Chapter 9: The Dark Creatures

Darkness surrounded them as the sun was gone. The full moon was lighting the forest for four players. Silence was all they heard, except for the crickets chirping along the river with the soft flow of the water. A peaceful quiet night, only outside of the game. In the game, it was much different when being out after dark.

Their virtual hearts were racing to the darkness and kept turning their heads. They kept hearing a branch snapping to their head to the direction to see nothing. Their weapons were drawn out as they stood back to back. Being out during nightfall was known as bad luck for the creatures known as the Dark Creatures spawn during the night and hunt any unsuspecting players. No one lived to tell the tale of who dared to hunt these beast for glory.

Another branch snapped caught Kai's attention to have his chocolate brown eyes lit up to activate his Hunter Senses. The sound of the river and insects were silent as he used his ears to listen carefully, his eyes brighten his vision to see any movement of the foliage. But he heard nothing or saw anything move. His breathing was becoming rather quick as he deactivated his senses. "Does anybody know anything about the Dark Creatures?" he wondered.

They glanced at him to shrug and kept their eyes trained onto the foliage in front of them. They all didn't want to be caught off guard. "I've heard from someone said that the Dark Creatures are all the same beasts." Jay said. "Like there's only one kind of creature."

The knight snorted to grip his scythe tightly. "Funny," Cole said. "I heard there was multiple kinds of beasts to kill players with one swipe. Depends what kind you face in Ninjago." Jay gulped to the thought. The auburn didn't like the sound of it. Neither of them did.

Lloyd had to try and calm his breathing, but the thoughts were burning in his head. He has heard stories of players trying to fight the Dark Creatures, but to only lose their lives. And now it was him, and three other players out after dark. He only hoped they could survive the night now. Time was now slow as they heard nothing and slowly began to advance down the path. Their weapons were still drawn out as they kept their guard up. But his ears perked to the sound of a snarl. "On our left!" he shouted.

A large beast broke through the treeline and charged to the four teens. It stood taller than the four, a wolf-like creature that ran on its hind legs with large, sharp claws; it was named as Dire Wolf. It leaped to the four. They jumped out of the beast's way to be separated from their tight circle and soon three more Dire Wolves broke out of the treeline to run to the group. "Ambush!" Kai shouted and swiped at one of the wolves to push them back.

"Run!" Jay shouted to have the other three nod and ran separate directions. His breathing was quick and shallow as he ran with a Dire Wolf running right after him. Jay panicked as it ran faster on its hind legs than most regular wolves. His head snapped to the right as he heard someone running adjacent to him and nearly collided with Lloyd and grabbed him by his sleeve to keep running. Both Dire Wolves were after them. "What do we do!? What do we do!?" he shouted, laboring his breathing. "I don't want to die young here!"

"I don't know!" Lloyd replied, frantic. "I'd never fought anything like this. They're high level as well than most beasts here." Both heard something screeching to snap their heads back to see something in the sky and watched large bat-like creatures fly in a swarm and flew to the two. "You've got to be kidding me."

Both had to duck their heads as the bats tried to grab them with their talons while trying to avoid the wolves. But Lloyd felt a pair of talons pierce through his shoulders to scream in pain and was wretched off the ground. "Lloyd!" Jay shouted and ducked underneath a tree with thick roots acting as a barrier. "We're so hooped! Hooped I tell you!"


Kai glanced over a fallen tree to duck under as a Dire Wolf searched around him. He dared not move or breathe loudly as he didn't want to reveal his spot. His mind was filled with the other players that were with him before they ran. But he pushed the horrible thoughts out for he had to focus about his own survival for now. He was sure the others were hiding or. . .worse. Focus, Kai, he told himself. You have to focus if you don't want to be wolf food.

He carefully peeked over the log to watch the Dire Wolf sniff around for his scent and stopped. The burnet held his breath and watched the beast move away from him to sigh quietly. Too close. But the ground around him suddenly began to shake to make him jump to his feet as he watched blouders of earth form together and created a large beast to roar loudly; a Cragling. Kai felt frozen to move as it glared at him and swung its massive arm at him.

The samurai flew back and his back made contact to a tree to slump to the ground. Half of his HP bar was gone to have him cough as it was a critical hit, does more damage than normal attacks. He tiredly tried to pull himself up, but the Cragling towered over him and raised both rocky arms over him. The thoughts of his sister flashed in his head as he raised his arms to defend himself. He knew it was over and he wouldn't get to be with her again.

The creature yowled in pain as something struck through its chest to gaze down. Kai opened his eyes to see a black, crescent shaped blade through its chest and shattered as its HP bar was gone. He was stunned as he was face to face with Cole's glare and wondered he was going to kill him for not letting him die with his guild. But instead the knight held his hand out to him and he nodded to slowly take it. "We're even now." Cole said to flash a smirk. Kai nodded and both turned as they heard Jay screaming to rush to his aid.


