Chapter II: A Chance Meeting

A Chapter by Oran

A couple of hours away from home, Solis is about half-way through Redwood Forest. It’s famous for its unusual green coloured leaves during autumn and its red coloured leaves the rest of the seasons. I don't know why they call it Redwood if the leaves are red and not the wood. Qui'nix, semi-flightless birds with huge beaks and wings usually migrate here for food, particularly giant insects, which, in turn, the Slayer finds creepy.

“How much farther, Tenen?”, asks Solis, shuddering after seeing a huge millipede.

“Not too far”, she answers with the flick of her left antenna. "We should be close to the edge of the forest by now." Tenenbaum moved from Solis' right shoulder to the top of his head then points out: "Over there."

From the hill going down from Redwood, the pair find themselves at the outskirts of a volcanic belt. The harsh environment doesn’t seem to be suitable for any living creature, unless it eats rocks and breathes sulphur. That’s what our main character is commissioned to hunt right now. It likes to bury itself underground and toy with its prey by shooting up pillars of flame from below them, but the Slayer is not the least bit amused. These things are hard to kill because they have the nature of keeping themselves hidden, but Solis can take care of that...

Itching to kill it creatively, a smile forms on the Slayer’s face as he grabs something from his pocket.

“Come out already!”

Out pops a [1]sonic bomb toward the focal point of the tremor. This bomb produces a shrill noise that some beasts find irritating, like the one Solis is fighting right now.

Finally, after another pillar of flame shoots up, its head finally came out. Dark, glowing eyes with black rock eyelids, fangs like stalactites and molten iron skin covered with obsidian spikes that pierce through the earth's surface.

Just another day at the office for the Slayer.

"Do it, Tenen..."

"It" is actually Tenenbaum blasting out a concentrated beam of dark matter to stun the creature. Now, the damn thing's head is stuck while the rest of its body tries to surface. Too bad the dark energy already vaporized a decent amount of body fluids. Now, it's unable to move from neck down. After that, Tenenbaum took a nap on her companions scalp.

With a murderous intent, Solis brings down the monster with a clean cut in the upper abdomen sticking out of the ground to neutralize its air sacks. Unable to breathe, it falls on its cheeks with its tongue sticking out. It ain't a pretty sight. Its mouth was foaming up because of the pressure stuck in its lungs trying to go through its mouth; it's gross. Luckily dust rising from its heavy landing covered it up. These are one of the easier monsters he's hunted, much to his disappointment.

"Wow, this guy's no fun at all", Solis as he approaches the carcass.

"Yeah, you barely did anything", said Tenenbaum hopping off her partner's head. Solis merely glares at her.

“Good job.”

Was that a girl’s voice? It was, right? Who is that? Has a new companion of our main character finally appeared just to make this damn story more interesting? Probably. She looks pretty much like the type that would start the rising action to an epic story... or... wait, this story sucks. The writer just thinks that it’s epic.

She was sitting at the edge of a cliff with her legs crossed as she looks down at the Slayer. Her eyes looked albeit grim because of the crimson that seemed to be soaking her iris, but the truth is, her eyes are naturally colored red. A maleficent, yet nostalgic stare caught the attention of our main character, almost as if she's a shota-con while she looks at him with lewd eyes. Her hair looks like that of a [2]Yuri character, specifically [3]Tokaku Azuma- it’s all short and messy. The only difference was that it was tied to a side ponytail that tread down her left shoulder.

What seemed to really catch Solis’ attention was that peculiar scar under her right eye. The hooded assassin’s suit she was wearing was dark and somewhat mystifying unlike anything the Slayer has ever seen before. She seemed to have hidden blades attached to her wrist just like the ones [4]Ezio had. One was sharply pointed at the end while the other curved like a hook.

“A-Are you... Lycomedes?” He didn’t think his client would be a girl.

“No.” She snaps from her trance.

The refined tone of her voice sounded somewhat familiar to him; he just can’t seem to remember. The next thing she said, however, surprised him.

“Are you aware that he’s a Demon?”

“What are you talking about?” Threatened by what she said, he readies his blade. He’s caught wind of these “Demons” from the people at the Hunting Guild about these things that appeared sixteen years ago. They say they’re the cause why the monsters are acting so aggressive.

“There’s one right behind you.”

He looks behind himself. A flippin’ arm just popped out from the ground! Solis examines it, and soon an entire body of a corpse reanimated and sewn together unearths itself.

