Chapter 78 - Seventy-Six (1/2)

POV: Back to Thilgon

After I was done with my goodbyes and recover from the attack on my Shadows Clones I took my revenge upon the sneaky little ones, and being low-level as they were they posed no threat to me until, finally, there was none of them left, some having fled long before, but most met their end here.

The only thing left was a battlefield with no corpses, the black substance a remanence of the creatures that once stood before us.

I look around only to reaffirm that the battles had really happened and were done with, no creatures left behind to threaten us.

And yet…

I could not seem to calm down, as if I was still being watched, preyed upon, like we were not alone just yet.

I had a bad feeling about this.

I turn around towards where Leo is, a background of destruction framing his silhouette over the balcony only to perceive the same concerned expression on his face, a frown covering our foreheads.

”Should we chase them?” He says, looking at the clear path that the few who got away left behind.

As much as I wanted to know who the puppeteer behind this bizarre play was I had to set my priorities straight.

”No, let's go met the others, I have a bad feeling about this.”

He nods, no longer wasting time as we turn and dash forward into the woods, a clear path opening in front of us with trees bend and the grass crunched under my brother's big paws.

Told him to invest in stealth, even a blind could follow his trail like this, sigh.

With the help of my nose we track them in a rather precise way, but my brother's full speed in his Cerberus form had been way faster than our two-legged was now, so without asking I embrace our bodies in my shadow, having it take my hound form and dash forward so quickly that one would think it was just the shadow of a leaf passing by, but in fact was I jumping from shadow to shadow, dashing forward fast.

That had been the closest thing I got to teleportation, working very similar to it as long as the place had shadows for me to dash on from shadow to shadow.

As I was moving us my mind starts to wander and think about what had just happened; who could this puppeteer be? What were his intentions? He was not a simple individual, after all beyond finding where we were he managed to break the seals protecting the place made with strong magic brought by the bringers of magic; though part of me questions now if the magic had not aged badly and lost its strength, it would explain why he manage to enter.

But even more to defeat Elfihe, the herd leader, the snow bringer, and to have such strong creatures under his control.

It makes me wonder what else he has under his sleeves…

And his intentions were even more obscure than his identity, after all what were his reasons to simply attack us? It seemed coordinated and planned, but for what reason? To steal the money back? It didn't seem that simple either…

I had the feeling that this was not the last time we will hear from this puppeteer…

But no matter his reasoning right now, what I should focus on is what are we going to do for now on; with our ”safe” place destroyed and the country looking for us, our options seemed rather dull… We should stick with the part where we would leave this place to let things cool down, but this soon will make things rather troublesome.

Well… let just say that me and my brother stand out a little too much… especially my brother who could not hide his ears or tail for a second, sigh.

What to do, what to do…

However, as soon as I got farther into the woods and closer to the group all these thoughts slipped away from me, unimportant.

The first sign that something was wrong was the strong smell of blood that hit my nose, carried by the wind between the foliage. With my nostrils flaring I speed up even more, the trees passing by as mere blurs.

Until we reached a clearing.

It was not a natural one, I first realize while looking at the cut trees that were threw far away, soil messed around as if a huge dog had rolled over the entire place and, oddly enough, here and there, there were some… handprints on the floor, as if someone was making a handstand; but they were so far apart and numerous that it was impossible, plus they were repeated in the same format, as footsteps, but instead there were four, five, seven handprints scattered around over and over again.

I have a really bad feeling about this.

I run and dash, seeing signs of fighting all over the place, trunks and twigs broke and some still slightly attached to the trees, swinging with the wind, some black fur stuck on the woods and… some of that goopy substance stuck on the soil, almost covered by the shadows of the growing night.

Without further ado my shadow form solidifies even more, embracing us like a cocoon and jumping as quick as it could, sometimes not even touching the floor before teleporting once more, going into the woods only to end in yet another clearing, a bigger one this time.

But my eyes did not land on the trees this time; but on the bodies lying around on the floor.

For a second I stood there, in shock, only staring at them, not knowing what to do, where to being, when Leonel runs forward and reaches the first body he finds.

It was Ragnur lying unconscious, a bloody smear on his forehead, but for what I could hear from here his heart was still beating, proving that his wound was somewhat minor; at least not in immediate great need as he was not bleeding much anymore.

The others, however… did not have such luck.

The twins were on the side, and a quick survey showed me that one of them had lost one of the arms, his heartbeat weak as a lot of blood had already flooded out of him.

Isa and the knight, the only ones still moving and conscious, were beside the both of them, Isa healing the severe wound as both his hands where with the palms open and turned towards the twin's skin, a bright light flying from it like little rays of sunshine being absorbed by the twin.

They both looked tired, mud covering their bodies, having gone through hell and back.

But I was not worried about them… no, there was only one person, one creature that I had been searching for all this time.