Inside the woods again, Alister walks up front with his mouth being muffled by a tied cloth around his head. His arms too was also tied at his back, but by a rope, as its excess thread was held tightly by Bear, who was behind him in every step he took, watching.
At their rear, Ishnaia freely walks besides Reonne, who was chatting rapidly like a buzzing of a bee. Reonne happily talks about anything and everything, even revealing information regarding the contract they'd received with a smile,
"…anyway, Bear's the greatest tracker out here in the whole kingdom. No wonder that horned Erons contracted us to find you even if they had men. Bear asked her, 'why not make your birds find them?', I mean, he knew something's fishy right? you know what she said?" Reonne imitated a female voice, "'My birds are busy. Kill the one who burned this tavern and did this slaughter and I can guarantee you hefty sum of money.' Bear was against it at first but took the opportunity for me to practice tracking, but damn we didn't know that we're tracking a lady and a prince!"
"…" Ishnaia stays silent while staring afar, as if indifferent to Reonne's story-telling. The latter notice this and went from a grin to a face of worry.
"Ishnaia, you're became silent. Is it about earlier? My bad if I can't convince grumpy Bear about that heck of a heist you planned."
Earlier, Ishnaia tried to persuade Bear and Reonne to free Alister from captivity after they've given him to the House Erons and had reap the rewards from the contract. However, no matter what she says and whatever reasons she answered for him, Bear was never keen to be any part of it. The same cannot be said to Reonne as he was quick to agree to her plan. He tried to convince Bear in Ishnaia's stead, but Bear insistingly declined,
"Sorry, but I will not, and never abide with such trickery. How about this, after this contract, we split ways. After all, you're a grown-up man now. I taught you all the basics I can teach you. You do what you want to do. But the next time we meet, we may be enemies."
In spite of that, Reonne wholeheartedly agreed for them to part ways after this. And in that, currently, is what he thinks this silent treatment is all about,
"At least I will be there saving your ex!"
"…"
"Hey now, are you okay?"
"…remember that furryman we've ignored lying there?" Ishnaia speaks without batting her eyes on him, "Because he'll be fine you say?"
"Furryman!?" Reonne snorted with a grin, "Yeah, what about him? Still hard about that? I told you he'll be fine. He might be really hysterical earlier but he'll be fine."
"…You know why that furryman's hysterical right? You're stalking us, so you should know why, right?"
He smiles with mouth wide as he jokingly said, "All I know is that he was screaming 'Paaaan! Paaaaan!' when I finally got there. What of it?"
"So, you haven't the faintest idea at all that he was screaming the name of his fucking son, who was just at that moment, devoured in front of him, in front of us, by that motherfucking monster do you?"
Reonne had his smile gone, leaving only his jaw agape and was at loss for words, "Wh-wh-I…I'm sorry… I-I don't know."
"…Don't be. I'm just thinking that what if, I had the power to stop that from happening? Yet, here I am thinking that I know in myself I had that kind of power to stop it. To save Pan. I-"
"It's hard to kill that monster without preparation I'd say. Only with a party of swordsmen and spellcasters will make it possible."
This time, Ishnaia glances at Reonne, "…You knew about that monster?"
"Yeah, It's a Digstran. I heard those things live underground and moves underneath the ground. It finds its prey by the noise they're making. So, it's better that we do not make super loud noises as possible. Oh, and I guess they just recently spawned into these deepwoods. I had no idea why-"
"Wait, what did you just say? Loud noises?"
He nodded, "Yeah-" then Reonne had come to a realization as Ishnaia glances away at him, inclining her head and pressed her mouth by her hand. Her eyes furrowed and wide, as she just realized what she had done.
Not knowing how to act, Reonne speaks as he put his hand on her shoulder, "I-It's not your fault! You never knew about that!"
"I know!" Ishnaia irately said out loud to his face as she slaps his arm away from her shoulder with the back of her hand, "So will you please shut up for a moment!?"
"Okay!…Okay..." Reonne take steps backwards with a mouth wide in a form of a smile, "I'm not an hardarse. I'll give you some space. Apparently, you need it."
Ishnaia closes her eyes and rested her hand to her forehead, "Ah, shit. I'm sorry. I'm just…"
"Well, it's fine! No worries! I'm not gonna leave boat just because my superior screams at my face for being annoying!"
Ishnaia stares at him "…You sure know how to pull a nerve don't you?"
