Dark Master (Quest) (Part 1)

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As much as he was a wild leader of every moment's emotion to guide him through the battles, Wei Yan was naturally obliged to bow his head before those who would show him that there was one far superior than him. It was those that the great warrior of the west offered his reluctant service to, the solo half of his personality struggling to gain independence from the liege. Betrayal, backstabbing, victory or defeat, life or death. Wasn't that what this... war was all about? Even the thrilling sensation of the kill, it had to have something of a side story.

Iron Crown. The name itself made many freeze in place as their hearts inclined to skip a beat. It was said that even the dead shook in their graves in fear of the mythical kingdom, the legendary citadel of evil itself. The foolish were ignorant enough to believe that it was all just a story, a long dead tale of sorts, passed down in much exaggeration from old. Ha, exaggeration? No, the stories were but a portion of what was true. After all, any who would dare to witness the sight firsthand would never return to tell the tale.

Did it mean that they died? None would ever know to tell. Maybe they had been taken captive and been forced to serve as the slaves of the wicked. Or maybe they had been forced into submission, offering their lifelong service to the overlord upon the deal that they wouldn't be deprived of their breath... yet.

Whatever the case was, Wei Yan knew one thing. Whether it was the evil itself that he was dealing with, or in fact just a legend, he knew that he was not going to hold his independence for long, as the single young cavalryman rode away into the night, carrying the letter of decision towards you know what. It wouldn't be long before he himself would be consumed by the growing darkness, the rapidly increasing threat. And it was truth that willing submission was the better choice, over forced slavery.

Or was it?

But the letter itself wouldn't do. Iron Crown, living up to its name, had standards like no other. A word of servitude from a barbaric warrior was nothing but a speck of dust's worth to them. No, it wouldn't do at all. A token of proof, something to show that he was indeed the worthy one to place at the right hand of the king, the overlord...

Of course.

"Bounty..."

The voice growled as a single, rough hand raised a piece of ragged paper closer to his eyes. An accurate description of the wanted, an illustrious accompaniment to the crime and punishment. Of course, there was... a reward that followed. A smile proceeded to appear on the tanned face before he dropped the paper and turned.

The hunt had begun.

[Cao Cao]

Zhi Fang woke up in the middle of the night. Zhi took a look around, and after a quick look, Zhi got up and streched. Zhi was camping in a large woods that was close to the city of Xia Pi. Zhi was living there for a time, waiting for the bounty that was placed on his head to die down. It had been a couple of weeks since he attacked the city of Xia Pi, but the bounty was still there. Zhi has evaded a couple of would-be bounty hunters a couple of days ago. It seems like 1,000 Gold for his head was something a lot of people were interested in.

Zhi started another campfire, since the old one must have died out when he was asleep. After a minute, Zhi got the fire started and he sat close to it, trying to get warm. After Zhi was fully awake, he got up to go patrol the woods for a little bit, making sure he was not being looked for. Zhi went towards a tree, and he bent over and picked up his sword, put it on his back, and he ran away starting his patrol."How much longer must I wait before the bounty goes away? I am getting tired of this!"Shaking away these thoughts, Zhi continued his patrol. Zhi could not worry about that for now, he just needed to make sure that he stayed alive long enough for the bounty to go away.

Zhi took a quick rest in an open area that had two trees on the left and right side. In the middle of the area was a long bush that started at one tree and ended at the other, and vice versa. Zhi walked towards the tree on the left, sat down beside it and laid there for a little while. So far, the patrol was good, nobody in sight...yet.

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He was here. The bounty was very nearby, very, very close. It was almost as if the odor was carried through the hunter's nostrils and into his nervous systems. The masked figure looked down at the area beneath him. Nothing there. But that didn't necessarily mean that the prey was gone. The target was locked on in his senses; he just had to find the exact location and pinpoint it for the charge. Wei Yan entangled his legs with the branch he was placed on and hung down from the foliage of the tree, poking his head out from the bottom of the leaves.

Smoke. A campfire, of course. So the prey was setting camp right next to the hunter's beginning search. It was all too easy. A day spent in Xia Pi itself, avoiding the sensitive sniffing of Iron Crown's watch, then moving out of the citadel to scout the nearby areas, all the while unknown and separate from the random parties of professional bounty hunters out there, each group or individual on a quest to prove themselves worthy of serving the famous name of Iron Crown, of the Lu himself. Ha, they would all fail, Wei Yan was sure of it. All of them, except for himself.

He gently dropped out of the tree, with a light thud as he hit the ground. It didn't bother him that he made a sound, as there were indeed quite a variety of flora and fauna in Xia Pi's forests. Crouching low, Wei Yan crept through the bushes, gently shaking the green about him but with no large attraction from the wildlife. The smoke disappeared from his view as the leaves and branches began to pass right above his head, constantly blocking his view towards the distance. No matter, his senses were sharp enough.

