Shawn rushed towards the red headed sorcerer who was in combat with two chaos worshippers. The sorcerer was trying to keep her distance from them and at the same time as she was trying chant a spell. Unfortunately, with two of them she spent all her effort from getting caught.

Shawn, with his recently required machete, ran towards the closet chaos worshipper, who quickly turned to meet him. Shawn nimbly avoided a strike from the chaos worshipper before circling to the side and striking his opponent down.

The other chaos warrior changed his course of attack towards Shawn, sending several massive strikes at the new enemy. Shawn parried and dodged through all the strikes, retreating backwards as the chaos worshipper followed.

Using this opportunity, the sorcerer was able to incant a spell and from her fingertips shot out a bolt of fire straight into the back of the chaos worshipper. Scorching his back, the chaos worshipper arched backwards in pain. Shawn used this opening to strike his blade across the chaos worshipper’s chest, felling him.

Shawn then looked over to the sorcerer who was busy trying to catch her breath.

“What’s a sorcerer doing in a melee?” He asked her.

“It’s not by choice. A lot more chaos worshippers than I thought.” She said as she brushed of her cloak. “Could use an actual frontliner to defend me. What do you say?” She offered.

“Well, I’m not an actual adventurer but having a caster watch my back would be useful.” Shawn said accepting her offer.

“Amelia.” Amelia greeted.

“Shawn.” He replied with a nod.

“Alright follow me.” She said as she began to head of to a different direction from the rest of the group.

“Where are we going? The fights that way.” He asked as he chased after her.

“We need to get the warlock. I’ve been chasing that damned heretic this entire time. With him gone that dumb chaos chief will lose all those enchantments and the chaos worshippers will be in, well chaos.” She said as she moved through the woods, twisting, and turning.

As Shawn followed her step by step he asked, “What? The chief’s here and he’s enchanted? I’m and there’s warlock?”

“Yeah, the warlock split off from the fight, so that he could maintain his spells. Though it does mean that he couldn’t go far.” She explained.

“Okay, so before we get into a fight what can you do exactly?” Shawn asked.

“I’ll be honest I’m running low on spells right now. I’ve got one large one left.” She replied before slowing down to a stop.

Looking down at a device she held in her hand she looked back up and scanned around the area.

“He’s here. Hiding.” She said cautiously.

Shawn began to search around taking the front. Scanning through the undergrowth he noticed a small protrusion sticking out some of the foliage. Shawn pulled out a knife and flung it towards the protrusion.

A sound of piercing flesh could be heard as the knife embedded into an object, followed by a roar in pain. Out of the undergrowth rose a chaos worshipper clutching at his arm with a small blade was embedded in it. Two more chaos worshippers rose up behind him along with the warlock further in the back.

“Ah. I found him.” Shawn said lamely as the three chaos worshippers charged.

Shawn brought his machete up ready to fight before he heard Amelia behind him.

“Get down.”

Shawn dropped to his knees as he glanced backwards in time to see her raise her hand. From her palm came a massive plume of flame that roared over his head right into the three chaos worshippers. Shawn covered his head and could feel the heat of flames lick the back of his neck.

As the flames dissipated, he looked back up and saw the charred remains of the chaos worshipper flop onto the slightly singed floor. It was at this moment where he considered questioning her about the safety of using fire in a heavily wooded area.

Amelia at this point was panting heavily, drained of most of her energy at this point. Before Shawn could say anything, Amelia managed to yell out, “The warlock!”

Swivelling his head back towards the warlock Shawn saw the warlock point his staff towards him chanting something. Shawn began to rush towards the warlock. The warlock finished his chant and the skull fixed upon his staff glowed green.

As he began to get move forward a green energy bolt hurtled towards him. Quickly stepping to the side, the bolt of mana soared past his and harmlessly into the foliage. Shawn began to quicken his pace.

Another bolt of mana shot out of the skull towards Shawn. This time Shawn raised his blade and managed to block the bolt. A massive reverberation erupted upon contact. The force of the impact caused Shawn to release his grip, the machete fell to the side. Shawn didn’t falter and continued to charge forward, moving even faster than before.

Disbelief appeared on the warlocks’ face as he watched Shawn now only a few steps away. Lost on what to do, he gripped his staff and gave a wild swing towards Shawn.

Shawn watched as the warlock pulled back his staff readying it for a swing. A confident grin appeared on his face as he took another step forward, staring intently into the eyes of the warlock.

The warlock was hit with a small wave of confusion seeing the grin appear on Shawn’s face. But as Shawn took his step forward, he was now in range for the warlock to strike. The warlock gave Shawn his biggest, strongest swing aiming to smash his head off his body.

