They had been walking for a pretty long time when Nayoung gave the order to stop to rest a bit. They hadn’t traveled that forest before so it was hard to know when they were going to arrive, might as well rest now if they didn’t want to be caught off guard and tired when the battle time came.

“How much further into the forest?” – Jieqiong sits next to her.

“I told you I don’t know, never been to this forest before” – Nayoung answers stoically without looking at her, she was submerged in thoughts.

“I thought the centaurs gave you a map or something when you talked to their chief”

“Yes, but the mapping doesn’t reach this far, we’ve walked past the abandoned castle about a couple of hours ago”- Just how much time had they been walking?

“Well, damn, I say we go back to our ship and fly all the way to the center of the forest” – Sejeong chimes up on their conversation unexpectedly, even with the heavy armor she was wearing she didn’t make a sound when she getting closer to them. That or Nayoung is just seriously not paying attention to her surroundings.

“And what? Waste three more hours getting to the ship just so the other mercenaries can snatch the head of the witch from under our noses? No way” – Jieqiong answered fast, showing an uncharacteristically amount of common sense, a side of her personality that didn’t show up very often.

“She’s right, now prepare to move in five minutes, we’ll resume the march and won’t stop until we get to the witch’s house”- Nayoung gave the order and watched as both Sejeong and Jieqiong went to warn the rest of the group.

Now that she was alone, Nayoung opened the map that was given to her by the chief of the centaur colony, He told her that they would probably have to walk a few more hours before reaching the house, but Nayoung started to doubt about it, after all, centaurs were known for their speed, a few hours to them could amount to a day of walking for a regular human.

They were in this forest for a reason, their mission? They were tasked by the royal council of the south kingdom of the human confederacy to bring them the head of a famous malevolent witch that had made one of the forest of the kingdom her house. Raven Highmore was her name, an old powerful magician that fell under the pressure of the dark magic.

Im Nayoung was the leader of the mercenary band, she had formed it a few years ago after being kicked out of the holy church of Oramus over fake claims of treachery. She had been wandering the world after that, making money any way she could that didn’t involve killing, she didn’t want her morals tainted. That was until an old man offered her a large sum to take out a troll that had been camping too close to the man’s house for his comfort.

Not only did she end up slaying the troll, she also saved Jieqiong, a wandering cleric whose mission was to extend the word of Oramus to every border of the confederacy. They became friends quickly, seeing as they both were, or had been, involved with the church. They started looking for similar jobs, bands of goblins running rampant, aberrations getting close to human settlements and the special ingredient hunt from time to time.

Mina and Sohye came next, then Yeonjung and Sejeong came last. By the time Nayoung noticed, they were already a full-fledged team. And this was their newest assignment.

Nayoung was a paladin, she was trained in the arts of healing and fighting with magic, although she preferred to wield her hammer and shield instead, that way she saved energy to heal if they needed it.

Most of the time she wore a set of heavy armor with gold ornaments, and this was no exception, although armor could not block magic, it certainly helped to lessen its effects on her body.

Nayoung train of thought was interrupted yet again when Sejeong came to stand up next to her.

“We’ll be moving soon”- Was all she said.

“Good”- Nayoung was a woman of monosyllabic words, but by now, Sejeong was accustomed to it.

“How are we going to get inside of the house once we get there?”- Sejeong already knew the answer for that question.

“We won’t, they will get engage the witch first and then we’ll strike, hopefully they don’t know we are coming”

Sejeong was the warrior of the team, she was both the newest addition and one of their strongest members. They found her one day at the outskirts of a village, engaged in a fight with a dozen antmen, consumed by bloodlust.

They didn’t move to help, not because they didn’t want to, but because Sejeong tried to attack Nayoung as soon as she tried to give her a hand.

They opted instead to remain on the sidelines, watching as she hacked and slashed through every one of those creatures until none remained.

After that, she just fell unconscious, when she woke up, she didn’t want to talk about it but gladly accepted the offer to join their team.

“So we’ll wait for them to make a move first huh?”- Nayoung knew by the way Sejeong said it that she was displeased.

“I know you want to fight, but we have to be cautious, they are dangerous, and I don’t want to meet them head on in battle”

“So, after they start fighting the witch, do we engage them or do we set a trap?”

“That I don’t know”

“I’d say the first one, but it’s your call”- Sejeong impatient nature shows again – “Besides, we haven’t seen anything past the usual giant bugs, I don’t know why the say this forest is THAT dangerous”

“There is a reason Centaurs don’t come this far…”

The conversation stops there and is plunged into complete silence. Nayoung was about to dismiss Sejeong when she remembered something the other girl told them.

“Sejeong, you said you know the other team’s captain, right?”- If Nayoung didn’t want to sound intruding then she was failing miserably.

“Oh… yeah, I do, why?”- For a moment Sejeong doesn’t know how to answer.

“Do you have anything on her that might help us get an advantage?”

“Nothing at all”- She looked away for a moment and Nayoung instantly knew she was lying, the girl couldn’t keep a straight face everytime she tried.

“Are you sure?”- She raised her voice, trying to sound intimidating.

“Yeah, I’m sure, we fought together as hired swords for a prince, and she was mage in training. I think war changed her, she started looking into dark kinds of magic and one day, she just disappeared, I tried to follow her footsteps until I found you guys…”- And without knowing, Sejeong had spilled a crucial piece of information – “After that, I didn’t know anything about her until the rumors of her band of mercenaries started to circle around town”

“So she’s indeed a warlock, huh?” – There were rumors, yes, of the strongest swords for hire in the whole continent having a proficient warlock, a fallen knight and a priestess, the confederacy most accurate hunter and a prodigy young elf mage in their group, but it was insane, who would think that a priestess would align with a warlock and a fallen knight?

If this was true then they had a lot to worry about, forget the warlock, a fallen knight was enough trouble by itself.

“Okay then, let’s move up!”- After a brief moments of silence Nayoung moves her body towards the rest of the team and gives the order.

Sejeong moves to gather her things and Nayoung takes this chance to get closer to Mina and Sohye. She walks up to them as they finish loading their stuff in their backpacks.

