Author's Note: Sorry for not posting on the days I said. I was busy with school and all and I needed to take some time and play Minecraft, Halo Reach, Gears of war 3 and Gears of War Judgment on my xbox360. In my opinion Gears of War is just highly addicting to me. The bad thing about it there isn't any good players who aren't uber tryhards but I still like the game despite the fact that I go a little insane as a Theron. Anyways as I try to go back on topic... The Hunt to get Ace back begins. Our young hero's are about to find where their friend is but will it be a walk in the park since he's still a demented Skeleton and with Allison in their midst.. Also I will be accepting some OC's if you all want to have him or her in the story for this chapter will introduce a new face. Anyways let us begin.

Chapter 40: Hunting the Skeleton

Night was upon the young group and they all seemed to be casual as they walked in the grass biome. They saw a forest ahead that Fang was leading them to and Fang was leading them to. Fang was up in front and he sniffed the air while he walked on all fours. Since he is the Wolf Prince Fang has canine senses which help him track people down no matter how far they are so Haze insisted that he should be up front. As he led the group everyone followed him in silence since they all had nothing to say. Yaebi was in front with Fang, Theron stayed in the back and Yuki and Haze where in front of Theron. Yuki looked at Haze since she was at his side and saw that he didn't even make eye contact with her nor speak to her.

"Um…Haze." She called to her Wither brother.

Haze didn't bother looking at her but too a glance at her from the corner of his eye.

"Th-thank-you for letting me join you in finding Ace." She said while giving him a feeble smile.

Haze didn't reply to her after she thanked him so instead he moved himself further up ahead and this actually made Yuki feel sad. Yuki's feeble smile turned into a frown and she looked at the ground sadly while having her right hand on her right arm. Theron noticed that Yuki acted a little different after Haze moved up so he decided to see what was wrong.

"Hey…are you alright?" Theron asked.

Yuki seemed to jolt when she heard his voice but calmed down afterwards when she looked at him.

"No…but it doesn't concern you." Yuki said sadly.

"If it's my friends that are having problems then it does concern me Yuki." Theron said.

Yuki then stopped moving and it was followed by Theron. They only stopped for a few minutes so Haze, Fang, and Yaebi were farther up ahead and once they were out of hearing range Yuki and Theron continued moving while the young Skeleton Princess explained why she was sad.

"I feel like that I really am useless." Yuki told Theron.

"What do you mean?" Theron asked.

"Ever since I was little I use to be…useless when it came to certain things. Even though I would mess up I would try to fix those problems but now…I feel like that I messed up big time. Because of me Ace is this monster that he is now. Instead of questioning him I just ran away like I always do when I'm sad and whats worst is that Haze is even mad at me for what I did. I feel like that whatever I try to do always back fires and I believe that even if we find Ace and get him back to normal…would he even love me again." Yuki said sadly with some tears forming in her eyes.

Theron saw that Yuki was breaking down but this wasn't the first time he saw a girl do this. He had the same situation with Flare when she was talking to him about him getting hurt because of what she did. Theron soon placed a hand on Yuki's shoulder which made the girl look at him with her tearful eyes.

"Yuki listen…I don't believe that all this stuff you say makes you a bad person. You're kind hearted, smart, and a nice girl and I don't believe that you would do these bad things on purpose. Look…when we find Ace and get him back to normal I'm sure he won't blame you. Ace is a nice guy and if I know him he wouldn't get mad at you Yuki. Ace loves you and he will always love you." Theron told her.

Even though Theron's mouth was covered by his scarf Yuki could tell that he was smiling at her. She then wiped her eyes and smiled back at him which made Theron happy.

"Thanks Theron. I'll try my best to help get Ace back." Yuki said.

"Yeah you know it." Theron said with a chuckle.

The friendly conversation soon ended when Fang howled which startled everyone.

"I found him. His scent is weak but I'm sure we'll be able to get him." Fang said to everyone.

"Alright then. Lead the way Fang." Haze said.

Fang nodded and sprinted towards the forest on all fours while everyone else chased after him.

