Post by waybig1010101 on Mar 29, 2015 18:46:08 GMT
Chase was getting off the bus and starts to walk towards his destination. Looking around, Chase could see the city of London, and it’s dedication to recover from Taylor’s most recent prank, an extremely cruel and twisted prank. Chase was still a little tired from his last visit to England’s Capitol city. Chase didn’t know or understand the man behind the attack, but Chase was hoping he wasn’t ever going to have to deal with Taylor or his shenanigans again. Chase closely examines the building; some of them still had burn marks from the fire. These burn marks were like a symbol, or rather a signature, of the man behind all this suffering. The people are frightened of each other too; there was still this sense of doubt in their fellow man. People were going out of their way to insure that the closest person to them was at least 6 ft away. Anytime someone gets even in arms reach of another person, the two people would break away from the each other, running in opposite directions. This causes everyone else around them to panic, and they too would run around. Before long the panic would spread like wild fire, and the police would need to enforce a sense of safety back into London’s citizens. Even looking at the stories on the newspaper, they always have a title that references the destruction of the Swinging City.
Chase couldn’t help but to wonder, how one-person’s efforts could transform one of the greatest cities in the world, into a city ravaged with chronic fear and distrust. Chase didn’t know if this was a testament of how fearsome Taylor was, or how feeble minded was the general public. Chase didn’t really care about the conditions of the citizens, he came here to meet someone. It’s been a few days since he last saw him, but Chase was sure that he was still here. Chase finally stops in front of the building he’s been searching for and enters. Chase has never been inside the Wild Hunt’s base of operations before, but if it was the current home of the Huntsman, Chase couldn’t imagine it being a place of comfort and warmth, especially if it was run by a woman, who can tame the Huntsman. Chase walks up to someone behind a desk and asks, “Is the Huntsman here?”
Either the Wild Hunt needed more money or Eve was miserly. This showed well in the lobby, a spartan environment devoid of anything but a deeply scarred desk with a heavy book held by a side desk beside it and some equally scratched wooden chairs. At the back of the room was a staircase flanked by bookshelves. Behind the desk, littered with papers, sat a pink-haired teen. He instantly sat up and displayed a friendly grin. "I'm sorry sir, but Huntsman is currently on a mission. What is your need for our services?"
Chase looks around, surprise that the place wasn't as bad as he expected it to be. When the pink-haired teen informed Chase that the Huntsman wasn't here, Chase was a little annoyed. "Can you tell me where he is?" Chase didn't care if the Hunstman was on a mission. Besides with the talisman, Chase can teleport straight to his training location. Chase stares at the pink-hair teen, waiting for him to respond with the Huntsman's location.
Malcolm flipped through the papers on the desk. "He's in the-" "Sahara." A woman's voice called from up the stairs. "And not expected back for a week. Those sand worms are slippery bastards." She was a black woman, tall and with a generous figure covered by a white blouse and brown trousers, both looking oddly old-fashioned. A blue leather coat coated in internal and external pockets hung heavily to her knees. "Malcolm, it's against our policy to just hand out the movements of our operatives to random strangers. Forget again and I'll cut your pay." "Yes sir." Malcolm put the files back down and averted his gaze.
She turned her gaze to Chase, eyes moving slowly over him. "Hello. I am Eve, leader of the Wild Hunt. Now, what do you want Huntsman for, and can it be done by somebody else?"
Chase turns his head slowly to take a look at the woman real quick. On the outside she looks poweful, headstrong, and judging by Malcolm's attitude as well, she was in charge. Chase takes another look at her, but this time, Chase examines her soul. Chase could see that she wasn't human and in fact reminded Chase of the Huntsman's own soul minus one Demon God attact to it. Chase could tell by her personality that she was ambitious, hard working, strict, and dangerous, yet their was a softer side to her, that Chase could barly make out. Her tone of voice was a little off, almost as if her voice was a mixing pot of a bunch of different languages. If the Huntsman's out then I guess I might as well use his boss. Chase didn't want to waste time waiting for the Huntsman to finish his assignment, Chase needed to get his training over with as soon as possible. Chase closes his eyes and envisons his new tattoo on his arm. I need to get that mark off me as soon as possible, thought Chase.
"I need someone to help me out with an assignement." Chase didn't want to reveal that he didn't know what the training was or even mention that he needed help for his training. "I was going to get the Huntsman to help me, but I suppose anyone capable will be fine, so long as they aren't weak." Which Eve didn't look weak at all. In fact her appearance was emititing power. If someone can make the Huntsman afraid of them, then they must be strong. Chase walks around a bit, casually looking around. "So..." said Chase as he picks up a book, "...You think your strong enough to help me out?"
Eve almost laughed. Was this man trying to play her ego? He wasn't a very subtle one, was he? Not bad looking though. Light blonde hair, excellent musculature. Hm. Possible fringe benefit if he fought well. "Sorry, but you can't appeal to my ego. Try my wallet." She glanced at the book he was reading. Vampires of the world. Hm. No, too much of a tan.
Chase gives her a quick smile, she's pretty blunt. Chase on the other hand didn't have money, but she didn't know that. "I hope we aren't having a misunderstanding here for what kind of assignment I need help with." Chase takes a closer look at the book before he puts it down and picks up another one. Chase keeps his eyes on the new book as he asks, "As for payment, how much will it cost?" Chase's voice changes to carry some sarcasm in it when he follows up with another question, "Do you charge by the hour?"
"No, not by the hour. Simply by how much the client can afford. But I don't do charity work. Ammo isn't cheap you know." She couldn't get a gauge on what that would be. That suit looked nice, but it might also be the only one he owned. She knew something about always wearing the same clothing. Her eyes again followed the book. Blank cover. No idea what it was. "I'll have to know your name to make you a library card."
Chase puts the book down, and looks back at Eve. "The name's Halwende Chase, but most people just call me Chase." Chase starts to think up some ideas to pay for the job. Smith. No he is still mad at me for spending a fortune on a custom made bar. Chase thinks for a bit longer before he says, "Okay, I guess I got to confess and come clean about something." Chase walks up to Eve and says, "I'm not the real client here. I work for this big guy and he gave me a task that I need help with." Chase was telling the truth so far, but he wasn't done speaking yet, "The fat man is pretty rich and promise me a reward for doing something for him. Now, I'll be willing to split the profits with you. Let's see... I get 70% and you can get 30%. How does that sound? I'm pretty sure the money you'll get, will not only let you restock on ammo, but you can probably have enough cash left over to make this place immaculate, or you can just get a new place with a better view; regardless, Its really up to you to decide how to spend your fortune."
"Ah, Chase. The one my second in command wants to fuck, meaning you can't be all bad. He has a taste for those too good for him." She was mildly amused when Chase walked up to merely admit he wasn't the real client. "Hardly a bad thing. Somebody with money is in no way objectionable, and the rich are often embarrassed to directly come to us. No as for the shares, I think you will find them negotiable. However, that's later, because first you will pay for the trip. If your master is rich, he can afford a teleportation scroll."
Chase had to hold in a baby barf when Eve said the Huntsman wanted to fuck him. Guess that explains the outfit that the Huntsman was wearing a few nights ago. Chase mentally shakes off the nightmare of the Huntsman in bed, showing almost no signs of reacting to Eve's Huntsman mention, and says, "Don't worry about the trip. It's already covered." Chase pulls out the talisman from his pocket and holds it in front of Eve. "We can use this to go straight to the assign location. So whenever your ready to leave, we can be there any second now." Chase makes a mental note, that at some point he has to tell the Huntsman that they were just friends. Wait friends? When did I start considering him to be a friend? Chase looks confuse for a moment, but quickly recovers his composure. Chase didn't have time right now to question himself.
Eve couldn't conceal a smirk. She could see the tiny pause in his words even if his expression was unchanged. "Oh come off it. You're hardly alone in his affections. If you're in the slightest bit pretty or handsome, he's all over you. I dated him. I know. It's not that terrible." She gave the talisman a long look. Interesting. She'd love a teleporting object. She'd save so much on the single use scrolls she had to use currently. "Very well. I'll at the very least take a look at the situation. Malcolm, hold the fort down. If anything comes up, call Ashley, or wait for my return if you don't think it's a solo job." She put a hand on the medallion. "Alright, let's go."
Chase didn't respond at all this time to the Huntsman comments, but he had to ask, "Dated? So the two of you aren't together anymore."
Chase felt sorry for whoever was the Huntsman's next target, then Chase quickly realize, that he was on the Huntsman's list. Shivers went down Chase's spine. "Anyway, If your ready, let's go." A few moments past, before Chase looks at Eve, and says, "Also, I should mention, that I have no idea how to use this thing." Chase was hoping that the talisman who activate as soon as Chase needs it to work, but that didn't seem to be the case. "Perhaps something in here can help us figure it out." Chase looks at the medallion and sees something glowing inside of it. What is that? Chase could feel it calling to him. Chase moves his fingers over the talisman and the objects bursts into a blast of light that wraps around Chase and Eve until it forms a giant bubble with them inside of it.
The bubble pops, and Chase and Eve were smash together into a single point, before they disappear from the room. The next instant later, Chase and Eve found themselves standing on top of a hill overlooking a village in the middle of a forest or jungle. The village was mostly made of wood houses and tents, there was a few fire pits going on with villagers attending them. Some villagers were dancing around the fire pits, and others were eating meals in a circle near the fire pits. The dancers were chanting something over and over again. Suddenly, the light was fading and Chase looks up to see the sunset. Chase had no idea what was going on, and then noises erupt from the villagers as an elderly woman, dressed in tribal ritual clothes, emerge from the tallest tent of the village. The woman lifts a oddly shape stick with a animal skull attach to the top, and all the villagers stop what they were doing. They stood up still, waiting for the next command from the woman.
Chase looks around trying to see if he can spot his fatass mentor, but he couldn't sense him at all. Chase looks at Eve and says, "So how's the situation looking to you?" Chase then feels a presence, no not just one presence, but dozens of them. They was inhumane and dark, and surrounding the village. Chase looks back to see the Elderly woman throwing dirt and mud at her people. For the people that got hit in the face, they remain where they were standing, but the ones that got hit in the chest, they move towards the forest. Moving right towards the evil presence that Chase was feeling. When the first person finally reaches and vanishes in the forest, his disappearance was followed by loud snapping sounds that was accompanied by other terrifying noises. A few moments later and Chase feels the villager's soul enter his body. A couple more seconds later and the other bodies, with mud on their chest, enter the forest and their souls enter Chase.
Chase then hears yelling from another direction. Chase turns to see another village, that was very similar to the village in front of them in terms of structure, yet there was one big difference. In the second village, there was men dress in warrior outfits, fighting against giant wolves. They were so big, that they could eat full size men in a few bites. The village men in the second village tried their best, but they were no match for the monster wolves. Some of the wolves even broke into some houses and tents, where they fest on entire families. The Second village was too far away for Chase's Black hole soul, but Chase didn't need his spiritual powers to realize that the second village was experiencing a supernatural massacre.
Chase knew what has happen. His mentor decided to place Chase in a dangerous location to test and study him. Chase then talks to Eve, "Any ideas on what we should do in this situation?" Chase didn't feel obligated to save anyone, but at the same time, if this was really part of his training, then maybe he needs to go to one of the villages. Is deciding which village to go to a part of the test? Chase didn't like this at all, which made Chase hate his mentor even more.
________________________
In the next village over, a tall blond woman walked authoritatively into the village. Her two pistols kept in their holsters on her waits, the woman begins to scan the village for anyone she could speak to. Now where can I find someone with authority around here?
Earlier...
"Evil plant-life? And you are saying there are some people who think I have something to do with it?" Aria Miyata asks, folding her arms across her chest and staring at her employee reading the report. "Yes ma'am! Your plant manipulation is becoming well known among the hidden world, President Miyata. So there is speculation that you might be involved with these murders. Should we send out an Enforcement squad to investigate the incident and clear your name, ma'm?" The employee asks, awaiting Aria's response. After thinking for a few seconds, Aria stands up from her desk and begins walking out of the room. "No, that won't be necessary. I will take this matter on personally, as it is my reputation being called into question here. Send a message downstairs to have a teleporter waiting for me in the next two minutes." Aria instructs, waiting for the affirmative reply before heading down the elevator into the teleporter room, where one going to Madagascar was waiting for her.
Stepping through the portal, Aria found herself right outside of a small village, with what appeared to be another village in the vicinity. Might need to question the people of that location as well afterwards. Just as she began to scan the village to look for anyone of authority to talk to...there came a loud howl coming from just outside the village. Did they raise dogs here? No, these were wild wolves...and they began attacking the villagers! "Everyone, get inside and close your doors!" Aria yells as she quickly pulls out her pisols and fires a volley of paralysis bullets at the wolves, attempting to incapacitate them on the slight chance that she'd need some of these creatures alive later. In the mayhem, Aria didn't notice the attack beginning in the other village, one that had trees attacking the villagers instead of wolves. Out of the corner of her eye...she notices a large figure in the distance. Why was this man simply standing out in the open when an attack is clearly going on in what appeared to be the place he lived?
_____________________
"We were together two days. Let's just say he's deficient in a few key features." Eve narrowed her eyes at Chase's revelation. "If you don't know how to use it, perhaps we should-" She stopped to study the bubble appearing around her and Chase. When they teleported, Eve immediately pulled away to survey her surroundings. Her face grew cold as she scanned the village directly below. She could hear the dreadful feeding noises from below when the villagers entered the forest. The old woman seemed to be in charge, but whether by magic or simple authority Eve couldn't tell.
Hearing noise from the other direction, she found the situation even worse in another village. The pack of giant wolves seemed to be unstoppable. Eve watched with an arm fly twenty feet away from its owner right before he was pinned down and disemboweled. Eve landed next to the arm and marched towards the nearest wolf, not missing a beat. In the other village, only some people were getting killed. Here, it seemed likely, given the size of the wolves, that they would kill most of the village if unchecked. Face cold, she stopped in front of the beast, its victim's intestines dangling from its jaws. She raised her hand and her arm unknit. flesh and fingers peeled away, revealing a cannon beneath. BANG.
Chase watches Eve as she jumps into action, and Chase simply follows her into the village with the monster size wolves. This isn't going to end well. Chase lands a few feet away from Eve, but as soon as his feet touches the ground, a small pack of wolves begin to circle Chase. Chase's reflexies kick in and he takes a fighting stance as soon as the wolves appear around him, while at the same time his equipment transfroms into their true form. As soon as Chase's equipment change occurs, the wolves attack Chase. There were five wolves in total with two of them coming from Chase's right side. Another two coming from Chase's left side, and finally one wolf attacks Chase from the front. Chase throws his chain at the wolf in front him, and the chain warps around the wolve's mouth, preventing the animal from attacking Chase with it's vicious teeth. Chase quickly slides underneath the first wolf to avoid the other wolves' attempts to consume Chase. As Chase was underneath the wolf, he delievers a quick stabbing strike with his sword into the wolf's chest. Even with the chain around the large animal's mouth, one could still hear a loud mosterous growl coming from the wolf's throat. Chase springs back up as soon as he was a few feet pass the wolf.
The other wolves quickly face Chase and attack him. Chase was able to raise his shield in time to protect himself from one of the wolves. The force of the wolf's body slamming into Chase's shield was so strong that it sent Chase flying backwards into a small wooden tent. The tent Collaspes as Chase's body smashes right through it. Chase tries to get up, but before he gets a chance, one of the other wolves bites down on one of Chase's leg and starts shaking it's head violently. Chase is thrown in all directions, but thankfully his armor was able to stop the wolf's sharp teeth. Chase tries to attack the wolf with his sword and shield, but Chase didn't get the chance. The other wolves lunge at Chase, and Chase uses his sword and shield to fend of the other wolves.
_____________________
The wolf lunges at Eve and the cannon fire goes through it's entire body. By the time the wolf's body hit the ground, it was in sloppy pieces of meat. The other wolves notice the arrival of Eve and Chase, and some even stopped attacking the villagers, and instead focus their attention on the more interesting prey. A few wolves rushes at Eve, coming from every direction, The wolves were competing with each other to see which one of them will land the killing strike.
Meanwhile, other wolves attempt to attack Aria, but their numbers were decreasing at an alarming rate. The wolves study Aria and their survival instincts kick in. The reaming wolfs run away from Aria's position as fast as their legs could take them. The wolves let out a huge battle cry and suddenly out of the forest emerge a wolf that was bigger than all the others by a considerable size. This wolf was so massive that it could probably eat an entire family with their tent in one bite.
The giant wolf releases a mighty howl that was so powerful that the surrounding area felt like it was being visited by a hurrican for a few seconds. When the giant wolf's battle cry ended, a large number of wolves start emerging from the forest. The numbers were ranging in the hundreds, and each wolf that emerge was more than twice the size of the first invasion of wolves. These wolves were easily big enough to eat an entire person with one bite. What had happen was that the adult wolves had sent out their children first in order to help them gain experience, but when they heard the battle cries, the adults of the pack decided to engage in the battle. All the wolves stare at the people remaining in the village, waiting for their leader's next command. As the adult wolves waited, the remaining children wolves stop what they were doing, and go back into the forest. Even the wolves attacking Chase just stop and leave. The wolf releases Chase from it's mouth and disappears into the forest.
Chase walks over to Eve with a fracture leg and says, "I hope you got a bigger cannon."
________________________
Chase's mentor, Tsuyoshi Osamu, remains quiet during this sudden development, and the only movement that he makes is when he strokes beard. Hmmmm, I'm surprise that the children already asked their parents for help. The monk looks at Aria and studies her for a bit. She must the reason for the children's plead for help. Who would have guessed that someone of her caliber was going to show up? Well i suppose it's a good thing. Maybe now Chase won't have to spend a month or two dealing with this issue. The monk looks up at the pack leader and strokes his beard one more time as he debates with himself as to what course of action to take. The monk eventually decides to just wait and see what happens.
_________________________
Aria continued to silently fire away at the wolves, taking them out one by one with paralysis bullets. Strangely enough, the wolves had begun to retreat away from her, seemingly following the orders of a rather large wolf that had just reared it's head into the matter. Oddly enough, there now appeared to be hundreds of larger wolves at the edge of the treeline, making sure that the younger wolves got out safely. Looks like their leader has finally shown up. They don't appear to be attacking yet, so perhaps the leader can be reasoned with.
Putting away her pistols, Aria authoritatively walks to the edge of the village, staring the giant wolf directly in the eyes. "Giant wolf! Your kind has committed a heinous massacre today, murdering dozens of people from this village. I do not tolerate the murder of innocents, but I am also not unreasonable." Staring at the giant wolf with a look of cold professionalism, Aria continues. "Cease these attacks, and bring forward everyone responsible. Resist, and the price you'll pay will be much higher. What is your decision?" Being a wolf, Aria figured that it wouldn't know who she was even if she mentioned that she was president of the HWIC, so she didn't bother to mention it. Her hands were resting at her side, ready to draw her pistols should the giant wolf choose to send it's forces at the town once more.
_________________________
"I hope you got a bigger cannon." "No, not really. Now hold still and let me bind your leg." She said without a hint of worry, either over the new wolves or Chase's safety. Her fingers extended and searched through the wreckage of the tend Chase had been hurtled into. Finding a suitably shaped stick, she swiftly lashed it to Chase's leg with pieces of cloth from the same tent. Taking full advantage of the respite, she grabbed a bag of gunpowder from a pocket in her coat and poured it into a slot that willingly opened on her cannon's top. Sealing the bag when she was satisfied with the amount, she fished a new cannonball from a different pocket and loaded it. Now to see if she'd get to use it.
Chase didn't understand why, but for some reason he couldn't heal himself from the damage done by the wolves. Chase looks back at the wolves and respond to Eve, " You think you got enough gunpowder for all of them?" Another thing that was annoying Chase, was that he couldn't see their souls, then it hit him. "The wolves are sprits." Chase didn't understand. Chase knew that spirits were usually immune to physical substances, and yet they were damage by physical weapons. Chase looks back to see the wolf that was blown into pieces by Eve. It was weird. Chase could feel the soul energy entering him, but not the actual soul itself. Chase knew something was up, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
________________________________________
As Aria gave finish her talk to the leader of the pack, the Wolf leader turns its head and gives a slight nod to a few other wolves. The wolves sprint into action with blinding speed. No regular human could hope to follow the wolves by the naked eye. The wolves rush inside the village, and retrieve the bodies of their paralysis children. Once they had their children, the wolves return to forest. The wolf leader then lowers its head, in order to get a better look at Aria. Trying to sense her fear, but she had none to be found. The wolf leader moves its eye towards Aria, until the wolf leader's eye, which was as big as Aria herself, was only a few feet away. The massive wolf stares at her for a few moment before examining her with his other eye. Again, the wolf leader sense no fear from her. The wolf then sniffs Aria, and as the giant wolf inhales, Aria's hair moves violently towards the wolf, but her feet remain on the ground.
