Heya!.. Christmas time.. Woooooooooo!.. Or maybe not, shesh it's such an expensive time.. Presents for this person, presents for that person.. Gah! You all get chocolate!

Aye aye, been really busy putting up trees, decorating, shopping.. (Oh how I hate shopping at Christmas)

So I was thinking.. Oh I haven't checked my e-mails in a while (Hellish, a week without checking e-mail is stupid.. I do know this is a fact).

What did I find.. FanFiction this.. FanFiction that.. Good lord.. I feel like a bitch for not updating and not checking my e-mails..

So I don't think I've done a shoutout for a little while..

Before I do.. I have a small announcement.. Humans are going to be taken off the OC form, anyone who has already submitted a human is fine, however, I will not be accepting any more human OC's.. Thanks to a little prompt from a reader I counted out characters and we have 17 human OC's.. (including main characters) 12 of which are male.. Yes.. That means the boys are massively outnumbering the girls here!.. Come on girls! Get some OC's in here!

Sooo.. *deep breath*

Firstly, thank you;

Learnor, Hasegawa Ryuji, yuki no yue, TomorrowsHerald, Panther Hardraad, AnnaRee, Agent Epsilon 0010 and ab918 for following the story!

Secondly, a thanks to;

Grinning Wolf 24, Salimiome, Learnor (again), Hasegawa Ryuji (again), yuki no yue (again) and once more to Agent Epsilon 0010 for making the story one of your favourites.

Thirdly, replies to reviews;

Heyo~ Learnor, you are very welcome.. I'm glad I contributed to you day being better!.. As for being eager.. That's great, so am I.. As for Leonardo.. Oooo~ I dunno.. Nah, I'm joking, I'll pop him into my (massive) OC file, he'll be the last human OC. I will endeavour to keep the story going until the end!

Hell Devil 13, uni-life? I understand.. Uni-life = (more or less) No-life.. I mean when you aren't getting drunk at all the parties, you're working your ass off for your degree.. xD Knowing that you took the time to write one make lil' me smile.. So you can say that you've done your good deed! I can't wait to get more written, but as I'm sure you can understand.. Life has it's ways of pulling you to one side a draining you of energy.

Third Cosmic Velocity, I hereby absolve you of your crimes, as from this day forth you are forgiven!.. Don't worry, I've done that with whole chapters before.. Hit about 2.5k words then go.. 'Well that doesn't make sense.. Ugh, fuck.. Shit! Crap.. Get it off my screen.. Forget it ever existed!' Maybe I'm a little more over reactive than your good self. As for the two new characters.. They're a special group that'll be either a blessing or a curse for the players as a whole.. I haven't figured how I'm going to use them yet.. But they're an interesting bunch to say the least.. Ah it's such a small world!.. Oh dear.. I hope nobody thinks I ignore any of you..

(On a side note.. If you think I have forgotten you.. Send me a message with a slap (not the face.. And if you go for my bottom.. Well you might get more of a reaction than you bargained for xD)

As for Reno, he is owned by.. bored kid 48.. More characters will be introduced in the next city.. So should be the next chapter, the group might meet another on the road before the city but we'll have to see how the story writes itself.

Hasegawa Ryuji thank you, I shall add Nara to the ever growing list of OC's.

Rundl322.. *cough* PM! *cough*..

hopelessromantic34 aye I'm glad I was back too.. And here's that chapter you couldn't wait for! :3

Phantomtwriter good good, it's nice to know you took the time to catch up on the story and I'm always grateful for your comments :D.. Even if it's only a little message it's the thought that counts!

Phew, I think this is one of the longest pre-notes I've ever done.. Nearly two pages long.. Madness!

Madness? No.. This. Is. Ulster!

Ahem.

Shall we continue?

I let a small huff escape as I dislodge Dragnipur from another, recently felled lizardman.

"How many more are there?" Whines Reno as he waves his hand in the air, in the single motion his summon acknowledged the command and returned to his side.

"You are getting better at controlling your magic" Praises Shadina as she wipes her brow, pushing aside a rogue strand of her long blue hair.

"Aye.. And you are getting much better at knowing what spell to use on what" I add as the woman waves off my comment with a small smile.

"You are ever the pillar of strength mistress" Chirps Maria as she sheaths her hammer, after using it, much to my surprise, to clobber the smaller hatchlings that were stupid enough to cross the small girls path.

"Ha.. You can't talk kid, you're kinda scary with that hammer" Chuckles the red haired elf as he places an ear to one of the trees, activating one of his pathfinder skills. "There's another group of them up ahead.. Feels like they're all surrounding something.." Adds Reno as he takes a quick glance at his stats.

"Then we keep going" I state as we continue along our path. "Reno's right, where did you learn to fight like that Maria?" I ask, genuinely intrigued.

"Well I watched how you fight.. And put what I learned into practice.. But I'm not really scary am I?" Answers the small girl with another question.

"No of course not.. Keep up the good work" I state while ruffling the girl's hair as we walk deeper into the earth lizard base.

"Up ahead" Warns the elf as we near a clearing.

