I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 850: Calling For Help

The sky had begun to darken, heavy with thick clouds that rolled like a warning across the heavens. The wind howled through the trees and shaking branches and rattling leaves.

But strangely, the mist was not pushed away by the wind. Instead, it moved with it and flowing like a living tide, weaving between the trees, curling around legs and arms and slipping across skin like cold fingers.

Visibility dropped even more. Shadows stretched and twisted. Even Jan, with his ranger's eyes and sense, could barely make out the path ahead.

His senses dulled. The forest felt wrong as though reality itself was bending under the weight of something ancient and waking.

But still, they ran.

The adventurers moved in swift steps. Their formation loose but still functional. They didn't need to see clearly because they had one guide now. It was Eccar.

He moved ahead of them always visible and steady with strange glow of white across his body. The adventurers thought that it must be his Magic that he able to keep constantly shining.

His movements carved a path through the chaos. In the murk of the forest he was their anchor. Every turn he made they immediately followed. Every pause happen they also stopped. He didn't shout or give command but they listened with their instincts, tracking the rhythm of his stride and the direction of his aura.

Again and again, they found rifts. And again and again, they fought the grey creatures around it while Eccar closing it.

More grey creatures came. Each one twisted, snarling, full of hunger and madness.

The adventurers fought them with sword and spell, killing them, and Eccar sealing the tears in the world behind them. But it began to feel endless. The ocean of monsters spilling into their realm with no sign of slowing.

They pressed on for more minutes then for hours. Time felt blurred in the mist, stretched and warped.

And eventually, Eccar began to notice the weight of their exhaustion.

Their steps were slower. Their breathing harder. Even their sharpest attack had lost just a bit of their edge. Not from lack of skill but from being human.

They had reached their limit.

"Let's rest," Eccar said simply after coming to a stop.

Behind him, the group staggered slightly.

"But we need to keep going. There's still so many rifts—" Jan stepped forward, concern lining his voice.

Eccar raised a hand, halting the thought with a quiet gesture.

A small, understanding smile touched his lips.

"It's okay. The eight of you need to rest now. Because the battle ahead will be much harder," he said calmly. "I'll close the next rifts on my own for a while."

The group exchanged uneasy glances. None of them liked the idea. But they didn't argue.

Because they knew he was right.

They were experienced enough to recognize the danger of pushing too far. They weren't reckless rookies who mistook stamina for resolve. They knew what came after exhaustion. It was slower reactions, bad judgment, and mistakes that could get people killed.

Mark looked to the others. "We agree to rest, yeah?"

Thorne gave a nod, his jaw tight. Selene sighed and lowered her hand, letting the glow around her fingers fade. Kaela gave a low grunt of acceptance. One by one, they all agreed.

Then Mark turned to Eccar and said, "Sorry. We'll catch up soon."

Eccar nodded, still smiling. "Don't worry. I'll come to you later. Just move when you think you're ready."

And with no more words and no hesitation he turned and ran into the mist.

The fog seemed to part for him before swallowing him whole again.

And the adventurers were left in the silence, watching the place where he vanished, catching their breath.

They would rest and recover for now.

---

Eccar ran through the choking mist, the sound of his boots muffled by the soft, unnatural fog that clung to everything. But the moment he was alone with no more weary footsteps behind him he exhaled a deep sigh.

Without a word while keep running Eccar spread his wings.

With a surge of power and a single beat he launched himself upward, tearing through the forest canopy. Leaves and branches snapped around him as he burst above the treetops and rising swiftly into the air.

But it turns out the sky gave no clarity. The mist reached even this high like a dense veil that coiling through the open space above the forest like ghostly smoke.

He hovered, suspended in silence, his body outlined in pale white light, wings flared wide and still.

Then he opened his Dragon eyes fully.

With that power, the world changed. The mist gone before his gaze, its secrets unveiled. And what he saw made his heart lurch.

"Damn it," he muttered.

The rifts situation were much worse than he thought. They were everywhere.

Hundreds of them spread across the forest. The torn jagged holes in reality, each spewing grey creatures in no small amount. The monsters howling through the mist and spreading corruption with every step. The forest had become their ground now and the battle had already started long before the adventurers even ready.

"This won't do," he whispered under his breath, fists tightening. "This isn't something I can handle alone."

His wings beat once more and he rose higher into the misty sky. Then he closed his eyes and reached inward.

There was only one person he could rely on in a moment like this. Someone who could fight at his level and hopefull he would come without hesitation.

Eccar concentrated and his voice moved across the invisible thread that connected Dragonborn blood.

"Hey, uhh… I think I need you now," he said. "Erend there's no more time. The rifts are everywhere. I need your strength."

He opened his eyes again, fire igniting in them.

"Come quickly. Or this forest will fall and we will fail our Quest."

Few seconds later Erend's voice coming to his head.

"Got it. I will be there soon."

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