I felt a few ribs crack as the thorns around my ankle wrapped tighter and dug deeper into my skin, winding itself upward as it dragged me on the ground and over it's companions.
Cuts and lacerations rapidly appeared on my skin, gradually wearing me down as I started to bleed out. The thorn vine around my ankle and the fifteen feet tall tree man soul beast began to play a game as the vine dragged me on the floor and the soul beast attempted to stomp me even deeper into the soil.
The continuous dragging and being forced to be the mole in this altered game of whack a mole, left me disoriented most of the time, so I couldn't get my faculties straight in time to think straight and fight back. However there was a lag in the time the thorn vine had to drag me around, and miraculously the Soul beast could not capitalize on the opportunity, which gave me enough time to swing my sword and sever the thorns wrapped around my ankle.
I rolled away in time for the soul beast to stomp his feet where I was laying mere seconds ago. The force from the stomp shook the ground and raised a cloud of soft soil, dead leaves and small rocks as I was thrown of my feet and straight into the wall of trees that somehow began to move in an attempt to wrap me within their moving branches and tree trunks.
I couldn't let that happen, so I braced myself and shot myself forward, going through the open legs of the giant tree like soul beast. behind the soul beast was another tree man soul beast, but this was two times smaller, so it was with ease my sword found purchase in it's chest as I pushed it back with my shield onto its comrades behind it. I breathed in deep as the form of the beast I just killed dispersed into a grey like soul energy that found it's way into my body. I was now twice as fast, twice as strong, and my senses twice as sharp.
I ducked as the giant tree like soul beast attempted to take my head off with a massive swing from its gnarled wooden limbs. Considering how thick that arm of it looked, it would not have taken off my head, rather it would have crushed me into paste.
The momentum from it's swing swept through the entire first line of soul beasts close to me, giving me space to catch my breath and figure out my next move. However I ran out of time as a vine of thorns almost seven inches long and two thick, headed straight for my face. But as if that wasn't enough, the vine was as thick as a tree branch, and there were three of them.
I swung my shield right and smacked it into the closest vine, knocking it of course as it went of target and into the leg of the tree man soul beast. It let out a massive roar as he bent down and completely ripped the vine into multiple pieces in anger. Seems like they were not really in harmony here. However the actions of the tree man soul beast gave me enough time to slam my shield down on the second thorn vine, and slice the other partway in half vertically as I split it towards the middle.
I turned around to late as a rhinoceros like soul beasts, with a withered wood and thorn combination like body, ran into me, and simultaneously goring a hole in my chest. I let out a scream of anger and pain as I felt my sword fly out of my hand and the rhino like soul beast continued it's charge with me hanging from it's horn.
The rhino made sure to slam against everything in its path, from other soul beasts, to the thorns on the ground and even to suspicious giant rocks that just seem to appear at the most opportune moment. Since I could only see behind the rhino, I was helpless to defend as the bones and skin on my back were being battered, bruised and shredded. I could see the tree man soul beast taking huge massive strides as it attempted to catch up, not willing to let the rhino have the pleasure of killing me.
Behind it were a few other hundred or so soul beasts also chasing after us, and with each step the rhino took, those numbers increased.
Tired of the torture, and feeling my mind about to go hazy from blood loss and pain, I angled my shield so that its sharp edge was pointed towards the rhino, and then I began to dig into it's neck.
When I struck it the first time, I made a two inch cut into its body, it was not much in terms of damage, but it was enough for the rhino to roar in indignation as it shook it head roughly, enlarging my wounds and making me bleed out faster. But this rhino was not the only one that could feel indignant. Fear of death, and maybe a few unhealthy dozes of adrenaline made me roar out in anger as I swung my shield down, completely taking it's head off its body.
The absence of the body holding up the head sent me crashing to the ground, and becoming entangled with not just the thorns lying on the ground, but also the headless corpse of the rhino, and the still attached to me head of the rhino, that dug deeper into my chest with each roll I made on the ground, until it was buried in my chest to the hilt, and its tip shot out my back, glistening with my still dripping blood.
Our crash had taken out a significant amount of the soul beast population within our immediate vicinity and the tree man soul beats was still a little ways back, so I was in no danger of being attacked. But that didn't mean I was safe.
