Willo gave the weapons a once-over, not overly concerned that they were all where the ought to have been. More than likely, whatever had attacked the castle had done so with fierce swiftness, leaving the poor bastards with little time to arm themselves. She might have been worried that she was just as unarmed, but then she was also fairly sure none of them could run like she could. "Happy feet, happy feet..." she mumbled to herself, walking with a bounce in her step as she approached the runed wall.

"Oh boy, riddles," the note was sarcastic. Willo liked to think of herself as a clever girl, but most of her brain-power went to combat and tactics, not preparing for the eventual troll bridge. Thankfully, she'd heard one of them before.

Reaching out she snagged the tile reading "Everything" and removed it, before tossing it away. God, devil, rich, poor, these were things that quite frankly didn't matter anymore. She supposed that made it a good candidate for a riddle meant to be useful, not as good as the second one however.

"A mile from end to...precious commodity? Dead, living --rich and poor again-- and children," she said, mouthing the words over and over. She squinted at the tiles, 'Darkness' and 'Light', tracing gentle fingertips against their letters. All at once she stood up straight.

"What the shit? Who cares?"

Without ceremony, Willo snatched up both of the tiles, looking hastily between them and the riddle. At length, she tossed 'Darkness' aside and replaced 'Light'. "Stupid Bloodleaves...runes, riddles, puzzles, bet you all were a bunch of smarmy pricks--Hey Laz!" she called out suddenly. "That fix it?!"

The moment Willo removed the tile that had ‘Everything’ carved into it, the rune sent a pulse of light whizzing across the wall which left the room. It did seem to do something. The glow of the rune however persisted.

“The barrier persists.” Lazarus responded, his voice barely audible through the long hall as he didn’t even bother to raise his voice.

Silence, and more slience, followed by a sudden high pitched screech resonating through the entire castle. It sounded other-worldly, in-human, unlike any other being or plagued creature alike. Something had obviously been disturbed . . . or released. The shriek came from the door to which the blood trail lead. That something was now likely on its way and Willo was now obviously under a time constraint to either try and solve the puzzle still, or prepare for whatever came next.

---

In Kiruth Jonathan was just arriving at the scene of commotion after passing through a mostly deserted town, which was not surprising, really, due to his arrival being long after dusk.

It was no surprise that there would be a crowd just outside what seemed to be a pub. However the congregation had other reasons for being there. The road between the pub and the opposite building was scarred with gashes, obviously due to recent combat.

“Please remain calm and maintain your distance. This does not concern you.” A voice said.

The words clearly had no effect on the mob, instead bringing about even more backlash, people demanding answers.

As he was sat on top of his trusty mount, Jonathan could easily see over the mass of people. At the center two fully fledged hunters.

The younger of them, possibly recent graduate, was preoccupied with keeping the large crowd at bay, his attempts mostly ending in failure. The fact that he didn’t look quite as formal as most graduate hunters do, didn’t help. Green spiked hair, so long in fact, that it just had to be held up by some form of Vitae spell or Exicus rune, in addition to oversized pants and a mere open jacket with nothing else underneath. Not quite the hunter role model indeed.

All the while the other one, was inspecting two bodies. He, on the other hand, looked like a seasoned hunter. Long dark hair bound in one long braid, a barely visible stubble and coat that made his protective equipment a matter of guesswork. Just as he stood up and glanced at the crowd Jonathan could finally see his face as well. Definitely a seasoned hunter, if the scarring over his velvet eye was any indication.

Both bodies laid in large pools of blood, one scene more gruesome than the other, with one of the bodies having glistening white spikes protruding from its chest. Ice maybe? It wasn’t a pretty sight.

The seasoned hunter went over and inspected the second body which had a deep gash in its neck, possibly made by a sizeable axe.

“Please, remain calm.” The young tried again as the crowd continued with their gripe.

---

Not too far from Coalstrike at the sawmill, the four tried to make heads or tails of what was going on. With both Sapphire and Imgor debilitated, the situation had the potential of going sour really fast.

Imgors familiar dug his way underneath the Wyvern and popped back up on the other side of the sawmill. Right on cue the ground underneath the Wyvern collapsed along with a portion of the sawmill itself. Sounds of movement came from the whole as the creature was now clearly awake. However the sound of scuffle turned into yelps of what seemed like pain from the creature.

