Danger, Allies and Future Encounters

I walked through the yellow stalks of grass, hearing the distinct sound of people battling each other, fighting for their desires by stepping on a mound of corpses. I put a hand on my mouth, as I passed a mound of corpses beneath a tree's foliage. Each corpse was of a different race, yet they were killed the same way, by a direct stab through a heart. Based on every single wound I was sure that they were killed by a single person because the skill and force were the same and it would be very hard to replicate that effect by multiple people. Although, I was not sure by the tool used as the wound could belong to a spear or a short sword and I was not well-versed in ascertaining tools of murder, but I could say with exact certainty that the individual who managed to finish all of those people was really dangerous. I walked towards the mound of corpses, knelt down before them, and pressed my hands on the ground before them. I inserted a small bang through my hand beneath the ground. As if time was sped up, the mound of corpses started decaying and becoming fertilizer to the very earth they came from.

I started gathering the fertilized earth and some seeds of the tree in three small pouches. I did not want to use the corpses of these individuals in such a way, but I must be prepared for any possible dangers. After finishing the harvest, I gave a small prayer in hopes for their souls to have a nice journey to the afterlife or their eventual rebirth. I tied the three pouches to my pants, just in case I needed to respond quickly to a specific attack. Cleaning my hands, I started walking through the high grass while clutching my wooden branch.

[...]

After about 2 minutes of walking, I saw a clearing through the high grass. The clearing was large but it was occupied by two distinct groups. In the first group, there was a red-skinned man with six arms holding 6 falchions, giggling like a high school girl. Although his shrill laugh was quite painful to the ears. Another member of that group was a normal human, twirling a makeshift blow dart with short brown hair and crimson red eyes that sparked with lustful urges. It made me extremely unnerved by their conduct and the state of the other group. The other group had the same amount of people but they were clearly worse for wear. One of the members was a young man with bi-colored hair, black and white, in his early teenage years. He had dark brown eyes and had quite a pale complexion perhaps because of the 2 slash marks that stretched across his chest. Behind him was a young redhead girl around the same age, that could not move her legs an inch. She was quite well endowed for her age and had healthier-looking skin that the boy but it was still slightly pale. The girl's blue eyes were heavily strained as she tightened her feeble hold on her leg where a dart was poking out. Both individuals had the same clothing: a pair of black trousers and a red shirt, leading me to believe that they were in a way connected. The young man stood in front of the girl and said with an unveiled anger.

"Harmin, Edrion...you fuckers...how dare you betray us... in such a cowardly way?!"

"keek, you both are such dumbasses. This is the first test. Do you really think we are going to waste our chances teaming up with the likes of you! KEKEKEKE."

My eyes hardened and I knew that I will have to do something very stupid when I heard the next phrase from the blow dart user.

"Why don't you hand over your life and that girl? I bet she will be quite fun to play around with...lero,lero"

As the group inched closer to the wounded couple, I grabbed a small pouch tied to my belt and tossed it silently in my hand. Hunkering down, I looked around myself to make sure no sneak attacks will come for me before I concentrated and prepared my throw for the right moment when the villains would least expect it.

The group inched closer and when red skin prepared another attack and the lecherous human jumped at the group, I launched my attack. In an instant, branches spread out from the pouch and entangled both of them. The branches proceeded to stab both beings in their joints, effectively disabling them. The beings shrieked in pain as they lost the reception of their limbs. I quickly steadied my breathing since I wanted to clear my mind of the thought of what I have just done. It did not work but I still snapped my finger and the branches disarmed both of them. Everybody looked directly at me although they had different emotions. The villains had pure anger with some hidden notes of fear while the injured folk had worried and fearful gazes directed at me. I steadied my voice and tried to sound as confident as possible.

"I saved you...so please do not make me regret that decision-n."

I cursed at my wavering voice. I really hope that my face did not show my emotions as it would be more embarrassing than it already was. Before I could continue my discourse, the red skin interrupted me with a scream. This time its scream was similar to a thousand cats being tortured, not that I know how that sounds. Anyways the screech was truly a pain to my ears

" YOU BASTARD. I WILL KILL YOU. I WILL TORTURE YOU. I WILL DRAI-"

I snapped my fingers and snapped their necks with my branches. The loud twist of their vertebrae made my expression more strained and pained than it already was. I looked at the duo and walked towards them slowly. The young man was keeping a close eye on me, indicating their lack of trust in my credibility. I walked closer to him and said quickly.

