Survivors. She hated that there were survivors from the village. But she was running out of time, her body was failing rapidly, her heart could only take so much more. She could only lose so much more blood, she'd hit a wall soon enough and that would be the end. She could accept the embrace of Death herself and maybe, hopefully, see her wife again, or maybe both wives, and all three children from both marriages. It was a sweet thought and one that kept her going, to avenge Celeste before she was finally put into the ground herself.

Until that time however she had more killing to do, and she was stalking her prey through their own home forest. Yet for what she had done to their village already they weren't using that advantage against her, no, they were still running from her. At some point in the attack some of the forest natives had realized that she wasn't long for the world, even if they didn't try and finish her off they only had to keep ahead of her. But that didn't mean it would be easy for them as her new Earth magic was proving rather troublesome for the natives as she was able to dive under, or rather, into the ground and come up out of nowhere.

She had two others at the village but she had lost track of them now and didn't care, her yellow eyes only had one focus, her mind on one thing. Her body was soaked in gore, black hair matted to her skin so she had push it back out of her eyes and it stayed there. Her left arm was still created from bits of stone and dirt from the ground, starting at the a stump that was all that was left of her left arm. Over her right arm she still wore the dragon scale gauntlet, also covered in blood and some of it was scratching and dented from strong impacts.

At the moment they had no idea where she was, back into the ground she had went, but they knew she was out there still. Every once in a while a scream from a warrior would echo followed by her banshee scream in reply, echoing through the evening twilight. One young man, no more than twenty five, was running for his life when he suddenly kicked something and tripped over it, tumbling down to the ground. She scrambled to get back up, not looking at what had tripped him, but when he looked up to fun she was standing over him.

She looked a thing out of a nightmare; blood soaked, manic looking yellow eyes, her own blood oozing from multiple wounds, half slouched over from exhaustion and heavy drinking. ”There there, little piggy, peace will come to you soon.” She spoke with a small laugh as she reached out with her left arm for him, but he backed away. She growled and the under growth sprung up and kept him still long enough for her to reach down and pick him up by his throat.

He whimpered and pissed himself like other had, had watched her kill her father like a fly and gut his brother open like a fish. She smiled at him, all teeth and wild eyed. ”Time to die, piggy.” Out came her dagger, a blade that once she had it from its sheath became super hot on the blade, hot enough to instantly cauterize wounds. With a grin she pushed it into his chest at the collar bone making him scream in pain as she started to drag the blade downwards, it cut and cauterized with a hissing noise as she kept cutting until she was at his belly button.

With his chest open she used the end of the blade's hilt to strike at each rib one at a time hard to break them. He kept screaming and screaming, and that did attract one brave soul who wanted to help, or at least try. The older man came running towards the feral woman, but a sudden wall of stone came up in front of him as the ground beside her started to shift.

When the wall came down the would be saviour dropped his weapon and stared, it was back! The dragon of stone, earth and crystal was back again, summoned to her side to kill some more. It stood ten feel tall and was about fifteen feet in length from nose to tip of the tail. It roared and charged forward snapping up the poor fool in its maw, he had so terrified he hadn't been able to move. It lifted the man in the air and then shook its head while biting down until each half went their separate ways. The woman smiled as the dragon stepped closer to her, she took the time to reach over and pet him on the nose. ”Good boy, now, go fetch some more.” The dragon rumbled and ran back into the trees to continue the chase.

In the mean time Larka looked back to her current plaything, who was barely conscious. ”You people, you attack others and take the women for brides, killing the rest or those that resist. I'll keep going until I purge all of you fucks from this world, or at least as many as I can.” Larka laughed as she pushed her blade into his heart. Because of the heat of the blade it stopped the blood flow as long as she kept the blade in, but his heart was of course stopped. It took a few more moment before the young man's body went limp in his grasp and she dropped him to the ground.

One more dead, how many more could she kill before she was herself dead?

It had been a simple request, to go fetch someone from the Laeto Rainforest. He did not bother to argue with Angela on the matter, he was in her debt for all the times she had came to his aid. So he had set off, with the frame of mind that it would be a simple matter and only armed himself with his bow and a few throwing daggers tucked away in his long coat. When he arrived his tone immediately change, for the smell of blood was so pungent. He knew the natives of Laeto were violent, but this was something else, pure primal rage.

