*It’s the middle of the night where the wind blows through the forest of sturdy oakwood trees as the clouds are blocking the moon. Three trucks pull up to the edge of the forest where a man in a white suit with a cigar in his hand exits the first truck followed by twenty other well-dressed men wearing black suits. The man in the white suit was known as Tetsu Maxwell a construction company owner who had done great things for his kingdom, but at the same time was accused of underhanded and corrupted tactics. Nobody could find evidence of these dealings and any witnesses refused to show up to court or met unfortunate accidents*
(Tetsu): Alright, this is the place. Start planting the explosives.
(Well-dressed men): Yessir
*As Tetsu lights his cigar, the well-dressed men get to work pulling metal barrels out of the trucks to make the forest catch fire. As five of them head into the forest to plant the explosives they stop at a tree when one of the men hears something*
(Well-dressed man #1): What was that?
(Well-dressed man #2): Probably just a wild animal. Come on, let’s keep moving.
*The five men continue to walk to their destination with the man leading up the rear getting tangled up in cobwebs and wiping them away disgustedly*
(Well-dressed man #5): Blah, hate spiders!
*As the man takes a second to remove the cobwebs around his face, a shadowy figure drops down from a tree catching the well-dressed man by surprise. The shadowy figure covers the well-dressed man’s mouth and pulls himself along with the well-dressed man up into the tree using wires. The shadowy figure knocks out the well-dressed man with a punch to the face leaving him hanging lifelessly in the tree by wires. The shadowy figure goes for the others quietly hopping from tree to tree keeping an eye on the other well-dressed men, staying out of their sight, and waiting for his moment to strike. When the other well-dressed men reach their destination and plant the explosive, they realize that one of them is missing*
(Well-dressed man #3): Hey, where did Ron go?
*The well-dressed men spread out and began looking for their comrade in the area. As they do, one of the well-dressed men gets attacked by the shadowy figure from above who drops down from the tree, covers the well-dressed man’s mouth and pulls him up to knock him out with a good hard chop to the back of the head. Just like Ron, the shadowy figure hangs the well-dressed man from the tree just as the other well-dressed men take notice of their other comrade’s disappearance*
(Well-dressed man #2): Great, where did Mikey run off to?
*As two the well-dressed man go to investigate the last area they saw Mikey, the remaining well-dressed man gets a wire wrapped around his waist and before he knows it goes flying through the air at incredible speed into an oakwood tree screaming his head off. When the well-dressed man collides with the oakwood tree face first he passes out all while falling to the ground lying motionless. The scream and collision get the attention of the remaining two well-dressed men who run to check up on their comrade when out of nowhere a wire appears around one of the well-dressed men’s backs and he gets pulled up into the oakwood tree where the back of his head collides with a branch which knocks him out instantly. He comes falling to the ground near the feet of the last well-dressed man who shines his flashlight into the tree to see what happened but finds nothing.
(Shadowy figure): Hey.
*The mysterious voice of the shadowy figure came from behind the well-dressed man who began to sweat out of fear of what could possibly be behind him. Before the well-dressed man could see who it was, he receives a swift kick to the side of the head which knocks him out instantly and he falls to the ground landing on top of the well-dressed man who was pulled up into the tree. The shadowy figure ties him and the second man to the tree and then fires a wire with a grappling hook to the branch of a nearby tree. The shadowy figure gets pulled upwards to the branch of the tree where he lands silently looking for the next group of well-dressed men to attack. Putting on some night goggles he had on his head, the shadowy figure begins to scan the forest looking for heat signatures. He gets a large reading of heat signatures to the west of his location and makes his way over to the area by swinging through the trees using his wires. The shadowy figure lands silently on an oakwood branch and looks down to see that the well-dressed men were finishing up with the explosive. Moving quickly and silently, the shadowy figure begins to jump from tree branch to tree branch on different trees firing off wires which attach to the back of the well-dressed men’s jackets. The well-dressed men never felt or sensed the wires on their jackets. After the shadowy figure fires a wire on the last well-dressed man, the shadowy figure takes a deep breath and jumps down from the tree he was on to the ground below. As the shadowy figure was falling to the ground, the well-dressed men were lifted off the ground and sent flying into the respective trees that the shadowy figure attached their wires to. Each man screams out in fear at what was happening, but their screams were quickly silenced as they each hit the back of their heads on a tree branch which caused them to black out and hang in the tree by their wires. The shadowy figure landed on the ground safely tying the end of the wires in his hand to a nearby rock to keep them from falling*
(Shadowy figure): I am a complicated man with simple pleasures.
