Welcort Forest

"Ah, here we are!" Ivynns declared standing in front of the entrance to Welcort Forest some distance away from the central city of Gorz. "Ah, its a good day for a hunt!" He took a big breath of air, savoring the feeling of being away from a mass of green trainees and the busy city. "Wouldn't you all agree?" He turned to find Blake, Lu, Rena riding on Lu's shoulder and Gram carrying Mari and Os.

"So *pant* it's a hunt *pant* huh?" Blake asked, panting a little after following this old Elf for a good hour or two on foot, sure this was to get Lu and Rena on his side but seriously couldn't the old guy get a carriage of something for them.

"Oh, yes! You're just as sharp as you are fit unlike those two..." Ivynns pointed his staff at Mordecai and Risabeel coming up from the rear sweating and panting harder than Blake was. "Not much of the active types are they?"

"Hey! *pant* If my life is on the line then yeah! *pant* I can outrun you easy *pant* but this..." Mordecai tried to defend himself, but after a few more deep breaths, he gave up and settled for taking a sit on the ground. "Forget it!"

"I have nothing to say, Master Ivynns, I've been lacking in my physical areas for some time now..." Risabeel, on the other hand, was better off in terms of taking Ivynns' little quip and seemed to be recovering faster than Mordecai.

"Well, that is not a problem since you are not the ones who will be taking on this task." Ivynns waved the two of them off then turned to Blake and Lu readying themselves. "Oh? Quick to get things done, are we?"

"Pretty much! So, what are we taking on in there?" Blake asked, cracking his knuckles while Lu was checking on his bow.

"Oh, yes? But, before that have any of you heard of Crystalline?" Ivynns asked in return taking a spot at a hollowed out tree near the entrance of the Welcort.

"That thing bugs do to turn into adults?" Blake answered, pointing at a caterpillar eating away at a leaf on the tree Ivynns was at.

"That's chrysalis, you idiot! He said; crystalline like this!" Rena corrected Blake by pulling out a small blue gemstone from Lu's quiver that she waved in Blake's face. "Heh! Get some more books in you."

"Indeed, Fay, you are correct, Crystalline is that which is like a crystal. However, it is also used as the name of a school of earthen magic very much like my Druidic, which breaths life into nature and binds it to your will..." Ivynns explained, reaching down to scoop up some dirt then made a sapling grow out of it. "...it can also take this life way as well..." The sapling suddenly dried up and withering then he held out his staff to Blake. "...take a look at the gemstone on here, boy."

"Uh, Alright?" Blake leaned in on the staff, not too sure what Ivynns wanted to show him. "Hmm...?" And as he stared at the green gemstone for a second or two, something started to appear inside of it that looked a little like a person. "Wait? Is that a-argh! Fuck!"

Blake was about to guess what was inside Ivynns' emerald when it shattered in his face. "Ah sorry about that kid couldn't help myself!" Laughed a male Fairy with green wings made of crystals. He had a head of silver hair tied in a top knot and sparkling green eyes, his clothing was similar to Ivynns' being a green robe with blood-red leaves and moss around his shoulders. "Greetings! Rux, the Emerald Fairy! Crystalmancer and Vice-guild master of the Eye of The Blood Leaf!" Rux did a small bow as he came to rest on top of Ivynns' staff using it as chair.

"How amazing! That one could enclose themselves in a crystal yet still be alive just as they were!" Risabeel came up to stare at Rux from top to bottom, trying to guess how he did it.

"It's nothing a few hundreds of living can't get you, right, Ivs?" Rux ate up the attention he was getting like candy. "Wah!" Until Ivynns shook his staff nearly tossing Rux off it. "Fine, fine, I'll be formal from now on..." He muttered, coughing a little to get into his 'serious' mode and turned back to find Blake glaring at him. "...Oh, you? I said sorry already, and I'm surprised you recovered so fast, you just took a few bits of emerald to the face there..."