The body and the head dispersed into soul energy that flew into my body, however instead of strengthening me as usual all of it, plus about seventy to eighty percent of the soul energy still left in me, went into overdrive as they swirled around my wounds, healing and mending me at a rate visible to the naked eye. I took deep breaths as I felt relief course through me. I was weaker now, however I had also learnt and understood the nature of seals.
In a rune circle like this, when you're attempting to break it, you wouldn't have your own soul energy to help you combat the soul beasts within, as all of your own soul energy would be sucked into your soul form, keeping your soul together and somewhat maintaining a thread to your body outside. Which meant you could only use the soul energy you gain by killing the soul beast. But in a world where the snap of your fingers would probably get you a warhead, the main currency to use was the soul energy you absorbed after killing a soul beast.
So if you wanted to let's say create a tank, then you had to kill enough soul beasts and absorb their souls to afford it, or your Will can crumble within itself, wishing for something that you can't afford, in a world were all wishes are supposed to come true.
There would be a backlash that would leave you feeling some of the worst pain of your life. So if you get hurt, like I just did, it's still the same soul energy that would serve as your 'heal all save all' medication. However all this comes at the expense of being weaker, as the more soul energy you have, the stronger, faster, sharper and more resilient you are.
I dragged myself back up on my feet. I was no longer injured, but I now lacked the strength to deal with the soul beast that were rapidly approaching me.
I looked behind me, and there just on the horizon was the white rabbit I was supposed to follow. Between me and the rabbit however was an army of soul beasts. I had a feeling though that to truly get through this rune seal, I'm not supposed to kill every soul beasts in sight. I just had to follow that white rabbit till it got me where I'm supposed to be.
I took to my heels and followed. The soul beasts ahead of me, took my rapid approach as a challenge as they all roared and shrieked in anger and headed straight for me. The tree man soul beast was catching up, but I felt my stomach sink when I noticed there were six more in front of me, and that path of the little rabbit, took it past their fearsome frames. So maybe in the end, I might have to kill every soul beast in front of me.
As I ran, I spun on my heels, making a full rotation as I whipped my shield from my hand, and sent it spinning into the ranks of soul beasts in front of me. The shield tore a little monkey in half, and went forward to slam halfway into the chest of a massive wood ape who seemed to be the friend of the dead monkey.
Their soul energy went into me, renewing what I had lost and making me stronger, but it was not enough. I called my shield back to me, then sent it spinning backwards to the approaching army of soul beasts, not even bothering to look behind me and see which beast was killed.
I shaped my palm into a knife and sent it through the chest of an approaching human like soul beast, though this particular beast had four arms and a pair of wooden spider like legs. My hand speared through it, and went on to smash into the forehead of another approaching soul beast. At this point in time, I felt stronger, so I summoned my shield back to me, grabbing it just in time to slam a raptor like soul beast into the air and back into the crowd in front of me.
I called for my sword, which should be quite a few hundred meters back, as it approached, I made sure it found purchase in every soul beast that it could, until if finally slammed into the arm of the tree man soul beast. Half of its arm from beneath is shoulder was sliced off, and it's limb was only hanging by a thread of wooden fibers.
I turned and ran towards him, and as I did so, I willed armor into existence, weaving it onto my body, grafting it like a sort of skin tight body suit. A helmet covered my face, completely covering every exposed part of my body. I didn't really know what I looked like, but I was sure I looked good. The tree man was roaring in anger as it swung it's hand down to sweep me away or to grab me and crush me to dust.
But a quick leap took me over it's hand, and straight towards it's chest where with a huge bang he lost his balance and fell on his back. I kept my balance and ran towards his face before jumping a bit and raising my shield high up, then bringing it down, relying on inertia and gravity to add more power to my descent, I sent my shield towards his neck, and straight through it.
Whew! thankfully that was over, and I shook in satisfaction as the tree man dispersed and his soul energy went into my body, making me stronger and faster. Then another golden paper fell from the sky and landed in front of me. It read.
[FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT.....NOW!]
I looked up, surprised to see the white rabbit still running away, well, let's get this over with.