Cursed IC

Evilin was shocked at everything now. This all fell to her mission. The black magic was what she needed to understand. The cloaked figure was the one who had made the shadow and darkness spell, but this one. She looked to Coda once more. Was somehow not effected by the black magic, he was also able to whip it away like it was nothing. Her eyes darted over to Elise and Argen. The option of getting out of her and to a safe place was indeed not an option. She looked back to Coda for a mere second before pulling him along with her. 


Coda's eyes shot wide as she did so. "This one too." She shoved Coda over to Argen's wolf form. Her heart felt heavy and her lungs filled deeply as she huffed air through her chest. Coda stuttered at his words as she moved him along. "I... Don't think this one..." Coda looked back to hear Karn break free from the shadows bounding him. Another sound came from Nora and Seng as they too drew their weapons and separated themselves from the shadows. "Coda!" Nora called out to him. 


Okami was quick to try and make his way over to Evilin, Elise, Argen and Coda. His eyes locked with Argen and would glance to Coda as well. Even with his attempts to move through the crowd now trying to break free from the shadows, he was finding it hard to push through the shadows and people. Nora had used a black steal dagger to get the shadows off her, but once the dagger was placed away she reached to the floor to pick up her black steal bow followed by her quiver filled with black steal arrows. 


Seng reached for two broad swords that rested on the back of his chair. Both just like the other weapons the group had. The same black steal that ripped through the shadows with ease. 


Karn's eyes narrowed as Evilin was now making her escape. The black magic user from before would now be on his list, but the event playing out before him was something he could not ignore. With ease he drew his sword and clashed the metal with Okami's black steal sword. Okami froze and held his ground as the two swords continued to hold. "Get out of my way." Okami demanded in a harsh tone. Karn's eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. "I will not..." He stated back in the same tone. 


An arrow zipped through the room and landed between Evilin and Coda's feet. Both Coda and Evilin jumped at the sudden arrow. "You almost hit me!" Coda called over to Nora who was notching another arrow. "If it will keep that girl from you then so be it." Nora narrowed her eyes as she took aim once more. 


Evilin gritted her teeth. She needed a black magic user, or someone with the knowledge of the black magic to help her. She could not leave without this magic user. The other one had slipped away, but this one seemed more familiar with the art of the darkness. "He must go with us." Evilin told both Argen and Elise. 


Seng rushed over to Nora and shoved her down before she could fire another arrow. He placed up both swords to block an attack on her from one of the guards. 


Evilin took in a deep breath as she saw Nora do down. "I will explain everything once we get to safety." She pleaded to Argen, Elise and Coda. Coda shook his head at her words. He didn't look amused at all with what was going on. "I think..." He paused holding up a hand, "We should leave... This one..." He nodded to the three. Evilin shoved hard into Coda's back, and pushed him closer to Argen. "This one must!" she yelled at him. For a princess who was indeed quiet for most of the time, she was now very pushy..... literally. 
 
The princess started telling him how he needed to bring the young cloaked male along but to be quite literal, he didn't smell right. Something about the man smelled exactly like what was happening in the tavern and that alone made his hackles stand on end. Regardless, Elise wanted to help them and so he slammed a clawed hand into the wooden floor several times, destroying it and splintering the wood but hopefully enough to catch their attention. Argen extended one claw to the rear exit and gestured with his a nod of his huge wolf head. He would meet them outside the back of the tavern but first things first...


As his master climbed aboard, a low hiss of pain escaped him. He was weakening and fast. He needed to get himself and Elise the hell out of there ASAP. She called to him, saying she needed her supplies and the lycanthrope shook his massive wolf head in annoyance before launching across the tavern, breaking through the stair wooden railing and bounding up the stairs, through the halls on all fours. The speed they moved at was practically a blur. Argen had kicked it up to full output of his strength before It gave out under him. 


No time for doors. The warrior smashes through the locked door in one powerful claw swipe and gets lower to the ground so that his contractor can hurry and grab her gear so they could be out of there, hopefully with the princess in tow, before things got any worse. Unless ordered otherwise, Elise was his top priority and her life was worth ten times more than the runaway royal downstairs. 


"Grab your gear Elise and hurry. That magic did something to me and I feel my strength fading. We'll regroup with others as soon as this is over.
 
