The dead trees swayed to the rhythm of the evening breeze. The eerie atmosphere echoed through the woods ceaselessly. A single sparrow flapped its wings and landed on top of a boulder. Its eyes scanned the surroundings, apparently on guard for sudden movements.

  Amidst the rotten shrub layer, three silhouettes slowly crouched past - two of young men and one of a small wolf. They were careful not to make any noise as they meticulously avoided twigs and branches which stood in their way. One of them carefully maintained an arrow which was held strongly within a bow that was seemingly made out of oak. A smile crossed his face as he noticed the sparrow from afar. Signalling his counterpart to stop, he stretched the bow and eyed the sparrow with maximum concentration. Once he was sure that the trajectory was on point, he released the arrow.

  THWANG!

  The arrow tore through the air as it closed in on the sparrow, and within the next instant, it had sunk itself inside the boulder millimetres away from the sparrow. It let out a horrified squawk and flew away in alarm.

  “Wow!” Chael shouted as he hit his head with his palm. “All thanks to this half-assed bow you made!"

  A vein popped in Eclipse’s head, and he muttered murderously, “What’s half-assed here is your skill."

  He snatched the bow from Chael’s hand and promptly whipped out another arrow. Pulling the string back, he fired the arrow towards a bird which had landed just now on a branch much farther than the boulder. The arrow ripped through the air like lightning and buried itself inside the bird’s chest. It didn’t have time to even let out a cry of pain before it fluttered to the ground.

  Satisfied with himself, Eclipse let out an arrogant grunt as though this was his second nature.

  Chael’s mouth widened in astonishment.

  That branch was almost a few hundred metres away! And Eclipse had fired the arrow straight into its chest. And Chael had missed when it was just a few ten metres away.

  Chael let out a half-hearted chuckle, “Ahaha, that’s nothing, I would’ve hit it too, but I’m kind of sick today. I coughed three times this morning."

  “I didn’t ask…”

  Shadow was the first to take off towards their prey, and the other two followed along.

  “You’re decent at archery. Where did you learn it?”

  A nostalgic flicker flashed across Eclipse's gaze. He sighed dismissively, “An old man taught me.”

  Archery and craftsmanship were some of the many things that Duozian had taught him since he had taken him in. Even though he wasn’t very keen on archery, he did it purely because Duozian would not stop insisting.

  “Oh, really-?”

  Just as Chael had responded, an eerie, distant cry echoed through the atmosphere. It wasn’t very loud, and an average person would not have heard this, but Eclipse realised something, and his eyes widened. Shadow too, stagnated and took a few steps backwards.

  The blood moon was starting to show it’s appearance, and the night sky darkened.

  Chael was nonchalantly walking towards their dinner with his wooden stick over his shoulders when Eclipse held him back. “Wait.”

  Chael raised an eyebrow. “What’s good?”

  Eclipse didn’t reply. He held his breath and walked towards it, praying that the bird was not what he thought it was. Using a branch, he nudged the sparrow, turning it so that it was faced upwards. To his dismay, this bird was exactly what he thought it was. It wasn’t any ordinary sparrow. It had ruby red eyes.

  A Blood Beast!

  One that Eclipse recognised as a Bestial Sparrow.

  Suddenly, a screech echoed through the woods; however, this time it was much louder and clearer. Eclipse’s heart skipped a beat, ’Already?!’

  “Chael, Shadow. Run!” Eclipse shouted, then took off at full throttle in the direction opposite to where he had heard the cry from.

  The briefest flicker of confusion passed across Chael’s eyes, but he adapted to the situation very quickly and began running before Eclipse even finished his line. But when he heard the cry of a sparrow clearly, he understood what was happening. He followed Eclipse at full speed, dodging trees and jumping over obstacles in his path like a rabbit.

  “Well, shit! Ahaha!” Chael’s laugh held a tinge of agitation.

  Soon enough, a giant shadow hovered above the place where they had killed the baby Bestial Sparrow. Its wings stretched far apart, and they were patterned like lightning. Seeing the bird unmoving on the earth with an arrow through its body, it slowly nudged its offspring. Its demonic red pupils turned from shock to dismay to absolute fury. Steam escaped its beak as it scanned the surroundings. Noticing movement further down, it spread its giant wings out and took off towards the trio.