He had easily followed the tracks to one of the nearby villages but saw nothing but chaos in its wake. Bodies of the villagers lay, blood fresh still from their wounds. The smell of piss, shit and terror lingering amongst the carnage. He also had seen the traces of earth aspected aether in the wounds, so whoever was doing this also could cast. ”Did she send me for this very reason..” Zanar quietly asked as he knelt down next to one of the bodies. The wounds were cauterized but still overkill. They were wounds of torture, no one that was killed was killed out of mercy.

His ears perked up when he heard the tribal warrior scream and followed by another scream. Were they still trying to fight off their attacker? Or were they fleeing, for he had never heard of these tribal folk fleeing from a woman before? He quickly started to move towards the sound, as he needed to stop this before all the tribes were wiped out of existence. He did not need to track the prints, as the blood-soaked bark of the trees leads the way.

The roar of a dragon was the only thing that made him stop, as he put his back against one of the trees and quickly knocked a couple of arrows to the bow that he carried. He could see a wave of earth-based mana from the location of the roar. It was far too strong to be an earth dragon, no this was the traces of an elemental. ”So that explains the wounds…this woman has an elemental under her control. She is stopping at nothing to kill these people. This hatred, its pure revenge.”

He knew the signs all too well, as he did the same to the mages that had captured and killed his men in the past.

The sounds of the thundering footsteps of the elemental gave him the queue to continue on. He did not wish to confront an elemental whose master was in an unstable state of mind, it would be a fight that did not need to happen. He could hear words as he got closer, she was again in the middle of killing another. He passed by a body who was cleaved in half, an elderly man who must’ve fallen victim to the elemental that she summoned. The smell of alcohol finally hit his nose as well as he approached.

He had dampened his divine aura, as he readied his bow. The man that she was slouched over was already dead, as he could no longer hear the heartbeat. He approached slowly keeping his eye on the woman before him. The description fit of the person that he was supposed to find, of course, she was covered in blood from all of her victims and wounds herself. He didn’t know if she would strike out at him, so he released the two nocked arrows. Both flying by either side of her into the ground, warning shots.

”That is enough, no more blood needs to be shed on this night,” He stated, his voice calm as he readied another arrow. He slowly started to walk up, his aim true on the woman. ”Larka is it? I am here at the behest of the goddess Angela, she summons you.” Zanar was unsure as to why the heartstring did not take root on her. It may have to do with her state right now, had she also given up?

”All this blood split, what purpose was there for this? These tribes of Laeto may live a life we are not fond of, but who are we to purge them? This is their way of life, we have no right to butcher them like this,” His voice was stern as he spoke. He did not even know if his words were reaching her. ”I will bring you to Angela, but I do not wish to cause you any more harm than what you have done to your own self and soul. So please I ask of you, come with me peacefully.”

She was about to move on, to follow her elemental as he moved ahead to keep the killing going on. But then she heard a bow string release behind her and whirled with her fake arm to protect herself, but the arrows landed on either side of her. She lowered her arm and saw the man standing there, an arrow aimed right at her, but he was no tribesman, but that didn't stop the low growl from escaping Larka's throat. The crazed woman was about to attack the man just because he was there, but he spoke, using her name and then speaking of Angela who was summoning her. Larka scoffed, why would Angela summon her now? Because of the killing? Who cared, Larka didn't want any help from the Goddess, or this man, or anyone for that matter. But Larka of course wasn't thinking clearly, her mind was on only one thing; revenge. It never occurred to her that Angela could be summoning her for one very, very good reason, he mind was too blinded by rage and bloodlust.

When he spoke next all it did was raise Larka's rage that much more, he had no idea what he was talking about! ”Go fuck yourself.” Larka spat at him, she was almost literally foaming at the mouth in her anger. ”You wanna talk about rights? What right did they have in attack me, my wife, daughter and sister in law? Hm? Because they wanted to take us for wives! My FIVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER for a wife!” Her voice was hoarse from all her yelling and screaming. ”We did nothing to provoke them into a fight, they attacked us! They killed my wife and my daughter has been taken and I can't find her!” She started to scream at this point, staring death at the man as she did. ”So don't you FUCKING tell me I don't have a right to do this!”

