Along the way, Blake ran into the same monsters as always, but it didn't take more than a few seconds to take care of them, a few hours had already passed since he was at it and, despite not finding anything, in the end, it seemed that the universe was rewarding him.
"Crack!!" After throwing an orc against a distant wall, it had broken causing a rumble accompanied by dust to make its presence known after a few seconds showing what seemed to be some stairs that led to the surface.
"I'm sure it's not any of the entries I know of." With that thought, Blake did not hesitate to investigate his new discovery, he climbed the stairs little by little making sure that there was no hidden trap or something like that, the little light that remained of the sunset was filtering through the entrance, and once arrived at the end, was greeted by the view of the area. "Looks like it's another area of the forest, I guess that's good to know..."
But at that very instant, he had subconsciously drawn the sword and shield from him at the same time that his sword plant partner positioned itself right in front of him.
The feeling he was feeling was one that he remembered well, he felt like something was watching him from the shadows noticing his every move, plus those familiar sounds in the distance made it impossible for Blake to be wrong about who was responsible.
"So, we meet again, I hope you liked the gift last time." And in response to his comment, that creature that was hiding moved through the darkness to later show its presence and make Blake understand that the confrontation was about to begin.
"Grrrrggghh!!"
[Species: Raccoon. Status: Extremely furious. Class: E.]
That growl was enough for Blake to understand the state the raccoon was in without the system telling him, they already had a history between them, so it wasn't strange that it would appear that way in front of him.
The silence and the distance between the two continued without any significant change, they recognized the strength of each other and looked for the best moment to make their move, but despite this, that did not last long at the moment the raccoon moved at full speed driving his claws to Blake's throat.
"Clank!" And that peculiar metallic sound was what much of the forest was able to hear. The raccoon gave an annoyed growl again, it hoped that at least Blake was the one who had to make an effort to protect himself from its attacks, but it would never have imagined that a strange plant was the one that stopped it at that moment.
"It's true, I guess it's the first time they met. Raccoon, she's Shoku." And listening to how Blake finished with the introductions, his partner who now answered to the name "Shoku" gave a simple vertical cut so that in this way, the raccoon will fly through the air and then land in the distance, but not before doing a few laps on the ground until it can regain its balance.
Giving his partner a name had come out of nowhere as they continued through the ruins, Blake had thought of that before and, after noticing how it now seemed to respond to him with a slight shake from time to time, he told his idea and she seemed to agree... And yes, Blake did ask Shoku if she was a girl or a boy despite how strange that sounded.
Many names came up that each time was rejected by the static sword, Blake couldn't think of anything else anymore, he had even thought of strange names that resulted in him being hit on the head somehow by the peculiar sword, but after thinking about it carefully and making his brain work the best it could, in the end, a name appeared that had the result he wanted.
The confrontation was again at an impasse where both Blake and Shoku looked at the annoying raccoon in the distance who also looked at them with an expression of absolute fury after having received another humiliation.
"Okay, here's the plan, Shoku. You shouldn't go into a direct confrontation with it, the raccoon has a lot of annoying tricks and you better let me be the one to get most of them, what you should do is move when you see the perfect opportunity, I'll do my best to cover for you, but if you're in a bind, return to your seed form as soon as you can." Giving those instructions making sure the raccoon didn't hear them and receiving a confirmation shake from Shoku, Blake turned his attention to the enemy that was a few meters away from him at the same time that he calmed his mind to think about what to do next.
The whole place was silent again, the sun was falling little by little indicating that darkness would take over everything and that only the moon and the stars would be the only sources of light that would be present.
The sound of the wind and the leaves of the trees was the only thing that everyone heard in the place, and once in the middle of both they could see how a simple leaf fell slowly until it touched the ground, it was enough for them to understand that it was time for the real battle to begin.