Chapter 18: Rise of Suspicion

As the night sky became less populated with stars, I watched him from behind, as if I were looking at the back of his head. At the same time, I tried to keep up with the rhythm of his footsteps. The brisk breeze started to seem twice as strong, and my outfit continued on swaying with the wind, which exposed some portions of my flesh and caused me to shiver a sensation all over my body.

There was a sudden formation of fog all around the bush, which made it difficult for me to see the route and Dwayne in particular. As soon as I became aware that the environment appeared to be calm, I turned to glance around. The werewolves could not be found.

I turned my head upward after hearing a cracking sound coming from above me. The silhouette of a branch dominated the area above my head. The branch was gigantic; it would surely cut me down to pieces!

When it was about to fall down near my head, I swiftly moved my body forward, but the force of the enormous branch caused me to slide and land on my toe. After then, I heard a sarcastic laugh reverberating over the woods.

When I looked up and saw the werewolves watching us from above, my vision blurred and my jaw fell open in shock. Their eyes were like an arrow, pointing right at us, with the intention blinding us against the world's harsh reality of having to confront threats such as werewolves.

“Dwayne! Dwayne! Wait for me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I held out my palm in front of me as the mist gradually obscured his visage from my view. I turned around to face the werewolves again and noticed that only the father was still there, while the kid had run off in the direction of Dwayne.

My brow furrowed in surprise.

Why aren't they going to let us go away?

We did nothing to harm anything in what they call their home and we did not start a fight with the intention of killing them!

"Now, I have more reason to kill you," he hissed. The threat made by the werewolf father caused a twitch in both of my eyebrows.

“W-What do you mean?” I asked even though I was aware he was unable to respond to me. He aimed the claw towards my shoulders and flung it. I was unable to respond in time, and as a result, I was thrown into the tree trunk with claw wounds that were gushing on my shoulders and wrists. Even though I had a firm grip on it, my sword flew away.

When I turned my head to look at him, he had already sent another claw. I tried to get up to protect myself, however, my shoulders were difficult to bear, and the movement of their joints caused me to experience discomfort.

As the space between us shrank, his claws seemed to have gotten a greater degree of sharpness. He isn't shifting his target away from my shoulders at all. My guess is that he has the intention of severing it. Would this mean that my life would be over? The world around me came to an absolute standstill, and the only sound that was audible to me was the rain beginning to fall in drops.

When he howled, I had already reconciled myself to my lot in life. After that, though, I heard the piercing sound of a blade slicing into the flesh of werewolves. I gently opened my eyes and a horrifying sight met my gaze: the neck of the werewolf had been severed.

My peripheral vision tracked the path that the werewolf's head took as it soared through the air until it landed on the ground facing against me and began to disintegrate into ash together with the droplets. The dead body, too, disintegrated into ashes and vanished into the air as time passed.

My attention was drawn to the direction of the person who had just stepped in from the opposite side. Only to discover that it was Flego who intervened to save my life at that critical moment. I started to rise up, but he strongly discouraged me from doing so.

"Stop moving.. You have suffered internal injuries. If you move, you will get paralyzed."

“How did you know that I,” I paused for a while after remembering Dwayne. But I don’t think he knew him anyway. “How did you know that I am here?”

Flego sheathed his sword by placing it back in its scabbard. He replied, "New recruits will be tested in this jungle mountain," which left me speechless and completely stunned.

“B-But the master said this is where the modern cuisines are served—”

“Those cuisines don’t exist here,” he cut me off. “I am not in the position to explain these things to you. You can observe the answer by yourself.”

After that, members of the medical staff came and treated me. I couldn't stop staring at the way they looked and the outfits they wore. They seemed to be familiar, no, they appeared to be exactly the same as those that I had seen outside the WDC before!

“The place looks odd; it feels like I am being transported back to ancient times perhaps four to five decades ago,” I expressed. When we locked our gaze, I questioned, “Or am I?”

He just gave me a deep sigh.

I was geared up to ask him some more questions when the master appeared out of nowhere. He was accompanied by a female werewolf hunter who wore an insignia identical to Flego's. "You are a disappointment, Amilita," she suddenly uttered which caused me to stare down at the puddle that the rain had made. Even though I don't know her, she seems to be familiar with me because of her tone of voice.

"You aren't even capable of holding a sword correctly," she added. "I don't know the reason why the CEO recruited you, but you are not fit to be a werewolf hunter."

“You should go home—”

She cut off her sentence when the master raised its arm in front of her. She swallowed her words and looked at me with disappointment in her eyes before she looked away.

“Sylvester will surely have a reason that we do not know,” the master interfered. His eyes then dropped down to my ring. “That werewolf is after your ring,” he commented.

Both Flego, the female werewolf hunter, and I peered at him with puzzlement on our faces. But the master didn't bother to respond with a direct answer; all he did was put his index finger in front of his mouth and shrug his shoulders.

“Sh,” he uttered.