Chapter 44: A big catch
A chilling scream tore through the forest.
Jaden turned towards the direction of the scream and spoke with a puzzled and fearful look.
"What the fuck was that?"
He involuntarily stepped towards the scream, and when he registered what he was doing, he cursed again.
"Why the fuck am I walking towards it? It obviously sounds like DEATH!" he spat furiously. The crazy part, however, was that he was mad at himself.
He placed a hand on his chin and began to pace around the place with a thoughtful look as he kept mumbling to himself.
"Should I check it out?"
"What if it’s too dangerous?"
"I can just run away if it’s too dangerous."
"Would I be able to run away?"
"Damn it!"
He continued with his mumbling for some time until another scream tore through the forest; however, this one was different from before. It wasn’t chilling or dreadful; instead, it was a pained cry.
"Are they... fighting with each other?" Jaden muttered with a puzzled look before his lips arched up into a wide grin.
"Just checking out won’t hurt."
He reasoned and began running towards the screams.
As he neared the place, he could hear the low cries and fighting sounds; however, he couldn’t see anything due to the vines covering everything.
He still tried to look, but after failing to see anything, he fixed the sword on his back and then walked near a tree. He placed his right leg and left hand into the cracks running through the tree and climbed on it.
"Huff... Huff..." he exhaled loudly while climbing the tree. His palms were burning, and his legs were in pain. However, he still forced himself to continue climbing the tree.
A few seconds later, another scream nearby made him fall.
’Don’t look down! Don’t look down! Don’t look down!’
He chanted in his head and continued climbing. A few minutes later, a thick branch came into his view, and he moved towards it and climbed it.
His legs gave out, and he sat on the thick branch while leaning against the trunk of the tree.
Calling out to the grimoire, he rubbed his legs with a pained expression on his face before once again drinking water and washing his face.
"Minor Heal."
The water elementals moved once again, covering his body and relieving him of some of the pain. He used the spell two more times and stood up with a low groan.
Most of the pain was gone, but he still felt like dying... even though he hated dying the most.
"If I just fall off from here, wouldn’t it be my second time dying a dumb death?"
Chuckling to himself, he took out his sword and walked further into the branch as it neared the lower branches of other trees. All of the branches were as thick as the one he was on.
Jumping from one branch to another, he neared where the screams and cries were coming from.
Jaden had reached a relatively low branch now. He moved a few vines with his sword, and just as he did so, his eyes fell on a battlefield.
The ground was scorched, deep claw marks filled the nearby trees, and at the centre of it all stood two beings looking at each other.
One was a wolf as big as a house, with two dark horns with a faint glimmer. Its fur was shadowy black and moonlight-like blue, its fangs were jade white, and its eyes were crimson red.
The other one had a half-humanoid, half-serpent-like body; it was pale white and had four hands, all of which ended in claws. It was just a little smaller than the wolf, and its eyes were crystalline yellow with slits in them.
One was a star beast, while the other was a nightmare. So it was easy to assume that the nightmare would win their fight; however, they were equally hurt.
Jaden took out his camera and positioned it between the two of them, and hit the shutter button. Just as he did so, a screen appeared before him.
[Capturing a C Rank Umbralfang and a C Rank Seraphyx.]
[Capture Requires - 10 slot]
[Confirm | Deny]
"C Rank?!" Jaden exclaimed with widened eyes.
’Deny,’
He dismissed the message and looked at the two huge figures before him, again.
"Shit! I don’t have enough slots for them." He cursed and clenched his fist before once again looking at them.
Both of them were bleeding profusely, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they were standing next to the gates of hell based on how much blood was splattered around and covering their bodies.
"I can only capture one..."
Jaden’s eyes turned sharp, and he neared them while making sure not to get caught by any of them.
The two beings continued their battle as the umbralfang leapt at the seraphyx with its jade white fangs, which could tear through any defence. However, before the fangs could bite the seraphyx, it shrank slightly and dodged the attack.
The wolf opened its jaws wider, and a dark, shadowy orb began to form in its jaw. The orb shot forward towards the nightmare with unimaginable speed.
The shadowy orb struck the nightmare and spread like dancing shadows. The wolf, a star beast, had defeated a nightmare.
Jaden looked at the dead body of the nightmare with wide eyes; however, that wasn’t because he was sad about not being able to steal the kill... no, it was because of something else.
He sharply turned towards the wolf, positioned his camera on it, and instantly took the picture.
[Capturing a C Rank Umbralfang.]
[Capture Requires - 5 slot]
[Confirm | Deny]
"Confirm!" Jaden exclaimed with a wide grin, and the wolf also heard him. It turned and growled at him, but before it could do anything else, it burst into black sparks and entered his body.
[Congratulations! You have captured a C Rank Umbralfang.]
[Experience +40 (Capture)]
Jaden continued to stare at the screen with expectations, and finally.
[Ding!]
[Level up!]
[Host has reached level 10!]