“Alright.” Myrn said as Ivan and Davian followed her into the forest.

Myrn had her bow out, and her staff was once again reduced to the size of a wand at her belt. Ivan was amazed at the way Myrn's Druid and Ranger Jobs worked to make her practically soundless and leave no tracks as she made her way through the forest.

“This is where I believe you're supposed to tell us about the plan before we just find ourselves up top of a very angry tiger isn't it Myrn?” Davian asked.

“Well yeah, but it will mostly be me unless Isaac needs to defend you.” Myrn retorted.

Davian sighed, and drew out his silver rapier.

“Perhaps I should just start singing then? Seriously, what is the plan?” Davian first joked, and then grew serious.

Myrn chuckled. That very much wasn't the answer Davian was looking for.

“The creature's hurt Davian.” Ivan said with a chuckle. “Likely it's bedded down somewhere it feels safe. It might be hungry and aggressive too right now which makes it doubly dangerous. It could go after a child seeking out weak prey it can take down with as little effort as possible. We have to find it, and kill it as fast as we can.”

“I understand that, but can't it smell and hear us?”

Myrn gave Davian a dry look.

“What?”

“She's been dealing with the smell.” Ivan answered. “Didn't you notice her making all those wild plants flower and bloom, and how they didn't move out of the way at her insistence when we came into the forest?”

Davian sighed.

“I thought she was showing off. Again.” He answered dryly.

Myrn's dry look turned into a dry smirk.

“And as far as the sound goes you're the worst by far. Are you even trying to watch where you're stepping?” Ivan asked.

“I'm following you two!” Davian complained.

“You have been outside of cities before haven't you?” Ivan asked.

“City boys...” Myrn sighed.

Davian drew in a breath, and actually puffed out his chest.

“I've been hiking and camping plenty of times in my day. I'll have you know. I was quite an outdoors-man back--” He cut off as branches in the trees above him crackled ominously.

Myrn giggled.

Ivan rolled his eyes.

“A hike through a city park is a little different than living near and around the forest. You've got to know what to look for, plants, trees, and bushes can even be dangerous out here. They can give you all sorts of rashes and nasty afflictions too if you're not careful. So watch your step at least. I need Hedge Doctor levels, but if you trip and crack your skull on a rock there's only so much I can do for you.” Ivan clarified.

Davian's shoulders slumped. He looked up at the branches above him sadly. He stepped back a moment, and a heavy dead branch came down. It landed in front of him, and he patiently pushed it out of the way.

“Funny...that branch was protected from the wind.” Myrn said, her face twisting. She shook it and looked at Davian with a mix of concern. She had a strange smile on her face too like she was going to burst out in giggles again.

She looked at Davian, and opened her mouth to speak. And then frowned. She almost laughed, and then shook her head. She looked to Davian again.

Davian's eyes went wide, and he started shaking his head. That didn't do anything to aid in quieting Myrn's thoughts, but Ivan stepped in.

“Probably best not to overthink things Myrn.” Ivan said, stepping into her line of sight to Davian.

“Awww...i wanted to see what would happen.” Penelope whined.

Ivan ignored her.

“On to the hunt?” Ivan asked.

Myrn frowned, and Ivan came close.

“Right. Don't talk about it.” Myrn whispered to him, and nodded to herself.

Ivan looked over his shoulder, and smiled at Davian.

“Good thing that didn't come down on your head. You're lucky.” Ivan said, his voice normal, but some opacity in his intent.

Davian's eyes went a little wide, but he quickly acted to keep away from the triggers of the Entropy curse.

“Yes. Good thing I heard something and stepped back to look up. The afternoon light..it was in my eyes you see.” He said, his false excuse obvious to the ear, but it worked.

Myrn frowned at the two of them, but Ivan just pushed her onward. She went readily enough.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

About an hour later Davian was staring at his rapier in disappointment about thirty feet back from a small overgrown cave dug out of the soft mountain earth.

“Draw it out again Isaac!” Myrn called. “Be ready to blossom and spring! Longbow pods!” Myrn chanted, casting her hand out over the surroundings before drawing another arrow from her quiver.

Ivan stepped forward with sword and dagger in hand. He had no armor, but that didn't seem to bother him. He could move rather quickly now with the agility boosts thief gave him atop of his other combat job that also boosted the attribute to a lesser degree.