The Wolf leader was curious about the small creature in front of it. The wolf didn't fear Aria and Aria didn't fear the wolf. The wolf didn't know who was the creature in front of it, but it was already impressive enough to earn the wolf's respect. The wolf stands up on it's back legs and lifts it's front legs. The wolf then launches his front legs towards the ground with such speed, that each paw was followed by an intensive sonic boom. The wolf aim was around Aria, and the wolf keeps it's eyes on Aria, trying to spot a reaction, but she didn't even flinch a muscle. The Wolf stop it's paws before they hit the ground, and with amazing grace the wolf stands upright, and gave a mightly howl. The rest of the wolves follow their leader's example and release their own howls.
A few moments pass after the wolves howl before the wolves begin to disappear from sight, except for the wolf leader. The wolf leader did not leave it's spot until the last wolf was gone from the village's boarder. Once the last wolf vanish, the wolf leader quickly snaps at it's own body, and pulls out a single hair. The piece of hair was about as long as a person's arm, and the wolf drops it in front on Aria. The wolf then waits for Aria's respond.
_______________________________
Osamu silently watches the scene unfold in front of him. He was already fascinated by Aria's skill, but her presence was truly noteworthy. Osamu fold his arms and continues to watch. Wondering if Aria will be able to react correctly in this situation.
______________________________
"No. But I'm well armed. I'll find something to slaughter the rest with." Eve was watching Aria more intently than the wolves now. Who was this woman? "The wolves are spirits." She glanced back at Chase in surprise. Normally she hated spirits. Of course, normally they were impossible to shoot. This was preferable. "Elaborate."
______________________________
Aria stood firm as the wolf began to look at her, only becoming slightly amused by it's attempt to intimidate her by pretending to slam it's front paws down to the ground at her sides. Such tactics were akin to the countless number of cases where criminals would try to intimidate Aria by threatening to kill innocent bystanders, her employees, her siblings, or herself in general. Though instead of threatening her out of cowardice, this wolf appeared to be testing her to see if it should respect her or not, a test that she clearly won when the rest of the wolves began to wander back into the forest. Curiously, the wolf snapped at it's own body and ripped off a strand of it's fur...placing it on the ground next to Aria.
Nodding, Aria reaches up to her head and plucks out a strand of her own blond hair, placing it on top of a nearby rock for better visibility. Hopefully reciprocating the gesture would indicate mutual respect between the two leaders...but she was unsure of the correct response due to not being versed in the behaviors of wild animals. Her expertise lay with humans.
______________________________
"Elaborate" Chase was about to respond, but was suddenly cut off by Osamu, who just appears right behind Eve, saying with a giant smile, "Allow me to elaborate." What!? I didn't even sense his presence at all! thought Chase. Chase should have been able to felt his presence, but again Osamu had a talent for masking his spirit presence, and his actual presence if he wanted to. Chase looks at his mentor, and says, "So, you finally show up huh. Well you took your sweet time you fat-" Chase was suddenly sent flying through a few more tents with a simple palm strike from Osamu. Osamu strokes his beard as he looks in Chase's direction, "I thought I told you to call me Master, and speak to me with a respectable tone!” Osamu sighs heavily and face palms himself, “What I’m I going to do about those manners of your Chase.” Osamu shakes his head slowly a few time times before he looks back at Eve.
“You see, those wolves come from another dimension, a rather more spiritual dimension. In their world, the concept of a body, mind, and spirit doesn’t exist per say. Just the spirit and mind exist for the residents of the world where they come from. Well there are a few more components behind what makes them up, and even how their minds and spirits are a bit different from the typical spirits and minds of residents of this world, but I rather not go over unnecessary information. Just understand that it isn’t a problem for them because their spirit is in fact their own body in a way; however; a problem does occur when they enter a physical realm or dimension, such as this one. Their spiritual bodies revert into a state where they have a combination between a physical and spiritual form, which is unnatural for them. This in-between state of a physical and spiritual body are not balance by each other, and it is abnormal for these beings with natural spiritual bodies to possess a physical body. This unbalance state causes them to become much weaker than they would be in their natural environment. I have seen these wolves in their natural bodies before, and I can roughly guess that since they converted to this in-between state, that the wolves have roughly become 10 times smaller, and more than hundred times weaker in their overall stats since they got here.”
As Osamu finishes his last sentence, Chase finally gets up from his mentor’s palm strike, and lifts himself up. As Chase places his feet on the ground, he notices that his bad leg was completely healed. Chase throws a quick kick with his previous fractured leg, and the force of his kick breaks Eve’s binding materials. Chase then walks back over to Osamu and Eve. Osamu examines Chase’s leg with a simple glance and says, “So, even with their bodies in this state, they can still use their special ability huh.” “What special ability?” asks Chase. Osamu looks back at the wolf leader and says, “Those wolves have a special aura around their teeth and claws, which have an ability to render any target’s healing factor useless, and prevent whoever or whatever gets hit with them to be unable to heal the wounds cause by their claws or teeth. The aura is so strong that they don’t even need to hit you directly with their claws or teeth as you can tell by how your leg was unable to heal Chase, even though you had your armor on. Any damage that is caused by their teeth or claws; regardless, if they make direct contact or not, can not be healed by the person damaged by the attack.” “Then how did my wound get healed?” asks Chase. “Well you see Chase, their ability only prevents the person that was affected by their attack to be unable to heal the wound, the wound can just simply be healed by someone else.”
Chase looks at the giant wolf and asks, “What is the wolf doing now?” Osamu looks the hair, and says with a chuckle, “The wolf is proposing to the blond hair woman over there. It’s fine. all she needs to do is accept the hair out of respect, so long as she doesn’t give her own hair back then she should be okay.” “And what happens if she gives her hair to the wolf?” asks Chase. “Well, then she accepts the proposal and gets engaged to the wolf.” said Osamu.
____________________
The wolf looks at Aria, and sees that she pulls out her own hair and leaves it in front of it. The wolf starts to become excited by this return of mutual understanding, and its tail begins to wag violently. The tail wags so fast, and due to its size, the tail actually hits a few trees behind the wolf out of the ground. The wolf gently licks Aria, and leaves her dripping in drool. Afterwards the wolf leaves to join the rest of its pack in high sprits. The giant wolf lets out more more howl, before disappearing in the background. The wolf's hair that was near Aria begins to glow silver and flies towards Aria. The hair warps itself around Aria's wrist, and transform into a beautiful silver bracelet.
_____________________
Eve paid careful attention to the explanation of the wolves. So they were weaker here. Then why did they come? She couldn't really ask them, could she? Then her mask of indifference was broken by the slight curl of her lips right at the corner. She practically skipped over to Aria. "Oh, you lucky wife of a bitch. So few of us can draw the eye of the alpha male. May I venture that tonight he'll make you howl?" Her eyes danced with delight. "Anyway, I have another village to handle. Be sure to toss the garter over there." With a flourish of her coat like it was a great heavy cape, she bounded up the cliffside.
_____________________
Sighing, Aria summons a small towel made out of soft plant fibers and begins wiping the drool off of herself. Such a large animal, but it acts like a common house dog. How quaint. Strangely enough, she is approached by a rather strange woman just as she finishes wiping the drool off. Just what on Earth was she talking about, was she suggesting that Aria was going to have sexual relations with a wolf? That woman must be on some type of drug. Looking over, Aria sees two males staring at her, not looking terrified like the rest of the villagers. Perhaps she should start her investigation there first.
Walking over to Chase and his mentor, Aria takes out her HWIC badge and shows it to them. "Aria Miyata, president of the Hidden World Intelligence and Containment organization. I'm here to investigate rumors of plant-life killing the people in this area. Do either of you have any information on this matter?"
_____________________
Chase looks at Aria, then her HWIC badge. Chase didn't know how to explain any of this, so he decided to let his mentor explain. "Listen. I don't know what's going on, but if you want answers, then search no further." Chase then casually points at his master with his thumb and says," This guy can probably tell you everything you need to know. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go follow that crazy woman going up the cliff." Chase casually walks after Eve, and looks backwards to check out Aria. She's Strong, thought Chase.
Osamu looks down at Aria, and then the silver bracelet. I'm surprise that she is able to even make a contract, let alone survive such a powerful contract as well. She must be gifted, and very strong in both body, mind, and soul to be able to pull that off. Usually people will be in massive amount of pain, but she doesn't even feel a thing. Maybe I should teach her instead of Chase. She has so much more talent for Soul Familiars then he does, but again Chase has far more potential. Osamu looks at Aria and with a big friendly smile he asks, "So what do you wish to know, President Miyata?"
__________
In the another village pass the hill, the villagers were in rows with the old woman, who was dressed in an unique outfit, still throwing mud at them. After a couple of mud throws, another villager would be sent to the forest, which was quickly followed by some truly terrible and horrible noises that could scar an innocent person for the rest of their life. No one in the village was spared from the ritual. There were both elderly and children in the rows, and every so often, a child would be sent to the forest. Whenever this happen, the child's mother would usually attempt to offer herself in the place of her child, but she wasn't allowed to switch with her child because it would go against the rules of the ritual. If the mother tried to go crazy, she was pulled to the side, and killed for disrespecting the ritual and threatening the wrath of the forest spirits.
___________________
Eve breached the top of the ridge and observed the situation below. Her head tilted as a man entered the forest and horrific noises reached her ear. Hm. That needed to stop. A second later she struck the ground at the edge of the clearing in a three point stance, coat flowing around her to drape on the ground. She rose, cannon arm casually raising to the elderly woman's chest. "Nobody is stepping one foot in this forest. I will personally break your legs if that's what it takes to make sure you stay put." She stayed rooted to the spot, waiting for a reaction from the non English-speakers she just spoke to in English.
__________________
"Crazy woman indeed..." Aria mumbles as Chase ran off to join Eve. Was she his girlfriend or something similar? Regardless, Aria actually had a useful person to talk to now. "Miss Miyata is fine. I wish to know a few things...but let's start with the obvious one. Do you know anything about the plant-life that have been allegedly killing villagers around here? That is my main mission here, but if these wolves are in any way related to the matter, I am willing to hear you out on that topic as well." Aria states, studying Osamu as she talked. He seemed much too friendly for a man whom had just seen dozens of people from what she assumed to be his village be slaughtered by wolves. Had she seen this man earlier as well? She could have sworn she had seen that beard somewhere earlier this day.
_________________
Chase walks into the village to see Eve already threatening the woman in charge of the ritual. Nice. Someone who gets straight to the point, thought Chase. Chase goes up to Eve and says in a sarcastic tone, "So, what's the plan? We teach them how to speak and understand english?" The villigers had no idea what was going on. They never seen anything like Eve's cannon before, and they also never heard the words she was speaking to them with. The villagers start to panic and begin to yell in a language Chase didn't understand. If Chase could undertsand them, it still wouldn't help. The villagers were just yelling random sentences, usually involing them either asking the woman in charge what was going on or asking the tree sprits to help them. The villagers look at each other in confusion, but the old women in front of everyone remains calm. She knew that she had offered the tree spritis enough human sacrifices to ensure their protection for the night.
As Chase was standing next to Eve, he suddenly felt a spiritual impluse. Where did that come from? Chase looks around, Its coming from every direction, but its so close... THATS IT! It's coming from the... Suddenly a massive tree like hand erupts from the ground, and grabs Eve. Chase rolls out of the way of another giant tree hand, which would have grab Chase if he didn't sense the danger a split second sooner. Chase quickly gets back on to his feet, and looks at his previous location. The tree hand that was suppose to grab Chase continues to break the earth until an entire arm appears. The arm then reaches down and pushes against the ground. The ground surrounding the village slighty shakes as the rest of the hand's body emerge from the earth. Once the entire body was out of the ground, the giant tree monster relaeases a nasty sound from it's body. The villagers at once begin to bow down to the tree creature. Chase on the otherhand, transforms his equpment into their true forms, and prepares for his next fight.
Chase studies the tree monster in front of him. It was a weird mixture of actual trees parts, which are enhance with natural spirit enegry. Chase lifts both his sword and shield, and he slowly approaches the monster in front of him. The creature was truly a friengthing sight to a normal person, but for Chase, this was just a typical tuesday. Chase looks at Eve, who was still in the creature's grasp, but Chase figures that Eve will probably be able to break free easy enough, in fact she was in a good position to deliever a finishing blow. Chase studies the creature's spiriual center, and the source of it's power. Chase looks at the vines on top of the creature's head and the rocks that they were carrying. Each stone contain more spiritual energy than the rest of his body. Chase calls to Eve in another sarcastic tone, "Hey Eve, I don't want to rush you or anything, but whenever you get the chance, can you aim for those stones attach to the vines on top of his head?"
The creature grabs the closest tent with a single hand, and with as much effort as a person picking up a pebble off the ground and throwing it, the cretaure lifts the tent and hurls it right at Chase. The tent is moving through the air as fast as a car during a high speed chase, but that wasn't going to be able to hit Chase. Chase quickly dodges the tent with a quick ducking motion, and the tent continues to fly until it smashes againt the ground behind Chase. Chase then charges the monster in front of him, but the creature reacts to Chase's charge, and swings it's massive arm at Chase. Chase had no choice but to step back a few feet to avoid the attack. Damn, it's faster than I thought it was.
_____________________________
Osamu strokes his beard again, and takes a second to think how much should he reveal to Aria. If she is going to be helping Chase, then I suppose I can tell her as much as I plan to tell Chase. "Alright, Miss Miyata. I'll tell you. The plant life here is killing people, and so are the wolfs that you just seen. The reason is because the wolfs are here, a place where they don't belong. The wolfs' presence has cause the natural spirit balance of this forest to shift, and the tree spirits are being directed and corrupted by that unbalance to act the way they are currently acting." Osamu then looks into the direction of the village where Eve and Chase were at. "Oh, Speak of the Devil, it seems the tree spirits have become more active." Osamu takes a split second before he decides to ask, "Miss Miyate, can you accompany me to the next village over. Also I ask that you don't help assist those two in their current battle if possible."
_____________________________
Eve found herself legitimately surprised by the hand bursting from the ground, clenching her tightly in mighty fingers. She felt her internal metal beginning to dent in as she raised her cannon. "No need for the sarcasm..." She gasped as her lungs were crushed. There was a mighty burst of sound, and ten pounds of iron were hurtling for the first hovering stone. She lost a few inches of waist. Dammit, she liked her figure. This just grew worse as her chest flared into a fleshy flower, exposing an array of guns and a blowtorch slightly beneath them. A modified blowtorch. A gout of flame that put the average flamethrower to shame burst free through the fingers that caged her. Either it let go or saw what happened when the fire ignited her as well and reached the six loaded pistols in her chest.
______________________________
The wolf spirits are corrupting the tree spirits, which are in turn attacking the villagers? Then the solution to this situation would be to remove the wolf spirits from the area, thus restoring balance to the forest. Before she could inquire more about the wolf spirits, Aria overhears the giant tree monster in the next village emerge and let out a sickening roar. "Miss Miyate, can you accompany me to the next village over. Also I ask that you don't help assist those two in their current battle if possible." She overhears Osamu say to her.
"Why do you wish for me to refrain from fighting? Are you trying to test the woman and man down there?" Observing the area, it appeared as if the slaughter of villagers has stopped. "...I suppose I can stay out of this as long as they manage to minimize the casualties of this battle."
______________________________
Once the cannon hits the floating stone, the stone smashes into a bunch of little pieces. The tree creature roars in pain, and let's go of Eve. The tree creature starts to stumble backwards, but it only takes a few seconds for it to shake off the pain, and regain it's balance. As the creature was moving back, Chase makes his move. Chase combines his chain around both his sword, shield, and body, which creates Chase's unique "nunchuck" fighting style. Chase then hurls the shield with the chain now attach to it, and commands the chain to swing in a circle around the monsters neck. The shield wraps around the tree ctretaure's neck, and returns to Chase. Now the tree creature had the chain around it's neck, Chase was ready to make his next move.
Chase commands the chain to pull him, while Chase pushes off the the ground as hard as he can to increase his momentum. Chase rockets towards the creature, but wasn't aiming to ram into him, instead Chase was aiming for it's power source, the floating stones above it's head. As Chase moves past the creature's head, the giant tree monster realizes Chase's aim. and quick grabs the chains, and begins to swing them. This causes Chase to start swinging above the creature's head. Faster and faster in a circular motion, Chase travels until the creature decides to pull the chains down, attempting to smash Chase, but Chase was waiting for this moment. Chase quickly commands the chain to bend at the midway point. When the creature pulls the chain down, Chase is sent flying towards the top of the creatures head, where Chase uses both his sword shield to detroy two more of the creature's stones.
The Creature however doesn't roar in pain like last time, and quickly grabs the chain to pull Chase in. As Chase is being pulled, the creature launches a fist at Chase. Chase's commands the chain to bend again, and this time the chain acts like a playground swings, causing Chase to move around the fist, and as Chase avoids the punch in mid air, he commands to chain to transform back into it's belt form in Chase's hand. Chase drops straight down, and as soon as Chase's feet touch the ground, Chase pushes backwards to avoid the creature's strike. The creature's punch comes inches of flattening Chase, and even though Chase avoids a direct hit, the shockwave of the creature's punch still manages to send Chase flying.
______________________________
Osamu walks with Aria towards the village and continues their converastion, "Thank you for understanding, Miss Miyate, but I think your mistaken about a few things. First, I'm not testing the woman at all. The only reason for my being here is Chase. As his mentor, I decided to send him here so I can observe him like you said. I need to figure out how his abilities work as well as a few other things, so that I can train him with the most beneficial method possible for his current level. Also, as for the solution to this problem, one would need to restore the balance to this forest, but killing or removing the wolfs won't do that. Their presence did cause the corruption, but the corruption is it's own entity at this point, and that corruption is what is causing the unbalance to continue. I do agree that the wolf's presence is still an issue, but it would be worse to kill them. Their deaths here would cause even more corruption to be born, which could eventually spread throughout the entire country, perhaps even the whole world. "
_____________________________
Eve flipped like a cat in midair to land in a three point stance once more. Springing from this stance, she landed on and bounded off the monster's head with the force of a woman who weighed 220 pounds. Her cannon empty, she settled for a blade that emerged from her other arm. Edward had given her more than migraines and an itch. He had given her ideas. She swung the blade in midair, spinning to carve through the nearest vine. Using the momentum of her spin, she blasted a gout of flame across the top of the beast, hopefully igniting the rest of its vines. She didn't have the fuel to try that again.
_____________________________
"Miyata, not Miyate." Aria corrects as they approach the village. So killing the wolves would only make the corruption they caused worse? Looks like the best course of action would be to destroy the trees first, then deal with wolves second. Glancing at the silver bracelet around her wrist briefly, Aria looks back at Osamu.
"Understood. While we wait though, do you have any information on that large wolf I talked to earlier, or why it decided to give me this?" Aria holds up her wrist for Osamu to see the bracelet.
_____________________________
The creature releases yet another roar, but this time it wasn't trying to be intimidating at all. The roar was a direct result from the immense amount of pain that the tree monster was feeling from the flames on the top of its head. The giant tree creature begins to smash its on head into the ground, trying desperately to remove the burning sensation that it was experiencing. The creature repeatedly headbutts the earth under its feet, but after a dozen or so fail attempts, the creature decides to use a much more risky tactic to save itself. The creature grabs onto one of the rocks flying by its head, and with a single movement, the creature consumes the rock, which was one of its power sources. As soon as the creature swallows the rock, its eyes begin to glow bright green, and the creature unleashes another roar. This roar was different from all previous roars as it contains a combination of both power and suffering to it. It was as if the creature could not contain both it's excitement and agony from consuming one of it's power sources directly. The tree creature's body slowly begins to glow violently with a dark greenish aura. The flames on the top of the creature's head was soon blown away from the force of the creature's new power. The creature places both hands on the ground and prepares to charge at the person that caused the creature to use such a do-or-die move to save itself. The creature stares at Eve with it's eyes full of hate, and it's body shining with the its new hellish green blaze. The creature launches towards Eve faster than any normal human could ever hope to comprehend, and faster than anyone would think could be possible for the tree monster's body to move at. The tree creature raises both of its arms way above its head once it was within arm's reach of Eve, and proceeds to perform a double hammer fists strike, with the aim to create a gravesite where Eve was currently standing on.
Seconds before the creature eats one of its power sources, Chase was somehow able to land on his feet from the shockwave of the creature's strike. Chase looks up in time to witness Eve setting the creature's head on fire. As the creature was roaring in pain Chase thought to himself that victory was close at hand. As Chase was beginning to relax, the creature accomplishes it's desperate move to save itself. Once the creature performs another roar, Chase's relaxing nature disappears, which happens immediately as the creature begins to glow green. Chase charges at the creature, but was unable to reach the tree monster in time to intercept the tree creature's own charge towards Eve. Chase quickly reacts to the creature's surprising speed and throws his shield at the tree creature, which successful wraps around the creature's right arm; however, Chase is unsuccessful in his goal to stop the creature's movements. When the creature lifts its arm, Chase found himself being launch flying over the tree creature's head. Chase commands the chain to pull towards him in hopes of slowly the creature's double hammer smash, even if it was only able to slow the creature's blow by a fraction of a second. In the meantime, Chase prepares to strike downward with his sword. Chase's target is to destroy a few more power source rocks, as he was slightly worried about what would happen if the creature was able to eat even more rocks.
