As the beast quickly approached, she saw red, crimson, blood red. Drips of blood foamed out of the beast's mouth, mixing with the natural white, to create crimson red that flowed down its beastly fur. Its arm raised, claws hovering above Anemone before swiping at an immense speed. Anemone, choosing between fight or flight, decided to fight. She dodged backward with incredible reflexes, despite being able to mentally keep up, her body was not. She felt her feet slip, almost tumbling onto the ground. She continued backing away, dodging strike after strike, when she heard a shout come from behind her.
"Move to the left!"
Anemone dashed to the left, looking behind where she previously stood to see Father Hatheway with a swirling ball of water extended from his hand.
'I don't know how long you have been waiting, but thank you, Father.'
"Water Ball!" He yelled as the swirling ball of water shot at the beast with incredible momentum.
The spell, 'Water Ball', was the most basic form of water bagic. The surface tension of water caused it to naturally clump together when possible, and as long as someone had a slight affinity with magic, they would naturally be able to produce this spell. Despite this, it was incredibly versatile and useful, but it did nothing. The spell that Father Hatheway had just cast did nothing. It just collided with the black fur and dispersed, soaking the beast instead of causing damage, which just seemed to infuriate it even more.
Anemone saw a slight opening, one that may not come again. She needed to fire a spell; she only knew basic ones, but basic spells still had their uses. In the end, Anemone decided to cast Wind Arrow, the most catastrophic basic wind spell.
She looked forward, focusing and causing the air to fold in on itself, then caused it to spin rapidly with increasing speed. She condensed it as much as possible into a transparent, barely visible, arrow tip-shape. She did this over and over until what floated right in front of her was her most dangerous weapon. It took her a total of five seconds to do this. The beast, during this time, was bombarded with basic water spells by Father, which did nothing.
The beast pushed Father back, causing the distance between everyone to increase. The lycanthrope now stood dead center beneath Anemone and Father.
'We need to sandwich it, attack from both sides.'
She noticed the beast standing there, its head turning back and forth between the enemies that surrounded it. Before the ebony brute chose who to attack, they needed to act.
"Father! Ready a spell, and make it fast. The minute it charges at either of us, we should both release the spells at its abdomen or lower back!"
As Father gave a simple nod, he readied a spell, one much more devastating than the last. The beast stood there, still like stone, for what seemed to be ages to their racing minds. Anemone could see Father had a spell ready, but the beast continued standing there, its muscles seeming to grow larger.
'The longer it doesn't attack, the more deadly the spells get.'
Out of nowhere, a deep growl came from the beast's mouth, then it lunged toward Father, producing giant thuds beneath its feet which echoed off the trees, causing birds to flap their wings and fly away.
Anemone knew that nothing was near them; there were three entities: herself, Father, and the charcoal colored beast. They could cause as much destruction as was needed to defeat the beast, and no one would be in danger, so they did.
"Anemone! Shoot your spell! Water Bolt!" Father yelled.
What sounded like a thunder clap erupted from his direction. The sound ricocheted off the trees, and the avian life within the sky cawed as it disappeared.
"Wind Arrow!" Anemone yelled.
Both spells became a conjoined force, capable of causing true destruction. The Wind Arrow whistled through the air as it shot towards the beast from behind. In the front, the beast was faced with an immensely powerful Water Bolt that weaved around like thunder.
Their spells cojoined on the beast, piercing its stomach clean open. Father's spell was destroyed by Anemone, and her spell continued flying with incredible momentum. Father was already to the side in case the beast received negligent damage, and he watched as her spell flew into the forest.
BOOM!!! BOOM! BOOM. Boom. boom… Her spell kept its momentum as it flew, felling trees in the distance with a rhythmic pattern. As they both heard the screeching sound of trees falling, they both captured a glimpse of the beast falling as if the beast were in sync with the trees.
The opening in its abdomen began to spew out blood as if it were a waterfall, blue blood in fact. The beast lay on its back, its body perfectly level with the ground, allowing the blood to pool up in its stomach, producing a blue blood bath.
Anemone walked warily toward the beast, watching for any twitches or noises.
The beast's body began to transform, scaring Anemone back to her original spot. Its claws began to retract, its mouth no longer bore teeth, yet its mouth still foamed, but now it was a thick, blue foam.
As they both witnessed the beast become exponentially less dangerous, they approached it and looked at the rest of its body. Its eyes were bulging, and its mouth slowly seemed to open, revealing human teeth. The beastly figure began to transform into a human, an adult male.
Shivers ran up both their spines as the man spoke, the blood within its stomach finally overflowing and flowing down the side of its stomach and onto the grass. "Help- me…"
The man choked as he tried to speak more, yet he was unable to muster the power to do such a thing. The man's eyes began to bulge more, and the foam began to pour out more, and the eyes continued to bulge, and the foam began to pour out more, becoming a darker blue, the eyes continued to bulge more, then they popped. The eyes popped like balloons, revealing an empty eye socket filled with a blue, cursed liquid.
Anemone looked down at the empty eye socket, disgust welling up within her. Soon, it became too much, and she turned around and began to vomit on the ground.
"Something took him over, Anemone. All mammals have red blood. He was going to die no matter what."
A moment passed filled with silence, then a gasp escaped Anemone as a centipede-like creature crawled out of the empty eye socket, crawling onto the ground. Out of instinct, she stepped on it, smothering her black boot until she knew the creature was dead. Removing her foot, what she found was blue blood. A deep blue that you'd see in the night.
She began to feel nauseous again, but Father made a realization and spoke it.
"It's a parasite. I don't know what kind, but it somehow took control of his body."
"That's disgusting. How can such a creature control someone?"
"I have no idea, young one."
