The Whisper of the Nightingale

Chapter 25: Sending of the Dead

As Raven was inspecting the movement technique more closely, the bandits body shuddered as the last breaths of life were about to leave him. Not lingering any further, Raven quickly transferred the inscription to her own soul prism, Just as the words Void Tracker filled her mind, the bandit's originally orange soul prism faded in to a dull grey hue before shattering - the man had died.

'That was close...' Raven let go of the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding. 'I should have gone for the Void Tracker from the beginning. It would have been a pity to miss it!'

A satisfied smile filled Raven's face. The Void Tracker Divine Skill fitted her quite well. It was a level five Skill with three stages of mastery. The first stage would let her nullify any noise made by the movement of anyone within her range - that range would depend on her cultivation, but at the time her limit should be at roughly 10 meters.

The second stage would nullify the wind resistance for anyone within the same range, instantly giving a speed boost that would increase exponentially as the original seed rose. At low speeds it would at most make it harder to detect the movement, but at higher speeds this effect would be enormous.

Finally, in the third stage the Void Tracker would hide the activation of any agility related Divine Skill, also this was applicable to others if completely mastered.

'This is quite a refined Divine Skill, it is of little use in itself but combined with other Skills it will have great benefits! It seems to draw very little spirit essence so once I've mastered the second stage, my Shadow Walk will become many time more deadly, perhaps comparable to a level four skill!'

Raven drew a deep breath and lied down on the ground between the two male bodies. She was just about to close her eyes to rest for a bit when she suddenly heard faint running in the distance and felt the presence of 10-15 people, perhaps four hundred away.

"The bandits are returning!" She spoke in a whisper and glanced over at the chest on the ground a few meters away and then at the still unconscious Hog. 'Sorry Heron.'

Ignoring both the chest and the dead bandit, Raven forced herself to stand and then hoisted Hog over her shoulders with a classical fireman's lift.

'I'm glad it wasn't Twig who ran after the bandit...'

Her soul was frantically working on absorbing new spirit essence for her to use, but she was still a bit short if she wanted to activate any Divine Skills, so she had no other choice but to run away relying on her old skills.

She rushed downwards and into the forest, making sure to stay to the side of the approaching bandits. Once the bandits were less than a hundred meters away from Raven and her unconscious load, she crouched down behind a large tree and steadied her breath. With a free hand she covered Hog's mouth, to lessen the noise of his breathing as well. Then she waited.

The bandits were not running at full speed so it took a couple of minutes for them to pass them by and run an additional one hundred meters up the mountain side. Raven stood once more and continued her decent; soon, the bandits would come across the body of their comrade and Raven wanted to put some distance between her and them before that happened.

Surely enough, before even three more minutes had passed, Raven could hear the shocked yelps of the bandits that had passed earlier. Raven had feared that they might start search the area for the man's killer, but the bandit's were either to shocked to act at the moment or they figured that whoever was strong enough to kill that man also was strong enough to kill them, either way they stayed put for a moment and then continued further up the mountain.