At the long grass field, a herd of deer was roaming in there. They were relaxing not knowing that the eyes of a Siberian tiger were patiently waiting to ambush them between the long grass.
The tiger unsheathed his sharp claws when a deer coming close to him. The deer looked at the long grass after ate the short grass, the deer barely could ran when he saw the menacing four legs predator coming flying at him from the long grass. The tiger bit the deer's neck and stuck its claws into its torso, while the other deer ran away when they saw the tiger's brutal ambush.
As the herd of deer ran through long grass, two of them bumped into vein trap making their legs tied to a thick vein. They fell to the ground, as they struggled to free themselves Ariys came with her hand grasped short stone sword. With a cold face looking at the deer she swung the sword through their necks.
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In the midst of long grass field there were a place surrounded with a giant tree, inside of that place an open field stretched out there with Anish lying sleeping near at one of the trees.
Ariys came in between the trees while pulled two big sack covered in blood. She then washed her sword and get prepared to cook the meat. It has been two days since they passed through the fog area, Ariys had become less cheerful since then, while Anish was still recovering from his last battle. That night, after Ariys finished crying, she found Anish lying unconscious, so she pulled him to this place and treated his wounds.
And that day also passed like the other days, no monster ambush them, no animal around that place too also there was no disturbance from the alarm. It's nice, but it felt so empty making her wondered was that how it felt to live like a normal person.
When the night comes Ariys set a bonfire between her and Anish and set dinner for both of them. She always did that even though Anish didn't woke up the night before this. It was really quiet at there, she ate while the stars and moon accompanied her. After finished she took a sip of plain water. As the cup goes down her eyes widened. Anish had awoke and already ate his dinner, she exhaled in relief upon finally seeing Anish move around.
"Took you long enough to wake up" her voice stuttered since it has been long time she didn't let out her voice.
Anish smiled looked at her, "Sorry, my body is different from normal humans after all, so how things has been going on since I'm sleeping?"
Ariys spent a little time telling him how boring her day alone had been. Anish laughed hearing it.
"Okay since you have wake up, we need to return to our objective asap" Ariys said while launched the small circle device on the ground.
The map appeared, on the center map a pin of they location was located there. Not far from there the fog area and innovara could be spotted and their estimated time arrived was one week. They were lucky that they didn't swerve too far when coming out from the fog area. While Ariys focused looking at Innovara location Anish's eyes was wander somewhere on the map searching for something different.
"Okay, we will start moving the next morning since I have prepared all thing we needed when you sleep. Do you have any problem with that, Anish?" Ariys stated.
Anish nodded and continued eating while Ariys already getting ready to sleep near him. She also command Anish to clean after done eating before she closed her eyes.
"Wow, really that's all for tonight" Anish thought as he expected Ariys to chit chat with him since she had been alone for a long time.
"That last dream must have changed her a lot" Anish said while looked at her.
"It was lucky that I'm not affected at the fog area. I don't know if I can still think rational like her if I was the one who being effected, after all mental attack is like a scar that can never be heal even the time itself" Anish said with his head lifted to the moon.
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The next morning, before the sun's rays could fill the blue horizon they two had already getting ready to move. They then started walking as soon as the sun shines burst through the blue darkness from their side.
On the way, they found many animals such as deer, tiger, horses and goats. After three hours, they arrived at the next terrain, this time, it was a forest and a long river with a pleasantly warm temperature, similar to when they first arrived in Twilight Vale Forest. Ariys felt so refreshed after arrived there, they two stopped a while to load river water for water supplies and kept walked beside the river after it.
They continued their journey for two more hours before stopped at a place with many stone as a foothold. Anish then grabbed some chunks of deer meat from the sack, He rubbed the meat with various kinds of spices that Ariys had prepared during her alone time and burned the meat near the bonfire.
As for Ariys, she was practiced her sword skill while waited for breakfast. She swung her sword many times with different stances as she tried to figure out which one suited her best. She was having a hard time since she doesn't know what it means to have suitable stance because Fri never taught her any lessons about weapons.
"Hahaha, your stance looks so funny like a children playing war games" Anish said while approached her.
Ariys ignored him, but suddenly Anish touched her hands. "You need to grip your sword more tightly, or you'll easily lose it in a fight" Anish's tone became more serious making her followed his advice.
"And your legs—don't make them look weak. You need a strong stance to not fall easily, but don't make it too stiff or you will lose your mobility" Anish said while fixed her legs.
