[Lydia's Pov]
'I know that he went this way... But why can't I sense him with my magic anymore?'
This night I couldn't hold back anymore, not Aarick had left the cave like that. Something about the way he had looked at Will combined with him just leaving; I knew that he had to be up to something, something that might explain the mysteries surrounding him.
Yet, I found nothing. Because the tracks that I had traced had simply ended at some point, showing me that he had taken to the skies, and sadly that meant I had no good way of tracking him down anymore.
Or, so I thought.
"What are you doing out here, Lydia? Shouldn't you be staying in the cave with Will and Jessica?"
The familiar voice instead called out to me from behind, a voice that had gotten a lot deeper after his body had changed. Turning around, I was met by the seemingly glowing white hair and a pair of red eyes that rejected the darkness of the night.
'Why didn't he just hide from me?'
It was a bit weird to see the clear evidence that he had obviously tried to escape from something, and though I wasn't sure, I suspected that 'something' was most likely me. So, why would he then bother to approach me like this?
"I... I was just taking a walk, just like you."
"Hmm? Is that so?"
Although I wasn't sure why, something about him put me on edge as he slowly walked toward me, his face unwilling to give away even a hint about his inner thoughts. In a matter of a moment, he was standing right in front of me, and although he was just slightly taller than me, it felt like he was towering over me.
"W-what are you doing...?"
"I'm not sure if you are aware or not Lydia, but where I came from... Things like following people, spying on them... Do you know what happened to those kinds of people?"
*Gulp!*
I felt my face pale as I looked into the two orbs that now looked like endless pools of blood, my mind racing with images of him withdrawing his claws, making sure that I would never follow him again.
"I-I-I d-didn't m-mean to..."
"Then please don't do it again."
Suddenly, any and all pressure I felt coming from Aarick dissipated into the air as he turned around, almost as if the bloodlust that he had exuded had never been real at all. But my mind and body still remembered it, the sensation of knowing that I was about to lose my life, the feeling of standing at death's door.
Glancing back at me, he still acted as if he hadn't done anything.
"So, shall we go? They are probably waiting for us."
"Y-yes..."
So, following the slightly broad back of Aarick, I was filled with a heap of very complicated emotions. One of which I absolutely refused to acknowledge, a feeling of butterflies in my stomach when remembering his blood-red eyes.
****
[Aarick's Pov]
"Are we ready?"
"Yes."
After spending the night pretending to sleep, I couldn't say that I had the best of nights, as even though we were spread apart to some degree, I had still spent the night surrounded by what my body regarded as food.
'No wonder so many people like to snack at night...'
Today, we were planning on starting hunting for real, and this could be seen on the faces of my group members. Even Lydia, who I had thought might get a bit affected by my little play yesterday wore a very determined expression.
To explain a bit, I decided to give her just a bit of a scare as an attempt to make her stop snooping around, as the only ending that could bring was a tragedy. It would either end with me having to run away, to flee from not only the academy but from the capital as well, or it would end up with me having to get rid of her.
Needless to say, none of these options felt particularly attractive to me.
Even if I felt like I overdid it a bit, as I consciously exuded the bloodlust that I had now learned was an inherent part of my abilities as a demon, it was still the best option that I could think of at the moment.
'I'm glad that it doesn't seem to affect her too much.'
"Then, let's go."
With Will leading our way, we now went out for another day of hunting.
==========
"Aarick!"
"..."
Seeing the goblin somehow breaking free from the pack, now running with his wooden club toward Lydia, I wasn't quite sure why Will was so serious about it. Even during our first monster elimination class, she had brought down three of them by herself, after all.
'[Pull]'
Still, I wasn't about to go against his orders during our hunts, as that would unnecessarily make things complicated. Therefore, I readied my claws again and used my ability to close the distance to the monster.
*Gob?!*
*Splurt!*
Thrusting my razer sharp hand into its throat, the goblin needed a couple of seconds to understand that it was already dead, falling to the ground with its throat spewing out blood. Straightening my back, I tried to collect my breathing, having now fought for the entirety of the day without much rest.
'My mana is getting a bit low...'
Even though I tried to use it sparingly, I had still used [Pull] and increased the power behind my attacks with [Inherent Gravity] enough that the passive regeneration wasn't enough to keep up.
"Thank you..."
"No need."
Looking a bit embarrassed about me suddenly having to 'rescue' her, as Will had been busy dealing with three goblins on his own, and Jessica not having the time to prepare another blade of wind in time, I just turned back towards the group of goblins that we had slaughtered.
"Hupp!"
*FWOOSH!*
Not surprisingly, I got to see the wildly flaming sword in Will's hands create an arc of fire that took the life of the last two goblins of the pack. It was the ability that he used the most, very akin to how Levi had surrounded her spear with water, except he was using fire instead to empower his strikes.
Sheathing his sword, an act that symbolized our victory, Will turned his sights toward the sky, looking at the sun that had now begun to descend.
"We won't have much more time before it gets dark. Let's hurry up so we can find at least one more pack of monsters before we stop for the day."
****
[Astor's Pov]
Surrounded by the tall trees of the forest, on our way to the next hunting spot, although it was pretty much just Levi running around looking for monsters, I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about what was happening.
"Huff... Can't we... just stop for today? Isn't this enough?"
I couldn't help but agree with Gerald. Not only did we spend half of the night looking for a suitable place to rest, meaning we didn't actually get to sleep for very long, this whole day we had been endlessly fighting monsters without rest.
Even after the night had passed, our dear leader still hadn't calmed down much, as she restlessly forced us to keep engaging one monster after the other. And now, despite her being the one to give the orders, we could all see how weary she was.
Levi's long, blue hair had begun to get disheveled, and although she washed herself with water every now and then, the gray leather armor she was wearing was still covered in dirt and blood.
However, despite this, Levi just dismissed his plea with a nonchalant expression.
"Stop? The sun hasn't even gone down yet. We still have time before we go back to camp."
'Go back to camp? Doesn't she realize that we are pretty far away from it?'
Most of the time during a hunt, the leader would make sure that one's hunting path circled around the base so that it was possible to could return as quickly as possible in case something happened or after the hunt was finished.
Unfortunately, very likely because of her not-so-auspicious emotions, we hadn't done so. Instead, we had ended up way further away from our base than what was desirable.
Therefore, I knew I didn't have a choice but to do something about it. Even if I was doing fine, as I hadn't been forced to use my abilities too much and had been able to simply use my sword to fight, Celina and Gerald weren't.
So, with that in mind, I broke out of character for a moment.
"Levi, you have to stop. If we continue like this..."
"Levi? What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be in the central part of the forest?"
Suddenly, another group suddenly appeared between the trees, with their red-haired leader looking more than surprised to see us.