Mizuki left the caves after she decided to return to the place of the fight on the other day. Her objective is to track and hunt these direwolves. She wanted to get as many of their pelts as she could before winter comes.

But she always made sure to check her supplies and weapons before heading out. Antidote for poisons, a tanto, ready-to-use bandages, wraps, splints, dried meat and water. And also the gray colored courser which she bought from Balanli yesterday.

She chose a female from its male counterparts. For her, they were not that good in terms of their personality. And it was the healthiest and fit enough to traverse on rough terrains. She also bought a saddle that could help her carry things she may get from the forest. Although it was quite expensive as female horses were very costly.

At the crossroads on the way to the forests, she saw a party of soldiers talking to several travellers and caravan who took the forest trail.

“- bodies were brutally dismembered. Only a monster could do such a thing!” A caravan master was heard explaining a tale.

“Where did you find the bodies?”

“Just on the Bagsworth Creek. We made a camp there on the other day until my guards saw several bodies on the other side of the creek.” The master pointed towards the forest.

“Thank you, you can now continue.”

Mizuki decided to stop and dismount her horse. As she walks near the soldiers she heard their exchanges with another batch of men being interrogated.

“Is there any distinct marks or bites that got your attention?” another soldier asked several hunters.

“Hmm, now that I think about it… large chunks of their flesh seemed to be missing and the bites felt to be from a very large beast. Definitely not a bear but maybe a direwolf but with much bigger mouth and powerful jaws. We know because we also hunt direwolves in the past. And the claw marks on the bodies were too big for the paws of any direwolf.” one of the hunters replied.

“Isn’t it some kind of aberrant or new variant of bear or direwolf?”

“If there is then its tracks wouldn’t tell that it is walking upright.”

“Alright. Thank you for your time.”

“Becareful. As you can see from us, we only caught some rabbits and squirrels but never a deer or even a bear. That means that the number of animals on the forest is slowly decreasing. Then it would only be just a matter of time before this beast takes its sights on villages and towns with people.”

“We will take your words into consideration.”

The hunters went their way and Mizuki asked the soldiers.

“Can I ask on what is happening?”

“Hm? Oh it’s you Mizuki!” one of them seemed to recognize Mizuki.

“Fatima? Why are you here? Aren’t you the town’s herbalist?” a soldier took off her hood and revealed a browned haired woman at her twenties. She was both an acquaintance and competition of Mizuki in selling herbal remedies and medicines.

“I was also a huntress and my father was a former army surgeon, as such investigating dead bodies is my field. The town mayor asked for my help and expertise in knowing who and what were behind these attacks on the road. They wanted to know if these were related to the old woman at the stake.”

“And what did you find out?” Mizuki asked.

“We were able to rescue two people who survived the attack of the beast. They formerly travelled as a band of peddlers, walking from town to town. They made camp at the Queen’s Pond. Then at midnight, they were all attacked by a hulking creature. Killing most of them.”

“How did they survive?”

“It seems our beast either cannot swim or hates getting soaked by water. The two jumped into the deepest part of the pond and stayed there until sunrise. The patrolling soldiers were the first to find them. At first they thought that the travellers were just attacked by the direwolves but the two kept on repeating how only one creature was involved and the tracks it left behind also tells the same.” Fatima shrugged.

“And speaking about direwolves, they were becoming more aggressive and unnaturally targeting some nearby hamlets. Although they were animals, direwolves were smarter than humans. They will never attack a hamlet that doesn’t guarantee the success of their hunt or risk losing some of their pack.” She added.

Mizuki also noticed their intelligence during her encounter with the beasts as they immediately retreated when she took out a few of them.

“Maybe they are widening their territory?”

“No, I told you. They are smarter than us. They don’t have the urge or need to widen their territory especially if they are the only ones who ruled the woods.” Fatima shook her head.

“Then-”

“Yes, someone or something… either provoked them.”

“Is it becoming a disturbance?”

“A very destructive disturbance, not only it threatens the already decreasing quality of trade in the barony but it is also threatening the security of our people.”

“So what did you find? Is it related?”

“No, we still lack information to say anything. And I doubt that the direwolves knew how to impale humans. We have to check the bodies ourselves and see what we can find. Then we may have to enter their hunting grounds and try to track its trail.”

“Do you believe the words of those people and the hunters?” Mizuki frowned.

“I don’t know the beasts and creatures on your country Mizuki and I doubt living for a few years in this country would make you knowledgeable enough of every being that lived on this continent. But I know every monster that may exist or stray on our backyard.” Fatima attended to the saddle of her horse, preparing it.

“So you do have an idea on what is this beast?”

“It is still a guess but all signs were telling me one thing. And that’s why we are going to the locations of these corpses. All of you, we are moving out.” Fatima mounted her horse and the other soldiers followed suit.

Mizuki realized that these soldiers were not simple peasant soldiers or levies but trained men at arms after seeing their high quality leather armor with few iron plates and how all of them were mounted, armed with lances.

“And what is the creature, Fatima?”

The soldiers galloped towards the forest trail along with Fatima, after leaving some words.

“A werewolf.”

