Zman wipes the sweat off his brow as the searing heat pinches his nerves. He picks up his hammer in both hands and looks down the hill to a small band of bandits. He nods to himself gently and pushes his long black hair away. He looks down the hill with his stern eyes as the bandits begin to squabble over money and loot. Zman stands seeing this as a great opportunity. He flexes in his studded armor and pops his knuckles.

"Okay Dork." Zman smirks, "Use that fire rain thing and I’ll go down there and bust skulls."
"Got it." A wormy Elementalist says.

Zman wastes no time in charging down the hill while the Elementalist sticks to the shadows to perform the spell. Suddenly the bandits gasp and rush for their weapons but it was much too late. Zman spins and lands the end of his hammer into a bandit causing his skull to rupture. On his back swing he takes out the leg of another bandit. Finally a few trickles of fire begin to fall from above and engulf the two remaining bandits. Zman watches as they scream in horror and patiently waits for them to die. He picks up the gold they drop and returns to the hillside.

"Damn Dork, lil’ laggy with the fire eh?" Zman smirks.
"It’s a little hard to do, Zman." He replies.
He shrugs, "Whatever, let’s go to the city and buy some shit!"
"What do you wanna buy?" The Elementalist asks.
"I dunno, surely there’s something out there I want." He smiles, "Let’s go!"

Zman rushes off. The Elementalist tries to keep up but eventually stops to catch his breath.

"Z-Zman!" He yells.
Zman turns around, "Yes Dork?"
"I think… I’ma die." He coughs.
"Dork, get your lazy ass up and quit lagging!" He laughs, "We’re gunna miss the show at the theater if you don’t hurry up."
"I thought… we were gunna buy shit?" He gasps.
"Yeah but you like that chick so I figured we should see the show first." He smiles.
"Tickets, are 25 gold. We have 35." The Elementalist stands.
"Not when you know a lil’ something-something like I do about a certain Prince." Zman winks, "C’mon."

The Elementalist nods and follows Zman to the theater. Rurik is standing at the front collecting gold for entry. Zman slides up and smiles to him. Rurik nods.

"Mighty Warrior of Ascalon, have you come to see my love Althea perform?" Rurik asks.
"Indeed, my friend has taken a liking to her art." Zman smiles.
He smiles, "It honors me to know that another admires her loveliness. I would not be jealous."
The Elementalist blushes and turns away, "Heh, heh."
"So, 25 gold. And it’s buy one get one free, right?" Zman winks.
"What? No 25 each." Rurik quirks.
"I could have sworn it was buy one get one free… Alesia told me." He grins.
"Zman you may enter free, Elementalist, you didn’t hear that." Rurik smiles.
"Okay." The Elementalist smiles.
Zman hands Rurik a small sack of gold, "Thanks, friend."
"My pleasure Zman, and thank you." Rurik smiles.

Zman walks in and takes a seat on the front row. The Elementalist sits next to him.

"Royalty is easy to manipulate when you know about their dirty deeds." Zman says.
"What happened between Alesia and Rurik?" The Elementalist asks.
"Well…" Zman smirks.
"Hello Ascalon!" Althea waves from the stage.
Zman sighs, "Another time."

Althea is wearing a violent purple dress that is actually a petty-coat and a rather tiny, white, frilled skirt visible where the coat buttons. She waves and bows. The few people in the audience wave back as she puts on her green mask. Rurik shuffles away quickly while counting the gold he gathered. Zman watches Althea as she makes a grand introductory speech that his Elementalist friend is entirely glued to. He looks at her and notices he can see up her skirt.

Zman nudges the Elementalist, "Hey look, you can kinda see up her skirt."
"What? Zman, don’t look up her skirt!" He gasps.
"Shh! Dork, don’t get us in trouble." He smiles politely and watches Althea making sure she isn’t looking at them.

Silence passes between them as she keeps talking.

"Y-You’re right." The Elementalist says.
"I told you." Zman snickers, "Dork, don’t stare she’ll catch you."
Althea looks down at the Elementalist as his eyes are settled, "Oh!"

She makes a quick spin and smirks at him as he looks up to her suddenly. Zman smacks his head. The Elementalist looks down in embarrassment.

"No worries!" Althea says, "Now, to start the real show."
Zman shakes his head, "You Dork."
"I’m sorry Zman." He replies.
"Ha, ha, I think she likes you, she wasn’t offended." He laughs.
"She. Like, me? No way." He looks away.
"Hey, I wouldn’t put it past her, she’s only marrying Rurik because he’d send her dad to the front line if she didn’t. Ooh did I say that out loud? Naughty Zman." He smirks.

Zman eventually nods off during the show while the Elementalist watches attentively and wakes him up repeatedly. Zman eventually stays awake when a fake fight erupts between two actors and he is amused by how fake it looks. The Elementalist enjoys the show thoroughly and stands with applause as it ends. Zman stands up and claps as well not to be outdone. He cheers enthusiastically. Althea takes center stage and bows.

"Thank you all, you’ve been such a wonderful audience!" She smiles and takes her mask off.
Rurik quickly jumps up and claps though he didn’t see any of the show, "Another wonderful performance my love, simply amazing! I love your talents."
"I hate him." The Elementalist says.
"Who doesn’t?" Zman replies, "Quick let’s get outta here."

Zman and the Elementalist are stopped at the exit by Captain Osric.

"Hey you two, Rurik told me to get a gift for Althea, but since I don’t know what the fuck she likes and you two seemed interested in the show I think you should do it. See you losers later! And if you don’t get the gift, I’ll have you banished from Ascalon!" He laughs and walks away quickly.
"Fuck Dork." Zman says, "What could we get a princess?"
"I think it needs to be something as unique and beautiful as Althea." He smiles, "Let’s go find something!"
"Eh, okay." Zman shrugs, "Lead the way, Dork."

The Elementalist and Zman run into Ashford and look around. It is a very small village covered with hay and clay cottages and small gardening fields. A few farmers are loafing around and a few guards stand ready for any sights of aggressive monsters such as lost Skales.

"Dork, you start searching over there and I'll go there, maybe we'll find something" Zman commands as he points to the ponds then to the cottages and fields nearby the Abbey.

"O…okay, see you later" The Dork responds before noticing Zman already rushed away to converse with a modest woman in hemp clothing.

He walks around the ponds, firing the occasional fireball to a few Skale lads led by a Broodcaller and sighs "How could I find anything worthwhile here…" Then a glimmer catches the corner of his eye.

He looks at the water of the nearest pond, as clear as a crystal. He smiles as an idea strikes his mind. He pulls off his jacket, but freezes as he feels a stare on his back. He turns around and sees Devona raising an eyebrow at the suspicious Elementalist. He smiles coyly and turns back to the pond as he blushes from embarrassment. He gives up his idea of undressing further, however he leaves his belongings and weapons on the shore on top of his stony gray jacket adorned with a dull red border and a few round red gems. He walks down slowly into the pond as his gray and red clothes darken in the water. Devona rolls her eyes and looks elsewhere, not wishing to know what this fool is up to. He takes a deep breath and dives into the blue water.

He emerges from the water, entirely soaked like a Skale lad and breathing hard after a long minute of diving. Zman walks to the pond playing with a beautiful feather and quirks as he sees the Dork in the middle of the pond, pulling seaweed out of his jet black hair.

"What are you doing again?" Zman asks.
"I'm searching for oysters, they surely got magnificent pearls." The Elementalist replies.
Zman stares at him sternly and points to a big golden shimmering shell resting on the shore of the small pond. "Did you looked at this?"

He approaches the golden shell and tilts it slightly as he touches it. A rainbow pearl as big as Zman's fist rolls out of it. The Elementalist grabs the pearl and blinks at it in disbelief. "This is…"

"Beautiful" Zman smiles "Let's give that pretty shit to Osric and get done with it." He slips the beautiful feather carefully in his belt pouch and rushes away.

"W…wait!" The soaked Elementalist says as he struggles to walk out with his heavy wet clothes.

Zman sighs and stops "What?"

"I'm wet…" The Elementalist mumbles as he squeezes the water out his laced light gray shirt.

Zman rubs his temples "Why didn't you just get your clothes off… you know what? I don't want to know, see you later at the Abbey", he begins walking off, but stops to the sound of clashing steel on a hard Skale hide. He rushes to help the soldier at the bridge, but stops abruptly as the Skale gets hit by a flying bolt of light and crumbles down twitching.

The soldier shrugs and returns to his guarding position. The Elementalist groans, still next to the pond.

Zman runs up to him "You okay Dork?"

The Elementalist waves weakly as smoke emanates from his body "I'm… alright, just… lightning". He strokes his frizzly hair to straighten them and casts a quick healing spell on himself. He dons back his jacket and gather his items. "Let's go"

"To Ascalon to get rid of these then buy shit!" Zman completes as he pulls out the red and black striped feather from his pouch to hand it to the Elementalist who places it delicately in his own pouch. They both rush through the valleys, a known yet rarely used shortcut between Ashford and Ascalon.

Zman abruptly stops and the Elementalist bumps into him and falls back, he says : "Ugh… Zman what was th…" as he gets up slowly.

The Warrior smacks his hand over his mouth and whispers "Bandits… same plan than last time. Cast Now" then rushes towards the crowd of bandits circling around a chest. The Elementalist gathers his energy and throws his spell, causing a rain of fire to fall down on the confused and burning bandits, who soon meet another danger smashing his mighty hammer into the skull of the nearest unfortunate comrade. The few who escaped immolation charge at Zman with their daggers while scouting Bandit Firestarters join the already fiery chaos by firing at Zman. The Warrior crushes the side of an incoming dagger wielder, bats away the hurled fireballs back to senders and kicks an amateur backstabber in the chest. A bandit prepares to throw his dagger in Zman's back as he breaks the legs of his friend before smashing his splashing bloody head into the ground. He aims, then drops his dagger as he is struck by electricity running through his flesh and burning him from his insides, causing him to fall down as a boiling smoking mass. Zman slams his hammer into the side of the last Bandit Firestarter before he can even turn away to run on his stubby legs, the bandit mage howls in agony on the bloodying grass and ceases suddenly as Zman's steel boot cracks his head apart which then leaks brain fluids among the already abundant blood. Zman wipes his hammer on the midget's clothes and joins the Elementalist in the harvesting of valuable items and gold.

"Oooh silver dye" The Elementalist declares as he grabs the flask.

"Lucky Dork, all I find are swords… they should have used them while alive" Zman says as he throws them on a pile.

After gathering and splitting all the goods, Zman pulls a small sack from his armor and throws it on the ground. It instantly expands into a wide backpack. He stuffs all the weapons and shields found into the magical contraption.

Meanwhile, instead of packing his share of artifacts and dyes, the Elementalist approaches the chest. He inspects the chest trying to find a way to open it. He finds a simple latch facing the hill behind him. He lifts the chest open and gets flashed by light. Before he can even raise an arm to cover his eyes, a pendant spins out and smacks him in the face. For a minute, all he could see were stars and black holes.

"Hey Dork, can I get your green dyes?" Zman asks while sliding the last butterfly sword into his backpack.

The Dork sits up and rubs his eyes "Y…yes you can. Just let me keep the blue ones…". He looks at the round projectile and realizes it is a beautiful pendant. He smiles with glee at the jeweled disc then frowns as he recalls Rurik will be the one offering it to the delightful Althea. He pockets it, hoping Osric will accept the first two items.

The Elementalist throws out his own growing backpack and stuffs the few artifacts and the gold pieces into it. He looks around "No blue dyes huh?"

Zman looks at him "None this time…" he looks back at the opened chest "Hey, what was in there? Anything good?"

The Elementalist presses his backpack closed and waits for it to shrink before placing it back into the pocket inside his jacket "There was a… there was nothing."

Zman quirks "They were guarding an empty box? Bah, these bandits surely didn't even know. Let's give the beautiful crap to that ass Osric."

The duo resumes their travel back to Ascalon. The Elementalist stops as he sees Althea having an argument with Old Mac. He bites his lip and rushes to Althea. Zman stops and sees what troubled the Elementalist, he follows his Pyromancer, but leaves him some meters of advance, feeling it is a matter concerning the Dork alone.

"Althea!" The Elementalist blurts as he stops besides her and catches his breath.

Old Mac flushes red with rage as he spots the Dork "Katharos Ombre! You killed my dear Bill under her orders! I'm gonna sue you you bastard!"

Althea shakes her head "Look Mac, your bull was hurting gravely anyone walking nearby… and don't tell me he was protecting your crops, he was always in this puddle next to my theater killing all my customers from Ashford and Green Hills. To make up for your loss, my ex-pupil and friend here could find a suitable replacement for you."

Old Mac calms down and considers the proposition "Hmm, a new pet eh? Tis true my poor Bill was getting senile. Alright, that yougun gets me a new pet. Ya know what would be coo? A devourer, that thing is damn fast and makes eggs, would be damn handy. He better get me one fast! I'll sue both of you if I don't have my pet to train in my field tomorrow!" he walks away slowly to sit down at the shrine with the grumpy Monk chick.

Althea turns back to Katharos who is standing straight after regaining his breath. She hold his hand and requests "Will you do it for me my dear friend, even if I am not your tutor anymore."

Katharos smiles and blushes slightly feeling the warmth of her hand "With p…pleasure my lady"

Althea releases his shivering hand and bows, she remains down to grab an object and stands up showing the dropped pendant to her ex-student "Is this yours?" The only answer she receives is mumbled gibberish and a red Dork face.

Althea frowns "I know, Osric asking for gifts again, he does it each year for Rurik. That's it, I have a few loud words to tell these two" she slides the pendant around Katharos's neck. "Please keep this pendant for me, give the other items you found, then I will ask Rurik where he found his presents on my Anniversary, I swear he'll find his gifts on his own after this." She kisses him sweetly on the cheek. "Go now Katharos"

Katharos rubs his cheek in disbelief and joins Zman waiting for him down the small mount. Zman smirks and nudges him "I told you she liked you" he laughs and pats the silent Elementalist in the back. They both walk to Osric, the Captain who is too busy turning his thumbs in boredom to notice any of Althea's conversations.

Osric growls as the two approach. Zman holds out his hand to shake.

"This had better be good." He grunts.
"Check it out, I got a feather and a pearl." Zman presents the gifts.
"A pearl and a feather, don’t make me laugh." He laughs.
Katharos perks up, "Hey the pearl is beautiful!"
"Fools, she doesn’t want pretty things, she wants expensive things!" Osric laughs.
Zman snaps, "What’d you call me?"
"Fool." Osric repeats, "What are you going to do about it?"

Zman smiles at Katharos and he backs up slowly. Osric gets a perplexed look as the wide smile seems kinda gay between the two men. Zman jolts forward and slams his hammer into Osric’s helmet crumpling it. He falls down and the helmet pops off his head.

"You… Ignorant guard! I will beat the Moa Bird shit out of you!" Zman roars and lifts his hammer.
"Wait! I’m sorry!" Osric yells.
"Sorry isn’t good enough!" Zman says as he slams the hammer onto Osric’s crotch.

Katharos gasps while the whole world seems to stop. Osric freezes and opens his mouth dumbly. Zman picks up his Fiery Dragon Sword.

"You fell down the steps." Zman growls, "Got it?"

Zman walks away while putting up the sword. Katharos jolts back into reality and follows him quickly.

"Zman you attacked a guard." Katharos says.
"Tydus says Heroes don’t take shit from no one." Zman smiles.
"Hey!" A female voice calls, "You made short work of that guard!"
"Damn right I did." Zman says, "Who’s there?"
"Musette." She calls back, "I’m an Elementalist."
"Well come over here so we can see you." Zman says.
"So demanding!" She laughs and rushes in front of them.

Musette is rather tall for a girl with delicate white skin. Her jet black hair is wrapped in a bun with a tiny crescent moon fixture in the back almost making her look like she has two tiny blue horns. She smiles and giggles. Katharos instantly gawks at the very gorgeous girl while Zman folds his arms and grunts.

"You’re an Elementalist? You look more like a model." Zman says.
"I love you." Katharos blurts stupidly.

Musette and Zman both look at Katharos till he blushes and turns around.

"Anyway." Zman smiles, "Is there something you need? I’m Zman, Zman Hell. And this is my partner in crime, Katharos Ombre, but you can call him Dork, I do."
Musette smiles, "Natural leader, I see. I need a little help with a quest."
"Say no more" Zman says, "As a gentleman, I’ll help you. Dork, you’re on your own for a bit."
Katharos nods, "Thank you for saving me from the embarrassment of turning around."
"No problem Dork." Zman tries to smile, "Have fun!"

Musette rushes ahead and beckons Zman. He snatches up his hammer and follows her. She leads him down through Ashford to Wizard’s Folly. Upon entering she is overwhelmed by several rock monsters. Zman pulls her back and swats them each busting them to bits.

"You are handy." She smiles.
"I try." He replies, "So what are we up to?"
"I need a pet, but there aren’t any more of those cats, so I want a bear." She smiles, "Up for it?"
He nods, "As you wish."

They walk together not long before noticing a bear. The bear turns and rushes to them as in having a people sensor.

"Don’t let it hurt me while I charm it!" She gasps.
"No problem." Zman says and stands in front of her.

The bear charges at him while she tosses her arms about casting a spell. Zman readies his hammer and kneels with a blow smashing into the bears back paw. The bear takes a dive and moans in agony. Zman stands back up and rubs his hands together while the bear groans and gets up and limps to Musette.

"You hurt him!" Musette gasps.
"Sorry, it was gunna hurt you, but now it’s all good." Zman smiles.
"I like him, I’ll name him Chief." She pets the bear.
"Nice name." Zman agrees.

Several bandits surround Musette and jump out and try to grab her. She gasps and dives under the bear. The bear barely takes any punishment before it falls over again.

"Ooh we’re going to have FUN with this pretty aren’t we?" A bandit smiles while kneeling to Musette.
"No!" Musette screams.

