Diva runs full speed, pedestrians, and guards immediately move out of her way as she chases Lin into a narrow alley. Once there, she finds a very interesting sight. A small dirty forest elf boy of maybe 7 years sits with his back to the wall, legs scrunched to his chest as he hugs them with his hands.

“I want…..my...hiccup….mommy back..,” he bawls, tears streaming down his face. Lin just stands before him looking down at the boy.

“What happened?” Lin asks, bending to her knee to look at the boy at eye level. Diva watches as Lin acts like an older sister, attempting to calm the boy down. “What happened?” Lin asks again, looking towards the child's tear stricken face.

“They…..they…...hiccup...t-t-took her,” he answers between hiccups.

“Who took her, where?” Lin asks, staring straight at the child.

“I want…..I want...hiccup...my mommy..,” he starts crying again.

Diva watches as Lin slowly lifts her hand to the side of the boys face, a loving caring hand of an older sister.

“SMAAACCCCKKKKK,”

A resounding sound echoes through the alley as Lin’s hand slams hard on the boy’s cheek.

Diva nods with a smile, reminded of her own elder sisters.

The boy is bewildered as he looks towards Lin, who is glaring back at him, his crying put to a halt.

“Good,” Lin nods, noticing the boy having calmed somewhat. ”Now tell me who took your mommy and where?” she says with authority.

The boy nod and gets up on shaky legs.”They took her to an ugly building closer to the wall,” he says pointing towards a direction.

“Take me there,” Lin orders.

The boy nods and runs off, Lin following behind, Diva running after Lin, amused at the situation.

Within a few minutes, the three are looking toward a three storied wooden building in the poorer quarters of the city. The door appears thoroughly sealed shut.

As Lin gets closer to the building, her ears flutter as she starts to hear muffled screaming coming from the basement.

“Hide somewhere,” Lin tells the boy, as the claws on her hand flex out. Moving to the building, Lin climbs the wall, her claws stabbing into the wood with ease. Once she gets to the third floor, a lightly fortified window sits next to her.

With a smile, Lin puts her claws towards the nails of the wood covering the window and starts to slowly wiggle the nail out. A few minutes later, and the wood falls off, Diva catching it before it strikes the ground.

Diva watches Lin enter the building, smiling at Lin’s impressive acrobatics. With a surge of mana, she jumps up to the window and pulls herself inside as well.

The boy watches behind a pile of garbage as they disappear into the building where his mother was taken.

_________________________________________________________________________

The inside of the building is in quite a bit of disrepair. The third floor has holes in the floorboards. Looking through them, Lin and Diva find the sleeping quarters for the residents, unfortunately empty.

Nodding at the lack of sound, Lin crawls through a relatively large hole, considering that the stairs are nonexistent. The gagged screams are finally slightly louder as the scent of blood hits her nose. Lin slowly walks down the stairs, finding the first floor empty, food and boxes of red crystals scattered across the floor.

Diva merely follows, silently praising her bodysuit at the sheer flexibility it provides in movement.

Lin passes the boxes, the scent of blood permeating from them in mass. Getting to the stairs, she slowly and soundlessly makes her way towards the basement, where the sound of gagged screaming becomes even louder. Diva follows Lin’s pace, the stealth training allowing her to move just as silently.

As Diva follows Lin towards the basement, a surreal sight greets her. Three white elves work at a table, their backs conveniently turned away from the stairs. Looking for Lin, Diva finds herself looking at something very confusing.

A naked wood elf woman is strapped to a wooden pole, her arms and legs tightly bound with a gag is tied around her mouth. But that is not what confuses Diva. Beneath the woman lies a large basin of crystals, the women's blood slowly trickling from the wounds of her body and falling on top of them, turning them red.

__________________________________________________________________________

The wood elf looks down from her tear stricken face to find Lin, her claws slowly cutting away the fabric tying the woman down, while the men remain oblivious to the situation. As soon as Lin is done with the legs, she climbs aboard a nearby table filled with vials and starts to work on the hands. The cloth holding her hands to the pole quickly give way, her body falling on the basin, spilling the blood and contents on the floor.

The three Elves turn around.”What is going on here?” the robed elf exclaims, his two armored guards unsheath the swords at their belts as they slowly walk forward.

Diva quickly walks between the approaching guards and Lin, her hand steady on the pommel of her katana.

“Stop you, idiots,” the lead elf yells, noticing the Amazon.”She will kill us all if you stand in her way,” he warns as the guards stop their approach, fear slowly taking hold as they realize who they were about to attack.

Lin, noticing that the guards aren't going to attempt anything, jumps off the table, spilling vials and contents on the floor.

One of the vials cracks, the purple liquid spilling over the bloody crystals on the floor.

The crystals start to react with the liquid, smoking violently as the mana around them starts vibrate dangerously

“Oh shit,” the elf yells, noticing the crystals starting to smoke ” it's going to blow!” he exclaims, quickly sprinting up the stairs, his eyes wide with fright. The guards take but only a moment before they start running after their leader.

Diva quickly looks at the smoking crystals and then looks to Lin; the tigress slowly helping the wounded wood elf to stand.

