A snake appears.

The territory of the Western Veil Guardian is more practical to suit the likes of men. Large plain buildings, sparse areas of vegetation, and industrial zones for production purposes. It was made ideal to create sectors which govern preservation...along with advancements for the future.

These things were all too technical for any normal person to be worried about; not that anyone knew exactly how this type of economy manages to run so smoothly. Save for maybe Polos himself.

Most residents living in Polos' domain would exalt the Veil Guardian's works as revolutionary, to say the very least. Knowing how strong and intellectual the dwarf was, the limits of his capabilities might easily be classified as insurmountable. Yet as he stood upon the praises of his many achievements, there were still walls impassable by even a genius like himself.

One such wall manifested itself in the form of presence, because a being of his race...lacked power to know every little occurrence in his own territory.

This very detail made a certain someone smile. Obviously since they were exploiting it at this exact moment.

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In a certain tree, of a certain area...a black cladded person sat with an arm wrapped around said tree's trunk—at the crown. Like a child, they shook their legs back and forth...in a rhythm of their own leisure.

The tree this person sat in wasn't far from normal; though...it wasn't exactly typical either. The tree itself didn't beget this soft-tone paradox; just the person it had given rest...upon its branches.

For someone with a full set of limbs, this tree wasn't an easy climb. That someone could be as tall as nine feet, yet still, they'd fail to even reach the first branch.

So how did this person, hardly six feet tall, hoist themselves up there to begin with?

...

...The answer is, they didn't.

...

But the peculiarities didn't end there, because the reason why this person chose to sit in this particular tree had little to do with the tree itself, and rather, the place this tree grew in.

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A horde of zombies were in the sights of this person. And never, from the moment their eyes met these living corpses, did they look away at anything else.

An unaccounted amount of time came to pass when this individual's focus became more general. Still, their gaze kept on the aimless movements of the undeads, even as they hung their legs stagnant off the tree's limb. A flick of their eyes to the left made them aware of another thing—something further than they were possibly able to see with naked eyes. And at that time, they stood, then jumped a long way down out of the tree they were in...

Unexpectedly, not to their deaths.

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'Hide your presence. Breathe slowly, and move at the pace of that which surrounds you...' Clover thought. Her nerves shot to the point she almost feared to even stand on her trembling feet. '...she said.'

In every step she took, her heart pulsed her legs at faster speeds. But she understood her situation, which is why she recited these thoughts in her head to graduate her every movement...

At times though, it wasn't enough.

'She said that...

'...But they're still drawn to us no matter what we do.'

This comprehension crossed Clover's mind after Scarlett grabbed the forehead of a single undead. Then moments after, it's body disintegrated to dust...leaving dry bones detached at the joints in a pile of ash.

This was the eighth one so far to have nothing but it's head left floating over what used to be it's body, since Scarlett held it's skull for a while before dropping it dead a second time on the ground.

This went on nearing twelve minutes; the timespan of which ten undeads fell spineless at Scarlett's hand. Whatever they were doing seemed to be working considering both of them weren't already dead, yet. Added to the apparency that Scarlett can vanquish the dead a second time, and their odds of surviving the next hour were sticky at worst.

That was the initial assumption. However...

...

Clover trailed directly behind Scarlett while following her movements to a near perfect copy. She was so focused on the woman's motions in fact, she failed to notice when Scarlett stopped moving altogether...

Leading to her bumping into the rear of the dark elf, becoming dazed and confused.

Her first action was to look up at Scarlett's red hair. She of course saw nothing of immediate interest, so she peered around the woman's arm...her surprise being subpar to the things she saw.

Another silhouette, in a similar dark cloak to hers, came to view. Although Clover only saw darkness under their hood, she knew she could safely wager her life that this person had an unnerving smile somewhere beneath that darkness.

She tugged at Scarlett's sleeve, and in response Scarlett tucked back Clover's head behind her back...shielding the latter's face and body from the attention of this person who just appeared.

Scarlett chose not to use words or any form of encounter, and instead, walk around this obstacle which stood in her way. A proper strategy, but it was only good for one thing...

...and that was being aware that this obstacle would not move, nor let her out of its sight.

...

The first few steps Scarlett took were undisturbed, but as this person realized the mode of Scarlett's aim, a violet glow emitted from under their hood.

This wasn't an obvious sign this cloaked individual would attack, though even knowing that herself, Scarlett voted to not risk an actual exchange of blows. Her fountain of options was drying up. The only decision left now was to speak.

"These undeads, are they your doing?"

Again, without being able to see this hooded person's face, Clover felt the smile they had stretch wider across their cheeks.

However, going against actual expectancies, the individual standing in their way responded satisfactorily.

