It had been days since Iseul had eaten anything; the last few Scavengers had given her a lot of trouble. They always ambushed her at the last moment.
"Fuck this place," she cursed under her breath.
'I have to be careful,' she was following a wounded Scavenger. She couldn't let this one slip away like the last ones.
Currently, she was hiding behind a large piece of specially nasty-smelling coral, warily eyeing her target.
The Scavenger was wounded, courtesy of the last beast that tried to fight it. It was limping slowly, but not enough to put it in danger.
But its left leg suddenly buckled, and it fell on its side, seeing that Iseul activated her Aspect and dashed in.
As she ran, a blur passed by her left side; it was another Sleeper.
"This one is mine, scram," she wouldn't let anyone steal her kill.
"Like would I care!" the man shouted, his voice strangely familiar. One that made her heart ache.
It seemed both of them had realized that as well.
"ISEUL!!!" the man shouted her name and came closer, now she could clearly see her face.
"GAEL!!!" By the time their little exchange was over, they both reached the fallen Scavenger.
"Split the meat," Gael said with a strange smile on his lips as Iseul nodded in agreement.
Gael jumped with his hammer and truck at the rising Scavenger's arm, which was already in a bad shape.
At the same time, Iseul ducked down and cut the joint of the beast's right leg. The Scavenger toppled over and fell on its head.
They both jumped forward at the same time and struck the beast down.
***
A while later, they sat and just stared at each other with unreadable expressions. They wanted to say so much, but no words came out.
Finally, Iseul stood and walked towards Gael, who did the same. Reaching one another, they embraced and both whispered at the same time.
"Thank god you're alive."
They stood there, tears running down their faces; they didn't want to let go.
After some time, Iseul pulled away and asked through tears.
"But how? How did we both get sent into the same place?"
"Have you seen the others?" they both asked at the same time.
Shaking his head, Gael answered, "No, I haven't seen either Li or Dante in my two weeks here."
"I haven't either. In fact, you're the first person I've seen here."
There was a long stretch of silence as none of them spoke. Finally, Gael cleared his throat and said.
"Uhh… should we cut the meat out? You can have the Soul Shard."
With a deep breath, Iseul nodded and looked at the corpse with a disgusted face. Noticing that Gael asked.
"You've never done this before? I can do it if—No, it's not that, it's just the smell…" she interrupted him, looking at the fallen Scavenger with hatred.
"God, the smell."
Hearing that, Gael laughed and bent down. "I'll tear the chitin down, you cut the meat." He said with a grin.
Iseul now turned her barely disguised, disgusted face toward him, and after a short pause, she sighed and went to work.
After they were done, they tied the two separate pieces of meat with seaweed and each picked one. It was heavy, but they could manage.
"We still have some time left before night, but we should hurry— they both were suddenly tackled to the ground by something heavy.
They panicked and tried to summon their memories, but stopped when a gentle and excited voice reached them.
"GAEL, ISEUL, YOU TWO ARE ALIVE," Li said while his tail wagged through the air, raising dust and debris in all directions.
Their faces fell for a moment, but then they smiled ear to ear; another of the Four Devils was here.
"You scared the shit out of me, you goofy—Man, you're heavy." Gael said while laughing, "Li was heavy even for him, so he had to activate his Aspect for a bit of comfort."
Li hurriedly stood and said, "Oh my bad, let me…"
"Sorry I got a bit excited, AHEM! It's good that you guys are okay." Li tried his best to act nonchalantly, but his tail was still wagging left and right.
Seeing him, Gael and Iseul burst out laughing, which made Li laugh as well. It was the first time that he had genuinely laughed in the Forgotten Shore.
After some time, they all stood and looked at each other with smiles on their faces. Li gazed down and saw the two sacks of meat.
"Oh, you guys just hunted this," he said, pointing to his back. "I was done with mine just now and sensed you two."
As he said that, a large sack of meat came floating from where he pointed. Seeing the size of it made Iseul and Gael gulp.
'How many did he kill for that?' they both thought at the same time.
"Damn how many did you kill for that? It should be at least two." Gael said while looking at their own meat. Then he thought to himself.
'Of course, he's Li; he can do that.' He wanted to face palm but thought better of it.
That's when his gaze fell down to Li's armor; he hadn't seen it before. He remembered him once telling them he had an armor, but this was something else.
"Nice armor, you look like a… King? Hunter? Both maybe." He said while giving Li a thumbs-up.
"Funny enough, I got it after killing a king, so I guess you're correct?" scratching the back of his head, Li continued, "a really, REALLY ugly one."
Gael, remembering how he got his own armor, sighed and said, "Tell me about it."
They looked at each other with a funny expression, a mixture of smile and disgust. It seemed especially comical on Li's face. After they looked at Iseul, who held a similar expression.
"You too?" Li asked, but her face said it all.
"It was for my daggers, but yeah. Ughh… just thinking about it makes me throw up." Despite how sharp the daggers were, she got them after defeating a slimy mess of a monster.
They stood there, thinking back to their first Nightmare as their faces grew more comical by the second.
"Anyways, I think we should leave now. Come with me, I have a good hiding spot." Li said as he picked the sacks of meat with his Aspect and gestured for them to follow him.
Nodding, Gael and Iseul followed him.
***
"Mhmm… this is pretty good. Didn't know you could cook as well." Gael said while biting a big chunk of meat.
"Salt can do wonders. How did you get salt and seasoning?" Iseul would be lying if she said Li's cooking was bad. It was definitely better than the items at the cafeteria.
Well, a few days of hunger played their part in that as well.
"I have a storage Memory, remember? I've purchased some essential stuff back at the academy."
"A very wise decision." She said, barely looking up at Li, which made him laugh.
"Eat as much as you want, we have a lot of meat." He said while pointing at the remaining pile, "Plus, it would be nice if we finish all of this so we could hunt for fresh meat for breakfast."
They both looked at him weirdly, which made Li question them, "What?"
"Nothing, it's just that… you said we go 'hunting' tomorrow like it's a routine and not just fighting Awakened beasts, so tell me." Gael leaned closer and asked, "How many did you kill here? Five? Eight?"
Li looked at Gael with the most innocent face imaginable and said, "About twenty?"
Gael and Iseul stared at him, mouths hanging open. 'Lunatic, he is a lunatic.' Gael thought to himself as Iseul face-palmed.
But Li wasn't finished.
"I mean, I would have killed more, but something happened, and I'm handicapped right now. So no killing spree." Li sighed in dejection.
This time, Gael face-palmed as well.