Zman goes into a frenzy and jumps up and bat swings the kneeling bandit’s head completely off his body. The body tries to stand on it’s own but tumbles over and wiggles. Zman roars loudly and stomps the ground so hard everyone around him falls. He holds up his hammer and begins an onslaught of bashes to a fallen bandit. Musette gets up and hides against her bear while Zman goes into another frenzy. Blood splatters her white skin as the mighty Warrior flattens the skull of the last frightened bandit. Zman looks up and points his hammer vindictively.

"Who’s next?" He growls at the corpses.

A bandit rushes him from behind wearing a fully hooded robe. Zman takes a heavy hit to the head from the staff he holds before turning and deadlocking into a ferocious battle. Zman tackles the bandit after locking weapons and begins punching him in the face repeatedly. He stops punching when Musette touches his shoulder to remind him he’s punching a corpse.

"Sorry. I just… get angry." Zman says as he stands and picks up his hammer.
"You saved me." She says, "I’m forever grateful."
"I do what I can." He replies.

She hugs him tightly. He looks down her back and holds his hammer straight up in both hands while hugging her back. Chief perks up and groans loudly.

The sun is still high in the cloudless pure cobalt blue sky. Red leaves fall down serenely, a few dropping in the rivers and sailing away into the sea. Near the great wall of Ascalon, a few Aloe Seeds lay in the fresh grass, sleeping peacefully as a cheerful bare feeted child in a blue dress covered with red patterns prances in the fields of red irises. Suddenly the living seeds rise up in flames and plop on their side, shifting from sleep to death.

"Bah, just seeds… it's still gold" The Dork says to himself as he gathers the vegetal goods.
"You meanie!" A little cute voice yells.
"Geh?" Katharos turns around "…what are you doing here kid?"
"I'm on an adventure! I'm not beating poor plants like you!" The girl pouts.
"Well… whatever, just go home Gwen, Sarah is worried about you… again." He says as he presses the last seed against his pocket inside his coat, making it shrink and slip into his miniature backpack in a second.
"I don't like you! Zman is much cooler! He's nice and strong! I'll go find him!" She sticks her tongue out and runs away.

Katharos shrugs and walks onto the dirt path leading to the Abbey. He pulls out his pendant and tilts it, making its multiple gems shine in the daylight. He thinks about the gorgeous and talented Althea, then his mind drifts to the embodiment of purity and beauty he met a moment ago before being on his own. He shakes his head and sighs, slipping the golden necklace back under his shirt.

He walks through an empty field and gets whacked in the back of his head. He trips and turns on his back. The worm immediately bats the Dork away with its head. Another worm rises up and bats the incoming Elementalist away. A third worm rises and bats the human ball higher. A fourth swings its head but narrowly misses the human ball which lands flat on the dirt. Katharos jumps up on his feet pissed and begins casting his fire storm. A rabid wolf pounces him and claws his face. "Tabarnak!" the Elementalist yells as he fires a fire ball and a lightning bolt in the wolf's face, frying its head and brain at once. He gets up on his feet and begins casting the fire storm around him, feeling the ground move under his feet as the worms dig to erupt around him. The four worms break out of the ground only to be burned away in the raining flames. Katharos catches his breath, then walks around the corpses, pulling out weapons from the carbonized worms and ripping off the sparse parts of clean hide. He looks at an handle poking out of a worm and pulls it out with difficulty, the ram shaped head firmly gripped in the worm's stomach. He jerks the hammer out and rolls away before landing once again on his back.

"Wow, I gotta keep that for Z" he says to himself as he gazes at the hammer enveloped in a faint blue aura. He places all his new stuff in his bag and enters the Abbey. He looks around and looks at the entrance of the Catacombs, he nods to himself, but a hand grips his shoulder before he can even lift a foot to rush to it.

"Hold on Katharos Ombre, what are you doing again? You already cleared the undead yesterday, let the apprentices gain their experience." The man behind him says.

Katharos turns around. "Mhenlo, I need to get a Devourer egg and there are Devourers in there!"

Mhenlo sighs "Dork, the only Devourers you can find in this necropolis are aged and sickly beasts gathering to die. Their pain turn them aggressive toward the living and the dead without distinction." The Monk frowns "Don't tell me… you forgot your spells again. Balthazar would smite you if you forgot one of his gifts."

The Dork blinks and feels the sting of his wound doing so. He quickly casts Healing Breeze on himself and smiles nervously as his cuts close gradually "I didn't, ehe he…"

Mhenlo crosses his arms "Look, Duke Barradin told me his assistant is a chicken, so he's seeking a bodyguard to make his eggs fetcher work faster. Also I need you to find the poisonous Devourer, we are getting more and more Ascalonians with Devourer wounds who die no matter how many Monks cast Dwayna's blessings on them, if I could get a sample of this poison I could work on an antidote."

"Okay, I'll get it" Katharos rushes out and backtracks to Mhenlo. "Uh… where?"

Mhenlo points "Right there! How can you miss Althea's father!? I can see him walking in circles from here next to that gray hollow hill! Just get out of here!" he Banishes the dorky half-Monk before him.

"Yipes!" The Dork gets pushed back, then he rushes out the Abbey and runs next to the field before the worms and wolves can even react and give him another beating. The Skales on the bridge get knocked down in the water and splash around in confusion.

Katharos arrives in front of the gray hill, he sees no one, he rushes again around the hill and tackles someone to the ground.

"I'm gonna die I'm gonna diiiie" the wimp underneath him says.

"Stop whining!" the Duke yells at his cowardly servant, then looks at Katharos, already standing on his feet. "What are you doing here Elementalist?"

The Elementalist scratches his head "Well… I need to get a Devourer egg for Old Mac…"

"Oh! You're the man who will help my dear Althea get out of trouble, no need to say more." The Duke smiles.

The Dork looks up "What?"

The Duke shrugs "News travel fast here young man, or rather my servant's feet there, he's more useful as a messenger" he looks back and frowns.

"B….but there are Devourers in there an…and they'll huh… devour me!" the servant shudders.

The Duke sighs and looks back at Katharos "Look, the deal is simple, you push away and kill the Devourers that frighten my servant, let him gather the eggs and I'll give you a few, now get to work I'm hungry!"

Katharos blinks then nods "Um… understood" he rushes inside with the egg picker following him closely.

The egg picker approaches a nest then cowers away "D…devoureeer!"

Katharos sighs, as the only Devourers nearby are in the other room ahead, he simply rushes forward and immolate every Devourer in sight as the wimp happily picks up the huge eggs and places them in separate bags. The Dork is far ahead in the last chamber as the coward is still picking eggs cautiously in the first room. The Elementalist looks around and spots a stash resting on a small mount inside the cavern. He approaches it and opens it in curiosity, his face sullens immediately.

"Nothing… pfft, they probably ate that st… gah!" He feels a burning prick in his back.

Katharos spins around and turns white as he faces a giant Devourer a few inches away of him. The tip of one of its tails oozes a green liquid mixed with its most recent prey's blood. The Elementalist reflex is to immediately shoot a fire ball and a lightning javelin in its eyes. The Devourer is unphased and merely looking irritated. The Dork gulps and rushes to the exit, but the Devourer leaps over him and blocks the exit. The beast raises his claws and double tails and screeches loudly, knocking off Katharos for a brief moment. He backsteps and the predator charges at him. The Elementalist casts a fire ball closely to the ground, springing himself over the ramming Devourer. The mutant scorpion hits the wall so violently it cracks and crumbles over it. The beast panics and tries to struggle out, but Katharos use his Bane signet on the Devourer, which falls back on its belly to be buried under a pile of huge rocks. Brownish liquid oozes from beneath the stone tomb, meaning the Devourer has been crushed and is now liveless. Katharos catches his breath and walks around the now bigger mount warmed by the incoming sun rays. He finds one of the tail tips, still intact and conveniently halfway severed. He smiles and pulls on it, easily ripping it out. He concentrates to heal himself, but instead of the blue Monk glyph appearing and healing his wound, the white sparks of failure erupt from his hands. He looks at his hands and shrugs, believing he just needs more time to regenerate his energy. The egg picker walks to him and coughs "I'm done… what are you doing? I was done such a long time ago waiting on you playing with the big bugs." Katharos frowns and walks out, having no comment to reply to this.

The Duke smiles broadly and snatches all the bags for himself "Let's go wimp!"

Katharos waves "um…"

The Duke looks at the Dork "Oh yeah, the deal, there have two" he throws him a single bag containing two shrunk Devourer eggs. Katharos nearly misses it and grabs it by the cord, he nods and puts it in his pocket. "Thank you Duk… huh?" The Duke already left and only his lagging servant is still visible from afar. Katharos looks at the Abbey in the distance and backtracks the road he took to get to the hills.

The Elementalist leans against a rock near the Abbey's field and breathes heavily. "Damn poison…" he tries to cast a spell again, only white sparks. He groans and pushes himself back on the road, he attempts a step, but falls flat on the ground. The poisonous sting he held in his hand rolls a few inches away of him.

"So close… why…" He says as his vision blurs A silver glimmer grows in his fading sight, two yellow spheres, a sniffing noise, two long peach colored shapes with gray bands growing as well. He doesn't care, he'll be eaten, but he'll be gone, all the colors fade away. Void.

Musette charges down the road toward the Abbey as Zman walks with a slight bounce making himself look very mean. He casts his hammer over his shoulder and attempts to grimace but smiles when Musette turns to beckon him.

"C’mon Zman! Catch me!" She beckons.
He begins to run to her, "Better hurry up then, I was giving you a head start."

She rushes up the road and gasps loudly as she tops the hill. Zman sprints up to her.

"KATHAROS!" He yells, "DORK!"
"His name is Katharos? That’s kinda cute." Musette giggles.
"He’ll be a dead dork if we don’t hurry!" Zman says as he charges down to his friend.
She tilts her head and closes her eyes as she begins an incantation, "I’ll save him."

Zman stomps at the wolf nearing Katharos. The wolf jumps back and growls. Suddenly fire begins to rain from the sky and pelts Zman, Katharos, and the wolf. The wolf scampers backwards while Zman gloats over his easy victory.

"Ha ha! Coward." He laughs, "Oh shit I’m on FIRE!"
Musette smacks her head, "Oops!"

Zman rushes and dives into a small pool of water then jumps out. He charges over to Katharos and jumps on him to smother the fire. Katharos groans loudly. Zman ruffles his hair as Musette charges up from behind. A Monk pets the wolf and stands near the strange warriors.

"Umm, why’d you set the poor Elementalist, and your partner on fire?" The Monk asks sweetly.

The Monk stands slowly and then shockingly as she is horrifyingly short with her hair wrapped in two tiny cat ear looking buns. She smiles as the wolf jumps up against her.

Zman stands and folds his arms. The sun behind him casts his shadow upon her and from her point of view he blocks out the entire sun with his massive figure. She instantly frowns. Musette hops beside Zman and smiles.

"We just didn’t have much communication on our last attack, my friend was about to be eaten by your wolf." Zman says.
"Flake doesn’t eat dorks." The Monk says, "I’m Ramia. And I’ll heal your friend."

Ramia casts a quick spell and Katharos jumps to his feet. He kneels down and picks up the stinger.

"Dork!" Musette exclaims, "I mean, Katharos."
"Hey Dork." Zman laughs, "What’d you do while we were gone?"
"Zman!" Katharos smiles, "I got something for yoooo-A WOLF!"
Flake tilts her head, "Awoo?"
Ramia pets the wolf, "Be not afraid."

Katharos reaches out to the wolf. The wolf growls and he pulls his hand back quickly.

"I said don’t be afraid, not pet her!" Ramia laughs.
"Okay." Katharos says, "Thanks."
"My pleasure." She nods.
"Okay!" Zman quickly takes charge of the situation, "What’s up Dork?"
Katharos quickly pulls a hammer out of his bag, "I got this for you!"

Zman snatches it out of his hand before it falls on the ground from the dork losing his balance.

"Got an Identification kit?" He asks.
"Uh what?" Katharos quirks.
Musette quickly pulls out her kit and hits the hammer with it, "There."
Zman looks, "Hero’s Ram Hammer of Fortitude. Cool. Oh I got you something."

He hands Katharos a small wand.

He takes the wand, "But I’m Fire, this is Air."
Musette frowns, "I’m Fire too but Zman said I couldn’t have the wand."
"Well here." Katharos hands her the wand.
"Aww, you’re too kind." She smiles.
Zman watches the pass between the two, "Okay, enough of that. I’m going to the Catacombs, alone. Musette you take your bear to Aidan and learn those animal spells, Katharos you go with Ramia and check on those Grawl rumors."
Ramia salutes, "Yes sir!"
Katharos looks at Ramia, "Umm, hi I’m Katharos."
"I’m Ramia. Looks like we’ll be working together." She smiles.
Musette nods, "Okay, Chief and I will go see Aidan."
Zman nods, "I’m off to hunt the Charr in the Catacombs."

Everyone gasps.

"ALONE?!" Katharos says, "No way, take me."
"Take me!" Musette yells, "Please?"
"No, take ME." Ramia demands, "I’ll heal you."
"Take me, oh Dwayna, take me!" Musette yells.

Zman smirks broadly.

"I’d love to -take- you two, Dork, please say ‘bring’ next time." He laughs.

Ramia and Musette blush while Katharos rubs the back of his head.

"Look, I’ll be fine." Zman assures, "Meet me at Barradin's estate later, I hear there’s a party!"
"There’s always a party." Ramia smiles, "No problem Zman."
"You know me?" Zman asks.
"Duh, Zman Hell, THE Zman Hell." She smiles, "Why else would I be so willing to follow your orders?"
"Oh." He smiles, "I thought you were just nice. Anyway, I’m off!"

Zman rushes into the Abbey and towards the Catacombs. Mhenlo quickly intercepts him.

"My, my. Zman." He smiles.
"Yes?" Zman asks.
"Would you like a few healing spells before you go down?" He asks.
"No time, gotta run!" He answers.
"Okay Zman, be strong, I know Dwayna is guiding you." He bows his head.
"More like Balthazar!" He roars and charges into the Catacombs.

Katharos walks in the darkness, he looks ahead in the void. He doesn't know where he goes, where he is, where he came from… he doesn't even know if he is really walking, he just hears his own faint echoing steps. The air is warm and still, filled only with the echo of his steps. The steps are slower and slower as his blood gradually freezes in his veins. His heart struggles to pump his solid blood, he falls on his knees. As he breathes heavily, his cold breath produces smoke as if winter was inside him. He feels his arms get gripped tightly, he looks to his right to the radiant purple beauty.

"Katharos my dear… you are growing cold, please come back on the path of Lyssa… come back to me. Your destiny lies in the hands of the twin goddesses, they'll never let you feel cold again, I will never let you feel cold." Althea grips tighter on his arm.

He leans down to Althea slowly, charmed by her sweet voice and promise of life. Suddenly the grasp around his left arm jerks him away of Althea, making him look at the bright blue spirit shining with innocence.

"Dork! Don't listen to her! She can only bring you dreams, Lyssa just makes illusions of beauty! You'll be dead but feel alive in her claws. You want to kiss a mask all your life? Let me bring you reality, let me give you your true destiny" Musette holds on his arm, pulling him away of the purple soul.

The two entities never let go, both pulling on the helpless Elementalist with all their might. He feels his whole body ripping apart. His skull and ribs crack painfully beneath his skin, which begins to rip like a piece of fragile cloth and his cold blood drips through the multiple fissures. As he is about to be divided, two pure white hands reaches out from the darkness and place themselves delicately on both sides of his head, pressing gently to make him whole again. The two souls still pull, but he is as hard as stone, unable to move yet soothed by the soft hands of the hidden healer. Snowy shimmering feathers float on a calm wind rising from afar.

"It is not yet time my child… come back to the light, come back…"

The darkness turns into a blinding white, then fades back to black. Katharos feels numb, the soft surface beneath his body bounces slightly. A soft hand slides on his face. He attempts to move, he cannot rise, he is still stone.

A faint feminine voice speaks "He's regaining colors, it's working. He might make it."

An annoying male voice replies "What do you mean he MIGHT make it?? I worked on that antidote for an hour, it can't go wrong."

The Dork feels his body sink back into the surface as the hand slips away. He hears a loud slap then the female voice unleashes her fury on the man.

"Mhenlo you big moron! You're not the greatest alchemist of all time, you're just a Monk! You didn't even manage to choose which God to worship yet! You keep jumping back and forth at the wrong moments!" The woman yells.

"Bu… but Ramia please…" Mhenlo blurts.

Ramia pushes Mhenlo and he falls down the few steps outside the room. The yelling goes on outside, the Elementalist can't quite catch the furious words as they fade in the distance. Katharos opens his eyes slowly and sits up with difficulty, still feeling quite weak. He rubs his eyes to wipe away the blur and looks at the room he has been resting in. The walls are made of dark wood and are covered with a few bits of reddish tapestry, it seems parts have been ripped off. He is sitting on a mattress covered with dry blood stains and in a corner he sees the stinger cracked open next to vials, pincers, bandages and parchments on a wooden table. He looks at himself, he still has his boots and pants on, but the rest of his clothing is missing. He is about to jump off the mattress when a pissed Ramia enters the room. She instantly regains her calm composure as she sees the confused Elementalist awake.

Ramia smiles sweetly "Good to see you up so soon Katharos" and before he can even ask, she replies "You collapsed soon after Zman left for the Catacombs, the poison drained away your energy, then your health, which explains why you lasted longer than a common Ascalonian." She thinks for a moment and murmurs to herself "I shouldn't have been so harsh on Mhenlo, but he gets on my nerves so easily…"

Katharos jumps off the sick bed and walks around the room. He scratches his head and asks "Um… where's my stuff?"

Ramia walks behind Katharos and rubs his back "Hm… good, fully healed, good as new." He turns around as she walks to a closet, throws the piled clothes at him and he nearly falls back catching his belongings.

