Rosie's Games

Chapter 373: Dreams and Haze

"You're not as strong as Lucas," she sneered. If this man was Lucas, she would never have been able to land a hit on him!

To her surprise, the man's face started changing, revealing a grotesque creature that made her skin crawl.

It had a lean and muscular humanoid body. It was covered with reddish scales that seemed to glisten under the dim light.

It had numerous eyes, scattered all over its elongated face, each of them glinting with unsettling intelligence.

This transformation only made her expression grim.

Her mind raced with questions.

Where could Lucas be?

How was this creature able to copy his face as if... as if it had seen Lucas before?

The dread in her stomach only grew as she lunged forward with another attack.

She could not help but be more worried about him!

Why would this creature copy his face?

The creature let out a guttural roar as it lunged forward.

However, this was not enough to scare Rosalind. She fought back against the creature, her black mist was darting in and out of the creature's reach.

Despite its best efforts, the creature was soon back in a corner.

Rosalind seized the opportunity and drove her spear into its chest. The creature let out a final screech before falling to the ground, its many eyes staring blankly up at the sky.

Rosalind stood over the fallen creature, panting heavily. She had never faced such a foe before, but she had emerged victorious. A part of her could not wait to tell Lucas about it.

The other part, however, could not stop thinking about his fate. What had happened to him?

Was it possible that he had encountered the creature?

She had many questions, but for now, she switched her focus to looking for the others.

She looked around and frowned when the haze around her did not seem to decrease.

Where was she?

She turned towards the creature and used the dark mist to stab its chest and head.

After making sure that it was already dead, she started walking once again. This time, she walked in the opposite direction until her feet started hurting. She sat down on the black sand and once again thought about Lucas.

This place is simply too dangerous. She could not imagine what would happen during the night!

"Rosie?"

A voice echoed. For some reason, it felt so near and far at the same time.

"Rosie?"

"Hey, wake up! Rosie!"

Rosalind felt someone tugging her hand.

"Hey!"

Rosalind jolted up as she opened her confused eyes.

The last thing she recalled was sitting on the sand and hearing a voice! Was that a dream?

What is happening?

"She's awake!" Valentin said, his voice showed relief.

"The nightmare must be done," Atior said. "Water."

Rosalind accepted the water that Atior gave her.

"Thanks..."

"It seems that it took a long time for you to fight the nightmare," Atior noted.

"What nightmare?"

"The haze earlier... it gave everyone a nightmare," Valentin said. "I was the first to wake up. Then the others followed. Each of us experienced a nightmare fighting against someone."

Rosalind pursed her lips. She got up and looked around.

She was on a different shore now.

This one before her looked desolate with the same black sand and pebbles littering the ground. A thin haze hung in the air, obscuring the view of the horizon and adding an eerie quality to the landscape. The only sounds were the gentle lapping of waves against the shore and the occasional squawk of a seabird in the distance.

From where she was standing, she could see the towering cliffs that she had seen in her very realistic dream. They were rising up around them, casting long shadows over the black sand.

She frowned when she realized that to reach the island beyond the volcanoes, they would need to scale the cliffs.

"It is almost nightfall," Rosalind said. "Where is Lucas?"

"We had not seen him," Atior answered.

Aside from Lucas, everyone who came with them was here.

Again, she looked at the cliff.

The thought of climbing them filled her with trepidation, but she knew that the only way to get out of there was to either go to the sea or climb it.

"Shall we climb the cliff? What if His Grace is on the other side of the island?" Atior asked.

"That would be impossible," Elias said. "Should we go our separate ways to find him?"

"His Grace told us to never leave your side," Magda spoke up. "But perhaps it's best if Huig and I scout the area and attempt to locate the Duke. We're skilled climbers and can scale the cliffs with ease. We can return before nightfall."

"No," Rosalind's words attracted everyone's attention.

"We will stick together," she added. "His Grace told us to stay together and that is what we are going to do. We do not know what lies beyond those cliffs," Rosalind uttered. While she wanted the two to find the Duke, she could not seem to calm herself down. Something beyond those cliffs is dangerous. She could sense it. "We should stay together," Rosalind added while trying to assure herself that everything will be alright.

"What about His Grace?" Valentin asked.

"I believe he will eventually find us," Rosalind said. Lucas wass strong, he was stronger than the Blessed People and might be stronger than all of them combined. In the face of uncertainty, she could only trust her instinct. For now.

"Then should we set up a camp? The sun is about to go down," Magda asked. Everyone had their own spatial bags and they were very prepared for this journey. Each of them had their own tent, food, water, and everything else that would make them survive on this island.

Everyone started walking towards the cliff to try and find a cave-like structure that they could use as shelter. Out of nowhere, a loud growling sound echoed.

Everyone looked above the cliff only to see a creature that was being chased by another larger creature.

"Hide," Rosalind hissed. "Against the cliff!" she uttered before she started running.