Shadow Archer

Ethan set down Hazel's bags and then opened one of them, looking for one object in particular. After a few minutes, he found a sphere-like object that had many cracks in it and began inserting some of his mana into it.

Slowly the sphere began to light up the cave, then did this with two more of these objects and most of the cave was lit up so Hazel could see. After it was lit, Hazel put down her bags and also opened one then grabbed a water bottle out of one of them.

She leaned back against a wall of the cave and took a long drink from the bottle, then looked around the cave. After a moment she stood up and walked to the entrance, where Ethan could feel that his shadow strings were being disturbed, and looked over at her.

When Hazel looked out the entrance of the cave she was surprised to see that she was high up in a mountain and the sight of giant trees in the distance. She walked back into the cave and sat against a wall in it.

"Where exactly are we, or how far are we from the church?"

Ethan sat against the parallel wall of the cave for a bit before answering her question. "I don't exactly know where we are but we're at least a five-day walk from the church, and that's if you don't stop. I definitely know that we're no longer in the US though, the Mana Beasts aren't ones you'd normally see there."

"Yea, never seen trees like that either…."

Ethan stood up and headed towards one of the bags with a bunch of gadgets in it, then began looking through it. He grabbed two onyx-black rings and another sphere-like object, though this one had several red gems on it and was much lighter than it looked.

He tossed one of the rings to Hazel, which she caught, and let out a small laugh.

"I assume you wanted me to have these when I go out."

"Yea, guess you saw them before the bags were zipped, huh? Like I said, I want to learn more about you and your capabilities if you're going to live with me." Hazel slipped the ring onto her right index finger.

The two items Ethan took out of the bag were magic tools that Hazel had made. The rings were made from crushed-up telepathy crystals that were linked together and infused into an ore that increased the power of psychic-type Abilities.

The sphere-like object was an orb made from an ore that can defy gravity depending on the Mana input, while the red crystals were a type of crystal that could relay images to another location. The orb was controlled by Hazel's gaming console, in simpler terms, this was a drone.

Ethan put the ring onto his right hand as well then began to sink into the shadow, while Hazel looked through her clothes bag to get her gaming console. When she finally found it and looked up, Ethan was already gone.

"*Sigh* Bastard didn't even let me wish him good luck and stay safe, then again I can do it through the ring but it wouldn't be the same."

~~~~

Ethan slowly emerged from a shadow casted on a branch of one of the giant trees in the forest. He could feel that the drone in his hand started to move and let it go, where it then started to float and look around the area.

He crouched on the branch and placed his hand on the trunk of the tree, then closed his eyes and stretched out his senses to find a good prey for his first kill. He knew that a simple, normal animal would be worse than a Human and that blood from a small Mana Beast wouldn't satisfy his thirst as well.

Slowly his senses spread throughout the forests, listening for the sound of a heartbeat or the scent of blood. Hazel could tell he was focusing and didn't say anything to him or move the drone around.

The drone Hazel was using could also pick up sound and the forest was completely quiet for her, it would be impossible for her to guess all the sounds that Ethan was hearing at that moment while searching for Mana Beasts.

The wind, small animals, crickets, the leaves on the trees shaking, and more sounds were all coming to him. The scent of the earth, sap from some of the trees, and other scents were also being registered by him.

Finally, the thing he was searching for for the past fifteen minutes was found.

He could hear the sound of two heartbeats, along with the sounds of fighting, and the scent of blood came to him.

Ethan opened his eyes and then began to run and jump across the tree branches to the location of the fight between two Mana Beasts. It took him roughly three minutes to reach the location, and when he did he could see a light blue colored elk and a boar with a fire going down the middle of his back.

"A Blue Ice Elk and an Emberback Boar?" Ethan mumbled to himself.

Right before Ethan mumbled that the drone had caught up to him and Hazel could hear what he said through a microphone on the drone. "How do you know what kind of Mana Beasts they are?"

Ethan knitted his eyebrows for a moment, then sighed. "I don't entirely know, when I saw them I just muttered that unconsciously to be honest."

Ethan watched the two Mana Beasts fight for a few moments until he reached towards the shadow on the branch and slowly lifted his hand up, though something followed his hand when he took it away from the shadows.

It was a bow and some arrows completely made out of the shadows.

He grabbed the bow and arrows then raised the bow with an arrow loaded at the elk. Slowly he drew back the bow and took a deep breath. Hazel was watching this and was surprised at how he was using the bow despite knowing this was his first time using one.

Hazel's father wanted her to learn how to use several types of weapons from swords to bows, however, the one she excelled the most at was a revolver. When she was learning the bow though, this is the exact stance and way her teacher used a bow.

Finally, Ethan released the arrow and it began to fly towards the elk, where it then entered through its eye and exited the other one.

'How did he…?'