Chapter 22

Fan-Huang and Marina Vale battled their way through the Cursed Woods in pursuit of his younger sister. While his abilities were nothing in comparison to his sister, he could feel a faint sense in the air that he attributed to her arcane energy. He'd never really noticed it before because he'd spent his whole life completely surrounded by people with considerable arcane energy. It was just normal to him. Plus, Fan-Min had left a pretty gory trail of demonic corpses and body parts in her wake. Tracking her wouldn't be too difficult. The hard part would be keeping himself alive until he reunited with her.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Marina asked as she surveyed their surroundings. Every inch of the woods looked identical. How could anyone find their way through the woods? Plus, it seemed like the trees sprouted legs whenever they weren't being watched so they could relocate themselves just to confuse any unfortunate travelers.

"Aren't Demon Hunters supposed to be excellent trackers and navigators?" Fan-Huang asked over his shoulder. "Why don't you tell me?"

"About that..." She sounded a bit embarrassed. "I can shoot a bolt as well as anyone else." She laughed a bit to lighten her embarrassing confession. "But I can't find my way out of a wooden barrel if I needed to."

"Can you track?"

"I can." She admitted. "But I've always been tracking animals and demons." She confessed. "Something tells me that Renegade Wizards are better at covering their tracks."

"Do you see all this?" Fan-Huang asked through what was almost a laugh as he held his hands out to display the surroundings around them. There was blood and carnage all around. "She's not covering her tracks." He looked at Marina. "She did all this."

"Your sister is that powerful?"

"You saw her in the mass grave."

"Yeah..." Her voice was faint.

"Nothing gets in her way."

"She sounds dangerous."

"She'll be the greatest hero you've ever met."

"I hope you're right."

They followed the trail of blood through the woods until they ran into another group of demons that had gathered around to survey the post-battle results. Marina jumped up alongside Fan-Huang and drew her crossbows. "Ready yourself." She commanded him. "This'll get ugly."

The two of them prepared for the battle. Fan-Huang looked around. The group had gathered around what was now a broken, and rickety bridge over a misty chasm. He had no idea what was lying below, but he figured they needed to cross it to get to Fan-Min.

Marina began launching bolts at the group, one right after another, before Fan-Huang pushed her crossbows down and shouted. "Wait!" She looked at him in shock as the demons began charging them. "There are possessed humans!" He pointed out. She surveyed the enemy group. He was right. There were humans in the mass. They wielded various farming tools and looked like they had absolutely no thoughts passing through their heads. "We can't kill them." He instructed Marina. She couldn't have agreed more. Her mission was to protect humans from the threat of demons, not to hunt them like there was no difference.

Before they were ready, Fan-Huang and Marina had to dodge to avoid the first charging demon, a horrible looking behemoth with large curled horns on its head. "He's mine." Marina hissed as she swung her crossbows around and took shot after shot at the beast. It turned its full attention over to her and bucked and swung its head in a wild attempt to gore her with his enormous horns.

Fan-Huang's attention was on the larger group of less intimidating, but probably just as dangerous, group of demons. With his enchanted spellbook out, he charged the monsters. Not because he was brave, but because he wanted to ensure that he was out of Marina's way, and more importantly, her aim, as she fought the big demon. He'd fight the smaller ones closer to the cliff.

He recognized the demons from the Yshari Sanctum. They were The Fallen. They were small, twisted creatures that enjoyed feasting on the flesh of humans. Their origins, according to the scrolls of the Yshari Sanctum, were from the armies of the Evil from Hell, Azmodan. However, when they followed Azmodan in a rebellion against the Prime Evils, Diablo himself twisted them into the now small in stature creatures they existed as.

Fan-Huang had read that they were pack-creatures, that usually followed the orders of a higher ranking Fallen, often a Shaman. He kept his eyes peeled for a shaman, and quickly recognized one. It was taller than the rest and dressed with tribal-looking grass clothing. He needed to kill that one. He was the most dangerous.

