"What is even that thing?" Hyun-Jae asked as she kept her sword up, ready to fight at any given moment. The first time, she was taken by surprise so she couldn't even try to defend. But, now she was mentally ready and anticipating any possible attacks. Her entire body was ready to instantly move the moment she felt anything.
Meanwhile, Talon summoned the second Aetherial Blade as he put one next to Hyun-Jae and one next to him. They were another layer of defence in case they couldn't react fast enough. After all, Talon's orders reached the blades faster than his body could move.
"I don't know, all I saw was a black figure before it vanished. But, it looked like a skinny and very tall creature. It moved on two legs with its body bent forward. That's all I saw." He replied as he sucked in a deep breath.
'I'm pretty sure I injured it heavily with that hit. The amount of blood dripping from the blade is considerably big. It's definitely not going to be as fast as before. But, I can't overuse my Future Sight skill or I'm going to harm my eyes.' He thought to himself.
The flaw on Future Sight made it impossible for Talon to use it more than three times at most if he didn't want to threaten to harm his vision.
'I need to kill it in the next attack or we will be in grave danger...'
The entire place turned very quiet with the only sound being heard was that of Talon and Hyun-Jae breathing subtly. Clouds of warm breath formed around their mouths. The sensation of the coldness coupled with the lack of vision was terrifying and nervewracking. But, neither of them seemed terrified or perturbed at all.
They have been in far worse situations in their lives before. This was nothing in comparison.
"We are going to end up in the same situation if we don't kill it. Dammit, I don't think we can actually do it." Talon clicked his tongue as he turned around. "It's too strong, for fuck sake!"
Hyun-Jae looked at him confusedly for a second before her eyes flashed with a glint of understanding. Then, she slowly dropped her sword. "We've almost been killed. I'm terrified... I can't fight this thing."
"What can we even do?" Cursing loudly, Talon slowly walked toward his companion. "We need to run awa-"
At that moment, the monster suddenly appeared near them as it jumped on Hyun-Jae from behind. The girl was standing completely still as if she didn't even realize it was there.
*Swish* *Swish*
But, the moment it reached Hyun-Jae's range, the girl's sword suddenly moved as she flipped it in her hand. Then, without looking, she stabbed back. At the same time, the Aetherial Blade next to her plunged into the monster the instant it appeared.
"RIIIII!!!" The creature was completely taken by surprise. At the last moment, it tried to vanish, but it was far too late.
Both blades stabbed through its body as the monster fell to the ground, motionless. Everything happened in less than a second and it ended abruptly.
"Are you ok, Hyun-Jae?!" Talon quickly rushed to his companion as he worriedly checked her body with his eyes.
"I'm fine, it didn't touch me."
"Fuuuh, that's good." Seeing that she was fine, he exhaled a small breath of relief.
"Are you ok too?"
"Yeah... Though, it fell for the easiest trick in the book, hahaha!" Talon laughed as he deactivated Future Sight before rubbing his eyes.
"I knew it was going to target my back," Hyun-Jae replied.
"Then, how was it able to avoid my senses when it attacked?"
"Because they don't move in the real world when their abilities are activated. You cannot sense them in the normal ways."
"What? What do you mea- Oh! Shadow Crawlers! They move through the shadows?"
"You caught on."
"That makes sense why I thought it was teleporting everywhere. It was using the shadows around us to sneak and ambush."
"I noticed that your senses are growing extremely sharp. At your level, it is almost impossible to detect one of these monsters. They're notorious for being able to kill creatures levels above them in strength by simply ambushing them. They also live in groups and hunt in groups, so if they set their eyes on a target, it is almost certainly dead."
"Damn... If I end up meeting a group of them, I might die... Nice, now I jinxed myself." Rubbing the back of his head, Talon rolled his eyes.
'I know my luck, watch how I'm going to end up fighting a swarm of them at some point.'
So far, whatever he wishes not to happen would most of the time happen. He even thought that for every point of luck he gets in his skills and bonus points, he gets horrible luck in the situations he finds himself in.
'A very fair trade if you ask me.'
"So, what should we do now? This place might be filled with these things as far as we know."
"Yeah... We can't remain here, it's too dangerous. Dammit, I wanted to take it easy during the trip so that everyone is ready for the battle. But, we don't have any other choice. We will have to move to the next city. They shouldn't be able to follow us there."
With that, the two started going back to the group. The first step of the trip was a failure, but, it wasn't the worst-case scenario. They have already accounted for the possibility of such a scenario.
When they reached the group, Talon announced the new plan. Some of the survivors were confused and a little scared but after hearing the explanation, they could only agree with the decision and get inside the cars again.
Since they already had fuel with them that could last a week, they had no need to search for more in the town. So, the group of vehicles quickly left the place a few minutes later.
They immediately got back on the highway around the town.
"I guess we're going to reach your hometown quicker than we expected, Hyun-Jae," Talon said with a small smile.
"Yeah..." The girl replied dazedly as she kept an eye on the outside world.
***
Unbeknownst to them, back where the dead creature lay dead. The place was completely quiet and dark with barely any source of light for vision. Time seemed to tick slowly in the destroyed town.
Then, out of nowhere, something or somethings appeared and carried the dead monster before vanishing as if they were never there.
"Riiii..." A very low, and angry grunt echoed in the world, unheard by anyone as the sound completely dissipated the next second.
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ????