(AQW) The World Tree (Full Version)

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blankmaskara -> (AQW) The World Tree (9/16/2011 3:36:23)

Chapter 1





Weeks Ago

The inn was conspicuous. With hordes of drunks lumbering in and out of the creaky doors as well as a huge sign that shone in the sun, The Inn of the Boar was probably the most attractive inn in the town that incidentally, his mentor had chosen as the meeting spot. Entering, Kither coughed repeatedly at the smell of smoke that came from the various pipes that the customers inside were using. Surely enough, the inn was crowded with people on both the first floor and the floor above it. Unfortunately, this was the meeting place his mentor had chosen, and although he would've preferred a less crowded and less conspicuous place, he had to respect his mentor's choice.

After some number minutes of walking around the inn looking for his former mentor, Roland Gorthian, Kither had finally found him.

Roland w as a remarkably tall, slightly large, and old man, his eyes stormy gray yet filled with wisdom from his collection of experiences. His hair was a dark grey color, filled with streaks of white. His skin was wrinkled and dotted with moles while his face was pretty much wrinkled just like his skin. He wore a simple tunic and pants at the moment.

"Hello again, Kither! What have you called me for?" Roland's voice boomed.

"Well, I just need you to identify these." Kither replied, dropping pieces of wood from his pouch onto the table.

"Hmmmm, can't you see that it's just wood? Are you mad, or do you want me to identify something else?" Roland answered.

"Actually, I do want you to identify something else." Kither replied.

"Well then, what do you want me to identify?"

"The source of the wood."

"The source? You do know that I'm not a wood expert."

"I know, but the reason I wanted to ask you was because you were the myth expert before, and seeing as how the fragments have a great amount of pure mana, I think it just mi--" Kither could barely finish when Roland interrupted.

"Yggdrasil. It's Yggdrasil." Roland muttered, examining the pieces of wood as he said it.

"What?"

"Don't you see? The myths told it as well. Yggdrasil had the purest mana in the whole of Lore. It's filled with pure mana, thousands of it. If it actually exists, it would be the only anchor from the past to the present and in that time, it accumulated mana over the centuries through its mana producing nature. The problem is, its existence...has never been proven. How did you get it?"

"I, uh, I.." Kither was lost for words. He had been ordered to go and inquire his mentor of the source by his brother. If he told his mentor where he got it, he would be killed, but he would betray his mentor's trust. If he didn't, then he wouldn't be killed, but….

"It's fine. No need to elaborate on it anymore, Kither. I ordered him to, Mr. Gortian. It was a 'Do or Die'. I forced him to receive the pieces I presented him with and sent him to seek your help. No need to be angry at him." Ishmail suddenly appeared behind Roland while he said this, smirking cleverly.

"YOU WICKED CONSPI-" Roland screamed.

"Yes, yes. Go on. Cause a scene. Not like it will actually have any effect on what you answered earlier. Anyways, I'll be taking these now and be leaving." Immediately after this, Ishmail gathered the fragments and disappeared into the air, barely missing an arcane blast from Roland that instead blasted a hole in one of the rum kegs at the bartender's counter, letting the rum slip away from the container.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM?" Roland yelled.

"I couldn't. It all just happened so fast. I can't even defeat a person that can teleport so easily and quickly."

Swearing, Roland stood up abruptly and stormed out of the inn.

-Now-

Kither played around with the mana gem he held in his hand, lost in the deep oblivion of his mind. His mentor had stopped contacting him after the incident, probably steaming. His mentor knew his older brother, Ishmail, ever since he was still a mere child. In fact, he was training under him to become a mage when he suddenly just disappeared, location unknown to both family and friends, even the closest of them. Years after, he finally resurfaced, and cancelled his studies under Roland in pursuit of a new interest. Of course, Roland was infuriated. But he wasn't mad because Ishmail left him, it was because he left him hanging, unsure wether he would still come back or not.

Now, Kither was a victim of a rather mandatory choice between asking Roland to identify the pieces of wood or choosing not to since, if you looked at Kither's wrist closely, there was a scar that had the impression of a blade. In fact, that particular scar was a reminder to him of the poison-coated blade he had been threatened with by his brother. Luckily, he chose quickly enough to do ask Roland before Ishmail sank the blade deep enough to let the poison into the wound.

Staring out of the window, Kither took a long look at the surroundings of the tower for residents located in the region of Arcangrove. it had been a few months since Ledgermayne had been obliterated. Many adventurers had took part in fending off the threat, including himself. Sadly, the only memento he had from the various adventures he had was a fragment of solid mana. Just a fragment. It was always like that for him. Whenever he did something, he always got almost nothing in return. It did work out well if he did something shameful, but he had close to no memento. Just a memory, or something greater than a memory, but nothing like a concrete piece of evidence, like the scar. For all he knew, his friends could probably dismiss the scar easily as something from a spar, and it could be healed away easily.

