Ever since he experienced that explosion yesterday he had a feeling of lethargy in him. Telvin was tired and only wanted to rest. Idly he dreamed of setting up a home in the woods with Riley, the idea seemed to settle well with him and he found himself waking up in a better mood.

Despite the better mood however, his body still felt like shit. He had used his skill cage of thorns to throw the crazy suicidal bomber away, but Telvin was still way too close to the explosion when it went off. His very organs felt like they were each screaming in pain. Despite the pain however his HP was back in full. Which made him wonder what exactly it represented. He would have to ask Jack later if he decided, Telvin got up and stretched.

Seeing that the plate on the end table still had a few cookies, he took one and chewed it. It was a soft cookie that almost seemed to melt in his mouth. Nodding in enjoyment, he wondered where Riley had gone. Before he set out to find her he took a sniff at himself and frowned at his stench. Telvin went to the bathroom and changed out of his clothes to take a shower.

The warm water soothed his aching muscles and he cleaned himself up gingerly. He took note of the several bruises that were over his body. Shaking his head, he shut off the water and got dressed in a new set of clothes. Leaving the bathroom he set out to find Riley. 

Heading down the stairs, he reached the first floor where he found Natasha sleeping on the couch in the living room. Quickly checking the other rooms in the house, he didn't see Riley so he went back to the guard woman and shook her awake. Letting out a big yawn, she rubbed her face and groggily said "What time is it?"

Telvin shook his head and said "I'm not sure it's hard to say with the rain coming down out there. Do you know where Riley is?"

"Oh yeah, the Queen has summoned Riley to the Castle. Riley told me to tell you that she would be back as soon as possible, to just wait for her here to get back."

Nodding, Telvin said "I see. I guess I have to thank you for providing this safehouse to us."

"No problem." Natasha said "I don't want an innocent person to be murdered in the city. Besides I've seen the way my sister looks at you. I want her to be happy, and you seem to make her happy."

"Thank you. I want to make Riley happy as well." Telvin said and was about to ask some more questions when a message from Riley popped up in front of his eyes.

When he read the message his entire body went rock still. Then the simmer of anger began to tremble through him as he could sense Riley's terror coming through the message. He responded to Riley letting her know that he was on the way to her, and one to Jack asking for help.

Seeing Telvin go white, Natasha looked at him and said "What's the matter?"

"I just got a message from Riley, she is in danger from the queen and needs help."

Surprise lit Natasha's face and she said "What!? Godfucking dammit I knew it was a fucking bad idea to get involved with the queen."

"I am going to get her and I will kill this motherfucking Queen if she dared to lay one fucking hand on Riley."

"Shit shit shit." Natasha said as she quickly got her shoes on and looked at Telvin. "I'll go with you. I know a way into the castle. I'll show you."

Telvin nodded and went to the door and opened it revealing a yard that was filling with rainwater. With Natasha following him, they set out into the rainstorm. Telvin had equipped his leather armor, which became soaked with the cold rainwater, but he did not care as all he could focus on was the symbol of Riley on his map.

They ran through the flooded streets to the castle with a bit of difficulty. As they turned down one of the side streets, eight cloaked figures jumped down in front of them. Sensing extreme danger, Telvin saw that they were wearing a very similar outfit to the assassins that attacked him previously. The only exception was that these cloaks seemed to be better made.

While Telvin looked considering their options the figure in the front lowered his hood revealing a startling white elf. Despite the rain, Telvin could almost swear that this assassin almost glowed, that's how white his skin was. This elf grinned with maliciousness and withdrew a pair of knives. The other assassins followed suit pulling out wicked looking knives and glaring at Telvin.

Telvin reached out and pulled out his bow, and despite the loudness of the rain he began to hear the pounding of blood in his veins. A flush of fear went through him, followed by that deep anger that threatened to break the cage of rage within him. He signaled Natasha and yelled "Keep going, they are here for me. I will be there in a second."

Natasha hesitated for a second and said "Don't die." She dashed down a side street to go around these assassins. The assassins never took their eyes off of Telvin. 

Glaring at one another they each waited for the other to move. As they were waiting there was an ominous rumbling from beneath them and the street began to glow red underneath all the rain water. The lead assassin glanced down in confusion at that moment and Telvin seized on the chance.

With a fluid motion Telvin sent out a dozen arrows towards the assassins. Despite being distracted, the lead assassin was quick on his feet and was able to dodge the three sent at him, only the assassin that was standing right behind him was a bit too slow and caught one of the arrows into his arm. The other arrows merely caused the other assassins to spread out more.

After the lead assassin dodged the arrows he charged towards Telvin, he covered the distance with a frightening speed. Telvin unequiped his bow and pulled out his knife and barely dodged the slash of the assassin. Slashing back with his own blade Telvin could immediately tell that he was outmatched in knife skill by the assassin.

