BANG!
A body was sent flying out of a cave. With the flailing limbs, and closed eyes of this person, one could only assume they were dead.
Arnold, still in the cave, tied a piece of torn cloth around his bleeding eye. Bearing cuts and injuries all over his exhausted body, he took out his laser knife and proceeded to cut out his treasure.
If he had just this tiny piece, Arnold could have the money to run away from Ansel forever and live a life of luxury for a few years. He had thought all about his escape plan. And since he didn't have any family members, his baggage was little, he thought. 'I could get ten million Coals out of this!'
He was elated, withal, he soon realized that the burning knife was unable to cut around the shining blue metal.
'What the? How hard is this thing?' He stabbed and sliced, but not even a mark had been left on the plastic like casket.
"Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!" At Arnold's dismay, nothing happened. Yelling some more, he grabbed hold of the metal, and with a glint of madness, tried pulling it out despite knowing of it's futility. But to his surprise, after a couple of tugs, the casket shook and soon showed signs of opening.
Arnold, not minding staining the precious metal with his bloody hands pulled as hard as he could. It was unbelievable, but he managed to pull it out.
Arnold fell on his butt because of his vigorous pulling.
When he looked at the metal, he noticed that it had the shape of a key, having a long pipe on the bottom end, and a triangular prism for a head. This made Arnold extremely happy as it meant even more money for him. He pocketed the key and was ready to leave when he suddenly felt like he was being watched.
With alarm, he raised his head, only to see two crimson red eyes looking at him from above.
The eyes were from something, Arnold couldn't say someone because of the beastly vibe he was getting from the man sitting in the glowing casket, and looking down on him.
He gulped in fear, unable to move when the red eyed man stretched out his hand towards Arnold.
He wanted to run, but he couldn't. His legs were too shaken from fear and he could only sweat as he felt his pants getting warmer.
After what felt like a decade of rethinking his life choices, the hand finally descended on his head like a father blessing his fateful son. Unfortunately, this son was unfaithful, and most likely didn't want to be blessed by such a man.
"Pl... please... I beg you..." Arnold could only mutter in the midst of slobbering tears and sweat.
But despite his desperate pleading, his entire body disappeared like it was never there to begin with. The red eyed man looked at the tennis-ball sized red object in his hand before biting down on it. After the snack, he felt himself drawing back into sleep. He was still tired.
Lying back down in his comfortable casket, he drifted off to sleep once more.
However, before his eyes could shut completely, he could have sworn that he espied a faint white light pointing directly at his heart.
———
*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*
Nova's footsteps sounded within the quiet forest. She had already gone into the deep ends, and at this point, she was more likely to run into wild beasts.
Beasts, although grouped into many categories, there were two basic types of them. Those types were the wild ones (monsters) and domestic ones (animals).
For monsters, they were creatures that would attack any living being they could that came into their vision, while animals only attacked as a form of defense, when provoked.
Neath province was surrounded by an incredibly large forest. And with that being the case, there were almost no monsters when going closer to the province, as they were all cleared out to ensure the safety of the citizens that lived there. But towards the outer parts of the forest, that was a different story.
*Shh* shh*
Nova suddenly heard the sound of a bush rustling near her. She turned to it with her fists raised, ready to react to whatever danger that came out.
The leaves soon stopped rustling, but it was a little creature that came crawling out.
It had an exoskeleton, so it was an insect type creature, the size of a grown man's palm. Its body was round and fat with three pairs of legs coming out of it's sides. It's mouth also looked like a spinning bottle cap.
Although a little terrifying, the bug looked quite exquisite, with it's black body and red 'V' shaped patterns on its back. It's legs also looked like bent straws that had a red substance moving up and down inside it.
Nova had to squint her eyes to see it clearly as the forest was still early dawn. But as soon as she got a clear picture, her eyes shot open with a look of fear.
"Damn it!" She cursed and hurriedly ran towards the opposite direction, not engaging the bug.
A century back, one scientist dared to start a mosquito eradication project. He had succeeded by breeding new types of mosquitoes and then spreading them world wide so they would mate with their blood-sucking sisters and produce more of their own kind.
For a while, his plan actually worked and the new mosquito types were born; they even took care of the environment by helping with pollination.
But an expected consequence arose: The destabilization of the circle of life.
Mother nature was 'pissed off' with the way those 'freak insects' were competing with the bees for pollen, and the fact that there was a loss of a 'butt biter' insect species. So she made a freak of her own, the 'V-Bugs.'
These bugs, when they first, 'sprung out of hell', only went after the new mosquitoes and even the bees, but as soon as those were completely eradicated, their true purpose in the circle of natural balance was revealed. They became both the new blood sucking monsters, and plant keepers.
So to wrap up, the V-bugs were one of nature's ironies, a very bad joke.
The bug skittered its way towards the trees to give chase. It was relatively slow, but it knew how to take advantage of the vines and plants in the thick forest.
Swinging off a vine, it fell towards her.