Evilin caught onto what Argen was telling her. She looked over to the door seeing the man from before... The man who had displayed his fire magic. Se hopped he would not be a problem as she took hold of Coda once more. This time Coda pulled away from her, "Are you crazy? This is kidnapping." He stated to her. Evilin rolled her eyes and took hold of his wrist again. "This world is more important." She told him. She pulled on him again and even with Coda trying to pull away, her efforts were too easy. She was a little surprised at how much strength the other was using... Or not using. To her, pulling Coda along was like pulling a weak child. 


She pulled him along quickly as she rushed past Dominic with ease. She rushed to the door and was even able to slip past the guards who were still busy with the shadows.


Okami and Karn were now in a heated battle that was taking their attention fully away from Evilin and Coda. Karn wasn't too worried about the fire user, or even the wolf as they seemed to just be trying to get away. But if they ran off with Evilin.... Then they would indeed be a problem. 


Okami watched from the corners of his eyes as Evilin dragged Coda out of the tavern. He looked back to Karn with pure anger. As Elise was to Argen, Coda was that to Okami..... Nora had gotten to her feet and was about to notch her arrow once more as she witnessed Evilin leaving with Coda. Her eyes meet Coda's for a second before the two were out the door. Nora let out a hollow breath as she slowly lowered her bow. She narrowed her eyes and turned back to Seng who was in a deep sword conversation with two guards at the same time. 


She turned her attention to the guards and aimed her bow once more. The black string giving off a low whistle as she pulled on it. She let the black steal arrow fly through the air quickly before notching another to the black string. Her first arrow struck a guard right in the face, while she aimed for Karn. But things were just getting messier in the main area of the tavern. 


Nora was suddenly pulled away from her target as he bow was swatted from her hands. She reached for her dagger and turned to face her new attacker. Another guard... These men were indeed becoming more and more of a pain in her ass at this point in time. 
 
Benton continued running the organs sloshing around in the jar as he ran. After a good few minutes of running Benton noticed he wasn't being followed and slowed down. Kneeling down and preparing himself mentally for what he was about to do. 


Removing his cloak and shirt Benton's patchwork body was eerily visible in the moon light. Using the same knife he had killed that soldier with Benton cut away the stitching in his abdomen forced the cavity open with a pained grunt. Breathing deeply Benton slowly and carefully laid out his cloak in front of him and began carefully pulling out his own intestines, placing them on his cloak. "Alright... The kidneys...." He said reaching inside and ripping out the now useless kidneys, laying them on his cloak as well. The pain of ripping out one's own organs is a pain he would only wish on his worse enemies.  Benton grunted and took a moment to gather himself from the pain. Then Benton took out one kidney at a time and put each in its own place. The feeling of the kidneys assimilating into his body and getting right to work was a strange one, but one of relief. With the most life-threatening problem solved Benton set forth to putting himself back together, literally.
 
Her companion took off at an incredible speed, Elise gripped tightly just to stay onto his back as the wolfish creature broke through the door with reckless abandon.  Finally arriving at the room they had purchased for the night, she climbed off of his back and looked around.  


Elise smiled, now finally able to access her gear her first order of business was to prepare for the events to come.  Digging quickly through her bag she pulled out a few small circular casings, easily held in the palm of ones hand.  With quick hands she pulled a few small vials of reagents from her backpack, measuring out and pouring the reagents into three of the small casings before pressing them together, turning them shut with a satisfying 'click' she slid her backpack on and strapped the three casings to the strap of her bag.  Next she grabbed her bow, a rather beautifully crafted shortbow she had received as a gift before she left the village, sliding that onto her back along with a quiver of arrows she nodded again to her companion "Ready!" she said, hiding a grin, now she was armed, and she was ready for whatever happened next.  


Her wrists still burned, which was an issue she would have to work on later as she didn't have the time to properly bandage them.  Turning to her companion she climbed back onto his back again carefully wrapping her arms around him and holding on tight she prepared for another ride.  
 
Dominic was holding his flaming sword in front of him ready to attack the guards when the girl darted past him and out the back door, a cloaked man in tow.  She could squeeze by easily but the guard closest to the door noticed and had broken free.  With that, Dominic's chances of getting out without a fight slipped away as fast as she did.   This princess was causing all sorts of problems, fights had broken out all over the tavern and the stench of dark magic hung in the air, mixing with the burning fur of an animal.  A beast bound across the room and crushed the stairs leading to the rooms and Dominic decided he had seen too much shit for one day.  


