############################################################################# ============================================================================= ############################################################################# o---o o-----o o----o o | o-----o o---o o------o | / | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | | | / | | | | | | | \ | | | | | | | |/ o---o | | | | \ | | | o---o | | o |\ o-----o | --o | \ | o-----o |\ | | |\ | \ | | | | | \ | | | | \ | | | \ | \ | | | | | \| | | | \ | | | \ | \ | | o----o | o | | | \ o------o | \ o------o o | | ----o---- o | o----- | | |\ | | | |\ | | | | | \ | | | | \ | | | | | \ | | | | \ | o----- | | | \ | | | | \ | | | | | \ | | | | \ | | | | | \| | | | \| | o------o | o o----- ----o---- | o o----- ############################################################################### #xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX# _______________________ #XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx# #//////////////////////# "Shadows" #\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\# #\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\# By Slayer Z #//////////////////////# #xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX# ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ #XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx# ############################################################################### The land of the Prontera Field was dark and rainy, for the sun had began to set upon the area. Three adventurers had come upon a large Geffen Forest that had not been explored in several months. There was an evil aura about it... "Hey, are you sure this is it?" asked the male swordsman, A.D. "This is the place where the orcs lay?" "I'm very sure" replied the female thief, June, who had been guiding them to the forest from Prontera. "I've been in here several times myself, and personally, I think you guys are crazy for trying to go in here." She looked at A.D., "Especially you" "Me?!" he asked surprisingly. "You've known me long enough to know I live for the danger! Besides, I've encountered orcs before" he laughed. "Whatever" June said with a grin on her face "Can we like, hurry it up? I hate the rain," said the very impatient, male Acolyte, Maxwell. He had his arm over his head. "Sure Max, we go up ahead... see what else besides orcs are disturbing the forest, and get out. Agreed?" A.D. stated. He was the leader of this party, calling it the 'Slayers'. He started walking toward the forest. "Just be careful A.D. It has been a while since I've been here, a lot could have changed" June called out as he walked forward. Maxwell quickly followed after the brave leader, readying his healing magic for whatever jumps out to attack. He had never encountered an orc, for he had recently become and Acolyte. But he wasn't going to take any chances. A.D. drew his sword after he officially entered the forest, he was wielding a Tsurugi he had bought in Izlude a few months back. A Tsurugi was a very sharp sword, also known as a katana, which is used by experienced samurai knights and swordsmen. He was well capable of weilding it effectively. For a thief, June was moving rather slow, afraid for A.D. and herself, not really caring for the newbie Acolyte. She didn't want to encounter any orcs either, for she remembers the last time it happened, she almost lost her life. A.D. had barely gotten her out of there alive, risking his own life as well. This happened four years ago during a party investigation of the forest. It took her four months to recover. The party walked in silence for quite a while, the trail in front of them extremely muddy and mirky, the dark forest seemed to swarm down at them. Branches of trees swooped back and forth through the stormy weather, but to A.D., it was the perfect mood for an ambush. They came across a small pond under a large tree, the little bit of land in between was almost completely dry. "Sir A.D., may we stop here?" Maxwell asked. "Whoa, first off, it's just A.D. Hmm.. what do you think, June?" he asked her. "Fine with me," the thief said, swinging back her emerald green hair. "Alright then" A.D. began, "Lets..." There was a sound of a branch snapping was heard from behind them, catching all three adventurers attention. A.D. immediately jumped into position in front of the other two and readied his sword, fully clutching the handle. "Come out!" he shouted, with his teeth gritted under a serious face. The bangs of his blonde hair falling down below his eyes. Rain water running off his head. "Guys, watch it." A shadow that had appeared only when