With the other assassins starting to encircle Telvin, he had little choice but to engage in the knife duel with the assassin. The assassin in front of Telvin let out a long chuckle and stepped back and began to eye Telvin up and down. "Well I see you have some skill worm. Not many can last in front of my blade."

Telvin snorted, "You may have skill, but maybe if you soaked your blades in poison like your friends I would feel more threatened."

"You are referring to those sycophant fools that begged for the opportunity to gain a master's blessing?" The leader spat to the side and said "They relied on gimmicks and looked where it got them? Killed by a worm with barely any skill to him. We are the result of years of our masters studies in the art of death. We have been blessed with his skill. You are blessed to die by my hand, the hand of Iradiem."

"Sounds like your master is a little bitch sending others to do his dirty work."

Iradiem grimaced and said "Know that you insult what you cannot. I will be glad to cleanse your life from this world so my master can feast on your soul."

With that Iradiem leaped towards Telvin. Telvin barely dodged to the side nearly slipping down as the serrated knife slashed down nearly cutting deep into Telvin. Rolling to the side, Telvin sensed that one of the other assassins was getting close behind him. Reaching into his inventory he pulled out a large tent tarp and tossed it behind him into the assassins face.

The assassin that had been trying to backstab him cursed loudly as he got tangled up in the tarp. Quickly moving backwards, Telvin avoided Iradiem's intense knife swings. Telvin responded with his limited skill, taking care not to overreach. But Iradiem left little opening's that Telvin could take advantage of, leaving Telvin increasingly hard pressed to avoid being cut.

Iradiem stepped forward and slashed downwards, and Telvin decided to take a risk and got closer to Iradiem. At such a close range, Telvin was unable to completely dodge the knife swing and got a slice on his chest that cut open his leather armor. Yet Telvin was able to respond in kind with his blade slicing open the robes and cutting a thin nick into the leader's chest. 

With a loud snarl, Iradiem danced backwards. As he did so the robe fell open revealing a black and red tattoo on Iradiem's chest. The second Telvin laid eyes on the tattoo, he found that the curse within his blood seemed to ignite. The cage that was within him creaked under the strain and finally his rage began to leak out.

The tattoo was of a black palm with a red eye placed inside of it. Telvin got the strangest sensation of being watched through the tattoo, it seemed to whisper threats at him. His rage broke free at that and he strapped himself to it so it would not consume him. He fought to control the rage so as to not forget about what he needed to do. He needed to get to Riley as soon as possible and these shitbird assassins were standing in his way.

With a massive pounding in his head he focused to a razor's edge and his blood sang of fury. Reaching up he cast Natures Rage in an instant. The skill tore through him and reached out into the world, unlike the previous times he cast it, it felt like it had been ready to go. Even the power was more than he had ever experienced as if this was truly Nature's Rage.

The ground began to shake in a ferocious movement, and the assassins including Telvin struggled to remain upright. Cracks began to open up in the road, and the nearby buildings began to break apart. Suddenly the ground opened up right beneath one of the assassins and a geyser of boiling hot water shot up underneath him lifting him up. The assassin screamed as he was cooked alive by the hot water only to slam with a sick thud against a nearby building.

The other assassins had little time to care about the loss of their companion as the ground opened up with a roar and the street cracked open. Underneath the rainwater lava began to pour forth from the cracked street. The heat from the molten rock heated up the water and clouds of steam and mist began to obscure the vision of the area. 

As the road began to break up one of the assassins failed to jump away in time, only for him to fall screaming into the lava. The other assassins managed to avoid the fate of their companion by jumping onto several floating rocks in the emerging field of lava. Telvin followed suit jumping from one to the next as each side angled to get the jump on the other. 

One of the assassins, seeing his chance, attempted to jump across a gap towards Telvin. Telvin reached out and cast cage of thorns upon the jumping assassin. Thick green vines reached up inexplicably from the glowing lava and caught onto the assassins leg and pulled him screaming into the molten rock before he had a chance to cut off the vines.

Seeing this, the other assassins took much more caution in moving about. Iradiem growled out and said "So the worm does have some teeth. I thought those fools were just incompatant, but perhaps they had some reason to fail. Still it pleases me that I will have some fun with this."

"I'll give you all the fun you can ever have in this life." Telvin snarled "How about we let your master have a bit of fun and let me send you your head to him."

Iradiem glowered at him and jumped onto Telvin's platform with a quick flip. They eyed each other before Telvin let his rage take him closer to the leader. They exchanged a series of strikes with Telvin pouring his rage enhanced strength into each blow. While the assassin was able to respond with his skill, Telvin's brutality and lack of regard for his own well being pushed Iradiem back to the edge of the platform.

