She drew a deep breath before letting it out shakily. With a spin on her heel, she swung her Odachi back, cleaving through the mist that suddenly folded in on itself.
She narrowed her eyes on the tunnel in the dark, grey fog. After it had filled itself, she twisted her body around.
The fog drew in closer, grazing her arms, which were no longer hidden under her now-rolled-up sleeves.
It felt colder... than before.
It felt Damper... than before...
It felt like some kind of hidden horror was staring down her behind the cursed fog.
It was like it was breathing down the back of her neck, keeping her muscles tense.
Her grip on the Odachi's black, leathery hilt tightened. Her muscles strained to keep it pointed up.
Her body stiffened as—
Scrape...
—A sharp, deliberate sound appeared. It was bumpy, like the needle of a record player moving over the grooves of a disc.
It was like... something made of stone was running over the uneven surface of a tree.
She quickly turned her head to the side. The sound stopped. But then...
Scrape...
... It happened again on the other side...
She turned her head around. It stopped again. The scraping then appeared once more in another. And another. And... another.
Lillian was beginning to grow anxious. This... phenomenon... this wasn't familiar to her in the slightest.
The Second Layer of the Forest of Disruption was meant to play a role in the game to show how dependable the player was in guiding the group. Essentially raising the affection of the entire group by a small degree.
As Lillian continued to twist and turn, her brain rattled, causing her to be clumsily dizzy. Due to this, the feeling that more than one direction had begun to echo these scrapings as well.
And then... It stopped.
After Lillian recovered from her dizziness, she placed her palm on the side of her face. Her body then shuddered at the sound of a scream.
"AH! GET AWAY...!"
A recorded scream. A scream carried by the mysterious fog in her ears.
She felt her body heat up a bit followed by the appearance of sweat, sticking to the inside of her hoodie.
She let out another shaky breath. What was going on...? What was happening?
Lillian constantly darted her eyes around, trying to figure out the general direction of... what could be a monster's current location.
Because of this, she was reminded... she was alone.
Alone... Lost...
And...
Lillian pushed her hand to the side, pulling out another blue potion and holding the cork to her lips. That was when she saw her fingers—wrapped around the neck of the bottle—shaking...
She was trembling...
She gritted her teeth and clutched the bottle harder, getting rich from the tremble before biting down on the dry, rubbery cork.
Pop...
Its exit made a soft pop that echoed through the mysterious, never-ending fog. Just as she was about to take another sip from it to replenish the little bit of mana she needed to be at full capacity—
—SWISH! PSSHT!
Something shot through the air, shattering the potion and causing its solution to fall onto her hoodie. Its broken remains fell to the ground, clattering against the ground and the soles of her shoes.
She scowled as the potion mixed with the blood on her clothes. And out of frustration, she threw the broken to the side before glancing to the side.
Stuck on the ground was a long—about a metre—and had a metallic sheen to it. It was... familiar... but from where? And where did it come from?
She slowly approached it, and once she did, she wrapped her hand around it. She then felt something prick her fingers and something warm dripping out from her palm.
She flinched, pulling it back and staring at the multiple small red slits in her hand. This pain then sent her mind into a frenzy as it looked through her memories—a light passing through her eyes...
... A light of realisation!
She quickly flashed her hand out hurriedly—a certain glass shard, reflecting the image of a familiar horror from within.
She chucked it into the air, watching as it shattered and reformed into a large entity that casted a shadow over her as it fell. And while this was happening, a faint whistle began to echo through the air.
This whistle became louder. More evident.
THUD!
As the tips of the Beetle's legs dug into the ground, sinking through the dirt with its fall—a loud and resounding sound followed.
CLANG!
The sound was like striking a bell.
Lillian, who was lying on her stomach with her hands on top of her head, felt the dirt under her shift and move to the side. She then stared to the side, watching as something fell and finding it to be yet another needle.
The Beetle, who had just endured this sudden attack, slowly drifted its eyes to the side, curving its body inwards and taking a look at the area of impact.
While it was unnoticeable and small, there was just the slightest dent in the side of its armour. Its already wide eyes widened even more, trembling a bit in rage.
Its first appearance outside after having its leg torn off its body was for it to block a high-speed attack, which had the potential to cause an even larger dent in its armour.
Even the golem didn't cause damage in its armour with its beam. But a metallic needle did?
Just as Lillian was about to crawl out from under the Beetle, another needle came.
CLING!
And then another...
CLANG!
... And another...
CLING!
... Each time they made contact, it let out another ear-piercing ring, followed by it falling to the ground and making a soft thump.
Apart from the whistle that announced the needle's arrival, there weren't any other warnings.
They were quick. Definitely too quick for Lillian to put up a solid defence that would let her remain unscathed.
And was definitely too quick to let her turn parts of her body into water.
Lillian clutched the dirt beneath her in fear, bracing for another incoming ringing that would leave her ears deaf. But fortunately for her... it never came...
But off the the side—to her right—something emerged from the dark greyish fog... Something that left her to stare in fear...