Moments later the group of four was enveloped in literal wall of darkness, together with a large portion of the forest. It looked like dome of perfect blackness which interestingly let the light of the sun pass through it but nothing else.

“Of course it had to be one of the more elaborate traps.” Joshua affirmed before continuing “Don’t touch the darkness!” he finished redundantly as the dangers of touching whatever the barrier was made of was pretty much common sense.

Alexander whirled at the barrier that enclosed them searching for a way out but they were fully encircled. At least they could see. Larion let out a vicious snarl at the black stuff but Alexander hushed him and stood still, eyes searching for any sign of danger. The wyvern had been seemingly trapped and was fighting something. "Any advice or do we sit here and hope for the best?" Alexander asked somewhat rhetorically, technically they weren't in any danger yet but being trapped was generally the precursor to something dangerous. He wondered what the barrier stopped, just organics? One way? Not enough information on anything. Ugh.

Imgor was on the ground, too weak to get up. This was the second time this day, which was definetly one of his worse days. He hopefully still was able to do significant damage to the wyvern, or at least prevent it from fighting back at all.
However, he still wasn't done yet, even though he had next to no magic reserves, and was weakened from a sudden drain of magic; his crossbow was loaded and cocked, and when applied to a very very small radius for an instant, he would still be able to cast his tracking spell using the shred of magic he regenerated since the sudden drain, but even then, the radius would be too small to reach the barrier from his current position.
Imgor recalled the rune, that increased the range of vitae spells, if he wanted to use his tracking spell to find out anything about the barrier, he needed it to increase the range sufficiently to even reach the barrier. He envisioned how it would look like when adjusted to he fairly low range from his location to the barrier, and he started drawing it onto the ground with his fingers, in the end, the rune would be roughly hand-sized.

At the same time, his familiar started returning to the ground below Imgor, initially to provide shelter for him should the need arise. He asked his familiar to draw a larger version of the rune under the ground around him, not made up of tunnels, but carved into the tunnel's and cave's floors or ceilings.
After half a minute of drawing, the familiar's rune was finished, and subsequently, Imgor cast his tracking spell, with the intent of finding the weakest spot in the barrier, that has an effect on nearby parts of the barrier; in essence a fault, that would cause it to at least partially collapse, if said fault was damaged sufficiently. He hoped he would not pass out from using up all his magic for the 3rd time this day.

Interestingly enough his spell did not point out any particular point in the barrier itself, rather it seemed the wyvern itself was the weakness of the barrier. At least that's what Imgor managed to glimpse before his spell failed again due to low mana reserves.

A slight confusion set in in Imgor's mind, caused by a mix of the extremely low mana, the weakened body due to sudden mana drain after extremely low mana, and this revelation, so Imgor just stares at the pile of rubble, that trapped the wyvern.

Jonathan sighed, of course it had to be something as complicated as a murder. He briefly contemplated moving on without getting involved, but of course, that would go against his honor. If he had sworn to protect the thankless masses from evil. Be it the fell influence of monsters or the savagery of their fellow man. He leaned slightly forward, which was all linda needed to gently push through the crowd.

“Greetings gentlemen, To you speaks Jonathan of Gulderland... Noble and all that... but let us skip to the important part... I saw this crowd gathering, and my honor compels me to offer my assistance in this predicament here.” He remained mounted on his horse. “So... could you find use of my assistance?”

”Okay okay, one down…I think?” she mumbled, then went to retrieve the discarded ‘Darkness’ tile. No sooner did she lift it however was there an ungodly roar from unnervingly not too far away, and Willo didn’t realize until a moment later that she’d shrieked in surprise with it.

Hastily she scrambled to replace the ‘Light’ tile with ‘Darkness’, but didn’t wait around to see what the effect would be. Instead she made for the rack of weapons, looking from one to the next with increasing dread. Swords she couldn't cut with, maces she couldn’t wield with any degree of skill, and glaives that, while likely her best bet, would still struggle to do any real work with her lack of strength. Still, she grabbed it and the bladed crossbow, even if she had no experience with archery, and there was no way she’d be able to reload the thing, one shot could buy her a few more moments she wouldn’t have otherwise.

Weapons in hand, she made her way back out into the hall to await either the barrier falling, or the arrival of…whatever was coming.