"Put these on quickly and follow me, we will head to Ashford to investigate the Grawl rumors as Zman ordered, hurry, I will not wait on you." She turns to the door and exits.

The Dork struggles with his shirt, coat and gloves in his rush and stumbles out of the small shrine nearby the fences of the Abbey. He sees Ramia and Flake who already walked the whole length of the worm field, he rushes out tackling a small Ranger and a black Elementalist chick on the way out of the Abbey. Katharos taps on Ramia's shoulder and backs off when Flake turns abruptly to growl at him.

Ramia simply turns her head and says "Yes?"

The Elementalist stutters slightly as the wolf keeps her offensive stance and growling "W…well I have to see Old Mac to give him… um… a Devourer egg or Althea will get in trouble and…"

Ramia sits down and Flake lays her massive head on her lap, the gentle Monk pets her silver wolf "I'll wait for you then, go get your quest done."

Katharos nods nervously and rushes towards Ascalon, avoiding all possible foes on the way, ignoring the few tickling blasts hitting him. He stops at the shrine Monk who looks at him with her usual grumpy look, Old Mac is gone, he walks in a circle panicking slightly. The Monk sighs, raises her arm in front of him and points to the Theater. The Dork sees Old Mac arguing with Althea again, Katharos hugs the Monk quickly and rushes to the Theater, leaving behind the weirded out Monk.

"Old Mac! I have the egg!" Katharos yells as he reaches Althea. He pulls out the bag and carefully pulls one long egg out and hands it to Old Mac who immediately exclaims "Was bout time! We were talking about court here, this here lady says I need a lawnyer, no idea why I should bring dirt for that." He weights the egg and smiles. "Yah, that'll make one mighty Devourer there, it'll be a strong lil… how bout Joe? Yes Joe! Now daddy will take care of you and…" he continues his creepy fatherly speech as he walks back to Ashford.

Althea turns back to him "Well done Katharos, you were actually quick, this farmer is merely… very impatient. Now, are you sure you do not want to practice the arts of Lyssa once again?"

Katharos ponders "You know, that's weird, I had one wiggy dream about you asking that earlier, you were, like, a purple soul and…" he hears a growl at his feet and looks down to see a pissed wolf looking up at him. Althea gasps and begins casting a Hex, Katharos grabs her hand to interrupt her, he blushes and immediately releases her hand "Th…this is Flake, Ramia's pet… um… she's waiting for me, I'll… see you later Althea, goodbye." He runs off to join the Monk Ranger. Althea sighs as the Elementalist becomes more and more distant.

Ramia waves at Katharos "Now we should g…" a high pitched scream erupts from the field.

Musette runs out the valley with a crowd of thieves and wolves chasing her and the bear running for his life. Katharos gasps "MUSETTE!" and rushes to the poor outnumbered Musette. Katharos immediately casts his Fire Storm, making most of the thieves burn up in flames and the others running back to the valley. The wolves rolls on the grass away of the spell to put out the fire and pounces the bear together. Ramia casts Retribution on the bear, making the wolves jump off and flee as if they got pricked by a thousand of fleas at once.

The Elementalist and the Monk join Musette, who is still shaken by her little adventure, she smiles innocently to the duo, they both shake their head.

"Musette… you have to be more careful, I… we care about you. Please let me tag along to help you. Besides you need a little practice, let's start on some Grawls if we really find some near Ashford okay?" Katharos proposes.

Musette jumps up giddily and snuggles her bear "You heard that Chief, Dork is coming along!"

Chief merely groans.

Ramia looks at the two Elementalists. "Well, since I'm not needed here, I'll go see if Zman Hell needs assistance. Good luck to both of you."

Katharos nods "Alright, you better check on him… I feel he might need it anyway."

The girls look back at the Dork with a quirk.

Katharos shrugs confused "What?"

Zman jumps and slams his hammer through an entire walking skeleton. Bone fragments and armor bits soar through the air and land with a cheerful chirp amongst the broken stairs. Zman lays his ram hammer over his shoulder and smiles. Claps come from behind as a Tormented Necromancer approaches.

"My Grenth…" She says, "You have such prowess, such life force, such strength, such POWER! My Grenth! Please God let me taste you!" She moans.
"Munne?" He quirks.
"Yes, Zman?" She smiles.
"I’m not accustomed to such a greeting." He smiles back.
"That was Rot Arm, 10 smiting Monks failed to bring him down and you destroyed him in one single smash with that HAMMER! I want one." She licks her lips, "Or the man who uses it."
Zman reaches into his bag and hands Munne his old hammer, "Here."
"My Grenth! The original Zman hammer." She exclaims.
He shrugs, "Something like that."
"Want to become a Necromancer?" She asks.
"What’s in it for me if I do?" He grins.
"Me." She winks.
"Now THAT is convincing, a lot better than Mhenlo’s speech on how Dwayna will help you save the children and such, Dwayna doesn’t even have feet!" He laughs.
"Grenth has feet. I have feet. I want you." She moans.
"Well in good time, in good time." He smiles.
"So what brings you to the Catacombs?" She smiles, "I hope it wasn’t the sights."
"Nah, Rurik said something bout Charr, and I figured it’d be a good idea to check it out since his pussy ass won’t." He nods.
"Brave, courageous, powerful." Munne lists, "However I have an apprentice whom is late."
"Who?" He asks.
"Some bitch named Eve." She says.
"Is that her?" Zman points.

A rather pale girl trips down the first flight of broken stairs and nearly face plants into the ground. She hops up quickly and dusts off her eccentric armor. Her silver hair is braided thick and coiled into two buns atop each side of her head. Her silver bangs dance in the wind as her cold blue eyes stare to Zman. Her pale purple lips part slowly and her vibrant white smile yields.

"You’re late." Munne says while folding her arms.

The pale beauty looks to Munne and frowns. Munne shakes her head and beckons the girl. She smiles and bounds down the second flight of stairs and stands beside Zman. He quickly closes his mouth and looks back to Munne.

"Eve. You are late." Munne barks.
"Mhenlo had to try to recruit me again, but I don’t wanna shave my hair off." She says.
She nods, "Yeah Alesia looks so stupid. Anyway, Eve, meet Zman Hell."
Eve blushes as she turns to face him, "H-Hi."
Zman bows, "Pleasure to meet you Eve."
"Yeah, yeah," Munne scoffs, "Eve there’s a Nightmare in the little summonance pool. Go kill it."
"A Nightmare!" She exclaims, "I’ll need some help won’t I?"
"If it eats you, tough luck, you aren’t fit to be a Necro." She laughs.

A moment of silence passes between the three.

"I’ll go with her." Zman says bravely.
"Don’t waste your time, it’s my assignment to her." Munne says sternly.
Eve looks to Zman, "You’d come with me?"
He nods, "What are heroes for?"
Munne rolls her eyes, "Fine, you’ll have to kill the Nightmare AND set these candles in the flooded catacomb area."
"Easy enough." Zman shrugs.
"It’s flooded with vile water." She smirks.
"Oh, well that might be tougher." He laughs.
Munne hands Eve four candles, "Hurry up."

Eve looks up at Zman, blushes, and looks away while walking forward. Zman follows her happily. She quickly stops and casts an evil glare at a skeleton in front of her. The skeleton nearly drops it’s sword and stumbles forward just in time to meet the wrath of Zman’s hammer. As the two continue they repeat the same process several times until going down a set of stairs. Eve gasps and pulls Zman back before he steps on a green glyph.

"Huh?" He jolts, "What’s wrong?"
"It’s a flame geyser!" She says, "Hold on. Watch."

She points to a distant corpse and raises it’s skeletal remains as a minion. The minion steps on the glyph and it explodes in a tumultuous torrent of flame. Zman nods and walks down the next set of stairs to a small pool with a creepy black demon walking around happily.

"It looks so cute!" Zman exclaims, "I wish I had Charm Animal."
"It’s no animal, it’s a demon from Hell!" Eve smiles, "A real devil, badass too."
"Ah I see, but even devils can be tamed." He winks to her.
"What do you mean?" She blinks.
"I’m a Hellion. One day I’m going to have a guild and name it the Happy Hellion Network." He smiles.
"Sounds nice. I’ll join if you have a cool cape, and you have to get the Isle of the Dead castle, it’s for sale! I wish I had the 300 plat to buy it." She sighs.
Zman gasps, "300! Wow. Well I’m sure I can get on like a payment plan or something."

The Nightmare walks over to the two and sits down. Eve holds out her magical wand ready to blast it. Zman puts his hand on the demon. The Nightmare makes a barking noise and walks back into the pool and begins to swim. Eve and Zman watch cautiously. The demon begins to struggle in the water and drowns. The black shadowlike body dissolves and the two look at each other in puzzlement.

"How quaint." Eve says, "It was too ignorant to swim."
"Well they didn’t say they were SMART devils." Zman laughs and walks up the stairs.

The two walk to the flooded area of the Catacombs. Eve places and lights a candle at the beginning of the room. She points at the one in the back in the flooded area. Zman sighs and looks around the corner at even more vile water and two other candle holders.

"This’ll be fun." He says.
She shakes her head, "No it won’t, let’s go."
"Hey that’s my line." He laughs and walks into the vile water.

Instantly he feels the sickening fumes of the water invade his lungs and make his stomach turn upside down. His boots become soggy and his feet begin to hurt. Eve enters after him and gasps in pain. She rushes to the first holder and places the second candle. She holds the other two in her hands as she comes upon a skeletal foe. Zman bashes the foe instantly and walks with her to the other two candle holders. She places the candles and stumbles as she walks back. Zman shakes his head quickly as his vision blurs.

"Wow, this shit is potent!" He exclaims.
"I don’t think… I’ll make it…" She coughs.

Zman picks her up and walks even slower as she coughs in his arms. He walks towards the steps feeling closer and closer to blacking out each time. He keeps walking as his feet burn from the poison water. The pale beauty in his arms smiles to him. He smiles back feeling slightly refreshed and keeps walking towards the stairs. He eventually sets his foot on the first stair. He quickly sets Eve down and jumps up and takes his boots off. He stares at his burnt skin and blows on his feet futilely. Eve takes off her boots and gasps at her red feet.

Suddenly their feet are encased in bright blue light and a large wolf growls at Eve. She jolts and jumps into Zman’s lap. He grunts and holds her tightly still looking at his clean feet.

Ramia sighs, "Why’d you morons come here without a Monk? Paulus couldn’t do it him damn self, I had to help his frail skinny smite Monk ass. What made you idiots think YOU could?"
Zman smiles, "Nice to see you too Ramia."
"Who’s that?" She points.
He smiles, "Eve."
"Looks like she likes you." She grins.
Eve gasps and stands while blushing, "Y-y-y-y-your wolf, it scared me at first."
"It’s okay, many other girls are after him too. Better get in line. I’M Next." Ramia says sternly.
Zman sighs, "Don’t fight, there’s enough Zman to go around."

He shakes his boots getting the poisoned water out. Eve puts her dry boots back on and reaches to pet Flake. Zman leans back and pulls her hand back.

"You’d better not." He smiles.
She nods, "Okay."

The two hold each others hand reluctant to let go. Ramia rolls her eyes and whistles loudly.

"C’mon Flake! Zman! …Eve. Let’s go!" She roars.
Zman points, "Hey, that’s MY line!"

Devona is leaning against a pale brick wall, sharpening her blade with a flat sandy rock out of boredom. Gwen is sitting on the ground a few feet away, gazing at her heroine, wishing to grow up and be as gorgeous and strong as the Warrioress before her eyes. Devona sighs growing impatient of seeing nobody else than a day-dreaming child nearby. Some steps on the grassy and dusty ground finally approaches her. She keeps her eyes upon her blade and continues sharpening.

"It's about time Zman, the Grawls aren't waiting like me." She says sternly.

"Um… no I'm not Zman." The wimpy voice says.

Devona looks up and squints her eyes in disappointment as she recognizes the strange man of the pond.

The Dork coughs and says "We were sent by Zman to check the Grawl rumors and…"
"They are not rumors anymore, the Grawls are near the bridge gathering up." Devona stands up and slips the flat stone in her pocket.
Musette jumps happily "You heard that Chief? A bunch of Grawls just for us!"
Devona scowls immediately "This is not a game girl! Make sure you are ready, I'm going now!" She charges to the bridge with her sharp sword and sturdy shield.
"H…hey!" The Dork blurts before rushing after Devona with Musette and Chief following.

Devona is already slicing at a Grawl fighter as the Elementalists cross the bridge. The Grawl fighter's deep cuts vanish as soon as they appear, the Warrioress ignores this and continues slicing and shouting, having her mind set on bringing down the Grawl before going to another. Katharos scans the crowd and spots a Charr Ranger in the distance, he gasps and the Charr summons a few spirits then escapes as soon it feels noticed. Katharos rushes to get closer and casts Healing Breeze on Devona, who is weakening from the multiple hits coming from all sides. He scans the crowd again quickly and spots the Shaman of the group. He throws a Lightning Javelin to the Grawl Shaman, knocking him down before he can heal the Grawl fighter again. He gathers up his energy to summon a fire storm with the Shaman as its core.

"MUSETTE! Hurry!" He points to the Shaman who is already back on its feet and healing its troops.

Musette runs up next to Katharos and throws Flares at the Shaman. It finally falls to the ground and the Grawls begin to panic, but continue the fight. Katharos concentrates on the last drops of fire to aim only the Grawls and deviates the few drops falling down on Devona and Chief. He moves his attention back on Devona and casts another healing spell to keep her from falling. Chief attacks the magician Grawl blasted by Musette. She then casts the second fire storm, but a drop falls on Chief's pelt and makes him go berserk. He tackles Grawls on his way and ignites them then plunges in the nearby river. Gwen jumps back as the tiny fishes she was playing with get smashed by the falling bear. Gwen giggles and plays a serene music with her wooden flute. The bear perks up and runs back up to claw and bite the remaining Grawls. Devona slices off the head of the last fighter as Musette hurls a Flare to a fleeing ranger. Katharos falls on his knee and catches his breath.

"What was that Charr Ranger doing here? This can't be good." Devona exclaims.
"It… might mean… they made an… alliance… or… something." He slowly stands up still breathing heavily.
Devona walks quickly to the Dork with her bloody sword and her health entirely replenished as if she didn't fight at all and tells him "You should work out more Elementalist."
The Elementalist stares at her and replies "You should attack healers first Warrior."
Devona shakes her fist at the Dork "Are you telling me how to do my profession?!"
"HEY! Quit it!" Musette yells as she stands between the two tense figures with her arms up.
Katharos quirks and bows his head at Musette "S…sorry"
Devona places her fists on her waist. "You two should go report the presence of that Charr Ranger to Rurik as soon as possible. There are also rumors that the people of Green Hills are siding with the renegades. We cannot handle any kind of treachery against King Adelbern. Now you two, get out of my view!" She points to the bridge with a frown towards the Dork. The Elementalists walk away.

"She could at least have thanked us…" The Dork pouts as he walks over the bridge.
"You were mean to her! She's really sweet to me when I go see her." She pokes Katharos playfully.

Gwen giggles as she plays with Chief, which jumped back down in the river as the others were arguing. They run around in the clear water and splash each others. Musette smiles as she sees this and jumps in the water splashing both.

She giggles like a child "Chief you're so cute! But we have to go now!"
Chief whines and waddles back to Musette.
"Awww, your new friend can follow us too!"
Katharos jolts "WHAT!? She'll slow us down!"
"No I won't!" Gwen pouts.
He sighs "Fine, come along, but don't get in our way kid."
"I'm not a kid! I'm an adventurer!" She giggles and spins.
Musette picks up Gwen and spins with her, they both giggle happily.
"We'll be good friends!" Musette says with a smile.
Gwen smiles and jumps out her arms and plays a giddy tune. Musette claps excited.
Katharos gazes at Musette as she glows in merriment. He snaps out and rubs his head.
"Musette, we have to go to Green Hills and talk to the people there, then talk to… Rurik." He nearly gags as he pronounces the name of the prince.
Musette gasps and looks at him as Gwen continues playing "Zman is waiting for us at Barradin!"
Katharos perks "Oh yeah! Then we'll just talk to the people of Green Hills then go to the party, Rurik can wait."

The group runs to Green Hills, barely meeting any hostility on the way. Katharos stops and looks up at the flaming statue of Balthazar as the girls and the bear meet the nearest persons. The Dork jolts back to reality and joins the others.

"Learned anything?" He asks.
Musette shrugs "They all like the king."
Katharos looks at the dark figure with short hanging pigtails "Talked to her?"
She shakes her head "Nu huh, was about to… hey!"
He walks to the Necromancer and taps her shoulder "Um… miss?"

The pale orange haired Necromancer turns around and looks at the Dork with a mean face.
He blushes instantly as he realizes she has a huge gap in her armor, exposing her breasts to the limit of the acceptable.
"A… em… what do you think of the king? Heard rumors of people disagreeing with him and uh…" he stares down at her breasts as he speaks.
The Necromancer slaps him without hesitation "Do not look down on Kasha Blackblood. And I don't care about the King, he leaves us alone and doesn't interfere in our dark arts, so he must be good."

The Dork goes back to Musette rubbing his throbbing cheek "She's clear. We're done."
Musette giggles "Then let's hurry Dork! Party!"
"Hey wait! Aw damn." He follows Musette out with her bear and the child tagging along.

Musette still runs, but is soon pulled back by Katharos' hand.

"Musette, there are monsters on the way, we must be sneaky…" he hears Gwen starting to play "and keep quiet!"
Gwen stares up at the Dork and begins crying. Katharos rubs his temples.
"Oh C'mon… I'm sorry, just, don't play near the monsters."
Gwen sticks out her tongue like a brat and prances around.
"This is going to be a long trip…" he thinks.

The group walks through the plains, hiding behind trees and avoiding the most monsters possible. However, a Grawl scout spots them and it growls orders to the other Grawls in their primitive language. The Grawls sneak around the group and ambush them, leaving no way out to escape.

