The Hunter

Alexander was not enthused about not getting any answers from the fact that there was no answer to the question that he gave. Okay this was not good unless there was an alternate exit they haven’t found yet. Still inside the ruins there had there be another exit, but would take time to find it. He did not want to cause another panic, but there was a need to be careful.  With nowhere to go but forward, she followed everyone into the next room. He showed minor concern, but then shook his head. He trusted in these people, their capability and their skill. They would find a way out to succeed, but secretly wished that they were not so chaotic.
Indar’s insanity however was crawling deeper into his mind, how long until it devoured all sense of reason and made him unfunctional? Or was it the same insanity that made his mind stronger, but just unpredictable?   How long until Priscilla’s laid back attitude cost her something due to inactivity? Or was it because of said attitude that let the weight of the world not be such a burden? How long until Violas innocent nature was crushed by the realities of this world? Or was she like him and wore masks to hide the fact that she already faced them? Alexander was distracted in thought when Priscilla grabbed his hand and they formed a ring.

Alexander’s stomach slightly lurched from the teleportation magic went through. He was completely caught off guard for mere moments before instinct took over and he jumped up in the air and slammed his fist into the ground, knocking down every bandit off their feet and slamming them on the walls. He yelled, “Hey guys, softened them up for you!” He made a good start, but it was up to them to make the most out of the situation.

Bandits just kept popping up, it was truly an ambush. This would have been a difficult thing to fight through, if it wasn't for Priscilla. She grabbed Indars hand and right immediately Indar grabbed Violas. They then teleported behind the men, who were shooting at them. It was a weird experience and Indar felt really dizzy. This wasn't good, his mind was losing to the insanity and being dizzy just made it happen more faster, as Indar couldn't control his mind at the time. It would happen, in these ruins, the form, the insanity that killed his family, would come out again. He sighed, it would actually be good to attack the enemies in this form, even though he might just kill them. Maybe he would just hurt them.

Indar had turned into the insane version of himself now, his eyes glowing with a purplish glow. His regular smile had turned into something twisted, non human. He walked casually towards the men, not paying attention to the fact, that hey were trying to get up and actually shoot him. One of them got really close to doing so, but right before he did, Indar grabbed his scythe and said: '' Abyss Hollow, Form Change: War Axe. '' The scythe changed to a double bladed gigantic axe. This seemed to make one of the bandits scared and he dropped onto his knees, making Indar ignore him. But the one that wanted to shoot him, wasn't going to get away, Indar only wanted to see the man in agony and didn't care if he himself got shot, as he wouldn't feel it thanks to insanity blocking out nerve signals.

The bandit readied his gun and actually shot Indar in the side of his stomach, making Indar stop for a second, but he only started manically laughing. He didn't mind getting shot, he felt nothing. After he finished laughing, he looked at the man and said: '' Die '' This was it, Indar charged at the bandit, sending the giant axe into the side of the man, forcing him to fly into a wall. He was bleeding from the side, as the axe had made a cut into the side of him. When he opened his eyes, he only saw Indar standing before him, pretty much holding the bandits life in his hands.

Priscilla was gasping for breath and sweating right about now. She was exhausted and she didn't have enough magic power left in her to last much longer. This was awful... She really needed to find a way to remedy this, it was becoming a prominent problem in her life, much to her dismay. "This is... Just freakin'... great..." she panted out, looking at the men around her as well as her teammates. Right about now should be where they get out, but Priscilla didn't enough energy to get all of her teammates back into her shadow and then leave. Great.

"This is it, then..." she mumbled, standing upright. She had regained enough power to do one more thing to help her teammates. Three of the men turned to Priscilla, aiming their guns at her head. "Luna Dial." she said, and just before the men could pull the triggers on their guns, Priscilla's summon and inner desire appeared in front of her and took the bullets to the head for her. "Now, who wants to experience what it's like to be punched a thousand times in just a few seconds?" she asked before Luna charged forwards and started swinging wildly at the men. They were in close enough range to each other that allowed Luna to strike all of them rapidly at the speed of sound, but at the cost of more of Priscilla's precious magic power. By the time the summon had finished, Priscilla had collapsed on the ground, along with all the men. She fell to her hands and knees, panting and gasping for breath as Luna vanished.

"Damnit..." she mumbled, looking around at the others around her and noticing Indar. "Oh, that's not good." she mumbled, noting how he had gone insane again. Again. This was becoming a problem for him much more lately, she found. Either that or she was just going on more missions with him than usual. Either way, this wasn't a good thing, and neither was the fact that Priscilla couldn't move. They'd be real lucky to get out of here alive.

