Seamus saw the dangerous situation in which Jenny was, he was already injured due to backlash but he in desperation to stop the beast again channeled elemental energy in his not yet recovered veins. Extreme pain assaulted his senses but he tolerated it by gritting his teeth.
The bear charged towards Jenny on all four, and surprisingly contrast to its size it was very fast. Zeph was without any weapon but still, he dashed towards the bear to try to stop it.
Jenny was unable to think straight and was in the path of the incoming beast. She was just a few meters away from violent death but her eyes were just fixed on her brother.
Zeph approached right behind the beast and at that exact moment, chains of water materialized and wound up on the whole body of Bear in an attempt to stop its momentum towards Jenny.
Jenny passed right in front of the struggling beast and hold her brother who was lying on the ground. She fervently tried to look for his breath and was relieved to find he was still breathing albeit slowly.
Seeing the most presentable opportunity, Zeph took hold of his stuck Katana and channeled energy into it. Beast was struggling intensely to break free of restrains but Seamus was holding on to its technique with blood flowing from his mouth.
Katana became white and lightning began to churn on its surface. The lightning energy destroyed the flesh and the sword came free of its shoulder.
The bear roared in extreme pain and tried to throw the human standing on its shoulder. Zeph with blaze activated took the sword and stabbed directly above the bear's head.
Katana struck through the skull with some resistance but the lightning energy penetrated right through it and destroyed the brain of the beast.
Due to fatal injury in the brain, it cried in pain and then fell on the ground with a large thump sound of a two-ton dead body collapsing. Chains vaporized as Seamus was at his limit. He tried to sit but coughed out large mouthfuls of blood.
Jenny noticed the whole left arm and leg of his brother blasted off by the projectile and seeing his condition she began sobbing.
Seamus supported by Kyle reached Jayden and Jenny and looked at his condition. He shared his head and tried to comfort Jenny. kyle took Jenny in her arms and began sobbing with her.
Zeph took out his katana from the beast's head and after cleaning it from burnt tissue and blood sheathed it at his waist. He saw the group assembled at seriously injured Jayden and at that moment his eyes met with Seamus's eye.
"Who...who are you?" asked Seamus as he staggeringly stood up.
"Just passerby…." Said Zeph as he looked towards sobbing girls. He squinted his eyes and turned back to leave.
Seamus tried to follow, as he shakingly jogged towards him,
"How can that be? I will not ask for your identity but allow me to introduce you ourselves to repay your help in the future "
Seamus who was trying to follow suddenly lost his footing and crashed down to the ground.
Zeph strode towards him and caught him mid-fall by shoulders. He supported him to help him stand.
"No need for introductions.
And advice…."Zeph brought his lips near his ears and whispered to him
'Beware of traitors '
The eyes of Seamus slated at his words but before he could question him what he meant by those words. Zeph took a step back and jumped off on a tree branch and disappeared into the forest.
Seamus was confused by the words of Stranger. He was suddenly broke out of thoughts by Kyle who patted him on his shoulder.
" what happened? Who was he?"
"No idea. But we should move towards the center to provide medical aid to Jayden as soon as possible. "
He tossed back his words in the back of his mind and focused on traveling to the center without being detected by other hostile teams.
Zeph was at this time far away from their location moving towards the end of the forest towards the city. He didn't wish to entangle further into their matters as he has his problems to deal with.
He helped them because he was following them for a long time and seeing the whole group at the mercy of the beast didn't sit well with his character. He had no intention of helping them to the very end as young people should be capable of solving their problems themselves.
Advice that he gave them that was his assumption. He was not sure so he left the decision in the team leader hand When he was watching them, he saw the duo of Kyle and Jayden following after Seamus.
The thing he noticed that Kyle didn't lose any footing, she deliberately fell on Jayden to make him fall Which was certainly suspicious. Moreover, her efforts during the fight were minimal at best. But he cannot decide on someone he just met and why would a team leader believe stranger over his team member. Thus he only warned him to be aware which was enough for his conscience to stay guilt-free.
It was around the time early night when he finally stopped his jogging movement. He decided to rest at this place for the night. Due to the fight, he was very hungry therefore he started finding suitable fruits in the forest to munch on.
He found some nuts hanging on higher branches and found some squirrels moving around tree branches.
It proved the edible nature of nuts. He climbed up the tree and plucked few clusters of nuts.
Next, he found some wild berries and succulent fruits in the nearby area. His dinner was just these fruits and nuts as he had early signs of accumulation of curse energy in his body.
Such accumulation only meant to be soon onset of pain seizure which he was prepared to face this time in meditation.
He decided not to sleep that night and meditated on the tree branch waiting for releasing of curse energy, thus beginning the pain cycle in his body.
It was around midnight when the pain began in his whole body. It started with dull pain in his nerves and veins which slowly moved to all parts of the body including legs and arms
Soon all of his body was writhing in pain but his mind was in deep meditation which was due to repeated practice in his childhood. He could maintain lucid awakening type condition in which his pain senses were highly dulled thus allowing him to pass through this seizure without much agony.
Finally, after one hour of hardship, curse energy subsided in his body and went again into accumulating phase.
He finally came out of deep meditation and breathed a sigh of relief.
