A group of foot-soldiers were carefully exploring a more foggier part of the forest. Among them was Maxon, now wearing new plates of armor and equipped with decent to good weapons. One of the members of the team, who was a Mage, can’t take her eyes off of Max; it’s like she knows him from long ago. Being unable to contain this desire for knowledge, the witch decided to move up towards Cortez.

The foot-soldier noticed her, “Umm, can I help you?” he asked, weirded out.

“Your face looks really familiar to me; you look like someone that I’ve met a long time ago.” the female mage said.

Surprisingly, her statement was something Maxon couldn’t deny. Just by taking a small glance at her, He noticed that she was short in stature and had light-blue hair along with cat ears, along with being quite adorable to look at. So yes, she looked quite familiar to the eyes of our fighter.

“I don’t really remember your name, but I do remember what you look like." Max stated.

The cat-girl smiled at his response, "Well then, I would like to use this situation as an opportunity to properly re-introduce ourselves to each other," she proposed, "My name is Rena Agualuna, what's yours?"

"Maxon Cortez." the soldier revealed.

"So you’re ‘that’ someone I've met long ago!" Rena gleefully exclaimed, "How long has it been? Six, maybe even seven years?"

Regardless of how much time has passed, Maxon can also recognize certain types of personalities; this one in particular has a rather giggly type of disposition. Whoever this girl may be, perhaps someday she could be of legitimate utility to our foot soldier. But for now, this whole mysterious fog debacle needs to be solved before any sort of alliance can be formed. Yet, Maxon had this feeling that Rena could be someone great someday.

Suddenly, there was a mysterious figure with a tall and lanky stature moving in the mist. The group’s movement grinded to a complete halt.

“Everyone, eyes forward.” Maxon requested. Everyone got into a battle position.

Then the figure slowly moved forward towards the group; exiting the fog was a creature that possessed a horribly distorted humanoid figure. Its skin had a sickly gray color and looked awfully malnourished, with the creature’s skin stretching through its rib cage; the only clothing it had was a tattered loincloth. Finally, the head of the horrifying creature resembles that of a deer’s skull, but with sharp teeth.

“It’s... a Mazunak.” Rena whispered in fear.

The Mazunak disturbingly creaked its head towards Maxon’s team. It opened its mouth and exhaled a foul, otherworldly black mist.

“Turn... back...” the monster said with a haunting voice, “Turn... back...” it repeated.

Maxon and the other soldiers prepared their weapons. Rena tightened her grip on her staff, ready to cast spells.

“If not... your lives are forfeit!” the monster threatened, before giving off a harsh roar.

The Mazunak charges at the group with breakneck speed. While some of the members managed the dodge by dive rolling, the rest of them got sent flying into trees, temporarily knocking them. Now there’s only four soldiers involuntarily tasked with fighting the nefarious creature.

With no other options, two well-armed soldiers engaged with the Mazunak. They tried throwing everything at the creature, like a flurry of sword swings, but to no avail; it just gracefully dodged every single one of their attacks. The monster threw a devastating punch at one of them and speared the other with its long and sharp claws, as if the iron chest plate he wore wasn’t there. Both of them instantly died from their injuries.

The Mazunak turned its attention to Rena; some details about it became highly apparent to her. The Darwinian was paralyzed with fear, as the aura the monster gave off was borderline eldritch. Rena wanted to run away, but she couldn’t.

“Rena!” Maxon yelled, before he took out a smoke grenade, pulled the pin out, and threw it at the side of the creature.

The device emits a giant smoke screen, blinding the creature and soon the whole area. Just before he can rush to his ally’s side, time drastically slows down; everything around Maxon has stopped completely, especially the monster.

“The day has finally arrived.” said a masculine and godly voice, “The day of your awakening.”

“What?” Maxon asked in a confused tone, “Who are you?” he queried.

“Right now, that’s not important,” the voice responded, “What is important is that you have proven yourself worthy of evolution, through all those years of hard work and training. Learn how to go beyond your fears and rival those who are more powerful than you.” it said.

Then out of nowhere, streaks of red energy appeared and circled around our foot soldier. They imbue into him, leaving behind crimson sparkles and particles; his irises glowed red, before reverting back to their normal color. After that event, Maxon felt an ethereal feeling that is almost indescribable; it’s like he crawled out of a tortuous place and evolved into a whole new different person. His perception of the things around him had become clearer and sharper; he also felt lighter, stronger, faster, and tougher. It’s like he now has the power to do so much more.

“Now go, show that creature what you’re made of.” the voice said, before fading away.

Time resumed as normal, the smoke screen slowly dissipated. Suddenly, an x-shaped gash appeared on the Mazunak’s chest; it hissed in agony. The smoke completely disappeared and Maxon instantly appeared in front of Rena, almost as if he teleported to her.

“How did you do that?” the cat-girl asked, blown away.

“I think it’s best to ask questions later,” the fighter suggested, “Right now, there’s a dangerous obstacle that we need to overcome; can you cover for me while I fight this thing?” he asked.

“Yeah, totally.” Rena agreed, before quickly backing away to a safe distance.

