Hero Scout

"Don"t worry. Just stick around awhile, then I"ll bring your friends heads to come have a little party," somthing was stuck into the ground. Ash"s body was not yet unusable, but if this b.a.s.t.a.r.d decided to run away with her head then Ash would be lost to Kenji forever.

Then again, if he could complete her sole desire of keeping Violet safe, perhaps that wouldn"t be so bad.

Jettesoning from Ash"s corpse, Kenji wiggled into the forest as his old man base form. Thankfully the forest quickly hid him, shielding him from the view of the a.s.sa.s.sin who was adorning himself in pelts and a Sun elf head.

Those trophies would be his downfall, Kenji swore it would be so. Transforming into Dana, Kenji started her summoning.

"What"s this in the air-ha!" a sudden burst of vines distracted the a.s.sa.s.sin for now, but he was still moments away from discovering Kenji"s intent.

By the time his eyes jerked to the dead tigers at his feet, it was too late. One tiger bit into side side, another raked it"s claws down his shoulder. Shredded leather and a blast of blood sprayed onto the forest floor.

"AAHH, spirit of Desire [Awaken]," red and black energy filled the a.s.sa.s.sin"s veins. Immediately the bleeding stopped, and the a.s.sasin began moving with inhuman flexibility to avoid the strikes of the zombie tigers. His [critical hit] skill achieved little more than marring one tigers meat, even if it"s claws missed due to the a.s.sasin contorting his body out of the way as if it were solely made of water.

Only too late did he realise he stood over Ash"s corpse, her undead arm stabbing him between the legs. Howling, the a.s.sasin had his stones cut free.

Growling, the a.s.sasin tried to search the Forrest for Kenji but was distracted by the zombie tigers, Ash"s undead revenant and the increasingly powerful attacks of the Forrest. Currently green energy welled within each vine, becoming hard as stone itself, the a.s.sasin no longer able to cut their fibres without using skills such as [slash] and [fast slash].

"There! The a.s.sasin grinned as he charged Kenji"s direction."

"[Blessing - Fire - times three!]," Kenji shouted, both undead Ash and his undead tigers erupting with holy flame.

Having entered the forest proper, the a.s.sasin was soon restricted. The twin tigers crashed into his side, collapsing soon after by a fair of [fast slash]s. Ash went even further, managing to bury twin taggers through his throat and back as if for that moment her ability in life had returned.

It would not be enough. The a.s.sasin hacked his way out as Ash"s body burned to dust. Bleeding like a pig he staggered towards Kenji.

"Dana you traitor, I should have known..." the a.s.sa.s.sin wiped the blood from his mouth, managing only to smear much more on instead from his heavily bleeding hand.

"You"ll die here," Kenji grinned, the holy fire catching onto the the a.s.sa.s.sin"s back and burning his skin and leather together.

"I don"t think so, spirit of the lost [awaken]," his last bound spirit appeared as a small Sun elf but it"s power was somthing else entirely. As a magic user Dan"s could see mana, and this child had ten wizards worth of mana swirling about it. That kind of power could eradicate Kenji in a moment.

"Get me out of here kid, don"t let this forest interrupt me either," nodding, the rather sad looking elf boy raised his shaking hands high, bit his lip so hard it bled, and clenched. A single tear rolled down the elf boy"s cheek.

The Earth had died before the boy"s tear had fallen to splash upon it.

Vines withered, flowers lost their petals, the gra.s.s faded into patches of brown and a quick blight spread across the earth that destroyed all flora it touched.

Curious thing about the dead, necromancers like Dana specialised in its control. While she didn"t specialise in wielding dead trees, the deathly energy was still thick, and once wielded, Kenji let it snap into her limbs and be directed.

"Now you die, traitor," the a.s.sasin said.

"I couldn"t agree more," unleashing the power Kenji had the dead trees surge their vines and roots in unison around the a.s.sa.s.sin before he activated [blessing-fire] and multi-cast it as many times as he could before the a.s.sasin appeared before him and used [a.s.sasinate] to rip Kenji clean in half.

Rolling away as his old man base form, Kenji barely burst through the ring of dead foliage before his blessings set the whole area of dead forest ablaze with holy fire. The pyre was so hot Kenji had to back away a fair way to even look at it, nothing able to survive the storm of fire that engulfed the entire area.

"You will be missed Ash," Kenji whispered, the sun elf"s course guaranteed to be vaporised in that firestorm. But she had felt content in her last moments, somthing that made him wonder a little less if he should have abandoned one of his Forbidden slots to fit her within.

No, this had been the best way. Now she could find peace, knowing that she had gone above and beyond for her dear beloved.

Kenji jerked his head upward, as a cackling figure stumbled through the smouldering fire.

"You thought....this could kill me...?" rasped the voice the skeleton made of ash and shade energy. His heart was encased in black and red power, the rest of him held together by the cursed nature of his existence.

"You cannot kill me. I am immortal!"

Kenji remembered how Ash had always targeted the shades heart, and a.s.sumed the organ to be his weak point. Problem was, Kenji was out of tricks, unless you counted the rat of course.

Switching to the rat he charged, building up momentum.

Turning into the original body of the boy Knight (seeing as the Forbidden slot was still resetting from his ploy of leaving a fake corpse behind) Kenji lunged at stabbed, fully aware that if he lost he"d lose the boy knight forever.

Oh - and if he lost twice he"d be joining them in the grave. And he didn"t even have his blessings - just his sword skill against that of an almost immortal shade.