"Today you three go on a mission." Belos deep voice could be heard. The three in front of him, whom he had called together, nodded immediately. The two Coven Heads glanced at each other before looking at the third next to them, Hunter.

"You will find a monster. I want you to kill it and bring me some of its scales." Again the three nodded silently. "What are you waiting for? You can go." When the Emperor said that, the three left the throne room together.

"Scales? Disgusting." Said one of the three, it was the illusion leader. "The sooner we start, the faster it's done.", Hunter mumbled. "Right.", the illusion leader sighed and the three of them set off.

As they walked, Hunter glanced at the other Coven Head, the Poiton leader. He was very calm on their way, however Hunter wasn't sure if it was normal for him since he had never been on a mission with him before.

It wasn't until they got to the area where they were supposed to find the monster that the Poiton leader started mumbling to himself, but Hunter didn't understand what he was saying. At one point, the Illusion leader put a finger to his own lip, which immediately silenced the Poiton leader.

Hunter looked questioningly at the two, especially when a rock face rose in front of them and he could see through it himself. The illusion leader motioned for him that it was an illusion and he should be quiet. The younger nodded and turned his attention to the other side of the rock face.

They stayed like that for some time in which the Poiton leader also put down his box, that he had on his back. Then he knelt down next to it and opened it. Hunter was amazed, because inside the box there were thousands of bottles with different labels.

The Poiton leader waved him towards himself and Hunter sat down next to him without a word. "We need a few specific ones," the Poiton leader murmured softly, while the Illusion leader just rolled his eyes a little and looked out for the monster. Hunter nodded and took a closer look at the different potions he could see at first glance. "How about this?" he whispered, not really knowing anything about potions and pointing to one of the bottles.

The Potion leader leaned forward and looked amazed, then looked at Hunter and nodded in satisfaction before handing the boy the bottle. "Hold it tight, we're going to need it." Hunter nodded, feeling somewhat proud of himself for finding a potion they would need.

The potion leader rummaged around a bit more in the box and Hunter watched him curiously. Suddenly the illusion leader hissed at them and they both looked towards the rock face and could directly see the big monster emerging from some trees.

It was a big blue monster with very sharp looking claws and it had a few spikes all over its body. A long tail covered with spikes and scales while the rest of the body showed fur rather than scales. The eyes flashed menacingly and two long horns were attached to the monster's head.

The three didn't make muchs, didn't move. Only when the monster lifted its snout and began to sniff did the potion leader nod to Hunter. Since he didn't know how to handle potions, he just took what came to his mind first and threw the bottle in the direction of the monster.

Since neither of the two leaders said anything, he decided for himself that it was the right decision. The bottle opened alone in the air in front of the monster and a huge cloud of fog spread out, which they could see through thanks to the illusion leader. {DENSE FOG} was the label on the potion and Hunter was pleased with the result himself.

The Illsuion leader made the rock face disappear and the three ran to the monster together. Hunter put on his new Golden Guard mask to have better protection, while he was already teleporting back and forth with his artificial staff and starting his first attacks on the monster. The potion leader supported him with some smaller potions that created small explosions that damaged the monster and the illusion leader gave them illusions for protection as well as illusions to trick the monster. So the monster would sometimes see more of them than just three and dodge wrong attacks only to accidentally stumble into real attacks.

The fight lasted a while, but you could tell that the monster was slowly losing power. Shortly before it finally fell over forever, it started a kind of death scream, it was so loud and shrill that Hunter, the Illusion and the Potion leader had to cover their ears from this sudden noise out of reflex.

It was only a brief moment, but it lasted long enough for the monster to gather itself and distinguish illusion from truth, which is why it lunged. The three jumped away immediately realizing what a mistake they had made, but it was too late as the Monster hit Hunter from behind.

While he fell to the ground in pain and then got up again with clenched teeth, the Coven Heads finished off the monster before they ran to him. "Hey! Lay down and get a little rest Goldie." Said the illusion leader. Hunter just took off his mask and shook his head. Even if they could see his pain, the two leaders knew that he would not give in.

