Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 230: Ch228. Hope

Chapter 230: Ch228. Hope

They didn’t speak much the next morning.

There was little left to say.

Sarissa’s thigh was wrapped with a length of cloth Miles ripped from his coat, tight enough to stop the bleeding but already spotted with red. She limped as she walked, face pale beneath her dirt-streaked skin.

Miles had deep bruises forming across his ribs where the creature’s swipes had landed too close, and his club, his only weapon, had a crack running up the shaft.

Dee was silent, its eyes darting to the trees often. It hadn’t chirped since the monster left.

They didn’t eat much. Miles chewed on a root he couldn’t name, swallowing the bitterness just to feel something in his stomach. Sarissa tried to sip water from the leaf-basin they had built near the lean-to, but her hands shook too much, so Miles had to give her to drink.

Shi didn’t like it.

Rest was the only thing they could afford. Rest, and silence.

The lean-to creaked softly as the forest shifted. And somewhere in the far distance, a single bird cried.

They both flinched.

It took until the middle of what they guessed to be the day before Miles finally broke the silence.

"I don’t think it left."

Sarissa didn’t respond for a long moment. Then she turned toward him, slow.

"I don’t think so either."

It should’ve been a terrifying realization. But they were too tired to feel fear anymore. Instead, it just settled in their bones.

A fact, like hunger or thirst.

They didn’t move camp, because there was nowhere else to go. No direction held more promise than any other, and every new place they found required hours of effort to make barely habitable.

So, instead, they reinforced.

Miles used the cracked club to drag dead branches and bark towards the fire. Sarissa built sharpened sticks and buried them at ankle height in the brush surrounding their shelter. Primitive punji traps, more symbolic than dangerous.

"It’ll know we’re still here." She said.

"It already knows." Miles whispered.

By the time twilight came, a dimming of light rather than any visible sun, the camp was as prepared as they could make it.

They ate smoked meat in silence, Dee perched on Sarissa’s shoulder and nuzzled the side of her face before curling up beside the fire.

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

They didn’t wait long. The attack came like the last one, sudden and silent.

A rustle of leaves. A shadow that moved against the fire’s light, impossibly large, like a smear in the air. Then, the smell returned.

Copper, rot, and something deeper. A pressure that curled around the soul.

Miles was ready. He rose, swinging his club in a wide arc as the creature stepped into view.

It looked the same. A dozen eyes, antlers that split like veins, too many limbs, all bent wrong. But this time, it moved differently.

Faster, less cautious.

Sarissa jabbed with a spear she had re-tipped with obsidian shards they found near a grove. One cut into the thing’s side, shallow, barely anything.

But this time it hissed.

Not pain.

Recognition.

The fight was shorter this time. Not because they were better, but because they were worse off.

Sarissa couldn’t move quickly. Miles’ swings were slower, his breath ragged. Dee even tried to help, spitting a stream of glowing spores that made the creature stagger, but it wasn’t enough.

They were overwhelmed within minutes.

It was the fire that saved them.

Not their weapons, not their tactics. The fire, kicked up in desperation as Miles dragged a flaming branch into the creature’s legs, made it recoil.

It let out that sound again, less hiss, more exhale, and retreated into the trees.

Then it was gone, again.

Miles collapsed beside Sarissa. She was bleeding from her shoulder now, and Miles’ arm hung numb at his side. Dee crawled onto his chest, eyes wide and frightened.

Neither of them said a word for a while. Only the fire cracked through the silence. And somewhere, the forest groaned.

Finally, Sarissa broke the silence.

"It came at the same time."

"Almost to the moment." Miles nodded.

They both looked up. There was no moon, no stars, only the canopy of leaves, black as pitch. But something told them night had truly fallen when it came.

"It’s bound to the dark." Miles said slowly. "Maybe... It can’t come in daylight."

"Or maybe it doesn’t want to."

Either way, it probably was a pattern.

A terrible one, but still, a pattern. And that meant something.

They tried to rest again that night. Sleep wasn’t really possible, but they sat beside the fire, constantly feeding it, and watched the edges of the trees with half-lidded eyes.

Dee curled against Miles’ neck again. Its breath was warm and comfortable. And that’s when he felt it.

Not in his body. It was more like something brushing the edges of his awareness.

A thrum.

A single note of resonance.

He held his breath, then focused. Slowly, carefully.

Then, it came again, like a trickle of water through old stone. A vibration. Warm, faintly golden, if it was even possible to describe.

It wasn’t the System. No text, no robotic voice, but it was familiar.

Power.

Weak, distant, but... Real.

Miles exhaled slowly.

Sarissa noticed.

"What is it?"

He didn’t answer at first. He just looked down at his hand, dirty, bruised, callused. He flexed it, and the warmth flickered.

"I... Felt something."

"Something?"

He met her eyes.

"Energy. Like a... Pulse."

"The System?" Sarissa frowned.

"No. Something beneath it, perhaps. Or before it."

She stared a moment longer, then leaned back.

"Good."

That was all she said, but she didn’t question it. Because even if it was a false hope, it was still hope, and that was all that mattered.

They didn’t sleep that night either, but they made it to dawn. And when Miles stirred the fire one last time, he felt the thrum again. Stronger now, like a heartbeat beneath the world.

He wasn’t healed, he wasn’t stronger.

But something had changed.

And the creature didn’t come that morning.

***

By midday, Sarissa could stand without wincing, and Miles could breathe a little deeper. Dee returned to chirping softly as it watched the trees.

And though the fire was low, it hadn’t gone out.

There would be another night, another fight, but now, they had three things they hadn’t before.

A pattern, a defense, and a spark.

Something was moving beneath the skin of the world.

And maybe, just maybe, it had finally acknowledged him.