the lightning struck in caught the eye of the young swordsman. Nobody could mistake that shadow, his slight glimpse was enough to tell him that it was an orc. The large, monstrous, green creature came out from behind a tree, clutching a large axe and a shield. It grunted, looking around for the human voices it heard June and Maxwell's eyes widened, this guy was huge, bigger then what any of them had ever seen before. "A.D.... It must have heard us! Now what?" Maxwell asked. "Shh.. stay quiet, take cover behind that tree, maybe the rain will keep him occupied enough for us to hide" A.D. commanded. All three of them slowly backed away behind the tree, taking advantage of the sound of thunder with every step. The orc wouldn't go back to his tree; it was set on finding the human it heard. They finally ducked behind the tree. "What did you do that for?!" June silently yelled at him. "I just wanted to see how many there were, June. Calm down" A.D. replied "So what now?" Maxwell asked. "This... you two stay here" A.D. commanded The swordsman took his sword and went back around the tree and stood in front of it where they were at. The orc had its back turn to him. A.D. stood tall... "Hey hey hey!!" he shouted to the orc, who quickly turned his head to see the human he seeked. "Gotcha!" A.D. said excitedly as the orc made eye contact with him. He snapped his fingers, as a spark of light flashed from his hand. The orc suddenly charged at him, roaring as he stampeded to his victim. "Yeah.. common' ugly!" joked A.D., snapping his fingers again, causing the orc to charge faster at him. "What are you doing?!" Maxwell shouted out to him. Just then, the orc swung his axe at the swordie, A.D. ducked in time for the axe to strike into the tree behind him. As the orc struggled to get it out, A.D. made his move and swiped his sword across the orc's hand. It's whole hand fell off, which too the shield with it. The orc shouted in pain, it quick struggling with the axe and swung it's massive arm at A.D., who reacted by shielding it with his shield, knocking him against the tree. "Ugh! Damn! Better then being pulverized!" he thought to himself. "No! Let me go!" A.D. heard June shout behind the tree. The orc kept throwing punches at A.D. who braced all of them with the shield on his arm. The orc then backhanded A.D. into the small pond, who quickly shrugged it off. "Holy god, you guys hit hard!" A.D. shouted at the orc. "Time to put an end to this!" The one-armed orc, now armed with his axe, charged at swordie. It charged through the pond and swiped massively at A.D., who luckily ducked just in time to avoid being be-headed. He rolled behind the mad orc as he recovered from the swing and delivered a fierce kick to it's back, bashing it into another tree. A.D. retrieved his sword and ran at the orc, it turned back around only to feel the sharp blade run through it's stomach, pinning it to the tree. The orc let out a very loud cry, a cry that could only mean the death of it. A.D. clutched the handle and pulled his sword out. He swung around, his back facing the orc, breathing heavily from the battle he had just won. The orc fell over dead, it landed with a thud. A.D. stood, lightning flashing across the dark sky, and rain pouring down harder then ever. The victorious man sheathed his sword and readjusted the shield on his arm. "Puh.. that's it?" he said, disappointed. He started back over to the tree where he left his friends. As he closed in, he could hear June yelling at Maxwell; "What if he dies, huh?! Let me go you moron! This IS an orc we're talking about!! ARE YOU BRAINDEAD?!" June shouted at Maxwell, surely to wake everything in the forest. "Now let me go!" Maxwell let her go as A.D. jumped over the large root behind June and landed behind her, covering her mouth with his hand. "Keep it down!" he whispered loudly in her ear. "Do you want to wake the whole forest!" Just then... roars of many orcs and other creatures were heard in all directions, frightening the adventurers out. It was going to be a long night. A.D. turned his head to look around for more orcs, he had found none, only the severe war cries they made when one of there comrades fall. June pushed A.D. into the tree "You big jerk! God!" she shouted quietly A.D. chuckled.. "Wha-a-at?" "What now? You just got the attention of EVERY orc in this forest, what are you going to do?!" She yelled. "We'll stay in hiding, you hear that one orc cry? It sounded much different from the others. Much stronger of a yell then the others." he replied coolly. "Yeah, I heard it as well..." Maxwell started. "Oh my god.. it's probably the hero! It's