SL Chapter 27 Suspicions
"Is she okay?" Bo-ram had barely taken a step when the monkey snarled at her, making her stop in place.
"You shouldn't make such brainless decisions. The enemy is in the dark!" Iris chastised, though Bora, with her years of experience knew that the woman would have shouted instead of trying to speak with a lower tone because of the current situation.
"Did you get a good look at the perpetrator?" Iris asked.
"Its a quadruped. Dark fur, green eyes, and the ability to sink into shadows. It resembles something of a black panther." Bora described it even as she feigned a calm expression. Inwardly though, her heart was racing a million miles a second, and she was horrified by the fact that should the beast have aimed for something like her neck, the chances of her getting away unscathed would have been slim!
Even as those worries and uncertainties filled her mind, her eyes and other senses never stopped trying to search for the traces of the beast.
'At first, the sound was that of a branch creaking. Could it be that at first, it had appeared atop a branch, then sunk into the shadows, following them all the way to the ground? How did it do that? Was it a result of that darkness that was cloaking its skin, like a flame?' she wondered.
Then, another creak was heard, though this time, because of her heightened senses she managed to pinpoint the exact origin, with her head instantly swiveling over. And there it was, having appeared in all its glory. Like a flame from the abyss, the darkness clung upon its form, covering everything else from prying eyes. It's claws were sharp enough to the point that even when they barely caressed the surface of the branch, grooves appeared, with the surface parting as if it as fragile as butter.
Iris acted. The monkey stayed but she moved, instantly leaping towards the beast, with her body becoming a blur of speed, yet she didn't manage to land her attack, only managing to shatter the branch's connection to its tree.
'The speed of sinking into the shadows is faster than we can move.' Bora concluded before preparing herself to use her eyes the moment it attacked once again.
This time, when it attacked, it chose another target, Bo-ram. And since the other woman was within her visual scope, Bora managed to see the moment it materialized right behind the other woman, activating her eyes at that exact moment.
'A thread connects us.'
The moment that phrase was uttered within her mind, an ethereal thread materialized between where their hearts were located, before turning wholly real, with both purple and black making up its color scheme. With a smirk, she yanked upon the string with her left hand, pulling the beast towards herself, with it sailing right over Bo-ram's head.
"Iris!" She shouted out.
The dark furred monkey that had been behind her vanished before materializing right in the path of the beast, upon which it slashed out with its claws, leaving dark trails within the air. Then the monkey's elongated claws vertically dug into the skull of the panther-like beast with such ease that the face was scarred with three claw marks before the flesh and skull became shredded, thereby ending the life of the beast.
Iris appeared right before the corpse of the beast, giving it a few kicks while curses left her mouth.
"Do you know that you are a burden. It would really be great if you left us." After a slew of curses, her attention became directed towards Bo-ram, whom she gave a look of disgust.
"..." The other woman ignored her, instead pretending to be gazing into the far distance.
Bora took that time to gaze down at her right arm, which had now lost everything below the forearm. This was a disability. And it was one that had come at the wrong time. She could regenerate it within a few minutes, yet there was also a worry that she might lack enough spiritual energy to fight the next battles that they might get dragged in.
"We are going to have to be even more cautious. The panther had most certainly reached the second level. It was cunning, with its ability giving it all sorts of advantages during an ambush. Bo-ram! You are going to have to take the lead."
"Why?!"
"Because we don't trust you with our backs." answered Iris in place of Bora.
"But...But...But..."
"I don't care about your excuses. If you want to stay with us and fulfill whatever you are plotting, then you are going to have to take some risks." There was finality within Bora's voice. She was even prepared to instantly attack the other woman should she catch signs that she was about to use her ability. Disintegrating things just by looking at them was an overpowered ability after all.
When Bo-ram finally relented, the group resumed their trek through the clearly artificial forest, heading towards their previous direction. But Bora's thoughts lingered upon the results of their investigations. They had managed to conclude that the black panther hadn't killed the man they had found from before, because of the size of its claws in relation to the wound. The dark claws had simply been too small, and considering the fact that the wound should have been created by a single large and long nail from a singular claw, the panther simply failed to fit that image. Then there was also the fact that there hadn't been any dead bodies or signs of an earlier battle in the area they had been ambushed by the beast, signifying the fact that whoever had murdered the earlier man had been lucky or unlucky enough not to have encountered the beast. That was why they had to be vigilant. If the person, or beast had been clever enough to bypass the panther, then they had to be someone dangerous.
"Come on out, dear friend hiding at the back of that tree." spoke Bo-ram upon pausing abruptly. Bora followed her gaze to that particular tree and managed to catch a glimpse of an elbow peeking out from the side of the trunk. She immediately exchanged a subtle glance with Iris, with the both of them entering a state of high caution.
"Please... Don't attack! I was simply recuperating from an earlier wound!" shouted out a male voice, with the person slowly coming out from behind the tree. It was a man with curly black hair and chocolate skin, with a pair of glasses resting upon his nose. He was dressed in short khaki pants and a T-shirt which was torn at the chest area with a large wound visible on his skin. Bora noticed that the blood around it was somewhat dry, indicating that it had been a while since he was injured.
"A mere plebeian actually survived till this moment. There must be something special about you." commented Bo-ram.
"It was all luck. Even this wound was gained because of a frenzied attack of some beast, which thankfully didn't take a second glance at me after I had fallen unconscious from its mad charge. What about you, three-ladies? Can I join you? As you can see, I really can't fight in this condition."
There was something off about the man. Bora was certain of it. There was nothing on him that could have caused the wound on that earlier corpse, yet her instincts were telling her that there was something off about his demeanor.
"Did you have a run in with a black panther by any chance?" Iris asked casually.
"A Black Panther?! In these woods? For real!" There was visible panic on his face as he looked around in fear.
'Something is wrong with him. What am I missing? What am I not noticing?' Bora asked herself even as she scrutinized the man, heightening each and every sense of hers until finally, an incongruity was noticed by her eyes.
It was the clothes. There was no way a person would purchase clothes that didn't fit them, especially in this world. Yet, Bora noticed that the pants appeared to have folds around the belt, a sign that it was being used to hold them up on his waist. Then there was the shirt. It was too form fitting, basically plastered across the man's upper torso. Maybe all these signs could be explained away with the reason that his clothes had gotten torn somewhere and he had broken into a clothes store, having lacked the time to really choose outfits that could fit him, but Bora didn't smell the dyes of new clothes in the air with her heightened sense of smell. There were instead odors that didn't originate from the man himself wafting from the clothes, odors that were from other people.
Then there was the wound. It was too precise. It appeared to be bad, with all that gaping, but there was no major blood vessel that had been severed. There was no way a charging beast would have caused just that minor an amount of damage!