The vast size of the forest was a sight to behold as it encompassed the entirety of the west, the south, and the east. Contrasting those acres of greenery, a thick fog of snow was situated in the northern quadrant, surrounded by mountains and valleys on all sides.
Like most of the ground, the ruined temple was hidden below the tall wintry trees, leaving only a crooked outline visible from miles away. Yes miles away.
At such a distance, Damon's eyes had never been able to perceive structures before. As he neared the treeline, his gaze remained affixed on the fading shape under the canopy of leaves. He wasn't sure how or when but he was certain he would find himself there once more.
'Just you wait, I'll definitely shatter those stupid statues.' Damon's grin stretched from ear to ear but soon faded. He lowered his head, gazing towards the forest floor rapidly drawing closer and his brows furrowed.
'This doesn't look good...'
'Maybe I should strengthen my legs with more spiritual energy...?' He pursed his lips and thought it over for a few seconds before giving up on the idea.
A single mistake while falling from this height could easily shatter bones, and there was no way to be certain of the outcome. Moreover, if he incorrectly estimated how much was required, he would need to waste a precious vial to restore his limbs.
Without a moment's hesitation, Damon reached for the dagger at his waist and drew it free.
The thick six-inch blade caught a glimmer of sunlight as he twisted his body sideways.
Sadly, Damon had no time to admire it. Instead, he thrust the weapon behind him and into the nearest tree. The cold metal pierced the bark, allowing the resistance to slow his inertia.
Then, arching his back, he entered a crawling form and pressed his boots against the tree. The grooves on the bottom made for a half-decent foothold but were quickly being rubbed down.
With one hand gripped tightly around the dagger, he moved his other against the dark wood, heat and tremors spreading through his limbs.
Chunks of bark splintered away as his descent steadily slowed, and in one final jolt, he came to a stop roughly ten feet above the ground.
"Hah..That was close." Damon pulled out the dagger with another deep breath and detached from the tree. His feet touched the ground, and he bent slightly as a faint tremor ran through his knees, but he managed to straighten his posture.
Immediately after, a flutter of wings echoed overhead.
"Hey how did you do that!?" Kuroushi questioned, swooping down.
"Well I just jumped.." Damon replied flatly. He slid the blade back into its sheath as the crow tilted its head, looking almost comically human.
"Jumped? That high?" its beady eyes were filled with undisguised skepticism.
"I used spiritual energy to enhance the elasticity of my calves and it just happened." Damon replied. "Has Miss Tomoe never done something like that..?"
"Lady Tomoe is able to sky walk but this one has never seen her leaping through the air," the crow huffed, fluffing its feathers. "I nearly fell out of the sky from the shock."
'That should be my line!? What do you mean that pervert can walk through the sky!?'
'In the first place the sky has no surface how would someone even walk on it!?' Damon's expression nearly faltered as he struggled to come to terms with this knowledge. He had read many novels yet none had described such transcendent abilities without the use of wings.
"I'll try to give you a heads-up next time."
"You had better. There are other beasts lurking above and it would be best we don't disturb them." Kuroushi hopped to a lower branch and peered down at him. "The tiger's trail should be near a stream about half a mile west of here. Follow me, and try not to launch yourself into the clouds again."
Damon nodded.
"I'll follow you through the trees," he said, already positioning himself beneath a low-hanging branch. "If I relax my muscles and control the energy flow I'll be fine."
"You wish to leap from branch to branch like a squirrel?" Kuroushi blinked.
Damon took a few seconds to stretch his legs and smiled, "Something like that."
"Very well." The crow acquiesced after a bit of hesitation.
Damon's boots swiftly found purchase on a thick limb as he watched the bird weaving through the trees. He pushed off again, keeping a steady rhythm as the momentum continued to build and the leaps propelled him further forward.
Without a doubt, his body had adjusted to the spontaneous movement.
