Although it was evening and the sun was almost gone with only an hour left of sunlight at most, Lukas still wanted to continue searching for the ghast. Vesa agreed, mainly since she didn't want to discourage Lukas any more than he already has to himself.
After only half an hour of searching, they stumbled across something peculiar. The mangled corpse of a wolf. It looked less than a day old and had a trail of blood leading from it. Either it tried to flee, or whatever killed it ran away, wounded.
Lukas told Vesa that it was likely whatever killed it would be at the end of the blood trail, but that he wasn't sure if it was the ghast or not. So they continued to follow the trail in the hopes it would lead them to the ghast.
But as they followed it, Lukas noticed the blood trail got thinner far faster than it should. It was as if the source of the blood was healing at an accelerated rate. Or maybe it could patch its own wounds.
'Or maybe, it got rid of the bleeding.'
Lukas thought this as he stared at the dismembered limb of the ghast, lying on the ground in front of him.
'At least it's blood is the same as ours.'
It had many grim slashes through it, even one that Vesa said would have rendered the appendage almost unusable.
"So it cut off its arm to escape?"
"Looks like it."
Lukas only meant that question to himself, speaking aloud by accident. But Vesa still agreed with him, so maybe he was on the right track.
However, when he saw the arm, something strange stirred within Lukas. It was an emptiness, a lack of emotions, a long void or quiet. Sure, there was shock from finding the arm, but now it was all but washed away. Replaced, now, by curiosity and anxiety.
He wasn't afraid or fearful of the sight, instead left intrigued. Like someone looking at their fear through glass, he was disconnected, detached, and curious rather than terrified.
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound echoed through the forest. Followed shortly by a dull thud, like something soft and heavy impacting the ground. Lukas instantly had a guess as to what happened, those sounds were uncommon but still distinct nonetheless.
As the sound continued to spread through the forest, it in turn went silent. Soon a screech of agony that sounded like a wolf's howl emanated from the source of the sound. The sound itself though, was a couple of octaves too high. That too, was when they saw it.
As they rushed through the dense treeline, they saw, crumpled over a thick fallen tree branch, a mass of white with pools of dull yellow blood on it. The ghast was wounded, and not moving.
Lukas slowly moved his hand to his kusarigama and silently stepped forward. Vesa had a tense look on her face but didn't want to stop Lukas.
As he approached, he grew tense and anxious. The creature sure as hell looked dead. But he couldn't know until he verified. So he cautiously approached it, until he was within only a few metres of it.
Then it twitched, snapped its head at Lukas, and sprung to life. It screeched briefly, its jaw opening more than 90 degrees, before attempting to skitter away. A few of its limbs were broken, either by the fall or being hit by the branch, it wasn't clear. Also, was it missing an eye?
Lukas hesitated for a moment, but when he heard Vesa speak, he gave chase. Vesa yelled at Lukas to run after it, while she jumped into the trees to try to surprise it. She didn't activate her frequency yet, as having fingers is very useful for scaling trees atop the forest.
Lukas ran after it, now holding the kusarigama, ready to try and stab or tangle the creature. It was fast, despite its limbs being broken or missing. But Lukas was faster, even if only by a hair.
However, even though Lukas was faster, the ghast could get past rough terrain with ease. Plus it could turn nearly instantaneously. This kept Lukas on his toes as he ran after the foul beast, unsure if he would be able to catch up to it.
Although he should have been focused on the ghast above all else. Lukas couldn't help but think about something else; Why wasn't he scared? Why was he so indifferent?
He was feeling a lot of emotions right now, too many for him to try and decode. He definitely was scared, but he was also angry and pitied the small skittish creature to some extent. He was still upset at himself if only a little, and he was excited to finally begin doing things that weren't training.
So maybe he wasn't that scared, or maybe he was. Either way, he wasn't terrified, and that pure, unfiltered fear was what paralysed him last time.
'Come on, just a little closer!'
He was only a few metres away from it now and slowly gaining ground. He readied himself and focused solely on the ghast. He threw the sickle at it, hoping to either impale it or tangle it in the chain.
And he succeeded, in the worst way possible.