Roaring Thunder

Chapter 3: A Shadow's Revelation (Part 7)

________________________________The Remaining Bandits_____________________________________________

Birds chirp and, leaves and bushes rustle; A rain of sunlight falls upon the dark woods and a soft breeze blows past. Behind the facade of trees, a massive black wolf faces off with a tiger. Each bracing their muscles, ready to pounce onto one another. With a loud and spirited roar, the tiger lunges forward and leaps, its claws out to rip apart skins and flesh. The wolf steps sideway, leaving the tiger jumping past it. Its body exposed and unguarded, the wolf grits its teeth and bounces at it. The two beasts drop to the ground with the wolf over the tiger. It claws at the striped body mercilessly, blood splatters everywhere: on the wolf's face, on its limbs, on the grass and on the ground as the tiger struggles to escape from its slow death, howling in pain as its flesh gets ripped off.

'It's enough', I say after a few minutes of watching the unsightly killing of the animal from the side. The wolf halts and traces its steps backwards. Swiftly, it wraps its tail around its curled body and sprouts upwards into a slim humanoid figure in a black cloak. He turns and looks at me. Smiling, he replies.

'You can never be too sure.'

It is then when suddenly a spear hisses through the air and stabs into the ground before us. 'Did u get it?', a voice shouts from behind some bushes where a second later, three men rises from. Bulging muscles cover their entire body. They are dressed in old tunics and their heads have a bandana wrapped around them. They stand at about the same height as us, which is the average height for men and women alike. 'Eh?', one of them blurts when they notice the carcass of the tiger lies a metre away from where the spear lands.

'Hunters?', I ask curiously.

The men immediately draw their fang- shaped swords from their sheaths and point them at us. The one in the middle says,'We are much better than those lousy hunters. We hunt for wealth.Bandits, that's what they call us.' before demanding,' Tell you what, leave your cash here and we will let you go.'

Wisps of smoke slowly descending from under his sleeves, Dane is prepared to go into offense when I step forward and put a hand on his shoulder, whispering to him to not act recklessly. ' What if I refuse? Surely, you must have noticed the tiger on the ground right? Who do you think kills it with only the two of us here... without any weapon?'

The leader, I assume, steps back, frowning. 'You don't want to mess with us, kiddo. Our master won't be happy to know this.' , he replies. 'That's right. You definitely don't want to mess with an Unbeing.' My eyes widen when I hear the word 'Unbeing'.

'You just mentioned Unbeing, didn't you?' I ask.

'Yes, I did. Whatchu gonna do about that?'

'Bring me to him.' I lift my hood slightly and glare at him. A drop of sweat surfaces on the side of his forehead and trickles down his cheek. 'You do not know what you are dealing with, fool!'. The two partners of him pat him on his shoulders. 'Huh! I will be collecting your cash from your corpses if dat is what you so wish for. Follow me!'

We follow them deep into the woods until a cave is within sight. The men tell us to behave like captured men to avoid suspicion of them letting us come to it without any resistance. I agree to it followed by Dane who hesitantly quietly nods.

Hanging upside down from the protruding tip at the cave's entrance, a coccoon made of leaves casts a shadow over the three bandits who kneel a metre before it. 'They refuse to surrender their wealth, master.'

'Who dares to defy me?!' A slurred, high-pitched voice penetrates the layer of leaves, scaring away the birds which take flight soon after. The bandits keep quiet.

'Me.' I step forward and say. A pair of red eyes glimmers from behind the leaves before the ep of forearms,limbs as long as a human body, the size of a squirrel and eyes the size of beads. And the wings double the size of an average human. The monster or to be precise, the Unbeing bears the looks of a bat with long arms extend outwards, holding the ground with its body weight entirely supported by them. 'You have courage, I will admit... but sadly, you shall be my food!', it howls.

'Now.' I mutter softly. A black wolf leaps out from a nearby bush and onto the bat-like Unbeing, only to be whacked away with a swing by the long arm and disintegrates. Simultaneously, Dane runs up to it and he immediately submerges into his shadow when it notices his presence and strikes at him with the same arm. I do not miss out on the action either. Dashing forward with my lightning-like speed, I drive an electrified hand towards its small body. I miss and step backwards just in time before the massive wing slaps me.

Black spears shoot out from below the Unbeing in every direction before curving inwards at it. It pushes itself against the ground then releasing it, creating a backward momentum that rockets it upwards, hence dodging the first wave of spears. A second wave of spears instantly launches at the air-bound monster, shifting its form into hands ready to capture the target. A third wave comes and so on. The Unbeing flaps its wings and flies all around the area, constantly causing the strikes to be futile as they miss.

It is still flying in the air when Dane finally emerges from one of the shadows jumps from the shortest trees to the tallest trees then upwards into the air, a black spear in his hand. He pulls the spearto his back, focusing his energy into his spear before throwing it at the large bat. The spear drilling through the air. 'Heh!', the Unbeing smirks and turns its body sideway, away from the trajectory of the weapon. A few inches before reaching the initial position of it, the spear splits apart into ten parts and encages the surprised Unbeing. It doesn't realise the trap in time to dodge it again. Dane falls to the ground and lands on all four, his palms slap the Earth and...

I am launched into the sky, towards the caged bat. The shadow tailing me gradually diminishes and disappears. My fist clenched tightly, shrouded by electrical currents that I have been charging throughout the fight between Dane and it. The bandits below, gape at the sight of the conclusion the fight is slowly reaching. 'Thunder Fist!'

The blinding light consumes both the Unbeing and its cage until a point in the sky is further illuminated. I make a rough landing, sliding backwards on both my feet before manage to stop the momentum by gripping the ground tightly with my toes. Tiny wisps of smoke rise from the sole of my shoes.

The bandits stand outside of view and giggle quietly. 'You shall now face us, the real master around this area.', they say in unison,softly like a whisper. The three bodies begin to liquidify and reach out for one another, connecting until at last, they merge together into one being. Standing at about two metres tall, the Unbeing has three heads and six arms while sharing the same body and a pair of legs. It lifts its left leg, about to step towards us unnoticed when a pair of hands reach out and grab it at its mouth, pulling it to the back of the cave. A glistening blade at its broad neck, it keeps its mouth shut and does not resist.

'Just stay here, will you?' A face appears from behind it. It is a man with silver hair tied into a braid behind his head and a calm look. A smile traces across his lips. ' They are still maturing slowly into strong warriors. That's right, which is why you shall not interfere with it.' A snap of his fingers and six knights step forward then grab each of its arms, the silver-haired man raises his blade over his head and in a swift sweep, he slices through the Unbeing as it drops dead to the ground in halves. 'You are not worth their time, monster.', he pluck a twig from the small plant tucked into his belt and places it in between his teeth, chewing on it lightly to avoid breaking it.

One of knight approaches him from behind with a scroll in his hand. 'Sir Hex, there's a request for you from the priest.' The silver- haired man turns his head upwards and gazes into the sky before mumbling, ' Ale, eh?'

'Do you wish to hear it, sir?'

'No can do.' Hex replies.' I can tell what he wants from me. That sly bastard.'

Hex heaves a sigh before giving his order, 'Tell Ale that I will do as he requested.' Turning his heel away from there, his eyes looking straight at the direction opposite to where Dane and I are heading to, he says.

'Time to move again.'

The entire scene at the back of the cave goes unnoticed and unknown to Dane and I as we too head out... to the Village of Terra.