__________________________________
Osamu rubs the back of his head and laughs as he lightly apologizes to Aria. "Forgive me. You will find that I'm pretty bad with names from time to time." Osaka's face gets a tad bit more serious when Aria asks her questions about the wolf and it's silver bracelet. "As for the wolf itself, I could tell you many things about the species, but sadly i don't know much about that specific wolf. Besides...I think you rather know more about that silver bracelet than anything else, which I can tell you about. You see, the silver bracelet is a manifestation of a contract between the wolf and yourself. The contract could be seen as an agreement to aid each other, in other words, its a type of alliance between the two of you. For example, when you find yourself in need of assistance, you could use the contract to summon your ally directly towards you if the conditions are present. I won't go into too many specifics about conditions, especially since your contract was a typical contract without two many conditions being needed. Basically, you can consider the wolf to be a soul familiar, which you can summon at any time, so long as you have the energy needed to first summon the spirit familiar, and then the energy to sustain the spirit familiar's presence." Osamu then touches the silver bracelet with a single finger tip and the object begins to glow a bright blue. "Well the good news is that the contract itself isn't that strong between you too, so I'll be able to remove it at anytime; however, until the balance is restored, I recommend that you keep the contract for now. That way we can prevent the wolves from attacking any more villages, while at the same time we can monitor the wolves' actions as well."
As Osamu finishes his last sentence, the two of them arrive at the hill where Chase and Eve first appeared in the forest. From this viewpoint, Osamu and Aria could clearly see everything that was going on in the village in front of them, including the fight between Chase, Eve and the tree monster. Osamu studies the situation, while at the same time he makes a few small motions with his finger. Suddenly the ground underneath Osamu and Aria's feet was covered by a rather large and soft blanket. Osamu then sits down with his legs crossed in a relax position. Osamu pats a spot next to him, as an indication for Aria to sit next to him, and he says, "Now let us watch and see what happens."
_______________________
Eve crouched as she landed once more to check on her compressed waist. She had lost at least two inches, and unlike Huntsman couldn't just expand again at will. Her internal metal was bent out of shape and from the blood trickling down her chin, her innards weren't in good shape. Fortunate that she could fix that, although she'd have to wait until the adrenaline faded so she could feel what was damaged. She looked back up to see the creature devouring one of its floating stones. Considering that her strategy had been demolishing them, that was likely a move of desperation. And from that aura, it seemed like a good gamble.
As it charged, arms raised with the clear intent on smashing her, she considered her options. She wasn't strong enough to catch the arms. Chase was struggling to just slow them. He was pretty impressive regardless. She'd have to thank him and ask him where he got his gear. Jumping around again would tear her up more. Fine then. Path of least resistance. As the fists fell, she rolled forward, narrowly avoiding them. Stony shrapnel from the impact lacerated her back through her coat. Shit, she just got that fixed. Under the creature now, there was a moment of awe as she stood and found she fit comfortably under it. Damn this thing was huge. Without a loaded cannon, there was only one thing she could do. She readied her blade, aimed just under where its breastbone would be if it had bones, and threw the strongest punch she could muster.
________________________
Soul familiar? So that large wolf who commanded all of those smaller wolves is now able to be summoned to her at will? Perhaps this mission was going to be more profitable than she had thought possible for the location. Sitting down and crossing her legs, Aria monitors the battle raging in the distance. The tree monster appeared to have become much stronger after it ingested one of the floating rocks positioned above it's head. That must be the source of the creature's power, and fromthe movements of the two fighters, they figured it out as well.
Glancing back at Osamu, Aria tried to read his body language. Why was he intent on keeping her out of the fight, but has no problem with the other woman assisting his student? Did he think that the other woman wouldn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of the fight? So many unanswered questions. But while they waited, she needed to inquire about more relevant information.
"That tree. Are all of the tree spirits in the area akin to it in strength, and how many are we dealing with here? I noticed that there were hundreds of wolf spirits, so can you tell me anything of the other hostile force?"
______________________________
The tree creature's fists smashes into the ground, which cracks the terrain around the tree monster's body in all directions for a few dozen meters along with creating a decent size crater, that was large enough to store a few corpses, where the fists had made direct contact with the earth. The force of the attack also causes pieces of rock, dirt, and dirty smoke to erupt and cover the battlefield. Yet, as the tree creature is trying to spot it's target, it suddenly feels something piercing its chest. The tree creature stands fully upright without wasting a single second to react, and looks down to see Eve's sword inside the tree creature's body with Eve still holding onto the blade. The tree creature's right hand moves to grab and crush Eve, but before the creature could get a hold of Eve, the creature suddenly feels another wave of pain wash over its body. The tree creature begins to lose balance during this brief moment of pain. Chase jumps off it's head, and takes yet another swing to destroy a nearby glowing stone rock by him, and looks around to see if he can destroy anymore. Seven more to go, thought Chase. As Chase was in the air just a second ago, he made sure to count the number of power sources left to destroy and determine the best method to destroy as many as possible in a span of a few seconds while the creature's attention was on Eve. Chase looks down at Eve for a quick second to see her condition, Not great, but she can still be useful. Chase prepares to destroy one more power source, but suddenly a giant tree hand grabs Chase in midair before he could even touch the ground.
The tree creature begins to squeeze Chase with all its might, causing Chase's armor to be pushed to its limit. Even though Chase's armor was bending at certain places, it was still able to hold out. The tree creature then thinks of a better way to kill the man in its hand. With Chase still in its grip, the tree creature proceeds to smash Chase into the ground, over and over again. Causing even more cracks to form, which was followed by a new crater with rocks, dirt, and dirty smoke being created. The tree creature continues to hit Chase over and over again in the same spot, with every new hit making the crater slightly bigger and generating more and more rocks, dirt, and dirty smoke. Eventually the creature leaves Chase in the crater that the tree creature used Chase's body and his fist to create. As Chase is laying in the crater he tries to move his body, but finds that almost every bone in his body is broken. The tree creature lifts its arm and brings it down on Chase,. As the creature was preparing to crush Chase, Chase commands his body to heal thousands of times fast than normal, costing Chase a large sum of soul energy, while simultaneously Chase tells his shield to come back to him. Chase grabs his shield in time, and uses it to defend against the tree creature's attack. Chase was able to defend himself, but the tree monster doesn't stop at one strike, but instead begins to strike over and over again. Chase is able to use his shield to prevent the killing blow, or rather Chase's efforts were just delaying the killing blow. Chase's body once again begins to travel deeper and deeper into the earth.
_____________________________________
The monk doesn't look at Aria when he listens to her, nor does he look at her when he response to her in his light hearted voice, "Well......I'm not too sure, to be honest with you, I don't know that much about the exact details. The corruption could be following a certain pattern or it could be completely unorganized. But if I had to take my best guess, I would say that the tree spirits, that are currently controlling the tree monster you see before you, are probably stronger than most of the other tree spirits in this forest, yet if you compare it's strength to the forest's queen spirit-" Osamu's voice takes a more serious tone when he finishes this "-it would be like comparing the height of the shortest blade of grass to the height of the tallest tree in this world." Osamu begins to think about Aria's character, That woman takes every chance to build her knowledge and continues to judge the situation before her with a great skill of perception, and carries around a strong sense of justice at the same time. She doesn't waste her time or effort, and always keeps taps on her surroundings. She would be a priceless ally to have on the battlefield, and a dangerous enemy to face. But even so, I wonder if she is strong enough to face this forest's spirit queen, no she has to be strong enough.
"Miss Miyata" Osamu says in another playful voice, "Would you be alright with me asking you a question or two myself?" asks Osamu as he continues to watch the battle. Hmmm, i wonder if Chase is going to end up using that double edge sword of his, or perhaps that woman will save him instead. Osamu looks at the village and stares at the old woman, who had a big smile across her face while she stares at the sight of Chase being pulverize by the giant tree monster. Osamu continues to speak to Aria, "Also don't worry, I will continue to answer each question you have to the best of my knowledge, so don't think that if you refuse to answer any of my questions, would automatically mean that i will stop answering your questions."
____________________________________
Eve's feet flailed as she was lifted by the simple act of the creature standing up. Finding a foothold in the beast's chest, she shoved hard. Finding herself very suddenly freed, she hit the ground hard. Pain shot through her as her damaged internal armor was shoved into her ruptured organs again. She gasped and tried to stand, but only ended up falling back to her hands and knees. She puked blood. Oh god. Was she dying? She could so easily regenerate from this injury, but not with her armor crushing it. She stumbled to her feet, lips bloody, and prepared to open herself up.
Then she saw Chase, hiding from a crushing barrage. She wouldn't leave a comrade to die while she healed. Her darkening vision cleared and she lunged, once again showing agility that belied her weight. She let her momentum carry her just over the creature's head, slicing away the nearest vine, then as she dropped, grabbing onto its rocky face with her cannon arm, regrown to function as an arm. From her vantage point, she thrust her blade arm right at its eye, seeking to plunge as deep as she could.
___________________________________
Aria listens to Osamu's comparison between the tree they were currently watching and the queen spirit, her expression still unchanged from before. Could the queen spirit really be that powerful? If she was, couldn't she have simply came to this village sooner and wiped everyone out? Perhaps there is a deeper motivation behind these attacks than simply wanting food. Which begs another question; why would a tree, a tree spirit no less, need humans for food? They normally run off of only carbon dioxide, water and sunlight. They must need human sacrifices for something else, given the informed I have currently.
Glancing over at Osamu, she notices him staring at something in the distance. Following his line of sight, Aria notices the strange old lady watching the fight in front of them...a smile spread across her face. This woman was clearly enjoying watching these two get thrashed by the giant tree. Could she just be a sadist, or was she somehow connected to these creatures?
"Go ahead, ask me what you wish. As for my next one however...do you know anything about that woman over there? She appears to be enjoying watching the battle a little too much."
_____________________________
Chase was barely hanging on, with each blow causing him to lose a bit of consciousness. Chase knew he could not last for much longer, and was ready to resort to using his soul overdrive ability, but just before Chase unleashes his most powerful and dangerous ability, the man stops himself because he stops feeling anymore strikes coming from the Tree Creature. Chase, wanting to know the cause for this recent development, decides to slightly move his shield, so he could get a better view of what was happening in front on him. Chase sees the Tree Creature falling on its knees with Eve's entire arm disappearing inside its eye socket. The forest creature didn't look to be in pain from its most recent wound, but rather the tree golem looks more confused than anything else. The lost of half its sight, continues to perplex the monster as it reaches out with its arm, almost as if it was attempting to caught its missing sight. After a while of failing to regain it's stolen vision, the monster yells in utter rage. The giant wooden Creature stands up once more and begins to search for the nearest target to pound away with its newly discovered wrath, and the first person that the angry creature sees is Eve, right on his face.
The monster brings both of its massive hands to its face in an attempt to grab Eve. Meanwhile, Chase tries to stand up in an attempt to attack his opponent in front of him, while the monster's focus was on Eve, but Chase was unable to move his body properly. Chase was going to need to wait a bit before he was healed enough to properly fight again, but Chase doesn't have time to wait in this situation. Chase takes a deep breath and uses his own sword as a walking stick to help him get back up, while trying to ignore all the pain he was feeling from his head to his toes. As continues to stand up, he begins to grin his own teeth together from the amount of pain he was suffering from, while his body shakes uncontrollable due to his broken bones and torn muscles, yet Chase manages to finally stand up. Chase looks at the monster in front of him, takes another deep breath, and charges at the creature with his body roaring in agony.
________________________________________
Osamu doesn't respond right away to Aria's question. instead, Osamu continues to look at the old woman, then he touches a rock by his feet, before he lifts one hand, while tossing the rock in the air in front of himself. His hand stops around the middle of his chest, and a small black kanji appears in the air right in front of the palm of his hand. Switch. The Kanji is invisible to those who could not see the realm of spirits, but existed as a physical manifestation as well as spiritual one. For those who could see spiritual objects, they would be able to see the kanji glow in a bright blue color, in the same instant that the kanji's color changes, the old woman, who was standing in the village a moment ago smiling, appears right in front of Osamu and Aria. At the same time she makes her appearance in front of the pair, a blue sphere surrounds her, preventing her from escaping. As the kanji in front of Osamu's hand disappears, a new one immediately reveals itself, as if it was hiding behind the first kanji since the first kanji was created. The second kanji remains glowing in a bright blue light. Barrier. The villagers begin to panic as their most respected elder vanishes right before their eyes. One brave soul goes to examine the spot that the old woman was standing at just a moment ago, and couldn't find any traces of the elderly woman. All the villager saw was a rock sitting on the ground where the elder was just standing on.
The Elder begins hissing and yelling in a language that Osamu and Aria couldn't understand. Osamu waves his hand, and another kanji appears in front of him. Translate. As the kanji glows blue, the woman's words could be understood by both Osamu and Aria as if they were listening to her speak in their native tongues, yet that didn't help them comprehend what the woman was saying at all. The old woman was switching between a bunch of cryptic poems and prays, and the harshest threats, to pleads of assistance from her scared protectors. Osamu lightly says, "Well this might take a while." Osamu then says, "Anyway, my question for you is this. Are you willing to put your life on the line?" asks Osamu in a serious tone.
_______________________________
Eve found herself dangling from the monster's face, caged by massive hands reaching up to rip her free. She did their job for them as she yanked her arm out, examining for a moment the gravel that coated her arm before she jumped off to land on a boulder of a finger. Glancing down, she saw Chase struggling to even stand. He needed some support. Fortunately, a tendril had already fished a cannonball from her bag and was loading it. Before the fingers could close in on her, she jumped again, landing on the beast's cliff of a face once more. She leveled her cannon at its remaining eye. If this thing had a brain, this was a clear shot at it. If it didn't, this was just going to really, really, suck for it. She fired and let go, letting the momentum launch her away. She landed in what would have been a perfect three point stance if she didn't still have excess momentum and immediately tumbled for several more feet, coming to a stop in a tangle with her coat a few feet further away from the beast than Chase was.
_____________________________
Aria watches as Osamu teleports the elderly woman over to where the two were standing, and continues to observe as he proceeded to both capture and translate her speech...however ineffective the latter was. If this woman truly was connected to the tree spirits, perhaps this speech structure is how they manage to communicate between each other? Then again, it could simply be an instance of this woman having some sort of mental illness that prevents her from making coherent thoughts. Whichever the reason, their suspect was now captured.
Turning to Osamu, Aria stares at his expression for a second, then begins to answer in a similarly serious tone. "I am the president of one of the largest Hidden World organizations on the planet. Simply being in this position greatly puts my life on the line every day, as plenty of people would want me dead for how my agents and I interfere with their crimes against society. So to answer your question, yes, I have been willing to put my life on the line from the moment I set foot in this village." Looking back over at the elderly woman, she begins observing their captive. "Same question for you. Are you willing to risk your life for this village, should your student and his ally fail to stop them?"
___________________________
The Tree monster did not know what happen to it. All it saw was Eve pointing her arm at its eye, then suddenly the creature could no longer see when he heard the cannon fire go off. In complete confusion the tree creature begins to pat the ground, searching with his hands to see if he can find whatever he needed to see again. The poor monster grew more worried at each passing second it was searching, until its rage begins to take over. Another echoing roar soon follows the pounding of is massive fists hitting the ground. The tree golem's strikes begins to cause the ground to shake as if the area was experience a mini earthquake. It could have been out of anger or perhaps desperation, but the tree creature takes not one but two of its power sources, and forces them into his previous empty eye sockets. The power sources begins to glow intense and in the center a few distinctive circles begin to appear, which represent a new sclera, iris, and pupil. The tree monster's various vines begin to burn a dark green and its aura begins to burn almost pure black with dark green highlights, with little bright greenish ember bursting through the tree monster's aura. T
he Tree creature stares down at the person responsible for destroying his old eyes, and it charges straight at Eve. Moving faster than ever before, the tree creature breaks the nearby ground with each brutal step it takes. The Tree creature quickly swipes at Chase with an open palm, and since he wasn't in the best condition to avoid the attack, he was had very few options to protect himself from the attack. Chase lifts his shield just in time to protect himself from most of the force, but he still experiences every bone in his body break once more as he is sent a dozen meters from the spot he was at a split second ago. The tree monster then readies its next attack for Eve. Its aura becoming more and more massive, to the point that the aura begins to mask the Tree Golem in a dark greenish cloud in the shape of a even slighter larger monster. The Creature punches straight down at Eve with enough force to smash a monster truck size boulder to dust.
________________________
Osamu smiles at Aria's response and nods his head in approval of her character, but quickly goes numb in facial expression when Aria asks him if he was willing to risk his life. Osamu rubs his beard and stares at the ground trying to think how best to answer this question. Finally he just says in a straightforward manner, "My answer is not that simple, but to answer your question, I would not be willing to risk my life for this village. Yet, before you judge me, I want you to hear my explantation. You see, my goal here is to study Chase and to make the best training program to get the best results from him as quickly as possible, so this village has no significance to me in of itself in the grand scheme of things. I do care about the unbalance here however, and thus, I decided to give Chase this assignment, since I figure I might as well help these people out indirectly through Chase, while at the same time, this will provide to be the perfect situation to examine Chase. Now should Chase fail, I will no longer have a reason to be here. Yet, even if I wanted to help these people, it would be better if I stay out of it. The amount of effort I would need to clean this mess would be just enough to alert my enemies about my whereabouts. Believe me, when I say its better for you to wait for reinforcements to help settle this manner, than for certain people who are after me to came here themselves. The amount of corruption could result in a global crisis depending on who or how many of my rivals come here."
Osamu then looks up at Aria, and continues to say, "Now, I'm hoping that it does't come down to this, but should Chase fail, I suggest you gather your forces here and prepare a strike. In fact, you might want to gather your forces now if they can arrive here in time to help. I don't doubt your ability, but the top sprit will probably have some notable henchmen at her disposal. So, I suggest you try to gain the support of that new Wolf Familiar of yours and get it to use its authority to get its pack to assist you in the battle against the major force of this corruption here." Osamu then looks down to spot the most recent developments in Chase and Eve's battle. I wonder if I'll get to see that Soul Overdrive ability thought Osamu. The elderly woman then begins to pray and repeat the same phrase over and over again, "Lady of the Forest save me! Lady of the Forest save me!..."
______________________________
Eve coughed and blood splattered the ground. Okay, enough of this. As the monster shoved its power source into its eye sockets, Eve's torso opened up from her collarbone to her crotch. Beneath skin and muscle was an alloy resembling steel and in a shape resembling the armor of a knight. In the upper chest, an array of a half-dozen gun barrels stuck through, a blowtorch right beneath them. In her abdomen, the armor looked like the hood of a car after the Mythbusters got done with it.
Her cannon was once more wrapped in an arm as she reached for the damaged section with both hands. Her fingers dug into a gap created by the damage and yanked. A jagged scream tore through the air. Bright pain. Sharp pain. The lower armor tore away in two chunks. She gasped a ragged gasp like she was drowning and collapsed to her knees. Ruined intestines dangled to the ground, collecting dirt. She would laugh about how she always was a dirty girl if she wasn't busy loosing what stomach contents weren't escaping through the hole in her stomach. She willed it to close, and with a sound like rubber stretching, it did. Bit by bit her crushed organs reknit, and she managed to shove herself to her feet. She looked the thing in eyes of dark light as it turned from the skidding Chase.
She dropped one sheet of metal and her body closed itself up once more without even a seam. "Alright leafy. That was me crippled and dying." Her blade sprung once more from her unoccupied arm and she charged. "This is me pissed off!" She watched Chase bounce by. He had impressed her, but there was no point in stopping to help. He seemed to get better on his own. She sprung with force born of newfound lightness, sailing past the punch with ease. She landed on its back at the moment it's fist impacted the ground with a sound like dynamite. She swung her blade towards one vine and the jagged chunk of metal at the other in a wide arc, releasing the sharpened sheet at the last second to sail for a third vine with penetrating force. She bent her legs and sprung, hurtling back in a great flip. Even in midair, her arm's cannon was revealed once more. It was with minor difficulty and the loss of most of her remaining ammo that she reloaded it before hitting the ground. She landed, finally in a truly perfect three point stance, cannon pointed at one remaining rock. "And this is me sick and tired of YOU!" The cannon erupted with a roar like her rage personified.
______________________________
Aria stares at Osamu as he explained his reasoning for not wanting to help out, frowning slightly when she heard about the potential effects if the supposed people that were after him managed to show up. Just who was this man, and who were these people after him? Could he possibly be running from one of the Hidden World organizations, and he is actually the criminal here? Regardless, there were more pressing matters to attend to.