[Cao Cao]

"Break time is over, I need to continue my patrol..."As Zhi said this, he slowly got up and did a quick strech. After a quick strech, Zhi ran off to the west, he came from the east. As branches and brush speeded by him, Zhi stayed ever-alert for any strange sound or strange sight. Zhi had trained his eyes and ears to see or hear the slightest of movement or sound that was not common in this forest. If Zhi was still at his resting spot, he would have heard the strange sound of a large object landing onto the forest ground just a short distance away.

After a while, Zhi had finished his patrol. Zhi took a look around in the final area of his search, he took a deep sigh after completly looking around the area. Zhi then said,"Well, there is another patrol with no action. I am actually becoming a little bored...wait, am I actually saying that I want a bounty hunter to find me? Hahaha, this forest must be making go crazy!"As Zhi shook his head, Zhi took off once more, heading for his camp.

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He knew he was going in the right direction. He must be, and he must be getting closer to his destination. Only a few more steps... Wei Yan pushed aside another cluster of green before he finally cleared a way back into the night air. It was dark, but the bright light of the full moon clearly contrasted from the rising smoke nearby. And the scent... The smell of burning wood was strong, very strong. He lifted his nose into the air, like a beast on the hunt, and sniffed the bitter odor of logs turning into ash.

Wei Yan reached for the long polearm strapped onto his back, pulling the double-ended voulge out and slowly rising from his crouching position. His view extended higher, over and above the foliage ahead. It was a campfire indeed, he concluded, as he shuffled closer to the site of the smoke, but to his momentary dismay, it was a dead campfire. But not all was lost; in fact, it was just the beginning of the pursuit. The rapidly rising smoke still meant that the fire had been put out not too long ago.

Wei Yan wasn't a detective, but he knew enough logic to apply to his work.

A faint smile slowly crept onto the corner of his mouth as he gently poked one of the black, burnt logs with the edge of his blade. A short sizzling sound, followed by his immediate reaction as he drew back his weapon. The ash slid back off of the blade, leaving only a light stain behind. Oh, the fire was fresh, all right. But once a man abandons his fire, he would depart from his position and journey to a new camp. There was no time to lose, Wei Yan checked, as he quickly sped off through the bushes, continuing on in the direction that he had already been heading.

Having no idea what he would run into.

[Cao Cao]

After a couple of minutes, it seems that Zhi got his wish. Being careless, Zhi ran into two people who were sitting there, with their swords beside them. They must be here for the bounty on Zhi's head. Smiling, Zhi stopped and pulled his longsword out from behind his back. He pointed it straight at the closest bounty hunter's face, saying,"If you are here looking for Zhi Fang, you have found him, but I shall be the last thing you see!"

The two men quickly got up, wielding their swords, one of them charged at Zhi, once he got close to Zhi, he did a lunge towards Zhi's chest. Zhi quickly swung his sword down, and with his free right hand, threw a punch at the man's face. The power behind the punch caused the man to loosen his grip on his sword. Taking the oppurtunity, Zhi kicked the sword out of the man's hand, he quickly followed up with an upward slah of his sword. Zhi's sword cut deep into the man's stomach, all the way up to his upper chest. Gasping for air, the man quickly collapsed from the blood loss.

"That is one, let's see how much of a fight you will put up!!"The man just stood there, still afraid from the site he saw his friend in. Zhi quickly ran towards the other man, the man quickly put his sword up in defense. Zhi swung his sword, amking contact with the other man's sword, the two became engaged in a weaponlock. The hunter was holding his own quite qell, but he left himself open for a certain attack. Zhi raised his right knee up with great speed and with great power. The knee soon made contact with the man's groin. Gasping in pain, the man let go off his weapon and fell backwords onto the ground, covering his groin with his hands. Zhi smiled at the man and said,""You did not expect me to play fair, did you?Zhi put the tip of his sword onto the man's neck, and he slowly pushed it into his neck until it was fully through his neck. Unable to breath, the man quickly gasped for air, for the last time.

Zhi decided to take a little break, he was a lot more tired from that little battle than he thought he would be. Zhi knelt and rubbed his sword onto the grass, getting the blood off of it. Zhi then just sat by a tree, taking in the beauty of this dangerous forest.

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Voices.

No, a single voice, by the sounds of it. A rather low, booming voice emanating from the throat of a man. The words were difficult to tell due to the obvious distance between Wei Yan and their source, but it was enough to tell the hunter where he had to go. Or was it? He had been searching for the past hours in the forest, and as much as he hated to admit it, to tell the truth, what had he found? A broken down campfire. There was no knowing who the campfire belonged to; after all, it might as well have been the former possession of an Iron Crown forest patrol.

