Author's note: Enjoy!
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Swish! Swish! Zaran leapt through the forest at high speed, followed by ten men who were completely clad in black, not a single millimetre of their skin to be seen. Among them was one archer who fired arrow upon arrow at Zaran, all of which sped towards him at tremendous speed and automatically homed in on his position. Nonetheless thus far all the arrows had done was slow him down as each and every arrow had been cleanly met by a strike of Zaran's greatsword.
"Goddamnit!" Zaran groaned as he increased his speed to the limits. Every single one of his pursuers was highly skilled and even though he would very easily deal with them in a one versus one, when all of them worked together in a fight Zaran was completely pinned down. Still his attackers had not been able to stop him from fleeing, although he had paid no small price to be able to do so. A large cut ran from his left shoulder all the way to the middle of the chest and it had been nearly deep enough to kill him. He had suppressed the bleeding with his ki and the flesh already started to show signs of healing itself.
Still, with his left side being unusable in battle Zaran had no way to fight back against the ten of them. Now that they were chasing him it would be easier to catch one of guard, but as long as his injury was not healed to some extent he would not be able to utilize his full power, so even if he could kill one of them right now he would not be able to kill the remaining nine.
Zaran grumbled and continued to flee at high speed, trying to gain the time needed to heal his injury, very slowly increasing the distance between himself and his pursuers.
"Darnit! He is starting to slip away!" The leader of the pursuers yelled. "Use the pills!"
All the pursuers tossed a pink pill in their mouths and swallowed. A few seconds passed and suddenly their bodies convulsed as their power and speed drastically increased. The pill they had taken awoke their full potential for a short amount of time, but disable them from ever growing to that potential in the future. Even though all of them knew what would happen to them if they used it, when they took up this mission they already knew that it was very unlikely for the majority to make it back alive, so sacrificing their future potential was the least of their worries. Furthermore... if any of them returned without succeeding their mission a faith far worse than death would befall them and their loved ones.
Seeing his opponent's increase in speed, Zaran muttered curses under his breath and stopped fleeing as his pursuers would swiftly be on to him with their increased speed.
A few seconds later the pursuers encircled him, leaving him with no way out.
Even though all the pursuers had increased in power, Zaran did not worry, his expression growing colder instead. He knew his pursuers had paid no small price to attain their increased power and speed. He calmly stood there, surrounded by his pursuers, his hair slowly swaying back and forth because of the wind.
Zaran sighed as his ki exploded forth from his body and soared into the heavens. A split-second later he raised his greatsword above him and the ki that had exploded forth from him rushed towards the greatsword! The black coloured greatsword quickly started to turn silver with faint golden specks spread all over it.
His pursuers stopped in their tracks the moment Zaran's domineering ki had exploded forth. Before Zaran's demeanour nor ki had been particularly frightening but at the moment... all of them felt like they were in the presence of a god! When the ki started to be absorbed by the greatsword, the greatsword slowly started to emanate an even more terrifying aura than Zaran had been mere moments ago!
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A few seconds and the greatsword finished absorbing Zaran's ki. Solemnly lowering his weapon, Zaran spoke with a weak and shaky voice. "Dance of the butterfly, fourth stance... intent!"
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"Ugfff..." Zaran groaned as his dream was violently disturbed by loud and continuous howling. Huffing and puffing, he sat upright in bed, his whole body soaked in sweat. "Why did I dream of that day?" Zaran though, silently remembering every little detail of that faithful day. A minute later he laid down again, looking at Florance who soundly slept right next to him and who was seemingly unaffected by the howling.
While sleep was not required in the game, it recovered a character's health and resources and provided a minor buff to experience gained and slowed the rate at which stamina was used up.
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To his side Florance moaned as she too woke due to the obnoxious howling.
"What's that noise?" Florance asked while she suppressed a yawn, pressing her body closer to Zaran's, his right arm firmly pressed between her twin peaks.
"I do not know but I cannot sleep like this... I will go check it out." Zaran sighed as he got up and changed into his armour.
With a soft moan Florance got up, with the blanket pressed firmly to her chest. "I will go with you then." Florance said as she donned her tight Gothic dress and equipped her staff.
When the two of them entered the hallway they already found Nuvahn waiting for the two of them. "The sound is coming from the backyard!"
"Let's go!" Zaran said as he headed downstairs and went on this way to the backyard, waking up Kirin, Cindarrah and Kru along the way.
AWWOOOOO AWWWOOOOOO. AWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
In the backyard the howling sounds were even louder than inside the mansion, almost to the point where the noise was ear-deafening. Following the noise, the party arrived at the end of the backyard, where there was a small cemetery surrounded by a metal fence. In the cemetery were only ten graves, each of them belonging to a member of the first owner's family. In front of the biggest grave, which was the first owner's, a large black mass sat and howled, it's body flickering and disappearing every now and then.
"What the? Is that a ghost?" Nuvahn cried out upon seeing the black mass disappear and appear.
Zaran shook his head. "No... it is a living creature.. and not a living creature. When it stands up you will know what I mean."
Sensing the party, the black mass stood up and quietly watched them. Now that it stood, the party could see that the black mass was in fact a wolf. Its body was completely made out of something that looked like black mist. On its face was a pained and weak expression and every now and then it winced, which coincided with the flickering of its body.
"As I guessed... a spectral wolf." Zaran said with a calm expression. "Kirin, go on up and ask what is wrong with it and translate whatever it says back to us."
Kirin nodded and carefully walked towards the spectral wolf.