Travelling through the forest was something Orou usually enjoyed, the joys of hunting and simply staying in the shadows drove him forwards deeper into the forest, but not this time. It hadn’t been a day yet and Grizz was already whining, saying this and that about not being able to find any food and that they would starve soon if they didn’t do anything. Orou didn’t know how to explain it to him that there simply wasn’t any prey near the village, so he had to constantly deal with the whining.

Grizz wasn’t fast by any means imaginable and Grizz would insist that Orou stuck close to him, or else he would get lost. Orou was sure that it would be the other way by the end of the day and Grizz was using him as a guide to not get lost and wander in circles. They spent the entire day walking, not even stopping to rest during the day to practice spells. The distance they travelled was less than Orou could travel by himself in a single day and they had to stop travelling when the sun started setting, something about firewood, heat and sleep, things Orou wasn’t usually worried about.

While Grizz went off to gather various branches to make a fire, Orou started slithering around the campsite and making sure it was relatively safe, he couldn’t have Grizz die after all that effort of breaking the barrier. It took quite a while for Grizz to find all that he needed so Orou used this moment of peace to once more practice the few spells he had learned. Simply by controlling multiple spirits at the same time, the process of creating the formation for the beam of light spell was both much quicker and a bit easier, he could fill in about 80% of the formation and he was getting close to the day he would be able to cast it.

Orou was eager to test out the ribbon in actual combat, though he wasn’t sure how effective it would really be. He controlled the ribbon in the air to fly all over the place as Grizz had put down everything burnable he could find and pulled out a piece of metal and a rock out of his pocket, Orou’s concentration wavering a bit as he thought about how he didn’t notice it before. He struck the two together to produce sparks to light the sticks on fire, but he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. He was struggling to produce any sparks and even when he did, nothing caught on fire. It took about half an hour before he figured out how to use it and started a small campfire to warm himself.

“Stole this from one of the beastman’s houses, it’s crazy how they don’t keep anything valuable in their homes, only stuff like this.” Grizz had a smug smile on his face as he warmed his hands by the small campsite.

“I even tried to sneak into Vaar’s house, but he caught me on my first try. That’s why I told him about you, who knows what he could’ve done to me for that.” If there was a sliver of guilt in Grizz, Orou didn’t see it on his face as he cheerfully started talking to Orou while looking for a decent spot of earth to sleep on. Orou’s will was something to be reckoned at as he didn’t send the ribbon to Grizz’s side and simply made circles with it, the entire ribbon shaking at the verge of collapsing.

While Grizz was staring at the fire, Orou was pondering about the issue of food. They had met no predators wanting to ambush them along the way, but he did see signs of animal habitation, more so than going west of the village. He was conflicted about going hunting for food or staying with Grizz and making sure he wasn’t going to get eaten by any beasts lured by the fire. He pondered up until the point where Grizz started to go to sleep, finally deciding to stay with him. He would eat any beasts that attacked them in the night and rest in the meanwhile.

While Orou didn’t think anything was foolish enough to attack them, he turned out to be wrong. He heard faint footsteps in the distance, faint enough to think it was nothing to an untrained ear. This immediately raised Orou’s alarm as he was no stranger to night ambushes, his head snapped to the direction of the footsteps and he saw a curious looking beast sneaking up to them. The beast was completely purple and had no fur to mention of, a tail that was shaped like a forked trident and two narrow, beady eyes hungrily staring at the sleeping Grizz.

The purple beast hadn’t noticed Orou being aware to its presence, so it continued to slowly sneak up to Grizz. Deciding to use this opportunity, Orou started to quickly shape the formation of the red ribbon, placing the formation directly above Grizz’s head. The beast got uncomfortably close to Grizz, its sharp fangs out and ready to strike him at any moment, but before he got to sink his fangs into flesh, he was startled by a ribbon appearing above Grizz. That didn’t cause it to flee, though it stopped in its place and cautiously looked at the ribbon simply floating there.

What caused it to flee was the ribbon all of the sudden shooting out towards it like lightning, before the beast could react the ribbon had landed on its body and the beast let out a howl of agony, waking up Grizz in the process. The beast quickly jumped back and started running away from the ribbon, which chased the beast and lead it straight to Orou. As the beast was rapidly approaching, Orou could see that the skin which the ribbon touched was decayed and black blood was spilling from the beast’s side.

Orou wanted to see what would happen to the beast if it was completely wrapped in the ribbon, but it was quite a bit faster than the ribbon. Once the element of surprise was out, it could outmanoeuvre the ribbon, especially since Orou couldn’t sharply turn corners or else his concentration would completely break. Despite that, the wound the ribbon has inflicted on the beast was slowing it down and it was rapidly approaching Orou’s direction.

The beast didn’t notice the ribbon suddenly disappearing from view and it didn’t notice Orou’s wicked sharp fangs until they near its face. The beast couldn’t stop itself in time to escape from the fangs that were approaching its neck, but the beast twisted its body in an unnatural way, Orou’s fangs landing on its body instead of its neck. The skin was rubbery and it was hard to sink the teeth in, but Orou didn’t relent and instead pushed down even harder, barely penetrating the skin and starting to release his venom into the beast.

The purple beast roared in pain once more and to Orou’s surprise, brought down the trident-like tail on his body. It was too late to dodge as his fangs were still in the beast’s body and Orou was having difficulty extracting them from the rubbery flesh and skin. It struck his body straight on and the tail embedded deep in his flesh, digging deeper with each second. Just like how Orou was releasing venom into the beast, he felt that the tail was also pumping something into him, the sensation of having something running through your veins wasn’t unfamiliar to Orou.

Both of them tightly held on to each other, Orou’s fangs in the beast’s body and the beast’s tail in Orou’s body, it was a battle of endurance at this point. Orou was trying his best to constrict around the beast while it was trying to bite at Orou, both of them trying their best to survive at this moment. Orou felt himself become more sluggish as the waves inside of him tried their best to fight against the invading substance, but just as Orou was becoming weaker, the beast stopped struggling so much and Orou could see one of its limbs becoming limp.

While the waves were doing their best to fight it off, the tail was not relenting one bit and continued to pump whatever venom it was into his body. Orou’s vision went black for half a second before he regained himself and when he did, he saw Grizz approaching, his figure crouched low and a dagger in his hand. The beast couldn’t spare Grizz a single glance as it was desperately fighting for its life and that was the last mistake it would ever make in its life.

Grizz’s dagger cleanly sunk into the heart of the beast, encountering almost no resistance as it did. He stabbed it a few more times in rapid succession, wielding the dagger as if he had done this for years. The beast’s cries of pain became fainter as he continued stabbing it until it was no longer breathing, the beast’s tail going limp inside of Orou’s body.

“Damn it, what is a tri-beast doing so close to the border, you alright?” Grizz ran over to look at Orou and the grievous wound he suffered from the tail. Making his way further from the beast’s corpse, Orou steadied himself and bore through the pain within his body to start casting another spell. It was difficult work controlling the spirits while wounded and with constant distractions, but he succeeded and soon, a light was surrounding the injury. He felt whatever venom that was rampaging within him dissipate, and the venom that was still left in his body was taken care of by the waves. The forest he was in was dangerous and Orou had nearly forgotten that because of his stay in the village and for that, he had almost paid for it with his life.