"CRRSSSHHH"

Kither peeked through the hole for looking in the door of his room, looking outside. He noticed a group of people that seemed to be knocked out, or maybe even dead, probably guards-on-duty on the particular level of the tower that he was on. They were stationed there because ever since the Chaos Lord incident, the government of Arcanegrove raised up security. In fact, the security was raised to such heights that all suspicious men and women who entered the tower in the past were immediately killed or arrested in just seconds after entering due to the highly-trained guards and quick mind-browsing spells that confirmed their intentions. So, it was almost impossible that anybody would be able to take down this particular group of people.

"Hello." a voice whispered from behind him.










blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (10/22/2011 22:02:28)

Chapter 2


The scene seemed to be cleared out of almost all evidence. Looking at her notes, the victim named Kither Marks was lucky enough to have survived. According to the report, he was stabbed repeatedly at the back by the attacker, then was left to die in the room. A rather sloppy job, she must say, but being able to murder a group of highly-trained mages without them noticing a thing was extremely remarkable, as well as being able to pop into the victim's room without using the door or window. Sadly, the only proof they had of this were a few depressions on the carpet as well as the wounds of the victim, but aside from that, there was nothing else. It seemed the attack wasn't entirely sloppy since the attacker seemed to clear out all evidence that strongly supported his actions. But then, why did the attacker attempt to kill the victim in such an ineffective manner when he would go through so much pains just to clear the evidence?

Anyways, the only reasons Carolyn was here was because among her three colleagues, she was the smoothest talker, able to take valuable info from others without them noticing, so they decided to make her the "interrogator" for their crime-solving group. And the other reason was that they were running quite low on gold, so maybe solving a case may help them earn more money, aside from taking down monsters, delivering items, and such. As of the moment, she was preparing to interview the supposed victim for some juicy info, then would proceed to to returning to the cabin for analyzing the information with her colleagues. Rubbing her hands, she prepared her notes and pen, and approached the head medic.

"Is he ready for questioning?" she asked the head medic.

"Well, he's in a remarkably better condition than before bu--"

"That's good enough. Let me pass." she shoved the head medic away, barging into the space allotted for the victim's "personal" quarters mainly for resting. Meanwhile, the head medic had stumbled onto the floor, dazed at the shove.

Unlike his bloodied and pale state before, he looked remarkably better, just like the head medic had said. Now, she could see that he looked remarkably young for a 25-year old man, and had jet black hair and ocean blue eyes. His skin was more fleshy and was a bit more nourished (although still lanky) than the last time she had seen him, but he still wore that worried look on his face.

"Hello. So, I do believe you're better now." she said, ignoring the mumbled warnings from the head medic, creating a barrier surrounding her and the victim with a crystal rod.

The victim didn't seem to reply to this, and just rolled sideways on his bed away from her. She didn't like these kinds of people. Information tended to be hard to get from them. Usually, her solution to this was to get a psychic friend to excavate the mind of the person in order to get what she wanted.The reason she had preferred using the usual way which was to interrogate and not mind-browse was because it wasn't against the victim's will and it gave more insight and expression into the details the victim would be saying as well as it being way easier than the other option, in her opinion. She was about to do this "solution" and call her friend stationed nearby to come closer when suddenly, he spoke.

"Not really."

Carolyn smiled at the reply, of course he was fine enough to talk. His reply was proof of that.

"What a hypocrite." she thought.

"Really? Then why are you able to talk?" she replied.

"Could we just not talk about his? I don't feel well right now so if you have some respect for me could you ju--"

"Excuse me! I do respect you that's why I want to solve this crime! So, tell me what you witnessed or felt during the incident!" This exclamation always worked before with the previous victims, and she didn't see why it wouldn't work now.

"COULD YOU JUST SHUT UP! I'VE ALREADY BEEN STABBED AND LEFT OUT TO DIE AND I'VE EVEN BEEN THREATENED BY MY BROTHER! YOU SEE THIS WOUND?" He said, waving his wrist frantically in the air, which was totally bare. "IT'S A REMINDER OF WHAT HE DI--"

The victim started to turn sideways and cough up a gallon of blood on the floor before he could finish, his face looking worse than a while ago. Suddenly, Carolyn was pulled back out of his space by the head medic through a great amount of strength.

"See?! That's what I've been trying to tell you! He isn't fully well enough to engage in such conversation! My team of medics are probably going to have to spend another week just to patch him up! That's it! Leave! Leave now!" the head medic yelled in an angry tone.

After that, she lumbered out of the room, horrified at her actions, as well as the screams of the people inside the room horrified at the puddle of regurgitated blood.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (11/19/2011 8:12:31)

Chapter 3

Kither had finally had his wounds healed after a monotonous week of boredom. Thanks to the insensitive and stubborn "detective", he had to stay an extra four days just recuperating from his wounds.

According to the healers, they had spotted fragments of wood inside the wounds inflicted on him, and strangely, they seemed to be rooted in his body so strongly that they couldn't even pull it out.

"Destroying it with spells or weapons, or even just uprooting it can have several...undesirable effects on you. Just make sure to meet with us when you have a problem, especially regarding those fragments and wounds," the head medic had stated. For sure, he would meet with them every week just to know whether or not he was fine.