“Hey, Nayoung, do you need anything?” – Mina asks as she sees Nayoung getting closer

“Is Sohye asleep?”

“I don’t know”

They both look at Mina’s shoulder, there was a small penguin snoring soundly there, Mina flicks its forehead and the penguin, startled and squealing, falls to the floor. Mina immediately giggles while Nayoung cannot hold a smile forming either.

A flash of green followed by the rather creepy sound of bones growing and adjusting themselves is enough to erase Nayoung’s smile, she could never get used to that.

“Thanks a bunch”- A grumpy Sohye grumbles, causing Mina to giggle again.

“I need your help”- Nayoung goes straight to business

“Go find someone else then, I’m not helping”

“Do you really want me to talk?”- She decides to push Sohye’s buttons a little and, as she said this, tilts her head towards Mina, who has resumed loading things in her backpack

“Fine, fine… just keep your mouth shut, what do you want me to do?” – Sohye realizes what Nayoung is talking about and sighs, admitting defeat peacefully.

“Go up to the sky, I need an approximation of how much time we have until we reach the clearing”

“You got it boss”

Sohye is a druid, she has the ability to morph into any creature she sees either in drawings or in real life. Still, she has this totally not weird tendency to just transform into a baby penguin and remain perched on Mina’s shoulder most of the time.

As Sohye transforms into a hawk and starts soaring the skies the group starts moving, the other four were chatting among themselves as Nayoung continued to go through the plan over and over again. They had left their flying boat in the edge of the forest, guarded by a couple of centaurs thanks to the willingness to cooperate from the chief. In the end, they were doing him a favor by removing the witch’s influence from this land, it’s the least he could have done.

Sejeong voice is heard again

“I say we can still turn back, grab the ship and head right into the center of the forest, it’s easier that way”

Nayoung wasn’t going to answer at all until she hears Mina mumble in agreement with Sejeong’s idea. She gets that they must be tired of walking, but turning back now will most likely mean the other team will get there first. Has anything she tried to teach them about military strategy stick to their brains?

She was about to remind them of that fact when a fifth voice joined the conversation.

“That would not be a wise thing to do. We mustn’t take this lightly, if we turn back the enemy has an assured victory”

That was Yeonjung, an elf and the member Nayoung is most glad to have in the party, she is about 179 years old and quite experienced with the art of war.

She is a monk, trained by an elf clan up on the snowy mountains of Tar’ Albakor, mountains that divided the border between the elf empire and the west kingdom of the human confederacy.

After Yeonjung talked, the other two shut up, Nayoung wondered if they only obeyed Yeonjung because she was older or just because they wanted to piss her off.

She decided to take her mind out of the path by mentally double checking her bag contents.

She didn’t have much, just food, water, a few regenerative potions and a scroll of teleportation that was crafter by the royal wizards.

They were supposed to use it once they had the witch’s head, one would return to the court with it while the rest walked back to the ship.

In this world, magic was the name given to the canalization of essences, mostly oneself life essence. You would use it to either chant a spell or imbue an item with energy to use later, doing that, you were sacrificing a certain amount of life energy.

The bigger the spell, the bigger the cost.

People were either capable of doing it on a whim or they weren’t, nobody knows why that happens, Sejeong is an example of it, she can’t canalize essence willingly, only when faced with life or death situation will she be able to unconsciously use it.

Every magic spell, even the most basic ones, take at least a good few seconds to cast while the user relax himself and recites the mantra associated with that spell. Life essence energy management was taught to humans by the elves a long time ago.

Casting low energy cost spells is easy, however, humans, a race that is not really attuned with magic, can only recite 3 middle-level spells a day before getting exhausted, prodigies can go up to 5, but after that point none is known to survive. Elves, on the other hand can recite up to 7 before exhausting themselves.

Besides, there’s almost no other way of replenishing life essence other than resting and getting fed, still, there are some exceptions.

Nayoung remembers a time Sohye tried to transform into a frost wyvern and during the transformation she just returned back to human form and fell to the floor, unmoving. She was knocked out cold for three days after that and when she finally woke up, the first thing she was greeted by was a slap to the face from Mina.

 “Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright”- Nayoung gets startled when a voice suddenly breaks her concentration. It was actually Mina

“Its fine, it’s fine, I’m not worrying about us…”

Mina is a shaman, she is in sync with the environment and nature, and that allows her to feel what other people are feeling, kind of like an empath but without the ability to influence them.

Shamans are usually magical prodigies that instead of using the energy coming from themselves use the life essence of the ecosystem that surrounds them. And that leaves them vulnerable to barren lands such as the forest they were crossing now.

Suddenly, a hawk nosedives from the sky and, before crashing into them, pulls up and morphs in the air, landing as a human in front of Nayoung.

“The forest turns dark just ahead of us, trees are dead but I can’t see anything under them, it might be clear but we have to be cautious.

Jieqiong walked up to them.

“Do we know what we are dealing with?”- She sounded concerned, she wasn’t much of a fighter after all, she preferred to try and bring people back to the good side instead of just killing them. But that wouldn’t work on this witch.

“Raven Highmore, she used to be a royal mage until she started tampering with dark magic, she turned into a warlock but failed to control the power she acquired, she was consumed after that…”- Nayoung turns her head to look at Sejeong, she knew she was listening – “That’s all the council told us”

“Shh, listen, listen, do you all hear that?”- Yeonjung interrupted before Nayoung had a chance to continue.

Silence fell on them, they heard something in the distance and it sounded like… electricity?

“We must be getting close, the other team might already be there, move!”- Nayoung barked and everyone started moving towards the sound.

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They arrive at a clearing after a short sprint, before them lies a lifeless terrain, dead grass and trees are everywhere, everything is grey, not a spec of green to be seen. They hide behind a couple of trees when Nayoung signals them to lay low.

Nayoung looks back to Mina, she looked like she was about to faint from the shock of witnessing such a wasteland, guess she won’t be able to help too much during the actual battle.

