Back in the forest.

The shadowy figure saw the tense expression on his face and couldn’t help but giggle. “No need to be so scared.” Stepping out of the shadows the mysterious person finally revealed themselves.

Out from the shadows came a beautiful woman. She was a pink haired young woman wearing only a red cloth like bra and an extremely short skirt. Her outfit showed off her curvy body and voluptuous chest. She possessed a slender waist and a pair of long gorgeous legs. Her arms and neck were adorned in gold bangles and her red viper like eyes shone with a seductive gleam. A combination like this vividly displayed the young woman appeal to the opposite sex.

Seeing Daelos’s dazed expression a flirtatious smile hung from the corner of her lips. He doesn’t seem to be the one. “Where are you heading?”

Listening to her words Daelos felt a strong urge to bow before her. His mind was lucid, and his body was hot. It was like he was feeling pins and needles from head to toe. Seeing him slowly succumb to her charm, the young woman vanished from sight only to appear in front of him in the next instance.

Placing her hand on his should, he felt like his blood was on fire!!

“So tell me where are you going?” Speaking so closely to his ear, Daelos felt his resistance crumble as his eyes suddenly became dull. “Beast-men tribe.”

“Oh… and why are you going there?” caught a little bit off guard, she didn’t think he intentionally walked into this area.

“Need strength.” At this point, Daelos was nothing more than a puppet.

“Well that’s pretty boring.” Yawning as if she had just heard the dullest thing in her life. “I’d play around with you a bit more but sadly my king is not a patient man…Lets have fun next time!” Kissing him on the cheek, she vanished from where she stood.

Dropping to his knees Daelos felt a torrent of sweat escape his pours. Shaking on the ground his dull eyes slowly regained their light as he recalled the events that had just transpired. “LYLA WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! I thought you said the Agnos Requiem protected me from mental energy attacks!”

Sitting silently inside the Agnos Requiem Lyla’s face couldn’t help but turn grim. “I don’t know? I didn’t feel any mental energy fluctuations. What ever she did to you didn’t involve mental energy.

Calming his mind, he slowly collected his thoughts and sat in silence. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I know you’d do everything in your power to help me if you could.”

Once he’d cooled things with Lyla, they carried on their journey in silence.

Who was that girl? How did she move so fast?, and how did she put me in such a state? Not knowing why but every time he thought back to her toying around with him, he felt a wave of lust wash over him. If it was just that he could take care of it quickly. But this time it felt different, deeper. It was like something inside of him wanted to break her!

Dark thoughts pervaded his mind as he couldn’t help but imagine all the ways he would crush her. From breaking her bones to flailing her skin, images of horrific scenes played out in his head.

…

After 9 hours of constantly walking through the forest, night finally fell. In the distance sounds of music and feet hitting the ground could be heard. Walking out from behind a tree Daelos was greeted to the sight of makeshift huts and a group of people surrounding a huge bonfire.

On closer inspection he realised that the people who were singing and dancing looked somewhat peculiar. The closer he got to the bonfire the more he noticed the difference between them and humans. Unlike humans the beast-men before him all possessed a creamy yellow skin tone covered in large black spots. Their height ranged between 5 and 6ft and on top of their heads sat roundish animal ears. The clothes they wore seemed to be made out of brown animal hide and only covered their private areas allowing them to dance about freely. Besides this they all looked relatively human.

Seeing a stranger approach their territory, all the music stopped as they sized him up. Stepping out from the group of demi humans was a middle aged man with a savage scar running down his left eye. “Why are you here?”

While looking at the beast-man, Daelos could feel a savage aura pressure him. Feeling this oppressive aura the phantoms inside his mind space felt his emotions waver. Taking that chance more of them crawled out through the gapping crack and started to feast on the others.

An unknown change took place in him as he felt the sudden desire to slaughter this group of beast-men. Feeling Daelos’s change in attitude Lyla knew that the seed of corruption was starting to germinate. “Idiot! Control your emotions!” Shouting out to him she knew the only way to slow the rate of germination was to have him not receive any mental stimulation. The problem is, to do that he’d have to be dead!

As if he was unable to hear her, a ferocious aura erupted from his body and caused the forest to enter a state of silence as the beast-men were forced to take a step back.

