The Hunted was bent over , sipping from the river. It slurped the cold water vivaciously , enjoying the crisp and refreshing water. The water helped to calm it down after what it had witnessed , walls of fire crashing down onto it. The fires consuming his flesh , painting his pale skin black. It remembered the metal net crashing down on its body , the cold steel bruising its flesh. But that was all long ago , now it was safe , free from the fires and the 3 Hunters .

It remembered how they all looked , that elf boy , he was scrawny with pale skin like its skin once was, it thought to itself : " One day , I will kill that boy and I will paint his skin red and black like how he did to me." It shivered as it remembered the Oni , a demon of war , its body composed of crystals , it remembered each punch inflicted on it , raw chunks of crystal beating it over and over again, destroying its flesh and pulling its muscles. But.... they were nothing compared to that cat! It was sure that it had that cat in its jaws , it remembered the fear of the cat , it wanted to taste it one more time after what that feline did to it .

"That feline burnt me ! Burnt me ! Burnt me!": It thought to itself . " That dumb cat burnt me , it dared to burn me! It reduced me to such a cowardly form! How care such an inferior being dared to burn me , dared to peel away me beautiful luminous moon coloured skin!" that feline almost reminded him of another Hunter , yes , another Hunter that continued to followed it like a pest, trailing behind it. But it knew that the other Hunter was far more powerful than that feline , that Hunter had done far worst than what that feline did to it. It smiled as it thought of its glory days , its deer lips began to shift and twist into a smile . Yes..oh yes , it was once the apex predator , consuming as much as it pleased , lower Fey bowed down to it , treated it like a god! A grand great god! But now those days were over , especially after that other Hunter....

But but it will get stronger , yes it will , yes it will! It will take down the 3 Hunters as well as that other Hunter! Heehee! As it thought to itself . It suddenly fell a burst of cold air around its body , as it turned around to inspect the source of the cold wind , it saw walls of glittering mist , the glittered mist floated across the river , the water froze into jagged swords of ice .

Jewel, Richie and Bud looked through the mist . " Do you see anything?" asked Bud . Richie , standing on a tree , stared into the mist , one of the advantages of the mist was that it would obscure the Hunted's vision , unfortunately it was a double edged sword. as Richie stared into the mist , he spotted something . A spire of white antlers struck out from the sea of mist , as he squinted his eyes , Richie noticed that the antlers were moving. The antlers seemed to be growing , reaching out into the sky like branches of a tree.

As the antlers grew so did the rest of the Hunted , from the mist sticking out was a pale face of the deer . It had 2 black voids for eyes that seemed to suck out all the light instead of the Brute's eyes that glinting red . The Hunted spotted Richie and the steed of death charged towards him. Every footstep that the Hunted took sounded like a steel drum, the sound ringing into the forest . As Richie strained his elfish ears , he could hear the drum beating louder and louder until.....

" Duck!" yelled Richie. Bud and Jewel immediately jerked their body away in time as from the mist burst out the Hunted , its metal hooves trampling the bushes. As it charged forward with its antlers lowered , the barbed wires on its antlers lashed out, licking Bud's foot as blood ran from his foot. The Hunted 's multiple eyes focused on one target, Richie, it charged again towards tree that Richie was on .

The antlers of the Hunted hardened and sharpened forming swords and knives , they pierced through the tree's bark and with a ripping sound , ripped the tree out from the ground , roots swaying in the wind. The Hunted snorted , hot air flowing out from its nostrils. Richie jumped out from the tree and hit the grass with a "thud!" and rolled away , just as the Hunted swung its mighty antlers , sending the tree flying into the mist , a crunch could be heard as the tree broke apart into sticks, the Hunted snorted again , stamped its hooves and charged back into the mist.

" What now?" asked Jewel" The Hunted is too quick so I don't have enough time to freeze it, it is also hiding in the mist." Richie dusted the grass off himself and readjusted his glasses" Bud, can you use Chromatic Bot again but this time , use ice instead of fire? Jewel will then control the ice , freezing the Hunted." Bud nodded , he only had 2 spell slots left but it was worth a shot. He pulled out his saxophone and cast " Chromatic Orb " . From the mouth of the trumpet flew out a copper sphere instead of steel when he cast it last time . It had the same spiraling hypnotic eyes, the sphere split open , revealing a small metal mouth connecting the 2 halves.

