He was panting, slow and heavy.
Etzio walked with one foot, dragging the other.
He entered a thin tree line, dense with roots.
He had to pay careful attention not to fall.
But how could he?
"I-... No more energy..."
"So much pain"
He took a couple more strides before sitting down next to a rock.
But he could not rest for long.
To his right, where he had just left, he heard the sound of ruffling leaves.
Three large four-legged beasts walked out, sniffing the air and ground intensely.
He looked down, trying to anchor his foot.
He looked up. One of the beasts was already above him, lunging for a bite.
His eyes widened, his heart pumped.
He quickly covered his face with his arm, using it as a shield.
As the beast's fangs pierced his right arm he screamed.
But the beast did not let go...
With that however, his eyes narrowed, and his face focused.
He grabbed a stone with his left hand and hit the beast as hard as he could.
Blood spurted, an opening: the beast was weakened. With his last chunk of energy he held his pierced arm forward, consuming the beast, stealing its energy - he turned it to dust.
With this small amount of energy now gained he stood tall, his eyes turned yellow.
Suddenly the beast lunged towards him, but they missed completely.
He simply walked up to them, without any sign of fear.
He grabbed one by its head and body and tore it apart, before consuming its energy aswell.
He did the same for the other one.
He stretched, covered in blood.
"Ahh" he sighed.
But his peace was interrupted quickly.
Suddenly he heard the leaves rassling again.
Etzio turned his yellow eyes towards the sound.
Four men, all wearing mage-cloaks, came out of the tree line.
They walked up, right in front of Etzio.
"Oh wow... Wow you are in trouble Etzio" 'That voice' said, in a taunting tone.
But Etzio, though stressed, remained convicted.
"Nothing here" said the man on the middle left suddenly.
The man on the middle right stared Etzio right in the eyes, but he could not see him...
"60 seconds" said the right-most man.
"Hey look! There are tracks over there," said the left-most man, pointing ahead of Etzio.
"They lead to the city! Lets go, there is nothing more to do here!" He followed up
But the man on the middle right remained completely still
"...What are you thinking Soske?" said the man on the middle left.
The man on the middle right - Soske continued to stare.
"He is still here" he said in a calm, cold voice
Etzio's heart dropped, his eyes widened, his entire being shocked.
"50 seconds"
"How can you know that?!"
"I mean we can literally see his tracks" Said the left-most man
Soske paused
"On our way here we saw tracks of blood." He said before walking past Etzio, looking around
"He could have planned those tracks there on purpose…"
"But if he had the presence of mind to do that he would not have the need to do that, he could just erase any evidence of him ever being here…"
He kneeled down at the footprints leading to the city.
"40 seconds!"
"My hypothesis is that he has some sort of illusionary technique…"
"He crawled here like a dog, then when he heard us, he panicked and made us see these tracks in order to lead us away"
He paused once more.
Etzio started sweating, he began holding his breath
"What do you think we should do Emilio?"
The man on the middle left, rubbed his chin.
"30 seconds"
"If he is here and weak, we could just disintegrate the entire area…"
"But considering he is a Yang, that would just cause his previous reincarnation to take over."
"There is no way we could win that fight."
"Yes" Soske agreed
"We must capture, alive and well."
"20 seconds until human arrival"
"We could just talk to them, lock this entire area dow-" Said the left-most man
"That would be a political nightmare" Soske calmly interrupted quickly
"Don't worry," Suddenly he turned around
"I shall put down this dog"
Then he simply walked away, with the rest in tail.
Etzio finally started breathing, he quickly gathered his mind before starting making his way to the nearest city.
Behind him he saw a ship - humans, but he just kept moving.