"Don't you think this is a dangerous idea? Eika knows how dangerous the monsters are, but what if this plan goes wrong? It could be a huge disaster!" Eika rolled back and forth on her heels as she spoke anxiously while scanning the treetops. One of the men standing near her patted her on the head "Don't worry, as long as your friend can do her job, we can do ours. We been lumberjacks for ten generations, we know how to tame the forest." Eika nodded, "I’ve been a tracker for only a few years, but I like to think that I know the forest well, and Eika thinks this idea is a little... crazy..." The man simply smiled and continued his work. Eika prowled around, in between the men and trees, eyes sharp, ears attentive. She passed by a farmer, diligently plying her craft. "Rabbit-girl, you better be doing your job. I’m not skipping weeks’ worth of work to be ambushed in a forest by a bunch of gorilla monsters." Eika nodded seriously, "Eika will keep us safe. L will as well, her powers are awso-" Eika ceased speaking mid-sentence, her ears tilting, she pulled her sling from her belt and loaded it with an iron ball, courtesy of the blacksmith. She scanned the treetops to the south west, waiting for it to appear. Suddenly she slung her sling, the iron ball quickly smashing directly into the head of a bird that had landed on a nearby tree. Dying instantly, it dropped from the trees. She grabbed it and her ammo, and quickly reported to L, pride in her voice "Eika found another one! It did not even have time to caw!" L nodded and smiled, "I think he is getting anxious, I also killed one, that is two in one day." L gestured to a gorilla mantis head that lay nearby.

E stood over top V, looking down at a sample of his blood, a few days had passed since the "test fusion." "Interesting, it’s possible the bonding is not even entirely complete yet, you really are quite adaptable!" E's eyes were bright and full of excitement. "You know, once you join with me, I doubt any of the other champions will stand much of a chance. Think about it, my mantis fusions bring their attributes up by roughly two ranks, if I can fuse a Divine Class, and give them the same properties, I suspect we could achieve an all S rank class! You would be such a monster on the battlefield!" Well, he had one thing right, he would be a monster. V sighed to himself, in some ways, the rejuvenation that the minor fusion had given him only served to make him more lucid during E's experiments. Not a particularly desirable event. "I was wondering, how long have I been here? By my count it has been two weeks or so." E laughed lightly, "Ah yes well, a loss of time is to be expected. It has been about a month. To be totally honest, I have not been counting the days exactly, I’ve been too engrossed in our work together." E placed the vial of blood down, picking up another chemical. "You know, I had been watching you, well, not just you I was watching the whole town. Anyway, I saw your assault on that monster of a woman. It was quite a good piece of work; I hope you have that same proactive nature when we are done here."

"It’s going to take three more days. Even if we could get it done faster, the merchant still has not delivered the goods." L clicked her tongue. Back when she was still alive, in her old world, she never would have had to put up with delays like this. "Look, just get it done. We don’t know how much time we actually have." The man nodded as he got up to leave "Of course, I just hope our town can go back to normal after this. First a hulking murderer, then a forest of twisted monsters... Turns out, I hate this new age." Luckily for L, it was not so hard to convince the people she had recruited that something bad was going on. A few mantis gorilla bodies thrown at their doorstep, and a reminder or two about the "Age of Champions." was all she needed to get the peoples support behind her. The fact that she was the Champion of their local deity also helped. Eika sat in a chair with her knees drawn up. "Do you think V is ok? Eika is worried about him." L had told Eika that she was certain V was alive, which seemed to assure the girl at first, but as the weeks passed, she became more and more depressed. If Eika was going to be traveling with them anyway, L figured now would be as good a time as any to fill her in on the situation.

"Wow! Eika never knew you came from a different world! That makes much more sense than being born out of the air!" She jumped up and down as she spoke. "So, we need to defeat the other champions? What if there are other good ones? Maybe they can surrender and we could all join up? What if they want us to surrender? Would we do that? Oh, I guess we need to save V first. Hey do you think whoever is in the forest is another champion? What if-" L loudly spoke over Eika's stream of consciousness. "Point is, if I suddenly die for no reason, it means V also died. If that happens you should run away from this town and take anyone who will listen to you, as I suspect it will be overrun with the horrors of the forest not long after." Eika nodded "Right... But we are going to save him, right?" L shrugged "That is the plan, but we really don’t know. The responsibility of planning rescues or assaults does not normally fall on me. I was always the person who executed the plans made by others..." L played with her broken sword hilt as she spoke, remembering better days.