As of now, he was busy in his room taking items from his drawers that he would need later on, since he was going to start an investigation of his own as well. No matter how good the investigation agencies were in the area, Kither never really liked it when they turned against you when evidence seemed to make you the suspect.

Fishing out his serum bottles and tomes, he quickly recalled the incident. His attacker's voice seemed warbled when it said hello, as if it didn't want anybody to find out its gender. Another strange thing was that when he felt the weapon pierce his skin, it was smooth and extremely cold instead of being rough and slightly warm, like wood. So the questions were: what type of weapon was used, how did the fragments of timber get into his body and why.

Nearly done with his packing, he put on his gloves, and clenched a fist. Whoever had attacked him, with good intent or not, would not go unscathed.

The two gloves Kither wore were not just your ordinary pair. In fact, they were quite the opposite. The gloves were tattooed all over with runes, and allowed you to set and trigger runes or rune systems. Basically, instead of casting a spell, the gloves can leave an imprint of a rune on any surface it touches while taking away some of the wearer's mana in the process. This imprint is a representation of an unreleased spell, so the imprint can release the spell it represents by the wearer's command or by certain details, like stepping on the imprint would trigger it as well as erasing it, etc. As for the size, the runes or rune systems could be at least 1 meter in diameter or length.

Kither quickly hurried out of his tower room while putting on the shoulder strap of his satchel, and started to leave the tower. He had a feeling that the attack on him was not ordinary at all.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/3/2011 5:28:05)

Chapter 4

"We need to follow him."

A feminine elf-like figure had appeared out of the shadows of the various hallways of the tower and into the lobby. Upon closer inspection, the figure had purple eyes and purple hair tied a few inches from the ends to form a short ponytail, and also had pale skin. After her entrance, she replied,

"Are you sure? He IS the victim, so I think he's innocent enough to let us leave him be."

"Not quite." the burly-looking man answered.

"And why is that?"

Carolyn had stepped out as well, wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with ends slanting to her left and sleeves layered on by several identical others, as well as a pair of pants.

"Because not everyone is innocent in a case. In fact, everyone is a suspect." the burly man answered.

"Fine. Whatever you say, Gunthor." The elf replied.

Gunthor was rather fit and muscular, his plain green shirt showing a few evident signs of muscles, and aside from wearing pants; he held a rather thick steel pole in his right hand. Aside from that, he had the look of a battle-hardened war veteran and dirty white hair accompanied with a scruffy yet short beard.

After the elf replied, she turned to Carolyn and informed her with only a look that she shouldn't argue with their colleague any longer. Even though she wanted to point out another reason, she decided not to. Among both of them, Elysia was the better decision maker, so continuing to argue must've been wrong.

"Good. Now, let's proceed to the plan. Carolyn and I will go follow that boy. While you, Elysia, inform us with your Leatherwing in case you need to tell us something important."

Nodding, Carolyn reluctantly followed Gunthor as he slowly exited the main entryway of the tower, while Elysia took another exit to get out.

After they were far away from the tower, Elysia's Leatherwing swooped down and dropped a message on the grassy soil, which said:

"He's in the forest."

Right after Gunthor had seen the message, he quickly picked up the piece of paper, and then walked briskly into the forest from the grass patch fenced by the paved roads.

I have a bad feeling about this... Carolyn thought.

Savoring what she guessed could be her last view of the tower, Carolyn ran after Gunthor, her crimson hair flowing behind her, while her brown eyes started to get nervous and dart in different directions.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/3/2011 6:32:11)

Chapter 5

"Maybe my brother Ishmail had something to do with the attack with me. I mean, the attacker or whoever that was, tried to murder me after I came back from the inn, and seeing as how both events weren't typical or even normal, I don't think the only connection between these two events is just a coincidence."

Thoughts like this flooded Kither's mind as he walked through the forest towards the campsite his friend had been staying in for quite a while. Hopefully, Kither would find him still there, for the forest was certainly large, so if this man was gone, it would certainly take a few hours before he could finally find him.

Spotting a clearing littered with campfires, tents, and other objects nearby, Kither quickly hurried to it, filled with glee and relief. He almost thought that he would never find the campsite.

"Oh! Welcome back, Kith! What brings you here?" A stranger yelled.

Finally at the campsite, Kither slowed down quickly and panted, then gave his all in raising his hand in greeting and replied,

"Hey, Helson..Ah..Wait..Let me catch my breath first..Okay…There.."

Helson was a slightly muscular man with hair the color of chestnut, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. Being a ranger, he wore a shirt dotted with comparments and pockets for his upper body, while his lower body was covered with plain black lightweight pants in order to ensure maximum velocity. As of now, his bow and quiver were slung over his shoulder, instead of being in a bag, where he usually kept nearly all of his things. He was also a very reliable friend and a researcher studying the subject trees, which were the reasons why Kither went to him in the first place.

"You okay?

"Yeah, I'm fine, just tired."

"That's good. Well, I heard that you had an argument with Gorthian and you got attacked by some crazy ninja guy. What's up with that?"

".....I'm probably going to have to explain to you about it, and might take a while." Kither replied.

"Sure."