Alexander stood up from where he stood and pulled out his twin guns and started to open fire. The loud sound of gunfire echoed though the cave as heads exploded from bullets ripping through their heads. Alexander was not giving them a chance to get up. They would dare to hurt his family, the only thing he cared for anymore. They were all special in their unique ways and thus needed to be protected and saved. They did not need to live a short life of despair, but a long happy one. There was not a single one here that he would not throw his life for. Each one here was a brother or sister to him and thus needed to be protected.

Alexander smirked at Priscilla, she was as of today the true star of the team. Pulling the group out of jams, defeating people and just tactically being stronger than everyone. He would be making a special batch of donuts for her after this mission was done. There was then one of the bandits that ran for a straight beeline at her. It was a charge that Alexander saw, but in the mess of combat the shadow mage may miss or not have enough time to dodge.

There was no hesitation as Alexander moved sidestepped right when the man went for a lunge straight at Priscilla. Alex was low on spells and had no other move, so he did what was possibly the stupidest thing he ever did. He stepped in front of the blade of crystal and felt the sharp pain as it entered the body. There was scream, but a loud groan. It hurt, but Alexander had worse fears. It was losing a family member… So grabbed blade and pushed himself deeper in as he growled, “Don’t ever touch my family!” He then head-butted the  guy to knock him on the floor and pulled the blade out of his stomach. He let out a scream as he sank the blade into the man. It hurt and he was bleeding profusely… but at least his team mate was safe. He fell on his knees and groaned in pain.

Indar kept staring at the bandit, looking at him, begging for his life before Indar. It was quite the sight for the insane mage, a sight he loved while in the state he was in. Though he wasn't merciful and the bandit was getting boring, so with a swift movement, the giant war axe was brought onto the man, killing him instantly. Indar pulled up the axe, only to look around and see Alexander and Priscilla down on the ground. This made his mind blank, the few people he cared for, being hurt like that. This was the breaking point for him, he wouldn't be himself for a few hours now. The completely insane side would now come out, the side that killed his family, just for fun.

He started to walk towards the last remaining bandits. There were only three left and one of them was still quivering in fear. Though he couldn't be counted out yet. Indar's eyes noticed the two, who still had fight left in them, both were walking towards Alexander and Priscilla, to probably finish them off. This wasn't going to happen, so with another quick movement, Indar summoned a blob of abyssal metal in front of him, punched it and sent it off towards the two bandits. One managed to get hit and flew off into the wall, though he wasn't out, not even closely. It would take a lot more, and Indar would give them that. He ran towards them, dodging the two bullets that were shot at him, and tried to hit the bandits with his axe. The bandits also managed to dodge, although they placed themselves in a horrible position, they were right next to Indar, still in the range of his weapon. Indar turned towards them and yelled: '' Cyclone '' The war axe changed it's form into liquid and sent a straight, sharp, spinning line of metal towards the two, leaving cuts onto their bodies and sending them right next to Viola.

Indar's eyes met Viola's, he hoped she would finish those two off. But Indar's mind was gone now. Instead trying to help Alexander, he placed his scythe around the man's neck. The abyss controlled Indar now, making him want to kill everything. Indar was trying to fight it, but to no avail. He couldn't control it. He felt scared, if nothing happened Alexander would be killed here, in front of Priscilla and Viola and it would be done by Indar. But something did happen, the bandit who acted cowardly, shot Indar, making him lose his balance and fall over. The bullet had pierced through his chest, causing a lot of damage to the mage. Indar couldn't move anymore, the pain flooded in, as the abyss left his body for now.

"So..." Priscilla mumbled, looking up at her team around her. Alex had been stabbed, Indar had been shot, and Viola was going insane. Yeah, she was right about having to be real lucky to get out of here. "This is... disgusting..." she groaned as she stood up and looked to Viola. She didn't show any signs of stopping soon, and Priscilla could hardly move. Indar and Zenneth would die too if Viola didn't snap out of it so they could both help them...

"I guess... I could do that." Priscilla said, looking back down at Alexander. She couldn't even fix him up, let alone heal him in any way... At least, she couldn't carry him in this form. With a sigh, Priscilla extended her arm out, the palm of her hand facing downwards as the light in around her began to dim. It was already dim in this room, so after a moment it looked like the area around her was as bright as the night lit by the moonlight. "Apologies for keeping my immortality from you." the girl said loud enough for everyone to hear. "But I didn't want you asking questions as to why I'm like this."

Priscilla's form went black and began to change, her figure turning from that of a teenage girl to what looked like a full grown adult. "And now you see... my true self." she said, the blackness around her figure disappearing to reveal a beautiful woman in a long red dress. She looked older than the rest of them, like she was around her early to mid thirties, and she stood there tall and proud. Her eyes rested on Viola, glaring into her soul with a look that would kill a man.