He retired on the tree branch and felt the cold sweat over his all body. Exhausted from exertion, he fell asleep almost instantly on the tree branch.
Sun rose in the sky, and Zeph found himself walking towards the end of the forest. It had been two days since the incident of the Aries clan group. He found several more groups in the way but he avoided all of them.
This competition or whatever has caused many intelligent beasts to go into hiding than to face so many humans. Thus in a way has made traveling path easy for Zeph.
'Probably I will be able to reach the city by the dusk."
Thought Zeph as he monotonously jumped through a wet swamp in the way. He had gotten used to the diverse environment in the forest.
Marshes, swamps, tall grasses, and thick forest foliage He had traveled through all in the same manner without wasting much time.
Sometimes he found some animals or small beasts trying to attack him but he casually killed those who attacked first and for those who were near him but choose to remain hidden, He spared them.
Suddenly a blue-winged insect jumped from the leaves of the tree and tried to bite on the neck of Zeph. A sword flickered through and the insect got sliced in half.
It was probably one of the many animals which were killed by him in one stroke. Only a few tough ones required him to be serious about them.
" Strong beasts are into hiding, and as already told by Boss only beast having an acceptable range of strength are left in this forest by elders of the city. Then I don't think I should waste more time here. "
Zeph made his mind and began to increase his speed towards the destination. He didn't begin to sprint but just increased his casual sightseeing walking speed to jogging speed.
"Hey, you stop there?"
Zeph heard someone calling out to him. He stopped and turned towards the person who called out. He was a person with flaming red-colored hair and a band over his arm having a symbol of the red-flowered vine which probably the crest of their clan.
Soon three more young men joined him from the other side and were now squinting their eyes on Zeph, possibly trying to recognize him.
"Who are you? Never saw you before in the capital? Which clan are you from?" asked the red-haired boy, leader of the group.
Zeph shaped his head and replied," I'm a traveler, not from the capital. Just passing by through this forest."
"What? Traveling through the forest. Do you think we are fools" one with a mole on the left cheek became furious with his words.
Zeph found himself annoyed at their attitude but he didn't want to get further entangled with them.
"I lost my way thus ended in the forest, now going towards City as some kind warrior pointed the right direction."
"Oh….. Ok, we are now convinced. But do you know from which clan do we belong?"
Before Zeph could reply another man continued
"We are from Menjalar clan, the top clan of the capital. In the council of Elders, we have two members thus have the most right to make decisions in the city.
So you should be grateful to your lucky stars for having a meeting with us "
He stopped and peeked at Traveller to see his awestruck and flattering expression but what he found was an expressionless face gazing at him.
If he had any doubts regarding his explanation, now he was sure he was not from capital. As only someone from outside could maintain such calmness when told about the Menjalar clan. He suddenly found this man to be irritating to him.
"Are you understanding what we are talking about? You..."
Before he could finish his words, the traveler suddenly vanished from his place. A large hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
"Today I am in a bit of a hurry. Don't worry I will visit your clan if I had time to chat with you guys "
A voice was heard so close in his ear that the speaker was standing extremely near to him.
He looked towards his side and found no one there, even the hand on his shoulder was missing.
"Captain, are you alright?"
"Yes..yes…..wha.what happened just now?"
"He just appeared next to you and then went away. His speed was so fast we were unable to react in time. Thank God he didn't have any hostile intentions."
"But Captain you were kind of frozen…" Before he could finish his sentence another man slapped him on his head.
"Shut up…..don't speak nonsense here."
Zeph was already miles away at that time. He was moving fast to clear this last part of the jungle before meeting with the traveling route going towards the City gates.
It was around late afternoon when Zeph finally exited the forest. He soon found the trade route and followed it to city gates. After half an hour of stride, he found a trade cavaran heading towards the city.
They had already seen a lone traveler approaching their cavaran. Thus they decided to invite the fellow traveler to their troop for some rest.
One man approached Zeph who was walking behind troops and greeted him.
"Hello fellow traveler, you are welcomed to our cavaran by our head for rest and meal"
Zeph was already surprised by the greetings and was further shocked by the warm offer by them. He refused them politely by saying them they do not have to do such efforts for him.
"There are no efforts, we are a group of trade merchants which travel bi-annually through this route.
And as a sign of charity help all lone travelers we met in a way by providing some rest or much needed good food. We are serving humanity in our way so please do not reject our kind offers."
Zeph was once again amazed by their ideology. He agreed to his invitation and went to one large cart pulled by two burden beasts.
He was greeted by everyone whom he met in the troop to which he kindly responded. He felt a warm feeling of affection thinking that such people can be so warm-hearted to a stranger they have just met.
He sat down with the merchant who invited him and other workers in the troop provided him with food and water.
"It is a specialty of our local town called a sour and spicy casserole. It is one of the favorite dishes of the whole troop."
Zeph with many expectations tasted the dish. He felt various flavors exploding on his tongue. He felt extreme spiciness in one moment and then extreme sourness in another. It combined to give delightful taste to the dish. He was so thrilled by the food that he finished the whole serving in just a few minutes, unlike his previous slow eating habits.
He was offered space in one of the carts to rest which he politely refused and said he wanted to travel on horses with them.
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