"I can help you but you will owe me one-e"

As I started stepping closer, I had this thought 'What I just said, sounded quite erotic'. When this thought bubbled in mind, I instinctively turned red in shame. I quickly slapped my cheeks and I looked back the duo, to be met with the deadliest of stares from the boy and a confused one from the girl. I shivered slightly but still persevered in my task to help them. I created a bang of shinso and started making it thinner and thinner until it became a single string of shinso. The string had a particular shine to it as if it could not hurt anything. My hand moved slowly and the strings of energy started connecting his skin and severed muscles back together. After I stitched back both of his slash wounds, the young man's complexion turned for the better but he was still paler than usual. I presumed it could be a case of minor blood loss.

The young man gave me a short nod and said in his standard and more refined bass voice.

"Thank you, kiddo. You got us out of a really difficult situation. I will keep an eye out while you help Catrin. She got poisoned by that fucker Edrion with his blow dart. By the way, the name is Dennis. Nice to meet ya"

This short thanks created a warm feeling in my chest. It was very welcoming and nice and completely different from the mass of negative emotions I felt when I talked to the cobra necromancers

"I hope anyone would do that but knowing the world we are now... I can not say that with certainty. My name is Daiki...simply Daiki. The sentiment is the same."

I turned towards the young woman and proceeded to make the string of shinso. I looked at Catrin and replaced the dart with the steady flow of shinso from my bang. Slowly I started cleansing her leg, as the poison had not thankfully reached further...upwards. Clearing my throat, I started taking out the poison by using the shinso channel. The poison, a murky yellow liquid slowly appeared and i quickly bottled it in a vial from my Pocket. I placed the vial back into my Pocket and I looked at the redhead. Her injured leg started to slowly move. Catrin gave me a big smile and ruffled my hair with her hand.

"Thank you...HORNY BOY."

Upon hearing the little nickname I was just given, my mind short-circuited. Quickly my head reprogrammed itself and I was starting to question what lecherous thing I have done to earn that nickname.' Maybe it was that thing I said. Oh no no no no, I do not want that nickname to remain. It is so embarrassing'. Thankfully Dennis came over and cleared the situation for my embarrassed self and Catrin's bewildered self.

"Catrin I think you mean horned boy, not...horny. Horned means a creature of an object with horns but horny has a completely different meaning."

"Oh, sorry Daiki, if I made you unhappy. You really helped us a lot out there. By the way, what does horny mean?"

My face turned rigid as even I understand the meaning of the word yet Catrin seemed to be completely oblivious to the implications of the word. I turned around only to be met with a distant sigh from Dennis as if this has happened before or it is a daily occurrence. Dennis looked at me and nodded in lamentation as if he guessed my thoughts and confirmed them. Dennis turned to Catrin and said with a friendly attitude.

"I will tell you later. I think we need to prepare. I spotted a group of people heading to this clearing. There seemed to be four people and I think we will be at a disadvantage considering I lack my weapon, we were previously wounded and we are outnumbered. I suggest we set up a sneak attack in hopes to get them off guard and get a quick kill."

My form slightly shivered at the thought of doing something like that again. Although I have just killed 3 people, I can not say that I am ready to kill without the immediate threat of being killed or watching someone defenseless get killed. I spoke as quickly as possible.

"How about we just leave them be? They won't notice us if we sneak away now."

Both of them looked back at me with varying degrees of emotion. Catrin showed, of course, confusion to my motives but it seemed she had some form of curiosity. Dennis was different, he demonstrated a certain degree of understanding. He smiled and ruffled my hair before speaking in a caring voice similar to that of a brother teaching a younger one.

"Daiki, you are a good kid and I know you have hesitation in killing someone... but this is life. We are forced to do things we do not want to do. I know you are not going to change in a matter of seconds but I want you to understand for your own sake that this is a whole new world where there are predators everywhere but there are also potential allies. So we will do the hard work in thanks for helping us so much just now, while you will support us from the back lines. How about it?"

Upon hearing Dennis' explanation, Catrin confused expression into something softer and she also placed her hand on my head. I pouted slightly as they started giggling while ruffling my hair. I raised my arms high and said quietly.

"Okay, stop treating me like a kid"

They backed away, smiling kindly, and proceeded to prepare a space for us to hide in. I grabbed my stick and decomposed the corpses, leaving only the clothes and weapons. I was slightly confused as I knew that most clothes would be shredded away by my ability. I grabbed the clothes and weaponry and tossed all of them inside my Pocket. After finishing this task, I walked towards the hiding space prepared by the duo, awaiting our next target.

Not knowing of the danger, we are in by being in this area

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