“You’ve got your new weapons. And we obviously need to take it down. I suggest you start your training with them.” Joshua responded to Alex while he approached a collapsed Imgor.

Imgor kept staring at where the wyvern had collapsed into the ground just as a claw clasped the edge of the hole. The claw was covered in black sludge like liquid with a similarly black vapor emanating from it. Soon the entire creature pulled itself out.

“That’s impossible! The plague does not progress so quickly!” Joshua blurted out.

The creature had lost large portions of its wings. It had become black and its flesh looked like it melted away for the most part, while the bones that used to form the rib-cage of the creature were now protruding upwards through its back in an unnatural fashion.

At the same time a distinct scythe made a thud as it hit ground and right after, Sapphire followed suit as she fell to her knees letting out a yelp not of fear but of pain as she clutched her abdomen. Dark markings began spreading over her entire body, which came to the attention of the others present as they reached her neck and then covered half her face.

Her yelp obviously did not go unnoticed, and before anyone could even react, the now plagued creature lunged at her. A black mist formed around Sapphire which converged into an arced solid structure that now sat between her and the lunging beast.

The plagued wyvern pummeled into it, breaking it apart and knocking Sapphire out in the process, however not before spikes of similar material to the wall that formed from the black mist shot up through the ground and impaled the wyvern.

A howl resounded through the forest, the creature clearly still alive yet immobilized for the time being, struggling to come free.

---

The fact that Jonathan, unlike the rest of the people who gathered around, rode to the scene attracted the attention of the veteran hunter among the two. The younger one was just about to take action against Jonathan as he focused his on him instead of the crowd and approached him with furious steps, obviously not pleased with him striding in without a care in the world.

“Hey, you th-“, Before he could continue the older one stepped next to the young one and raised his hand in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. This incited the crowed even more, furiously protesting at the fact that he was allowed to approach.

The younger one gave Jonathan a rather sour look, however he seemed rather obedient to the veteran as he went back to his attempts at calming the near-revolt.

“Yes, I've heard of the House of Gulderland. Regardless of your nobility however, unless you're a hunter, I can’t allow you to step any closer.” The other one spoke.

---

The door creaked open and Willo stepped out of the room and back into the main hall. The door to which the blood trail led was open. It was previously closed. That spelled trouble.

“Willo!” Lazarus yelled from behind the barrier yet still somehow maintaining a stern voice. Just after he yelled her name a black gooey liquid dripped onto her shoulder.

Just above her, suspended over the door-frame, an entity observed her. The being vaguely resembled the shape of a human, yet it was clearly anything but. Bones were sticking out of its limbs, its flesh was dark green in its appearance as if partly decomposed, with a black bile seeping out through cuts and openings in the skin. Its head was nearly featureless with a mere pair of perfectly black eyes and what Willo identified as its arms and feet ended in sharp bony claws.

Usually the plague affects every living thing it infects differently. Some might even be confused with normal animals if the plague progresses slowly enough. However, there were tell-tale signs of infection such as greenish or black secretions and blackened eyes.

Lazarus had taught Willo and her team how to recognize these signs of infection. It obviously didn’t take long for Willo to deduce what she was facing in this case.

Despite it not appearing to have much strength in its atrophied limbs, it pounced with considerable speed at Willo.

Well two down, two left. If you counted Joshua who seemed surprised but also to have no intent of helping. One then. A wyvern was hard enough to kill on its own, much less when it was plagued. Still it was trapped for the moment, by whatever the hell was going on with Sapphire, which gave Alexander what was most likely a once in a fight chance. He'd already begun moving towards the creature when it had burst out of the ruined building towards Sapphire. Going for the most direct route of attack Alexander was next to the creature's head in a flash and his weapon was plunged into the creature's eye. Without a moment to recover Larion leapt on the monster's neck, securing himself with all of his legs and gripped in his jaws, shaking it savagely. To compile upon it Alexander activated his weapon and the blade burst into metal shards that blasted into the creature's skull. It was dead. Hopefully. Or else he had a feeling those foul looking claws would find a new sheath in his body.

