Chapter 38: The Odd Girl

Some time had now passed since Aron had left the cave and night had now fallen. He was currently making his way through a region he concluded had the most beast activity

He did this in case Henry and the others chose to pursue him immediately. Without knowing the exact way he was traveling and without any clues made going after Aron a hard task from the very start. But Aron wasn't one to underestimate his opponents and chose to remain cautious.

'Strange, from both a geographical and mana perspective, this region should have the most beasts but...I haven't run across a single one.' Aron thought to himself as he made his way slowly through the forest.

A thin glowing outline of mana could be seen around him; a technique unique to those who possessed Limbo strider characteristics that he had learned from his father when hunting. It concealed scent, sound and made one's mana blend in with that of the environment.

Such a skill was vital to all beast mongers who spent much of their time hunting beasts, but it also served well against humans.

...

As night completely fell over the region, Aron had yet to see any beast and had begun to grow suspicious as night-time was when beasts hunted most. So not seeing even one was something Aron found very odd.

"Grr!"

Suddenly a loud growl could be heard coming from further ahead of the position Aron stood. He quickly paused and squinted his eyes before slowing down his breathing and rushing towards the scene.

After three hundred meters, he was close to the origin of the growl and hid behind a tree before peeking to see what was happening.

What he saw was a familiar figure with pale blonde hair standing in front of a small fallen beast with a dagger in her hand.

Aron remained where he was and simply observed as she took her blade and cut a piece of flesh from the beast. She then placed the piece of meat on the ground and extended her hand towards it before speaking.

"Evanora says burn for her." She spoke and instantly the piece of meat caught fire. The flame, despite being small, was so fierce that the meat was burned to nothingness in no time at all.

"..." The girl with the tired, sleepy expression on her face squatted down and sliced another piece from the beast before trying again a few more times but the result remained the same.

Aron had now seen enough, and he made his presence known by stepping out from behind the tree he stood. Evanora looked at him slowly before speaking.

"You travelled with Evanora before she left. Why are you here?" She spoke in a strangely slow manner as Aron stopped a few feet away from her.

"I'm just passing by. Do you by any chance know why there's a lack of beasts in this forest?" Aron asked still more concerned as to why he saw no beasts on his way here rather than the girl's strange habits.

"Evanora killed them. Evanora needed food but failed. The food kept disappearing." Evanora explained oddly causing Aron to raise a brow. Her manner of speaking aside even her explanation didn't make clear sense to him.

"Do you mean you killed every beast you encountered and tried cooking it, but used a flame far too strong?" Aron asked for clarity and Evanora nodded.

"Why not use less mana when casting whatever technique or spell you're using or simply start a fire?" Aron questioned not understanding the odd picture Evanora had painted.

"Evanora can do neither. Help and Evanora will share." The girl turned to Aron and extended her piece of meat towards him like a sort of offering.

Aron took the meat from her and instantly caught fire, the fire lasted only a moment before vanishing, but this time the meat remained intact and he handed it back. After all, eating was more of an option to Aron whose body could survive off mana alone.

"Evanora is joyful." She muttered, but her expression remained the same as she took the meat and began to eat it then and there.

After this, she continued to ask Aron to cook piece after piece of meat for her and in return he had her explain what she had encountered thus far traveling. This yielded no decent results, but Aron wasn't surprised.

What he learned from the conversation, however, was that Evanora lacked knowledge. She couldn't understand complex words or terms and used the simplest ways to explain things.

"That flame you conjured earlier wasn't of a low tier, how long have you studied magic?" Aron asked bluntly trying to clear some doubts he had in his mind and gauge her strength.

"Evanora didn't study, she cannot read or write. Evanora only speaks to the mana and thinks of what she wants them to do. Then they listen and obey." Evanora's answer only made Aron question a lot more things since her explanation went against the norm.

Mages despite how easily their mana control looked like studied and practiced to get that point. They first learned the ever-expanding runic language of magic and used to learn and or create numerous arts and techniques which were collectively just called spells although quite a good number of people confuse the three to different entities from one another.

The more complex a spell was, the more powerful it is. Hence why intelligence was a common trait among the best mages. The case was different for beast mongers who stored inhumane amounts of mana within them. To cast spells, they didn't use words but instead used the mana within them and projected it as they wished which was complex on its own and required practice.

What Evanora was doing, however, was neither as she simply projected her thoughts, and they came to be. A one-of-a-kind class of mage referred mana manipulation as image casting.

Beings with this unique trait usually made for the best mages as Argos had told him. Finding someone with this trait although rare wasn't enough to have Aron this curious.

What got Aron so interested was the fact that this trait was exclusive only to certain higher races in Limbo. So, seeing one here had Aron see a potential way back.

'I suppose I'll just have to ask her in the morning,' Aron thought as he saw Evanora had fallen asleep not too far away from him cutely. So, he could only close his eyes and use this opportunity to meditate and steady his wills.

However, just around midnight, Aron felt an odd sensation as he opened his eyes to find a large creature in front of him mere inches away from his face.

The creature had no lower body and simply hovered in the air. Its large, muscular upper body was humanoid and so were its arms except on each shoulder a mouth bearing sharp teeth could be seen.

Its head was bizarre, its shape and mouth looked like that of a hound except with much sharper-looking teeth and four eyes along with large branch-like horns on its head.

These deathly blue eyes stared into Aron's eyes as its mouth began to move.

"Do... you... fear... us?" It asked in an echoed voice as it bared a bloody smile.