-Elsewhere-

Allison stopped flying for a few minutes as she felt five auras approaching Skulls location. She felt the presence of the Zombie Prince, The Wither Prince, The Wolf Prince, and the Skeleton Princess. She also felt another aura but she was unsure about it but figured it was one of those human boys.

"Well…it seems I'm not the only one who wants to find Ace. It seems the little Mobs want to get him back. Not only that but it seems that they have someone with them. If I'm guessing right it must be one of those humans." Allison muttered to herself.

She then descended from the sky and landed on the ground without making a noise. Her wings then wrapped themselves around her body like a robe. After that she then began to walk since she decided to take her sweet time in finding her target.

"If those fools find Ace first they will be destroyed by him. I really don't need to rush this mission so I should just walk there while taking my sweet time." Allison said with a smile.

-Back to the group-

The group was deep in the forest as they followed Fang who continued to lead the way. Fang soon stopped when he smelt something and it made him growl a little.

"What is it?" Yaebi asked.

"I sensed something dark and eerie before but it suddenly disappeared. I don't know what it is but I don't like it." Fang growled.

"Let's just stay on task. Are we close to Ace's location?" Haze asked.

"Yeah…but I can also smell corpses and it really stinks." Fang gagged.

"Alright then lead on." Haze said.

Fang nodded and the group continued on. They can tell that they were going the right direction because the ground was looted for various corpses. Haze seemed unfazed about this but everyone else was to see corpses of the dead piled around them. There was one body was a Male Zombie who had half of his lower body gone, and there was another body of a Wolf that had its head ripped off while its canine body had claw marks on it.

"This looks like something you would see a Necromancer do." Yaebi said.

"Yes but they don't go brutal overkill on their foes. They only make one killing blow while the body is still intact after they attack." Theron said.

"And…how do you know this?" Yaebi asked.

"I…had my fair share of fighting these guys. Tough bastards if I say so myself." Theron replied.

"Wait…how old were you when you fought them?" Yuki asked.

"15." Theron said.

"Ah…" Yaebi and Yuki said in unison.

Fang suddenly came to a stop which was followed by everyone else and they looked at him in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Yuki asked.

"This is the spot where his scent lead but…he's not even here." Fang said.

"But you have the strongest nose out of all of us here so how could you lose his scent?" Yaebi asked.

"I don't know?" Fang replied.

"Still…he shouldn't have gone far. Everyone stay alert just in ca-"

Haze was soon interrupted when a bone-like whip slapped him on the face creating a cracking sound. The whip also forced him to crash through 5 trees before colliding to a boulder with a loud thud and after that he fell harmlessly to the ground. Everyone was petrified to see Haze get smacked and turned to face they attacker but where shocked to see what they didn't expect.

Skull stood only a few feet away from them and his body had changed drastically when Yuki saw him. He stood approximately around 7'0 tall, his black hair still stayed the same but there was some hint of grey in it followed by blood, His skull was almost shaped like a dragon with bone-like horns sticking out from the back and his teeth were longer than before, he had leathery grey skin that covered his stomach area, Hollow eye sockets that glowed an eerie yellow color, a spine that formed a tail that had had some sort of mace with sharp spikes on it, his arms were 2'0 feet long and they reached the ground with spikes on the arms, and shoulder, Boney feet that made a hoof like angle, and claws that looked sharp enough to cut obsidian.

"Oh…my…lord." Yaebi said with some sweat droplets forming on his forehead.

"I thought Haze said that he was smaller but he's freakishly huge that even an Enderman would cower before him." Fang said while making dog like whimpers.

"He must have been consuming the bones from those bodies. That explains why there where killed in gruesome ways and with limbs missing. Overall he seems to be stronger than before." Theron said.

The guys prepared themselves for a fight for their lives but Yuki froze at the sight of seeing what Ace was now. She remembered when he transformed and he was scary and small but now he was horrifying and was two Endermen tall. She was terrified to the point that even tears came out her terrified eyes.

"My…My. This is a surprise. I didn't expect you all to be here but that would be a lie since I might have killed the Wither Prince with one swipe of my tail." Skull chuckled.