Ivan growled and stomped his foot, which appeared to be all the chant required for the warrior skill, Provoke to take effect. It was a strange skill that naturally didn't require mana, but could in fact use it. Fighter and Knight both had skills like that, building on a pattern that really showed itself once the Jobs were advanced to Expert Class. The ability to weave mana into standard martial abilities allowed Ivan to crank up their effects by investing a certain amount of magic to empower its effects.

There were many magical jobs that specialized in doing just this, but there were many marital abilities that included this as a standard feature. Perhaps to promote the use of magic regardless of job type, and perhaps it was just something that had changed over the years. It was an interesting line of thought as Jobs and their abilities were recorded to have very different skill and even attribute gains when raised by men and women of different cultures.

None of that conjecture helped Ivan right now though.

What he did was invest the mana into the ability and get ready to strike.

The Jungle Tiger growled, and even though it had been wounded by the bull as they thought the creature was hardly slowed at all. It came at Ivan, unable to resist the call of his Provoke ability once Ivan invested it with mana.

Ivan dodged back out of the range of its pounce and heard the snapping pops of Myrn's Longbow Pods, and that of her bow. Myrn's green and white flecked arrow flew past Ivan and hit the creature in the chest. Her Longbow Pods, strange oblong watermelon sized seed pods sprung open sending their shells flying, and throwing a pointed wooden dart each at her chosen foe at the same moment.

The creature was hammered by Myrn's shot, and then pummeled to the ground by the equally deadly flying darts of the Longbow Pods. Ivan's new Thief ability, Window of Opportunity, showed itself in combat then for one of the first times Davian had seen. Ivan hardly hesitated, and dashed forward with speed that startled the Bard.

The combination of strength and speed Ivan had made the professional athletes of Davian's home look heavy and dull. Ivan's glinting red knife sank into the eye of the creature and his sword plunged into its ribcage driving it further into the ground.

The great cat had to be about twelve hundred pounds. It was a great and huge thing, and would have been able to drag off Master Vel's two thousand pound Bison animals with no trouble. Davian just stared, holding his rapier, and watching as Ivan wrenched and twisted his blade out of the still living animals' hide. The strange glinting red blade had popped and carved out the creature's eye as well, but still, for a few ponderous steps before it fell, the great beast held on.

In an almost sickening display of fortitude it held on and actually stood on its own in spite of its injuries.

“Get back Isaac.” Myrn ordered, drawing another arrow.

Ivan was already moving, and had his weapons ready, his strange cloak wafting about him as if it were under water. The effect was strange and gave his movements a curious floating appearance.

The creature roared then. A last cry of defiance, Davian thought, but no. The trees and grass withered around it, and plant life spilled from the beast's back and wounds. Leaves and vine hung from its fur and whiskers now, and it was furious. Drained, but furious.

Myrn hit it again with a shot from her longbow, and then summoned twisted gnarled roots from the ground with a whip like action of her shooting hand. The roots snared and bound the creature as it tried to stand and regenerate itself, everything but it's missing eye healing in moments as it drained the forest around it of life. Curiously though, its magic had no effect on the roots or forest near Myrn.

Her blue eyes were alight with an intensity that could only be matched by Isaac's own gaze in the Bard's opinion. Her hair....her was alive with life, growing, and flowering, and moving like a living tendril of her magic. He watched, dumbfounded, as the pair worked in almost perfect tandem. Ivan made his dagger vanish for a moment and cast a hand out.

“Steal!” He cried and bit off a curse as for the second time this fight the ability seemed to have failed.

“Keep trying.” Myrn ordered. “Have anything for its regeneration other than that nasty dagger?”

“Yeah I got something.” Ivan answered, barely audible over the creatures growling and roaring as it struggled against the vines.

Myrn's darts and arrows were being pushed out of its body now, but she was replacing them with fresh shafts as quickly as she could manage. She even threw out her hand with each shot to summon more of the Longbow Pods over the ground and in the trees around them.

Ivan's sword disappeared this time, and he brought out the dagger again. There were no sheaths at his belt, they just came and vanished into that damned cloak of his.

Davian watched as the strangely intense young man put his hand over that deadly, darkly shining, red blade.

“Conjure Poison, Hemlock Tar. Imbue Weapon.” He chanted, the shadowy tendrils of magic leaving his fingers without being noticed by their caster, and a sickening dark green film traced over the blade. Davian raised his eyebrows at that, and remained where he was, ready with his rapier. More or less. As he had been ordered.

“Hurry. It's breaking loose.” Myrn urged.

