Chapter 87 - Figure in the Shadows
Chapter 87 - Figure in the Shadows
~Warning: this chapter contains blood and somewhat gore. Read it on your own risk.~
"What's with that smug look on your face?" I questioned Homura who was skipping happily beside me,
his head gently swaying from side to side.
We walked along the forest path; hundreds of tall magical looking trees that seemed if their leaves
were made of crystals surrounded us as I breathed in the clean breath of fresh that brushed past my
cheeks. There were golden like particles flowing the against the gentle breeze.
This forest looked livelier and more magical than Viridis in Aureum.
"It's nice to watch humans suffer and get what they deserved" Homura purred with satisfaction.
I rolled my eyes at his snarky remark "Your such a sadistic fox". Homura gave me a dead panned side
glance as if I said I was going to make pigs fly. "What?"
"The only creature I know whose more of sadistic is humans. How many of you hunt us creatures of
nature for the pleasure of entertainment? How many of you capture us then to throw us in cages to play
some trick to make you laugh?" I zipped my mouth instantly knowing exactly his point. Homura looked
at me with question "I'm just doing what you humans do to us so stop acting like humans are the
victims here" he shoved his snout in the air like a sassy drama queen he is.
Nevertheless, I couldn't say anything to him since after all he did have a valid response to it.
"Anyway, do you think that human brat I forgot his name already, won't come looking for us once he got
his conscious back?" Homura asked as he jumped over a tree branch that grew in an arch from under
the ground.
"He won't be able to track us down and furthermore we will be far off once he wakes up" I answered
bluntly, stealing a quick glance of Homura. I had karate chopped the kid unconscious because he was
getting on my nerves with his nagging and pleading to come along.
Homura let a long sigh "It's a kind of a shame to not have agreed to let him accompany us." I rose an
eyebrow at the sudden words Homura spoke. "We could have made him carry our things and do our
bidding in exchange for coming along"
".... I don't have time to babysit or would I be responsible for his shortcomings" I said cold heartedly. It
was true, however. He will just be a burden in my path and someone who would constantly need saving
from whatever there is to come. I just don't have the time or mood to do that.
What a drag that would be.
Homura nodded his head in agreement but there was something weary about the way his looking at
me. It's like as if his doubting my decision.
I didn't pry on it to much and continued on walking.
"Artemis"
"Yeah" I answered lazily not giving him a glance. "What is it?"
There was a hesitated silent from Homura, his amber eyes followed the greenery path as he trampled
on the grass or flower that came by him. ".... Do you have any jerky left?" the tone of his voice didn't
sound convincing, and I realised what he asked wasn't what he wanted to say to me but I didn't consult
him about it and left it alone. Whatever it is he might tell me another time or probably not at all.
"We will stop and rest twice a day. One for lunch and one for sleep and no jerky until lunch" I explained
the plan clearly giving a blank stare down.
Homura grumbled an annoyance howl. "Tch. Humans always taking charge" the angry fox mumbled
thinking I didn't hear him.
"Because our minds are more intelligent than a fox" I said with a smirk crossing my face. Homura
glared at me, his cheeks puffing into a pout "And we got these bad boys" I had my palms out mid-air,
my fingers wide open.
He snarled at me, baring his white small yet sharp teeth, in return I grinned back revealing my straight
white teeth. Homura sneered back before looking away with a few cursed grumbles.
I took a deep satisfying breath enjoying the nice breeze and beautiful scenery when all of a sudden, a
gust of wind blow behind me. It didn't feel like any normal gust of wind but something dangerous or
threatening, just the thought of it left a bitter taste on my tongue. I didn't like it and my gut turned.
Homura got into a defensive stance towards the direction of the wind, his ears shot up and his amber
eyes stared straight ahead without moving away. He must of sense something was wrong.
Instantly I took out a kunai knife from my pouch and lowered myself into a stance, narrowing my eyes
towards the direction of where the weary wind came from. I didn't take my eyes off of the pathway we
came from.
We stayed in the same position for a couple of minutes without losing eye contact before relaxing
ourselves when nothing stirred however Homura was still cautious and he still stayed in the same
position yet not intense as before.