After that, he quickly started explaining what had happened to him from his perspective and noticed Helson become quite unsettled, but he did not pay attention to this, assuming he was well-immersed in his explaining. Once he was done explaining, Helson still was rather unsettled, and began to ask questions.

"....So your brother stabbed you?"

"Yeah. I didn't think he could that bad."

"Well, at least now we know he can."

"Agreed."

Kither lingered on this, getting even more frustrated at his brother than before. He knew that when they were still young, Ishmail was not the type to do such a thing. And even when he reappeared, he was very much still the same; calm, sensitive, and intelligent. So, something must have happened to him.

"Wait, so if your brother made you find the origin of the wooden fragments, and the attacker left wood inside your body, is it possible that those fragments are from the same tree?"

"I can't be sure. All I know is that the pieces inside me are pretty much stuck in me."

"Ah, anyways...Maybe the fragments are from the Cloister."

"Well, it is possible, but aren't there any other trees that can have pure and untamed mana?"

"Of course not. Every single species in the family of trees is different in the nature of its mana, so a tree among several others can be unique among all of them when it comes to the nature of the mana of a tree as long as each of them are of a different species. Besides, I don't know of any other tree that is extremely identical to the fabled Yggdrasil besides the Cloister."

"You have a point, but have you examined it yet?"

"I have, but I haven't examined and studied it fully yet, including the nature of its mana." Helson replied, holding up a worn-out notebook in his hand.

"Then how do you know so much about the nature of mana in trees?"

"I consulted several other people who research about trees, then compiled the information I gathered."

"Oh."

"Well, shall we get going?"

"Guess so, but from what I hear the Cloister is located deep within the forest. It'll porbably take us hours to get there."

"I know. That's why I rented these horses." Helson replied, while he patted the saddle of one of the pair of horses that had appeared from behind him.

"Sweet."

"Let's move!"

Without another word, the pair had got on their horses, then set off towards the Cloister.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/15/2011 23:33:42)

Chapter 6

"Have you found them yet?" Carolyn asked in a worried tone, now convinced that this was only the start of a series of unfortunate events to come.

After thirty minutes, or even more minutes of waiting, Elysia, (Apparently, her Leatherwing had become tired from transporting numerous messages from and to her to Gunthor and Carolyn, causing her to meet up with and converse with them personally instead.) was still unable to create a magic marker in her scrying disk to signify Kither and his companion's movement amidst the overhead view. It normally didn't take this long for Elysia to mark people, and she'd encountered much worse conditions before in having to locate things. Carolyn could recall a time when Elysia had to find a minuscule pin inside a dimly lit barn, and she was able to locate it far quicker than now.

"No. It's like something shrouding them. Whatever it is, it's going to take a while to actually find them." Elysia replied in frustration.

"It's okay. I guess we'll just have to do a search of our own this time. Elysia, I'll go north, while Carolyn goes east, and make sure you follow her. Try to bypass whatever it is that's stopping you from locating the pair. We'll use our sprites to contact each other." Gunthor resolved, calming Carolyn down in the process.

Gunthor always has a plan, doesn't he? Carolyn thought.

Shortly after this, Gunthor quickly vanished north into the dark shadows of the forest, while Carolyn cautiously proceeded east, turning her head rapidly in order to quickly notice nearby people who could help her give directions, as well as would-be-attackers.

"I think I've found the pair."

"You have?" Carolyn said in relief, turning her head back at Elysia as she said this.

"As far as I can tell, they're departing from the Cloister right now."

Drawing out her crystal rod from her belt, Carolyn signaled for their sprites to come, then once they had arrived, she told them to inform Gunthor of their discovery.

"Alright, now let's follow them." she replied, and set off towards their destination, never stopping to contemplate the fact that the man she had just passed held a large axe, also heading towards the same destination with a malicious grin.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/15/2011 23:41:11)

Chapter 7

"It's a good thing you had them, Helson." Kither said.

"Guess so, but the way back is going to take longer, now that we returned the horses to that halfwit stableman. He could've at least told us that he was going to the Cloister with his damned horses." Helson replied rather grumpily, his hands clenched into fists, knuckles snow-white.

"Yeah, well at least, we're done with one thing now, and, uh, sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"Nah. It's fine."

Kither replied by forming an "Oh." with his mouth, although not saying anything as he did this, and coincidentally at the same time, a question struck him.

Why haven't I asked him this before? He mumbled quietly in the depths of his mind.

"...Why weren't you were unable to study Cloister when you could've done so for the past 5 years?" Kither asked suddenly out of the blue.

"Uh, if you still remember, I was still at the Sandsea studying the trees there, right?"

"Oh! Ah, ah, sorry about that. I guess I was being silly." Kither replied. Now he remembered. For the past 5 years, Helson wasn't at Arcangrove; he was at the Sandsea the whole time.

Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Kither murmured, the speech echoing in his hollow head.

"Yes. Yes, you were." Helson confirmed.

Silence appeared quickly after this, only allowing enough room for the sound of cracking of leaves under them two men's weight, although the shifting of movement from someone else slinked through the shroud of silence around them.