As the assassin leader saw that he was losing ground, he leaped up and flung a dagger at Telvin who caught it and flung it back at the leader. Dodging the dagger, the leader landed on a platform that dunked dangerously into the lava. The steam from the rainwater hitting the lava created a thick cover of mist that Iradiem took advantage of and slipped into it away from Telvin's glare.

Unable to see the assassins, his rage was roaring for him to go after the assassins and kill them. Another voice in the back of his head told him he needed to focus on rescuing Riley. Battling the voices in his head, and struggling to control the beast within the assassins came in from the mist and attacked Telvin.

One of the lesser assassins came jumping towards Telvin, dodging the swings of the dagger blades Telvin reached out and grabbed him by the throat. With his strength now monstrous he had no trouble forcing the head of the assassin into the glowing lava. As the Assassin struggled against it, he could only let out a scream of pain and terror as his face burst into flames.

While Telvin was killing the assassin Iradiem came jumping in aiming for Telvin's back. Releasing the still screaming assassin into the lava, Telvin tossed his blade at the leader. Iradiem blocked the dagger and had to take a step back from the force of the throw. Telvin let out a roar, his body working hard to contain the fury. Stepping hard he cracked the platform they were on and launched himself at the leader.

As the two of them clashed once again on the floating piles of rock there were now bursts of ash coming from within the lava. As it joined the mist in the air it became hard to breath. Despite that he attacked Iradiem in a series of strikes that the lead assassin struggled to block. One of the leaders' daggers simply snapped after being hit one to many times from Telvin.

Another assassin wanting to back up Iradiem attempted to jump onto the same platform that they were fighting on, only for the lava beneath him to bubble up and a large molten mass launched itself out of the lava and slam hard into the assassin. The assassin could only let out a short wail as he was engulfed by the burning mass and flung away down the street.

Seeing the death of his colleagues made Iradiem grow angrier, and took more risks in order to strike Telvin with more viciousness. Barely stopping the more deadly strikes, Telvin was slashed all over his body. Despite the pain he was facing, Telvin took advantage of the openings that Iradiem had. 

Striking forward, Telvin's first caught the leader hard in the chest causing blood to explode from Iradiems lips. Coughing hard, he danced backwards from Telvin to the edge of the platform. "Worm, I underestimated the power you could wield. You are a threat to my master, you must be strangled in the cradle before you gain any more power."

With every word Iradiem spoke, Telvin could feel power start to build up within Iradiem. Not wanting to deal with whatever bullshit Iradiem was doing, Telvin reached out and cast Enemy of the World. The Skill ripped through Telvin and slammed into the assassin causing the power to immediately dissipate. Iradiem looked shaken and looked as if he had aged years.

Iradiem clutched his head and screamed in a mixture of pain and fear. "What have you done to me, worm? I cannot hear the voice of my master? Why has his power stopped flowing through me? I will kill you for what you have done!"

With a scream of madness Iradiem leaped at Telvin. Unlike before where Iradiem moved like an expert, his movements were clumsy and weak. Dodging the assassins poor attempts at attacking, Telvin grabbed one of Iradiem's arms and jammed the assassins own blades hard into the chest of the frenzied assassin.

A look of pure surprise went over Iradiem's face and blood trickled from his mouth as he whispered "No! I cannot die yet. Save me Master!" 

Letting go of Iradiems arms, Telvin grabbed his head and with sharp movement he twisted hard. A loud snapping sound rang through the battlefield as Telvin killed Iradiem. Grabbing one of the leaders blades, he took a look around for the other assassins. There were only a few assassins left, which glowered angrily at him and then made a move to run away.

When he realized that, Telvin felt a final pulse from Natures Rage and a charge ripped through the ash laden atmosphere. A bright light nearly seared Telvin's vision as a massive lightning bolt lit up the sky and pierced through the fleeing assassins instantly killing them. With that final act the rage of Nature finally relented and the lava lost heat and began to harden up.

Despite the battle having ended, Telvin's blood still boiled with hatred. Sensing he had been held up for far too long here, he reached down and cast a cage of thorns. Similar to how he had thrown that assassin away yesterday he grabbed his legs and launched himself through the rain towards the castle.

He went up high into the air, and despite the heavy rain was able to get a good look at what was happening in the city. He noticed that several of the roads were glowing red in a hexagram pattern. Telvin went over the castle wall and crashed through a large window on one of the upper floors.

Rolling into a standing position, he glanced around and found he was in a bedroom where a frail old man was currently tied to a bed with a red ball in his mouth. He was lying naked on the bed. Ignoring the old man he pulled up the map and took a look for Riley. He saw that she was far beneath him. 

