Chapter 27 - First Blood

As we walked inside the forest, all I could hear were the sounds of birds, small footsteps and then, after a few minutes of walking, I could finally hear the crunching of a large object on multiple sticks. The Sticks were around 300 meters away from where we were and when I looked toward it, everyone followed suit just to find nothing.

"what are you loo-" my grandma couldn't finish her sentence before I started to dash toward the direction the sound while jumping up on tree, then to another than to another until I reached the nearest branch to stand on.

Due to my small weight and size the branches that wouldn't hold the old me, could hold this body meaning I could travel faster from above since there weren't many big branches. I quickly moved to on top of the sound that I had heard earlier just to find a huge black bear a few meters away from the last time I heard it

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Xela's POV

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As we ran towards the monkey that is my grandchild, I finally saw what she had felt from hundreds of meters away. I stopped the two aloofs next to me from moving forward. A bear was an easy prey for the likes of us to the point that bears had learnt how to smell us if we got close enough. It seemed to not have felt Pandora yet so she might have chance. If anything goes wrong im just going to save her with some magic.

I watched closely as Pandora looked at the bear just to nose dive down at the right moment.

Wait... WHY IS SHE NOSE DIV-

My thoughts derailed the moment I saw the huge sword right next to her plunge at the same speed as her. When the Bear had realized what had happened, it was too late.

The sword shot into the bears right lung barely missing the heart due to the animal's instincts that allowed it to dodge.

The sword decreased in side again turning into a thick short sword before being split into two. they were both respectively 16 and 18 inches. The tips of the blades were in black while the inside looked like solid gold. On was smooth and shorter while the other had a jagged design on curving near the top before turning sharp and angular again.

The hilts Were both black and scaly like those of a a dragons skin. The whole handle and hilt had a weird angular design that... worked? Anyway, the moment Pandora moved out of the way of the bears strike range, the bear went after her.

She quickly ran up a tree before moving jumping. This time however, it wasn't down, but rather to other trees instead. She moved so fast that she was just a blur.

Random curs started appearing on the bear and blood spurt everywhere. This was a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time. It wasn't nor administration but rather, it was the pure dread that bloodlust out on the people around the user.

"Crap this bear can use bloodlust, we gotta' help her" Throid said while grabbing the hilt of his sword..

"Why isn't she stopping? can she not feel it?" Alan asked me

No no no, its not that she cant feel it, its that she is emitting it, i have to stop her before she emits anymore than needed.

The moment I had my spell ready, Pandora stopped with a disgusting look on her bloodied face.

Did she finally realise what it means to take a life? It's okay, you can leave the rest to us. you are barley five years old, you shouldn't have to take a life

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Pandora's/ Atlas' POV

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UGH

What the hell is this? Blood? No, it lacks the metal feeling and taste. skin? nope... poison? doesn't seem like it. UGH. Every time I touch it I feel like something is being pulled into my body. This didn't happen before though... What is the difference between before an now? Is it because its weak, or maybe its soul flame is weakening. It had an Orange Soul Flame so maybe its that? But why would an orange soul flame effect me, and why would it only effect me now?

The hunger I had and still have would slightly go away but instead, be replaced by a sh*tty feeling of satiated hunger but as if I had eaten another rotten body for that to happen.

This is bad, I need to end this fast. Its' soul flame is weakening, so now I just have to destroy it to stop this feeling right? The I'll do it, and I'll do it with as fast as I can.

I Held my 2 swords together before merging them and putting them away. I made my fingerless gloves cover my hand and become thicker. I created claws strong enough to Peirce the bear

When I dropped down I saw the bears whimpering eyes ask for forgiveness which made me smile ear to ear.

I plunge into the back of the bear again, this time the left lung. I quickly ravaged the insides of the bear before ripping out its heart and subsiding the killing intent I had released on accident.

I step towards granny before saying "sorry granny, but I kind of ruined the meal" while holding the heart up with my now bear hands.

