"W…what the hell was that?" Tony asked mostly himself in disbelief.
Everyone on the team wanted to be mad at Jason and Lemon for attacking the Captain but after seeing what had happened to Macht they just felt lost.
"Shit that hurt." Lemon slowly stood up with the help of his sword, using it as a crutch. "Thanks for the help Jason." Lemon smiled thanking him for two things, the fight with the fake and the fact that he had decided to give a hand to Lemon, helping him up in the middle of him getting up with the sword.
"No problem." Jason smiled back, however Lemon had his reservations on that.
'His emotions don't add up, I can feel he seems me as a threat, what for?' Lemon maintained his smile outwardly but inside he was on alert.
"Should we go back?" Art asked, there was no need for [Empath] to see, hear and feel his fear.
"Aye, I feel we should, being in these woods will do us no good." Diana agreed with Art she also wanted to quickly get out, that fate was not something she wanted for herself everyone was so focused on that, that the question of Jason's abilities never came up.
Lemon though had different thoughts from everyone else however, it wasn't even about Jason, he wanted to understand the Nightmare Creature, if it's so intelligent then figuring it out to know it's weaknesses and next move is crucial.
'Why did it take Macht's body? Sustenance? Something else? It thought of us as a solution, but to what problem, questions questions questions but no answers' Lemon agonized as more people agreed to go back, the only people who hadn't was Jason and Lemon. 'If we went back that Monster would just have free meals everywhere if it's following us, the injured could serve as distractions but who's to say we could tie it down when it had escaped like before, but that's not to say staying here is better. From what I saw it has invisibility that can extend onto others.'
"Argh! There's nowhere to go!" Lemon groaned as he ruffled his hair.
"What do you mean?" Yone asked he as worried as everyone else, although this brought Lemon back to Jason, his emotions weren't worried whatsoever, he was just merely peeved.
"Well if we go back how are we supposed to know of the thing's following us, and on a beach that only has injured people it'll be a slaughter that we can't stop, but even then if we stay in this forest with a monster that can disguise itself, go invisible, is stronger than us and has better senses we'll just be picked off." Lemon explained his reasoning.
"That…that makes sense." Yone thought for a second before nodding.
"It is a difficult choice." Ted spoke up. "It's between us or them, however if you look at it another way all we'd be doing is giving them more time temporarily, the thing will find them some time."
"He's right on that." Art commented with a nod, just the general talking had alleviated some of his fear.
The entire team just lowered their heads in silence at how little choices they had.
'I think it's even worse than that, the monster was almost perfect in its disguise, if I hadn't had this abnormal memory and noticed the little differences in its appearance between the real Captain I would've never noticed.' Lemon thought as he sat down on the ground and leaned back onto a tree. 'The reason the monster took Macht's body might not be for anything I thought of before, I think it's trying to take the memories of Macht and find out where everyone else is.'
"We're going back." The group's attention was placed onto Jason as he had finally came out of his silence.
"I don't think we've got any other choice." Lemon sighed as he got up from the tree reluctantly.
"Then let's get a move o-." Diana scoffed however the final words of her sentence was cut off as the Captain appeared in front of her his hand already regenerated as if nothing had ever happened before while that same hand dripped with blood.
'It had used our thoughts to lower our guard!'
Slice!
Jason was right there his sword already unsheathed as he slashed at the Demon, his sword glowing with a moonlit radiance.
This time however the 'Captain' was ready as he leaned back to dodge the sword.
"Diana get out of there!" David screamed after seeing the opportunity that Jason had created, but his voice sounded only on those alive.
Diana's head fell back as the group was showed the sight of Diana's throat missing, her head barely attached to her still standing body.
"Shit." Art muttered.
"Damnit Diana." David growled as his eyes turned bloodshot before knocking an arrow back and aiming it at the 'Captain'.
While David aimed to take out his anger, 'Captain' and Jason continued to go back and forth, dodging, attacking, parrying, counterattacking everything. Then suddenly 'Captain' turned transparent which Lemon assumed he did to attempt a mid battle sneak attack.
In spite of this though Jason's sword turned abnormally and slashed a spot in the air where it lodged as the first sound of anguish came from the 'Captain' who appeared in where Jason had slashed, the moonlight sword lodged in his stomach.
Jason then pulled his sword back and slashed swiftly 5 more times which this time seemed to be more effective on the Demon, cuts showing on its body as it tried to block attacks it could before that became increasingly more potent, the attacks going from leaving cuts after being blocked to large gashes.
The Demon finally noticing this decided fighting that battle wouldn't work too well anymore and tried to run, however it's body froze mid way in its attempt at escaping and as consequence it's arm was severed before it broke out of whatever had frozen it and escaped by turning invisible one lone arrow flying in the direction of where it had went, David had finally shot.
"Holy shit Jason when could you ever do shit like that?" Art exclaimed as he lounged his arm around Jason's neck, fully ignoring Diana's corpse which David was staring at blankly.
'He's in severe disbelief and despair, was his crush so serious? Maybe they've known each other long.' Lemon thought. 'It is pretty amazing how the Spell could make this things so lifelike, a backstory that will derail the plot? Whatever uniqueness this man has I could manipulate for my survival.'
"Everyone's got their secrets on this ship, we've all bonded because we knew not to ask." Jason responded.
"Yeah you're right." Art laughed it off and separated from Jason.
"It's toying with us, from what I can assume it wants us instead of those back on the beach, I'm thinking it wants to get rid of those that can fight before going back fro the others." Ted proposed his thoughts on the matter.
'I don't think it's that, if I stick to my thoughts from before with it taking the memories of it's kills then it should've already taken Macht and gone for them. But it didn't, maybe it has other goals, it's obviously surprisingly cunning.' Lemon contemplated.
"I think at this point we stay here." David looked up from Diana's corpse that had already fallen down, her head detached from the force of that fall. "I want to fucking kill that bastard." David's eyes were red and bloodshot.
"He's right on that, at this point because of the stunt of that Devil, we should venture further in, maybe it has secrets it's hiding, like that regenerative speed." Jason agreed with David as he put a hand on his shoulder and grinned.
"Then it's settled, however we should stick together closely, the lower our numbers the worse we do." Lemon reminded them.
"That's no problem, we've got me here after all." Jason's smile widened.
"Mmhm." Lemon nodded as he gave a subtle look at Jason. 'That just means you don't care if we die.'
"Make sure your weapons are ready, pay attention to the grass, if it moves abnormally attack that spot." Lemon ordered and everyone followed those who didn't have their swords unsheathed, took them out, and David put an arrow in his bow.
Today they'd be hunting the Devil.
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