"Musette you know what to do! Gwen stay close!" He yells as he sprays fire on the Grawls before him.
"Okay! Die meanies!" Musette shouts as she fires her own magic and sends her growling wild bear at the hideous overgrown monkeys.

Gwen plays her flute, refreshing her protectors, even the annoyed Dork. Katharos breaks his concentration a few times to bash with his Staff the skulls of Grawls crawling too near the poor child. Musette shouts encouraging words to her bear to keep his spirits up and he fights harder and harder, ripping more flesh off each Grawl he kills. Musette suddenly screams and falls on her side.

"MUSETTE!" Katharos turns to Musette and casts an healing spell on her without looking at her wound. Musette doesn't get up but continues blasting the last Grawls. The still living cowardly ones flee out of view. Musette whimpers and sits up holding her bleeding foot, pierced with an arrow. Katharos bites his bottom lip. He strokes her hair and looks in her eyes, she calms down, but her tears continue to roll down her pale cheeks as she still feels pain. He grasps the arrow and breaks the point off, then pulls it out by the tail. She cries out as the pulled wood scratches her flesh. Once the arrow is entirely out, he places his hand over her foot, which glows blue and returns to its healthy state. He hugs her tightly in the middle of the bloody and burning plains. She hugs back and he picks her up.

"Please Musette… I lo… I care about you… don't scare me like that." he says trying to sound strict but on the edge of crying himself. Musette smiles and snuggles up against him. The bear looks up at Gwen and grunts, the child nods and they both follow quietly and lags behind a few feet away of the two Elementalists.

Katharos struggles to carry the feather-weight Musette up the last few steps into Barradin’s estate. He nearly drops her as he sets her down and then falls to his knees wheezing. Gwen hits him on the head with her flute cutely. He looks at Gwen and scowls.

Eve is sitting prettily on her knees with her head ever so tilted gracefully as she watches Zman bash Little Thom’s axe with his hammer smashing it into millions of glistening pieces. He then snatches Thom up by his cloak and stares callously into his eyes with a livid rage.

"HAMMER ALWAYS BEATS AXE! YOU FILTHY COWARD! YOU FOUL FUCK!" Zman roars, "If you EVER even LOOK at me wrong again I will LAY THE HAMMER DOWN on your genitals so you’ll never corrupt this world with your filthy shit faced coward ass seed."

Eve smiles gently not knowing entirely what to do or say. Musette smiles while holding Gwen’s ears tightly. Katharos stares at Zman in disbelief. Thom instantly urinates all over himself and drops the axe grip he held. Zman releases him and Thom falls on the ground paralyzed in fear.

"That’s better." Zman says, "Eve."
Eve quickly jumps up and stands beside him, "Yes?"
"How pathetic would a bone minion be from his spineless skeleton?" He asks with a smirk.
"Entirely useless, it would slither along the ground and die before being able to attack." She replies cordially.
He turns to Eve, "My Grenth you are gorgeous."
She looks down and blushes obviously not expecting such a remark, "T-Thank you."
He puts his hand on her chin and raises her face to look into his eyes, "So… Lovely…"
Her blush intensifies as she closes her eyes, "Z-Zman."

Katharos coughs loudly while Musette waves, and Chief bellows. Gwen prances happily by the two towards Duke Barradin who begins to clap.

"Well Done." Barradin says, "The mighty hammer will always defeat even the vilest of creature. Little Thom is sort of a brawler, fortunately you were here to put an end to his bullying."
Zman looks away from Eve reluctantly, "Thank you."
Eve quickly backs up and dusts off her armor and waves to Zman’s friends, "Are these the people we’re waiting on?"
He turns quickly, "Katharos! Musette! Chief! Gwen?"
Duke shakes his head, "Two Elementalists traveling together, you need a WARRIOR! Speaking of Warrior I think you should tell my buddy in Fort Ranik to get his head in the game and start WHOOPING ASS! He’s got a whole army and all they are doing is lazying around!"
Zman quirks, "Will do."
"I can teach you a few hammer skills, also." He smiles.
"I’d be happy to learn." Zman says.

Eve walks to Katharos’ group. She smiles at the two. Musette tries to smile but ends up looking away from the horrifying Eve. Katharos begins to stare at her with discomfort. Zman quickly turns around and puts his arm around Eve. She jolts then smiles.

"Dork, Musette, Chief." Zman points out each person, "And this is my new companion Eve."
Musette growls with jealousy, "Pleasure to meet you!"
Katharos waves, "You can also call me Katharos."

Chief bellows loudly while Gwen attempts to ride him but fails miserably by falling off his back. Musette tries to help Gwen but gives up after realizing that Chief is just entirely too large to ride.

Eve waves, "Hello?"
Katharos jolts back to life, "Oh. Hi!"
Musette scoffs, "So what are you two doing?"
"We’re on our merry way to Fort Ranik." Zman smiles.
"We are?" Eve asks.
"Yes." He answers, "And you should join us!"
Katharos shakes his head, "No can do. Gotta go to Rurik."
"Oh! Well give him this." Zman reaches into his bag and pulls out a Charr tooth, "I had to beat the piss out of Oberan the Reviled for it. Well actually I beat the piss out of him for starring at Eve’s breasts, but he gave me that tooth and said he found it recently in the Catacombs. And some dork ass farmer lost a moa bird."
Katharos takes the tooth, "Got it. Dork ass farmer loses bird, Oberan stares at boobs, and Rurik needs the tooth."
Zman nods, "I taught you well Dork."
He blushes, "Hey, stop it."
Musette giggles, "So what now?"
Zman points, "First, I’m taking gorgeous here to see Kasha, then straight to Fort Ranik. You three, four, whatever do as you need to."
She nods, "Okay. Hey Dork I need to talk to Aziure, wanna take me there?"
Katharos nods, "I need to talk to her too."
Zman rolls his eyes, "Sounds like you two will have a great time together."
Eve giggles, "They are a lot alike."
He nods, "Let’s go."

Katharos looks at the dazed Thom and smiles as he exits with Zman and Eve following. Musette picks up Gwen and rushes out carrying her. The two groups travel together to Kasha whom is draining the life from a Grawl invader. She watches the blood spill on the ground with curiosity. Suddenly, three Grawls spring up from behind her. She gasps as she falls on her knees preparing to take a beating.

Zman erupts from the ground with his hammer blazing before the Grawl touch her. He pulls a new 180 degree swing with his hammer hitting all three Grawls. He jumps and smashes his hammer down upon a Grawl causing it to fall down. He turns to the next Grawl but it hits him with a hammer to interrupt his next move. Katharos casts a minor protection spell on Zman and the next hammer blow he suffers makes him glow blue and be healed instead. Zman roars and stomps the ground and punches a Grawl in the head. The Grawl stumbles back and seems dazed. The final Grawl is preparing another hammer attack to Zman but he quickly swipes his hammer across the Grawl to interrupt him. He then jumps and bashes the Grawl in the head causing it to fall down dead. Kasha stands beside Zman and casts separate hexes on the two remaining Grawl causing them to die and Kasha to glow in a necrotic ambiance.

"I think I have perfected a way to safely transfer life from foe to yourself." She says to Zman.
"Hi. I’m Zman." He says.
"Oh. I’m Kasha, Kasha Blackblood." She smiles.

An eerie silence passes between them as she looks over his manly body and he gazes through her tight armor. Eve coughs loudly.

"Kasha, I’m Eve." She interjects, "I’m a Necro apprentice. I was wondering."
"Say no more, I know the art of blood." Kasha says.

Zman watches the two talk skills for a moment as Katharos and Musette walk by.

"You two leaving already?" He asks.
"Yeah." Katharos responds, "Lots left to do."
Zman nods, "Have fun."
Musette scowls, "YOU’RE the one who looks like he’s having fun!"
Zman laughs, "Oh yeah! Ramia got REALLY bored while waiting on you and left for Ascalon, if you see her there tell her I’m in Ranik!"
Katharos nods, "Got it."
Musette sighs, "Did it really take us that long?"
Zman shakes his head, "Ramia is horrifyingly impatient."
Katharos smiles, "Well I’ll try not to upset her, let’s go Musette."
"Be careful with that line, you’ll wear it out." Zman laughs.

Musette runs happily to Ascalon, then stops next to the theater while Gwen continues to prance innocently and Chief looks around grunting. She looks around and sees Katharos standing in the middle of the road staring at something over the small hill behind the theater.

"Katharos? What's wrong?" She asks as she runs back next to him.

He continues staring. Musette looks in the same direction and sees the statue of Lyssa, her gold shining in the sunlight and her dark stone absorbing the light to make it rain in stardust all around herself, the two sides of the twin goddess are both visible from the point of view of the Elementalists. Musette tilts her head and looks back to the mesmerized Katharos who is still gazing. She nudges him. He jolts and blinks at her.

"Why do you keep looking at statues? They've been around for years!" Musette exclaims.
"Well… it's just that I feel… they're trying to tell me something." Katharos says unsurely.
Musette grabs him by his arm and shakes him "You're crazy! Let's go to Ascalon and see Ramia!" She giggles.
Katharos gulps "I'm not too sure she wants to see us."
"Aww, stop being so negative! Smile!" She giggles and drags him along.

He lets himself be dragged along and looks up at the theater, Althea is gone, he instantly worries, but shrugs off the bad feeling as they approach the gate. A bald man with an iron circlet and red Ascalonian guard armor stands where Osric should normally be.

He salutes the Elementalists "Good day to you, how is your training progressing?"
Katharos smiles "It's going well Haversdan, but I need to see Aziure."
Haversdan quirks "You didn't go see her yet!? She was the first trainer I told to see!"
Katharos waves his hands "I did I did! But I want to learn how to make this ward she used when I practiced my Fire Storm."
Musette waves "And I need more practice to stop burning my friends!"
"O… kay" Haversdan backsteps slightly away of Musette.
Gwen prances to the old trainer and tilts her head "Mister? What happened to the skinny man with a V on his chest?"
Katharos looks away while Musette tries to muffle her giggling.
Haversdan rubs his chin "Osric? Hm… he says he fell down stairs, but he never explained why he lost his Fiery Dragon Sword. I am entirely sure he gambled it away at Barradin's while playing against Thom. He can keep his secrets if he wants, but I made sure his 10 next payments will be taken away to pay for the lost sword."
"How come only royalty and guards can own these?" Katharos asks.
Haversdan crosses his arms "Well young Elementalist, these rare swords are imported from the desert to the south, it is a far away land and many died to get these weapons, which displeases me greatly since many good recruits were wasted for these flashy swords, but then that was all an idea from Rurik who wears more gold than the king himself."
Katharos scratches his head "Well… we have to talk to Rurik, nice to see you again."

The group enters the gate but Haversdan stops them immediately.
"Halt! Children and animals are not allowed within the city. It is a military area." The old guard lowers his arm "I'll watch over these two while you take care of your business."
Musette smiles and waves "Thanks Harvest Dan! Chief! Gwen! Be nice to the mister!"
Haversdan sullens "My name's Haversdan miss…"
Chief bellows and Gwen waves back with a huge smile on her face.
The Elementalists enters the city and vanishes in the crowd ahead.

Musette tries to walk through the many recruits inside the city, she lost her partner and panics slightly. She spots a jet black haired man near the merchants. She grabs his shoulder and asks "Dork?" The aged man looks at her offended and depressed. "Whoops sorry sir!" she apologizes. She manages to squeeze herself out of the crowd and sees a tall black haired and pale eyed Elementalist man flexing in front of an annoyed blonde Mesmer woman.

Musette approaches him and asks "What are you doing?!"
He turns to her with a grin "Hmm, rather what are YOU doing babe? Want to be my ally in the bushes? Rawr."
She kicks him in the crotch with her pointy white boot. His eyes widens and he crumbles to the ground in fetal position twitching. She kicks the man "Dork! What's going on in your mind?!"

Someone coughs behind her "Erm… Musette I'm right here. Are you okay?"
She kicks the pervert one more time in the stomach and turns around smiling "Dork!"
He scratches his head "I don't like coming here, I keep getting pushed around and get called other names by strangers…"
Musette holds him tightly as the blonde Mesmer happily dances on the Elementalist twitching on the ground.

Katharos holds her back, but quickly breaks the union and walks up some stairs "I have to give this tooth to Rurik, the sooner I'm done, sooner we're out of here."
She nods and sighs wishing she could have held him longer.

A young woman beckons the Elementalists "Hey, psst, I need help!"
They both walk to her and waits for her to say more.
"I'm Sandre Elek, I haven't seen my brother for a long time. You see, he was a recruit like both of you but he was refused the honor to fight for Adelbern after his first defeat. He's offended easily and I'm afraid he joined the Royalists now. Please find him before he becomes a criminal."
"What's his name?" Musette asks quickly before Katharos could.
"Orion Elek" Sandre replies.
"Any idea where he went to meet Royalists?" Musette questions as the Dork pouts from being too slow to speak before her.
Sandre thinks "I heard they are in Green Hills or Wizard's Folly, but they're just rumors."
"We'll find him don't worry!" Musette smiles.
"Can you give us a description of Orion?" Katharos asks proudly finally able to place a few words.
Sandre thinks again "He has chin length brown hair brushed to one side of his head, brown eyes, slightly shorter than you and he wears an Elementalist coat with red borders like you, but he has a long coat with pointy shoulders instead of your jacket."
Katharos nods "Clear enough, Musette, let's go."
"Hey! That's Zman's line! And we still have to see Rurik!" she reminds him.
Katharos mumbles "I wish I never had to meet him."
"What?" Musette wonders.
"Nevermind." He says as he passes by the weapon merchants with Musette at his side.

They both walk upstairs to find Rurik gazing at the horizon over the stone wall. Katharos sighs and walks to the prince with the fakest smile of his life across his face. Musette sits down near the stairway and waits patiently.
"Prince Rurik, I have troubling news about the Charr." Katharos says in the most neutral tone he can have around the man he hates.
The prince turns to him looking quite calm "It is such a beautiful day, these Charrs can't possibly be causing much trouble to fair and beautiful Ascalon, but let me hear these news."
Katharos clears his throat "During the investigation on the Grawl rumors a Charr Ranger was spotted coopering with the monsters. Also Zman found this while exploring the Catacombs." He hands him the dirty broken Charr tooth.
Rurik grabs the tooth reluctantly "Hm, this is rather dark news indeed, a Charr getting past our flawless vigilance. I shall form my own army to kill this beast! You're dismissed Katharos." Rurik turns back to the horizon and gazes at the landscape before him once again.

Katharos quietly makes a kick motion behind Rurik and walks back down to Musette while Rurik stands on the wall still unaware of every move made in his back.
Musette holds Katharos' hand as he passes next to her and they both walk down.
"I met Ramia while you were talking to the prince! She said she wasn't too mad at us and she went back to Ashford to help new Necromancers." she says as she plays with his hand.
"You told her Zman and Eve are headed to Fort Ranik?" He looks at her.
She smacks her forehead with her free hand "Oops!"
He grasps her hand tighter "It's okay Musette, she probably wouldn't want to go there anyway. Only Warriors over there. Besides the only new armor there is for Necromancers" he shrugs "Go figure."
"You think Eve will get the new armor?" Musette asks.
"Well… maybe, I haven't seen it, only heard it was there." Katharos scratches his head.
"What about you? Want the new armor for our profession?" She asks.
"No, I've seen a guy with that on… pale purple and wide mouth sleeves and that spiky pile of cloth around the neck… no not for me." He shakes his head.
"I want a new armor!" She exclaims.
Katharos looks at her "But you look gorg… fine in this one" he says blushing and trying not to gaze at her cleavage. "W…what does it looks like?"
Musette giggles "I have no idea!"

They finally walk out the city and sees Chief sleeping on the ground near the shrine and Gwen playing her flute while sitting on the bear as if he was a giant cushion.

Haversdan is wheezing near the gate "Miss! Please scold your bear, it tried to kill me while you were away."

Musette runs to her bear as Gwen jumps down as Chief stretches.
"Chief! You shouldn't try to eat old people, it's bad for your health!" she lectures.
Haversdan's eye twitches and Katharos joins the group quickly. All four travel to the southwest to Wizard's Folly.

Zman begins pushing people out of the way as he enters Ranik. Eve grabs his hand quickly and holds it with a blush.

"Get out!" Zman yells, "Move! Cut your hair! You look like Shit! Out of the way! I’ll fucking stab you with that rock if you look at me again. You! Can’t you see she’s not impressed? Look at her again and your dignity won’t be the only thing you lose!"

He finally makes it to the Duke.
"What brings the mighty Zman to my humble military fort?" The Duke asks.
Zman hands him a letter, "That guy that lives in Green Hills told me to give you this."
He reads the letter, "He says I need to get off my… ass… and start kicking some. Most displeased I am by this letter."
"Why So?" Zman asks.
Eve wraps her arms around Zman while feeling daring, "Zman the new Necro armor is here and looks like total trash, even more cleavage than my heirloom armor."
The Duke smiles, "Yes, the Necro armor is quite ugly, but you seem to have a special set. Anyway, my recruits have barely began training and we’re holding the east from anything that might invade, like scorpions or giant trolls!"
"Oh well that makes total sense." Zman smiles, "I’ll leave you be."
"Thanks." The Duke replies.

Zman turns around and Eve is completely latched to his back and simply rides him as he pushes people out of his way to exit. Upon exiting things get much quieter. Eve jumps off him and twirls around in front of him. He smiles to her. She smiles back and leans up to him. He holds a hand on her slowly reddening cheek.

"We’re alone." He says.
"I know." She flutters her eyelashes.
"Are you pondering what I’m pondering?" He asks.
She reaches her arms around his neck and pulls him closer to her, "I am."

A cough from a nearby female warrior separates the two. They both try their best to look as innocent as possible.

