Chapter 42: Black dog.
Drawing an arrow from the quiver behind her back, she placed it on the bow and pulled it taut. The arrow pointed straight toward Takeshi standing in front.
She questioned Takeshi with a threatening air. The threat could be clearly felt through her voice, yet her voice was quite easy to hear and carried a hint of gentleness.
"Who are you? And what did you come here for?"
Seeing the girl in front of him pointing an arrow at him with a threat, Takeshi frantically waved his hands.
"Calm down, I am Takeshi, we accidentally wandered in here, we aren't bad people, you've misunderstood."
The girl continued questioning Takeshi:
"You just went to the altar and summoned a monster, right?"
Takeshi, with a look of confusion, furrowed his brow slightly.
"Huh? What altar? And a monster, I don't know. But if you know that, why did you save me?"
"Hmph, I just felt you didn't want to summon it. But I still need to clarify."
Takeshi: "Oh, so that's it. My group was shot at by someone, and my friend rushed into the forest to find that person. Unexpectedly we were separated and lost here, I don't know anything about what you said."
"Then why did you approach that altar?"
Takeshi: "At that time I was up in a tree, suddenly I saw a person hiding behind a tree trunk, quite similar to you. I immediately chased but lost the trail, then I guessed they would run in that direction, while running I bumped into those stone pillars and that hand too."
"The arrow outside was shot by me, after that I ran home, only now am I coming out. I never hid behind any tree trunk."
Takeshi tried to explain:
"How could I have known that?"
The girl still maintained a hostile gaze, then suddenly widened her eyes as if realizing something.
"Could it be that 'it' did it?"
The girl's expression immediately shifted to panic, and she spoke loudly with an urgent voice:
"Then did you let it absorb energy? That hand, I mean."
Takeshi was surprised by the question and the girl's expression changing too fast, he thought back to that moment and nodded.
Takeshi: "I didn't let it absorb, but it absorbed from me."
Terror clearly appeared on the girl's face. As if something was about to crash down on this place.
"What? It absorbed?"
Takeshi immediately realized the seriousness.
Takeshi: "Is it a monster or something?"
She ignored Takeshi's question and asked further:
"So did it absorb much?"
Takeshi: "It seemed like a little, after that I escaped and met you."
She gnashed her teeth with annoyance, but the worry about a bad development remained.
"Damn it."
She lowered her bow and turned away, then leaped toward the back. Takeshi was surprised, trying to call her back:
"Hey, wait a minute, where are you going?"
"What a strange person. Didn't say any reason, just asked me then ran away, didn't even clarify the situation."
Takeshi scratched his head looking around.
"Now what do I do?"
At this moment, beneath the ruins that Takeshi had caused earlier. The hand beneath the debris moved one finger, a slight movement. Signaling something ominous.
The forest was now shifting into evening. The dense forest was already dark, now even darker. Faint light from the moon and the starry sky could not pierce through the thick foliage.
Takeshi, with his orange energy, created a sphere on his hand. It emitted a bit of light helping him see the path. Takeshi stepped over vines, his eyes had to open wide to see more clearly.
"Why is this forest so dark? Finding people during the day was already hard, now it's even harder. How am I supposed to find them?"
Walking in the silent night, the stillness here was like a knife carving into the hearts of the weak. Takeshi shouted loudly, breaking the terrifying silence of the forest.
"Airi!"
"Kazuka!"
"Where are you two?"
After calling for a while, Takeshi felt a bit tired.
"Damn it, I've been calling all this time and not a single soul answered. Is the forest too overgrown so the sound can't travel?"
"Or should I try shooting my energy into the sky? It's very dark here, just a little light could draw attention, right? Yeah, seems reasonable."
He chose that as the method he would perform, despite not thinking carefully whether there were monsters around. But in fact, there weren't, and his choice was correct.
Takeshi raised his hand to the sky, the energy surrounding his arm lit up an entire area. He launched a pillar of energy into the sky and maintained it for a while. The orange energy pillar glowed throughout the forest. Takeshi standing below even felt dazzled and had to squint his eyes.
