“⸺Fuuu…” Airi lets out a deep breath.

She scanned the forest blankly to find again nothing.

“Nothing’s here either,” Yui shouts at the top of her lungs from a far end.

They had not ventured too far in the forest and even then the two couldn’t help but be troubled by this mysterious presence.

The canopies under the tree blur, the leaves vibrate and the wind suddenly goes wild.

It then appears….

No one knows from where and is rumored to attack only when someone least expects it. It destroys the crops that the villagers tirelessly work to sow, grow and reap.

And without showing any mercy it attacks at night and takes away all the livestock.

“Hiding in the shadow it hunts even the most dangerous predators and those who ever emanated the thought of hunting it were themselves found as its prey… their body ripped in shreds and guts falling outside their scratched belly with the bloody claws that even cut the hardest of metals tearing their flesh with only the best and soft parts….”

“Stop it Airi you are scaring me now with that bloody description. Come on it just might be a wild boar disturbing the peace in this farmland area.” Yui shivers at how Airi imaginatively creates and describes their target.

“Well, it might come close to that, but doesn’t something imaginative like this makes things more interesting.” Airi chided.

The two were bored waiting for the rodent that ruthlessly desecrated these farmlands. According to Mr. Egil the receptionist this was the best way for Yui and Airi to learn the ways of the monsters and wild animals.

“Let’s just stick to the plan and wait till we identify it.”

Airi was left for a moment wondering that she has been recently obsessed with thoughts and ideas of blood. Was she craving for it and feeling hungry?

She was sure she needed little and no doubt Yui would offer it, no questions asked if Airi just asked her to. But it felt wrong to Airi when she sees that she has nothing to give in return.

Yui could just eat monster magical cores and rejuvenate her magical powers and vitality but Airi needed to keep her patience and careful while using magic.

Airi also considered of having other blood donors, but she could not trust anyone with her identity that of being half human and half vampire.

“Airi are you alright….” Yui puts her hands on Airi's shoulders and calls out her name.

Airi coming back to her sense suddenly feels the presence of something moving around. Her eyes grow red and her innate vampiric senses overgrow, detailing each thing by converting them into magical information that can only be interpreted by her unique magical eyes.

“Yui, be prepared it’s here?”

“Where it is?”

“I still don’t know, but it is likely coming straight towards us…”

“Well, we will see to that.” Yui grips her sword tight and like a knight stands in front of Airi protecting her with all her might.

After a small pause, something moves in the field corps and traces a straight path towards them just as Airi predicted.

“I can see it. If, it's just one, so I will be going for the kill.”

Yui was eagerly waiting for the monster to show up, but then a massive chunk of sand came flying at her. Yui easily dodges it with her reflexes but loses concentration.

In this small time window, a small shadow leaps under the sun. it was neither too big nor too small to miss it.

“Grrrr!!!” The shadow overhead Yui and Airi do not welcome their presence here.

SWWWWWWHOSH!!!!!!

“I will get it this time.” Yui gathers the wind at the edge of her blade, and compressing it on one edge she held it in an overhead manner.

“Fuu~” She steadies her blade and swings down with all of her strength.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

Slice!!!!!!

Everything that was in the path of the wind was cut into two.

“—”

The sheer strength of the attack left both Airi and Yui speechless and even sweating from how strong she had become by eating more monster cores past these days regularly.

But instead of the shadow clearing up, the sky turns hazy and the most unpredictable thing happens.

The monster’s body instead of crashing to the ground, it divides into two of similar sizes.

The two rub their eyes and the next they saw four, then eight, then sixteen until there were too many of them in the sky to count.

All of these shadows with the force of Yui’s sword strike dispersed into the fields and starts eating or trampling the acorns and paddies.

While Yui was unable to understand what happened, the two failed to notice that a single shadow suddenly landed near Airi and lunged on her hand.

“Ahhh!!!” Airi cried in agony as the shadow figure bit deep into Airi’s hands.

“Airi….” Yui screams realizing what was happening to Airi then. She could not have unleashed magic so close, so Yui had to do something ultimately.

On listening to Yui’s approach the shadow leaps again and ran inside the denser parts of the forest and all of the shadows disappear as well.

“Airi are you alright… show me that bite mark.”

“While Airi held her hand bleeding she also quickly cast healing magic to fix it to almost new.

“Didi, you see that?” Yui asked wondering about the appearance of the monster.

“Wasn’t it cute!” Yui could not help but suddenly be mesmerized by the monster’s appearance.

“Who would have thought that something this abominable could exist in an endearing form.” Airi with determined eyes tries to trace the location of this unique being through her magic eyes and this time she was sure that we will not lose its trail.

***