Using his spellbook, Fan-Huang launched arcane orbs at the crowd of little Fallens. Given the number of them, it was practically impossible for him to miss, and he didn't. The orb collided with one of the front Fallens charging him and exploded in an arcane burst. The Fallen fell to the floor dead. This immediately caused the other Fallens to scatter in fear. He took the chance to charge through them toward the Fallen Shaman. However, as he approached the shaman, the possessed humans jumped in his way.

He halted and took in his surroundings. How could he move these villagers without hurting them? As he scoped things out, he heard a strange gurgling noise. He turned around and saw the dead Fallen shaking violently. Before he knew what was happening, the Fallen was back alive and ready to attack. He recognized that the magic that had brought the monster back to life originated in the shaman. He needed to kill the shaman if he hoped to get anything done.

He looked back just as a villager was about to impale him on a rusty pitchfork. He quickly fell backwards to avoid the blow. "Shut your eyes!" Came the loud voice of Marina. He did what he was told and immediately heard a quick explosion and could see through his shut eyelids a bright flash of light.

Once he peeked his eyes open, he saw all the demons and possessed men shielding their eyes like they had been blinded. "Now!" Marina screamed. He didn't miss a beat. He charged around the blinded men and sent his arcane energy out from him in a forced push. The energy collided into the shaman and sent the creature hard into the rickety fencing of the dilapidated bridge. As his body smashed into it, the fence gave a bit, breaking where the impact occurred.

"I've got you!" Fan-Huang shouted with an unfamiliar confidence. For just a second he felt like Fan-Min, overcoming demons. But in reality, he knew that these were just small fries. Fan-Min would have had them dead before even needing to blink. Brushing his thoughts from his head, he focused on the task at hand: killing the shaman. He focused his arcane energy again and sent it out again toward the shaman. It collided again, but this time the force broke the fencing and the shaman plummeted to its death.

"Nice!" Marina complimented him. He turned to rejoin the rest of the battle and saw nothing but dead Fallen strewn across the damp floor of the Cursed Woods. She'd already taken care of the rest of them. Fan-Huang's pride and confidence melted away at how talented the woman was.

Before he had a chance to answer her, she was tackling villagers to the ground and restraining them in ropes. Fan-Huang approached them and examined them. They were definitely possessed. "What do we do?" He asked.

"I have no idea." Marina answered. "Can't you break the spell?"

"I don't know."

"Don't you learn about stuff like this?"

"A bit."

"Can you or can't you?"

"I can try." With those words, he placed his index finger and middle finger against the forehead of a large, sweaty man. Fan-Huang closed his eyes and could feel the presence of whatever was possessing the villagers. He pushed a bit, trying to loosen the grip whatever this creature was had on him. He pushed a bit more, but the possessor was too strong. It was like pushing against a thick, brick wall in the man's head. There was no way he could break down the spell possessing the man.

"Any luck?" Marina asked, sounding hopeful. Fan-Huang ignored her and pressed a bit harder. Nothing. He pushed as hard as he could, but nothing. Then, suddenly, the villager snapped out of it.

"Where am I?" The man asked, seemingly clueless to what had happened.

"The Cursed Woods." Marina explained. Fan-Huang just stared at him bewildered. "Do you know how to get home?"

"No." The man said.

"Follow the blood trail." Fan-Huang explained. "It goes back to New Tristram."

Suddenly, the rest of the villagers woke up. They explained the situation to them and sent them on their way back to the village. Marina placed a proud hand on Fan-Huang's shoulder. "Excellent work." She complimented him through what almost looked like a smile.

"I didn't do anything."

"Yes you did." She responded. "I saw you doing it."

"I tried to, sure." He said confused. "But in the end I was too weak. I couldn't break the spell."

"Then why are they walking safely back to New Tristram?"

"It was like the spell was just lifted." Fan-Huang explained. "Like whoever was possessing them didn't need them anymore."

"Either way..." She headed toward the bridge. "They're free." She stopped in front of the rickety bridge. "Let's go. We have a sister to catch up to."