The moment they saw the creature, it had already seen them; the roar it released was enough to cause some younger soldiers to panic. The lunge was worse.

Its movements were wild and jerking as if it had no care about the bones in its body.

The soldiers met it head-on.

The first man swung his blade down, catching the thing in the shoulder, but instead of blood, a faint blue liquid that glowed leaked out from the open wound. Yet even with an injured shoulder, the creature didn't even flinch; it just kept moving, slamming into him with enough force to send him rolling across the dirt.

"Hold formation!"

Adolf shouted, his sword flashing as he stepped forward and swung. The blade cut through the creature's arm cleanly, and the severed limb hit the ground with a wet thud.

Morena was already in motion, her spear gripped tightly as she moved in. The creature turned its dead and lifeless eyes toward her, that faint blue glow reflecting off her armor.

It let out a dry, rattling noise and charged again.

She sidestepped, the motion clean and practiced, before driving the spear through its chest with ease. The impact not only forced it backward, but also pierced its chest cleanly through; its skin was not nearly as durable to outclass her strength.

The creature stopped moving for a second, yet there was no pain that she could see on its face, no reaction at all.

She yanked the spear free and stabbed again, this time straight through its throat. The body convulsed as she did so and then fell limp against the dirt.

Silence filled the camp again as everyone was surprised, unsure if it was truly dead, as it seemed much too easy.

Everyone stood still, weapons raised, waiting to see if it would move.

But it didn't.

The faint glow in its eyes slowly faded, and for a brief second, it almost seemed like the battle was over.

Then, the body twitched, and everyone readied themselves once more for another fight. But it wasn't the body itself that was moving, but rather, something inside of it.

A thin line of light began to leak from its mouth, faint at first, then as the creature's mouth was forced open, the glow lit up the entire area like a campfire. Before anyone could react, the glow burst out in a sharp stream, rising into the air like a streak of fire and shooting deep into the forest.

"AI, record everything."

The light was so overwhelming that she knew she wouldn't be able to follow it with her eyes, so thinking quickly, she ordered the AI to record what it was and where it was going.

As the glow reached her, she raised her hand to shield her eyes, and by the time she looked again, the light was gone.

All that remained was the body that lay there without any life, unmoving and seemingly rotting.

"What was that?"

The captain muttered under his breath, lowering his blade.

Adolf crouched beside the corpse, poking it lightly with the tip of his sword before looking up at Morena.

"My lady... I think it's dead, truly dead this time."

Morena nodded, her eyes narrowing as she studied the body. The faint light had left no mark or burn; in fact, the body seemed to be completely different from how it was mere moments ago.

Now it looked like just a rotting body, one that had been dead for a while, but she wanted to confirm it.

"Call a medic."

She said as she turned to one of the soldiers.

One of the soldiers ran off and returned a short while later with a man in a long coat carrying a small satchel. He was in the back when the creature had appeared, so while he had seen it, it was from a distance.

Seeing the corpse up close, he couldn't help but cover his mouth in disgust, but his profession allowed him to focus. He knelt beside the corpse, checking its pulse, skin, and eyes before cutting the tattered shirt open with a small knife.

Morena stood nearby, watching in silence as the medic worked. She was very invested in seeing what the man would come up with; even just looking at the investigation was interesting.

After a few minutes, he froze and his face twisted in shock.

"What is it?"

She asked.

The man glanced up at her, his face pale.

"My lady... this body's just a normal human. It's just a normal man, not even a warrior."

"What?"

He pointed to the chest, showing the faint marks of decay beneath the skin.

"Whoever this was... he's been dead for days. Maybe even a week. The flesh is dry, the blood's congealed, and there are signs of decay from within. This body hasn't been alive for quite some time."

His words weren't heard by just Morena; the people around that were just as interested also heard it and couldn't help but begin murmuring amongst themselves.

Their voices, whispers, spread around quickly.

Morena's brows furrowed as she knelt down herself, inspecting the corpse more closely. Now that she looked, she could see it too; the signs of a body that had long since died, the stiffness in the joints, the dullness of the skin.

Yet she had seen it move, she had seen it fight.

Touching the skin and muscles, she could tell that the man was right; the body showed no signs of being a warrior, not even an apprentice. Its muscles were weak, and its body showed no signs of having energy flow through it.

Even in the past.

Yet when it was fighting, it showed strength that was at least on par with an apprentice, a weak one, but still one.

Her grip on her spear tightened.

"So it wasn't alive... it was being controlled."

Adolf nodded grimly, understanding her unspoken thought.

"That light that fled earlier. Do you believe it's what was controlling it?"

"Without a doubt. At the very least, it has something to do with it."

She stood and looked toward the direction the light had flown, deep into the black mass of the forest. Her instincts told her that whatever that was, it wasn't done with them yet.

"We need to double the patrols and keep to a limited area; spreading out may bring more issues."

She paused and thought for a moment, looking at the body on the ground and the state it was in.

"Burn the body, it's the very least we could do for whoever it was before. And prepare to move, we can't remain here for so long, it may return."

Adolf gave a firm nod and began shouting the orders.

The medic wrapped the corpse in a rough cloth before dragging it aside so that they could burn it in a ditch; of course, this was to prevent the fire from spreading, not because they were being disrespectful to the dead.

Even if they didn't know the man while he was alive, it was still the very least they could do for harming his corpse.

After that short encounter, the camp was pretty tense. Before, they were worried because they didn't know what might be in the darkness, but now, they knew for certain.

A creature, some sort of monster that could possess bodies, with hostile intentions towards them. Even if the creature wasn't strong, they didn't want to encounter it.

Regardless, they did as was ordered and burned the body, as well as packed up and went back to the camp, even though the night wasn't even over yet.

While they did all this, Morena patrolled the edges of the camp while keeping within the range of the campfire. She went over the recording the AI took as she did this, using it to get a clear image of the light.

From what she could tell, it was just an orb of light, just a dim blue light. It didn't seem like something that was alive, but the way it moved seemed to hint at it having intelligence.

While she was thinking, the AI also notified her of detecting something once more.

[Residual energy signature detected. Mana detected. Unknown frequency of mana; somewhat altered.]

'Altered? So it's a different type of mana, but still mana. Like elemental energy, huh.'

Morena already had some expectation that mana would have different types, after all, elemental energy had different types. The only difference was that mana within the body was typeless, so something was done to change that type.

She didn't know the exact way or reason that type changed, but that proved to her that this was something related to Wizards.

While interested in finding out more, she was also nervous about the dangers that lingered beyond it. Looking more into the orb of light could potentially help her gather more information on Wizards, but she also knew just how dangerous a Wizard could be.

They were much worse than bandits, and if there was a Wizard in the forest, she feared running into them.

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