Chereads / An Ordeal of The Warlords / Chapter 22 - Deathly encounter.

Chapter 22 - Deathly encounter.

The forest of the Blood was filled with trees and fruits, nearly all of them were poisonous. Tree and insect parasites were present in many corners of the forest.

"I can see why River would stay here. So, with many trees and bugs, he might just spend his whole life searching for new things here." Reva said as she moved with a small machete.

Seraphina did not know Reva was this cautious, so did not bother to hear me running away.

"I only care about your clothes, I have to wash them. Please protect yourself as much as you can." Arya held Seraphina on his shoulders and moved behind Reva in the mud.

"Reva stop! There is something ahead of you!!" Seraphina screamed.

"Huh?" Reva stopped her feet from sitting down, instead, she cut the small pile of branches ahead of her. A small red spider appeared in front of Reva and jumped right at her.

"Watch out!" Arya screamed, but it was unnecessary when Reva cut the spider in half while it came at her and the blood spattered on the ground.

"Don't worry. What was not a jumping spider, any spider that is not jumping is destined to die. Too slow." Reva explained.

"Seraphina, how did you know that the spider was there? You knew there was a snake in the lower woods the other day, too."

"I don't know if there is a snake or an insect, whenever danger is close I know where it is. Somehow, I feel like a magic prism lighting in my head." The little girl answered.

"Do you feel any danger nearby, now?" Arya was curious about these unique abilities the little girl had. "What more is she hiding?"ṣ

"Seraphina, is there any danger nearby? Do you sense anything else?" Reva had a concerned look on her face. They weren't deep into the forest yet, what danger could be here?

"I sense one. It is behind those trees, eating something." Seraphina spoke out.

"How do you know that it is eating something?" Arya asked the girl in his arms.

"I don't detect him, but I smell meat. Something dead near here, fresh." A small droll appeared from Seraphina's mouth, but she wiped it away.

"I smell something too. Arya took Seraphina and climbed a tree, if a spider was mere no deadly bugs on the trees."Reva joined, and Arya looked at the two, wondering how powerful women's noses were.

No matter, he set Seraphina on the tree nearby and then climbed himself on the big branch, a view blocked. Reva brought out Evelyn, the only stark difference between it and Alfyn was that it had golden engraving on it other than silver. 

Reva moved through the ground, and Arya watched. The second orb had heightened his senses, he could see Reva travel running over the branches and using trees for cover. Slicing through in her way, she made the path more clear for Arya and Seraphina to see.

"Seraphina, where is the source of the smell?" Arya asked, no corpse was in sight until now, Reva had covered a good distance.

"The tree in front of Reva, that big oak one. Its roots are forming a coil or cage, right. The corpse in the centre, the predator hid it in the open for some reason." 

Arya was worried it might be a trap, but seeing how cautiously Reva moved, he was convinced that she knew about that too. Reva reached forward, and grabbed the branch with their hands trying to climb, instead of going around and exposing herself.

"?!" For a second or just a moment, Arya could see Reva's eyes instead of her back, there was a small silver glow in her eyes sparking her eyes, but her eyes weren't visible once again. 

Reva climbed the root and crawled inwards, slowly. She tried to look into the centre of the roots.

*Shot!!!

Arya held his breath as smoke spread to all sides around Reva, just like a cannon the shot from Evelyn was released. She got up from her position and jumped down from the roots, she began running to the other side.

"Run away from here. There are ground rats here!!" Reva screamed as she came close to the tree.

"Bloody hell! Ground rats!Who the hell brought them here." Arya picked Seraphina up and jumped down on the ground. 

"What are ground rats?!" Seraphina asked out of curiosity, but she was ignored.

"Take Seraphina with you. I need to lure them away from this place. Or, they will eat the whole ravine out. Tree resin doesn't scare them, run away now!" Reva ran in the other direction from the Ravine's entrance.

"Stop! We can help you!" 

"No, we can't," Arya replied to Seraphina to scream, he rushed in the other direction towards safety. 

He followed the very path they came from, following the small sign Reva made using her machete. 

"She is our friend, We need to save her! You are a warlord, aren't you strong?! Can't you kill rats-" Seraphina began punching Arya on the back to stop.

AH!!!!

