Merlin, the greatest wizard alive, had finally journeyed outside the walls of Bollen and was on his way to the Tainted Woods, the first step on his journey to Crucifix Mountain.

He had been staying in the Gorde inn for two days, located in Brid. He slowly took the route to Bollen and avoided searching by using his powers to distract the guard and elude him. He had gone through the city, bought food for the trip, and escaped by burning a whole on the wall strategically with the inferest spell.

He stepped onto the rocky path and journeyed on. He had saw sentries circling the woods, so he had to be very careful. The gravel made crunching sounds as the rocks hit and rubbed against each other.

The trees had grown, making a leafy tunnel overhead. They became menacing with a horrible stench leaking from between the pieces of bark. The path seemed like it went on forever. He started in and after about 5 minutes it became pitch black.

Merlin spoke the Levyite spell and a ball of light appeared in front of him which followed his movements. He walked on, only to hear a rustling in the bushes behind him. He looked in that direction and the bushes on the other side started to shake, also. He cast the Sile spell upon his feet and ran as fast as he could, but without the sound as the consequence of the Sile spell.

The bushes stopped making sound as he ran farther. He stopped to catch his breath and the bushes rattled again. He got so tired of this so he used the Grenad spell on the bush and it blew up with flashes of fire and ashes. He heard a faint scratching sound and a black figure raced down the path behind him. He made no effort to catch the little thing, so he trekked on.

He swung his ball of light all around him to make sure he wasn’t being watched or followed. He kept walking when he saw something up ahead. It was shaped like a semi-circle and light was pouring through it. It was the end of the Tainted Woods!

He cast the Rapido spell upon his feet and charged toward the exit. All of a sudden, the trees opened up and two sentries flew in. The were armed with maces and had wings. They had sharp talons and a permanently sneering face. One rushed at Merlin but Merlin spoke the words of the reflex spell and the sentry flew back into the trees.

The other sentry crouched down and swung his mace to do a sweep hit. The move was successful and Merlin tripped and fell. He rolled over and the sentry lifted his mace, ready for the finishing blow. Merlin cast the Defen spell and the sentry brought down his mace right as the shield magic was expelled through Merlin’s wand. Merlin jumped up and cast the knockout spell on the sentry and it slammed to the ground, stone cold. Merlin ran past the two sentries, now dead, and through the woods and one step closer to Crucifix Mountain.