"There's nothing-" before I even got to finish the same howl of wind blew at us, forcing me to shelter my
eyes.
A familiar voice followed the wind and it made me freeze.
"****!"
~Jackal P.
O.V~
The evil cloaked man kicked a forceful blow to my stomach, and it sent me to my knees. I gasped for
air, the jolt of pain in my stomach was unbearable and groveled in agony.
Another sudden shot of pain on my chin made me stumbled back and I fell to the ground in a thud. It
felt like my jaw went out of place, I yelped when fingers gripped the top of my hair pulling it up in a
forced pull that it felt like they were going to rip the ends of my hair from my head.
I winced in pain, squirming to get myself free from their grasp.
They pulled my head up so they could get a better look at me. A man dressed in dark clothing; face
hidden away in a hood that came into an arch down keeping the darkness within. His breathing was
heavy and loud, and it smelt like mildew. I glanced at my dagger that was thrown a few metres away
from me, lying there untouched but the pull forced me to look back at him.
I tried to wriggle myself out of the grasp but a kick to the back sent me to my knees, I let out a grunt
and a cough.
These guys weren't the assassins from Aureum. They were different and their aura reeked of darkness.
I felt myself tremble in their grasp.
The man in front cackled deeply.
He said something in a deep gruff voice yet the language his spoke was unknown, and I could not
understand him. He spoke again yet this time he yanked my head towards the ground and my face
collided to the ground.
A hiss of pain escaped my lips.
The man spoke again in the same unknown language. His tone of voice was aggressive, and I felt my
whole-body tremble at the sound of his voice piercing my ears.
I felt the fear rise from the back of my head; the voices of the men was blocked by the sudden heart
beats of my heart. I was scared. I was terrified. I didn't want to die. I didn't.
The salty tears pricked the corner of my eyes, and I could taste blood forming in the back of my throat
clogging the very breath of mine.
I heard the sound of metal unsheathing from it's satchel made my bones shake and my heart stop. 'I
don't want to die'.
My fingers entangled itself with the grass, gripping firmly as I awaited for my death, I felt the sense of
the blade rising up ready to strike down to my core as he mumbled the same unknown language like a
chant.
I closed my eyes and waited when suddenly I heard a gasp of pain before a loud thud of a body took
over.
And another.
The mysterious evil men jolted up in a hurry, their grip on me becoming loose giving me a chance to
budge my feet to kick back. The man holding me down grunted angrily when my foot had kicked his
thigh.
The remaining men had got into a stance each one having their palms out ready to use magic. I felt my
body become numb, unable to move when I saw something impossible. Forms of black balls grew
above their open palms.
The very breath clogged my throat when I realised that these men used forbidden magic. Something I
heard about when eavesdropping on drunken men.
My attention was on the magic that I didn't realise the same guy I kicked forced a blow to my back
sending me back to the ground and holding me tight.
I struggled to get free but his grip was tight again.
I peeked up to see something swiftly passing a nearby tree. The figure was just a blur and it
disappeared the minute it came to sight.
That's when I saw it, a fast incoming blade pierced the wind and thrusted itself on the forehead of the
man and fell dead on the ground beside me, the blood quickly drizzled down his hood like a waterfall.
My eyes widened in horror and I shrieked trying to struggle back from the dead corpse however the
man held me back down. That's when my eyes laid upon the blade itself. A hallows hoop attached to
the handle and a silver leaf shaped blade that resembled so much like Artemis' ones I saw.
'No way. Artemis!'
The man in front of me yelled out a chant shooting a black ball into the trees, it destroyed the tree
leaving a burning fire behind. The sound of a crackling blast echoed back.
It hit something. 'No. No. No'
"ARTEMIS!"
~Artemis P.O.V~
I glared at the sight of the blazing rock that the dark ball had hit. It had crumbled into little pieces and
there was smoke and blazing black hue emerging from it.
"Tch" I clicked my tongue in annoyance.
'That didn't look something like Damons dark magic. Could it be the Dark users?' my face pulled into a
sneer, glaring at the black fog that was fading away yet it left a heavy stink that stung my nose.
