"The mortician got killed this morning, eaten alive by three Undead. The screams apparently commenced right after the earthquake, the Mortician's helper almost did not make it, he stumbled upon the Copses having a feast and almost got snatched by one.

Almodan of the Undead has awoken.

We must be weary, so others will follow, a dark times are coming upon us. An Age of terror and Evil that will taint this land with death and misery.

The second God War will start in this generation."

-Archmage Rebren year 196 of The New Age

When they where leaving the village, the Townsfolk had gathered in the town's square (or at least what worked as one) and had built two great pyres, to burn the two Elven males killed during the raid a night before. Most of the village was congregated around the two burning corpses and they showed their respects.

The Elven Elder had decided that from then on forward they would burn their dead even though the two Elven males did not turned because their bodies where far to destroyed by the Battle mage during the raid they still wanted to make sure. the Elves would try to avoid any possibility that their kin might turn in to Undead, they wanted to make sure.

The Elves played a single instrument It reminded Jack some old European Medieval instrument, The hurdy-gurdy. a stringed instrument that produces sound by a hand crank-turned, i reminded Jack of blowpipes mixed with a violin, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies where played on a keyboard that presses tangents—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible. Jack commented on the fact that Old Elvish singing of the Elves reminded him much to the way people in the Scandinavian countries spoke but Brandon did not answered him, he observed the crying women and children who where mourning their dead.

During the first part of their Voyage everyone was quiet as they traveled along the woods. After that morning when Jack had explained the circumstances involving his Engagement Siegfried keep asking about mermaid pussy. The Elven Elder who's name was Surthnel decided to join them i their travel down the river, it seemed like the Elves had a non aggression pact with the river mermaids, but they rarely interacted with each other, in fact the peace treaty has been active for the last 250 years, or what was an entire Elven generation. Their life expectancy circled around 300 years. Surprisingly the mermaid's was almost double that.

He said that his father, the predeceasing Village Elder made this deal with them a long time ago, in exchange for something that Surthnel did not specified.

Siegfried who was enthusiastic at first to know how sex was with a mermaids had been quiet after learning that no such thing happened, but he insisted in coming with them, again, it seems like seeing such creatures was a rare occurrence, "a rare chance in a life time" explained the blonde warrior. Jack started to suspect that Siegfried was a bit strange (if not insane).

Brandon seemed upset from the moment he learned the news about Jack being engaged, his face went from confusion, to anger and ended up in disappointment, Jack had made a mental note to talk more with his Brother, not only they shared blood they also where in this together. not the marriage, but the whole fantasy cluster fuck that surrounded them.

After reaching camp they packed their things and left the survival shelter behind. Jack had considered torching it before leaving but it could serve a purpose to someone at some point. also it took them far to much time to built, and now setting it on fire was hard for them.

They made a small fire and heated up some food they brought with them from the Elven village.

After they finished their food they pressed onward and ended up exceeding the distance they expected to cover that day.

Surthnel said that they might make it to the Lake by tomorrow evening before going to sleep. Siegfried stayed a little longer and practiced some Battle arts before hitting the bed while Brandon sat staring at the fire and feeding small branches to it.

Jack sat next to him.

"what troubles you?" he asked bluntly.

"i just cant believe that you did not tell me. i understand that you did not expected such thing and that it fucked with your mind, but not mentioning it... its fucked up Jack." Brandon said while breaking a small branch in half and tossing it in to the fire.

"You woke up from a full day in a coma like state, i did not wanted to trouble you, and then it just slipped my mind, at the end there was no point in saying anything any more" Jack excused himself poorly.

"what ever" Brandon said as if the excuses bounced off him.

Brandon tossed the branches left in his hands to the fire pit and left, Jack stayed and observed the bonfire, Flames danced up and down, stones that they used as benches casted long shadows that flickered left and right with the flames.

Jack tossed the rest of the fire wood in to the fire leaving a small bunch for breakfast and sat with his back facing the now raging fire storm

around him Darkness, his Shadow was projected on the ground, it moved as if it had its own life.

Jack watched his shadow for a while. it was his element, or at least that is what (((Systema))) told him.

After a few seconds he corrected himself. His shadow did seem to have its own life, it flickered in an unnatural manner, small tentacles that resembled tongues tried to escape and reach outside the projected darkness.

He focused, so far he's been the tank of the trio, Bosco did quick and devastating damage, Brandon had learned his deadly firestream projectile that save them two times already, he ether had to step up his game of they would end up dead at some point, sooner than later if they take in to account what the Elder Elf said about the River Mermaid tribe.

