Kerith, unlike the others, didn't let his guard down at hearing the announcement from Freida about finding Nyx. He and Claudius almost carried the same energy except that he was a bit more cold compared to Claudius.
The others gave a collective relieved sigh. However, Kerith couldn't fathom how Frieda suddenly got her hearing back. Or at least why was she hearing only the thumping sound?
The group suddenly quieted down at the sight of a woman walk out from the bushes. She had a mask on and most of her body was concealed in clothing.
Claudius stood prepared with full realisation of the situation.
They were surrounded.
The rustling of leaves from different directions made his premonition a reality. They were now surrounded by these people—all looking synonymous due to the fact they all wore masks.
"And what's this?" Claudius finally spoke up.
"These people...their appearances are similar to the little boy Nyx was chasing," Frieda said. She couldn't hear anyone else but the thumping but it wasn't unbearable this time.
Usually, this would only happen when a particular sound poses an overwhelming or significant danger. Whatever sounds that travelled through the air would be forcefully ignored and priority would be given to the sound of concern. It was a defensive mechanism put in place naturally. It was simply how her powers worked.
Claudius stood his ground and was rather unfazed. He knew he could handle them.
"We don't have time for this..." Orion grumbled.
"I'm assuming you aren't here to speak, are you?" Claudius asked.
The woman who seemed to be the unit leader walked forward. "You have doomed us all," the woman said.
"What?"
"We, the disciples, are here to end you in his behalf."
There wasn't enough time to deal with them. The more time they wasted the faster Nyx's inescapable death came.
This was exactly how Petal thought. She knew things weren't that good between her and Nyx, but she couldn't let him die without straightening things out.
She controlled the surrounding trees, forcing them to tie up the Disciples with their branches. The Disciples stood no chance against her alone. They all rested in the palm of her hand—this was her domain for they sat in the middle of a forest.
"We have to find Nyx!" She said straining. Her hands were stretched out, tightening the hold on them. "I'll hold these ones. You guys should go!"
Claudius glanced at her. "Alright," he agreed. For some reason, that troubled Orion.
"I'd stay with her," he offered.
"No, you'd better go find your friend," Alto refuted.
Their eyes met as Orion agreed to his term. He rushed over to Freida and Kerith who were already following Claudius with hope lingering in his heart that his friend was still alive.
***
Nyx didn't dare to move. He stayed still as the silhouette of the scarred creature loomed over him. He could feel the air come out of the nostrils of the beast as it breathed, regardless of how high up it was.
With one grunt, the bison slammed its fist against the ground narrowly missing Nyx who rolled before the fist met his head.
Nyx sprung up and looked right into its eyes. It was night but Xania made it possible to have at least 50% of vision. The beast was huge—about 8 feet tall—and it's forelimbs were replaced with arms like that of a human but its hindlimbs were those of a bison. It stood on two feet, the hair on its body dancing about as the wind brushed through them.
Its head was huge and its horns even more. They pointed up—the razor sharp tip glistening under the light. It was black in colour and had glowing-yellow eyes.
Nyx tried his best to stand on his two feet for they wouldn't stop trembling in fear. How was he supposed to get out of this situation? All this was his fault—if he did not try to play hero none of this could've happened.
Bend fate?
For an unusual reason, those were the words that flew into his head at that moment. He realised how stupid he must've sounded when he said those words to Claudius. No wonder why he thought he was an idiot.
He was powerless, weak and with no abilities. How was he supposed to bend fate? Was that the lie he was telling himself within as a coping mechanism?
None of that really mattered now as he stood face to face with this monstrosity. His only life like was fight or flight.
"So you're the God Bison?" He asked.
The bull stared blankly at him.
Good.
He just confirmed that this beast was below 9★. It wasn't much but he'd take the cold comfort.
The bull bellowed loudly, piercing through his ears with a deafening sound. Nyx winced and closed his ears. As soon as he blinked, the bison grabbed him by the head and tossed him forcefully to the ground.
The surrounding trees shook vigorously as a result of the impact. His vision blurred with blood sipping into his eye from his head, he gasps for air as his body wriggled on the ground. The pain travelled throughout his entire body leaving him numb for seconds.
The bison however had a little care about this. It picked Nyx up and threw him across to the other side. He rolled on the ground, trying his best to regain balance but the pain his body was feeling was too much for him to bear.
Lying on the ground, he heard another person shouting his name.
Perhaps I'm dreaming...all it took was one hit to do me in—
"Nyxander!"
He opened his eyes.
"Daphne...?" He asked.
Daphne turned to the bison. "Hey, motherfucker! Over here!" She taunted. But the beast completely ignored her presence. She picked up a rock and threw it at its face. It turned to her and looked away.
She growled and threw another stone at the beast. On impact, it leaped at her and smacked her aside with its arm. Her shoulder cracked loudly as she collided with the ground.
"Argh!" She moaned. "Fuck! I think I broke my fucking arm!"
The bison brought its attention back to Nyx who was almost standing now.
"What're you doing here, Daphne?!" Nyx sighed.
"Oh, you're fucking welcome, Nyx!" She shouted.