"Haha, my bad! I don't mean offense!"
Bear, at that moment, saw a trunk that had a carved marking or a scribble of some sort that had a shape of a raven spreading its wings in top of some sort of a leaf drawing. He then suddenly announces, "Enough of that lover's quarrel, we're here."
Ishnaia then had a look to her surroundings, and then, "we're here? Aren't we still in these fucking woods?"
"Yep," Reonne replied, "We're still here. But here in this spot is the place for us to return quickly."
"Return quickly? like, teleportation?"
"Hah! I wish! we're just calling mounts," Then Reonne pulled out two talismans from his pocket, "With these!"
Then he raised the talismans up and yelled,
[Konnitza!]
Ishnaia tilts her head for a bit and asks, "But why this spot, can't you just summon them back at the ponds? And what's with the f-"
"shhh!" Reonne put his finger to his lips while still raising up the two talismans…
…but nothing happened.
"Huh?" He brought down his hand holding a talisman and raised up and again, "Konnitza!" he yelled "Konnitza!" and again, "Konnitzaa!!", and then, "Shit!" he bellowed, "This was supposed to be easier that whistling! Did I pronounce it wrong?"
"Fool!" Bear yelled at him, "Have you forgotten easily as of why we're here!?"
"What now, oh mighty Be-"
Then as soon as Reonne turned to face Bear, he found a knife darted at him. Reonne was stunned by this, but the knife just almost grazed right through his ear, and, "Gah!" piercing someone, or something behind him. He turned around and found a small dark green monster with body in likeness of a common Hume, but with a clear undeniably ugly face and both eyes all white and without visible pupil.
"A Goblin?!" He speaks out loud.
"We need just two of them," Bear said, "But," and he eyed his surrounding and drew his two-handed sword at the back with just a hand as one by one, goblins came out from hiding from the bushes or from the tree roots, some with clubs, or swords or a bow and an arrow at their hands, "it seems that both of you are really loud enough to draw out this many."
"What can I say!" Reonne grinned, "I'm famous!"
"Surely your fame is fucked up," Ishnaia jests, "just as mine!" Then, she glanced at Reonne's swords at his waist, "Give me a sword!"
"Red or Black?"
"Doesn't matter, hurry!"
Then Reonne unsheathed both of his swords and passed the one with a black hilt by a throw to Ishnaia. "Take care of Black!" He said while doing so. Once she got the sword, two arrows came towards them and immediately, she parried both and declared loudly,
"Let's fuck them up!"
And Ishnaia and Reonne stabbed and slices the goblins coming at them. With the first kill, Ishnaia found herself feeling more in control. She moves rhythmically than ever, like dancing in a stage. Moreover, killing these goblins feels easier for her for she sees them as pesky pests in an abode, In each kill, she finds herself more satisfied than ever, akin to the feeling when one successfully removes stains from the floor or dishes.
At the same time, Bear holds a rope and a sword, swinging it with a heavy movement that was expected from his stature, cleaving goblins in a horizontal cut. Then he glanced at the rope he was holding, then to Alister and said,
"Stay there and duck! Don't do anything funny! I need a full motion to deal with these pests!"
In which Alister replied in a muffled voice and did as he told to. Bear proceeds to use two of his hands to swing in swift movements. Cutting another goblin in half then another, but then, after a short while as he slew another and stared at its corpse, he furrowed his eyebrow. He felt that something is amiss.
"Fuckers! You're NOTHING TO ME!" Ishnaia bellowed loudly as she slice up more goblins. Reonne laughed amusingly at Ishnaia's words and audaciously responded, "Damn right they're nothing! Ain't this much better than tracking!"
Glancing at right, Ishnaia saw a goblin and pointed at it grinningly, "Hey Reyo! Check that poor guy! He got only one eye open and got this weird winking look! Give him a fucking eyepatch will you!"
"Sure thing!" Reonne nodded as he rushed towards that goblin and drive his sword through its only eye and pulled it out in a flash. Ishnaia was cringed away by this for a bit and said,
"Shit! That's brutal as fuck bro!"
"I'm not your bro! I'm your lover remember!" Reonne protests as he picked up the sword that goblin held.
"Yeah, yeah." She nonchalantly replied as she proceeds to kill another, and another in a swift and graceful movements. Both Ishnaia and Reonne dance away with their swords, killing one goblin to another while parrying or evading arrows shooting at them at an awkward manner.
