Strolls through the dark woods were becoming rather frequent for me. I found that the peaceful darkness, combined with the suspense of what may jump out at me was a very nice remedy for the stress of the daytime. As I walked, little beams of moonlight broke the pitch-blackness of the woods. The path was a very simple dirt walkway that cut a narrow slash through the dense vegetation. A small branch brushed my hat. I smacked the twig out of the way with a swipe of the hand, sending the now-broken branch spinning into the darkness. I sighed with frustration. That stupid twig broke my concentration. I continued walking, and through the thick brush ahead of me I spied a clearing in the forest, and the intense moonlight lit the clearing up just enough to reveal a figure, standing in the center of the wide-open area. This made me somewhat nervous. There was a chance that this figure could be hostile. It was a 50/50 chance that I was not so willing to take. However, my confidence silenced the fear, and I pressed on, through the brush and into the clearing. My foot came down upon a branch, which made a cracking sound so loud that it would have probably woken the dead. However, the only sign of the figure's noticing was it's head turning slightly to the left, to see me out of the corner of it's...
...Blank, empty skin.
I saw this immediately, and the sudden uneasiness became an intense nervousness. The figure appeared to have no face. It could be a mask, I thought. It could be a trick of the light, or my stressed mind playing tricks on me. But as the figure turned fully to face me, it was clearly no illusion. It had no face. However, the confirmation of this fact gave me slight relief. At least I wasn't going COMPLETELY crazy. The figure was suddenly right in front of me, a few feet ahead and staring down at me. It was tall and thin, with very long, slender limbs. The figure was most obviously a male, therefore I will refer to it as a "him." He wore a very neat-looking business suit, and what appeared to be rather expensive dress shoes. If he hadn't been so abnormally tall and had a face, he'd look much like a salesman. However strange he was, he didn't seem to be very hostile. He just stared at me. Well, technically. His lack of facial features made it difficult to understand where he was looking. We stood in silence for a while, until all of a sudden a dark tendril coming from somewhere behind him lashed out at my face. I had a split second to react, and I did so by reaching out with my aura and deflecting the tentacle. This apparently confused the man, and he took a step back, then lashed out again, this time with two. Again I swatted them away, and this time I held out my hand and sent a burst of the aura into his chest. He went flying in the opposite direction, but the other two tentacles were anchored into the ground and he used these like the rubber part of a slingshot, which sent him flying back at me. Now, all four tendrils were attacking, elongating at slashing at me from all directions. I leaped above the attacking tentacles, and was rather surprised to find that they followed with ease. One of them came before the rest, and I used my aura to wrap an invisible chain around it, tightening it to the point that it began to cut into the tendril. I flung it away, and made short work of the rest. Then, out of nowhere, the man himself flew into the air, his tendrils now gone. He lashed out at my face with a fist, connecting with the side of my head and flinging me downwards. He dashed after me, swinging wildly with both arms and more often than not he hit me, whether it was a glancing blow or a solid punch. I hit the ground at a high speed, and the man clasped his hands together, forming a club-like strike that sent me through the ground, tunneling until I hit a rock. This stunned me so much that it took a moment to become oriented again. I looked up, still dazed, to see his faceless head poking over the side of the hole, staring at me again.
That was it.
He's going down.