Chapter 7: Battle of the Beasts

Loud explosions rang throughout the night forest. At the source of the explosion two majestic beasts fought each other, neither having an advantage over the other. By now, the whole area near the two beasts was destroyed, leaving not a single tree standing.

I watched as the Heavenly White Tiger lunged at the Phantom Wolf trying to cut the wolf’s neck with its sharp claws. The Phantom Wolf easily dodged the attack and tried to bite the tiger’s neck. Seeing this, the tiger leaped back a bit to avoid the wolf’s sharp teeth.

The same process would repeated for what felt like hours, one would try to bite the other but neither succeeding. Only a few scratches here and there did they manage to land on each other. If only I could escape right now, but I would definitely get noticed by the wolf if I tried anything now.

Sitting in the tiger’s shadow, I could feel my energy slowly depleting. If I spend anymore time here I will eventually run out of energy and be kicked out of the shadow which will be the end of me. The moment the wolf sees me it will try to kill me the first chance it gets. As for the tiger the probability of it killing me isn’t on the low side either.

So I sat there, anxiously, waiting for my chance of an unnoticed escape. I observed the fight, admiring the strength of the two beasts. Will I ever be as strong as them? To be able to fight such beasts by myself? Thinking about accomplishing such things renewed my determination and desire to get stronger.

The two beast slashed at each other, tried biting the other’s neck, but neither succeeded to leave a severe wound yet. Only a few light scratches could be seen on each other’s body. Now that I think about it, why haven’t they used their abilities even once? The wolf would might succeed in landing an attack if it used it’s shadow ability.

As I was thinking this over, the Heavenly White Tiger spread its huge wings and flew into the air, hovering a certain distance above the wolf. The two beast stared at each other, one from above and the other from below. The scene before me looked like the heavens and the earth were at about to engage in a battle.

The Phantom Wolf’s body was radiating with dark purple aura that was closer to black. On the other hand the Heavenly White Tiger was emitting an aura that was the color of white gold. It shone brilliantly in the night sky, illuminating the spot with its holy light.

A loud roar from the tiger pierced throughout the sky as its wings glowed in a bright light and countless feathers started raining down on the wolf. The wolf dodged the incoming projectiles, but some feathers managed to imbed themselves into the wolf, causing it to howl in pain.

The Heavenly White Tiger seemed to have noticed this and increased the firing rate, as it flew above the wolf trying to inflict as much damage as possible. I chuckled slightly at the scene, from my perspective it looked like a hawk was chasing its prey. The wolf was running around dodging, trying not to get impaled by the raining storm of feathers that was coming down from the sky.

Finally, it seems like the wolf was done with this game of chase and leaped into a nearby shadow disappearing from view. The tiger stopped its barrage of attacks and flew above the spot in circles. I watched the shadow that the wolf used to hide, wondering what it was planning on doing. It wouldn’t run away right? Not that I minded, but all this just seemed to hopeful and easy if the wolf ran.

Seconds past like minutes, yet still, there was no sign of the wolf. Did it really run away? The tiger circled the area a few more times before descending down, landing lightly on the ground.

The moment he landed on the ground trendels of shadows shot out from different directions, binding the beast on the spot. The tiger let out an angry roar as it struggled to get out of the shadows, only to find them slowly wrapping around him, forming a cocoon. Angry roars could be heard from within the cocoon, but no matter how hard the tiger tried to break out with brute force he couldn’t do it.

At the corner of my eye I watched as the wolf walked out slowly from one of the shadows and started to approach the tiger. The roars at this moment had almost stopped. Did the tiger give up? Fear slowly spread throughout me. If the tiger loses this fight that means I will be next. I had to do something to help the tiger or my chances of survival are zero at this rate.

However, before I could even think of something an insanely loud roar was released from within the cocoon. I covered my ears with my hands, try to dull the sound. What the heck is this? Why is this roar so loud? I’m inside a shadow and I’m being affected, just what kind of ability is this?

I looked at the cocoon to see that it started to unravel and the wolf was howling from pain. Looking at the wolf I felt a bit of pity. The roar was loud enough to affect me, but the wolf was right next to the cocoon, just how loud was it up close?

At this point you could see some parts of the tiger, as the cocoon slowly fell apart faster and faster because of the wolf being unable to control it.

Boom.

