Forest Arc: Weak

Cool winds battered the walls sending shingles and boards creaking one way and then the next, a fire crackled off to the side warming up the otherwise frostbitten night. A guttural cry of a marsupial being captured by a bird of the night some distance away, Sven opened his eyes to find himself in his home away from the waterfall. The memories rushed back as he remembered his fight with the wolf while in the water, he must have passed out on top of the great big beast to save himself from drowning.

The room was empty save for himself, attempting to pick himself up he fell back down as he tried to put pressure on his injured arm. It sent pain flashing through his body in waves, a memento of bravery some might say but Sven cursed it as a reminder of his hypocrisy.

"Nothing to fear but fear itself, right?" Sven croaked out as he inspected the injured area better. Someone had tried their best at patching him up but the craftsmanship was quite sloppy. The wounds weren't particularly deep but they would certainly leave scars. Little patchwork reminders of the terror he had felt fending off the creature, and by extension the objective failings of his ideals. The truth is that he did feel fear, it wasn't as simple as being dull to the threats around him, in the heat of the moment he couldn't control his emotions, his emotions had lead him to some bad decisions out there such as climbing the tree - had the wolf been patient with it's hunt and didn't jump before the tree had even hit the ground then Sven wouldn't be alive right now. A mistake Sven had made under the duress of fear.

Slamming the wall with his good fist Sven shook in anger at having so easily given into his old ways, maybe he was being too hard on himself but Sven could feel the frustration of inadequacy flow through him in that moment. It wasn't good enough, he may have survived and even killed the beast but he knew there was so much further to go. So much more that he should be capable of.

It was then that the door opened and a familiar face hunched through the short door frame. White plumes of hair flashing orange and yellow by the camp fire whose smoke rose to an opening vent in the ceiling.

"You're unbelievable, you know that?" She almost looked giddy as she sat down on the rickety chair, creaking as she made herself comfortable. "It's almost like a reversing of roles, huh? This time you're the one in my debt hahaha!" Sven smiled, more happy to see Claire now than anyone else before. Her silver eyes twinkled as always but now there seemed to be a look of reverence behind them that he hadn't seen before.

"You know you killed an alpha shadow wolf, right? The thing was fuckin' massive! Why are you raging and hitting your wall for? You ought to celebrate!" With that she tossed a piece of charred meat towards Sven, grabbing the greasy morsel Sven began to dig in hungrily - it was only half way through did he realize that he was eating one of the wolfs hind legs. Claire must have made a separate campfire outside to keep the black smoke from **** out his tent, smart.

"Found you passed out on top of the monster, you really killed it with your bare hands didn't you? You gotta tell me how that all went down." Claire cupped her chin as she looked on at Sven in amazement. Swallowing Sven looked back at her as he began his recounting of the events that transpired, from his week spent training, to getting caught on the trail by the aforementioned wolf, to using his Dire to deflect its attack, to how it learnt it's lesson the second time and merely circled him, with some shame recounting his tree plan, and finally to their showdown in the water.

"You're telling me you focused your Dire around your arm only?" Claire asked with surprise, feeling the challenge to prove his point Sven held out his good arm in demonstration, channeling Dire to his hand and wreathing it around his limb like a coat. Opening and closing his fist the Dire would extend and retract to cover his hand. Claire stared on in awe at this revelation.

"I know I told you that you were smart, but to learn something even I didn't know on the fly like this is something else." Claire began to hold her arm out and tried to repeat the action, her Dire faded in and out as she tried to sculpt it around only her arm but she couldn't quite seem to manipulate it. Cursing she gave up for now.

"And your response time is incredible too, you formed your Dire faster than most I've seen, you must have really trained hard to achieve all of this in such a short amount of time." She smirked as she leaned back in the chair, Sven couldn't rid the idea that she was taking the champions share of pride for having taught him, even if it was technically only for a single day. Still it's true that without her he wouldn't have even learnt Dire in the first place without her help so he allowed her pride.

"And what's more, when I was lifting you from the beast I noticed something off about one of its fangs, here, I think you'll be wanting to see this." Giddily she tossed the object across the room, Sven catching it in his good hand. Unfurling his fist he looked at the item displayed before him. It was a thick and sharp canine fang, clearly Claire had extracted it from the shadow wolf and had just given it to him as a trophy, he guessed? Just as he was about to question her, he looked closer at the tooth and saw a faint shadowy smoke dance around the item. As he focused on it the effects grew stronger, it was almost mesmerizing as it wafted around to and throw. Then all of a sudden the tooth itself all but merged into his palm like it was made of nothing, like it was ethereal - the process was sensationless and he wouldn't have even sensed it had he not just witness it with his own eyes.

