The Caliginous Villainess

Chapter 11

"Are you beautiful ladies lost?"

"Why, what would you do if we were, sir?" Carlisa asked dangerously.

"We would escort you back, of course. May I ask what you ladies are doing in a hunting area. You ought to be at a tea party with the other ladies?" Another buffoon opened his mouth. They were on horses and I really didn't want to hurt the innocent animals. 

"What a polite way of saying that girls are just decorative dolls, ain't it, Jia?" She understood that I purposely didn't use her given name. She grinned in reply.

They looked around each other, confused but got down from their saddles. Little did they know that my eyes shined darker when I'm really annoyed. They should have known that my energy can destroy a whole army single-handed. That combined with Carlisa, we are invincible. 

"These little pieces of half-baked shits are so *beep* annoying that I could *beep* *beep* *beep* them all." Carlisa spoke her mind with no filter. Her vocabulary was really impressive. Sadly, the cluster didn't get Carlisa because they were illiterate in the cursing field.

"What do you say, Jia, should we have some fun?" I asked in my evil tone of voice dragging my sword out.

"Who's going first? That's all I need to know!" She asked fully understanding my hidden words.

"Ladies should s-stick to holding tea parties and gossiping, y-you know!" The long nose guy said with malice and a little bit of hesitation. Did he feel threatened by us? But, that was the last straw! How dare they disrespect women, let alone the fact of being a daughter of the duke and the secretary of the empire's prince???

"Why don't we round them all up and teach them how to respect women? I'm sure the plot won't alter much due to a little change like this." I hadn't realized but the black film had covered me yet again and my voice had taken a tad little deeper. I felt all that power striving inside of me waiting patiently to roam free in the anonymous world.

   I raised my sword and threw it at a blonde noble from the group. I aimed it an inch away from his neck and the sword clashed with the tree behind him. In fear, he fell to his knees, trembling. A swarm of birds in the tree flew away with the shock of the sword clashing and strangling in the stem of the tree. It created a haunting bellow. 

   The nobles started to tense. The atmosphere, in tune with my aura, turned dark. The nature of the shadows of the trees felt stronger than the sun's rays. A lot of black streaks started to invade the intermediate zone. The animals in the area had already run off. 

   A violet glint shimmered through me overlapping the black haze. Carlisa had already strangled two nobles and held them in position.

   The thin film on my sword created stripes of darkness that swiped through me like frequency waves. I felt a strong connection and pulled them towards me. My sword, which was stuck on the tree, came back to me through thin air. The dark stripes disappeared from my vision and the group of nobles across us had petrified faces. 

   The sensation I felt earlier subsided but the control I had with the frequency waves engraved in my head like a stone inscription. I wanted to try that out again but what was that feeling? It couldn't be the water attribute since the energy had much more pressure. One of the nobles started to let out a sniffle and I realized that we had scared them a little too good. They must be thinking that we were monsters. 

   The atmosphere had returned to normal. Carlisa taking action repeated some words that destroyed the ego of the nobles, completely. They nodded obediently and left quietly as mice caught red-handed sneaking cheese.

"Rose, what was that?"

" What was what?" I sat down on the nearby log to calm myself. Somehow, my head felt lighter and that freaked me out.

"The atmosphere? Your sword thing-a-magic and...did you use your attribute?"

"Woah! Hold up, does this world even have magic that we can use?"  

"It sure does. I mean, why would we have an attribute then? I've got air and I think the book said you've got water but the body was unable to control it or something." Carlisa stated. 

"Wow, the author has some crazy imagination. Rose can use it. I can feel the water flowing in me, you and even the trees but I never felt it to this extent. It was faint but now, it's like superimposing on me or so..." I stopped bringing my head to my knees.

    A chilly realization swept through me as I analyzed my situation. The dark stripes, the frequency waves that I controlled! I have the dark attribute. (The most rarest and strongest attribute) * gasp*

   The novel had explained the primary villain was searching light and dark users for a scheme of his that failed later.

   There was some explanation on how light and dark are one and the same and none was good or bad of the sort. Now, I really wish I paid more attention while reading.

  Maybe I shouldn't tell Carlisa if I really do have the dark attribute until I make sure of it. There was also some talk among maids that the imperial family were searching for attribute users that may strengthen the country economically. I guess I would have to make a trip to the library soon.

"We did good?" I asked potentially raising my head for the reply.

" What you did was awesome! I swear, those guys would never ever dare raise a word against a woman for the rest of their lives."

"You can say that again! High five, sis?" I asked regaining my composure.

"You bet!" We slapped each other's hands merrily.

"Now, we know that you won't die in the woods alone!"

"For sure! Should we get going? We should at least have a few hunts. I don't want to go back empty-handed."

"Count me in!" We got up and walked along the paths once again, with a hint of pride.

***

   The hunting competition was scheduled to be for a week. The most impressive hunt will be considered the winner as any cliché book would. Then an idea struck my head like a thunder. What if a girl takes home the grand prize?

   Won't it empower others to try the hobbies they like and make their dreams come true? Surely, it would. When I told this idea to the Carlisa, she jumped up and hugged me strongly.

    She nodded her head firmly and asked me to go for it with a warning to add up. She declared that she would be competing against me for the prize and wished me luck. 

   There went my easy gain but I don't hate a challenge so I accepted it. During the 3rd and 4th days, I caught some prey like wolves and a grisly bear (the bear was total luck, my sword had accidently clashed a tree and a bear appeared right then and dropped down to the ground in front of me.)

   Extra tea:- I actually sneaked out in the middle of the night and coincidently it was a full moon. I ran around in a few circles and found the intermediate zone in which I and Carlisa raged on with the noble group.  After the incident, none of them dared to look straight in my eye.

   Two or three of them even came and apologized on behalf of their rude behavior. I was smirking and singing a smug song in my head after that incident.

   Where were we? Oh yes! I entered on the spot where my sword hit on the innocent tree and grazed my palm on the scar of its bark. I regained the energy back then. The shadows seemed to cover the the whole forest at this time of night. The influence of the bright moon had no say against these mighty shadows. I swished my hand up and down like before. The shadows moved with ease along my arms.
  
   I realized that I could manipulate the energy waves. Sweet! I can send someone to hell faster now (insert background music: evil laugh )

   The problem that caused me even though I have such an amazing advantage is the headaches I get afterwards. Throughout the night of the first day, I felt my body beyond breaking point.

   Little did I know that something way worse was waiting for me on the final day of the hunting contest.