The journey back to Glistern was a silent one, Gray had a lot of things on his mind and Tesse wasn't one to talk unless asked to. Apart from the occasional purr of boredom from the cub, there wasn't much sound within the forest either. Whatever wildlife existed here seemed to have been chased away by the elven settlers.

{I'm getting hungry,} Gray thought to himself, feeling wheezy from blood withdrawal. He accessed the map in his inventory, looking over the trail to check whether they were any settlements close by.

{Hmm, the closest settlement is a bit off the path, it'll add another day to our journey if we make the detour,} he realized, seeing that it would take half a day to ride there, and another half to get back on route. Though he didn't want to spend a minute more than he had to in the elven forest, he knew that if he continued this way he might not make it back to Glistern with his mind still intact.

{Wise choice, my brethren grow restless. And perhaps we can use this chance to try and obtain a few subordinates... provided you don't chop off anyone's head before we've had the chance,} added the specter as Gray put the map away.

{Yes, yes, don't worry. I'm sure I can spare a single a bag of blood for the cause,} he replied, the mention of chopping heads getting him a little excited.

{Perhaps let the female speak this time, I doubt anyone would give subservience to you if you made a face like that,} the specter replied, referring to the wide toothy grin of euphoria that Gray had slapped on his face.

"Agh," grunted Gray, a tingling sensation emanating from the back of his neck.

"Master?" Tesse asked as Gray brought his horse to a halt. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing," he responded, turning his horse in the direction of the settlement.

"We'll be taking a detour, I'm hungry," he continued, before gesturing for his horse to move forward.

*Grrr, grww* growled the cub, looking back in the direction they had just come from.

"Shh, if you make too much noise, the master will devour you," Tesse whispered in its ear, and though it didn't fully understand what she had said, hearing the word 'master' come from her lips was enough to shut it up. Though she could still feel it growling as it sat on her, something was clearly irritating it.

***

The forest seemed to grow denser the closer they got to the settlement, which was quite different from the norm. Usually, the forest thinned out as they approached towns from what they had seen on the journey to Axiel and Glistern, however, Gray didn't think much of it and allowed the horses the maneuver their way past the densely packed trees.

{We're nearly there,} thought Gray, looking at the map once again before correcting the direction they were moving on.

{But what the fuck is this, why does my neck hurt so much?} he complained, gripping the back of his neck tightly. It felt as if a dagger were being slowly impaled into him, and it didn't help that the cub had been growling softly for the past 4 hours.

"Can you shut that thing u-"

Gray's words were brought to an abrupt halt, he felt pressed, he couldn't explain why but his body screamed at him to move. And move he did, but it was too already late. Blood sprayed from his left arm, his hand- sliced clean off- lay on the ground right next to his horse.

Tesse hadn't even processed what had just happened before it struck again, this time severing the horse's head. Gray jumped off it before it fell to the ground, quickly summoning the 『Mighty sword』 instinctively.

"What's going o-" but before Tesse could even finish her sentence, she felt a sharp pain explode from her chest; she looked down and found a black blade sticking through her ribcage.

"Gazef," Gray whispered, staring at the figure that was squatting atop Tesse's horse, both hands gripped around the blade that impaled her. Gray changed the mighty sword into a blood pistol, firing three quick shots towards the figure; two of them hit their mark, and one hit Tesse in the shoulder causing her to cry out in pain.

"Hold him down!" Gray ordered as Gazef was about to pull his sword out, Tesse complied, holding onto the sharp blade with both her hands. The blade cut deep into her palms, but she held on, fighting against Gazef's pull -though this was a losing battle.

Gray shot another five shots, this time all five hit their mark; goring five holes at Gazef's torso. He would've aimed for his head, however, he feared that he might hit Tesse as well, and he doubted that her powers would work if he turned her into a vegetable.

With a single strong tug, Gazef pulled the sword out of Tesse, slicing deep into her palms as the blade withdrew. Before Gray could fire another round, Gazef turned into what seemed to be a black strip- akin to a snake; before retreating into the forest.

"Heal me, then heal yourself," Gray said without missing a beat, getting atop of the horse as he said this. He used his free hand to hold onto the reins before gesturing for the horse to move forward, whipping at the reins multiple times to force the horse to move faster.

Tesse healed Gray, regenerating his left hand, before healing herself. She felt her body go numb for a moment, nearly falling off the horse.

"Hey! Hey! Stay awake," Gray ordered, feeling her body sway behind him.

"Grab on around me, he'll be back," he shouted, pushing the horse to run even faster.

{What the fuck does this bastard want?} he thought to himself, the wind moving past him so fast that it was becoming hard to keep his eyes open.

==============================================

[System Information]

[Tesse Alrein Player Stats]

┏━━━━━━???━━━━━━┓

─────?? Player Details??─────?

[Tesse Alrein]

[Level 2: 40/100]

[Mana points: 200/200]

[Karma: -5]

─────?? Stats ??─────?

[2 Unused points]!

[Agility: 6]{9}

[Strength: 9]{13.5}

[Stamina: 5]{7.5}

[Attack force: 1]{1.5}

─────?? Abilities??─────?

[God's Salvation] [76/100]

─────?? Race??─────?

[Human]

┗━━━━━━???━━━━━━┛

================================================

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/V64Xmqr2gh