His two-handed sword dragging by his side, he approached the guard.   In a long sweeping motion, he pulled the sword up over his head and bashed the guard's helmet with the hilt.  It was a blunt metal hilt so it clashed and then rattled when he hit the metal dome.  The guard crumpled to the ground, but his friends were none too pleased with Dominic.  The came at him from both sides since they too had broken free of the fading shadow magic.  


"Oh, fuck off, I just want out."  Dominic cursed as he swept his sword to the right he nailed the guy in the side.   His sword didn't just dent the metal, it melted it, but only enough to get the two-hander thoroughly stuck. Flames still licked at the blade and proceeded to catch on whatever cloth was under the metal.  The heat began to fill the guard's chest piece.  Dominic was struggling to remove the sword so he could deal with the second attacker but he was too late.  


The second guard, slighter in figure sliced into Dominic's side with a short blade.  Dominic flinched at the pain and clutched his side with his burning hand.  Blood flowed from the wound for a moment boiling and burning adding a new scent to the air.  While Dominic was disabled the second guard attacked again, this time glancing off Dominic's arm bracers as he swung his free wrist to defend himself releasing the two-handed blade.  Luckily, the new weight of the blade sent the first guard off balance, distracting him further.  Dominic charged the second guard with his hand still on his wound.  He grabbed at a joint in the shoulder armor and dragged it downward landing the armored head into his knee.  It was a stupid idea, the helmet collided into his leather knee pad shredding the leather and badly bruising the knee underneath it.  Once again Dominic was incapacitated, now clinging to his side with one hand and nursing his knee with the other. 
 
Benton took a little time to get used to his newly functioning kidneys and he needed to stitch the opening closed again. Benton used a thin metal thread to keep his body together but not whole. With his ability he could assimilate the flesh until there was only light scars on the surface, but doing that would only serve to make his replacing of internal organs harder and much more painful. This way was much more practical, and it gave the sickly old man an intimidation factor.


Once he was all stitched back together and clothed, though his cloak had the wonderful scent of his rotted blood now, he started making his way back to his cabin. He would take a long and complicated route to make sure that if he was tailed back to the place changed out kidneys they could have a hard time following him back.


Benton's cabin was a small one. Like a a small house it only has a sleeping area, a common area, and a cooking space. The cabin was located deep in the woods next to a stream. Benton used this stream to clean his tools and rid himself if parts he couldn't preserve for later. The common area and his bed room was covered in Benton's research into the dark arts. Though he had been for a few decades without the ability to actually test his magic circles not much progress had been made. Such as the shadow spell he used earlier. Thanks to actually using it he knew that he needed to change the circle so that it didn't cost so much life force. Of course by doing so that would limit the power of the spell.


Benton limped into his cabin and set forth immediately to thinking of a way to change the magic circle.
 
Yang stood up, feeling his flagging strength returning just as he turned to see the Princess running out the back door. He sighed, torn into three. On the one hand he had the scroll he was ordered to deliver, a path to Roland in the midst of turmoil. Information about the state of the kingdom would be useful to Oxion.


On the second hand the princess was escaping, and whatever she had done warranted the King's Guard to go and retrieve her, meaning that she could have intel or an artifact that would be useful to Oxion. If he followed her he could convince her to come with him to his home country, which could be a huge promotion for Yang, even if he didn't deliver the scroll.


Then there was the black magic user. Such a man was a blight on the lands, no matter where they were. The way he paralyzed his victim before slaughtering him and rummaging around in his body like it was his disgusted Yang. He should be hunted down and destroyed.


He had three paths. One for honor, one for glory, and one for good. He turned and bolted up the stairs, grabbing his gear from his room he quickly threw on the rest of his armor, the lamellar chest piece, greaves, helmet and gloves and went back downstairs. Everything was chaos, he could hear fighting and fire, but he was unfazed. Without breaking a stride he bolted after the princess, sword remaining drawn as he tried to determine where she had gone.
 
Even with the fight growing before them, Seng Nora and Okami were far too distracted to even get a chance to go after the princess and Coda. Their main concern was their smaller friend. He didn't look like much, but out of all of them, he was indeed the strongest and yet also the weakest. 


