User blog:DarlynMaePaguio/Chapter Three

Premise
Darlene Paguio is gravely injured, but still decides to face one of the deadliest foes ahe's ever faced, Hive Five.

Plot
Darlene, barely alive, continues to float downriver. After Darlene manages to grab hold of a floating log, a frog hops on, warning him that the Five are not far behind. Eventually, Jack reaches the shore and makes his way to a cave, all the while being stalked by the mysterious ghost. Inside the cave, Darlene pulls the knife from her side and passes out. Upon waking up, her hallucination of herself taunts her over her first hero kill, coming to the conclusion that Darlene wanted the Five to kill her, though Darlene herself denies this. The next morning, a blood-soaked Darlene prepares to defend himself. Instead, an equally blood-soaked Spot enters the cave (the same caveboy from the previous episode) and Darlene passes out again. While unconscious, Darlene had a vision of a little girl (Naomy King) in a time when his father defended their family from a band of outlaws who had ambushed their carriage. Waking up again, Darlene bonds with Spot and nurses herself to health. Remembering lesson, Darlene and Spot part ways and Darlene prepares herself for another confrontation with the Hive Five

Soon enough, Brother Blood arrived just as the remaining five Hive Five break out of the ruined temple and continue their mission, leaving their fallen teammates’s body behind. Following the river and traces of Darlene’s blood, the Five track her back to her location. In the forest, the five spend a moment observing a deer, having never seen one before. A male deer arrives and the Five mistake it for his friend due to its antlers. Unnerved by their courting ritual, the Five frighten the deer off and continue their search. Finally, as the snow begins to fall, Darlene reveals herself.

Echoing his father's words, a hidden Darlene offers the Five an ultimatum: Leave, or face their destiny. The Five refuse, claiming their destiny is to destroy her. Darlene obliges and emerges from the snow, impaling one of the Five (See-More) with a thrown wooden spear. Using the terrain and weather to her advantage, Darlene kills a second Five (Mammoth) with another spear and steals a kanabo from a third before impaling him against a tree with a thrown butterfly sword. The three remaining Five combine into one in an attempt to kill her, but Darlene manages to split them up again, luring the three to a fallen tree hanging over a cliff. Discarding the stolen kanabo, Jack sends two of the Daughters (Gizmo and Billy Numberous) falling to their deaths before confronting the last one (revealed to be Jimmy). Ignoring his and Brother Blood’s threats, Darlene simply unwraps the chain from her arm to their apparent deaths. Unfortunately, the tree finally collapses from the struggle, sending Darlene falling into the valley below.