She turns back her head to watch the battle that was taking place before them. Two elves and a cloaked figure were surrounding an old looking hunchback woman, Nayoung figured this last one was the witch, she recognized them based on the description the royal administrator gave her, the elves are a mage and a priest while the cloaked figure must be no other than Chungha, the warlock, they were late after all.

The little elf mage launched a fireball directly at the hag, but it was deflected effortlessly, a fire hand emerged from the ground after that a swiped at the witch, who, again, deflected it, this time using some sort of magical shield.

“Okay, they seem to be fighting already, I only see three out of the five that supposedly integrate the team so either they are out of the fight or they are near”- Nayoung starts speaking to gather her team’s attention – “ Listen closely Yeonjung, take Mina and Sohye and flank them, you should focus on taking out their cleric. Meanwhile Sejeong, Jieqiong and I will take out the mage while the warlock is fighting against the witch, we must be quick, but I don’t want dead people, just neutralize them if you can.”

“We’ll be swift with our task then, Sohye, Mina, follow me” – Yeonjung said as they started moving from cover to cover until the three disappeared from Nayoung’s sight.

“Now, Jieqiong, you will stand back, I don’t want you in the middle of the battle, just shield us if you can, Sejeong, once we take out the mage, try to take out the witch while I take care of the warlock, am I clear?”

Both Jieqiong and Sejeong nodded and the latter readied to follow Nayoung.

Nayoung and Sejeong left the cover of the trees and approached as fast as they could without making too much noise, it seemed to be working as the four people fighting in front of them remained unaware of their presence.

“Magma Meteorite”- Nayoung hears the elven mage shout, a soon as she finishes a giant flaming rock, that has a radius of about one meter, appears from thin air with five smaller rocks gravitating around it.

The meteorite is immediately launched at a high velocity towards the witch leaving a red colored trail, Nayoung inferred that a boulder that big at that speed would kill any human, elf or dwarf regardless of armor or even magical protection.

But it obviously wasn’t enough to take down a witch filled with dark energy, the meteorite crashed against a dark barrier before shattering into million pieces. Upon closer inspection, the witch looked enraged, her eyes were bloodshot and black liquid was oozing down her body. Nayoung could only assume that it was Raven’s blood.

The witch started walking towards the mage, moving, probably chanting something kind of spell. That was when something that looked like an eagle made out of electricity arises from her body and dived to the little mage that was standing a few meters in front of the witch

“”- Was the only thing Nayoung could say, that would definitely kill the elf and she didn’t have time to chant a defensive spell.

She picked up her pace while she picked her shield from her back, she couldn’t let anybody die, even if it was beneficial to their cause. She managed to stand in front of the young elf and raised her shield before the electric eagle strikes her.

The impact sends her flying back a few meters. She lands on her back on the dead grass, it hurts, yes, but Nayoung has no time to waste, she gets on her feet again and shouts at Sejeong

“Forget about the plan! Go take that witch down, I’ll take care of the mage!”- Sejeong nods and breaks into a sprint to join the fight against the witch.

Nayoung looks back at the young elf mage, she was watching her cautiously.

“Listen, you are Yoojung, right? The young elf prodigy? There’s no need to make this harder than it should be, just leave this place and let my team take the head”- Nayoung doesn’t want to fight and she’s sure neither does the girl in front of her. She was a young elf of about 60 years of age, known as a possible prodigy, at her age elves are about as strong magically as a human, so Yoojung was probably already tired depending on how many spells she had casted since the battle began.

“I… I th-thank you for sa-saving me, but I can’t do that, you sh-should leave”- She wasn’t sure if Yoojung was scared or just plain shy, either way, she left her no choice

“I hoped we could talk this out, seems not, I’m sorry then.” – Nayoung started moving towards the mage.

“S-stay back!”- Yoojung yells to no avail.

When Nayoung shows no signs of stopping, the mage closes her eyes and starts moving her lips, three seconds later a fireball creates on her hand and she points it directly at Nayoung. It still was by no means as big or destructive as the spell she casted earlier.

Yoojung then launched the fireball at her and she made no effort to dodge it. When the ball of fire got too close to Nayoung it ricocheted against a yellow shield that surrounded her.

It was holy magic, Nayoung smirked, she was sure Jieqiong was casting it from behind the trees.

She kept on moving, Yoojung tried to fire a few more fireballs but all of them ended up bouncing back or barely scratching the shield. Nayoung was about to raise her hammer for a quick strike that would leave Yoojung out cold for a couple of hours.

Then something cut through the air at a high speed and lodged itself directly into Nayoung’s right palm.

“!”- Nayoung looked to her now bleeding hand, an arrow was stuck into it and forced her to drop her hammer – “, !”

Magical shields didn’t block physical objects, and even though Nayoung was armored from head to toe, the one that shot this arrow managed to hit her in her hand, where the chain-mail was thin enough for it to penetrate.

She raised her head to look at Yoojung, this time the agitated elf was probably casting a bigger spell to take advantage of her weakened shield. She was looking for possible covers to run to when a shriek resounded through the air and a humanoid looking bird fell down from the skies and hit Yoojung square in the head with its talons.

The young mage let out a cry and aimed the already conjured meteorite to the Garuda, the flying creature tried to take off again but the meteorite managed to scrape one of its wings, before falling, the winged man took hold of Nayoung using its arms and glided straight to the wooden door of the witch’s house, escaping from the fight.

As they crashed into the house, breaking the door in the process, and there was a flash of green before Nayoung and the now human Sohye kept rolling through the floor.

Nayoung was the first one to stand up, she looked at her hand and broke the tip of the arrow before extracting the other end from her hand, now blood was flowing freely.

“We found a hunter, the one who shot you, Yeonjung and Mina were trying to keep her occupied while I went to take care of the priest, you are lucky I saw you about to get busted otherwise you’d be dead by now”- Sohye was smirking, proud of her recent feat.

“Yeah, yeah, I owe you one, now let’s get back on track”- Nayoung didn’t have the time nor the patience to deal with her antics right now. She reached for her bag and took out a regenerative potion, she gulped it down in one go and felt the tissue and muscle of her hand remodeling and reorganizing themselves, it was a feeling she never truly liked.