Evilin pulled Coda along keeping her grip on the other tightly. Once outside she was able to slip past a few guards that weren't paying much attention. Their distraction was them running to the front of the tavern just after the light had come back. So her dash to the woods was a straight one. 


Coda was doing his best to keep up with her speed. But she was indeed fast and Coda was not very physical. He was surprised as to how far they had actually had gotten before he dropped to his knees trying hard to catch his breath. "That's far enough." He huffed. His chest felt tight and his breaths were deep. His eyes stuck to the ground before them and to his hands that now tangled withing the grass. 


Evilin had stopped when she felt a great weight holding her back. She looked back to find Coda on the ground. She could see the sweat forming upon his skin just as the moon light started to appear. She frowned as they had gotten far from the tavern, but not as far as she wanted. "They will be after us." She told him. 


Coda shook his head and pointed to her, "They are after you... You just made me an accessory." He gritted his teeth as he looked up to her. "You have no idea what kind of mess you just got yourself into." he moved over next to a tree and placed his back against it. 


"We have to keep moving." She told him. 


"You keep going... I'll catch up." That was a lie. Coda rested his head upon the tree and closed his eyes a bit. "It's not like those guards will be after you anytime soon." Coda could recall seeing his friends in a heated battle with Karn and the other guards before the princess had ripped him from the scene. 


Evilin looked back in the direction of the tavern. She hopped the girl and the wolf man would keep to their word and help her. She took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out through her nose. She looked down to Coda. "You are a black magic user, yes?" She asked him. When the shadows appear in the tavern, only her and this young man were not effected by the shadows. On top of that he had interfered with one of the shadows freeing his friend with ease. 


Coda looked over to her as he finally caught his breath. "What makes you say that?" Coda asked as he slowly but surely got to his feet. He still used the tree for a good amount of support. 


Evilin looked away from his gaze as she recalled the events that had gotten her into this mess. 


Her father King Daften of Roland had been keeping secrets from her. Secrets that would indeed bring the world to it's final fall. When hearing about this she had taken it upon herself to try and secure the world's safety. It was hard to explain, but she had that feeling as if she was doing the right thing. There was still good in the world and she wanted to prove it, show it and above all..... Save it. It was a lot for one person to take on, and she didn't know much about the items she had hidden away on her person, but she would try....... Even die trying. 


She looked to Coda once more as he was still looking to her for her answer. But her eyes would trail off to the woods...... She prayed that the two others would find her. She had thought about the other man and a few other faces from the tavern, but she had made more contact with Elise and Argen. She didn't even know that Yang, the soldier from Paxon would have followed her as well. 
 
Dominic was hurt, but not hurt enough to miss the Oxion scum ignore him, and then run past the three guards he had just taken care of.  


"Ungrateful piece of..."  He muttered aggressively, the hand on his side burning brighter as he finally cauterized the wound.  He let no more than a grunt as burning was a pain he was familiar with, nothing hurt as much as the scar on his back and this little, bloody slice on his side was nothing to him.  Two of the guards were out cold, the third was still wrestling with the sword in the side of his armor.  It looked like his undergarments had stopped smoking and he would only have bad burns on 20% of his body tops.  Dominic felt bed for the guy, but hey he signed up for this shit, at least he hadn't killed any of them.  Though, the two on the ground may or may not wake up, how was he to know.  


He kicked the crumpled guard out of the doorway with his good leg and limped after the Oxionian.  He abandoned his sword in the guards armor, relying now on his fists and fire.  He had never liked that blade anyway, too heavy.   His previous sword had been way more effective but that blade was hidden in a tree somewhere and he didn't plan on retrieving it any time soon.  Dominic was never going to catch up to the Oxionian with his bruised leg but he was still in eye-sight.  
 
Yang traveled at a jog, trying to discern the direction the princess went, while keeping his eye out for pursuit. He knew no guards were coming after him at this point, but he could see Dominic following him. He wondered why he decided to follow as well, but he felt confident if it came to combat he would have the upper hand. He had very little experience tracking through forest, but he hoped the pair would have just run in a straight line. If he was lucky the princess wouldn't have much in the way of the skills used to evade pursuit. Once he was sufficiently away from the inn, the darkness covering the forest and the moon high in the sky he stopped, waiting for Dominic to catch up with him, sword still drawn and in his hand. He turns and asks, "Why are you following me?" He asked, more inquisitive than demanding.