Setting on the edge of his makeshift bed, E spoke excitedly "I found one! You know, it’s hard to locate one of the gorillas far enough away from its companions that I don’t get the attention of the whole family. Most of my creations would have a real problem if nine of the bastards rushed it." E furrowed his brow as he continued "It is a shame that complex operations like this take so much concentration. I’d love to continue our work. The simple reality is that I have to oversee the captures. Most of my creatures can only follow simple commands unless I’m directing them myself..." E trailed off for a few seconds. "Got it! Your new half will be arriving shortly! Another few days and you will be reborn as the greatest of my creations!"

Four days later, a caged gorilla was roaring a few feet away from V. "Sorry about the noise, I would enthrall him, but I’m worried that it might interfere with the fusion. I want you both at your best for the main event!" E was quickly preparing for the fusion, doing final checks on both V and the gorilla. V was considering if biting his own tongue would be enough to kill him, probably not considering E was cutting him open and closing him without even leaving scars. As he was searching for some other way to kill himself before the fusion, E paused in his movements "Hum, I think... I think I need to attend to something. Give me a moment." E quickly sat down on the bed again, this time closing his eyes "I would appreciate if you don’t talk to me for a little bit, I really need to concentrate."

"Seriously, how many of these things are there? How long has this been going on?" L was dodging and weaving through the forest as what could only be described as a herd of monsters crashed through the forest behind her. In the first week of V's absence, L had sent Eika to scout south of where she had last seen V. According the girl, V's last words to her was concern about walking southward. She figured that he noticed what was going on, just a little too late. Logically, V was being held even further south than where he was captured. Eika's report only confirmed L's suspicion. Eika reported a large number of mantis gorillas walking in what seemed like pattern. L explained that they were probably patrols. Which meant that there was something worth guarding in the area. L was not scared of one or two of the things. To be honest they were often too stupid to avoid her first slash, often beheading them instantly. However, in an extended combat situation, she could not reuse that ability, and would quickly be overwhelmed. Now however, she was rounding up every monster she could find as she sprinted through the forest. Luckily, after the first two started crashing through the forest, it drew the others.

As she led the monsters into her trap, she hoped that they had not learned from their comrades’ experiences. L came up with this plan thanks to V's reports on how leading the monsters into traps, off overhangs, or into whatever a "Forest fairy" was, had worked every time. However, she only had a limited amount of stamina. She sighed internally as she saw the break in the trees and sprinted over the tilled soil, she was almost there. She had to hand it to the three farmers and various lumberjacks she had recruited, they really did work quickly. A few yards of soil, then another sprint through the forest, then she could stop for a breather. The monsters paid the soil no mind, grass, soil, all the same to them. Perfect. If someone was behind the monsters, L was worried that they would intervene at this point, but it seemed they either could not, or were too busy. As she continued to run, she looked behind her, the monsters had made it past the part of the forest they had cleared, and back into the wooded area.

"THEY ARE OVER THE FIREBREAK!" L screamed as loudly as she could. In front of her, the villagers helping her stood ready with their torches. L was somewhat disgusted that she had to use her position of "hero" to pressure the governor into giving her an entire warehouse's worth of lamp oil, but the governor was a rather slimy person, so L could live with it. As they dropped their torches into the lines of oil, the flames quickly ran along them, straight towards the numerous sealed pots of oil spread all along this part of the forest. In seconds, an explosion rocked the trees, spraying flaming oil absolutely everywhere. The majority was behind L, right where the herd of monsters had been, however she was not totally unscathed. She ran to the villagers, who helped her strip off the burning clothes, and put out the oil that had splashed onto her.