Thick luminous fog came out from the Chromatic Orb , the fog spread even faster compared to the magical fire extinguisher . The fog seemed to form a solid wall where no light can penetrate through , not even the Lush Dweller 's light . Jewel raised her arms into the sky , from her left hand formed a baton made from blue crystals. She spread her hands and raised the baton to the skies , the ground rumbled as a spire of ice grew from the ground, the ice spread into a platform for them to stand on . " Hello Elisa from the movie , Frost" said Richie to Jewel

With the Lush Dweller's light , the spire was basically a lighthouse in the sea of mist. " Richie keep watch on the Hunted , send out your wires to trap him. Bud, start playing." Bud started playing , his fingers moving rapidly , the valves jumped up and down like moles from a whack-a-mole machine , the Chromatic Orb's eyes began to turn green and blue , changing colours as more mist flew out from its mouth . The Lush Dweller stared into the mist , its eyes began to shine brighter as it spotted the Hunted.

Jewel waved her left hand , she was Moses and the Red Sea split itself in half , revealing the Hunted. Richie flicked his hands and wires of copper and steel launched themselves at the Hunted. the Hunted pranced away like a ballerina , dodging just in time . As the Hunted dodged the 2 wires , a third wire , pierce through the Hunter's snout , changing into a fishing hook , capturing the Hunted , Jewel lost her concentration and the sea closed back .

Richie grabbed onto the wire , the Hunted strained in the sea , trying to escape . It pulled , pulling him to the edge of the spire. He stamped his feet , trying to regain his footing , butterflies of glitch particles flew around him as Bud teleported beside Richie and they pulled with all their might. Jewel summoned a small crystal rod , they wrapped the wire around the rod. The Hunted strained but the crystal rod held its place .

Bud began playing more rapidly , his glitch particles formed a circle around him and started dancing to his music , the Chromatic Bot rocked itself side to side as more mist flowed from it . Jewel waved the baton and the tide shifted , a wave appeared and crashed down . The Hunted looked up and saw a wave of mist crashing down on it , it jerked its body away but ice began to grew at its legs , trapping it. It looked up as the mist changed into ice , the jagged blades of the ice wave crashed down on it ....

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

As the wave crashed down , it remembered the fire..., the fire that crashed down on it , the fire that consumed it and burned it and now the Hunters were going to freeze it! No, it would not allow itself to be humiliated again ...

Jewel, Richie and Bud stared in the shock as they saw a beacon reached into the sky. The Lush Dweller's light showed them that it was a pillar of swirling black fire. Just as sudden and quick as the beacon appeared , it disappeared. They hear the cries of the wire as it strained. The ice rod snapped in half , the wire slithered across the floor. Bud knew he had already teleported 3 times , once to escape from the Brute , once to help Richie and now to grabbed the wire, he only had 2 charges left. He buried his heels into the ice but then he realized ," Wait... I am a cat , cat dont have heels."

Bud cursed his lack of heels and thumbs as he began to slid off the platform . "Actually thumbs would be super useful right now for grabbing this, why don't I get thumbs?" Jewel waved her hands as ice froze Buds feet , stopping him. Bud gave out a sigh of relief" Wooo , that was close." " Don't say that! You are gonna jinx us!" screamed Richie. At that exact moment , the ice cracked. Tiny cracks spread across the eyes and the whole spire collapsed, the tower could not withstand the brute strength of the Hunted .

The spire broke into pieces and fell , the trio screamed as they fell or it could have been just Bud , pretty sure it was just him screaming. Richie landed on the ground with a thud and a crack , he tried to stand up but immediately felt a sharp pain across his chest. Since he was mostly bones and skin , he felt that the his lower pair of ribs were fractured. He looked around and found the Lush Dweller pierced by a icicle, its eyes were now glassy and devoid of any light , he also found the Chromatic Bot , crushed underneath some rubble but the mist still remained. He took out one of his vials and drank it. It was tantalum , a metal that was most commonly used for artificial plates or inserted into broken bones.

He could feel his gag reflex starting but he fought through it an drank the whole bottle , he could feel the tantalum inside of his body , he willed it to fix his ribs. He gasped in pain as feel his broken ribs reattaching with tantalum. He looked around but however could not find them . He pulled out 2 empty vial and summoned the metals that he used previously , the liquid metals slithered into the vials. Suddenly he heard footsteps charging towards him , he barely had time to think much last move as from the mist burst out the Hunted.

It was certainly different from the last time they saw it , it had clearly went through a reverse Micheal Jackson, instead of deathly pale skin and blue tentacles. It now was as black as charcoal , its tentacles were now red and orange like flickering flames , its multiple eyes were now all bloodshot and bulging with veins. Its bony white antlers had barbed wires of black flames , coating its body were black flames that flickered and sucked all light around it. The Hunted saw Richie and smiled , as it smiled it seemed to change back to the Brute , its lips became more human like and its teeth's sharpened.