With panic he looked back to Claire who simply laughed at his stupefied face. "Hahaha! First time seeing a relic, huh? Man they really didn't teach you shit." She clapped her hands in a new fit of laughter as Sven's face remained even more confused. "Stop looking like that when I'm trying to explain things to you, idiot!" She giggled, Sven realized his jaw was agape and eyes shot wide before readjusting with an embarrassed cough. Still, he was happy to see her laughing, it was a far cry from how she acted from when he first met her.

"Relics like that are pretty rare, but they're the only way to acquire new Mystic abilities in your respective class. It just so happens for you that this alpha shadow wolf carried an Eldritch Relic in its fang." She explained, stifling her urges to laugh as Sven was now leaning towards her in bed 100% transfixed on her every word. "From what I can remember from, from before, before I began to roam around a lot." She struggled to get out. "I was told that these relics were placed in certain monsters by the gods to get us Mystics trained in the arts of war, to get us battle ready and lethal." It was a brief flash but Sven could have sworn that he saw a moment of sadness in her eyes when mentioning her life 'before'. He wanted to pry but again, he respected her privacy as she had continued to respect his.

"So you're saying I have an Eldritch ability I can use now? How?" Sven asked, to which Claire shrugged.

"I can teach you non class specific stuff, but I'm not an Eldritch Mystic, I'm a Vassal Saint. Remember? I can't teach you something that I don't know myself." Claire responded now resting her chin into her hand. Sven was guessing all of this was perfectly basic information that he simply didn't get taught, given his hermit-like state out here in the forest it wasn't any wonder why he was so clueless. Even with some of the stuff that he had heard across the pub on his trips to the city, he still wasn't 100% sure of the information he had collected.

"Anyway, you gotta find a new home soon, this place is getting more and more dangerous lately." Claire stated matter of factly, Sven raised a brow at that. He had lived here all of his life, it had always been this dangerous, what was she talking about? "The city folk say that the black woods are stirring, caravans close by have been targeted a lot more recently during the day, gruesome stories about zombie attacks, vampire bats swarming hamlets on the edge of the woods, foul things all coming out in the middle of the day. It's unnatural, and a lot of the guesswork as to why is because of the mana minerals being extracted in the city mines. The sounds from the equipment must be disturbing their behavioral patterns or something." Claire went on, Sven gave her an inquisitive look. "I don't know about any of that crap I'm just relaying what I've heard." She leant back in her chair inadvertently pushing her boobs out further causing Svens eyes to latch onto them like homing missiles. Luckily for him at least her vision was elsewhere, looking out the window at the frozen forest.

"I mean look at the state of the forest, it's practically frozen in the middle of summer. Something weird is going on here Sven, that wolf yesterday is a sign of things to come if you don't leave here, and soon." She explained, Sven realized she was right. Even in winter the frost wasn't this bad, but it was summertime right now. How could he have missed such a basic incongruity? Still, did he truly have to leave? He had killed that wolf, why should he have to leave? Somehow he felt that leaving his home would be a step in the wrong direction.

"I'm not leaving, not until I feel ready." Sven reached into his pouch that lay by his side and produced a medical herb that he rubbed along his wounded hand and arm. Then, reaching into the same pouch he drank a purple fluid that once downed, caused Sven to recoil from the bitterness. Claire frowned at this declaration and leant forward in her seat.

"What do you mean 'until you're ready?' You barely survived a wolf attack, sure it was an alpha shadow wolf, but on the hierarchy of things that roam these woods it's hardly at the top of the list. Next time you might not be so lucky, you might not be so close to the water, or be able to make it back to your home in time. For someone so smart you really do say some dumb shit, you know?" Claire raged, Sven understood where she was coming from, but he was resolved in seeing this through. He felt that if he abandoned his home now, it would be 3 steps back, 3 steps that he could never reclaim.

"Next time I'll have an Eldritch ability to cast-" Before he could finish his sentence Claire slammed her hands down on the desk and stood up with an angry expression across her face.

"An ability you don't even know how to use! I'm telling you of the hordes that have awoken from within these woods and you're focusing in on some dumb shit that doesn't even matter!" She yelled, Sven stubbornly held her glare making her even angrier. "You saved me, remember?! Well let me save you, sure I pulled you off that beast and sure I taught you a little about Dire, but you literally saved my life despite not knowing I was even a humanoid, despite me viciously attacking you, and despite using up your own supplies to cure me!" She choked back her enraged tears. "So fucking listen to me and let me save you!!" It was then that Sven realized how loud they were being, she was soon to follow as her hands cupped her mouth.

*Thump* ..... *Thump*

The earth shook ever so slightly off into the near distance, faces paling both Sven and Claire rushed to the window. It was dark out so visibility was low, the noise had seemed to silence all others within the forest, as if a black hole had consumed the forest of all its life. The trees faintly shook in the wind but there was nothing else out there that they could see.

