Chapter 8: The woman

Riven froze and turned slowly to scan his surroundings, sniffing the air while at it. He smelled rot from his dead body and falling leaves, and he saw no monsters.

He breathed easily after that. “There’s a monster close by. I have to get out of here before the body attracts anything.”

He walked closer to the severed hands of his sister and kicked dirt on them, then he ran from the place, going westward before he found a tree low enough for him to climb. He sat down on a branch that could support his weight and decided to wait.

“Maybe if nothing happens, I can still return to bury me.”

Before the words even left his mouth, though, another growling roar filled the air, and this time it was filled with pain, followed by the sound of trees snapping as something heavy slammed against them.

And then, silence.

Riven began to breathe faster, his eyes scanning the forest floor and the surroundings, but nothing happened. He breathed a sigh of relief and sagged against the tree.

But then he heard a roar that must have come from something with a large chest. To his side, bigger trees shook, and this time, he heard a grunt that didn’t belong to a monster or animal.

A human!

Alarm made Riven sit up, his eyes widened as he thought, “Vaelith is still here? I thought he was gone! That bastard, did he put something close to the site?”

Riven tried to spread his faint perception around, but he couldn’t feel anything past his body, nor did he sense the cold aura that necromancers had.

“What’s going on? Something is coming! Something big!”

He heard the roar again, and the trees shook. Riven wrapped his hands around the tree he was sitting on, hugging it as tightly as he could as his eyes searched the forest floor.

And then he saw it. From within the trees, a monster and a human spilled out. The first thing he saw was the monster. It was at least twenty meters big, with a hairless body packed with muscles. It ran hunched like a man, smashing through smaller trees and shaking the bigger ones.

Riven knew the monster must be very strong in raw strength. Its chest was marked with small wounds, and one of its eyes was a bloody mess, but it was still standing strong.

The same could not be said for the woman it was chasing. She was limping, holding her side with both hands as if she was trying to keep her insides from spilling out.

But the way she was still running despite all this told Riven she must be an aura practitioner.

“What in the Eternals! That monster must be a full rank above her. What is she doing picking a fight with that thing? Is she trying to absorb its energy?”

Now that she was in a clearing, the biggest advantage she had was gone, and the monster quickly gained on her. She was running right toward where Riven was hiding atop the tree.

Not exactly in the same line, but with the way the monster was smashing trees, he knew he wasn’t safe.

Suddenly, the woman stopped running and turned to face the monster. The suddenness must have stunned it because the monster came to an abrupt stop. The momentum made it skid on the ground, and it went down in a heap.

But it was up again with a grunt, clawed hands forming a fist.

Despite himself, Riven was interested. This was an aura practitioner he had never met before. He didn’t know anything about her. He was curious to see how she would react.

“I wonder how long she can last? She managed to wound the monster. Maybe she could put up a little more interesting fight.”

The woman faced the monster. She swayed as if she would fall over at any moment, but she remained standing. She took her right hand from her side, and Riven saw a gash weeping blood.

The monster bellowed and charged her.

With her right hand, she drew something in the air, her hand trailing black smoke. Then she reached into the empty space in front of her and brought out something.

“What’s that?” Riven thought, stretching his neck to get a better view. The best way he could describe what he was seeing was that she was holding deep darkness, but it was also translucent.

She held it in her hand like a crudely made sword, ready for the monster’s attack. The monster bore down on her, raised hands brought down with bone-shattering force.

She dove out of the way, doing a forward roll, then slashing as she came up behind the monster. The wound was shallow—the monster’s body was just too thick.

It was on her again, impossibly fast, aiming a punch at her head that would splatter it like rotting fruit, but she jumped out of the way. It wasn’t enough. The monster’s punch grazed her cheek, and Riven heard a crunch as she was sent flying.

She slammed into a tree and slid down, her mouth dripping with blood. Riven was surprised that she made no sound because that must have hurt.

“This is the end for her,” Riven thought. He was holding his breath.

The monster began to walk toward her.

It was at that moment that the woman looked up—straight at Riven. The first thing he thought was, “She knew I was here all along!”

Instinct made his hands tighten on the green, but he couldn’t look away from her eyes. It was like staring down a cliff, looking at sheer emptiness.

And then she gave him a nod, and Riven knew his luck was about to turn again. She raised her right hand and yanked, as if pulling something.

It was Riven she was pulling. A force gathered around him, warping in and out of him and jetting him forward—out of the safety of the tree.

Riven screamed as he fell.

And in the silent forest, his voice sounded like a thunderclap. The monster stiffened and turned toward him instead. Its single eye locked on Riven, and it roared.

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