"There," Kuroushi called out, descending toward a path below. "This is where Rudy and the others spotted the Icelandic Sabre."
Hearing this, Damon landed on a lower branch and briefly looked around. He then dropped to the ground and rose without a pause, his eyes still carefully scanning the forest.
The route was seven feet wide, rather modest compared to the open space he had seen at the foot of temple and Tomoe's home. There were trampled shrubs and broken branches scattered along its edges. A narrow stream cut through the far side, glistening under the pale light filtering through the clouds and flowing west.
Damon stroked his chin thoughtfully.
While he was searching for anything out of the ordinary it wasn't long before he noticed several discrepancies.
"You find anything?" Kuroushi fluttered down and landed on his shoulder.
Damon crouched over some dirt before responding, "The soil here has been pressed down as if someone trampled it lightly."
Then he lowered his voice, pointed west and added, "I also saw several broken branches over there."
"Ah, That's the direction Rudy and the other two went in." The crow shrieked and followed his hand. "It's impressive you discovered that so quickly."
"I've had some training." Damon traced a faint impression in the uneven dirt with his fingers. "Back where I'm from, we learned how to read signs in the forest. It's not my specialty, but I can manage."
'Though it's hard to tell what tracks were left by the beast instead of some other beast that came through here too.'
'If only we could lure it to us somehow...' As that thought flashed through his mind, Damon suddenly froze. He glanced at the crow, resting on his shoulder from the corner of his eye.
"Kuroushi, you're a beast, right? Can you communicate with the tiger?" He inquired.
"I am nothing like that brute," Kuroushi's feathers bristled instantly with disdain.
"That creature is a mutant of impure spiritual energy. This one on the other hand, was originally an ordinary crow nurtured by Lady Tomoe's spiritual energy. I am not some mindless beast driven by instinct."
"...I see." Damon muttered, half-heartedly.
He had hoped they could have simply provoked the tiger out instead of wasting time searching for it. Apparently things would not be so convenient.
He took a moment to reflect and said sincerely, "Sorry I didn't mean to compare you with them."
"I know you did not intend any disrespect," Kuroushi grumbled.
Damon nodded as he stood up. He turned towards the bushes littered with scattered leaves and broken branches before changing the subject. "I think we should follow the tracks of those explorers. Knowing that beast it likely continued after them."
"You speak as if you encountered it before?"
"It's not the one we're hunting but I did get attacked by one of those things last night." Damon's expression darkened as he replied. He then proceeded off the cleared path and through where they had found the broken hedges leading west.
---
Another ten minutes flew by as they stealthily continued heading through the path on foot. They had lost sight of the river by this point but Damon could still hear the gentle stream. He was sure the beast could hear it as well.
'Any sensible animal would stay near it to keep hydrated and the beast might not be adjusted to the warmer air.'
As he had this thought, he slowly noticed the trees began to grow less dense and crouched down. With the radiant sunlight peering through the opening between trees, he was apprehensive that the beast would suddenly ambush him in an area without sufficient cover again.
The crow looked at him but remained silent so as not to startle him.
Concealed within the bushes, Damon squatted and inched closer to the light. He poked his head slightly out and surveyed the area ahead.
In a few strides, they had reached the edge of a narrow clearing that bordered the banks of the river. Yet his body tensed up as he looked towards the centre.
Two figures jumped into his line of sight. The first was all too familiar, with a feline form covered in white fur and black stripes. Its thick tail was ridged as it stood fiercely, staring at the opposing figure.
Damon believed he might have been hallucinating but the tiger's eyes appeared to be a golden brown, not the empty blackness dripping dark murky fluid.
At that moment the tiger bore no resemblance of an apex predator merely a brazen animal.
In comparison the beast in its path was a monster. It stood over six feet tall despite a hunched torso covered in dark grey fur as thick as wool, and towered over it with two thick meaty hands, casting a large shadow. Those arms were twice the size of the tiger's head but they weren't the most terrifying.