"Did you hear something?" Helson asked, while his ranger skills started surging through him informing him of possible danger.

"Not really."

"Oh, because I think I just heard someone besides us making noise."

"R-Really? Are you sure? I guess we better get moving then." Kither replied, suddenly afraid at the possibility of someone hunting them down, or even worse.

"Don't worry. I think it's just another wanderer, like us."

"I hope so." Kither replied, although not quite confidently.

At the exact moment Kither had finished saying that sentence, the source had revealed itself to them.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/19/2011 1:10:13)

Chapter 8

"Carolyn! Wake up!"

Carolyn managed to sit up despite her aching head, then after that, her vision started coming back to her.

In front of her, she could see, albeit blearily, Elysia and several empty potion bottles scattered across the forest floor. Aside from that, their surroundings looked extremely similar to the areas of the woods they had ran across in the past.

"E-Elysia? Wha-what happened?" Carolyn managed.

Elysia looked away for a moment as her face seemed to look nervous and pained, then she looked back at Carolyn once more after a few minutes of silence.

"I...I'm sorry." Elysia mumbled in reply.

"Sorry about what? Just tell me!" Apparently, Carolyn's headaches had subsided, which had enabled her to talk properly.

"O-okay...Well,"

From what Carolyn could hear, Elysia was saying that an axe-wielding man in full, elaborate, and wolf-themed armor had appeared behind her then slammed the flat of his axe against her head, knocking her down for the count. Meanwhile, Elysia was still meters behind her when that happened, and had stopped catching up to her and hid in fright when she witnessed the power of Carolyn's attacker. She also added that there were no blood flows from Carolyn's head when that happened.

"...I see."

"...You're not mad at me, right?"

Carolyn stared at Elysia for a moment, then opened her mouth after she found an answer.

"No, not really."

"Oh." Elysia replied, then sighed a breath full of relief.

"Anyways, how long was I out?"

"Approximately ten minutes."

"…It's because of the potions, isn't it?"

"Y-Yeah." Elysia replied, her expression full of fear as if Carolyn might've started fuming with anger.

"Don't worry! I'm not mad! Besides, thanks to you," Carolyn said, poking Elysia playfully, "I'm alright now!"

"O-Oh.."

Shortly after this, Carolyn struggled to get up, but was quickly aided by Elysia, who pulled her upwards into a standing position.

"Thanks, Elysia."

"No problem."

"Well, now what?"

"Oh, yeah! We have to find Kither and his companion!"

Elysia quickly grabbed her scrying disk and started to locate the pair, then found them somewhere in their vicinity.

"Where are they?" Carolyn asked.

"That way!" Elysia replied, pointing towards her right.

Carolyn ran as hard as her body could take in the direction Elysia had pointed at, getting closer and closer to their destination, with Elysia leading the way.




blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/21/2011 1:18:10)

Chapter 9

"Hello there." The armored stranger, or the source of the cracking leaves earlier, said, while he held a hatchet in his left hand. Upon closer inspection, the shoulder, elbow, and knee coverings of his armor had faces of wolves jutting out, while runes were found all around the armor in strange yet random lines. Meanwhile, the armor itself seemed to be made of some sort of dark metal and his helm was shaped like a wolf's head.

"Y-you're not going to throw that at us, will you?" Kither asked nervously, as he stared at the man in fright. Apparently, he was notably intimidated by the armored stranger, thanks to the weapon he held and the armor he wore.

"Now, that isn't a nice way to greet a friendly stranger, isn't it?" The man replied as he raised his left arm to a height that he supposed would prove helpful in throwing.

"N-no...Sorry, sir." Kither answered, stepping a few paces back.

"Good. Now, which one of you is Ishmail's brother?" He replied, dropping his arm back down.

When Kither heard this, he quickly turned to his unmoving yet tense companion, Helson, and attempted to ask for guidance without making any noise. Unfortunately, he was given none of this. Instead, Helson merely stared at the stranger, his face making the most stern expression it could possibly create.

"Ah, so it's you, the nervous one, eh? I expected a lot more, but, eh, I'll just do my job."

Grabbing a long handle from his back, the stranger quickly unsheathed a large, intimidating axe and swung it at Kither.

"Kith! Look out!"

Helson leaped at Kither and pushed him out of the axe's reach, then tumbled down for a landing. Luckily, he also evaded the axe.

"Come on! Guess I'll have to kill you too!" The man bellowed, ungracefully pointing his finger at Helson.

He quickly swung his axe at both of them, but Helson and Kither pressed down onto the ground deep enough to evade the swing. Infuriated at this, the man quickly threw the hatchet he held at them, only to be deflected by an iron arrow Helson had released from his bow.

"Ugh!" The man roared as he lifted his huge axe into the air and prepared to slam it down on the two.

"Run!" Helson yelled in Kither's ear, causing him to groan a bit in pain. Although usually, he would've gotten angry and yell back at Helson for this, this was not a situation
that called for typicality. So, Kither quickly got up and scrambled as far away as he could from the axe-wielding man, while Helson rolled away from the weapon that was crashing down upon him.

Is he going to be okay? Kither asked himself, keeping his mouth shut like a locked door.

