Chapter 16 - The Beast Tribe

Darkness

Blackness.

Shadows.

Abyss.

An amalgamation of everything dark with a hint of purple covered the landscape that Sagil saw. Was this a fleeting dream, a fleeting nightmare whilst he was unconscious?

He wrung his head as he basked in the darkness, trying to figure out what to do when he came to. He knew he couldn’t escape or save anyone with his own strength, not anyone else’s. His only thoughts passed over the wrecked rangers, even flashing back to the huge backs of the golden alliance, and fell onto a silver-haired mage. He didn’t know if she was strong enough but what else could be done? He was at the beast tribe’s mercy, evident from how quickly the silver wolf like man had decimated everything and everyone in sight, knocking him out with but a chop.

A flash of fire singed into the abyss, its contrast allowing it to stay in Sagil’s gaze for a second after it passed.

Woosh

Then a gale of wind blew over his body, which he could not see or move, its green hue colouring the blackness of the abyss he was surrounded by.

“Water ball”

A voice slithered through the air, forcing a rapid watery blue to flash across the abyss.

Sagil struggled to process what those three things meant as he thought back on the spell he had learnt.

With his gaze studying the abyss for more hints. They caught another water flash of blue with no word of warning this time.

“Get up.”

“…!”

His mind halted, ceasing to process the meaning of the fire, wind, and water, as a deep voice prickled his unseen body.

“Interesting what you have done so far by scampering around.”

It was deep. It was snake like. It was somehow both.

“Think steps in advance. How will you stay alive to not perish but to save your sister? That is your goal right?”

“Huh…”

It was deep. It was snake like. It was somehow both. Yet, it was also something else.

Sagil tensed his arm and scrunched his hands into fists, his nails digging into what would normally be flesh. Instead, nothing happened within the abyss, but his consciousness and emotions brought out trickled through. Not a light in the abyss, but another dark smudge.

“Good luck.”

“Huh?”

Sagil shot up as the amalgamation of words filtered through his ears as his eyes suddenly viewed reality.

The light dimmed by his spinning head seeped in and revealed coarse soil layering the ground that his knees, shins, and feet were grazing across.

“Shit!” He cried as the pain boiled through.

“Finally.” A rough voice grumbled as a burning grip on Sagil’s wrist, that he had barely realised with the harsher pain on his legs, released, throwing him to the ground with a thud.

He quickly scrambled to a sitting position and softly brushed over his torn skin layering his lower legs as he muttered with sharp breaths, “heal, heal, heal, heal, heal, heal, heal!”

A few seconds passed and although Sagil’s legs did not heal, the burning pain eased its harshness a tad bit, allowing him to glance around.

He was on harsh soil that was similar to the island he was snapped from the abyss to earlier. However, this soil wasn’t the product of harsh battles being fought upon it and blood being its water. It laid the ground for hundreds of trees, a forest of trees, to stand tall upon with their roots dug deep. The trees were a similar deep green to the ones in the human village except there seemed to be no clearing or prairie for at least a couple hundred metres.

“Huh?” He let out with a wince from the continuous pain in his legs. The trees inf front were adorned with planks of wood that formed some hut at its base. What made Sagil’s eyes widen though wasn’t that but the fact a hunched man and a big bulking bear were inside. Well, a muscular man with almost fur covered forearms, huge fangs, and bear ears. That got him much more than the feline ears sticking out of the old man’s grey mane.

Sagil winced with pain again, clutching his legs as he lamented in his mind. Why, why, why?

He was almost tempted to smash his head into the ground like an ostrich. In fact, he did exactly that when it registered that the silver maned man speaking to the beasts was the one who was synonyms so far for nothing but pain.

“Shit! That’s right.” He shouted as loud as he could to himself, just enough to get his feelings out but not risk any attention. “Fuck…” his slight temper faded into slight despair as his mind flashed back to only a few minutes earlier. “I was knocked out cold.”

Sagil sighed to himself a couple more times, with one being particularly long when his hand found air where his sword should be sheathed. After lamenting for a minute, he glanced around what looked like the entrance, or backdoor, to the beast tribe’s village.

“Huh?”

His mind was stopped from observing where it looked like he was heading as his eyes caught a small child slumped on the floor a few metres from him – still out cold.

“That brat…” His mind flashed back again. “Oh my God… Elder Dragon why must things always get more complicated and harder. “Uhhh… wait!” His new despair, lumped on top of his other new despair, which was then lumped in with his despair at being in this new world and having to find his sister, was dashed with a hint of hope. Might not be so bad, actually. Don’t know what that bastard was thinking but taking this brat means the others will probably try and rescue him.

It was truly a small dash of hope. After all, those potential rescuers had just been decimated. Even if they had time to heal and even get stronger, it would surely happen again, especially when they would be up against a whole village and not just a few beasts and one monstrous wolf. Although, again, even if they were to succeed, it would only matter if Sagil wasn’t executed or rotted in prison because that rescue attempt definitely wouldn’t be coming anytime soon.

He let out another sigh as he crawled to the unconscious child, his whole body still aching despite the little action he himself had earlier. He might not be as strong as the sword here as he was in his own world but his body was surely able to handle a lot of exertion, even if it took sly beatings from mana infused shots, a big worm attack, magic attacks, and being pelted by the silver maned man.

“Hey,” he mumbled as he reached Ban, shaking his shoulders. “You good?” He shook the child some more but saliva continued to dribble from his lips as he slept. “Ugh…” Sagil winced slightly. He didn’t have much social experience in general, never mind dealing with unconscious children. “Uh, Ban, was it?” He tapped the kid’s round cheeks.

