The Black Heritage

Chapter 15: He is Seriously Injured

Ethan took rest by stalling the monster's time to move by nonsense arguing.

"Really? That's good then. I can have a good play with you. But I am just curious, how did you discover me?"

Ethan gibed. "No matter how perfectly you hide your monster's appearance behind your beautiful face, in my eyes, you are still a monster."

"You are very lucky to be blessed with that special ability. But it's a pity because you can no longer use that." The monster howled.

The woman covered her ears with her palms because of the terrifying growl and laughter of the monster. "So you are really a monster. This gentleman is saying the truth. I can't believe you fooled me."

"Monsters relied on their beautiful masks to attract and seduce their victims." Ethan said. He shook his head and staggered as his spinning vision worsened. 

"It's now too late for you to know. Since you already know what I am, I don't have to pretend I like you anymore. Tonight, I will have a hearty and abundant dinner including that one in your womb." The monster sucked his drooling saliva. "With the state of your savior, none of you can escape from my nails and fangs."

Soon after, they also heard an upcoming crackling and growl.

"Oh no! This monster seems to have called for help." Ethan exclaimed  as he leaned his palm on a tree. Hurry up and get dressed Miss. If not, that is bad for a baby being naked for a long time. I will take you away from here." Ethan said, grasping his breath inaudibly in order not to let the monster he was struggling for his own survival. 

"Hahahahha ha, You wish! You have nowhere to run from me." Said the monster.

As the woman struggled to get dressed, the man's appearance changed and he quickly turned around to grab the woman whose attention was on dressing herself. 

Ethan's eyes widened as he saw the monster's claws approaching the woman's stomach. Although he did not feel good, Ethan also moved quickly and grabbed the woman aside. Because of his weakening body, when the monster was thrusting them again, even though he quickly slid and tilted so that it could not reach his body, the monster still managed to prick his nails on Ethan's wound that had been stabbed earlier by the stick. Ethan's eyes almost jumped in pain and he bled profusely.

Ethan let go of the woman and staggered.

"Sir. Sir. Don't die. Sir. Watch out!" The girl shrieked as she crouched on the ground, covering her ears again while hiding her face between her lap. 

Ethan noticed that the monster would lunge on him again and as he turned around, the monster stabbed his nails into Ethan's wounded chest. Ethan cried out in pain. Fortunately, when he turned around earlier, he trailed his feet backwards at the same time, otherwise his chest might have been pierced into a hole. 

Ethan gradually lost hope of returning to the house alive because he himself had run out of energy and wanted to close his eyes when the ground suddenly shook a little and the noisy monsters jumped towards them. Ethan slowly closed his eyes and whispered with tears slipped down from his eyes, "Sorry Jotun, Sorry Brothers, Sorry Matiwasay Villagers, I failed my promise. Jotun, farewell."

Simultaneously, with the two monster's who jumped towards them, the first monster grinned as he thrust his nails again at Ethan's chest. But in the next milliseconds, the situation took an upturn. The two monsters that were on their midway of jumping, shouted back and struggled into the bushes when sharp whips suddenly coiled around their necks and dragged them away. The first monster looked at the two who had been swallowed by the forest.

The first monster became furious and with a thought that he might not succeed his motive if he acted slowly, he immediately turned his attention back to Ethan and raised his hand to give Ethan a strong fatal stab in the heart.

But Ethan was weak and his body was swaying as his knees slowly bent down to the ground. Coincidentally, a large glowing axe flew rotating in the direction of the monster. The monster was caught off guard and was unable to dodge. The axe immediately cut the monster's neck and threw his head away while the axe straightly stuck to the tree, creating a loud sound and shaking it, causing Ethan who almost went to faint, opened his eyes. 

"What happened?" Ethan forced himself to look around and he was very happy to see that the monster had fallen to the ground without a head. 

In the corner of his eyes, although it was not clear, he saw two figures hiding behind the trees and watched them. Strangely, he was not alarmed by their presence. Probably because Ethan couldn't sense any danger from them and one thing for sure, it was them who just saved them. Ethan stroke his bracelet as it was suddenly warmed up while his eyes narrowed still staring at the figures. They didn't come so Ethan just spoke, "Friends, thank you for saving us. We owe you our lives."

One of them would have approached Ethan if he had not stopped by the second one. The second one shook his head and then asked the first one to go. Ethan was wondering as he watched them flee. 

Ethan quickly crawled up and reached out the trembling woman who hugged herself on the side with her face hiding in her thighs and didn't speak. "Miss, don't be afraid. It's over now. They are already all dead. Let's leave."

Tears welled up in the eyes of the woman as she hugged Ethan. "Thank God, you didn't die. If you did die, I would suffer in guilt for the rest of my life. Forgive me. If I had believed in you from the beginning, this would not have happened. We would have gone home already without injuries. You were clearly saving me but I still hurt you. I misunderstood you so much. I am sorry. I am sorry. " The woman sobbed.

"Miss, Can you let go of me first? If you keep hugging me this tight, I may really be going to die." Ethan said. 