Looking at the silver bracelet around her wrist, Aria focuses some of her magic energy into the bracelet, not really positive on how to summon the wolf she had previously encountered. Wolf! Can you hear my thoughts now? I need you to come out and help us deal with a potentially large threat. She thinks to herself, seeing if adding magic to the bracelet let him hear her. While she waitted for a response, Aria glanced over to the old lady, now saying a coherant phrase for once.
"Lady of the Forest? Do you have any data on her, Osamu? Any data would be valuable."
______________________________
*Chase and Eve*
The last remaining power source is destroyed and the tree creature immediately falls down on his knees. His bright dark greenish aura begins to dim out, until the body of the tree creature loses its menacing aura completely. Then its turns slowly black, as everything about the monster slowly died from the vines on its head, to the wood that made up his entire body. This process also happens so fast, that the Tree Golem didn't even get a chance to make a final sound before he experiences its death. Meanwhile, Chase absorbs the sprit energy of the fallen creature before he falls on his hands and knees. Chase commands his equipment back to their hidden forms. "I really hope I don't have to fight any more trees today." said Chase. He gets back on his feet and walks over to Eve. Basically out of breath, he manages to say, "Maybe next time... We start off with the crazy combo attacks... Okay." finishes Chase with a sly smile on his face, but suddenly, he senses something, that causes his smile to leave his face.
_________________________
*Osamu and Aria*
"Hmmm, I'm not sure who that is, but if I had to guess... I would say that is the title that these people have given to the top sprit in this local forest." said Osamu."Don't worry, I'm sure we will eventually meet this Lady of the Forest, soon enough." he said with a big smile on his face and begins laughing to himself as if this fact was funny to him somehow. "Anyway, it seems that they finally done with their fight against the creature. I was expecting to see Chase go all out for a bit, but I suppose he found himself a truly worthy companion." Osamu was really impressive with Eve and her abilities, wondering if she was a good friend of Chase or not. As Osamu was lost in thought for a second, he quickly picks up a disturbance throughout the forest.
"Speak of the devil... Its seems that the fight isn't over just yet. Perhaps we will get to see something rather interesting." he finishes with a big grin on his face. Behind them, a bright white moonlight color emerges and out of the light, a massive figure appears. Osamu doesn't bother to turn around, but his eyebrows raise as he says, "I'm truly surprise at how natural your able to deal with spirits. Maybe you should try to pursuit a more spiritual career." joked the monk as he laughs into the night sky. The giant wolf begins to growl at Osamu, as if he was a threat. "Thats good. It is a pretty protective spirit. I'm not really surprise,. That's how a good leader should be I suppose..." unlike before, Osamu doesn't laugh at that last comment of his, it was more like he was aiming that one at himself more than the giant wolf spirit.
The massive spirit wolf stares at Osamu with his teeth showing, he was preparing to tear him to pieces. The wolf charges towards Osamu, but before it could get too close to lay a hair on his body, or ruin the blanket their were sitting on, Osamu finally turns around and looks right at the creature with a hint of killing intent in his eyes, which only lasts less than a tenth of a second at best. Yet, that was all the time it would take for wolf to stops in its tracks, as it studies Osamu's eyes within a timeframe that was faster than an eye blink. The wolf's instincts goes into high gear, alarming the wolf that this was an opponent it would be no match for, even if they were fighting a fully spiritual plane, where the wolf was at full power. The wolf slowly moves towards Aria, and rests its head on the ground right next to her, but as far away from Osamu as possible.
The giant spirit creature begins to whimper a bit too, as if scared. Osamu begins to laugh once more, and say, "Sorry about that buddy, I didn't want to accidentally hurt you." But more importantly, I didn't want to risk exposing my position to them, he thought.
_____________________________________
*Chase and Eve*
Chase turns around to see the tree creature's dead body disappearing bit by bit, yet a lingering presence refuses to leave with the decoying corpse. Chase wondered if Eve could see into the spiritual realm as well, and if she could, she would be able to see exactly what Chase was seeing. Where the monster they just fought had died, now hovers a small cloud of darkness. Slowly expanding in all directions, and moving every so slightly towards Chase and Eve. "Break time's over now it seems." said Chase as he commands his tools to go back into combat form. The black cloud then burst into a light, yet much larger, black mist, which begins to cover not only Chase and Eve, but the entire village as well.
A few seconds pass by, and the mist vanishes from sight, yet Chase could still sense its influence, especially behind him, where the village was at... No... it couldn't be... Chase turns around to see all the villagers that have gathered, experiencing a terrible mutation. There bodies begin to turn gray and their bones breaking in the most unnatural of ways. They begin to scream in pain, but nothing could have saved them at this point. Eventually their bodies begin to take on a shape that was no longer human, and resemble that of a tree troll. Soon enough, there were hundreds of these newly created, disfigured, tree trolls, who each create a wooden weapon out of spines.
These new creatures all look at Chase and Eve at the same time as if they were of one mind. They begin to make inhuman sounds at them, and smashes their club like weapons against the ground. After each strike, the tree trolls begin to glow with a small greenish dark aura, that resembles the aura of Chase and Eve's previous foe. There eyes turn blood red and the small army of trolls begin their march. They were slow at first taking only a few steps, but after a while, the pick up the pace with each passing second, and before long, the tree trolls were sprinting right at Chase and Eve.
"It would be just my luck to deal with this kinda thing right after I break every single bone in my body in my last fight." Complained Chase. "I hope you can use the same trick as before again, princess. Cause otherwise, this isn't going to be a pain in the ass to deal with." Chase quickly throws his shield at the closets troll, who simple evades it with a quick ducking move, yet as Chase pulls the shield back with his chains, the shield smashes right into the back of the troll's head, and breaks its skull before bouncing off and coming back to Chase. Chase grapes his shield and looks at the emeries as he asks Eve, "You ready for this?"
Eve watched the beast die with satisfaction. "I agree on the trees. Fuck trees. If I ever see another forest in my life, I'll burn it down. Now, how are you? You got really tossed around." She thoroughly looked Chase over. Noticing his attention was elsewhere, she waved a hand in his face. "What, uncomfortable with a pretty woman being your medic? Leave the body alone and-" She paused when the villagers stirred. She raised an eyebrow and lunged with a hand open, seeking to grab a troll's neck. She stopped just a moment before her fingers closed. "Wait! They're still the villagers! We can't kill them!" She had a hard time turning her choke to a throw, attempting to toss the civilian to the ground instead of crushing their throat.
____________________________
Aria observed Osamu's exchange with her wolf familiar, surprised at how quickly he was able to frighten this massive beast. She lightly scratches the wolf's head, looking back at Osamu as she does so. "Accidentally hurt him? You seem rather strong to be able to intimidate him like this. As for spirit summoning, I have never done it aside from today, so I suppose it's linked to my magic ability in some way." Once Aria finished her sentence, she looked at her pistols...and then back at Chase and Eve. The two of them appeared to be severely outnumbered, and given that they were already exhausted from fighting the forest creature, they might not survive this fight.
Suddenly, a large network of vines began to grow out of the ground, wrapping themselves around the forest creatures and pulling them down to the ground, binding their arms and legs as the vines made their way around their bodies. Aria was fully aware that these creatures were still innocent civilians, so she couldn't physically harm them without a self defense case. However, she continued to sit on the ground next to her wolf familiar and Osamu, eyes fixated directly on the battlefield as she continued to bind the gremlins. She needed to save her strength for the largest foe, and knew full well that tiring herself out on these underlings would only serve to doom everyone.
_____________________________
Chase didn't care about the fact that the foes in front of him was the so called innocent villagers, he will strike down anyone who tries to cause him harm. He prepares to deliver a lethal blow to another tree troll, when suddenly vines from underneath the ground wrapped around the tree troll in front of him. Looking around, he notices that there was an invasion of rapidly growing vines, which successfully binds all the tree trolls. The mutated villagers, tree to free themselves, but their struggle was in vain. No matter what they tried to do, they could not break out of the vines.
Studying the vines a bit more closely, Chase recognizes the soul wavelength that this vines are carrying through their being. So, this is her doing? Turning his head, the tired man looks up to find the source of the soul wavelength's owner. It looks like she is up on the hill with beard face Osamu. Smirking to himself, well I suppose if she couldn't at least do something like this, then she wouldn't be the head of a hidden world organization. Chase recalls a few conversations that he had with Smith about the president of his organization, and how Smith described her as being one of the most powerful people, if not the most person, he has ever meet. "You weren't kidding Smith." said Chase to himself in a low tone.
Walking over a few feet, Chase bends down and looks at one of the villagers. "Hmmmm... I would say, these people have at most a day... no probably half a day before their souls get completely corrupted and their spirit will no longer be human at all." The corruption has cause the villagers' outer appearance and personality to change very quickly, yet their spirit was slower to change, as if their souls were fighting to remain pure human, yet that was already too late it would seem. "It might be better to kill them now, at least that way their souls remain mostly human when they die." said Chase.
Chase stands up and looks at Eve, "Not that I care really about their spiritual well being, but their spirits are all being badly assaulted by whatever cause them to turn into these monsters that you see now. I don't care either way, but it doesn't look like we can save them... well maybe we can't... but maybe that man can." he said as he points towards Osamu. "Yet, I wouldn't be surprise he if he refuses to help them out. After all, he is more concern with keeping a low profile then helping these people out. Maybe we should just put them out of they misery now, no point in making them suffer more than they already have." suggest Chase.
_______________________________________________
"Nice job! I knew you were good. Without a doubt, your power is defiantly no joke." said Osamu in a light mood. "And as for the strong comment, I'm not really that strong." he said in a modest tone, trying not to give away a hint to his full power. "Besides, strength shouldn't be measured by how much force one can use on others. Yet, if your curious, their is a ranking system placed in the spiritual world where that wolf belongs in. That wolf would be more towards the midway point in the spectrum back home at full power, but believe me the spectrum is very vast, and the higher than rank is, the more the difference is between the previous rank. At some point, the difference apart between one rank and the following rank in terms of strength would be like comparing the size of a single drop of water to a lake." he said with a nonchalant tone.
"But anyway, lets focus on our next move." Osamu says as he looks behind himself to see that a new guest has decided to show up. "We should probably first greet our new friends." he said with a smile. The corrupt spirit reveals it's palm and multiple vines with different flowers attached to them begin to sprout out of the human shape creature's hand. The vines grow bigger and bigger, before they begin to move towards separate locations, while at the same time the flowers on them also continue to increase in size. Eventually, the flowers become harder and harder, until they resemble the recently defeated tree creature's power source stones. The now stone rocks, start to glow with each one in a different color and the ground around them begin to take shape until four tall tree creatures were created, which looked almost identical to the same giant tree monster, that recently fought Chase and Eve.
The newly formed tree golems begin to roar together, which carried a loud echoing sound that could reach both Chase and Eve. The summoner of these forest monsters takes a few steps towards them and it says, "Leave now, or prepare to die!" Osamu not looking the least bit worried about the most recent development, just turns around to look back at the village. The forest summoner gets annoyed by the man's actions in front of him, and prepares to unleash his creatures on them. He lifts his staff and he commands the tree golems to attack. Yet, before the giant tree creatures takes a single step, all they hear is a loud stomping sound from behind them. They slowly turn around to see, that their master was completely crushed under the foot of the massive Spirit wolf. Aria's spirit familiar looks down upon the tree creatures, that stood below the spirit wolf's chest.
The forest monsters tried their best to defend themselves, but before they could even turn around they were all destroyed by the wolf spirits massive and quick blows. The wolf then turns around to give a warning growl to more than 2 dozen more human like tree creature that look very similar to the summoner that was recently crushed to death. They all stretch out there hands, and soon enough a square of giant tree golems were formed. A few of the summoners even work together to create a new twisted tree creature that was covered in darkness and corruption, which was even as tall as the wolf spirit.
While looking straight ahead still, Osamu tells Aria, "Maybe this is just me, but I'm starting to think that this 'Lady of the Forest' is feeling threaten by you." he said with another big smile on his face.
_____________________________
Eve saw Chase prepare to strike a transformed civilian down, only stopped by the vines restricting their movements and neutralizing the threat. She took one step towards him and swung her cannon arm to wallop him over the head. She attempted no follow-up, simply turning away to the new beast while she reloaded her cannon. "If you kill a single one, I will blow your fucking head off." She warned as she walked away.
She looked at the new beasts with annoyance. She had wasted most of her ammo on the first one. At this point, she needed some backup. She wished she had stolen Malcolm's scroll. "YOU TWO! GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE!" She yelled behind her at Aria and Osamu. Not waiting for a response, she fired a cannonball their direction, aiming for the center of the group of summoners. And with that parting shot, she was charging forward like a cannonball herself, aiming to swing her blade through the great tree beast's leg. Her blade was puny and ill suited for chopping, but god dammit, she was Eve Harper, and it was time to yell timber.
_____________________________
Standing up from her spot, Aria glances back at Osamu. "Perhaps. I tend to have that effect on people." Analysing the enemies in front of her, Aria determines that even if the summoners are killed, the tree monsters still live on. Even so, it would be wise to kill the summoners first to prevent them from strengthening their summons even further. Her own wolf familiar had thankfully acted on it's own accord and smashed the previous two enemies, making her glad that she had accepted the beast's contract request.
Without saying another word to Osamu, Aria takes off down the hill, towards the group of summoners. "Wolf! Focus distract the largest monster!" She orders, wanting the wolf to distract the giant beast so she can focus on the summoners. Surprisingly though...the summoners were all in one small area, focusing their energies into the trees. How foolish.
Focusing her magic upon the area under the summoners, Aria smiles slightly as she raises her right hand...causing a massive venus fly trap to erupt out of the ground and hopefully capture many of the summoners in it's gaping maw, which swiftly closes. Inside of the plant were a dense concentration of noxious fumes that would knock an elephant out in seconds, accompanied by a wave of paralysis gas that would keep the summoners immobile long after the effects of the knock out gas fade.
Taking advantage of the confusing caused by the venus fly trap, Aria skillfully slides around the outside of the battlefield, firing rounds of paralysis bullets at the summoners from her two pistols. She hoped to keep at least some of them alive to question later.
_______________________________
Chase avoids Eve's attack by a few inches and comments, "I'll take that as a no then." He looks back to the villagers and watches them as they suffer on a spiritual level. Whatever, if she doesn't mind them experiencing hell, then I suppose I shouldn't give a crap either. He looks back to see Eve charge back into battle, and Chase just takes a few seconds to think this all thing over. Reflecting on what exactly is the benefit of charging up the hill when they should just avoid this issue all together and leave these villagers to their poor fate, still he might as well help them out. After all, the faster they finish this assignment, the faster it will be for Chase to enjoy his next beer, at least that is what he thinks, not knowing that he was going to be experience nonstop training for long periods of time after this mission. Commanding his gear to revert back into their disguise forms, so he could move more freely, Chase begins to make his way to the hill. If he was lucky, maybe the enemies will be already be defeated by the time he gets there. Yet, just by sensing their spirit power from here, he had a feeling that his hope for a quick solution to this newly arrive foes, will not be as fast as he would like it to be.
_______________________
The summoners notice the cannon ball coming at them and quickly cast another spirit spell of some sorts, to unleash of blast of dark yellowish energy to destroy the object in mid air. The result lead to a mini explosion, that was only a few dozen feet above the summoner's heads. The force of the shockwave from the explosion, causes a few tree branches to snap right off, with the bark being peeled forceable off from the tree, but besides that, there was nothing notable about the explosion. Yet, the cannonball did provide as an unintentional decoy for Aria's own attack.
The massive venus fly trap erupts and swallows a decent number of the summoners, yet most of them were able to react just in time to avoid being eaten by the plant, as they felt the vibrations of its growth through their senses as tree spirits. The summoners inside, quickly unleash another blast of yellowish energy to destroy the giant venus fly trap from the inside. Once free, they jump back down to the ground, but a few of them stumble as their legs touch the ground. A small number of them were too late from escaping form the poisonous plant, and now being affected by the gas and become paralysis. Some even after avoiding the gas, was hit by Aria's bullets and they too found themselves unable to move.
Upon realizing the danger of the the woman, the summoners command their massive Tree golems to attack her at once. About five tree golems begin to charge toward Aria in a blitz full of the similar dark greenish aura that they have seen before. Each of the monsters were moving faster than any regular human car could hope of moving, as the head straight to their target. They all roar as they take their massive, and surprising quick steps forward. Their goal was very simple... Crush her into the ground and make sure she can't get back up.
As some of the giant tree golems went after Aria, a few make their way to Eve, who recently makes contact with the massive black tree monster, but her blade only bounces off the surface, without even leaving a mark on the spot where her sword hot the corrupted tree spirit. The Giant dark tree monster takes a step forward with enough force to send Eve into the air as the biggest tree creature in the area was preparing to fight the second biggest creature in the area, the giant spirit wolf. As Eve is in the air, she gets caught by a nearby Tree Golem and the monster just yells right into her face and throws her like a baseball over the side if the cliff.
________________________
Meanwhile, just before Eve was toss like a ball by the tree creature, Chase was only a few more steps from reaching the top of the hill. He still was not sure about battling all these tree spirit, but regardless, he takes the last step with a high jump in order to get over a steep part near the top of the hill. Now, Chase was in the air only momentarily, but he couldn't have decide to jump at a worser time. This is because, when Chase was in the air, he sees Eve moving right in his direction in a motion that clearly shows that she had just been thrown. There was nothing Chase could have done, this caught him completely by surprise as he was still somewhat lost in his own thoughts, and by the time he realize the situation, it was too late to change it.
Eve's body smashes right into Chase's body as soon as he performs his jump, and the two of the found themselves being sent flying backwards in the same direction that they just came from. It took a couple of seconds before they finally land somewhere in the forest after going through a very trees, which was a almost an entire mile away from where the others were located on top of the hill. When they hit the ground, Chase finds himself in a human shape crater within a slightly bigger crater in the ground with Eve on top of him.
"Just Great" said Chase in a sarcastic tone underneath Eve's heavy metal body. Nearly every bone in Chase's body was broken upon the impact.
_______________________________
With Eve and Chase now a mile away, the only ones left to face the tree sprits was Aria and her giant spirit wolf for a short while. The wolf stares at the only thing bigger than itself, with the difference in size was like comparing a normal wolf to a normal human. The wolf pounces with a quick attack, causing the black tree creature to take a step backwards, as the force of the wolf attacks blows a few nearby trees to pieces. The massive tree throws the arm that the wolf fangs were inside of, causing it to go backwards a for hundred feet, where it accidentally crashes into a tree golem, who's gets destroyed by the impact. The wolf bares its fang at the creature. The dark creature looks at this arm, where the massive bite mark remains. This bothers the summoners since the creature should be able to heal the damage with no issue, but the wolf's special coated spirit energy around its claws and fangs prevent the creature from self healing itself.
The wolf charges once more, and the dark tree creature punches at it and its fist smashes into ground, which cracks the entire hill in various areas. The wolf is able to avoid the attack thanks to its quick reflexes and shifts its position at the last second, and moves behind the tree creature. Where the wolf proceeds to bite the leg of the monster, causing pain for the creature. Yet, as the wolf sinks its teeth once more into the tree spirit, the dark creature doesn't waste time with this opportunity. The tree spirit reaches down and grabs the wolf by its face. In a single motion, it lifts the wolf off its feet and punches it square in the stomach with its other hand, with enough force to launch the giant spirit wolf over the hill and into the ground. The tree spirit then roars a might battle cry and its begins to form a energy ball between its two hands. The monster lifts the ball of energy over its head and provides to chuck the energy ball at the spirit wolf.
The sprits wolf lands on its feet and looks up to see the corrupted energy blast coming at him. So in response, the wolf releases its own energy blast from its mouth to intercept the attack of the tree monster. The spirit wolf's own attack pushes the tree monster's dark energy ball far into the air, where the attack eventually explodes in the air, safely away from everyone, with only the shockwave of the attack causing some very little damage to a few trees at the very top of the hill. By the time the explosion disappear, the wolf was already back at the top, looking at his opponent again with fierce determination in its eyes.
During all this, Osamu remains calm and proceeds to watch this event as if he was merely a spectator, and that this matter didn't really concern him, as so much as peak his interest. He makes sure that no harm comes to his captive, the elderly woman from the village, who was currently on her knees praying to the "Lady of the Forest." The big man just sighs a bit to himself, wishing he had a snack to eat as he was watching the fights going on. He was impressive with Aria. Thinking that this matter was going to be resolve mostly by her efforts, along with her spirit familiar. He looks up to study the battle at the very top of the hill, where he wonders if their battle was going to eventually get this entire hill destroyed. Osamu frowns at the thought, as he enjoys sitting in his current spot.
___________________________________
Eve found herself in the air, much to her surprise. This thing stepped hard. Getting grabbed was less surprising, as she could see the hand grabbing for her coming from a mile away, although in the air there was little she could do about it. She readied her cannon to blast it when she was brought to its face, realizing that wasn't happening when she was drawn back. "Shit." She remarked before the arm snapped back, hurtling her harder than one of her own cannonballs. She hit something, then a lot more something, then the ground a few times before she just started sliding.
