You search the ruins of Zurch

The charred remains of the dead are scattered all around, Annie runs over to prod some of the bodies hoping to find someone alive enough to play with and seems disappointed that they are all indeed deceased. Despite their heat, due to your resistances, the flames don't do too much damage to you and you are able to get quite close to some of the building to investigate but the devastation seems complete, your search for answers to what has happened seems futile until you hear the screaming.

It is an incoherent yell of anguish that curses all of existence which echoes around the town. Where most sane people would run away from it when Annie hears it she sprints towards it as quickly as possible, you hurry after her yet before you reach the sound it abruptly stops. You stop to try to figure out the source but it soon starts up again, you and Annie race to find the cause of the screaming.

When you find the source it stops you right in your tracks. There in the middle of the town square with the surrounding buildings ablaze lies a prone Dave01roCks, his crippled body lies beside a large statue of a noble knight wrestling with a snake wrapping itself around his body which dominates the centre of the town square, Dave01roCks legs and left arm are broken while his right arm gushes blood from the point where his hand should be. Some distance away watching him writhe in agony sit Lynn and Sara completely unscathed, when they see you Lynn jumps up and runs towards you with Sara a few steps behind.

You sweep Lynn into your arms and kiss her passionately, her tongue wrestles with yours inside your mouth, Sara moves beside you both and soon you indulge in a three way kiss as Zurch burns around you with Dave01roCks providing the music to your passion. Eventually the three of you break the kiss and you notice Annie standing to the side silently fuming, when she sees that you have noticed her petulance she stomps over and starts kicking Dave01roCks.

"What happened?" You ask Sara and Lynn.

"It wasn't us" states Sara

"It was like this when we got here" confirms Lynn.

"Ok, so what do you think happened?" you ask.

Lynn answers "I'm not sure, some of the refugees talked about a dragon and armoured knight, called Erin and Quintin I think. They destroyed the town, no one could hurt the attackers, even the highest level players couldn't touch them and were all defeated."

"Ok, did you find out if Dave01roCks told anyone about me" you ask.

"I doubt it, he just spawns, screams due to the agony of his condition, loses all his HP and then respawns. The town was already devastated when we got here, it seems they tried to help him but when they realised that they couldn't stop his deterioration they figured they were just wasting mana and potions, then when they evacuated the town they didn't think there was any point in taking him with them" answers Sara.

"Then, just as everyone else was leaving this guy and his two friends showed up" continues Lynn before taking you over to the other side of the statue where a familiar figure lies. You watch as the figure dies then respawns with the top of his head caved in, you remember that it's the archer you killed during the battle with the spriggans.

"Where are his friends?" You ask.

"Some friends" scoffs Lynn, "they didn't even try to help him, when they saw what was happening they fled after the refugees."

"Why do they keep dying?" You ask again.

"We were hoping you could tell us" replies Sara.

"It must be more than a random glitch" agrees Lynn.

Confused you examine the archer, yep, his skull is smashed in just like when you killed him. You walk over to Dave01roCks who has just died and respawned, his wounds match those you inflicted. Testing a theory you check your EXP and notice that when either Dave01roCks or the archer die then you get EXP, as do Lynn, Annie and Sara who were in your party during the battles. You check your profile to see how this could happen and then you have an epiphany, you reread your Spectral axe ability: you can summon a double handed axe that you had been holding when you fell into the vat with the Monster. Wounds caused by the axe will not heal unless you will them to.

You have the ability to cause wounds to heroes that remain and cause damage even after your victim dies, this is a game changing power. Power that you can exploit but is so powerful it makes you a danger to everyone but then again everyone would want to eliminate that danger so if others found out it would make you as much a hunted as a hunter.

Feeling the need to experiment with your ability you will Dave01roCks wounds to stop, which they promptly do then you remove the collar from a surprised Lynn before attempting to place it around Dave01roCks neck. Your attempts are frustrated by his attempts to bite you so you decide to first of all heal him again, which piques your curiosity when his hand doesn't restore itself, then to stop his bites you summon your axe and use it to slice off the bottom of his jaw allowing him to bleed out and die. When he comes back he remains without a right hand or jaw, satisfied with your experiment you will the wound to heal then place the collar around his neck and restore his HP to full again.

You examine your companions reactions, Annie looks delighted, Lynn looks curious and Sara looks pale as if she's going to be sick.

"Success!" You declare "our nemesis is now our servant. He will do any grunt work we need, as a defeated enemy should."

Lynn smiles demurely "so what next?"