The clouded entity shifted across the forest ground with a steady pace, it was neither rushed nor cautious, it merely carried a hint of careful nature as its body rhythmically moved in a set way causing the clouds to feel illusionary.
As it approached the two glowing eyes peering out of the foggy mass were fixated on the two figures on the back, it didn't even seem to pay attention to Seth who had taken up a stance in front of the two, Seth had been trying to figure out what it was, yet he felt like something was obscuring his visions and all that he could see was an indeterminate shape.
"What's wrong with you all of a sudden?" The young man spoke from behind him quizzingly which confused Seth.
"Are you blind?" Seth asked with slight impatience, although he couldn't tell what it was exactly, he could feel the threat it posed to him from his instincts, it wasn't a medium-class it definitely reached the boundary of a large-class beast.
"Blind? Is there something there?! Where?!" The young man panicked and stood at attention holding his sword with his eyes darting all over the place trying to see the enemy, a look of confusion passed over his face as he failed to see anything, on the other hand-
"Doom, we're doomed, it's back, it's gonna' kill us all!" The older man with the puncture wounds on his arm crouched down trying to bury his head in the ground scared witless.
Seth ignored the grovelling idiot as he came to a realisation.
'Can they not see it? A cloaking skill? But this boy seems to be using [Mana Vision] as well yet he can't either? Is it some advanced version?' His mind spun at top speed trying to figure out what was wrong, he could tell the young man was using [Mana Vision] due to the concentration of blue light flickering in his eyes so most cloaking abilities should be useless in front of him, so something was wrong.
And then it clicked in his head.
'It's a skill using spirit energy! It's the only thing I can think of the only reason I can see it is because of [Spirit Sense]!' Having thought he figured it out he threw away his hesitation and prepared to attack the approaching enemy the moment it made any sign of pouncing.
"It's here, approaching right in front of us about 30 meters away now, it has an abnormal cloaking skill so you can't see it!" He warned the man behind him, he saw no reason not to.
"A cloaking skill? It's invisible?! That must be how it snuck up on us…" He focused his attention on the direction Seth pointed out, he wanted to ask how Seth knew where it was but quickly realised it wasn't the time to do so.
The area entered a blanketed period of silence, one side waiting for the other to act while the other seemed to be taking a free stroll towards its prey.
'It's being careless, does it not think anyone can see it? Or is it something else?' Seth wondered, he felt something picking at his mind, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Right as the enemy stepped ten meters away from them it broke out in to a dash straight towards the two in the back-line.
'Ignoring me?! That's a mistake!' Seth screamed in his mind as he shifted on [Reinforcement], feeling the strength surge through his body he shifted his sword to the lower right and dashed towards the approaching target aiming for the largest mass of black aura with his blade.
With enough power to smash a large rock his sword swung horizontally as he shifted his entire bodies weight on it, the enemy gave him a clear opening so he would be stupid to not take it, after all his enemy was a beast not a human.
*Swish*
The result he was expecting didn't happen, rather he was sent spinning slightly from his momentum as his blade breezed right through the shadow stirring up a small gust of wind before passing out the other end, hitting absolutely nothing.
As he attempted to regain his stance and attempted to clear his mind of the confusion clouding it all of a sudden, he heard some other noises.
*Clang* The sound of metal hitting something hard, and rebounding echoed throughout the forest before-
"AAAAAAAAAAH" A mans bloodcurdling scream cut through the mist and pierced the ears of all who heard it.
Seth quickly managed to regain his posture and his gaze darted over to the source of the noise, stood there in clear sight was a massive creature that stood only slightly shorter than Seth's near 7-foot height, its entire body was engulfed in a pitch-black colour that seemed to be squirming and shifting, the fur wriggling like worms trying to escape burning earth and eyes that lacked any form of high intelligence just glaring with instinctual meaning.
Its claws were razor sharp and were bone white seemingly flawless in colour and so would its fangs be had they not been stained a crimson red from the prey crushed between the razor-sharp set of jaws.