“What the heck is that!”, Tenenbaum reacts. She sees how hideous its face is and screams: “KILL IT!”

Solis draws back and slashes the gruesome creature upward.

[5]Not very effective.

You’ve never heard of it, have you, dear reader? To kill Demons, you need magic. Our main character’s weapon, Kirin, is pretty much magic, but his attacks remain physical due to the fact that his Elemental Affinity does not match the weapon itself. These so called Stygians are minions that serve as the Demon’s tools of destruction. They’re made entirely of ethereal materials so that physical attacks won’t break through them. They are violent, mindless abominations that have blades for arms and the twisted bodies of once living men as a vessel. Tenenbaum tries to use magic on it, but she can only stun her enemy.

"Why", *slice*, "won't", *cut*, "you", *slash*, "die!", *chop*

The Stygian retaliates but he was able to block it. The volcanic crusts of earth that surround him started to crack as more Stygians emerge from the gaps for some reason. Solis slowly backs away from the sudden increase of entities trying to kill him and before he knew it he was surrounded.

“I come looking for them and the first one I find doesn’t even know his own powers”, the girl remarks while palming her face in disappointment.

“But you think he’s cute isn’t he?” A cat suddenly leapt from behind her and landed on her shoulder. She looks the same as Tenenbaum, actually, but instead she had golden fur as luscious as [6]Finn’s and one antenna at the base of her skull.

Without reacting, the girls slides from the cliff and lands on her feet. She releases both blades, but instead of the regular design of the assassin’s hidden blade, ethereal chains seemed to be attached to the blades once they’re unsheathed- allowing the writer to dodge a bullet from the laws of copyright infringement.

Steadily, she approaches the pack of Stygians that were about to pounce on our main character. She counts her targets and sights the first one that was going to take a shot at Solis. With the hooked blade dangling from the chains she was holding onto on her right hand, she snags the one that was about to hit the Slayer with a spiked bat. An immediate slash followed up with her other hand that was holding the other blade edged like a dagger wrapped in chains at the handle. The rest of them had their attentions caught, but before they could even feed themselves with the intent to kill their target, a flashing criss-cross of dark blades eviscerated their bodies, causing the Slayer to lose balance from the shock. With his eyes trying to unravel what this situation was, he questions her.

“Who are you?”

“...Just someone running away from him...”

She points toward the distance, and beyond the horizon, Lycomedes was making his way toward them with a thousand Stygians behind him. The ground trembled as they marched. Each collective step they take shakes the earth and strikes a blow to its very core. An entire army of dead men was out to kill not only the girl, but now, him, as well.

“Mendokusai...”, she pouts. “We don’t have much time”, she says as she offers her hand, “You’re going to have to trust me.”

Reluctantly, he takes her hand. After thinking about it, if these... things were really out to kill him, the safest choice would be to find someone that could protect him. He’s been alone for three years, and a sudden change of scenery like this is more than interesting to him.

“For now”, he replies.

She holds him by the wrist and raises his arm against Lycomedes’ army.

“What are you-“

A ray of light ripped the sky and singed the ground where the Stygians were marching. The flash of heat and sunlight burns and reduces them to ashes, leaving the army with less than a third of its original numbers.

His hand twitches as her grip gets tighter and ray of light fades, and it somehow bothers her.

“That’s all the mana you have?”

“Mana?”, he asks while blushing from her touch. “W-What are you talking about?”

“This idiot doesn’t even know what Mana is...”, she thinks to herself.

Running out of options, the girl decided to run away while they recover from the attack.

She pulls her by the hand. “Let’s go.”

The girl drags him along until they get to the top of the cliff heading to Redwood Forest, where he immediately let go of her to ask a lot of questions.

“Hold on”, he says as they both halt. “What was all that about? Why were those guys trying to kill me? And why would you help me when I don’t even know you?”

So many questions, but only one was answered.

“Because we’re two of a kind.”

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1. An item thrown to emit a loud, shrill sound upon impact from the Monster Hunter series.
2. Literally means "lily". Often also interpreted as lesbianism.
3. An Anime character who is hinted to be a lesbian in the Yuri Anime, "Akuma-no-Riddle".
https://terminaato.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/akuma-no-riddle-1_2.png
4. Protagonist from "Assassin's Creed: Revelations".
5. In-game script for Pokemon when the attack is ineffective
6. Main protagonist from "Adventure Time".

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