As E sat on the bed, concentrating deeply, V looked for a solution to his current situation. As he struggled to come up with a workable plan, he heard a rustling noise not far away. Out from the underbrush Eika was crawling on her elbows. In another situation, V would have found this a very funny sight, now however, he was simply grateful. Eika stopped however when she saw the massive abomination that was near E. V attempted to get her attention with his slight movements. It was probable she would be able to free him while E was distracted. He had noticed that the abomination did not move or act much when E was asleep or otherwise occupied. After all, the thing did not even have a head or face. It’s probable that its ability to function without direct input was low to nonexistent. Eika hesitated for a few moments before noticing his attempted gestures. She cautiously crawled over to the slab of rock, and began to undue his restraints. Her expression was one of both relief at seeing V, and extreme fear of the monster a few feet away from them. After fumbling around for a few moments, she was able to free V's upper half. Quickly slipping out of the rest of the straps, he searched for his sword. His belongings had been unceremoniously scattered around the area, E caring little about them. Now was his shot at killing the abomination. Sure, he might be able to kill E, but for all he knew, that would send this thing into some sort of insane rage. Safer to try and kill it, then have rampaging horror avenging its master’s death.

Eika pointed toward V's sword once she realized what he was searching for. She shook her head no, and gestured for them to retreat into the forest. V shook his head, he was unsure if he would get another chance to kill this thing, E would clearly come after him again, it was best to try and end this now rather than later. As he picked up his sword, Eika ran back into the forest. V shrugged, he doubted she would be any help here anyway at this point. He switched his strength from B to A, standing in front of the monster he needed to act fast, but he had to make the strike count. Behind all the arms and legs, he could see what was surly its body, but if it did not even have a face, would it even have a heart or brain? V did not have much time to pick a target, so he decided to thrust into the center of the monster, the center was always good, right? As his sword sunk into the monster’s center mass, one of its gorilla arms smashed him backward, and E jumped up with a start. "Oh, come now V! I thought you understood what we were doing together! Why are you betraying me now?!"

Gorilla and mantis noises permeated the forest air, which was filled with stench of burning hair and bodies. As the fire raged on, some of the more resilient monsters had seemingly re-focused their efforts to attack L, ignoring their flaming bodies. Surprised, but not altogether unprepared, L drew her weapon, killing one instantly. Luckily the ones attacking her were burned badly enough that their movements had become slow and cumbersome, the pain and burns slowing them down considerably. L focused on evasion, letting the fire do most of the work, finishing them off when they became too impaired to defend. After a time, all the gorilla mantises were either dead, or too burnt to move. As L was finishing off another downed monster, she received a notification.

┌——————┐
Your level in "Divine Samurai" has increased!
2 => 3
Acquired Skill:
Combat Maneuver Lv 3
Combat Awareness Lv 3
└——————┘

┌——————┐
Name: L
Age: 21
Race: Demon | Other
Occupation: Divine Slave
Class: Divine Samurai Lv 3   0/2000
Skills: "Combat Maneuver Lv 3", "Combat Awareness Lv 3", "Regeneration Lv 2"
Blessings: Blessing of Honor
└——————┘

┌——————┐
Class: Divine Samurai Lv 3
Attribute Scaling:
Strength: A
Agility: A
Constitution: A
Awareness: B
Willpower: D
Abilities: First Strike
└——————┘

She had not been keeping track, but over the last month she had killed so many monsters, she supposed it made sense that she would level. Although, two thousand experience, it was already getting extremely costly to increase her level, she hoped that as they fought higher level monsters, the experience payouts would increase as well. She finished cleaning up the monsters still languishing on the ground. She began to clean her sword when Eika came sprinting wildly toward her. She was supposed to scout out V's location, and his condition while L was rounding all of the monster guards up, however based on her panic expression and gait, L figured something had gone wrong. "Slow down and talk, unless something is chasing you." Eika nodded as she got closer "L! L! V is going to fight a horrible horrible monster! I want to run away with him but he said no!" L looked at Eika critically "What? You were only supposed to scout out his position, what happened?" Eika rubbed the back of her head and looked off to the side. "Uh..haha... well Eika saw that the man keeping V was sleeping or something so I uh, took my chance! Ya. I took the only chance Eika had and freed V!" She tried to spin the story in a way to avoid talking about disobeying L's directions. L quickly interrupted her, ignoring the girls attempts at enplaning her actions. "Tell me which direction they are in; you can follow when you catch your breath." Eika pointed "If you go straight that way, you will find the man’s camp eventually. Careful, the monster looks really pow-" L had already sprinted away before Eika could finish.

