The trees rustled in the night sky. The place was dark, scary and quiet, except for the hooting of owls and the howling of dire-wolves. The wind blew strongly such that it sent a chill down the spine of anyone who entered the dark territory. Panting loudly, with blood trickling down his face and armor, he ran through the forest. He did not look back; he just kept on running. He was terrified; his party was brutally murdered. He had to run back. `Retreat`, he thought. He knew he couldn't face the king. `A defender must never retreat`, was the motto. The defender didn't care; in fact, he was glad. He wanted to quit. He didn't want to fight the dark anymore. He wanted nothing to do with the war. He fled as fast as he could on his injured leg. He gritted his teeth as the pain lingered throughout his body. He held his left arm. It was severed from the elbow, bleeding profusely. He felt something move behind him. Heard the ground crunch loudly. He looked back but saw nothing. The defender ran faster, hoping to get to the other side. The light. The monsters couldn't go out in broad daylight. He would be safe over there. He would be safe in Alcon. He heard a loud growl. He looked back again. He saw nothing once more. He knew whatever was behind him was big and approaching fast. He scanned the area behind him. His foot met a rock below. The world seemed to tilt over as he fell down, hitting his head hard on the ground. He felt dizzy, his vision blurry. He wanted to get up, but his muscles ached. Every movement was difficult for him. He struggled to lift up his head. He could see the sunlight outside the forest. Barely managed to get on his knees, when he heard it, a low gnarl that seemed to shake the very earth beneath him. He looked back once more. His eyes widened in fear. Sweat trickled down his face. Staring into its eyes was like looking at fear itself. It made his legs get weaker. It was a large dire-wolf standing about eight meters. Its fur was as dark as the sky, and its eyes red like blood. Its bloodlust, commonly called sakki began to rise, sending a chill down the defender. A black flame (dark energy) engulfed its body. Dark energy is magical energy or maryoku that has been corrupted or born from corrupted maryoku. Its common name was yoryoku .It is seen as a dull, black colour like a shadow to awakeners. Every monster has dark energy. Bloodlust or sakki is a type of dark energy only common to monsters. Its colour red to the awakeners eye. It's what drives a monster to be ferocious without mercy, thirsty for blood. It frightens the host, and can disrupt the function of the nervous system. The host becomes paralyzed. The stronger the monster, the greater the sakki. A scar run down through its left eye. It gave a long loud howl, releasing its sakki through the forest. The defender struggled to move. He struggled to run. Suddenly, he heard several crunches in different directions. Shadows moved through the forest. He was surrounded. His head tilted towards every crunch, towards every dashing shadow. He had to move fast. He turned and began to sprint towards the city. He looked left. A dire-wolf matched his speed, and slowly branched towards him. There were more around him. Alcon was thirty meters away. He gritted his teeth in pain. 'Why isn't it healing fast?', he asked himself. 'I can't outrun them like this.' His heart beat faster. He began to calm himself down. He exhaled as he sprinted. "I'm not dying here." He said in a low voice, his eyes glowing red. He gritted his teeth and stretched out his other arm. "DO YOU HEAR ME, BASTARDS! I A'INT DYING HERE!" He screamed out in anger as a tiny flame appeared upon his shoulder.
"KAKUSEI…..JIGOKU-KEN"
(AWAKEN...SWORD OF HELL)
The flames began to spread over his arm and emerged out of his palm in a long thin line. The flame blazed and materialized into a sword. A spatha. The flames began to spread over his entire body, engulfing him in flames. The dire-wolf dashed fast towards the defender, with its jaws opened wide to devour him. The defender jumped fast, to the air above, just in time to escape, what could have been the end. He flipped his blade, so that it now pointed down below. For he was aiming to plunge the blade through the neck of the fallen dire-wolf that crushed against the ground in an attempt to gobble him up. The defender powered himself down with his flames. His hair waving through the air and his eyes burning with rage and fire, as he dropped down on the dire-wolf before it could rise to its feet. His blade went through its neck and sank into the earth beneath. The dire-wolf howled in pain, but the defender silenced its screams immediately by setting it up in flames. It disappeared into a thick black smoke. Another dire-wolf jumped in the air and slowly began descending upon him with its jaws open wide. The defender stretched his blade, JIGOKU-KEN back and swung up as he screamed,
"RIBERU FUREA"
(REBEL FLARE)
He released a burst of flames that sliced the dire-wolf in two and shot up to the sky. Its body landed lifelessly on the ground and turned to ash. RIBERU FUREA is a technique that defies the laws of gravity. The flare is not influenced by any external force so its speed is fast and constant, and the slice instant. The defender scanned the area immediately. There was more. He wasn't done yet. He jumped left, to evade a dire-wolf, turned and swang his blade down. It`s head dropped to the ground, and it disappeared into black smoke. He began to move fast towards Alcon, slicing along the way. He moved with skill and experience. Swinging in different directions to clear the dire-wolves. A wrong move could be fatal. He couldn't let his party's sacrifice go to vain. The king needed to know. It was a trap. The entire army was murdered, along with his party. 'I can't die here', he told himself. He gritted his teeth and sprinted faster. He turned back partially, thrusted JIGOKUN-KEN behind him and released a spray of fire from the tip of the sword. The flame immediately swallowed the dire-wolf and turned it to ash. He fired fire balls to the dire-wolves that pressed on at his sides. He can't stop to face them. The priority was to deliver the message. In the blink of an eye, a dire-wolf appeared right in front of him. The defender skidded to a halt. It was the same dire-wolf from earlier, the one with the scar running down through its left eye. 