The arrow reached its destination and met an invisible wall that drastically reduce its speed and just when it was able to go through that invisible screen he saw a hand grabbed the arrow and then the arrow desintegrated into thin air.
The ranger looked at the owner of the hand and the face of a red eye Kobold with a big grin on its face was clear as water.
Little did the ranger know that in that precise moment the myth of Baba Yaga (The Boogeyman) that was fear across Orc children for generations and generations had started.
"Don't go too deep into the South forest or Baba Yaga would come and take you away"
"Baba Yaga doesn't like little Orcs that don't go to sleep early."
"Becareful of Dark Red fire cause is the calling card of the Baba Yaga"
Statements like that were heard across many Orc Villages across the Realm of Elysian for years to come.
Upon seeing the Kobold face, the Orc had to do a double take to make sure he saw the right thing but this minor distraction was dangerous in battle as he felt the tip of a knife trying to stab him in the kidney.
Arne would have succeeded had it not been for the Frostwolf Khan that cover the ranger's back and used bite to counter-attack and force Arne to withdraw.
The ranger quickly check his back and a tiny drop of blood was quietly sliding down making him cherish life even more.
The Warriors heard the arrow from their teammate and immediately Rush towards the enemy. They never doubt their teammate for a second and as they attacked the expectation was to see a wounded if not dead Barbarian; However, what received them out of nowhere was a Bear and an Axe wielding Kobold charging in.
The four people looked like four atoms about to collide inside a Cyclotron as one of the Orcs use Leaping Strike and flew into the air at Cypher in his Bear avatar form while Rahz prepare a frontal slash at his own opponent.
Cypher was standing on his two back legs and use Maul at his incoming target. The Orc berserker readied his two 1h axes to meet the claws but he felt something cold hit his chest and his body went numb decreasing his attributes by 5 percent. It was the Witch Doctor spell Deteriorate.
With his attributes diminish by Elune, the orc took a heavy blow from Cypher's ability and flew back, before he knew it a pair of jaws were about to crush his neck. The Orc rolled to the side but the jaws managed to snap shut on the Orc's shoulders removing a big chunk of bloody meat.
ARGHHHH!!!
The Orc screamed as his shoulder bones were on display but there was no time to waste if he wanted to survive, Cypher didn't let go of his advantage and continued to swipe and bite more of his prey's meat.
On the other side Rahz caught his opponent by surprise. The horizontal slash was no slash at all, it was his chaos skill: Chaos Blade. Two Half moon shape blades left Rahz's Axe and hit the Orc 5 Feet outside his 2h Axe range.
The first blade ate the defensive energy the Warrior place on himself while the second one got him square in the right knee.
Grunt!!
The Orc did and evasive roll forward using his falling momentum and attack upward from left to right with his 2h sword. Rahz was not expecting the move, but thanks to the wound on the right knee of the orc, his opponent didn't get enough traction for his swing and the force was lacking.
Rahz block the swing with his Axe which activated the Skill Axe Counter and allowed Rahz to dash forward and knock his opponent down. There was no need to spend more energy into another skill as the iron edge on the Axe did all the work while splitting the orcs head in two.
Instead of finishing up the other warrior, Rahz move to help Arne pin down the ranger that with the help of his Frostwolf was putting up a fight. Arne used the trees as shields stopping the ranger's arrows while making it difficult for the Wolf to drag him to the Rangers line of sight.
Elunes timing with the wards was exquisite helping Arne at critical moments and giving him the confidence that he would survive no matter what.
Whimper!!!
The wolf cried as 4 chains of dark red energy held him in place and burned his skin preventing him from attacking Arne who used this chance to get closer to the ranger.
It was now 3 against 1 and it was just a matter of time before the other warrior would fall as well. Elune took care of the detrimental spells on the Ranger and after Weakness and Icy Winds landed on him Arne went to town.. Rahz picked the Frostwolf Khan and engaged him in combat preventing him from helping his partner for a few seconds until it was all over.