The cocoon exploded and the shadows dispersed showing the Heavenly White Tiger, and oh boy, it looked pissed. The roar slowly faded away, but I could still feel the light ringing in my ears. I looked at the wolf to see that it was on the groaned in a daze.I watched as the tiger started slowly walking up to the wolf, preparing to finish off its opponent.

“Quick! Use this chance to escape before it's gone.” Ennius’ voice sounded in my head. Hearing what he said I agreed. I watched the two beasts for a few more seconds before jumping out from the farthest shadow that i could see from within the one I was occupying.

I jumped from shadow to shadow not daring to look back. Running like this for my life reminded me of the time Leidolf was chasing me. Back then I normally would of died, but thanks to Ennius and him helping me to awaken my powers I managed to live. Thinking back on all this I decided that I would definitely escape and not waste this life that I was given.

I ran for a few more minutes before I had to stop. I collapsed by a nearby tree, panting from exhaustion. My energy was already more than halfway depleted when I started to run, but the thought of living and escaping kept me going, pushing myself to the limit.

My eyes were closing as I tried to not fall asleep. If I fall asleep here I won’t be able to defend myself if any danger arises. However, my body just wouldn’t listen to me as I was engulfed by darkness. I opened my eyes to see myself in front of some sort of house. Where was I? How did I get here? Millions of questions raced through my mind as I tried to understand where and how I got here.

The house itself wasn’t anything special. It was a normal wooden house with two floors, and seemed like it had around four-five rooms. There was a white fence around the house and a small garden of flowers on each side of the front yard. Stones lay in a row, making a small passage towards the house. In all, the house gave off a warm and relaxing feeling.

Deciding that just standing here wouldn’t answer any of my questions. I walked up to the front door and knocked a few times. “Come in,” I heard a very familiar voice answer from inside the house. I opened the door and was met with a small hallway that seemed to be leading to the living room. On the right side of the hallway were stairs leading up to the second floor, while on the left there were two doors.

“Come to the living room, it's the room at the end of the hallway.” The all familiar voice spoke again. I swear I heard that voice somewhere recently, I just couldn’t put my mind on who it belonged too. Having no other option and being curious to who the voice belong I walked down the hall.

Walking up to the entrance to the living room, I could finally see the inside of the room. There was a fireplace on the opposite side from the entrance with two armchairs by it. On the wall hung different kinds of pictures. In one of the was a small boy, smiling happily. In another was a boy with a women and a man; must be his parents, I assumed. On the floor lay a white animal pelt with a small table on it that had some tea cups and sweets.

“Help yourself, they’re pretty good.” I heard the man’s voice to my left. I turned my head to see a man of around fifty years old sitting at a table reading a book. “Who are you?” I asked. This was the first time I’ve seen the man, but I had a feeling that we both knew each other.

“Take a guess kid,” replied the man with a small smirk playing on his lips. Hearing that one sentence I instantly knew who it was, after all not many people called me kid.

“You look quite different than I imagined, Ennius.” I answered with a grin on my face. “Here I was imagining that you would be some old man with a beard and a cane.” I could see Ennius’ eye twitch as he just smiled at me coldly.

“Now, now, just how old did you think I was? Care to enlighten me?” asked Ennius calmly, which sent shivers down my back. I gulped knowing that my joke went a tad too far. Seeing as I was already in some deep shit and Ennius’ wasn’t going to let me off I decided to mess with him a bit more.

“Let’s see, eighty? Maybe more? You did say you were my predecessor so I assumed you were old. Plus, you always call me a kid, makes one think you are a grandpa or something. Doesn’t it?” I answered him as innocently as I could with a dumbfound face, but in reality I was trying not to break out into laughter. Ennius’ reaction was just too funny, even though I knew he will get me back somehow for this, and it won't be pleasant.

“Look, just because I call you a kid doesn’t mean I’m some freaking old man who has lived hundreds of years. In my eyes you are still a kid. Heck, I’m almost forty years older than you.” Ennius’ kept blabbing on and on about how he wasn’t old or something, but at one point I stopped paying attention, after all who wants to listen to a man in his fifties about how he isn’t old yet?

I just looked around the room, pretending to listen to his great speech, nodding from time to time. Other than the desk with books and papers on it, two armchairs, the small table, and a few pictures there wasn’t really anything else. “...so, now you see why I’m not old?” Ennius’ blabbering finally came to an end.