A scream from a distance away signalled that her elemental dragon had found another victim. ”Now, I'm giving you once chance to fuck off and leave me alone. I'll see Angela later, when I'm dead.” With that Larka dissolved into the earth under her feet as she melded with it and travelled through it towards her dragon and another men he had found.

She made her way to her dragon elemental and came up from the ground to see two more men the dragon had cornered using stone walls of its own. Larka smiled wickedly as she stepped up to kill them, but one of the men got brave and charged her. When he was close Larka side stepped his sword and grabbed his wrist with her fake arm and twisted until he dropped the sword. She then used her gauntlet covered arm to smash into his elbow in the opposite direction it should go. It snapped like a twig making the man howl in pain as Larka continued the motion enough to make the fracture compounded, the bone shard sticking bloodily out of the skin. She then took control of his whole arm and brought it up to that the sharp ended broken bone was pushed into his eye, and that really got a scream from him.

The mad woman would have finished him off if his friend hadn't taken his own brave pills and attacked her from behind. The dragon would only act if Larka commanded it so it stood watching while the man managed to get his knife into Larka's upper back. Larka bellowed with the sudden flash of pain and spun around to meet the man. Knife still sticking into her back Larka used her left hand and caught hold of the man's lower jaw and with a quick pull, her strength amplified by the newly created wound, tore the lower jaw clean off.

What was left was grisly to say the least and the gurgling screams from the man would make anyone's skin crawl and stomach turn. The fresh blood that splattered onto Larka's skin started to sizzle and pop as it boiled away, her Reaver powers drawing the life out of it to start to heal some of her wounds. As the jaw-less man lay on the ground in agony, and death wouldn't be fast for him like that, Lark had the dragon remove the dagger from her back. When she next breathed in it was wheezy from a lung that had now been punctured and she spat up blood next.

The man with the broken elbow and missing eye Larka picked up by the hair and used her own dagger, the blade cold, to open his throat. The blood spurted and Larka made sure as much as possible landed on her own skin, and it to started to bubble and dry up as it healed her wounds. The dagger wound on her back almost stopped bleeding but she was so far into her own powers and her body on the edge of death that the blood's strength was mostly used just to keep her alive. It did nothing for the lung or much else besides stop the fresh wound from bleeding.

With him dead Larka eyed the last one as he was almost passing out from shock and pain, he'd bleed out soon enough, she didn't need to finish him off. Let him have a slow and painful death. He dragon's attention was taken by something and it growled, sounding like a dump truck dropping a load of heavy gravel. Larka didn't need to look to know who was there. ”Still here I see. You fool.” Larka spat up blood again and at a wordless command her dragon roared and charged at the annoying man sent by Angela.

Not a single flinch came from Zanar as this woman screamed her explanation at him. To him, she was no different than the rabid animals that he had to calm. Her words did not have their merit though, she was in the right to take her revenge, but this was going too far. The more that he thought about it though, he did recall seeing traces of people leaving the area and some of those were that of a child. Yet before he could even try to reason with her, or even offer assistance on finding the child she had melded into the earth and disappeared from his view. He lessened the tension on the bowstring and walked over to the area she melded into.

”You are the fool if you think you can escape me. I will bring you to Angela, alive at that,” he hissed under his breath. All he had to do was follow the earth mana in the air and that would lead him right to her.

It was an easy trail to pick up, as she had followed the path that the elemental itself made through the forest. The trail was littered with bodies eviscerated and torn from the dragon’s wrath. The humidity of the rainforest amplifying the speed at which the bodies were starting to decompose allowing the smell of rotten flesh and blood to now fill the air. His ears picked up the outcry of pain from another tribesman, and Zanar picked up his pace.

Approaching he could hear a very faint heartbeat along with the smell of fresh blood in the air. It seems that his prey had already taken the lives of some more of the locals. Again he knocked arrows on his bow and approached with a more calm step. His approach though was signaled by the growl of the elemental dragon. Seems like the confrontation that he didn’t want was going to happen now.

