Target acquired.

(author note: (man I am doing a lot of these) The medical condition is still not going away, but I feel a bit better, so here is a chapter. Thanks to all well wishes, I really appreciate it guys :))

John and Jack slowly traversed the forest, staying low, occasionally swooping in when a fight occured between animals to like before, steal the kill. It slowly filled up his quota of hunting trophies, as well as helping him along with the quest Artemis gave him. John disliked doing it, but the quest dictated that he kill, and, he did have less of a problem with killing animals, after all, they were not sentient, or not fully.

Bit by bit they got deeper into the forest, it was at this point that John heard a loud whinney and the sound of hooves in the distance. The first thing that came to mind was of course a horse, but when they got closer, John saw the dark corruption that he had seen once when he had his vision. They had found their target. The nightmare was here.

The first thing John did was crouch in a nearby bush, crawling through the foliage with Jack on his shoulder, making his way closer to the creature. As he got closer he noticed that the nightmare was drinking water from a small pond, its horn almost touching the water every turn he went for another lick of it. It looked like the creature would be there for at least a little while longer, something that gave John an idea.

John silently moved a few meters away from the pond, finding a decently open spot between the trees and went to work. First off he cast traphole creating a hole he would try to lure the nightmare into. Then he placed one of the traps he had gotten from Ilis in there, another one of those net traps that had worked so well against the weeb before. He then placed one of the last two traps he had on ankle height at the base of another tree, a thick rope shot from the top and coiled around the base of the tree next to it, creating an active tripwire. John kneeled down at it, tugging on it slightly to test its durability, when he pulled it back and a second later released it with a soft twang, he was confident that it would at least allow the nightmare to stumble. He kept the last trap in his inventory just in case, if things were to go wrong, he wouldn’t have put all his eggs in one basket.

John and Jack rested for ten minutes, then John nodded at Jack. “Lets do this, ready to clear our quest?” he asked the little leopard. To which Jack happily mewed, nibbled on his fingers and then climbed up his shoulder, perching himself on top of his shoulder. “Mew!”

With a determined expression John crouched down in the foliage and made his way back to the pond, the nightmare was still drinking there. John readied his bow, drawing a quartz arrow onto the string and waited. A small gust of wind brushed over the clearing, ripples going through the water. The nightmare was slightly distracted by it, and at this moment, John struck. He fired his arrow, piercing into the neck of the nightmare, causing a loud sound to come from the throat of the nightmare. It was a combination of the bray of a donkey, the roar of a lion and the whinney of a horse. John almost dropped his bow to close his ears as the sound assaulted his ears. It was horrible. Jack didn’t fare any better, his sensitive ears pasted tightly against his head, shaking on Johns shoulder.

The nightmare whipped his head up, his blood red eyes scanned around him, looking for the one that had attacked him. When it spotted John it clacked its teeth, then shook his head, dark, corrupted blood flowed from the wound but it did not seem to hinder him one bit. The nightmare leveled his head at John, horn aiming at the one to hurt it.

John saw the monstrous equine galloping towards him, scrambling to get out of the way. He rolled to the side, causing the monster to crash into the tree behind them. Jack, claws dug into John’s shoulder, mewed in fright. The nightmare’s horn pushed into the tree, causing it to glow black for a moment, then within seconds, it dissolved. The nightmare was free once again without John even managing to fire a second arrow.

“We need to get him into the trap, it’s the only way,” John whispered to Jack when a new pop-up flared past.

You have entered a magic suppression field
The nightmares horn possesses a magic suppressing effect, magic is suppressed or downright canceled in a 5 meter radius around this creature

“Today just gets better and better.” John cursed as he started dashing back to the trap he had set up, retrieving the bola’s he got from Arnold out of his inventory. He threw it at the nightmares front feet in the midst of running, hitting only one of them due to his aim being off. It slowed the nightmare down just enough for him to dodge out of the way again, another tree getting impaled on the sabre like horn, to be dissolved seconds later.

John cursed under his breath, he… he was going to have a bad time. That much was for certain. He prayed to Gaia, Hemet, Artemis and Cernunnos that the trap would work, otherwise he was sure it would not go over well.

A few sprinting seconds later John finally found the spot he had set up the trap at. He stepped over the tripwire and jumped over the trap hole, readying his bow as Jack jumped onto a nearby tree, ready to pounce and help when he was needed. John fired an arrow at the corrupted creature, the monster barreled towards him, not even flinching when one of John’s arrows struck just above it’s left eye. It let out another sound, causing John to flinch. The nightmare finally was upon the tripwire, its front feet dragged out from under him, causing him to stumble. The weight of the creature and its momentum **** him onwards. “Almost, nearly there.” John mumbled, ready to kill the trapped creature when a flash of mockery was seen in the red eyes of the nightmare. The equine placed his back legs onto the ground and adjusted his trajectory to the side, in the process swinging his head sideways, unable to impale the young hunter on his horn, but he did manage to send him tumbling into his own trap.

-30 health

John’s right arm was in a strange angle as he fell into the hole. A sharp, burning pain throbbed in his arm, making him want to scream. To Johns detriment, the trap that Ilis made worked just as intended, a soft click was heard in the hole, and a sticky net covered him. Making it nigh impossible to move.

Up above a feral snarl was heard, followed by the hissing and mewing of Jack. It appeared the little leopard had thrown himself onto the nightmare, determined to save his masters’ life.

John wiggled furiously, trying to get out of his own trap but it was to no avail, minutes past, the cacophony of battle above him dimmed. With a paled face John expelled half his mana from his skin finally managing to disintegrate the sticky trap. With one arm broken John had to hoist himself up to the edge of the hole with just one arm.