Deciding to stop running after he was at a distance he deemed safe, Kither skidded to a halt, then looked back at the fight ongoing. Aside from Helson's having an hard time dodging the incoming swipes and hatchets from his enemy, all of the arrows he shot at the man merely bounced of his armor.

How does he produce those hatchets? Oh. He has a belt full of them....Waitaminute! While I and Helson were examining the Cloister, we both noticed a couple of insects watching us. Those insects must have acted as that axe-wielding maniac's second pair of eyes! That's how he found us in this huge forest! Without those bugs, he wouldn't have been able to locate us! Kither realized in the depths of his thoughts.

Looking back at the fight, he noticed that Helson was tiring out from all the arrows he fired and dodging he did, and he had earned a number of cuts and wounds.

Meanwhile, the steel-clad warrior used that to his advantage and threw the last of his hatchets at Helson, which he barely dodged. After that, he slammed him with the flat of his axe into a nearby tree, knocking him out.

"Heh. Well, it's over for you now." The axe-wielder said as he prepared to slay Helson with just a downward slash of his mighty axe.

Kither's eyes had gotten larger, while his instinct was screaming at him to go defend his unconscious friend. Luckily for Helson, his companion had heeded his instinct.

Clenching his fist, Kither ran towards the man's back then slammed his glove on his armor, causing a rune to appear. After that, he quickly stepped to his right and watched the armor suddenly drag the man and his axe backwards onto the ground instead of slicing Helson into two.

"Whatthe--!" the armored stranger shouted in surprise.

WHUMP.

Hissing in anger, the man seemed to clench his axe tightly while he lay flat on the ground, causing the spell that Kither "cast" earlier to fade. Then, he stood up once more.

A mana-leeching axe? No wonder he was able to nullify my spell... Kither thought, while he started backing away in order to put distance between him and his enemy.

"That hurt my back, kid, and now you're going to pay for it!" The stranger bellowed, now running at Kither, his axe ready.

Kid? Kid? Sure, I can take the sentence "You look like a kid", but I am NOT going to just stand by and call me "KID"! Kither roared silently.

He then started to formulate a plan of sorts, and from what he could see from his opponent's stance, he was going to do a horizontal slice going upwards with his axe.

That axe is the only thing that can efficiently render my spells useless. I'm probably going to have to disarm this guy first, but how? He noted in while he planned, slightly befuddled.

Kither then noticed a tree not far from him to his right, then smirked. He knew what to do now.

The armored man swung his axe upwards at Kither, who dived towards his right, dodging the swing, and landed at the side of a tree.

"Stop dodging, will you!"

"Why should I?!" Kither replied, yelling at the top of his lungs as he got back up.

"Fine then, eat this!"

The axe-wielding maniac then swung his axe at Kither, but he had miscalculated the length of his arm and axe in relation to the distance between him and the tree, which caused his arm to let go of his weapon as it slammed against the tree.

"Yeargggh!"

Now with a shot at defeating this man, Kither used up all of his mana into creating a meter-long rune system that reached his opponent, then activated the system.

Arcane tentacles burst out of the ground and wrapped around the axe-wielder, which immobilized him, then inflated and burst like a balloon, pushing him back with such force that he was pushed meters away, with medium-sized pieces of his armor flying away as flew backwards.

Kither then leaned on the tree for some support, then attempted to walk, but suddenly knelt down onto the ground due to his exhaustion. Meanwhile, the axe-wielder shakily got back up with no weapon and only small pieces of armor to cover his shockingly fragile and bone-thin body. He then walked towards Kither once more, while his body gave off an intimidating aura.

"I'm going to beat you up 'till you puke your guts out...", he said.

No...No....He was supposed to get knocked out, not get back up... Kither thought, while his hope started to diminish to a tiny speck of dust.

Suddenly, a feminine figure appeared in front of the man, then pulled out a dagger, ready to battle her foe while her red hair started to settle down from her leap.

"Scram! Now!" She said, while she tossed a rejuvenation potion at him from her back. Kither quickly caught and drank the item, blessing him with a small boost of energy.

Renewed with a bit of hope, Kither scrambled to Helson, then woke him up.

"Wha..What happened?" He asked.

"No time! We've gotta run!"

Helson nodded at this, then got up quickly.

"You sure?" Helson asked.

"Yeah! We need to go!"

Now that he completely understood the situation, Helson dashed away, with Kither slowly following his trail.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (12/22/2011 4:51:26)

Chapter 10

Carolyn looked back at the two friends fleeing from their resilient foe, leaving it up to her to defeat him.

I hope I ca--

Before Carolyn could finish that thought, the formerly armored man smashed his fist with overwhelming force into her stomach, sending her staggering backwards a few meters as she coughed up some blood.

"Hmph! That all you got?" the man snorted, while the pieces of armor, which were on his body previously, scattered on the ground, battered and useless.

Without his armor, the man looked like a bone-thin grown man with scraps of wood that were, literally yet seemingly, irremovable patches here and there on his body. The patches, or scraps of wood, had strange runes that glowed a bright neon yellow color, that matched the color of his eyes. He wore a battered, sleeveless shirt, while dusty brown pants and boots were worn for the portion of his body below his torso.

