Ming Shin was in great pain as one of his ribs seem to be broken and his body heavily bruised after taking some heavy hits earlier. He composed himself and took every reserve energy which he had and cut some of the meat near the thigh and rib cage and packed it.
To quickly recuperate , he walked for another hour cautiously before making a small fire with the twigs. After roasting them sufficiently, he was able to smell the long lost delicious fragrance. Inadvertently he remembered his mother's cooking.
He quickly finished the meat and found a nearby tree top to rest for the night. By the time he woke up, it was already next day evening. He drank up whatever due was available on the pants all these days in the mornings to quench his thirst.
All these days of pent up work really took a toll on him. He felt his throat parched. He ate some fruits and concentrated on the excess energy from the behemoth meat stored in his body to heal the rib cage.
The energy quickly found it's way and seethed into his whole skeleton. This took another whole night to repair the bone and some of the heavy bruises. Now his bones seem to be naught with tightness.
The next day early in the morning he cracked up his bones and felt as light as a feather but found that his bones have already become tough. He was also surprised to find that his realm was saturated and can break anytime soon into Bone Forging realm.
Walking for another week, he finally found traces of human cloth and some valuable items laid out in the path. The trees seem to fall down and he could sense the magnitude of destruction the beast rampage has caused.
Going forward he found four people of which none was alive. They were ruthlessly crushed to minced meat and torn alive by a huge herd. The smell was so bad that he had to barf at the side.
It was a gory sight for a seven year old to look at the human remains, but also made him understand the reality. The beastial nature to trample upon anything and everything. Now he was even worried to go forward in fear of finding something he should not.
So far he could not identify anyone going by the cloth. It looks like they are not the villagers. 'I hope strong seniors are holding up well' he comforted himself.
Soon, he heard some vague sounds coming from the front. There seem to be around beats who are up ahead and trying to tear up a human. It seems she is a middle aged woman who must be a vendor from Henji he speculated.
Hearing a little whimper from her, Ming Shin was shocked. 'She's still alive, I need to save her' he thought. He wanted to distract the monster beasts and let her escape. But what if not all the beasts follow him?
Quickly racking up his brain he thought of the beastial nature with no intelligence. I just need to anger them. To do that, I need to make a surprise attack and kill more than one, so that they will be in a fit of rage.
As he approached nearby silently, he could gauge out that there were at least three level 2 beasts and the remaining were level 1. 'Three level 2 beats? I can't deal with them, but I can't leave her there'.
Ming Shin was debating with himself. 'This is a dog eat dog world. How am I supposed to cope up with these monsters? Moreover even if I save her, there's no guarantee that she can survive.'
'So, am I willing to give up on a fellow human who is dying right in front of me?'
'No, it's never too late to have gentlemen's revenge after ten years'
'That still doesn't change the fact that I am allowing her to die'
'Will I be an evil person If I let this happen? Will I be a good person even if I die try saving her?'
'Shin 'er, the path to good and evil, these things are something that need to be defined by your own conscience' He remembered his father's teachings.
Ming Shin closed his eyes, calmed himself after taking a long breath. 'I do not want to have regrets. I cannot let something like this happen on my watch' he made his resolve with firm conviction.
He slid up gently near them and the monster beasts couldn't sense his presence due to the rancid smell and blood everywhere. Like a spark he jumped amidst them and cut down one level 2 beast to the right in the throat, then twirled himself to the left in air and removed the head of another level 2 beast.
The beats were confused by the sudden death of two superiors and by the time they reacted, he clearly observed that the other level 2 beast was already making a charge towards him.
He immediately changed the trajectory and pounced more to his left and killed other two level one monsters successively. The remaining three beats were panicked and outraged and four of their companions were killed in the blink of a moment.
He quickly made a dash and ran away from there to distract the beats and he successfully angered them. Looking back, he saw the three of them pursuing relentlessly, but the woman was only raiding her hand and not escaping herself.
Ming Shin gritted his teeth and ran fast to a strong tree. The beasts almost caught up to tear his back, when he used the tree ahead to spring himself just above the beats and swung his sword to smoothly cut off the two level 1 beast heads.
With a thud he fell down. There was only one level 2 beast which allows him to focus on it alone. It did not possess any intelligence, only consumed by rage still turned back and pounced upon him. He rolled to his right and cut a injury to it's right abdomen.
It did not cause a serious damage but it was wary of him now. "Damn ,now it's being cautious. It's close to impossible to kill it. If it flees, god knows if it gathers up other beasts to this place and chases me down again. I need to finish it off now".
Shin dodged and coughed up blood, his hand was almost loose holding the sword. The beast immediately took up this opportunity to bite his neck. He was still in free motion as if he would be killed until he felt it's breath close to his face.
He suddenly slammed the sword upwards and thrusted into it's like a spike, but it's front claws have penetrated into his chest and abdomen. By immediately throwing it aside, he was able to remove the inertia a bit but still his intestine and stomach seems to be ruptured and bleeding.
Though it was a serious injury, it was not a fatal one. It could take another three days to completely heal, but he would not be able to fight to the full extent immediately. He removed his upper robe which was in rags and wound them tightly around the wounds.
He sat there and heavily gasped 'That person seems to be still breathing'. he saw the soft jade hand rise though weak and fall few times. "You, lady..do you have any strength? Can you get up?" he shouted.
He could hear some inaudible response. "I can't hear you. We need to get away from here quickly" he spoke as he managed to get up with difficulty. His intestine seems to be ruptured more due to this action and more blood was pouring out.
He gritted his teeth and moved back to the place where the woman was. He was truly trying to conserve some energy while also not causing a major discomfort to his injuries. This is the first time he had to suffer injuries and pain, let alone a major one like this.
He was always pampered by his mother though his father often took him out to hunt monster beasts and explain their characteristics. he was also feeling a sense of accomplishment of saving someone when the odds were close to zero.
'I've made a right choice by choosing to jump in and not flee' he was feeling content and finally reached out to the woman to help her stand up and move away from here as soon as possible.
The next moment he was dumbfounded and stared blank when he saw her " Iss..Is t-this even a person?". He didn't know when tears started flowing down his eyes and looked terrified at the very image especially after seeing the ragged cloth which was worn.