  A sudden shrill rang throughout the woods. It was so loud that the trees vibrated and small creatures scurried away in terror.

  Terror instinctively took over Eclipse, and he quickly turned to Chael, who lunged towards him as hard as he could. Chael and Eclipse tumbled and hit the floor hard as the Bestial Sparrow’s massive frame barged into the tree where Eclipse had just been in front of.

  Chael pulled Eclipse up without having time to get himself together, “Quick! Let's go towards the more dense areas. I know a cave not far from there.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Eclipse forced himself to get up, then followed Chael.

  Having suffered recoil from a head-on crash against a tree, the Bestial Sparrow shook its head and then turned towards them murderously, but they were nowhere to be seen.

  Drip, drip, drip

  Water trickled down from the long, pointed stalactites into the moist earth; the sound echoed through the cave. No wind blew in, nothing moved.

  Suddenly, footsteps echoed, and two people and a wolf cub rushed in, panting and heaving heavily.

  “Crazy size for fucking bird!” Chael dropped to his knees.

  “That thing nearly flattened us.” Eclipse slid against the stone walls. “Fuck that bird.”

  “After you.”

  “Fuck you.”

  The trio rested in silence for a good two minutes before they finally regained their composure. Eclipse let out a long sigh before breaking the silence, “It came way too close to us to not have picked up our scent. It won’t leave anytime soon.”

  “Thanks for the morale boost.” Chael chuckled. “So, how do we get out?”

  “I've got an idea,” Eclipse spoke as he picked up a stick, then scribbled away at the floor of the cave and explained a strategy to Chael, who grew more and more shocked at each stage. Shadow’s scarlet eyes simply observed the diagram Eclipse had drawn.

  “That’s crazy. It could go horribly wrong if we’re not careful.” Chael got up and cracked his knuckles. “What’re our chances?”

  “Pretty low.” Eclipse bluntly stated.

  Chael grinned as if this predicament amused him. “Ahaha, I guess it’s better than starving to death here. Let’s head out.”

  The Bestial Sparrow shrilled furiously as it waited outside the more dense layers of shrub. Even though Blood Beasts were nocturnal creatures and preferred not being out during the day, this Bestial Sparrow looked like it would wait day and night and stop at nothing until its enemies were smears on the ground.

  Suddenly, the flicker of movement caught its eye. As it tilted its head murderously at where it had seen the shadow, a rock flew from behind it, striking it dead on the head. The Bestial Sparrow growled murderously and reacted with inconceivable speed, and turned its head back to see Chael.

  He stuck up his middle finger and yelled with a conceited grin, “Come get me, you oversized chicken. I’m right here.”

  With that, he ran out of the woods and into a more sparse area. The Bestial Sparrow’s scarlet eyes flickering with hellbent fury, it readied its legs and blitzed towards Chael. He looked back for a brief instant, and the moment it had taken off, Chael threw himself into a bush nearby.

  The next instant, the ground shook as the Bestial Sparrow collided against a large oak tree and almost split it in two.

  For the first time, for as long as he could remember, true thrill clutched Chael’s heart. “Ahaha, if it hits me with that kind of force…”

  Without taking a second break, Chael rushed off again. Now, the sky was completely dark, and the only light that existed was the glow of the blood moon. And since he was in the forest, the trees obstructed the light, so it was very difficult to see.

  The Bestial Sparrow oriented itself and made sure Chael was quite a distance away before its powerful leg shot it forth once again, this time with dead-on accuracy.

  Chael still hadn’t recovered from his previous shock and was much more worn out now. He tried to dive again, but this time he wasn’t so lucky. The Bestial Sparrow’s wings scraped past his arms, tearing off his sleeve and leaving behind a long trail of blood. Chael grimaced in pain and clutched his arm as he rolled on the earth.