She took a peek outside through one of the windows, Sejeong, Chungha and the priest were still fighting against the witch, though they looked considerably more tired than before, while the witch was still fighting as if she was still at her full potential. Witches never truly get tired as they are like the shamans, they feed on the energy of the ecosystem to cast spells but, unlike shamans, everything they feed on dies. That certainly explains the dead environment and the wasteland they were now fighting on.

Yoojung, the mage, was now resting against a rock, it seems that she tired herself out after the brief encounter she had with Sohye and the couple of advanced spells she casted. She looked further into the trees and saw Jieqiong with her eyes closed, probably trying to cast a shield  on Sejeong.

“Okay, listen, I trust Sejeong to take care of the witch, we should go out there and deal with the warlock while Yeonjung distracts the hunter from us.”

As soon as Nayoung finishes the sentence, a worried looking Yeonjung enters the house through the destroyed door with a wounded Mina on her hands.

“What the hell happened to her?!”- Sohye is the first to jump to Mina’s side once Yeonjung deposits her on the floor.

“We were attacked, I was dealing with the hunter and I managed to neutralize it just fine when an armored enemy jumped at us brandishing a claymore” – Yeonjung breathed and composed herself – “And she was following us here the last time I looked over my shoulder…”

Just as if she was calling for her, somebody donning a full black metal armor entered the house with a two-handed sword on their shoulder, looked straight at them, and move their hand to take off her helmet

“Hey”- The girl smirks

Nayoung recognized her, Jeon Somi, a fallen knight, she left the saint order to pursue power, she abandoned them as she was tainted with greed.

They used to be companions.

Somi locks eyes on her, Nayoung was expecting the girl to say something, but she just raised her sword and started chanting.

“Now! While she’s chanting! Sohye, get Mina out of here, Yeonjung, go help Sejeong and try to knock out the priestess, I’ll hold her here”- She screams as her team scrambles to go out the house.

Nayoung closes her eyes, she starts looking for her energy, deep inside, a second passes, two, three, then she finds it. She opens her eyes to recite the mantra but it’s already too late.

“Judgement strike!”- She hears Somi shout just as she brings the claymore, which was glowing now a faint lightblue, down.

The ground starts quaking brutally and Nayoung knows for a fact that the house would not stand erect much longer. She stumbles a few times before regaining balance completely and tries to reach for the door when a hand holds tight her shoulder.

“You are going nowhere”- Somi had an almost lunatic grin on her face

“Yes I am”- Nayoung deadpans as she swings her hammer to try and hit Somi’s unprotected head.

The girl is by no means an idiot, a hit like that would send her to the afterlife immediately. She lets go of Nayoung and backs down to dodge the swing and Nayoung uses the chance to roll out of the way seconds before the house comes crashing down.

She barely managed to get out of the crumbling house, which must have taken Somi out right?

Wrong, as the last wood planks fall, Nayoung sees that Somi is still there, standing on her feet, even worse, she starts walking, although not on her direction.

When she follows Somi’s path with her sight she sees Jieqiong trying to heal Mina with Sohye by their side. Nayoung hurriedly tries to stand back on her feet but a crippling pain assaults her as she tries to mover her left leg. She can’t see through the armor but she’s sure that something must be broken.

“, not now”- She closes her eyes again, looking for her inner energy, five seconds go by and she cannot find it, she starts to lose concentration and is about to open her eyes when she finally gets ahold of it. She opens her eyes and recites

“Holy light”- She directs her right palm to her left leg and touches the armor, she feels warm energy surround her leg and before she realizes it, the pain is gone.

She gets up and breaks into a mad dash to intercept Somi, she sees the girl lifting her sword, which was glowing intensely, and moving her lips. She fears the worst now.

While she runs, Nayoung attempts to find the energy to cast a spell again, this time looking with all her might until she finds it.

She gets in front of the trio just as Somi lifts her sword with only one hand, impressive.

“Death’s grip”- She can hear Somi chanting. The next thing she knows, a beam of lightblue energy is flying towards them

“Fortress of light”- She canalizes her own energy in the form of a two meter width shield.

The beam clashes into the shield and the force starts pushing Nayoung back, the temperature turns cold, really cold, and even Nayoung’s shield starts to freeze. She’s growing tired of it, she feels her energy getting drained by the second and she doesn’t know how much time she’ll be able to keep it.

When the beam ends, so does Nayoung’s shield and she falls to her knees, exhausted. She looks up and sees Somi approaching again, she tries to stand up again but Somi just effortlessly slaps her out of the way and keeps moving towards the trio.

“Stop right there or you’ll face me!”- Sohye steps up and confronts Somi, Nayoung just hopes she won’t do anything stupid.

“So, who should I kill first? The priestess? You? Or maybe the annoying little shaman behind you?”- Somi smirks, Nayoung realizes she is purposely taunting Sohye, she wants to see if such a frail looking girl can fend for herself.

“You aren’t killing anybody! Not while I’m here to protect them!”- Sohye is engulfed in a green light, the last time Nayoung saw this…

“No! Don’t do it!”- It was too late

Something akin to a cocoon enveloped Sohye, it started to grown, and grow. A pincer came out of it, then another one and it finally emerged.

Sohye had transformed into a giant emperor scorpion of about seven meters from head to tail and as tall as 3 meters.

Somi’s grin was wiped out of her face when a pincer grabbed her by the waist. She tried to break free of it but the pressure applied by the scorpion was too much.

She grew tired of it fast and aimed her sword right at the pincer that was holding her hostage, it didn’t pierce, the scorpion’s natural armor was so thick even the claymore wasn’t able to puncture it.

It seemed the fight was already over before it began, the giant scorpion moved its stinger ready to attack and impale the death knight and so it tried to do it. Still, Somi swung her claymore just as the scorpion was about to strike and managed to hit it. Since the tail wasn’t as protected as its pincers, the slash went through.

The scorpion shrieked and opened its pincers, letting Somi fall to the floor. The creature did not waste time and launched another offensive with both its claws to try and grab Somi again.

