As he rides on his shadow veiled steed through the frozen wasteland, Roman Marcellus finds a large cave, seemingly untouched by man.
He wore a black cloak that helped him stay hidden from beasts and other hostiles.
He snaps his fingers as the ring on his finger glows purple as his steed is absorbed into the ring on his finger. However, as he looks closer, he finds a massive white haired ape with antlers that appear like that of a deer.
"A Yeti? Seems like a C Grade", he tells himself.
It was asleep. Roman freezes up as the beast moves, it was simply switching positions.
He slowly exits the cave where on the outside resides a frost dragon. He manages to sneak past it successfully until the beast catches a glimpse of him and then lets out a roar loud enough to awake the other beast in the cave.
It charges yet before it could make contact, the dragon is pulled back by the tail, and slammed into the ground by the Yeti. Roman runs behind a rock as he is able to get a full glimpse at the ape, it is around fifteen feet in height as the dragon is twenty feet in length. The dragon gets back up on its feet and lets out yet another roar.
They both charge at each other, with the dragon biting the Yeti's right arm as it drags the beast by it and tosses it into the side of the mountain. It gets back on its feet as the dragon is about to charge it and holds it jaws in place before punching it to the ground. It lifts up the dragon by its neck, only for a beam of ice to be directed towards its face.
It lets go and stumbles back, allowing for the dragon to direct even more frost breath at its body. Eventually, the majority of the its body had been covered in ice, which is when the dragon approaches it, preparing to take a bite out of it until it slowly starts to move until it then bursts out of the ice. The Yeti begins to emit a chilling aura as it steps forth.
"Is it using spiritual energy!?", Roman thinks to himself.
The two charge at each other once more, with the dragon grabbing hold of the ape's arm once more, however the beast strikes the dragon's nose, driving it back. The dragon winds up another frost breath attack, which the Yeti blocks with his hand. This time the frost breath strengthens the ape as it charges at the dragon, striking its jaw, bringing it down momentarily.
As it is down, the ape begins pummeling the dragon into submission before picking it up, where it sinks its teeth into its neck, and tearing out its throat, killing it in the process.
Yet before it can return to its cave, Roman emerges from behind the rock where he was observing the fight from. The Yeti puts down the dragon's corpse and focuses on Roman.
He adjusts his helmet and his cloak as he plants his greaves into the ground. He proceeds to unsheathe his sword from his waist. The Hunter's Nodachi as he calls it.
The beast charges at him yet he remains calm. A fist comes down, he jumps out of the way. The beast roars, releasing a wave of ice that freezes Roman momentarily, where it comes rushing towards him.
Another fist is thrown, except this time, Roman had used his technique.
"Shadowstep," he whispers as a dark cloud appears in front of the beasts face.
He appears behind the beasts legs where he slashes them open. It roars in pain as Roman mounts onto its back where he cuts its shoulder, where the pain continues until he decides to end it, cutting through the back of it's neck, killing it.
The beast falls over, lifeless and bloodied.
"You might be the first monster that isn't a dragon that I've encountered that uses spiritual energy", Roman remarks. "Vile beast."
When those words left his mouth, his chest tightens up as a memory replays in his mind.
The memory of an innocent woman pleading for her life echoed in his mind as he held a bloody dagger. As she was on the verge of death, she called him those exact words, "Vile beast"
He shifts back to the real world as he looks at the ape once more.
"Well, I should get going", he says as he sheathes his sword.
He summons his steed with a whistle and flees the scene.
He enters a forest where he recalls his steed once more, and finds an open space to camp out for the night. He gathers dry wood and brings it to the open area. He snaps a stick off a tree and rubs it against the materials, creating a spark.
A flame ignites, Roman heads out to find more sticks and wood. He returns after a few minutes to a small fire being started to a single nearby tree.
He stands there confused for a moment and then makes an attempt to put it out, yet from the fire emerges a figure with the horns of a bull.
"You demons are really starting to annoy me," he remarks as he grabs by its face with only a single hand. He crushes its head only for more to be summoned from the tree.
He calls his sword to his hand and readies himself for more. As more emerge from the burning tree, it suddenly stops as the fire is consumed by a mysterious force within the woods.
They all stare out into the darkness until one foolish soul attempts to skewer him in the back, yet his spear breaks on impact.
With one clean swoop, he clears out several demons. More appear behind him that are eviscerated by a ball of flame engulfing them.
"What the hell is causing this?", Roman asks himself while swinging his massive blade.
With a few more swoops, he finishes off the rest of the horde until there is one left, an armored captain, wielding a large spear.
The captain charges at him, missing a poke and landing another in his abdomen. Roman breaks the spear in frustration and pushes the commander away, where a figure emerges from the forest and slices it in two, donning a face mask.
Roman takes the rest of the spear out and readies himself once more. The figure, dual wielding katanas, stands its ground as well.
"Who are you!", Roman yells.
"Take off your mask and I'll take off mine", they say.
They both let their guards down as the stranger takes of his mask and Roman unequips his helmet, both revealing their tanned faces and dark brown hair.
"Brother?", the stranger asks.
"Raymond?"