"Unless you are a hunter"... Apparently Jonathans name had preceded him before his reputation. “You seem to be mistaken as to my intent my good man.” He took something hanging off the back of his saddle, it looked like a coil of razor wire at first glance, but it had the unmistakable sheen of star-metal. “You see, I do not approach you as a passer-by, or some useless noble who watches idly as the land and the people are scoured by the blight.” He flicked the coil, and it unwrapped to its full length, a glistening snaking whip soared through the sky, and with another flick of jonathans wrist, it retracted in length, each segment clicking together into a massive shaft. “I approach you as a fellow hunter...” Jonathan proudly held his lance pointed skyward. “So... Do you still wish to simply dismiss me as some incompetent?” He asked the question while staring directly at the veteran hunter, as if challenging him to say yes.

"Ew--aw gross what..."

Willo looked up and froze, eyes going wide at the sight of the infected beast above her. It wasn't the first she'd seen, nor was it by any stretch the most gruesome, but that didn't make its malformed body any less disturbing. For the moment it seemed to be as interested in her as she was it, and very carefully, she affirmed her grip on the crossbow.

"Alright big guy..." she whispered. "Let's play."

It moved first, lunging before Willo could take aim, and so she leapt back defensively. With a slight space created between them, she blindly fired the crossbow at it before discarding the unwieldy weapon in favor of the glaive she'd taken from the rack. Whether the bolt connected or not she hardly paid attention to, she didn't expect one hit to fell this monstrosity, but any advantage she could get, she'd take, because god knew she'd need it.

Bits of bone and other dark fleshy parts were strewn across the ground opposite of Alex as the wyvern’s head came apart. It took a moment for the creature to slump to the ground, limbs still twitching. However, all was not well. While Larion helped with the immobilization of the plagued being by leaping on its back, some of the the bones that used to form the wyverns rib-cage had impaled Alex’s familiar. The puncture wounds weren't too deep and did not seem life threatening, but leaving them untreated for too long would no doubt be unwise.

On the brighter side however, the dome that was trapping them was dissipating slowly.
Meanwhile, Joshua was in the process of helping Imgor up. His eyes widened when he looked to the side to where Sapphire had been laying after being knocked out.

A man stood not too far from the creature with an unconscious Sapphire in his arms. His face was obscured by a plain white mask with only two gaps for the eyes.

The man stared at Alexander first then at Joshua and Imgor before bolting off into the woods.

Joshua in turn made sure Imgor could stand on his own and ran off after him.

“Get to Kiruth! Find Lazarus!” He shouted back at the two.

---

The veteran folded his arms to his chest and huffed.

“Then I assume you would have the appropriate documents on you?”

It seemed this one would not let himself be impressed by some flashy weaponry or pose. And Jonathan knew for a fact he could not show him any of the mentioned documents as he was still a hunter in training.

“However, no ordinary citizen is likely to have such a tool in his possession.” He then smiled. A slightly mocking smile too.

“Let me guess. You are a mere fledging. Who’s your mentor?”

As they conversed two more individuals showed up and were allowed onto the scene of the apparent murder. The two were most likely there to dispose of the bodies once the other two completed their investigation.

---

The bolt struck the back of Willos assailant. Willo couldn’t really make out whether the front limbs were arms or legs, since they bent so unnaturally, but regardless the thing used them to redirect the momentum horizontally, continuing its charge towards her, completely unfazed by the bolt stuck in its back.

It approached with ample speed, further connoted by the deep marks it left in the marble floor where it landed. It left Willo with little to time perform a conventional dodge.

Alexander did a brief sweep for more dangers as the wyvern collapsed, wiping the small smattering of gore that had landed on him off his face as best he could. Then he froze when he saw the man holding Sapphire- in an instant his crossbow was in his hand ready to fire, but even faster than him the man had vanished into the woods. Alexander cursed as Joshua left them- again -to chase after the masked man. What was the deal with the darkness that Sapphire had let out and that white masked man? One thing after another wasn't it? Sighing Alexander took out a small metal box and stretched out some gauze, wrapping it around the worst of his familiar's injuries. Alexander quietly whispered his encouragement to the injured lizard and it growled back, oddly pleased with itself. Hopefully the blight hadn't managed to spread, Alexander didn't want to think about what would happen if it had. Alexander gave a hopeful whistle and Imgor's horse as well Alexander's own came trotting back, throwing their heads and neighing nervously. Well that was lucky at least, it wasn't unusual for horses to be trained to respond to whistles. Alexander cut of one of the wyvern's talon's and stuffed it into his bag, it couldn't hurt to take trophy, if nothing else it was proof they'd done the deed. He made sure Imgor could get on his own horse first before jumping onto his own. There was no point in following Joshua, if the masked man could beat or escape from him there was nothing Alexander could do about it, regardless of how much he wanted her back. With a small kick of his feet his horse began travelling down the road towards Kiruth again, Larion following eagerly. Just another day.