At this moment, Airi from afar, she was sitting on a large tree branch. The light Takeshi launched successfully drew Airi's attention.
"Huh? An energy pillar?"
Airi opened her eyes wide and stood up.
"Orange energy, could it be Takeshi's?"
"But he is too far away. Though that way is quite smart."
Airi immediately raised her left hand to the sky, red energy enveloped her arm. She launched her energy into the sky, creating a red pillar of light.
Takeshi from afar also saw the red light Airi created. He was surprised and began to accelerate, running toward that red light.
"It's Airi, red light is definitely her energy. Unless someone else has a similar energy color."
"The girl I met earlier had blue energy like Kazuka, so it's definitely not her."
"I hope that is Airi's energy and not someone else's. I've also fully recovered my energy, I don't mind fighting, but if they're too strong it won't be good."
At this time it was past midnight. Kazuka lay sleeping in the forest with the ghostly trees when his eyes began to open. He opened his eyes, then closed them again. Then he opened his eyes wide and bolted up.
His face held a bit of panic and confusion. Kazuka looked around.
"Dead, did I fall asleep? Must go find Takeshi."
Kazuka immediately stood up, observing the surroundings once more. He remembered the scene of Takeshi being struck away, then turned his body in 그 direction.
"It's this way."
Kazuka began his first running steps, but suddenly stopped.
"Wait, maybe they've gone outside? But if so surely they must be looking for me? Surely they are still in here searching for me."
He raised his head toward the sky to observe. This was the only place in the forest where the sky could be seen.
"It's evening now, are they also looking for me?"
He immediately remembered when he was sitting with the old wolf on a rocky ledge of a high cliff.
"You must be calm, kid. In combat or any situation, must keep a cold head. It will help you make the best judgments. You cannot keep losing your temper seeing those two in danger."
At this moment. Kazuka closed his eyes, took a deep breath inside, the scent of wood flooded his nose, then exhaled a very long breath, as if pushing his confusion outside. Calming down, he opened his eyes slowly, his expression shifting to serene.
"Always forgetting the words that old man said."
"Must be calm, must be calm."
"Now if I consider carefully, with Takeshi's ability he should be fine, being injured is certain but he will recover."
"No need to worry about Airi then."
He immediately realized currently he didn't know what to do.
"Huh? If so then what do I do now? Go find them but I don't know where they are."
"Probably now try to remember this location's position, then go find those two is most reasonable."
He nodded and ran toward where Takeshi was previously struck away. He concentrated blue energy into his palm, forming a sphere, like a lamp.
"At this hour he likely has moved too, I'll just follow that direction and see, who knows might accidentally meet?"
"It's nighttime now, very hard to observe. Especially fighting even more so, if I bump into something, it's truly a mess."
While running, he glanced to the right, there was a tree of massive size that had fallen, crushing the bushes.
Kazuka knitted his brows, he immediately entered a state of alert.
"Huh? A tree? Fallen? But its leaves look quite fresh."
He stepped forward to investigate, Kazuka ran closer. That was the spot where Takeshi had come and run from. The ruins with the white pillars made him even more curious.
"What is this? Did someone's house explode?"
Stepping closer to the large pit. He felt it was a bit familiar, then opened his eyes wide with astonishment.
"Energy... I can sense Takeshi's energy. It still lingers a bit."
He bent down and observed the hole.
"Could it be this hole and ruins were made by him? Meaning he was once here and fought someone. Or something happened."
While preoccupied with thought. Suddenly the wind shrieked, through the canopy blowing dust and a few leaves up, a chilly sensation transmitted into his body. A creature was sitting on the ruins. Kazuka sensed this, it was right to his right. He glanced over, though only seeing dimly because it was at the edge of his vision, but something with a black body was sitting there looking at him.
"There is... something looking at me. A monster?"
An uncomfortable feeling it brought and could be clearly felt. His heart pounded so hard he clearly heard his own thumping. His breathing blended with the incomprehensible shriek of the wind.
