This forest... its utterly dead. No life grows here, a wasteland would be a better way to describe the place.
Clearly, it wasn't dead.
Something's here. I just don't know what. That, is the problem.
'Have you noticed it too?' Merlin glanced to me with a sly grin.
'Of course I have. I may be an incompetent magus, but I do have clairvoyance.' Future sight? So she knows the future, but how far, and how much does she know about the entity.
'There are different types of clairvoyance you know. Past, present, future. I can only see the present. But moving on, this creature is an odd one. It's aligned with nature in some way. It shifts between forms before hiding again. It's stalking us.'
'Merlin, I can see the present. A better description is viable to the importance of a mission.' The old magus sighed at the assessment.
'I'm not old... I guess calling it clairvoyance is inaccurate, its much more like viewing other locations outside of my sightline. Are you happy now?'
'Yes, do you have a description of the creatures original appearance?' No time to waste, we could die at any moment.
Information is key.
In war, information is invaluable. False information is often worse than none.
'The creature is around 11ft tall, lanky frame, it's ribs are visible from outside. A large skull mask on its face, orange eyes. Black skin with fur.' Inhuman, must not focus on physical strength if it has a lanky frame.
Shape-shifting. That is the most troublesome aspect. If it was to shift into myself, would its physical capabilities be equal to my own? That is an interesting thought, but also a concerning one.
'Tell me when it makes a move.' Seems I must remain vigilant. This creature will pray on any weakness it sees. However no weaknesses are protruding at the moment.
I must first make an assessment.
'Merlin, I'm going to split off from you three.' There was silence through the link before she responded in a curious yet knowing tone.
'Why?'
'The creature is not a physical fighter, it's frame confirms that. Therefore, it is definitely more of a hunter. And hunters strike easy prey. I must determine who, is the easy prey.' There was no response from the wizard, I took that as confirmation before cutting the link.
I didn't take my time and turned to Mist. Risky, as it may lose me, but if I'm considered the easy prey, it will hunt me instead of the group. But, I suspect that I'm not the easy prey.
I reformed a fair distance away, not far enough to where I had no chance of getting back though.
What would make for good bait? Ideally, a sleeping target. But faking a nap immediately would draw suspicion, assuming an observative beast is what the creature is.
It's decided.
So for the next twenty minutes or so, I acted tired. Occasionally closing my eyes before rapidly opening them, lowered head, leaning against the tree. Until finally, I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing.
To a normal person, it may be tedious.
Not to me. It's just apart of the mission.
I felt slight deviation in the air current. As if a light breeze had blown by, this creature is good. It may have even fooled any other natural werewolf.
But not me.
This creature is skilled at hiding. The forest is permeated with the stench of blood, it's good enough to easily stalk a normal person and avoid their sight. Almost avoiding my own. It carefully blends itself to the air currents, not perfectly, but well enough that not even a majority of natural werewolves would notice.
And by the time many notice, it would already have been too late.
That alone is impressive.
Natural werewolves are called as such because their instincts and sensations are far more natural and in tune with nature. To fool one is difficult.
The creature knows this place well, I haven't heard a single sound, not even a vibration from such a large creature.
It doesn't move quickly either. It inches towards me, incredibly slow, like how a tree slowly moves over the course of its lifetime. The creature slowly paces forward, it's pace may drive any hunter to irritation.
But not me.
It's just apart of the mission.
I can wait.
Seconds
Minutes
Hours
Days
Months
However long the mission takes.
An impatient soldier is a dead one.
It's close enough now, I can tell.
Something I've since learned about storing weapons in my shadow, I don't need to be in contact with my shadow to access it. I can access any weapons inside my own shadow from thin air.
I had already removed the blade from it's sheath that I had made. It needs a name, much like how Sam is called the murasama. This divine blade needs a name.
I watched as the creature slowly fell apart from the splitting slice I gave to it's midsection.
'Schneller tod.' A fitting name for the current situation.
I felt a tug on the link, but no words.
That cannot be a good sign.
'Enstehen' as I had hoped, it still works even without speech.
No time to wait around. I broke into a dash, aura enhancing my entire body. Don't have time to waste. Merlin may be in danger. Why did I leave a self-proclaimed incompetent magus alone?
That wasn't even remotely a great idea.
It took under 15 seconds to get back at his speed, there he saw... himself? With a hand punched through Merlin's stomach.
As he was about to slash the copy of himself, Merlin smirked. As if unfazed.
"I gotcha didn't I?" I watched as Merlin flaked away into flower petals, right before my eyes.
I hadn't even noticed anything was off.
Merlin reappeared a short distance away from the creature and thats when I heard the twins rushing my imitation. I saw large red claws in the red twins hands, nothing seemed off about the white twin.
I never asked their names did I?
