'Was that a memory or some sort of premonition?' Damon pressed his lips together, struggling to take everything in as thoughts flared and burned in his mind.
His body felt even stronger after absorbing the strange spiritual energy, but it was obvious his injuries hadn't been mended.
He raised a hand and slicked his bangs upward, sweeping away the salty sweat that drenched his forehead and threatened to enter the cuts across his face.
Then his brows began to crease.
Once again, he had grasped at the occult and perceived things he likely shouldn't have. But he wasn't pleased in the slightest. While he'd once fantasized about such things happening as a chance to leave home, the pain thumping against his skull wasn't one he wished to endure.
"Let's hope this doesn't keep happening. I'm not sure my heart can handle all this..."
Damon breathed a sigh of exasperation as he opened the rustic green pack. He found the medicine vials Tomoe had prepared and picked one up, gently removing its wooden cork seal.
Then he tilted the glass over his face. The golden liquid poured out at once, sinking beneath the open pores of his copper skin like water filling a sponge.
After almost twenty seconds, he lowered his head and examined his chest and shoulder, noticing the stinging pain had subsided. He brushed his hand against his cheeks. The cuts on his face had closed.
'Wish I didn't have to use that so soon, but at least I still have some left...'
In any case, it was unlikely any others would go to waste once he met up with the other visitors. That was assuming the old woman had given them the same supplies.
In the meantime, Damon's confused mind quickly settled as he felt recuperated. He stood up and put his dried gray gi top back on. Then, with practiced ease, he lifted the pack and pushed into the forest.
Rustle!
Just then, the sudden sound of rustling in the bushes behind him quickened his pace. Damon cast a glance over his shoulder, feeling a chill just in time to catch a long shadow wrapped around a tree as it lunged toward him.
'So a beast was lurking nearby, huh?'
The beast had diamond-shaped brown patterns on its skin. It looked large enough to swallow him whole and heavy enough to tear up the ground as it moved.
Yet he didn't flinch.
Damon extended his blade at once, coating it in spiritual energy. He performed a horizontal slash, splitting the serpent's head in two before slipping past as the two halves and the rest of the creature's coiled body thumped to the ground.
As he continued moving, his enhanced senses stretched wide, and the back of his neck began to tingle.
"Tch. This sensation again? Does that mean another beast is close...?" Looking around, Damon soon noticed nine distinct clumps of spiritual energy scattered ahead in the distance.
At first it was hard to tell what they were, as the colors seemed to blend with the surroundings. But as he kept running, the mists began to solidify, and the bloodlust within became clear.
'Six beasts, maybe... That means the other three must be humans,' he quickly deduced.
They had to be the signatures of the visitors Tomoe had mentioned.
'I can't lose them. They're the only ones who can give me answers.'
Damon pushed harder, his legs burning as he closed the distance. The forest grew denser, the undergrowth thicker, but he didn't slow. He weaved between trees, vaulted over fallen logs, his breath coming in sharp, controlled bursts.
Finally, the ground dropped away before him, and his eyes fell on the figures of a middle-aged man and woman standing beside a young boy, all three encircled by a pack of six dire wolves.
The man had shaggy red hair and a chilly look in his brown eyes, visible through the faceplate. He stood tall like a brawny brute, head and shoulders above the woman, clad from head to toe in knightly armor.
But it was evident this man was no royal hand or righteous crusader. No, he was a warrior wearing indigo metal that lacked any sheen. Metal riddled with cracks and dents that dispelled all doubts of the wearer's experience.
The woman, on the other hand, gave off a more refined yet deadly air. She looked striking, with blonde hair and matching emerald eyes, so much so that you could almost ignore the array of blades sheathed all over her attire.
She wore tight-fitting leather pants, Marsell ankle boots, a corset, and a puffy-sleeved dark gray blouse cuffed at the wrist by metal gauntlets. Brown holster straps buckled around her shoulders, hips, and legs.
In Damon's eyes, this was the kind of getup you'd only see in cities or villages further north of Aegis or Koinonia, where the cold could offset the body heat that came from wearing all that leather.
But it was undoubtedly the attire of a killer.
And the wild canines sensed it too. While they were much larger than any Damon had seen wandering near the orphanage during winter, the duo's gazes remained steady, staring into those yellow eyes.
The beasts snarled and growled, baring fangs dripping saliva, but their expressions remained unchanged.
The woman was the first to act. She charged the nearest wolf to her right, wielding twin daggers pulled from her sides. She skillfully carved a deep gash across the wolf's snout before diving back as the man followed up with a swing of his large hammer.
Bang! Bang!
The heavy weapon swept through the air as the two blows landed, smashing the wolf's skull and sending another two behind it flying.
Instinctively, Damon crouched and peered through the foliage to observe the situation.
"Those two aren't bad; those attacks had spiritual energy reinforcement." He muttered.
Shortly after, his eyes wandered to the third member of the group, the least eye-catching one. "Is he just as good...?"
The blond boy's appearance seemed gaudy compared to his companions, adorned with gold-plated shin guards and wrist gauntlets paired with a flat chest plate engraved with the insignia of a black wolf.
His stance was unstable, and his arms shook as if it were his first time wielding a blade.
His face had gone pale as he struggled to breathe, using the broadsword defensively to stave off the other three wolves.
'Should I help?' Damon hesitated, knowing he was an unknown third party. He decided to keep watching for now, but his hand stayed on his weapon.
Knocking the sword aside, the fourth wolf lunged toward the inexperienced member. Luckily, the dagger wielder rushed to his aid, pushing him behind her as the wolf sank its fangs into her right arm.
Crunch!
The sound of bones breaking followed, yet her expression remained unchanged as she drove her other dagger into the wolf's neck.
The large man wielding the hammer moved to shield her, sensing another wolf rushing toward them. He slammed it aside with his armored shoulder plate.
But this left the third member unprotected from the rear and open to another wolf's assault.
Seeing the wolf closing in on its prey, Damon sprang into action without hesitation. He reinforced his body and blade with everything he had and leapt down, closing the distance fast.
Bang!
As his eyes turned crimson, he landed on top of the wolf, the sheer force collapsing the beast's spine. The blade extension was insanely sharp, easily piercing through the beast's skull and carving an explosive crater into the ground on impact.
Damon stood up, sprayed with blood, and pulled the blade from the skull.
'I'll never get used to this,' he thought, frowning in disgust.
He drew his energy back from the blade and shifted his gaze from the still-twitching body below him. Then he noticed the air had gone still.
The hammer wielder had finished off the last wolf and was now brandishing his hammer toward him suspiciously.
"Is it too much to get a simple thanks?" Damon asked jokingly.