Jack realized something, Darkness was the absence of light, while shadow was his own existence interfering with light, projecting in to the distance, a part of him. he extended his hand, and moved his fingers, the shadow followed along, he almost could see a smile appearing in the dark human shaped.... Thing, no his shadow was not a thing, it was a part of him.

Jack rose and picked up his spear and shield, with the bonfire to the left he observed his shadow with the corner of his eyes, with each trust the shadow followed, he repeated the process, trust, cover with the shield, trust, cover, trust cover trustcovertrustcover...

The next morning Brandon woke up and saw Jack practicing with his spear, Surthnel was washing himself in the river and Siegfried was nowhere to be found, until he returned carrying a gutted boar over his shoulder. They had a hearty breakfast of Grilled meat over the fire and continued their journey.

During lunch break Jack went and Sparred with Siegfried who promised to give him pointers on how to Create his own Battle Arts. by the time Siegfried returned and finished his Meat Jack was exclaiming something happily.

"i managed to get some. Shadow Strike and Shadow Step" Jacks enthusiasm was not shared, Brandon walked away and did not looked at his brother's new spells, he still could not accept the fact that his brother did not trusted him. after all they been through. Brandon did not liked being a bitch about this whole situation but the trust between him and his brother had a deep stab wound now. and it would take time to heal.

Brandon thought about his brother while he walked i the woods surrounding their travel cap, Rage twisted his entrails, he tried to forget about the offense but was not able to. It boiled deep down inside of him, normally he would shrug something like this off knowking how his brother never talked about his time in the marines and such, but deep down inside part of him did not wanted to forgive. he moved his arms and started to gather a big fireball in front of him, picturing that the tree some 20 yards in front of him which reminded Brandon of a Sequoia was his brother, he decided to program that the fireball would explode and expand from the middle on impact feeding on the wood and oxygen around it, after changing it with Magic or Mana as he liked to call it with some magic whispers similar to how he charged his Firestream Projectile it launched, traveling fast in the blink of an eye the fire ball made contact with the tree bark and exploded, Brandon's blue eyes went wide as the fire expanded and almost reached him, he ducked down and tried to cover but was to late and ended up being launched back with the explosion.

Brandon heard the sound of fire and opened his eyes, he was on the floor, after confirming he still had all his limbs he got up and checked around him and feed his well of power with magic by extinguishing the small fires that erupted all around the explosion he caused, it was an easy way to replenish his magic, he only had to absorbed the magical energy created by the burning of organic matter, the fire would die down and be exhausted quickly. He looked at the tree where his fireball spell impacted, chips of wood surrounded the area and there was a big cave in the bottom part of the wood, not enough to bring the tree down, but big enough to erase the existence of a dozen undead on one cast.

Brandon was meet half way trough to the river camp by Bosco who licked his hand, He recoiled after he felt the cold touch of the dog's tongue on his arm. he realized his body temperature was extremely high after testing it with a tree leaf, it steamed the moment he clenched it in his fist. This Fire Element Affinity was changing his body and reacting to his feelings and state of mind, this could be dangerous.

Spoiler: Spoiler Brandon Callahan Age: 24 Race: Terran (Human variant) Status: Healthy Level: 10

Titles: Aprentice Scholar(+2 Int +2Wis)

Restless one(-2h of sleep neded each day to be fully rested)

Revenant(+2 Will, +2 Wis)

Dancing With Mermaids (Imroved Water Element Resistance)

Stats Status modifier Strenght: 12(+2) +/- 0 Agility: 9 +/- 0 Constitution: 11(+2) +/- 0 Dexterity: 17(+6) +/- 0 Inteligence: 24(+12) +/- 0 Wisdom: 24(+10) +/- 0 Willpower: 15(+5) +/- 0 Perception: 12(+4) +/- 0 Charisma: 11 (+2) +/- 0 Unasigned Status points 9 skills Advanced Literacy: Level 8 (+4 Int, +4 Wis) Advanced Carpentry : Level 5 (+4 Dex) Advanced Improvisation: level 8 (+4 Int, +4 Per) Intermediate Brawling: Level 3 (+2 Str, +2 Con) Intermediate Musician: Level 8 (+2 Dex) Intermediate Wits: level 2 (+2 Int, +2 Wis) Intermediate Animal Training: Level 1 (+2 Char) Intermediate Meditation: Level 9 (+3 Will) Intermediate Well of Power Control: Level 4[+2 levels] Intermediate Fire Element Control: Level 6[+2 Levels] Intermediate Bowsman: Level 2 [+1 level] Begginer Flint Knapping: Level 3 Begginer Weapon Crafting: Level 3 Begginer Spear Mastery: Level 1 Begginer Woodsman: Level 7 Begginer Interrogation: Level 1 Begginer Hide treating: Level 4 Active Skills

Firestream Projectile

Imbues a projectile with mana, a Firestream will be projected forward after impact dealing fire Dmg to anyone hit by this Spell

Flamethrower

A steady stream of flame projected from any part of the Casters body dealing high Fire dmg to anyone hit by this Spell.

