A Walk in the Valley of the Shadow (Private: Kaori/ Dmitry)

Job Description:

Within the Kingdom of Fiore, there is a dark, wretched place. A place of death and decay, where the land lay barren and life is a pleasant memory. Every cruelty and sin against nature and man dwells within this place, forever preserved by whatever dark power keeps it. There was nothing in this place that any living thing should reasonably desire, no resources to claim and no prize to plunder. And yet, some souls found themselves making their way into this prison of every horror known to man, such as a certain gray haired wizard and his peculiar companion.

Dmitry Kazakov gazed into the abyss that was the cursed lands, a place he was always loathe to visit. While that was a fairly common sentiment to be sure, in his case, the cause was incredibly rare. Due to a unique ability to sense entities and beings of less physical nature, things that couldn't see or hear or touch. While some would consider such a thing a gift and it had certainly benefited the young wizard on many an occasion, it was a sick joke in such a place as this where he could feel the malevolence crawling up his back. 'Steel yourself, boy.' Came the voice of the wolf spirit, Hati. 'There is worse yet to come, I'm afraid.' Dmitry scoffed despite his own cold sweat. 'Don't need you worryin' over me, old man.' He had begun to regret agreeing to come along for this mission, but it made sense for him to tag along for any job involving this place, considering his unique experience in such phenomena. He also seemed to recall something about a request made by a large breasted woman, something to do with corpses and hostages and such. In all honesty, thinking on the subject seemed to only confuse him more, perhaps due to his own inability to understand other people.

All the same, he lamented that he had to be here yet again, albeit with trusted company. On that note, he turned his head to the companion at his side.

"So why are we here again?"

---

WC: 352/3,750

Oddly enough, Dmitry actually got frustrated with Kaori's accusations, albeit he had no idea what a 'shemale' even was. "Hey!" He shouted at the demonstrably smaller person, barely even noticing her deteriorated punch. "I ain't sentimental! Friends and crap had nothing to do with it!" It was then that he noticed the tiny, flesh-eating, zombie monkey on her head, Kaori chatting away with it as usual. "Don't get too attached to that thing." He warned indifferently, having a brief amount of experience with the undead. "Once we deal with the necromancer, odds are, that little guy's gonna fall apart. Life's supposed to die and the planet takes what it's owed." It may have been blunt, but Dmitry knew it to be true. After all, it was the first lesson he was taught by the wolf spirit, one that guided his survival as well as his understanding of the natural world. Nothing truly ever ends, it simply changes form. Everything is recycled. Nothing is wasted, not really. There are no exceptions, not even so called immortals.

"C'mon, lets get going before that monkey rots anymore." He said before heading in the direction the newcomer pointed. 'You know, I'm quite curious myself,' Hati mused. 'Why did you accept such a request?' Dmitry pondered the question, not entirely sure of the answer himself. 'I'll figure it out after we're done.' He responded, deciding not to think too much about it. 'Till then, I'll stick with it seeming like a good idea at the time.'

On that note, the gray haired wizard looked back to his partner, a thought coming to mind. "So why'd you come along anyway?" He asked, legitimately confused. "Not like you stand to gain anything. Even seems like you didn't want to in the first place." To his mind, he could think of no sensible reason for her to tag along, although he couldn't see much reason in most of her actions anyway. It seemed as though she helped with a great many things that had nothing to do with her, a course of action Dmitry had been raised to avoid. More civilized folk might find this to be callous, but the wild had no sympathy for the kind and generous.

"What's in it for you?"

---

WC: 728/3,750

Dmitry wasn't sure what to expect when she told him not to move, having only seen a small portion of what the ninja could do. However, he was somewhat surprised to see the shuriken expand and cleave down the surrounding undead, something even he was impressed by. It was about this time that he noticed the corpse monkey by his feet, clearly learning for the first time how frightening its new friend could be.

"Yeah, I know." He said to the tiny, rotten ball of fur and bile. "She scares me too. Just don't look at her." All humor aside, Dmitry noticed that she seemed awfully exhausted after that attack, suggesting it might have been one of the more costly in her repertoire. Surprisingly, he seemed to feel a twang of concern, something he rarely felt over anything. "Hey, why don't you..." The words seemed to evade him, having never had worries to voice, let alone any experience voicing them. "I don't know, hang back or something? You look pretty beat after that." He spoke cautiously, hoping to avoid another confusing rant. Her earlier talk of keeping him alive simply made no sense; why would she need to do that? She knew full well the kind of beings he commanded and his own ability in combat. In nature, living things typically stick together out of a need to survive, dispersing when staying together held no benefit. But she clearly needed no protection from him, nor did it make sense for him to need the same of her.

