Author's Note: First of all, 05/10/08 is my classmate's birthday. Happy birthday. There.
Next, thanks for the massive amount of reviews. XD
And I just found a fellow Singaporean...Yay!!
Oh ya, I forgot.
Enjoy.
Kane and David were killing Undead Mushrooms around the entrance of Sleepywood's Ant Tunnel. The area they were in was void of human life, except for the two of them, for two reasons; firstly, it was quite close to midnight, and second, they were claiming all the kills in the entrance, so fast were their stabs and shots.
Kane, wielding his Reef Claw in his right hand, and a Seclusion Wristguard in his left, was striking at the zombie fungi with unnatural speed, doing a Double Stab one side, blocking another incoming Mushroom with his wristguard, and repaying the blow with a stab, right between the poor fungus' eyes, rendering the undead seal on its forehead torn.
David was no different. A shot to his left with his Eagle Crow struck an Undead Mushroom in the eye, killing it and salvaging the seal, before turning to deliver a Double Shot, which, amusingly, struck both eyes of an unfortunate Mushroom. The now-crossbowman walked to the seals, picking it up before hearing a, "Watch out!"
David whirled around to stare, in the face, a brown Mushroom…
…Before it fell to a side, dead, revealing Kane, with his dagger hanging at his side, smirking. "Be more alert. Please, you're a future Sniper."
"Don't remind me." David muttered. He turned back, to face Kane, to find a Mushroom lumbering towards Kane, just behind him, ready to pounce…
David raised his crossbow and shot, a single arrow, striking the Undead in the left eye.
Kane turned back to see what David had just shot. The Bandit, now at an experience level of 35, raised an eyebrow. "You do have a liking to eyeballs, do you?"
"Quit that, sharp-mouthed Rogue." The Crossbowman, of an experience level of 37, snapped back. "And, no, I don't like them. Why would I shoot them if I did, anyway."
"Nice one, David." Kane smiled. "Your tongue has finally untangled itself."
"Shut up. Back to training,"
"We have been sent to kill you. Of course, it was harder than I thought. Finally a worthy opponent. But nevertheless. Duty calls. See you in Hell."
The stranger who had control over Ice raised a wand…
…But Darren was nowhere to be seen.
"What the…?" The Ice necromancer, for that was what the stranger cloaked in black was, exclaimed.
"Were you looking for me?" The necromancer turned behind him, without seeing anyone, except for his fellow Fire necromancer.
"Don't worry. This will bring him out." The Dark Mage of Fire pulled out a skillbook, skimming through the pages. "Ahah." Chanting in an unknown language, he suddenly shouted, after the rambling, "Burning Hell!"
There was an explosion, followed by darkness, before fire burned down the house, Mitril and all. The interesting thing about the fire was that it had a purplish glow around it, and that the two necromancers were unaffected by it…
…Darren popped out from the ashes, wounds healed, running swiftly.
The Ice necromancer finally noticed something on Darren's arm.
A tattoo.
An N, crossed out horizontally.
The mark of an ex-Necron member.
Every Necron member, upon entering the guild, has a tattoo done on their left shoulder. An N, glowing green. Once a Necroite quits the guild, the tattoo is crossed out, and the glowing is stopped, either personally by the master, for the junior masters, or by the junior masters, for everyone else.
However, there was something special.
The mark was glowing green now.
Darren sped around the two necromancers, almost invisible to the naked eye. He suddenly shouted, "Fire Transmutation!" before dashing in to give the Dark Mages a flaming punch…
…The Ice necromancer stepped in, muttering, "Neptune's Wrath."
A wall of water crashed in to freeze in front of Darren, blocking his punch.
The Fire necromancer continued. "Vulcan's Wrath."
Without the mushroom house to protect him, Darren was almost run over by molten rocks.
Almost.
The alchemist shouted, eyes flaming with determination, "Darkness Transmutation!"
The Ice necromancer gasped. A fellow necromancer…
The alchemist's technique caused the surroundings to fall into darkness, so strong that it not only obscured sight, but also all other four senses, for all three of them.
Except for Darren.
He quickly shouted, "Light Transmutation!", and a sudden wave of light hit all three of them.
To Darren's disadvantage.
Taking advantage of the light, the Fire necromancer, fighting against the technique's power against Darkness, aimed his Magicodar at the Hermit-turned-alchemist.
