Zonu stirs in his bed as he wakes up to the sound of footsteps hitting the ground outside the window. He groggily moves to it to see Kaizen dashing past Virren and Solaris as they workout. Zonu rolls his eyes as he lays back in bed and throws the blanket over his head. The sun crests over the distant mountain tops as Virren, Solaris, and Kaizen finish their run. The three barge into Zonu's room, breathing heavy as they chug glasses of water. Zonu flips over making eye contact with them.
"Can you guys not come stampeding in here like lost cattle?" Virren yanks the blanket off Zonu, "we wouldn't wake you if you would just join us." Zonu sits up, "Virren, I understand you mean well but it's just not my thing, let me be." Virren shrugs and walks over and starts packing his bag along with Kaizen and Solaris. Zonu rolls his eyes and starts packing his bag and looks through his component bag, preparing for the upcoming road trip. "How far is the Storm Woods from here?" Kaizen asks. "About a few hours away if we don't stop anywhere." Solaris replies as he grabs an apple from the end table bowl.
As the four friends leave the house, waving Mira goodbye, Virren grabs two horses and a wagon for the journey. The streets are less populated as before. More merchants fixing up their shops than children playing in the streets. The horses head through the opposite end of the town, making their way towards the woods in the distance. The sun climbs higher in the sky as time goes by: Solaris sharpening his blade, Kaizen stretching, and Zonu double checks himself, marking down some of his spells and repacking some components neatly in his bag.
Solaris looks at Zonu and sees Ash poke her head out. "Ash! I forgot you were even here!" Solaris pets her head, Ash turning into his hand with a smile on her face. "She stays quiet, that's what helped us when we got jumped by some bandits." Zonu smiles as he scratches under her chin. Virren speaks up, "we got jumped by some bandits when we were collecting resources for the buildings a few towns over. We even got a little souvenir." He holds up a wanted poster with the jackal symbol they all wear on their persons. "Bounty-50 gold per head?!" Zonu questions as he takes the poster. "We didn't see a poster on them, just some gold is all." The horses come to a stop as the party reaches the edge of the forest.
"It's gonna take hours to comb the woods for the creature!" Zonu groans as he steps off the wagon. "Not to worry friend, I have it under control." Virren reassures as he crosses his legs and lays his medallion over the Vicentreph sketch. "Lorg Cruthachadh!" Virren's eyes flow with radiant energy as he can see the silhouette of the creature about 300 feet or so away. His eyes turn back to normal, "right this way!" He says as he start walking into the woods. The party follows, minding their footing to avoid too much noise. The thick, tall trees seeming to dance to the mild wind snaking throughout as the sun pierces the canopy above them. Virren stops and kneels down, motioning for everyone to do the same.
The heavy footfalls of the Vicentreph echoing throughout the woods as it gnaws on a deer corpse. The creature seems to be almost half as tall as the trees themselves, around 13-14 feet. Kaizen and Virren flank around the outside as Solaris and Zonu stay put. Virren unlatches his hammer from his waist and slowly starts unwinding some of the chain as Kaizen gets directly opposite of him and now have the Vicentreph between them. Virren launches his hammer towards it, striking it in the side of the face, then immediately whips the chain back, retracting it to his hand. The creature groans as it turns toward its assailant. In that moment, Kaizen leaps from the bushes and strikes behind its knee, causing it to kneel. The Vicentreph's blue eyes dart back and forth planning on who to attack first. The chained hammer whips out from the treeline again wrapping around the vine covered neck. Virren digs his feet into the ground, trying to hold it steady.
Kaizen continues his series of punches to the pressure points of it but is not working as effectively as he hopes. The creature quickly backhands Kaizen sending him flying into one of the nearby trees. Solaris nods at Zonu as he dashes out from behind the tree, great sword held high. The Vicentreph grabs the chains and yanks Virren across the battlefield and slamming him onto the ground. Solaris yells as he swings down at the leg of the bounty, "Göttlicher Schlag!" The sword makes contact with its leg and... nothing happens. Solaris opens his eyes, surprised, he looks up towards the sky, "You crazy bitch." He says with spite as he feels the leg of the creature hit him in the chest and thrusts him back. Zonu pulls Ash out, "are you ready?" Ash nods as she wraps her tail around Zonu's wrist and produces a small flame in his hand.
Zonu mutters under his breath while putting his hands around the flame, "Spera Ig.." he is interrupted as he feels vines wrap around his legs and pulls him into the dirt. The Vicentreph lifts its leg as Zonu appears under it. It steps down but Virren dashes over and stops the foot from crushing Zonu, as he screams in pain. "Go,go!" Virren says through his teeth. Zonu, pale and wide eyed, scurries out from under the foot. "Gairm gu bàs!" Virren yells as necrotic energy fills his eyes and veins. The foot of the creature begins to wilt and die as it reels back in pain. Virren falls to his knees, out of breath. The creature screeches as it slams its hands into the ground.
The ground under the party begins to shake and vines extend out wrapping around Virren, Solaris, and Zonu, lifting them high in the air. Kaizen parries the vines out of the way and runs toward it, leaping and countering the vines assailing upon him. Solaris strikes at the vine holding him, cutting it off and sliding down the vine. He then leaps off of it and plunges the sword deep into the head of the Vicentreph. It whips its head side to side to try to throw Solaris off as Ash wraps around Zonu's hand again. From high in the air while being grappled, Zonu cups his hand around Ash's flame, "Sphaera flamma" and extends his hands creating a ball of fire. He throws it down impacting the creature in the chest. Virren throws his hammer, wrapping around Solaris and pulling him to safety as Kaizen leaps at its chest and ripping through it, the purple flower in hand. The vines begin to unravel and the creature falls apart in silence.
The friends gather around, breathing a sigh of relief.. Solaris storms off, " What the hell were you doing!! You're supposed to help me through shit like this. This isn't some joke, I could've been killed!" He yells at the sky. "Umm is he ok?" Kaizen points to Solaris. "More or less, he's talking to Bermella, the goddess that gives him his powers. Remember I said that he needed to work on his relationship with her? Yeah, this is what I meant." Virren explains. Solaris holds up the sword, yelling "When I say Göttlicher Schlag, you do it!" The sword glows bright and produces an explosion. Virren, Zonu, and Kaizen look at Solaris as he is facing away from his sword as it is smoking. Solaris looks back at his sword, then throws it on the ground. "You smart ass. I meant whenever I'm in combat." Solaris grumbles and picks up his sword and walks back to the rest of the group. Virren looks up to the sky and whispers,"just give him some time, he will come around."
The party makes their way out of the woods, bruised and tired. Zonu grabs Virren's shoulder and pulls him to the side as the others load up the wagon. "What was that spell you used? The one on the Vicentreph's foot. Was that a necromancy spell? Zonu firing one question after the other. Virren catches up and stops him, "It was a necromancy spell and I learned it while I was training with the God that I serve. It's kind of a balance in between light and dark, if you want to simplify it." Zonu replies back, "can Solaris do the same thing?" Virren shakes his head in denial. "He only serves Bermella as I serve Dracemyr, the Fate God. I was tasked by Dracemyr, Bermella's father, to help unify her and Solaris. I rather keep that between us though. Solaris needs to have the confidence to do this on his own, I'm just here for emotional support." Virren explains as he motions for Zonu to walk to the cart. Zonu cycles through Virren's answers and explaination as he crawls into the cart and is pulled toward Razelbends once again.