Fortunately, Nova was able to dodge it, albeit by a hair's breadth. The bug let go of the vine, landing on a tree and then launching itself in her direction.
Whilst looking back, Nova tripped over a thick tree root and fell. This left her defenseless against the leaping bug.
Seeing its pray looking up at it in fear, its tyre-like mouth spun with excitement. However, as it stretched its wretched legs open at her, she suddenly rolled over.
*Kwee—" Before it completely realized what was happening, Nova pushed it, head first, into the sinking ground.
And with a relieved sigh, she stood up and decided to take another route before going along her way.
[Unclassified Beast: V-Bug has been killed.
No EXP gained.]
The 'Unclassified' title the bug had, meant it was supposed to be an unharmful beast. It wouldn't kill a person, it might just suck about sixty percent of their blood. But that was probably still death for its victim.
It was weak and Nova could have easily outrun it by a disgraceful distance, but if the bug ever felt distressed, or aggrieved that it couldn't catch a pray, then it would whine(call) for the help of every other one of its kind in the area.
If she had squashed it, with its legs red and full of six extra lives, it would have revived itself and then call for its group. And with the numbers they usually walked around in, Nova would just get unnecessary trouble fighting them.
The white light seemed to be have turned dim a little, so she didn't have the kind of time to deal with them, in her hands.
———
Ten days later...
Nova sat cross legged on a blue unicorn that was walking on water. Her eyes were closed and there was a white cloak covering her entire body. At this point, she felt like she was one with nature, and had even started to live life like a traveler.
She had gone through three provinces in total, and for any town she passed, people would look at her with either apprehension or awe.
Who was this mysterious figure that seemed so out of place in this advanced timeline?
There where vehicles and teleporters, yet they chose to ride on a wild animal. There were armours and scouting suites, yet they chose a seemingly simple cloak. Their actions were inexplicable.
The white greatsword tied across their back gave them an even more legendary and mystifying presence, a presence that also caught the eyes of the social media enthusiasts taking a dip in that same giant lake.
[A/ N: I used 'they', 'them' and 'their' as her pronounce because her gender was unknown to the passersby.]
A man, half inside the lake, tapped a collar around his neck and a small screen shot out. The screen was recording live, the mysterious figure on the blue horse.
***
[It's still noon Kevin, why are you going live?]
[It doesn't matter, as long as I get to see my angel's face. Yee!]
[Hold up, aren't you people watching the same video I am? That's the ancient spirit everyone in Penmark and Wenvoe are talking about talking about!]
[Ancient spirit? Is it actually real?]
[Wait, it's in Coity's landmark lake right? I'm coming over!]
[Way ahead of you.]
After reading the interested comments of his viewers, the streamer pulled the surf board by his side close and then got on it.
With a rhythmic tapping of his feet, the board sped towards the blue unicorn that had almost gone past the lake to dry land.
However, as soon as the man got close, he suddenly heard a loud and harsh sound.
"What was that?" He turned to look up.
Nova opened her eyes as she finished her meditation. Along the way here, she found out that the amulet she was wearing had great uses.
For one, meditating while using it, allowed her to circulate energy better. Her light abilities were more effective and took a lesser amount of EP to activated. This effect lasted for about two hours, after one hour of meditation.
The other thing she figured out about it, was the reason she was able to tame this wild animal she rode.
Going back to the sound, a large white owl swooped down at an incredible speed, towards Nova. Seeing it, the people, including the streamer turned around and started speed boating or swimming out of the area, going as far as they could away from the 'spirit' and beast.
While this was happening however, Nova calmly took out the amulet from inside her cloak. When the owl got close enough, she held up the amulet to the bird's face.
BOOM!
The hard wind blew her cloak, as the owl suddenly stopped mid flight.
Nova let it stare at the amulet; it would fall into a trance soon and be under her control. So meanwhile, she looked at the beast closely.
It had snow white feathers and a golden marking on its forehead; a marking that resembled a curvy cloud. Its four feet tall body was quite chubby, and it had a wingspan of sixteen feet.
'Yenn would probably like this type of thing' Nova couldn't help but think. The owl was cute, but she couldn't keep it as a pet as she wouldn't have time to take care of it anyway. In fact, even the unicorn she was riding on would be discarded when its purpose had been served.
She turned her head to see if the owl had already succumbed to the amulet's strange power, and it looked like it had.
"Okay, let's get going."
'I've only got a few more hours till this light completely fades.'
However, as soon as she tried to pull the amulet back, the owl suddenly stretched its head forward and grabbed it.
HOOT!
It flapped its large wings away with a mischievous smile; it had gotten what it had come for.
Nova sat in a daze for a while, before realizing what had happened. The owl had just stolen her probable means to learning about her faulty ECS!
Her white cloak, wrapped tightly around her feminine body and soon formed her metallic suit.
Leaping off the blue unicorn with anger, Nova yelled,
"Get back here you son of a —"
HOOOOT!