Its two long legs were stumpy at the thighs and bent taut with bulging muscles. Razor claws twitched as if prepared to strike and its soulless black eyes gleamed with intensity.
It was a beast like a hare starved for war. And its maw dripped with clear fluids like a starving man seeing a buffet.
Seeing this the white tiger growled and leapt forth fearlessly! Its sharpened claws sought to carve the hare's flesh.
However the hare easily swerved to avoid the slash. In the same breath it reached out and grabbed the tiger by the neck and tightened its grip.
The feline beast let out a whimper immediately.
Damon's heart constricted as he watched. He hastily retracted his head and skirted back against a tree, not daring enough to interrupt.
"What are doing?" Kuroushi asked. "There's the sabre hurry up and kill it so this one can take a nap."
"And how am I suppose to do that without catching that thing's attention!" Damon replied suppressing his voice. He instinctively knew that the monstrous hare was far more dangerous than the tiger.
'There's no way I'm going out there.' Damon gradually straightened his knees and turned around to leave. The hare exuded a presence that had scared him witless.
Upon realizing he was serious, Kuroushi couldn't help but peer into his blue eyes, "So you came all this way just to give up..?"
His footsteps instantly halted. He knew the bird was right.
His jaw tightened as he stood there, frozen between the instinct to flee and the nagging weight of his brother's voice echoing in his skull. Vincent's words from years ago surfaced unbidden, spoken after a particularly humiliating sparring session.
"If you can't face the fear now, you'll spend your whole life running from something."
Damon had scoffed at the time and believed it was just dramatic drivel. But now, with his back to two monsters the words felt less like advice and more like prophecy.
'If I run now... I'll run from everything.'
At that moment a new sound cut through the air—a guttural, defiant growl that seemed to shake the very ground.
Damon's eyes widened.
He turned his head slowly, peering back through the gap in the bushes. The hare still held the tiger by the neck, its massive hand wrapped around the feline's throat like a vice. The tiger's legs kicked weakly, claws raking uselessly against the beast's thick grey fur.
It should have been drawing its last breaths.
Yet the tiger, pinned and helpless, had bared its teeth and snarled at its captor. Not a whimper of surrender. A challenge.
'Is it insane...!?' Damon thought, his breath catching.
As if responding to the insult, the hare let out a pained roar. It slammed the tiger down onto the hard stones of the riverbed with enough force to crack the rock beneath. Water splashed upward, and Damon winced, certain the blow had been fatal.
But the tiger rose.
Its legs trembled, and blood matted its white fur in patches. The beast's jaws were clamped around the hare's paw—where it had bitten down during the struggle. Crimson fluid dripped from the wound, staining the beast's grey fur.
The hare raised its injured hand and stared at the gash in the centre of its paw. Thick veins began to pulse along its forehead, dark and grotesque, as its soulless black eyes burned with something beyond rage.
'That tiger is fighting a beast twice its size... and it drew blood.' Damon watched the tiger growl back, unyielding, and felt something shift in his chest.
He thought of the tiger from last night. The one with empty sockets and cruel patience. The one that had taken his arm and eaten it while watching him bleed.
This was not that tiger.
The beast standing stubbornly was smaller, weaker, even. Its golden-brown eyes held only the raw instinct to survive. But it had wounded the hare. It had drawn first blood.
Damon wanted to be like too. He clenched his fist. His heart hammered, but slowly his breathing steadied as he began to deliberate.
'Mother didn't raise me to be a coward.'
He looked at the enraged hare then at the tiger. Wounded. Weakening. But still fighting.
'If I time this right... I can let them tear each other apart.'
Suddenly Damon's eyes scanned the ground and discovered scattered stones, some small enough to throw, others large enough to do damage.
A grin spread across his face.
"Hey, Kuroushi," he whispered, keeping his voice low. "Have you ever heard of a game called fastball?"