As she got up, she was surprised to find the broken mess under her body was Chase. She peeled herself off him, checking to see that her coat was intact under his blood. It was. Now, how was Chase. She pulled the ball from her cannon and loaded more gunpowder in. "If you feel up to it, I have a plan for getting back nice and quick and in style. Otherwise I'm binding you up and leaving you here." She continued to pour gunpowder into her cannon.
____________________________________
Chase couldn’t help but to wonder, how one-person’s efforts could transform one of the greatest cities in the world, into a city ravaged with chronic fear and distrust. Chase didn’t know if this was a testament of how fearsome Taylor was, or how feeble minded was the general public. Chase didn’t really care about the conditions of the citizens, he came here to meet someone. It’s been a few days since he last saw him, but Chase was sure that he was still here. Chase finally stops in front of the building he’s been searching for and enters. Chase has never been inside the Wild Hunt’s base of operations before, but if it was the current home of the Huntsman, Chase couldn’t imagine it being a place of comfort and warmth, especially if it was run by a woman, who can tame the Huntsman. Chase walks up to someone behind a desk and asks, “Is the Huntsman here?”
Either the Wild Hunt needed more money or Eve was miserly. This showed well in the lobby, a spartan environment devoid of anything but a deeply scarred desk with a heavy book held by a side desk beside it and some equally scratched wooden chairs. At the back of the room was a staircase flanked by bookshelves. Behind the desk, littered with papers, sat a pink-haired teen. He instantly sat up and displayed a friendly grin. "I'm sorry sir, but Huntsman is currently on a mission. What is your need for our services?"
Chase looks around, surprise that the place wasn't as bad as he expected it to be. When the pink-haired teen informed Chase that the Huntsman wasn't here, Chase was a little annoyed. "Can you tell me where he is?" Chase didn't care if the Hunstman was on a mission. Besides with the talisman, Chase can teleport straight to his training location. Chase stares at the pink-hair teen, waiting for him to respond with the Huntsman's location.
Malcolm flipped through the papers on the desk. "He's in the-" "Sahara." A woman's voice called from up the stairs. "And not expected back for a week. Those sand worms are slippery bastards." She was a black woman, tall and with a generous figure covered by a white blouse and brown trousers, both looking oddly old-fashioned. A blue leather coat coated in internal and external pockets hung heavily to her knees. "Malcolm, it's against our policy to just hand out the movements of our operatives to random strangers. Forget again and I'll cut your pay." "Yes sir." Malcolm put the files back down and averted his gaze.
She turned her gaze to Chase, eyes moving slowly over him. "Hello. I am Eve, leader of the Wild Hunt. Now, what do you want Huntsman for, and can it be done by somebody else?"
Chase turns his head slowly to take a look at the woman real quick. On the outside she looks poweful, headstrong, and judging by Malcolm's attitude as well, she was in charge. Chase takes another look at her, but this time, Chase examines her soul. Chase could see that she wasn't human and in fact reminded Chase of the Huntsman's own soul minus one Demon God attact to it. Chase could tell by her personality that she was ambitious, hard working, strict, and dangerous, yet their was a softer side to her, that Chase could barly make out. Her tone of voice was a little off, almost as if her voice was a mixing pot of a bunch of different languages. If the Huntsman's out then I guess I might as well use his boss. Chase didn't want to waste time waiting for the Huntsman to finish his assignment, Chase needed to get his training over with as soon as possible. Chase closes his eyes and envisons his new tattoo on his arm. I need to get that mark off me as soon as possible, thought Chase.
"I need someone to help me out with an assignement." Chase didn't want to reveal that he didn't know what the training was or even mention that he needed help for his training. "I was going to get the Huntsman to help me, but I suppose anyone capable will be fine, so long as they aren't weak." Which Eve didn't look weak at all. In fact her appearance was emititing power. If someone can make the Huntsman afraid of them, then they must be strong. Chase walks around a bit, casually looking around. "So..." said Chase as he picks up a book, "...You think your strong enough to help me out?"
Eve almost laughed. Was this man trying to play her ego? He wasn't a very subtle one, was he? Not bad looking though. Light blonde hair, excellent musculature. Hm. Possible fringe benefit if he fought well. "Sorry, but you can't appeal to my ego. Try my wallet." She glanced at the book he was reading. Vampires of the world. Hm. No, too much of a tan.
Chase gives her a quick smile, she's pretty blunt. Chase on the other hand didn't have money, but she didn't know that. "I hope we aren't having a misunderstanding here for what kind of assignment I need help with." Chase takes a closer look at the book before he puts it down and picks up another one. Chase keeps his eyes on the new book as he asks, "As for payment, how much will it cost?" Chase's voice changes to carry some sarcasm in it when he follows up with another question, "Do you charge by the hour?"
"No, not by the hour. Simply by how much the client can afford. But I don't do charity work. Ammo isn't cheap you know." She couldn't get a gauge on what that would be. That suit looked nice, but it might also be the only one he owned. She knew something about always wearing the same clothing. Her eyes again followed the book. Blank cover. No idea what it was. "I'll have to know your name to make you a library card."
Chase puts the book down, and looks back at Eve. "The name's Halwende Chase, but most people just call me Chase." Chase starts to think up some ideas to pay for the job. Smith. No he is still mad at me for spending a fortune on a custom made bar. Chase thinks for a bit longer before he says, "Okay, I guess I got to confess and come clean about something." Chase walks up to Eve and says, "I'm not the real client here. I work for this big guy and he gave me a task that I need help with." Chase was telling the truth so far, but he wasn't done speaking yet, "The fat man is pretty rich and promise me a reward for doing something for him. Now, I'll be willing to split the profits with you. Let's see... I get 70% and you can get 30%. How does that sound? I'm pretty sure the money you'll get, will not only let you restock on ammo, but you can probably have enough cash left over to make this place immaculate, or you can just get a new place with a better view; regardless, Its really up to you to decide how to spend your fortune."
"Ah, Chase. The one my second in command wants to fuck, meaning you can't be all bad. He has a taste for those too good for him." She was mildly amused when Chase walked up to merely admit he wasn't the real client. "Hardly a bad thing. Somebody with money is in no way objectionable, and the rich are often embarrassed to directly come to us. No as for the shares, I think you will find them negotiable. However, that's later, because first you will pay for the trip. If your master is rich, he can afford a teleportation scroll."
Chase had to hold in a baby barf when Eve said the Huntsman wanted to fuck him. Guess that explains the outfit that the Huntsman was wearing a few nights ago. Chase mentally shakes off the nightmare of the Huntsman in bed, showing almost no signs of reacting to Eve's Huntsman mention, and says, "Don't worry about the trip. It's already covered." Chase pulls out the talisman from his pocket and holds it in front of Eve. "We can use this to go straight to the assign location. So whenever your ready to leave, we can be there any second now." Chase makes a mental note, that at some point he has to tell the Huntsman that they were just friends. Wait friends? When did I start considering him to be a friend? Chase looks confuse for a moment, but quickly recovers his composure. Chase didn't have time right now to question himself.
Eve couldn't conceal a smirk. She could see the tiny pause in his words even if his expression was unchanged. "Oh come off it. You're hardly alone in his affections. If you're in the slightest bit pretty or handsome, he's all over you. I dated him. I know. It's not that terrible." She gave the talisman a long look. Interesting. She'd love a teleporting object. She'd save so much on the single use scrolls she had to use currently. "Very well. I'll at the very least take a look at the situation. Malcolm, hold the fort down. If anything comes up, call Ashley, or wait for my return if you don't think it's a solo job." She put a hand on the medallion. "Alright, let's go."
Chase didn't respond at all this time to the Huntsman comments, but he had to ask, "Dated? So the two of you aren't together anymore."
Chase felt sorry for whoever was the Huntsman's next target, then Chase quickly realize, that he was on the Huntsman's list. Shivers went down Chase's spine. "Anyway, If your ready, let's go." A few moments past, before Chase looks at Eve, and says, "Also, I should mention, that I have no idea how to use this thing." Chase was hoping that the talisman who activate as soon as Chase needs it to work, but that didn't seem to be the case. "Perhaps something in here can help us figure it out." Chase looks at the medallion and sees something glowing inside of it. What is that? Chase could feel it calling to him. Chase moves his fingers over the talisman and the objects bursts into a blast of light that wraps around Chase and Eve until it forms a giant bubble with them inside of it.
The bubble pops, and Chase and Eve were smash together into a single point, before they disappear from the room. The next instant later, Chase and Eve found themselves standing on top of a hill overlooking a village in the middle of a forest or jungle. The village was mostly made of wood houses and tents, there was a few fire pits going on with villagers attending them. Some villagers were dancing around the fire pits, and others were eating meals in a circle near the fire pits. The dancers were chanting something over and over again. Suddenly, the light was fading and Chase looks up to see the sunset. Chase had no idea what was going on, and then noises erupt from the villagers as an elderly woman, dressed in tribal ritual clothes, emerge from the tallest tent of the village. The woman lifts a oddly shape stick with a animal skull attach to the top, and all the villagers stop what they were doing. They stood up still, waiting for the next command from the woman.
Chase looks around trying to see if he can spot his fatass mentor, but he couldn't sense him at all. Chase looks at Eve and says, "So how's the situation looking to you?" Chase then feels a presence, no not just one presence, but dozens of them. They was inhumane and dark, and surrounding the village. Chase looks back to see the Elderly woman throwing dirt and mud at her people. For the people that got hit in the face, they remain where they were standing, but the ones that got hit in the chest, they move towards the forest. Moving right towards the evil presence that Chase was feeling. When the first person finally reaches and vanishes in the forest, his disappearance was followed by loud snapping sounds that was accompanied by other terrifying noises. A few moments later and Chase feels the villager's soul enter his body. A couple more seconds later and the other bodies, with mud on their chest, enter the forest and their souls enter Chase.
Chase then hears yelling from another direction. Chase turns to see another village, that was very similar to the village in front of them in terms of structure, yet there was one big difference. In the second village, there was men dress in warrior outfits, fighting against giant wolves. They were so big, that they could eat full size men in a few bites. The village men in the second village tried their best, but they were no match for the monster wolves. Some of the wolves even broke into some houses and tents, where they fest on entire families. The Second village was too far away for Chase's Black hole soul, but Chase didn't need his spiritual powers to realize that the second village was experiencing a supernatural massacre.
Chase knew what has happen. His mentor decided to place Chase in a dangerous location to test and study him. Chase then talks to Eve, "Any ideas on what we should do in this situation?" Chase didn't feel obligated to save anyone, but at the same time, if this was really part of his training, then maybe he needs to go to one of the villages. Is deciding which village to go to a part of the test? Chase didn't like this at all, which made Chase hate his mentor even more.
________________________
In the next village over, a tall blond woman walked authoritatively into the village. Her two pistols kept in their holsters on her waits, the woman begins to scan the village for anyone she could speak to. Now where can I find someone with authority around here?
Earlier...
"Evil plant-life? And you are saying there are some people who think I have something to do with it?" Aria Miyata asks, folding her arms across her chest and staring at her employee reading the report. "Yes ma'am! Your plant manipulation is becoming well known among the hidden world, President Miyata. So there is speculation that you might be involved with these murders. Should we send out an Enforcement squad to investigate the incident and clear your name, ma'm?" The employee asks, awaiting Aria's response. After thinking for a few seconds, Aria stands up from her desk and begins walking out of the room. "No, that won't be necessary. I will take this matter on personally, as it is my reputation being called into question here. Send a message downstairs to have a teleporter waiting for me in the next two minutes." Aria instructs, waiting for the affirmative reply before heading down the elevator into the teleporter room, where one going to Madagascar was waiting for her.
Stepping through the portal, Aria found herself right outside of a small village, with what appeared to be another village in the vicinity. Might need to question the people of that location as well afterwards. Just as she began to scan the village to look for anyone of authority to talk to...there came a loud howl coming from just outside the village. Did they raise dogs here? No, these were wild wolves...and they began attacking the villagers! "Everyone, get inside and close your doors!" Aria yells as she quickly pulls out her pisols and fires a volley of paralysis bullets at the wolves, attempting to incapacitate them on the slight chance that she'd need some of these creatures alive later. In the mayhem, Aria didn't notice the attack beginning in the other village, one that had trees attacking the villagers instead of wolves. Out of the corner of her eye...she notices a large figure in the distance. Why was this man simply standing out in the open when an attack is clearly going on in what appeared to be the place he lived?
_____________________
"We were together two days. Let's just say he's deficient in a few key features." Eve narrowed her eyes at Chase's revelation. "If you don't know how to use it, perhaps we should-" She stopped to study the bubble appearing around her and Chase. When they teleported, Eve immediately pulled away to survey her surroundings. Her face grew cold as she scanned the village directly below. She could hear the dreadful feeding noises from below when the villagers entered the forest. The old woman seemed to be in charge, but whether by magic or simple authority Eve couldn't tell.
Hearing noise from the other direction, she found the situation even worse in another village. The pack of giant wolves seemed to be unstoppable. Eve watched with an arm fly twenty feet away from its owner right before he was pinned down and disemboweled. Eve landed next to the arm and marched towards the nearest wolf, not missing a beat. In the other village, only some people were getting killed. Here, it seemed likely, given the size of the wolves, that they would kill most of the village if unchecked. Face cold, she stopped in front of the beast, its victim's intestines dangling from its jaws. She raised her hand and her arm unknit. flesh and fingers peeled away, revealing a cannon beneath. BANG.
Chase watches Eve as she jumps into action, and Chase simply follows her into the village with the monster size wolves. This isn't going to end well. Chase lands a few feet away from Eve, but as soon as his feet touches the ground, a small pack of wolves begin to circle Chase. Chase's reflexies kick in and he takes a fighting stance as soon as the wolves appear around him, while at the same time his equipment transfroms into their true form. As soon as Chase's equipment change occurs, the wolves attack Chase. There were five wolves in total with two of them coming from Chase's right side. Another two coming from Chase's left side, and finally one wolf attacks Chase from the front. Chase throws his chain at the wolf in front him, and the chain warps around the wolve's mouth, preventing the animal from attacking Chase with it's vicious teeth. Chase quickly slides underneath the first wolf to avoid the other wolves' attempts to consume Chase. As Chase was underneath the wolf, he delievers a quick stabbing strike with his sword into the wolf's chest. Even with the chain around the large animal's mouth, one could still hear a loud mosterous growl coming from the wolf's throat. Chase springs back up as soon as he was a few feet pass the wolf.
The other wolves quickly face Chase and attack him. Chase was able to raise his shield in time to protect himself from one of the wolves. The force of the wolf's body slamming into Chase's shield was so strong that it sent Chase flying backwards into a small wooden tent. The tent Collaspes as Chase's body smashes right through it. Chase tries to get up, but before he gets a chance, one of the other wolves bites down on one of Chase's leg and starts shaking it's head violently. Chase is thrown in all directions, but thankfully his armor was able to stop the wolf's sharp teeth. Chase tries to attack the wolf with his sword and shield, but Chase didn't get the chance. The other wolves lunge at Chase, and Chase uses his sword and shield to fend of the other wolves.
_____________________
The wolf lunges at Eve and the cannon fire goes through it's entire body. By the time the wolf's body hit the ground, it was in sloppy pieces of meat. The other wolves notice the arrival of Eve and Chase, and some even stopped attacking the villagers, and instead focus their attention on the more interesting prey. A few wolves rushes at Eve, coming from every direction, The wolves were competing with each other to see which one of them will land the killing strike.
Meanwhile, other wolves attempt to attack Aria, but their numbers were decreasing at an alarming rate. The wolves study Aria and their survival instincts kick in. The reaming wolfs run away from Aria's position as fast as their legs could take them. The wolves let out a huge battle cry and suddenly out of the forest emerge a wolf that was bigger than all the others by a considerable size. This wolf was so massive that it could probably eat an entire family with their tent in one bite.
The giant wolf releases a mighty howl that was so powerful that the surrounding area felt like it was being visited by a hurrican for a few seconds. When the giant wolf's battle cry ended, a large number of wolves start emerging from the forest. The numbers were ranging in the hundreds, and each wolf that emerge was more than twice the size of the first invasion of wolves. These wolves were easily big enough to eat an entire person with one bite. What had happen was that the adult wolves had sent out their children first in order to help them gain experience, but when they heard the battle cries, the adults of the pack decided to engage in the battle. All the wolves stare at the people remaining in the village, waiting for their leader's next command. As the adult wolves waited, the remaining children wolves stop what they were doing, and go back into the forest. Even the wolves attacking Chase just stop and leave. The wolf releases Chase from it's mouth and disappears into the forest.
Chase walks over to Eve with a fracture leg and says, "I hope you got a bigger cannon."
________________________
Chase's mentor, Tsuyoshi Osamu, remains quiet during this sudden development, and the only movement that he makes is when he strokes beard. Hmmmm, I'm surprise that the children already asked their parents for help. The monk looks at Aria and studies her for a bit. She must the reason for the children's plead for help. Who would have guessed that someone of her caliber was going to show up? Well i suppose it's a good thing. Maybe now Chase won't have to spend a month or two dealing with this issue. The monk looks up at the pack leader and strokes his beard one more time as he debates with himself as to what course of action to take. The monk eventually decides to just wait and see what happens.
_________________________
Aria continued to silently fire away at the wolves, taking them out one by one with paralysis bullets. Strangely enough, the wolves had begun to retreat away from her, seemingly following the orders of a rather large wolf that had just reared it's head into the matter. Oddly enough, there now appeared to be hundreds of larger wolves at the edge of the treeline, making sure that the younger wolves got out safely. Looks like their leader has finally shown up. They don't appear to be attacking yet, so perhaps the leader can be reasoned with.
Putting away her pistols, Aria authoritatively walks to the edge of the village, staring the giant wolf directly in the eyes. "Giant wolf! Your kind has committed a heinous massacre today, murdering dozens of people from this village. I do not tolerate the murder of innocents, but I am also not unreasonable." Staring at the giant wolf with a look of cold professionalism, Aria continues. "Cease these attacks, and bring forward everyone responsible. Resist, and the price you'll pay will be much higher. What is your decision?" Being a wolf, Aria figured that it wouldn't know who she was even if she mentioned that she was president of the HWIC, so she didn't bother to mention it. Her hands were resting at her side, ready to draw her pistols should the giant wolf choose to send it's forces at the town once more.
_________________________
"I hope you got a bigger cannon." "No, not really. Now hold still and let me bind your leg." She said without a hint of worry, either over the new wolves or Chase's safety. Her fingers extended and searched through the wreckage of the tend Chase had been hurtled into. Finding a suitably shaped stick, she swiftly lashed it to Chase's leg with pieces of cloth from the same tent. Taking full advantage of the respite, she grabbed a bag of gunpowder from a pocket in her coat and poured it into a slot that willingly opened on her cannon's top. Sealing the bag when she was satisfied with the amount, she fished a new cannonball from a different pocket and loaded it. Now to see if she'd get to use it.
Chase didn't understand why, but for some reason he couldn't heal himself from the damage done by the wolves. Chase looks back at the wolves and respond to Eve, " You think you got enough gunpowder for all of them?" Another thing that was annoying Chase, was that he couldn't see their souls, then it hit him. "The wolves are sprits." Chase didn't understand. Chase knew that spirits were usually immune to physical substances, and yet they were damage by physical weapons. Chase looks back to see the wolf that was blown into pieces by Eve. It was weird. Chase could feel the soul energy entering him, but not the actual soul itself. Chase knew something was up, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
________________________________________
As Aria gave finish her talk to the leader of the pack, the Wolf leader turns its head and gives a slight nod to a few other wolves. The wolves sprint into action with blinding speed. No regular human could hope to follow the wolves by the naked eye. The wolves rush inside the village, and retrieve the bodies of their paralysis children. Once they had their children, the wolves return to forest. The wolf leader then lowers its head, in order to get a better look at Aria. Trying to sense her fear, but she had none to be found. The wolf leader moves its eye towards Aria, until the wolf leader's eye, which was as big as Aria herself, was only a few feet away. The massive wolf stares at her for a few moment before examining her with his other eye. Again, the wolf leader sense no fear from her. The wolf then sniffs Aria, and as the giant wolf inhales, Aria's hair moves violently towards the wolf, but her feet remain on the ground.
The Wolf leader was curious about the small creature in front of it. The wolf didn't fear Aria and Aria didn't fear the wolf. The wolf didn't know who was the creature in front of it, but it was already impressive enough to earn the wolf's respect. The wolf stands up on it's back legs and lifts it's front legs. The wolf then launches his front legs towards the ground with such speed, that each paw was followed by an intensive sonic boom. The wolf aim was around Aria, and the wolf keeps it's eyes on Aria, trying to spot a reaction, but she didn't even flinch a muscle. The Wolf stop it's paws before they hit the ground, and with amazing grace the wolf stands upright, and gave a mightly howl. The rest of the wolves follow their leader's example and release their own howls.