"I hate Fairies..." Blake put to mind as he backed away from Rux while pulling out a random piece of emerald stuck in his face. "Okay, so I'm guessing something in there has to do with Crystalline Magic or did you just want to give this guy a good intro?"

Rux nodded a few times at the sound of that. "Hmm? I want to say yes to the latter part so badly, but no there happens to be an animal within these woods that has been cursed by the Crystalline Magic." His tone shifted to a much more serious one with his arms now held behind his back. "Such use of something I part take in is one most revolting."

"A curse? What kind?" Lu asked, if what he and Blake were about face had a curse on it, then it might get to them as well.

"A very vile one at that, it is the Crystal Touch..." Rux held up a hand covered in a green glow then flew up to press it to the tree Ivynns was on and bit by bit it turned into emerald going to the leaves reaching for the sky and to its roots digging into the ground.

"Ooooh! I could make serious bank off that!" Mordecai suddenly got a second wind at the sight of a money growing tree. "If you don't mind? I'll be taking some of that!" He brought out a knife and took a stab at the now emerald tree hoping to get a piece of it. "What the!?" But the moment his blade dug into the tree, it turned into emerald as well. "Nic-wha?!" He smiled at first, but it quickly went away as the Crystal Touch went up to the handle and his hand. "Fuck no!" Mordecai dropped his knife like it was on fire and checked his hand. "Uhmm? Help?" He held up his hand, showing that it was slowly turning into an emerald too.

"Hihic, yes, vile indeed." Ivynns chuckled even though he was sitting on the very tree that was cursed as it was turning everything around it into an emerald. "Those without enough magical skill will meet a fate most dire."

"Yeah! I can see that. NOW HELP ME!" Mordecai ran up to Ivynns waving around his now fully crystallized hand in front of the Elf's face with the rest of his arm getting covered in a thin layer of green while keeping all the movement in it.

"I will take care of that..." Rux snapped his fingers, shattering the emerald layer on the tree and Mordecai's hand, leaving them back as they were. "...there free of change." He had a smug look on his face until he noticed Mordecai looking at the ground. "What are you doing?"

"I'm checking to see if any of those emerald bits are around..." Mordecai looked up disappointed after he didn't find a thing not even some dust was left. "...I got my hand turned into a rare gemstone and got nothing out of it."

"I could do it again if you want?" Rux offered as a joke floating over to the greedy thief with his hands reaching out to him. "It goes a lot faster if you hit the body..."

"I'm good!" Mordecai jumped back to where Risabeel was standing with his hands tossed in the air. "Good luck in there you guys!" Then he threw a thumbs up at Blake and Lu.

"Indeed, good luck to both you as you enter this place," Ivynns warned as he held up his staff and the trees and bushes formed a clear path for Blake and Lu. "Follow this path; it shall lead you to the area the beast has been seen the most by forest goers."

"A shortcut? That's it? Aren't you going to give us a magical ward or something, so we don't end up as walking gemstones?" Blake looked at Ivynns, confused by the old Elf. Him and Lu were about to go against a curse, having some kind of protection would be a good idea, right?

Ivynss cracked a wide grin on his aged face. "Well, this quest is to see how well you two are at working together and show your trust in eachother, no? What would be a better task to take on, than one where your lives are on the line? Or did you forget that my guild is called the Eye Of The Blood Leaf." He explained, pointing at his shoulder garden of dark red. "If you wish? You can bring along that mount of yours." Ivynns looked at Gram, who was sniffing around the are the whole time.

"Mount? I guess I can't say anything about that." Gram muttered, lowing his head to let Mari slid down, and he moved up to Blake's side. "And that prey you've been talking about is in there." He noted with his nose twitching.

"Ah, you speak? Very interesting, and you are without a pack?" Ivynns rubbed his chin lightly while giving Gram an examining look and seemed to want to ask him a few more questions.

