The group slowly walks through the jungle…or at least Valen and Gang do, their inexperience making it a very slow and grueling process.

Valen glares up enviably at Lin... jumping from branch to branch, forgoing shoes so that she can get an easier grip. If she hadn't been doing this type of transportation all her life, Valen would have demanded she walks beside him.

Looking forward, he finds Diva expertly avoiding foliage, her footwork so perfectly sound it’s rather captivating. To the side of Diva is Aisha, wearing rugged pants and shirt supplied by Valen, also maneuvering easily through the jungle.

“Gang… how close did you say it was again?” Valen asks, the sheer number of trees and foliage being horrible to maneuver around; I have been whipped in the face by a branch so many times that I may need a health potion.

Gang quickly brushes his face with a sleeve, sweating from the exertion “It should have been about an hour away...unfortunately we are vastly slowing down the group.”

“I see a clearing!” Lin yells from atop a branch.

Nodding with delight, Valen and Gang increase their pace, hoping to get out of the dense foliage to something far more… manageable.

___

The group quickly runs through the remaining foliage… entering the periphery of a long drop towards a small canyon. At the bottom, Valen quickly notices an interesting scene. A… raptor like creature covered in fur is slowly approaching a white skinned elf… who is sitting with his back to a large rock. The elf is bloody and looks like he is barely conscious…

“That's my dad,” Aisha voices from Valen’s side, watching the car sized predator slowly approach the injured elf.

Valen releases his mana, preparing to summon a weapon to take out the large distracted creature… unfortunately, his pokemon trainer has other ideas.

__

Lin, having noticed a large powerful...and dangerous predator, quickly takes out her pokeball from her pocket. With a grunt, she quickly throws the ball… aiming at the beast.

The ball flies through the air… spinning elegantly...and perfectly smacks the Barghese on the head, bouncing off and rolling away.

“It didn't work,” Lin says from Valen’s side, who is currently watching the predator as it looks first at the rolling ball, and then turns its head towards them.

“Damnit Lin, I really wish you hadn't done that,” Valen says out loud.

The Barghese looks towards the group, its eyes staring intently at the five new people that had interrupted its hunt. With an angry growl, the predator prepares for a fight. Its eyes start to quickly glow...green and brown fur thickens across its body; taking on a metallic sheen.

“Roooooaaaaaarrrrrrr,” it screams in challenge, determined to protect its food.

Before Valen can voice anything, Diva quickly enhances her body, jumping down over twenty feet to accept the predators challenge.

“I dislike monsters,” Gang calls from his side, eyes glowing as well. He quickly jumps down after the smiling Amazonian, who is about to engage the predator.

Finding that his two companions went to engage the Bhargese, Valen also releases his own mana. Within a blink of an eye, his trusty black armor appears on his body, eliciting a small squeal of surprise from Aisha. With another burst of mana, Valen quickly materialized his revolvers… guns so large and unwieldy that dual wielding them is only possible when he strengthens his muscles.

Taking a deep breath, Valen spreads mana through his body, enlarging and strengthening him, smoke concealed by his jet black armor. He then takes a step forward...ready to jump… but stops…

Turning his helmeted head around, he finds Aisha and Lin staring at him, watching his every move.

Tisking with annoyance, Valen takes a step back, dematerializing his revolvers… and rematerializing his assault rifle, quickly taking a knee to steady the gun.

He would have loved to jump into the battle… but he can't just leave the girls alone… for all he knows, more monsters may be nearby.

***********************************

Diva quickly meets the large predator… smiling excitedly at the Barghese attempt to scare her; Growling menacingly… showing its teeth… pathetic attempts of a predator so used to having its way.

With but a thought, her mana quickly engulfs her surroundings… her domain… a unique trait of the Amazon’s, allowing them to know whatever happens around her...and have been trained to react to it on instinct.

Diva quickly ducks, the beasts long tail attempting to swipe her… but she already felt it coming… the tail muscles constricting, leg muscles ready to turn, holding its breath; such simple signs of movement.

Sidestepping right, she quickly dodges the Barghese’s lunge, her mana infused sword whipping out, slicing the side of the predators body, easily cutting through strengthened fur and muscle.

__

The Barghese quickly jumps back, taking a long look at the sword in Diva’s hand...wary of something that was able to so easily cut it… something that other monsters could never penetrate with their own jaws.

Bending its knees, the Barghese dodges a piece of ice, having already noticed the other prey joining the battle.

__

Valen watches Gang spins his weapon, absorbing liquid from the air, covering his blade, and blasting razorsharp ice at the beast… who dodges expertly with speed he can barely even follow… unlike Diva, who is keeping up with the massive predator.

He continues to watch the fight as it goes on, the Barghese striking with its scythelike arms and tail while systematically dodging ranged attacks from Gang. Even with that speed, Diva continues to dodge the attacks, knowing where and when they will occur, and positioning her blade lethally against the predator in case it attempts to full-on engage.

Valen looks down the scope of his assault rifle… learning about the movements of the beast… similar to the way he learned and predicted other fighter pilots in mock engages.

Fast… is an understatement when comparing his own movements to those of Diva and the beast. They run, jump, slash, dodge… making it very hard to line up a shot… but unlike Diva… the beast is predictable. Valen pulls on the trigger.

__

The Bhargese jumps back, avoiding the dangerous blade aimed at its head… only to feel impacts strike its side… slightly hurting it… but not penetrating.

Quickly the beast looks towards the direction where the impacts were coming, finding a black armored man, pointing something. Giving it no mind, the beast turns towards the more dangerous prey… the Amazonian with the sword.