"If only they were. This would be so much easier if that were true."

The implications brought forth in the masculine voice of this person as he spoke made Scarlett's heart troubled. Not that his voice itself bothered her since he sounded fairly decent.

"What do you mean to imply when you say that?" Scarlett's apprehension grew steadily, barely managing to mask it under a layer of curiosity.

"What does anything mean?" the cloaked man said. "The only things we know are what we believe to be true. One's reality is fabricated upon their own understanding."

Wether this man was blabbering philosophical nonsense, or speaking from a real state of enlightenment—Scarlett didn't know, nor did she care.

What she did care about, was the mumbling the man did under his breath as a purple shaded sphere appeared hovering in his palm. He turned in Scarlett's direction, grazing his boots over dirt and grass. Then said...

"The person behind you...let me see their face."

An immediate stroke of hesitation travelled down Scarlett's internals from the man's request. Her concern came not from allowing the man to see Clover's facials, it was something else entirely...

On instinct, Scarlett wanted to catch a brief glance at Clover, even if it was just the cloak she wore; she wouldn't allow herself to, the capabilities of this potential opponent were unknown...and she feared to take her eyes off him for longer than a blink.

Now her choices became more limited, anything she did now would surely ensue repercussions. Doing nothing wasn't a viable option either, since time is a factor she was running against.

When Clover gently gripped at Scarlett's wrist though, the woman made a quick decision. It was an eye for an eye now that push came to shove, it would be better to gain something in return...considering she was able to fight back if events flipped out of control.

"Alright...I understand." she said. "But if I am to comply, I need to see your face first."

The man tilted his head up at an acute angle, almost revealing an ample portion of his face, unintentionally. Luckily for him, a slight peek at his full black beard was all that might be seen if someone was looking hard enough.

After mildly contemplating Scarlett's proposal, he brought back down his head.

"I apologize, but my situation requires me to be urgent...and discreet. Therefore I will not permit myself to remove my hood." the man said dryly. "However if you insist on denying me of what I seek from you, then I might let you get away. That is, if you're at all able to defeat me."

The sphere in the man's palm ruptured into a crazed frenzy as it deformed and flickered continuously from dull to bright glows, reaffirming the earlier undertone context stated in the last sentence he spoke.

This display of his intents barely intimidated Scarlett to any degree, she knew she would have little to no use for the knowledge of how his face looked. Even so, to her...for some reason, the risk of unveiling Clover's face now was great enough to sway her to accept the man's challenge.

For now she decided to wade out her time, hoaxing him to believe she had yet to make a choice...

...she had already made her choice.

With her hand, she grabbed at Clover's shoulder behind her...then spoke loud enough for her words to only reach the dark haired woman's ears.

"Do nothing." she said. "Wait only until he attacks...if that happens, we fight."

Clover nodded, and did exactly what she was told...which for now was nothing. Her gaze met the ground while her stance stood still, breathing steadily with an air that speaks of her wary state. If she tried a bit harder, her very existence had a chance to go unnoticed for a brief second.

She might have been doing "nothing"...all too well with how long it took for the cloaked man to react to her's and Scarlett's unresponsiveness.

Or maybe it was, that the man took sympathy on the predicament he forced into them...and wanted to give them time so they wouldn't regret their decision; whatever that decision might be.

Even so, the words patience and forever rarely made sense in a sentence devoid of conjunction. The man would wait for as long as his conscience will allow—and that he did.

At the revelation that the pair was firm in not doing things the easy way, the cloaked man gaited in a forward step towards Scarlett—a trigger which caused the redhead to slide a foot behind her to maintain distance.

The man reacted by halting his movements. Then snickered in a manner which made him seem amused.

"Take heed, I will be merciful at anytime you wish to surrender." he said. "But for as long as you display your resistance, I shall consider you an obstacle I must overcome."

Before anything else, he gave Scarlett and Clover enough time to understand what had proceeded from his mouth. And for the sake of being urgent, he allowed them not a second more to spare.

A laminar flow of violet energy surrounded his figure as wind dragged the fabric of his cloak in a single direction. With this, Scarlett knew she couldn't bait him for time any longer...he was getting ready to get what he wanted...

...by force.

In a showcase of great control and dexterity, the man released the purple spell out of his palm. Leaving it there to float motionlessly in the air. Immediately after, he mumbled a few other things under his breath to which similar purple shaded spheres appeared around him...as motionless as the first.

A glint flashed under his hood, like a light fading into darkness. Nothing more came from his mouth at that point on...the only thing that came after, was destruction.

His spells moved gradually, yet increased in speed as they approached Scarlett and Clover.

The fight had begun, and both sides were ready for it.