Instantly  the woman let go from the hug and wiped away her tears, "Sorry Sir. I didn't mean to."

"Enough for your apology. It's not your fault at all. Come on, come on. Let's get out of here."

"Okay." The woman supported Ethan to stand despite her body still shaking in fear and carried him to the side of the road. Fortunately, it was right to have a passing motorcycle. The woman immediately waved and went to the middle of the road.

The driver braked quickly and approached them. "Miss, what happened to the two of you? Jesus Christ, how was this young man injured like this?" The driver said as he took Ethan inside the motorcycle. 

"We have been attacked by a monster. Fortunately, he is a good fighter and managed to be safe." The girl answered. Even her voice was shaking. "Sir, please let's leave here right away."

"Okay. Okay." When the motorcycle already started running, the driver spoke again. "Miss, where will I take you? To the hospital or to your house?"

"Hospital sir." The woman who was supporting Ethan in the car replied.

"No. Don't take me to the hospital. I'm okay at the Barangay Pag-asa clinic." Ethan said softly.

"Are you also from Pag-asa? We'll be in the same place. Nice meeting you. I'm Elen."

"Eh --- Hunter"

"You are Hunter? It sounds so cool and intimidating at the same time. No wonder you don't even fear a monster. You lived up with your name. Monster Hunter. But- you are seriously injured. Are you sure you can make it at the clinic only?" 

"I've been in a lot of danger in my whole life. These injuries can't kill me."

"Miss, Sir, did the two of you really attack monsters? Are monsters really real?" The driver interjected. 

"Sir, even I didn't believe it before. I thought it was just an absurd rumor to scare people but experiencing a fatal danger with them tonight, I now believe that there's a lot of impossible things that are really possible. We are only stubborn to accept the fact." The girl replied, shedding into tears again. 

"It is still hard for me to believe it." The driver shook his head.

"If you don't believe it, I will make you believe next time. Just wait for me to recover." Ethan butt in. 

"Hunter, why don't we take off your veil. You seem barely able to breath." The girl said. 

Ethan blocked Ellen's hand as she was about to take off his veil. "No. I don't want others to see my face."

****************

Ethan woke up the next morning in a small but clean white room. There was nothing else to see inside but everything was white, a small bench on the side of the bed, a pillow and a blanket.

"Am I dead?" He asked himself.

"Who said last night that his wounds could not kill him?" The woman said entering the room with a box of food. The woman was already smiling, and seemed to have recovered immediately from the trauma last night.

"Elen?" Ethan said. "What are you doing here? Instead of resting in your house, what are you running around here? "

"I brought you something to eat. Eat first." Elen answered while opening the box next to Ethan.

"Thank you Elen but I'm not hungry. I need to go home."

"Wait! Eat first and rest here. You are not healed yet." Elen restrained him as one of her hands pressed on Ethan's stomach.

Frowning, Ethan's gaze traced Elen's hand. Elen flinched and took her hand back.

"I'm sorry." She uttered shyly. 

"Elen, tell me honestly. Did you peek in my face while I was unconscious? Or did the doctor remove my veil?"

"No. I told the doctor that you don't want others to see your face so I did not allow them to remove it. And then, I really did not peek at your face because I don't want you to upset you. Since you don't want to show your face to others, you must have your reason. "

"It's good then. Elen, go home and rest. Take care of yourself because you are pregnant. This may be too arrogant but I want to tell you, don't misunderstand me or don't have other thoughts with me. I save you, you saved me. We're even. From now on, don't hover around me. Okay? Additionally, stay at your home as long as you can and don't trust others easily. You are pregnant. You are too fragrant to monsters. You can't identify who the real humans or who are those just pretending, so you have to be extra careful. Don't let the incident last night happen again. Otherwise, you are not that lucky anymore."

"I understand. I will listen to you." Elen said, lowering her head. 

"Great. I really need to leave now."

"Hey, are you really not going to eat or stay here a bit?" Elen shouted as Ethan already began to walk away. 

"I pass." Ethan replied at the door waving his hand but before he stepped out from the room, he looked back again and said, "Remember to keep a garlic in your pocket. Feed that to the monster, and they will die."

Ethan's mind was occupied with the question as he walked towards the outside. He was wondering who the two figures were who helped them last night. He wanted to thank them well but he did not know them. 

Ethan just woke up from the thought when he was at the main door, he was greeted by the hug of the crying Jotun.

"Brother Hunter, I thought you left me. I am worried to death." Jotun said. 

"Jotun, you are squeezing my wound." Ethan said, smiling. "Sorry, I made you worry." Ethan looked at Mang Fabian who was just quietly watching them. "Uncle Fabian, I am sorry for making you guys worry."

"It doesn't matter. We are family. This is what we should do." Mang Fabian replied, smiling too. 

Ethan was about to step away from the clinic when suddenly something hit his nose when the wind blew in their direction. The smells were even worse like rotten

corpses.

Ethan quickly looked around to find the cause of the rotten smell.