WebNovels

Chapter 9 - I'll Be Damned

After the shadow brawl, the three humans walked further into the forest following where the Silkfang Howlers were coming from.

Here and there, some Howlers would show up but were no match for Darius alone.

'... To think he hasn't used his ability since.'

Darius kicked a Howler further into the forest and slithered the head of the other one trying to bite his leg.

He turned to the other two who were busy staring at him with different gazes.

Riven was back to her bored expression, which made Zephyros think only he could actually make her smile.

Zephyros himself was staring at Darius with an angered expression while resting on the back of his girlfriend.

"Don't give me that look... We're almost done... Just remaining the Anchor..." Darius scowled, noticing his younger brother's disdain.

"I remember protesting... Speaking of which... How many years have we spent here exactly?" Zephyros asked, trying to get off his girlfriend's back, but she just shrugged indifferently and held him tightly.

He got the idea.

Darius shrugged and tilted his head, not wanting to reply. Even Riven was unwilling to say anything.

"Hey... Answer me..." Zephyros yelled, already getting furious.

"Ermmm... It should have been one week or more back on Earth," Darius blurted out.

Zephyros felt his heart skip a beat. He had been in this hell for one week?

Darius stared at him, and then a wide smile slowly appeared on his face, which then turned into a wild, mocking laughter.

Zephyros stared at him in confusion and anger. To think he would later start hating someone he thought he would idolize...

"You should have seen your face... Aah... None of us came with our phones... You should have seen the expression on your face... Ehhh... Classic... Yes, time is different. Time here is much faster than on Earth... But we haven't spent much time here... So we've been here less than a day in Earth's time... If we're lucky, we'll make it in time for dinner."

Zephyros didn't say a word. He had no resolve left in him to argue or make points. He had seen, heard, and said enough for today.

"Just hang on for some time... I'll be keeping you company tonight... I'll have a sleepover at your place today..." Riven reassured, turning her head slightly to meet his gaze.

Zephyros smiled back at her and they continued their trek.

Every so often, Howlers would appear and Darius would deal with them. If they came from the rear, Riven dealt with them even though she was carrying her boyfriend on her back.

She pulled a stunt that once again surprised Zephyros.

A Howler lunged at them from above, dropping like a spider from the canopy. Zephyros braced, instinctively squeezing her shoulders, expecting her to dodge or slash upward.

Instead, Riven didn't even look. Her shadow stretched out before the creature landed, catching it mid-fall like tar. The beast thrashed, legs twitching, but the black grip held firm. Without shifting him on her back, she angled her wrist and flicked her blade sideways. A ripple of shadow followed the motion, slicing the Howler clean in two.

Zephyros blinked hard. "Did you just… fight while carrying me?"

"Mm..." she hummed, as if swatting monsters while piggybacking her injured boyfriend was just another Tuesday.

Even Darius gave a quick glance over his shoulder.

"Show-off..." he muttered, but there was the faintest curl of respect in his tone.

They kept moving, the pale trees stretching taller and the mist becoming thicker. The deeper they went, the more Zephyros noticed something strange: the Howlers didn't come at them as recklessly anymore. They stalked, circled, growled from the shadows, like they were waiting.

Riven must've noticed too, because her grip on him tightened slightly.

"We're close. Anchors attract guardians. They don't waste themselves pointlessly once you're in range."

"Guardians?" Zephyros echoed.

Darius smirked without turning. "Think of them as bouncers for the universe's worst club. Every Anchor breeds its own. Silkfangs here, something nastier somewhere else. Kill enough, and you'll always find the core."

"And if you can't?" Zephyros asked.

Riven's answer was blunt. "You don't leave."

The words landed heavier than the mist around them.

Zephyros fell silent. He didn't want to admit it, but something in him was trembling... not just from fear of the monsters, but from the realization that this world wasn't built for people like him. Darius belonged here. Riven belonged here. But him? He was just cargo being carried through someone else's war.

Yet, the parasite inside him stirred at the thought of the Anchor. He could feel the faint, undeniable pull. It felt like eagerness to... kill.

'This parasite... Arghhh...'

His thoughts were cut short when a sharp web like a blade whisked past with immense speed right beside his cheek. If not for Riven's quick intervention to shift the web sideways, it would have decapitated him.

Riven ordered Zephyros not to let go and to stay put on her back. She held her sword, its blade facing the ground... for now.

'This was why she didn't want me to walk.'

Just a few meters ahead, Zephyros stared into the mist and then he saw a twisted shape the size of a truck move through the mist.

'Anchor?'

He swallowed hard.

Just then, they got to a part where two large rocks formed a cave. On the trees surrounding this cave were countless large cocoons. The cocoons were made out of white, thick webbing, the same as the one from the Silkfang Howlers.

The only difference between the two was that these cocoons were dripping and mostly covered in crimson liquid... blood?

It looked almost like a ritual ground.

Zephyros shuddered. This place was too scary for him.

'This must be its home.'

The thing in the mist shifted again. At first glance, it looked like a cluster of webs, like some giant spider had balled itself up... maybe just another cocoon.

But then it moved, and Zephyros realized it wasn't webs, it was... legs. Eight of them. Each one long as a tree trunk, jointed wrong, scraping bark as they skittered across the forest floor.

The monster finally came out of the mist, and Zephyros froze.

It looked like someone had stitched two creatures together. The front half was shaped like a wolf... broad chest, thick fur, and a long snout filled with sharp teeth. Its eyes... eight of them glowed faintly, watching them with a hungry glare.

But the rest of its body didn't match. From the chest down, it had eight giant legs like a spider, each one bulky and covered in ridges, ending in hooked tips that stabbed into the ground when it moved. The legs weren't thin or delicate but were thick and heavy.