Between the fangs laid the older man, steadily being split in half at the waist by the crushing jaws a look of utter despair was painted on his face, with his last efforts he tried to continue his scream as if trying to yell away this bad dream but all that came out was a frothy wave of red liquid that dribbled down his face, not too long after the light in his eyes faded completely and his despairing face's muscles relaxed as he passed.
*Crunch*
The jaws clamped together, and the two pieces fell to the ground with a visceral slush, the innards squeezed themselves out of the upper half creating a disgusting mess below the tree.
"Shit!" Seth swore, they were the first two people he met, and one was already dead, he was slightly pissed but, in the end, it wasn't like he stood by doing nothing so it wasn't his fault; He shook his head and focused on the enemy, it was standing before him in broad daylight not caring the least for him so he had to take this chance to figure out what he could do.
As he was thinking the creature- it appeared to be a large wolf- lowered its head and took the upper half of the man in its jaws with a large gulp, it began to chew and the crushing of bones quickly filled the ears of the two listening, Seth wasn't entirely new to such a situation, he had been through similar experiences albeit nowhere near as bloody back when he began adventuring so his head stayed cool despite his innate desire to burst with anger.
Unfortunately, the other person wasn't as cool-headed, the younger man had managed to block the approaching set of jaws with his sword thanks to Seth's warning, so he was sent flying to the side, avoiding certain death, however he saw his companion get chewed in half brutally which sent the fire straight to his head, the moment he saw the monster picking up the remains to eat them he charged ahead without consequence.
"Bastard, stop it, die!" Although he was filled with rage his strike wasn't entirely pathetic, the sword drew a clear crescent through the air above the man's head, aiming straight for the beast's neck.
'It's not moving. Doesn't it see him?!' Seth was surprised at the lack of response from the large wolf, if the sword struck it, it would definitely hurt it a lot.
However right before the sword struck the creature its fur seemed to shiver and its ears twitched, right as the sword was about to land on its neck.
*Swish*
It went through the creature again; the black aura had once more engulfed its figure creating the ethereal like illusion leaving the sword to smash into the ground and become stuck.
*Splat*
It wasn't just that though, the upper half of the man it had in its mouth which was now gnawed beyond belief splattered against the floor once more.
'It turned on its cloak again, no wait it must be something like an ethereal form. Or is it similar to a spirit…' He processed what he saw as fast as he could 'In that form it can't touch physical objects, though since it isn't falling through the floor so there's some restrictions in that aspect… the meat it was eating fell through its jaw even though it already had it fully in the mouth, so that doesn't count either'
The wolf-monster turned its gaze to the young man who was now weapon-less and sitting on the floor dumbfounded, fear quickly filled his eyes as he tried to get up and escape, but his legs failed him as they chattered from despair.
Seth definitely didn't want to lose the only other person he had met so far, but he didn't have a clear plan of action yet, he had one thing to test out before he acted.
He quickly sheathed his sword and pulled out the bow from his back and an arrow from the quiver, he hadn't used a bow for a long time, but he wasn't going for pin-point accuracy right now, he took aim, not at the wolf but at a position slightly in front of the young man.
Soon after he took aim, the wolf pounced towards the young man, it was still in its ethereal form as it launched through the air, not caring about this Seth let loose the arrow and it flew right in the path of the wolf.
The young man thought his life was over, a second ago the creature disappeared into thin air and now he saw two jaws appear out of nowhere right in front of him, he closed his eyes uselessly wanting to lessen the pain.
As he did, the arrow that was shot was about to penetrate the wolf's body met the same fate as the two swords before it, it whizzed right through.
But that wasn't all, the boy as there with his eyes clenched and yet the expected pain didn't come, the wolf's figure had disappeared once more.
Of course, from Seth's perspective it was different, the moment the arrow was about to impact the fur on the wolf's body shivered and the ethereal form was activated once more, the wolf passed through both the boy and the arrow.
"So, that's how it is." A slight smirk creeped up on Seth's face as he figured out the trick.