"Tch, anything you want to know I ain't telling you! This guy beat me, and I'm following him now!" Gram growled at the old Elf seeing the look on Ivynns' face. "Come on, let's get this started! I haven't gone on a good hunt in a while, Alpha!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure thing." Blake rubbed Gram's head then turned to Ivynns to ask one last thing. "Are you going to come with us or are you just going to sit here? And if so, how are you going to know if we get that thing or not?" He asked since Ivynns hadn't even made a move from his hollowed-out tree.

"Not to worry the trees will be my eyes and ears," Ivynns informed Blake as a branch brushed passed his cheek making him look at a tree a few feet away from them. "Not to mention that I can not leave a child and defeatless woman here."

"Hey, what about me!" Mordecai pointed at himself, but no one cared to take him up on that. "Jerks!"

"In that case, Gram!" Blake yelled, holding out a hand to Gram, making the Greater Wolf nod as he jumped into the air to change into his axe form and get caught by Blake, giving him his red wolf tail. "I should get a bit more mobile!"

"Oh?" Ivynns titled his head to one side along with Rux and Mordecai.

"Ugh, I was hoping for more but whatever, come on, Lu!" Blake was disappointed at their reactions then leaped up high into a tree. "We're doing this your way!"

"Then I hope you can keep up!" Lu smirked, jumping right up to Blake then moved on to the next tree then next until he and Rena disappeared.

"Hey! Headstarts don't count!" Blake took off after him snapping the branch he was on in half.

"Animal mimicry? No, something else entirely..." Ivynns muttered to himself on what Blake did to turn Gram into an axe of all things and gain a tail out of it. "..." He looked at Risabeel, Mordecai, and Mari, but none of them looked like they were willing to answer him. "Hmm? Well, I shall keep you updated on what is going with them at the very least." He told them as he closed his eyes and saw where Blake and Lu were at the current moment.

With Blake and Lu

"So, Lu? How have things been with that Elf guild?" Blake asked, jumping from tree to tree a bit behind Lu even with his agility boost from Gram.

"Hmm? It's been fine, I guess." Lu answered in mid-flip landing on a tree branch to listen in on the surroundings for anything.

"Tch, as if! All we've been doing is clean up that big ass Guild house from top to bottom and doing paperwork! This is the most action we've seen in a week!" Rena nagged as she appeared out of Lu's quiver looking around.

"Hey, weren't you the one complaining about the scary stuff Blake had us do?" Lu looked behind to ask Rena.

"Eh? That's only because you could have gotten hurt and every princess needs her knight!" Rena shot back before turning away from Lu, annoyed. "Huh, what's up with you?" To find Blake staring at her on the tree over.

"Nothing 'Fay,'" Blake answered, putting some emphasis on the Fay while he was looking at a random leaf.

"You don't have to worry about calling me, Rena, that Elf can't hear or see a thing right now," Rena told him as a leaf floated on by and after it went past, her hair and wings went back to their true colors.

"You can mess with that guy?" Blake looked back at Rena's smirking face. Sure she was a Fairy and all that but Ivynss' a druid, an old one at that so he was finding it hard to believe that Lu's chatty Fairy partner could do that.

"Heh! I'm not doing anything! I just asked the plants to lie, if he can figure it out then we're in trouble but who would think that flowers could be actors!" Rena explained, flying up to a flowering tree branch to whisper something to it. "Doesn't look like he noticed just yet, aren't I just awesome! So much so that you want to know everything about me, right?"

"Not really, let's just find this thing..." Blake ignored Rena's want for attention and sniffed around the area. "Hmm?" And picked something up from down below. "Hey, I got something!" He yelled over at Lu before and stepping off the branch and fell straight down. "Hah!" Before landing, he took a swing at the tree with Gram to stop himself short.

"Hey! That was a prime time to get some info on me!" Rena yelled down at Blake, watching him crouch down to sniff at the ground. "Can you believe this guy, Lu? Lu?" She looked back to see Lu gone and found him swinging from branch to branch until he landed next to Blake. "Hmm!"