'My, my...' The wolf said, as if on queue. 'I haven't seen you this confused since you first tried to build a fire.' Dmitry instantly frowned at that, the memory rather irritating. 'I was eight.' He snapped, crouching down by one of the corpses. Upon examination, it was clear that this husk had only been dead for a few weeks at most, something that didn't add up for most of the dead in the Cursed Lands. Few people ever entered the domain of such evil and it wasn't as though anyone was still working out a living in this hell, meaning most corpses were decades old at least. For there to be any flesh remaining on these bones meant that either there were some, unlikely means of preserving the flesh of these dead men and woman or...

"These people," he muttered. "They're from the outside world. This guy brought them here, maybe even still kicking." He then looked back to Kaori. "You really need to take it easy for a while. The way this is looking, there's a lot more where these guys came from."

---

WC: 1,171/3,750

Dmitry sighed when she expressed her sorrow, realizing he'd done something wrong once again. Upon turning around, he was surprised to find her in such a state, having only seen the bold and proud warrior up until now. An odd feeling rose up in the pit of his stomach, one that was lost on him. Still, he decided not to dwell on it and did the first thing that came to mind: he placed a hand on her head, ruffled her hair a bit, and put on an uncharacteristically warm smile. "Hey, don't worry about it." He said softly, one more thing he didn't commonly do. "I...don't know much about this whole friends thing, so I'm gonna need a bit more time before I get this figured out." With that out of the way, Dmitry turned back the direction of the necromancer and went back to walking.

'Well now, I'm shocked,' came the response of his mentor. 'I didn't think you had it in you, boy.' Dmitry raised an eyebrow at the statement. 'The hell are you on about, old man?' The young medium asked in confusion, the wolf spirit only chuckling in response. "Stupid old man..." Dmitry absentmindedly muttered out loud. Soon after, he stopped in his tracks and leaped backwards, a skeletal arm wielding a sword piercing up through the ground and narrowly avoiding his face. The monster climbed out from the dirt along with three others, while Dmitry already had a circle formed. "I invoke the Great Wolf: Hati!" As the spirit beast charged forth, the wizard that called upon him looked back to his partner. "Stay back this time," he told her. "I don't need you dropping on me out here." Just as he said this, Dmitry dropped down to avoid a swing from his skeletal assailant, sweeping its legs out from under it and stomping through the softer facial bones after it landed. He then took its sword and quickly sidestepped the slash of one of its comrades, delivering a two handed swing to its knees and breaking through them. After it too hit the ground, he brought down the sword onto its neck, decapitating it.

Meanwhile, Hati already had one of the others' leg in his mouth, swinging the skeleton at the remaining enemy and knocking both to the ground. The leg in his mouth snapped in two upon impact, a result of both the force of both skeletons colliding and the wolf's jaw strength. Dmitry calmly walked up to them and pinned the sword in his hand through both of their rib cages, immobilizing them. As they struggled on the ground, Hati leisurely bit down on one of their necks, twisted, and tore the head from the rest of its body before moving to do the same to the other.

---

WC: 1,639/3,750

"Well, that was boring..." Complained the wolf spirit, clearly disappointed by how easily their enemies were defeated this time around. "Why even bother invoking my name for such a pitiful affair as this?"  Dmitry looked over one of the swords that hadn't been used to pin the still struggling skeletons to the ground, not giving Hati much though outside of his answer. "Figured it'd be best to have you ready to fight nice and early." He said with a calmer tone than he typically had when addressing his mentor, somewhat fixated on the blade. "We're probably gonna run into this schmuck pretty soon and we don't have a clue what they'll have up their sleeve. No sense having to worry about an invocation in the middle of a fight like that."