A few moments pass after the wolves howl before the wolves begin to disappear from sight, except for the wolf leader. The wolf leader did not leave it's spot until the last wolf was gone from the village's boarder. Once the last wolf vanish, the wolf leader quickly snaps at it's own body, and pulls out a single hair. The piece of hair was about as long as a person's arm, and the wolf drops it in front on Aria. The wolf then waits for Aria's respond.
_______________________________
Osamu silently watches the scene unfold in front of him. He was already fascinated by Aria's skill, but her presence was truly noteworthy. Osamu fold his arms and continues to watch. Wondering if Aria will be able to react correctly in this situation.
______________________________
"No. But I'm well armed. I'll find something to slaughter the rest with." Eve was watching Aria more intently than the wolves now. Who was this woman? "The wolves are spirits." She glanced back at Chase in surprise. Normally she hated spirits. Of course, normally they were impossible to shoot. This was preferable. "Elaborate."
______________________________
Aria stood firm as the wolf began to look at her, only becoming slightly amused by it's attempt to intimidate her by pretending to slam it's front paws down to the ground at her sides. Such tactics were akin to the countless number of cases where criminals would try to intimidate Aria by threatening to kill innocent bystanders, her employees, her siblings, or herself in general. Though instead of threatening her out of cowardice, this wolf appeared to be testing her to see if it should respect her or not, a test that she clearly won when the rest of the wolves began to wander back into the forest. Curiously, the wolf snapped at it's own body and ripped off a strand of it's fur...placing it on the ground next to Aria.
Nodding, Aria reaches up to her head and plucks out a strand of her own blond hair, placing it on top of a nearby rock for better visibility. Hopefully reciprocating the gesture would indicate mutual respect between the two leaders...but she was unsure of the correct response due to not being versed in the behaviors of wild animals. Her expertise lay with humans.
______________________________
"Elaborate" Chase was about to respond, but was suddenly cut off by Osamu, who just appears right behind Eve, saying with a giant smile, "Allow me to elaborate." What!? I didn't even sense his presence at all! thought Chase. Chase should have been able to felt his presence, but again Osamu had a talent for masking his spirit presence, and his actual presence if he wanted to. Chase looks at his mentor, and says, "So, you finally show up huh. Well you took your sweet time you fat-" Chase was suddenly sent flying through a few more tents with a simple palm strike from Osamu. Osamu strokes his beard as he looks in Chase's direction, "I thought I told you to call me Master, and speak to me with a respectable tone!” Osamu sighs heavily and face palms himself, “What I’m I going to do about those manners of your Chase.” Osamu shakes his head slowly a few time times before he looks back at Eve.
“You see, those wolves come from another dimension, a rather more spiritual dimension. In their world, the concept of a body, mind, and spirit doesn’t exist per say. Just the spirit and mind exist for the residents of the world where they come from. Well there are a few more components behind what makes them up, and even how their minds and spirits are a bit different from the typical spirits and minds of residents of this world, but I rather not go over unnecessary information. Just understand that it isn’t a problem for them because their spirit is in fact their own body in a way; however; a problem does occur when they enter a physical realm or dimension, such as this one. Their spiritual bodies revert into a state where they have a combination between a physical and spiritual form, which is unnatural for them. This in-between state of a physical and spiritual body are not balance by each other, and it is abnormal for these beings with natural spiritual bodies to possess a physical body. This unbalance state causes them to become much weaker than they would be in their natural environment. I have seen these wolves in their natural bodies before, and I can roughly guess that since they converted to this in-between state, that the wolves have roughly become 10 times smaller, and more than hundred times weaker in their overall stats since they got here.”
As Osamu finishes his last sentence, Chase finally gets up from his mentor’s palm strike, and lifts himself up. As Chase places his feet on the ground, he notices that his bad leg was completely healed. Chase throws a quick kick with his previous fractured leg, and the force of his kick breaks Eve’s binding materials. Chase then walks back over to Osamu and Eve. Osamu examines Chase’s leg with a simple glance and says, “So, even with their bodies in this state, they can still use their special ability huh.” “What special ability?” asks Chase. Osamu looks back at the wolf leader and says, “Those wolves have a special aura around their teeth and claws, which have an ability to render any target’s healing factor useless, and prevent whoever or whatever gets hit with them to be unable to heal the wounds cause by their claws or teeth. The aura is so strong that they don’t even need to hit you directly with their claws or teeth as you can tell by how your leg was unable to heal Chase, even though you had your armor on. Any damage that is caused by their teeth or claws; regardless, if they make direct contact or not, can not be healed by the person damaged by the attack.” “Then how did my wound get healed?” asks Chase. “Well you see Chase, their ability only prevents the person that was affected by their attack to be unable to heal the wound, the wound can just simply be healed by someone else.”
Chase looks at the giant wolf and asks, “What is the wolf doing now?” Osamu looks the hair, and says with a chuckle, “The wolf is proposing to the blond hair woman over there. It’s fine. all she needs to do is accept the hair out of respect, so long as she doesn’t give her own hair back then she should be okay.” “And what happens if she gives her hair to the wolf?” asks Chase. “Well, then she accepts the proposal and gets engaged to the wolf.” said Osamu.
____________________
The wolf looks at Aria, and sees that she pulls out her own hair and leaves it in front of it. The wolf starts to become excited by this return of mutual understanding, and its tail begins to wag violently. The tail wags so fast, and due to its size, the tail actually hits a few trees behind the wolf out of the ground. The wolf gently licks Aria, and leaves her dripping in drool. Afterwards the wolf leaves to join the rest of its pack in high sprits. The giant wolf lets out more more howl, before disappearing in the background. The wolf's hair that was near Aria begins to glow silver and flies towards Aria. The hair warps itself around Aria's wrist, and transform into a beautiful silver bracelet.
_____________________
Eve paid careful attention to the explanation of the wolves. So they were weaker here. Then why did they come? She couldn't really ask them, could she? Then her mask of indifference was broken by the slight curl of her lips right at the corner. She practically skipped over to Aria. "Oh, you lucky wife of a bitch. So few of us can draw the eye of the alpha male. May I venture that tonight he'll make you howl?" Her eyes danced with delight. "Anyway, I have another village to handle. Be sure to toss the garter over there." With a flourish of her coat like it was a great heavy cape, she bounded up the cliffside.
_____________________
Sighing, Aria summons a small towel made out of soft plant fibers and begins wiping the drool off of herself. Such a large animal, but it acts like a common house dog. How quaint. Strangely enough, she is approached by a rather strange woman just as she finishes wiping the drool off. Just what on Earth was she talking about, was she suggesting that Aria was going to have sexual relations with a wolf? That woman must be on some type of drug. Looking over, Aria sees two males staring at her, not looking terrified like the rest of the villagers. Perhaps she should start her investigation there first.
Walking over to Chase and his mentor, Aria takes out her HWIC badge and shows it to them. "Aria Miyata, president of the Hidden World Intelligence and Containment organization. I'm here to investigate rumors of plant-life killing the people in this area. Do either of you have any information on this matter?"
_____________________
Chase looks at Aria, then her HWIC badge. Chase didn't know how to explain any of this, so he decided to let his mentor explain. "Listen. I don't know what's going on, but if you want answers, then search no further." Chase then casually points at his master with his thumb and says," This guy can probably tell you everything you need to know. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go follow that crazy woman going up the cliff." Chase casually walks after Eve, and looks backwards to check out Aria. She's Strong, thought Chase.
Osamu looks down at Aria, and then the silver bracelet. I'm surprise that she is able to even make a contract, let alone survive such a powerful contract as well. She must be gifted, and very strong in both body, mind, and soul to be able to pull that off. Usually people will be in massive amount of pain, but she doesn't even feel a thing. Maybe I should teach her instead of Chase. She has so much more talent for Soul Familiars then he does, but again Chase has far more potential. Osamu looks at Aria and with a big friendly smile he asks, "So what do you wish to know, President Miyata?"
__________
In the another village pass the hill, the villagers were in rows with the old woman, who was dressed in an unique outfit, still throwing mud at them. After a couple of mud throws, another villager would be sent to the forest, which was quickly followed by some truly terrible and horrible noises that could scar an innocent person for the rest of their life. No one in the village was spared from the ritual. There were both elderly and children in the rows, and every so often, a child would be sent to the forest. Whenever this happen, the child's mother would usually attempt to offer herself in the place of her child, but she wasn't allowed to switch with her child because it would go against the rules of the ritual. If the mother tried to go crazy, she was pulled to the side, and killed for disrespecting the ritual and threatening the wrath of the forest spirits.
___________________
Eve breached the top of the ridge and observed the situation below. Her head tilted as a man entered the forest and horrific noises reached her ear. Hm. That needed to stop. A second later she struck the ground at the edge of the clearing in a three point stance, coat flowing around her to drape on the ground. She rose, cannon arm casually raising to the elderly woman's chest. "Nobody is stepping one foot in this forest. I will personally break your legs if that's what it takes to make sure you stay put." She stayed rooted to the spot, waiting for a reaction from the non English-speakers she just spoke to in English.
__________________
"Crazy woman indeed..." Aria mumbles as Chase ran off to join Eve. Was she his girlfriend or something similar? Regardless, Aria actually had a useful person to talk to now. "Miss Miyata is fine. I wish to know a few things...but let's start with the obvious one. Do you know anything about the plant-life that have been allegedly killing villagers around here? That is my main mission here, but if these wolves are in any way related to the matter, I am willing to hear you out on that topic as well." Aria states, studying Osamu as she talked. He seemed much too friendly for a man whom had just seen dozens of people from what she assumed to be his village be slaughtered by wolves. Had she seen this man earlier as well? She could have sworn she had seen that beard somewhere earlier this day.
_________________
Chase walks into the village to see Eve already threatening the woman in charge of the ritual. Nice. Someone who gets straight to the point, thought Chase. Chase goes up to Eve and says in a sarcastic tone, "So, what's the plan? We teach them how to speak and understand english?" The villigers had no idea what was going on. They never seen anything like Eve's cannon before, and they also never heard the words she was speaking to them with. The villagers start to panic and begin to yell in a language Chase didn't understand. If Chase could undertsand them, it still wouldn't help. The villagers were just yelling random sentences, usually involing them either asking the woman in charge what was going on or asking the tree sprits to help them. The villagers look at each other in confusion, but the old women in front of everyone remains calm. She knew that she had offered the tree spritis enough human sacrifices to ensure their protection for the night.
As Chase was standing next to Eve, he suddenly felt a spiritual impluse. Where did that come from? Chase looks around, Its coming from every direction, but its so close... THATS IT! It's coming from the... Suddenly a massive tree like hand erupts from the ground, and grabs Eve. Chase rolls out of the way of another giant tree hand, which would have grab Chase if he didn't sense the danger a split second sooner. Chase quickly gets back on to his feet, and looks at his previous location. The tree hand that was suppose to grab Chase continues to break the earth until an entire arm appears. The arm then reaches down and pushes against the ground. The ground surrounding the village slighty shakes as the rest of the hand's body emerge from the earth. Once the entire body was out of the ground, the giant tree monster relaeases a nasty sound from it's body. The villagers at once begin to bow down to the tree creature. Chase on the otherhand, transforms his equpment into their true forms, and prepares for his next fight.
Chase studies the tree monster in front of him. It was a weird mixture of actual trees parts, which are enhance with natural spirit enegry. Chase lifts both his sword and shield, and he slowly approaches the monster in front of him. The creature was truly a friengthing sight to a normal person, but for Chase, this was just a typical tuesday. Chase looks at Eve, who was still in the creature's grasp, but Chase figures that Eve will probably be able to break free easy enough, in fact she was in a good position to deliever a finishing blow. Chase studies the creature's spiriual center, and the source of it's power. Chase looks at the vines on top of the creature's head and the rocks that they were carrying. Each stone contain more spiritual energy than the rest of his body. Chase calls to Eve in another sarcastic tone, "Hey Eve, I don't want to rush you or anything, but whenever you get the chance, can you aim for those stones attach to the vines on top of his head?"
The creature grabs the closest tent with a single hand, and with as much effort as a person picking up a pebble off the ground and throwing it, the cretaure lifts the tent and hurls it right at Chase. The tent is moving through the air as fast as a car during a high speed chase, but that wasn't going to be able to hit Chase. Chase quickly dodges the tent with a quick ducking motion, and the tent continues to fly until it smashes againt the ground behind Chase. Chase then charges the monster in front of him, but the creature reacts to Chase's charge, and swings it's massive arm at Chase. Chase had no choice but to step back a few feet to avoid the attack. Damn, it's faster than I thought it was.
_____________________________
Osamu strokes his beard again, and takes a second to think how much should he reveal to Aria. If she is going to be helping Chase, then I suppose I can tell her as much as I plan to tell Chase. "Alright, Miss Miyata. I'll tell you. The plant life here is killing people, and so are the wolfs that you just seen. The reason is because the wolfs are here, a place where they don't belong. The wolfs' presence has cause the natural spirit balance of this forest to shift, and the tree spirits are being directed and corrupted by that unbalance to act the way they are currently acting." Osamu then looks into the direction of the village where Eve and Chase were at. "Oh, Speak of the Devil, it seems the tree spirits have become more active." Osamu takes a split second before he decides to ask, "Miss Miyate, can you accompany me to the next village over. Also I ask that you don't help assist those two in their current battle if possible."
_____________________________
Eve found herself legitimately surprised by the hand bursting from the ground, clenching her tightly in mighty fingers. She felt her internal metal beginning to dent in as she raised her cannon. "No need for the sarcasm..." She gasped as her lungs were crushed. There was a mighty burst of sound, and ten pounds of iron were hurtling for the first hovering stone. She lost a few inches of waist. Dammit, she liked her figure. This just grew worse as her chest flared into a fleshy flower, exposing an array of guns and a blowtorch slightly beneath them. A modified blowtorch. A gout of flame that put the average flamethrower to shame burst free through the fingers that caged her. Either it let go or saw what happened when the fire ignited her as well and reached the six loaded pistols in her chest.
______________________________
The wolf spirits are corrupting the tree spirits, which are in turn attacking the villagers? Then the solution to this situation would be to remove the wolf spirits from the area, thus restoring balance to the forest. Before she could inquire more about the wolf spirits, Aria overhears the giant tree monster in the next village emerge and let out a sickening roar. "Miss Miyate, can you accompany me to the next village over. Also I ask that you don't help assist those two in their current battle if possible." She overhears Osamu say to her.
"Why do you wish for me to refrain from fighting? Are you trying to test the woman and man down there?" Observing the area, it appeared as if the slaughter of villagers has stopped. "...I suppose I can stay out of this as long as they manage to minimize the casualties of this battle."
______________________________
Once the cannon hits the floating stone, the stone smashes into a bunch of little pieces. The tree creature roars in pain, and let's go of Eve. The tree creature starts to stumble backwards, but it only takes a few seconds for it to shake off the pain, and regain it's balance. As the creature was moving back, Chase makes his move. Chase combines his chain around both his sword, shield, and body, which creates Chase's unique "nunchuck" fighting style. Chase then hurls the shield with the chain now attach to it, and commands the chain to swing in a circle around the monsters neck. The shield wraps around the tree ctretaure's neck, and returns to Chase. Now the tree creature had the chain around it's neck, Chase was ready to make his next move.
Chase commands the chain to pull him, while Chase pushes off the the ground as hard as he can to increase his momentum. Chase rockets towards the creature, but wasn't aiming to ram into him, instead Chase was aiming for it's power source, the floating stones above it's head. As Chase moves past the creature's head, the giant tree monster realizes Chase's aim. and quick grabs the chains, and begins to swing them. This causes Chase to start swinging above the creature's head. Faster and faster in a circular motion, Chase travels until the creature decides to pull the chains down, attempting to smash Chase, but Chase was waiting for this moment. Chase quickly commands the chain to bend at the midway point. When the creature pulls the chain down, Chase is sent flying towards the top of the creatures head, where Chase uses both his sword shield to detroy two more of the creature's stones.
The Creature however doesn't roar in pain like last time, and quickly grabs the chain to pull Chase in. As Chase is being pulled, the creature launches a fist at Chase. Chase's commands the chain to bend again, and this time the chain acts like a playground swings, causing Chase to move around the fist, and as Chase avoids the punch in mid air, he commands to chain to transform back into it's belt form in Chase's hand. Chase drops straight down, and as soon as Chase's feet touch the ground, Chase pushes backwards to avoid the creature's strike. The creature's punch comes inches of flattening Chase, and even though Chase avoids a direct hit, the shockwave of the creature's punch still manages to send Chase flying.
______________________________
Osamu walks with Aria towards the village and continues their converastion, "Thank you for understanding, Miss Miyate, but I think your mistaken about a few things. First, I'm not testing the woman at all. The only reason for my being here is Chase. As his mentor, I decided to send him here so I can observe him like you said. I need to figure out how his abilities work as well as a few other things, so that I can train him with the most beneficial method possible for his current level. Also, as for the solution to this problem, one would need to restore the balance to this forest, but killing or removing the wolfs won't do that. Their presence did cause the corruption, but the corruption is it's own entity at this point, and that corruption is what is causing the unbalance to continue. I do agree that the wolf's presence is still an issue, but it would be worse to kill them. Their deaths here would cause even more corruption to be born, which could eventually spread throughout the entire country, perhaps even the whole world. "
_____________________________
Eve flipped like a cat in midair to land in a three point stance once more. Springing from this stance, she landed on and bounded off the monster's head with the force of a woman who weighed 220 pounds. Her cannon empty, she settled for a blade that emerged from her other arm. Edward had given her more than migraines and an itch. He had given her ideas. She swung the blade in midair, spinning to carve through the nearest vine. Using the momentum of her spin, she blasted a gout of flame across the top of the beast, hopefully igniting the rest of its vines. She didn't have the fuel to try that again.
_____________________________
"Miyata, not Miyate." Aria corrects as they approach the village. So killing the wolves would only make the corruption they caused worse? Looks like the best course of action would be to destroy the trees first, then deal with wolves second. Glancing at the silver bracelet around her wrist briefly, Aria looks back at Osamu.
"Understood. While we wait though, do you have any information on that large wolf I talked to earlier, or why it decided to give me this?" Aria holds up her wrist for Osamu to see the bracelet.
_____________________________
The creature releases yet another roar, but this time it wasn't trying to be intimidating at all. The roar was a direct result from the immense amount of pain that the tree monster was feeling from the flames on the top of its head. The giant tree creature begins to smash its on head into the ground, trying desperately to remove the burning sensation that it was experiencing. The creature repeatedly headbutts the earth under its feet, but after a dozen or so fail attempts, the creature decides to use a much more risky tactic to save itself. The creature grabs onto one of the rocks flying by its head, and with a single movement, the creature consumes the rock, which was one of its power sources. As soon as the creature swallows the rock, its eyes begin to glow bright green, and the creature unleashes another roar. This roar was different from all previous roars as it contains a combination of both power and suffering to it. It was as if the creature could not contain both it's excitement and agony from consuming one of it's power sources directly. The tree creature's body slowly begins to glow violently with a dark greenish aura. The flames on the top of the creature's head was soon blown away from the force of the creature's new power. The creature places both hands on the ground and prepares to charge at the person that caused the creature to use such a do-or-die move to save itself. The creature stares at Eve with it's eyes full of hate, and it's body shining with the its new hellish green blaze. The creature launches towards Eve faster than any normal human could ever hope to comprehend, and faster than anyone would think could be possible for the tree monster's body to move at. The tree creature raises both of its arms way above its head once it was within arm's reach of Eve, and proceeds to perform a double hammer fists strike, with the aim to create a gravesite where Eve was currently standing on.
Seconds before the creature eats one of its power sources, Chase was somehow able to land on his feet from the shockwave of the creature's strike. Chase looks up in time to witness Eve setting the creature's head on fire. As the creature was roaring in pain Chase thought to himself that victory was close at hand. As Chase was beginning to relax, the creature accomplishes it's desperate move to save itself. Once the creature performs another roar, Chase's relaxing nature disappears, which happens immediately as the creature begins to glow green. Chase charges at the creature, but was unable to reach the tree monster in time to intercept the tree creature's own charge towards Eve. Chase quickly reacts to the creature's surprising speed and throws his shield at the tree creature, which successful wraps around the creature's right arm; however, Chase is unsuccessful in his goal to stop the creature's movements. When the creature lifts its arm, Chase found himself being launch flying over the tree creature's head. Chase commands the chain to pull towards him in hopes of slowly the creature's double hammer smash, even if it was only able to slow the creature's blow by a fraction of a second. In the meantime, Chase prepares to strike downward with his sword. Chase's target is to destroy a few more power source rocks, as he was slightly worried about what would happen if the creature was able to eat even more rocks.
