Snow felt a burst of wind blow his hair and then ZaiWin was gone.
Blinking, he immediately turned towards that horrible, dark creature, thinking that ZaiWin would reappear next to it, but the only thing he saw were three long, dark swords cut the air as swiftly as arrows, easily embedding themselves in the creature's slimy body.
The loud creepy shriek that echoed throughout the entire forest made Snow hold his breath and cover his ears with both hands. He'd completely forgotten how horrible that sound could be, how dissonant and destructive, making him feel sick to his stomach. Still, his gaze didn't stop searching him, until he finally found ZaiWin standing on a dark tree branch.
Even wearing his bracelet, Snow could hardly see him now, the darkness surrounding him so thick that it was as if, like the feimao, he too were a part of that desolated place. It made his heart hurt. Of course he'd known, since the first time he had laid eyes on him, all those days ago. Just like that forest, just like the feimao, something was fundamentally wrong about ZaiWin as well. It was just more painful to actually see it like that, out in the open.
The feimao also caught sight of ZaiWin and, turning his sharp head his way, opened its yellow eyes that were not two, but actually six, all spread across its dark head. Flexing its legs, it jumped directly from where it had been to the tree where ZaiWin was standing. Of course, by the time it reached it, ZaiWin was already gone, and three more dark swords found his way into the feimao's back.
It screamed again, making Snow cringe. It was agonizing! Not an animal's cry at all. It was actually closer to a sound that a human would make.
Furiously turning its head towards its attacker, the feimao jumped again, landing on the tree ZaiWin had just occupied only to find it empty again. This time, however, it quickly turned its long body to one side, its angular legs making it look like a huge deformed spider, its claws bitting into the dead wood of the tree and tearing it to pieces as it managed to escape the three swords sent his way.
Opening its horrible mouth, it half-growled in clear anger, darkness dripping from its sharp fangs, forming dark puddles on the ground. Releasing the tree, it landed firmly on its six paws, on the ground, raising a huge cloud of gray dust that practically covered it completely.
The dark arm-like thing that stretched out from its body moved so fast that ZaiWin was almost too late leaving the tree where he'd been standing. It smashed into the dead bark, easily shredding it to pieces, and immediately turned, chasing him, sharp claws slicing the air, trying to reach him.
A flood of curses left ZaiWin's lips when he barely touched his feet against a tree to immediately jump away, the sound of the tree being blasted to pieces echoing in his ears just a couple of seconds later.
That thing was still a baby!, ZaiWin concluded daring take a peek back. They were always worse when they were young, their bodies more flexible, capable of annoying, unpredictable things like that. As they got older feimao became more like regular animals, though of course monstrous and lethal. With young feimao one had to be ready to face almost anything. It was as if they still hadn't had time to settle into a specific set of characteristics and abilities.
As if to confirm his own thoughts, the creature down below turned its head upwards, opened its mouth, and easily vomited a volley of sharp, dark projectiles that ZaiWin had no way to avoid.
Clenching his jaw, ZaiWin quickly raised a dark wall to stop them. But, doing so, forced him to slow down, or he'd be hit by the projectiles in front of him anyway. The clawed arm on his back whipped the air in an attempt to slice him to pieces, but he quickly cut all energy to his daitai and fell as fast as a rock, all the way to the ground.
He landed with a loud thud that sent pain rushing through his entire body, but he didn't allow himself to feel it, quickly rolling to one side and springing back to his feet. The gray dust all around him didn't allow him to see much, but the loud crashing sound that followed him, added to the blast of wind that whipped his face, told him that the clawed arm had followed him all the way down there.
Conjuring six dark swords, he sent three flying towards where he guessed the arm would be, and the other three he guided all the way to where he knew that the feimao's main body was. And then he was out of there again, jumping to the closest tree, and onto the next, higher branch.
The horrible shriek that echoed all around him told him that he'd managed to hit its main body. But the violent way the tree where he stood shook, followed by the sound of dry wood breaking, told him he'd miss the arm, which forced him to jump to another tree.
By the time his peripheral vision captured sign of it, it was already too late.
In an attempt to avoid a fatal injury, ZaiWin turned his back to the second arm that had rushed at him from his left, ready to slice him mid-flight, and raised another barrier to protect himself. The feimao's claws sliced through his wall of darkness as easily as they sliced his clothes and his flesh, the burning pain making him lose focus for a split second, as he fell all the way to the ground again.
