sounds of lightning and stars

After walking through the swamp for a while and leaving the terrain slowly changed back from a swamp to a woodland but about 10 meters ahead the ground turned Grey littered with dead or decaying leaves

the trees in the area looked sick or dead their leaves a nasty color some half gone already the back of the tree was oozing some kind of thick purple liquid

" ...eww gross " I said after poking the purple liquid with a stick that was barely holding together The consistency of the oozing was like mucus that was something I didn't expect after seeing it

" why are you touching it " lazza had a disgusted expression on her face as she looked at me crouched down like a little kid poking the mystery ooze

I stood up shrugging " curiosity I guess it just looked interesting " I grew more serious after seeing ka'zeck suddenly stop not far away from me staring deeper into the woodlands a little tense " it's close " standing up I looked were he was but I didn't see anything but dead trees and a curtain of dead leaves falling obscuring my vision a little " I don't see any- "

just then a figure slowly moved causing the leaves to crunch moving to get a good view of it I noticed the harbinger looked like a elk just much more bulky and...dead

The skin and muscles attached to its skeleton were pealing of in some places it's lower jaw was barley hanging on by a piece of tissue with a little muscle still there it was really a miracle this thing could do anything considering how messed up it body was

Suddenly the zombie elk went ridged then turned it's shaking head towards us feeling it's gaze on me I got a disturbing feelings " it's probably best to not let that thing touch us "

' but look at it isn't it cute...he just wants to be your friend ,you should give him a chance '

' yeah maybe...if I was a zombie monster too that would be a good idea sadly I'm not it would just rip my gut out and probably munch on them' there was silence for a moment until the voice spoke again ' who said that would be a bad thing ' rolling my eyes I did my best to ignore the demon's voice again

" you guys should try to keep your distance it's giving me a bad feeling " saying this I stepped forward in front of lazza and ka'zeck towards the harbinger and tapped my Gauntlets together making my armor cover my body completely

At this point the harbinger was moving towards us even though it was moving slow it seemingly covered a couple meters at a time like it was teleporting

before I knew it the harbinger was already in front of me letting out a eerie cracking noise as it's body trembled slightly staring directly into my eyes...no my soul " I should really listen to my own advice more "

But before something could happen lazza shot at the creature making stagger to the side from the impact to it's skull

Using the opening I grabbed my staff smacking as hard as I could were lazza just shot the Shockwave produced caused the curtain of leafs to momentarily clear and sent the zombie elk skidding back a few feet

' damn that thing is tough ' it felt like I had smacked the ground when I made contact with it my arms were still shaking from the strain

The elk didn't look hurt by our attacks but definitely pissed it off judging by the black ooze coming off of it and the red gleam in its eyes that were looking towards lazza a sec that the branch she was standing on suddenly decayed more breaking off the tree making her fall

A moment away from hitting the ground lazza hit the tree with her legs causing her momentum to change using this she rolled across the ground instead of slamming into it

The harbinger tried to use this as a opportunity to attack but was stopped by a wave of orange fire that slammed into it causing it to rear up

By the time lazza had recovered I was already between her and the elk " you don't like fire huh..." a twisted smile found it's way onto my face as a red crescent-moon faded into existence on my forehead " good this makes everything a lot easier "

Purple-blue flames ignited around me setting the leafs on fire and creating a ring of fire around the zombie elk with me and ka'zeck inside lazza once again went on a tree but this one was much further away

My hands started slowly glowing red until the air around them ignited in purple and blue while I was doing that ka'zeck dipped his tail blade into my fire cause it to ignite with my flames as well ' well that's new I guess it can absorb elements now

Not wanting to give the creature time to react I teleported to it's side delivering a powerful punch making it slide towards ka'zeck with a burst of flame from where i connected

Ka'zeck spun gathering momentum to cut the harbingers head off

but before the fire blade could touch it a completely black root shot out of the ground blocking it that wasn't the only one though the entire ground came alive as countless dark roots popped out of the ground some trying to attack others trying to trap us

I just intensified the heat coming off of me causing them to burn into ash before the can harm me ka'zeck on the other hand was having a much harder time Which was why the elk targeted him

opening it's already messed up mouth a pitch black ball of ooze started getting bigger however before the ball could leave it's mouth I slammed my palms together clamping it shut using gravity

The harbinger staggered forward as more black ooze found it's way out of any hole it could seeing a chance Ka'zeck rushed at the creature doing a upward slash with his flaming blade making it rear up at that moment a crack could be heard

a projectile hit the harbingers back left leg then detonated causing bone and flesh to fly everywhere

Do to suddenly missing a leg it fell on its side unable to move properly or get up it just jerked wildly try to get up before it could however ka'zeck stuck his tail blade into the ground and a second later a magic circle appeared under the harbinger as bright flames shot up torching it

As soon as the flames touched a haunting howl spread across the woodlands teleporting to his side too get this over with before something else could happen I add my flames to his increasing it's power

The howling got more intense while roots kept popping out to hit us until suddenly...

silence looking down I saw there was only a pile of ash that was all that was left of the harbinger

While ka'zeck and I were sweating and panting a invisible wave pulsed out from were the harbinger had perished the ash flew into the air and everything changed the forest didn't look as sickly as before the curtain of leafs stopped,flames put out...I could even hear a bird chirp from not far away

life was returning to the woodlands which surprised me I thought it would have taken longer but I guess that's what happens when you live in a world full of mana everything is so...magical

After a bit of resting while the woodlands slowly came back to life free from the grip of decay we made our way back to the village along the way we didn't talk much just enjoying the walk back

When we got back in the village I saw some of the villagers were looking at lazza and i differently

Finally getting to the elder I opened my mouth to tell him we did it and the harbinger was ash now but he held up his hand " there is no need to say anything we all felt the pulse honestly i didn't think you would be able to do it "

He looked towards the effigy of their goddess with happiness " it pleases me that our goddess has blessed the land to make a hasty recovery I feared the land would be scard for generations "

Seeing the elder and everyone else happy to be rid of the creatures I felt good that I was able to help them on the other hand I was still annoyed that he knowingly gave me land which I couldn't really use

Turning his gaze towards me again he smiled " since you honored your part I will honor mine you may have the land you just saved and your people may enter our lands without harm " murmurs broke out in the hut like last except this time not everyone agreed

" what is the elder thinking trusting them"

" they did kill that monster restoring balance"

" it was the will of our goddess if she is happy I am too

Shutting out their voices I bowed to the elder " thank you we will cherish the land you have spared us also I wanted to say you all are more then welcome to the town I wish to build a place for all races to be welcomed that includes your people as well "

The elder looked at me like I was crazy for a second before switching back to his normal looked " thank you for the invitation we may take you up on that offer maybe it time we stop being so isolated"

After talking for a bit i saw the sun go down so I stood up to leave " sorry it's probably time for us to leave my wife will get worried soon if I don't return "

The elder waved his hand dismissively " it's fine I understand remember you are welcome here anytime " nodding I looked around the room for ka'zeck but I saw him get pulled away by his wife probably to do...stuff and things

Shaking my head I grabbed lazza's shoulder teleporting back to town when we appeared in the castle courtyard I let go of lazza's shoulder before " thanks for today" she shook her head " anytime im just doing my job" smiling I teleported to Elise and i's room

She was already on the bed wearing nothing but her panties ' she always knows what gets me going ' while walking towards Elise stripping my clothes I thought back to ka'zeck wife making me chuckle " you two are more similar then I thought " Elise was confused by what I said

but that didn't last long after I kissed her making my way slowly down her body from her lips