"I know we have a mission to do, Father, but we should alert someone about this or figure out what this is. Maybe someone already knows."
Father smiled gently and responded, "You're right, young one, the least we could do was spread the word when we get to the city."
"Can we make a list of things we just saw?"
"Alright, young one. Go get the quill and ink from the carriage."
Anemone left while Father looked at the body, thinking back on what he had just witnessed. A lycanthrope who had been taken over by a small insect of unknown origin, and as he retrieved the quill from the returning young lady, he wrote down everything inside his notebook.
Foam mixed with blood exiting the body orally, indicating some internal damage.
Blue blood circulating inside the human host seems to be from a centipede-like creature.
A centipede-like creature with glowing blue symbols written on its back.
The host seems to have no control over the body in beast form, and less control than normal when in human form.
parasitic relationship or symbiotic. Unknown if the arthropod is a parasite under certain conditions, or if, when certain conditions are met, a symbiotic relationship will begin.
Veins and arteries are bulging within the host, indicating increased blood pressure and stress on the body.
"Can we go now, Father?" She asked irritably due to the battle.
"Yes, young one, let's continue. We don't have too long until we arrive in the city.
As the pair cleaned up their mess, leaving the carcass that already seemed to be decaying, they made their way back to the carriage with all their belongings in hand.
"These past twelve hours have felt like an eternity! I can't wait to get to a tavern and rest." She said, sighing loudly, plopping herself into the back of the carriage.
"Yet you slept for eight of them, while I only slept for four. Youth these days…"
"You're right, my bad," Anemone said, sticking her tongue out jokingly.
Father began to ready the pristine stallion, who happened to be still alive, and not stressed despite the encounter that they had just gone through. The stallion looked towards Father as he put his head onto the white stallion.
'I wonder, since he takes such good care of me, should I call him dad one day? Or grandpa? That would be funny.' Anemone giggled.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing, hurry up!"
Anemone began to roll up the sleeping bag again, creating a makeshift pillow; meanwhile, Father climbed onto the seat, looking ahead toward the bustling city.
"Father, how lon-"
Father interupted, "Six hours, young one. Which, I said yesterday."
She relaxed back, crossing her arms in a pouty mood.
'I just want to arrive already and go shopping! I know they will have outrageous prices, but still.'
Crack!
The sound of the stallion being hit suddenly woke her from her thoughts.
'Okay, maybe we won't go shopping, but we have to set up shop and try to collect information anyway.'
The carriage began to rattle as it began to move.
'Should I read? Wait, I read a lot yesterday, so I could practice my wind magic or meditate.'
"Father, I am going to meditate, just tap on my shoulder when we arrive."
"Okay, young one."
The young blonde lady then sat up, crossed her legs, and put her hands inside her lap, interlocking her fingers. She soon closed her eyes and began to clear her mind of all distractions, of worries, all thoughts of the future, the present, and the past. Until she saw only the outline of her being and her soul, a soft, glowing orb that had a flame rising from its core.
Once she saw herself, her true self, she would be able to see the true self of others. She kept her eyes closed but her mind's eye open and began to look around, feeling life around her. She focused on the roots of trees, the crows eating dead flesh off of a carcass, and the flowing river in which deer drink. She observed life to try and grasp its true essence, and the essence of everything was comprised of mana particles, which everyone could see if given time. Mana particles danced in the air all around her, red, grey, blue, brown, white, yellow, green, the seven colors of the base elements.
When humans meditate, they absorb mana relating to the elements in which they practice, or in Anemone's case, fire, red, and wind, grey. No positive effects came from soaking up mana particles of different elements, or at least none that were known.
As she began to hone in on the red and grey orbs that danced around, she began to imagine them gravitating towards her, straight towards her stomach, past her red dress, past her skin, permeating her mana core, and being absorbed. She did this repeatedly, hundreds, even thousands of mana particles becoming one with her, all for the hope of becoming stronger. The mana was absorbed into her core and began to energize her, as if she had just woken up from a full night's rest; it liberated her.
***
Time flowed, and Anemone was woken by a light tap on her right shoulder. She jumped slightly, forgetting where she was due to meditating for so long. As she grasped where she was, she turned and saw Father with his short, white, brushed-over hair, smiling as bright as the sun.
"Are we here?"
"Well, look ahead, and you will see, although we need to wait to get in."
Anemone looked ahead and saw a large metal gate, embedded within a thick stone foundation. As the gate began to slowly rise, she saw a green flag that draped down in front of the wall. It had a hammer on the left side representing the dwarves, a tree in the middle with a crown representing the humans, and the ear of an elf on the right, representing the elves. The flag swayed with the wind, flapping around as Anemone looked forward to see two knights standing on both sides of the gate, wearing black silver armor with swords in front of them, almost like a statue.
The pair slowly rode forward toward the gate, exiting the terrible dirt path, and entering onto a bumpy stone path that seemed to force Anemone's head to nod with every crack. And as they passed by, she turned around, with no one behind them, the gate slowly began to descend. The gate shook when it hit the ground, and she saw the system the people were using, a simple pulley system, and the people operating it surprised her.
"A stone golem is managing it? That's so cool, Father!" She exclaimed.
She looked around, trying to take in the surroundings as much as possible, and she saw a building that she had always wanted to enter.
Adventurers Guild
"Maybe I will be an adventurer one day soon, since we will be here a while. I wonder how hard it would be."
"It isn't that hard to become an adventurer, young one; it is hard to rank up and make a living. Help me set up the shop and run it for a few days, after that, you may go apply, only under a fake name though! At least until you are a high rank."
"But, I wanna use my real name!"
Father gave her a simple glare, and she instantly caved in.
"Okay, okay! Fine."
She sat back and continued to look aroud as they slowly traveled through the large city.