The king listened as the man told a story. It seemed a bit exaggerated, even considering the nature of the event, but he thanked the man anyways and sent him off with a decent sized bag of gold. He couldn't care less anymore. The kingdom had more issues to take care of; but the next morning he had his men post yet another manhunt about the kingdom for the demon that had committed the massacre.

A knife hit Karasuma, and pain that she hasn't felt in a long time coursed through her body. She immediately, took off the necklace that the nice stranger gave her, and returned back to her more ghostly self. Though the pain was still there, it was a lot more manageable. Her appearance was now more bloodied and she was angry. After she felt her body recover, due to being a ghost and such, she put the necklace back on , and held on tightly to the knife. She tried to look for where it came from, ready to get it.

Diego almost skipped out of the castle. Holy cow! That was a lot of gold! Suddenly, another one of Diego's plans formed in his head. He ran to the stable.

He walked over and spotted the stable boy, a young, gullible lad. Diego broke into a sprint. "Boy! Listen! There has been a massacre! I need a horse to alert the king! He must know as soon as possible!" He then gave the boy a few additional details, just to prove the massacre had really happened.

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Bakka was glad the knife had hit, Zane would be pleased. Bakka knew if Zane had to pick his one hundred favorite experiments, he would be one of them (quite the honor considering Zane had created so many different beings). He now sent part of himself after the trio. Enough bees to blot out the sun. He scratched his leg. The bees did make him itchy. It was nice to have so many leave. He approached the enemy and produced a short sword produced out of a strange wood that was as strong as metal. Then the bees and the hive approached the enemy.

Artholath wondered if he should intervene. Perhaps the best way to get what he was looking for... was to gain their trust first. Chances were none of them would have even seen a full-blood demon before, let alone him in particular. Besides, if things went foul, he could take care of himself. If he could escape the greatest hunters of the young days, this group wouldn't be too serious a threat even to his human form.

He made his decision, his eye catching on a strange beehive hybrid that was attacking the trio. What better way to gain their trust than to fight alongside them, posing as a wandering mage?

He gathered his energies and expelled a large blue ball towards the biggest cluster of attacking bugs. Solid impact would result in it exploding and likely killing many of the bugs on the spot, let alone freezing many others in place and slowing down another dozen. Right after he fired, he drew his sickle.

---

The stable boy almost wet himself at the thought of a massacre. "Y-yes! Of course! Take this one, he's the fastest!" pointing at one of the king's horses.

Feon held onto her scalpels while trying to back away from the bees. It wasn't until she saw the bolt take them down that she noticed someone else had come into the blow. "Good idea." Feon said remembering that she had more than just scalpels to attack with as her bolts started to spark even more now. The electricity from her bolts moved to each of her six hands before she released beams of electricity at several of the alligator men and reverse mermaids. Feon then tried to lunge at the beehive monster only to get hit to the side by a tiger that had the head of a Rhino.

Vernika looked at the man with a glare. "You really think you could take me huh?" She asked as her fingers became blades. She didn't mean to attack but rather intimidate. "Oh and if you could find some gnomes or something while your out that would be awesome, I really need to eat something soon." Vernika added. Vernika may have been created from scratch but she wasn't perfect, she needed flesh to keep her self sustained, though she seemed to prefer gnomes as of late.

"I'll be your house wife when you stop kissing ass." Zeke said knowing he was being harsh but verbal abuse is better then physically ripping Vernika's eyes out. He exited the cottage and stood by the entrance. Standing there was surely gonna be boring so he decided to leave when no one arrives in the following minutes. As he waitied he began to plot his next kiddnaping.

Diego hopped on the horse, far from surprised that he had easily fooled the stable boy. He even started to gallop towards the castle, only to change his route and leave the place where he had grown up. As luck would have it, he was going directly towards the well, which was on the route to the large city where he planned to go to. He couldn't wait to get out of this place! Things were getting crazy here, and change back to the way things were seemed to be a distant possibility.
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Dozens of the bees perished after being hit by the blue blast, and more slowed. But it was almost insignificant. Seconds later, they formed five massive groups. One group attacked Karasuma and one stayed back to defend Bakka. The other three, somewhat smaller groups targeted each of the different enemies, Feon, Artholath, and the mafia boss. Bakka scratched himself vigorously as he pulled a sturdy wooden sword from his hilt and approached Karasuma. She had to be the queen, the hive. Something was leading. Always was. That was how things worked for Bakka. Always a leader, always followers, and he was a leader, and the bees were his followers. The hive mind.