”A fool am I? Very well then, the veil shall be lifted.” He responded back as the dragon charged at him, tumbling the towering trees that were in its wake. Zanar released the arrow, and it flew into the eye of the beast. A loud roar released as it crashed down into the earth, even the shells that elementals choose were still linked to their cores. It didn’t take long for it to recover as it swung at the god with one of this blood-stained claws. Zanar jumped backward out of the reach and threw his bow to the side.

”I did not wish for this, and I apologize for the pain.”

A scabbard Katana materialized into his hands and Zanar quickly unsheath the blade in a wide horizontal motion, and a crescent-shaped beam of energy flew forth and easily severed the front leg of the dragon. The elemental roared out in pain, but not only from the limb being severed but also from the attack also damaging the mana in its body. An elemental creature was a being of pure mana, aspected to its preferred element, so the pain it must have been going through was unbearable.

Yet this still did not stop the dragon as it opened its jaw and energy started to gather. Zanar blinked onto the dragon’s back and drove the blade itself into the back of the neck. ”Return to the elemental plane..this body is finished” He spoke softly as all motion stopped from the beast. Earth and crystal crashed to the forest floor as the dragon’s body started to dematerialize. The god blinked off of the dragon and appeared behind Larka his blade held to the side of her neck.

”You will watch who you call a fool,” his attitude was completely different from when he last spoke to her, far more commanding. This along with the fact that he had completely stopped suppressing his divine aura. ”If it was not for the fact that you are needed alive, I would have ended your life when I first found you. I tried to reason with you, and you send your pet to try and end me? You are nothing more than a rabid animal.”

Once again the god disappeared but this time he appeared right before the woman their faces no more than a few inches away. His once blue eyes now completely silver as he stared into her bloodlust filled ones. The tribesman who was once clinging to life was no longer in this world, as Zanar no longer could hear the heartbeat. He had spent far too long with the elemental dragon. ”Isn’t it strange…how you seek for your daughter and no signs of her were to be found? Then, out of the blue, the Goddess of Life would send the God of the Hunt to find you? Have you thought about the pieces, or are you too lost to the bloodlust!!"

”Take a look at yourself, you have given up before even trying. You wish to kill them all and die. Then go ahead, and die mortal.” Zanar never once had ever spoken down to someone before since his ascension, but this woman was disrupting everything. Either she would return to reason or he would finish her off. He cared not if Angela would be pissed at him.

Larka watched her dragon attack the man, who managed to sink an arrow into the elemental's eyes. Larka flinched as her own eye became sore, whether it was sympathetic pain or shared pain from the magical link between them she didn't know, but it still hurt. He dodge it's swipe with it's claws and used a magically summon katana to and severed the a front leg from the elemental, it roared in pain and Larka yelled in pain as well as the pain recoiled to her. But this was an all over body pain that she felt, watching as Zanar jumped to her dragon's back and ran his blade through it. The pain stopped but Larka stared as the beast crumbled into its base components, she didn't understand enough about magic to know that she could summon it again later. ”Noo!”

She went to attack but he was behind her an instant later with his blade to her neck, Larka froze but her eyes still were maddened with rage and pain. But that new power she felt coming from him, and his tone, all of it had changed, she realized now that she was probably dealing with another being on Angela's level.

He spoke and she listened, having not much of a choice at the moment with the blade at her throat. Rabid animal? Yes, that's exactly what she was at the moment, a very dangerous rabid animal at that, as her body count attested to in a profound way. When he appeared in front of her Larka stared him right back, a growl escaping her throat and her teeth showed in a vicious way as she smiled with the growl. Her grip tightened on her blade's hilt as he continued speaking of her daughter, how there was no sign of her despite having taken the tribe's home apart. The fact that Angela, Goddess of Life had sent him, God of the Hunt, confirming her suspicion that he was a God, after her to bring her back alive.

His words rang in her mind, but Larka's rage was still up and it was hard for her clouded mind to accept anything other than the truth about Celeste she had seen with her own eyes and the missing Akira. ”No, you lie, I saw Celeste die with my own eyes and Akira was no where to be seen!” Larka growled and stepped back from the God a few paces bringing her sword up but not actually attacking more out of defence against anything he had to say that didn't fit into her current mind set.