The girl dodged swiftly both attacks and swung her sword again, this time aiming at the creature’s head. It managed to hit an uncovered part of the creature and it made it back up while screeching.

The screech brought Nayoung back to her senses, she looked around to find her hammer and found it not too far from her position, she crawled to it and grabbed her while trying to stand up, she felt a little bit dizzy, probably from the strain put on her bye the spell.

She turned back to where Somi and the giant scorpion were fighting, she planned on distracting Somi for a minute so Sohye could put her unconscious. She picked up her pace and started trotting trying to make the most sound possible so Somi would notice.

It worked, as soon as she was behind Somi and tried to swing, the latter her back to grab her hand without much trouble.

“What were you tr… Oh…”- She started speaking but stopped suddenly as blood bursted out of and she started to wobble. Sohye had stung her.

“Oh god! Sohye what the hell did you do?!”- Nayoung held Somi’s body and left it gently on the floor.

There was another flash of green and this time it blinded Nayoung, when it ended, Sohye was standing there, blood running freely down her head, arms and legs. It seems that the damage done to the beast did affect her after all. She too started staggering.

“Why did you do that? I told you I didn’t want any deaths!”- Nayoung was getting angrier by the minute and Sohye’s lack of expression was not helping at all – “Now she has venom cursing through her body and a hole in her back that’s as big as my hand!”

“There was no other way! I had to do it!”- Sohye slurred the words out

“There’s always another way”- Nayoung was quick to remark

“I did what I had too!”- She tried to yell but her voice faltered – “She would have… she would… she… Mina”

And then Sohye fell down too.

Jieqiong and Mina were just arriving at the scene when they saw Sohye crumble on the floor, they both made their way as fast as they could.

“What happened?!”- The first one to talk was Jieqiong, who showed concern even for the enemy in this kinds of situation.

“Sohye’s fine, she’s just unconscious, but I need your help with this girl”- Nayoung explained hurriedly- “She was stung by Sohye, I need you to heal her and remove the venom, otherwise she’ll die”

“I’m on it, you should go help Sejeong with Mina, leave this to me”

“Mina, are you coming?”- Nayoung called the girl that was now kneeled beside Sohye

“I’ll be right behind you, I just don’t think I’ll be useful when I can’t gather much energy from this land”

She made a point, and Nayoung was only loosing time now, she grabbed her hammer from the floor, got her shield from her back and started sprinting as fast as she could with her heavy armor to where Sejeong was fighting.

“We’re almost done, just hang in there”

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Sejeong looked to her right when she heard a deafening noise.

The witch’s house had fallen and she could see Nayoung and somebody cladded in black armor from a distance.

She came back from her stupor when she felt somebody closing in her, she took a step backwards to avoid being slashed by the witch’s claws. A counterattack was set in motion and Sejeong brandished her sword in an upward slash that aimed at the hag’s legs.

It did not connect however, and the witch used that chance to blast Sejeong away with a bolt of electricity.

She fell unceremoniously on her back before a hand was offered to help her up. It was Yeonjung.

“I’m going after the cleric, do you think you can kill the witch after I knock her out?”- Straight to the point as always, although Sejeong doubted she could take care of the witch without help and, strangely, she stopped feeling Jieqiong’s magic working around her.

“Go ahead, it’ll be difficult but I think I can manage”- She looked back to the fight, the witch was now locked in combat with Chungha, the warlock, and it seemed to be the best chance to jump at her while she was unaware.

Sejeong sprints into battle again and Yeonjung is left alone, she looks around, not for cover since they were in the middle of a clearing with nothing but dead grass and a few rocks, but for the priestess. She finds her near the rubble of what used to be the witch’s house.

She starts walking to her as stealthily as possible, the healer had her eyes closed as she was chanting probably some kind of healing or invigorating spell to keep the warlock able to fight, otherwise she wouldn’t have lasted as long as she did fighting a witch head on.

Just when she was about a meter away from her, she decided to just aim a punch to her side. Unlike humans, she was capable of finding her own essence in just a couple of seconds. She canalized that energy to her fist and prepared to strike the unprepared opponent.

“Topaz fist”- She chanted as an electrical current enveloped her right and left hands.

She launched both fist at an incredible speed but suddenly the priestess wasn’t there anymore, as if she had teleported.

“And to think one of my own race would step so low and attack a defenseless opponent”- A voice that sounded almost ethereal resounded near Yeonjung while said girl looked everywhere trying to find its source.

A shadow was casted on Yeonjung as she looked up just a second before being hit by a metal staff right on the head. It didn’t end there, when the elf girl graciously descended from the air, she hit the utterly dazzled Yeonjung on the head again, this time with a sweep that hit her right in the temple.

“Really disgraceful”- The elf priestess said spitefully

And that’s when the already confused Yeonjung got even more confused, the priestess in front of her was none other than Jung Chaeyeon, a high eminence that was declared messenger of the elven gods and disappeared months ago under unknown circumstances. What was she doing out here and fighting side to side with a warlock? This couldn’t be possible.

“Is this some kind of joke?! Are you an impersonator?! Stop this at once!”- Yeonjung could feel her blood boiling for the first time years, this monster was bringing disgrace to her entire clan by impersonating the kidnapped Chaeyeon.

“Compose yourself Yoo Yeonjung”- “Chaeyeon” started talking again – “You were looking for a fight, you found one, brace yourself!”

Chaeyeon then lunged at Yeonjung.

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Not too far from there Sejeong was still deep in the fight against Raven, the witch had both her and Chungha against the rope and it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed by her raw strength and endurance.

Nayoung arrives at the battle to find an exhausted Sejeong and an unrelenting Chungha giving their all to get a hit on the witch, who seemed to be in almost the same condition she was when Nayoung first saw her, minus a bunch of cuts and burns she received during the battle.

As she moves to intervene, a giant skeletal hand rises from the ground and tries to swat her. Nayoung raises her shield to withstand the first hit before jumping back a few feet to get out of the range of the hand. Soon after, the hand turned to dust again.

