Both Zenon and Aurea quickly woke up after hearing such a scream. Alarmed, Aurea quickly moved outside of the ravine and after some seconds, she shouted,
"What the... Zenon, get the fuck up!"
Quickly doing as she said, Zenon wasted no time getting up and leaving the cave. When he spotted Aurea he said,
"What's going on, there's no Shift... ing..."
Even though he wanted an explanation, the sight in front of him proved enough to know what was going on.
Three Unseens. A boy and a girl were running toward them while carrying the body of another boy. Blood was dripping like a river down his arm and seemed like he was unresponsive to what was going on.
Zenon peeked at Aurea, who was looking at the three Unseens with widened eyes. He couldn't read her thoughts so Zenon shook his head before trying to run toward them. Strangely, Aurea blocked his path.
"Hey, aren't you going to help them? Five is better than two right?"
Aurea mumbled some incoherent words before walking toward the pair. She summoned her sword and stopped in her tracks some moments after.
'Just what is she trying to do...'
Zenon took a step forward and a familiar fluttering sound completely filled the ravine. A chill ran down his spine as he looked towards the end of the ravine, where a big butterfly appeared.
A Blue Emperor.
Zenon ran toward Aurea, who stood still while watching the end of the ravine. When he got to her side, he asked,
"What's the plan?"
Aurea peeked at him for a moment before saying, "How high can you jump?"
"Well, if you want me to jump over those two I can do it."
Nodding, Aurea began walking forward as the pair approached. Not only them, but the Emperor violently moved between walls, dangerously getting closer. Zenon could even see how violently its body was trembling.
He didn't forget what Aurea said back when they first encountered it. One had to distract it while the other killed it.
Zenon sighed as he thought, 'I'm the bait, great.'
After walking for a while, Aurea looked back at Zenon and nodded. The boy then augmented his legs with void and progressively gained more and more speed. When he got closer to both Unseens,
"H-Hey! Please help us! Our friend's bleeding!"
Deaf to their plea, Zenon jumped over them by an astonishing two meters and a half and continued running forward. He eyed the Emperor swiftly approaching them and cutting ground. Watching it in action made Zenon realize just how fast one of them could become.
He ran a bit more and shouted, "I'm here you blue idiot!"
The Emperor quickly changed trajectory and its next move was to launch directly toward Zenon's position. Knowing how fast one of those can be, Zenon rolled the moment he ended shouting.
*BAM!*
The Emperor crashed against the wall, lifting some dust and sending some rocks falling into the river. For a brief moment, the blind eye of the Layer Beast made contact with Zenon's eyes, sending goosebumps all over his body.
Not wasting a second, Zenon augmented the dagger and gave two swift slashes toward the Emperor's legs and managed to give a severe wound. Following the trail of the attack, the Emperor quickly moved toward Zenon and a big tongue moved from its mouth.
This wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that the tongue was as sharp as a needle.
Not wanting to get his shoulder or any other body part impaled, Zenon instinctively moved his dagger to block the attack. He managed to stop the tongue midway by hitting it with the flat of the blade.
'I'm so damn lucky!'
He then counterattack and slashed forward, cutting most of the Emperor's face. Strangely, the blade just slid across its tongue, showing how sturdy it was. The butterfly once again moved forward, making Zenon repeat the same attack.
Then he was suddenly lifted off the ground.
He noticed how Aurea grew somewhat smaller and suddenly-
*BAM!*
Crashed against a wall.
'What the hell just-?!'
Luckily, this ravine had an unusual size for its edges, meaning that Zenon had a lot of surfaces to fall on and not roll toward the river. Though he couldn't do much about the rocks falling down from the ceiling.
Then the Emperor jumped off the wall and managed to catch Zenon again.
'!--'
*BAM!*
And he ended up on the floor with a really hungry Emperor above him. His spine felt on the verge of snapping and it'd cracked unless he hadn't augmented it at the last second. He quickly came to his sense and realized that he lost his dagger, meaning that once again he had to fight with his fists.
But, his right hand was still recovering, meaning he was in a tight spot.
Suddenly, the Emperor's mouth twitched lightly and Zenon instinctively moved to the right. Which made him completely avoid the tongue coming from him. The tongue retracted and the mouth twitched again, making Zenon move left.
And once again avoiding the sharp tongue.
'Fucking hell! Aurea, where the fuck are you?!'
Following this pattern, Zenon began to punch the Emperor as it recovered from the simple attack it performed. After five or so counter-attacks, Zenon found an opening for a kick which he obviously used.
Grabbing onto two rocks and augmenting his legs, Zenon kicked the Emperor and set it tumbling down towards the river.
Sadly, the Layer Beast recovered quickly and so did Zenon. Without time to look where Aurea was, Zenon summoned his Sharp Fang again and whistled, making the Emperor launch itself again.
Dodging right, Zenon slashed twice at its neck, threatening to take the head off. Just as the butterfly wanted to take off again, a sword appeared from behind and partly destroyed its four wings.
Confused, the butterfly jumped backward, letting Zenon see who did such a precise attack.
To the surprise of no one, it was Aurea.
"Get behind it as fast as possible and attack."
Zenon nodded and augmented his legs yet again. To get into a better position, he ran on the wall for a meter or so, making the Emperor lift its body to try and impale Zenon.
Rookie mistake.
Aurea used this opportunity to attack its thorax, drawing a big cut that made the Emperor shiver in pain. Zenon used his Sharp Fang and instead of slashing, he stabbed it in between the Emperor's wings.
As if an electric shock ran all over its body, the Emperor tried to fly away to the launch itself again, but a sudden wave of drowsiness washed over his body for a brief moment.
'Don't think I forgot about that Attribute, bitch.' Zenon thought while retrieving the dagger in case it attacked again.
Just as the Emperor began to fall, an arrow appeared out of nowhere and struck the butterfly just where Zenon had stabbed him a few moments ago, completely destroying its interior and making the wings unusable.
Aurea and Zenon watched with widened eyes as the Emperor dropped into the river. Zenon even subconsciously stepped forward in an attempt to get a last hit but to no avail.
"Yes! I managed to hit the shot!"
And an enthusiastic shout filled the ravine's water sound. Sadly, not a single set of Runes appeared in front of him, or any Sacrifices gained.
Zenon drew a breath the moment he heard that all his actions counted for nothing. A sense of rage washed over his body before taking a deep breath. It wasn't long until the Leviathan woke up and was also overwhelmed by Zenon's emotions.
Even though he asked for explanations the only thing he received was Zenon's silence.
He peeked at Aurea, who was standing just beside him. She, however, had the usual indifferent eyes she made when the situation got serious enough. Without saying a word, she dismissed her sword and walked back.
Zenon watched the Unseens that they saved. The girl, who was holding a bow, was smiling as she talked to his friend about whatever. The male figure, however, was too focused on trying to stop the hemorrhage of his friend.
How could that girl be so happy while her friend was dying? Zenon looked at her and the longer he did the more annoyed he became.
He couldn't share her happiness in this situation, not after what happened. The moment they did eye contact, she stopped laughing and put on a serious front.
Stronger or weaker, a Second-Rank Layer Beast is not something you can just steal with no consequences. The amount of luck he had just to beat it meant that at least he had to get the kill right?
Right...?
'Fucking hell... We couldn't even take the meat.'
Reluctantly, Zenon walked behind Aurea.