He slowly turned his head over with anxiety and confusion. Hitting his eyes, it was a dog, it did not move. Only two pitch-black eyes with shimmering whites as if looking straight through into his spine. Ears standing straight up to the sky like two antennas.
That thing was slightly bigger than a dog, the entire body covered in a layer of jet-black fur, as if darkness was clinging to every strand of its hair. But the most horrific thing was not there. Its legs, looked exactly like human hands, the toes long and winding. However, only slightly similar. Its toes still had fur, just abnormally long.
Kazuka backed up several steps, the fear and atmosphere thickened. He trembled and looked at it. His throat was as if choked and couldn't utter a word.
"What the hell? A dog? But why do I have such a feeling of fear?"
He looked down at his hand, it was shaking continuously, his legs too, feeling as if if there were a strong wind, it might blow him down.
His eyes looked straight at it. Suddenly its eyes opened wider. It bared its teeth and grinned, a wide smile appeared before Kazuka's eyes. It didn't look like dog teeth, it looked like human teeth. Its tail at this moment began to wag forward. It was like a finger, very long and joined together.
Kazuka at this moment reached the peak of terror, not daring to move or budge. He was trying to urge his body to move, as if wanting to regain control of his body before the fear.
"Move, what's wrong with you? Why can't I control my body? It's just a dog with a weird shape. Don't... don't be afraid."
He swallowed saliva repeatedly out of fear. His body was as if frozen. At this moment, his fear was many times more horrific than when meeting Narlok.
"Damn it, why do you monsters always like to put human parts in."
He immediately bit his lip, warm blood flowed out, he swallowed it along with saliva. Though the feeling of fear and hands were still shaking, Kazuka still successfully drew his sword.
He leaped backward very far. Unleashed an energy slash toward the monster in front. The monster immediately disappeared from his sight. A long streak of darkness appeared on the ground, the grass and fallen leaves immediately became withered.
He landed on the ground and observed everywhere. The dark streak had caught his eye, but it was too fast. He couldn't react in time. It charged, the dark streak appeared behind its back, especially emitting no sound. Baring its teeth white as human teeth. And a powerful bite into Kazuka's left arm which was in front. The teeth embedded into his flesh.
Being bitten made him feel pain, his face grimaced and he shut one eye tight. He yelled loudly:
"Aaaa!"
His eyes turned white, twitching as if hundreds of electric shocks were running throughout his body. Something looking like energy, but in fact wasn't, it had a blue color and a shape identical to Kazuka. Like a statue being with the person it was carved from.
"What the hell? Why do I feel like I have no strength left?"
He was also seeing it pulling something out of his body. It was transparent and blurry. Confusion was clear on his face.
"What... it's... pulling what?"
At this moment, it was halfway out of his body.
Kazuka with trembling eyes followed
"What thing is inside my body?... Could it be..."
The monster was still trying to pull, as if pulling a somewhat heavy rope.
Yelling loudly in fear.
"Aaaa. That... that is my soul?"
His right hand already holding the sword, he gnashed his teeth, eyes bulging and swung it attacking the monster in front of him.
"Let me go..."
The slash hit the monster's side a very long line. But it didn't utter a single sound. It immediately was flung far away and slammed itself on the ground. A black and thick liquid flowed out from the wound on its body. That was its blood, but not normal at all, when flowing out, the fresh leaves on the ground likely just fallen this morning withered as if being exposed to the scorching sun for a week.
Kazuka alert, gripped the sword tight and pointed the tip at the monster. The black dog slowly crawled up, blood still flowing incessantly, but it seemed not to care about that.
Both sides were silent for a while, but contrary to the silence outside, inside his mind was extremely chaotic.
"What? Its blood? Like black oil. This monster is too horrific. What do I do?, my energy is too disordered. Body is tired."
"Damn it, why don't I just die? It would be easier."
He immediately opened his eyes wide upon realizing something was slightly wrong.
"What's happening? Why do I have such thoughts? Why... why can't I protect the village?"
Feeling something was wrong, he took his left hand that was bitten by the monster and struck his head hard several times.
"What is this?"
