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"Indeed, it is where you left it yesterday, I did not dare to touch since it seemed to be there on purpose... Should we go back to fetch it ? It isn't that far following the path..."
Still a bit shivering the young lamb raised his head, but not his gaze. His grasp on his staff intensified a little has instinctivly moved behind Crystal, hiding himself behind his more clement-looking ally.

From one of the nearby elderberry trees; in the big branches above, there was a soft yet audible noise that resembled a burst of air. It would have been audible enough for Yuki and Crystal. However, it wasn't that at all. Soon, something would have spewing black puffs of shadow out of the tree. It resembled billowing smoke. It's as if someone was underground, but it was coiling around the tree and down. Once it reached the ground, it would have snaked its way in the direction of said people. Someone was obviously using the power to manipulate darkness and shadows, but just who is?

All Crystal could do was shake her head,"If you have a death wish, then fine. Do what you will. But it's hard to gain power of one gets themselves killed before reaching the true challenge." With that she would turn to go back to the trail only to be interrupted by the shadows.

Assuming the worst her right hand would reflexively pulse with a deep purple energy as it cracked similar to lightning in the palm of her hand. With a snap the energy would seemingly flay the skin off her hand; momentarily revealing her hands' skeleton before reforming into a muscle wrapped, purple toned monstrosity compete with foot long claws where her fingers used to be.

Spreading her claws wide Crystal demanded,"Who goes there!? Reveal yourself, as I do not wish to fight."

"Ugh, stop acting like I could've died. I'm fine!" He hissed with a slight distortion in his voice, slightly frustrated with his ally. The satyr felt an aching pain throb in his head as he continued to lose blood.

Acerbus glanced over to the darkness, surprised at first to see another user of dark arts. Then he had a wide smile on his face, excited to see who the stranger was. He extinguished his flame and placed his hands on his hips. Acerbus had almost forgot about the pain he felt, as it was overcome by his excitement.

"Welcome to the party!" Acerbus didn't care if it was an enemy or ally, he just wanted to learn more about their magical abilities.

The blob of shadows would begin circling the trio. Once... twice... three times before stopping in front of them. If they paid attention at all, then they would have noticed that it was avoiding splotches of light that broke through the tree leaves. It was as if it couldn't go in the light, but only the darkness. Then a voice spoke out, which came from the dark mass.

"Chill, chill, it sounds like something had you spooked earlier by the way you are talking..." It seemed to have an echo effect because it rang in their ears. It sounded rather... feminine. Suddenly the mass exploded, sending globules of shadow spraying in the vicinity. It didn't stick, it only dissipated back into light. What stood before them was not an 'it,' but rather a she. The girl had smooth and flowing blue hair with Spanish Red eyes. She was rather petite for a girl who would be an adult soon. She wore black clothes, more specifically a black cape that extended to the ground with a collar. She, of course, wore black garments with a steel breastplate adorning her chest. The breastplate wasn't like a normal one, for it didn't extend over her belly. It allowed the flexing of the abdomen. The cape did extend sleeves down to her wrists, and what adorned her hands were steel gauntlets. She wore black boots that went up a third of her calves. It had some kind of white gem adorning the front of the boots which laced her calf. The shoe-ware was thin and flexible, preventing sluggishness.

That was it for Yuki, the current situation was too much.First his Human ally took devilish appearance,then his other ally was becoming way too fiendish, and then a newcomer just popped out of the darkness of the forest : The frail incubus snapped. Slowly,he sat down, his grip over his shepherd staff loosen until it fell to the ground, and joined his hands to his face where red tears were flowing down.
He was not sobbing, nor frightened nor even terrified , he wasn't even shivering for once : no he was very far beyond those feeling, the lamb was actually frozen in pure fear, so intense it was visible as a menacing grey cloud hovering above him.
Then,as if moving on it's own, the cattle bell at his neck glowed in light blue and rang three times, sounding like those of a church.
On the ground below the sheep,a beautiful rosary symbol appeared, slowly begining spin.
The three people using dark magic around then saw a bright wall of light grow in a perfect circle with the lamb inside.
Inside this strange barricade, Yuki curled up on himself muttering for no one in particular :
"You're all demons full of tourment, get away from me, I don't have to meddle with you anymore...
And just as he starts repeating this litany for himself in a whisper, three red circles appeared beneath the feets of the wrongly alledged 'demons',the ground begining to slowly burn under their feets and hooves.

The girl would be able to notice the increasing heat underneath her feet. She glanced down to find that there was indeed a circle surrounding the darkling. The ringing of the cattle bell around Yukis neck would be sounding ominous; it was even foreboding. She then spoke calmly to try and soothe the fear-stricken out of his insanity. "Hey, calm down... there's no harm..." she would say in an attempt.