A cackle could be heard in the distance, the hunchback witch was just toying with them by now, seeing as both Sejeong and Chungha were already on the floor, panting. And she was now raising her hand, aiming at Nayoung. She raised her shield again in anticipation, this didn’t look good.

“Frostfire Nova!”- Nayoung looked back to see a giant ball of blue fire, it was about half the size of their ship and the only thing Nayoung could do was try to move out of the path of the gargantuan ball of fire.

The ball started moving rather slowly in the direction of the witch, who lowered her hand before raising the two of them, as if she was trying to catch it.

“Essence distortion”- A raspy, guttural voice came out of Raven Highmore, it was the first time Nayoung had listened to her voice, and she sure as hell hoped it would be the last. The voice carried power beyond her comprehension, it was strong in every sense Nayoung could think of.

The ball of magic launched by Yoojung dissolved as soon as it touched the witch’s hands. Much to Nayoung and Yoojung’s surprise. The small elf now looked terrified.

The witch started walking, this time without laughing but with a look of sheer anger on her face. For every step she took, Yoojung took another step back. Three steps later she was on the ground, unable to stand anymore. She didn’t have much energy left in her, especially after casting that many essence-consuming spells.

The witch ended up reaching the tired elf after a couple more strides with her long, bony legs. She was standing right in front of the little mage, she raised a hand preparing to bring swift death to the girl using only her hands.

And then she slumped down with a thud

Raven Highmore, the malevolent and almighty witch of this forest, was now gurgling and coughing blood on the floor with an arrow sticking out of her neck.

“I told you that if you took one more step you’d regret it, you just didn’t hear me.”- A wounded woman approached the corpse while limping. Nayoung recognized her.

Kim Doyeon, her fame as one of the best hunters on the whole region preceded her.

“Are you alright Yoojung?”- She paid no mind to Nayoung and helped Yoojung up before moving her to a rock nearby so she could sit and rest. This was Nayoung’s chance

She ran to the Raven’s body, it seemed she was still alive and was dying slowly, she’d put an end to her misery soon. Nayoung went to her belt and grabbed a short knife she was carrying along with the teleport scroll she had tied to it. Once she cut the witch’s head she would use the crafted scroll to return to the council.

“Use that scroll and I’ll make sure none of your friends leave this place alive.” – The one who spoke was no other than Chungha.

There was a lugubrious silence for a few moments while Nayoung stood up, it was as if time had stopped moving because not even the sound of the wind could be heard.

But before Nayoung could break that silence a cackle was heard, Nayoung looked down to see the witch glowing a sickly blue color, it was faint at first, but then it started to get brighter, and brighter and as it went even brighter the cackles of the witch increased their volume.

“Everyone! Take cover!”- Nayoung screamed, the witch was trying to blow herself up and take them all with her.

A giant explosion was the next thing that happened, the shockwave generated by it ripped off almost all trees on the vicinity and increased the size of the clearing by a considerable margin.

Once dust settled and the ground stopped moving, a giant golden dome could be seen.

And everyone was inside it.

Nayoung was bemused, what happened? This was holy magic for sure, but it wasn’t hers nor Jieqiong’s, or that she’d like to believe, since creating a dome this big required an extraordinary amount of life essence that no human has.

“Chaeyeon!”- She heard Chungha’s voice again, this time with a different tone and Nayoung understands why.

Chaeyeon, the elf priestess, created the giant dome of holy magic to shield them from the explosion, so even a revered elf priestess had her limits, huh? Who would have thought?

Nayoung looks at the floor again, there remains nothing of the witch but ashes, she figure she might as well take them as proof.

She hears a bowstring being tensed and turns back to find Doyeon aiming an arrow at her.

“Don’t move a muscle or I’m putting this arrow through your head”- A rather rude girl for Nayoung’s taste.

“This is pointless, you are outnumbered right now, even if I die, you’ll follow close behind me”- Maybe she could dissuade the girl from doing anything stupid with a little bit of well applied pressure.

It seemed to work as Doyeon’s face contorted into a worried frown for a second before changing into a poker face again. Nayoung decided to press further.

“Listen, your fallen paladin is unconscious right now, your priestess is knocked out too, and that elf behind you looks like it will faint any minute now. You aren’t in a good position, so just let us take the ashes and we’ll part on good terms with each other.”

It didn’t work that well this time, Doyeon started to get frustrated, Nayoung regretted pushing the girl’s button. Just when Doyeon was looking like she would fire Jieqiong and Mina appeared with a little penguin Sohye nestled in Jieqiong’s bag. Startled, the hunter girl turned around and released the string, launching an arrow that hit Jieqiong straight in the calf.

“What the ?!”- Nayoung dashed to Doyeon and tackled her to the ground. She raised her fist to start hitting the pinned girl.

“Magnetic pulse”- Yoojung tried to chant, but the lack of energy made the spell come out weaker than it should, still, Nayoung was pushed back a couple of meters.

Mina saw this and acted fast, she raised an earth shield between the enemy and Jieqiong. By the time she finished, Doyeon was already up and scrambling to get her bow, but Mina was faster.

“Spirit chains”- She motioned with her hand a few spins and extended her palm facing Doyeon and Yoojung, before the former had time to reach for her bow she was chained back to back with Yoojung. She tried to get out of it, but the chain wasn’t budging, Yoojung on the other hand was too tired to try anything.

“Done, next time keep a cool head and think before doing anything stupid”- Mina felt like lecturing Doyeon a bit, just to mess with her and taking advantage of the fact that she couldn’t touch her, she wouldn’t be so bold otherwise.

“Let them free, now!”- Chungha had come back after checking on Chaeyeon, and now faced a worried looking Nayoung that was trying to heal Jieqiong’s wound and, before she could take another step towards them, was intercepted by Sejeong and Yeonjung.

“I don’t see why we should, you lost this fight”- Yeonjung said stoically.

Wind started to blow sharply and Chungha, enraged at the defeat, unconsciously created a whirlwind made entirely by dark energy that she was emanating. The whirlwind picked up its pace and pushed both Sejeong and Yeonjung back.

