Mmorpg: Unity

The whole forest had a solemn ambiance the air thick with an oppressive mana, all the animals and monsters around Shaka stood dead still even the insects, the Imp in particular still had not moved since the moment Shaka launched his attack. A beast of a man had pounced past the Imp in a blur leaving a deep imprint in the grass. The Imp still holding its breath as it looked at a figure being pinned down by its neck, fearing that if it made the slightest move its life would be over.

The feet of the woman kicking as she struggled for air, Shaka had in instant covered a distance of about fifteen meters in less than a second and with minimal effort on his part. As the Imp took a step back in an attempt to distance itself from the danger its head rolled of its shoulders, as a fountain of blood shot out of the poor Imps body.

The woman kicked more violently breaking a few of the fins on her feet, Shaka's grip clasped onto her neck like a viper bite, he knew what he was doing his whole body radiated a venomous killing intent. Shaka looked her in the eyes, his eyes full of cascading rage and a deep pit of unreconciled sadness. The woman scratching at Shaka's arms with her sharp almost claw like nails. Her face contorting into a confused appearance and the light slowly fading from her eyes, Shaka snapped back just before she passed out and let go allowing her to catch her breath "Why are you following me?"

[Where - a voice in the shadows]

She was coughing as she fought to catch every breath as soon as Shaka loosened his grip. She had crawled a few feet away from him, her eyes scouting for an escape route. Her gills moving as she stretched them, pulling every bit of air they could muster. The natural blue returning to her scaly skin that covered every inch of her visible body. She was wearing Mist Gear suit, a magical armor that is always wet. An unknown blacksmith said "That Mist Gear, has the look of fluidic glass, with a shine similar to transparent Divinium." [transparent aluminum]

The intricately woven Squid Silk contrasted the blue of the pressure forged Mist Gear, with its vibrant pearl color. The suit covered most of her body from her knees up to her neck and elbows. Her gaze finally caught that of the fearful Shaka, her voice escaped her throat as was scared silent.

Shaka said again "Why are you following me?, If you don't speak I will have to return your soul to the depths of the Dark Sea."

[Shaka knew the legend of the Merfolk land of the dead as AA had been looking for it]

She swallowed while taking deeps breath her eyes still attached to his gaze. She spoke " You smell like a Queen Siren, Naga born, I thought it was weird, perhaps *cough* i could ask you where she is?"

His mind quickly raced, his thought immediately went to the Siren that broke out of the orb he thinks to himself "Should i tell her that she was killed by Stevens, No what if she doesn't believe me or even blames me and brings people to chase me, She might not be alone, {his eyes darted about looking for any insignia of clan markings} It doesn't make sense, none any of the other Naga in the procession reacted this, or are they all plotting something? Is she with them? Or someone else she could be with a powerful who is a guest of the Kings, Shit i cant kill her."

[Shaka is still deeply rattled by the experience in the orb, it would be fair to say he still not in his right mind]

He was deep in thought, he was considering every possibility everyone a possible enemy the amount of information coursing through his mind ever expanding, soon after a few seconds passed he spoke "You are mistaken, I have not seen a queen however I have had a run in with some Siren trinkets, you have your answer if I catch you following me again I will not let your live."

She nodded as she hid behind a tree, to terrified to move away her body had failed her when she tried to stand. Shaka moves deeper into the hill, he pick up the corpse of the Imp a simple core was inside. Imps are usually found in war groups of thirty. He wandered about the hill looking for tracks and other signs of the Imps. Imps are known to be similar to their green skins cousins the goblins. They also shared a similar behavior of hoarding. Shaka was hoping to find the den, Imp dens unlike Goblins are built by the Imp's themselves similar to how termites build mounds. Imps thou build theirs with stone instead of mud. They can be hard to spot as they build these dens underground.

Shaka spent the better part of four hours in the hill trying to find a clue Imps are devious creatures, he had started together herbs while looking it was a relaxing exercise for him. His thoughts were still muddled from the Orb. He at least found a Gonroot, a root that can be used to temporarily increase mana however the side effects can be deadly.

He had fought a few Flame Weasels, a couple of Rock Ants and a Wood-horned Antelope, he dealt with them fairly easily. It finally clicked that his power level had risen and not just by a little bit either.

Shaka wanted to test his new found strength, he even begun to fantasies about how he would show Rain.....The moment he thought about his lover, his heart ached, he missed her, he missed all of them especially Musa he would know what to say to Shaka to make him feel better or at the very least come at this from a different angle.

Finally just before Shaka was about to give up his sharper vision caught a glimpse of two Imps each had a bit meat with them, one was holder a long spear and the other a short sword. The Imps appeared to grunting to each as they moved along the hill. Shaka had jumped into the tree top he slowly followed them as moved around the hill, soon they came upon a bunch of rocks. Ironically it was close to the place where he had found the Gonroot. He clicked his tongue in frustration. Even with his sharpened senses he needed to focus in order to find a simple Imp den.