"Viola. Drop him, now." She commanded, slowly walking over to the girl. Her heels clicked along the stone floor with each step as Priscilla approached. A very intimidating air could be felt about her as she walked, and hopefully it was enough to snap Viola out of her trance. If not... Well, Priscilla switched her and Luna's abilities, so one swift punch would be all it took to knock her out.

Alexander looked up to Indar as the scythe was wrapped around his neck and pulled slightly up. Up in front of him was Indar with a psychotic look on his face. This was not going to be the end, he would not allow it. He growled in anger as he tried to come up with some kind of plan. A solution to the problem at hand, he was coming up with nothing. Alexander just growled, “I bloody dare you to do it, that action will be the last thing you ever do.” His killing intent was big, because if Alexander did not stop him then he could go on killing the other members. He was thinking of making a last ditch move to stop him when a bullet rang out and shot through him. Alexander was just dumbfounded at his luck, but not for long. Summoning flame into his hands he pressed against his wound, burning it shut. He would not bleed to death now, but it was so damn painful. He groaned loudly in pain, but he would hold up unto a real medical expert can look at it.

He stared at Priscilla for a bit, he had a feeling that she was hiding something. What was she exactly? Still regardless, he needed to focus more on the guy that just tried to kill him. He stared, the magic he had was controlling him, not the other way around. In such it made him dangerous person, what if he were to do it again? He paused for a bit before doing something that he would regret later. He instead sighed and did the same thing to him. Pressing a flaming fist at Indar’s would, he stopped the bleeding by melting the skin. However this was going to hurt Indar much more than it hurt Alexander. And for this one time he deserved it.

Indar was on the edge of death at this point. The bullet had seemed to miss the vital organs, but still knocked out something inside of him. He was in agony, but as he opened his eyes, sensing someone very close to him, he saw Alexander. Indar knew what he had tried to do and was feeling sorry for it, but how would he apologize to someone he tried to kill.

Suddenly though, Indar screamed out in agony. Something was being done to his wound, it had started to hurt even more. The bullet had flown straight through him, so holes on both sides were being sealed up, it was the most horrifying pain Indar had ever felt. He couldn't even breath, he had gone into complete shock. Though a good thing did happen as well, he was back to his old self, the insanity had gone away, right when the pain had kicked in.

As Alexander finished, Indar's eyes opened and he got into a sitting position. He pulled himself against the wall of the ruins and sat there. He wanted to thank Alexander now, but needed to apologize first. He looked at him, with eyes that had suffered a lot recently and said: '' Alex, i'm sorry for what happened, something took control of me and i couldn't do anything to fight it. '' Indar sighed fairly loudly, but continued in a second: '' I also wanted to thank you for sealing up my wounds. '' Indar wasn't dying anymore, but the pain wasn't going away any time soon. It would probably get better from now on though, as the wound was sealed, in a fairly gruesome manner actually. But Indar didn't care, he was just happy to be alive at this point.

Indar did notice Viola and Priscilla now, Viola was holding onto the man's shirt, wanting to kill him. Priscilla was trying to convince her out of it, but no response had come still. Indar's eyes locked onto Viola for now, as he raised his hand to signal her and yelled, with the last strength he had left: '' Viola, do not kill him, he saved Alexander and he didn't do that much harm. ''

Priscilla sighed as Viola didn't stop after she had demanded. "Apologies, friend." was all Priscilla said before the space around her rippled for a moment. "But I cannot allow you continue. Because if you did..." Priscilla said, her pupils turning to slits. For a brief moment, she froze as she perceived the near future. "Then I don't think any of us would make it out alive." And with that, Priscilla twisted her torso to the right, then back around as she delivered a swift punch to the back of Viola's head. The younger looking girl was smashed into the wall next to the man while the stone wall itself shattered in a several meter wide radius. "Again, sorry for that." was all Priscilla said as she caught Viola when she started to fall to the ground.

To be honest, she was expecting more of a shocked reaction from her allies when they saw her shift to the form of an older woman. She blamed it on the fact that the current events were more important and required more attention than she did. But oh well, at least they could see now, what with her long red dress, older looks, and big bust, that she wasn't just any old person. This would last for at least a few more hours before she reverted to her child form again. She didn't like it but it was necessary for her immortality to work. Hopefully she could actually work out that kink shortly.

