The Tale of Ren - Book one: The Hunt Begins

23. They appear, two random characters!

Ren jumps from tree branch to tree branch while keeping a look out on the ground. He feels two presences that are approaching fast and a little later Shun and Kyle appear next to him.

'We got the villagers to safety and warned them of the fire.' Shun reported.

'Have you found the Hodag?' Kyle asks Ren. He nods and points at the ground beneath them.

'Big foot prints going to the top of the mountain. We're close. Let's hurry.' He says and the three of them sped up their pace.

      A while later they are half way the mountain. Kyle suddenly notices a shadow from his left. 'Look out!' He shouted. The Hodag suddenly jumps out from a shadow of trees. He manages to slam Kyle to the ground and pins him down. Shun and Ren stop on a tree branch.

'Kyle!' They both shout. The Hodag bites in Kyle's shoulder.

'That hurts!' He growls out. His left fist glows reddish orange and he punch the Hodag right in its face. The Hodag whimpers, let go and jumps back. Kyle was able to brake a tooth with his punch. Ren and Shun jump down. The moment Ren touches ground he immediately dashes forward grabbing the Hodag and continue dashing forward until they both fall of a 17 m cliff. Ren sees the ground coming closer and quickly turns around so the Hodag hits the ground first. The impact was so hard that the ground cracks and they sink through the ground.

      Ren climbs out of the hole when Shun and Kyle jump off of the cliff and land in front of him. 'Ren, you alright?' Kyle asks.

'You, stupid idiot! What kind of an action was that?! Dashing towards the enemy blindly and taking it with you falling down a cliff! If you weren't careful, you could have gotten seriously wounded!' Shun lashes at him. Ren pants and pats some dirt from him.

'Sorry guys, but I wanted to take care of him as fast as we could. And taking him by surprise looked like the best option I had.' He answers. They all look back at the Hodag. It was completely knocked out. The only thing they needed to do was to send him back to Leava Krymveol or take him out.

      Shun steps towards the Hodag when the three of them hear a laughter going through the forest. They look around them trying to figure out where the laughter came from. The wind started to blow harder and the leaves that have fallen from the trees started to blow around them, blinding them for a split moment. When they could see again, two figures stand on top of the cliff. A woman and a man and seeing their appearance and their presence, the guys know. They're demons.

       The woman has two curled up horns like that of a ram. Fur that has the colour of chestnut red, covered her chest and legs down to the ankles. Her fur also covered her lower arms. Other than fur she has a bone-like armour on. Covering her upper legs and thighs and upper arms, both leading to the middle and going under her chest to the back connecting at her spine. Her feet are like that of a feline and she have short hair combing to the left side of her head. the male has three horns. Two of them like the female on the side of his head in the form like chameleons do. In the middle of his forehead is a smaller horn. His cheeks, upper arms and lower legs are covered in blueish scales. The nails on both his hands are sharp like shark teeth and there is fleece between his fingers and toes, like frogs.

      'Who are you?' Kyle asks. The woman put a hand before her mouth and giggles.

'Hihi, oh boy. Look at those lost lambs Piscis.' She snickers in an irritable high-pitched voice. The man nods agreeing. The two of them jump away to avoid a fire ball thrown at them.

'Last chance! Who the Hell are you guys!' Kyle snaps. The woman laughs a bit harder.

'Alright, alright hot shot. Don't burn your head to a crisp. We are known as Hirca and Piscis. And you, little lambs are in our ways.' The woman suddenly goes from annoying sweet to scary threatening. Before the boys were prepared, purple poison induced bubbles were fired at them. They could just barely dodge it unharmed.

'You guys must be the ones who dropped the Hodag egg modified with Nether Obsidian in the lake weren't you?' Ren shouts.

'Look who's the smart guy in the room here.' Hirca mocks.

'State your purpose! What are you trying to do?' Shun asks them. Hirca laughs. 'Just searching for the greatest power hidden in this annoying world. You know, the Soul Sto-' But Hirca got cut off.

'Hirca!' Piscis shouts. Hirca cover her mouth.

'Whoopsie, said too much~.' She jokingly says. Shun thinks and a light pops up in his head.

'You, you can't mean the Kings Soul Stones?!' He asks full of surprise and a bit of terror.

'Oh, crap Piscis, they found out~~. Guess there's no choice but to kill them.' Hirca says. Her hands transform into claws and she jump with amazing speed at the boys. Kyle and Shun were able to jump away, but Hirca was aiming for Shun and thrusts him by his neck on the ground. The woman demon was unexpectedly strong and Shun couldn't get out of her grip.

'Shun!' Ren shouts and runs at the woman to punch her aside. Midway his run he jumps aside avoiding the same poison bubbles from Piscis earlier.

'I won't let you interfere.' He says calmly and fires another hale of bubbles at Kyle whom tried to sneak behind him.

      Shun still struggles to get loose. 'My~, you're weaker than I thought you were.' She mocks him. Shun wanted to say something back at her but because she is squeezing his throat tight, he couldn't breathe, there was no sound coming out of his mouth but gurgle. 'Hmm? What did you say?' Hirca asks him and leans closer to his face. Suddenly a gust of wind forms in between of them and throws Hirca in the air.

'What?' She responds in surprise. She gets slammed against a tree and Shun gasps for air. Hirca stands up and growls. 'You brat!' And already dashes forward to Shun to smash his head in before he could properly breath, when suddenly a high-pitched sound sounded through the forest. Hirca and Piscis stop their movements immediately. Shun, Kyle and Ren look up.

'What was that?' Kyle asks. Ren look at Piscis and he looks at Hirca.

'Hirca, time's up.' He says. She snorts.

'Fine.' She answers. Leaves gather and floats around her and seconds later she reappears next to Piscis. A blackish portal that looks like a tear in the air appears behind them.

'Wait! Where do you guys think your running off to?!' Kyle shouts at them. Hirca looks sneering at him.

'Running you say? Get off of your high horse kid. If our time wasn't running out, you three would be dead. You put up an entertaining show though. Hopefully next time we meet, you're stronger, so I will have more fun. Buh bye~~.' She blows them an air kiss and turns around to enter the portal. Piscis already went through. As she was half way through the portal she turns back to give them one last warning. 'Beware, when we get the Soul Stones first, lord Azhalar will reign over the worlds.' And with a laugh, she too, disappears through the portal and closes it, leaving the boys behind with the feeling of terror by the name Azhalar.