He clenched his fist in bloodlust, getting back on his feet to get back to the monster.
But then something unexpected happened.
The world fell into silence. Bright light erupted from the surroundings, but rather than being violent, it was quiet and calm, something similar to a flow of water.
An uneasy feeling filled him as he sensed a weird aura, or an energy that was new to him.
Where his eyes were fixated on the glowing particles surrounding the monster under a green illuminating light, small yet enough to cover its whole body.
It glared at Noen, eyes sharp, as he also prepared himself, making his grip tighter on the blood daggers.
Woosh...
Wind slowed down. Trees stopped rustling as, with a deafening roar, the monster sent a cluster of energy, twisting the nature around in a vacuum.
A giant hollow tornado moved toward Noen. Its crushing force even weighed trees around it, crushing them into blisters, consuming everything as it moved with unimaginable speed.
Noen held his ground against it, clenching his teeth as the debris swallowed under the wind lunged at him, scratching his face, although he dodged almost everything.
The monster looked calm, as energy kept accumulating around its body, feeding the tornado like a burning wildfire.
***
A few minutes earlier.
Roarrrr.
A fear held Sera in a daze, worrying about Noen with panic surging inside her.
She heard the trees rustle, her thoughts rambling.
"Would he be okay?" she thought, clenching her fist near her chest.
Eyes down in thought.
She tried to move to help Noen in some way, but she again stopped, drowning in self-doubt.
"If I go, I would just be a liability... but... would... he be really okay?"
She stopped for a moment, her eyes drowning more in the past, looking back at all the moments with him. Her heart clenched tight as a suffocating feeling filled her, a feeling she always felt.
"I don't want to be alone again."
***
The winds were fast, circling like a vortex, absorbing everything that came its way.
Large trees bent under its vacuum, and small rocks and plants were devoured under its gluttony.
Noen stood facing something larger than hundreds of him stacked near it. He was like an ant trying to face this monstrosity, his eyes bloodshot, wind slamming on his face like thousands of needles, the pain searing through his body. He groaned.
Moving closer to the giant cyclone, trying to force his way in.
He absorbed his own dagger as he pushed his hands through the wall of winds like opening a door, but—
Crack.
They were shattered in seconds, and not long after, the wind sucked him in. Small debris circled over and over as slowly each of them hit him, tearing through his flesh. Blood gushed out, organs twisting until everything burst apart. Blood and flesh splattered, and his remains...
Just fell like rotting flesh.
But even after that, the cyclone didn't stop. It kept moving, destroying and shredding him till the whole thing took a shade of red hue.
The monster glared with its green glowing eyes, its canines shining under the sun as leaves fluttered, standing atop the air.
Still maintaining a calm and wary posture, but something felt odd...
It was so silent that even the cyclone's swirl didn't make a sound?
The monster stood in daze, confused but still wary of it. The intense fear it felt, its primordial nerves screaming to run.
Run!!
Drops of blood moved under the cyclone, slowly forming a cluster, dividing again and again. First an eye formed as threads began to stretch from it. Blood divided again, hundreds, a million, a billion times, forming a stretch of mass, distorting, adapting to something.
Winds?
The cyclone stopped moving. Rather, it floated around someone's body.
Its red eyes glared through a hollow, sending shivers down the monster's spine that it stopped breathing. Its body instinctively took a step back, stuttering, trying to run away, but it couldn't.
Where, from the vastness, someone arose from the winds as everything died down, leaving everything in silence.
Hufff… A deep breath fluttered in the wind, and a heavy voice, but different, echoed through the monster's ears.
"Is that what you were using… magic? Sera told me about this long ago, but...
I didn't think much about it—"
He vanished in front of the monster's eyes, leaving it stunned before it frantically began searching for his presence.
"I'm here," he said in a cold voice, glaring at it as a hand pressed against its head.
In fear, it aimlessly attacked Noen with its claws, trying to run away, but he didn't let it go.
Instead, he followed...
*Slowly*
Bloodlust was visible inside his eyes, dripping from reality. A red aura surrounded him. His body twisted weirdly before his own blood began reacting with that unknown energy, consuming as he formed a dagger in his hands.
Glowing with a subtle crystallized red, painted with his blood, eyes opening through reality, staring at the monster who fell, dragging itself.
An illusion or a reality, the monster didn't know, but it dragged its paws, trying to run away.
"You—You shouldn't exist!" it said in a beastly tone, drowned in fear. "You are a monster, you— you shouldn't be alive, not in this world!!"
*Swing.*
A swift blade passed through its nape as he glared back at it with his red eyes.
"Stop talking," he said in a cold tone before he crushed its head into pulp, steam rising through his hand. Pulling it back, he looked at it, clenching.
"This energy...? Why does it feel so familiar? Wait... Sera!"
He instantly swiped his face with his hands, removing the blood, dashing forward in a hurry to get back to Sera.
But before he could, he saw the bush moving.
"Sera?" he stopped in silence, looking at her.
She slightly moved her face, hiding it under a shadow.
Noen stared at her, confused.
He asked, "Why are you here?"
But she didn't respond. Instead, she walked away in the shadow silently, leaving him more confused and worried.
Slowly following her, he shouted her name again, but...
No response.
A fear lingered, something he never expected. Questions of thought swirled in his mind.
"Does she hate me? Did I do something wrong?"
Many questions there were, but no answer to his will.
He glared at the ground, an aura so dark that it covered his face.
His own shadow smiled at him.
"Die..." it said.
"No!"
He slapped his face as he ran after Sera, and behind, something glared in silence, moving in calm, eyes glaring at the fallen corpse of the tiger.
Before It vanished under the shadow...