@ShadTheWerepire
 
Without another word, verbally or mentally, Argen struck the windowed wall several times over until the wooden structure gave in to his mighty blows. The whole thing was fracturing and one more powerful strike broke the wall down and left an opening large enough for him to go through. The Lycan bolted through the fallen wall an impressive amount of meters, leaving the chaos and black magic behind in one great leap. He was mindful of his landing, as not to jar Elise too badly upon impact, and hit the earth in a ungodly sprint. The wind whipped past the duo and the trees were mere blurs as Argen blew through the forest as a large, black shadow in the dark forest.


It wasn't hard to find the princess. Her scent was unique. Of royalty. Someone who had lived most of her life lavishly up until recently. It had a slight tinge of earth to it now that she had been running for so long in the forests. The warrior tracked her scent at his current pace and acted like....basically a hunting dog. But don't ever tell him that or else you will be dead.


As the scent got closer, Argen could feel his strength waning. The blood was flowing freely and the burns felt like they were only getting worse. But It mattered not, he needed to get his contactor to her original state and move on to a safe area to recover himself. Moments later the hulking half-beast came to a sliding halt just a few steps in front of the princess  and her forced comrade. "Elise do what you have to." He stated mentally as he lowered himself to the ground for her. She had to do the talking and ,quite frankly, he didn't feel like talking in his human form regardless.  The black magic was truly taking its toll but he still stood strong, as if nothing was wrong with him. His contractor would figure out what to do from now on by speaking to them, "Go Elise, see what they are thinking about doing after all this. No matter your decision, you know I'll go with yours." He reminds her. 
 
Elise held tightly to Argen as he ran through the treeline and into the forest at a rather incredible speed, thankfully her grip held fast and she arrived to the princesses location with only minor nausea.  As that began to face she nodded to her companions instructions and made her way deeper into the forest until she spotted the princess and the boy arguing in the forest.  It was clear they had been arguing, the boy had seemed rather tentative of leaving his friends behind in the Inn, surely the princesses interest in him had caused more than a little confusion.  


As she approached  the two, she waved a hand towards the princess "hello again, are you hurt? Things got rather chaotic in the Inn." she said, taking a look around carefully, hoping they hadn't been followed.   She knew her companion would say something if the man would return, but she feared for his current state, something was wrong and it caused her to worry for her friend.  
 
Benton sighed as he worked on rewriting the shadow spell so that it would take less of a toll on his body. He couldn't lose major organs every time he used the spell, not only was it not practically, but it hurt like hell. Benton just stared at the original magic circle he he had crafted as he thought. Maybe the way the circle was powered itself needed to change. Usually when a black magic spell is used it saps the users life force which causes internal damage as a back lash, but maybe he could change how the magic got its power... instead of just by him he could have the circle absorb a little bit of life force from the area: plants, animals, etc, to lessen the burden on his body. It was a nice theory but he would have to test it on something to see if it would work.


Benton sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He needed rest, but this wasn't a problem he could leave. Evilin was a traitor to Roland? What was the king thinking?!
 
As Argen halted in front od Evilin and Coda, Evilin felt a bit of weight slide off her shoulders. Coda on the other hand was shocked when the wolf man suddenly appeared with his companion. He went to take a step back only to stumble over a root sticking out of the ground. Luckily for him he was able to catch his balance before he could fall over. Evilin walked over to Elise with a soft smile and nodded a little. "Yes things did get out of hand." But it sounded like she figured things would. She shook her head towards Elise's other question, "Not in a serious manner." Evilin was banged up a bit from before she had made it to the tavern, but to her they were just bumps, scratches, and some minor cuts. 


Evilin glanced back to Coda who was narrowing his eyes at Argen while trying to slip behind the tree as if wanting to hide. Evilin's shoulders dropped a bit as she looked back to Elise. "Thank you for aiding me." She stated clearly. Her posture and that more of a royal stature started to form within the girl's stance. "My name is Princess Evilin of Roland." She took in a deep breath as she thought about her words. "My father is the King of Roland, but sadly he has changed." Evilin found this very hard to get out. To talk about what she had discovered... She didn't even really tell the guard that helped her escape. The information was indeed something that could not get out. If it was told to the wrong people, the kingdom of Roland and other kingdoms would upraise and possibly kill her father.


