As if he was possessed Zane began smiling uncontrollably, a slight chuckle leaving his lips. He could feel the adrenalin course through his body aggressively. His body began moving on its own, this time not driven by one of the twelve, trying to have some fun, but by pure rage, rage and hatred for the foe that would harm a friend.

The lantern nearly fell out of his sweaty hand as he walked down the tunnel the creature had walked down, the blood needles levitating beside him, following him. It seemed as if the light of his lantern became more and more useless, the tunnel became darker and darker, limiting his vision more and more. With the small amount of light, he had it was difficult to follow the blood on the ground that the creature had left behind.

It must be weak now . . . wait . . . shit!

Zane began moving faster and faster, trying to find the creature in time, if there was still time. He turned around many corners, trying to follow the blood but it was as if the creature had purposefully walked in a weird way, often walking in circles. Zane felt the rage pulsating within him, but there was some fear again, not for his own life, but for that of his companion. And finally, he could hear heavy breathing in the distance, the blood splatters on the ground had also become larger. He could hear footsteps in the distance as well.

It must be close.

And there, in the distance, he could see a white light, an active Rune. Zane approached it. The Rune had been carved into a black orb which was positioned on a small stone pedestal.

Must be what's interfering with my ability to sense Aura.

Zane hit the Rune with his fist, the blood needles following right after. They managed to pierce into the orb, obstructing part of the Rune which deactivated. Zane felt the uncomfortable feeling vanish. He concentrated and sensed it, the Aura of everything within the cave.

Both are close.

Zane ran towards the two presences he could sense, become faster and faster as he got closer. Once he turned around another corner he could see the creature, standing in the middle of a long tunnel, looking at something that hung at the wall of a small chamber at the end of the tunnel.

No, you don't!

Zane lifted up his arm, pointing at the creature's wide hairy back with his palm and said, "Shoot!"

The voice of Erebus echoed throughout the tunnel, alerting the monster. Zane felt Aura rage within his body, it was a feeling of power, which all accumulated at his palm split up, into the blood needles surrounding him, and began racing towards the creature. Before the needles hit they changed their form slightly, creating hooks at the back of them so they would stay within the creature. It screamed in pain as soon as the needles pierced its back and got stuck deep within its body. Zane liquified the blood within it, let it move through its entire body, and had the creature's blood burst out of its body. It was as if someone had planted a bomb within the creature. A large hole had appeared on its back, as Zane got closer he noticed the large amounts of blood that covered the walls and the ground of the chamber. In his, anger Zane spit on the creature's dead body as he walked past it.

At the other end of the chamber hung Lovia, her chain had been wrapped around her upper body and attached to a hook coming out of one of the wooden support beams. She was covered in blood her hair reddened by it. Her left hand was missing, blood dripping down from the wound. Zane slashed the chain with his katana, cutting the weakened links. Lovia's body fell and he caught her. She opened one of her eyes and looked at him with it. For a split second, he thought something was different about it but he didn't have time to focus on things like that. He flipped open his satchel and took out a bandage, he wrapped it tightly around the large wound she had on her left arm.

"Zane," she said with a weak voice. "Behind . . . you."

Zane turned his head immediately, the creature standing behind him, already swinging a long arm.

I forgot.

Zane jumped out of the way but his leg got hit. Pain streamed through his body. He fell over as soon as he landed.

Shit, shit, shit.

Zane tried recalling the blood needles but the blood of the creature had completely overpowered his own. He slowly stood up, balancing on his good leg, observing the creature slowly approach them. His right hand moved to the hilt of his katana before he even thought about it and he began forcing his body to move forwards, manipulating the blood in his broken leg so he could walk.

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Suddenly the creature began charging at him.

Zane began screaming and raised the katana above his head again, swinging it down at the right moment. He hit the crack he had made before, breaking the skull it had for a head apart and revealing a strange construct that was beneath the skull. It was like a flower, the two orangeish orbs that had been the eyes being the leaves. In the middle was a humanoid skull, shrunk to fit under the stag skull. Moss was growing all over it.

The creature stopped moving. Zane lifted up the katana again and moved it down with enough force to shatter the humanoid skull. The creature sank to the ground, its body quickly deteriorating and revealing the skeleton of a human that was within the creature.

What a sad end that person must have had, needing to eat your own kind to live . . .

"Zane," Lovia said, her voice still weak but better than before.

"Lovia," he said as he walked back to her and helped her up.