"A tree falling from the wind?" Sven guessed, more like hoped. That garlic did a good job of fending off monsters from patrolling close to his house - but if what she was saying was true, then garlic alone might not be good enough anymore.

"I don't think so, the sounds were too heavy to just be a tree." Claire's eyes darted around the clearing, look at the treeline for any signs of movement. For a while the pair stared and nothing seemed to happen, for a moment Sven was about to reassure her that it was nothing before they both heard the noise again.

*Thump* ... *Thump* *Riiiip*

The periods between thumps had shortened this time, and then with the sound of wood creaking as if being pulled apart sent Sven's heart to pounding. Looking to Claire; Sven saw that she was looking right back at him with that same unsure look - both of them were looking to the other for what to do next. Shaking her head of cobwebs and breaking herself out of her stupor and setting into action Claire grabbed Sven by the arm and whispered into his ear.

"If we sneak out now, I can fly you out of here in my beast form, come on Sven we need to leave." She urged him, as she went for the door Sven grabbed her back forcing her to look back at him with worried eyes.

"Get out of here Claire, you don't have to stay and fight but that's what I have to do. I've got ****, it's do or die for me." She looked into his eyes, steeled over with resolve and could see that despite how much she wanted to shake him, no matter how she tried to reason him out of it and all of the words she might use to persuade - he wouldn't budge.

"Fine! If you won't listen then I'm staying to fight too, no matter what it is." She stormed towards the door and opened it up to get a better view. Sven went to grab her again.

"You don't owe me this Claire! You don't-" Before he could finish his sentence she turned back to look at him and he could feel the same feeling she had felt before. Her eyes were full of determination, she too couldn't be budged.

"Mystics should help others in need, doesn't that sound like something you said before?" She said with a smirk, Sven grinned in response as the two instinctually clasped hands. "We'll combine our strengths together and help each other to deal with whatever's out there; because that's what Mystics do." Sven felt his heart skip a beat at that bit, he could feel something he'd never felt before as he stared into her silvery eyes.

*Thump* *THUMP* *CREEEAAK*

Breaking the two out of the moment they were having, the treeline was beginning to shake as all of a sudden the source of the noise loomed through the trees. It had to be almost three quarters the size of the tallest trees in the forest, standing at roughly 15 feet tall it was a complete brute. Humanoid in shape it had short stubby legs with a big fat belly, two long thick arms with meaty hands that could swallow either one of them whole. It was naked save for a loincloth that covered it's private parts, it's head was ugly and misshapen sporting a singular eye and a lone fearsome horn sprouting from his forehead pointing upwards like a unicorns.

The pair of Mystics looked at the creature in awe as it was the first time either had seen a living being at this kind of a size. It was big, bigger than anything they thought to be possible, Sven had felt this fear the day before but this time he felt a little more used to it, a little more in control. Looking over to Claire he could see that she was faltering, this wouldn't be good, if she was frozen from fear then she would be in imminent danger.

Looking down the monster had spotted them by the little hut, the embers of the long extinguished campfire illuminating their bodies in the night. Breathing in the beast vacuumed up half the air in its immediate atmosphere sending the trees fluttering towards itself.

"MeeeeEEEAAAAT~" The beast bellowed as it exhaled loudly in their direction, Sven could smell the ****, rot and decay on the beasts breath that almost made him hurl but he kept it in, thankfully the smell had snapped Claire out of her trance as she made herself out to be a distraction.

"Sven, figure out how to use that new ability, I'll distract him and buy you some time!" And with that she waved her hand-wings in the air to get the monsters attention. The dumb creature looked as the white plumes of her 'hair' danced in the camp light - his lone eye focusing in on her. Walking forward slowly the creature set the ground to shaking as Claire led him away from Sven and his house.

Quickly Sven held out his arms and experimented with various motions, none of them having any effect. The monster was slow but its stride was long, if Claire wasn't careful it might sneak up on her. Gritting his teeth in frustration Sven tried to cast a spell but simply ended up casting his Dire in its place.

"Hurry it up Sven! I have to run him in a circle soon!" Claire yelled as she darted through the trees verging on the edge of the clearing. The heavyset beast uprooting every tree it passed through trying to get at her, plucking smaller trees from the ground with his hands like they were flowers and bashing against the taller ones until they crashed to the floor.

Frustrated Sven strained himself in every which way trying to manifest something - anything at all. Nothing. He could cast nothing, he felt so useless, the anger inside of himself flared as he watched Claire do all of the work, all while he did fucking nothing. However that anger soon turned to shock horror as the beast lunged forward whilst Claire was circling, catching her by the legs and swinging her full **** back to him, holding her in his palm like she were a toy doll.