Advanced literacy modifier: -5 to mana drain per second

Exploding Fireball

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Jack Callahan Age: 31 Race: Terran (Human variant) Status: Minor wounds(Recovering) Level: 13

Titles: Aprentice Scholar(+2 Int +2Wis)

Death Defier(+4 to Willpower)

Blood Sworn(+4 Willpower +2 Charisma)

Peace Finder(+2 Int, +6 Willpower)

Engaged (+2 Char with Fiancee, -2 Char all other members of the oposite sex)

Homonaturae

Stats Status modifier Strenght: 22(+7) +/- 0 Agility: 12 +/- 0 Constitution: 22(+9) +/- 0 Dexterity: 21(+10) +/- 0 Inteligence: 17(+8) +/- 0 Wisdom: 14(+6) +/- 0 Willpower: 22(+10) +/- 0 Perception: 19(+4) +/- 0 Charisma: 10(+4) +/- 0 Unasigned Status points 12 skills Master Carpentry : Level 5 (+8 Dex) Advanced Literacy: Level 2 (+4 Int, +4 Wis) Advanced Fitness: Level 4 (+4 Con, +4 Str) Intermediate Boxing: Level 7 (+3 Str, +5 Con) Intermediate Combat Sense: Level 4 (+2 Per, +2 Char Intermediate Fishing: Level 5 (+2 Dex, +2 Per) Intermediate Flint Knapping: Level 5 (+2 Dex, +2 Per) Intermediate Woodsman: Level 1 Intermediate Spear Mastery: Level 3 [+2 levels] Begginer Battle tactics: Level 7 Begginer Ambush Countermeasures: Level 9 Begginer Weapon Crafting: Level 7 Begginer Armor Crafting: Level 5 Begginer Hide Treating: Level 2 Begginer Clay Crafting: level 3 Begginer Well of Power Control: Level 8 [+4 Levels] Begginer Shadow Element Control: Level 7 [+5 Levels] Begginer Wood Simbiosis: Level 5 [+2 Levels] Begginer Infiltration: Level 1 Active Skills

Shadow strike

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Shadow Step

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Bosco Age: 7 Race: Doberman (Dog variant) Status: Healthy Level: 19

Titles: One of a Kind (+5 to all Atributes)

Guard Dog (Increased Dmg when defending Claimed Land from Hostiles)

Reaper (Critical Strikes are doubled)

Fenrir Kin (All Bite attacks are subjected to a 1.5 Dmg multiplator) [+1 Unique Active Skill]

Stats Status modifier Strenght: 21(+11) +/- 0 Agility: 22(+10) +/- 0 Constitution: 28(+15) +/- 0 Dexterity: 12(+5) +/- 0 Inteligence: 12(+8) +/- 0 Wisdom: 17(+8) +/- 0 Willpower: 26(+11) +/- 0 Perception: 46(+26) +/- 0 Charisma: 19 (+5) +/- 0 Unasigned Status points 1 skills Master Guard: level 5(+6 Per +6Will) [+1 Level] Master Dog Senses: Level 9(+8 Per) [+1 Level] Advanced Bite: Level 9 (+3 Str, +3 Agi) [+1 Level] Advanced Hunting: Level 6 (+3 Per, +3 Con) Advanced Commands: Level 2 (+3 Int, +3 Wis) Intermediate Fitness: Level 4 (+3 Str, +3 Con) Intermediate Sneak: Level 5 (+2 Agi, +2 Per) Intermediate Feasting: Level 4 (+4 Con) Intermediate Tracking: Level 2 (+2 Per) Begginer Well of Power Control: Level 9 Begginer Wind Element Control: Level 3 Active Skills

Fenrir's Bite

Magically Empowered Bite attack that can pierce even through stone.

Wind Step

Using the Wind as a Vessel the Caster can move extreamly quickly without making any sound for short distances.