His gaze still pointed toward the monster, with an air of alert. It still stood there and observed him without a single movement as if enjoying the sight of its prey falling into a state of desperate confusion.
"It's... it's 'it'... it made me like this. Surely it's 'it'..."
Gnashes his teeth very tight with determination.
"Must destroy it."
His legs began to stand unstable and shake, his body immediately tilted to one side, but he quickly regained balance.
"Tired... so tired... Why so tired? Dying will end the tiredness."
"Damn it, why my thoughts, what's wrong with them?"
Unable to endure the discomfort in his body, his eyes wanted to close. But his will did not allow that. He yelled loudly to want to escape this tiredness.
"Aaaaaaaaaa!"
"You damn dog, what do you want from me?"
Every gasp of breath could be clearly heard from him, both hands gripped the sword tight, determined eyes lit up, even though the body might not know for what reason it was so tired.
"Come here!"
The monster still did not budge, it still sat observing him silently. Its eyes stared without blinking once.
Both sides just stood still looking at each other, only Kazuka's breathing was heard clearly. In his head at this moment, a series of negative thoughts were appearing.
"Try letting that dog bite, won't die."
"You're not affected anyway."
"Death must be very interesting."
He angrily gnashed his teeth and shouted:
"Shut up!"
"Must not collapse here, I need to find Airi and Takeshi."
"Why worry for them? Just ignore them. I can't even worry for myself, why worry for others?"
"If the old wolf saw this scene he would surely laugh in contempt at you."
He raised his head to the sky. Images of Airi and Takeshi, they were walking in front of him and turned their heads back.
"Hurry up."
"Too slow Kazuka."
He gnashed his teeth, the discomfort inside him was gradually becoming worse.
"Don't say anything in my head anymore!"
After yelling loudly, he looked down again and pointed his eyes at the monster in front.
Suddenly he felt his energy having a bit of fluctuation again.
"Huh? My energy, is coming back."
The monster after a while sitting looking at Kazuka, it began to move, but not attacking. It turned its head back and licked its wound.
But, its tongue when licking the wound was extremely bizarre, it was black and looked like a leech.
After finishing licking, the wound on its body immediately stopped flowing black liquid.
Then it raised one of its front legs like a hand. And strangled itself.
"Kha... kha."
It emitted sounds like a human being truly strangled. Then it whispered to him, the sound was as if in his ear and extremely bizarre. But it sat there, its mouth not moving at all as if speaking.
"You... are so weak, your friends will die."
Witnessing this ghostly scene. Kazuka was speechless, throat choked, eyes with a look of shock.
"You damn black dog, I'm about to control my energy. You just wait."
He didn't bother to pay attention to its words, he was concentrating on sensing his energy.
"Almost there, a little more... a little more."
Right when his energy was about to recover, it moved, emitting not a single sound while closing in on him. A black streak left on the ground caused the leaves to become withered.
Kazuka was surprised and startled, backing up. The monster immediately circled behind him, exactly when he was backing up and stepped on the black streak on the ground created by it.
A freezing sensation immediately transmitted. His leg was ice cold and as if stepping on ice, he lost sensation in his left leg.
Kazuka was confused in the incomprehension and the cold piercing to the bone marrow.
"So cold, my leg, why is it so cold?"
He turned his body and discovered he had stepped on the dark streak created by the monster.
Suddenly, in front of him, it launched and bared its teeth like human teeth and charged toward him with the intent to attack once more.
Luckily, he was alert. Though his left arm was injured he could still operate well. Right hand holding the sword raised and left hand supported the tip of the blade.
The monster immediately bit into the sword. A "keng" sound rang out. Its teeth collided with his sword.
"Dare to ambush me."
He spun his body, left hand let go of the blade. Right hand immediately swung the sword. With the intent to fling the monster far away.
But it still refused to let go. He gnashed his teeth bringing it in front of his face and lifted his right leg. A kick straight into its stomach. The kick caused it to fly far away.
But it still wouldn't let him go. As soon as it was kicked far away, it landed on the ground and immediately jumped toward him once more.