"Get- Get off me you fucking monster!" Claire tried her best to sound brave, but Sven could hear the terror creeping into her voice. Oh gods this was all his fault, she was going to die because he was too stubborn to retreat. The monster tightened it's grip slowly as if enjoying the show before him, like he had done this to countless others before her. The sadistic glint in its cruel lonesome eye as it watched her squirm for her life.

"GET OFF OF HER!" Sven pleaded as he ran towards the creature, waving his hands and trying to get its attention, the being was too focused in on its little game to even acknowledge his existence, the dread piled up inside of Sven as he ran towards her, he wasn't fast enough, he wasn't strong enough, he wasn't able to help her...

"Run.. *cough* Sven." Claire coughed out weakly as the air was being **** from her lungs, Sven could see nothing but despair before him, and then as his pain grew to a climax his eyes glazed over and his legs came to a stop - his body limply extending a hand and his mouth began to open and close in a string of almost inaudible possessed whispers. Then - a flash of black light sprung from his extended palm and shot directly at the beasts arm, the beam turned to fire and the fire did rage violently as black flames consumed his fist.

"AAAUUUUURRGGHHHHHHhhHHHHH!" The beast cried in pain as it tried to blow and fan the flames off of him, in its erratic movements the fist flew off of it and landed besides Sven - having been severed at the wrists by the darkened flames. Now without one of its hands the beast blew on the remaining stump as if relieving himself of the pain on its phantom limb. As the hand landed the black flames began to simmer out of existence - the fist openening up to reveal a gasping Claire, injured and coughing up a little blood, but otherwise alright. Standing up quickly she stood to the side of Sven as she regained her breath.

"*Cough* What the hell was *cough* that?" She wondered as she looked at the black flames that were burning out into nothingness. At hearing her voice Sven snapped back to reality and looked at her, relief and gratefulness washing over him he couldn't help but hug her in the spur of the moment.

"What are you doing? Idiot *cough* the thing is still there!" She pushed him off of her with a rare blush to her face. Looking back to the monster he held out his palm and tried his best to remember that feeling. Closing his eyes he recalled the words he had mumbled in his trance, uttering them once more another beam of black energy illuminated the forests night in an eerie glow, looking towards the source of light the monster caught a first hand account of the bolt colliding with its left foot.

"AAAURRRRRAAAAGGHHH!" The beast wailed as the flames began to spread from one leg to the other, the pain was so immense that it fell forward onto it's stomach and set both Sven and Claire into the air momentarily from the impact.

*THUUUUDDDD!*

The monsters cries were horrific and ear shattering as its groans pierced the silence of the night and made it the only sound that could be heard. Panting Sven took to one knee as he felt the fatigue taking hold, it wasn't like stamina fatigue it was something more internal than that, like a depletion of ones spirit. Claire went to his side and looked him over.

"It's ok, it's just mana fatigue, you'll be ok in-" Sven hadn't taken his eyes off the monster like Claire had and could see everything happening in slow motion. The monster couldn't reach them itself from where they were at, but with its one good hand it gripped a rather tall and thick fallen tree from the ground and sweeped it in their direction. Wasting no time Sven pushed the Harpy back into his house where she was out of the monsters reach and readied his Dire for the biggest hit of his life.

With full **** the tree-turned-club collided with Sven, his Dire held out for maybe a half second before the remaining **** connected and sent Sven hurting through the woods, bouncing from tree to tree with the impact, finally landing on a jagged branch that pierced through his chest. Retching up a fountain of blood Sven's eyes spun as he looked down to see the blood soaked spear that had skewered him. Shakily looking back to where he had come from he saw in horror that the monster was using its one good hand to drag itself - still lower half ablaze with flames - towards his house, and towards where Claire was.

Holding out his injured hand still mending from the wolf attack, Sven said the words once more and a bolt of black energy shot from his extended limb and collided with the monsters crawling arm. Screaming once more as the flames consumed his ability to crawl the creature simply turned on its side to look at Sven.

"AUUUUGHHHRHHHH FHHHUUUUUUCK YOOOOOUUUUUUHHHH" The beast cried out as Sven sent a final accurate blast exploding inside of its eye and cooking it from within. The beast twitched for a while but made no further attempt to pursue Claire who Sven assumed was still within the building. Coughing up another mouthful of blood Sven could feel his vision slipping, he was really done for this time he could feel it. At least Claire was safe, he could be happy that only he should die and that she should at least live. It was never her battle anyway, it was always his roll of the dice to better himself - sometimes the customer wins, most times it's the house who comes to collect on such risky gambles.

Closing his eyes Sven could only hear the sounds of the monster roasting off to the side of him, the forest was silent save for that, that and the faint sounds of footsteps approaching. But it was too late, Sven passed out for the last time.