What animals

The two days passed quickly for Ren as he can now use his fire and ice abilities with ease and ferocity, he can make a beam of fire precise enough that it looked like a laser beam, and the ice he can freeze a single ant without disturbing the ground or surrounding foliage.

Ben was watching Ren as his powers grew beyond Ben's, well he don't have me on physical power at least it was getting dark out, Angry face said we should be there in a couple of hours but we should camp and rest, no point in fighting in the dark.

Ren was nervous about meeting the evil, he was physically shaking, how can I go from a country boy raised in the middle of nowhere to fighting an evil that can take your body and use you like a puppet, but it's not you your insides are missing and filled with an evil blackness the skin is the only thing left, I'm scared Ben, Ren said as they huddled together for bed , hey I know bro so am I but if we don't do this more people are going to die and more are going to turn into these things.

I'm scared too Angry face yelled mockingly from across the camp , shut up Ben yelled back as he felt around for a rock and then chucked it at Angry face , ouch Angry face said as it hit him in the foot, then Angry face said but Ben your my hero, the others in the group broke out in laughter after Angry face said that, Ben knew Angry face was just breaking the monotony the thought of fighting those things made the whole group quiet, deep in thought about the fight.

Hey Angry face Ben yelled back, but your my hero, who else is going to save me from all the sweets that attack me in the middle of the day.

Again the group laughed, and moral was getting better.

Go to sleep you annoying little monkey, I will deal with you when this is over Angry face yelled back. Ben was laughing and Ren was already asleep, damn wish I could just lay down and just pass out.

Ben got up and headed over to a wagon that Kyozu had sent after they had left, Ben saw 4 bundles of rope that was probably 200 feet long each and started to cut the rope into thirty foot lengths, Angry face approached Ben as he was cutting the rope what are you doing Angry face asked, I have an idea Ben replied I think we can make a net and capture as many as we can on the first go and distract the others this would be a lot safer for Ren. Quit worrying about Ren his power of fire and ice far exceed yours, he should be worried about you jumping around and hacking and slashing like a crazy person.

You can do that too just pretend that they stole all your sweets and you want revenge on them.

Angry face and Ben started to laugh, then Angry face got serious and said you don't have to protect him all the time, I know I don't, I want to

he is my brother and my best friend I just want the best for him , yes but if you let him grow you will grow to as a team. Work together don't protect him. As they talked through the night while working on the net Ben realized he was holding Ren back by fighting for him.

The night wore on and Ben decided to hit the hay , Angry face fell asleep about an hour ago, sitting in a cross leg position, Ben got up and gently rolled Angry face on his side, Night eyes a wizard that just tagged along he had a special spell to see in the dark, hence the name .

Night eyes just nodded at Ben, Ben saw him and waved, then he laid down next to his brother and fell asleep.

DANGER, Night eyes yelled a couple hours later

DANGER WAKE UP !

Ben jumped up and grabbed Ren they ran to the cart and Ben grabbed the net and handed it to Ren. Its coming Night eyes said as he pointed towards the east side Ben looked over at him and saw the way he was pointing.

Then a sound came from that area it sounded like a moose and a lions roar mixed together .

The animal roared again and sent a shock wave through the camp the wizards took position furthest from the noise, Angry face had started to climb a tree with ease, who knew a fat lizard could move that fast climbing a tree.

The twins were hiding behind the cart and the animal came wandering into the camp, it looked like a moose, but its horns looked so much different than the pictures that Ben had seen at home.

The horns were much smaller but they ran from the head of the beast to its tail like an antler armor they looked like a spike from a yearling buck that had it first rut.

The animal was just wandering around the camp

it looked lost and confused, Ren was looking at the beast and noticed that it was standing next to the fire wood Ren then used his fire skill to light the logs on fire the logs burst into flames the light was extremely bright , that alone would have scared any animal away the instant it was lit . But the beast just stood there unaffected by the fire. Ben could see its eyes they were black as coal ,Ben grabbed his makeshift net and threw it onto the beast, it didn't even move, Ben approached the beast and grabbed a rope from the net and pulled hard the beast fell got caught up in the net it didn't struggle or try to escape it just laid there panting hard and looking around.

The fire was dying down and Ren hit it again with his fire spell the flames grew even higher than before. Ben stared at the beast he looked into the eyes of it and as he looked a black tear came out of its eye and stood up like it was looking around that's when Ben started to freeze the beast , Ren came up and started to freeze it as well when it was a solid piece of ice Ben picked up the net with the beast inside and slammed it against the ground most of the beast shattered when it impacted the ground, then Ben shook the net clean of any remnants of the beast as Ren set it on fire Ren practicing had worked well the fire produced by him was so intense that Ben had to take a couple of steps back.

In 30 seconds it was no more but ashes, then Angry face yelled from the tree he was on he said Ben your my hero again, and the group started to laugh, where were you fat lizard, hiding in a tree with all your sweets, protecting them from all the thieves lurking about, the group was laughing harder than ever, even Angry face was laughing .

Well at least I know that the net works against an animal that doesn't fight back, Ren started to laugh as well they all got back to bed the excitement of the night was over,

I wonder how that beast got infected Ben thought, it looked like it only ate plants and it was clearly an animal that would run away if confronted with danger, what if it ate a plant that was covered in the evil blackness.

That tear that came out of it's eye it stood on end and was acting like it was looking around that was weird, what if it didn't need a host to move around what if it can move around on it's own it just uses a host to get around quicker.

Come to think of it I haven't seen any animal's running around for a couple of days, are they hiding or did they migrate to a different area.

Ben was going to ask Ren for his opinion but he was out like a light. Damn must be nice to just pass out like that.