She didn't really want to cast an art of hers. It was mainly because she hasn't perfected it yet, but if things came down to it, she would have no choice. The alignments were perfect too. Yukis shadow was connect to hers, so she can use it when needed.

(Ignore this, I accidently double posted due to connection problems)

Slowly but surely something come up from below the circle.
At some point, a weird design appeared inside the circles : a diamond-shaped eye. Then, from from the pupil slowly bursted out chains of burning iron, growing like flowers or vines, aiming for your ankles. Something was off though : this all proceedure was really really slow, like if it was held back.
Indeed, looking at the young caprine, you would be able to see that he was somehow battling with himself, one of his hand was down from his left eye, which had stop bleeding, and was trying to snatch away his other hand.
Yet he was still mumbling out his Horror, as a weird light went raining down upon him. -Whoever could have stared at it without blinding themself could see that the rays were actually string bonds, like those of a puppet-
His voice was eratic from an obvious intern fighting.
"You all want to bring pain with yourselves . . . I don't want to suffer anymore, I don't deserve it . . . I've been good... Right ?.."
As Yuki questionned the sky above him, his freed eye stares at the two women in prey of the fiery shackles.
The usual whimpy, pitifully shy voice of the lamb shutters :
"please.. don't let me harm you... I don't want to do it... again.. I swear I'm a good boy..."

The darkling hissed in quiet pain as the hot shackles made contact with skin that had shown itself. The light... it was so bright that she had to shield her eyes from it.

When she heard the shepherds quiet yet audible voice... Don't let me harm you, I don't want to do it again? she thought in her head. She then took a look at his state of being. To her, Yuki did look like he was struggling internally.

Her voice then came out once more, though she had a hard time maintaining it because of the burning chains. "Whoever you, ah!.. are... I think I can," she took a sharp intake of breath before continuing, "I think I can... hiss... help!" She said the world help loudly so that way the lamb could hear that assistance would come. The darkling was just hoping that she can hold out the art that she was about to perform long enough...

The chains were about to shackle around the newcomer's ankles but stopped just before making a complete circle.
"Humans are like demons, they only bring pain and lies...
Yuki was still fighting the tourment of his own rampaged spirit.
As he heard the voice of the young woman, he seemed to be suffering even more as he could see her pain that he caused.
Yet his normal voice once again got out of his throat :
"I'm so sorry . . . I should never have come, all I do his hurting people..."
His left hand went to his back, finding a knife he raised high and planted ... I his right wrist.
One horrible scream of pain, the young sheep folded his arm, revealing his blue eyes filled with bloody tears.
First the burning chain disappeared, then the three circle, then the rosary.
All three 'victims' had reaised by now that their own right wrist were daggered, and looking up close : the burns on their ankles were slowly disappearing, only to appear on Yuki's body.
The lamb was now mute, sitting on the ground, his gaze lost in the vague. At list he was 'only' shivering now.
And even though he couldn't say it, the profond sadness in his sky-like eyes and the regret readable on his ashamed expression was more than enough to say how deeply sorry he was. But 'sorry' never did anything to the pain endured by anyone.

The darkling was staring at her now-cut wrist, which was leaking something dark red and sticky. Blood. Her blood... she looked at Yuki to find out that there were burns on his body. She quickly allowed her line of sight to go down to her legs... There's no burns?! She shook her head a few times before looking back over at Yuki. She didn't care that her wrist was bleeding. However, she was worried about the lambs wellbeing. The look in his eyes and face... she would walk slowly over to the lamb. She then got down on her knees before sitting down in front of him.

"Hey... are you okay? You know... it wasn't your fault that this happened... I forgive you, whether you say sorry or not..." The way she spoke it... it sounded so sincere. It was because she was being truthful.

Yuki closed his eyes, ashamed of seeing what he had done. As his head was bowed down, he whispered :
"I... I just wanted you to stop arguing... It's all my fault if you're all hurt, I'm such a failure as a sherpherd; I can't even guard a flock of a mere two people without they ending up bleeding because of me... I put such a disgrace on this staff..."
Saying that, all of the three others wounds were transfered onto the lamb, the burns, the cuts, but also the claws marks of the satyre and the bruises of the human.
Bearing all of it as if it weren't there Yuki started sobbing, but normal tears this time.
"I'm so sorry..."

"..." Guilt struck the darklings heart, and it would soon emerge upon her face. Did I cause this?.. She would soon notice that her wound had disappeared, but the blood was still fresh. With that aside, she returned her gaze back to the lamb, which she finally was brought to his weeping.