Exiting the room, he was surprised that he had not encountered any guards despite his loud arrival. As he headed down looking for the path to Riley he ran into a group of maids. They took one glance at him and with an ear bleeding shriek launched themselves at him.

Dodging their wild strikes, Telvin punched one of them hard. When his fist landed on the face of the maid, the maid changed from a young looking woman to a horrific looking crone with sharp looking teeth and claws. The others followed suit becoming monstrous crones each attempting to tear Telvin apart.

Not having any time for this shit, Telvin reached into his inventory and pulled out an arrow and used it in conjunction with the blade he had gotten from Iradiem to slice at these foul monsters. One of them got purchased on Telven and bit at him trying to get through his armor. Taking the arrow he jammed it hard into the creature's eye.

it let go with a shriek trying to yank the arrow out of her skull. Taking the knife he gutted the shrieking creature and rotten guts spilled from it's chest onto the floor. The other creatures seeing this shrieked in fear and fled the area. Making his way down, he heard a loud commotion coming from up ahead.

Checking it out he found Natasha had managed to enter the castle and was currently fighting two giant men. Rushing in Telvin slammed one from behind before he could turn around. As the giant man yelped and landed hard on the floor with a loud thump. Telvin was already on him and slicing away at the man's neck.

Bright red blood spurted forth, and whatever spell that had been hiding the man's form was released. With it gone, the true form of the man was revealed to be a minotaur. The other large man seeing his friend die, let out a roar of anger and changed form as well. Then he charged Telvin.

Telvin let out his own roar of anger and charged back as well. Rearing back, Telvin slammed his fist against the Minotaur lowered head and stopped the Minotaurs charge. The Minotaur let out a groan grasping his head in pain. Telvin grabbed the horns of the minotaur and proceeded to knee the minotaur several times in its face.

When it had gone limp, Telvin let it go. Natasha looked to be in shock looking at Telvin and she said "Telvin are you alright? You look like shit."

Ignoring her, he went past the bodies of the Minotaurs and to the room beyond. He saw a large door that led to a staircase that went down and he knew that was where Riley had gone done. His rage blinding him, he didn't notice that the room had another occupant until he was flung into the wall by a giant fist.

Telvin felt one of his ribs break as he slammed into the stone wall. Shaken he glanced around and spotted the giant man who had struck him. Bigger than the other two ones, this Minotaur was massive. He barely fit in the room, his horns traced the roof as he stomped towards Telvin.

Standing Telvin glared at the Minotaur as Natasha joined him. "Go!" He pointed towards the staircase.

Natasha nodded. The Minotaur roared and attempted to grab onto Natasha. Telvin launched himself forward and grabbed onto the arm and twisted it. The Minotaur growled in pain and attempted to swat Telvin away. Dodging the swipe of the giant hand he slammed his fist into the stomach of the Minotaur only for the Minotaur to merely grunt and punch towards Telvin.

Blocking the blow Telvin was sent backwards. The Minotaur attempted to chase after Natasha who had ran down the stairs, but Telvin yelled "I'm not done with you yet." Grabbing one of the Minotaur's feet he yanked it off its feet and swung it around to slam into the wall itself.

The minotaur broke through the wall, but came charging back in within seconds. The Minotaur despite his size dodged Telvin's blows and grabbed Telvin by the leg and attempted to swing him into the ground. Telvin grabbed one of the Minotaur legs and said "Fuck This!"

He reared back with one arm and punched towards the minotaurs groin. When he connected Telvin could feel something pop and the Minotaur let out a massive wail and dropped Telvin. The Minotaur grabbed his groin in pain and Telvin got to his feet and withdrew his bow and began to pelt the minotaur with arrows.

The Minotaur weakly tried to dodge them, but within moments, was covered in arrows piercing his flesh. Telvin pulled back on his final arrow and launched it. The effect of his gloves activated that time and the arrow turned green and pierced into the minotaur and suddenly tree limbs burst forth from the minotaurs body.

Turning towards the staircase he ran down the stairs. Despite the rage coursing through his body, he could feel each and every ache of his body. Shaking his head, he vowed no matter the condition of his body he would save Riley. He focused on the map and knew he was getting close to finding Riley. "I'm coming Riley. Hang on."

ElKriJa

Thank you for reading my story, I hope you enjoy this chapter. After taking a week long break, I have come to several realizations. As a result of those, I have decided to change my posting schedule to once a week on Monday's. I know I could do it three times a week. But that practically takes all my time to do. It leaves me little time to do anything else. With this new schedule, it gives me time to go back and fix more errors in the previous chapters, plus it gives me time to make the chapter's ahead better. I thank you once again for taking the time to read my story.