BRIEF STORYLINE Darkstorm is up to his old tricks yet again, and unveils a plan that could trap Leoric into his bold, roaring-only lion form forever. Darkstorm and Mortdredd take a trip to see a witch called Hesquidor. The witch is surprised they know her after hundreds of years in existance. She boils up a potion that will trap Leoric in his animal form for all eternity. The Darkling Lords lure Leoric by disguising the Dagger Assault as a giant beast(looks like a bull) that terrorizes an innocent village.
A female civilian from the village, called Fletchin, daughter of a farmer called Gleering, goes to New Valarak and begs him to slay the beast. Leoric finds it impossible to refuse, for a woman of her beauty.
When Leoric turns up at the village, he gets a surprise ambush from the Darkling Lords, who surround him, amongst the ruins. He changes into his lion form. That gives Darkstorm the signal to splash the potion all over him. The lion turns red, and unable to turn into his human form, and flees to the hills. The Darkling Lords announce to the villagers that the lion is the beast terrifying them.
Lexor sends Fletchin to investigate a strange noise in the bushes, and she gets trapped by Leoric. Leoric uses his lion claws to scratch his name onto the stone behind her. Fletchin finds out Leoricc has been bewitched. Darkstorm is not prepared to listen to her story and they chase after Leoric once more. The lion then steps into a trap made by the Spectral Knights. Fletchin stops them in time before they make a terrible mistake. Arzon gets help from the Bearer of Knowledge, who tells them about the witch Hesquidor. Witterquick uses his power of lightspeed to reach Hesquidor and demands for a antidote. After much physical reluctance from Hesquidor, she gives in. She warns that once the third sun of Prysmos has set, the antidote will be useless on Leoric.
Just as the time the third sun sets, Witterquick in cheetah form, pours the antidote over Leoric and he has turned back to normal. The villagers and Spectral Knights revolt against the Darkling Lords and they escape from the scene. Leoric celebrates with Fletchin by his side, holding hands.
REVIEW: Quite a good episode. The devious plot of Darkstom moves swiftly, as we find out he doesn't want to deal with Merklynn, and looks for an evil magician that will rid of Leoric, and goes to the lair of the witch Hesquidor. A strange thing to note, when Merklynn at the end of one scene, magically emerges a green beetle, similar to Mortdredd's beetle, that rests on top of his orb. This happening has no explaination and why a beetle. Mabye it could've been a contrived plot that after all the help he gives, and changes sides with the Darkling Lords. This could've been a great plot for the second season, if the makers showed any sense. But there was no second season anyway! D'oh!
The character and voice of Hesquidor is memorable. Mortdredd is quite amusing, getting scared by the first sighting of Hesquidor's crooked, very old face. Also nice choice of music for when Darkstorm has a scheme for his potion, in a strong scene. Another musical convenience is the flute music playing as we see our first sighting of Fletching and Gleering. It puts real emphasis on the quiet life of a village. The beast rolling into the village scene are mixed editing-wise. However, it's a clever twist that the beast is actually the Dagger Assault in disguise.
However, scenes like Gleering and Fletchen asking for help at the Spectral Knights castle, are not so well edited. Leoric's fighting outnumbered, against the Darkling Lords is hard-hitting, but badly edited. When Leoric in his lion form gets doused in potion, this is seen as an important scene, and it is well done. Another good and shocking scene is when Fletchen announces to the other Spectral Knights that Leoric is dead. However, when the Spectral Knights are about to kill Leoric ironically enough, is a bad mish-mash of editing.
The episode does get better when Witterquick urges Hesquidor for the antidote, and this is highly entertaining. The shots showing the Spectral Knights waiting for Witterquick are sloppy. More floppy moments to come, when Darkstorm wants the people of the village to slay the beast as quickly as possible. The end is the worst part of this episode. The finale is dissappointing, like Cyrotek trying to use power of Might to overturn the Dagger Assault, and the romance of Leoric and Fletchen, with jerky editing. Witterquick arriving back just in time is one of the ending highlights though. LION HUNT GETS A: 2/5 RATING.