Listening to her instincts, diva spreads her mana through her body, eyes turning black as her strength multiplies. With a violent jerk, she quickly lifts up Lin and the elf on her shoulders, running up the stairs and through the opened door.

_____________________________________

Valen runs through the street, smoke wafting from his body as he accelerates at speeds an Olympic sprinter can only dream of. Gang follows quietly behind, his eyes blazing blue. David huffs loudly, his short legs making it extremely difficult to keep up with the two.

Upon getting to the location, he finds a massive crater, red crystals and wood dotting the ground everywhere. Fear takes hold as Valen frantically looks for Lin, only to notice Diva on the far end of the crater, unsheathing her sword towards a robed white elf.

“You fucking ruined everything!” The elf screams, mana bursting from his white ears; a flame forming in the palm of his hand. With a twist of his arm, he blasts it straight towards Diva.

Diva merely smiles, her own mana releasing from her body, engulfing the air around her. Her senses expand as she begins to feel everything that her mana touches. With a force of will, a sheath of energy engulfs her blade, coating it with condensed mana.

With but the movement of her hand, the blade slices the approaching ball of flame, her own mana ripping the offending attack apart.

Slowly she starts to walk towards the elf, an amused smile on her lips.

“The holy kingdom will have their revenge!” He yells, more mana seeping from his ears, flames sprouting in his hand.

The fireballs continue to head towards Diva, but she merely cuts them as they approach with perfect precision.

Having grown tired of the insect that dared challenge her, Diva starts to accelerate towards the elf, her blade at the ready.

“No, stay away!” He yells, blasting a fireball at her.

With enhanced speed, Diva jumps over the flame, spins through the air, extends her blade, and splices the elf through the middle on her descent, landing gracefully. Diva sheathes her sword, timing it perfectly with the fall of the corpse. The whites of her eyes slowly return as she turns her head toward Valen.

“Shit,” Valen says, realizing that he was enchanted with such a display. ”Where is Lin?” he yells towards the Amazonian. Diva merely points towards a corner, untouched by the explosion, Lin sitting with two elves.

Valen Quickly Runs towards her, scooping her up and hugging her quickly. ”Lin, are you ok? Are you hurt? What happened?” he starts to question quickly, looking over her body to make sure that she wasn't harmed.

“Valy, I saved her,” Lin remarks coolly, pointing at a severely injured wood elf, her son crying in her arms. ”Can you help her?” she asks, her eyes looking up at Valen with hope.

Valen nods, turning around to look if people are watching.

Unfortunately, a crowd of civilians is indeed watching, including a group of guardsmen and Gang who are heading Valens way. As they reach his and Lin’s location, they stop as they notice the cuts on the elf’s body.

”My god,” one of the guards exclaims, his eyes looking at the tortured body.

Gang walks up and reaches into his robe, a familiar feeling touches Valen’s senses as Gang retrieves his hand, a small vial firmly wrapped around his small fingers.” Give her this,” he says, handing it to Valen.

Valen uncaps the vial and walks towards the elf, but before he could do much else, someone interrupts him.

“Don’t give her that healing potion, or she won’t survive the night!” The port captain Adalwolf yells from afar, standing beside Diva.

_______________________________________________________________________

Garren stands at the ready, his heavy hammer shifts slightly on his shoulder as his eyes stare into the black underground tunnels entrance. Darius stands beside him, his panther eyes allowing him to see through the darkness with ease.

“So,” Garren starts, staring into the hole, ”I’m grateful and all for Wukong’s support….but I don't understand why he would support me. I did beat him down pretty hard.”

“You were just with your wife, Garren, and you didn't even think about asking her?” Darius answers from his side, a spear hanging loosely from his right hand.

“I uhhhh...was busy,” Garren blurts out, not looking at Darius.

Shaking his head, Darius turns to his friend “Wukongs wife birthed a child about two months ago. He is now a father, a very doting one might I add.”

Garren just lifts an eyebrow “So he doesn't hate me anymore because he has a kid now? That's weird.”

Darius suppresses a sigh “Oh he hates your guts alright, but he loves his kid more, which is the whole reason he even spoke up.”

“Huh,” Garren answers, still confused from the situation.

Before he can say another word, Wukong walks up behind them.” The soldiers are ready and waiting,” he exclaims with a neutral expression.

Darius and Garren both nod. “I will lead,” Darius says, walking into the depths of the darkness, Garren and Wukong following behind, torches lit and at the ready.

___________________________________

Large is an understatement as they enter the massive cavern within the mountain. Stalagmites glint from the firelight as they walk deeper into the confines, moving towards the ocean.

As they get about halfway, Darius stops suddenly.”I smell blood, a lot of it, in the next cavern.”

Nodding slowly, the procession of soldiers slow their pace, attempting to sneak into the next area. The smell of blood and ocean water is thick in the air.

A rumbling sound comes from the wall as the dirt moves out of the way. All eyes turn towards the sound, a golden glowing eye stares back at them, mana quickly condensing in the air.

“Interesting,” a powerful voice speaks, the sound coming from everywhere”I do hope you all are much better company than those others,” the voice exclaims.

As Garren lifts his torch towards the eye, massive teeth glint back at him, covered in fresh blood.