__________________________________
Osamu rubs the back of his head and laughs as he lightly apologizes to Aria. "Forgive me. You will find that I'm pretty bad with names from time to time." Osaka's face gets a tad bit more serious when Aria asks her questions about the wolf and it's silver bracelet. "As for the wolf itself, I could tell you many things about the species, but sadly i don't know much about that specific wolf. Besides...I think you rather know more about that silver bracelet than anything else, which I can tell you about. You see, the silver bracelet is a manifestation of a contract between the wolf and yourself. The contract could be seen as an agreement to aid each other, in other words, its a type of alliance between the two of you. For example, when you find yourself in need of assistance, you could use the contract to summon your ally directly towards you if the conditions are present. I won't go into too many specifics about conditions, especially since your contract was a typical contract without two many conditions being needed. Basically, you can consider the wolf to be a soul familiar, which you can summon at any time, so long as you have the energy needed to first summon the spirit familiar, and then the energy to sustain the spirit familiar's presence." Osamu then touches the silver bracelet with a single finger tip and the object begins to glow a bright blue. "Well the good news is that the contract itself isn't that strong between you too, so I'll be able to remove it at anytime; however, until the balance is restored, I recommend that you keep the contract for now. That way we can prevent the wolves from attacking any more villages, while at the same time we can monitor the wolves' actions as well."
As Osamu finishes his last sentence, the two of them arrive at the hill where Chase and Eve first appeared in the forest. From this viewpoint, Osamu and Aria could clearly see everything that was going on in the village in front of them, including the fight between Chase, Eve and the tree monster. Osamu studies the situation, while at the same time he makes a few small motions with his finger. Suddenly the ground underneath Osamu and Aria's feet was covered by a rather large and soft blanket. Osamu then sits down with his legs crossed in a relax position. Osamu pats a spot next to him, as an indication for Aria to sit next to him, and he says, "Now let us watch and see what happens."
_______________________
Eve crouched as she landed once more to check on her compressed waist. She had lost at least two inches, and unlike Huntsman couldn't just expand again at will. Her internal metal was bent out of shape and from the blood trickling down her chin, her innards weren't in good shape. Fortunate that she could fix that, although she'd have to wait until the adrenaline faded so she could feel what was damaged. She looked back up to see the creature devouring one of its floating stones. Considering that her strategy had been demolishing them, that was likely a move of desperation. And from that aura, it seemed like a good gamble.
As it charged, arms raised with the clear intent on smashing her, she considered her options. She wasn't strong enough to catch the arms. Chase was struggling to just slow them. He was pretty impressive regardless. She'd have to thank him and ask him where he got his gear. Jumping around again would tear her up more. Fine then. Path of least resistance. As the fists fell, she rolled forward, narrowly avoiding them. Stony shrapnel from the impact lacerated her back through her coat. Shit, she just got that fixed. Under the creature now, there was a moment of awe as she stood and found she fit comfortably under it. Damn this thing was huge. Without a loaded cannon, there was only one thing she could do. She readied her blade, aimed just under where its breastbone would be if it had bones, and threw the strongest punch she could muster.
________________________
Soul familiar? So that large wolf who commanded all of those smaller wolves is now able to be summoned to her at will? Perhaps this mission was going to be more profitable than she had thought possible for the location. Sitting down and crossing her legs, Aria monitors the battle raging in the distance. The tree monster appeared to have become much stronger after it ingested one of the floating rocks positioned above it's head. That must be the source of the creature's power, and fromthe movements of the two fighters, they figured it out as well.
Glancing back at Osamu, Aria tried to read his body language. Why was he intent on keeping her out of the fight, but has no problem with the other woman assisting his student? Did he think that the other woman wouldn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of the fight? So many unanswered questions. But while they waited, she needed to inquire about more relevant information.
"That tree. Are all of the tree spirits in the area akin to it in strength, and how many are we dealing with here? I noticed that there were hundreds of wolf spirits, so can you tell me anything of the other hostile force?"
______________________________
The tree creature's fists smashes into the ground, which cracks the terrain around the tree monster's body in all directions for a few dozen meters along with creating a decent size crater, that was large enough to store a few corpses, where the fists had made direct contact with the earth. The force of the attack also causes pieces of rock, dirt, and dirty smoke to erupt and cover the battlefield. Yet, as the tree creature is trying to spot it's target, it suddenly feels something piercing its chest. The tree creature stands fully upright without wasting a single second to react, and looks down to see Eve's sword inside the tree creature's body with Eve still holding onto the blade. The tree creature's right hand moves to grab and crush Eve, but before the creature could get a hold of Eve, the creature suddenly feels another wave of pain wash over its body. The tree creature begins to lose balance during this brief moment of pain. Chase jumps off it's head, and takes yet another swing to destroy a nearby glowing stone rock by him, and looks around to see if he can destroy anymore. Seven more to go, thought Chase. As Chase was in the air just a second ago, he made sure to count the number of power sources left to destroy and determine the best method to destroy as many as possible in a span of a few seconds while the creature's attention was on Eve. Chase looks down at Eve for a quick second to see her condition, Not great, but she can still be useful. Chase prepares to destroy one more power source, but suddenly a giant tree hand grabs Chase in midair before he could even touch the ground.
The tree creature begins to squeeze Chase with all its might, causing Chase's armor to be pushed to its limit. Even though Chase's armor was bending at certain places, it was still able to hold out. The tree creature then thinks of a better way to kill the man in its hand. With Chase still in its grip, the tree creature proceeds to smash Chase into the ground, over and over again. Causing even more cracks to form, which was followed by a new crater with rocks, dirt, and dirty smoke being created. The tree creature continues to hit Chase over and over again in the same spot, with every new hit making the crater slightly bigger and generating more and more rocks, dirt, and dirty smoke. Eventually the creature leaves Chase in the crater that the tree creature used Chase's body and his fist to create. As Chase is laying in the crater he tries to move his body, but finds that almost every bone in his body is broken. The tree creature lifts its arm and brings it down on Chase,. As the creature was preparing to crush Chase, Chase commands his body to heal thousands of times fast than normal, costing Chase a large sum of soul energy, while simultaneously Chase tells his shield to come back to him. Chase grabs his shield in time, and uses it to defend against the tree creature's attack. Chase was able to defend himself, but the tree monster doesn't stop at one strike, but instead begins to strike over and over again. Chase is able to use his shield to prevent the killing blow, or rather Chase's efforts were just delaying the killing blow. Chase's body once again begins to travel deeper and deeper into the earth.
_____________________________________
The monk doesn't look at Aria when he listens to her, nor does he look at her when he response to her in his light hearted voice, "Well......I'm not too sure, to be honest with you, I don't know that much about the exact details. The corruption could be following a certain pattern or it could be completely unorganized. But if I had to take my best guess, I would say that the tree spirits, that are currently controlling the tree monster you see before you, are probably stronger than most of the other tree spirits in this forest, yet if you compare it's strength to the forest's queen spirit-" Osamu's voice takes a more serious tone when he finishes this "-it would be like comparing the height of the shortest blade of grass to the height of the tallest tree in this world." Osamu begins to think about Aria's character, That woman takes every chance to build her knowledge and continues to judge the situation before her with a great skill of perception, and carries around a strong sense of justice at the same time. She doesn't waste her time or effort, and always keeps taps on her surroundings. She would be a priceless ally to have on the battlefield, and a dangerous enemy to face. But even so, I wonder if she is strong enough to face this forest's spirit queen, no she has to be strong enough.
"Miss Miyata" Osamu says in another playful voice, "Would you be alright with me asking you a question or two myself?" asks Osamu as he continues to watch the battle. Hmmm, i wonder if Chase is going to end up using that double edge sword of his, or perhaps that woman will save him instead. Osamu looks at the village and stares at the old woman, who had a big smile across her face while she stares at the sight of Chase being pulverize by the giant tree monster. Osamu continues to speak to Aria, "Also don't worry, I will continue to answer each question you have to the best of my knowledge, so don't think that if you refuse to answer any of my questions, would automatically mean that i will stop answering your questions."
____________________________________
Eve's feet flailed as she was lifted by the simple act of the creature standing up. Finding a foothold in the beast's chest, she shoved hard. Finding herself very suddenly freed, she hit the ground hard. Pain shot through her as her damaged internal armor was shoved into her ruptured organs again. She gasped and tried to stand, but only ended up falling back to her hands and knees. She puked blood. Oh god. Was she dying? She could so easily regenerate from this injury, but not with her armor crushing it. She stumbled to her feet, lips bloody, and prepared to open herself up.
Then she saw Chase, hiding from a crushing barrage. She wouldn't leave a comrade to die while she healed. Her darkening vision cleared and she lunged, once again showing agility that belied her weight. She let her momentum carry her just over the creature's head, slicing away the nearest vine, then as she dropped, grabbing onto its rocky face with her cannon arm, regrown to function as an arm. From her vantage point, she thrust her blade arm right at its eye, seeking to plunge as deep as she could.
___________________________________
Aria listens to Osamu's comparison between the tree they were currently watching and the queen spirit, her expression still unchanged from before. Could the queen spirit really be that powerful? If she was, couldn't she have simply came to this village sooner and wiped everyone out? Perhaps there is a deeper motivation behind these attacks than simply wanting food. Which begs another question; why would a tree, a tree spirit no less, need humans for food? They normally run off of only carbon dioxide, water and sunlight. They must need human sacrifices for something else, given the informed I have currently.
Glancing over at Osamu, she notices him staring at something in the distance. Following his line of sight, Aria notices the strange old lady watching the fight in front of them...a smile spread across her face. This woman was clearly enjoying watching these two get thrashed by the giant tree. Could she just be a sadist, or was she somehow connected to these creatures?
"Go ahead, ask me what you wish. As for my next one however...do you know anything about that woman over there? She appears to be enjoying watching the battle a little too much."
_____________________________
Chase was barely hanging on, with each blow causing him to lose a bit of consciousness. Chase knew he could not last for much longer, and was ready to resort to using his soul overdrive ability, but just before Chase unleashes his most powerful and dangerous ability, the man stops himself because he stops feeling anymore strikes coming from the Tree Creature. Chase, wanting to know the cause for this recent development, decides to slightly move his shield, so he could get a better view of what was happening in front on him. Chase sees the Tree Creature falling on its knees with Eve's entire arm disappearing inside its eye socket. The forest creature didn't look to be in pain from its most recent wound, but rather the tree golem looks more confused than anything else. The lost of half its sight, continues to perplex the monster as it reaches out with its arm, almost as if it was attempting to caught its missing sight. After a while of failing to regain it's stolen vision, the monster yells in utter rage. The giant wooden Creature stands up once more and begins to search for the nearest target to pound away with its newly discovered wrath, and the first person that the angry creature sees is Eve, right on his face.
The monster brings both of its massive hands to its face in an attempt to grab Eve. Meanwhile, Chase tries to stand up in an attempt to attack his opponent in front of him, while the monster's focus was on Eve, but Chase was unable to move his body properly. Chase was going to need to wait a bit before he was healed enough to properly fight again, but Chase doesn't have time to wait in this situation. Chase takes a deep breath and uses his own sword as a walking stick to help him get back up, while trying to ignore all the pain he was feeling from his head to his toes. As continues to stand up, he begins to grin his own teeth together from the amount of pain he was suffering from, while his body shakes uncontrollable due to his broken bones and torn muscles, yet Chase manages to finally stand up. Chase looks at the monster in front of him, takes another deep breath, and charges at the creature with his body roaring in agony.
________________________________________
Osamu doesn't respond right away to Aria's question. instead, Osamu continues to look at the old woman, then he touches a rock by his feet, before he lifts one hand, while tossing the rock in the air in front of himself. His hand stops around the middle of his chest, and a small black kanji appears in the air right in front of the palm of his hand. Switch. The Kanji is invisible to those who could not see the realm of spirits, but existed as a physical manifestation as well as spiritual one. For those who could see spiritual objects, they would be able to see the kanji glow in a bright blue color, in the same instant that the kanji's color changes, the old woman, who was standing in the village a moment ago smiling, appears right in front of Osamu and Aria. At the same time she makes her appearance in front of the pair, a blue sphere surrounds her, preventing her from escaping. As the kanji in front of Osamu's hand disappears, a new one immediately reveals itself, as if it was hiding behind the first kanji since the first kanji was created. The second kanji remains glowing in a bright blue light. Barrier. The villagers begin to panic as their most respected elder vanishes right before their eyes. One brave soul goes to examine the spot that the old woman was standing at just a moment ago, and couldn't find any traces of the elderly woman. All the villager saw was a rock sitting on the ground where the elder was just standing on.
The Elder begins hissing and yelling in a language that Osamu and Aria couldn't understand. Osamu waves his hand, and another kanji appears in front of him. Translate. As the kanji glows blue, the woman's words could be understood by both Osamu and Aria as if they were listening to her speak in their native tongues, yet that didn't help them comprehend what the woman was saying at all. The old woman was switching between a bunch of cryptic poems and prays, and the harshest threats, to pleads of assistance from her scared protectors. Osamu lightly says, "Well this might take a while." Osamu then says, "Anyway, my question for you is this. Are you willing to put your life on the line?" asks Osamu in a serious tone.
_______________________________
Eve found herself dangling from the monster's face, caged by massive hands reaching up to rip her free. She did their job for them as she yanked her arm out, examining for a moment the gravel that coated her arm before she jumped off to land on a boulder of a finger. Glancing down, she saw Chase struggling to even stand. He needed some support. Fortunately, a tendril had already fished a cannonball from her bag and was loading it. Before the fingers could close in on her, she jumped again, landing on the beast's cliff of a face once more. She leveled her cannon at its remaining eye. If this thing had a brain, this was a clear shot at it. If it didn't, this was just going to really, really, suck for it. She fired and let go, letting the momentum launch her away. She landed in what would have been a perfect three point stance if she didn't still have excess momentum and immediately tumbled for several more feet, coming to a stop in a tangle with her coat a few feet further away from the beast than Chase was.
_____________________________
Aria watches as Osamu teleports the elderly woman over to where the two were standing, and continues to observe as he proceeded to both capture and translate her speech...however ineffective the latter was. If this woman truly was connected to the tree spirits, perhaps this speech structure is how they manage to communicate between each other? Then again, it could simply be an instance of this woman having some sort of mental illness that prevents her from making coherent thoughts. Whichever the reason, their suspect was now captured.
Turning to Osamu, Aria stares at his expression for a second, then begins to answer in a similarly serious tone. "I am the president of one of the largest Hidden World organizations on the planet. Simply being in this position greatly puts my life on the line every day, as plenty of people would want me dead for how my agents and I interfere with their crimes against society. So to answer your question, yes, I have been willing to put my life on the line from the moment I set foot in this village." Looking back over at the elderly woman, she begins observing their captive. "Same question for you. Are you willing to risk your life for this village, should your student and his ally fail to stop them?"
___________________________
The Tree monster did not know what happen to it. All it saw was Eve pointing her arm at its eye, then suddenly the creature could no longer see when he heard the cannon fire go off. In complete confusion the tree creature begins to pat the ground, searching with his hands to see if he can find whatever he needed to see again. The poor monster grew more worried at each passing second it was searching, until its rage begins to take over. Another echoing roar soon follows the pounding of is massive fists hitting the ground. The tree golem's strikes begins to cause the ground to shake as if the area was experience a mini earthquake. It could have been out of anger or perhaps desperation, but the tree creature takes not one but two of its power sources, and forces them into his previous empty eye sockets. The power sources begins to glow intense and in the center a few distinctive circles begin to appear, which represent a new sclera, iris, and pupil. The tree monster's various vines begin to burn a dark green and its aura begins to burn almost pure black with dark green highlights, with little bright greenish ember bursting through the tree monster's aura. T
he Tree creature stares down at the person responsible for destroying his old eyes, and it charges straight at Eve. Moving faster than ever before, the tree creature breaks the nearby ground with each brutal step it takes. The Tree creature quickly swipes at Chase with an open palm, and since he wasn't in the best condition to avoid the attack, he was had very few options to protect himself from the attack. Chase lifts his shield just in time to protect himself from most of the force, but he still experiences every bone in his body break once more as he is sent a dozen meters from the spot he was at a split second ago. The tree monster then readies its next attack for Eve. Its aura becoming more and more massive, to the point that the aura begins to mask the Tree Golem in a dark greenish cloud in the shape of a even slighter larger monster. The Creature punches straight down at Eve with enough force to smash a monster truck size boulder to dust.
________________________
Osamu smiles at Aria's response and nods his head in approval of her character, but quickly goes numb in facial expression when Aria asks him if he was willing to risk his life. Osamu rubs his beard and stares at the ground trying to think how best to answer this question. Finally he just says in a straightforward manner, "My answer is not that simple, but to answer your question, I would not be willing to risk my life for this village. Yet, before you judge me, I want you to hear my explantation. You see, my goal here is to study Chase and to make the best training program to get the best results from him as quickly as possible, so this village has no significance to me in of itself in the grand scheme of things. I do care about the unbalance here however, and thus, I decided to give Chase this assignment, since I figure I might as well help these people out indirectly through Chase, while at the same time, this will provide to be the perfect situation to examine Chase. Now should Chase fail, I will no longer have a reason to be here. Yet, even if I wanted to help these people, it would be better if I stay out of it. The amount of effort I would need to clean this mess would be just enough to alert my enemies about my whereabouts. Believe me, when I say its better for you to wait for reinforcements to help settle this manner, than for certain people who are after me to came here themselves. The amount of corruption could result in a global crisis depending on who or how many of my rivals come here."
Osamu then looks up at Aria, and continues to say, "Now, I'm hoping that it does't come down to this, but should Chase fail, I suggest you gather your forces here and prepare a strike. In fact, you might want to gather your forces now if they can arrive here in time to help. I don't doubt your ability, but the top sprit will probably have some notable henchmen at her disposal. So, I suggest you try to gain the support of that new Wolf Familiar of yours and get it to use its authority to get its pack to assist you in the battle against the major force of this corruption here." Osamu then looks down to spot the most recent developments in Chase and Eve's battle. I wonder if I'll get to see that Soul Overdrive ability thought Osamu. The elderly woman then begins to pray and repeat the same phrase over and over again, "Lady of the Forest save me! Lady of the Forest save me!..."
______________________________
Eve coughed and blood splattered the ground. Okay, enough of this. As the monster shoved its power source into its eye sockets, Eve's torso opened up from her collarbone to her crotch. Beneath skin and muscle was an alloy resembling steel and in a shape resembling the armor of a knight. In the upper chest, an array of a half-dozen gun barrels stuck through, a blowtorch right beneath them. In her abdomen, the armor looked like the hood of a car after the Mythbusters got done with it.
Her cannon was once more wrapped in an arm as she reached for the damaged section with both hands. Her fingers dug into a gap created by the damage and yanked. A jagged scream tore through the air. Bright pain. Sharp pain. The lower armor tore away in two chunks. She gasped a ragged gasp like she was drowning and collapsed to her knees. Ruined intestines dangled to the ground, collecting dirt. She would laugh about how she always was a dirty girl if she wasn't busy loosing what stomach contents weren't escaping through the hole in her stomach. She willed it to close, and with a sound like rubber stretching, it did. Bit by bit her crushed organs reknit, and she managed to shove herself to her feet. She looked the thing in eyes of dark light as it turned from the skidding Chase.
She dropped one sheet of metal and her body closed itself up once more without even a seam. "Alright leafy. That was me crippled and dying." Her blade sprung once more from her unoccupied arm and she charged. "This is me pissed off!" She watched Chase bounce by. He had impressed her, but there was no point in stopping to help. He seemed to get better on his own. She sprung with force born of newfound lightness, sailing past the punch with ease. She landed on its back at the moment it's fist impacted the ground with a sound like dynamite. She swung her blade towards one vine and the jagged chunk of metal at the other in a wide arc, releasing the sharpened sheet at the last second to sail for a third vine with penetrating force. She bent her legs and sprung, hurtling back in a great flip. Even in midair, her arm's cannon was revealed once more. It was with minor difficulty and the loss of most of her remaining ammo that she reloaded it before hitting the ground. She landed, finally in a truly perfect three point stance, cannon pointed at one remaining rock. "And this is me sick and tired of YOU!" The cannon erupted with a roar like her rage personified.
______________________________
Aria stares at Osamu as he explained his reasoning for not wanting to help out, frowning slightly when she heard about the potential effects if the supposed people that were after him managed to show up. Just who was this man, and who were these people after him? Could he possibly be running from one of the Hidden World organizations, and he is actually the criminal here? Regardless, there were more pressing matters to attend to.
Looking at the silver bracelet around her wrist, Aria focuses some of her magic energy into the bracelet, not really positive on how to summon the wolf she had previously encountered. Wolf! Can you hear my thoughts now? I need you to come out and help us deal with a potentially large threat. She thinks to herself, seeing if adding magic to the bracelet let him hear her. While she waitted for a response, Aria glanced over to the old lady, now saying a coherant phrase for once.
"Lady of the Forest? Do you have any data on her, Osamu? Any data would be valuable."