The Skeleton then looked at the group and spotted Yuki amongst them. This made Skull smile in glee which made him speak again.

"And you have brought the Whore herself into this fight. I thank you my little fools. This makes killing her a lot easier for me now." Skull said as a black snake-like tongue came out of his mouth.

"No one is getting hurt except for you Skull." Theron said.

"And how do you expect to do that Theron. I'm stronger then when you fought me and you do not have Kai with you. Right now you are all just food to me from you, the Fleebag and the Zombie being mere appetizers, to the Skeleton girl being desert. I will slaughter you all within minutes." Skull sneered.

Theron looked at Yaebi and Fang to see them glaring at Skull but they were as nervous as he was. Theron then turned to see Yuki and she saw her frozen in fear.

"Yuki." Theron called.

It wasn't a surprise to see her not moving so Theron had to scream her name to get her attention.

"YUKI!" Theron yelled.

As expected Yuki snapped and looked at Theron to see him looking at her. He then tossed her two potions that he had in his pocket and turned his gaze back to Skull before speaking to her.

"Go check on Haze and stay safe. We got this guy." Theron said.

"Bu-but Theron-"

"But nothing Yuki. Go check on Haze now!" Theron said while interrupting her.

Yuki didn't want to fight with Theron knowing how stressed he might be so she nodded and ran towards the direction where Haze was smacked.

-Theron's P.o.v-

"Well this is going to be a pain in the ass." I sighed.

"Yeah…since you're not a mob we're going to be doing most of the work." Fang pointed out.

"Don't be silly. I may be human but I have a few moves up my sleeve." I told them.

"What do you mean?" Yaebi asked.

"Sure I'm human but I can use some magic that I learned." I told them with a smirk.

I then raised by hand in the air and dark shadow-like aura started to swirl around it.

"Shadow Blade!" I shouted.

As I said that a dark sword formed in my hands. It wasn't like a regular minecraftian looking sword but it was a sharp edge sword that has a good hilt, and a curve which made it look like some sort of shoulder blade. I then began to twirl the sword in my hand and got into a battle stance followed by the rest of the guys.

"Heh! Hope that wasn't for show." Fang chuckled.

"Don't worry it wasn't. When it comes to sword play I'm the one to call on." I said.

"I hope your right about that because were gonna have to do a lot of damage to bring this guy down." Yaebi said.

Yaebi, Fang, and I looked at Skull to see the Skeleton glare down at us with its sinister smile. Its tail began to brush the floor waiting for one of us to make a move but which we wouldn't do since going on a head on attack would be suicide. Plus its only the three of us. Without Haze we are totally screwed and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't die by that simple surprise attack but he would be pissed.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Yep." Yaebi said with confidence.

"Yeah I'm ready." Fang said with a smirk

The three of us then began to charge at Skull who wasn't even ready and expected us to fight him one at a time. Though the three of us soon stopped our charge when a axe came soaring out of nowhere. It whizzed passed my head grazing some of my hair and slammed the bladed end onto the chest of Skull.

"GGGRRRAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Skull roared in pain.

As if that wasn't surprising enough a figure darted past the three of us and grabbed the Axe that pieced Skulls chest and ripped it out of him. Seeing this Skull swiped at the figure with his razor sharp claws but he darted away and landed right in front of us. Since he was this close to us I was able to get a good look of the guy.

The guy looked to be around 19 or 20 years old but I really couldn't tell and he was about 5'11 in height. He had Raven black hair, a dark grey hooded jacket, black pants that had one stripe in the middle of it, and military combat boots.

The guy then placed the axe over his shoulders and looked at the three of us revealing a pumpkin mask covering his face and red eyes that showed from behind it.

"Hey…what's up." He asked in a friendly voice.

Author's Note: Holy crap a Cliff Hanger when a new character appears. Anyways Theron, Fang, and Yaebi meet a new person but despite that he actually injured Skull does this make him a new ally or is he a foe. Who knows? So what will happen in the next chapter stay tuned and find out awesome guys and awesome gals.