The situation repeated. But Kazuka didn't let it dominate this battle. He again brought the sword out, placing it horizontally in front of his face. The monster again bit into Kazuka's sword once more.
Kazuka gnashed his teeth out of anger.
"Why are you so stubborn?"
Right at this moment, he sensed his energy, it was no longer losing control.
His body immediately erupted energy outward. The sword was also covered by a large energy source.
He changed posture. He pinned the monster to the ground and pressed the sword hard into its mouth. Gnashing teeth to exert all strength, both eyes turned white, he needed to kill this monster immediately.
Kazuka yelled:
"Accept death, monster, your mistake was observing me without acting."
He and the monster, struggled on the ground, Kazuka was pinning it down, it still tried to bite the sword tight. He exerted strength, the sword immediately split the monster's mouth vertically and cut through its head. Its black blood immediately splattered on his face. When he felt his sword had hit the ground, meaning it had split its mouth through. A bit of relief inside him gradually appeared.
Kazuka gasped for breath from tiredness, he stood up and staggered, walking toward a tree trunk. The sword was still thrown on the ground.
Sat down heavily next to the tree trunk with tiredness. He looked into space and didn't have a single thought. At this moment he was only tired.
After a moment of breathing, he finally only uttered a few curses at the monster:
"You damn monster."
Heavy eyelids gradually closed. But it seemed he could not rest that easily.
Inside the ruins. The hand lying deep beneath moved another finger.
A large explosion caused stone fragments from the ruins to fly everywhere, dust flew blindly. And the darkness of the forest made it impossible to see anything.
Kazuka was lying there, he hadn't even had time to sleep when he was startled. Immediately bolted up and entered a state of high alert.
"What the hell? Explosion? Who did it?"
The smoke and dust dissipated. He had to squint his eyes to see more clearly. A shape slightly different but familiar.
It was that monster. Body taller, chest part as if hollow, inside was a blurry white whirlpool as if sucking something. The tail became a patched-up arm, with at least three hands attached, each hand pointing in a different direction. From the mouth, a second tongue dripped out, dark red like raw internal organs.
Kazuka opened his eyes wide, eyes shocked, expression terrified. Body gradually trembled.
"What the hell? It's still alive? And even bigger and more bizarre than before. Is it evolution?"
In his head rang the voice of the old wolf.
"If you meet a mysterious opponent, follow your instinct. Especially when instinct reminds you to run, run very fast. At that time believe your instinct."
Without thinking much, Kazuka turned and fled, he crashed straight into a thicket and poured energy into his legs. He accelerated and zoomed away extremely fast. On his face still showed the fear.
"Must run, must believe in my own instinct."
"At that time, maybe I was trembling and my head didn't have a single thought. But I knew at that time, what needed to be done was to run."
He ran without once turning his head back. The sword was still left there and on his back only remained the scabbard.
Right at this moment, a shiver ran down his spine. The monster was right behind, with four flexible legs and a body larger than a tiger, and was a monster. It ran fast as if gliding.
"It... it's coming."
Immediately. Energy surrounded his right hand, forming into a large and long blade.
Kazuka was running, he leaped forward a long distance, at the same time, spinning around in mid-air, he gnashed teeth hard, eyes opened wide. A massive energy slash was unleashed horizontally. It was very long (10 tharn). The slash with blue light flew away, cutting successively through the trees. After unleashing the slash he continued to run forward.
Behind, the slash had closed in on the monster running extremely fast right behind. It immediately jumped up with the intent to avoid this slash. But unexpectedly....
BOOM!!!!!!!!
Blue light spread throughout the forest and illuminated everywhere. The massive sound successfully drew the attention of Airi and Takeshi.
On Airi's side, she was still sitting on the tree and spoke down to the bottom, where Takeshi was standing below.
"Come up here."
The massive sound from the explosion Kazuka caused reached both of them. Both heard and turned over with suspicion. From above, Airi could clearly see blue light.
Takeshi below shouted up:
"What's happening Airi?"
Airi: "Far away, there's a large explosion carrying blue light, very likely it's Kazuka."