Dmitry was no expert on weapons, hardly ever using them himself. However, he could tell the one in his hands was extremely old, between the tarnishing and rust. It went a ways toward explaining why it broke through the skeleton's knee rather than cutting into it and getting stuck, the way one might expect. Not to mention the fact that these undead were so old as to have not an ounce of soft tissue remaining, even having to sprout from the ground. "This guy's no slouch." The gray wizard said, dropping the sword on the ground next to him. "Takes a good bit of power, not to mention skill, to pull up dead like this. Usually the bastards have to rely on residual negativity and malice to manipulate these things, but by now that's pretty much left these bones. That means they were controlled with raw magic power." He suddenly felt worse than he did simply standing in the cursed lands, a feat in of itself. Something was gonna happen. Something bad. It was a feeling he rarely got, particularly to such an extent. But every now and again, he had a feeling of dread that could only be described as instinctive, something he had never ignored. Still, he wasn't alone and they were too far in to turn back now. "C'mon, shouldn't be much longer." He finally said, moving in the direction of their foe.

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WC: 2,007/3,750

While he was certainly surprised that he let such a high profile enemy sneak up on him, what truly shocked him was Kaori's suggestion. True, it was certainly a logical conclusion that taking down the necromancer was their best bet at surviving the dragon, something he could certainly understand. What he couldn't comprehend was why she would make such a gamble based on his abilities, considering how little she knew of him. Even if they had been on a few missions, they didn't know each other well enough to warrant such faith and trust. Why would she risk so much based on so little information?

Her shout brought him to his senses, the dragon itself aiding in that effect. There wasn't any point in debating the issue, what with the impending doom before their very eyes. Dmitry turned to leave, ready to end this nonsense, but found his feet wouldn't move forward. It felt as though he was anchored to the spot, confusion pouring over him like a tidal wave. A flash of images ran through his mind, his eyes widening and his breath becoming even heavier than before. It all felt so dreadfully familiar, despite the bizarre nature of their current situation. He had been here before, well before he joined Lamia Scale. It was his first time traveling to this specific location, but this scenario was well known to the gray haired wizard. A village burning in the middle of what would have been a dark, moonless night. Men, women, and children dead or dying, begging for mercy from their killers. A mother crying out to her son, pleading him to take flight, lest he die in that place. And the boy ran...

Dmitry grit his teeth, his heart beating faster. He couldn't just leave, not without doing something to aid his friend. But staying was suicide for both of them, no matter how he looked at it. Regardless of how he felt about the situation, Kaori was still right. "I invoke the World Serpent..." He said in a panicked voice, doing the only thing he could. "Jormangand!" Upon manifesting in the physical plane, the massive snake quickly made its way to the dragon, Hati taking off as well. As the serpent moved to provide cover for Kaori's approach, the wolf quickly closed the gap to leap up and sink its fangs into the dragons neck before it could react, hanging from the flesh he was biting. If the ninja decided not to use the cover provided, Jormangand would simply wrap itself around the dragon's body, preventing it from moving from the spot it was in. It would then sink its own fangs into the creature, adding to its restraint as well as the damage done to it.

"I'm gonna trust you not to die on me..." He muttered before sprinting off in the direction of his target, even more intent on ending this quickly than he was before.

---

WC: 2,499/3,750

As the dragon fell back to the earth, landing on its back, the two animal spirits quickly fell upon it. Naturally, Hati was the first to reach the fallen beast and quickly sunk his fangs into its chest, this time with far more savagery than before. The monster howled out in agony as the spirit wolf tore his way to the sternum of his massive prey, sparing not one moments pause in this brutal task. Before the dragon could return to its feet and attack, Jormangand closed in and wrapped itself around the monster's upper and lower legs, as well as its wings. It would stay in this position until Kaori had completed her scheme, barring that plan involving some other action on the spirit's part. Of course, it left the freshly made hole exposed, Hati jumping off shortly after. "Your move now, my dear!" The spectral canine shouted, taking an unhealthy amount of joy from the current predicament. "Make your play!"