Artholath's blast was high powered, yes, and effective; yet his opponent had too many minions to slay. This would require advanced measures to succeed, including a shift to his demon form, which would defeat the purpose of his helping. Still, he didn't like to be hunted and he was one to cover his bases. Afterwards, he would retreat to a hidden location, shift, and present himself as a mage... yes, that could work.

With this plan in mind, he retreated behind a thicker grove of trees, which faced the direction of the cottage. There could be a chance he would be seen by anyone leaving it; but those in the cottage were at this point on his side.

He shifted for the first time in 200 years; body fat still covered the emerging bony arms. The temperature in the forest seemed to drop several degrees as his true form emerged, standing at 9 feet tall and his spiky appendages twitching for the coming fight. He hissed and turned around the grove of trees, going into the attacking swarm with an aura of bitter cold and using every arm to slice into the swarm. He used the cover to slowly advance towards the hive-being. Stings would normally be of no consequence, but these did slowly sap at his energy. He would have to move quicker if he was to kill the boss...

Ixi looked to the side as the bolt was fired. She immediately returned to fighting however, not wanting to lose at the most valuable moment. Ixi was doing good, though. Her swift and light fighting style suited her. Zipping around, dodging left and right. Her years of training were really paying off.

Io looked to the side, eyeing the strange woman in the cage next to her. She looked cool, with a tiger as her bottom half. But she also looked sad. Io wanted to help her get out. Sure, he had his sword. But he wasn't really sure how to use it to escape. The bars might be too strong to cut. His sword might not have much use. He wouldn't be able to tell.

Karasuma wasn't used to fighting and she didn't really get why that monster was out to get her, considering she couldn't really do any collateral damage. She saw Bakka approach her and steadied the hand that was holding the knife he threw at her. "Were you the one that hit me?" she asked, in an angry tone she didn't even know she had. "I hope you know you can't kill what is already dead." She began to charge at him with the knife, lacking skill but making it up with ferocity.

Feon started to get up from the hit to her side. The tiger Rhino came at her again but this time Feon was able to roll out of the way before lunging at it as it went by her. She was able to cut the stitching making the head come loose. Feon then turned her attention to the bee hive monster. The monsters were starting to thin out now as more of them were taken down.

Lance still had his back turned and soon enough he left the room entirely to look for some sort of equipment. Near low the keys to his cage could be seen just out of his reach, but he could reach it if he used his sword to get it. The Tiger girl was still silent and didn't say anything. This girl just seemed like she wanted to get out and leave, though in truth there was something a bit more sinister at play.

Bakka dove out of the way and rose his wooden sword to hit Karasuma. "PERISH! WE KNOW YOU ARE THE HIVE!" Bakka's voice sounded like a hum. Suddenly, all of Bakka's plans to kill the hive failed, as everything came crashing down. Literally.
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Diego was on top of the world! He was finally getting out of this city! He was so excited, he didn't even recognize the kidnapper he had spotted earlier as he rode past him. He was just so excited and happy. He began to softly hum a song to himself, when suddenly he was pitched from his horse.

The next thing he knew, Diego was plummeting down the well, only to land and slam onto the hard ground. He heard an ominous crack as four of his ribs splintered and seconds later, he passed out.
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Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the horse as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the horse had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now. The horse landed right on top of Bakka, crushing him. The bees suddenly stopped what they were doing. Many drifted around lackadaisically. Several flew out of the cave. A few moved towards the remains of Bakka, and just stood on top of the heap of broken hive.

I'm sorry to say that the horse did not make it.