"What did you find?" Lu asked, looking over Blake's shoulders to find a trail of small sapphire lumps that lead deeper into the forest. "Looks like we're on the right path..." He listened for anything with his ears twitching every now and again. "...hmm? It's not close..."

"But we can track it now." Blake grabbed a few of the lumps and took a whiff of them then sniffed around some more. "Okay, I got something its that way." He pointed at some bushes that looked like something had passed through them a while ago. "But what are these? They don't look like sticks or leaves, but they have a gassy smell to them, and they're in a weird line."

"It's deer droppings." Rena floated down to Blake and Lu with her arms crossed. "Well, more like elk droppings."

"Wha?" Blake looked up with one of the sapphires in his mouth, biting down on its to make sure they were real. "AH!" And immediately he threw it to the ground and licked his arm a few times to forget the taste while Rena had a small line across her face. "That's not funny!"

"I'm not the one would put something off the ground in their mouth!" Rena wiggled a finger at Blake then went back inside Lu's quiver before Blake could get back at her.

"Well, the good thing is that we know what kind of animal it is...that should make it easier to hunt..." Lu looked on the bright side as he handed Blake a waterskin to wash away the taste. "...are you going to take some of those? It's good money." He pointed at the sapphire deer droppings.

"I'm pretty sure they're gonna turn back to shit after we kill that thing." Blake groaned, throwing the waterskin back to Lu and was ready to get a move on. "What are you doing?" But he found Lu picking some of the droppings up and putting them in a pouch.

"If they do then they're good for fertilizer!" Lu pointed out after picking up a good bit of them then jumped back to the tree heights.

"Uh, whatever you say, man," Blake muttered, jumping up after Lu then the two when back on the hunt of their now identified quarry.

30 minutes later

"Lu, slow down!" Blake called out and caught up with Lu after he stopped. "There." Aways off from them was a large clearing where a path of what looked like sapphire hooves prints was pressed into the ground around the area. "Looks like its been here."

"Yeah, and the Crystal Touch has taken a hold on it," Lu listened in on the surroundings hoping to pick up on anything. "It's here." He looked up and pointed at the left side of the clearing.

And stepping out form the tall undergrowth was a fully grown male elk. It stood at 6 feet with its wide antlers, adding another foot to its hight and stretched out a good 3 feet to the right and left of its head. True to Lu's words the Crystal Touch had taken its hold on the beast as half of its face and one side of its antlers were encased entirely in sapphire along with most of its body covering its neck and front side.

"If it weren't so sad I'd say that thing was beautiful," Rena said from Lu's quiver watching the elk stride across the clearing, with each step turning the grass under it into sapphire blades which began spreading the curse everywhere.

"?" The cursed elk breathed in and out softly scanning the area around it for any danger. "..." Once it was sure there wasn't anything around, it began to eat some grass. "!" But the moment its sapphire teeth bit into the grass they turned to sharp spikes of blue that dug into its mouth, making it railed back with droplets of its crimson blood turning sapphire as they fell.

"Welp, now it's spooked, does that make things harder?" Blake looked away from the elk's suffering.

"It's in pain and hungry. Pretty sure it's on guard and with that curse, you can't sink your teeth into it, haha, this is a good hunt." Gram answered, shaking in Blake's hand as if trying to transform.

"Keep it together, Gram." Blake held Gram up to his face, swearing that he could see the wolf head smirking at him. "Alright, Lu, how do you want to go about this?"

"Hmm? You can't hit it with Gram...so; my arrows are our best shot here, but..." Lu started out looking back at the elk's body, seeing that everything around its front half was covered in sapphire. "...I can't get a hit on its vitals except for maybe the back of the head."

"Heh! It looks like I get to be the bait for once, huh?" Blake joked, putting a hand on Lu's shoulder then moved over to another tree.