As the staff moved towards his head to make impact, Shawn simply ducked down. The skull staff flew harmlessly over his head, as it did Shawn began to rise back up. Using his forward momentum, he rotated his body, spinning a full circle as he lifted his left leg higher and higher. In a flash Shawn had completed a full rotation and as he faced the warlock once more. His leg used the generated speed and came flying in, fully intended to take the warlock’s head. Shawn’s heel cracked across the temple of the warlock, the speed and ferocity of the impact sent the warlock flying of his feet and smashing into the ground with a heavy thud.

Looking down at the warlock he gave a cocky grin, “Never met a caster that could take a hit.”

“You done bragging? You should probably finish him off.” Amelia called to him rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah-” Shawn was cut of as another chaos worshipper flew through the foliage and attacked him with a hand axe.

Shawn desperately ducked and dodged as the worshipper hacked and slashed away at him. A wild slash from the chaos worshipper caused him to overextend. Shawn capitalised on the opportunity and grabbed onto the axe handle himself. His other hand clasped around the chaos worshipper’s wrist trying to pry him away from the weapon. In retaliation the chaos worshipper grabbed the axe handle with his other hand. The two began to wrestle for weapon.

A sudden flash of sparks flew into the face of the chaos worshipper, he screamed in pain and recoiled back. Shawn snatched the axe away from him and embedded the weapon back into the worshipper.

Shawn taking a deep breath looked over to Amelia, “Thanks for the hand. And not casting a spell that would burn me along with him.” He said breathlessly.

“Don’t mention it. Though, at this point that was all I could do. I’m out.” She said while messaging her hand.

Shawn realized that they had forgotten about the warlock. Quickly turning back to where the warlock was, he saw him now standing upright once more. Finishing a chant.

The warlock held is staff in front of him and the skull’s eye sockets glowed a luminescent blue. From the staff erupted several crackling bolts of lightning shooting towards Amelia and Shawn.

Shawn, who stood closer to the warlock took the brunt of the attack, the lightning coursed through his body as he was sent flying into the ground. Muscles screaming in pain.

Amelia was not left untouched either and coupled with her mana depletion she too collapsed.

The warlock was leaning all his weight on his staff, ragged with breath. His left eye now red with blood, the aftermath of taking Shawn’s kick. He slowly limped himself closer towards his grounded enemies, a shacky smile appearing on his face.

Shawn, muscles still unwillingly spasming from the lightning, managed to prop himself up enough to see the warlock approach him. Shawn gave the warlock a groan of annoyance.

The warlock gave a shacky laugh, “How does it feel to die by my hands?” The warlock wheezed out, still half in a daze.

Shawn gave a bark of a laugh back, “Please, you don’t even have anything left. You’re to much of a coward to get near me.”

The warlock snarled back at him and began to limp even closer towards him.

That’s right, get closer. I’m about to snap you in half. Shawn thought, goading the warlock closer, doing his best to ignore the pain all across his body. The warlock moved until he was just one step away from where Shawn wanted him to be.

The warlock then stopped moving and raised his hand up. Slowly he began to chant out another spell, struggling to do so as the recent head trauma made his head spin. But nevertheless, he was slowly but surely chanting out his incantation.

Shawn suddenly grimaced, he assumed that with everything that had happened with the warlock he would be out of spells. He was evidently wrong. Shawn’s mind began to race, trying to figure out how to deal with this newfound problem.

But before he could even act an arrow flew over him and straight to the neck of the warlock. The warlock clutched at the arrow’s shaft in surprise before falling backwards, no longer moving.

Shawn laid back onto the ground, staring at person who fired the arrow behind him. It was the fully armoured lady wielding a longbow, Rose.

“Oh, there you are.” Shawn greeted her from the ground.

“What are you doing here?” She asked in disbelief.

“Trying to get my map back.” He replied as he picked himself up. Walking over to Amelia he offered his hand to help her up, while Rose simply stood there in confusion. With a pained groan Amelia accepted it and slowly rose to her feet.

“Thanks for the help.” Amelia said to Rose, while rubbing her head. “Well, that’s one problem solved. The chief is still around, but I am done for today.”

“Any idea where the chief is?” Shawn asked.

Amelia pulled out some sort of object and fiddled with it before looking back up and pointing at a direction, “Go straight that way, you’ll find him in a clearing.”

“Did you follow me? How?” Rose interrupted.

“Hey, it led me and Lawrence to Oskar.” Shawn brushed off. “Okay, I’m going go check it out.”

“Answer my questions.” Rose demanded.

“Either of you coming?” Shawn ignoring them.

Amelia walked over and picked up the warlock’s staff, studying it. Before looking up, “Sure, though I won’t be much help I want to make sure that chief is dead.”

“…Fine.” Rose said with just a hint of annoyance.

With that the three headed of to the location of the chaos chief.