"Oooo~.. I see a treasure chest!" I yell as I charge towards the lizards, Dragnipur already raised above my head, ready to be brought down on my first target.

Even with my loud outburst, my blade still came as a shock for the first lizard as Dragnipur calved into the monster's shoulder, very nearly lopping off the whole arm.

The monster let out a hiss, before I pulled my greatsword free and sent it plummeting through the lizard another two times. After my final swing the lizard fell to the ground, while the rest of the mob were already charging towards me. The first one to reach me was met with the end of my blade that it unintentionally ran straight into, I found this slightly amusing and let out a short, dark laugh.

My laugh was cut even shorter when the feeling of pain rushed through me, the lizard impaled on my blade slowed my swing speed drastically, so much so that one, two, three.. Five.. Eight.. Eleven.. Fourteen.. The onslaught of slashing claws struck me again and again..

"Enough!" I roared out as I kicked the skewered lizard off my blade with enough force to break the dead monsters back as it hit a nearby boulder.

The lizards all took a small step back before they all hissed as the charged towards me, another jumping onto my blade and sacrificing itself so the rest could land easy hits.

"Cleaver buggers aren't they?" I half question, half state while releasing Dragnipur and pulling out two of my lovely new throwing axes, for someone who had been using both her hands to swing a weapon, you'd think wielding one in each hand would be easy.. No.. Quickly learning my lesson I sent one of the axes hurtling through the air, the projectile didn't stop until it sent a lizard straight to the floor.

Now wielding a single axe I found the problem with one handed weapons.. Reach.. Although faster, the reach on each swing was tiny.. The damage.. What would take my two-handed sword a few strikes took the smaller one-handed axe strike after strike after strike, to bring down a single lizard.

The dawn out battle quickly became a painful nuisance as more and more cuts appeared on me. To my right Reno was battling a small group of stragglers with a couple of summons and the help of Maria. To my left Shadina looked to be in trouble, now resorting to her animals more than her magic.

"Maria, Reno.. Shadina needs a hand!" I shout before letting out another roar and headbutting the lizard stuck on my axe. Pulling the throwing weapon free I sent it flying into one of Shadina's attackers.

Pulling out another axe I managed to throw it before another lizard engaged me. Caught without a weapon the lizard pressed it's advantage and lashed out at me with it's claws. Narrowly avoiding a lash to my face I dodged, the claws instead caught my shoulder, shattering the steel plate armour and leaving my whole left arm exposed. Quickly rolling forward and pulling one of my axes from a nearby corpse I leapt back into the fight, barring my teeth through the pain as more and more claws caught my weakened armour.. The other arm guard quickly followed it's twin and shattered under the constant attacks from claw and fang, leaving both my arms exposed, and another set of sigils.

Feeling the warmth of my, usually hidden and inactive, sigils a smile graced my lips as a sudden rush of power coursed through me, the immense power trailed down my arms and formed in the palm of my hands.

Thirty.

Grasping the soul blade I began a dance, swinging the blade through lizard after lizard like they were as thin as paper.

Twenty-two.

Charging towards another lizard I twisted around the monster's attempt at an attack, getting around to the lizard's back, I plunged the blade into the creature a pulled it out quickly moving on to the next.

Sixteen.

Another lizard fell as it's head hit the ground moments before it's body.

Eleven.

Jumping and twisting around mid-air I landed between Shadina and a deadly strike aimed at her back from a crafty lizard that instead met my blade plunging into it's chest.

Six.

Turning to face another I quickly slashed across it's body, vaulting over the falling lizard and pushing my blade into the last one on Shadina's side.

Zero.

After my countdown was finishing my blade became unstable and quickly drained my MP while sending shocks throughout my body, the pain was on a whole different level to the wounds inflicted from the lizards, it was like every cell in my body was statically charged and suddenly began discharging.. I fell to the ground screaming as the pain intensified, my MP dropping past 50%.. Tears formed in my eyes as I grit my teeth, only to let out another scream as the pain flared again, forcing my eyes closed and releasing the tears..

Crying.. Pain..

I was actually crying.. Pain.

The tears were flowing freely as I screamed out once again, clutching at my head.. Pain.

Make it stop!.. Pain.

It hurts!.. Pain.

Please!.. Pain.

Stop!.. Pain.

Please! Stop!.. Pain.

It! Hurts!.. Pain.

It didn't stop.. Pain.

I knew it wouldn't stop.. Pain.

It was the price to pay.. Pain.. Pain.

How many times have I used it?.. Pain.. Pain.. Pain.

Did she feel it every time?.. Pain.. Pain.. Pain.. Pain.. Pain..

"RAGHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH!" I scream as my nails dig into my scalp, drawing blood.

I know, I know.. It's a super short chapter.. I just wanted to leave it at that to add a little suspense.. Hence why it's taken me so long to post.. I was trying to add to it but everything I wrote made the whole scene kinda crappy.. The follow up will be up in a few minutes.. What?.. You think just 'cause I didn't write it here that I didn't write it at all?.. No, no.. I didn't want to post till I had (I guess you could call it) the second part.

Again thanks to everyone who has commented/messaged/followed/favourited/reviewed/been awesome!

You're all amazing!