Weakened, Imgor knew he had no chance at pursuit now, so he got up with Joshua's help, and trotted to his horse.
Once he recovered he should be able to try to use his tracking spell to find either Joshua or Sapphire, with a bit of luck, and a good guess as to where Sapphire might have been taken, if he only knew something about the abductor.
On the ride, while recovering most of his physical strength, Imgor wondered whether or not they had to set up camp for the night, or if they would be able to reach a town or even their destination before.
Only some time into the ride he recalled what had happened to the wyvern: apparently the plague had spread faster, than even Joshua thought possible, although Sapphire's 'ability' may have been the cause of that, if speeding up the plague like that is even possible. That is also likely the reason why she was abducted, which means, whereever she is taken, the plague will likely have something to do with it.
Once he had recovered sufficient mana, Imgor planned to check for the density of the plague, kind of like a map. If his assertion is correct, Sapphire will be taken to either a high concentration of the plague, or a low concentration of it.

And so Willo did not dodge conventionally. As the beast closed the distance between them, her eyes faded in color, and rather than side-step or yield backward ground, she lunged forward in a black misty haze. She passed through and by it in vapors, reforming the split hairs of the moment the attack was avoided.

"This way~!"

Her foot pressed against its back, and she jumped again, torquing her body parallel to the ground and whipping the glaive up at it with as much force as she could muster. Without the aid of a super-heated blade however, she didn't expect much of an effect, and in the worst case the thing would stick to the beast, and be lost to her. But she didn't think about that, she had few options and if she spent the whole time debating them the damned beast would devour her.

First Nickolaus, now Sapphire. The group members dwindling to half within a week. It did not bode well for the foreseeable future, considering the recent events. Things seemed to be in play that even informed individuals like Joshua were unaware of.

As dusk was setting, with the sun just barely visible on the horizon, Alex and Imgor were two thirds of the way to Kiruth, having made good time with the horses they acquired not too long ago. They might have made it to the town by now, however Larion was having difficulties maintaining the pace. It wasn’t clear yet if those were signs of the plague or simply fatigue due to the injuries sustained, however he was definitely not in top condition.

Imgor tried to find Joshua or Sapphire using his spell along the way, with little success unfortunately. Another attempt to locate hot-spots of plague infection was inconclusive as well, with a lack of any remarkable high or low density plague zones. The fact that he did such a broad search also limited his range considerably.

Provided they decided not to camp out for the night, they would likely arrive in Kiruth just after midnight, not too long after one other horseman with similar goals. A comparable view would await them, namely that of an unexplained crowd at the center of the town.

---

In Castle Bloodleaves the struggle of another one continued.

Willo was indeed fast, and her Flitter aided that even further. This creature however, was beyond human. By the time she flung her body around in order to strike the beasts back, it was already facing her. The glaive cut deep into what used to be a hand of sorts and Willos fears became reality. The glaive did not really stick to the creature. Instead it grabbed the glaive. It then spun it around in a semicircle in a mindless attempt to get it out of the way. This flung Willo into the wall behind it.

A metallic clink dwarfed the thud Willos body made against the wall, as the glaive lodged itself into the wall not too far from her head.
Willo collapsed to the ground dazed, the room seemingly spinning around her, after the hard impact with the wall.

"Willo!" Lazarus said her name again to try and get her to focus. She could barely hear it, obscured by a ringing in her ears. "Use the barrier!" He then added.

Within moments the creature was once more right in front of her, stood on its hind limbs and preparing to hack at her with the same arm she wounded with the glaive, greenish liquid dripping onto the marble below.

The older hunter was right on point with his comments. It would appear simple posturing did not fool the man. “Yes... yes you are right...” Jonathan gritted his teeth as he glanced at the crowd around him. The nerve this hunter had to just denounce him like that... But then again, he was also right. “I don't really know what happened to my old master, guess such is a risk of the job... But I was on my way to castle bloodleaves right now to meet with another one. Seeing as I was ahead on my travel schedulde I decided I could afford to get waylaid and so here I am.”

