Loose Ends (Invite Only)

Malm kept a cautious eye out as he walked through the Spooky Forest alone. Well... Not alone exactly. Resting on his shoulder was Flare, Malm's reddish-brown 'Fire' Ferret companion, who's eyes were also notably shifting around. Who could blame them though? The Spooky Forest wasn't exactly the safest way to be. Yet there was something in particular that Malm was keeping an eye out for.

And it seemed he found it. Using his Plant Sense, he could sense that the thing that he was here for was only fifty feet away. Malm made a mad rush in that direction to comfirm what he had sensed with his own eye. Every step that he had got closer made him grew even more worried. He had hoped his instinct was wrong about this, but that didn't seem to be the case.

"No way" Malm exclaimed as he saw a slowly dying tree with a familiar thorny vine suffocating it.

---

It was pretty early in the morning as Malm walked through the streets of Magnolia. Deciding to buy Flare and him some breakfast, Malm went to a small restaurant in the middle of town. It was a small quaint place with only a few patrons in it at the time. After ordering and receiving his food, he accidentally overheard a woman talking about something that caught his interest as he ate.

"So have you heard? They say there's been sightings of some strange vines growing on the trees in the Spooky Forest recently." Mentioned a woman at a nearby table.

"Really. What's so strange about them?" The other woman sitting in the same table as the first asked.

"Well, from my understanding, these vines seemed to have appeared out of nowhere."

"Ohh... How mysterious. So do you know if they are going to send anyone in to check it out?"

"Not that I heard of. To be quite honest though, I don't blame them. There are more important things to worry about then just some vines growing on trees."

"Well when you put it that way, I guess it makes sense."

---

"So it seems I was right to follow my instincts on this one." Malm said quietly to himself as he examined the vines, "It's the exact same magic that was used on that farmland a while back."

Malm then looked deeper within the forest as he saw many more trees with the same vine. The good news is that the magic seems to take much longer to effect trees then it did the crops. That's good. It gives me time to figure out how to dispell it. Now if I had to hazard a guess, a curse on this scale would probably require it's spellcaster to stay nearby. Which means they'd probably be at the epicenter of all this."


With that thought, Malm began heading deeper into the forest. He had no idea if his guess would hold any merit, but he guess he would soon find out. In fact, there was only one thing he was really certain about at this time. He really hoped none of these trees would come alive and attack him.

Malm steeled himself with every step he took. The trees surrounding him were looking to be growing worse in condition the deeper he went, and there was a foulness in the air that was beginning to unnerve Malm. Even Flare seemed to sense something wrong with this place as he had taken to hiding within Malm's cloak as the teen walked. At least so far none of the trees have attacked him yet.

It wasn't long before Malm began hearing a deep voice chanting in a language he did not understand. So it seemed someone was here afterall. Yet Malm understood that he shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. As whether they were the cause of this curse, or trying to rid the forest of it was yet to be seen.

So, when Malm had reached where the voice was coming from, he peered through the foliage to see who exactly the voice was coming from. There he saw a sauve looking man in his early thirties with strange red tattoos splayed throughout his body. It seemed Malm's presence wasn't unknown to the man as he had soon stopped chanting and turned to face where Malm was hiding at. The man then began to chant again as he pointed a hand towards Malm with a dark magic circle around him. Knowing this was nothing good, Malm quickly dodged to the right right before the foliage around began to quickly decay. There was no doubt in Malm's mind now that this was wizard who was placing the curse of the trees.

"Hmm... I recognize you boy. You were the one who ruined my plans back in Beanstalk Village." The man said with a malignant smile.

So this man was the one who cursed the farms. Malm mentally confirmed to himself as he stared at the man. Well I guess that means there's no way I could convince him to stop. Hopefully when I defeat him, the curse he has on these trees would end.

"So I guess there's no chance getting you to tell me why you are doing all this? Seems like a lot of work with little pay off." Malm asked as his hand found the hilt of his blade, preparing to draw his sword right when he needed to.

"If you only knew. There's a lot of things one can do with an army by their side." The man explained simply.

So that's it huh? I guess it's kind of obvious, but at least I now know for sure. Now I just have to take him down before any of these trees come alive.

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. I have power beyond your understanding." The man warned as a black magic circle then surrounded Malm's left arm. A flash of dark light then passed through the arm, causing it to become completely numb and dropped to his side.

"What in the? I can't move my arm." Malm exclaimed as his other arm grabbed the first instinctively. There was no pain going through it, but he couldn't feel it at all. It was almost like it wasn't there at all.

"What do you think? That's just a taste of what I can do." The man said with a grin, "Don't worry. You'll be witnessing more of it here soon enough." With that, a dark circle surrounded his hand as Malm quickly moved out of the way, with the foliage quickly decaying again.

Shoot. What am I going to do now? I can't stick on the defensive forever. I need to attack. "Weakeaning Thorns" Malm called out as a magic circle appeared in front of his open palm before firing off five thorns at the mage. Four of them missed, but the spell only needed one.

"You'll pay for that you brat." The man growled as he rushed over at Malm at a fast pace. Malm barely had the time to raise his good arm in a vain attempt to block the coming to only meet a fist to his gut. This was quickly followed up by an elbow to the teen's back that knocked him down off his feet.

How was he able to move so fast and hit so hard? Malm wondered as he fought through the agony coursing through his body. Knowing full well that it was highly unlikely that was going to be the last attack, he quickly willed himself to roll to the sigh, barely avoiding having his head stomped into the ground.

"Entangling Roots" Malm called out as he summoned roots to grab onto the curse wizard's feet. This would hopefully givd the green-haired teen the time he needed to get back on his feet and figure out a plan.

---

HP: 64%
MP: 80% (5 Posts before regen)

As Malm quickly took the chance to catch his breath his Entangling Roots had allowed him, he noticed a familiar figure on the ground next to him. "Oh... Flare. Your okay. Good. I need you to go get help quickly. I'll try to distract this guy as much as I can, but I don't know if I'll be able to defeat him." Malm said in a low whisper to the Ferret. He didn't knew if Flare understood, but took it as a good sign that he left soon after.

"Hey boy. You haven't forgotten about me have you." He heard the man say. Looking back up, Malm saw that the man had managed to get himself out of the Entangling Roots.

"No. I just needed to catch my breath." Malm said as he rushed the man and drew his sword with his right hand. He wasn't an expert with fighting with his right hand by any mean, but he wasn't inexperienced with it either.

The blade caught the man off guard, and cut the man across his chest. The wound was only superficial though, not doing much real harm to him at all. The man growled as he swung his fist at Malm, which the teen barely dodged.

"Let's see how you deal with pain coursing through your every vain." A dark circle then surrounded Malm's being before another flash of dark light enveloped his body. Malm then began to felt waves upon waves of pain course thoughout his entire being. Yet that didn't seem to deter the teen as he swung his sword and landed another superficial cut across the man's chest.

"I'm not going down quite so easily." Malm said as his breathing became harder. This pain was excruciating, but it wasn't anything Malm couldn't deal with. Not when there was a lot at stake here.

---

HP: 42%
MP: 80%