It brought down its hooves on Richie, ready to trample him. Richie closed his eyes and he heard ethereal twinkling around him , a paw burst out from nowhere and pulled him away, the Hunted brought down its hooves to nothing but grass. Bud helped Richie up as from the mist , burst out Jewel. She was still weak and could not form a suit of armour , instead she held a shield and rammed herself into the Hunted. She knocked the Hunted onto the ground , it got back up and charged towards Jewel , black flames danced around its body , its antlers impaled Jewel's shield , shattering it into pieces , one of its antlers managed to impaled itself into Jewel's chest.

Fire spread from the Hunted to the wound on her chest , immediately cauterizing it , stopping the bleeding , she screamed in pain as the black fire began to consume the surrounding flesh. Richie pulled out another vial and tossed , it cracked spilling liquid metal on Jewel. The metal consumed the fire and spread across Jewel changing into a layer of armour. The Hunted snorted and charged at Jewel again , Bud used his third cantrip " Hateful Lance", a black lance materialized into his paws , he rushed towards the Hunted and thrusted the lance.

The pointed tip of the lance barely pierced through the thick flesh of the Hunted , only a drop of blood was spilled but it was enough , Bud used his final spell slot and cast " Necrotic Touch" , purple electricity slithered from the lance to the Hunted , the electricity spread across the Hunted. Instead of electrocuting the Hunted, it caused ugly wounds to sprout from the Hunted's body , blood and pus flowed from the Hunted , it screamed in pain. Jewel grabbed her baton and changed it into a short sword and she swung with all her might , the Hunted jerked away , instead of slicing its head off , she instead sliced of one of the Hunted's antlers.

The Hunted screamed in pain , in this form , it couldn't heal itself unlike the Brute, it will make them pay for cutting off one of its glorious antlers. It opened its mouth and breathed out black flames. The trio ducked away as the flames cleared away the mist, Jewel summoned a wall of ice to protect themselves , the ice began to melt from the intense heat of the flames. Richie looked down at the ground and realized under the layer of ice was the river , he took out a vial and cracked it.( Note to self , next time open the vials instead of breaking them , he was going short of vials)

The vial cracked and the liquid metal formed a knife , he brought it down to the ice with all his might and it cracked. The ice broke apart underneath their feet and they fell into the river. The river swallowed the Hunted up , dousing off the flames of the Hunted . Bud gasped as he burst out from the river , he looked around and spotted Richie, they swum towards Jewel and pulled her onto dry land. Jewel coughed up water and took a deep breath of air, " You are a good swimmer for a cat." Jewel said to Bud. Bud scoffed as Richie laughed.

Just as they were about to celebrate the death of the Hunted , from the river burst out an antler and out came the Hunted. The Hunted was now no longer on fire and its skin was now pale again , if you ignore the purple sores all over its body. Jewel and Bud scrambled away as it got onto land. Richie, however, took out his knife and jumped onto the Hunted. The Hunted was groggy after the river and did not have the reflexes to dodge away . Richie latched himself onto the Hunted , it jerked left and right , trying to shake Richie off like a bull at the rodeo. He brought down the knife only for it to break.

Richie gave off a cry of frustration," WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!", as he poured metal from a vial onto the knife , the 2 metals mixed and Richie willed the liquid metal into a single wire as he placed the wire over the Hunted throat. He threw the 2 ends of the wires to Bud and Jewel. They grabbed the ends and pulled , their faces turning red and beads of perspiration dotted their forehead. Richie grabbed onto the Hunted's neck with the full length of his arms as he helped to suffocate the Hunted. The Hunted jerked and struggled , it refused to die from 3 kids that haven't strike puberty.

As the Hunted tried to escape and the trio pulled , the wire broke with a "SNAP". Bud and Jewel fell to the ground as the wire broke , they quickly scrambled towards the Hunted. They couldn't let it escape again after all that they had gone through , as they reached the body of the Hunted , they noticed that it was missing something. that something was its head .

Hugging and kissing the head of the Hunted in joy was Richie , the blood from the Hunted stained his clothes black. Richie cheered as he tossed the head into the sky like a deranged sociopath , Jewel did not want to touch a decapitated head like a normal person and Bud was vomiting in a bush like a normal person.

The Hunted ... no the Brute? It couldn't even remember who it was , everything seems so dark and hazy , its vision was blurred , from the corner of its eye , it saw a white figure approaching it. The other Hunter... it thought as everything went black.....