”I, I have, I have to finish this.” She slurred the words slightly as her body swooned a moment in sudden weakeness. The way Larka's Reaver powers worked was for as long as she was in an actual fight they would maintain with her continuing to gain wounds, each wound adding to her strength and her over all power. But that power was not infinite and would fade in time as long as she was not in a fight and gaining wounds to sustain the power, or getting fresh blood on herself to heal wounds. It was a large cycle to maintain those powers of hers and she had been out of that cycle now too long while Zanar had spoken. Not to mention with her birth right Berserker powers now alive in her again after being dormant for so long her body was at a tipping point.

She staggered back and dropped her blade only double over and puke up black sludge, a consequence of her Reaver powers that happened from time time. It hadn't been too long ago, less than twelves hours almost, that Larka had imbibed the Reaver solution of dragon's blood that kept her powers going and her body alive, dependent on that solution to keep her alive at this point. With her Reaver powers fading from too much down time, but her rage, and therefore her Berserker powers, still in place it was creating a conflict inside of Larka that her body was barely able to maintain for much longer.

Larka screamed as pain, both emotional and physical, hit her like a freight train, and she collapsed to the ground. With her body in such pain her rage faded and was replaced by confusion and distress, leaving her Berserker powers to fade so she didn't have that source of power to help sustain her now either. Her heart was racing but her pulse was erratic. ”Make it stop!” She screamed again, balling up on the ground as her body started to shut down. She coughed, and it sounded painful, and more black came up now mixed with blood, her breathing became desperate as well.

She gathered enough of her thoughts to look back to Zanar. ”If yu, if you're going to take me to Angela, do, do so quickly, I'm not going to last, much, longer.” She watched him for a moment before her head hit the ground and she closed her eyes, body shaking in pain and it was clearly painted on her face. Every muscle and fibre of her being no longer had enough energy to sustain her, she had used everything up and now she would fade away, her organs would shut down one by one, or else her heart would go into arrest and she'd be gone from that.

Either way she wouldn't likely pass out soon anyway, probably before Zanar got her to Angela.

He was starting to lose his patience with this woman, as she backed away from him in a defensive stance. ”You still question what I have told you!!! Have you fallen into your own hate so deeply?! Did you even bother to look for the child or did you give into your inner beast!!,” He growled back at her. In his mind her life was forfeit, because if she ran again he would put her down. He cared not if he returned to Angela with a lifeless corpse.

”You will not finish a thing, you will only leave here dead if you pursue this path any further.” He had noticed the slur in her words and the sudden weakness that feel over the woman. The sound of her blade dropping to the ground rang out through the silence as she doubled over. She puked up a substance that was not blood, and was something Zanar did not know of. He figured this woman to be a berserker, but this was different than traditional berserkers and something he was not familiar with.

He quickly went to her side as she screamed out in what seemed to be agonizing pain, again puking up the strange black substance and this time blood along with it. Her body was succumbing to the wounds that the tribesman had caused her. She was no longer being sustained by the berserker fury, she would die to these wounds if he did not do something.

”Of course, that was always the plan,” he stated. Of course this was not true, as but mere moments ago he was ready to strike her down himself. He knelt down next to her, after sheathing his blade in his belt and held out his hand. A soft green glow appeared from his palm as he tried to heal some of the wounds that she was inflicted with. He knew it would be of little help, as he was inexperienced with healing magic only just recently learning a little from Kalyani to act as a bit of battlefield triage. ”Don’t give up your life, the lost of those close to you hurts more than anything.” He softly said to her as he continued to try and mend her wounds.

The sound of an arrow flying through the air caught his ears. It landed in the ground beside the god and he closed his hand and look out in front of him and let out a sigh. Some of the tribesman that were hiding in the trees had came to finish off the woman who had caused them such pain. Closing his eyes he got up and turned to face the one who had shot the arrow at him. The man starting to scream some stuff at him in their native language. The silver glare of Zanar’s eyes meet the tribesmen.

