In this moment, Anemone saw red, not mentally, but the beast drips of blood coming from its mouth along with white foam, mixing to create crimson foam from its mouth. Then it slashed, but she dodged backwards, almost falling. Anemone kept stepping backwards when she heard a shout.
"Move to the left!"
Anemone suddenly moved to the left, looking behind her to see Father with a swirling ball of water extended from his hand. She didn't know how long he had that ready, but oh well.
"Water Ball!" he yelled.
Water Ball was the most basic water magic, learned by students at an early age. Unless he had been charging it up for a long time, it would do nothing. Anemone turned her gaze from Father to the beast to see what happened. Nothing, the water dispersed around the thick fur, causing no harm; instead, it seemed to infuriate the beast further.
Anemone decided that with this newfound opening, she would charge another basic, but lethal spell, one much more dangerous. She focused, and an image of the surrounding air folding in on itself clouded her brain. Beginning to spin rapidly, condensing into a transparent, but visible, arrow tip-like shape. It then began to spin rapidly, condensing and speeding up rotation speed, repeating this for a total of four seconds. In the total of five seconds that it took to conjure the image, manifest the spell, and then reinforce it by condensing more, Father had dodged multiple attacks and was now 10 meters from Anemone, with the lycanthrope in between them.
'We need to try to sandwich it,' Anemone thought.
She noticed the beast standing there, seemingly trying to determine who to attack. Before it could fully make a decision, they needed to act.
"Father, ready a spell, and FAST! The minute it charges at either of us, we will release both our spells aimed at its abdomen or lower back," Anemone called.
As she received confirmation from Father, he readied a spell, one that seemed much more devastating than the last. The beast stood there, still like stone, for what seemed like ages, which only turned out to be five seconds. For every second Anemone got to charge this spell, though, the more devastating and lethal it would be.
One second passed, one step from the beast toward Father. Two seconds passed, the distance was five meters from the beast to Father, and was now almost gone, then she heard him yell.
"NOW! Water bolt!"
What sounded like thunder erupted from his direction. In the distance, Anemone could hear the echo ricochet off the trees, and the avian life around them took off, flying above the trees far away.
"Wind Arrow!" Anemone yelled.
As her spell flew toward the beast from the rear, Father's spell from the front, the space between the beast and the afterlife was closing. Then a loud eruption sound emanated from the beast; it was their spells colliding with the beast, piercing it, then colliding together, destroying each other. Anemone's spell won, though; luckily, Father was already out of the way.
BOOM!!! BOOM! BOOM. Boom. boom... Her spell kept its gathered momentum, felling trees in the distance in a rhythmic pattern. As Anemone heard the screeching sound of the trees falling, she also saw the beast fall along with the trees, like they were in sync. There was a massive opening in its abdomen, completely pierced, completely clean, and blood... Blue blood began to fill the hole as it hit the ground. Anemone walked toward the beast warily, making sure it was truly over. The claws retracted, its mouth no longer growling or showing teeth, she stood over the beast triumphantly, looking down on it, its mouth still foaming, but it was no longer red. Blue thick foam was pouring out of its mouth. Anemone looked down at the beast, and its eyes began to bulge as it opened its mouth.
The beast-like figure began to transform. Anemone had hoped deep, deep down that it was merely a werewolf, so she didn't have to be sympathetic toward it. But this hope was drained out of her as the beast-like figure became human, an adult male.
Father walked over and gazed down at the man as well, and it caught them by surprise when he said.
"Help me..." he said in a choked manner as he stuttered on his own words.
The man's eyes began to bulge more, the foam now pouring out, more the eyes grew to twice the original size. Then, they popped like balloons. Anemone felt disgusted as she stared into the empty eye socket.
'Something happened, all mammals have red blood, not blue,' she thought.
Then the unexpected happened: a centipede-like bug crawled out of its eye, onto the ground, and out of her instincts, Anemone stepped on it, smothering her black boot until she knew for sure it was dead. As she removed her foot, she found what she deeply didn't want to find: blue blood.
"Parasite, damnit! Father, do you know anything about this?" Anemone asked.
She looked up at him, knowing he would have no clue, but still hoping he could give some insight.
"I have no idea, young one, I am sorry," Father replied.
"I know we have a mission to do for the elves. But we need to try to find out about this parasite when we can!" Anemone said.
"You're right, we could spread the word about it at the very least!" Father agreed.
"No, this can be solved! After gaining intel on our main objective, this comes!" she insisted.
"Okay, okay. We will do as you like."
"Good!"
As they studied the man's body, Anemone and Father decided to mark down all descriptions they could in a journal that Father kept in the carriage.
Foam coming from the mouth mixed with blood, indicating some type of internal damage
Blue blood circulating inside the human host seems to be from the centipede-like creature.
A centipede-like creature with glowing blue marks written on its back
The host seems to have no control over the body in lycanthrope form, and still seems less in control when in human form
Parasitic relationship?
