Lloyd continued walking on for a few more hours. He had a few more encounters with the local wildlife. There were no fights, no threats to either side. It was nothing more than a herd of deer crossing the road, or a few squirrels scampering up and down trees. He had no contact with people, no cars on the road or anything. He checked his phone every now and then to see if there was service, but in the end he was just S.O.L. Shit Outta Luck.

It was only about midday before strange things began to happen. Well, his phone said it was midday, but the skies looked as if dusk was falling. This was midsummer Kansas, however, it wouldn’t get dark until at least 8.

Another odd thing was that as it got darker and darker, the leaves got redder and redder. Many even fell off and pretty soon the road was covered in leaves. Lloyd had a bad feeling gnawing at him ever since it started getting dark. And now, all his senses were screaming at him to leave. He tightened his bag and began to run. His visitors chased him on silent paws. He never would have known they were there until he realized the crunch of the leaves was a lot louder than it should have been. He took a glance over his shoulder and saw three more bobcats. His fear quickly turned into relief, in his head, if he could kill one, he could kill three now that he’s stronger. He turned quickly to face them and realized his mistake. These three bobcats looked just like the one he killed. The faces on them were sunk in as if they were stomped, there was a dip in the middle of their backs, and when they growled, you could see the blood on their teeth. Lloyd’s blood.

[You have become [Angry]]

[You are non longer [Afraid]]

As it was too late to start back running, he angered himself and shed his fears. He felt the skill course through him harder than ever before. [Anger] gave a 20% buff to all his shown physical stats, which includes his three new ones he had gained from [Feline Agility]. When the cats came at him, he was able to dodge out of the way of one and into the path of another that managed to graze his elbow.

[You have been inflicted with [Shadows of Fear]]

Immediately his vision became darker, and the cats became more grotesque, even gaining distinguished features, one had lost a jaw and its tongue was hanging out, another lost most of its fur and you could see blue lines running down the length of its body, but what he believed to be the ringleader, had its right eye out of the socket and dangling.

Lloyd tried to fight back, but every punch and kick had just passed through them. His face lost color. He tried again and again and each time was the same result. It was clear who was winning this.

They landed more attacks on him, and each attack blurred his vision more and made the cats into these unholy abominations. The fear began to override his [Anger] skill, and when he lost his buffs, he looked defeated.

‘Is this how I die? By some undead pussies!? What a way to fucking go.’ He dropped to his knees, blood was pouring out of old wounds he never treated and new ones just made. He lifted his head in resignation, and then in defiance.

“I'm not going to die like this” And then he proceeded to spam [Anger] over and over. Each use taking more and more of his mental energy until the point he blacked out. The last thing he saw was:

[You have become [Enraged]]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Abuela, yo tienes una pregunta.”

“Lloyd, it 's ‘yo tengo una pregunta’, but si, ¿Que es tu pregunta?” She smiled, Lloyd was getting better at speaking spanish. His mother only made him speak English, but when his grandmother moved in, she made him speak Spanish everyday. She herself was a daughter of immigrants and had to learn both languages growing up.

“¿Dónde está mi papá?”

Lloyd’s grandmother froze for a moment. Her smile fell and she got eye level with Lloyd. He was only 9, and so she had to get on her bad knees.

She spoke in english, she only ever spoke to Lloyd in english if it was to correct him, or they were having a serious talk.

“Lloyd, your father left your mother a long time ago.”

“Why did he leave? Was it because of me?”

She saw the pain in his face as only a grandmother could. She hugged him and stroked his hair “No Nieto, you are an angel sent by the heavens. He left because your mama and him could not get along.”

She heard sniffles, even with Lloyd trying to hide them.

“But why don’t I see him? Doesn’t he want to see me?”

“Oh Lloyd…” She hugged him tighter. There was nothing she could say. She couldn’t tell him the truth, at least not yet, maybe not ever. She looked up and saw the calendar. It was Father’s Day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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She was keeping an eye on the human. She thought humans were interesting, nothing is the first one she's seen in a while. Before being sent on this assignment, she read up on how humans behaved. Magazines had a wealth of knowledge!

She watched him turn and face the Shadows. His smirk quickly turned into a grimace when he saw the deformed figures, and from a grimace to a scowl. It was an interesting sight, watching him change emotions like that.

She's been watching this human for a while. Ever since her sister Rosa told her about her encounter with him, she's been searching. She finally found him after about an hour of looking. The human was passing right through her other sister's territory. She found her sister Willow watching him too.

"He's not gonna make it"

The dryad looked at her sister curiously. "Why would you say that, sister?"

"It's common sense, those are Deadman's Shadows, beings of dark energy. They're literally a mix of Fear, bad intentions and killing instincts molded into the form of the recently deceased using dark magics. His strikes won't do a damn thing."

And that's exactly what was happening, every punch and kick he threw passed right through them.

The Shadows kept slashing at him, each strike crazing him more and more until his buffed state was forced to a halt and he was sent on his ass.

Chrysanthemum made a move, but her sister held her back. They watched the man be surrounded, and then his body became stiff and a blank look was in his eyes. He jumped up and kicked and punched fiercer than before, but the results were the same. The Shadows had left him a bleeding mess and it wasn't long before he fell to the ground.

The dryad broke free from her sister and warded the Shadows off.

"You're just going to piss off Wozzeck."

Her sister gave her a defiant glare. All this person wanted to do was live and Wozzeck was cranky and old. All the dryads were tired of working under him, and it hasn't even been a month yet.

"I'm going to save him, you wanna help?"

Willow sighed and the two sisters went on. They traveled fast into the woods, into the Dryads' Domain, where even the Leshy Wozzeck was not permitted to go.

There, they found Lashley, a Satyr Sage already waiting for them. Without a word spoken, the three went to work, with one or two other Satyrs running to and from, bringing herbs and water.

"These injuries aren't just flesh wounds, he's had damage to the soul." Lashley told the two sisters about the man's condition. "He'll live, his body took naturally to the herbs and your healing magics, it even seemed like it was adapting to it. His body will be stronger, but with a damaged spirit, he won't get far."