The Rising of the Fisticuffs Hero

Chapter 12: Ensnared

It was light when Cadverus first opened his eyes. He was tied across a saddle attached to something resembling an ostrich. Just ahead was another giant bird, this one with the Demi-human he had fought. As he began to struggle, the bird he was on let out a screech, before stopping dead in its tracks. He heard yet another bird come up alongside him, and when he looked up, a red-haired girl with fox ears was sitting astride the giant foul. She dug into a satchel which hung from her red and white robes, then took out a fist full of powder.

"Sorry about this hero, but we aren't quite far enough away from civilisation to talk. Go back to sleep, I'll speak to you later."
With that, she threw the dust into Cadver's face, so he had no choice but to breath some of it in. In that moment, he passed out again.

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When he woke up for the second time, he was lain on a cluster of rocks on top of a cliff. He could see the evening sky and the surrounding mountains clearly, and to be honest, it was rather breathtaking.

The sound of boiling water made him turn in place, from there he could see the entire 'campsite' he had awoken in. The birds he had been on before were wandering around near a bucket of water. A kettle was hung over a small campfire with bags and sleeping mats rolled out on the ground next to it.

His two captors were doing various things. The fox girl was dropping leaves into the kettle and stirring it while humming pleasantly. The wolf Demi-human was feeding the birds with a large bag of seed, a quiet smile on her face.

The fox girl poured out the contents of the kettle, which looks like tea, into three cups. The first she took herself and drank deeply, before sighing with delight. Wolfie had finished tending to the birds and walked over to pick up her own cup. Her nose wrinkling, she took a sip and stuck out her tongue.

"Ugh, its so bitter..." she exclaimed, which made Cadverus start, he was reminded of the younger Raphtalia who said exactly that when Naofumi made medicine for her. He walked over and sat down with the two girls, picked up his cup and sighed.

"Alright, you took all of this effort in order to get me here. Tell me, why did you need to attack and capture me?" Wolfie just glared at him, then pretended to continue drinking in order to ignore him. The fox-girl, however,  responded calmly and concisely:

"We would never have been able to tell you what we needed to if we had tried to talk to you normally. Your curse prevented you from helping anyone but yourself. If you think back, some of your actions must make you disgusted with yourself."

Now that she mentioned it, when he looked back at what he had done since the arena, he had been kinda self-centred. Preventing Naofumi from getting the reward, leaving his party, exploiting Ren's knowledge while letting him do most of the fighting. He sighed and took a drink of the liquid. Yep, it was bitter.

"Wait, what curse? How the hell did I get cursed?" Cadverus' mind floundered for a few seconds. He wasn't sure if he could believe the girl, but something deep inside him told him that she was right.

"It appears your weapon did it to you. This is just my theory, but when you experienced a moment of heightened emotions, your weapon recognised your dishevelling state of mind and activated a latent ability to save you. This made your personality change." The fox girl said with a calm smile, as if this was a normal thing to do while sitting around a camp fire.

"Then.... Why did you need me in the first place? And what is both of your involvement in the Waves of Catastrophe? I said it earlier and I'll say it again, why were you just hiding in the forest, you two clearly have the ability to fight and use magic."