Maybe those patches of enchanted wood enhanced his jab earlier. Carolyn thought, unfortunately failing to focus on her surroundings and the fight she was in while she did this, despite her best efforts, thanks to the punch she had received earlier.

Once her focus returned back to her surroundings and the fight, she noticed that her opponent was not at where he was a while earlier. Instead, he was gone.

What the?! Carolyn thought, startled.

Her attention then quickly switched at a slope going upwards at her right. The sound of cracking leaves had been there, but apparently, the cause had seemingly vanished from her view.

Carolyn started to scratch her head in confusion, but then she heard a yell.

"Eat this, idiot cretin!"

A fist had bonked her hard on the head, while the other grabbed her by the arm and threw her back-first into the ground, a few meters away from the attacker, who was revealed to be the man earlier.

Getting up, Carolyn raised one of her arms in a defensive position, ready to block any incoming punches or kicks, while her other arm had remained at her back, as if it was hiding something.

Meanwhile, her opponent spat some of his saliva on his ground, and then smashed his leg at her defending arm. Unfortunately, the force proved to be too much for her, so instead of remaining in her position, she dropped to the earth once more, a large bruise appearing at her hit arm.

"I've got you now..." the formidable fighter said, holding up a wide, malicious grin.

Immediately, he ran towards her as he unsheathed a simple dagger, ready to stab it through her heart.

In response, Carolyn produced a black dagger from the arm behind her and hurled it at the approaching enemy, the blade glinting in the sunlight. The dagger had found its target in his arm as it inserted itself deeply into his arm, causing him to stop running and drop his dagger as a strange dark coating of crust grew outwards from the new wound produced.

As the coating of crust continued to spread, the wood-patched man started to rock back and forth while attempting to rip the dagger out of his arm, letting out yelps of pain.

Provided with an opportunity, Carolyn rushed to the man while he was still rocking in pain due to her dagger, and drew out a hilt without any blade attached to it. Upon closer inspection, the hilt had a downwards curved guard(as if a heavy rock had bent it from a fall to the middle of the it), a straight grip made of rattan, and a round pommel consisting of only one ruby gem. Meanwhile, a tiny ball of fire was nestled at the heart of the downward curve of the hilt.

The man, fully recovered from the pain caused by the wound from the thrown dagger, finally ripped the weapon out of his arm and dumped it on the ground, then swung his undamaged arm at Carolyn.

Luckily, she had ducked just in time to avoid the attack, then jumped and made a stabbing motion at the man's wound with her hilt.

Right upon impact, the sphere of flame let blazing lines of fire to go into the wound and burn severely the skin covered by the coating of black crust, which caused it to transform into a grotesque yet still growing patch of brown, black, grey, red, and green squirting out unnatural amounts of blood.

"Aggghhhh!” he bellowed.

The man made several steps backwards in pain, then fell down on his back. Meanwhile, Carolyn grabbed the blood-coated dagger that had been embedded in the man's arm earlier from the forest floor.

Carefully sheathing back her weapons, Carolyn looked at her surroundings once more. From her view, nothing much had changed, although there were visible traces of a fight, unlike before.

Dusting off any twigs or leaves that had stuck to her shirt, Carolyn prepared to knock her opponent unconscious with a kick to the face until she was suddenly interrupted by her target.

"Heh. I didn't expect to die like this...." the man mumbled.

"Huh?" Carolyn replied, confused.

"To pass away just because of a pathetic injury such as this...,” he replied, using his head to point at the multicolored patch, his face still expressing signs of great pain.

He doesn't know that it's not lethal. Carolyn noted silently, dwelling on that for a while before returning her focus once more to her opponent.

Smiling again, the man turned to face her instead of the sky.

"And do you know what's redeeming about this?"

"What?" Carolyn asked.

"I don't get to die alone!" he replied, with a wide grin, unafraid of what he thought would be his imminent death.

Just seconds after he said that, the runes on his wooden patches started to glow a bright crimson red instead of neon yellow.

Staring in fright, Carolyn realized it.

Oh no. Dear Lore, please don't let it happen. I've got friends and family waiting for me, and a case I need to comple--

At that moment, the sound of an explosion rang through the forest.




blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (1/19/2012 4:45:47)

Chapter 11

The smoke was familiar to his senses. The scent and color of it seemed almost usual to him, barely surprising his vision when it appeared.

No coughs were heard when he entered his study, a room which was packed full of reagents, and thick, dusty spell books among other basic items required in a mage's daily life. Instead, the shuffling of tiny feet on the worktables echoed around the minuscule room, caused by the movements of tiny white dolls with blank faces holding various items back from falling down the shelves, tables, drawers, and cabinets that housed them.

The man quickly plopped himself on an old wooden chair, not paying attention to the various items that the dolls were trying so hard to keep up. Then, drumming his fingers on his lap, he gestured one of the dolls to come to him. Subsequently, it grew tiny wings and fluttered over to him.

"Get Darthis here." he said.