Nayoung, having noticed this, stopped treating Jieqiong’s wound and rushed to aid her companions.

“What are you doing?! Do you want to end up like the witch we just killed?!”- It was a possibility, every warlock had to make sure they were in control of their magic at all times, or else they risked becoming corrupted by their own dark power. That usually led through the path that the own Raven Highmore had walked.

Chungha didn’t answer, she just walked, taking the whirlwind with her. Although Nayoung noticed that it was losing power rapidly. She must be really tired to maintain it for long after such a fight.

Once the whirlwind subsided, Chungha just remained there for a moment before kneeling down.

“I admit defeat, you can take the ashes back to the king.”- Was all she said.

“Good to know that you are reasonable, team! Round up!”- She barked one last order before turning to go back to Jieqiong while Mina broke the chains that were imprisoning the hunter and the mage as a little penguin climbed up her shoulder before settling in her shoulder and releasing what sounded like a yawn.

Sejeong helped Yeonjung up to her feet before walking closer to the miserable looking warlock.

“Here”- She offered her hand, more as a sign of friendship than for the sake of helping her up.

Chungha looked up dejectedly and, after a few seconds of intense scrutiny, she took her hand and stood back up. Immediately after she just turned back and walked to her own people and so did Sejeong.

After Nayoung picks Jieqiong up, claiming that she would heal her once they were in the ship, they started walking. A few minutes later they got to the entrance of the path.

“Now we just go back to the ship, still, Yeonjung, I want you in the rear, we don’t know if once Somi wakes up they’ll try to attack us again.”

Jieqiong had told Nayoung that she managed to rid Somi’s body of the venom and heal her back so that there was no risk of hemorrhage, Nayoung was indeed please by this, nobody died today, the witch being the only acceptable exception.

“Shush, everybody, don’t move…”- Yeonjung halted the march and remained silent, as soon as she finished warning them, the bushes near entrance of the path that marked the way back to their ship started moving.

Out of them came multiple blights, humanoid creatures made entirely out of vines,

“Did they come here now that the witch is dead?”- Mina asked almost inaudibly

“There’s something wrong with this blights…”- Yeonjung said, and Nayoung then noticed it.

Their eyes were red.

Behind the blights appeared treants, usually peaceful, this huge walking trees populated the entirety of most of the forest on the continent.

Their eyes were red too.

After them came giant spiders, enormous fire beetles, wild forest hogs that were almost as tall as the treants.

All of them, each and every one, exuded the pungent odor of death and decay.

Nayoung deposited Jieqiong against a tree and she, Sejeong, Yeonjung and Mina prepared to fight.

The blights were the first group of the horde that attacked

Nayoung managed to take down a bunch of the with help from Sejeong, meanwhile, Mina was zapping them from afar with lightning bolts and rooting them in place whenever possible, but since the creatures were made out of vines, it didn’t hold them back that much time.

After a good couple of minutes a treant decided to move in and fight, its first hit almost crushed Nayoung had it not been for Sejeong’s help, the warrior blocked the palm with her greatsword and proceeded to slash the treant’s left leg, throwing it out of balance and allowing Yeonjung to drive a fist through its bark and into its body.

“What are they doing, the outnumber us a hundred to one but it’s like they take turns to attack?!”- This was unbelievably, the creatures, who would otherwise be rampant if threatened, were just watching from afar, waiting for their turn to enter the fray.

Nayoung was about to smash another blight’s head when the ground suddenly started shaking.

“Look at the pathway!”- Yeonjung screamed for all of them to hear, and five different heads turned to watch the path from where they came from initially.

A creature so gigantic that trees snapped like butter under its feet, made out of rock, vines and tree bark. It was something Nayoung had never seen in her life. The only time she heard about something like this was in tales.

An ancient forest protector was coming their way.

“We’re saved! He’ll take care of this horde! Forest protector are ancient beings that keep the forests in harmony!”- Mina was jumping from joy, but something was bugging Nayoung.

“If he’s tasked with maintaining the harmony of the forest, then why didn’t he take care of the witch itself?”- Nayoung couldn’t help but ask, she was getting bad vibes from all of this so she hurriedly grabbed Jieqiong again.

“Fall back, everyone, the protector is corrupted too! The witch influence must have reached the great forest tree once the witch exploded and expanded her dark energy! The same energy that made the warlock lose control over her powers!”- Yeonjung yelled at them and urged them to turn back – “We have to find another way to get out of here”

“The other team should have a ship right?”- Jieqiong said from Nayoung’s arms

“That’s it, we need to get out of here, they’ll understand once they see this horde”- Sejeong chimed in while slicing an approaching blight in half.

They tried to retreat after that, following Nayoung’s lead, but before they could make it out of the entrance they were surrounded, two forest hogs blocked their way out.

“Move aside”- A shout came from behind Nayoung as she sidestepped out of the way.

“Ruby fists”- Yeonjung dashed against the boars with both her fists engulfed in flames, both connected, and that was enough for the hogs to catch on fire and start to run around wildly.

“Go, now! I’ll hold them back!”- Yeonjung just barked at Nayoung before hitting another incoming forest hog with her fist, stopping it right on its tracks.

Nayoung gave Jieqiong to Sejeong and both she and Mina started running on the direction that led them to the ruins of the witch’s house, they were hoping to find the other mercenaries there. Nayoung, however, stayed back.

“What are you doing? Come now, let’s go”- She wasn’t about to leave anybody behind.

“Nayoung, listen, that being, the ancient one, it is nothing like the things you have fought before, it will kill us all.”- Yeonjung started talking while she and Nayoung fended off the approaching blights. – “I’m going to buy time for you and the rest so just go! Stop wasting time!”

She pushed the unmoving Nayoung out of the way before a treant fist came crashing down on her, she met its fist with her own and the huge plant quickly caught on fire.

“Now GO!”- Yeonjung screamed again as a blight managed to connect a vine whip with her back. The corrupted forest protector was now a few meters in front of them, Yeonjung didn’t waste more time and launched herself at it, making a jump and aiming with her fiery fists to the center of its chest

Nayoung didn’t know what to do but her feet acted on impulse, she turned around and ran as fast as she could, ditching some parts of her armor in the way so that she could run even faster. She never tried to look back, not even when she heard an ear piercing scream fill the silence of the clearing she was on.

