Chapter 3

"Wake up… Wake up!" Yelled Cynn as she shook Aidan.

"Don't yell, Cynn, there might be more rangers. The Ascalon settlement is still close by. Let's take him there for shelter and then we'll go find Gronan and kill him!" said Devona.

Cynn and Devona picked up Aidan while Mhenlo picked up his bow and his quiver of arrows. While getting his things together Mhenlo spotted a familiar bottle, Aidan's Troll Unguent he thought. He picked it up then opened it and smelled it. He drew his head away in disgust as the smell of troll blood filled his nostrils and he quickly put the cork back in.

"Good thing we found him, looks like he was on his last bottle of Trolls Unguent," said Mhenlo while holding up the bottle.

"Mhenlo, is there anything you can do for Aidan?" asked Devona.

"No, my powers cannot do anything at this point, but I can take out the poison," replied Mhenlo.

He walked over to Devona and Cynn and while they were holding Aidan he put his hands over his unconscious body and chanted a spell in which it drew the poison out of his body and also stitched up some of his smaller wounds.

Some of the blood was already drying so the three hurried back to the Ascalon Settlement.

"Devona, Cynn, Mhenlo, why are you back so soon?" asked Captain Greywind as they approached the gate.

"We found Aidan and he's been seriously wounded. May we leave him here to rest while we go out and find Gronan?" asked Devona.

"Why, of course. While you're gone, one of my monks will attend to Aidan," said Captain Greywind.

They entered the Ascalon settlement and put Aidan into one of the huts. While walking away from the settlement they began to make a plan.

"Ok, Gronan's probably going to have some undead warriors guarding him, so we'll take them out first. We won't have to worry about long range attacks because Aidan took care of that. After taking out the warriors we'll go for Gronan," said Devona as they made their way into the forest.

They went to where they last saw Aidan and started searching from there. They went west from the pile of skeleton rangers. Devona took some ranger skills from Aidan and knew how to track things. She looked down and saw footprints leading into the swamp.

"We should head to the swamp. That's our best bet," said Devona pointing south-west.

They walked for an hour and then saw the swamp just over a small hill. Mhenlo looked around for any sight of the undead general. Just then he saw Cynn getting up behind the hill they were hiding behind and started walking towards a tree.

"Cynn! What are you doing!" whispered Mhenlo.

"I think I saw an undead warrior over there, I'm going to go see if I can get a better view," replied Cynn in a quiet voice.

Just as she was getting to the next farthest tree she stepped on a twig that snapped loudly. She winced as the crack echoed trough the forest.

She turned around facing Devona and Mhenlo and whispered "Sorry!" with a sheepish look on her face.

After turning back to find the general an arrow came whizzing from inside the forest and struck the tree beside Cynn. She looked at the tree with the arrow with a shocked face.

"Cynn, run back to the hill!" yelled Devona.

Cynn turned and ran towards the other two and hid behind the hill.

"Wasn't my fault" Cynn said.

Volleys of arrows flew over their heads. They ducked even lower.

"We'll go around the other side and try and ambush them," said Devona as another arrow whizzed by.

They went around the right side and looked at where the arrows were coming from.

"It's general Gronan alright and it looks like he has some help," said Devona.

"How many?" Mhenlo asked.

"There are two undead sorcerers and two rangers," replied Devona. "I'll take out the warrior. Cynn, can you handle the sorcerers?"

"Of course I can," Cynn said with a smile.

"Ok, Mhenlo, get ready to put on some protective spells on me and get ready to raise any hex spells," Devona said as she unsheathed her sword.

They ran out from behind the hill and the undead spotted them, and then proceeded to fire their arrows at them. One hit Devona, but bounced off her armor, and another one went by Cynn which got her angry. She stopped and did an incantation that sent raining balls of fire from the sky upon the undead striking two of them down. Mhenlo started a protection spell as Devona ran towards the ranger. When she got about five feet from the warrior she felt really slow and sluggish. The sorcerer put a hex spell on her that slowed her down but Mhenlo was there to take it off her. An arrow was shot at Devona and punched through her leg,

"Ahhhh!" She screamed in pain holding her leg.

Her movements were crippled now and she limped towards the ranger and brought up her sword. A blue aura swept over her giving her energy back that was stolen by the sorcerer. She put her strength into the swing and cut off the head of the ranger. Cynn had just finished her incantation and a flame curled out of her hands towards one of the sorcerers and exploded it into a pile of bones. Devona turned and faced general Gronan.

"You shall pay for what you did to our friend!" She yelled as she advanced on the lone general.

"If you slay me, my undead army will destroy the Ascalon settlement!" yelled the general in a growl.

Gronan swung his sword at Devona, but she blocked it and went to stab at his unprotected chest. Gronan was skilled with a sword, too, and effortlessly blocked her attack. However, Cynn saw her struggling and put a fire spell on Gronan that made him burst into flames. Devona saw this as her chance and kicked Gronan down and stepped on his chest just as the flames disappeared.

"Call off you're army," Devona said to Gronan

Gronan started chuckling then laughed devilishly.

"It's too late. The army is already advancing on your little settlement!" said Gronan. "You want to kill me for the honor. The glory?"

"No, it's revenge for our friend," said Devona.

After talking she stabbed her sword through his chest killing him instantly.