Chapter 2: When Fiends Attack

Corlan awoke and several things occurred to him. His campsite was completely encircled by fiends, he needed his weapon, and he had to leave all of his things behind. He was instantly out of his sleeping bag and holding the Soul Reaver. If he tried to fight off all of the fiends in this enclosed space in the woods he would never survive. There must have been 10 or 20 fiends gathered around him, and they all seemed to wait for him to make the first move. This was definitely odd behaviour for fiends.

There was only one way out of the campsite and a dingo fiend was guarding it. Corlan leapt into action, sensing that all of the other fiends were right on his heels. With one mighty swing Corlan dispatched of the one fiend blocking his way to the road. As soon as Corlan reached the road he turned, and narrowly dodged a fiend that had leapt out after him. With his Counterattack ability he sliced the fiend and it burst into pyreflies. From then on it was easy going for Corlan. The gap in the trees was narrow, and so only one fiend could follow Corlan out at a time. He stood at the front of the gap and chopped down the fiends as they came out of the campsite.

Corlan returned to his campsite and picked up the gil and items that the fiends had dropped as he went. He used one of the Potions to rejuvenate himself and then collected his belongings. As Corlan made his way towards the Djose highroad, he wondered how one person could take on that many fiends and live to tell the tale. Sure, he was a decent swordsman if he said so himself and the fiends were getting steadily easier as he progressed further and further from Bevelle but…

It must just be the adrenaline, Corlan thought to himself. People always think smart during battle.

Corlan continued on the path and came out onto the Djose Highroad to see something he had never expected. More fiends than he could count, as far as the eye could see, with not a soul on the highroad but himself.

Whoa, thought Corlan. Maybe if I just ignore them then they will ignore me?

He could not have thought something more false. Corlan had made it less than 10 metres down the highroad, with his eyes cast upwards to avoid eye contact, before the fiends attacked. He was swarmed with fiends on all sides, so many that a comparison to how many had been at his campsite was impossible. Even before Corlan had a chance to think of any way to escape, he found himself fighting for his life, fighting with all he had.

He was constantly dodging the fiends' lunging attacks and swatting them out of the air behind him with his Counterattack. However there were just too many to guard against at once, and Corlan was constantly being bit, stung, and slashed from behind and his sides. Corlan was constantly drinking potions as he fought, trying desperately not to fall into a critical state of health.

The onslaught continued, and Corlan found that he had almost completely exhausted his stock of healing items, having only 3 potions left. He had to finish this battle before his time ran out. It was at that critical moment in the battle when Corlan remembered that he had charged up his Overdrive back in Macalania, to keep for a rainy day. He had become so used to the extra energy in his body that he had forgotten about it. But Corlan couldn't use his Overdrive yet. He had to wait for the perfect moment.

Corlan drunk his last potion with regret, hoping beyond hope that the perfect moment would arise. A dragon fiend shot a fireball at Corlan and reduced him to near death. The fiends seemed to sense his critical state and formed a circle around him, preparing to administer the final blow.

A single wolf fiend raised his muzzle and howled, and as one the fiends leapt into the air towards him. Time seemed to slow down as the fiends flew through the air, and Corlan's eyes flashed as he spotted exactly the moment he had been waiting for.

"Overdrive! Soul Raid!"

Through some process he did not understand, he pushed that extra energy out of his body, through his hand, and into the Soul Reaver. The blade glowed briefly. An invisible ripple of energy emanated from Corlan, stirring the dust on the highroad as it passed. Corlan felt that time was still moving slowly, but in fact the fiends were frozen in mid pounce. All at once an intensely bright white light shot out of each fiend and flew into Corlan, bringing with it the fiends' remaining life and magic force. The air around him burst into a swarm of pyreflies.

Corlan felt rejuvenated by the fiends' energy as he went around the area to pick up all of the items left behind by the fiends.

Unbeknownst to Corlan, there was a cloaked figure shrouded in the shadows of the Djose Highroad.

"So, you have passed my test then, Corlan." The figure laughed, a soft laugh. "It seems that the time has almost come for my plan to come into action"