Lucian's stomach growled as he walked next to Brodin, "Man...." He said with a frown, "None of that was enough...."
Brodin looked at him, "Your hunger is something." He said, "If you were in the military, you might take all the rations."
Lucian nodded, "Y-Yea..."
They were on the way to the town that Brodin had mentioned the previous night. Lucian had a somewhat good sleep, occasionally getting bumped by Lucy who was curled up next to his head.
Brodin, however, did not sleep.
The entire time, he had been awake, watching Lucian.
There was something off about Lucian that Brodin had noticed the moment he met him. He couldn't exactly put his finger on it. This caused the man to be on guard at all times; despite Lucian's calm demeanor.
Lucian noticed this right away. He didn't know that Brodin didn't sleep, but he could tell that Brodin gave him strange glances at times.
As they walked, Lucian looked ahead, "How long till we get to Rivertown?" he asked
"Not long." Brodin said, "Around 10 or so more miles."
"That's a lot," Lucian said
"In my experience, it's really not," Brodin replied
"Hm..." Lucian said
Lucy, who was perched on Lucian's shoulder let out a chirp, looking up in the air and tilting her head.
"Your wyvern picked something up." Brodin said suddenly
Lucian stopped and nodded, "Y-Yea." He said, "I feel something off in the air as well. Like something bad is roaming about. Ever since the storm passed, I could feel it in the air everywhere. Are there any sort of beasts in this area?"
"Just the usual wildlife; wolves, bears, and the rest," Brodin said as he looked at Lucian
Lucian looked around, "Yeah, I doubt it's that." He said, "Something else is around. I don't know, I can't put my finger on what it is."
Brodin carefully scanned Lucian, noticing a strange shift in his Ether. While Lucian's ether color cannot be fully seen by the man, there was an overabundance of Ether that Brodin was suspicious about.
In his experience, fresh Traversed do in fact get a lot of Ether, but nothing of this capacity. It was rare, unless it was a Graced or a Cursed one. And right now, Brodin was contemplating if Lucian was either. Lucian had told Brodin that he was a sorcerer with silver flames but the veteran Traversed had seen through that lie, immediately connecting the dots between Lucian and the wyvern.
And from what he was told, Lunaris of the Darklight Sect had held him captive. There is no reason for a Paladin Knight to show interest in a mere sorcerer who happened to find a wyvern egg that hatched. Brodin was more than aware that Royal Wyverns are incredibly rare to find in the Bull Kingdom as they're native to the Rocky Spines, mountain ranges that house great dangers and separate the Imperium territory from the Free Kingdoms.
He had to be on guard, he couldn't trust Lucian.
And Lucian couldn't trust Brodin either. Lucian was more than aware that Brodin's gaze was set upon him at that very instance. But he couldn't risk fighting. While his confidence was high, the last thing he wanted was to attract attention from Lunaris and the Darklight Sect.
"This is a strange world and I happened upon someone who knows it well who isn't trying to enslave me." He thought to himself, "I need to get him to take me to the Town and I'll figure things out from there. Who knows, I might be able to convince him to join me."
"What are you suggesting?" Brodin asked him as he broke Lucian's train of thought, "What kind of creature do you think is lurking about?"
Lucian shrugged, "You're the expert, aren't you? You've been in this world longer than I have." He said, "What do you think?"
Brodin took a step forward, thinking about it, "Well, I don't really know what could be lurking around without me being able to detect it." He said, "But considering that I haven't run into any of the area's predators for a few days.....it must be something that can hide quite well and it must be strong enough to scare away the regular animals."
Lucian raised his eyebrow, "And that would be?" He asked
"Many things." Brodin said as he looked at Lucian, "There are many types of magic beasts, but as far as a Forest area like this; there's only a handful I can think of but they don't fit the profile. There are Tree spirits that usually trap animals in the trees, killing them but it can't be them, so long as you don't bother them, it's fine. There's the underground dwelling giant snakes but they don't typically come out of their burrows around this time. And then there's.....Hm...."
Lucian looked at him as Lucy did the same, "What is it?"
"I was going to say that there's also Ogres, who typically reside in swamp and forest areas." Brodin said, "But they're not native to the Bull Kingdom, so that couldn't be it."
"An Ogre?" Lucian said with a slight smile, "Don't you think we'd notice one, you know, if they're big and ugly?"
"You are right." Brodin said, "Ogres are huge and bulky monsters, typically stomping around and causing messes everywhere. But there are variants of Ogres, particularly the Oni, who have magical attributes, some say that Valkren employs them and grants them the power of invi-"
The old man's eyes widened and he drew his pistol aiming right at Lucian.
Lucian widended his eyes and readied as stance, "W-What the fuck?!"
"Move!!" Brodin shouted
Lucian jumped to the side as Brodin pulled the trigger, opening fire. The bullet flew past where Lucian stood and struck something in the middle of the air, emitting a spark.
"What the..." Lucian said as Lucy let out a screech
Suddenly, from where Lucian stood, an immense shockwave was emitted as the two Traversed felt intense pressure.
A deep growl was heard as a massive figure was revealed from thin air.
Lucian widened his eyes to see a massive behemoth of a monster with pale and bumpy skin, a massive pot-belly, and what he recognized to be a Japanese oni mask on its face. It towered over both Lucian and Brodin, who were pretty tall men themselves. Lucian could see that the monster had several scars on its skin, its upper body was completely naked as its lower body was covered in massive fur pelts acting a pants.
The Monster held a massive spiked club in its right hand, setting it down as steam came out of the mask's mouth. Lucian also saw several skulls hanging from the belt of the beast, rattling eerily with every movement the monster made.
"An Oni!!" Brodin exclaimed, "It was stalking us?!"
Lucian readied a stance, shaken up by the sudden appearance of this beast, not knowing how close it was.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Lucian exclaimed
Brodin narrowed his eyes, "Something was attracting it..." He said seriously, "How the hell did I not notice it before?"
The Oni let out a deep growl as it raised it's left arm and summoned green flames on it.
Brodin gritted his teeth, "Scatter!" He shouted
The Oni then waved its arm, spraying hot green flames everywhere as Brodin jumped away to the edge of the path.
Lucian jumped away as well, nearly getting scorched by the flames as Lucy flapped her wings in the air, letting out a screech. He saw that the flames combusted and caused several small explosions in the area.
As he landed a few meters away, he looked at the Oni. It was lifting its club in the air and set it on its shoulder, grumbling something underneath its mask.
Brodin got to his knees, holding his pistol with a scowl, "Curses!" He growled, "Just what we need....what could've brought a fucking Oni upon ourselves! They're bound to the Demonic Legions...they never seek Traversed out! Unless..."
Brodin's gaze set on Lucian, who was looking at the Oni, Lucy the Wyvern landing on his left shoulder as she let out a high-pitch roar.
Brodin narrowed his eyes, "I should've known..." He muttered,
"He's a Cursed One."