"Heh, now he gets to know how we feel!" Rena sneakered as Blake got closer to the elk before going down to ground level. "Could you miss on purpose to get him in the butt?"

"No." Lu ignored her request before moving around the trees and pulled out an Iron Thorn Shot from his quiver once he was in a good sniping spot. "Just breathe..." He pulled back and held his breath.

"Good, he's ready." Blake looked up at Lu then crouched down low with his tail swiping behind him and moved in slowly.

"Not bad you'd make a wild child." Gram chuckled from Blake's hand before they reached the edge of their cover. "Too bad we aren't going for the kill."

"Well, if the curse goes away then you can eat it," Blake promised if everything went as planned and dug Gram into the ground to get a better grip. "Let the hunt begin!" He launched into the clearing, appearing right at the hooves of the sapphire elk.

"!" The elk sprang up on its hind legs kicking its front leg at Blake before bring them back on him.

Blake flipped backward, watching the elk hooves smash into the ground where he was. "Whoa!" Then he leaned back further just as large spikes shot out from where the hooves stroke. "Okay, not just a cursed elk."

"!" The elk didn't stop there as it leaped over its spikes to come crashing down on Blake with its antler.

"Goddess dammit! I wanted you to run not try to kill me!" Blake jumped over the charging beast by planting his free hand on its head, making sure not to touch any part of its sapphire face. "Okay, you're not afraid so..." He stared up at the elk keeping its eyes on him. "...time to dodge!" He rolled out of the way as it came at him with a swing of its antlers.

"Well, he's having fun." Rena was watching the action with Blake slowly being surrounded by cursed crystals as the elk kept trying to ram into him.

"They're not making this easy for me." Lu was trying to line up a good shot, but every time he was about to fire the elk charge at Blake.

"The Elf's having trouble, you need to stop it," Gram told Blake in the middle of him jumping off a boulder as the elk stabbed its antler into it before shattering it with a twist of its neck. "Hmm? Stronger than I thought."

"Sure, stop a sapphire battering ram..." Blake stopped in his constant dodging and pulled back with Gram. "Wolf Impact!" He swung at the ground blasting bits of sapphire and dirt at it, making the elk buck up on its hind legs with its head thrown back to the sky. "Lu!"

"There!" Lu let his arrow fly through the air until meeting its mark with resonating 'whack' as the elk froze in place.

"Hah..." Blake breathed a sigh of relief, seeing as the elk was about to smash down him with everything it had, but now it had an arrow sticking out its head that was slowly being turned into a sapphire rod. "...shit!"

"!" The elk brought down its feet and stared right at Blake with its now completely sapphire face devoid of any life before it let out a hellish shriek and swung its head to one side trying to knock Blake away.

"Watch it!" Blake was about to strike back with Gram but jumped back instead, in fear of getting his axe cursed. "Huh?" But even more worrying was that when the elk was bringing its head back from another swing, there was a small cloud of blue mist coming out of its mouth. "I don't like that..."

"!" The elk let out a breath of chilling blue mist that once it hit anything, turned it into a sapphire.

"Crystal breath!?" Blake double backed, watching as the sapphire that the elk made suddenly shot out at him as spikes. "Rah!" He swung at the air in front of him with another Wolf Impact to blast himself away. "Lu! Back up!"

"On it!" Lu reached back and pulled out three more Iron Thorn Shots and fired, connecting each one with a part of the elk's body, one at its neck, one to its left shoulder, and the last through its right side. "Damn!" But each was quickly turned into a sapphire.

"?" Worst yet the moment the elk found that it was under attack by someone else, it snapped its head towards Lu finding him with just one look. "!" Then changed at the tree Lu was on.

At the entrance with the others

"This is quite bad...they are having a bit of a hard time right now..." Ivynns was giving a play by play of the events that were taking place with Blake and Lu against the now aggressive elk as a tree came crashing down in the distance. "And a tree holding young Lutwig just fell over!"