much stronger, faster, and much more int.. int.. intelligent then the others! We should've never come here!" June exclaimed. She clutched her hands together, trying to settle down from all the fearful shaking going through her body. "A.D.! We have to get out now! It can track down much faster then the others!" A.D. slowly put a hand over her two shaky ones, then he spoke softly, "Calm down, June. We're going to make it out of here... alive. It will take some fighting, but we can slip out of here without getting the hero's attention. I can walk slowly... you can hide..." He looked at Maxwell, "You just stick beside me and don't use anything flashy. Understand?" "Yeah, I got ya, A.D." Maxwell said, nodding in agreement. "Um... When do we go?" Suddenly, a gigantic orc hand slammed into the side of the tree right behind him. The orc wasted no time showing it's big, ugly face and letting off a ferocious roar, calling the attention of the other orcs. "Now would be fine!" A.D. shouted. All three adventurers jumped out of their places and headed back down the trail. It didn't' take long before a dozen orcs had seen them start to run. June had taken full advantage of her thief agility and had ran ahead of the both of the fighters, she was more of a scout. Maxwell kept in-between the two to heal one or the other quickly. "Keep running!" A.D. shouted, keeping behind both of his friends to prevent attacks. The heavy rain didn't make the trip any easier. "Um.. A.D.! We have trouble!" June shouted in front of them, who had come to a complete stop right close to the entrance of the forest. The other two fighters halted soon after. There was another group of a dozen orcs in front of them as well! There was nowhere to run. "Well, this is it!" A.D. said. "We fight them here.. or we die! *Personally, I like the odds* June, what does this hero look like? Anyone of these guys?" June looked at all the bloodthirsty beasts "No, it's... somewhat bigger, more protection on it's body" June stated. "None of these fit the picture." "Righto! Maxwell... we might need your support! You standby and heal us as we need it!" A.D. ordered. "The second we bust these guys... we're getting out of here!" "Alright, A.D.!" Maxwell shouted back at him. A.D. drew his sword, as well as adjusting his shield. June drew the Gladius she was wielding and set her buckler straight. The Gladius is a favorite knife among thieves and archers. June was well aware of it's strength, and bound and determined to take down the orcs. Maxwell got behind and tree to stay out of the way. He couldn't do much damage when it came to a hoard of orcs, but he could aim his healing spells almost perfectly. "Grahh!" yelled the head orc. "Grah.. kasato! Ben kanova sanata!! (Hah, strong. You know what to do though!) The other orcs grunted in agreement, the human fighters had no idea what they had just said. "Saaahhh!" shouted the head orc. All of the other orcs charged towards A.D. and June, shouting loudly at them "Typical orc behavior" June said coolly. "Split off! Maxwell.. stay out of sight and follow June!" A.D. ordered, taking off into the forest, the backgroup of orcs charging right after him. Maxwell nodded and dodged out of sight without the orcs seeing him. June took position, the orcs coming right at her, most of the twelve reached her at the same time and took a swipe down at her. When they came too, she wasn't there. They looked around, puzzled at what had just happened. "Hi-ya!" An orc helm fell off onto the ground, the owner of it soon after. With a death-cry, the orc had fallen over with a stab wound to the head. This immediately brought June out of her hiding. "Envenom!" she shouted, enchanting her dagger with poison, tossing it behind her into the gut of another orc. It died quickly after it was injected into him. She backflipped over and retrieved the dagger. A force that could've easily equaled the force of 20 men slammed into her... sending her against a tree. "Ahh!" she shouted out in pain. She felt limp, could barely move after that blow. The same orc that hit her proceeded toward her. She was a goner, couldn't gather the strength to evade it's next attack. The orc proceeded faster and wasted no time slicing a final blow at the young thief. It was over. But suddenly, she felt much better, and had enough time to jump and evade the attack. The orc smashed it's axe into the ground, creating a 9 inch cut in the wet soil. June picked up her knife and swiftly sliced the neck of the orc, it fell over dead. June looked over to see the small sparks of a healing spell flaring from Maxwell's fingers. He gave her a thumbs