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When Mizuki arrived at the place, wild dogs and crows were feasting on the dead bodies of two bandits. She searched for the blood traces of the direwolves dragging of the bodies yesterday and she found it on the same spot where she last saw the direwolves.

‘Good, thankfully it didn’t rain yesterday as thus the blood is still present in the grass. Not yet covered or ruined by the weather.’ She thought.

The earlier exchange with Fatima still floats in her mind.

‘Werewolf… I heard stories from the people in town but I have yet to see one so I cannot just believe such a thing exist… although it would be very interesting to meet and see what kind of creature it is.’

“Come Shinobu.” The name she gave her horse was from her fellow comrade back on her homeland, a kunoichi.

She dismounted her horse and took the reins as she walked, following the blood stains.

But after several minutes of walking, she lost the blood trail.

Instead she found two dismembered bodies that were left behind. One of the bodies got its arm stuck under the root and another had its leg tangled on the vines of the ground.

She checked the bodies and found out several things.

‘It seems the direwolves had given up dragging the bodies after failing to get them off and instead dismembered them. Then took off with the body parts they can carry.’ she concluded after seeing that the respective lower and upper body parts of the two were missing. Claw and fang marks were also present.

‘But they wouldn’t just leave the bodies uneaten. They would usually come back for these after they finished carrying the first batch of the meat to the den.’ She had come to know the direwolves’ habits in hunting as she had lived on this land for years already. Enough time to know also that they would never leave any leftover in their hunts. May it be bears, large boars or even humans.

‘Something must have happened.’ She added.

Then she saw droplets of blood in the bushes.

‘The direwolves must have passed through here as they carry their prize back to their den… but it’s not enough to track them down…’ she found the droplets cut off at a distance which lost again the red trail.

‘I should find their tracks instead… but these grass and leaves made it hard to read…’ Despite their size, direwolves don’t leave any tracks because of the thickness of the dead leaves and grasses. She tried to search for left furs or even disturbed shrubs but to no avail.

Then she suddenly smelled something unnatural in the deep woods.

‘… burnt wood… a campfire?’ she led her horse by the reins as she followed the smell.

And after maneuvering through the high roots and thick vines of the forest that impeded her many times, she found what she was looking for.

At the shade of the large root of Saiahkoya Tree, she found a campsite.

She saw a basket of fruits, a pack of grass covered with clothe that seemed to be the bed. And a small makeshift roof made of large leaves enough to be a shelter for the night. She tied her horse’s reins to protruding branch of the nearby tree.

She investigated the scene as she rummage through the things that were left behind.

‘Two half eaten apples, recently bitten. Someone was here, eating his or her breakfast then suddenly stopped…’

She went to the makeshift shelter and searched the sack and things under it.

‘No weapons or even arrows, definitely not a bandit camp. And seeing a single bed, there must be only one person who had set up this. The grass on the bedroll is still freshly cut but the weight of someone is still obvious from the cloth. This camp was just made yesterday.’

Then she crouched to touch the ashes on the campfire.

‘It is already damp but the warmth is still present…this campfire was just recently put out.’

After searching the camp for more clues, she saw foot prints leading out of the camp.

‘Footprints… but they don’t seem to be heavy or large enough to be from an adult man or woman… a child? But what could a child be doing out here camping alone in the forest?’ she silently wondered.

She decided to follow these strange footprints. Then she found a torn piece of cloth hanging on the shrub. She surmises that it got torn off after its wearer got stuck.

Then she found the tracks turning towards the edge of the forest.

‘He or she must have turned off here.’

Almost an hour had passed in tracking the owner of the footprints and it took her to a rocky side of the forest, a place she never had been to yet. And she also found another’s tracks joining the footprints she was following. The very same tracks that she lost earlier in the forest, she recognize that it is the same as there are several blood drags going inside.

The blood that is still a day old.

‘Blood with direwolves tracks…not fresh but recently, along with its much older tracks… and what is interesting is that instead of being caught and dragged by a direwolf, this child seem to have intentionally gone straight after them.’

And at the nearest tree stump, she smelled strong odor similar to a dog’s pee.

A typical familiar feature to mark a wolf’s territory. She presses on but now with heightened senses as she knew that entering wolf’s territory is not as simple as a bear’s, much less a direwolf’s. She prepared her blades and Yumi bow just in case.

She slowly and stealthily creeps deeper, trying to sniff and hear any strange sound or even just a slight disturbance to the wind, to avoid getting ambushed by the beasts.

‘The grounds on this area have much less grass with almost no tree as such the tracks were now easier to read and see.’

But then she realized something after following the tracks inside.

‘The new direwolves’ tracks are a day older than that of the child’s… so it really did mean that the child went inside chasing them?’

Then she found herself seeing a large opening of rocky area and a large cave at the center and a sight of–

“…dead direwolves.”

There were about thirteen to fifteen dead bodies of direwolves on the ground.

Large enough to be considered on adult size.

‘What in the world happened here?’ she decided to walk openly as she didn’t sense any beasts lurking nearby.