"Didn't need you to point that one out?" Mordecai muttered, looking in the direction of the fallen tree and for a moment he thought he saw someone above the tree line. "What was that?"

"Sir Blake, Sir Lutwig, please be safe." Risebeel pleaded with her eyes closed and hands in prayer.

"Blake! Hurry up in there!" Mari yelled into the forest just as worried as Risabeel but was showing it in a different way along with Os.

"Something's off here...?" Rux thought out loud to himself. First, the elk attacked instead of running away then a quickening of the Crystal Touch just as an arrow would have killed it and now it was using crystalline magic attacks. "This isn't like someone made a mistake this seems like a...?"

Back with Lu and Blake

"Get back here you dumb deer!" Blake, in full sprint, yelled at the sapphire elk as it was continuingly ramming into every tree that Lu jumped to as he tried to get away from it.

"Rena! Snare Vine Shots!" Lu pulled out four of the called arrows and fired each one at the trees above the charging elk. "There!" And with a pull of his bowstring, the vines shot out from their arrows and wrapped around the elk's locking it in place.

"!" But the elk was only stopped for a moment as the vines turned into sapphire and a simple jerk of its body shattered them. "!" Then it pulled back its head and threw it back forward to shot out a volley of sapphire spikes from its antler.

"Back to running..." Lu jumped for the next the tree to get away from blue flashes zooming by him. "Wha?" The moment he landed on a branch he felt his world go down an inch and in shock Lu found a spike that had hit the base of the branch and before he could make another jump the branch snapped. "Hrup!" He got out another Snare Vine Shot and fired at the tree, stopping him from bashing his head against the ground.

"!" But all that did was give the elk a perfect target for its next charge.

"Throw me!" Gram yelled while Blake was catching up to Lu and the elk but was still a bit away.

"Don't get caught by it!" Blake jumped up high then threw Gram at the elk. "Oh shit!" But with the loss of his agility and balance from Gram, he quickly found himself clinging for dear life on a tree branch before clumsily falling to the ground. "Ow..."

"Let's see how hard those sapphires made you!" Gram while still in the air as a spinning axe transformed back to his wolf body and dug his fangs into the neck of the elk right before it could get a hit on Lu. "GRRRAH!" Keeping the momentum from getting thrown, he tossed the elk aside into a tree, bringing it down on top of it. "Well, that's just great." Gram snapped at his fangs a few times and felt sapphire growing around them. "Don't have much time here!"

"Well, it was your idea, doggie!" Rena reminded him as she appeared out of Lu's quiver. "Eep!" Only for her to duck back down in there once Gram shot her glare.

"Hmph!" Gram's gaze didn't stay on her too long since he and Lu went back to the elk as it was done crystallizing the tree it was under before throwing it off its back then readied itself for another attack. "Hah, still want some more, huh?"

"?" But the elk turned away from Gram and Lu to pick out Blake recovering from his fall. "~!~" And for some unholy reason, it twisted its face into a smile of sheer terror at the sight of him tearing apart its own face to get the grin just right.

"Oh, that's just wrong..." Blake felt every part of his body yell at him to run as this thing had its eyes gulled on him, but at that moment, an idea came to him. "Lu? I can trust you, right?"

"Yeah?" Lu answered, pulling back an arrow about to let it go but held back. "Have a bright idea to take this thing down?"

"No, it's really stupid, and we might lose a leg doing it." Blake joked back, keeping his eyes on the elf mostly because he did not want to take another look at this thing smiling at him. "Hop on Gram and come get me! And make sure it's extra bushy!"

"Right!" Lu dropped his shot and moved to Gram's back.

"!" The sapphire elk, on the other hand, seemed to have caught on to at least part of what they were planning and let out a breath of sapphire at Blake.

"Heh, should have charged at me!" Blake smirked as an arrow came whizzing by that stroke the ground right at his feet and out came a bush that took the blast of the elk's crystal breath.