"Yes, Sir Roland." the doll replied, and headed off to call Darthis, its wings flapping as it went away.

While he waited, Roland took a glance at an old hand-drawn picture showing a group of well-prepared travelers. Incidentally, the man in the middle of the group looked just like Roland, albeit younger. Beside Roland's young look-alike were men and women of different ages, some with dark skin and brown hair, pale skin and yellow eyes, and so on.

"I'm sorry, but it had to be done.." he murmured, then looked back to his front just as a translucent grey well-armed spirit appeared before him.

"Well, old friend, what now?" it said.

"Well, just a simple favor." Roland replied.

*Then if it's so simple, why won't you tell it to me then?*

"I need you to check if anyone has entered the tree."

"Ah. The tree again, huh? You're as paranoid as ever, Roland."

"Okay, okay. could you just go there now, please?" he asked, with a tinge of annoyance.

"Sorry, old friend." Darthis replied, taking in a deep sigh of resignation before continuing. "Well then, I'll be going now."

"Farewell then, Darthis."

After that, Darthis vanished, leaving only traces of his wispy figure left, although not a speck of his soul was left behind.

I hope this goes well. Roland thought.

With that, Roland took a strange thick tome out of on of his shelves, making a few dolls fall on to the table as well with a soft thump before going back to work. He then fished out a pair of glasses, opened the tome, and then started to read in silence, humming a song along the way. Although, despite his seemingly carefree humming, the drumming of fingers on the pages of the book gave away his anxiousness, both for his friend, and for something else.



blankmaskara -> RE: (AQW) The World Tree (1/28/2012 21:24:11)

Chapter 12

Feeling the effects of prolonged running on his body, Kither slowed down into a jog. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep moving on for long, and he knew that he and his companion weren't quite at the necessary distance yet that would ensure safety from their attacker and allow them to stop, rest, and patch themselves up. But then again, even though his first priority was to reach that distance, he decided to rest for a while before moving once more in order to ensure that once they arrived at the necessary distance, he would still have some energy left for emergencies.

"Helson! Could you stop running for a minute, please?"

Tired and nearly out of energy, Kither stopped running and crouched a bit as he said this, attempting to replenish his stamina.

Kither heard no sound of anyone, particularly Helson, running as he rested. At first, he raised his eyebrow in confusion at this since Helson would usually just keep on moving onwards. But in the end, he made the slightest hint of a smile and sighed in relief.

Thank God, He finally stopped. he thought.

After his fatigue left him, Kither jogged over to his companion, who was leaning on a nearby tree, bow held in his hand by the tip and his the the pack of arrows slung over his shoulder.

"Okay. Let's get going, shall we?" Kither said, then started running once more in no particular direction when he stopped mid-way, and looked back.

He noticed that Helson, although still holding up a smile and still not moving, had the color sucked out of him, while blood slowly yet surely poured down from his wounds on to the earth.

Kither's gaze drifted from Helson to the earth below him, and noticed something: a pool of crimson blood, disturbingly large and horrific in every sense.

"Hol--"

His swearing was disrupted by the Helson's drop onto the forest floor, making the sound of a splash as he landed into his own pool of blood instead.

A surge of fear rushed through Kither's brain upon seeing this, tempting him to run away screaming for help, but despite this, he stuffed his hand into his satchel and fished out a roll of gauze, and started patching up Helson's wounds with pieces of gauze torn from the roll fished out of his satchel, and stuck them in place with a few simple spells.

"Hang in there. Don't go dying on me now." he said.

As he worked, beads of sweat ran down his head, but despite this, he kept on going, never stopping to brush away the sweat from his face as he went on. Even when the sound of an explosion roared in the distance, he did not bother at all to look up and around to see what had happened.

Besides patching up Helson's wounds, he was also being infinitely furious yet disappointed in himself for being to ignorant to the now-clear fact that he should've patched up Helson before moving to a safe distance, because his ignorance to this fact was the cause of the Helson's plight.

After a number of minutes, Kither finished patching up Helson, whose body was practically wrapped with gauze, although it still seemed like he had not yet recovered.

At least this'll stop the bleeding. Kither mentally noted.

Kither dug his hands into his satchel once more, then rummaged through the contents inside it, and fished out a couple of potions.

He then opened Helson's mouth and poured in the contents of the potions, one by one.

After a few minutes, all of the potions he fished out from his satchel (which weren't really a lot in number) had been wasted on Helson, and the bottles that contained them were laid on the ground, insides empty. However, Helson still did not look like he was recovering just yet. In fact, he looked like he did a moments before. His face was still pale, while his whole body still didn't seem to have the strength to pick itself up.

What does it take to make him better? Kither asked himself, frustrated, and started to think of other ways to help his friend recover, only to be interrupted by the sound of a voice.

"You need help?"

Where did that come from? Kither thought.

A hand was suddenly laid down on his shoulder, making him look back.

His vision revealed to him an elf, looking right at him.

The elf had pale skin and light violet hair and, while she wore a deep purple robe with gold vine-like embroidery at the edges, and traveling boots as well as a carrying belt equipped with pouches and holsters.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.



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