patient, much to the dismay of the villagers. The monster was terrorizing Lockbel for a long while and the people were filled with despair, praying that somebody would help them.

But salvation may not always come in a form you'd expect.

In the fear of darkness and death, people of Lockbel had anxiously locked themselves inside their homes by the moment the sun had started to set. And when its golden light had faded away, began the hours of fear. The silvery – although ghost-like – moon had taken its place in the sky, replacing the sun. It haunted the world below with its light that stirred madness within the souls of both people and beasts. It was a sign for monsters to come out and roam in the night, searching for prey. The moon was accompanied by a sea of twinkling stars that were curious about the nightly life on earth and they wouldn't look away from all the horrors that would possibly occur that night.

The time was ripe. It was time for the beast to come out and dance in the moonlight. The monster was a quadruped creature and its body somewhat resembled a canine. It had black fur on most parts, except for the head and the tip of tail which was whip-like and had a thin blade that was perfect for slicing flesh. The monster's head belonged to a dragon and it was so pure white that it almost looked like it was glowing in the darkness, giving a haunting impression. It had a sinister look in its red eyes as they observed the creature's surroundings, trying to spot even the slightest movements in the dark.

The monster had entered the village. Like suspected, the streets were empty as the people were hiding from it. But just like every night, it began to stroll around the village anyway. It moved slowly and in a strangely elegant way, but even dangerous and wicked things can have beauty in them. The creature moved forward like it owned the place, and perhaps, in its twisted mind it probably did think that way. Only rats were its company, but they were too feeble, too small, too disgusting for the monster to take any interest in them. The frightened squeaks of the rodents were the only thing it heard, however, suddenly a howling wind started to blow through the village, its frigid roar filling the monster's ears. And along the wind came something else, it was like a message etched in the breeze; a presence of another wicked being was near – and it was getting closer.

Now, this was something the monster couldn't stand. Lockbel was its hunting ground, this intruder had no right to be on its territory. The awareness of this forthcoming threat made the creature hiss in anger and it followed the foreign scent to meet the one who had dared to come to this village. The monster moved swiftly and smoothly like a shadow, its mind completely set on a different track now. Some little children from the safety of their homes were peeking from behind the curtains just to see the monster hurrying through the streets as if it was an arrow that had just been shot. It had to defend its territory; the invader had to be eliminated.

As the monster dashed around one more corner of a building that was standing near the border of the village, that was when it spotted a figure, wandering in the light of the gloomy moon. It stopped abruptly just to measure this stranger with its red eyes. A huge canine was approaching Lockbel. Its fur was dark grey like ash and there were bone-like fragments sticking out from various parts of its body, the most notable ones being the few growing from the neck. In several spots red flames were burning, like fires of hell itself. And the beast's eyes, they were glowing in yellow. This creature was another monster, but it had come to the village for a very different reason than the black and white critter.

This hound was after the monster.

When two beings made eye contact, they both knew that there was only one way out of the situation: the other one had to die. The black and white creature was hissing, the hound was growling, showing rows of razor-sharp teeth and the two monsters slowly started to approach each other. The tension between them was strong and they kept circling around, waiting for the perfect time to initiate the first move.

Finally, the tension broke as the black and white critter opened its maw and it shot two projectiles of venom at its opponent. However, the hound easily dodged this attack and it took it as its invitation to launch a counter attack. It leapt towards the monster, ready to sink its teeth in its flesh. The monster barely managed to get out of harm's way and it swung its whip-like tail and was ready to strike with the blade at its end. It probably thought that it would intimidate the foe and maybe make it back off, but it thought wrong. The hound didn't care about the blade at all, not even when the monster swung it and it struck at the hound's shoulder, cutting deep into its flesh, blood splattering on the paved road. Like an unstoppable force of nature, the hound lunged at the opponent and its powerful jaws snapped around the monster's thin neck like an unbreakable lock and it bit hard. The monster tried to struggle and get away, swinging its tail like a maniac, but the jaws didn't lose the grip, not even the slightest. The hound's teeth had sunken into the monster's flesh deep like iron nails and wouldn't let go.

This was the end of the monster.

The hound began to violently shake the monster back and forth as if it was a ragdoll and it screeched horribly in pain and this noise did attract curious but careful onlookers on the windows and they would witness the last moments of the monster that had tormented their village. And finally, the hound's massive strength caused the monster's neck to break and it made a loud snapping noise, indicating the death of the creature. For a short while the hound was standing there, still biting hard at the monster's flesh, blood dripping from the wound. Then it started to walk towards the border of the town, heading to the direction where it had come from. Some people were peeking from their windows, watching its form slowly recede, disappearing into the darkness. It left behind a trail of blood as it dragged the monster out of the town. And people were left to wonder, could they now sigh in relief? The monster that had plagued their lives was now gone. They were free of evil, at least for now, but who knows when another threat would emerge in these turbulent times.