*The shadowy figure smiled at his handy work and using the night goggles found the last group of well-dressed men north of his location. Using his wires once again to swing to the location of the remaining team, he gets a bird’s eye view to see that two men had their flashlights out and the other three had guns out. They were searching the trees and ground areas. Apparently, they heard the screams of their comrades in the distance and were making their way over to their location to check on them. Using his wires with a kunai on the end, the shadowy figure throws both of them at the flashlights to destroy them making the area completely dark. Having the advantage of darkness, the shadowy figure attacks the well-dressed group of men by landing right behind the two men with the flashlights. He grabs their heads and collides them with each other hard knocking them out instantly as blood oozed from one of their noses. Both men fell to the ground shortly after the collision and the shadowy figure makes his way to one of the well-dressed men holding a gun. Due to his limited vision he couldn’t see the shadowy figure who attacks him with a punch to the stomach causing him to drop to his knees in pain. He receives a thrust kick to the chin which knocks out a few of his teeth and lands by the feet of his comrades completely unconscious. The two remaining well-dressed men begin to panic and start shooting frantically in the direction of where their comrade came flying from hoping to shoot whatever attacked him. After they empty out the clips of their handguns, the shadowy figure uses his wires to grab one of the well-dressed men by the arms and pulls him toward him. The well-dressed man gets dragged face-first through the ground and stops by the feet of the shadowy figure. When the well-dressed man gets to his knees and looks up, the shadowy figure grabs his arms and pulls him forward where he’s greeted with a knee to the face which breaks the jaw of the man as he goes flying past the final well-dressed man and landing on the ground motionless. When the final well-dressed man heard footsteps heading toward his direction he falls to the ground backward landing on his butt scared for his life all while his teeth clattered, sweat pouring from his head, and his eyes filled with terror at what was about to attack him. As the clouds pass through the sky, the moon’s light finally shines through the forest where the remaining well-dressed man sees the shadowy figure who is a dark elf with medium length black hair and green eyes. He’s wearing a black trench coat with black pants, black shirt, and black gloves. The dark elf was known as Dust Balor a man whose past was unknown and an elf who struck fear into those who fought him. Dust glares at the well-dressed man still scared for his life and slowly walks toward him*
(Dust): Tell me, where’s your boss?
*The well-dressed man screams for his life and gets up to run away towards the entrance of the forest terrified for his life leaving Dust there with an amused look on his face*
(Dust): Yes, that’s a good goon.
*The well-dressed man runs out of the forest and reaches his boss as well as the remaining well-dressed men. His suit was covered in dirt, sweat dripping from his head, and was out of breath. The man’s presence angered Tetsu who was already upset that his men were taking so long and weren’t responding to his calls. Tetsu dropped the cigar he was smoking to the ground, stomped it out with his shoe and walked over to the terrified well-dressed man*
(Tetsu): Excuse me Miles. Mind explaining what’s taking everyone so long to get back and why no one is answering my calls?
(Miles): There’s a demon in the forest, sir! A wild and vicious creature! He’s taken out all of us! He has the body of an elf but the eyes of the devil himself!
*Upon hearing this statement, Tetsu could contain his anger no more and smacks Miles across the cheek*
(Tetsu): Enough! I can’t believe you think that story about the shadow demon is true! It’s just an urban myth told by the locals to scare businessmen away!
(Dust): Ah, so that’s what the locals are calling me.
*Dust’s voice got the attention of Tetsu and other well-dressed men as he slowly exited the forest and appeared before them smiling and not concerned about the numbers at all*
(Dust): Well I do have devilish good looks. Evening gentlemen. Lovely night for a stroll wouldn’t you say?
*The remaining well-dressed men point their guns as Dust throws his hands in the air.
(Dust): Wait! I have to ask: who wears fine suits in the forest?
(Tetsu): Who the hell are you?
(Dust): Not worth giving you my name, but I know who you are. Tetsu Maxwell, CEO of Maxwell Constructions and all-around corrupt businessman who’s been trying to take land from this farming village. Not knowing that the products this village ships out provides food for 10% of the kingdom.
(Tetsu): A necessary sacrifice in the name of progress. Something I’m sure your kind can attest to. Shoot him.
*As the well-dressed men get ready to fire their guns, Dust bends all five fingers on his left hand and all of a sudden, thin wires flash in the air and slice the guns in half. The dark elf uses this chance to run towards the five well-dressed men and delivers a flurry of attacks on all five of them to knock them out. He hits the first man with a right hook. Two of them receive roundhouse kicks to the sides of their heads and fall to the ground. One of the remaining well-dressed men tries to kick Dust, but he catches the kick of the well-dressed man with his hands*
(Dust): Glad to see someone’s not a coward here.