Veins bulging from the host, indicating stress in the body, whether it be from a true parasitic relationship or the arthropod needs certain requirements from the host to be a symbiotic relationship. (Author's note - centipede is classified as an arthropod)
"Are we all set, Father?" Anemone asked irritably due to the battle.
"Yes, we are! Let's go back to the carriage and make our way to town."
As they cleaned up their mess and not the carcass, Anemone and Father made their way back to the carriage with all their belongings in hand, ready to continue the adventure.
"These past twelve hours have felt like an eternity. I can't wait to get to a tavern and rest," Anemone said as she climbed onto the back of the carriage, closing the tailgate.
"You just slept for eight hours," he said sharply, "I only slept for four."
"You're right, my bad," Anemone said, sticking her tongue out jokingly.
He then walked back and returned with the horse, who was luckily still alive and surprisingly not stressed even after that special encounter. He began to ready the horse as Anemone relaxed in the back.
'He takes such care of me, I might as well call him dad some day, or grandpa,' she thought.
Anemone watched him ready the horse as she began to roll up the sleeping bag, again, to make a makeshift pillow. As he climbed onto the seat, she looked ahead, ready to finally get to Vun, one of the most abundant cities around.
"Father, how long is left again until we get to Vun?" Anemone asked.
"Six hours. Which I said yesterday," he said mockingly.
Anemone relaxed back and crossed her arms, now in a pouty mood.
'I want to just arrive already, maybe go shopping, see the outrageous prices, then come running back to him,' she thought.
Crack!
The sound of the horse being hit suddenly woke Anemone from her thoughts.
'Okay, maybe I won't go shopping. I mean, he and I have to set up our own shop and hear rumors to collect information as quickly as possible,' she thought.
Anemone sat there, wondering what she would do for the next six hours.
'I could read? Eh, maybe, I read a lot last night. I could try to make a song? I will think about it. I could practice my wind magic, I could meditate, or...' she thought.
"I'm going to focus on absorbing external mana, so just tap on me when we are there. Until then, please do not interrupt me," Anemone said.
"Alright, young one," Father replied.
Anemone then sat up, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her lap, interlocking her fingers. She then cleared her mind of all distractions, of all worries, of the future, the present, and the past. Until all she saw was herself and nature. She focused on the roots of the plants in which nutrients are absorbed, the crows eating the flesh of a dead carcass, and the river where deer drink. Anemone observed that which gives life, and then, life. Or in other words, mana. Mana particles floating all around them, red, grey, blue, brown, white, yellow, and green, the seven colors of the base elements.
When people meditate, they can only absorb the particles relating to elements in which they were born, or, in Anemone's case, fire, red, and wind, grey. No positive effects come from soaking up mana particles of different elements.
Anemone then began to hone in on the red and grey particles, imagining them floating toward her, straight to her chest, past her red dress adorned with roses, past her skin, permeating her mana core, and being absorbed. She did this repeatedly, hundreds of particles imbuing themselves into her; it felt like gaining energy, or like she had just woken up from a full night's rest; it liberated her.
***
As time flowed by, Anemone continued, focused on herself, until she was awoken by a light tap on her right shoulder. She jumped slightly, forgetting where she was as she got so devoted to meditation. Anemone opened her eyes and turned around and saw Father with his short, white, brushed-over hair, smiling as bright as the sun. She had no idea why, but she did not care. Anemone smiled back and said to him,
"Are we here?"
"Well, look ahead, we will have to wait, but yes."
Anemone decided to look ahead and saw a large metal gate, embedded in a thick stone foundation, as it began to rise slowly. A green flag draped down in the front from which they approached, it had a hammer on the left side representing the dwarves, a tree in the middle with a crown above representing the humans, and the ear of an elf on the right, representing the elves. The flag swayed in the wind, flapping around as Anemone looked at the two knights standing on either side of the gate, wearing black armor with swords in front of them, almost like a statue.
As they rode through the gates, going from a terrible-looking dirt path surrounded by grassy fields to a bumpy stone path that seemed to force Anemone's head to nod with every movement. She then looked back at the gate they had just crossed, watching as they slowly closed it behind them. Anemone then looked to where the pulley system was located and saw something she did not expect.
"A stone golem is managing the pulley system? That's so cool, Father!" Anemone exclaimed.
The golem seemed to drop the gate, though at the very end, causing a bang to echo all around. Anemone then turned back ahead, looking in front of them from the back of the carriage, trying to take in as much as possible.
She then saw what seemed to be a town hall of some kind.
Adventurers Guild
"Maybe I can be an adventurer one day, Father. I wonder how hard it would be," Anemone said.
"It wouldn't be hard to become an adventurer, but it is hard to rank up. How about this, help me set up the shop, run it for a few days with me, then you can go apply UNDER A FAKE NAME, that is," Father replied.
"But, whyyyy? Why can't it be my real name?" Anemone replied.
"Because it is safer. End of story."
"Okay, okay!"
Anemone then sat back, continuing to look around as they slowly traveled through the large city.