He remembered his home room teacher telling him, "that the greatest folly of a strongman is to believe himself infallible." This phrase had stuck with ever since they arrived in Lumeria, there are countless examples of people who lost everything because they believed themselves infallible. Power in this world was only one part of survival.

Shaka stayed outside the den until nightfall, he had counted about twenty Imps that moved into den. By his estimation at most there might be at most another fifteen Imps, the size of a the entrance meant that they had a War leader, maybe even a cleric. As imp groups grew the den also expanded leaders in the group evolve into larger Imp reaching the average height of a person. The biggest band of Imps had destroyed an Orc town in less than hour, with minimal loses.

Shaka pulled Trifecta, held his dagger in his right hand which moved slightly as if it was ready to strike at any moment. He moved his mana into the blade as it glowed ever so slightly. He spotted his first imp in the den. It was about two meters away from him totally oblivious to his presence. The den was a large cave system with poor lighting.

Shaka threw a rock behind him and also kicked up some dust, the Imp moved towards the disturbance Shaka had caused. Shaka's blade moved in the blink of an eye cutting the imp in half in a moment, not a single drop of blood fell as the wounds immediately cauterized.

[The blue fire is at least 1500 degrees Celsius]

Shaka dug a small hole, where the Imp had died. He then cut the Imp with his sword and it bleed a little. The screams of a few Imps could be heard. "Must have smelt the blood already they are really quick" Shaka thought to himself. As the three Imps approached and saw the body if the other in two on the ground they all pulled out their weapons. They approached the body looking around for the culprit. They walked past the dead Imp without checking his body first as soon as they were all past the dead Imp. Shaka jumped out from under the Dead Imp. In the panic Shaka quickly killed all the Imps in a matter of seconds. He pulled out all the cores from the fallen monsters.

As he moved through the cave, the destroyer culled every Imp he cam upon it was a complete one sided slaughter. The changed happened when one of the Imps, came from a unknown direction and attacked him from behind. The Imps attack did not even scratch him, the attack almost comically bounced of the man. From that moment Shaka, changed his hunting pattern. He had by his estimation killed about twenty Imps, He was approaching the central breeding Chamber where the leaders would be found. To his surprise the War leader was a still a normal sized Imp, the only thing that made it clear was the fact that three female witch doctors Imp(combat variant of the Cleric Imp which is blue).

Shaka used the Lightning spell for the first time with all of Imps touching, the lighting shot hit all of them together he then followed it up with six more lightning bolts from Trifecta. His mana had maybe gone down ten percent by the time he was all done. All that remained of the imps were their charred bodies from which Shaka retrieved the cores. The Witch doctor cores all where of a higher quality, the unmistakably blue color of the core meant that they are superior to white core he had been getting. The Leader had a multicolored core half white and half blue. Shaka hypothesized it must have been in the process of evolving.

The cave system was quite extensive and it took him another hour to complete clear the cave of imps. His blood was boiling as he had not found any trove, it seems these Imps didn't have any treasure at all not even a special plant. He felt that the cores were not enough for the amount of time he spent in the cave. He moved back to central area and gave it another careful inspection to no avail. He started to kick the body of War leader. Shaka was making his way when he felt a gentle breeze coming from the position of the that unknown Imp from earlier.

He moved towards the breeze the cave was really curvy and took him in all directions, he even had to squeeze through at some points, eventually he came upon an exit, he quickly moved outside. To his dismay it was an exit to the den it did not lead to another(treasure) chamber like he hoped, in front of him the head of the procession. The route he traveled had taken through the rest of hill and pooped him out at the head of the Kings of Ebon Expeditionary Force.

Their Shaka saw how they some of the combat were returning with the injured members, the scouts had apparently made contact with the Barbarians of Helena. The battle wary scout looked weathered they had fought hard against the enemy. Shaka could not help but smile at the thought of a powerful enemy, accidentally one of the scouts troops saw him smiling like a clown at their injured brothers.

A rather boisterous man, had made a lot of noise while approaching Shaka, also he was loudly denigrating Shaka with all manner of falsehoods even going so far as to accuse Shaka of being a spy for one of the other Thirteen Legions. This was the mans last mistake as when he saw the badge on Shaka's c.h.e.s.t. He fell to knees, when those that had come to watch the show of the man that was going to punish Shaka were all shocked at the current change in events, one of the mans rivals spoke to Shaka "Sir, I will report this fool to our watch commander and make sure he is properly punished, please do not waste your precious time, I Caroline Peterson promise to not let him forget his mistake." Shaka nodded as the entire situation handled itself.

He moved into the troops, found one of the scout team leaders and asked him if he could join their team temporarily. Scout Team Leader Travis Zungu, agreed "Specialist the team is your to lead." Shaka quickly turned the man down. "I am only here to observe the strength of our enemy." Some of the other scout troops had envy in their eyes as Travis's squad moved out with a specialist closely following them.