But she had to take a chance. Hopefully this group of people would indeed help her. She looked down at her side and started to lift up the side of her dress, revealing a pouch she had strapped to the side of her leg. She removed the bag and let her dress fall back into place. "We all know that black magic has been something all could not master or even understand." She started. 


Coda let his eyes drift back to Evilin when she had mentioned black magic. 


"But some of the royal families and black magic users have found an item that could reduce the effects of black magic and make their spells and curses even stronger." She opened the bag to reveal that it was full of black horns. All ranging in size and shape. She pulled one out of the bag and held it up to Elise, "No one is sure where these things come from, but when a black magic user uses this..." Evilin let the others finish her words within their minds. She didn't need to say much as she knew that these horns would amplify a black magic users magic.


When Evilin had held up one of the horns Coda's eyes locked with the item. He held a very serious look in his eyes as he stayed quiet. 


Evilin glanced over her shoulder and noticed this look from him. She blinked a bit. Her assumption was right, he did know about them, or at least he knew of them. "Please, I must know all there is to know about these things. I over heard my father...." Evilin cut off her own words. She had over heard her father and other magic users speaking about their plans with the horns. Daften had made it clear that he wanted to raise some kind of dead army and use it to take out his enemies and to take over the land. But she could not say that in front of strangers, not until she knew she could truly trust them. 
 
Argen laid low to the ground for a few moments, on all fours, breathing slowly and deeply for a few moments. It wasn't until those moments had passed that the sound of bone breaking and reshaping itself filled the silence of the immediate woodland area. Flesh tore and came back together appropriately as Argen reverted to his human form. Luckily, Argen didn't really wear much armor so when he shifted to half-beast, his clothing didn't tear or break apart but he did have to readjust it. 


Now that he was human, could gauge his injuries a little better without all of the fur in the way and he had to admit....he didn't like what he saw. The burns had completely seared the skin off, leaving only burnt flesh in its wake. His biceps, a few sections of his chest and back, and his right shoulder were all singed in the manner. The palms of his hands were also burnt quite badly when he broke Elise's restraints. What was worse was that black markings or stains were stretching out from the wounds. He decided this was where his fatigue and weakness was coming from. The Lycan's golden eyes practically glowed in fury at whatever Mage casted this curse upon him. He felt weak. He felt sick and his breathing was starting to coming a bit faster as the mark spread. The blood that flowed freely from his wounds served as both a testament to his injuries and a form of intimidation. He seemed to barely notice them, at least outwardly.


Ignoring the curse, Argen stood and took his place to the right side of Elise, looking as threatening as always though the curse made him look sick. He sure as hell acted as if he was fine though. "So, the leader of Roland sent his shiny ones to hunt you down for finding something you shouldn't have. I'm not sure whether to be impressed you were able to make it this far or disappointed those shiny men can't capture a single, feeble girl running on foot across the country. The gods must be watching over you if they exist princess." The warrior crossed his arms and immediately regretted the action. So he simply decided to stand straight and keep his supernatural senses on a razors edge for any activity within the area.
 
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As Yang waited for a reply a sudden crashing through the forest alerted him. He spun around just in time to see a black form hurtling through the brush, heading the same way he was going. A gust of wind hit him a second later and he could smell fur and blood. That was probably the Lycan, and if it was, perhaps he was tracking the princess. He looked back at Dominic and without a word turned and ran after the beast.


A twinge at his wrist caused him to grimace, and for the first time he realized that his bracers seemed to be chaffing him, which was odd since they had never done that before. Once he stopped he could inspect the reason for that. He adjusted the pack on his back and continued to run, leaving the other man behind. The Lycan's trail wasn't hard to follow, and before long he could hear voices ahead and see figures standing around each other. He stopped, sure that the Lycan was already alert to his presence, and sheathed his blade. He took a few deep breaths, centering himself and preparing magic should he need it, and then walked forward.


"I apologize for my tardiness," He said politely, "I came after you just as quickly as I could." He scanned the people in the forest, realizing that he may have just missed something important. The princess was holding a bag she hadn't been holding before, and the Lycan was reverted back to his human form.
 
