Another Rune
"Bloody Hell, Elites is right."
Cursing to myself, I hid behind a tree and forcefully ripped out the arrow embedded into my shoulder.
Throwing the blood stained arrow away, a sound drilled its way into mind.
*Thwack!
Hearing another arrow soon pierce the tree I was hiding behind, the arrow poking out over my shoulder, I immediately rolled to the side as several more arrows joined the arrows stuck into the tree.
Penetrating the tree's entire width at roughly an arms length, the arrows sunk deep into the bark and dug into the wood before poking out.
Not dangerous to the point of death, but dangerous to the point that they could draw blood easily.
And because of the fact that everything here somehow super imposed their attacks to be more effective than they should really be, well it was a miracle I wasn't bleeding from head to toe.
Hiding behind another tree, I cursed my poor eyesight in the dimly lit forest as I tried searching for the Elite undead archer.
Blood sword still grasped tightly in my hands alongside the nearly destroyed wooden shield, I faintly heard a whistle in the air and twisted my body around.
Coming face to face with three gleaming arrows, I briefly caught sight of the undead archer wielding that damned weapon before having to activate the Blaze rune.
Left hand wielding the shield suddenly bursting into an orange flame, my arm suddenly gained energy as the shield became much lighter.
Swiftly intercepting the shot arrows with a resounding crack, the already damaged shield couldn't withstand the intense force it was subject to by the undead archer and the blaze rune and broke.
Furrowing my brows, I swiftly turned around and dived into the forest, running away from the Elite undead.
Vaulting over fallen corpses, I grabbed moving corpses and used them as my shields while mulling about how this situation came to the point where I was now running away from the elite undead instead of fighting it like the dual wielding elite.
'Well that's a simple answer isn't it Slade?'
Weaving through another horde of lumbering undead, they served as my unwilling shields, absorbing the numerous arrows shot my way as the undead archer flitted about in the trees, holding the purple bow.
'It's because of that bow.'
Catching sight of it, arrows flew in trios as they arced through the air, hitting the dirt and wood.
Feeling the disparity between our equipment, I hid behind a much thicker tree while strengthening my resolve.
'You can't keep running Slade.'
Having been running for half an hour after that thing got its hands on that purple bow after ripping it out of a corpse, I couldn't even properly dodge that damned thing as three arrows blocked all escape routes.
Of course there were chances of dodging, but those chances were few and far between.
Glaring at the sunlight seeping through the trees, the setting sunrays piercing the gaps in the treetops, I slapped my face even as my heart continued to race.
'Death damn it all, I already died once, what's another time!'
Hyping myself up, I stuffed the blood sword into my inventory before casting my gaze into my inventory.
Doing away with my qualms of having the choice to replace my own head whenever I liked, I swiftly slapped on the Beheaded's flaming head, the glowing bulbs for eyes serving as guiding lights in the rapidly darkening forest
---
The kingdom before it was infected with the malaise was a prosperous place.
Aided by the reforms of the harsh but just king, the people of the island rarely went hungry as they went about their daily lives.
Fish was supplied by the Fishermen in great amounts, the crystal mines in the peaks seemed never ending, quality consumer goods were brought in abroad in exchange for said crystals.
And as the kingdom was located in a prime location between the two major continents, the kingdom served as a major trading hub between the two.
And with the influx of people, goods and even more people in the harbor of the kingdom, people with dreams appeared.
Cooking, painting, sculpting, writing, recording, merchanting, fishing, people of all origins and ethnicities had dreams of their own as they franchised into different areas of expertise.
This lizardman was one of those who had a dream.
Resembling Guillian all of his features except his height, the male lizardman carried a similarly bulging bag to his fellow Lizardmen.
But instead of the many medical tools and limbs within Guillians bag, this particular lizard man traveling around the Promenade of the condemned carried around an oversized bag filled with sculpting tools.
Not that they were doing the lizard any good as he skulked about the dense trees, wearing a cloak made of leaves as anything greater wasn't worth the effort.
It wasn't as if normal undead would be able to recognize how out of place the leaf suit looked, no matter the area as the lizard had waddled about the prisoners quarters in the very same leaf suit.
Of course, that isn't to say that all of their senses had decayed as getting to close to those very same undead would get him killed.
And unless he was stupid enough to wander in front of an elite undead, one of the many that have retained a greater portion of their senses than the rest and carried great positions before being infected.
The leaf suit would suit for his uses.
The lizard man was currently wishing he invested more time in making a suit that could deceive even the elites now as an elite undead archer prowled extremely close to him.
Clutching his mouth as he hid in the leaves, the gigantic bag poked out of the leafy clothing as the lizard stared at the Elite undead shambling towards them with a purple bow.
Skulking about in the dark, the undead circled several trees, getting closer and closer to the frozen lizard man.
As if searching for something.
Feeling their heart go cold, a sudden whistle caught both of their attentions.
*THWACK
"!?"
Staring at the blazing arrow that had appeared out of nowhere another arrow struck the ground besides that undead.
Than another.
Then another
Then Another
Then another
And then another
Arrows flying like rain, flames covered their shafts as they studded the area around the Elite like the blast of a shotgun.
Immediately reacting, the Elite Undead immediately fired several arrows at a time at the source of all these flaming arrows even as more than a few were shoved into their bones.
Sticking to their clothes, the elite undead archer was set alight with flames, retaliating with several arrows.
Arrows which were deflected with a wave of fire emanating from the tip of the blade as a figure leaped off from the tree top that they were perched on.
Falling to the ground, blazing liquid fell onto the arrows, consuming them before they could reach the man as he quickly reached the undead archer.
Slamming against the earth, kicking up dust in a ring around them, they swiftly turned their body and stabbed the tip of the blazing blade into the sternum of the Elite Undead Archer.
Consuming the undead from within, the undead's hollow eyes stared at the face of the enmy it was slain by.
Green hood falling to reveal a cracked grinning skull, those hollow eyes of theirs now set alight with internal flames stared at the glowing white eyes of the hunter that had slain them in a near instant.
And as the witness of all of this, the Lizard stared at the figure of the man that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Staring blankly at the black headed figure stabbing the elite undead through the heart, the lizards eyes followed the man as he left to someplace else, having taken the bow
And even when the man had left his vision, the lizardman stood stock still amongst his pile of leaves.
It wasn't until that the lizards suit of leaves caught on fire that he belatedly reacted to stamp out the flickering flames.
And with his actions, unbeknownst to the man without a head, a flaming zeal appeared in the lizards eyes.
Making a promise to himself, in the near future, unknown to many, statues of a man with a flaming black orb for a head started to appear all over the prisoners island.
---
'Good God my feet hurt.'
+++
TREE