They passed through him and hoped that he would be able to at least stall the bear for a short while.
Actually, the King already knew of their tactic. Most adventurers would do anything and use anyone to ensure their own benefit of survival. That's how it always was in this world.
He decided to play along, feeling in the mood to mess with them.
A few seconds passed, and the bear erupted from the bushes, bending the trees that hindered its size. It gazed at the team, not even minding the red robed man. And it immediately ran to chase. But when the bear passed by the King, he felt a very faint scent of the same demonic print.
He abruptly grabbed the 3 meter bear with one hand. This made the bear stop itself from running and turned to look at the man in red. It was about to lash out, but when it met the eyes of the man, it whimpered instead.
Why are there so many scary humans today?
It felt wronged. It was just sleeping peacefully. They were the ones who woke it up! It hated being woken up!
The King let go of the bear as soon as it whimpered. But gave it a sharp stare to keep it in place. The bear didn't dare to move nor escape, because it knew, that if it did, it wouldn't exist anymore.
"Apologies, Fauna. I will be intruding." He muttered before his eyes glowed golden. He floated up the sky to meet eye to eye with the bear and he used what divine ability he can get to read its recent memories.
He saw a dark cave, and two people with an illumination stone. One is a man another a woman.
After a moment, the man looked at the woman sadly, before he disappeared into thin air.
The next moment, the woman was poorly dodging attacks from him. This made him furrow his brows. She was able to outrun Reapers who were a thousand stronger and faster than this huge bear, but she can't even dodge its attacks?
Not long after, he saw her look away, her expression filled with relief, and then the next second, was filled with fury. And another second passed, where her expression was blank. This made the King more confused. Does she have split personality disorder? But he relived her life and knew nothing of the sort.
He then saw the woman's arms turn limp and she laid there. He can tell that the bear was lunging at her but when he was in mid-air, he saw her eyes turn golden. This made his breath caught up in his throat. What is the meaning of this? Was she possessed? But they wouldn't be this 'alive' if she was possessed. In fact, it would use the body to wreak havoc, not act kind and stupid. Was it latching on her? But it wouldn't show itself no matter what. When the body it latched itself onto dies, the demon can roam free after. Then it might not be a demon? But the demonic presence itself is the same.
He had no clue anymore. But he was fairly certain about one thing. She had something with her. Something dangerous. He just doesn't know what, how and when it joined with her.
He read the rest of its memories but it was filled with it chasing the team he saw earlier. Satisfied, he released it from his intimidation.
After the oppressive aura was gone, the bear immediately scampered off to where it last smelled the team. It didn't want to go back empty-handed after being humiliated twice!
Reliving its memories might seem like it consumed a long time, but actually, it all just happened in a second. This made the bear happy that it was still able to track the team down. But as for the King, that single second just earned him a lead.
He dashed towards the direction where the woman, Inna was supposed to lay. He made sure to conceal himself so that she wouldn't notice his presence. But when he arrived near the cave, he saw no bodies on the ground. He knew she was there because there was still a pool of blood in a spot a distance away from the cave.
The King knelt near that spot to touch her blood.
Fairly warm. She was here minutes ago? No, ten minutes at most.
He looked around and saw no other bloodstains except the one he examined. He felt it was strange. If she was alive, she would've left bloodstains when she moved. And there were no healers at her side.
He realized that after meeting this soul, it's the first time that he had this many unanswered questions. It actually made him quite baffled and impressed at the same time.
He decided to look around one last time, and tried to feel the whole western forest for any human souls. But he wasn't able to notice anything strange at all. He just felt the 4 souls from the team of adventurers he just met.
Now that he found them, he realized that in the bear's memory, there was a man with her in the cave. And, from what he saw earlier, that man was with the team running away from the bear. Then, it must mean that they met her!
With a newfound lead, the King decided to trace their soul patterns to find out where they are.
In a few seconds, the King arrived near them, just as the bear was prepared to launch an attack.