"Good, then we'll go back to the castle quickly and you can take care of yourself.", the potion leader said and handed him a potion. "I'm not a member of the Healing Coven, but we do have our tricks." Hunter looked at the potion and saw that it was for pain relief so he drank it with a brief hesitation, in fact it tasted better than he thought it would and it started to work immediately.

He still felt clearly where the monster had hit him, but the pain was gone so well that he didn't have to grimace anymore. "It won't last long," the Potion leader immediately noted. The illusion leader supported Hunter as he began to walk, even though he had only just begun to argue, but the illusion leader hadn't allowed any back talk.

In the meantime, the potion leader grabbed some of the monster's scales before he ran after the two and they quickly returned to the castle. As they entered, Hunter managed to persuade the illusion leader to let him walk alone again. He quickly said goodbye to them and they only let him go alone because he said he would take care of the wound immediately. But Hunter didn't mean someone from the Healing Coven, no, he wanted to do it alone. Feeling the pain returning, he rushed to his room, but inwardly hoped that Belos wouldn't be angry if the Coven Heads delivered the scales without him.

When Hunter got to his room he took off his cape and found with regret that there was a long tear running down his cape...perhaps he could ask Darius later if he could sew it back together. Hunter quickly pulled out a first aid kit and removed his armor and shirt to tend his wound. Meanwhile, he hadn't noticed that Flapjack, who had stayed here while the mission, had looked concerned especially as he took off his cape and then disappeared through the open window.

The boy sucked in his breath as he now clearly felt the wound and thought inwardly of the new scar that would appear on his back as a result, it wasn't like he already had some on his sides, upper arms and shoulders. Pulling himself together, he took what he would need from the first aid kit and was about to start tending the wound when his door opened without knocking.

His mind immediately had the thought of Belos coming in and confronting him about why he hadn't come to hand over the scales, but when he turned to the door in semi-shock he saw only Darius, with Flapjack sitting on his shoulder, with a worried look on his face.

A little more relaxed because it wasn't Belos, he took a surprised step back, because he was standing in his room shirtless and thus revealed all the scars. Darius quickly closed the door behind him and put his arms up to calm Hunter down. even though he himself was in shock from all the scars.

Hunter tried to play it down, but his voice cracked when he spoke, causing him to stutter rather than speak normally. "W-what's the matter?" He hadn't missed Flapjack sitting on Darius' shoulder and thought apparently the Palisman had snuck out to get the Abomination leader here. Why Flapjack should do this was a mystery to him. Was it because he came along so well with him...?

Darius blinked a few times as if forcing himself to take the horrified look from Hunter's many scars. "Is that Belos punishment...?" Darius assumed directly, not wanting to beat about the bush for a long time. Hunter hesitated, just looked Darius in the eyes, also a bit startled.

The Abomination leader nodded in understanding. "Come on, I'll help you." He then offered when he saw that Hunter had the first aid kit in front of him. The boy hesitantly allowed the help and showed Darius the wound. The Abomination leader tried not to show any reaction to it, though he easily recognized that it too would become a scar. As he tended to the wound, he hadn't failed to notice how desolate Hunter's room looked and also that most of the scars on his sides were deeper cut wounds.

"What did Belos do to you." Darius sighed, partly in thought. Hunter looked at the ground in front of him, his ears drooping slightly. "These are just punishments. You've already noticed that yourself.", he said then. But Darius shook his head. "Not fair at all. How did he even do that? With his weird curse?"

Of course, darius and the other coven heads had noticed Belos curse. It wasn't particularly inconspicuous how he occasionally sat on his throne, weakened, or now that he's taken off his mask more often. Hunter just nodded, which made Darius sigh again.

"Done.", he said when he had finished treating the wound. "Thank you...", Hunter said and put on new clothes then he looked at Darius.

"Can you sew my cape again...?" He then asked a little bit embarrassed, pointing to the cloak with the large tear lying on his bed. Darius nodded. "Yes, and I'll show you directly how something like this works." Hunter nodded in agreement.

A/N: Sooo Itzmassy gave me the idea for this chapter. I hope you all like it^^