"Ugh."
After an unknown amount of time, Ran, who had just groggily came about, frowned in pain. He felt as if each part of his body was strangled individually and… he wasn't wrong. All over his body were obvious strangulation marks caused by what appears to be human hands; his neck, arms, legs, and parts of his face like eyes and mouth were all included and seemed to be places of focus as the especially deep grooves were clear proof of that.
Besides that, he was… fine. Well, he wasn't beaten to a pulp by a giant hammer, so yeah, he was perfectly fine!
Ah? Wait… what's this? Why can't I see anything!?
Ran struggled helplessly as he felt a thin film - of what felt like some type of cloth - cover his head and obstructed his eyes from being able to see anything.
His body flopped around like a fish out of water, yet he stopped only moments later.
Why? Well, I don't know how else to say it other than to say it was simple! Really simple!
It was because he couldn't breathe! How can his body flop like a fish when it's most needed oxygen was nowhere to be found!?
What's worse was that Ran couldn't breathe for a reason; a bad reason. It was because he was currently a victim of a well-known tactic only known as a chokehold!
And… he seemed to be dragged? So, someone was choking him while dragging him around like a rag doll? How cruel!
As his lack of oxygen was going to send him under once again, he had one last thought. And that was to retaliate! With his juice!
Yet, when he tried to summon his juice, it was also nowhere to be found.
"S**t, have I been drugged!? But I've never done drugs in my life! I'm a good boy!"
Well, Ran wasn't wrong. He was, indeed, drugged. Specifically by a specific concoction of various spiritual herbs (that can include any flora that was grown in a soul juice rich environment) that ultimately inhibit the summonization of soul juice from the core in one's brain.
And with the thought of being drugged, another frightening thought came to mind.
His soul heart! More specifically, the deterioration of it!
He ferociously clawed at what felt like a bulky arm that forcibly rested itself upon his neck.
Immediately, blood spattered onto the grass and a yelp could be heard resounding through the forest.
"Boy, you're really leaving me no choice! Men, bring out… the thing."
Next thing Ran knew, he felt a force hit his just freed neck and he completely passed out cold.
Now, all the animals in the forest went quiet and they listened fearfully to the loud and terrifying clanging of metal….
…
At the battlefield, the horde was already wrapping up.
The eight hour brawl between the humans and the dire wolves ended with the humans winning by a landslide.
The death count of the humans only added up to a measly 1,231 while the dire wolves lost a whopping 6,604 lives; the winner is clear.
And as they retreated with dejected looks, from within, the flames of revenge had already begun to ravage their very sanity.
And one wolf in particular wore a crazed look as he walked ahead of the pack.
Yes, this wolf was, indeed, the one who almost killed Ran and whose brother was also killed by Ran.
He survived.
And at the humans campsite, a young woman watched as the wolves left towards the setting suns. The orangey-yellow sky was a sign of the coming darkness of night, but for the girl who looked on with an expression of sorrow, it signified the coming of another kind of darkness.
"Sis, are you sure he said that Ran's okay?" Behind her, a dark robed figure patted her shoulder and looked at her worriedly.
"I-I don't know. He said he had sent Ran into the forest nearby and that he would be okay. But that was hours ago and he still hasn't shown up."
Ann shed a tear when she thought of the various things that could have happened to Ran. And even now, her body still shivered ever so slightly, like she was trying to hide her vulnerable position from the world.
Bob looked at the suns as well until he spoke, "sis, it's getting late. Why don't we look for him in the morning?"
Truthfully, she had already thought of that, though she just wanted to head in there RIGHT NOW and look for him to no end. But… Bob was right. Even if Ran was alright, he wouldn't be wandering around at night, so it would be better to look for him in the morning.
"Sigh, okay." She reluctantly agreed and the both of them left with the rest.
When the first sign of morning came, they got ready and headed into the forest the man had pointed to.
They searched the nearby forest for hours to avail. Then the afternoon came. At that moment, they had reached the area in which Ran had been kidnapped.
When they got there, they realized they were remarkably close to the battlefield; almost too close.
When she realized this, she almost cried from how close they could have been to each other, yet could not reunite.
And as she looked at the unearthed and disheveled grass, an uneasy feeling rose from her heart. They followed the messy tracks until they reached a differently colored patch of grass.
It was red. As red as red can be. Yet, the uneven placement of "pigment" painted a different picture.