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Nayoung reaches her companions when they were already talking to the other mercenaries.

“Have you come to taunt us?!”- She was sure that was Somi

“Not time for that, we need to get out of here”- Mina answered, clearly shaken. – “There’s a horde following us, the witch probably corrupted the entire wildlife along with the environment”

Sejeong turned around once she realized Nayoung was there

“Where is Yeonjung?”- Nayoung just shook her head – “Oh my god…”

“What happened?”- This time it was Chungha the one who talked.

“We were walking to our ship when the horde jumped at us, even worse, the protector of the forest is also corrupted, and they are coming for us right now, we need your ship to get out of here”- Nayoung managed to say it all without wheezing

For a moment, silence engulfed both parties.

“Listen, the ashes of the witch will help nobody if we don’t get out of here alive”- Nayoung deadpanned, they didn’t have time to waste, hell, they didn’t even have time to think.

“We have our ship in a cliff not too far from here, follow me”- Chungha answered and turned around, urging the rest to follow her.

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The entire party arrived at the cliff with the horde hot on their trail, the protector seemed to have stayed behind and Nayoung was thankful for that, it meant that Yeonjung sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

People had already started climbing, mainly Doyeon, who was pressing Yoojung to move a little bit faster.

Nayoung wasted no time and dropped Jieqiong on a rock before crouching down, she needed to heal her ankle so she was able to climb. After casting a healing spell on her, she just reached for her pocket.

“Here, these are the ashes of the witch, take them to the council with the rest of the group, I know we’ll all end up being good friends after this… Near death experience bring people close am I right?”- She gave Jieqiong the ashes and tried to joke around a little so that the girl wouldn’t look so gloomy. - “Now go ahead, climb with Mina and Sohye”

Somi started walking up the hill after them, carrying the still unconscious Chaeyeon in her shoulder. There were only three people left down on the ground floor, Chungha, Sejeong and Nayoung herself. That’s when the horde arrives.

Dozens of blights launched themselves at them and the trio engaged them gladly.

Swing after swing, blights fell to Sejeong’s sword and Nayoung’s hammer. Chungha, on the other hand, was having way too much fun pulverizing treants by summoning fire hands out of the earth.

That’s when they heard and engine resound through the air and a wooden ladder fell down from the sky in-between Chungha and Sejeong, the others were now above them, flying the ship.

“Go ahead, climb, we’ll cover you”- Sejeong signaled Chungha to climb first.

But the quaking started again.

The forest guardian, now looking scorched in various places, emerged from inside the forest and swatted angrily at the ship. The vessel managed to dodge in time, almost making Chungha fall from the ladder in the process.

Sejeong then realized that they couldn’t stay there or else the corrupted guardian would kill them all.

“Get away from here!”- She shouted, hoping that they would hear her – “Leave!”

Nayoung could see Chungha looking down, face stricken with terror, as she looked back up and started yelling something that was inaudible to her before resuming her climbing.

“Sejeong! Come here!”- She yells at her companion to follow her, but sadly, there’s nowhere to run and the path back to the forest is filled with enemies.

“So I guess this is the end…”- Sejeong says dejectedly as the humanoids made out of vines close in on them. The guardian was advancing too, crushing its own allies under its feet as he did.

Nayoung was silent, she didn’t mutter a word, she had a plan to get them out of this one.

“You are not going to die Sejeong”- She said as the shadow of the corrupted guardian’s hand was casted upon her- “Fortress of light!”

A golden barrier emerged from her left hand and blocked the hit although it didn’t matter at all, since it was already starting to crack under the titanic force of the ancient being.

“It was a pleasure fighting by your side Nayoung”

“I can say the same about you, goodbye, Sejeong…”

And in a puff of smoke, Sejeong disappeared

Then the scroll of teleportation burned in Nayoung’s hands.

And her barrier finally gave in.

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“Make a constitution save”- The other Nayoung, their game master, told her.

Nayoung just threw the dice weakly, she knew she wasn’t getting out of this one without a miracle.

“Damn, you were rolling really high at the start of the night, what happened to your last few rolls?”- Mina giggled

“Her luck ran out, about time it did”- Doyeon chimed in the conversation, looking tired.

“Yeah, remind me to never play this game again with you, I wanted to go out guns blazing and you teleported me all the way to the south kingdom, really?”- Sejeong looked grumpy

“I’d have traded places with you but you ran like a chicken, who likes losing a character they invested so much on?”- Yeonjung pointed accusingly at Sejeong – “You are a coward after all!”

“YAH! I thought I was going to have a chance to look good and I didn’t want to take your spotlight!”- Sejeong tried to counter Yeonjung’s remark.

“All of you, shush, let me finish the story!”- Kim Nayoung spoke up again

“So, our heroes managed to leave the now corrupted forest behind, their mission was a success even though of the heavy loses they sustained, but by erasing an evil of the face of the planet, they’ve released another one that’s even stronger, will they be able to come out on top again? We’ll find out in the next session ladies! Good game everybody!”

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Hey there, I was supposed to upload this yesterday but I decided to double check it

It shouldn’t have any major grammar mistakes as I’ve checked it a few times already.

Unlike “Migraine” here I try to create a story with continuous and unbreakable flow, sure it’s hard to cram eleven characters and give them their own spotlight and characterization already, but I hope I did a good job with it.

I fear that the amount of characters on scene might make things confusing more so with all the backstory and world building I tried to insert in the story, if that’s the case then I apologize.

Next week comes the first chapter of the first arc of “Symptoms and stages” please anticipate it.

I’ve already have it finished so maybe it’ll come out sooner, but I’ll probably keep it so I may be able to change it if a I make any drastic change in the overall plot

Small reviews are appreciated and so is large constructive criticism, I'd like to know your thoughts mainly on character interactions and the flow of the story, was it confusing? did it make sense? did it lack anything?

Anyways, hope you liked the oneshot!