The two men looked at me with astonishment while Granny looked at me with admiration and slight... pride? I was covered head to toe with blood and grime meaning I had to take a shower in the river before dispatching once again from the forest. While I was watching myself off the blood, u started to think of how I could have won the fight more efficiently without ruining the meal and at the same time, without ruining my clothes.

And what the hell was that disgusting feeling? Is it because of my first kill in this body? Maybe the body is reacting to the occurrence more than my mind? I've killed humans for god sake, why do I have to go through this again in this life? Again? I've never actually killed someone other than my parents and sister in my last life and I still felt nothing... Oh well

I shrugged my thoughts away as I wore my clothes again and walked towards the three adults who were trying to ration the bear fairly between each other.

"first off, I'm the one who killed the bear so the decision should be up to me. I earned a crap ton of money though so I'm willing to let you guys have some of it. I'll take the liver and granny will take all the parts she likes. You guys get the rest." I said in a scolding tone.

I don't know what was worse for them. Being scolded by a 5 year old or having to leave all the good parts of the bear to me and Granny

"Man, Imagine you guys had half the brains my granddaughter has. Maybe you would have become fine warriors rather than mercenaries in a bar." Granny said with a smirk while puffing her chest out

"ADVENTURERS! And no, she would have kept it all to her self if she even had half a brain." Throid said with a smirk big enough to barely rival my tutors ass.

Does this guy get off at outsmarting children? This a*shole barely has a speck of brain cells within his head since no one in their right mind would have said that out loud. Sometimes I worry if i have curse for being surrounded by idiots. For some reason, the only person with a brain in my family and everyone I know is Aroura

"oh? I guess I'll take it all you ungrateful jerk!" I said while frowning

"W-wait I-I didn't mean it. It was a j-joke" Throid said while waving his pals in front of him in a panicky manner. Alan behind his just face palmed before letting his head rest on his hand, almost like he was grieving for the loss of food

"Granny, can you give Alan some of the game, while we take the rest for ourselves?" I said while smiling towards my grandma who in turn laughed

"yeah sure, take whatever you want, just don't be greedy" She replied while looking at Alan who had his eyes wide open and his face more vibrant than ever.

After a bit of quarrelling we came to agree how much each person will take before moving again towards our house. The two man followed us because Granny decided to invite them over to our house. They argued quite a bit before it was almost sunset and we weren't far from home.

I wonder what the fight would have been like if I was able to use magic. Maybe I would have ended the fight in one shot rather than having to slice it up. Man, only if there weren't so many witnesses. Oh well, At least no one saw me at the bar. Would have been really crappy off someone to just go ahead and report me to my parents. The chances are high but I doubt they can get home before us.

One thing I want to try is to use body enhancing spells like the wind one that had found in my sisters book. Apparently it uses wind to make you as fast as the wind or even faster? I personally think using floating spells is much easier and more efficient, especially for me. I do have to learn how to use float and flying spells though. The earlier the better, am I right? Right now I'll focus those kind of body enhancing spells or area of effect spells.

Before we knew it, we were already in front of my house. The place looked the same as we had left it but for some odd reason I had missed my bed a lot more than I had thought I would.

When we finally got inside, Granny told both Throid and Alan to come in while I took my shoes off and went towards my bedroom. I really wanted to try out the magic I was thinking off while coming back home and if it worked. it would be a huge breakthrough. Every element will need another/ different way to make it enhance my body. Right now I can only use the air magic body enhancing to increase my speed, and that's if I even succeed.

To enhance my body with fire and water would be difficult at best. I would need to be creative rather than just think of another way to create armour around my body.

The moment I went towards the stairs I heard my name being called by my mother

"Pandora Raven! Come here right now and look me in the eyes before speaking!" She said while audibly tapping her foot

Sh*t! Do I have some blood on me? Did someone inform my mother before we got here? Oh sh*t I do remember seeing a ton of shoes at the door but I wasn't really paying attention so I didn't think much of it.

I walked stiffly towards where I last heard my mothers voice before i entered to look at all the traitors who had betrayed me.