“…nngh…”

“Ohh?” Sagil’s face almost glowed as the child twitched.

“Mmmm…” The child spread his arms out, slightly lifting his body off the ground as he opened his mouth.

“Ohhh?” Sagil’s face glowed as his eyes widened, surprised at his success.

“Pssshhh…” Ban let out as he fell back to the dirty ground, now facing the opposite direction from before.

“Oh.” Sagil’s face dulled and his lips frowned. He sighed.

“…”

He sighed again, this time a much longer and exasperated one, and then tried looking at the brighter side. “I guess this means he ain’t out cold…”

He placed his hands on Ban’s small biceps and shook.

“Wake up.”

“…”

He shook harder.

“Wake up.

“…”

He took a deep breathe and gripped the child’s arms tighter, almost lifting them in the air as he shook them even harder and a lot rougher.

“Wake up!” He shouted as loud as he could whilst still being mindful that he wasn’t noticed by the beasts.

“…”

However, his nerves were really being tested.

He used almost all of his force in one hand to throw the kid’s arm around in the air and used his other hand to slap his face, rapidly moving it back and forth.

“Wake up!”

“Nngh.”

The child was gaining consciousness and waking from his darkness. However, as Sagil let a slight smile escape his stern face, a bark came from the wooden hut.

“Shit.” He muttered as he let go of the child. He had shouted his last ‘wake up’ a bit too loud that he wasn’t just his tone that was shouting but the actual volume of his voice. It was safe to say he had been noticed.

“Oiii, awake, are we?” The wolf like man said as he walked over to Sagil.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breathe. “Uh, y-yeah. What do you want with me?”

“A few things…” He muttered as he grabbed Sagil’s arm and pulled him to his feet roughly. “But I also took you because you’re a fucking liar.”

“Eh?!” He let out, half in pain and half in confusion. “I-”

“Just shut up,” the man barked, slapping his paw like hand across Sagil’s cheeks and slamming his furry grey tail into his stomach

“…!” Sagil’s abdomen crunched in pain as a vein in his head almost popped in anger from the embarrassment of being forced to almost keel over from a mere tail. Although, it was more so from the violation of being slapped and the fact that it actually hurt him, his lips reddening from a drip of blood.

“Well, at least you can walk now,” the beastly man said as he glanced at Sagil’s ripped red knees.

“…” Sagil held his tongue back as his anger boiled his skin, barely dimming the pain coursing through his whole body just enough to not suffer enough to not be able to stand.

The man’s lips twitched, almost as if they curled upwards into a smirk for half a second before regaining a stern stance as he crouched down next to Ban.

“Hmm,” he slapped the child’s face a bit, with half as much force that he slapped Sagil with. It was still enough to bruise the child though who could only raise a bit of natural aura to barely dull the slaps. “Not as sturdy as beast children, huh.”

The wolf like man clicked his tongue in disappointment and annoyance as he snatched the child’s arm and threw him over his shoulder like one would heave a sack of potatoes over theirs. He glanced at Sagil as if motioning him to follow and walked deeper into the forest.

Sagil hesitated for a few seconds, trying to quickly analyse his surroundings and wondering whether he could make a quick escape, before quickly shutting that thought down out of the value for his own life.

“Oi,” the man barked, glancing back to Sagil, and then growled, “now you can walk, follow me.”

“Y-yeah…” Sagil mumbled and reluctantly followed the large man.

They walked for a few seconds, the forest almost silent would it not be for the scrambling of squirrels and birds tweeting atop the tall green trees that were getting taller by the second.

Sagil was a bit confused as he scoured his surrounds as he walked, albeit whilst constantly glancing back to the wolf like man, not comfortable with his safety. He thought they were entering the village with that small hut acting as some sort of border station, checking who was coming in and out. However, there was no animalistic humans to be heard in the distance, never mind more huts.

Thud

“Fuck!” Sagil spat as his arm was smashed into his body by a small rock. He stared in front of him to the right, who threw it?

Thud

Another rock flew through the air, this time narrowly missing Sagil and hitting the floor.

“Oi you brats, that ain’t a good idea.” The beast leading the humans howled.

A couple of barks came from behind some trees, their words undecipherable to Sagil.

“Heh, fair enough.” The beastly man chuckled loudly. “But stop, and tell others in the village to keep to themselves. And this is coming from the only reason this village still stands…” he mumbled the next part under his breath, “…and not just from the humans.”

A few seconds passed what had once been an almost silent forest was getting louder and louder with a multitude of sounds from a slew of voices to hammering, sword clashing and more. It was clear the village was approaching.

Hints of buildings on the ground and dashed amongst the trees were now being sprinkled within Sagil’s view, who was still rubbing his sore arm.

“Oh yeah…” the man turned around, stopping Sagil. “Might be a good idea to stay a but closer to me, unfortunately.”

“…Why?” He sighed.

“Heh,” the lips of the man’s maw curled up in a smirk. “Well, I don’t know if you’re stupid or you really ain’t a liar… you’re confusing overall… but let’s just say I don’t think you’d be content with watching someone grouped with people who caused a war and have been murdering your family walk by. You might get a lot worse than that rock.

Sagil’s face crumpled in despair. “I-”

Schwing

An arrow pierced through the air by his cheek and dug into the ground next to him. A drip of blood seeped from that cheek.