Three days passed, and they're routine was the same. They traveled throughout the day as far as they could and rested when night fell. Throughout the day or night, if trouble came forth, they handled it. So far it had only been more lizard beasts. They would save and only eat the meat from the tails.
The official count for now was Jasper with eleven kills, Raya with eight and Damon with seven.
Damon had some success with his rain ability. After only focusing on increasing its radius like he planned. The radius in which he could cover was now 60 meters. It increased by 30, considering it was his first breakthrough he continued to only focus on that and nothing else. He had wasted three months attempting to make the rain do something like swirl into a lethal jet stream or ball, which bared no fruit at all.
His thoughts about his ability still hadn't changed, but it was still his ability and he decided to continue to do what he could. With his rain, any time they needed water he would simply conjur a small rain cloud. His clouds always stayed up high, roughly 300 to 500 meters in the sky.
It was mid day and they were sure they had long passed the area where the old torture house was as they called it. They didn't see it, but roughly knew its location because of the familiar trees around them. According to Damon, they were headed north.
Standing by a sapphire blue river, a slim boy with dark hair and red eyes wearing ragged clothing scanned the area.
"So this is the legendary sapphire river. Mr. Chum told me to stay clear of it. I've heard the stories, but it doesn't seem so frightening, I expected more." He mumbled to himself as he crouched near it.
"Hmmm, did the stories say you'd have to cross the river or simply get in. Well whatever, im not willing to test it out. One thing im sure of is they were here, that campsite under that huge mound told me that much." He mumbled to himself.
Looking further, he could see partial foot prints. Multiple ones and some over lapping others.
"Shadow find." He murmured. Escaping his finger tips was a thin vale of shadows that moved like thick black smoke. It seeped on to the partial footprints and began floating off in a particular direction. The boy grinned before taking a step when his footing slipped making his foot slid into the water a bit passed his ankles.
Jumping up quickly, he looked around in a panic thinking the worse, but when nothing happened his racing heart began to settle.
"Maybe its just a superstitious tale." He thought while following the ball of shadow when he suddenly felt an ominous energy. Looking back at the river just as he entered the forest, a black figure partialy surrounded by a dark mist standing on top of the water looked down on him. Its canine shaped head tilted to the side as it grinned showing rows of sharp jagged teeth.
Knox eyes widened in horror as his body froze with fear. A paralyzing aura surrounded him briefly as the figure raised its long limb showing its curving claws. With a slow gesture, it waved at him before disappearing completely releasing Knox from the paralysis.
He frantically wiped his eyes and blinked multiple times as he looked around in horror not seeing anything. Taking off with new found speed he cut through the forest not looking back this time fearing something was in pursuit.
Dodging left, Damon braced himself as the tusks of a large boar nearly gorged his ribcage. Twirling her spear, Raya ran to the side leaping up swinging the spear with precision and force.
The boar roared and stomped shaking its head. Its eyes greeted with a gold tint as it brushed off its shallow wounds and charged forward again.
"Oh this one is mine for sure. " a voice shouted from above.
With a tightened fist surrounded with energy, Jasper bolted downward ready to put an end to the boar when it performed a full 360 spin and lauched upwards. Jasper's fists collided with its tusks creating red sparks of flickering energy.
"No way." Jasper said with a deep frown as the boar slung its head up pushing Jasper back. He crashed into a tree breaking multiple branches as his body tumbled down.
Raya moved in with several slashes that barely cut its thick hairy skin. Going in for a hard thrust, the boar turned sharply and jumped forward with its tusks. Already in thrusting motion, Raya couldn't stop in time as the boar was seconds away.
"This stick won't hold, not how easily it pushed away Jasper." she thought with wavering eyes. Fear began to crawl over her face, but she suddenly felt a hard push from her side.
Sliding in her path was Damon, pushing her out the way with a kick as he slid on one knee. With a resounding bang, the air escaped Damon's lungs as the boar plowed into him nearly stabbing his head. The tusks fortunately hooked on to the not so well tied armor becoming tangled in the vines.
