Out of all the things, it was the silence… everything was trying its best not to make any sound. The trees around the jungle had stopped fluttering their leaves. The insects weren't chirping.
The monsters had stopped their hunting and instead were waiting for something to break this silence.
On one of the tree branches, a boy and a girl wearing school uniforms were hiding, trying to protect themselves from all this as well.
The boy moved his hand, tapping on the shoulder of the girl.
Without turning around, she shook her head, saying it wasn't time for them to go out yet.
It was on the move — the tyrant of this place — and they had met it. Saying 'met it' was a big overstatement, as the only thing they did was catch a glimpse of it, and that alone was more than enough to break them.
Time passed, and eventually, things began to turn normal. The wind moved the trees, the animals moved, and the insects chirped.
It was once again flooded with life and death, and the jungle was on the move.
After waiting for a few more minutes, the boy whispered once again, "Can we move now…"
She nodded her head, and the duo stepped down from the tree. They hadn't even moved for ten minutes and already met a monster.
It wasn't anything scary… or didn't look like that, at least. It looked more like a rabbit with a single big horn attached to its head.
Looking at the monster, she summoned her sword and moved with precision. The rabbit didn't shy away and answered her charge with one of its own as well.
And before the end of a minute, the sword was stabbed deep within its heart.
"So, Zara, what do you think we should do?" the boy asked, looking at her.
Removing the blade from the flesh of the monster, she looked at him with indifferent eyes. A second later, she turned her head around and stared at something far… very far away.
They couldn't see it clearly from the deep confines of the jungle, but Mira understood what she meant,
"We are going there. Are you sure?"
Once again, she found it unnecessary to answer. As if the silence was an answer in itself, Mira nodded and began to follow her.
Trees surrounded them from all sides, vines dangling around them. The chirps of the insects were drowning out the sound of their steps.
Unlike Nolan, this duo was still inside the jungle, and from their behavior, it was obvious they weren't in a hurry to leave this place anytime soon.
While they were moving, Mira suddenly stopped in his tracks, looked at her, and whispered something, "We have a company."
Zara raised an eyebrow.
"There..." whispering silently, he lifted his hand and pointed toward his back.
Before he could say anything else, it was upon them. Turning around, he saw the monster lunging toward Zara.
It was hunched, looking like some monstrous form of a lizard. It was covered with mottled green and brown scales that blended with the jungle foliage.
Its limbs were long and sinewy, ending in webbed, clawed hands and feet. Its face was flat with a wide, lipless mouth lined with needle-thin teeth, with golden eyes that seemed not to have blinked in ages.
Because of the distance between them, Zara saw it lunging toward her, which gave her enough time to summon the sword again and assume the optimal stance.
Reaching her in seconds, the lizard moved with accuracy, aiming to bite a chunk out of her neck. Zara saw it coming, and with a fluid movement, she moved her sword toward her neck.
Instead of tender flesh, the monster found a hard iron sword between its teeth.
Leaving the sword in its mouth, she moved her hand inside the pocket and brought a small knife out of it. In just a single swift moment, she sliced at the neck of the monster.
She aimed it perfectly, but unfortunately, because of the hard scales, the cut wasn't deep enough. Sensing a threat to its life, the monster quickly jumped backward.
Staring at them, the monster hissed.
Hissss!!
It was meant as a threat, but equally as a measure to gauge the strength of the two in front of it. But this pause, this action, brought its doom.
"I got this..." Mira smirked.
Lifting his hand, he pointed toward the monster and whispered,
"Sayo nara~ dear."
The moment these words left his mouth, the wound around the monster's neck deepened and enlarged to around twice its original size. The blood, which was only trickling a moment ago, began to gush like a fountain.
Hissss!!
The monster hissed and lunged forward, but before it could reach the duo, it dropped dead from the blood loss.
"Almost… tooo easssy!!" Mira smirked, whistling to himself.
Nodding her head, Zara showed no reaction and instead continued staring at the corpse as if waiting for something. Her patience paid off as an orb popped out of the body and hovered around it.
She moved her hand, and the orb followed her. In an instant, it got sucked into her hand, disappearing altogether.
A second later, she summoned it again and tossed it toward Mira.
"For me… ufff!! Thank you, thank you." Giggling, he looked at the orb and read its information.
[Slithershot]
While he was reading the name of the item, Zara moved toward the corpse of the monster and began to dig something out with her knife. After fiddling for a moment, she stopped and fished out a tiny stone from its body.
Looking at it, she found it no different from the others she had fished out… they were all the same. Tiny, the size of a penny, diamond-like in shape, transparent, and seemed to be filled with something on the inside.
Staring, she looked at Mira, but he just shook his head.
"I can do with my abilities for a while… You need all the enhancements."
Nodding her head, she gripped the stone. After a moment, she opened her fist, but the stone had disappeared. It was nowhere in sight.
"Can you help me cut some of its fangs… [Slithershot] is a bow, but there are no arrows. Have to make it the old way," Mira muttered.
She nodded as both of them got busy salvaging whatever was useful from the corpse. After getting what was needed, they abandoned the corpse and moved deeper into the jungle.
Nobody was there to see, but if one did, they could understand. It wasn't random, there seems to be a purpose behind these hidden steps of theirs.