"Back! Back! Back!" the auburn shouted as he thrust his spear at the Dire Wolves. The two wolves clawed at the thick roots acting as his shield while sometimes reaching into the hollow. The small gap he dove into was growing larger to scream and moved away as they tried to grab him. His spear glowed a soft red aura and thrust it at a beast's neck to hear it howl in pain. It snarled as Jay aggravated it to move to a different end of the tangled roots and reached in and grabbed a hold of Jay's leg to have him scream and was pulled out.

His hazel eyes were wide as he stared into the long snout of the Dire Wolf as he dangled by his leg. He hazardly swung his spear around to try and fend them off, but the wolves weren't fazed. They simply swiped the spear from his grip and made their claws longer to have him whimper as he watched them lick their muzzles. He had to scream the loudest for help.

He heard the sound of a weapon being charged and saw a quick blue light swipe at the wolf's arm to hear it howl in pain as its arm was cut clean off. The auburn fell to the ground as the creature was in a frenzy state to its missing arm watched another quick red light attack the other beast to be thrown back. Jay turned to see Cole and Kai pull him to his feet and grabbed his spear from the ground. The two Dire Wolves howled to the two players and ran away, regrouping.

A shaky sigh came from the auburn to sheath his spear and felt his stomach doing sommersaults. But he wondered if his real stomach was feeling the same and probably threw up bile than in the game he could. He controlled his breathing and glanced around in the silence. "Thanks for the help," he said. "I'm glad to not be wolf food."

A smile came from the knight and samurai to agree with him. But Kai's smile vanished as there was one person missing. "Where's Lloyd!?" he asked.

He wished he knew. But the blonde teen was wretched away from his sight and had his wolf on his trail. "We got attacked by these freaky bat creatures and one actually swooped down like a hawk and took him away." he explained. "By now he's probably miles away from us and he's going to die if we don't find him." They nodded and began to run the direction where Jay last saw Lloyd.


His shoulders were on fire to groan to the pain. Not too mention he was being carried away by a large bat with its talons peircing his shoulders. A quarter of his HP bar was gone with an icon appearing next to the bar; a drop of blood, bleeding. His HP bar was slowly losing life. He wanted to heal himself but it hurt his arms to move as this creature took him away.

Biting his lip, he drew out his sword to whimper to the blossoming fire in his shoulders and swiped at the creature's abdomen. The bat hissed and released its grip on the teen and flew away as he fell. The wind howled passed his ears as he fell and saw the ground growing larger. He felt fatigue to do anything and fell into a large river.

The water instantly woke him up to quickly swim up to the surface and gasp for air and tried to swim. But he was still fatigue to move as he was sore to move and struggled against the strong current. He heard something jump into the water and felt something grab his waist to see it was Jay who jumped in and saw Cole and Kai at the ledge to be pulled out by both of them. He threw a coughing fit to lift his green eyes to the two. "Thanks for the help." he coughed.

"No sweat, Squirt." the knight replied. "Couldn't let you die as well." He saw him smile and quickly turned on his heels to the sound of howling.

All four felt tense as they watch the four Dire Wolves had regrouped and cornered the four teens. Lloyd watched as Cole, Kai, and Jay stood guard of him and quickly opened his menu to pull out a health vial to quickly drink it to revive his health bar, but the bleeding effect was still active for some time. But with the four of them having substained damaged from the Dark Creatures, they didn't stand much of a chance. He hoped for a miracle. They all did.

The Dire Wolves snarled and charged to the four as they braced themselves.

A bright light soon filled the forest area to have the wolves stop in their tracks and shield their eyes to the intensity while the others followed suit to the light. They felt a warm aura come from the light to have the wolves flee to the light. It slowly died down to have the four move their arms away to see someone approaching them. Another player lost in the forest. A white cloak surrounded him with a hood hiding his face as he approached the four and removed his hood. They saw a pale skinned face with deep blue eyes with platinum blonde hair to feel their hearts skip a beat to the rescue.

"Are you an angel?" Jay asked out of curiousity.

The player had his head tilted to look at the auburn weirdly. "Uh. . .I'm not sure what you mean by that?" he said and turned to the sounds of the Dark Creatures. He turned back to the four. "We need to make haste. Quick, follow me, I know a safe zone nearby." The four glanced at each other about the new player. They had an odd feeling of him, but nodded reluctantly. They had to wonder, where did he come from in the nick of time? It didn't matter as they found safety. "This way, down the river." he said and the four followed after him.