"The trees over there, see them, Oaks. No wait, they are apple trees." Zman says broadly.
"Ah yes, from here I see them well, shall we go pick apples?" Eve says.
"Hello Zman." The female warrior says.
"Ah! Didn’t see you there, what is your name?" He laughs.
"I’m Zort!" She exclaims.
"Lady Zort, hello." He smiles.
"Call me Miss Zort." She smiles.
"Miss Zort it is, are you in need of assistance?" He asks.
"Is this Ranik? I was told to deliver a message here." She says.
"I delivered it." He says, "Would you like to join me and my partner Eve in some apple picking?"
"It sure looked like you were about to pick some apples alright." She grins, "But sure!"

The three walk over to the apple trees. Eve picks up a basket that was left by someone who obviously fled in a hurry. Zort begins picking up apples from the ground and inspecting them.

"These look fresh." She says as she bites into one.
"Look out!" Zman roars as he slings out his hammer.

He charges behind Zort and smashes a massive spider. He quickly finds himself surrounded by three others. He does his spin hammer attack and begins to smash them individually. Zort rushes to Eve and watches as Zman smashes spider after spider with extreme power and a bit of prejudice.

He claps and puts his hammer away, "Easy."
"Wow!" Zort exclaims, "You beat all the spiders!"
Eve’s eyes nearly close as she stares at him dreamily, "He’s amazing."
"Sure is!" Zort looks at Eve, "Umm, Eve?"
She smiles, "Hi Zort."
Zort looks side to side, "Umm. Hi."
Zman picks an apple and begins to cut it with a small knife. He hands the pieces to Zort and Eve. Zort displays hunger as she eats the apple slice in two bites while Eve looks at the apple slice and smiles while her cheeks flush red. She begins to eat the slice as Zort chows away on another apple. Eve drops her basket as she finishes the slice. Zman fills the basket and it looks decently difficult to carry. He picks it up and walks back towards Ranik when a woman beckons the trio.

"Hi!" The woman smiles, "I’m Mary Malone!"
"The Pie Lady!" Zort exclaims.
"Yes, the pie lady." She snickers, "May I have those apples?"
Zman shrugs, "Here let me take a few off the top so it won’t be too heavy and there you go."

He stuffs five apples in a pouch on his belt and grabs two more to eat while walking. Zort grabs three and begins eating immediately. The trio parts from Mary Malone and begin walking towards Ascalon.

"So. Miss Zort," Zman begins, "Would you like to join a Guild? I’m thinking about starting one."
"Really? Will you have badass capes?" She asks with her mouth full of apple.
"Damn right we will." He answers.
"Count me in!" She smiles.
"The Happy Hellion Network." Zman smiles, "Sounds nice."
"I’ll join!" Eve quickly says.
"What about the isle of the dead hall requirement?" He smirks.
"I, I never want to leave your side." She says while blushing.
"Well that’s a plus." He says.
"Well what if you have to, you know, go?" Zort asks Eve.
She thinks, "Well I’ll part with him, but not for long."

The trio enters the Ashford area and begins walking down the path as Ramia and a tall vile looking Necro man exit the main city. Ramia smiles and waves to Zman as he approaches her, he waves back to her.

"Hello Ramia." He greets.
"Hi Zman." She smiles, "This is Alucard Saris, I found him getting beat on in the Catacombs."
"She’s my savior, my own personal Dwayna." Alucard says.
"He seems to have a Monk fetish." She smiles.
"I can’t get over the ability to heal all wounds, it’s really attractive." He admits.
Eve rubs against Zman, "So this is one of your friends?"
"One of many." He smiles.
Zort nods, "Well Eve seems to have a Zman fetish."
"A lot of girls do." Ramia says with a sigh.
"I told Munne there was enough Zman to go around." He laughs.
Alucard perks up, "Zman! You’re the guy Kasha is babbling about!"
"Her too?" He grins.
"Who’s the other girl with you Zman? Two at a time?" Ramia scoffs.
"Zort is a fine warrior lady whom helped me pick apples for Mary Malone." Zman smiles.
"Pleased to meet you Miss Zort." Ramia says.
"Pleasure is all mine!" Zort smiles giddily.
Zman hands Ramia an apple, "Here."
"Well, I’d prefer a rose, but I suppose it’s good enough for now." Ramia sighs.
"Well five people is kinda a large party, we should split up." Zman says.
"Speaking of large parties, where’s that dork friend of yours?" Ramia asks.
"Katharos went to Ascalon with Musette, dunno where they went after that." He says.
"I met them in Ascalon, oh Alucard here found a big a Moa Bird that looked like it had been sacrificed." She explains.
"Very weird, kinda tasty looking too. Mmm, Moa bird." Alucard mumbles.
Ramia waves, "I’m going back to the catacombs, it’s really serene."

Ramia and Flake walk back into Ashford.

"Okay, we should split up." Zman says, "But how?"

"I wanna team with Eve!" Zort says.
"Okay, Eve will you be okay without me?" He asks.
"I-I’ll try." She says with a sigh.
"Don’t worry Eve, we’ll have fun! I know Monk skills, wanna go see Althea? Mesmer skills are kinda handy." Zort says.
"Alright Alucard, looks like it’s me and you." Zman smiles.
"Okay Zman, I wanna go talk to Lina again and there’s a really big Drake at the end of the lake I wanna go kill, up for it?" He asks.
"Damn right I am." Zman smiles, "Let’s go!"

A flaming hog rushes down to Ashford and throws itself into a puddle of water. A startled peasant rushes to the hog and pulls it out. It's not moving.

"NOOOoooo! My dearest prize-winning hog!" He starts giving it a heart massage.

Katharos walks next to the man and blinks at the strange scene. The peasant is about to give it a mouth to mouth.

"Wait don't do that!" Katharos interrupts.
"I must save it!" The panicking peasant blurts.

The Elementalist shrugs and casts a healing spell. The hog hops back on its feet snorting. The peasant hugs his hog tightly as the animal tries to wiggle out his master's grasp.

"How can I ever thank you Monk?" he says gratefully.
Katharos frowns "I'm not a Monk… and you owe me nothing."

Musette rushes next to Katharos "I finally burnt them all! Are you proud? Huh huh?"
The peasant gets up looking outraged "You burned my beloved pig with your magic tricks!?"
Katharos gulps and waves his arms "No no no it wasn't her I've seen it, look it's them!" he points up to bandits with fire sticks running around.
"You damn midgets I'll get ya for burning my pigs!" He runs up at the cowardly bandits, startled by the sudden hostility.

Katharos looks at the peasant and waits till he's out of his view then turns to Musette "You seriously need to learn how to aim better with the fire, just on the way up here I had to heal five villagers, two guards, a Necromancer, a Mesmer and that pig a moment ago!"

Musette rubs her chin cutely "What about the Moa Bird? You didn't heal it."
"They're stupid, they weren't worth it, besides it would have pecked my eye out once back on its claws." Katharos says.

The hog nuzzles Katharos' leg. Musette squeals to the cuteness of the gesture of the animal. Katharos sighs, picks up the hog and drop it back in its pen. Musette looks inside the pen with all the pigs grunting and rolling in mud.

"Look at them Dork! They're so happy and playful. Why do you look so down?" She wonders.
Katharos sighs "I've never liked goofy looking pets… you know what I like?"
"What?" Musette asks.
"Spiders and Devourers, when they're not trying to eat me." He gently kicks an escaping hog back into the pen.
"Eeww! But those are monsters! Big bugs! Can't be tamed!" Musette yells.
"Well the ones here are too stupid, they can't change their mind once grown up, but someday I'm sure I'll have one of those, someday." He looks up, then jolts "We have things to do!"

"Like what?" Devona questions.
The Dork turns around and sees Devona standing a few feet away of him. He wonders for a moment why is Devona away of her guarding post, then shakes that thought off "We're seeking a man named Orion Elek, we heard he might be nearby Wizard's Folly."

"Oh! Oh! He's out seeking Roy…" she gets nudged by Katharos "Hey!"
"Royalists!?" Devona fumes.
"No! Huh YES! He's out seeking Royalists to… destroy them! But since nobody is sure where they are he might be lost sooo his sister asked us to find him before he gets in trouble!" Katharos takes a deep breath.
"Huh uh… so what does he looks like?" Devona asks.
"He got brown hair, is slightly shorter than me, got a long Elementalist coat in the same colors than my jacket… and that's about it." Katharos describes.
Devona shakes her head "I haven't seen any dorks besides you and the peasant. Good luck on your quest." Devona walks back to her position.

Katharos turns to Musette "Now, we'll go to Wizard's Folly, promise me you'll use the fire storm when only monsters are around, okay?" he requests.
Musette nods and smiles "I promise!"
Katharos nods back "Good, let's go."
Musette puts her fists on her waist "Hey! That's Zman's line! Why do you keep using it!?"
Katharos scratches his head "I dunno, he just let's me use it, it's wrong?"
Musette waves her hands "Nonono it's not! It just doesn't sound natural from you."
The Dork gets slightly offended "Hey I'm the one leading here so I use it."
"You're leader? Ooooh so I shouldn't have fought those Skales while you were gazing at that necklaaaace." She says playfully.
"No! I mean, yes, I mean…" Katharos confuses himself.
Musette hits him on the head with her Air Wand "Stop thinking so haaard! We'll have done nothing by night if we stay here."
Katharos nods and marches forward "Then let's find that Orion now."
Musette taps his shoulder "The other way." She points to the opposite direction to the southwest.
"I know ehahah… I was just checking." He says nervously and walks in the right direction.
"Um… Okay!" She shrugs and prances next to the Dork.

As the Elementalists walks onto the slightly frozen dirt path, a few Elementals rushes to them and swings their boulder arms at them. Katharos jumps back and the Elemental struggles to pull his arm out of the ground. He blasts the moving pile of stones with fire and lightning until it falls apart and gets magically buried into the ground. Musette attempts to cast the fire storm on a crowd of Elementals rushing to them.

She gasps as she sees Chief run to them "Chief! Go help Katharos please!"
"I don't need help!" he says before getting hit behind the head by a giant stone limb.

He gets up dazed as the berserked bear claws the Elemental, then Musette blasts the Elemental to finish it up once she is done with the others enchanted stone men.

Musette hurries to Katharos and shakes him "Dork! You okay?"
He blinks and looks at her then smiles "Good job Musette, I'm proud."
She smiles back "I'm honored!"
He quirks slightly "I'm glad you are." He looks around "Hey, where's that little girl now?"
"Gwen left saying she got bored and wanted to see Necros and Monks remember?" She reminds him.
"Oh yeah! Okay." He says relieved while gathering the stones that remained on the ground instead of going inside.

He pushes a stone to his pocket, but it doesn't shrink "Shit, my bag is full" he swears.
Musette runs around a bit with her hand against her forehead, scouting the area "Hey! There's a Shrine there! We could ask for the nearest merchant!"
"Good idea Musette" he says as he runs to the Shrine.
"Hey wait for me!" She shouts as he has a few feet of advance.

They both stop in front of the Shrine. Katharos is about to talk the sworded Monk of the Shrine when Musette pulls on his sleeve "Looook! That sign there, Foible's Fair around the corner!"
"Oh, that's convenient." he says as he enters the Fair with the giddy Musette.

Musette pouts as she looks around "This isn't a Fair!"
Katharos shrugs "I'll go sell stuff, talk to people about Orion please."
Musette playfully salutes before going in the crowd to talk to other recruits.

Katharos exchanges all his useless items for gold quietly with the untalkative merchant, then jolts and turns around as he feels someone straight behind him.

A very blue and short Elementalist woman looks up at him with confidence. Her pale blue hair and her blue and white outfit gives the impression she is made out of crystal. The Dork gazes, she coughs, he shakes his head quickly and looks at her.

"Long time no see young Katharos, so… are my lightning spells useful?" She smiles.
"Hm… your lightning spells?" He scratches his head then jolts suddenly "Ralena! Yes they are! Except when I'm soaked…"
"Tsk! What did I tell you? Concentrate your energy outside your body! Not inside yourself! No wonder you look so beat, you're burning yourself up! Bah, at least you could beat that Golem unlike that brown headed brat. Thinking he's so good just because he has a long coat." Ralena rants.
"You've seen Orion!?" he asks.
"Indeed I did and I wished I never did. Hopefully he'll die in the western woods" she crosses her arms and looks to the side.
"Is there anything wrong my gorgeous flower of winter?" A suave Mesmer says smoothly to Ralena.
"There is nothing wrong my dear Vassar…" she smiles and slides her hand down his sleeve.
Katharos leaves immediately feeling out of place and grabs Musette by the arm on his way out.

"Hey! I was about to get a good deal on green dye!" Musette complains.
"Orion is in the western woods, we have to hurry." He says without looking back.

"There’s the girl that I like…" Alucard mumbles, "Now more than ever, she gives me butterflies."
Zman sighs gently, "Just go over there."

Haversdan walks over to Lina and they begin talking. Soon the two begin laughing and Haversdan touches her. Alucard goes into a necrotic rage and puts several curses in sequence on Haversdan. He gasps and rushes into Ascalon holding his butt while wheezing. Lina laughs as he rushes away.

"Now’s the time. Go!" Zman urges.
"Right." Alucard says.

Lina quirks and walks over to Zman and Alucard.

"Hey boys." She smiles, "What are you up to, no good?"
"Good is for the weak!" Alucard blurts, "Death is the only source of power."
Zman grimaces and plays with his hammer, "Home run!"
Lina laughs, "You’re pretty fired up about necromancy."
"Yes. He is." Zman replies.
"I’ll give you two some signets just in case you don’t wanna be a bone horror." She smiles.
"Signets?" Zman asks.
"Resurrection signets!" She smiles, "Here!"

She hands Alucard and Zman the signets.

"These will resurrect one ally fallen in battle, after you use it, it’ll break!" She says, "So make sure you use it on someone who has an extra, or is important enough to use it on."
"So don’t use on Alucard, got it." Zman snickers.
"No, he has one, so it’d be a decent investment." She smiles, "Besides those scars and pretty hot, and leave little room for the imagination in that speedo."
Alucard flexes, "Ah yes, admiring the muscles."
"No, the package." She winks.
"You can see my. OH NO!" He yells and turns around.

Zman begins looking at the signet. He puts it on his wrist and smiles.

"I have the power of life!" He exclaims.
Lina blinks, "Yeah, one time."
"But that’s power enough." He smiles.
"How about this, Lina!" Alucard turns around with the signet in his speedo.

She giggles and pulls him to her.

"You’re like, so cute." She laughs, "Let’s do it in the resurrection shrine!"
"Score!" Alucard exclaims, "Zman, you’re on your own!"
"Can do." He nods and walks away.

The eager Lina, and excited Alucard nearly disappear from the blinding light beaconing from the resurrection shrine. Zman pulls out his hammer and walks along the road bashing skales and bigger skales. He ambles down the road admiring the passers-by until he runs into a large hammer.

"Why for are you stopping me?" Zman asks.
"Just who are you?" Devona asks.
"I are Zman, who be you?" He smiles goofily.
She giggles, "Devona… I mean!"

She coughs and looks at him firmly.

"I’m Officer Devona of the Royal Partition to Uphold Justice and Loyalty to the Crown." She sneers.
"That’s one hell of a title, I’m Zman. Zman Hell, Leader of the Happy Hellion Network." He smiles.
"Happy Hellion Network? What is that?" She quirks.
"A network, of Hellions that are happy." He smiles cordially.
"And where is your guild hall?" She smirks, "And why aren’t you wearing your cape?"
"Isle of the Dead, and I don’t like to brag." He answers, "Bragging makes noobies flock to you in mass quantities."
"A point, have you." She answers, "And it is true I seen you with a plethora of people, so I guess that’d make you ‘quite’ the Guild Leader." She smiles, "I see you use a hammer."
"Nothing surpasses the might of the hammer." He grins.
"Indeed." She replies while swinging her mallet, "Well Sir Zman."
"Please, call me Zman." He quickly interrupts.
She bites her lip to hide a blush, "Zman, could you do something for me?"
"For a lady whose beauty rivals the hammer's might? Anything." He answers.
She shakes off his heavy flirting, "I want you, I mean! I need you, I mean, Go to Green Hills and seek out those who side with the Royalists!"
"Milady please relax. I happen to have been though and seen no Royalists or their followers only the gorgeous Kasha and Grawls with the humble Grazden and the courteous Cappo girl."
"Gorgeous?!" She growls.
"I spoke with them all and there is no unrest among them. I give my word." He says.
She nods, "I believe you. I have nothing to fear but rumors then. I heard your dorky friend talk about Royalists and it got me worried."
"I assure you there is nothing to fear with me at your side." He smiles.
"Your words are strong and ease my mind. May I do something un-becoming of a warrior?" She asks.
He shrugs, "Sure."

She wraps her arms around him quickly. He jolts and puts his hands on her tiny shoulders.

"I hope you are right Zman. I haven’t felt good lately at all." She says as she closes her eyes.
"I will protect you." He says.
"Promise?" She asks.
"I promise." He answers.

She releases him and holds her hammer back up. Zman throws his hammer over his shoulder and towers over her.

"Thank you, Zman." She says.
"Hey wanna go kill a big Drake?" He asks.
"I can’t move from this position, lately I’ve found humor from the guy getting stung by bees begging my help but I can’t move." She grins.

Zman walks over to the massive honeycomb and kicks it clear over the bridge. Devona gawks at the display of courage and athletic talent while the curiously calm Miller Upton walks by with several bee stings.

"Mhenlo!" Miller calls.
"No thank you?" Zman looks.
Devona beckons Zman. He walks over to her and quirks.

"Want me to arrest him for something stupid like, refusing to thank or reward a rescuer?" She asks.
"If you feel it’d be funny." He smirks.
"I like the way you think!" She grins.
"Good, Rurik hates it." He laughs.
She moans, "Ugh! Don’t mention his name around me, he thinks because me and Althea are friends it makes me and HIM friends."
"So how do you feel about his proposal to marry her?" He asks.
"She said she’d rather be dead than get invaded by that filthy, rotten, vile…" She lists.
"I understand completely, and I already know the circumstances if she refuses." He sighs.
"He’s nearly twelve years older than her too, isn’t that sickening?" She shivers.
"He’s thirty-two and still level ten? Hah!" He laughs, "Alright, let’s go apprehend us a violator of moral!"
"For Ascalon!" She roars.
"Let’s go!" Zman smiles.