"oh my!" Elise exclaimed at the site of the black horns, whatever they were, she could just feel the dangerous magic emanating from within, whatever creature produced these horns, she never wanted to meet.  Holding out a hand tentatively she looked to the princess "may i?" she asked, hoping to get a closer look at the horns.  She wanted to examine them further to see just what magic potential they held, but unfortunately the time it would take to set up her equipment was too much of a risk in the middle of the forest, but that didn't stop her curiosity, if these things really did as the princess said, they were truly a dangerous artifact indeed, and they would need to be destroyed.  


Looking over as her companion arrived, she frowned a little at what she saw, the burn marks from his struggle showed now on his wrists and were signs of potentially serious damage, they would have to be healed as soon as possible.  But for now he seemed to be okay, and they didn't have the time to stop and allow Elise further examination, already it seemed more people were approaching from the inn and that meant the man and his guards could be on them in moments.  They would have to find somewhere to hide, and soon, but where could they hide from the king? While it was true that, by some laws of this land she couldn't be held by these guards legally Karn didn't seem like one to let simple rules foil his plans. It would probably be best for all of them if they found somewhere secluded in order for Elise to find out just what made these horns tick.  
 
Evilin was a bit shocked as more people started to arise from the thick black forest. She was about to let Elise hold one of the horns but quickly placed it back into the bag when she heard Yang's voice. She turned on her heels only to let out a rough breath. With so many people around, she wasn't sure if she could trust all of them. Evilin looked Yang over, "Are you friend or foe?" She asked, but she turned when she heard a laugh come from behind her.


Coda gave the princess a slow and short clap before speaking his mind. "Are you really that gullible?" he asked.


This gave Evilin a strong angered look.


"No seriously? Friend or foe?" Coda mocked.


Without warning Coda reached out and snatched the bag of black horns right from Evilin's hands. "Not to mention that that these... Don't belong to you." Coda opened the bag and pulled out one of the horns. His eyes looked it over as he was quick to point out certain scratch marks or even chips upon them. For a second his eyes displayed hatred or even a deep anger towards the items, but quickly slipped away as he placed the horn back into the bag and closed it. "It seems to me that these things have already caused you a large problem." Coda started to strap the bag to his leg like the princess had before. "So I'll do everyone a favor... I'll take them back to where they had once come from." Coda huffed a bit of air through his nose before looking back to Evilin.


Evilin looked down right shocked at his actions. "How dare you!? Give those back!" she yelled. Coda merely smirked at her outrage, "They weren't yours nor your father's to begin with." Coda stated. "Besides, you asked for my help and even dragged me away from my friends." Coda crossed his arms over his chest. 
 
Benton had spent several minutes sketching and re sketching the magic circle for his needs, and at the end of it all he was confident that the spell wouldn't put a massive strain on his body and pull life from other sources before himself. His revision to the shadow spell focused on a single shadow making the shadow a sort of servant while still applying the curse to organic matter it touched.  The magic circle would have a maximum amount of magic that would be expended whenever a shadow was animated.


To draw a comparison it would be like the enchantment he put on Evilin's shadow where once certain conditions were met the circle would activate and he shadow would be animated to defend her. 


The magic circle would store the magical energy which it would then expend to move the shadow according to threats perceived by Benton.


With his theoretical spell all but ready for testing Benton took out his knife and carved the magic circle into his flesh. Once the circle was finished it Benton walked outside and into the forest if he was going to take life from the forest to fuel it he wasn't about to draw attention to his home.
 
Elise frowned as she watched the two bicker,  this was neither the time nor the place to be fighting, Karn could arrive at any moment with the rest of his men and they would be helpless against that many armed guards.  Watching the two reminded her of when she was a girl, getting into an argument with her sister over something minuscule she before her mother came to break the two up, in fact it gave her an idea.  Marching up with as much authority as she could muster she snatched the bag from Coda as he was focused on his argument with Evilin, holding it high she looked down at the two of them "Listen to yourselves!" she exclaimed "This is not the time to be arguing, if these things are really as dangerous as you say they are then we should not be here, in the middle of the forest, where anyone could find us as we discuss things.  We need to work together to figure out our next move, now i highly suggest you two learn to get along, because i refuse to listen to any more bickering between the two of you""
 
Dominic hesitated when the soldier waited for him to catch up, his sword was still drawn but he was not acting in a threatening manner.  The soldier asked why Dominic was following him and Dominic’s hands sparked a bit as he prepared to give this soldier an earful on how this princess and her new, overly aggressive friends, including him, had ruined his night.  Unfortunately, his explanation was brushed away when the beast man ran past, his companion riding on his back. 