He took a breath after this explenation. Long-winded breathless monologues were still a skill he had retained from more comfortable times. He folded his lance back up without much show. Showing the thing off had failed anyway. “So... From your insistence to have me out of the way I gather you can't really find use for me. I guess I'll be on my way then.” He spurred linda to walk back into the crowd, carefully, as to not accidentally trample on a hapless townsman.

The seasond hunter narrowed his eyes when Jonathan mentioned his destination.

"That fool.” The veteran muttered. Unless he was that kind of person, it didn't seem like he was talking about Jonathan, as he was still there and could obviously overhear what he was saying.

“Take them away.” He ordered the men who showed up, apparently having seen enough. And not long after the two began disposing of the bodies.

Sighing, he turned towards the soon-to-become hunter before he had the chance to leave.
“If you meet a hunter other than your mentor at Castle Bloodleaves, either don’t get on his bad side or stay away from him altogether.”

“You think it’s him?” The younger hunter asked the other one, getting once again distracted from his task at hand.

“Who else uses his enemies’ weapons against them in such a brutal manner? Thank the gods it was petty bounty hunters this time.” He got as a response, followed by another sigh.

With the two focused on their conversation, it didn’t take long for the situation to spiral out of control, the crowed now slowly becoming aggressive.

Out in the distance, echoing from the direction of the imposing castle, a screech suddenly silenced the entirety of the crowed, leaving even the two hunters present staring in the direction from which the horrid sound came, with a rather startled expression on their faces. However the old-timers expression changed to one of annoyance.

“What’s he done now?” He asked himself, his voice failing to conceal his anger.
Before bolting off towards the castle he ordered his fellow hunter to stay here with the crowd.

Willo went most of her life ignoring the downsides to her physique, mostly because she was smart enough to avoid dealing with them. More often than not the only drawback to being as quick as was, was the lack of 'oomph' she packed. However there were rare times, times like these, where the frailty of her body became suddenly and painfully evident.

Her whole form shivered as though the room had dropped twenty-degrees, which given how wildly it spun in her eyes, very well could have been the case. A hand searched around blindly until it found rest against the wall and she leaned on it, trying to shake the ringing from her ears. The moments felt stretched, and in the back of her mind a tiny voice screamed she was wasting the last few she'd have in the world. Eventually she listened just in time to hear Lazarus call her attention to the barrier.

"Ugh..." she groaned, turning to see the beast had lost no steam and was already preparing another attack. "Oh fuck me."

When the swipe came she evaporated once again, passing by harmlessly, though when she reformed it was with a heavy stumble that betrayed how effected she was. Still, Willo persisted, dashing to the barrier's face, then whirling around to meet the beast she assumed would still be following her. If the expected attack came, she'd Flitter out of the way once again, and hope the thing's momentum would carry it forward into the trap.

Alexander looked around the town with blurry eyes, pushing through the night had been primary his decision, he hadn't wanted to risk spending a night camping with there current condition. Plus he wanted to get Larion help as soon as possible. His faithful companion trekked on stalwartly but faltered every now and then. Alexander had expected the town to be somewhat quiet as they tended to be towards midnight but for some reason a crowd had gathered in a vaguely centralized location.

Somewhat curious in spite of his exhaustion Alexander grabbed the nearest person he could find, "What's going on here, something happen?" Well in hindsight the question was slightly stupid as obviously something happened or these people would be in their beds. He was tired gosh dang it. "And where's the inn from here?" He'd never been here and he didn't find the idea of wandering around at midnight searching for it to be particularly appealing.

Jonathan simply listened to what the elder hunter had to say. From his relative disinterest it seemed he wasn't really needed. Before he could leave though, the man uttered a rather vague warning to him. “I... will take the advice to heart. I'll leave you to your devices... I think the crowd is getting restless though, I'd do something about...”

His words were interrupted by a most inhuman screech. The nobleman turned his head to the source of the infernal sound and realized it came from bloodleaves. He saw the elder hunter mutter curses and immediately dart off to meet whatever made the sound. Jonathan spurred linda on after the man, swiftly catching up to him and riding besides him. He extended an arm to the man. “May I offer a lift? It seems you're in a hurry.”