V shook his head as he stood up. He was not doing well in the first place; the gorilla smack was not what he needed right now. E walked over to the abomination, which was shuttering slightly. "Oh dear, you really stabbed her good. It’s going to take weeks to heal that..." he looked at V struggling to regain his posture. "Well, she is still fit enough to capture you, but I’ll give her a good rest afterward." The abomination lumbered toward V, much slower and less coordinated than usual. He figured he must have stabbed something vital, or perhaps part of its spine? Whatever the case he now thought he might have had a chance to escape its grasp. He started to back up, not ready to flee until he was sure it was not faking its wounds. "Thinking of running? My second-best creations might be small, but you will not be able to escape them, although I will admit less of them are alive these days than I would like..." E's expression turned sour "This has been a very bad month for me overall. However, once you are fused, the losses I've suffered this month won't mean a thing!" As E spoke, V realized that running was not actually going to help him. He had no idea how to get out of the forest. The only reason he was able to navigate the place at all was due to Eika. If he ran now, he could end up running deeper into the forest, where the gorilla family supposedly claimed territory. Eika had ran off, hopefully she would bring L. Another reason running would be a foolish idea, currently his allies knew where he was, if he ran well, they might never find him again. He readied his stance, he would simply have to stay alive, holding onto the hope of reinforcements.

The abominations slow movements and impaired coordination allowed V to barley dodge its attacks, he had taken a few glancing hits, but overall was able to keep far enough away from the beast that he had taken minimal damage. E huffed in frustration, "You know it is somewhat inconvenient that you are immune to poison now." E played with a box of darts he had brought out from underneath the chemistry set. "I only have ten of these and I can’t afford to waste them, not like I can go back home for more!" While V dodged the abominations attacks, E had walked over to his chemistry tools and was calmly mixing chemicals. During this, a few of E's crows had shown up, and began harassing V. At this point, they were doing more damage than the abomination. Both V and the abomination were starting to tire, the small wounds from the crows sapped V's strength, and the wound V inflicted on the abomination was clearly starting to get the best of it. Just as V was considering a risky move to try and strike the abominations center, L burst out from the trees, her speed and precision made it clear she had used first strike. Her sword sunk deeply into the center of the monster, so deeply in fact that it took L a second to draw it back out.

"Ahhh the girl" for the first time, E's voice was filled with hate and loathing. He looked up from his tools. "You and the rabbit killed quite a few of my birds. Do you know how hard it is to capture crows? The answer is extremely at-least, without damaging them." he looked around calmly as L retrieved her sword "The rabbit child did not show up? Oh well...." V cautiously advanced toward E, theoretically, he should be easy to kill now that his creation was dead, but there was one problem..." L, her sword once again in hand, lashed out, attempting to take E's head in one blow. Her sword however, stopped a few inches from his neck. He stood calmly "Well, I suppose now that you are both here, it is time to show you my greatest creation." As L jumped backward, and V readied himself, E picked up the chemical he had been mixing. "I hate to use him, even giving him the simplest commands causes me enough pain that I would normally pass out. Luckily, I can overcome that." He drank the mixture, and made a strange gesture with his hand. In-front of him materialized a dark specter. Its form was difficult for V to grasp, it appeared somewhat like a dark cloak. No figure was inside, but it was filled with what looked like swirling energy. Also, for some reason its status was constantly being broadcast into his mind, causing terrible pain.