'if I had taken a hit from that I would have been immobilised'
I blended in with the shadows hiding away from plain sight. I scanned the remaining men, they were 4
of them left. Standing in a defensive stand around Jackal each one having the same ball of dark magic
encircling the palms of their hands. They all were draped in long speaker cloaks, long wizard like shirts
and there was a skull like symbol on the middle of their belts. In somewhat they look like dark wizard
from some fantasy world not like they are in one.
Twirling the shuriken in between my fingers, I zipped past with a flicker startling the dark users to halt
each one mumbling something in their breaths, that's when I quickly threw 2 stars towards the first
before whipping out a kunai and aiming it at the guy who held Jackal down.
It was a bullseye, the blade pierced itself at the guys forehead killing him instantly. Jackal shrieked a
yelp when the man toppled on him.
When the attention of the men turned back to see what had happened, I made move. Swiftly NôvelDrama.Org holds © this.
unsheathing my Katana and tanto I leaped from the bushes, throwing the tanto toward on of the man. It
swirling around swiftly in midair cutting the air as it did before piercing itself in the back of the man. He
let out a piercing scream before he fell forward, dead.
This quickly stirred the attention of the remain 2 men, one pulled out a dark fogged blade from within
his cloaked sleeve. He swung it at me but it was a mistake, I had dunked down and angling my katana I
swung it, slicing his head clean off his neck. The blood had had erupted his neck like a volcano and the
dead corpse went on his knees before toppling to the ground, staining the green grass with his blood.
I rose up, standing firmly in my place as my haori gently flapped against the wind. I sent a hostile glare
at the last man standing who had froze in his place, body trembling in fear and the ball of magic
disappearing.
With force I swung my katana down and the blood on the blade flies off and splatted the ground.
Before I knew it the man was silent, the sudden sound of flesh against of metal was heard and he fell
forward on his knees. My eyes widened when I saw Jackal panting heavily from behind, face covered
in blood and my kunai gripped firmly in his hand.
Looking at Jackal his knees were trembling and I could see him trying to hold back tears in those
terrified silver eyes that had seen dead bodies for the first time. He stumbled back dropping the kunai
and flopping on his butt, still panting heavily while he looked down at his blood stained palms with
shaken horrified eyes.
This kid has stained his hands with the blood of another in order to survive. 'Brave, not everyone will be
willing to spoil their hands to live. I'll give him credit for that'
"I-I k-killed him" his voice trembled and his hands tremble.
"It is what it is kid. You killed in order to live" I said cold heartedly without any ounce of sympathy
towards him while stared coldly at him, my icy cold eyes piercing through his soul. "However don't pry
on it to much. You going to haunt yourself with the memory of it."
His silver eyes looked at me confused and scared, those black pupils shook with fear. He opened his
mouth to say something else but nothing came out instead a raspy croak.
I sighed, sheathing my katana back "do realise why you wouldn't be fit to come along with me. You
would have taken many more lives in order to continue on living. Don't think it would have been a
simple walk in the garden" I explained.
It's true though. I realised that I wouldn't be able to cross this world without having to lay another life
down. I was lying to myself when I promised I wouldn't kill another human so I wouldn't have to go
through that hell but that was just wishful thinking. A foolish mindset.
I would have to continue on filling the over full bowl with more blood in order to keep going. I have no
choice really.
'God knows how many innocent lives I saved killing these bastards. How many would they have killed if
I have spared their lives.'
Homura had ruffled out of the bushes and jogged beside me, he eyed the dead corpses staining the
very green grass with pools of blood "Remember when I said it's a sin to kill your kind.... I take that
back. These humans deserve to die." He said when he suddenly placed a paw on his black snout.
"They reek of dark magic too" Homura's voice was muffled. I glanced down surprised at what Homura
had just said.
'He could smell dark magic from them? Is that even possible or is something animals or foxes are able
to do?'
"Bleh" Homura stuck his tongue out, disgusted about it. He suddenly glanced at me when he felt my
annoyed glance at him "what?"
"Nothing" I forced out a smile but it came out irritated as a vein throb appeared on my temple 'Little shit
decided not to tell me about this ability he has. I'm gonna fucking drop kick him one
day'lightnoveldaily.com