Ivan nodded, and took up the knife in both hands. His cloak billowed, practically swimming about him in a distracting display, before he feinted left and then rushed right as Myrn fired yet again. The creature screamed, the sound just a pained yowling instead of a roar. It seemed now to have taken far too much punishment for any creature to survive, but the two of them kept at it relentlessly, beating the thing into the ground.

Ivan's display seemed to have turned the beasts' attention for just a moment, and then Myrn's shot buried itself into the creature's chest and vital areas with a smack of impact Davian associated with the deadly weapons of his modern world. Ivan used that chance to close on the creature and he practically disemboweled the thing, dagger flashing as he flanked with blinding speed, though the wound only dripped blackened ichor and the trailing ends of damaged organs when he danced away from it.

Still the damned green tiger held on. Ivan's dagger shone with a disturbing light, but the man himself was grinning. Clearly he was satisfied with the massive damage he had dealt.

The tiger broke its left paw free, it turned, arching its whole body, and swiped for Ivan, but he danced back easily as its other feet remained bound. Myrn's next arrow took the great creature in the skull, and it finally looked like things were at an end. Still Ivan surged forward as the beast lost its focus on him, stunned instead of killed outright by the arrow to the brain.

Ivan dashed forward in a flash, that damned red dagger becoming nothing but a scarlet blur as Ivan slashed the creature's neck. No blood sprayed from the wound, but the creature's eyes suddenly went dull and gray, as if life had suddenly been drained out of them.

Davian still knew the man as Isaac the thief, but Myrn was clearly impressed, and Davian himself completely stunned. The efficient brutality was one thing, but Ivan was back and standing near Myrn now. The movement of twenty paces was done in about four sprinting steps. The pair were on guard and ready to keep fighting.

Though Ivan looked sweaty, that was all. He looked ready to fight on for some time. Even Myrn only looked as though she had begun to fight. Davian frowned at his deadly rapier. He had been amazed at his ability to move and fight when he practiced, even with his one versatile job and his under-leveled Sound Spark, but these two were just...insane really. And that creature...this new world was insane. He would need to step up or learn to be satisfied when he was left behind.

The creature finally began to die, but Myrn drew another arrow anyway. As it slumped, and lost the will to fight she planted another arrow into its skull, and began a slow circuit around its side. The next arrow landed in its ribcage as it finally seemed to lay dead upon the ground.

“Its wounds aren't closing, but it's not bleeding all that much. That's you though right?” Myrn asked.

“Yes.” Ivan answered. “I may have gotten its spleen and vena cava when I hit its vitals.”

Myrn drew yet a third arrow, and waited. Finally, after a few quiet moments she relaxed and returned the arrow to her quiver.

“That weapon is nasty, and I say that knowing my bowstring poisons all of my arrows.” Myrn said, as Ivan approached. “What is it?”

He gave her a sly smile and the weapon disappeared into his cloak. In his own mind Ivan hadn't been sure about showing off the cloak and dagger too much, but Penelope had convinced him it fit with his assumed persona as 'Isaac'. The greater effects of the Shroud would be hidden still, and the dagger's presence was no more strange than any magic item that others had. At least at a glance. A priest or priestess able to get the dagger away from the Shroud and its ability to hide demonic presences would be another story.

“An old ritual athame.” Ivan said with a smile.

“So you stole it?” Myrn asked dryly.

“Borrowed technically. The owner knows I have it.” He said with a grin.

Myrn smiled, but shook her head.

Myrn certainly seemed to like Ivan, or 'Isaac' as Davian knew him, but Davian couldn't shake a last little niggling doubt just yet. 'Isaac' seemed to know more than he let on, or maybe knew more magic than he suggested he did. Maybe such a thing was natural considering the dark, bloody, and shadowy nature of the magic he used, but that wasn't what bothered Davian.

It was a mixed bag of feeling, but 'Isaac' knew more or less about his curse, and that was concerning. He seemed to have figured it out in moments, and it was hard for Davian to even think about his blasted condition without getting a feeling like a storm was rolling in just for him. Ultimately Davian liked Isaac, he was a bit odd, but he was charismatic, and seemed to have a decent sense of humor. But like almost everyone he met in recent days 'Isaac' carried those rough edges of pain just on the edge of sensing that told Davian he had once been a follower of Istania.

And that brought more doubts and questions, but it was all on shaky ground. Davian tried not to trouble himself with it and focus on the task at hand. Which was unfortunate.

“Okay. Time to skin this thing.” Myrn said happily.

Ivan was already pushing up his sleeves.

Davian groaned, and did his best to keep his stomach from abandoning his breakfast.