┌——————┐
Name: Fͮ̽̈̓́͞͏҉̳̹̤͚͖͍̺
Age: n̳̫̬ͯ̔̿͗̐͊ͩ͠/̮̗̜̬͎͗̉͒̒̽́͠ạ̶̶̼̺͌̃ͧ̒͆̾
Race: N̮̟̻̙̻͍̻ͩͅo̩͔̯̰̥̫̳͓̍̚n̮̲̖͇̳ͭͅe̢̥̥̜̣̞̲̩̠̓͝ ̧̬̗̗͍̞͕̈̽̾ͮ̃̐̌|ͯ̽ͪ̊̚҉͉̪͉̕ ͕́̐ͬ̾̄̆̈́O̲͙̱̼̲̣̗͎͐͗ͬ͌̆ͤ͑̈͞t͇̭͎͈̜̻͛̃͠h̴̭̤͎͙̥̮ͫe̶͍̱͒̋ͯ͌̑̓̿̚ͅr̢̨̡͈̠̝̝̣͋̑̔ͬ͐̌̓ͅ
Occupation: Ų̶͖̯̦̺̦̞̝̖͂̍̉́ͧͧ̚n̹̭̈́̂̂ͤ̈͊͟͠ḋ̢͇̩͓͓̖̠̓̾ͮͭͅe̵̢̤ͧ͒͆ͥ̈̾ͧ̕a̛̛̺̜͕̹̻̙̍̂͑̎̿ͩ͋̚d̼̠͉͌͗̂̿̂ͅ
Class: D̗̠̯͖̯̪̟ͩ͂ͪ̂ͩ̀ȉ̫͚̻̳̝̦͓͡͠v͆̇̎̀ͬ̅ͨ͏̮̰̟̲̮̗i̸̻̝̜͍̦͑̇̔ͨ̄͜n̨̟͔̍̃ͧͣ̈̓̚e̫̪̤̤͐͑͒̂̋̀͢͡ ̲͈̮̞̖̿̂̏͘͡L̴̴̰̗̤̜̱̋̓ͪ̈̋͊̂̕ͅį̶̤̲̜̝̱͙̲̌ͬ̈́͋ͣ̉ͪ̕c̳̣̪͕̙͙͓ͪ̾̈ͯ͑ͮ͑ͨ͠h͇̙̋̄̊̍̀̀ͯ̃͆lv 4
Blessings: B͈͚̐̓͐ͩ̽e̢̠̪̭̲ͥ̐̅̅̒̇͠l͇̜̻̲͎͙͆̔͋ͯ̓͡ǫ̜̬̦̥ͯ̐̚v̢͓̣̿ēͤ̑̏͘͏̖̻͚̯͍̹d̵̫̹̻̲̫̯̜̈͒̍ ͕̤͎̦̦͚̤̱͚͐ͣ͆́o̰̖̺̣̠̦̖̒̍f̷̵͇̞̳̣̫̩̬̺ͯ̚͜ ̳̘̹̹ͩ̃ͪ̀D̰̤̫̩͈͓͛͊̆ͦͣ͡e̥͊̔̍̃ͣ̕͟ȃ̡̙͐̋ͫͦ͛̋ͩ̂ț͉ͫͣ́̏̀h̨̜͖͓̣͉ͩ͒̐ͩ̓̌̌̌ͅ
└——————┘

As V and L grabbed their heads, E continued "You see, I was not lying when I told you I accidentally killed the first champion I captured. The fusion between a living being and a fairy was much more complicated than I expected. I was too hasty, I had been trying to capture forest fairies for a long time, and when I got my hands on one, I just had to try it right away!" E sounded remorseful "Unfortunately, the champions body could not handle the unrestrained, mystical nature of the fairies physical form. The fusion created something that simply could not live under its own power." his voice picked up, sounding happier. "However!! I was in luck! The champion belonged to the God of death! At the time of capture, I paid little attention to his blessing, but little did I know it would indeed be quite a blessing! Upon his death his blessing activated, he was transformed into this specter being. Now, I don’t know if that was originally supposed to be the function of his blessing, or a side effect of the fusion. I mean, it’s quite obvious that the being I created is not exactly normal. It clearly is barely functioning within this world established rules. But that is the goal of science is it not!? To master the world, and surpass its rules?" Pride dripped from every word as E gloated.