---
Raine peeked outside the building, clinging to the wall. Only his head peeked outside, rest of his body still inside the building as if afraid to go out.
'Nothing dangerous nearby. But I have to double check.'
He sat down, leaning against the wall and closed his eyes. He left his body, moving up around 30 meters in air. From here he could see this situation of the settlement clearly.
This place was small. Probably size of a big village. But it was surrounded by huge walls. Around hundred or so different kind of Nightmare creatures roam this place. Some in groups, some alone. Luckily no one was moving towards the place where his body was laying unconscious currently.
He flew upward again. This time checking out the scenery behind the wall. What he saw shook him to the core.
He saw a massive crater. Like calling it massive was an understatement. It was so huge that just seeing it gave him some sort of existential crisis. He felt so small, so weak.
'Where in the world....' he thought was left unfinished. It was his first time seeing something so grand.
A massive grin appeared on his face. He was feeling so much dread that he didn't know how to response accordingly.
'Crap. I'm doomed. I'm fucked. I'm dead. I'm a goner. No, no, no. This isn't real. I'm dreaming. It's not real. It's not real.'
He lost his mind for a second. But soon he looked away. He felt a bit better after taking his eyes off the massive crater. But soon he felt like he wanted to see it again, his head turned towards it again without his permission.
'Crap, I'm seriously dead. How can someone as small and weak as me survive something like that.'
He looked away from it. He felt a bit better than before. But soon the desire to stare at the crater surfaced again.
'I need to go down.' he forced himself to not look and descended towards his body. He fused with his body again, only to feel the dread in more different ways.
His feet grew cold, his heartbeat exploded and a chill ran down his spine. He sat there for few minutes in silence.
'That thing is colossal. And deep. Like an abyss. It calls you to stare at it, get closer and then jump into it. This isn't something a normal being can fathom.'
He had read about this place. But hadn't imagined it would be like this.
'I need to prepare myself mentally. This kind of thing is normal inside the dream realm, where all kind of mind numbing phenomena happen daily. Be it some time bending river, body of a giant dead god, or something even worse.'
It took him full ten minutes to calm down fully. But this time another feeling of dread rose. This time smaller... but closer. His spirit form was more independent so he could still feel some sort of connection to spirit world. And that connection was telling him that something was approaching him.
'Crap, what do I do now? I need to hide, no, I need to run. But where would I run, this city is full of nightmare creatures.'
In a hurry he ran towards the wall, and started climbing it, using cracks to support and pull himself up. He got on the broken roof where he crouched down, making himself smaller.
One minute later, a nightmare creature entered the hall. It was a mixture of a lizard and some sea type creature. It was about the size of a big cow. It looked around the hall raising its head as if smelling something.
Next second it moved. Fast. Raine almost got a heart attack. But fortunately, the creature didn't move towards him. It moved towards the corner where five corpses were laying dead on the ground.
The creature was afraid that if it didn't hurry, someone else will get those bodies before it. And soon it started munching on them. Loudly. Poor Raine got so scared that his legs started shaking.
He couldn't help it. It's like that damn nightmare creature knew that he was affected by its loud chewing and cracking of human bones and that fucker was still making those noises to scare him more before it was his turn.
'No, it can't see me here, I'm safe. Probably.'
The loud chewing and cracking continued for about twenty minutes. Raine was keeping eye on the creature. It had finished three bodies, only two remains.
But it seemed the creature wasn't planning to eat anymore. 'Yeah, go away, leave me alone. Go, fuck off.' Raine cursed in his head.
But the creature had different plans. It opened its mouth wide, as if yawning and laid down on top of the two dead bodies as if securing its future meals.
Raine cursed. On paper this was the best opportunity. To strike the creature down, to start his adventures. But in reality, his legs were shaking. He wasn't prepared. If staring at the giant crater hadn't scared him enough, the creaking of the bones surely did.
He kept his position, unmoving afraid that the creature will notice him.
An hour passed, then two. Raine was still on the rooftop but in better position. His fear had subsided. He was breathing normally. And he was flexing his muscles and legs that were sore from not moving.
The creature was still sleeping, obviously not bothered by the sound of Raine's moving limbs.
'Man, why was I scared so much before, this thing doesn't look that much strong.' Raine who was now somewhat comfortable being around this creature thought to himself.
'Ok, I'm gonna kill it for scaring me so much. But again I don't have a weapon.'
'So I got no choice, but to try my ability for the first time in combat.' Well, it was his first combat so ... Nevermind.
He sat down, finding a suitable place for him to lose consciousness. Next moment he was flying in the air.
'Let's see what happens.'
He floated down towards the creature, and stopped some distance away from it. The creature was still asleep. He moved a bit closer. No reaction. A bit more closer, no reaction. He got close enough that he could touch it if he extended his hand. The creature showed no sign of noticing anything.
'I got you now, motherfucker.' Saying that, Raine concentrated his energy on his hands which was so much denser compared to before thanks to his soul fragments.
He punched the creature in the head. Still passing through him. He did it again, and again and again and again. He was confident that the creature's spirit was disrupted from its body for a good time to shut down it's brain. He could tell it by the change in its breathing style like it was now taking slow and deep breaths compared to before.
Confident that it won't wake up anytime soon, Raine returned to his body. And prepared to jump down.
'I should reconfirm.' he thought picking a rock and throwing it at the nightmare creature. The rock hit and bounced back from its round belly. But the creature didn't wake up.
'Just to be safe.' He picked a big rock this time, about the size of a human head and threw it at the creature. It hit. Hard. And loud. But the creature didn't wake up.
'Now I'm confident.' 'But just to make sure that the effect didn't wear off in the middle.'
He once again turned to spirit and repeated the process from the first time, hitting its head few times. Then flew quickly towards his body and jumped down once merged.
He moved towards its head. Carefully. He got close. He was prepared to do this. He didn't have a weapon, but he wasn't afraid to use his hands. He slowly touched the creature.
'Creepy.... And disgusting.' But he steadied himself. He opened its eyelids. Its pupils were rolled upwards. One hand holding the eyelid another moved towards the eyeball.
He pushed the hand inside its eye, ready to run at any moment if the creature shows any sign of waking up.
'Uh, I'm gonna throw up.' but he continued until his fingers were wrapped around the creature's eyeball.
'This is the moment of truth.' Saying he pulled out with force and jumped behind at the same time, ready for any reaction.
The creature didn't move. Its one eye was now dangling beside its mouth connected by a thin nerve. The eye socket was bleeding.
'Ok, this is easy.' Raine thought and moved towards the creature again.
The most vital and vulnerable part of the body was obviously the brain and eyes were the pathways that lead directly to the brain.
That's why Raine had decided to do it this way. He couldn't afford to beat it with punches for minutes, the creature could wake up before being dead. So he had to make it quick.
He plunged his hand inside the eyehole again, using his fingers, he moved deeper and deeper until he felt what he was touching was extremely soft like made out of jelly.
He knew he had found his target. He moved his fingers around, in all directions trying to mess up the brain.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Sea lizard.]
The spell whispered.
[Your soul grows stronger.]
He pulled his hand out. Now completely drenched and slimy brain matter and blood.
'I did it. I won my first battle. I killed it. I fucking won.' he looked into the sky, a grin on his face.
"Hahhahahhahahahaaahhhahhaaa." He laughed like a maniac.
[You have received a memory.]
"Aaahhhhhahhaahhhhahhaahaahaha."
---