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Chapter 7 - Galguntan's Gift

Bloodrock is a den of lions. For a man to survive in such a place, he makes powerful people his allies, not enemies. I had just picked up an assignment to kill the king of Arida, that's all I needed to attract hell to me. Arida would smell danger miles away, my case wasn't different. Moonwalkers might be skilled and powerful, but not invisible. We're still limited.

Rona, Yunu and Kiri are still on their way to Arida, walking through the woods in a new environment, far from home. Kiri sees fruits on a tree and speaks while smiling,

"Hey, there are fruits up there!"

"What manner?" Yunu asks as Kiri replies,

"I don't know, I think they're pear fruits. We should check them out."

Rona replies, opposing the idea,

"No, do not eat that."

"And why?"

"This place isn't what it seems to be, it isn't innocent."

"Then, where are we?" Yunu asks again as Rona replies,

"The Fogland, a huge mystical forest, enchanted to kill whoever walks through it. The fruits here might seem good but are poisoned. Once you get hold of the wrong fruit, you die miserably. This is also known to be the home of the strangest creatures."

"So, why are we passing this route if it's that dangerous?" Yunu asks as Rona replies,

"Because you have me."

ARIDA

Galguntan is in his temple/shrine, in the middle of incantations. He has seven jars with different colors before him, and strange magical cloud-like figures within them. He opens one and a black smoke comes out of it, forming the shape of a humanoid in front of him. And then, he speaks to the humanoid,

"Go to Fogland, and kill the moonwalker. Make Galguntan proud."

The cloud demon takes off in speed, heading to Rona.

ROCKY LANDS, KALAKALA OUTSKIRTS

There is a great battle between Arida forces and Kalakala forces, in the land of the barbarians, who are also under attack and fight to protect themselves. Yakoza is on the ground at the battlefield, exhausted and terrified. He's covered in the blood of his friends and enemies, with a huge cut on his leg and hand, and an arrow hanging on his arm from behind. He vomits blood and then drags the arrow out of his body. An Arida Martian sights him and marches towards him aggressively, with a huge battle axe. The mafia tries to stab him but he dodges and pierces the mafia through his head with his sword. More come towards him as he stands up. He cuts off one's hand and dodges a strike from another, stabbing his stomach. One of his comrades come to his rescue and kills off the others. Yakoza falls back to the ground but his comrade helps him up and speaks,

"This battle is unlike the others I've fought. There's no victor in this, not Arida, not the barbarians, not us. We must retreat."

Yakoza thinks of his beloved, Yunu, and then vomits blood again as his comrade lets go of him in attempt to defend both of them from more mafias. Three mafias attack him and he takes them down, but gets stabbed in the stomach. While staggering back, a wild beast conjured to battle by the sorcerers charge towards him and pierce his neck with its horn. It faces Yakoza and charges towards him as Yakoza falls unconscious and blacks out eventually.

Yunu can sense something's off as she robs on the necklace Yakoza had given her. She speaks to Kiri,

"I can't stop thinking about Yaki, he might be in trouble."

Kiri responds, disappointing her,

"Thinking about who? That idiot you call your lover?"

"When would you stop being childish and stupid? Yaki saved us from Arida mafias, the least you could do is worry if he's alright."

Yunu walks ahead in anger as Kiri starts feeling sorry. Rona ignores them as she observes the area. Kiri hurries towards Yunu and starts apologizing,

"Look, I'm sorry Yun, I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

Rona notices something off and hushes them.

"What's the problem?" Kiri asks as Rona hushes him again and draws out her sword gently. Suddenly, the place starts getting foggy and moist, scaring Yunu and Kiri.

"What's happening?" Yunu asks as Rona replies,

"It's the way the forest tells you that you're in danger."

And then, they see a lot of birds above, flying away from behind in mass, indicating something wrong approaching. And then, a mass of cloud flies into the scene and forms a poor construct of a huge man, facing them and giving a scary creepy noise. Yunu and Kiri are terrified, and Rona is surprised as she speaks,

"Cloud demons, special mystical assault assets that take the form of whatever they wish to take in the environment."

The cloud demon touches the ground and a tree as he starts to take concrete form of both, forming a beast that is part wood, part earth. It roars at them as Rona gives the obvious command,

"Both of you, run!"

Yunu and Kiri take to their heels, running backwards as the beast charges towards Rona, attacking her. She runs on a tree, elevating herself and flipping over the beast, escaping its strike. She lands behind it and stabs it at the back. The beast turns aggressively and flings Rona to a rock of which she's hits. The beast grabs her on the ground and lifts her up as it smashes her back down and serves her with multiple strikes. Rona catches the beast's hand and stabs its head, causing the beast to stagger back. Rona gets up and grabs a huge rock. The beast charges towards her but she strikes its face with the rock and punches it. She draws her sword from the beast and cuts off one of its hand. The beast grabs Rona by the head and flings her to a tree, hurting her very hard. She lands on the ground and gets snatched by the beast and thrown further afar off. The beast punches the ground and shoots up a block of earth from the ground, striking Rona's jaw, in form of an upper cut, flinging her over. Meanwhile, Yunu gets to a place while running and stops. Kiri is surprised that she stops as she speaks,

"We have to help Rona out."

"What? Are you crazy? It's fundamentally foolish to help a moonwalker while you've been told to run away by the same moonwalker."

Rona is punched heavily on the face, flinging her away, rolling down a slope in speed, hitting a few logs and sustaining a lot of bruises. Rona is weakened on the ground as the beast charges towards her. It is said that moonwalkers never surrender. As long as there's a little bit of life in them, they keep on fighting. The saying is not about to be faulted now, not because of some mere cloud demon beast. While the beast gets to her, it stops and Galguntan speaks,

"You will not remember this. But in case you do, know that you were killed by the magic of Galguntan. With this knowledge, you won't have peace in the afterlife."

The beast is about to give the finishing strike, but gets stoned from behind.

"Haven't you been told not to hurt a lady? Why don't you pick on someone your own strength?" says Kiri from behind as the beast faces him and his sister, Yunu, terrifying them.

"I told you this was a bad idea," he says as the beast moves towards them. Rona gathers her strength and gets up. She channels great energy into her fist and charges towards the beast which hears her roar and turns to her. She strikes its head off and marches the neck down with great mystical energy around her feet. She speaks a spell and draws the cloud out of the beast which happens to be weakened. She speaks to it,

"Galguntan, remember this, you just made a moonwalker your worst enemy, the butterfly herself. You're already dead, your soul is mine."

She draws out the life essence in it and it disintegrates as she faces Yunu and Kiri.

"Oh my goodness!" Kiri exclaims upon seeing this as Yunu speaks,

"Is someone trying to kill us?"

Rona replies,

"No, someone was trying to kill me. Now, I'm trying to kill him."