The Energy collected from the enemies contribute about 10% of what was needed to move up to the next level and Rahz was sitting at about 20%. The team tidy up the scene and made a pile with the bodies so that Rahz could burn them using his Chaos Energy but before he could extend his hand a purple fire appeared in the air and decomposed all the bodies while increasing in size. Even the bones were melted and used as fuel, the bodies disappeared and the now double in size fire floated towards Rahz's back and into the Egg.
Burp!!
"Good Job Riddick!!"
Everybody else's jaws were drop in amazement at the mystical thing that had just happened in front of their eyes and were glad it wasn't their bodies being melted.
Cypher was extremely serious and said, "Rahz you have to promise me you won't let whatever it is inside that egg eat my corpse, I must have a proper burial"
Rahz saw the seriousness in Cyphers eyes and nodded in replied.
The team moved from the scene and for the next couple of days they continue to monitor the area with little success before deciding to move into the next dangerous zone where the conflict had escalated to a more serious confrontation.
The next zone had two groups of enemies and as luck would have it, one was a group of low level bandits that were making sure both sides were giving it their all in this probing war. Unfortunately for the bandits, they met a Kobold and a Bear out in the woods and the only member of the team left, wished he had been killed by the Axe wielding Kobold as it would have been more merciful than what happened to him.
Thanks to Arne's suggestion of interrogating one of the members of the bandit group, after annihilating the others they captured one that tried to survive by running away in the middle of the fight but how could he escape from an awesome rogue as Arne.
Arne was a scout but it was his first time trying get information from a prisoner. The bandit looked at the four and realized that the people in front of him were warriors not killers so he was not going to cooperate at all.
The bandit strategy was simple, keep his mouth shut and look for an opportunity to escape or maybe this novice group would just let him go after failing to get anything from him but boy was he wrong.
The first to step up to the plate was naturally Arne, the team felt that it came with the class to be able to interrogate a prisoner and all others had no clue in what to do. Arne first thought was, 'how far should I go to not kill him and made him talk', without giving it another thought Arne grabbed his dagger and stab the bandit on the palm of his hand.
AAAHH!! Mother fucker!!!
"What were you doing so far north?"
"Looking for your mother to have a good time, OHH YEAH!!"
Arne was so enraged he started stabbing the bandit like a maniac before he was push back by Elune's ward on the bandit.
"Relax!! He can't talk if his dead"
Cypher was laughing his ass up and Rahz was just glad it was not him that heard those words or he would have already burn the guy to ashes.
"If you think you can do better why don't you show us then"
"Alright!! Watch and learn kids"
Cypher transformed into a bear and swipe his claws across the bandits abdomen and then use Bite to take a big chunk of meat from the bandits shoulders. For the finale, he stood on the guys leg crushing it under his weight. The pain was so intense that the bandit passed out even before hearing the question.
Snort...
Elune cast heal on the bandit while shaking her head and saying, " A little too savage for an interrogation but good try"
After a few hours and the care of Elune, the bandit came to and his wounds were regenerating at a fairly good pace but his body felt like he was hit by a truck.
Ooooh is my turn now... Let me show you how is done.
When he was finally able to focus his sight, what stood in front of him was a pair of red eyes that were as clear as pure water.
BANG!!!
Rah'z fist landed on the bandit's solar plexus knocking his wind out so hard that saliva came out the mouth. Rahz help the bandit to a sitting position and ask, " Why are the bandits so far North".
Spit!!!
"COUGH!! FUCK YOU!! YOU PIECE OF SHIT BARBARIAN!!"
The moment the spit hit Rahz's face, Arne and Cypher jumped into action and try to grab his arms but were almost not fast enough to prevent Rahz from crushing the bandits neck. The bandit fell to the ground and Rahz was taken away by the other two.
Sigh..
"Never sent boys to do a Woman's job" Elune looked at the bandit and continue to speak, " When I am done with you, you are going to wish you had talked when you were stabbed in the hand..."