Biohuman

While Jacob was dealing with the Undead Drake, Keng and Philip fired at the mages. They tried to get the upper-hand on the group by taking advantage of the Drake they had on their side. Philip fired off many cross bolts at the mages. Shockwaves and splintered attacks made the mages wary of him.

"You're best when you're fighting melee, right?" Philip asked, reloading.

"Yeah. You want me to close the distance?" Keng asked.

"Yeah, do that. I'll slow them for you." Philip raised his crossbow and took aim. "Webbed." The cross bolt flew straight for the mages. The mage hobgoblins dodged out of the way as the bolt landed on the ground. Keng darted towards them, trusting that Philip would do his job. He watched the bolt miss and immediately explode as webbed tendrils shot out of the cross bolts, holding all of the mages.

"Woah, that's really useful." Keng whispered. The silver and gold runes glowed bright as Keng cleared the distance. "Altered God Weapon Art: Waves of Hunger." Keng swung the two blades, slashing at the first mage hobgoblin he saw and watched as silver water infused with gravity flew out of the blade, severing the hobgoblin and the others in half.

The leftover monsters were quickly put out by the hands of Keng, Jacob and Philip. Most of the monsters had fled from the battle and the three regrouped. The rage from Jacob subsided as he looked around.

"Whatever is dead is dead. I got about seventy with the Undead Drake." Jacob told them.

"I got eight-four." Philip smiled. The two had to time tease each other and joke around.

"How much did you get, Keng?" Jacob asked.

[Notice: 68 souls were gained.]

"Sixty-eight." Keng answered.

"Not bad for a rookie." Jacob patted him. "Well, why don't we head back to the village?"

"Shouldn't we look for Bright and Winn? What if they came across a Drake?" Philip asked his older brother.

"They ran off in that direction, yeah?" Jacob turned and pointed to his right. Keng's eyes moved towards the direction Jacob had pointed at and didn't see anything.

"Yeah. Knowing them, they would've gone to the hills." Philip sighed.

"Even after I told them not to go there?" Jacob sighed. "Let's go then."

Jacob led the way to the hills. They moved quickly through the forest, killing any monsters on the way. The Ire-filled forest was quiet. Too quiet.

"Shouldn't there be more monsters? The Ire's too quiet." Philip asked Jacob. Jacob was bothered by this, too.

"That's a bad omen, then." Jacob replied. "I hope the village is okay."

,m "There's Dad and the others. They can easily keep the Ire at bay."

"But the Ire is still thickening and there aren't monsters about in the Ire fog. Dad would definitely say something bad is coming our way and that Undead Drake was probably the first of many."

"Now that I think about it… That Undead Drake was pretty odd. Don't they normally move on all fours? Why did that one stand on two legs?" Philip asked.

"Don't know. It looked like a Drake to me." Jacob shrugged. The three started to ascend. "We should be getting closer." Dead monster bodies scattered all around them as they climbed the hill. Keng was starting to feel a headache coming. He closed his eyes for a moment and listened as they walked.

"Bright!" Winn's distant voice shouted. "Are you okay?!? Hold on!"

"They're near." Keng opened his eyes. "And Bright's in danger." The three picked up speed and Keng followed the brothers. They climbed to the top and Winn's voice grew louder.

"Bright! Hold my hand!" Winn shouted.

"Winn! Don't let go! Oh my gods! That thing could've killed the both of us!" Bright did his best to keep his eyes on his twin brother as he hung off the edge of a cliff. Winn tried his best to pull Bright, but his grip was slipping. "WOAH! WINN!"

"I… I can't!" Winn strained.

"You must!" Bright told him. He lifted his other hand and grabbed Winn.

"Bright! Winn!" Jacob shouted. The brothers ran.

"Help!" Winn shouted. "My grip it's—"

"AHH!" Bright's grasp slipped and the brothers all began to scream. Keng darted past them and jumped off the cliff without second thought. Keng reached out for Bright as he tried to snatch Keng's hand. Keng grasped his hand and Bright suddenly stopped falling.