A crowd of bears rushes away in panic with their pelts still on fire, escaping the lively doom following them.

"Hey get back here bears! You furry cowards!" Musette yells as she runs after them.
Chief simply bellows as he runs faithfully next to his master, neverminding fighting his own kind to protect her.

Katharos stops running and wheezes "Musette! Just let them go!" he blurts before bending to catch his breath "just…one minute at least… please…" he struggles to say as he raises his hand.
Musette stops with her bear and turns around pouting "Fiiine… I burnt their pelt anyway, I'll never be able to get good fur for that tanner."
Katharos straightens and sighs in relief once most of his energy is back and tells her "Good… we have to go west anyway, Orion is supposed to be there."
"Okay Dork! Lead the way!" she smiles and waits for him to go ahead.
He sighs "You can call me Katt instead if you want, it wouldn't hurt." he walks ahead.
Musette quirks "Doesn't that sound kinda girlish?"
The Dork grumbles "Fine! Just call me whatever you want!"
Musette giggles "Can I call you cutey?"
Katharos blushes "Hell no!"
"How about Monkie?" She asks.
"Ugh no." He sulks.
"Emo?" She giggles.
He sighs "Don't overuse that…"

Katharos continues walking and looking around with Musette seeking any signs of an Orion in the western woods. The woods are quite peaceful, besides the few bandits and bears who run away in fear as soon a patch of grass catches on fire before the Elementalists appear before them. They walk and walk in the tranquil forest when suddenly…

Musette gasps and points "An Orion over there!"
Katharos looks, nods and marches rapidly to the man.

The short brown haired man walks in the woods, swinging his fire wand, which looks more like a giant fork on fire than a real weapon. He stops randomly looking around, looking lost yet full of confidence.

"Are you Orion Elek?" Katharos asks.
Orion spins around with a scowl, as if he was bothered in an important moment "What do you want rookie? Don't you see I'm busy here? Talk fast or never!"
Katharos quirks to the pointless arrogance of the young man, then tells him "Your sister is worried for you, she requested us to find you and bring you back to Ascalon safely…"
Orion enrages "What!? I won't return to that hole. Tydus kicked me out of the Academy, that fool couldn't realize my full potential!" he shakes his fist.
Katharos thinks then jolts "Hey! I remember now! You're that Elementalist who got kicked out for throwing a Flare on Rurik's ass while aiming a Grawl, damn that was funny, the prince running around with his cape on fire instead of pulling it off…"
"ENOUGH!" Orion aims his wand at Katharos and throws a Flare at him.
Katharos ducks and Musette dodges the incoming fire bullet.
"Damnit calm down! They surely forgave you by now!" Katharos yells.
Orion shakes his head "Oh no these idiots didn't, I came back a few days ago to regain the place I deserve, Rurik already forgot me, but Tydus refuses to let me join again, he says I'm too reckless with my magic to be given serious missions… he's an idiot with power!" he recharges his wand.
Katharos knocks the wand out of Orion's hand with his staff "Listen! I was sent to bring you back safely. Joining the Royalists would just bring you trouble, if they exist at all to start with! Even Ralena thinks their whereabouts and even their existence is a rumor!"
Orion freezes "You… you've met Ralena?"
Katharos nods "Yeah, last time I've seen her she was getting close to Vassar." he smirks.
Orion yells "WHAAAT!? That trickster's touching my darling Ralena!? Get out my way!" he picks up his wand and rushes back to Wizard's Folly.

Katharos scratches his head "Ralena was right on his case…"
Musette hops next to him "What did she say?"
"That he was a boasty brat and stuff, anyway, let's go back to Ascalon…" Katharos is about to turn to the east when he hears a wormy scream. "Aw damn…"
Musette throws a Flare on the bandit who was about to stab the scared Orion. The bandit groans and falls dead. Orion just continues running not wondering about the sudden death.
Katharos looks at Musette "You need to see Ralena to learn Air Magic, think you can keep an eye on him on the way back?" he asks her.
"Sure, I can handle a few bandits! Right Chief?" she pets her big black bear but quirks as she realizes "You're not coming with us?"
Katharos shakes his head "We have to go tell his sister that he is safe now even though he won't return to Ascalon anytime soon and since you need to go back to the Fair, I might as well go to Ascalon. We'll meet at the Wizard's Tower when we are both done alright?"
Musette smiles "Okay! See you soon!" She waves at him before running after the careless Orion Elek.

Katharos gazes at her running happily before she vanishes out of sight. He sighs and walks in the woods. He stops a stares at the pond nearby. A crowd of bandits stands guard in the water. Katharos thinks and shrugs, in the mood to do some personal slaughter. He casts a fire storm on them, but smacks his forehead immediately after the bandits catches fire and let themselves fall in the water before gathering to charge the lone Elementalist. He sends a few lightning javelins to some bandits and retreats for a short moment before sending lightning to a few more. After a few minutes a trail of dead bandits is spread between Katharos and the pond. He walks back to the pond gathering the item drops of each bandit on the way then looks back at the pond, wondering what they were doing in this specific area.

He walks in the warm water of the pond towards the hill, looking for any barrels and chests these bandits might have been protecting. He stares at a sign nearly stuck inside the hill.

"The Catacombs?" he quirks and jumps back as he finally notices the huge entrance. There are poles topped with torches randomly set in the entrance, which is entirely black despite the light of the fire.
"Whoa, I never noticed that before… but hey the entrance I know is in the Abbey, let's try it" he says to himself.

He enters the Catacombs carefully, the darkness quickly leaves for soft greenish ambient light. He smells the air, it is as fresh as outside, no strange fumes or noxious vapors of vile water. He sits in the broken shrine and gazes at the surroundings, thinking it is either the only peaceful area of the Catacombs or he went in a wrongly marked cavern. Sunlight pouring in, small bunches of healthy young trees growing from the stone walls, the white marble columns tilting only slightly as if lazy yet still steady… He lays on his back, letting himself be filled by the serenity of the sacred haven.

Crunching and mandibular squeaks surround him, he opens his eyes and sits up. Six Devourers are approaching the shrine. He stands up and raises his staff ready to strike. One of the Devourers pokes him gently on the leg and squeaks in curiosity. Katharos lowers his guard, feeling no hostility from the creatures. He even reaches out and pets the head of the closest one, it ducks slightly, but lets the gloved hand touch its head shell. Katharos smiles.

"I wish I had Charm Animal right now, I've never seen Devourers as nice as you." He says gently to the docile creature. The Devourer simply squeaks and makes a creepy crunching noise that would disgust anyone except the Dork. The other Devourers look at him with their multiple eyes in curiosity, but soon disperse and go back to digging up smaller insects, roots and questing for corpses nearby.

He waves at the Devourers "It was a pleasure to meet you, see ya sometime." then walks on the path ahead. He walks calmly in the underground garden without a single worry, reassured by the peaceful behavior of the Devourers inhabiting this environment. Katharos thinks of showing the alternate Catacombs entrance to his comrades someday, but frowns as he thinks how they would either be disgusted and scared by the monsters and, in the case of Zman, how all the Devourers would get smashed under his hammer just for getting too close with their clicking claws. He hears a louder squeak nearby, he doesn't look, thinking the Devourers simply found more food and are calling to each others.

Katharos gets charged in the legs and slips down a cliff. He lands on a pile of hard slippery rocks below. He groans and tries to get off the rocks without hurting himself further, but slips and falls directly on his arm. He screams as a snapping noise erupts from his arm.

"Fucking Grenth Shit…" he grumbles in pain as he gets up holding his broken arm. He quickly realizes he's in danger as Devourers with foam on their mouth slide down the cliff and others emerge from the ground. He quickly scans the area in panic and rushes as fast as he can on the path back up on the main path he was walking on earlier. He doesn't remember from where he came from, he has no time, he runs for his life on the path between the ponds. He realizes only when he thinks of blasting the nearest snapping Devourer that he no longer has his staff.

He growls and looks back for a second to throw a Flare on the nearest monster, it only slows down to shake off the fire and continues chasing, he throws another Flare on a sickly Devourer, which dies instantly to the contact of the flame. He runs and runs, the gentle Devourers ignore him as he runs for his life. He throws another Flare and cringes as each spell he casts bring him more pain. He looks ahead and recognizes a stone wall of the dark Catacombs he knows and unfortunately the undead as well, he makes a swift turn and narrowly avoids the vile orbs of the undead who goes back to wandering in their hall as soon the human is out of view.

He runs and stops at the edge of a deep pond, realizing he ran only to get in a dead end of the Devourers' paradise. The mad Devourers are catching up with him, he is exhausted, he lets himself fall into the pond. The Devourers gather at the edge for a moment, then crawls back to the undead hallway. The water is calm, the ripples vanish, until Katharos' hand erupt from the water to grab the edge of a stone platform in the middle of the pond. He climbs up with difficulty and lays flat on the platform, staring at the deteriorated ceiling as he draws deep breaths.

"Me and my bright ideas of finding shortcuts…" he whispers before taking another deep breath.

Zman and Devona smash two mugs together and the frothy contents spill out.

"To Victory!" Zman cheers.
"To… The HHN!" She smiles.
"For the win!" He replies.
"For the win!" She repeats merrily.

Zman sits on a bench he managed to drag over to the monastery where Devona was guarding. She sits with him and begins drinking. He smiles and wipes a bit of froth off her chin. She smirks at him.

"So. How did a great ruler like you find a shithole like this?" She asks.
"I’m a man drawn to justice." He says, "And I heard this place was in decent need of it, so I came."
"I’m pretty justified, are you attracted to me?" She hiccups.
"Lady Devona, I am more attracted to you than words permit." He says after finishing his ale.
She looks down blushing, "Such sweet words you speak."
"I speak only the truth." He answers.
"Then, am I the only one you’ve said such words to?" She asks returning to her serious nature.
"Well…" He begins.
"Excuse me." Mhenlo interrupts, "Zman I have a student by the name of Alesia whom I am worried about, perhaps you could go check on her for me, oh mighty guild leader."

His words rifle with sarcasm and honesty. Zman smirks as he grips his hammer and stands up.

"With ease. Where is she?" He asks.
"She had just left with the veteran warriors to fight the growing Charr behind the north wall." He smiles.
"Well why are you worried?" He asks.
"Other veterans are already returning and she is still gone, along with her friend Reyna, a Ranger." He answers.
"It is settled. Pardon me Devona, but I shall seek out these two and bring them home to safety." Zman says heroically.
Devona nods returning completely serious, "I wish you good luck on your mission. Farewell."

Zman quickly makes way for the gate and meets a lone sentry. The sentry salutes.

"Stand down." Zman says, "Open the gate I must get in, I’m looking for some friends."
"You’re here to rescue him! Thank Dwayna!" The sentry says as he runs up top to throw the lever.

The massive gate opens and Zman walks through holding his hammer steady. Once through the gate he finds himself in a completely different world. The happy, serene Ascalon is far behind him leaving only the gloomy war torn land beyond the gate. He walks around the broken walls and is spotted by a lone Charr. The massive furry beast perks up and charges at him wielding a large broken bladed axe. Zman looks the beast in its eyes as it rushes at him. He bashes it with his mighty hammer in the ribs as it sinks its axe down his chest. Zman roars loudly from the pain as the Charr goes into a frenzy. The beast rears back and Zman takes the opportunity to land his hammer squaw in its nose. The beast drops the axe and flops over dead from the strategic blow.

Zman’s victory is short lived as he grips his bleeding chest. He peels off his now torn studded leather armor and sits down. He quickly applies the healing methods taught to him from day one. The bleeding slows to a halt as he heals himself. He stands up and looks at his ravaged armor then to the Charr whose armor looks decently immaculate besides the crude creation. He nods to himself and strips naked and begins to exchange armors. The Charr armor is lined nicely and shockingly manages to fit well on Zman’s smaller frame. The metal bits and plates have fur rimmed around them. He takes a few belts he had gathered to scrap to fit the leggings on him. He smiles as he feels much more suited for battle but then sighs as he looks at his dinky boots. He thinks for a moment and begins to de-claw the Charr and make some modifications to his boots and gloves.

He flexes for a bit before picking up his hammer and continuing his quest. He walks towards the back of the castle not long before finding signs of life. He rushes to a gasping male Ranger who is trying to drag himself to a tree trunk.

"We beat the Charr captain, all the men are going home but as I walked away something hurt my leg. I need a Monk, hurry, the bleeding won’t stop!" The Ranger pleads.
"Did you happen to see any?" Zman asks.
"Yes, she and a lady Ranger went off to kill an injured Charr." He points, "That way."
"Thanks, I’ll get them!" He smiles as he rushes in the direction he pointed.

Zman readies his hammer not a moment too soon as he is ambushed by a short black Charr. He smashes his hammer against the Charr to no avail. The Charr begins a necrotic hex and Zman feels slower. He bashes the Charr again and again. The Charr begins to cast another hex but Zman jumps and smashes the Charr on the head knocking it down. He then twists his hammer and smashes the Ram’s horns into its belly. The Charr writes in agony and dies quickly from the vicious wound. Zman pillages a few more armor pieces for his boots and gloves before continuing further.

Suddenly the sky around him looks black and red. He looks up and slows his pace as he walks to a hillside. The Monk and Ranger are hiding behind the hill looking over a cliff. Zman rushes to them.

"I just wanna run down there and kick some ass!" Alesia yells.
"You’re a Monk." Reyna says.
"So?" She quirks, "I can still kick ass."
"No, you HEAL ass." Reyna pleads, "that’s why we’re in this mess! Is you chasing the Charr."
"Excuse me." Zman says.

The girls gasp and turn around frightened.

"I’m Zman Hell, and we need to get a move on, I dunno what those Charr are doing but it sure as Hell doesn’t look too inviting." He says, "And I need you to heal some Ranger guy I found back here."

"Oh, okay." Alesia says.
"Look out!" Reyna gasps as a patrol of Charr spot them.

Zman charges into the Charr with his hammer blazing with fury. He plants his foot down steady and gets into an offensive stance. He bashes a Charr Warrior as it approaches. It blocks with its shield that is instantly crumbled by Zman’s hammer. The Charr stabs him but he keeps attacking as Alesia rushes beside him to heal. The Charr shifts his attention and goes to attack Alesia but Zman jumps and bashes the back of its head laying it on the ground instantly. A Charr sends a fireball into Zman as he recovers from the jump. A volley of arrows storm the Charr as Zman rushes to it and one of the black Charr. He smashes his hammer against the black Charr before it hexes him and Alesia rushes up beside him again nearly getting struck by one of Reyna’s arrows. She heals Zman and tries to attack a Charr. The Elementalist Charr sets her hair ablaze and she gasps as what little hair she had is completely burnt off. Zman lands another blow on the black Charr and it falls to the ground in defeat only leaving the Elementalist Charr. He gives it a few good swings as Reyna pelts it with arrows. After it lays down in defeat Zman turns to Alesia.

"What are you thinking?!" He yells, "Are you TRYING to get yourself killed?"
"I’m a Monk, I can heal myself." She says proudly.
"You’re a Monk, exactly stay BEHIND and heal OTHER people." He growls.
"It’s no use, don’t bother." Reyna says, "She won’t listen."
"Okay. Well let’s go help this guy and get the Hell outta here!" Zman says, "Let’s go!"

A young blonde Monk girl with half of her hair shaven and her other half long and flowing on her shoulder gloats.

"Ahaha! You wasted blue and silver dye on your new clothes!? You could be rich now if you kept them!" She says.
Ramia rolls her eyes "I'm not interested in money as long I have what I need, besides silver dye is incredibly easy to find on bandits nowadays." she tilts her head and smirks "and you should have sold your own… dye instead of soaking your clothes in piss."
The yellow Monk is outraged "This is not piss! It's yellow!"
"So why does it stink so badly, is it you?" Ramia says plugging her nose.
"I don't stiiiiink." The pissed Monk says and runs out of the Abbey.

Ramia laughs then shakes her head "Silly silly recruits… anyway Meerak, what did Dwayna tell you again in your visions?"
Meerak closes his eyes and puts his finger around his head like an Oracle, then says dramatically "Dwayna told me our dear Ascalon is in dire danger, the land will soon be ravaged by flam…"

A loud explosion erupts from the Catacombs.

Meerak jumps in Ramia's arms "OH MY DWAYNA IT'S THE END!"
Ramia drops him immediately "Don't jump to conclusions! It's not the first time the undead is blown up."

A young Monk with a dull white shirt and a large brown headband exits the Catacombs unharmed and runs to Mhenlo carrying a large hollow pile of blue crystals stuck in a large disc. He hands the shimmering object to Mhenlo and salutes with a broad smile "Artifact retrieved sir!"
Mhenlo nods "Well done Paulus, it is intact and you do not have a scratch… where is the new recruit I assigned as your healer?"
Paulus scratches his head "Huh… he was supposed to heal me?"

Mhenlo fumes and before he orders explanations from Paulus, another explosion erupts and a few trickles of flame bounces into the Abbey. A screaming panicking Necromancer runs out with his hair on fire. He runs in circles while the other recruits stare at him in confusion. The fire soon fades, leaving the Necromancer's hair black, short and smoky. He grabs his head and cries "Noooo! My cool long red hair! It won't fit with my suit anymore!" then suddenly a pissed Elementalist erupts from the Catacombs and thwacks the Necromancer brutally in the head with a vile staff made of agglomerated skulls with green orbs in each eye socket. The Necromancer falls forward, turns and sits up rubbing his head "Hey! What the Hell was that for you psycho!?".

