Fate Online: Shadow

Michael quickly jumped back inside his gaming cabin, and what greeted him was an empty camp.

Michael just smiled as he knew that he was late, and just after a few seconds that he appeared, multiple flashes of light appeared around him, and the figure of Emma, Casey, Tina and Harrison appeared.

"They already left" Emma bitterly said as she looked around them.

"They haven't gotten that far yet" Michael knelt on one knee and said as he looked at the fresh human tracks along the ground.

Then he stood up and looked at his teammates and said, "Let's go!"

"Are you sure that they aren't that far away?" Tina asked a bit worried. After all, they are currently all left alone inside a monster infested forest where even a group of small monsters inside could potentially kill them.

Michael nodded as he pointed on the tracks he could see on the ground, "The tracks on the ground are still quite fresh so they must not have gone that far away"

Michael and the rest started running as they followed the trails that the expedition force left behind.

And just as Michael had predicted, the expedition force hadn't gone that far away as they already spotted the rear guard of the expedition force after almost half an hour of walking and sprinting while avoiding the monsters along the way.

But what greeted them wasn't something they would have expected.

"LEAVE THE FOREST OR DIE!!!"

Just almost half an hour after the expedition force departed back towards Stormwind Fortress.

"Ahh, the quest is finally over" a user said as he stretched his arms upwards while walking.

"But I'm worried though, isn't the journey back looks to easy? When we first got here, we didn't even reached that deep inside the forest when a swarm of monsters suddenly ambushed us" another user said as he warily looked around his surroundings, as he suddenly doesn't feel safe even when there are imperial soldiers walking beside them.

"You worry too much. Shouldn't you be instead be happy as we got a huge haul of high quality items during this expedition?" said another user armed with a bow.

"Yeah, we are even one of the few users who managed to survive this ordeal, and I'm guessing that we'll get a lot of Exp or even fame after our return to the fortress town" a user wearing a leather armor with a longsword on his back said, and the most amazing thing is that the man is holding a wolf cub with grey fur in his arms.

"You are only saying that because you guys are one of the few who managed to secure a pet apart from that cloaked person whose team members are calling him Shadow" the wizard snorted in annoyance while looking at the wolf pup in the man's hands with envy.

"Right, about them. I wonder what happened to them that they didn't even appear before we departed"

"Something must have happened outside of the game that caused them to not even be able to log in on time"

"Hehehe, I just hope that they would catch up with us when they are finally here. After all, I wouldn't miss the chance to flirt with Azure Flower"

The user with a wolf cub in his arms laughed with desire while the others just scoffed at him for his shamelessness, and the user Azure Flower that they are talking about is actually Emma's in game name.

"You really have a thick skin, Azure Flower had already told you that she doesn't like you but you still pester her"

"Well...what can I-"

ROAR!

"Sir! The guardian from this part of the forest are flying towards us from the north!"

The soldiers and users alike raised their heads towards the skies, but the only thing say saw was the leaves and branches of the trees around them swaying from left to right like someone is shaking them.

And they could also hear the loud sound of wings flapping in the air, as the sound slowly got nearer and nearer towards them.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

"This...it's a dragon. Holy f*ck, it's a freaking dragon!" the wizard shouted in horror mixed with amazement, as they watched as the huge shadow of a dragon flew past above the trees.

"Holy mother of god, that is some huge a*s dragon!" the warrior shouted, while the wolf cub in his arms started shivering while its pair of ears drooped in fear.

"LEAVE THE FOREST OR DIE!!!"

The loud deep voice boomed throughout the skies which forced the humans below to cover their ears.

"Move! Get a move on and increase your speed!" those words came shouting from the front of the troop, as the soldiers quickly increased their movement speed upon receiving the orders.

"This...why are we hurrying? It's not like the dragon is attacking us" a user subconsciously blurted the question out loud.

One of the imperial soldiers walking beside him turned to him and said, "That's the monster guardian of this part of the forest and its giving us a warning. The guardians won't attack us soldiers unless we don't heed its warnings, so if you don't want to die then walk faster because your life is on the line here. After all, you guys are not soldiers and would certainly get killed if you got yourselves separated from us"

"That's a scary way to put it"

"Oh, Shadow and the others are here!" someone suddenly exclaimed from behind them, and when they looked back, they saw a team of five people hurriedly running towards them.

"Great! Azure Flower is here, haha!"

"Shut up, and walk quickly!" a soldier glared at the warrior which made the latter flinched in fright as he just suddenly remembered that Azure Flower has a lot of admirers among the imperial soldiers due to her superb skills and commanding abilities.

"Phew~ We finally managed to catch up" Emma sighed while breathing raggedly, as she and the rest finally managed to catch up to the rear guard of the expedition army.

"I thought you guys were not coming back," said a mounted soldier who rode beside them.

"Hahaha, sorry about that. We were delayed by something and only managed to free ourselves from it" Harrison laughed, while taking a lot of deep breaths and at the same time, he was amazed that Michael who's now covering his face through his hood seems to be not even that tired like the rest of them, and he was even carrying a rabbit on one of his shoulders.

And the man in question is instead looking at the direction from where the dragon disappeared to, as the scenes of what happened earlier flashed inside his mind.

'It seems you have become Sage Laura's student. I didn't expect that you would actually go towards this path instead of taking on the inheritance of the Night King'

The deep voice of a familiar dragon appeared within Michael's mind just a few seconds after the dragon appeared in the skies above them.

'Be careful young human, because the world isn't so peaceful as it appears to be'

'What do you mean by that Dragon Elder?'

'You will find out about it sooner or later. The only advice I can give you is to get stronger as much as possible, or to at least become half as strong from myself. Only then would you have the chance to survive'