*Another well-dressed man tries to attack Dust, but Dust swings the leg of the caught man into the arms of the man about to attack him. The attacking man caught the leg instinctively. Dust uses this opportunity to kick the caught well-dressed man between the legs who grunts in pain as he collapses to the ground grabbing his groin. The man holding his comrade’s leg tries to apologize for his mistake but was greeted with a palm strike to the bridge of his chin which sent him flying a few inches off the ground before he came landing on his back. The man who got kicked between the legs was still on the ground in pain until Dust picked him up by the collar and rammed his head through one of the truck’s passenger windows where glass was stuck to his head and blood was leaking out from small cuts. Miles began to run away terrified for his life, but Dust pulled him back with his wires. As Miles screams from the action, he gets an elbow strike to the back of his head knocking him out. With all the well-dressed men taken care of this just left Dust and Tetsu*
(Tetsu): Shadow magic. Well I can certainly see why my men called you a demon.
*Tetsu runs towards Dust where his hand morphs into an iron sword and he takes a swing at him. Dust jumps out of the way to avoid the attack and Tetsu instead gets his sword stuck in the side of the truck*
(Dust): Not a bad trick, Mr. Maxwell.
*Tetsu pulls his sword arm out of the truck and Dust runs towards the forest where Tetsu pursues him morphing his other arm into a sword. As Tetsu pursues Dust back into the forest, Dust throws a series of wires with hooks on them at Tetsu but he cuts through all of them with ease. The two come to a clearing in the forest where Dust stops running and turns to face Tetsu who had a confident look on his face.
(Tetsu): Looks like your little wires won’t work on me.
*As Tetsu prepares to lunge toward Dust, he finds himself unable to move and his body is constrained by invisible wires. He tries to cut through them, but the wires are too strong. As the moon light shines through the forest it reveals that the whole area Dust and Tetsu are in is completely covered in shadow-like invisible wires. Tetsu can’t believe what he’s seeing and begins to sweat when he sees the wires on his body can be traced back to Dust’s hands. A smirk appears on Dust’s face.
(Dust): One thing you need to remember is that I’m the spider, you’re the prey, and you just walked right into my web.
*With a snap of Dust’s finger the wires that entrap Tetsu begin to shred his body as blood goes flying everywhere ripping up his clothes and leaving cuts all over his flesh. When the wires were done slashing Tetsu he takes a few steps forward with blood coming out of his mouth and a blank look in his eyes before falling to the ground face-first unconscious from blood loss. Tetsu was still alive and Dust walks out of the forest dragging his body by the legs and tossing him in the driver’s seat of a truck. When Dust slams the door of the truck he looks to his right to see an old farmer wearing boxers and a white t-shirt carrying a pitchfork and a flashlight in his hand. The farmer was woken up by the screams of Miles and saw Tetsu and Dust fighting outside his window. Seeing all of this and knowing something was wrong, he got up and grabbed the nearest weapon from his toolshed before heading out to confront Tetsu and Dust. When Dust saw the farmer, he smiled at him and slowly walked toward him. The farmer was paralyzed with fear as he had never seen an elf like Dust before. He had his fair dealings with elves and worked with them in the past, but this was the first he had ever seen an elf emit a vicious aura like Dust. Dust reaches out to the farmer and puts his left hand on the man’s right shoulder*
(Dust): Good evening, sir. It’s alright, I’m not here to hurt you. These men were about to burn down this forest. Please contact the local authorities and give them this flash drive for me, would you?
*Dust reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black flash drive which he puts into the hand of the farmer. This act snapped the farmer out of his fear*
(Farmer): Uh sure.
(Dust): Good man. Have a good night and sorry about the noise.
*Dust pats the man on the shoulder and began to walk off towards the town down the road where he went directly to the train station*
*Two days later*
*Dust is in the kingdom’s capital. It’s the early morning where cars are stuck in traffic trying to get to work. People are walking the sidewalks while talking on their phones or drinking their morning coffee. Stores and food stands are starting to open and inviting people to come in. Dust goes to a newspaper stand and grabs a newspaper to see the front page where it says that Tetsu Maxwell has been arrested and put on trial for trying to blow up the forest and for multiple charges described on the flash drive he gave to the farmer. When the farmer was asked who gave him the flash drive, he said it was a demon. Dust smiles at his handiwork and starts to walk on the sidewalk in the city all while listening to some rock music on his headphones*
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Author’s Note: Hope you guys enjoyed this preview. If you did, be sure to leave a comment and spread the word to all your friends. This was only one of nine previews I have in store. The next preview will be out sometime in December. I’ll give you an actual date later. Until then, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.