"!" The elf shrieked, and the now sapphire bush erupted in deadly spikes that tried to impale everything around it. "?" It waited for a few moments then saw Blake and Lu riding Gram with only one of its spike jabbed into Gram right hind leg.

"Hey, can you still ran at full speed?" Blake looked back at the spike inside Gram slowly starting to turn his leg sapphire blue.

"Grrah! Let's kill this thing! It's not worth eating any more after it tired that!" Gram was dead set on watching this grinning, shrieking, sapphire, elk breathe its last with his one good eye turning bloodshot at the sight of this thing.

"LU! You hit hard from the right, and I'll take the left! Then we come in for the finish!" Blake gave out his quick plan for taking this thing out.

"Simple as ever and I'm done in here!" Rena's voice came from Lu's quiver, followed by a puff of green dust.

"Looks like we're ready!" Lu reached around for an arrow looking for the perfect spot on the elk to put it in.

"And so is our friend!" Blake stared at the elk now all but sapphire with an eerie blue glow coming from its eyes and blue mist flowing out its frozen smiling face. "Gram!" Blake ordered, and the wolf took off.

"!!!" The elk slammed its front hooves into the ground then dashed forward, crystallizing everything in its path with its antler reforming into a pair of twisted spears.

"NOW!" Blake yelled as they were about to clash and leaped off to the left while Lu went right. "GRAM!" He reached out to Gram as the wolf was transforming into his axe form and pulled back. "Wolf...!!!"

"Seed Bomber...!!!" Lu pulled back an arrow with a large bud at the end as he and Blake landed on the antlers of the elk, both of their feet being affected by the Crystal Touch but had a perfect aim for the back of its head.

"Impact! Shot!" They let their attacks loose, letting a white shockwave and green explosion rock the back of the sapphire elk's head, sending shards of sapphire flying into the air with the elk buckling under the force of the two attacks struggling to keep its footing. "RAAAH!" But then coming down on the back of its head were the now sapphire boots of Blake and Lu, bashing the elk's head into the ground with an echoing crunch once it met the sapphire grass below.

"*pant* Is it dead yet?" Blake groaned now covered in cuts and burns after his and Lu's last attack.

"..." They both gave eachother slow nods, looking at the seemingly dead beast. "HAAH!" Then stomped down hard, shattering the elk's head into sparkling dust along with the rest of its body leaving behind only a green Ore with an elk's antlers on it.

*Crackle, Crackle*

And now without the source of the Crystal Touch to spread or maintain the curse everything that had been affected by it started to crack and shatter apart, raining down on the two victors in a shower of blue dust.

"Hell yeah!" Blake cheered after picking up the Ore then held up his arm to Lu, panting with a hand to his chest. "Hah, things got a little too rough for you, old man?"

"Back in my day they only had fur, youngin..." Lu joked right back at as he bumped arms with him. "Hehe!" And with that, they both started laughing the whole ordeal off.

That is until an eruption of green dust came out of Lu's quiver. "HEY! This is so not the time to be laughing!" Rena yelled right between the two of them, and strangely enough, she was pushing Blake away. "Every time, Lu gets near you, it ends up with someone needing a doctor!"

"Hold on there, gnat! Most of the time it's Alpha getting knocked around!" Gram pointed out in defense for Blake before changing back to normal and snapped at the air with his teeth no longer sapphire blue. "That's a lot better."

"Heh, what's wrong? Not up of a gilded set of fangs?" Blake asked, giving Gram a light pat then looked around for something. "So, does that Elf knows we won or are you still telling the tree to lie to him?" He asked Rena who was looking over Lu with a glowing bright green leaf pressed to his cheek that was closing up a cut. "Hey! I'm hurt too you know!?!"