After a while, Ishnaia stabbed some goblin up front in its belly and had a closer look, then she furrowed her eyebrows as she exclaimed,
"Reyo! Have a look at this one!"
"What!?" Reonne replied as he was clashing with a goblin with swords, "I'm kinda busy right now!"
"Shit Reyo, Hurry! You need to fucking see this!"
"Raaagh!" Reonne pushed the goblin by a kick and,
*slash*
Cut the goblin in a cross strike and stabbed it to its right chest as it laid on the ground. Then as he turns his head to Ishnaia, he found her raising a dead goblin up, still impaled at its belly by her borrowed sword from him. And so, he saw the face the goblin furrowed his eyes also in disbelief and muttered,
"What the!?"
"Isn't this the one you just killed?"
"…Y-Yeah."
"Then why the fuck this winking guy chilling in my sword!?"
"I don't know!"
"Hey Reyo!" She pointed at him with that sword, Behind you!"
Then he masterfully turned and beheaded the goblin behind him in a single stroke, but then, he had a glance at the headless goblin and saw its body with a cross strike and a clear wound of sword at its right chest. Reonne sweats grinning in dread as he muttered,
"Hey hey hey! What the Hel!?"
"Ishnaia! Reonne!" Bear cried loudly and both glanced at him, "We must go! Now! They're affected by some spell! They can't be killed!"
"Shit!" Ishnaia exclaimed as she kicked away the goblin impaled at her sword and pulled the sword at the same time, "So what!? we're fighting fucking zombies now!?"
"Then how are we supposed to get away with these goblins!?" Reonne asked loudly, "They're quite fast and we got that prince bind and all! Should we cut him loose!?"
"No! Use the Talisman! We only need two!"
"Two?" Reonne then pulls out the two talismans he had and glanced the winking goblin and the cross cutted goblin that was both near at his feet. As he stands there for a second, thinking what should he do, Ishnaia rushed slew another goblin that was behind him and cried,
"I'll cover! Just fucking do it! Maybe just stick it to them and say the funny word!"
Then Reonne gave no time to lose and do as she suggest. He stuck the two talismans to the bodies of the winking and the cross cutted goblin respectively. But at the same time, they were about to come to life again and Reonne took no time for them to recuperate and struck them with his swords, pinning them on the ground. Still holding the swords, he yelled out
[Konnitza!]
As soon as he recited the word, the talismans turned into ethereal ashes from bottom to top and the goblins radiates in a blue light as glowing particles comes out from their body. The two goblins shake violently as their body dissolves in a pace like the talismans earlier and turned into blue orbs of light in the air. He lifted up his swords from the ground and glanced at the orbs in awe. Not long, the two orbs landed at the ground and then in a steady pace, took a shape of a spectral horse with its flowing spectral hair and neighs loudly for all to hear.
Ishnaia grinned as her eyes wander towards it, "Fuck, that's cool shit!"
"Damn right you are." Reonne agreed.
"No time to be in awe! Ride on! Hurry!" Bear roared as he dashes towards the Spectral Horse, carrying Alister by his shoulder. He threw Alister behind the horse by his belly as the latter gave a muffled noise near the horse's tail. Bear did not waste time and hurriedly ride on to the horse. Reonne did the same to the other spectral horse as Ishnaia follows through and rides at behind him. Bear then took hold of the spectral hair of his ride and said loudly,
"Spectre! Take us to the Town of Durakhal! Quickly!"
Without further ado, Reonne also said what he heard to his ride,
"Spectre! Durakhal Town! Quick!"
And both spectral horses' dashes away from the zombie goblins territory. Some of the goblins tried to ambush them from the tree branches, but failed completely, as the horses maneuvers in a masterful way while they drive them away by swings of their swords. Others tried to shoot them with the arrows, but Ishnaia also easily parried it away. It did not take long that those goblins dwindle in size and were gone as they went far enough for the place. Ishnaia asks,
"Is it over?"
Reonne glanced behind and replied
"I-I think so?"
Then, out of nowhere. Ishnaia yelled victoriously,
"Woooooh! Yeah baby! Goodbye motherfucking bitches!" she gave a middle finger behind their path, "Fuck all of you!"
"Yeah...Yeah! Finally!" Reonne agreeably shouted, "We're finally away from those deadbeats!"
While Ishnaia and Reonne are celebrating, Bear was silent as he grumpily mutters to himself,
"Damn her! she did not even tell us that there's a gimmick!"