ZaiWin forced himself to breathe, to keep the pain under control, but the gray dust that filled his lungs only made things worse. Still he jumped to his feet and managed to step back, just in time to avoid another clawed attack.
ZaiWin stumbled back. He could feel his own warm blood covering his back.
This was bad, he thought, forcing his mind to focus. If it could do that with two of its legs, it could probably do it with all six of them. And there was no way he'd be fast enough to evade them all. Even less so if he couldn't see a damn thing, he frowned, squinting, trying to see through the cloud of gray dust that pretty much covered everything in sight.
The sudden rush of air was all the warning he got, and he quickly turned back, ready to evade it, knowing that while he did so the probabilities of another clawed arm targeting him from a blind angle were close to certainty. Quickly looking up, he considered jumping to another tree. The problem was that, unlike ZenTar, he couldn't change directions mid-jump. He could move really fast, but apparently so could those arms.
And then a crystalline sound cut the air, and ZaiWin saw what looked like a golden shooting star. Exploding just above his head, it spread a thin golden rain over everything.
The feimao screamed again, a screeching sound that made ZaiWin's eardrums hurt. But then the gray dust began to dissipate, the air becoming clearer and easier to breathe.
Before he could see what was happening, two other golden rays of light crossed the air right above his head. They looked like golden arrows, and more desperate screaming rang all around him, together with the sound of heavy paws hitting the ground, and then of more trees being smashed to pieces.
It was on the move again, ZaiWin knew, and he immediately jumped to higher ground.
Looking down, he could see that the small patch of dark dirt where he'd been standing was now glowing softly. And the moment he broke free from the cloud of gray dust impairing his view, ZaiWin immediately glanced to where he'd left the boy.
As he'd expected, Snow was standing up, holding a strange bow he could swear was made of ice, another golden arrow already gripped between his fingers. He looked like an unearthly ghost, covered by that soft light, his pale eyes fixed on his target, following its movements, ready to shoot it again at the first chance he got. But his pale face and forced breathing immediately told ZaiWin that he was pushing himself too hard again. That was definitely no place for someone like him.
The moment his feet touched the branch of the tree, ZaiWin immediately jumped again, now following the noisy movements of the creature. Unlike before, the golden spots of light left by Snow's arrows made it much easier to track it down, as the feimao too, jumped from tree to tree trying to get away. Being only a baby, it had probably never been in contact with anything even remotely as bright as those arrows. More than in pain, it was probably just scared, which had led it to run away instead of striking back.
Manifesting two of his dark swords, this time ZaiWin held them instead of flying them towards his target. He had to put an end to it as fast as possible. His wounds were still bleeding and he had to get the brat out of that place the soon the better.
Gripping his swords, ZaiWin used another tree as propeller and jumped again, changing directions, going straight for his target.
Gritting his teeth, he waited until he was right above it to stab it with both swords, the dark blades sinking into the thing's flesh until they hit hard bone.
The feimao screamed and a clawed arm swung at him, forcing to lay flat on his stomach on top of the dark creature. Refusing to release his swords, he used them as a conduit to send his dark flames inside it.
The creature tried to shake him off, another clawed paw barely missing him, and ZaiWin finally released his blades, allowing himself to fall to the ground. Rolling over himself, he remained crouching, eyes fixed on the dark mass thrashing around, still holding onto a dead tree.
Now came the hard part, he focused, ignoring its agonizing screams. The feimao's shrieks raised to a deafening screeching sound, and then his dark body was completely taken by black-bluish flames, as the fire quickly ate its way from the feimao's insides out. It immediately reduced the huge, black creature to cinders, and the tree it was holding on to as well, quickly spreading to the other surrounding trees. It was so fast, consuming everything in its path, that ZaiWin could hardly follow it with his gaze. Taking a deep breath he focused so hard that his forehead was cover in sweat, his head aching.
Enough!
The fact that the sound of his heavy breathing was the only thing he could hear finally allowed him to relax. Opening his eyes he still couldn't help wincing at the wide clearing of dark cinders in front of him. Sure, there was nothing there but dead trees and a dead land, but the fact that he'd only been able to control it after it had inflicted so much damage still vexed him.
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See? How learning bow and arrow was useful? All be grateful for our MenTar that had the patience to teach our little Snow 😊