The branches of the trees whipped harshly at my cloak as I dashed through the dark woods, the rain falling hard while thunder shook the trees and lightning cracked the sky as the flash of a blade and the sound of steel striking armor cuts through the roar of the downpour. I deftly drag my moon steel dagger across the battle mages' light plate mail and thrust it through the weakest point of the armor, straight through the heart of my assailant before ripping the blade back out with a sickening squelch. "You damned fool..." I spit at the corpse while wiping the gore off my weapon, "You only managed to hasten your own demise and make my job easier." I say with a grin. After cleaning my blade and picking the dead mage clean of his valuables, i continue on my way through the dark of the woods, eventually finding myself back on the main path. The North Viriana forest was the apparent location of my current job, the foolish mage i'd just killed for attempting to ambush me being one of the members of the chaos cult I was tasked with eradicating. I continue walking and hold out my palm facing upward, channeling magic through it and creating a small map of my immediate surroundings before setting off the path again opposite the direction in which I killed the mage. After a short walk through the brush, i finally find what I'd been looking for, a small stone trap door with a large red pearl inlaid in the center, "There you are," I say quietly to myself, "This is the door that the kings court wizard described to me, it should open if i can break the jewel." I remove my dagger from its sheath and kneel down over the jewel, placing the tip of my dagger at its center. I begin to channel pure arcane power through my dagger and press it into the evil gem, only for the entire slab to disintegrate and drop me into darkness...

I feel myself regain consciousness but my vision is blurry, i blink a few times and attempt to figure out my surroundings remembering that i fell through the door after i destroyed the jewel. Suddenly the pain in the back of my head hits me and I wince, touching the back of my head with my hand coming away covered in my blood. "Damn that hurt!" I wince as i try to stand up "I feel like i fell 3 stories..." I exclaim in pain whilst i begin to channel a healing spell. "I'll need to be more careful if i ever hope to get out of this mess and get paid." I look around for a bit trying to see if i can find my dagger which must have slipped from my grip after i hit the ground, the only thing that saved me was my magical abilities and my moon steel plate armor, crafted from the finest steel and enchanted on the night of the fullest moon. Eventually i find my dagger embedded in a nearby stone and manage to pull it out, after returning it to it's sheath silently, I hear voices coming from down the tunnel to my right and quickly hide myself in the shadows of the cavern.

"Quickly! we must find whatever created that sound!" Says the first voice as I see a pair of chaos mages in full battle gear step into the cavern,

"Somebody must have destroyed the gate, but who could have survived such a fall?" The other mage asks the first, not noticing the shadow creeping up behind them.

"We must find whoever it is with haste, if they survived and find out what we have down here, the elder will surely have us fed to the void." He pauses for a moment to look around the cavern with his torch held out in front of him, trying to discern any movement in the darkness. "we shall begin to lo-" The mage is suddenly cut off by a dagger punching through his throat, his eyes widen and his mouth opens to a silent scream as I quietly lay the man down to die. He begins to cough as I lay him down and his friend turns to see me, suddenly turning angry.

"WE FOUND HIM! QUICKLY BROTHERS! THE INTRUDER MUST DIE!" He yells past me into the tunnel they emerged from. Thinking quickly I point two fingers at him and fire a shard if ice directly into his chest, destroying his armor and silencing him instantly, but the others are already alerted. "Damnit! Things can never just be easy, can they?" I ask myself as attempt to cast a shadow spell, only to be blind sided by a bolt of black light. I stumble from the attack and twist my body just in time to dodge a second one. "But how? Only those two came into the main cavern, how could I have missed a third one?" i think to myself as I try to identify my attacker. To my surprise, the elder of the cult steps from the shadows, his gnarled, corrupt staff pointed directly at me.

"So you think you could just burst in here, disrupt my work, and kill my followers did you?" He asks me in a spiteful and angery tone. "Answer me! or i shall kill you where you stand assassin."

Thinking quickly i reply, "I have no idea what you're on about you old badger, I'm nothing but an adventurer who attempted to enter here out of curiosity." I quickly explain while attempting to silently cast a teleport spell under my cloak. The Elder seems angered by this and replys in turn

"You think me a fool? A mere adventurer slays two of my mages in cold blood and then attempts to hide the fact that he is casting a teleport spell under his robe? you shall die for your insolence!" He begins to charge anther chaos spell at the tip of his staff, the jewel on the end glowing menacingly as it fill with magic power. I cast my spell and end up right in front of the elder with my dagger already rushing toward his neck, but he blocks with the tip of is staff at the last moment. The spell is cast as the jewel breaks and the entire world goes black.

I suddenly bolt awake and find myself in the middle of the woods. Shaking off the feeling of vertigo slowly stand up and take inventory of all my belongings, finding that i still have my dagger, my medicines, and a small amount of food in my pack. I attempt to cast a small light spell and succeed but immediately stop channeling my magic, as i feel as though my arcane power has not replenished itself while i slept. This was not normal, I should be at full strength right now and be casting magic with no problems but I feel as though I should conserve what little power I have left. I begin to walk slowly through the woods, attempting to move silently to find my bearings without the use of magic, i eventually come to the edge of the woods and see a small cottage surrounded by all sorts of small animals a short distance away. As I start towards the cottage I suddenly feel sick and feel a sharp pain on my chest under my armor. I open my cloak and look down under my moon steel plate to see a sickening burn with traces of dark a dark crystal strewn throughout the wound, but i continue towards the dwelling. I reach the main path leading up to the door and my vision once again starts to dim and fade as I collapse on the path, just before I fall into unconsciousness, I hear a gentle voice, "Oh my! What are you!? What happened to you!" My vision fades to black as a set of yellow hooves steps into view...

Author's Note

So what do you all think so far? Are there any grammar or sentence structure improvements i could make? Has the story caught your attention and most importantly, do you want more?