'This must be their boss', the defender told himself. He gritted his teeth in anger. The dire-wolf growled lowly, its eyes studying the defender. The defender stood firm, ready to attack. He breathed calmly, studying his heart. The dire-wolf howled loudly at the defender, releasing a sonic wave that made the defender scream in pain. He lost his grip on his blade, dropping it to his feet. He placed his palm over his right ear and dropped down to his knees. It was futile. Blood flowed down from both ears, especially his left, since he could not cover it because he had lost his left arm. The dire-wolf stopped and dashed towards the defender. It was fast, moving near the speed of sound. The defender stared at his palm. It was covered in blood. His eyes wavered in fear. His ears were ringing highly. He closed his palm tight and gritted his teeth in anger. He jumped to the left to evade the snapping jaws of the dire-wolf. The second after his foot touched the soil, the dire-wolf appeared before him. The defender's eyes widened in shock. 'Its fast!!'. The dire-wolf immediately knocked him away with a swing of its head. The defender crashed hard against a tree. He coughed out blood. The dire-wolf charged towards him, wasting no time. Time felt slow now. His eyes were blurry, his mind had gone blank. His breathing was slow, but ragged. His heartbeat was unsteady. He could barely move. The hoard of monsters had caught up now, and they began to draw closer to the helpless defender. They held different kinds of weapons; axes, swords, maces, machetes, among others. His back was against the tree, his head was hanging low. He was surrounded. There was nowhere to run now. Then he heard a familiar scream. "MOVE!" He didn't know if it was all in his head. But it woke him up. The defender arose as if from sleep. It was like he just realized he was just a second away from his death. The dire-wolf's jaws were closing in on him. It was too late. His eyes widened. This time not in fear nor surprise, but in anger, blazing furiously.
"JIGOKUN-KEN....
JIGOKU-KEN ( Sword of Hell) disintegrated into tiny glowing red particles and immediately formed from the red flames emerging from the right hand of the defender. The flames began to move up his arm. His eyes were blazing like fire. In a matter of seconds, his whole body was engulfed in flames. His armor turned red hot and his hair itself was fire.
The jaws of the dire-wolf began to shut around him. Like a man closing its palm to crush a fly. He gripped his blade tight and crossed it diagonally in front of him.
…BAKUHATSU"
(EXPLOSION)
There was a loud 'boom'. The wave released from the defender immediately turned everything within a thousand meters to ash. The dire-wolf wailed in pain, as his body was turned to ash. The other monsters; goblins, werewolves, elves, trolls were all wiped out. The trees within the range were reduced to nothing. The defender used "BAKUHATSU". A technique that releases a huge wave of heat and pressure that can burn anything close the the center of release. The intensity and magnitude of the wave depends on the quantity of accumulated heat from fire and pressure from the pain inflicted externally. Every pain inflicted on the defender accumulates and is released as an outward pressure along with heat. This allows fire awakeners to heal faster than most. The defender struggled but rose up to his feet. He made an effort to sprint but he fell back down to his knee. The entire area within a thousand meters was now dust, cleared its of vegetation. In the dark forest that lies before the territory of monsters, all vegetation had been corrupted by dark energy. They had now been turned black. 'Come on! Get up, dammit!' he told himself. He was drained from maryoku. Most of it was used to stop the bleeding from his left arm, and heal his injured leg. The last of it for BAKUHATSU. He was weak and tired. Suddenly, his ear twitched. His eyes widened. 'No...this can't be..how many are out there'. There were numerous crunches from several meters further into the dark forest. His eyes scanned the area behind him. There was a hoard of monsters approaching. Awakeners were known to have higher senses than normal humans. Their senses are three times better than non-awakeners and four or five times better in the case of the higher-ups. He rose up to his feet and began to run, much slower than before but at least he was closer to the edge of the dark forest. The monsters chased after him. Their numbers were so large that their movement emitted vibrations that shook the forest. The defender continued to run. Goblins, trolls, werewolves and reptilians had low dark energy than dire-wolves. They were not much trouble to defenders, except when they hunted in a hoard. They could even injure a B-class. He continued to run. He did not look back. He was almost there. Once he was under the sun, it will all be over. He could see the blue veil that surrounded Alcon. The other half of the forest that stood below the sun was within his reach. The forest was now separated, each half given different names. The sun forest and dark forest. He was now less than five meters away from the sun forest. 'Thank the gods….I made it.' Suddenly, the air whistled as a glowing red arrow zoomed through the forest like a ray of light. Just when he was about to heave a sigh of relief, he felt a sharp pain in his back. The world seemed to tilt as his body crashed against the floor. There was an eerie silence. It was quiet, peaceful. He dragged forward helplessly. Struggling, like every muscle in his body was dead. His arm crossed the veil. Slowly, he began to drag his body to the other side. Suddenly, the arrow jerked forward and moved through his body. It sank deep into the earth. The defender coughed out a large amount of blood immediately. He stopped moving. Blood flowed onto the earth and began to spread around his body. He struggled to even raise his head. A figure knelt down behind the defender. The figure wore shiny steel armor and carried a bow in his hand. He reached down and grabbed his leg with the other. The defender stretched out his only hand towards the sun forest. "Sorry, old friend", the figure said. The defender knew he had heard that voice before, though he couldn't remember. He wanted to turn but couldn't. "But I can't let you go." He began to drag the helpless defender back into the dark forest, leaving behind a trail of blood. 'Lansel…..forgive me'. His final words left his lips as his eyes shut.