A sharp and ear-tearing scream came from behind, Seraphina closed her eyes from the sheer sharpness. Arya couldn't do the same, as he was running. He pulled one of his hands on one ear.

Blood came flowing out into Seraphina's clothes and her hands, she looked and saw that Arya's ears were bleeding out, but he was still running.

"Arya, stop your bleeding. You're hurt, you need to stop, you will lose too much blood."

"If we stop, we die." Arya only said that while running although his speed was slow.

"Can't fall…this hurts!...can't fall… Mercy can do something… I am bleeding…What happened to Reva?... I am bleeding?... Can I drop Seraphina and run away ?... What is this beep sound?!" Arya's thoughts were a mess. 

"Don't worry, Mercy will bring you back! He told me can bring everything back. Arya, can you listen to me?!" Seraphina then realised her words were falling on her dead ears. Arya had lost his mind. 

She tried to pull his shirt, but Arya kept running, his ears bleeding more and more, then Seraphina realised something else.

"?! Arya stops!! There is a bone bear ahead, in the woods. Aryaaa!!" 

*Rawrrrrr… gr…ahhh!!!

The beast came screaming from the woods, tearing with the forest while it moved. The beast with its body 5 times larger than any normal bear covered in ivory white bone on the ribs and the upper body, and hiding behind was his brown black fur, his paws were covered with ivory nails, ready to cut the hardest things.

Arya finally stopped in his tracks and saw the size of the beat towering far above his head, almost touching the branches of the trees nearby.

"Arya! Run back! Don't get hurt." Seraphina was slapping Arya on the face, pulling his shirt, but Arya did not flinch, his deadpan eyes kept at the bear, "I don't want either of us to die, so you better run away." He spoke in the most quiet way possible.

Arya gazed at the bear instead of running away, the bear did not move either; he held his position, but Seraphina got scared and looked away from the bear.

"All that for nothing-"

The bear looked at her and got angry instantly and roared, it lifted itself on two feet and was ready to come crashing down on the two. The shadow fell over the back, and Arya didn't know what to do, he could just see the bones on the lower body of the bear coming right towards him. Knowing using 'marsh shield' would be death regardless, Arya used his only option.

「Natural Ability: Shatter Land」

The spikes rose from the ground, Arya did not know he could do it that fast, but the spikes grew sharp and strong. Many rose in front of him, attacking the bear in the lower body even near its feet.

…?? CRUSH

He pushed his weight down against the spikes, none being able to pierce his skin crumbles against his bone armour, he went down and down and Arya jumped to avoid the debris. 

"Aah!!" Arya realised when he hit the ground that he was holding Seraphina too. The poor girl had hit her head right into the ground and her arms had grinded against the ground. Cuts and an open wound on her head were visible to Arya.

"Goddammit!" Arya looked at the other side, his plans had worked. The bear's body was sitting on a half-broken pillar of stone, and it got confused by the situation. His lower limbs couldn't touch the ground. But it wall would be short-lived if it went berserk. 

"It hurts!" Seraphina cried out, rubbing her head with her hands and watching her arms filled with bruises, she cried and shouted even more.

"Girl…kid, don't cry. Don't cry, We can run away. If you cry, the bear will get angry, and we can run away." Arya tried to get on his knees, but despite using his Warlord powers his body wasn't bearing the effects of that scream. 

"Need to live... Need to get revenge… need to rule.." Arya summoned the last bit of courage he had and stood up.

"Can you walk? I can't carry you anymore. We need to run to the entrance just behind the bear, it won't chase us, the tree resin remember.." 

Seraphina didn't understand half of what Arya said, but stood up on her feet and began walking as fast as she could.

"Aye, More like it. No bear now okay, bear live alone in their territory-"

Rawr

Another scream filled the scene, and it wasn't the bear Arya trapped. His face turned from happy to desperate, as the beasts appeared from the forest behind.

"-Unless a mother with her mate during new birth!"

The three cubs as large as a typical bear were without any bones on their body while walking under the legs of a red-eyed, black fur female bone bear ready to ambush and the male became moving violently breaking apart the pillar of stone.

"We are dead," Arya spoke softly as his eyes went out and his body fell to the ground. 

"Arya!!!" The poor girl screamed as the mother came jumping towards her.

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  1. The high ground.