up; he healed her in time for her to evade the attack. She fought on bravely. The other hero had his hands full keeping the other group of orcs in check. They looked around, they couldn't find the brave swordie in the dark forest. They grunted to each other in confusion and frustration. "Hah.. stupid asses" A.D. thought to himself as he observed the orcs from above, he had ran ahead of them and jumped into a nearby tree to stay out of sight. He was doing a good job. The orcs continued looking, not even glancing into the trees. Orcs weren't the smartest creatures, but they were mad strong. A.D. unsheathed his sword and held it in front of him, blade down. He let it go as it sliced through the helm and into the head of a random orc. It fell over dead, the other orcs glanced around. A.D. jumped off the tree and landed on another orc's head, pushing it in and snapping it's neck. As he jumped off and landed on the ground, the second orc fell over dead. He retrieved his sword and looked around. To his surprise, the orcs were heading back in the other direction. "Oh no! June! Maxwell!" A.D. realized they were headed back to their direction. He quickly sheathed his sword and started off after the orcs, his friends were in big trouble if the intentions in his head of what the orcs were doing came true. June was also surprised, the orcs had stopped attacking almost at the same time the other ones had stopped attacking A.D. She turned around to see the other group of orcs, short of two come back to meet their comrades. They just walked right by her as she stood completely still. A.D. followed quickly afterwards, coming to a stop behind June, both observing what the massive creatures were doing. The remaining orcs lined up in front the entrance to the forest and began to chant, they placed their massive hands in front of their eyes and began to stomp their feet. With a remaining fifteen orcs left, they split off and went around the two fighters and made another line behind them. A.D. and June were stunned, they weren't sure what they were doing. "What now?" June asked, concerned of retaliation. "Not sure... don't attack yet though. We don't know what's going to happen." "Ok..." June replied carefully, standing straight, watching the orcs dance. It wasn't long when they stopped chanting, when they divided and dispatched into the forest. "What are they doing?" Maxwell called out from behind the tree he was in "I don't know!" A.D. replied, "Just stay the...." "A.D!!!" June shouted, stepping back a little A.D.'s quickly turned his head back to where it was, his eyes widened before the biggest orc he'd had ever seen. He began to step back along with June. "It's... it's... it's... the he, hero!" June sagging to her knees, close to crying. "Maxwell! Give me a sight spell, I want a good look at this guy!" ordered A.D. "Sure!" he replied. "Sight!" He twirls his fingers around as a bright light shined infront of the orc, illuminating the whole area. She was right, the orc was much bigger then all of the others. It's outfit contained of the best armor, including a tan turban-like helm with a mask that covered half of it's face. The hood contained hundreds of extremely long tan feathers that covered the entire hood. It wore a giant tan breast plate across it's massive body, along with a matching color shield that protected it's whole body. Its legs were covered with a tan outfit as well, making it the toughest looking orc A.D. and Maxwell had even seen. "IS that an orc?!" Maxwell called out to them. "It sure doesn't look like an ordinary orc!" A.D. called back. "It's because that's it's no..." Before June could finish, the hero let out a deep ear-piercing roar, which had all three people covering their ears. A.D. drew his sword. "We're not out of this yet!" he called out, pointing his sword at the hero. "You're going down with all your other friends!" He was bold and determined to take down this new enemy he was about to face. June drew her gladius, despite all of her fear of orcs. She stood ready to fight. It was just they, the orc hero, and the rain in a forest of evil. The orc charges, A.D. was amazed at how fast it was running, he had little time to defend himself before the orc slammed into him. He was sent backwards, face first into the ground. A few seconds later, June was sent to the ground right beside him. "Ow! Jeez, he packs a punch!" June complained, rubbing her cheek. "Yeah, I know... whoa watch out!" The hero was on the move again, swinging his gigantic orc-ish axe at the two humans. A.D jumped out in front of June, attempting to block the attack. The axe struck, A.D. shield