"W-What was that?" she asked. There was fear in her voice.

"Wendigo . . ." Zane said calmly as he supported Lovia, but Zane fell to the ground.

He had lost control of his ability.

"Zane! Are you alright?" Lovia asked.

"I'm fine, my leg is just broken . . . I think," Zane said.

Lovia opened one of Zane's satchels and took out a vial filled with a brown liquid. "Drink," she said.

Zane slowly grabbed the vial from her hand and drank the liquid inside. It tasted like wet dirt. He straightened his broken leg as best he could with the help of Lovia just before a strong sense of pains shot trough it. It felt as if a thousand blades had been rammed into his leg. After a few minutes the pain disappeared, in its stead was a strange feeling, the feeling of his bone slowly being forced back into place and reattaching itself to the other bone. He let out a nearly silent cry of pain before the bones got completely realigned and made his leg jerk.

"If witchcraft wouldn't hurt so much I would maybe use it more," Zane said as he rubbed his now healed leg. "So, what happened?" Zane asked, looking at Lovia, her hair was still red from the blood.

"I-It happened so fast . . . when I got to the house that creature, that wendigo, had already killed Boulder and Gerd. When I tried to attack it . . . it just caught my chain and forced me to the ground." Tears began running down her face. "It cut off my hand with one of its claws . . . that's when I lost consciousness," Lovia said, looking down to where her hand had been.

"T-This is my fault . . . we should have gone together! I'm so sorry," Zane began but Lovia put her hand on his head, going through his white hair with it.

"It's not your fault, don't worry so much," she said.

The two injured mercenaries remained in the cave for a few hours before they decided to return to the surface. Before they began their way back out of the cave Zane gave Lovia a small vial filled with a light green liquid. And so they began on their way back. Lovia fell every few steps, her legs were shaking constantly. When Zane helped her up he noticed something strange about her, there was something on her back but he thought his mind was simply playing a trick on him so he didn't pay it any mind. He laid her right arm around his shoulder, grabbing her remaining hand with his. Her body was shaking from her sobbing.

The pain must still be bad . . . even with that potion she drank. Shit . . . why did it have to end like this . . . why would one of them even be here? I thought they were extinct, the cursed forest was even burned down and is being monitored . . . or did the gods decide to curse another forest?

Zane began laughing at the idea of the gods just cursing another forest, rendering the efforts of humanity useless yet again. Lovia turned her head and looked at him with a disturbed look, again Zane noticed something strange about her eyes but simply shrugged it off as being his imagination.

"Sorry, sometimes I can't really control that," Zane said in response to the look Lovia gave him.

She slowly nodded.

It took the two a while to find their way out of the cave. They passed many different tunnels all interconnected in the strangest ways. Zane had not paid attention to the way he had gone to reach Lovia, every guess he made was a gamble. First, they had turned too soon and ended up back in the chamber where Zane had killed the wendigo, then they turned around another corner that led them into a chamber filled with chairs and tables and shelves that neither of them had seen before, then they suddenly found themselves in a chamber full of pickaxes and other tools for mining, in another chamber, they found pickaxes still stuck in the walls, in another they found multiple minecarts, all filled with stones.

Where the hell even are we . . . I just want some fresh air.

Zane began sweating as they turned around a corner just to end up in another chamber they hadn't seen before. It felt like they had been walking for nearly half a day to Zane before they finally came into a tunnel that Zane recognized. He had found the blood again that the wendigo had left behind when it fled from him. They followed it and reached the chamber where Zane had been attacked by it. Lovia's hand was still lying on the floor, a puddle of blood had formed around it. Zane saw how Lovia let her head sink.

"Let's just go," she said quietly.

And so they went past the hand on the ground and into the tunnel that would lead them to the outside. Zane looked at the markings on the walls, it almost seemed like they had smudged.

There must have been Aura involved with these . . . maybe it could see trough these or something . . .

A light appeared in the distance as they got closer to the cave's entrance.

"Finally," Lovia said.

Zane walked as fast as he could while carrying Lovia. They quickly reached the outside. It was nearly noon already when the two stepped out of the cave.

"Fresh air," Lovia said.

But Zane remained silent, shocked by what he was seeing.

"Something wrong?" Lovia asked.

She let go of Zane and walked away from him a bit, looking at the many weird totems the wendigo had placed in front of his cave.

"How strange this all is, don't you think so as well?" Lovia asked, with a bit of uncertainty.

But Zane just stared at her.

"Who . . . are you?"