Return of the Fallen Volume 13 Chapter 31
The sun had set, and the green fires burned from beneath the surface of the world. Pyres of flame rose to the sky before falling again and again, as if the world itself were breathing.
The howling shrieks continued to grow as they crawled out of the depths.
Monsuta rushed home with Kauzki in tow at his greatest speed. Everywhere they went, shriekers appeared. The two were shocked. One moment, the world was tranquil and calm, the next, everything became a chaotic disaster. It wasn’t just Monsuta and Kazuki who were caught off guard.
The land that had many different creatures roaming about, suddenly came face to face with their doom. All across Monsuta’s territory and beyond, creatures were being attacked and devoured. Their anguished cries were mixed with the howling evil overwhelming them and drowning their dying screams.
Very quickly the only noise to be heard were the howls and the burning flame flying high into the open air.
It was a terrifying feeling to be out right now. At least when there were horrific cries of others, it at least meant Monsuta and Kazuki were not alone. Now without the dying wails echoing in the distance. It meant the two were completely alone in the green lands. Surrounded in every direction by evils with the intent to eat you and claw you apart at every turn.
Yellow eyes glowing in the deep watching as they chase after your back. The howling growing louder and louder as they get closer and closer. Kazuki had been hunted before. Even in the Abyssal trench, there were creatures that wished to eat him at every turn but this…something about this felt different.
Making their way through the terrain, every few moments when the fires fell and retreated into the ground for a moment, the world would return to darkness. Only after a moment or two would the green flames reignite and the light would return. It was in the moments of darkness that things were the most terrifying. it was one thing to see your foes coming at you from all around. It was something completely different when the light disappeared and all you could see was the soft glow of yellow eyes as they got nearer.
“Monsuta, how hard is it to kill these things? All this talk about them, you never once mentioned how to kill one. What are their weaknesses?”
Monsuta kept quiet.
“Monsuta what’s wrong? Can’t you answer?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never fought them. After what they did to my family, I could only run away as far and as fast as possible. I don’t know about weaknesses or how to kill them. All I know is that when you see them you run and you absolutely under no circumstances do you look back. Let alone face them.”
Kazuki could feel Monsuta shaking as he ran. He was truly terrified.
Hearing this, Kazuki felt something was off.
“You’re saying you’ve never actually fought them. I thought you’ve had a few unlucky encounters with them before. Your saying in all the time you’ve been alive, not once did you exchange blows with them.”
Monsuta became quiet again.
Kazuki was not one to scare easily but the situation here was different from others. He was dealing with an enemy of unknown strength and powers. In this world that suppressed him, he was too weak to fight back.
(I can’t fight these things on my own but at this rate, we won’t make it back alive. I need more information. I need to find a weakness, something we can use.)
Kazuki looked at the shriekers getting closer and closer and began observing them. He watched their bodies and focused specifically on their movements. He eyed the shift in weight and then looked for joints, ears, eyes, and mouth. So on and so on.
(No ears, but mouths and eyes, or rather there seems to be a soft glow where their eyes should be but I can’t see an actual eye in their bone-like faces. Without ears, this should mean they cannot hear and focus mainly on sight or other senses to locate prey. I don’t see any genitals either so no weakness in that regard. As for joints, there have no knees but have something similar to elbows as well as the bones in the hands seem to have knuckles and so on.)
Kauzki saw a few of them come over a hill and lose balance on their hands. Because of this a few of them began to tumble and roll down the hill.
(They have such long tails but carry their weight on those oversized hands. That roll showed their necks to be overly stiff. Shoulders are bigger and rounded, they overcompensate with the hands because the tail is rather useless for movement.)
Kazuki focused some energy into his thumb and the nail grew by several inches. Slicing his arm open he pushed the blood out with a thought until he had a large orb of it. He located the nearest pack of shriekers before proceeding to toss this blood orb in their direction. He had done this without too much thought and so he accidentally hit one of the shriekers with the blood.
The blood splashed on the shrieker’s left arm and instantly the other shriekers stopped and turned on the one who was splashed. They inhaled deeply before pouncing on their comrade and quickly found the blood on the arm and ripped the arm off.
That shrieker cried out painfully, only then did the others seem to recognize it as an ally. This stopped them from continuing their assault but it did not stop them from trying to eat the arm. After taking a bite of their friend’s torn arm, they all spit it out as if they were disgusted.
This showed Kazuki many things.
(So their eyes are actually bad and even though they have no ears they can actually hear quite well. At least they can hear their own kind enough to identify themselves. Not only that but they have a good sense of smell.)
“Kazuki what are you doing up there!?”
“I’m testing a few things. Don’t worry and just keep going.)
Monsuta entered the burning bone forest and kept dashing ahead.
At the same time, Kazuki used his aura to pick up a few stones. With one stone he covered it in blood before tossing it behind him. Again the shriekers attacked his blood and one ate the rock almost immediately. Testing the smell, Kazuki gripped the rock between his hands before crushing it into dust. He then took only a few drops of blood and mixed it in all the debris. With the ancient hand symbols, he applied gravity to this rock and made it repair itself. Now his blood was spread out all throughout the inside of the rock.
Tossing this rock close to the shriekers. One or two gave it a small sniff before they just ignored it and kept moving.
(So their smell is good but not good enough. I may be able to use this.)
Taking another rock covered in blood, Kazuki threw it off to the side. The pack of shriekers tried to turn but at their current speed, it caused several of them to become unbalanced and fall over.
(So these ugly bastards are fast in a straight line but they can’t turn too quickly without losing their balance and toppling over. No doubt it’s from those overdeveloped hands and shoulders.)
Kazuki wanted to do more tests but Monsuta called out to him.
“Kazuki! Up ahead. What should I do!?”
Kazuki could see a few miles ahead there were hundreds of shriekers in their path. There was a long ridge line in front. If they were to go that way, they would be walking straight into these monsters. At the same time, the fastest way to Monsuta’s cave was this straight path. If they went around the ridge it could easily take another 30 minutes or more. With these shriekers everywhere, Kazuki leaned toward the more part of the equation.
While Monsuta seemed to panic, Kazuki was a lake of calm.
“Monsuta keep going straight.”
Monsuta thought he misheard.
“Kazuki what did you just say? Straight!”
Kazuki pat Monsuta on his back and reassured him.
“Just follow my words. You can do this, trust me.”
Monsuta gulped, but in the end, after the interesting and new things he saw Kazuki do, and the fact that Kazuki was his one and only friend, he placed all of his trust in Kazuki.
Rushing ahead, they quickly arrived at the mass of shriekers. The shriekers also noticed all of them and came crawling at them at breakneck speed.
Just as they were about to collide with one another, Kazuki called out.
“Now Jump!”
Monsuta listened, and putting all of his power into his legs, he leaped off the ground, causing it to splinter beneath him. Ascending several hundred feet into the sky, the two quickly began to return to the world below.
Kazuki, what now…Kazuki?”
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