Though she bought him but a few more seconds to live, the outcome was still inevitable. They were both going to die now.
Nyx took a deep breath and looked at the beast again. He felt dead already but there was another thing he was feeling. With every second that passed, it felt like he was gaining more energy.
As strange as it was, it was the only trump card he had now. He felt just strong enough all of a sudden.
Without thinking, he dashed towards the bison and slammed his fist right in the middle of its chest. The bison—struck with surprise—took a few steps back to sustain Nyx's blow.
He ran to meet Daphne and picked her up from the ground. Carrying her in his arms, he ran as fast as he could. He hadn't gotten far when a tree branch wrapped round his ankle and swept him off his feet. It lifted him off the ground and hung him upside down. Daphne fell from his arms and landed on the ground with her behind.
"Nyx?!" A voice said.
It was Petal.
"Ugh! Fucking put me down!" Nyx ordered. She obeyed him at once.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
Alto came up to meet them. "Tsk, you're alive..." He said.
"We have to get out of here!" Nyx said. He was still pulsing with the unusual adrenaline boost he got some minutes ago.
"Nyx!" Orion called out. They looked back to see Kerith, Orion, Freida and Claudius. "Frieda was right," he said to Kerith.
Claudius walked up to them. He looked Nyx in the eye for about three seconds before he said anything.
"What happened to her?" Claudius asked.
"I think she broke her arm," Nyx replied.
"Let me see." Claudius went down on his knees. "Daphne, you just dislocated your shoulder. Okay, so now I'm going to put it back—"
"Uh, what? Wait, wait—" Daphne panicked.
"It's going to hurt a little. One, two."
CRACK!
Daphne screamed as he forced her bone back to its original location.
"Alright," Claudius sighed. He looked at Nyx. "Where is it?"
"It's coming. It's a scarred bison and it's very strong," Nyx replied.
"I'm sorry but how the fuck are you alive anyway?" Alto reasoned.
It was on everyone's mind now but no one saw the need to ask.
"Daphne distracted it so we ran," Nyx answered.
It wasn't everything but it'll do for now.
"Alright," Claudius started, "listen up. We're heading back to the camp. We need to make sure that everyone else is safe back there. My best guess is its coming right for us so we head there and prepare for it. I'll call for back up to get you kids out of here, but till then we're on our own." Claudius paused. "When we get there, I'd take care of the bison."
They started their journey back to the camp. They had a little more confidence with Claudius on their side. After all, he is an SR Legionnaire. As long as they obeyed him, they were going to survive.
"Nyx," Petal spoke up. She was walking beside Nyxander the entire time but he hadn't even looked her way, "you're bleeding. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he replied dryly.
"Look, I can help y'know like ease the pain a bit—"
"I said I'm fine."
Petal kept quiet. She'd once again been shut out. It was like he had made up his mind that whatever happened, he wasn't going to listen to anything she had to say.
This isn't the right place and time for this.
Petal exhaled sharply. They had more important things to do.
"Nyx," Claudius called out, "tell me about this bison. Is there anything in particular that stood out about it?"
"Uh..." Nyx struggled to remember. "I tried speaking to it but it didn't respond. It's most likely lower than a 9★, right?"
"Certainly. Is there anything else? Even the littlest amount of detail would do."
Nyx paused and thought for a couple of minutes. Everyone was in wait for him to speak up. But some of them had their minds on something else.
"Wait," Orion spoke up. "Something doesn't add up here."
Everyone turned their attention to him.
"Nyx, if you said the bison was right behind you, where is it now?" Orion wondered.
"Perhaps it got exhausted?" Alto said.
"No," Daphne refuted. "Nyx barely did any damage to it not to even talk of wearing it out."
"Or perhaps it simply likes the hunt? I read about certain scarred beasts enjoying chasing their prey before killing it," Petal added.
"Well kid, which do you think it is?" Claudius redirected the question to Nyx.
"I uh..." Nyx stuttered. "I don't know if I should think this way but, what if the beast knew where we were this entire time? If the Disciples are from the neighbouring town that would put the Bison's original area between our camp and the town."
"You're saying it's known where we were right from the moment we got here?" Orion asked.
"It'll make sense. Think about it. When the bison saw Frieda it chased her and she ran right back to the camp. But it so to say disappeared."
"What if it was simply hiding just some metres away in the thick bushes?" Petal asked.
"Wouldn't you have taken note of that?" Orion said.
"No, I'd have to consciously focus to be able to feel through the trees. And in the case of many targets, it gets harder to know who is who. If Nyx didn't shout, it may have been too late by the time we'd find him," Petal explained.
"It's obvious it isn't chasing after us now," Kerith suddenly spoke up. "Frieda," he looked at her, "can you hear me?"
"I've been hearing all of you but faintly," Frieda replied.
"That's something we have to consider too," Kerith said. "So far, she's been able to hear the Bison for whatever reason but she isn't hearing anything now, why?"
Claudius listened carefully to their predictions but his feet hastened. They were yet to say what was in his mind.
"It's unlikely the bison stopped to take a rest, right?" Daphne said.
"Either it ran away..." Claudius spoke, "...or it's waiting for us back at camp."