  Sensing that Chael no longer had any fight left in him, the Bestial Sparrow stepped towards him, and its eyes flashed demonically as if it wanted to tear him into shreds. Chael instinctively crawled away on his back. He took a moment to survey his surroundings as if he was searching for something, when he took his gaze up and saw several beehives hanging off across several trees, a sigh of relief escaped his mouth.

  ”I’ve done my part. Where are you, Eclipse…” Chael gritted his teeth and continued to back away as the Bestial Sparrow treaded towards him vindictively.

  At this moment, a single silhouette stood atop a large tree branch not very far from them. With a sharp arrow in his bow, he pulled the string until it groaned from pressure.

  Just as the Bestial Sparrow was about to gnaw Chael into shreds, an arrow ripped through the landscape straight towards them, perfectly piercing through three beehives on its way. The Bestial Sparrow, however, only became aware of what was happening after the several beehives thudded against its body.

  Spontaneously, hordes of bees flew out and attacked, surrounding it from all directions. As the bees stung away at it and obscured its vision, the Bestial Sparrow let out a shrill cry and thrashed around. Finally maintaining its composure, it decided to flap its wings. It was at this moment that a cold shadow was cast over Eclipse’s face.

  The Bestial Sparrow… couldn’t flap its wings! Honey dribbled down all over its body, which stuck its feathers together. When the realisation finally struck, it hissed at Eclipse, who had just jumped down from the tree he was on.

  It charged towards him, but this time, its speed was much slower. Eclipse raised his eyebrows and sidestepped it as it crashed against a tree, followed by a long trail of bees.

  “Stop flinging your huge-ass body around. It's annoying.” Eclipse stated seriously, as the tree nearly toppled over from the impact of the enraged Bestial Sparrow.

  “What’s wrong-“ Before Eclipse could finish his taunting, his pupils shrank. Waves of wind suddenly oscillated throughout its body, and it forcefully outstretched its wings. Fuming with rage, it charged towards Eclipse with a force so powerful that the ground beneath it fissured.

  Eclipse was prepared for impact, but the Bestial Sparrow was simply too fast, and Eclipse wasn’t prepared for something like this.

  He swirled his arm towards its wings at the last second to minimise damage, and yet, Eclipse felt as though he was hit by a sledgehammer, and he was sent flying back. His pupils nearly popped out of his sockets, and he coughed out blood-stained saliva.

  He went sprawling across the earth.

  At the same time, the Bestial Sparrow screeched in excruciating agony. Right before its wings had hit Eclipse, he had plunged an arrow into its chest. Blood oozed from the wound, and it thrashed about in pain. Finally, it rose into the air and decided to fly away.

  Seeing this, Eclipse breathed a sigh of relief and rested his back against a tree, the distant hum of bees nearby.

  Chael got up and clutched the long trail of blood on his arm subconsciously.

  “Ahaha, that was nuts. I wanna celebrate, but let’s head back for now.” He said with a grin, then he scanned his surroundings, “All these bees are closing in on us.”

  Eclipse finally composed himself, wincing at the pain flaring through his body. “Yeah… let’s nap to celebrate-”

  Whiz!

  Suddenly, a streak of sound and wind ripped towards them and buried itself in Chael’s shoulder. His calm expression instantly froze as a disturbing combination of cold and heat spread through his arm. He robotically took his head down to see a long, sharp, dark-green piercing through him, and blood streaming profusely down his arm.

  Realising what had happened, Eclipse’s pupils constricted to the size of a pinpoint, and he howled in concern, “CHAEL!!”

  “Looks like I still need to work on my aim.” A voice rang into their ears.

  Chael’s heart sank as two figures appeared from the shrubs. They were large in size and radiated the aura of pure violence and savagery. Their mere presence and footsteps deterred the bees in the vicinity from advancing any further, and some even buzzed away from them.

  They were none other than the two massive men they had run into before. Dragos and Thorn. Thorn’s body was wrapped in a fading, dark-green glow, and he had an index finger pointed at Chael. Clearly, he was the one who had shot the needle.

  Dragos stopped right in front of the duo, who were less than half his size.

  Thorn, next to him, cracked his knuckles, a twisted smirk on his face, “but I gotta start by refining my fists."