Seeing the blood thirsty smile hanging from the young man’s lip, the scarred beast-man increased his aura as if to challenge Daelos.

His body suddenly flashed in front of the human as his claws swiped down towards the young man’s head. Unfortunately it was as if his opponent was expecting this as a brown layer covered his skin and intercepted his attack with his own. Not expecting the beast-man to have so much strength behind his attack Daelos was knocked back 5 metres.

Getting down on all fours, the beast-man pounced towards him at a speed that he couldn’t follow.

*SLASH*

*SLASH*

*SLASH*

Constantly barraged with a rain of slashes, wounds started to pile up on his body. The attacks were very fast and flexible. He threw punches, some kicks, and slashes. His moves were greatly coordinated and didn't give Daelos time to counter.

“ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Releasing an earth shaking roar! Daelos condensed the air around his body and willed it to explode!! The shockwave sent the beast-man flying into the distance but dealt little to no damage.

Mage Knight!!

Locking his bloodshot eyes on the distant figure, rage and anger consumed him as his body started to vibrate and produce static. Taking a step forward he found himself appearing in front of the beast-man. Surprised by the human’s new found speed the beast-man didn’t have time to raise his guard before a fist encased in dense vibrations crashed into his face.

*BOOM!!*

An explosive crash sounded out as the beast-man’s body broke the sound barrier as he was launched through multiple trees in the forest!

Inside the Agnos Requiem Lyla look on in shock at the new found strength Daelos showcased. Is this due to the effects of the seed of corruption?

Not willing to lose his plaything, his static covered body flashed into the destroyed forest. Looking at the torn down trees, he followed the trail of destruction.

“RELEASE!!!”

Behind him a savage aura gushed out and covered the entire forest. Releasing that aura the figure of the beast-man emerged from the broken down trees. After roaring out the word ‘release’ his body had taken on a slight transformation. His current appearance was now covered in yellow fur and black spots, he had a slender tail sticking out behind him and his body became a lot leaner. The black in his eyes expanded and his yellow iris’s gave off a gentle glow. His teeth lengthened and gave off the feeling that it would rip you to shreds!

Seeing the new change, Daelos’s eyes shone with vicious light as a sinister smile etched itself onto his face. Clenching his fists his figure vanished from sight. Seeing his opponent initiate the fight, the beast-man’s body flashed and disappeared.

The two continued to battle. The impact of their fight resulted in a lot destruction as their figures could be seen flashing in and out of the forest. Sounds of *BOOM! BOOOM!! BOOM!!* could be heard as the trees and earth were being destroyed. Everywhere they appeared caused destruction.

The impact of their clashes caused shockwaves to develop and spread out across the plains. As the fight continued the Beast-man became more and more wary of Daelos’s strength. At first he could barely keep up with his speed but as the fight dragged out, Daelos was slowly adapting to it. This revelation shocked him as his intent to kill the human rose.

An hour passed and the fight had finally reached the point of being called outrageous!! The entire forest was gone, burnt to the ground after Daelos had recklessly used the law of fire in his attacks. Currently he was covered in wind armour, a layer of earth skin and formless vibrations. Rows upon rows of fireballs shot towards the bloodied beast-man like a never ending torrent. The beast-man’s current appearance could be described as nothing more than miserable. Blood coated his fur, he was missing several teeth and some of his claws had been ripped off. Somehow managing to dodge all the fireballs aimed at him, the beast-man felt his body slowly succumbing to fatigue.

I have to end this now!!

Pushing his body past its limit, he closed the gap between the two and intended to end it with a final clash. Unfortunately before he reached Daelos, images of his friends and family being tortured appeared in his mind. Their screams pierced his soul as their flesh was stripped from their bodies. He watched as their bones were crushed and twisted, he watched as they were fed their own organs and he watched as flesh eating bugs devoured them from the inside out!

Pain assailed his heart as he fell to his knees. The light in his eyes slowly drained as his body collapsed and turned cold.

Lowering his arm the purple light on his ring dispersed as Daelos turned away from the body and left the ruined forest.

In the distance far away from the battle, bodies of several beast-men lay still, never to move again.