POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

A loud roar echoed through the chamber almost immediately after the black beast had spotted me. It was a large dog, looking like a large, more muscular pitbull with the tail of a scorpion and large leathery, black wings. Its eyes glow in the dark like a flame and lit up part of its own face, they flared up with a hot red when the beast spotted me.

'Lucky you, seems like you found a berlian, how lucky we are...' Ira said.

"Berlian? Isn't that a manticore or something like that?" I asked.

'It's a sub-race of sorts... just a lot more... aggressive... and smaller, maybe that's why they're more aggressive...' Ira said.

"Alright... alright, let's just get done with that thing quickly so I don't have to waste much time," I said as I charged towards the black beast, activated my magic mark on my right arm only and used [Predator's Strength].

What did Vera say? Right... I should use spell names to establish myself, get people to be afraid of them...

I then smiled as I jumped and drew back my enhanced fist with a thin layer of mana swirling around my entire right arm.

"[Strike]!" I yelled out loud, my voice echoing through the chamber at the same moment I brought my fist down and struck the beast right on the head, making it fall to the ground.

The stone beneath it cracked as its head crashed into it. When I landed I deactivated my magic mark and continued on towards the other bridge-stairway, both hands in disappearing in the pockets of my hooded coat.

"Nah, not feeling that one... do I even need a spell name for my wood elven magic?" I asked myself out loud.

That's when I heard a loud but low growl right behind me. I leaned back so far that I could see what was going on behind me, just upside down. And there it was, standing a few metres away from me, the black beast, completely fine, its eyes lit up with hatred and anger, drooling and showing me its teeth as it growled.

"Oh my, seems that one is a little tougher than expected," I said as I returned to a more usual position and turned around, activating my thorn conjuration magic mark everywhere but my face, since I had come to dislike the look of magic marks on my face, so the thorn tendril-like lines only reached up to my neck.

"Now, since you seem a little tougher than most why don't you help me with my spell names?" I said as I smiled at the dog-like winged beast.

I liked my lips as I watched the beast approach. With my right foot, I stepped back and dug it into the ground, hearing the cracking of the stone as it gave in like hard dirt. Within me, I unlocked the mental seal I still had on the Power of Wrath. Mana burst forth from my body as I sent it into my magic mark.

"[Thorn Prison]" I said, grinning.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Thorn tendrils burst forth from the ground below the platform I was on, rushed upwards and began wrapping themselves around the creature. One thorn tendril with a particularly low density of thorns on it wrapped itself around the neck of the creature while some others wrapped themselves around the rest of the creature, layering themselves on top of one another until only the creature's head was fully visible. I heard it yowling as thorns dug into its flesh and some blood was even squeezed out from small gaps between the thorn tendrils that were constantly tightening around the creature's body. I crouched down right next to its head and lifted one of its ears. The inside was dirty.

"What do you think?!" I yelled right into the ear of the beast.

It whimpered as it tried to pull away, but was simply stopped by the thorn tendrils wrapped around it.

"Yeah, thought so," I said. "Now let's try something else..."

I stepped away from the beast and stretched a little before I once again channelled more mana into my magic mark.

"[Thron Giant]!" I yelled as I let thorns grow from my own body.

Many, many thin thorn tendrils wrapped around me, layering themselves, forming thick arms and legs around me, forming a large body and eventually forming a head with antlers. The hair was formed from free-hanging thorn tendrils that were slightly thicker than the rest. I separated myself a little and swam through the body of my thorn giant, appearing on its shoulder, crouching with my knees apart.

"Interesting, that went a lot better than I thought it would," I said as I smiled at the beast. "[Thorn Giant: Strike]!" I commanded.

It felt as if my own body was moving. I moved the thorn giant forwards, the ground shaking as the giant walked. It then raised its right fist, which was more of a large club that roughly mimicked the shape of a fist. The creature's eyes widened a little as it watched the thorn fist approach. It yowled loudly as the fist crashed right into its head. I heard multiple crack sounds and when I looked down I saw a puddle of blood right beneath the fist made of thorns.

"Oh my, how disappointing... let's hope this wasn't the only thing down here.

'You killed that thing way too quickly...' Arva said. 'You could have also used my darkness,' she added.

"Oh please, your darkness makes battles boring, it helps when trying to hide your power but... it just makes things boring, you know?" I said as I reabsorbed the entire thorn giant and returned to the ground.

'Then why are you keeping me around?' she asked.

"You can heal me, that's useful... and you have that army hunting you, so that's a nice opportunity to test my strength," I said.

'How nice of you... how nice of you.'

I heard Ira chuckle as I let the thorn tendrils still wrapped around the beast's corpse disappear.

"Now, let's keep looking for that orb..." I said.

POV: Rudolpho Alami

I stepped forth, walking among the corpses, blood everywhere and I could see what was basically a mountain of spines next to a boulder nearby. Bloody footsteps were everywhere and each corpse was mutilated. It made me sick to look at this, this sight nearly made me throw up. I had been a paladin for nearly half my life, I had fought against demon lords, bandits and other villainous fools that went against the church countless times, never in all that time had I seen someone slaughter people in such a way. From the expressions on the faces of the corpses, I could tell some of them had their spines ripped out while still being alive.

"That sick bastard..." I said as I looked around.

I quickly noticed bloody footsteps that seemed much larger than the feet of any of the corpses here. It had to be his, the footsteps of someone even taller than I was. They led into multiple directions but branched off clearly twice. One time towards the edge of the mountain pass and another time further up the Silent Mountains.

"He has to be here... somewhere..." I said as I began following the footsteps further up the mountain.

I followed them until they became less and less visible and eventually fully disappeared. After a while longer I found a cave that had a few markings on the ground that made it seem like someone had rested there, set up camp even.

"So he was here..."