Until then, Priscilla would have to keep going. And so with the thought of keeping her allies alive, she lifted up Viola to carry her in a bridal carry and bring her back over to Indar and Zenneth. When she got over to the other two, they would find that she was not in a pleasant mood in the slightest. Oh no, they would find her glaring down at them with a stare that would kill men like them. She was just in that bad of a mood. "You two had one job, and that was to do this mission without getting hurt. 'Oh but Priscilla, it's a B-Rank mission!'" Priscilla said, doing a mock impression of Indar at the end. "There's 4 of us and we should have been able to keep each other from getting hurt, but nooooo. Zenn has to go and get stabbed when I still had the power to counter that man's sword, and Indar had to go insane at just the perfect moment." Priscilla kept her glare focused on the two. "It took me 10 years since I was born to realize I can't trust people. That thought has stuck with me for the past over 500 years I've been alive. I haven't even dared to question it, not even once since that day."

Priscilla walked past them, not even caring about their wounds as she tread over to the treasure room. "Get up and get your prize, kids." She uttered coldly. "If you can't, then you're better off dead anyways."

Alexander muttered, “It’s okay man, it was not you. It was the abyss, one day you will conquer it. That I have complete faith of.” It was then that he gave a hand up to lift Indar on his feet, Alexander would forgive him for now. It must never happen again though or Alexander would not hesitate to finish him off. It was much too dangerous…

It was then that Alexander had a scolding from a 30 year old Priscilla. Her words sank in, but in not the way she wanted. As she turned away to walk to the treasure room, Alexander walked up to her and grabbed her the shoulder and pressed her against the wall, triggering his mana burning spell to burn the magical energy from her body. Also the pain would be so unbearable that she would not be able to move as her nerves would be frozen in blinding shock. Alexander had his peace to say:

“I have seen through your ruse... You try to play the adult, the sensible one. But deep inside you are but a mere child. You don't trust others because you do not trust yourself. You do not want that responsibility. However each one here was ready to trust and put their lives down. I took a sword stab for you without hesitation for crying out loud." Alexander’s face would be brought closer to Priscilla’s face and looked into her old eyes with his own dead eyes. Eyes that seen so much pain and suffering in his considerable short amount of time of life than hers. However his eyes were dead, like if this was a man that did not care if he lived or died. His true mask that he wore for others was finally lifted.

"Let me tell you why I did it Priscilla. You feel this pain? It is the pain that I had to endure for 5 years as a child when I was trapped in hell. The pain that has seared of 90% of the pain receptors in my body. It is the pain that I felt when I was dragged as a child, alone scared and with my family dead. So yes, it was a stupid move. It was reckless and yes it bloody hurts a bit. But if I can spare 1 member of the team the same kind of pain that I endured… To spare 1 member the pains of hell… To spare 1 member a life that is not even worth living. Then it was worth it, and I will not let you cheapen that sacrifice that I or the rest of this team was willing to take. Not by you who apparently is in a team, but doesn't trust anyone. You may be 500 years old, but grow the f*** up. I will not let you insult us like that."

Alexander then released the elder and just grabbed a pair of gloves and simply left in cold anger. He was done for the day.

[exit]

Magic:

When Indar saw Priscilla smack Viola against the wall, his mind filled up with fury. She hadn't done anything to deserve something like that. It was just cruel by Priscilla and Indar really wanted to say something, but before he could she had already walked over to them, carrying Viola. He couldn't raise up to say something, but instead just listened to Priscilla. She sounded really rude and was acting very badly.

Though what happened next wasn't that surprising to be honest. Alexander had snapped and attacked Priscilla pretty much. But something other caught Indar's attention, as Alex pushed Priscilla into a wall, Viola fell from Priscilla's arms. Indar gathered all his remaining strength and jumped to catch her, from taking more damage. It was a quick movement and did hurt Indar again. But at least, Viola was safe now, between his arms. Indar was just standing there now, holding Viola in a bridal carry. Indar didn't care for Priscilla's words anymore, they meant nothing to him, as right now, he had to get Viola to a doctor and well himself as well.

He did listen to what Alexander was telling, but he didn't care yet again. He just turned around and started walking away, while carrying Viola. He noticed that Melody had come and had fallen asleep on top of Viola. She was quite adorable in the position. There was just a slight problem, Indar had no clue on where to go from here on. The ruins entrance, or where they came in from had disappeared, well it was too high to reach. Though, some searching later, Indar had found an exit, towards a small road, that lead to a little village. He hopefully would find someone there, to treat him and Viola, but to also give them somewhere to sleep, as Indar was exhausted from this job.

It now had become an agonizing walk towards this village. One that would take some time and what would hurt him physically.  He sighed, but a smile appeared on his face. He was happy the job was done and that he could now go and get fixed up.


(Job completed)