"Meteo…"
Soon, David and Kane were done with their hunting, were walking back to Sleepywood to sell off their small collection of undead charms, ripped of the zombie Mushrooms.
"Why don't we keep the Charms? We'll show Amy how tough her man is…" Kane started a conversation, with a teasing. Amy Socrates was David's long-time classmate of the School of Archery, also 16, and almost as intelligent as David himself, also forward a year, as her last name implied. She was a Hunter of an experience level of 35, and David's crush. Not that many people knew, anyway. Except for Kane.
"Oh, just shut up. She'll probably be able to complete the same feat anyway." David went sullen.
"God. After two years, David, you still don't know when I'm joking." Kane sighed, shaking his head.
"God. After two years, Kane, you still don't know when I'm adding to your joke." David sighed, but could not suppress his smile.
"Training your tongue for when you'll propose to her, aren't you?" Kane smiled back.
"Kane Anderson, just shut up." David retorted.
"Stop using the same phrase over and over again. People get tired of it, you know."
"That's exactly the point. I'm wearing you out. Now…"
Kane interrupted. "There. Sleepywood sauna."
"By Zakum, I tire of this chase." The Fire necromancer said, tone even, no sign of emotion except for his words.
"Well, you shouldn't have exhausted your mana so fast, retard." His Ice counterpart retorted sharply.
"Gods of Fire, stop that before I ram this very staff up your…"
"Quit this!" Another figure, cloaked in black too, materialized from the space beside the house, or what remained of it.
"Well, I was about to blast the hole of a Darren when he disappeared..." The Dark Mage, lighting a fire and extinguishing it to prove his point, said.
"Master has ordered us, strictly, to capture the alchemist, and not be merciful. What do we do now?" The newly-arrived Dark Mage questioned the other two.
The Ice necromancer smiled. "Let's wash him out of his hiding place. Neptune's Wrath!"
Water flowed in from behind the Dark mage, flooding every crack and groove of the ground. Darren was nowhere to be seen.
"Bloody…I'll do it! Zeus' Wrath!"
Static electricity sparked around the Dark Mage, and lighting struck multiple areas in the vicinity, including the water-flooded areas. Again, there was no Darren.
"By Zakum, I hate this Darren…" The Lighting necromancer ground his teeth.
"And that's a perfect reason for me to strike back."
The three Dark Mages turned around them, finally stopping at a similar angle.
And, lo and behold, Darren was glowing black, a Casters on his right hand.
"Time to end this. Shadow Partner." A silhouette of Darren appeared behind him, mimicking his every move. "Avenger." Three Kumbis, all more than twice the size of the ex-Hermit himself, each of them flew to a different opponent.
None hit.
The Ice necromancer summoned a wall of ice to protect himself.
The Fire necromancer, with a cry of "Vulcan's Wrath!" had the Kumbi encased in solid lava.
The Lighting necromancer, with a Thunder Spear he had summoned, simply deflected the Kumbi.
"Stalemate." The Dark Mage of Ice intoned.
"Damn…" Darren clenched his fist, and ran into the Ice necromancer, with a desperate cry of "Fire Transmutation!"
The flaming fist met a wall of ice, which it shattered, impacting with the Ice necromancer.
He fell unconscious. The Ice Mage of Darkness, that is.
"Who wants some more?!" Darren screamed, before turning to the Fire necromancer.
"Shadow Partner! Ice Transmutation!"
The Alchemist slammed a fist, encased in ice, with water flowing around it, into the Fire Mage's face.
Another Dark Mage out cold.
The Lighting necromancer left.
"Now, what to use next…" The ex-Hermit strode over to the last Mage.
"Beware. My master is coming."
The Lighting necromancer did not give Darren time to figure out this sudden sentence, for a cloaked figure, jumping out from the shadows, had him at the neck, with a dagger in hand…
Selling their goods did not take a whole lot of time, and soon Kane and David were strolling back to Henesys, Kane dodging any monsters that came their way, and David taking potshots at the others. Not that he needed the kills anyway.
Suddenly, Kane lost his footing while dancing around a Green Mushroom and fell into a pretty large hole. David screamed, "Kane!" running towards the gap.
It was then that he found out that the hole was quite shallow. Although the fall did bruise Kane albeit.
It was the Stone Golem lumbering towards the Bandit that caught his attention.