For such a bloody mess, that thing could move, and Yang took right off after it.  As the soldier ran off, Dominic hobbled over to the edge of the forest and leaned over on a tree.  The fires on his hands when out and the burnt bits of cloth around his hands fell to the ground.  He wasn’t about to race after them, honestly he was a bit caught up on why he was chasing them in the first place.  Sure, they had ruined his night but how where they supposed to fix it, pay for a new whore?  Let him sleep with the elf girl?  He chuckled at that idea, something told him she wasn’t his type. 


He had cooled down for the moment and slid down the tree to sit at its base, keeping an eye on the wrecked tavern below.  He wasn’t sure if he was standing guard for the party in the woods or if he was watching the tavern crumble some more and see if anyone else made it out for entertainment.  He was far enough away that he could run if it was only guards left, so he felt safer at the very least.  Though there was still the matter of that black magic user, if they were still in the area no one was safe.  
 
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Coda's eyes went wide when Elise took the bag from him. His hands reached high above his head trying to retrieve the bag back. "No!" Coda jumped for the bag, but Elise was tall compared to him. "Give them back." He added with a hint of anger in his voice. 


Evilin only blinked and stepped back a bit as she watched Elise play keep away with the horns. She felt like this elf was truly going to be on her side. She smirked a bit placing her hands on her hips. Serves the black magic user right... He took the bag from her first. But it was odd that he was already attached to them to the point where he would try to take them back from the elf.


"I do agree." Evilin turned to Elise. "We are not in any position to be arguing. Nor do we have the surroundings to truly protect ourselves." Evilin looked over to Yang and Argen. She noticed the black magic effects upon the Lycan. She was a user of light magic, but even with her healing spells, the curse would just do as it pleases. She looked back to Elise and Coda. Coda was already once more out of breath, but his actions showed that he was determined to get the bag back. 


"Forget it." Coda let his body fall to the ground as his energy was practically gone. 


"Well that didn't last very long." Evilin whispered to herself.


Coda let a free hand grab onto Elise's ankle. Even if he had no energy to get the bag back, you could tell he was still focused upon doing so. 


Evilin looked to Elise. "I don't know this area.... So I wouldn't know any places to hide at." She frowned a bit. 
 
As Benton walked through the woods he activated the magic circle which glowed faintly as it leeched life from surrounding plant life. He was about 25 minutes from his cabin and was about to walk into a clearing to finish charging the magic when he heard talking in the field. Benton cursed and drew back into the forest. He didn't get a chance to see the source of the voices but he didn't want to risk it. Not with the magic not done charging. The trees around him became sickly and began losing leaves as if winter was coming. 


Benton really didn't need this tonight. First he finds out Evilin is a traitor to Roland then he did something as foolish as cast magic to help her. He should have just retired for the night instead of continuing testing, but it just came to him and he needed to change it before the idea was lost.


Benton knew he wasn't going to be able to hide with the magic circle gathering mana so he was slowly and carefully trying to make his way back the way he came, but the smell of his rotten flesh would easily be sensed by the Lycan.
 
"Elise....let's be done with this quickly please." He said with some measure of effort. The curse was certainly not playing around and the rapid loss of blood wasn't helping him either. Argen had sensed the people approaching and knew who they were before they entered the circle. The problem was the pace the curse was affecting him. The lycan had never been hit with black magic before and it felt like it was resonating with something deep within his being. 


The warrior's breathing started becoming labored and he kept in step behind his master. The speed at which he was being affected was practically alarming. He stretched out a hand and grabbed Elise's shoulder rougher than he had intended. "The mage.... I can smell him...he's coming Elise....get the hell....out of here." He said between breaths. Any other man would have dropped unconscious a long time ago and the fact he was still standing strong was impressive. But strength had its limits and Argen was superhuman but he certainly wasn't a God. "We n-need to move. The mage is coming again. I know his scent..."
 
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