Through the darkness the hound continued to drag the body of the freshly killed monster. Lockbel was surrounded by woods, so the hound had disappeared into a world of shadows. It was almost like there were small black creatures everywhere, curiously observing the hound's journey. But if it glanced at them, they would disappear from sight, as if they hadn't even existed. Some other traveler would probably feel anxious about this, but not the hound. It still kept going deeper into the woods with the monster's body, sometimes shrouded by darkness, sometimes the pale moon's light would shine on its fur. The droplets of blood that the hound left behind were reflecting the ominous light and when the hound had managed to walk past them far enough, the little shadowy critters would come and lick the blood.

A little while passed as the hound infiltrated into deeper parts of the dark woods. But soon its journey was over as it reached a small clearing that had a sinister feel to it, something unholy had killed the trees there a long time ago, leaving them in a state of complete decay, their black figures forever standing and reaching for the sky that didn't care about their fate. The hound dragged the monster's body to the clearing and for the first time after brutally killing it, the hound released it from the grip of its jaws.

Then a strangely resonant voice broke the silence of the dark nightly woods: “Excellent job, Hareth.”

The hound glanced at the direction where the voice had come from. Basking in the silvery light of the moon, a white-skinned elf with blond braided hair was sitting on a nearby rock. His blue eyes were almost gleaming in the dark as he observed the corpse of the monster that had just been dragged to the clearing. But he left his spot soon, descending from the rock with incredibly smooth movements, only possible with a sprinkle of magic. His steps made no sound as he walked to the monster's body in order to take a better look at it.

“I was right. It is a rare kind of monster”, he muttered, mostly to himself as he crouched down to examine the creature. “Wonderful specimen. It will be very useful.”

The hound, Hareth, stayed still and followed with its gaze what its master was doing. The elf had prepared for this and had a couple of pouches with him, as well as a dagger. He had a few small bottles that were empty at the moment. He stabbed the monster's body in the heart and the blood started to flow. He filled all the bottles with the monster's blood and slipped them into the pouches. But the blood wasn't the only thing he was harvesting from the corpse. He started to scratch off with the dagger some of the shimmering scales on the monster's head and collected them. He was immersed in this task for quite a while, but at last it seemed that he had gathered enough scales and thus, had got everything he needed from the monster's body.

“We are done here”, he said as he got back on his feet. “Let's move to the east.”

Hareth lowered his head a little. “As you wish, master Amerine.” His voice was deep and dull, sounding like it came from a void.

He brought his huge body down so Amerine could get on his back. Once the elf had managed to do so, Hareth stood up and began their departure from the clearing, heading to the east where more monsters that held properties Amerine desired could be found. In a strange way, they were diminishing the sudden monster population and thus helping to get the situation under control, although their motives were wicked. Life can be strange like that.

Hareth took them to the world of shadows once more. He was walking at a leisurely yet steady pace as he continued to move forward among the great trees. Somehow the woods seemed to get more dense after a while and more vegetation started to get in the way; more bushes were scraping them as Hareth moved through them and more branches of the trees were hanging lower, also grazing the two travelers a bit. But Hareth was strong and sturdy and he could push past everything with relative ease, something like ordinary plants wouldn't hinder his going.

But at some point it turned out that they weren't in the land of regular vegetation anymore. Somehow, their surroundings had started to change in an eerie way. And at first, the change was subtle. It was the atmosphere that began to shift first, the air around them had started to get colder and oppressive. Then the plants began to trouble them more, attempting to scratch and grip them, and it started to feel like they were getting sentient. All the little branches were sharp and they had turned into woody fingers with claws and wanted to tear open the bodies of the two travelers. Deep rumbling could be heard from the ground as the roots of the mighty trees were moving, attempting to create obstacles on their way. And little by little, the plants darkened, they were absorbing the darkness that veiled everything in this late hour. Suddenly everything around Hareth and Amerine seemed to get into unnatural motion and had decided that they shouldn't escape this forest, not alive. Nature wanted to trap them there, perhaps sensing that their souls were tainted and something had to be done before they would damage the world.

When your surroundings want to trap you and make sure you won't see the next day, anyone could be filled with fear under these circumstances. But not Amerine and Hareth. The wickedness in them was rooted too deep.

“Such a nuisance”, Amerine muttered. “Hareth, burn them.”

No more words were needed, the hound knew exactly what his master wanted him to do. The fires that were blazing in the body of Hareth started to burn more vigorously and flames started to gather at the corners of his mouth as well. Then he unleashed the fires of hell that burned inside him, and the destructive flames took hold of the plants and began to eat them alive. Hareth's breaths of fire consumed everything on his path and soon the dark woods were in ablaze. The sound of crackling fire and the screams of the dying trees filled the ears of Amerine and Hareth as they moved past this chaos unharmed. The forest had challenged the wrong individuals and now it had to pay the price. Tonight it would burn and die, leaving behind charred corpses just like in the clearing so many years ago. The cursed fire would destroy everything until the desolate sunrise.

Amerine and Hareth just passed through the burning forest, unstoppable and vile. There was a hint of a malevolent smile on the elf's face as the hound kept going forward. Seeking their next target from the east, it was only a matter of time before something else would lose their life because of Amerine's desires, the forest that was just burned happened to be a side victim. Most likely there would be many more to come, for they were walking on a dark path of destruction and death.

More darkness would spread across the world.