But then came, from the distance, the most familiar sound of the blade. A weapon of sorts cutting through armor, flesh, and bone, it was the noise that stirred every last one of the warriors of the land from even the deepest of slumbers. The thrill. Immediately quickening the pace of his run, Wei Yan began the dash towards what he cared as neither his enemy or his ally, the prey or another hunter; he was running to what instincts led him to, what his feelings dragged him through.

But the sounds faded. Silence reigned once more, aside from the crickets chirping every once in a while from within the wet, grassy ground. Screeching to a halt, Wei Yan stood straight and tall as he awaited for more signs of what he had been so frantically looking for only a couple of seconds ago. But no. It was gone. And as it did, his proper senses returned to him, forcing him to suppress the lust for the kill, and reminding him of the greater duty, the future that potentially awaited him in only days to come.

He must resume the search.

But how?

[Cao Cao]

"I can't go back to my old camp, I guess I will just make camp here."As Zhi said this, he stood up and walked to a near tree and began cutting down some of it's branches. After getting a large amount of wood, Zhi placed a couple of them on the ground, and he pulled out two large sticks. Zhi began to rub the two sticks together until a flame began to grow. Zhi put the two sticks onto the pile of wood and let the fire spread onto the other pieces of wood.

Zhi pulled out some pieces of meat he had saved from a couple of hours ago. Zhi placed a small amount of the meat on a stick and he place the stick above the fire. After a couple of minutes, the meat became nice and crispy. Zhi took a big bite of it and after a couple fo minutes, Zhi had eaten almost all of the meat."Okay, time for my workout!!"Zhi layed on the floor belly first. Zhi put his hands onto the ground and started doing his regular amount of push-ups for the day...200.

After a couple of minutes, Zhi got up and layed on his back and started doing some sit-ups. After doing a couple sets of each, Zhi got up and walked towards the fire he made. Once he got there, Zhi sat there right beside his sword, and watched the froest, making sure he did not run into anything else today, unless he became bored again.

(And the Hunt Continues )

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Smoke. More smoke. And it was coming from up ahead. It was dark, but he had enough of a sense of direction to tell that he had left the primary campsite behind him long ago. And this time the source of the smoke was fresh, so fresh that the strong, burning smell was close followed by small orange sparks that rose up into the air and illuminated what it could beyond him. The prey was here, and if it wasn¡¯t him, then... well, the fate would be the same either way.

He needed to warm himself anyway.

Grabbing onto the nearest tree branch, hopefully sturdy as he didn¡¯t even bother to check beforehand, Wei Yan pulled himself up and onto the top of the leafy tree. Shoving his way through the lustrous greens, he peered down at the sights below, squinting to make out what he could in the near lightless dark. And then he began the real move. Kicking himself straight off of the tree trunk, he propelled his body horizontally through the night air to what he correctly assumed was another tree in front of him, all the while keeping his sights on the rising sparks of fire.

He was getting close. Very close.

[Cao Cao]

Zhi yawned as he woke up from his very short nap."I did not mean to fall asleep, that could have been very dangerous if someone found me napping."Shrugging it away, Zhi layed his head backwards onto the tree. Then, all of a sudden, Zhi experienced a short but sharp pain in his back. It came from the wound Zhi recieved from an arrow when he attacked the city of Xia Pi. When Zhi was escaping the city, a guard got a shot off and it went hard and deep into Zhi's back. Ever since he took it out, it gave out sharp pains, which began to annoy Zhi. After a couple seconds of the pain, Zhi once again rested his head, wishing that the pain would go away.

(Sorry for the short post, was in a rush and I needed to post.)

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A voice. A yawn. It was all that was necessary for Wei Yan to quickly determine that that had been the perfect message for him, the sign that there was indeed a living individual beyond the bushes, rising from his sleep and completely unaware of the danger to hit him. And just to make things a bit more easier, the slumber that the man had apparently just awoken from would add to the... fatigue level of his body before he was bound and placed at the mercy of the cold hunter. Sliding down from the tree that he was situated on, Wei Yan crouched upon a sturdy branch.

Wrapping his legs firmly about the outcrop of wood, he flipped himself rather silently as he hung backwards, head first, down from the tree. Jumping down simply wouldn't do; too much of a racket, and in the case that the living thing below wasn't the exact prey, it would naturally alarm the actual hunted. Precautions were always a good thing, as Wei Yan had learned over time, sometimes the hard way. The masked face appeared from the foliage, quietly peeking out upside-down from the leaves.

And there he was. At last.