The red one slid between the fakes legs, slicing their right leg clean off. My doppelganger looked up at the leaping twin, leg raised in a heel drop. The back of her heel looked just like a blade.
Then, she split his face open.
Impressive teamwork. What... no, how did it look like me?
My question was answered as its body turned to a much smaller creature, like the one I killed but 3ft shorter.
'Well, that's dead. I guess we're done.' Merlin glanced at me.
'We're not. I killed one, meaning that there wasn't just one. Survey the forest-' My thought pattern was cut off by a deep bellowing screech tearing through the forest.
'It seems there is at least one more, it sounds angry. The other two made no noise, this one could be different judging by that small irregularity.'
'Small irregularity? That isn't a small irregularity! That thing is heading straight this way, it's smashing trees as it shifts between a multitude of forms. This one was bigger than the last two. 15ft tall. It's mask is also slightly different, there's red markings of what looks to be back to back brackets and a small diamond. I think the eyes are red too.'
Hm. From what I've briefly read about grimm, red markings signify the alpha of a pack. I'm not sure if these are humanoid grimm as they weren't in the grimm encyclopedia, they remind me of cryptids I had read about once.
Wendigo's, I believe they were called.
They were cannibals who ate human flesh and transformed into monstrosities. Though wendigo's don't look like this, it's just what people believe wendigo's look like. I can only pity these creatures.
If the tales are to be believed, they fell to hunger and devoured a person before becoming these creatures. What a sad tale. To lose all rationality and control of yourself, that is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.
To lose control...
No time for sadness and hypotheticals. It's time to ready ourselves.
The beast approaches. The hunt shall begin, whether said creature is the hunter or hunted is still in the air.
I held the blade tight. Weapons are not my expertise, hand to hand is my expertise. But I am no amateur in weaponry.
Max made sure of that.
Despite how much I hated his training, I am greatful. He made me into a fine soldier, I admire him. Never saw him lose, not once. Might even be stronger than Anderson and alucard. He was always hard to gauge. One day...
He just disappeared.
Not a trace left behind.
That day... baffled me. I can't believe someone beat him. Natural causes? No... werewolves live for as long as age will take them.
Max was only 300.
It was a mystery, but alas, time to focus.
The wendigo slowed and tore two trees out of the ground, one was launched towards me and the other was launched at my trio of companions. There is a simple solution to this scenario.
My semblance.
Dodging a tree is the easy part, the difficult part is the usage of my semblance. I've made ice before but not on this level, worse case scenario, I can just throw them out of the way.
Ice shot across the floor faster than the tree barrelling through the air, the ice shot up forming a thick ice rock wall. The tree sailed into it and shattered to pieces.
Good.
I just slipped through the shadows to avoid the tree.
"You foul creatures... you murdered my children. You will not escape this. You will not escape my judgement. I, will slaughter you all like cattle." So it can speak, the most unsettling thing about all this, is hearing my own voice.
I looked at it, all it wore were tattered pants. It also had its left arm.
I, am at a disadvantage if it has equal physical capabilities. Excluding aura.
First test, leg strength. I swung my right leg and the moment I did, the wendigo swung its own right leg. Our legs crashed into each other, a boom ringing through my ears.
No visible damage.
Complications may arise. Ice spread from my shin to his, freezing his entire right leg solid. It shattered to pieces but just reformed.
Aiming for the heart or brain seems to be the way to do this. I pulled my leg back.
The twins won't be able to keep up.
'Merlin, scour the forest for these wendigo. I'll deal with this one. Take the twins with you.'
'Alright master. Don't die.' Just had to use that word. It annoys me, being reminded that I essentially own a slave. Not even including susie or the twins. Time to focus.
Shadow creation is as natural as breathing now, and I'll need my missing arm if I want to fight on even grounds. I'll just use the shadow of my sleeve to create a prosthetic.
Inch by inch, I crafted a new arm of shadow in but a moment. My body already feels heavy, exhausted even. This may have been a mistake. My aura allowed me to push forward in an instant, an upward slash cleaved through my doppelganger's chest.
The look of fear in his eyes was such a familiar thing. All too familiar.
I took grip of the blade with both hands, the blades edge pointing to the sky as the tip aimed downwards, assuming that it has copied my interior biology, three strikes.
Three, well placed strikes.
That is all it takes. Aura ran through my entire body as I readied myself, due to it's regeneration, the strikes will have to be consecutive. All at the same time.
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The beast felt something dangerous coming from it's child's murderer.
It had no time to react.
Three blades struck forth, the blades jabbed into the creatures singular heart, the opposite spot where hans second heart lay and one blade struck clean through its head.
In a moment, three strikes had happened.
Three consecutive strikes.
The alpha wendigo felt its mind being reshaped, into servitude.
'You'd make for a great spy.'
'Vhy, vhat was just vhat I vas thinking too.'
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