"Lu's a delicate forest flower! You're just a rock on the side of the road!" The Fairy nagged and harshly pushed Blake away from Lu's side then went right back to checking up on him. "~There, there, it's okay~"

"Whatever..." Blake waved her off and walked to a tree to rest up a bit. "But still, should we wait here for that old Elf dude or head back to tell him what happened? Unless you're still messing with him."

"Who's messing with me?" Ivynns' voice came out of the tree Blake was on as a pair of branches started to move like arms.

"AH!" Blake dived forward as the branches closed in on him. "That was creepy as hell!"

"Excellent reflexes you have there..." The tree's bark shifted around until Ivynns' visage appeared in it. "...that is only a small amount of prised that must be given to you. I must say other than the old trees that fell, and the lost of the elk's life, not much of the surrounding area has been damaged by your encounter."

"Master Ivynns' has the Crystal Touch been dispelled in the rest of the forest?" Lu causally walked up to the Ivynns tree and spoke to it like it was any other person.

"Rux is currently doing some rounds to ensure just that. He has not reported anything out of place, but he and I shall be dealing with any leftover effects here...as for you two..." Ivynns looked at the two with an ever smiling face. "...I must say you two are quite the team! To be able to come up with coordinate attack plans and enacted them in the middle of a battle is quite the feat, for those who have not known eachother for long. Although, your ideas are a bit on the foolish side but..."

"But?" Blake came up to wrapped an arm around Lu and jab a finger in his head.

"...But I am sure you will have many more encounters to improve upon them as members of your guild." Ivynns held out his hands to Blake and Lu.

"HAHA! One down! Two to go!" Blake cheered and with a simple jerk of his arm, he lifted Lu off his feet much to the Elf's dismay. "Ugh! What is that smell!" He quickly dropped Lu back down and stepped away from him after he got hit with a weird stench.

"Oh! That must be elk droppings they turned back." Lu opened the bag he was carrying the droppings in and sure enough, they were back to normal.

"Fresh fertilizer!" Ivynns' face lit or as best it could since at the moment it was coming out of a tree. "Very resourceful! These have quite high nutrients that most plants enjoy! You should use them along with your plant arrows to..." And the old Elf went on a long rant about all the benefits of poop with the younger Elf taking in all of it.

"Elves are weird..." Blake muttered, watching Lu have a nature class with Ivynns. "Hmm?" Until he noticed Rena back in her disguise floating next to him with another glowing green leaf that she used on Lu earlier. "Why are you being nice now?"

"This is just a leftover from me working on him." Rena nodded over to Gram, who had his injured leg covered in these leaves. "It's a Nature's Princess Special! Get it while you can!" She flew up and above Blake's head, dangling the leaf just out of his reach then dropped it. "Oops!"

"And so are Fairies." Blake slapped the leaf to his cheek and felt a cut getting closed up then walked up to Lu and Ivynns since it looked like they were done. "Alright, Lu, let's get back to the others and go grab the next member!"

Above the tree line of Welcort

"Well, that was a bust." A pink green-eyed Seeker nagged while floating next to a flying sapphire and a heavily cloaked figure standing on a tree.

"Indeed, however, we did gain a great deal of insight into our Combination-magic." A calm man's voice came from the sapphire as it flashed at every word. "But I must say the power of a Smith-Knight is less than I thought it would be...I am confused as to how he hurt you of all people."

"Tch! It wasn't the smith it was that damn mage Nathan!" The cloaked figure spat out in the voice of the fake Nenil as he turned to the leaving group and held out a hand. "But, better safe than sorry, yeah?" An orb of mana began to form in his hand until the sapphire moved in front of him. "...Or not?" He pulled his hand back and looked away from the group.

"That's right! You can't get into any trouble just yet! Mister! You've got an orientation to get to! Now grab on!" The Seeker blinked and turned its eye into a pair of thick black lips and stuck out a studded tongue to the cloaked man.

"I'm never getting used to that..." The man grabbed the stud along with the sapphire and was teleported away.

Chapter End