"Come on now, you are only wasting everyone's time... We just killed our brother. Surely, you would be kind enough to comply with us."
Grinz, who was about to make his way back to the forest outskirts, stopped in his tracks and exchanged gazes with Jring.
The arrowhead was still embedded deep into his shoulder. To prevent any blood from seeping, his shoulder had remained as stone all the time. As for how taxing it was, just a glimpse into his exhausted expression would answer that question.
Whatever they were conversing through their eyes ended with a subtle nod. Jring moved away from Emphry. His steps were heavy and reluctant, but he still found himself walking toward Julian.
"Boy, return with us. We promise your safety, along with our mother's if you do," Grinz said as he sheathed his sword.
"And how do I know that you are speaking the truth?"
"You must have realized, my arrows were never meant to hit either of you. If that was not enough... we swear by the emperor's name."
Julian already knew that. Those arrows that were chasing him and his mother were only meant to frighten them. Nonetheless, Julian's face showed not even the slightest look of being convinced.
"Emperor's name meant nothing to me. Swear, bandits... swear by the name of your clan," Julian said, a provocative smile on his face.
"...Grab him."
Kring.
Julian pulled an arrow out of his quiver. Immediately, those two paled in fright. Strangely, Julian did not even nock that arrow into his bow, yet they showed so much fear as if a blade was resting on their necks.
"Jring, who ordered you to come after us?" Julian asked, the arrowhead pressed against his forearm.
"Boy, boy, let's not do anything stupid... It won't end well even for your mother if they woke up now, would it?" Jring said calmly and slowly, his sword already pointing at the ground.
"Answer me," Julian pressed the arrow harder.
"Do it, do you think we don't know you are bluffing?" Grinz chuckled, finding the threat from the boy to be amusing.
"Bluff? I did not bring you all the way here to bluff, bandits."
"N-no, no, wait!"
Jring, however, seemed to take the situation far more seriously. Or, perhaps, he understood their situations better.
"I-it was someone from your village," Jrinz said, his hands raised in the air as he approached Julian. Calmly, he explained, "He told us to bring your mother back..."
Julian had many questions. Not only about his situation, but also the bandits' situation.
The bandit's presence there was unexplainable for him. Following him into the tainted land was bizarre and completely unthinkable. He could attribute their actions to the universe's influence, which was trying to fix the anomalies. Yet, that brought more questions than answers.
"So, are you telling me that someone from a rural village paid you... offered you enough to traverse the tainted land?"
He needed answers, and if they had no intention of providing him with such, he had no need to keep dragging his feet. He just needed to do something he had intended to in the first place.
Also, one of them having a relation with the cult was enough for him to know what to do next.
Trickle.
"It was the truth!" Jrinz yelled, seeing blood trickling down the boy's forearm.
"...What's their name?"
"We... were not told..."
"What did he look like?" Julian's voice strained.
"A... please, boy... listen to me..."
"Bandits, may grace be upon us."
"NO-"
Shrtt.
Splurt.
"Son of whore! Grinz!"
Those two bandits bolted away without sparing Julian a second glance.
Rumble.
Rumble.
RUMBLE.
RUMBLE!
The ground shook immediately. The quiet land rattled as if it was finally being awakened after a long, long slumber. Cries rang from the east, roared rang from the west, and laughter rang from the south.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Those three humans, as puny as a speck of dust in that land, ignored the rapidly approaching noises coming from all directions. They just ran, and all they thought of was to run faster.
"You fucker, get away from us!"
"No."
Their roles seemed to have been swapped. For their second game of chase, it was Julian's turn to do the chasing. But, rather than using arrows and swords, he chased them down using just his forearm that was puking out blood.
"Bastard!"
Swish.
Jring turned around abruptly, slashing his sword in a straight arc. The target was none other than the boy who was trailing them. Now, not caring about spilling blood, the sword easily struck the boy.
The sword sliced Julian's nose, giving him an additional hole to breathe through, while also spilling more blood than necessary. However, Julian was not at all concerned. The scratch in his nose was a far lower price for the opening presented before him.
'Fold.'
Juian vanished. Jring retreated his sword and took a defensive stance. Eyes opened wide, eyes peered for any sound from above. He knew not to make the same mistake twice.
But the strike did not come. A second, that was all it took for him to understand that he was not the target.
"Grinz!"
Thud.
The lanky brother of him fell without letting out even a single shriek. In his head planted a black dagger. A dagger he had never seen before.
Shrtk.
The dagger was twisted before being yanked out. A stream of blood poured from Grinz's head, soon followed by one on his shoulder. The boy then bent down, seemingly pinching something from the forehead of the unmoved bandit.
"Ha...Ha...Ha..."
Jring's chest puffed up and down. He wanted to say something, yet no words managed to be squeezed out of his throat. He froze, not moving any muscles. Even when the large, disgusting creature stood before him, he could only blankly stare back into its soulless eyes.
CRUSH.
Julian did not manage to see what the fate of Jring. The last thing he saw was an avalanche of shadows that were creeping close from their back. Naturally, he took of without any concern of Jring in his mind.
'They would buy me some time,' Julian thought.
He looked down at his forearm. Although done shabbily, he managed to forcefully close up the wound using his newly acquired Gift.
Thud.
"Tch..."
Unfortunately, with no more blabbering of the Arcana, he was basically blind in that forest. Cursing the innocent tree in his heart, he picked up his pace and continued bolting through the forest.
'Calm down and keep running. Those three would buy you enough time,' he thought, trying to reassure himself.
He thought, he believed that those three corpses would provide him with the necessary time to escape back to the cave. That was what he thought.
Swosh.
Well, that was only what he had thought. But the blazing, hot claws that split his back open told him that he was wrong. Gritting his teeth, he turned his back into stone and kept going.
Swoosh.
BANG!!
Almost immediately, something else zoomed passed his back. It only passed him, yet, the air split by it was enough to propel him several steps forward.
"Urgh!"
Rumble. Rumble. Rumble.
Sitting with both hands clasping her ears, Maria was making her body as small as she could. She did not know what was going on outside. She did not know how much time had passed, but she did know that 'a moment' of her son should not last that long.
"Julian..."