Ryuma continued walking down the road. Kosha had been gone for a while for somebody who was just taking a piss. He shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't like he was the man's bodyguard. Whatever happened to him, happened.
His job was to get to Naru.
He continued walking down the dirt road. His mind focused on every part of his surroundings. The dirt crunched beneath his boots with every step and the smell of bark was strong in the air. His senses heightened; he felt the presence of an apparition again. It was faint, but it was still ever present. Stealth must have been this creature's primary way of hunting.
Then again, for what was it waiting?
If any there was an opportunity to ambush and kill them, now would be the perfect moment. Though he'd go down fighting, it wouldn't matter anyway. He said nothing as he kept trekking along the woods. Fretting about it now solved nothing but to further insight all his previous paranoia.
Besides, if his assumptions about Kosha was correct then…
BOOM!!!
Just as he assumed, the boy noticed something was up. Instead of going to take a piss, he recognized they were being stalked and decided to stalk the stalker.
Even if Kosha had been the target all along, or whether the stalker noticed, it would've split their attention amongst two different targets.
Ryuma sprang into action and dashed towards the direction the crash came from. With Kosha having stalled behind for so long, the two managed to pincer the stalker from both the front and back.
He stumbled upon the scene of wreckage. Trees were knocked over and Kosha had a hooded figure dead locked against his sword.
In an instant, Ryuma analyzed everything the scene had given him. Kosha bared against the figure with his blade, but the figure held their own using their bare hands.
Those hands were the first thing that stood out to him. It was an odd light blue color. It looked like there were scales in some parts. Was it man, or creature? Ryuma could not tell by sight alone. Whatever it was, it was humanoid. The oddest thing about the whole situation was that the apparition energy that he was sensing came straight from the creature fighting against Kosha's blade.
With this realization, Ryuma froze.
That can't be right though. If this were an apparition, there's no way Kosha's steel blade could affect it at all. This couldn't be an apparition… but looking at it from this distance and feeling its spirit energy, Ryuma could not make a mistake. This thing… was an apparition.
{What the fuck is going on?}
"I'm glad you're here… Ryuma. I could use a bit of help right now," Kosha said through grunted breaths. Ryuma snapped out of it. Now was not the time to contemplate what he was seeing. He had to act.
He brought both his katanas out and swung his sword from behind its blind spot. The hooded figure released Kosha's blade with one of its hands to block Ryuma's with another. Once it caught, he flipped the free blade in his hand and swung it forward.
With both its hands full holding on to a blade, the hooded figure had nothing else left to cover its abdomen and took the hit full on. Despite having hit the target, to Ryuma, he felt like his sword did nothing more than hit a brick wall. It went in deep enough to make a slightly red mark; not even deep enough for blood to leak.
"What is this thing made out of?" Ryuma asked.
"You're asking me? Didn't you study for this?" Kosha asked.
Not only was its physical strength strong enough to hold onto with each of its hands, but its durability was also strong enough to block both of their weapons from cutting into it.
The fact that it was holding their blade like this meant that it had some level of pain tolerance. This could not be comfortable. Seeing how it was struggling against the two of them here, it couldn't be that much stronger than they currently are.
Ryuma bared down even harder. "We have a chance. We can beat this thing," Ryuma said, though he didn't have the physical strength to do the job.
"Tch…" the sound came from the hooded figure. It was a slight sound, but Ryuma caught it. "Water Artes: Water Pulse,"
Ryuma's eyes widened. Immediately, both boys were blasted with enough water pressure to back the two of them off the hooded figure. Each landed perfectly balanced on their feet. A stranger to how Arte's work, Kosha thought nothing of it, but Ryuma was shocked beyond belief.
"Dang, we almost had it," Kosha put his sword up defensively.
Ryuma ignored it over his own thoughts. "That thing knows how to use Artes," Ryuma warned him.
"So what. Doesn't that just mean that it came from topside? Guess we know what they were doing here," Kosha said.
He's partially right. If she was from topside, then it'd be obvious that the Skylands sent an assassin to kill him. That was only IF she was from topside. From what Ryuma could feel, he wasn't so sure.
"Who are you!?" Ryuma shouted. He lowered his blade to attempt to reason with it. He had to know the identity of their assailant.
"Dude! Guard up! We don't know what this thing is capable of," Kosha said.
He could see the creature clutch its chest at Kosha's words. There was no mistaking it now. This thing was akin to an anomaly they weren't prepared for. It understood human language enough to speak it and it could perform Artes. Something no apparition had done before. It couldn't be an apparition.
Then again, this thing didn't come from the Skylands. No matter what, an anomaly like that would never be able to be dispatched from the edicts. Hell it's more likely to be dispatched by the edicts.
It used no weapon. It had the spirit energy of an apparition. And it could use Artes only the priests had access to.
The creature didn't bother to answer his question. It raised both its hands defensively. The hands were cloaked with razor sharp fingernails that looked like they could rend steel. This thing stood short. Like the height of a child barely getting into the academy.
"You're not with the Skylands are you?" Ryuma asked.
It rushed forward and swung its claws. "Rending slash,"
Both boys blocked the attack with their weapons, but the landscape around them appeared with razor sharp claw marks in the trajectory that it sliced in.
It happened so fast. Both boys reacted to it fine, but stopping the level of damage it created wasn't possible, but they managed to save themselves. Though more of the damage went towards Kosha's direction. The hooded figure already began swiping repeated claw attacks at Kosha who kept blocking all of it.
Ryuma dashed in with his sword drawn again and began swinging at it. {Did this thing have a grudge against Kosha} It ignored him but kept going after Kosha. Perhaps this thing was too prideful to let a mere surface dweller stop it.
No… that can't be right. Even that sounded silly when he thought about it. This thing wasn't a Skylander to begin with.
No matter how many times he swung at it. It would either shove his blade out of the way or find a way to push him to the side. With Kosha however, it would use its claws and aim for vitals that the boy was not so easily willing to part with. When it came to Kosha, this creature was using lethal means and not looking to subdue him.
This confirmed his suspicion that it wasn't sent from the Edicts of the Skylands. No other explanation for it. With their methods, it should've erased them both if it had the chance. For some reason or another, its hands were tied when it came to him.
Aside from that, the hooded creature didn't seem as strong as he'd imagine it should be. If they knew where he was and were keeping tabs on him. Surely, they would have sent somebody outside of his range of abilities. If it weren't them, then who?
Speculating was getting him nowhere. Perhaps if he had a look at the assailant's face, then maybe…
The three were exchanging blows at breakneck speeds. All its lethal strikes were being traded with Kosha who dealt with it with relative comfort. They fought for several minutes until one of the creatures rending slash came bearing down on Kosha yet again. Ryuma dashed towards its trajectory and spun Kosha out of the way.
Now that he was in front of it. "Wind Artes: Wind Pressure!" He shouted. What he expected to be a mere fan powerful enough to blow that hoodie right off her, was now a powerful short-ranged wind cannon that destroyed everything directly in front of it.
It blew off the hood all right. The damn attack knocked over or destroyed a myriad of trees in the process. Ryuma looked at the damage in awe.
He never remembered ever being this powerful.