"You're okay." Keng floated to a stop and turned Bright. Bright's eyes were watery and the adrenaline was pumping through his veins.

"W-w-w-w-what happened…?" Bright stuttered. He started to turn to look down but Keng grabbed Bright's head and turned it to him.

"Don't look down, alright?" Keng kept a calm composure. Bright nervously nodded and Keng let go. "I'm going to bring us up, alright? You won't fall while I'm with you."

"O-okay." Bright nervously nodded. Keng slowly lifted the both of them up.

"Oh my gods. He just jumped… Right?" Winn looked at Philip and Jacob, stunned.

"Yes, he did." Jacob nodded. He grabbed Winn and pulled him away from the edge. "I think you should come over here or else you'll faint." Winn allowed his brother to pull him away from the edge as Keng and Bright floated to the top. Keng moved them over to where the others were and set Bright down.

Bright's legs lost all the strength in them and he fell onto his knees.

"Holy Dahlia that was…" Bright gulped. "How can you do that?" He looked over at Keng who dropped to the ground.

"It's Lee Seng's power. I have access to it." Keng explained.

"H-humans have that sort of power? That's… useful."

"Bright!" Winn jumped onto his knees and scrambled over to his brother. The two embraced each other in a hug as Winn squeezed Bright.

"W-Winn, stop! It hurts!" Bright patted Winn's back.

"I thought you were dead!" Winn cried.

"I'm okay because of Keng. It'll b-be fine." Bright tried his best to stay strong for the both of them. The twins, from what Keng could tell, had a fear of heights and something must've happened to the both of them. Keng scanned the foggy area, passively listening to Winn and Bright try not to sob as Jacob and Philip comforted them.

There were goblins, hobgoblins and strange huge black cats. Keng wandered around and studied them. The goblins and hobgoblins were just as he expected. Nothing out of the ordinary but the black cats had gold claws. Just as he was about to stop observing, the loud flapping of wings caught his attention.

"CRA!" A large bird cawed. It had green feathers and wore a skull over its face. It was bleeding. The skull bird dived bombed straight for Keng.

"Watch out!" Bright shouted. Keng lifted his hand and pushed gravity straight at the bird. The bird pushed through the gravity and head-butted Keng into the ground.

"A Skull?" Philip manifested his crossbow and pulled the bow into place. He readied his fire as the Skull lifted back into the air, quickly. The smell of death permeated it as Keng sucked in some air. It had hit him hard and forced the air out of his lungs. He could feel a woozy feeling coming on from the Skull.

"Webbed." Philip fired the bolt and watched as the bolt hit the Skull in the wing. A tendril of webbed vines wrapped around the Skull bird and immediately made it drop. The bird flew straight for Keng as Keng dodged out of the way.

[Notice: User is experiencing temporary confusion. Any attacks made by the Skull will do extra damage to you through psychic means.]

'Great.' Keng groaned as he heard the Skull let out an ear piercing cry. Keng screamed as he covered his ears. The Skull was definitely not liking what Philip did to it. Philip reloaded and pointed the crossbow at the Skull. He fired the shot and watched as the bolt pierced the skull of the Skull, shattering it and ending the birds life.

"Those things are so annoying to deal with. Why do they even exist here still? Aren't they supposed to leave with the curse?" Philip complained. He reloaded the crossbow and held it as Bright and Winn stood up.

"Those were the things we were struggling with. We couldn't get the jump on them and they managed to confuse us." Bright informed his brothers and Keng. Keng shook his head. The confusion effect was strong on him despite his wondrous passes against everything else he could've taken earlier.

"The Ire's here and we need to head back home." Jacob informed the twins. Philip wandered over to Keng and stuck his hand out.

"Doing okay?" Philip asked. Keng tried to grab his hand, missing.

"No. How long does this last?" Keng asked.

"Another minute or so. I think you should just sit for a bit until it wears off." Philip scanned the area. The Ire was getting thicket and it was too quiet.

"Shouldn't their be monsters?" Bright asked.

"Yeah there should be monsters…" Jacob nodded. "That's why we should leave."