The Elementalist stares at him with his furious pale eyes "You're calling me the psycho? Who's the sick guy who ran out into vile water as a healer to protect a Smiting Abbot WITHOUTLEARNING ANY HEALING SPELLS!?"
"Hey I already had my Blood spells to keep me alive, that Monk just had to run quick and keep himself alive." the Necromancer replies.
"Did you even listen to what Mhenlo asked!? Paulus is a SMITER needing HEAL, the whole point of that quest was to learn to use HEALING. You didn't even bother taking a minute to align your soul with Dwayna did you?" the Elementalist asks.
"Dwayna sucks, she's the Queen of Moa Birds." The Necromancer spits.
The pissed Pyromancer thwacks the ignorant Necromancer again "Never insult the Gods! You never know when you'll need their help!"
The Necromancer gets up slightly dazed "I'll never need her! I give up my second profession and give my soul to Grenth! Pray to your bird goddess and wish to never cross my path again!" he leaves the Abbey outraged.

The Elementalist calms down and looks around at the staring recruits "What!?"
Ramia approaches him with a smirk "Well well well, who would have thought a Dork could ever get so mad."
Katharos frowns "Well you would be pissed too if you got in from another entrance, got bones broke, blasted undead for miles only to find a Smiter with his hands full and an incompetent half-Monk yelling insults at you for healing him and the guy he was supposed to protect to full health after finding them nearly dissolved in the Vile water." he gasps and takes a deep breath.
"Geez, take pauses when you talk." Ramia rolls her eyes and looks at his Bone Staff "…what's with this staff? You're aware this will not help you at all in battle don't you?"
The Dork looks at his new staff for a moment and sighs "I lost my Fire one in retreat earlier and on the undead that's the best I could find…"
Ramia pokes it and looks closely "That's a blue rank weapon, did you identify it?"
Katharos nods "Yeah, it's a staff for Death magic users, not useful to me."
"Well you should keep it even if you find something more suitable for your skills, someone might want this." Ramia suggests.
He nods "Will do."

Mhenlo approaches the two and bows "My apologies for recruiting such a reckless Necromancer, Claude will need to kneel to Dwayna and thousand times before being welcomed here once again. I shall also make sure the new aspiring Monks actually listen from now on."
"Yeah yeah, well I'm off." Katharos walks to the Abbey's entrance.
Ramia follows him calmly "To where?" she asks.
The Dork abruptly stops "Huh… damn I forgot…" he rubs his chin.
The blue Monk looks around "So… where is this cheerful Musette now? Waiting nearby?"
He jolts "Oh yeah! I have to go to Ascalon then to the Wizard's Tower! Thanks Ramia!" he smiles to her.
She quirks "Hm… you're welcome?"
"Wanna go to Ascalon with me?" he asks her.
She shakes her head "No, I'll remain here a while longer, the recruits obviously need my assistance, besides I need to talk with Meerak if he ever gets up." she looks at Meerak on the ground, still traumatized.
Katharos quirks "What is he doing there?"
"You scared him to death." she smirks.
The Dork scratches his head puzzled.
Ramia sighs "Your Flares echoed horribly in the Catacombs"
"Oh, okay, makes sense, I guess" the Dork blurts.
"Just go already!" the little annoyed Monk shouts as she pushes him out.
"Okay okay I will! Stop pushing!" the startled Dork says before running off to Ascalon.
"What a dork." she says shaking her head.

Katharos runs to the gates of Ascalon. He stops nearby the shrine to catch his breath, he stands up a moment after and looks around him.
He rubs his head, seeing no Haversdan or Lina or anyone else nearby "That can't be good…" he turns to the shrine as he hears humming and shuffling behind the blinding light, he approaches cautiously the shrine without stepping on it and squints trying to see what is making noise behind the light. A feminine voice lets out a yelp of pain within the shrine. The Dork perks up and casts a healing spell in the direction of the sound. The feminine voice gasps and all other noises stop.
"My gorgeous bite mark is gone!" the sexy woman voice cries.
"What the… oh shit there's a perv looking at us! DIE!" the rough voice yells.
"Oh damn oh damn…" the Dork says as he attempts to run away of the two beings hidden by the light, but he feels himself get slower, weaker and sick. He kneels down sweating, then casts a healing spell on himself to regain some strength. As soon he stands up, a swarm of bugs surrounds him and each of the bugs viciously bite him at every spot of his body over his waist. Katharos screams and rushes away of the shrine aimlessly, blinded by the black mass of bugs around him. After a long while of running he stumbles and falls into water, making the bugs fly off and then vanish into thin air as the necrotic magic wears off. Katharos lifts up from the small pond and coughs water out of his lungs, then lets out a sigh of relief.

"May I help you Katharos?" A gentle soothing voice says.

He looks up and sees Althea smiling at him, he smiles back "Althea…"
She looks at him, he is still soaking in the pond with many small gashes on his face and his jacket torn apart. She offers him a helping hand. "You seem to have had a rough day, grab my hand."
He hesitates a moment as he blushes and blood gushes out his cuts. He slowly grabs her hand, letting her help him walk out of the pond. He looks over himself and cringes "Whoa… I look like crap…" then immediately applies healing on himself.
Althea gazes at him as his wounds closes gradually and his jacket sews itself to its original shape. She smiles and says "The magic of Monks will always impress me, it truly fixes anything."
Katharos looks at her and smiles gently "Well… it's restorative magic, it's meant to return everything to the way they were meant to be…" he looks away "I'm sorry you had to see me like that…"
Althea waves her hand "Shh, it's alright, we can't always look our best, even I was had horrid cuts in battle and looked horrible."
Katharos quirks "I have a hard time imagining that…"
"Well it is possible, but the worst I've seen is Devona losing her whole face under multiples axe slashes in the head and look at her now, she looks like she never got a single cut in her whole life."
"Makes me wonder how some people manages to still get scars and…" he jolts and looks at her "I have to go Althea, quest to complete and my partner is waiting for me." he tells her.
"You mean Zman?" she asks.
"N… I mean… huh… yeah he's waiting on me. See you soon Althea!" he says nervously.
She hugs him before he goes off again "Try to be careful now, I hate seeing you wounded."
He hugs her back "A… alright I'll be careful…"
He turns around and runs back to the gate. He stops abruptly as he sees the shrine again, he decides to be wise and sneaks against the wall and enters Ascalon from the left side of the gate.

Zman exits the massive Northern wall gate with Reyna and Alesia following. He holds his hammer with a vindictive awe as the male Ranger meets with his friend.

The sentry nearly cries, "Oh thank you for helping him! Alesia, Reyna! Let us go tell Mhenlo the exploits of this wonderful, wonderful man."
"Sounds like he has a crush on you." Reyna winks.
"Go on." Zman smirks, "I’ll chill here for a minute."

Zman smiles in the relaxing air. Katharos walks up to him with a odd look.

"That you Zman?" He asks.
"Dork!" He smiles, "How’ve you been?"
"Umm, fine, why are you dressed like a Charr?" He asks.
"Well I stole some Charr armor after beating the crap out of them, looks cool eh?" He says while flexing.
"Sure." Katharos smiles.
"Where’s Musette?" Zman asks quickly.
"In that fair thing, I think." He says.
"You let a gorgeous, barely dressed, horribly inaccurate Elementalist go somewhere ALONE?!" He gasps.
"She had Chief with her!" He tries to defend.

Zort and Eve come up from the Green Hills direction.

"Zman!" Eve gasps and runs to him, "I’ve been worried."
"Yeah, she won’t stop talking about you." Zort says.
"Hi Eve, Hi Zort." Zman smiles.
"Hi Dork…" Katharos sighs.
"Hi Dork!" Zort waves. "Hey, where’s that necromancer?" Zort asks.
"Alucard? Oh him and Lina were getting it on in the Resurrection Shrine last I seen." Zman says.
Katharos thinks "So that's who it was…"

Eve traces her hands along Zman’s new armor without looking at anyone else as if completely mesmerized. Zort folds her arms and looks at the sky in boredom. Katharos sits down.

"So…" Zman says.

Musette tumbles down the hill and slams into Katharos. The dorky Elementalist is quickly surmounted by the playful Musette.

"Got ya!" She giggles.
Katharos moans, "Ouch."
Zort smiles, "Hello."
Zman waves, "There you are, I was worried about you."
"Don’t worry about me! Worry about her!" Musette points to Eve.

Everyone looks at Eve who is still entranced with the crude armor Zman fabricated. Zman slowly raises his hand without her noticing and hugs her tightly. She jolts and squirms in a slight panic before settling against him and smiling.

"Hello." Eve says.
"Musette, are you wearing lingerie?" Zman asks.
"Umm, maybe?" She quirks.
"Perhaps that tumble may have upset the harmony between your top and your under garments, is what Zman is saying." Zort snickers.

Musette gasps as she realizes her top was quite askew leaving her lacy bra partially exposed with Katharos having no shame in starring directly at it. She quickly fixes her top and he slowly re-settles his eyes to hers.

"Hey there." She giggles.
"Hi Musette." He smiles.
"Okay, enough!" Zman growls, "We have work to do!"
"We do?" Eve asks.
"Umm, well no not really." He says.
Zort points at Chief, "There’s a big ol’ bear!"
"Chief!" Musette smiles, "You’re too slow!"

Chief bellows loudly. Musette jolts.

"What was that?" She asks.
Katharos blushes and covers his face, "N-n-n-n-n-nothing!"
"I KNOW WHAT IT WAS!" Zort exclaims proudly.
"What?" She asks.
"His--," She begins.
Zman quickly interrupts, "Perhaps we should split up. Dork, Musette, you team. Me and Eve… and…"
"Zort and Ramia?" Ramia asks with a smirk.
"Sounds good." He smiles.

Flake sniffs Chief butt and howls. Chief turns and bellows. Zman quickly disappears with Eve following behind him.

"Zman! Wait!" Eve calls out.
"Okay, we’re far enough away now." He says.
She stops and catches her breath. Zman pats her back. She smiles and stands up looking into his eyes.

"Remember when we were outside Ranik?" She asks.
"Yes." He answers.
"I want to feel like that again." She whispers.
"Then come closer to me." He says.
"O-okay." She says moving closer to him.
"Now close your eyes." He whispers.
"A-alright." She says closing her eyes beginning to blush.
"Now count to ten." He whispers lowly.
"One, two, three, four, five, siiii--," She jolts as she gets interrupted by Zman pressing his lips against hers.

She quickly relaxes in the kiss and wraps her arms around his neck. Zman places a hand on her cheek as he pulls her tighter against him in a most fervent kiss. A loud screech and a blast of water spraying them interrupts the sweet moment.

"What the fuck?" Zman says while turning.

The massive Drake stares at him and opens its large beak. He points at the Drake.

"You! I’ve been looking for you!" He says drawing his hammer.
"I’ll degenerate it for you!" Eve says while shifting her head in a necrotic ambiance.

Zman rushes to the mighty Drake and smashes his hammer into its side. It bites his back ineffectively and begins to run at Eve. Zman quickly jumps and bashes it on its head making it fall down. It gets up slowly and turns to Zman again only to catch another hammer blow. Eve hops and points at it stealing some of its life in a putrid flash. Zman knocks it once more as it slowly bites at Zman obviously in a necrotic hex. Eve hops again and rolls her body in a hover and makes yet another devastating drain on its life. Zman jumps and bashes it with all his might dropping the beast instantly.

"Yeah!" He roars.

Eve quickly rushes to him and pushes him into the water latching him in another even more vehement kiss. He gasps as her lips lock against him and the water seeps over both of them. She lays on top of him and slowly pulls her lips away and opens her eyes.

"You forgot to count!" She says.
"Heh, you’re wet." He smirks.
She looks at herself, "So I am. Want to help me dry off?"
"And how would we go about doing that?" He tilts his head wondering if the innocent beauty could be so direct.
She thinks for a moment and blushes deeply, "Umm! Well… We can figure something out."

He smiles at her and she pounces him in yet another fervent kiss.

"So…" Zort begins "What do we do now?" She asks.
Ramia sits on Flake's back as if she was a bench, Flake doesn't flinch and simply howls as she usually does. Ramia pats Flake's head and says "There is not much left to do if you ask me, the Charrs are still behind the wall, I even heard they retreated for a while… how about we go to the Northlands? There's always monsters to bash there."
Zort smiles "As long I get to bash something!"

Musette hops off the Dork, who immediately sits up and holds his knees, still blushing.
"Can we come along too? Pleeease? I just wanna get to know you better!" Musette begs.
"Sure, if you want we can all go together!" Zort looks at Katharos still sitting on the ground. "What about you?"
"Um… there Charr there isn't there miss… uh…" the Dork looks up.
"Zort!" she smiles "and we already know Dork, they're why we're all here."
"You understood that blabber the first time, impressive." Ramia claps.
Musette crosses her arms "Hey! What he said made perfect sense! If you remove a word or two!"
Katharos rubs his head "um… can we just go now?" he asks.
"As soon as you get up" Ramia smirks and stands up letting her pet's back free.
"Just think about Rurik" Zort chuckles.
"Ugh, the name was enough!" the Dork gets up and grips his unfitting Death staff.
"Think about Rurik?" Musette asks confused.
"Nevermind" Katharos grumbles.

They all stand in front of the Northern Gates, which are closed shut.
"How do we open it?" Musette asks.
"We just need to pull the lever up there, but the guard's gone off." Zort points.
"So who will go pull and wait?" Katharos asks.
The three girls look back at him.
Katharos rubs his head "The guy's out I see…" he perks up "Why not you Ramia? You said back at the Abbey that you still had to help out recruits anyway!" he recalls.
"Well I got bored, besides most prefer to train with friends, it's understandable." Ramia replies.
"Look at it this way Katharos, I'm Warrior, Ramia's a Monk and Musette's an Elementalist. Ramia and Musette got pets and you're an Elementalist AND a Monk…" Zort tells him.
"I got it" Katharos sighs "I'll wait for you all, be careful."
"We'll be careful!" they all say at once and giggles.
Katharos blushes again and turns around "S…s…stop doing that!"
"Wha?" Musette quirks.
"Three young girls giggling is too much for a dork." Ramia smirks.
"Hey Dork! Rurik!" Zort laughs.
"I don't get it…" Musette pulls on her pigtail cutely.
Katharos grunts and rushes up the stairs. He runs on the stone wall over the huge gates and grips the lever's handle. He pulls and the gates creak open slowly.
"Get in quick! Good luck!" Katharos shouts to them.
"See you soon! Hey wait!" Musette says just before running after Zort, Ramia, Chief and Flake who already reached the other side.
Katharos releases the handle which already began setting itself to its default position, closing the gates behind the trio of adventurers and the duo of pets. He crosses his arms on the border of the stone wall and looks down at them, running off into the Northlands. He sighs and turns around, letting himself slide down and sit against the small cold wall. He looks up at the sky and whispers "…just be careful…"

The three adventurers and their loyal pets march forward, the land beyond the gate is eerily calm and the sky turns darker and redder as they walk.
Ramia looks over at the sky, worried at the sight of the red streaked with black thin clouds "I could have sworn last time I looked over the wall from the city, that sky was still as blue… how long have we been walking?"
Zort shrugs "I have no idea, but we better find some monsters, I'm bored!" She yells.
Musette steps on a wet patch of grass "Eep it rained here!"
Ramia shakes her head "This is not rain, this is blood… it seems the Charr fought here as well and not only in plain sight of Ascalon."
Musette looks at her now red soaked boots "Aww they're all wet and icky now."
"Well just watch where you walk then." Ramia scowls "We move on, this silence is not reassuring."
"Charr invasion my ass, they're all gone!" an annoyed Zort mutters.
"These beasts are still nearby, such monsters cannot vanish as long they live, we'll find some of them soon or my name's not Ramia Aries." she says seriously.
"Oh oh! If we don't find them, can I call you Cathy-poo!? Or or Ramram? OH! Monki Bloo!" Musette lists giddily.
Ramia glares back at Musette, who lets a small squeak and runs back behind Zort, who laugh heartily and pats the sweet little startled Elementalist comfortingly. Musette soon regains her high morale, but struggles to keep her mouth shut as they march on. Ramia looks more and more tense at each steps.
Zort folds her arms behind her head and sighs "Hey why you leading again? I'm warrior so just lemme be in front."
Ramia grunts "You'll get in front as soon battle erupts! Not before!"
Zort whispers to Musette "Geez what's with the Monk?"
Musette whispers back "Week of the month?"

Flake and Chief marches on as well, guarding the sides of the party and sniffing each puddle of blood on the dusty and dry path. The air gradually become more dense and heavy to breathe as a smell of smoke fills it, but still too faint to be seen. The atmosphere is in stasis, not even a single refreshing breeze comes their way, only the heat rising and rising.

Musette puts her hand over her eyes as a visor and gasps "Heeey there's light over there! Orange light! Oooh it seems to flicker!"
"Fire no doubt…" Ramia says as she tops the nearest hill and the group follow immediately.

Musette blinks, Ramia frowns and Zort rubs her hands in glee at the sight ahead. A giant circle of dulled metal, surrounded by multiple curved vertical bars of iron of different lengths and set in chaotic angles has been constructed atop the once flat stone floor of a large square shaped altar, with stairs carved on each four sides of the square. The ceremonial ground is devoid of life, except for thousand of Charrs amassed in this burnt and corrupted patch of land. Every inches of space at the stairs of the altar is occupied by Charr warriors, rangers, martyrs, overseers, fire callers and every other classes of their crude and barbaric culture. Atop the altar, around the glyph of iron, stands the obvious leaders of the race, each glowing in a particular color, showing the power oozing out of their flesh. The glowing Charrs remains atop the altar, only moving a few steps at a time, waiting for a sign of some sort while the inferior Charrs grunt among themselves and pushes each others being more agitated as time passes.

Ramia grins "Well Musette, I'm keeping my name" then frowns immediately "but now I wish I lost this bet. We must go at once."
Musette nods then gets pushed aside by Zort "Hey! Zort!"
"We went all that way and we'll just go back!? I want death! Now!" Zort shouts.
Ramia's eye twitches "WE'LL BE THE DEAD ONES IF WE DON'T LEAVE!" she yells.