He then moved to her body position, "Why is your body hunched so much? Just stay straight, you're going to fight someone not respect someone"
"Can you feel the difference between what I taught you and what you were doing before, Ariys?" Anish asked. Ariys nodded, she could felt her body can move more flexible and her movements wasn't stiff. She then began swung her sword, but once again Anish reprimanded her.
"Your swing is okay, but to make it stronger you need to swing it by your upper body not just your hands" Anish said while showed the form he explained with a stick. Ariys gave full attention looked at him.
As Anish lifted the stick upwards, she realised not only his hands that going up his shoulder and upper body also moved along. When striking down, Ariys could feel all the force from his upper body transferring to the sword.
She then gave it a try. She lifted the sword into the air like Anish did and struck it down, but instead of giving a strong slash she was rolled to the front as she didn't maintain her weight making Anish smiled looking at it.
"It's okay, you can start by half swing if you can't maintain your weight" Anish said while helped her arise.
"Thanks Anish for the lesson" Ariys said before continued practice while Anish got back to his cook.
After spend thirty minutes they both stopped to eat breakfast and like the last night they both didn't spoke to each other until the foods run out. Ariys back to her practice as soon as she done eating while waited for Anish to finish cleaned the place he used to cook.
It took ten minutes for him to finish clearing, he then signalled Ariys that he had done his work. Ariys saved her sword on the sword cover she hanged on her hips and grabbed her bags. They then continued they journey to Innovara.
This time they journey was full with animals like squirrels, rabbits and birds playing around them while they walked. Some times they could saw a fish jumping out from the river. When they were monster ahead, Ariys will jump into the battle immediately to practice her sword skill in real life combat situation.
They were like that until the sun blazing its orange colour into the horizon. Ariys and Anish set up a camp on the grass field near the river. Like in the morning Ariys continued her practice while Anish will cook for dinner.
While getting ready to cook the meat, Anish noticed that Ariys' movements had become nearly perfect with each swing she made. "Ariys really has talent, huh. How did she improve so much in just one day of practice? I hear even a sword master at least need a year to perfect it" Anish praised her even though she couldn't hear it.
As he was getting boring doing nothing, he walked to Ariys with a hidden intention. "Hey, Ariys instead of practicing alone how about we sparring?" He asked making Ariys stopped swung the sword.
"What will I get if I defeat you?" Ariys already asked the prize as she already knew it's a good opportunity for her to practice hand to hand combat and increase her mastery over sword.
Anish smiled, "nothing, but it's good for both of us right especially you"
She nodded and get ready to fight. While Anish still spoke about the rule. "We will fight until the meats is ready and the win conditions, you just need to beat me up" he then also entered his stance before tossed a rock high into the air.
As the rock touched the ground Ariys was the first to begin attacking. She repeatedly swung her sword into him, but none of that were hitting. On the other side Anish was dodged it so easily that he had a time to annoyed her in the middle of the fight. She realized that her swing was too slow, so she increased her tempo, but Anish was still able to dodge it and landed a kick on Ariys' hands to disarm her.
"It's not going to happen, Anish" she said and thrusted her sword to him. Anish caught the tip of the sword with his bare hands. "Yeah, I already know that after all I'm the one who teach you to not let the sword slip away that easy, but what will you do if I do this?". He then turned his body and side stepped to her, he hit her in the chest with his elbow. That attack successfully unarmed her even the sword and her was getting distance from each other making her need to fight hand to hand against Anish.
It's hard for Ariys to keep up when it turned to fist combat since she never learned any martial arts to protect herself. This also apply to Anish, but since he has kept fighting since kid his hand to hand combat could be compare with an expert martial arts. Ariys kept getting hit while Anish just received two blow. Ariys covered her head from getting hit, Anish then quickly focused punched her body.
"Can't you give me a little room here? This is just sparring, isn't?" Ariys said as she jumped to the back and ran from him.
"No, sorry can't do that. If I don't get serious you will get nothing from this sparring" he responded while chased her.
Anish reached out to grab Ariys when they were close enough, but she brushed his hand away. "Good reaction" Anish said while kept ran faster and eventually overtakes her.
This time, with adrenaline masking her fatigue, she was able to block Anish's attacks until one heavy blow slipped through her defense and landed on her head, making her fall to the ground.
"Ups, I'm getting too carried away" Anish said, but Ariys doesn't give any reaction. "Ariys, hey, Ariys, are you still there" he rushed to Ariys, "this is bad" he said as he saw Ariys' right eye had swelled up from the last blow and she was fainted.