"Good. Hold your breath," he shouted, as even more holes began to appear on his body. A moment later, he let out a massive cloud of poison gas using his fourth form, 'wandering'. Using Elmado, he spread it out as explosively as he could.
Retching sounds followed by sudden thuds filled the air as Lucius healed himself. He didn't have much practice with poison, so it took time for him to expel it, allowing for a few of the creatures to escape.
Noticing that the poison was quickly thickening, Pagan and Ghost dashed toward nearby trees, before quickly shooting up.
Lucius quickly realized that the unseen creatures might be trying to do the same, and followed suit, releasing so much poison that it felt like he would pass out at any moment.
Soon a section of the forest was covered in a purple mist. Sadly, spreading it out so thin diluted its potency, making it take a longer time for the creatures to feel its full effects.
"Huh? What's happening?" Ghost whispered, noticing something odd in the distance.
She could see the silhouette of a creature running away, however only very small parts of it were visible. It was almost as if its invisible layer had been burnt away by the poison.
"It's the poison," Lucius quickly inferred, before running after the creature, turning into a blaze of blue as he jumped from tree to tree. Once he was within range, his tail struck out, impaling the creature right where its head would be.
"Ghost, you know how to use your poison right?" Lucius shouted, his tail whipping back and forth impaling the unseen creatures that were so unlucky as to be running past him.
Ghost nodded her head, currently still holding her breath.
"Release a cloud of poison around yourself. You're immune to your own poison, and it should block off mine," he ordered, his tail thrashing out to slaughter yet another creature.
Ghost struggled for a moment, completely forgetting how to produce poison due to stress. But after a few attempts, she let out a small cloud of poison around her face area.
"These things seem to lack intelligence. They aren't holding their breath, which means that dealing with them should be easy so long as this mist is up," he continued.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Stop as many of them from going deeper in as possible. I doubt that the necromancer is unaware of our presence, but it'll be worse if these creatures report on our abilities," Lucius replied, before gesturing for Pagan to follow him.
"Got it," Ghost replied.
Pagan and Lucius slaughtered as many of the unseen creatures as they could see on their way deeper into the camp, leaving Ghost to face off against the remaining ones.
"Don't think it'll be easy just because I'm alone," she said, noticing that a few of the creatures had stopped fleeing and were currently staring at her.
"You won't even see what hit you," she whispered, before turning on her radiant cowl and disappearing into the mist. The purple backdrop helped to blend her in even more, making it difficult for the creatures to spot her.
For some of them, death came in the form of a spider leg to the head before they even knew they were being attacked. Like a thief in the night, Ghost robbed them of their life force, one by one.
*
"Lighted One, was it really okay to leave Ghost alone with all those creatures? I don't believe she's strong enough to handle that many," Pagan asked, as he and his master zipped towards the center of the enemy camp.
"She's not strong enough, but it was the only option at our disposal. We already knew that we'd be at a disadvantage coming here, however, the mission must be completed, no matter the cost," Lucius replied, keeping his eyes forward the whole time.
"So we left her there to die?" Pagan asked. For the first time showing concern for someone other than himself.
"There is no we. I am the leader of this mission, if she dies then I left her there to die. Now keep quiet and focus on the mission, it'll be our turn soon," he replied coldly. It was a force of habit for him to restrict emotion during missions, especially ones where the prospect of death was on the line.
"If things had to be done, let them be done. There is no use crying over spilled blood." Two motos he liked to keep in mind whenever he had to make stressful decisions.
After five minutes of constant running, the temple was finally in sight. It was just a few trees ahead.
"Stop," Lucius whispered, suddenly halting atop the branch of a tree he was passing over.
"What's the matter?" Pagan asked, confused by the sudden halt.
"Something's odd," Lucius said, his head snapping around in a paranoid manner as if something were watching him.
"Are we being attacked? I don't see anyone here," Pagan said, suddenly inspecting the area around him as well.
"Exactly. This area was supposed to be guarded by at least 400 units. Not to mention that I haven't been able to sense any life forms, for the past few minutes," Lucius replied.
"Perhaps they all left to the frontlines. Your plan worked Lighted One. Not only are you the strongest being in the forest, but the smartest as well," Pagan said, his tension easing as he fell into self-deception.
"That part of the plan was not a diversion. It was just to breakthrough. Something's off, we've been trapped somehow," Lucius replied, realizing what was off about the surroundings.
The sky. The sky wasn't giving off radiation like it usually does.
"We need to go back quickly. We're wasting time here," he shouted.
~Of course it put traps up. Why wouldn't it? Now it's just a question of how exactly we were put in this trap, and whether I'm still conscious or trapped in some dream state,~ Lucius thought to himself, inspecting Pagan to see if there was anything off about him.
"Hey Pagan, I'm starting to think that this mission is too dangerous... I hadn't accounted for all these obstacles. Perhaps we should retreat," Lucius whispered, before suddenly stopping.
"You want to give up Lighted One? But we were so close, I thought you said that the mission should be completed no matter the cost," Pagan replied, stopping a moment after Lucius.
"I know I said that, but Gregory and the others haven't arrived yet. Without the strongest fighters in our commune, how can we hope to beat the necromancer?" Lucius asked in a defeated tone, before jumping a few branches over to the one that Pagan was standing on.
"Gregory and the others will be here soon. We should just complete our part," Pagan replied after a brief pause.
"Hmm, you know what?" Lucius whispered, coming closer to Pagan. "You're right. We should do our part," he continued, now at an embrace's distance away from him.
"Then let's ge-" Pagan was about to say, before a beam of light pierced through his head, completely disintegrating the upper part of his body.
Pagan's headless corpse dropped to the ground with a thud, as the smell of burnt plant material wafted into the air.
"Interesting... I suppose that Gregory was not a real person then," a voice swept past Lucius, seemingly moving with the wind.
"What did you do to him?" Lucius replied, his entire body tensing. The fear he felt right now was similar to that he experienced when he first met the furry-folk. It was a sort of primal fear, one that no amount of experience could contain.
"Tell me, creature, for what reason have you invaded my domain?"
"You sound intelligent... so tell me why you would think I was the invader. Isn't it you who appeared out of nowhere and started killing the forest creatures? Isn't it you raising the dead, and spreading decay?" Lucius asked, his eyes darting in all directions to find where the voice was coming from.
"So you are a rebel? Fine, I have yet to add a creature that looks like you to my army. Come," the voice said. A moment later the world around Lucius wobled, and twisted, like a curtain falling to the ground.
"Lighted One, you stopped moving suddenly. I thought that something happened," Pagan said, appearing behind Lucius as if out of thin air.
