"I wasn't done eating!" Elsword complained for the fiftieth time. I nearly snapped back at him, but one -very annoyed- look from Rena stopped me. We were heading to the ruins, where bandits were supposedly causing a ruckus. I stopped at the sight of many small, furry, pale yellow animals.

"Phorus?!" I gasped in disbelief, my eyebrows shooting up like skyscrapers.

"What are they doing here?" Elsword asked.

"They must be the bandits that Hagus was talking about!" Rena deduced.

"I've seen them earlier," I commented, ignoring the looks that Rena and Elsword gave me. "Apparently they were looking for you… and called me a little girl in the process," I growled, thinking back to the time before I had run into Elsword. "I've had to teach them a lesson, but they didn't seem all that strong."

"This should be a breeze then," Elsword said. "I've had my share of run-ins with these guys, but from my experience they aren't particularly aggressive."

"At any rate, we'll have to be sure that these Phorus stop causing trouble here," Rena said, striding forward into the ruins. Elsword and I followed closely behind. As soon as the Phorus spotted us they attacked, rushing towards us like a hungry mob.

Which may very well be the case, I thought to myself. Some of the Phorus looked disheveled and scuffy, like they had constantly been on the move. I almost felt sorry that we were going to have to beat them up. Almost. The fact still stood that they were thieves.

"Rail Stinger!" Rena shouted, shooting an arrow that swept all of the Phorus off their feet. As we pushed onward deeper into the ruins, I noticed a few clumps of bushes scattered on the ground. I didn't pay much attention to them until they rose up out of the ground and also started attacking us.

"Gah!" Elsword screamed as he blocked the oncoming attacks with his sword. "What's with these guys?"

"They're the fairy guardians!" Rena exclaimed, dodging nimbly out of their way. "They must be rampaging because the power of the El is weakening!"

"Looks like we have no choice then!" I shouted, deciding not to bother questioning how Rena knew that. "Chain Fireball!" A stream of fireballs erupted from the end of my staff, piercing through the forest guardians and effectively knocking them out. Elsword charged ahead of me, slamming the door blocking our way forward open with his sword.

"Do you think these Phorus are related to Banthus?" I asked.

"I don't think so, but there's always the possibility," Rena answered. "I can feel a faint trace of El lingering in the air. On any other day, I probably would've arrived here to explore."

We stopped to see an even bigger group of Phorus, forest guardians, and other mysterious forest dwellers.

"There's so many Phorus…" I muttered, readying my staff. Elsword blew past me and faced the enemies head on, hacking and slashing through hordes at a time.

"He's so reckless!" I sighed as I joined in the fight. I could hear arrow after arrow flying from Rena's bow, flying true to their mark. I turned my attention back to the mob that I was facing, a group of the mysterious forest dwellers. They almost looked like knights made out of trees, what with their coloring and their bodies.

Like little tree knights, hm? I thought to myself as I knocked them all out. "Well, none of you stood a chance!"

"What did you say?" Elsword said as he walked up to me.

"N-nothing!" I stammered. "Nothing important."

I seriously need to work on breaking that habit, now that I'm fighting with others, I cringed inwardly.

Rena walked up beside me and kicked at the door. "It's closed tighter than I thought," she admitted as she took a few steps back. She then flew at the door feet-first, busting it open with her own two feet. I felt my eyes widen in awe.

How crazy strong is this elf? I wondered. As we walked through the door, we noticed a lone Phoru in leather overalls with its back turned away from us. As we got closer, all three of us noticed that the Phoru was counting treasures, smiling gleefully as it did so.

That has to be the leader, I thought. I was sure that all of the others were thinking the same.

"Who are you?" Elsword shouted, pointing his sword at the Phoru.

...Okay, one of the others.

Instead of answering, the Phoru jumped in surprise and attempted to run away while carrying as many stolen goods as possible.

"You're not getting away!" Elsword shouted as he charged, finally getting the memo. Rena followed a little way behind while I decided to stand still and begin charging up mana. Instead of running away, the Phoru instead pulled out a large sword and attacked.

"Y-you dare challenge the great William Phoru?" the Phoru asked. "I'll beat you brats down to a pulp!"

"Like a thief will ever beat me!" Elsword responded, running up to William and thrusting his sword into the ground. "Flame Geyser!" Plumes of fire burst out of the earth, sending William flying into the air.

"Perfect… Storm!" Rena shouted, somehow firing a green tornado out of her bow and juggling William in the air. As the Phoru fell towards the ground, I teleported directly below him and prepared my spell.

"Gust Screw!" I cried, summoning a cyclone made of burning hot air. William fell straight into the spell, shrieking as the Phoru got buffeted around by its winds. He finally fell to the floor, a little burnt and a little bruised, but otherwise fine.

"Now will you give up?" Elsword asked, standing over the Phoru menacingly and glaring at him.

"Y-yes! Yes!" William shrieked.

Rena walked over to him, observing the Phoru with a careful eye and putting her foot on him so he wouldn't escape. In the meantime, I decided to pawn through the stash of goods that had spilled all over the floor. To my relief, nothing seemed all that important, although there were a few wooden sculptures sprinkled here and there.

"W-what else do you need?!" I heard William's desperate voice say, struggling in vain to escape Rena's grasp. "Just let me go!"

"Not until we have your word that you won't steal from Ruben or anywhere near here ever again," Rena commanded, frowning at the Phoru.

"I promise!" William gasped, struggling to escape Rena's vice-like grip.

"Do you really, truly promise?"

"Yes!"

"If we find you here again," I began. "We won't hesitate to attack. Got that?"

William nodded vigorously.

"Good," I sighed. "Now get out of here!"

William scurried out of sight. We made sure that he had disappeared before checking up on the other Phorus that had swarmed the ruins. Telling all of the Phorus which way William had gone and what had happened was tedious, but we eventually made it back outside of the ruins.

"Looks like you do know how to use a little magic," I teased as I stretched my semi-tired limbs, dropping to the ground to rest.

"It sure was a long day," Rena groaned, as the light of the sun slowly faded to be replaced by night.

"Oi, race you guys back to the village!" I heard Elsword shout as he suddenly shot forward.

"Hey! You cheater!" I cried. No wonder he didn't respond to my taunt. I got up as fast as I could and raced after him, leaving Rena behind to catch up to the two of us.


A/N: I couldn't help but notice that all three of their level 5 skills involved moving an opponent (launching, levitating, and pushing) so I thought I'd torture one William Phoru with them -w-

Anywayys! Since I like replying to other people and most of my favorite authors do this kind of thing..

Yeelimso: Thanks! For a moment I thought that people weren't legitimately reading this o3o

Jetstream Girge: Criticisms! Gimme :3 And yeah, I see what you mean. The first three chapters really were a rehashing, and I was rushing through those first three because I reeeeally wanted to get to Elder and Velder as quickly as possible... I'm going to have to rewrite those three later :/ Speaking of Velder... I've got a ton of plans for that arc (while I've got practically nothing for Bethma, Altera, Feita, Hamel, Sander, and Lanox... I seriously need to break the habit of planning way too far ahead at the huge climactic moments) since that arc is one of the first/early 'war heavy' dungeon/story arcs. At any rate, here's hoping I fixed up the pacing a little in this and future chapters! /crosses fingers/