******************

Valen glares annoyingly at the Bhargese...over thirty armor piercing rounds impacted the beast… literally falling off of its fur… not even penetrating skin or even bothering it.

Even the beasts and monsters he had killed in Geralyn were harmed by bullets...but this one just seems to shrug them off like it is getting tickled.

Figuring that he would need something far more… penetrating...Valen un-summons his rifle… and then summons a anti-material sniper rifle, quickly taking aim at the fast moving target.

“Lin, Aisha, cover your ears,” he yells out to his side,”this weapon makes a lot of noise, I don't want to damage your ears.”

Lin quickly nods, putting her hand on her head, covering her own ears… knowing that it is still going to be loud regardless.

Aisha, noticing Lin’s behavior, quickly copies the tigress, not sure what exactly is going to happen.

“USE FIRE!”....”ITS WEAK TO FIRE!” the injured elf yells, interrupting Valen’s aim.

Valen looks at the yelling elf, and then slowly nods.

Quickly he takes the rifles magazine...removes it… and summons another one… filled with russian made, armor piercing, incendiary, fifty caliber rounds.

********************

When Arjun saw his daughter, he was immediately taken with fear… fear that the beast would take her life as well as his own. But that fear quickly turned to hope when he finally realized the skill of the people with her… including the Amazonian.

Now he watches the fight between the Barghese and the Amazonian; The Radonian all but useless with those blades of ice.

The other one with black armor seems to be a archer of some type, considering the weird ranged weapon he uses… unfortunately the Bhargese cannot be harmed without magic...its fur can withstand piercing and blunt damage absurdly well.

The Barghese would have been considered a S ranked monster if it wasn't for its weakness to magic… primarily fire magic, its fur easily flammable.

Turning his thoughts back to the fight, he waits for the Amazon to quickly take out the Bhargese, only to notice that the monsters initial cut has already healed… what is she waiting for… unless!

She has not ascended her domain!... the Bhargese is too smart to lose in a mere brawl.

Panicking, Arjun quickly attempts to move closer but pain overtakes him before he can even attempt to stand, the battle moved too far for his words.

Looking back to the black armored guy, he finds the person using an interspatial item… disappearing his weapon, only to replace with an even larger one.

Taking a deep breath, ignoring the sharp pain“ USE FIRE!”....”ITS WEAK TO FIRE!” he yells with what little strength he has.

The black armored individual nods back.

Relaxing his body back, Arjun turns towards the battle, finding little has changed, except the Radonian is slowing down; his mana is get-.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM.”

An extremely loud noise interrupts Arjun’s thoughts. His eyes quickly turn away from the Radonian, finding the Bhargese with a large chunk of its side missing.

___

The monster groans and jumps back from the Amazon, it's side hurting immensely. The smell of burning fur, meat, and blood almost sending the predator into a craze. Squinting quickly, the Barghese attempts to make sense of the situation.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM.”

The predators arm explodes in a fiery inferno. Pain quickly overrides the logical part of its brain as it extends its neck towards Diva.

“RRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRR, ”it screams menacingly at the Amazonian, eyes glaring with hate.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM.”

An explosion strikes the enraged monster’s neck, ripping meat and bone clean off.

The Bhargese quickly goes silent and topples over, the neurons connecting its head to the body having been severed with that final explosion.

With a small whine, the beast moves his eyes, finding a sad woman as she raises her sword, striking downward and cleaving the predators skull.

____________________________________

“So the holy kingdom is making its move… that is much too soon, we aren't ready,” a hooded figure explains as she sits on a log, a sharp dagger twirling expertly in her hand.

“I can't halt him anymore!” a tall light elf quickly answers back angrily, “If you want to avoid a bloody war, then you will ge-.”

“Phzoooooooom,” a dagger quickly flies through the air, passing mere centimeters from the elf's face, interrupting him.

“Mmmmmm… chancellor,” the women hums, pulling out another dagger, ”You misunderstand my king… he does not fear your kingdom or your insane king… pope… whatever you call him. What he fears more is losing any heavily trained mages and assassins in this little coup you are planning.”

The elf squints at the female assassin, attempting to find a facial expression under the hood… but the hoods shadow and low light of the forest is making it extremely difficult to even see a face outline.

“You are severely underestimating the blood paladins. They will continue to grow in strength with every captured elf. You got lucky taking one down, the older ones will be far more difficult.” The chancellor explains, fearing the loss of life a war will bring to both sides. His eyes continue to stare at the girl, looking for even the smallest body movement.

“Sigh… I grow tired of your pathetic begging. Unless you have any useful information you can supply, then this conversation is over,” the women exclaims, dagger twirling quickly in her hand.

The chancellor slowly nods, having read her body language… and the fear hidden beneath. He quickly straightens his back, clasping his hands behind his back.

“My offer to remove most of the forces guarding the pope will still be available. If you feel that you have a change of mind, do feel free to contact me,” he says with an expressionless face.

With one final glance, he turns around and starts walking away from the deadly assassin; his stride both relaxed and ready as he walks towards a carriage just outside the forest.

The assassin watches the elf confidently stride away, internally cursing her hand… the same hand which playfully twirls a dagger when stressed.

I understand the pain of working for an idiot as well chancellor…..

With that thought, she turns her head upward, staring into the dark branches.”Make sure he arrives safely to the carriage.”

Immediately dark shapes and shadows quickly move from tree to tree, barely even making a sound a she gets up and picks up the dagger from the ground… the tip completely dented.

“So you too have secrets as well.”