A slight waft of iron that came from it and when touched, the red flakes off; this was dried blood.
"Do… do you think-" Bob was going to say something stupid when Ann angrily interjected, "of course not!"
Ann's impression of Bob just went down by a couple notches. How could he say such a thing!
This was definitely not Rans blood!
In her heart, she was sure that this was the case.
This really isn't his…
Right?
Maybe she wasn't as sure as she thought she was.
Besides the long track of messed up grass, several pairs of footprints were also present.
And while they were only vaguely visible, the imprint they made into the messed up track was. It was like the long trail, which looked like something was being dragged, was ahead and some people followed from behind.
"That's?!"
But when she saw the footprints, Ann's brown face turned purple and she started to fall; weren't for Bob catching her mid-fall, she would have collapsed onto the ground.
"Sis, are you okay?"
No, no she wasn't.
She recognized those prints.
Truly, there are no coincidences in this world.
Those footprints were from the Kesh Empire.
"Truly… truly…"
Ann kneeled on both knees as she blankly stared at those prints.
On the footprints, there was a faint symbol. This symbol was what confirmed Ann's suspicions.
The symbol was simple. It was just a claymore with a round pommel; that was it. But this, however…
Was the symbol of the Kesh Empire.
And this definitely couldn't have been Rans. Just like the Kesh, the Holy City State also did this kind of patriotism.
Although it wasn't a lion, the soles sported the paws of a lion. As funny as that might have sounded, this game of hide and seek just turned into a life or death situation…
Then again, It always was.
And as she watched the ground in horror, she finally collapsed onto the ground; she fainted.
Her mind acted against her and thought of a multitude of various and horrendous scenarios of what happened here and what might happen later on, causing a breakdown of her already fading mental fortitude.
Ran was nowhere to be found and neither were these Kesh scum.
Bob saw her pass out and sighed to himself. He didn't really know their situation, but it seemed Ran was in some deep s**t this time.
With that in mind, he thought of his own situation. His mission… his family.
He sighed to himself again and he realized just how small he was right now. Neither could he help his family (Ran and Ann) here, nor could he help his family back home.
So, he did the only thing he could do. To take Ann back.
He hawled Ann onto his shoulder until he found an innocent-looking deer.
His sigil activated and yellow runes enveloped his eyes and overflowed like tears.
Incomprehensible ramblings exited his mouth as he stared at the deer.
The deer who was just grazing suddenly turned stiff. Its fluffy little tail started wagging and it skipped it's way towards Bob like a lamb entering a wolves den.
It walked up to Bob and tried to lick his face, but was stopped by him.
He patted its head and said, "thanks, it's going to be a long ride."
Then he directly put Ann's body on it's back and the poor deers knees started to shake. At that moment, it finally realized the weight of a human body.
When it saw Bob trying to get on it… lowered it back to help him get on.
Ah, Bob you despicable, shameless, tyrant! Look at what you've done… its knees are about to buckle!
Well, under normal circumstances it would indeed collapse from the weight on it's back, but for some reason it was as if it didn't hurt at all and everything was perfectly fine.
In fact, it had never felt so light before!
With that, it graciously "galloped" in the direction Bob pointed toward. Bbn
…
Ran, who was presumed nowhere to be found was, in fact, somewhere.
when he finally came to, his mind was incomparably slow and it felt like he was mentally carrying a mountain. And much to his dismay, he couldn't move.
He was currently sitting, so he surmised that he was tied to this chair that he was on.
Worse yet, his neck and head hurts like crazy. And when he opened his eyes, he was, indeed, tied to a chair by thick chains of some kind of special metal.
Indeed, with all the runes flashing on them, it was special.
But that wasn't his concern. Other than chains, he saw bars. Bars filled with runes.
Lots and lots of them! He was surrounded by them! And they were eerily close too, like only a couple of inches close.
He looked down and found that from the bars, needles stuck out and pricked his neck, surrounding it entirely like some kind of trap. As long as he moved too much, some needles would go further into his neck.
Yet, why did he feel a prickly sensation from his head? Well, there's only one reason. There was another needle on his head.
F**k, his entire head was stuck in some kind of sick cage!
But there was another, even more damning thought in his head.
His soul heart was gone.
But he was still alive? He only had this singular thought in his head until he suddenly heard a creak from a faraway corner.
It sounded like a door opening.