She slowly went to the nearest body, picked a stone and threw it with force towards the body just to make sure it isn’t sleeping or playing dead. She accurately hit the head but she got no response. Seeing this, she didn’t hesitate anymore and touched the body. Trying to know what killed it.

‘It really is dead… there is a fatal injury on the left side of its head, the hole is too large to be from an arrowhead or bolt. It isn’t even a spear, axe or a sword as the wound isn’t deep… a dagger maybe? Hmm… so a single strike from a dagger put it down?’ she also went to investigate other bodies then found out that they all fell on the same kind of weapon and with one to three strikes on the same fatal region.

‘If this is their den, it is too quiet… shouldn’t there be pups wailing?’

She went inside the cave and found dead bodies of the pups.

‘This is strange… a child or someone with the body of a child entered this den but with no human corpse, does this mean that he or she had wiped out the entire pack of direwolves?’ she got confused by the current situation.

Hunting wolves is not a joking matter and that is much worse for hunting a wolf in much bigger size. Numbers of hunters, range or long reaching weapons and coordination is the only way to hunt these beasts.

Although she was able to handle a pack of direwolves, she will get a hard time in fighting a pack of them at their own grounds. The only reason why she was able to successfully escape with her life and wipe them out is because of skillfully using the terrain to her advantage and using the large size of the beasts against them.

But for a child to do this alone is unbelievable. Especially after seeing the precise fatal strikes he or she gave the direwolves.

Then she suddenly heard a voice.

“Have you come to hunt the rumored werewolf?” And when she searched for the source of the voice, she found a boy in ragged torn clothes looking down at her from the rock above the cave.

“Too bad, but it seems it is not here.”

“Are you the one who did this?” she still have doubts about the child being able to wipe out these beasts but still she had to ask the question.

“Hupp!” the boy jumped down towards her.

She realized that he is really a child, about 11-13 years old. And she cannot even see the color of his hair as he was literally dripping in blood all over his body.

“Well, I only wanted to investigate at first but I accidentally slipped into the very entrance of their den –”

The boy suddenly stopped talking and instead focused his eyes towards her.

“Wait… strange woman with black hair… and black armor… with peculiar blades and a long bow… you must be the rumored shipwrecked… foreigner.”

“Yes. And you must be quite a strong boy, if you were able to do all this.” Mizuki confirmed.

“Strong? Why is that?” The boy grinned in reply.

“Let’s just say I came to know them after my frequent contacts with them.” her sight playfully followed the flowing blood from one of the dead direwolves. Then she slowly walked around the boy.

“Hm…” she quietly observed him.

Even back in her homeland, it is almost impossible to see a child soldier in the battlefield. And she was an exception. However in here, she got to know a different culture where even children as young as 11 years old were part of the levy. But not to the point of bathing in the blood of the beasts he had slain.

And even if she disregards his achievement in wiping out the entire den, she knew that this child is definitely not normal. He will be the second person she met here that she sensed to be one.

But she didn’t find it annoying or creepy, instead she relish such abnormality and pursues it. Her way of life has always been an abnormality. She had come to enjoy it as the dreaded “Onikiri” of the battlefield became an Oni herself.

In other words, she wanted to know.

She wanted to see.

She wanted to feel.

She wanted to do something bad right now. And only blood with steel will do the trick. But first she must test him.

Then her right hand rested on the scabbard of the right blade on her hip. The boy noticed this action and what this may imply.

All of the sudden, her eyes throbbed and turned black. Then it sent a full unfiltered wave from the abyss.

And as she had expected, the boy received all of it. Just like the men who saw her dark eyes, he became paralyzed. Shivering from cold fear, their body organs failed, lost control on their limbs, silent screams and choking for air. It’s as if their body already acknowledges that it is dead.

It is a direct visit from the Reaper himself.

Then he fell lifelessly on the ground.

…or what should have been.

Much to her surprise, the boy just smiled. He never even closed his eyes or diverted his gaze. He just simply looked at her eyes and received them all. And she felt that he sensed what she just did but he chose to embrace it in order to see its effects.

For the first time in her life, she met someone who is not afraid of death. She already met a skilled warrior monk that fought to the death because of faith, an infamous ronin that died to protect his family, a loyal samurai that welcomed death for his lord and a daimyo who died standing for his belief of peace.

But the boy in front of her just seemed to embrace it because of… curiosity. His eyes told her that.

“Impressive and magnificent.” She is now showing a toothy grin.

“Hehhh? I never saw something like that before. What was that?” just like her, the eyes of the boy are with great interest.

“Well, nevermind.” then he released a full blown bloodlust at her as if taunting her.

In her experienced from the war and countless deathmatch, the bloodlust that is emanating from the boy told her senses that he will become hostile at any moment.

She also saw two glints on the back of his hands and something protruding on his clothes. She can only guess that they must be the weapons he used to fight and slay the direwolves.

“My turn to ask, now tell me… are you strong?” he tilted his head.

In preparation, she unlocked the wakizashi on her right side with her thumb and took a draw stance.

‘Please don’t disappoint me.’ she quietly mused.

Then knowing that it will start something she also liked, she replied.

“The only one stronger than me is… Death.”

In response, the boy disappeared from her sight with two daggers flying towards her.