After a few moments, not caring about the blood at all, she did what she thought was best in a moment like this. Yuki would soon be able to feel a pair of arms wrap around his torso and he was pulled into a soothing embrace; an attempt made by her to calm the lamb.

"I don't want to be here anymore." Acerbus turned and began to walk away in search of his coat. He didn't bother explaining that he wasn't good with serious situations, seeing as he would rather completely avoid them. The concept of emotions was something that he struggled to grasp. As he walked, he tried to manipulate the blood off of his own clothes, which wasn't working out for him very much.

He whispered another passage to himself, calling his shade back to him for information. The shadow raced towards him, attaching itself back to the satyr's hooves. They continued to talk to each other in an odd language as Acerbus looked around for his coat.

(I talked with the Narrator or Draken or whoever about joining this in PM. I took a little while so my apologies.)

Merrick sinks into his horse's saddle as it trots forward, sending up small clouds of dust as its hooves clop on the trail. He listens to the sound of his sword in its scabbard softly slapping against the sides of his steed and stares at the path ahead. He'd been hunting the Lich for a few months now, and all by himself. No one from his home city dared to come along with him, so he'd faced off against hordes of undead and cultists alone. It was no trouble though, his sword, shield, and coat of armor were trusty companions and all he truly needed. The Lich was relatively easy to follow, as it left behind death and destruction every place it went. The problem was killing it. He'd tried countless potions and had flung countless spells at it to no avail. It always seemed to slip away before he could get to it.
Merrick breaks out of these thoughts as he approaches someone else on the trail. A group of four, from what he could see. He slowly begins approaching them, slowing down his horse. "Hark there!" he shouts. "What business do you have in these parts?" He rests one hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword.

Now that was what's called bad timing : an unknown and menacing knight arriving at the very moment the young sheep was finally a bit calm down, something bad would certainly happen . . . unless a young girl had the compassionate idea of conforting the sobbing creature covered of new wounds
Something did happen though : without any reason the canope above the all group opened up and intense light that wasn't from the raising sun flowed down on all of them. Then the ground of the forest that was touched with this cold light was suddenly covered of a blooming parterre of cypress and raspberry that extended up to below the horse and even several meters behind.
In the arms of the first newcomer, Yuki was still curled up, his crying had stop yet not his shivers, his blue eyes still wern't opened, even if he had heard the new threat coming from the path.

Acerbus didn't care enough right now to stop for the knight. He just continued to walk away, ignoring everyone and everything except his own shadow. If anyone tried to stop him, he had the blade in his bracelet ready. Raising his hand, the shade began to rise from the ground and take a physical form. They split up from each other, letting the shade continue his scouting while Acerbus searched for his coat and staff.

"Well, I got most of it off." He spoke aloud, letting the blood he manipulated from his shirt drop to the ground. Acerbus let out a sigh of frustration, thinking about everything that just happened.

The newcomer would pivot her head slightly to the left, shifting her gaze to take a look at the armored man. She then whispered loud enough for the man to hear. "I just found these people... I was just in the branches of the trees. I have no idea why they are here...

She then turned her head back to the trembling lamb. She then whispered in a calming voice to him. "Sssh... it's okay... take deep breaths..."

(Lady Tala, please listen to this while reading what follows)


"Danger... He looks dangerous... He brings blood..."
Whispering that, Yuki opened his eyes. Looking inside of those two azur jewels for a second or so, the caring young girl could lost herself in what seemed a sudden abyssal pond, filled with a sadness so profond it felt like there was never a glimmer of hope down there to begin with. Their gaze should have met for only a second but it felt like an eternity of pain and sorrow.
That strange trance took an end as the lamb tilted his head to the side with long sigh, his voice back to normal, if it would be normal to speak with such a shy and hesitating voice -not that it didn't match its user...- he whispered to the newcomer only :
"I am so sorry... I don't even know you're name still I attacked you,nonetheless you took the decision to show compassion to such an hideous creature... If you want to punish such an unforgivable misdeed, be sure that I will endure it... I would only ask that, before claiming your deserved retribution, you to protect Lady Crystal and yourself from this person, since I can't even do that..."
The lamb muttered this words as he passed his arms around his curled up legs, his head bowed against his thigh, offering his neck to the sky.
The light then disappeared, and the flowers that had grown around the group began to color themself in black and red and died in an instant.
The injuries he had taken away from his three victims were gone, leaving behind only the pain without the marks. And just like his wounds, Yuki closed up on himself, waiting in silence.