“Umm…, yeah” I replied with the best understanding voice I could put on. It seemed to have worked, or maybe he just didn't care anymore at this point.

“So, why am I here?” I asked.

My body was still… Crap! My body was still out in the freaking forest. Seeing as I was still here means that I’m still alive but that doesn’t mean I will be lucky enough to avoid any danger until I wake up.

“Tell me why I’m here before my body gets devoured by some beast.” I said in a bit of a demanding voice, but you can’t really blame me, can you? My body was out there in the forest, basically a tasty meal on a silver platter for the beasts in the forest.

“Hey, no need to be all demanding and everything. Your body isn’t in any danger at the moment, and it should be fine for the rest of the night. Most of the beasts have left the area the moment the Phantom Wolf and the Heavenly White Tiger started their fight, and if any beast comes within a certain range I will let you know. I used a half-possession on you just to make sure that you aren’t in any danger while you are here,” explained Ennius, causing me to relax and calm down slightly.

“So, why exactly am I here?” I asked again.

“That, I’m not sure off. It could be a side effect of the half-possession, resulting in you coming here when you passed out.” I sat down on one of the armchairs, thinking over what Ennius had told me.

“What is a half-possession anyways?”

“Well in short it’s the same thing as when I’m in your head. I’m able to see and hear everything, but this time since you are unconscious, I can’t. So, the half-possession gives me control of your senses and I’m able to hear everything or see, depending on the situation.” Ennius explained to me.

“Let me clarify this. In other words it lets you know what happens around me whether I’m unconscious or not?”

“Precisely,” agreed Ennius.

“Since you are already here let's train,” proposed Ennius. Seeing as my body was clearly not in any condition to be able to move I decided some training would be useful.

I followed Ennius towards the back of the house where a huge backyard lay before me. “Wow,” was all I managed to say. The backyard was beautiful.

The backyard had nicely trimmed green grass that made the whole place seem full of life. A medium sized pond occupied half of the yard with some sort of fish swimming in it. Each fish was a different color and had beautiful patterns on it. One of the fish that caught my attention. It was black with a deep purple wavy design.

“What kind of fish are these?” I asked

“These are called Chromas, but some people call them Rainbow Fish because of the different color variety each fish is. However, both names are essentially the same” explained Ennius.

I observed the fish in fascination, never would I have thought that such beautiful fish existed somewhere in the world. Knowing this a new sense of excitement rushed through me. Just what other amazing things are there in this world?

“Now let's get to the training, you can come look at the fish later” said Ennius as he walked off towards the a clear space that had nothing but grass. I followed him and stopped a few meters away from him.

“What I am about to teach you is a certain scythe style that I learned while I was alive.” With those words a scythe similar to my own appeared in his hand.

“This style is hard to learn and master because you need natural talent and great understanding of how to use the scythe. However, since you seem to have a natural talent for the scythe you can probably master this style.

The style that I am about to teach you evolves with each generation. Each person before you has created a certain move and added onto the style. To truly master the style and make it your own you will have to create your own move at the end too.

Since this style is different with every person who learned it because they all created different moves with each generation. So if you ever find anyone who practices the same style don't be surprised if it is something totally different. Only the first three moves will be the same for everyone because one person made them. He was the first one who created this style.

Now watch carefully this is the first move of the Death Arts.” Ennius raised his scythe and made a horizontal slash, followed by a vertical slash, and the many more. With each slash the speed increased until it started turning into a blur. Soon enough the scythe in his hands looked like a whirlwind.

All of a sudden the scythe stopped in the same position as it started out in. “You use the gravity pull of your scythe from each slash to your advantage to increase your speed until it becomes fast enough to look like a whirlwind. This move is mostly used for defense, it can be used for offense, but it was designed for defense against large groups of opponents.”

I strode there in a daze, this move was incredible. As long as you had enough stamina you stood a chance of surviving when you were completely outnumbered.

I summoned my scythe, my eyes gleamed with determination to learn this style. “Please teach me all you know.” With those words I got into the same stance as Ennius and looked him in the eyes.

Ennius laughed slightly, “Get ready to taste hell kiddo, because my training won't be easy.”

I gulped and grinned insanely. “Show me what you got old men!”