With them heading their separate ways, Noah moved with the mage right behind him, following the rightmost tunnel. It went on for some ways, through twists and turns of the abandoned mineshaft. The deeper they went, the more the remnants of the old occupants became; trails of dried blood, torn rags, and nothing good.
"Do you think they'll be fine?" Astrid quietly asked, doing her best not to step on any trails of red.
"I'm confident they will be. As someone that fought Redrum, I can tell you that having him on your side is much preferred than the other choice," Noah playfully answered, keeping his eyes ahead. "He won't let a single scratch come to Otto."
"You think so?"
"Yeah," Noah answered. "But, let's worry about our job for now."
"Right."
Down a slight slope, the eerie mineshaft left into a sprawling extension of the caves, expanding into an underground lake, connected by chunks of rocky land. In the middle of it, a figure sat by an active campfire, chewing on something surely cooked.
"That's…" Astrid whispered with a tone of disgust.
Noah squinted, seeing just what it was that the outlaw was eating; the bodies of rat-faced humanoids laid around the man. Grotesque squelching sounds followed each bite taken, echoing through the hidden lake.
With a particularly crunchy bite taken out of one of the slain fiends, the elven girl behind him couldn't hold back a disgusted yelp.
"Hrm?" The stranger ahead turned. "Thought we already had a talk about coming into my territory without asking–oh, you aren't them."
[Identification]
["Bonid"] [Designated Level: Appx. 9]
The strange monster-eating man stood like a snake uncoiling itself, his unnaturally long arms hanging like ropes down his sides. He had a face like a mole, with unkempt facial hair that more so resembles black needles.
There was a safe twenty meters between them and the odd-looking man, though he kept his fingers readily tightened around the handle of his weapon.
Noah called out, "Listen up! Whatever thing you've got going on down here, it's over! You've got bounties on your heads. We're not here to spill any unnecessary blood, so just make this easy–"
"This is a splendid opportunity, yes, splendid," the mole-faced, slender criminal interrupted.
"It…is? Good then—" Noah said with a hint of surprise.
Bonid reached behind his back, "The kobolds have started rotting. Fresh meat would be just right about now."
Like a magician revealing his hand, out from his back, the strange man unveiled a pair of twisted knives. Each blade looks as though they'd been tempered by a maniac with a hammer; curved and irregular.
"Remember the plan, right?" Noah said quietly to the one behind him.
Astrid nodded nervously, "I'll support you, with everything I've got…"
"Good," He said, rubbing his thumb along the handle of the axe, staying watchful of the slender man-eater. "I'll try and make this quick, then."
There was no distance crossed by the figure dressed in grimy leather, only standing near his stockpile of rotting kobolds like a wild animal. Each moment further he stared at the wanted criminal, he felt distinctly more unnerved by his appearance.
Somehow, the peculiar man's left hand had six fingers, while the right had seven, so unnaturally wrapped with their snow-white complexion around the harrowing daggers.
"Come a little closer, would you?" The hoarse-voiced killer invited, waving his blade. "That small one behind you…An elf. Oh, I've always wanted to try an elf."
The twisted words spurred a mortified gasp from the mage as she stepped back, nearly stumbling, if not for him reaching one hand behind him to reassure the girl.
Noah kept his eyes on the wanted adventurer the entire time, watchful of the unpredictable criminal, "Keep your cool. He's just trying to throw you off." He whispered.
"Yeah…Thanks," Astrid quietly nodded.
There was nothing written on the mole-faced man's expression as he began to close the distance with slow, but long strides. Like the limbs of a spider, each leg glided over the rocky terrain quietly.
[Soul Rend]
Without letting the decrepit figure get any closer, he swung his axe, sending the materialized, shredding light forward in a horizontal arc. With the bridge connected the two chunks of land over the cavern lake, there was nowhere the slender killer could dodge besides the water itself yet–
The figure sank into the ground, as if the shade at his feet was a puddle of unknown depths. While any sign of the mole-faced man vanished, that eerie presence was still there; unfiltered in its animosity.
Astrid forced the words out of her mouth from behind, "--Shadow! He's a shadow user!"
At the very same moment the shout came from the mage, Noah turned around, witnessing a lanky shadow emerge behind the girl. Two blades hovered above her shoulders, ready to be plunged with ruthless intent.
He moved without thinking, pushing right past his companion as he swung downward with his axe. The blade cut through the man-shaped shade, yet there was nothing felt but air.
'I didn't hit anything–?' Noah realized.
Again, he watched the shadow merge into the ground, racing over the washed, gray stone. He kept his back close to the mage's, entrusting her to watch what he couldn't.
"What're we dealing with here?" Noah asked, keeping his calm. "Is it some kind of magic?"
"Not like the kind we use, no…This kind of thing comes from being a follower of Serash, the God of Darkness," Astrid explained through tempered breaths. "From what I've read, Serash's followers are granted a portion of his shadow, but here–?"
Amidst the learned mage's recollection, her words were halted by the eruption of the misshapen man, appearing right in front of her. By the chill that crept up his spine, Noah turned himself without thinking, taking a lunge forward to intercept the killer's assault.
He swung his axe right in the path of the incoming dagger, knocking the twisted blade back, though the unmoving, neutral expression remained on the pale man's face.
Bonid simply stared towards him with his tiny, black eyes, though his nose twitched, "Fear is what separates people from monsters."
"The hell are you talking about?"
Noah dismissed the perplexing spiels, stepping forward to brandish his axe's sharpness, though the echoing strike missed the retreating freak.
"Monsters lack the individuality to show true fear," the voice of the many fingered man lingered, though his shadow was ever-moving. "A person, though, has many more things to fear than just their life. Pain, loved ones, their future prospects–so many things, all fleeting."
"Yeah, well, keep it to yourself!" Noah said, swinging his axe to his left, cutting through a passing shade.
No attempt to strike down the man hiding amidst the shadows had any effect. The underground water stayed silent, glistening beneath the cavern's embedded crystals, yet the shade moved all the same.