Meanwhile, Dmitry was sprinting hard for the necromancer's location, carrying two of the swords from the earlier, skeletal opponents. While he still wasn't anymore an expert on weapons than he was earlier, it was likely that he would at least find some use or another for the blades in his upcoming fight with the man causing all this. As he was closing in, he could feel the earth shaking, something that only made his worry grow ever more. It may have been from the dragon hitting the ground during the fight he had left, something he wouldn't be able to entirely figure out from his location on his own. Then again, it could just as well have been the enormous abomination he soon found charging in his direction, something he didn't have time to stop and think about. A monstrous and grotesque collection of corpses held together with magic to form one, hulking beast, it wasn't something he could kill quickly, if at all. Instead, he would have to slow it down and buy himself just enough time to kill its maker, something he could do rather effectively. As the rotting thing closed in, Dmitry fell backwards without breaking his momentum and slid on the ground between the walking obstacles legs, planting a sword into whatever lump of flesh constituted as its 'knee'. Even if the abomination didn't feel the slightest hint of pain, having a piece of steel pinned through its leg would be enough to adequately hinder its movement. Sure enough, as it made an attempt to turn around and pursue its prey, the walking insult to nature and creation tumbled down to the ground with a loud thud, its size and abhorrent components making it nearly impossible for the disgusting mass of body parts to push itself to its feet. As Dmitry stopped sliding, he quickly scrambled to his own two feat, left the befuddled corpse collection behind him, and continued his sprint toward his final opponent, the one who caused this whole mess.

It wasn't long before the dark wizard was in sight, the wretched filth quickly launching a dark orb of concentrated death energy at his gray-haired assailant. Dmitry had barely enough time to duck underneath the projectile that would have sapped the very life essence from his body, nearly losing his balance and falling to the ground, but recovering just in time to dodge another orb of death. This time he had to dodge to the left, causing him to fall over to the ground. However, he rolled on impact and used the momentum to spring to his feet, continuing the charge for his target. At this stage, there was too little distance between the two for the necromancer to stall him with attacks, so he used his foul magic to conjure a wall of bones in an effort to buy himself more time that he may put further distance between himself and the Lamia Scale wizard, perhaps summon more undead minions. However, before the wall could reach three feat, Dmitry leaped over the partition of bones and rolled to a stop before shifting direction and charging for the death wielder. Panicked, the necromancer attempted to conjure yet another orb of death, running out of ways to stall his attacker and, by proxy, his demise. But before he could even begin the spell, Dmitry hurled the sword at the man, the pommel bashing into his forehead and halting his attack. By the time the weapon hit and bounced off the man's head, the spirit wizard had already closed the distance between them. As the blade spun through the air, Dmitry caught it at its grip, braced the pommel with his left hand, and drove it into the necromancer's chest, using all of his collective momentum to push the sword through his target's heart.

It was something he tried to avoid in most fights, as killing humans typically brought about feuds and quests for revenge. However, it was clear that this man was alone in this world and even if he wasn't, Dmitry could no longer afford to spare his life. Rather than bother with removing the blade, he simply let the man fall to the ground, impaled. He coughed up mouthful of blood and muttered something unintelligible, perhaps his own shock at being killed. Soon after he stopped breathing, the necromancer quickly disintegrate, much like sand blowing away in the wind. As he did so, whatever was left of the dragon after Kaori's next move, along with everything else that was reanimated, would follow their master's example and fade into the wind. 'Old man?' He called to his mentor, desperate to know how he and, more importantly, the masked ninja fared. 'Don't worry boy,' the spirit responded. 'The young lady is alive.' Dmitry let out a sigh of relief, then marveled at the fact that he was worried in the first place. He began to wonder if this was why guilds formed, why humans always clung together. Was it more than simple survival instinct? Could there ever even be something more important than living? It was beginning to seem that he had found his answers, at least, those that he sought from the Lamia Scale guild.

"Um, excuse me?" A timid voice caught Dmitry's attention, snapping him from his musings. "Who...who are you?" It came from the guild member that he and Kaori were there to rescue. "C'mon," he said to them. "Your boss sent me and a friend of mine to come get you out of here." Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, the survivors simply nodded and followed behind him as he made his way back to Kaori, dispersing Jormangand and Hati from their physical forms as he went. After regrouping, the full group would then make their way back to the nearest town and report back to the woman who gave them their task to begin with, their mission thoroughly accomplished. After that, Dmitry would part ways with Kaori.

"I've learned something from the guild," He said with a calm and somewhat serene expression. "But that just means I gotta go my own way again. Figure the rest out for myself. Tell the rabbit not to get to ticked with me. And make sure you don't get yourself killed anytime soon. Also, the old man says goodbye." Dmitry turned to leave. "And...I guess it's goodbye from me too." With that he walked out of town and into a brand new journey of his own.

After Dmitry's good by, Kaori would here a voice in her head.

"So, long my dear."

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WC: 3,766/3,750