The Charrs cease all noises and turn to their hill, glaring with their bloodthirsty eyes.
"…shit" Ramia says in shame.
"Alright! Battle!" Zort smiles.
"Umm… Zort, how will we beat an entire army of Charrs with just us and our pets again?" Musette asks innocently.
Zort's smile fades "Uh oh, hm… retreat!" she charges back on the path away of the altar.
Ramia rolls her eyes and runs after Zort while Musette and the pets soon do the same.

The Charr army charges after them, but after a few feet of running, most arcanic Charrs simply returned to the altar one by one, having no point in pursuing such a small laughable group of recruits. The rangers soon ceased to run as well, shoot a few burning arrows and returned near the altar as well. However, most warriors continued to rush to the seemingly helpless humans and animals, eager to sink their blades and smash their metal on squishy flesh and crunchy bones.

Zort ceases to run and turns around facing the horde of Charrs, she slings her mighty axe and her trusty shield and charges at the nearest Charr. The Warrior enters a frenzy, slashing through the Charr with ease, but is soon surrounded by the Charrs. She takes a few painful blows before her whole body glows blue and the enemies edge away singed by fire and holy magic. Flake pounces a Charr and bites deep in the beast's neck, ripping out its throat as it struggles to get up and snatch its weapon to stab the silver terror. Chief claws any Charrs running too near her dear mistress and bites off the hand of one before making it fall and claws its face until the head rips and rolls away of the twitching body.

"Musette!" Ramia beckons.
"Ramia!" Musette responds.
"You must retreat at once! We can hold these back for a while! But you MUST return to Ascalon! Tell Tydus of what we witnessed! Hurry!" Ramia orders.
"B… but I can still fight!" Musette cries.
"We know, but you must go, NOW!" Ramia yells as she blasts a Charr away with her Banish.
Musette runs off back to the gate, knowing she can't argue her orders any further. Chief quickly runs on the steps of his master, being faithful to the only one who charmed him, the struggles of others out of his care.

Musette finally reaches the gates and looks up at the wall "DORK! OPEN THE GATE!"
Katharos is twitching slightly as his head rest on his knees, which he holds loosely with his arms. He grunts sleepily.
A Charr's head flies by Musette and splatters on the wooden doors "Eeek! Wow Zort's ripping them hard."
"Gnrf… fuve mure munuts…" the sleepy Dork mumbles.
"KATHAROS!" she yells again.
He bolts his eyes open and jumps up on his feet to grab the lever and pull it.
Musette runs through with her bear as Katharos rushes down the stairs to her.
"Musette you're sa…! Where are the others!?" the Dork panics.
"They're still beating Charrs! The Charrs are getting their furry ass handed to them but I have to tell Tydus there's a big army around a big altar with fire and BIG Charrs and…" Musette hastily says.
Katharos grabs her shoulders, making her blink and go mute "Musette! Keep all that for Tydus! Let's hurry to Ascalon right now!" he releases her and runs ahead back to the city.
Musette and Chief looks at each other and soon rushes after him, having no more time to waste in bringing the dire news.

Zman walks with his hammer cast over his shoulder with a smug look on his face, a look of accomplishment. Eve holds her hands together with a perpetual blush while walking tiny steps in front of him. Her coiled braids drip a single drop of water.

"Water will be forever imbedded in my memory with you… and I, together." She says softly.
"I love you Eve." Zman whispers to her.
She turns to him quickly, "I…"

Alucard quickly hides behind Zman. He whimpers and quivers as if hurt.

"What the? What happened?" Zman asks.
"Shh!" He jolts, "She might hear. Lina, she won’t leave me alone."
"Hmm." Eve puts her hand to her mouth in thought, "What is she doing?"
Alucard looks up, "Fucking me! Oh hi, I’m Alucard."
"I’m Eve." She smiles.

A moment of silence passes between the three. Zman rubs the back of his head in wonder. Eve turns and scratches her back for a second.

"I think it’s safe, walk normal and I’ll hide by walking beside you." Alucard says.
"Okay." Zman smiles, "Anything for a friend."

Zman and Eve begin walking as usual and Alucard hides by walking directly beside Zman. He is easily hidden by Zman’s massive frame and gargantuan new armor. As they pass the resurrection shrine Katharos blindly smashes into Zman.

"Dork!" Zman exclaims, "How’ve you been, wait what’s wrong?"
"The Charr! Fire! Gate! Many!" The flabbergasted Elementalist jumbles together.
"Lots of Charr behind the gate are making a fire weapon?" Zman asks.
"How the FUCK did you understand that?" Alucard asks bluntly.
"Yes! Zort, Ramia! Fight!" He exasperates, "I run to Tydus!"
"Zort and Ramia are behind the shut gate?" Zman says, "HOW THE FUCK ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GET OUT?!"
Katharos gasps and turns to run back, "Me!"
"NO TIME!" Zman yells, "Go tell Tydus, I’ll handle this!"

Zman charges ahead while holding his hammer ready. Eve and Alucard struggle to keep up.

"Eve! Draw the gate! Alucard! Come with me!" He orders.
"But!" Eve begins.
"DO IT!" Zman screams.
She nods and rushes up the hill to throw the lever, "Done!"

Zman ducks and rushes under the drawing gate as Alucard stumbles and nearly falls trying to keep up. The battle had been drawn nearly to the gate with Zort and Ramia’s retreat. Zort falls to the ground after getting hacked during her self healing. Ramia is nowhere to be seen.

Zman charges even faster to the Charr about to brutally cleave Zort’s pretty head off. He jumps and brings his hammer down with all the might in his body upon the Charr’s head smashing it completely open and the body forcefully into the ground. Zort coughs blood as a thanks and looks up to him with a giant scar across her face. He becomes even more enraged as the Charr who had been chasing stop entirely. He stomps the ground as if trying to shake it while letting out a mighty roar. The Charr begin to turn away but with no avail. Zman stomps to the Charr and begins to romp through them mercilessly.

Zman swings his hammer into the metal plate of a Charr’s armor which instantly dents. The Charr drops to the ground and writhes struggling to breath. He rushes forward and jump attacks another Charr who turns and fights back. The Charr goes into a frenzy to speed his attacks but they ping off Zman’s crude armor. Zman draws back his hammer and flattens the Charr’s skull with a crushing blow. Another Charr swings to Zman’s side in attempt to attack him. Zman takes a slash to his vulnerable side. He grunts and swings his flying mallet into the second Charr’s belly. The Charr doesn’t react initially but fails to swing its axe as a result. Zman comes up from the ground with his next attack knocking the Charr’s head directly off its body. A geyser of blood erupts from the headless body in a violent spray which quickly subsides as the body falls forward.

Zman grins with malcontent in his eyes as a flaming arrow pings off his shoulder pad. His gaze jaunts to the Charr ranger a few meters away. He breaks into a sprint toward the ranger. The Charr reloads his bow and looks up only to see a giant hammer smash into his face with a devastating force. The Charr falls and grimaces looking contorted. Zman raises his hammer above his head and lays the hammer down into the skull of the Charr spattering brains, blood and bone fragments in all directions.

Alucard had helped Zort up and healed her slightly with a necrotic sacrifice. She slung her arm over his neck and limped along using him as a crutch as they approached the vindictive looking Zman. He turns to them.

"Where’s Ramia." He asks.
Ramia raises her arm in the distance, "H-Here…"

Zman rushes to her. He stands over the severely mauled body of Ramia. Her monk clothes all but torn off as she looked at him with one eye sealed shut from blood. She smiles.

"You came for me… only too late." She coughs a mouthful of blood, "H-Hold me."

Zman lays his hammer beside him as he kneels to her and holds her in his arms. He can’t help but look at the tight bandages she wrapped her breasts with. She coughs more blood as she lifts her hand trying to touch him. He helps her hand to his face after she struggles. She tries to smile with a stream of blood drooling from her mouth. Sand and blood covered her face as her single blue eye looks deep into his eyes.

"Z-Zman…" She whispers, "I…"
"Don’t talk, we can save you." He says softly.
"No, you can’t." She says.
"Ramia." He whispers, "What can I do for you?"
"K-Kiss me… Let me know what it’s like to feel The great Ramia Aries has fallen." She says closing her eye as it tears up.

Zman presses his lips to her blood soaked lips. She coughs gently in the tender moment as the gritty sand is pressed deeper into their lips. She slowly breaks the kiss as blood floods from her mouth. Zman’s eyes begin to swell as her blood soaked hand slides off his cheek.

"Th-Thank y…" She gargles.

Her limp hand gracefully lands on the ground as her eye closes eternally. Zman releases her body slowly and lays her on the cold, bloodied earth. He stands while picking up his hammer. Flake limps to her and nudges the body hoping for a response. She nudges her harder and howls sorrowfully. Zman turns and begins to walk away with a vehement fury in his eyes.

"I will avenge you." He decrees while looking at her blood on his hands, "I swear it."

The Dork smashes into more confused recruits as he rushes his way up the hill to Tydus. The tackled recruits merely swear as their routine was interrupted and return to their business, ignorant of the upcoming chaos the Charr might bring upon them, only caring of attempting to carve their name in legend with their small daily feats of Skales raiding.

Katharos finally reaches the small pedestal and he deverses his scrambled information toward Tydus, who is turning around to him after giving a few more orders to nearby warriors.
"The Charr! Coming! Fire! Big Fire!" The Dork shouts.
Tydus interrupts him "Calm down Ombre, your partner Musette already told me about the new weapon."
Musette jumps next to Katharos, nearly making him piss himself in surprise.
"GAH! Musette!" Katharos yells.
"You took a while to get here. Weren't you ahead of me?" Musette questions.
"Well… huh… yeah, but I met friends on the way." Katharos explains.
Tydus coughs, bringing the attention of the Elementalists back to him. "There are more pressing matters at hand, keep your chit-chat for a more peaceful time. If it was just me I would bring you two and Alesia along to investigate this weapon more closely, but Rurik insists on seeing every recruits in a match before being allowed in a mission beyond the gate as a Vanguard. So hurry up and follow me to the training ground." he then jumps off his pedestal and runs to the gates. The two Elementalists follow swiftly.

The Elementalists enter the grounds as Tydus walks up the stone wall for an overall view next to Rurik, who joined shortly after. Katharos and Musette stands on a contraption looking like the resurrection shrines outside, the Dork looks around and sees the healing Monk Alesia and the fighter Stefan join their side. Katharos quirks at Stefan, wondering how he can move to fight with all his accumulated fat concealed in chainmail. On the other side, a young Ranger woman with long brown hair clad in brown and khaki leather appears on the opposite shrine ahead, then shortly after a familiar Necromancer appears with a enraged look on his face as he looks to Katharos. After a few minutes the last two opponents appear ; a white haired Elementalist with a smug look and a small jumpy bald Monk man clad in red cloth and bandages.

"The rules are simple; annihilate the most often possible your opponents in ten minutes, the shrines you are standing on will revive you each time you are defeated, so do your best and don't let a wound slow you down. Now… FIGHT!" Tydus orders as Rurik presses on the stone wall to get a closer look to the upcoming battle.

The whole opposing team charges forward, unwilling to wait for the other team to get slaughtered. Stefan charges with Alesia into the other team as the Elementalists remain at a safe distance to cast their spells. Stefan slashes furiously at the impatient spellcasters, but is interrupted once in a while by an arrow and slown down by the Necromancer's curses. The white haired Elementalist rains fire on both Stefan and Alesia, who fall quickly and reappear on the shrine.

Katharos looks back "Stay here and heal Alesia! Please!"
Alesia rushes back ahead with Stefan, making the Dork sigh. He turns to Musette "Musette, send Chief to the Monk and… what the hell? Where is he?"
Musette sighs "Rurik didn't let Chief in, he said 4 versus 4 only."
Katharos grunts "What a jackass… anyway, send fire on the three ones around Stefan, leave the Monk to me." he rushes up to get closer to the Monk and blasts him with a Flare and a Lightning Javelin.
The red Monk falls back on his ass, startled at the sudden attack during his healing. The Elementalist and the Necromancer suddenly feel the lack of healing as their wounds cease to vanish and they turn to assault Katharos, but then a Fire Storm pours on them before they can even do a single move. Stefan happily slashes them apart in their panic. Katharos keeps blasting the Monk until he falls unconscious, but his small rejoice is shortly cut by an arrow nailing him in the shoulder. Musette gasps, ceases her fire for a moment and pulls a bow out of her backpack to shoot the opposing Ranger several times. Most arrows miss the target, but three arrows nail her foot, right hand and knee. The Ranger stumbles and pulls the arrow out of her hand, she yells offended "Doom! Stop running and heal me already!"
The red Monk runs around with a Stefan on his tail "I can't Reyna! Help meeeee Dwayna!"
Alesia runs after Stefan, casting the occasional healing spell whenever Stefan ceases to move to hit the scaredy Monk.

The Necromancer grins at Katharos, who is now busy healing his whole team as Alesia is now goofing around. He spams draining spells on him, making him cringe in pain and drop on his knees. The Necromancer laughs maniacally.
Katharos looks up at his closest enemy "…Claude?"
"Feel the might of Grenth! The power I embraced over the light of Dwayna that I wasted my time using before!" Claude gloats before finishing off the agony of the Elementalist, who twitches as green vapor emanates from his paralyzed body. As the other party members continue to kill each others only to raise shortly after to jump back in battle, Musette gasps at the gruesome scene and hurries to Claude and Katharos. Suddenly, a deformed being of flesh and bones rips through the back of Katharos' coat, leaving only a blackened mass with green smoke raising from the oozing crater. Musette turns pale and speechless at the gory sight. The body vanishes slowly as the bone horror frolics around Claude before charging at Musette. She unleashes a ridiculously gigantic fireball on the horror and Claude as she cries out "YOU'RE CHEATING!"
Claude falls down burned to a crisp and the horror is swallowed by the earth. She hears a groan from her shrine and turns around with a smile. She rushes to Katharos, who is rubbing his back with a puzzled look.
"Damn, that hurt so bad… I got any piece missing?" he asks her.
Musette hugs him tightly and cries on his shoulder. He hugs her back slowly and asks concerned "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
Musette sniffles "I… I thought you were gone… you were all black and creepy looking and that thing got out of you…"
Katharos edges back slightly, enough to be able to face her and look deep in her eyes "I'm fine, it's just training… I'm sorry… I was careless."
Musette gazes back as her crystalline tears roll down her cheeks around her sweet smile "I love you Katharos…"
He leans closer to her as she closes her eyes softly and he whispers "I…"

A tremor interrupts the moment and everyone except Stefan, using his stance, stumble down. The once blue sky is invaded with red and black streaky clouds. The ground continues to shake and most recruits panic, seeking a shelter in the falling city. Tydus opens the gates of the training ground quickly as Rurik rushes away out of Ascalon City.
"Hurry! Forget about training! It's time to survive whatever is falling on us!" Tydus orders.
Everyone rushes out of the training grounds, the Elementalists lagging behind as they are slower at getting back to their feet. Musette squeals as a Flare hits her.
"Musette!" Katharos immediately casts an healing spell on her and turns around quickly to the hostile Elementalist.
"What the fuck are you doing!? Training is over!" Katharos yells pissed.
"You… I have a score to settle with you for humiliating me!" The other Elementalist says.
"Now's not the time! We have to go now!" Katharos shouts as he grasps Musette hand to run off.
Musette squeals again "HEY!"
Katharos gasps and turns to the other Elementalist "Why do you keep hurting her!?"
He laughs "If I hurt you, would you bother turning around? Fight now or I kill her."
Musette blinks "Is that you Orion?"
Katharos looks at him "Stupid bleach won't make you cooler, stop being a jackass now."
Orion hurls a Flare at Musette again, but Katharos casts Reversal of Fortune on her before she is harmed and she glows like a blue angel as the fire heals her.
Orion charges up another Flare, but Katharos tackles him mindlessly as his tolerance burned away. He strangles Orion with both of his gloved hands. Orion suffocates and struggles, but Katharos keeps pressing harder and harder on his weak throat.
"St…op…" Orion begs in his short breath.
Katharos only growls in his livid rage. His demented eyes twitches as he stares at the arrogant fucker who dared to hurt the incarnation of innocence he swore to himself to protect.

"Stop now! We have to go! Please stop!" Musette begs the struggling Elementalists. She gasps "Watch out!"
Before she can even turn to run, a giant blue crystal smashes into the ground, sending all three flying off in different directions, several feet away of each others. Orion lands through a wall, he groans and falls unconscious as a stone slips off onto his chest. Katharos gets on his knees slowly, dazed by the shock. He looks swiftly around him and panics as he doesn't see her.
"Musette!?" he calls out.
"I'm here!" she responds, nearly out of the Dork's view. She's standing, but she limps as she holds her leg with one hand.
"I'm coming! Hold on!" he shouts and stands up fully and sprints to her… until a burst of debris pushes him back on the ground.

He sits up with an achy back and turns pale quickly. Where the sweet Musette once stood for the last time, a gigantic pile of blue crystals glimmers in the dust.

"MUSETTE!" he screams and rushes to the crystal, attempting to see through it to find her alive, in vain. He slams his hands on the solid crystal yelling her name, he pushes on it with all the strength he can gather in his fragile frame. He keeps hitting on the crystal with his fists and continues even as his fingers crack and bleed, soaking his gray gloves in dark red. He yells in agony before slumping at the bottom of the crystal, holding his face as his eyes swell in burning pain. A faint blue spark shines from within the crystal, Katharos looks up slowly, hoping for a sparkle of life. The spark courses through the crystal like a bouncing lightning bolt. He places his broken hand on the crystal and leans closer trying to see what it might be. The blue bolt strikes his palm, he screams in pain as it courses through his own body before settling into his chest. Katharos collapses, twitching as small blue sparks erupt from him repeatedly.