______________________________
*Chase and Eve*
The last remaining power source is destroyed and the tree creature immediately falls down on his knees. His bright dark greenish aura begins to dim out, until the body of the tree creature loses its menacing aura completely. Then its turns slowly black, as everything about the monster slowly died from the vines on its head, to the wood that made up his entire body. This process also happens so fast, that the Tree Golem didn't even get a chance to make a final sound before he experiences its death. Meanwhile, Chase absorbs the sprit energy of the fallen creature before he falls on his hands and knees. Chase commands his equipment back to their hidden forms. "I really hope I don't have to fight any more trees today." said Chase. He gets back on his feet and walks over to Eve. Basically out of breath, he manages to say, "Maybe next time... We start off with the crazy combo attacks... Okay." finishes Chase with a sly smile on his face, but suddenly, he senses something, that causes his smile to leave his face.
_________________________
*Osamu and Aria*
"Hmmm, I'm not sure who that is, but if I had to guess... I would say that is the title that these people have given to the top sprit in this local forest." said Osamu."Don't worry, I'm sure we will eventually meet this Lady of the Forest, soon enough." he said with a big smile on his face and begins laughing to himself as if this fact was funny to him somehow. "Anyway, it seems that they finally done with their fight against the creature. I was expecting to see Chase go all out for a bit, but I suppose he found himself a truly worthy companion." Osamu was really impressive with Eve and her abilities, wondering if she was a good friend of Chase or not. As Osamu was lost in thought for a second, he quickly picks up a disturbance throughout the forest.
"Speak of the devil... Its seems that the fight isn't over just yet. Perhaps we will get to see something rather interesting." he finishes with a big grin on his face. Behind them, a bright white moonlight color emerges and out of the light, a massive figure appears. Osamu doesn't bother to turn around, but his eyebrows raise as he says, "I'm truly surprise at how natural your able to deal with spirits. Maybe you should try to pursuit a more spiritual career." joked the monk as he laughs into the night sky. The giant wolf begins to growl at Osamu, as if he was a threat. "Thats good. It is a pretty protective spirit. I'm not really surprise,. That's how a good leader should be I suppose..." unlike before, Osamu doesn't laugh at that last comment of his, it was more like he was aiming that one at himself more than the giant wolf spirit.
The massive spirit wolf stares at Osamu with his teeth showing, he was preparing to tear him to pieces. The wolf charges towards Osamu, but before it could get too close to lay a hair on his body, or ruin the blanket their were sitting on, Osamu finally turns around and looks right at the creature with a hint of killing intent in his eyes, which only lasts less than a tenth of a second at best. Yet, that was all the time it would take for wolf to stops in its tracks, as it studies Osamu's eyes within a timeframe that was faster than an eye blink. The wolf's instincts goes into high gear, alarming the wolf that this was an opponent it would be no match for, even if they were fighting a fully spiritual plane, where the wolf was at full power. The wolf slowly moves towards Aria, and rests its head on the ground right next to her, but as far away from Osamu as possible.
The giant spirit creature begins to whimper a bit too, as if scared. Osamu begins to laugh once more, and say, "Sorry about that buddy, I didn't want to accidentally hurt you." But more importantly, I didn't want to risk exposing my position to them, he thought.
_____________________________________
*Chase and Eve*
Chase turns around to see the tree creature's dead body disappearing bit by bit, yet a lingering presence refuses to leave with the decoying corpse. Chase wondered if Eve could see into the spiritual realm as well, and if she could, she would be able to see exactly what Chase was seeing. Where the monster they just fought had died, now hovers a small cloud of darkness. Slowly expanding in all directions, and moving every so slightly towards Chase and Eve. "Break time's over now it seems." said Chase as he commands his tools to go back into combat form. The black cloud then burst into a light, yet much larger, black mist, which begins to cover not only Chase and Eve, but the entire village as well.
A few seconds pass by, and the mist vanishes from sight, yet Chase could still sense its influence, especially behind him, where the village was at... No... it couldn't be... Chase turns around to see all the villagers that have gathered, experiencing a terrible mutation. There bodies begin to turn gray and their bones breaking in the most unnatural of ways. They begin to scream in pain, but nothing could have saved them at this point. Eventually their bodies begin to take on a shape that was no longer human, and resemble that of a tree troll. Soon enough, there were hundreds of these newly created, disfigured, tree trolls, who each create a wooden weapon out of spines.
These new creatures all look at Chase and Eve at the same time as if they were of one mind. They begin to make inhuman sounds at them, and smashes their club like weapons against the ground. After each strike, the tree trolls begin to glow with a small greenish dark aura, that resembles the aura of Chase and Eve's previous foe. There eyes turn blood red and the small army of trolls begin their march. They were slow at first taking only a few steps, but after a while, the pick up the pace with each passing second, and before long, the tree trolls were sprinting right at Chase and Eve.
"It would be just my luck to deal with this kinda thing right after I break every single bone in my body in my last fight." Complained Chase. "I hope you can use the same trick as before again, princess. Cause otherwise, this isn't going to be a pain in the ass to deal with." Chase quickly throws his shield at the closets troll, who simple evades it with a quick ducking move, yet as Chase pulls the shield back with his chains, the shield smashes right into the back of the troll's head, and breaks its skull before bouncing off and coming back to Chase. Chase grapes his shield and looks at the emeries as he asks Eve, "You ready for this?"
Eve watched the beast die with satisfaction. "I agree on the trees. Fuck trees. If I ever see another forest in my life, I'll burn it down. Now, how are you? You got really tossed around." She thoroughly looked Chase over. Noticing his attention was elsewhere, she waved a hand in his face. "What, uncomfortable with a pretty woman being your medic? Leave the body alone and-" She paused when the villagers stirred. She raised an eyebrow and lunged with a hand open, seeking to grab a troll's neck. She stopped just a moment before her fingers closed. "Wait! They're still the villagers! We can't kill them!" She had a hard time turning her choke to a throw, attempting to toss the civilian to the ground instead of crushing their throat.
____________________________
Aria observed Osamu's exchange with her wolf familiar, surprised at how quickly he was able to frighten this massive beast. She lightly scratches the wolf's head, looking back at Osamu as she does so. "Accidentally hurt him? You seem rather strong to be able to intimidate him like this. As for spirit summoning, I have never done it aside from today, so I suppose it's linked to my magic ability in some way." Once Aria finished her sentence, she looked at her pistols...and then back at Chase and Eve. The two of them appeared to be severely outnumbered, and given that they were already exhausted from fighting the forest creature, they might not survive this fight.
Suddenly, a large network of vines began to grow out of the ground, wrapping themselves around the forest creatures and pulling them down to the ground, binding their arms and legs as the vines made their way around their bodies. Aria was fully aware that these creatures were still innocent civilians, so she couldn't physically harm them without a self defense case. However, she continued to sit on the ground next to her wolf familiar and Osamu, eyes fixated directly on the battlefield as she continued to bind the gremlins. She needed to save her strength for the largest foe, and knew full well that tiring herself out on these underlings would only serve to doom everyone.
_____________________________
Chase didn't care about the fact that the foes in front of him was the so called innocent villagers, he will strike down anyone who tries to cause him harm. He prepares to deliver a lethal blow to another tree troll, when suddenly vines from underneath the ground wrapped around the tree troll in front of him. Looking around, he notices that there was an invasion of rapidly growing vines, which successfully binds all the tree trolls. The mutated villagers, tree to free themselves, but their struggle was in vain. No matter what they tried to do, they could not break out of the vines.
Studying the vines a bit more closely, Chase recognizes the soul wavelength that this vines are carrying through their being. So, this is her doing? Turning his head, the tired man looks up to find the source of the soul wavelength's owner. It looks like she is up on the hill with beard face Osamu. Smirking to himself, well I suppose if she couldn't at least do something like this, then she wouldn't be the head of a hidden world organization. Chase recalls a few conversations that he had with Smith about the president of his organization, and how Smith described her as being one of the most powerful people, if not the most person, he has ever meet. "You weren't kidding Smith." said Chase to himself in a low tone.
Walking over a few feet, Chase bends down and looks at one of the villagers. "Hmmmm... I would say, these people have at most a day... no probably half a day before their souls get completely corrupted and their spirit will no longer be human at all." The corruption has cause the villagers' outer appearance and personality to change very quickly, yet their spirit was slower to change, as if their souls were fighting to remain pure human, yet that was already too late it would seem. "It might be better to kill them now, at least that way their souls remain mostly human when they die." said Chase.
Chase stands up and looks at Eve, "Not that I care really about their spiritual well being, but their spirits are all being badly assaulted by whatever cause them to turn into these monsters that you see now. I don't care either way, but it doesn't look like we can save them... well maybe we can't... but maybe that man can." he said as he points towards Osamu. "Yet, I wouldn't be surprise he if he refuses to help them out. After all, he is more concern with keeping a low profile then helping these people out. Maybe we should just put them out of they misery now, no point in making them suffer more than they already have." suggest Chase.
_______________________________________________
"Nice job! I knew you were good. Without a doubt, your power is defiantly no joke." said Osamu in a light mood. "And as for the strong comment, I'm not really that strong." he said in a modest tone, trying not to give away a hint to his full power. "Besides, strength shouldn't be measured by how much force one can use on others. Yet, if your curious, their is a ranking system placed in the spiritual world where that wolf belongs in. That wolf would be more towards the midway point in the spectrum back home at full power, but believe me the spectrum is very vast, and the higher than rank is, the more the difference is between the previous rank. At some point, the difference apart between one rank and the following rank in terms of strength would be like comparing the size of a single drop of water to a lake." he said with a nonchalant tone.
"But anyway, lets focus on our next move." Osamu says as he looks behind himself to see that a new guest has decided to show up. "We should probably first greet our new friends." he said with a smile. The corrupt spirit reveals it's palm and multiple vines with different flowers attached to them begin to sprout out of the human shape creature's hand. The vines grow bigger and bigger, before they begin to move towards separate locations, while at the same time the flowers on them also continue to increase in size. Eventually, the flowers become harder and harder, until they resemble the recently defeated tree creature's power source stones. The now stone rocks, start to glow with each one in a different color and the ground around them begin to take shape until four tall tree creatures were created, which looked almost identical to the same giant tree monster, that recently fought Chase and Eve.
The newly formed tree golems begin to roar together, which carried a loud echoing sound that could reach both Chase and Eve. The summoner of these forest monsters takes a few steps towards them and it says, "Leave now, or prepare to die!" Osamu not looking the least bit worried about the most recent development, just turns around to look back at the village. The forest summoner gets annoyed by the man's actions in front of him, and prepares to unleash his creatures on them. He lifts his staff and he commands the tree golems to attack. Yet, before the giant tree creatures takes a single step, all they hear is a loud stomping sound from behind them. They slowly turn around to see, that their master was completely crushed under the foot of the massive Spirit wolf. Aria's spirit familiar looks down upon the tree creatures, that stood below the spirit wolf's chest.
The forest monsters tried their best to defend themselves, but before they could even turn around they were all destroyed by the wolf spirits massive and quick blows. The wolf then turns around to give a warning growl to more than 2 dozen more human like tree creature that look very similar to the summoner that was recently crushed to death. They all stretch out there hands, and soon enough a square of giant tree golems were formed. A few of the summoners even work together to create a new twisted tree creature that was covered in darkness and corruption, which was even as tall as the wolf spirit.
While looking straight ahead still, Osamu tells Aria, "Maybe this is just me, but I'm starting to think that this 'Lady of the Forest' is feeling threaten by you." he said with another big smile on his face.
_____________________________
Eve saw Chase prepare to strike a transformed civilian down, only stopped by the vines restricting their movements and neutralizing the threat. She took one step towards him and swung her cannon arm to wallop him over the head. She attempted no follow-up, simply turning away to the new beast while she reloaded her cannon. "If you kill a single one, I will blow your fucking head off." She warned as she walked away.
She looked at the new beasts with annoyance. She had wasted most of her ammo on the first one. At this point, she needed some backup. She wished she had stolen Malcolm's scroll. "YOU TWO! GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE!" She yelled behind her at Aria and Osamu. Not waiting for a response, she fired a cannonball their direction, aiming for the center of the group of summoners. And with that parting shot, she was charging forward like a cannonball herself, aiming to swing her blade through the great tree beast's leg. Her blade was puny and ill suited for chopping, but god dammit, she was Eve Harper, and it was time to yell timber.
_____________________________
Standing up from her spot, Aria glances back at Osamu. "Perhaps. I tend to have that effect on people." Analysing the enemies in front of her, Aria determines that even if the summoners are killed, the tree monsters still live on. Even so, it would be wise to kill the summoners first to prevent them from strengthening their summons even further. Her own wolf familiar had thankfully acted on it's own accord and smashed the previous two enemies, making her glad that she had accepted the beast's contract request.
Without saying another word to Osamu, Aria takes off down the hill, towards the group of summoners. "Wolf! Focus distract the largest monster!" She orders, wanting the wolf to distract the giant beast so she can focus on the summoners. Surprisingly though...the summoners were all in one small area, focusing their energies into the trees. How foolish.
Focusing her magic upon the area under the summoners, Aria smiles slightly as she raises her right hand...causing a massive venus fly trap to erupt out of the ground and hopefully capture many of the summoners in it's gaping maw, which swiftly closes. Inside of the plant were a dense concentration of noxious fumes that would knock an elephant out in seconds, accompanied by a wave of paralysis gas that would keep the summoners immobile long after the effects of the knock out gas fade.
Taking advantage of the confusing caused by the venus fly trap, Aria skillfully slides around the outside of the battlefield, firing rounds of paralysis bullets at the summoners from her two pistols. She hoped to keep at least some of them alive to question later.
_______________________________
Chase avoids Eve's attack by a few inches and comments, "I'll take that as a no then." He looks back to the villagers and watches them as they suffer on a spiritual level. Whatever, if she doesn't mind them experiencing hell, then I suppose I shouldn't give a crap either. He looks back to see Eve charge back into battle, and Chase just takes a few seconds to think this all thing over. Reflecting on what exactly is the benefit of charging up the hill when they should just avoid this issue all together and leave these villagers to their poor fate, still he might as well help them out. After all, the faster they finish this assignment, the faster it will be for Chase to enjoy his next beer, at least that is what he thinks, not knowing that he was going to be experience nonstop training for long periods of time after this mission. Commanding his gear to revert back into their disguise forms, so he could move more freely, Chase begins to make his way to the hill. If he was lucky, maybe the enemies will be already be defeated by the time he gets there. Yet, just by sensing their spirit power from here, he had a feeling that his hope for a quick solution to this newly arrive foes, will not be as fast as he would like it to be.
_______________________
The summoners notice the cannon ball coming at them and quickly cast another spirit spell of some sorts, to unleash of blast of dark yellowish energy to destroy the object in mid air. The result lead to a mini explosion, that was only a few dozen feet above the summoner's heads. The force of the shockwave from the explosion, causes a few tree branches to snap right off, with the bark being peeled forceable off from the tree, but besides that, there was nothing notable about the explosion. Yet, the cannonball did provide as an unintentional decoy for Aria's own attack.
The massive venus fly trap erupts and swallows a decent number of the summoners, yet most of them were able to react just in time to avoid being eaten by the plant, as they felt the vibrations of its growth through their senses as tree spirits. The summoners inside, quickly unleash another blast of yellowish energy to destroy the giant venus fly trap from the inside. Once free, they jump back down to the ground, but a few of them stumble as their legs touch the ground. A small number of them were too late from escaping form the poisonous plant, and now being affected by the gas and become paralysis. Some even after avoiding the gas, was hit by Aria's bullets and they too found themselves unable to move.
Upon realizing the danger of the the woman, the summoners command their massive Tree golems to attack her at once. About five tree golems begin to charge toward Aria in a blitz full of the similar dark greenish aura that they have seen before. Each of the monsters were moving faster than any regular human car could hope of moving, as the head straight to their target. They all roar as they take their massive, and surprising quick steps forward. Their goal was very simple... Crush her into the ground and make sure she can't get back up.
As some of the giant tree golems went after Aria, a few make their way to Eve, who recently makes contact with the massive black tree monster, but her blade only bounces off the surface, without even leaving a mark on the spot where her sword hot the corrupted tree spirit. The Giant dark tree monster takes a step forward with enough force to send Eve into the air as the biggest tree creature in the area was preparing to fight the second biggest creature in the area, the giant spirit wolf. As Eve is in the air, she gets caught by a nearby Tree Golem and the monster just yells right into her face and throws her like a baseball over the side if the cliff.
________________________
Meanwhile, just before Eve was toss like a ball by the tree creature, Chase was only a few more steps from reaching the top of the hill. He still was not sure about battling all these tree spirit, but regardless, he takes the last step with a high jump in order to get over a steep part near the top of the hill. Now, Chase was in the air only momentarily, but he couldn't have decide to jump at a worser time. This is because, when Chase was in the air, he sees Eve moving right in his direction in a motion that clearly shows that she had just been thrown. There was nothing Chase could have done, this caught him completely by surprise as he was still somewhat lost in his own thoughts, and by the time he realize the situation, it was too late to change it.
Eve's body smashes right into Chase's body as soon as he performs his jump, and the two of the found themselves being sent flying backwards in the same direction that they just came from. It took a couple of seconds before they finally land somewhere in the forest after going through a very trees, which was a almost an entire mile away from where the others were located on top of the hill. When they hit the ground, Chase finds himself in a human shape crater within a slightly bigger crater in the ground with Eve on top of him.
"Just Great" said Chase in a sarcastic tone underneath Eve's heavy metal body. Nearly every bone in Chase's body was broken upon the impact.
_______________________________
With Eve and Chase now a mile away, the only ones left to face the tree sprits was Aria and her giant spirit wolf for a short while. The wolf stares at the only thing bigger than itself, with the difference in size was like comparing a normal wolf to a normal human. The wolf pounces with a quick attack, causing the black tree creature to take a step backwards, as the force of the wolf attacks blows a few nearby trees to pieces. The massive tree throws the arm that the wolf fangs were inside of, causing it to go backwards a for hundred feet, where it accidentally crashes into a tree golem, who's gets destroyed by the impact. The wolf bares its fang at the creature. The dark creature looks at this arm, where the massive bite mark remains. This bothers the summoners since the creature should be able to heal the damage with no issue, but the wolf's special coated spirit energy around its claws and fangs prevent the creature from self healing itself.
The wolf charges once more, and the dark tree creature punches at it and its fist smashes into ground, which cracks the entire hill in various areas. The wolf is able to avoid the attack thanks to its quick reflexes and shifts its position at the last second, and moves behind the tree creature. Where the wolf proceeds to bite the leg of the monster, causing pain for the creature. Yet, as the wolf sinks its teeth once more into the tree spirit, the dark creature doesn't waste time with this opportunity. The tree spirit reaches down and grabs the wolf by its face. In a single motion, it lifts the wolf off its feet and punches it square in the stomach with its other hand, with enough force to launch the giant spirit wolf over the hill and into the ground. The tree spirit then roars a might battle cry and its begins to form a energy ball between its two hands. The monster lifts the ball of energy over its head and provides to chuck the energy ball at the spirit wolf.
The sprits wolf lands on its feet and looks up to see the corrupted energy blast coming at him. So in response, the wolf releases its own energy blast from its mouth to intercept the attack of the tree monster. The spirit wolf's own attack pushes the tree monster's dark energy ball far into the air, where the attack eventually explodes in the air, safely away from everyone, with only the shockwave of the attack causing some very little damage to a few trees at the very top of the hill. By the time the explosion disappear, the wolf was already back at the top, looking at his opponent again with fierce determination in its eyes.
During all this, Osamu remains calm and proceeds to watch this event as if he was merely a spectator, and that this matter didn't really concern him, as so much as peak his interest. He makes sure that no harm comes to his captive, the elderly woman from the village, who was currently on her knees praying to the "Lady of the Forest." The big man just sighs a bit to himself, wishing he had a snack to eat as he was watching the fights going on. He was impressive with Aria. Thinking that this matter was going to be resolve mostly by her efforts, along with her spirit familiar. He looks up to study the battle at the very top of the hill, where he wonders if their battle was going to eventually get this entire hill destroyed. Osamu frowns at the thought, as he enjoys sitting in his current spot.
___________________________________
Eve found herself in the air, much to her surprise. This thing stepped hard. Getting grabbed was less surprising, as she could see the hand grabbing for her coming from a mile away, although in the air there was little she could do about it. She readied her cannon to blast it when she was brought to its face, realizing that wasn't happening when she was drawn back. "Shit." She remarked before the arm snapped back, hurtling her harder than one of her own cannonballs. She hit something, then a lot more something, then the ground a few times before she just started sliding.
As she got up, she was surprised to find the broken mess under her body was Chase. She peeled herself off him, checking to see that her coat was intact under his blood. It was. Now, how was Chase. She pulled the ball from her cannon and loaded more gunpowder in. "If you feel up to it, I have a plan for getting back nice and quick and in style. Otherwise I'm binding you up and leaving you here." She continued to pour gunpowder into her cannon.
____________________________________