Its back was a mix of fur and hard shell. In some places, the skin gave way to patches of rough armor, shiny like insect plating. The back half of its body sagged low, swollen like a spider's abdomen, with strands of web trailing behind it.

The strangest part was how it moved. It didn't walk like a wolf, and it didn't crawl like a spider... it did both at once. Every step looked off but somehow fast and smooth, like it had learned to hunt on four legs and eight at the same time.

Around the neck was something like a large necklace decorated with shining blue crystals.

It growled, low and rumbling, saliva dripping from its jaws. The sound was enough to make Zephyros' stomach twist.

Zephyros's heart hammered. The Silkfang Howlers had been nightmarish enough, but this... this was their mother, their god, their anchor. The mist itself seemed to bend around it, pulled toward that throbbing body like it was feeding on the air.

Darius tilted his head back, a smirk tugging at his lips.

"Well, aren't you beautiful." He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders.

"... Been a while since I've had to stretch."

Two Howlers, looking more menacing than the previous ones, lunged at him in unison, but he didn't even glance their way. His foot snapped out, shattering one's chest with a crunch, while his hand snatched the other by the throat. He slammed it into the dirt so hard the ground trembled.

He had just killed two Guardians in a matter of five seconds.

Riven ran to the rear of the cave and dropped Zephyros down.

She glanced at him, her bored expression returned to her face. She sighed, and as if noticing all this was too much for someone who had just lost his memory, she did another thing Zephyros counted as nothing short of incredible... more incredible than the shadow ability she pulled off earlier.

Riven shifted her weight, her gaze steady on him. Then she leaned in, close enough that Zephyros could see the faint flecks of silver in her eyes, the way the mist curled around her hair. His breath caught, the world narrowing to her face.

Her lips brushed his first, soft but deliberate, and then pressed fully against his. There was no hesitation or testing... just a firm, certain kiss. The warmth of her mouth cut through the chill air, startling and steadying him all at once.

For a heartbeat, Zephyros forgot the forest, the monsters, even the Anchor looming over them. All that remained was the pressure of her lips, the closeness, the faint scent of steel and blood clinging to her.

When she pulled back, her eyes locked on his, steady and unreadable.

"Now breathe..." she said, almost in a whisper.

Zephyros blinked, mouth parting, but no words came. His chest did loosen, though, air finally dragging into his lungs like he'd forgotten how until that moment.

"It was wrong of your brother to bring you here... Well, it's not like we'll die... This is just C rank... The Anchor will be dead anytime soon... So in the meantime, stay here..." she said and gave him another dagger she summoned.

The other one Darius gave him was hanging at his waist attached to his shroud.

Riven stood, wiping her blade against her thigh as if nothing had happened. Her voice was calm again, sharp as steel.

"Don't lose yourself to the fear. Anchor here..." she tapped her temple, then glanced down at him.

"...or with me. Doesn't matter which."

'That makes no sense...Only if she knew she had kissed a man twice her age. Am I even acting my age?'

Above them, the Anchor-creature shifted, the mist pulling tighter toward its body like the whole cavern was being inhaled.

Darius only grinned wider. "Hah! That's more like it. Let's wake this beast properly."

Riven glanced at him for the last time then smiled. She immediately went to join Darius in the battle.

Zephyros peeked from behind the rocks, his grip tight on the dagger Riven had given him.

The Anchor-creature loomed over the cavern, its wolfish head snapping and growling, its spider legs digging trenches into the ground as it moved. The necklace of blue crystals swayed around as the monster moved.

Darius was already in motion. His blade flashed in arcs, his body moving faster than Zephyros' eyes could follow. He weaved between the creature's legs, cutting deep slashes into its armored joints, sparks and ichor spraying with every strike. It swung its massive claws at him, but he slid out of reach, always one step ahead of the monster, his smirk never leaving his face.

Riven was the opposite... silent and precise as ever. She didn't rush in.

She circled around the monster, her eyes fixed on its weak points. When one of its legs came down too slow, her shadow snapped up, binding it for a fraction of a second, just long enough for her blade to sink into the joint before she pulled back again.

To Zephyros, it didn't even look like a fight. It looked like the two of them were playing with it, seeing how long it would last before they got serious.

The monster roared, shaking the cavern. The cocoons hanging from the trees above quivered, some of them splitting open. Zephyros' stomach turned as he realized those weren't just cocoons. Some were full of half-dissolved bodies.

The Anchor stomped down, shaking the ground so hard, the trees shook, causing a minimal earthquake. Darius only laughed louder.

"Hah! That's more like it!" he shouted as his blade caught the dim blue light of the crystals as he struck again.

Darius slid under the monster and slashed the vulnerable flesh of the monster's abdomen.

Riven, using her shadow as a springboard, flew high into the air and landed softly on top of the monster. Without wasting any time, she thrust her blade into the monster.

The monster shrieked, releasing a piercing sound that made Zephyros' ears ache.

Suddenly fed up, Darius yelled at Riven.

"Get down... I'll end this now."

Riven slid down the monster's back immediately without questioning or looking back at Darius.

Zephyros' mood brightened. He was finally going to see the ability of his elder brother.

The monster turned to Darius and attacked him with one of its tarsi.

Darius simply dodged and then dispelled his sword back to where it came from.

Just then his hand started to mutate into...

'Huh?'

Zephyros felt a sharp pain run through his entire body. The parasite was back... just at the time he was about to see his brother's mysterious ability.

Everywhere became blurry and the fight became distant. All he heard last before fainting was a loud sound, and then he could see blurry chunks of flesh and crimson liquid flying around with a wolf-like head with eight eyes.

The monster was dead.

'Damn this parasite.'

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