Karasuma raised one of her eyebrows curiously. "Okay, I guess, that's that then..." she said, somewhat relieved yet confused by the sudden end of her opponent. She was so ready to get him too, okay, not really. She looked over to see that Feon and Ixi were holding their grounds. She also noticed a man who was knocked out unconscious. "Was he the horse rider...?" she thought to herself as she approached him, unsure of what to do.

Delta and Theta walked down the street, with Theta staying close behind. To any passersby, they would've just looked like pinpricks of green and purple light. They saw an odd spectacle, but from what they could tell someone and their horse had fallen into the well. "Survival probability for the fall would be 67%, with injuries. Theta, I think we've found an owner for you." Said Delta. "Okay, I guess..." Said Theta nervously. "Wait, what do you mean, me? Aren't you coming too, Delta?" "I'll be staying just long enough to make sure you do okay. You do know we aren't supposed to assist the same being, right?" Theta looked at the ground for a moment, then down the well. "I think he's alive!" He reappeared next to Diego, taking on a purple version of his form, and Delta followed suit in green. "Hey mister, wake up!"

Diego coughed up blood. He must be dreaming. Voices... ugh... either that or he had hit his head during the fall. Or he was dead... unfortunately, poor Diego had just lost too much blood to come to right now. He would probably be out for a solid hour. He had broken the ribs, dislocated his shoulder, and fractured a bone or two in his left foot. He heard someone say, "hey mister, wake up!" but it sounded like he was underwater...

It was the damndest thing - here he was, a demon of a thousand years, trying to get to a beehive monster, and a horse fell on it and killed the thing and its minions instantly. Of course, that meant his cover fell, too.

He quickly retreated into the trees, shifted to a human form while conjuring up some robes to make himself presentable, and after a minute walked back out to greet the group.

Ixi landed gracefully, looking at the figure that emerged. She sheathed her katana and made the smaller sword vanish. Thankfully the fighting was over.

Io noticed the keys. He slowly slid the sword back through the bars, and began to drag the keys back. He grabbed them, putting his sword down in the floor of his cage. He slid his slender arm through the bars, and began to unlock his neighbor's cage.

At this point all of the monsters had finally perished. "It's over." Feon stated as she started to walk towards Ixi. "Thank you Ixi." Feon said as she started to sew up whatever injuries she had. The Rhino tiger had left white a nasty wound on her but due to her already being dead she didn't have any blood to bleed.

The tiger girl looked up as her cage was unlocked. She stood up and exited the cage waiting for Lo to get out as well. Lance at this point had finally noticed what was going on, however he decided he would try to let Delios handle it as he was upstairs in the cottage. Though in truth Lance it wouldn't be Delios to be the first to attack. The Tiger girl still hadn't opened her mouth.

The forest path wound its way between the trees in a way which left Mayumi wondering if the locals actually wanted people visiting their town at all. She was getting close though, catching glimpses of smoke rising from the chimneys in the little hamlet as she trudged her way towards them, only to find the path bending round, almost leading her in the totally opposite direction again a moment later.

She'd been told her tribe's village had been deliberately hidden away from the prying eyes of outsiders, and that this was for the protection of them all, but with disturbing rumours being whispered by the few traders they did have contact with the Elders could no longer sit by and wait for trouble to find them. Mayumi had been dispatched to confirm the tales, to find the beasts which were roaming the land and end them before they became a threat her small village couldn't stand against.

With a weary sigh Mayumi rubbed at her wrist, the Devil Heart Stone rooted there aching after her long journey. With all the natural life around her the jewel had been gorging itself with spiritual power and soon would need to be released. Glancing off the path Mayumi spotted a small clearing with a spring running through it and with a smile turned off to set up a camp for the night. Once the fire pit was lit and her bedroll prepared she carefully knelt facing the setting sun and raised her arm above her head and began to loose her arrows into the air, fulfilling her ceremonial duties as she had been trained.

Karasuma wasn't sure what to do with the man who definitely looked like he was dying on the ground. "Feon! Ixi!" she called out. "Do you think we should help him out? I'm not really sure what happened though... or if he's a good person or not.... but.. maybe we should?"