But then, it caught his attention, not because of the fact that his friend could be slaughtered anytime soon.
Kane used his Rogue technique, Dark Sight, and disappeared, reappearing at the other end of the gaping hole a few seconds later.
"Come on!" The now-Bandit shouted across to David.
Apparently shaken out of his daze, the Crossbowman walked across through some stone platforms extending out from a cliff.
"Kane." The past Archer said, face cringing.
"Yes?" Kane answered, raising an eyebrow.
"You remember this place, a year ago?"
"Eh, yes. We almost got killed here. You and your warrior doll."
David looked at the silver ring on his left fourth finger, an emerald encrusted on it. A gift from his late mother.
"It was worth it."
"Whatever. You wanted to give it to your mum, didn't you?"
"I didn't want to. I did."
"Ok, fine. You did. Aunt must have been happy."
"She sure was." David tore his eyes away from his ring. He was back to his emotionless, blank face. "Let's get moving."
"In case you haven't noticed, we are moving…"
"Fine. Let's continue moving. Shut up." David strode ahead of his friend of two years.
"Be that way." Kane ran after him.
The duo reached Kane's standardized mushroom house in a few minutes. Or what used to be a standardized mushroom house.
The house was gone. Well, not exactly gone. A few pieces of twisted Mitril could be found on the floor.
And worse still, Darren was lying on the floor, in a pool of blood, three figures cloaked in black around him.
"Dad!" Kane ran towards the Alchemist.
The three strangers took to their heels, but David managed to hit one's shoulder. A glowing N was revealed as the cloth was torn.
David gasped. Necrons…
Kane was, in a second, next to his father, frantically looking around for anything to save his dad. Anything.
To his south, there was a twisted door, made of Adamantium. No hope from that.
To his east, a charred piece of paper. Charred. Again, no help.
To his west, David looking for the three black figures. He was a hopeless at healing arts. Out.
To his north, of course, was Darren, lying in a pool of his own blood.
The ex-Hermit made to say something, raising his head, but before any sound could come from his throat, his head fell, eyes still open. In shock.
"Dad! No!" Kane screamed in denial.
David, standing by the side, shook his head. A tear fell from his face. He understood how Kane must have felt. His own mother had died in front of him, a year previously, after giving him the Ring of Wind.
Suddenly, a figure in a Blue Arzuna, holding a white Dragon Shinebow, appeared from apparently nowhere.
"By Lith, I lost them." The newcomer groaned. "You two are…?"
"David Falcon, Crossbowman of experience level 38. He is Kane Anderson, Bandit of experience level 36. Pleased to be of your acquaintance."
"Gods, you are a polite boy." The newcomer smiled. "Jason Rain, Bow Master, experience level 140. Nice to meet you."
Kane looked up from his father, his eyes red. "Bow Master? You look quite familiar…"
"Of course. Still remember the time I found you two at the Golem Temple…still wondering what the hell made you go there." Jason smiled. Suddenly, the smile faded. "Oh yes. Terribly sorry about your father, Anderson. I found him lying on the floor when I passed by. I tried to chase down the murderers."
"We do have a clue as to who they are, though." David cut in. Everyone, save the late Darren, looked at him.
"I spotted an N on one of the person's shoulder. He might be of Necrons."
"Necrons? Our enemy." The Bow Master put in. "Oh yes, I forgot the full introduction." He handed both Kane and David a card. "Colonel Rain of Beracross, Section Eagleeye. This is my invitation card to my guild. Please join. From what I heard and saw, you, Anderson, are quite a capable fighter. The Crossbowman has a quick and accurate trigger finger too. I witnessed it myself."
David was excited, something out of character for him. "Beracross! The Beracross. Isn't this your dream guild, Kane?"
Kane took the card, and then looked Colonel Rain straight in the eye. Raw determination could clearly be seen in the Bandit's eyes. "You all are against Necrons, from what I hear, yes?"
Colonel Rain smiled. "I might have the liberty to say yes, but the reason will only be revealed through joining our guild."
Kane looked back at the card. A chance to avenge dad, he thought to himself.
"I accept your invitation."
Author's Note: I'm done with this chapter! There. And, there's another fanfic of mine comeing up soon...don't worry, it's a oneshot. And it's related to this fic.
Another thing to note: More necromancers coming up! YEAH lolx.