Although the tusks didn't pierce him, the power of the boar collided with him nearly knocked him unconscious. Warm liquid ran down his face as his body jerked vigorously up and down like he was riding a bucking bronco.
Damon was stuck on its tusks, entangled with the vines that held his armor together. The boar bolted through the forest running through branches and debris bucking fiercely trying to throw him off. Heavy rain followed them as Damon sluggishly battled for a position to strike.
"Come on Jasper, move your ass." Shouted Raya as they were in pursuit. The boar was much faster and the way it could cut corners at top speed was insane.
With trembling fists, Damon delivered punch after punch trying to break through its tough natural armor, but the talons from the bird beast did nothing but enrage the boar.
Damon screamed at the top of his lungs while clawing at the boars head. Looking back, a large tree was coming up fast, but the boar showed no signs of dodging it.
"He's going to..." with the realization of the boar next possible move, he grabbed its musty thick fur desperately pulling himself up drilling the talons in one of the boar eyes making it thrash and spin around uncontrollably.
"Damn youuuu." Damon yelled as he continued to punch near its head trying to stab its eyes over and over. The boar shook and bucked more shaking Damon into a position where he was nearly hanging from its neck.
Now partially upside-down, Damon moved his head from side to side dodging its powerful legs as it moved wildly.
"I refuse to die by a damn pig." He thought grinding his teeth.
"Roarrr," the boar let out a terrifying roar as a spear stabbed into its side near its underbelly. Its speed slowed greatly allowing Raya to catch up.
"Its undercarriage." Damon thought seeing the spear fling out of its side. Hanging down, he reached under, punching its stomach were he could feel less muscle and more fat.
The talons pierced its belly easily causing it to sqeel. Damon's punches weren't precise or powerful, it was hard to swing properly with all the moving and his position but after one odd punch after another. The insides of the boar spilled towards the ground and the boar crashed coming to a complete stop.
Running up shortly after, Raya and Jasper could see the limbs of a squirming Damon who was partially pinned down by the dead boar. Pushing it off, Damon's bloody figure was seen as he coughed harshly and gasped for air.
"You ok, are you hurt, how bad is it?" Raya asked while touching all over Damon searching for a bloody wound.
Jasper grabbed on to him with visible worry in his eyes asking the same questions. It was a few seconds, but Damon responded.
"Looks like i got the kill." He said with tight breaths and a shakey smirk.
Raya smacked him behind his head and stormed off, she turned around doubling up on her slap before saying.
"You idiot, you could have died. The last thing I was worried about was who got the kill." She shouted just before hugging him.
The sudden hug caught him off guard, and as far he could remember, he had never been hugged by a girl, especially one as beautiful as Raya. She was dirty and smelled a little, but all of them were, besides he knew how pretty she looked before her white wool hair became knotted up and dirty. They all looked like a bunch of wild kids.
She reared back looking at his face which was covered in blood. Her eyes gazed into his with gratitude. Her sky blue pupils and light pink iris made him a bit nervous, but brought him a great sense of calm. they were so beautiful. A Captivating sight that pulled him into a world of comfort.
Raya hugged him once more while uttering thank you. She knew if it wasn't for his actions, she could have been seriously injured or worse.
Jasper stood there with an awkward smile on his face. He shuffled his eyebrows up and down before saying. "Awwwwww." Breaking the affectionate hug.
"Jealous much." Raya said helping Damon up.
"Of what, you two. Hell no, miss me with all that sappy stuff. Im a man that's all about strength. Women do nothing but slow you down, dont fall for it Damon."
"Don't listen to idiots, they're way of thinking is contagious. You may turn into a muscle head." Raya Responded with cutting eyes and a smile.
"Im not a muscle head."
They all walked back towards the camp dragging the boar along while throwing small shots at each other in laughter.