In the bright illumination of the fire, Wei Yan could easily tell that the man suited the description perfectly. He was the same man that the hunter was after, from head to toe, and from bare chest and vest to ragged trousers and boots. A young man, by the looks of it, though assumedly a few years elder in comparison to Wei Yan himself; long dark hair, a cold expression inscribed upon his face, and in need of proper clothing; though the latter could barely be said, as Wei Yan himself had donned only half of what he potentially could have.

The man's back was turned to him. Good. He could charge now and attempt to bind the throat, but why risk a more likely failure? The blade lay close beside the figure, but the man's slow movements as he woke from his sleep signified that he just might be ignorant enough to bide Wei Yan some time to carry it out.

Sliding down from the branch, Wei Yan cautiously bent down and picked up a rock. Now stepping right into the clearing, yet only a few feet behind his target, he took a quick breath before launching the small stone into the bushes ahead. The darkness would hopefully conceal the source of the throw, and it would appear only as a rustle from a moving opponent from beyond to the untrained eye, a distraction while the hunter would make the next move.

[Cao Cao]

Zhi's ears focused on a sound to the side of him. Zhi quickly looked in that direction to see what caused the sound. Many a person would just pass it off as just a animal walking by some leaves on the ground, or the wind blowing by, though Zhi knew better. Zhi, in order to survive, has trained his ears to be able to hear any strange sounds. Quickly getting up, Zhi picked up his sword that was beside him and he turned around and pointed his sword into the darkness. Zhi did not know exactly where the person was but he knew he could not be far.

"Okay, come out now and face me like a man, unless you are afraid of me!!"As Zhi said this, he laughed loudly, trying to anger the man and make him come out. Though Zhi knew that the hunter had an advantage over Zhi. The hunter knew exactly where Zhi was and could strike whenever he wanted, but Zhi did not have that advantage.

(Bring it on Wei!!!!! )

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The distraction worked... in a way. The prey rose and immediately shouted toward the direction of the bushes, exactly where the stone hit. Such a wonderful shot on Wei Yan's part, but then, he would have to move on to the attack; the prey had not forgotten to grab his blade and point it at the area beyond. Good reflexes; impressive. This was indeed the Zhi Fang that he was looking for since Xia Pi. But to frown or to smile? Difficult to decide, really; Wei Yan stuck with the frown he always wore.

What to do now? Strike swiftly and accurately while the prey still had his back to him. In an instant, he had risen from his crouching position, ignoring the small rustle of dead leaves that he had made in the sliding of his feet, as it would most likely be too late for the prey upon noticing. The prey was left-handed; very well. Wei Yan's right arm flew to tightly wrap about the prey's throat from behind, while his own left hand grabbed onto the prey's left wrist, as he struggled to literally choke it until it released its grip on the blade.

Of course, just that wouldn't do. The prey would still have his right arm and two legs extended and free. Impossible to take care of those one by one; Wei Yan's right knee simply moved the necessary few inches to bash straight into Zhi's spine.

[Cao Cao]

Zhi was taken by full surprise when the hunter came at him from behind. He must have thrown something as a distraction to Zhi. How could he have fallen for that? Zhi was slowly losing air and the hunter had grabbed Zhi's left arm, though Zhi had his right arm free. Waisting no time, Zhi slammed his elbow towards the hunter's face, trying to get free from the hunter's grip. As Zhi did this, Zhi also began to throw his right leg backwords, just trying to hit the hunter in the leg. While Zhi was doing this, he felt a sharp pain coming from his back, though because of the rush of battle, Zhi supressed it, though he would be feeling it later.

(I was at a loss at what to write, so I hope this is good ^_^)

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The surprise attack worked in both ways, his arms successfully wrapping around and choking the prey's blade and throat and his right knee bashing straight into his back. There was a bit of aggressive resistance, but with his back turned to his attacker and having no real idea who or what he was, Zhi Fang's moves were certainly limited compared to the potential that he would have when standing face-to-face; something that Wei Yan wouldn't allow as long as he had the advantage over the situation.

An elbow flew toward the right side of his face, while a leg went for his left knee. The latter he wasted no time on, simple flicking his knee to sturdily guard the kick from the rear, no matter how much pain it cost. At least it was better than having any other weaker bone or muscle get damaged and cause him temporary lameness. As for the elbow, he pulled himself back temporarily, tightening his choke on the prey's throat at the same time as he leaned backwards, hopefully enough to get his hand moving towards saving his own life rather than attacking the hunter.

Meanwhile, Wei Yan's left hand found itself grabbing hard to wrestle the blade free of the grip, an attempt to cut off the circulation of blood going in and out of the hand and thus temporarily severing its ability to feel much.

(Sorry for extreme lateness, I thought it was you who needed to post for the past 5 days. >.>)