”You pathetic vultures. You believed I came here to save you? No I came here to save her,” He hissed and held out his hand again, his bow once again appearing in it. Quickly he readied another arrow from his quiver and aimed it at the tribesman. Time seemed to slow around them as Zanar stared at the man, his heart glowing in his chest. He could see its erratic beat of it, obviously he was scared. Zanar released the arrow and it flew straight into the chest of the man, the surprised look in his eyes faded quickly as he dropped to the ground dead.

The other tribesman started to back away, when their comrade fell. Once again they had another enemy to deal with, but this time it was one who would not fall to exhaustion like Larka had. ”Begone insects, I have no time to deal with anymore of you.” It was as if on command as they fled back into the forest, Zanar then went back to mending to Larka’s wounds. ”You need to stay with me, I can not take you to Angela myself. Feel the love that you had for your fallen loved one…and the heartstring will take root Larka. There has to be some hope still left in that body of yours, some will to live on for them.” He said to her. He looked down at his hand and notice the heartstring start to manifest itself on his finger.

She flinched when he came to her side as she screamed in pain, puked up sludge and fell to the ground, burning her throat as it did. She thought he would take that opening to finish her but he didn't, instead he knelt down next to her after putting his blade away. She watched as his hands started to glow and felt his magic work through her to heal some of the wounds, it would buy her more time until she was able to get to Angela, but that was likely it. When he spoke again Larka looked away. ”I lost myself,” Tears rolled down her cheeks. ”a second wife, a third child, taken away from me by violence. I'm broken, even if Akira is alive, she deserves a better mother, one that can protect her. I don't deserve a third chance.” Larka lamented, she was taking his hints that Akira was alive, and he was right, she hadn't actively looked for the fox girl beyond the path of death she had created.

The arrow struck the ground and Larka's eyes snapped open as she looked up to see the tribesmen back to finish her off. For a fleeting and terrifying moment Larka thought that Zanar might hand her to them, but, instead, hissed words at them and launched an arrow into the chest of one man dropping him dead to the ground. That scared the rest of them off and Larka watched them go. ”I'm not sorry for what I did to them.” Was her only remark and she was serious about it, they had started the attack on her and her family and she had, almost, finished it.

He went back to healing her which was what was keeping Larka conscious at the moment, that and her will to not want to pass out either. He spoke again, wanting her to have the will to continue to live, remember her love of Celeste. The Reaver was silent for a few moments as past memories swam through his mind, tears rolling down her cheeks. The first time they had met, the second, that first blissful night together, a night that allowed Larka to open her heart again to love someone after the loss of Lilith years before. The years they had had together and their wedding day, all of it. ”She came into my life as a surprise, we met by chance. She made me whole again,” She had raised her right hand enough to let Zanar see that she was wearing three wedding rings, two that matched one that was different. ”I'd already lost a wife and two children before I met Celeste almost a decade later, in time she got me to open my heart again to love her and we married.” Larka placed her face in her hand as she was sobbing lightly. Her heart rate was coming down to more normal levels but it was still somewhat erratic in its beating. ”She did everything she could to help me stop drinking, I wouldn't have lasted as long as I have without her. Then I lost her, drow took her and brought her to these lands, two years I searched, finally finding a clue that she was here. I had people tell me to give up, but I couldn't, she didn't give up on me I wouldn't do that to her.”

Larka coughed and spat more black and blood as her crying became stronger. ”I found her again, now it was my turn to help her recover, and we adopted Akira.” Larka sobbed more. ”And now this! Me, Celeste and her twin sister Lirin, we were at the ruins celebrating their birthday. We came this way to meet with Akira and her babysitter who was heading South anyway. Why?! Why do these things keep happening?” She cried aloud. ”Akira, if what say is true, she is still out there.” Larka brought her thinking around. ”She deserves better, but I can still do what can for her. If she still wants me as a mommy I'll be there for her, I'll be damned if I'll let anything happen to her from here on.” She felt something on her finger and looked to see a string appear there, as mind swam in memories of Celeste and newer ones with Akira and the love she had for them the string had appeared.

She sniffled and then groaned in a pain from her chest and looked to Zanar. ”How, how do I get to Angela from here now that I can see the string?” Larka asked.