split diagonally in half, falling into the mud below him. "...Bummer..." said A.D. The orc quickly followed up the attack with a punch to the swordsman's face, sending him further back. June gritted her teeth and charged swiftly at the hero, she attacked quickly, but inflicting very little damage. The orc chuckled evilly, June got a little concerned. She attacked once more to his face, the hero grabbed the dagger out of her hand, and crushed it. He then tossed it aside like a broken toy. "That's not good..." she said with her eyes wide open. The orc swiped at her, but she dodged it and jumped back to A.D. who was just recovering from the hit he took. "What now, A.D.?" June asked, who helped him up. "I don't know... this guy is too fast! We need a plan." He turned to Maxwell, who was standing behind the same tree. From the look on his face, A.D. could tell that Maxwell was tempted to jump out and do what he could, knowing that whatever he did would only become a problem. His face then lit up. "A.D.!" He called out, catching the hero's attention as well. "Maxwell!! Keep quiet! Do you wanna' be...!" The orc turned around and threw his axe at A.D. The unfortunate swordsman failed to see it coming. All June could see what her friend fly back with an axe in his chest. Her eyes widened. "A.D.!!!" She yelled. Maxwell had to turn his head to avoid being sick. He didn't get up, the orc hero yelled with victory. It raised it's arms and let out a war cry, one to let all the others know that he had done it. He suddenly disappeared into the woods like thin air. June and Maxwell were confused, they didn't know what to say about it. "Whenever it kills an intruder... it must be satisfied and leaves?" Maxwell thought to himself. June rushed to A.D.'s side, the orc's axe was in his chest; he was barely alive. June could barely keep her eyes on him also. A.D. summoned enough strength to pull the axe out of his chest, leaving a wide vertical gash. He was coughing up blood. To June's surprise, he looked up at her and smiled. "Heheh... They got me, June" A.D. said "Don't say that!" She said, hot tears filling in her eyes. "Save your strength!" "It's too late for me... I've already stopped feeling the pain." A.D. stated, his voice growing weaker. "I've served my time... I protected the lands, and with the help of Maxwell... you can too, June. These lands are dangerous." "I know, A.D.! I told you about the hero... but you're so stubborn, you don't even listen! Common... I'm going to save you!" Maxwell was slowly walking towards the two, trying to keep his eyes off the wounded A.D. "It's ok, June... now you know what you're up against." A.D. began again. "No A.D.! I'm NOT coming back to fight this thing." June yelled back. "Look what he did to you! You have to help me!" "Sorry June..." Maxwell said, coming up behind him. "Not even my curing spells can save him." "Hah, at least you're honest" A.D. chuckled slightly, he let go of the axe handle he was clenching. "Now both of you... get out of here. They're... ugh... coming... the door is open to this forest." "But..." June began. "Get out of here!!" A.D. yelled at them. Those were his last words. Soon after, his head went loose and slowly he drifted down. His eyes closed and June felt his heart stop beating, even through his plate mail. June closed her eyes to keep from crying. "Common June... the exit is right there, lets go" June nodded, she kissed A.D. on the head and began to walk. The cry of the orcs had just began to get closer. She quickly got up and exited the forest, where the orcs wouldn't follow. The rain has stopped finally, the clouds were still above them. "You ok, June?" Maxwell asked. "Yeah, I'm fine... We're coming back here..." June said. "What?! Are you crazy?!" Maxwell shouted. "Yes.. I'll do it myself if I have too, im coming back here to avenge his death. The day will come... and I'm going to kill that orc hero." June said with determination. "Only if you're sure" Maxwell told her. "I'll stick by you till the day comes." "Thank you, Maxwell. Mark my words... he's going down!" ################################################################################## ================================================================================== ################################################################################## *~*~*~*~*~*~* # _____ # # | Fin | # # ŻŻŻŻŻ # *~*~*~*~*~*~* ################################################################################## ================================================================================== ##################################################################################