CHAPTER 35
"Why won't they just give up!"
Yuki yelled at the top of her lungs, her palms turning incandescent with crimson flames as she quickly rushed forward. Megumi mirrored her movements, raging crimson engulfing his forearms as he ran forward.
As the vile vines shot forward, she stomped hard on the ground and sent the ravaging flames straight toward them. Instantly, they were burned to ashes, and Megumi, taking his chance, quickly ran past her, mumbling a few words.
"I'll find the source of the vines."
With that, he was suddenly a great distance away from her, dancing between the trees and slithering vines as he went deeper into the winding forest.
With Megumi heading into the forest to locate the source of the abominations attacking them, she now had one thing to do…
As her body was engulfed in crimson flames, she shot forward toward the approaching vines.
"Come have some!"
The flames erupted from her body, burning everything that was within a certain radius around her. The bark of the trees turned black, while some of the leaves withered and slowly dropped to the ground.
Taking a quick, rasping breath, she lunged forward once more, the raging flames shooting forward, obliterating more of the vines.
Soon, though, the vines began to retreat, slithering back to where they had come with great speed. Yuki chased after them, her body burning with a bright crimson.
She hopped from tree to tree, burning one vine after another, and before she realized it, she had gone very deep into the heart of the forest. Here, the vines were thicker with more torn vines, and they were slithering back just like the smaller ones.
As she continued to move forward, her eyes continued to dart around the place, searching for someone, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find any traces of Megumi.
'I guess he took a different path.'
A faint smile appeared on her lips and quickly disappeared as she looked up with grit and determination.
Dismissing the thought, she continued forward, her short red hair flaring in the wind. Her muscles strained as she leapt from tree to tree, burning as many of the vines as she could.
She grabbed onto the branch of a nearby tree, and with momentum, swung her body upwards and onto the next tree. Not slowing down, she moved to the next, and just as she approached the next vine, crimson flames erupted from her hands, eviscerating the tenacious vines.
She headed deeper and deeper into the woods, the trees becoming inclined and the path growing narrower. Her feet moved from tree to tree, and then she jumped to the ground onto another narrow path and continued onward.
Until…
'Bang!'
… And another tremor ran through the earth, knocking her off her feet and sending her tumbling down the narrow path. She groaned, her back slamming against a tree as her head flung backward.
'What in the abyss…'
She slowly got up from the ground and peered into the distance, her brow furrowing. In the distance, she could see two giant silhouettes involved in a tangle, but she couldn't make sense of what they were.
Well, looking at the slowly retreating vines, she might have already gotten her answer.
"Dear gods…"
"What in the abyss is that?"
She gulped and began to slowly back away when a thought suddenly clicked in her mind: Megumi was still nowhere to be seen.
For a while, she still stared at the hulking silhouettes and slowly took a step forward, gulping once more. Gripped by fear, her entire body was now trembling; she continued forward regardless.
She was just about to take another step forward when she suddenly felt someone grab her and pull her to the side, behind one of the bent trees.
She instantly turned around, glancing at the boy who had just grabbed her. Megumi was leaning against the tree, panting with his hands on his chest. There were green bloodstains on his face, and his arms were drenched in more of the blood.
Inside his right hand was a shimmering crystal, glowing with a faint white hue. Her eyes were glued to the items, and then they widened… there were two of them.
Megumi raised the crystals and tossed them towards her, then he adjusted himself and whispered.
"Keep your voice down…"
He paused and turned around, looking about the area to see if there was anything close by; and finally, he leaned in closer.
"The beasts up ahead are both lesser awakened; one of them is the vine beast… We should stand back, wait for one of them to tire each other out, and then we strike…"
Yuki frowned, noticing a slight hesitant pause right before his voice trailed off. She held up her fingers and began evaluating what he had just told her, being careful to keep her voice low.
"So there are two decade-old awakened beasts fighting each other, and we're supposed to wait for one of them to kill the other… So where exactly did you get those crystals, and they don't seem to be of excellent quality to me either."
Megumi's eyes trailed back to the crystals he had tossed toward her without any particular expression on his face.
"We weren't the only ones those vines got. There are other awakened and many dormant beasts roaming the woods, but they are all newly born, so we don't have to worry."
Yuki tilted her head and slightly scratched the side of her neck.
"How many exactly?"
Megumi looked up at her, licked his lips, and raised his fingers to his face. Slowly, he began pulling down each of his fingers, counting how many of the beasts he had seen.
After he was done, he heaved a sigh and answered:
"I only saw three other awakened beasts, but there are about twenty dormant beasts; at least that's the number I saw."
With nothing to do or say, she leaned back against the tree next to him, peeking out from the side at the two hulking silhouettes in the distance.
They were still engaged in their tangle, with none of them seeming to give in yet.
For a few more seconds, they remained leaning against the tree, peeking at the two hulking silhouettes with every passing moment. Time seemed to move slowly as they waited patiently.
At some point, though, Yuki tapped Megumi on the shoulder and pointed west, back to where they had just come from.
"We could run away now, Megumi. Let's go while they're still fighting and get out of here while we still can."
Megumi smiled as he stared at her intently, his purpureal eyes seeming as if they could pierce through the very essence of her soul, and then he spoke in his unusually charming voice.
"It's just an awakened beast, Yuki, and who says we can't get a little greedy?"
And then, the earth quaked once again; the ground trembled, prompting them to peek out from the side of the tree once again.
Their eyes were filled with burning intensity as they watched the two hulking shadows, but now, one of them was towering above the other, quickly moving to decimate its foe.