The Mazunak roared at the foot soldier; it charged and attempted to tear him to shreds with its claws, but he managed to dodge the flurry of claw swipes. They went at it, exchanging attacks and maneuvers; meanwhile at Rena’s end, she’s holding a steady aim with the intent of spell-slinging. She casts a Level 2 Mana Darts at the monster, firing a total of four darts made of mana.

Mana Darts - Level: 2

Ability Counters Remaining: 5/6

The spell made a successful hit; the darts exploded upon impact and left the monster temporarily stunned. This prompted Maxon to run up to the creature at an expeditious pace and swiftly dismembered one of its arms; it stumbled back. In an act of rage, the Mazunak grew back its lost body part in quick succession and exhaled a black fog, blinding the foot soldier.

The mist quickly dissipated, but the creature is nowhere to be seen. Instead, all Maxon could see are gray afterimages moving around him in a triangular pattern. Despite Rena’s senses, she can’t get a definite aim at the monster because it was moving at demonic speeds.

The Mazunak decided to end this pattern and go in for the kill; it rushed towards the foot soldier and used its claws to attempt to slash his throat wide open. It tried, but due to the fact that Maxon’s perception was fine-tuned, he managed to raise his shield in time to block the critical attack and back-flipped to safety.

“No... how could this be?!” the monster reacted with bewilderment.

During this state of shock, Rena found this as an opportunity for a counter-attack. The cat-girl points her staff and casts two Fireballs at the Mazunak, severely damaging it along with lighting it on fire.

Fireball - Level: 2

Ability Counters Remaining: 4/6

Maxon finally had enough and went in for the final blow. The foot soldier pointed his sword up to the sky and the blade glowed red; he then dashed towards the burning monster and delivered the coup-de-grace. He first dismembered both of its legs, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud smack, then he expeditiously leapt into the air and performed a spinning front-flip somersault. The foot soldier then landed on the Mazunak by impaling his sword into its chest.

The creature gave one last screech of agony and squirmed, before all movement completely ceased and laid upon the ground defeated; Maxon took his sword from Mazunak’s corpse and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, the creature’s dead body quickly dissolved into a disgusting gray sludge, remunerating a job well done.

“Gross.” Rena said with revulsion.

Maxon chuckled and walked up to the female Darwinian, “Good job, sweetie.” he congratulated and then gave her a head-pat, which she really liked.

Then out of nowhere, a peaceful apparition of an elderly male druid appeared before the foot soldier and mage. Cortez was shocked by this sudden emergence.

“Keep the ones you care about close to you,” the ghost stated, “Always and forever.” he said smiling, before disappearing in the ether never to be seen again.

Maxon was dazed by the whole thing, “Woah, what was that?” he wondered.

“I think that was the soul of the monster we defeated.” Rena observed.

“Wait, what do you mean?” Maxon queried.

“Well, to give you a brief summary, Mazunaks are reanimated corpses of druids that died with either a grudge or regret,” the cat-girl stated, “When it's defeated, the soul is essentially freed, however, there are some that won’t go down so easy and thus require something more than just violence.” she explained.

“Really? Damn...” the foot soldier commented, relieved and yet sad at the same time.

Maxon puts his arm around Rena’s shoulders, “Don’t worry old ghost guy, I will.” he promised.

A short while later, the other soldiers who were knocked out by the Mazunak’s attack awoke from their involuntary slumber and quickly recovered. While they assessed the damage, file reports, and request for the aid of specialists, Maxon wondered if the appearance of the monster and arrival of his new powers signify something else to come. He hoped that whatever it may be, his newfound ally and possibly more to come will allow him to get to the bottom of this sooner or later.

----------------------

Jason was back again at Menda Village looking for a partner to travel with. While doing that, he came across a quieter part of town with not many people going around. It looked slightly more sketchier compared to the cleaner and more friendly atmosphere that the other part of the village had; this area looked more suspicious and the kind of place that the average person wouldn’t stay in for too long. However, in this instance, there are two people Jason instantly recognized; they look like the two guys he fought from earlier back at the Golden Leaf Tavern.

“Those two dudes look suspicious, right?” said a female voice.

The knight noticed the person standing next to him and nearly jumped in shock. Her footsteps must have been so quiet that he didn't even notice her until now.

“Woah, where did you come from?” Jason asked with surprise.

“Let’s just say I have some methods up my sleeves.” she responded.

Anyways, appearance-wise the girl was a female Darwinian cat-girl with medium-length hair and its color was light-purple; the color of her irises were violet. The clothing she wore made her look like an adept kunoichi and to top it all off, she possessed an exquisite adorableness and some parts of prettiness; basically she looked both cute and pretty.

“Okay... anyways would you like to eavesdrop on these guys with me?” the knight asked, “Even though I had a battle with them, I have this feeling that I’m done with them yet.” he asked.

“Sure, but what’s in it for me?” the ninja cat-girl asked.

“I can let you stay at my fortress for as long as you want, if you agree to help me on my quest to get stronger.” Jason offered.

“Hmm... alright, you got a deal,” she accepted, “My name’s Lilly, what’s yours?”

“Jason; you can call me Jace if you want.”

And so begins the partnership of the Knight and Assassin.