章節 45: The Ghost in the Woods

They looked at each other while not realizing the shadow who was in Shizuka's shadow coming out slowly, "Fufufu~ You kids figured it out already, eh?"

"Wha--?!! Who in Gaia's name are YOU?!" Shizuka exclaimed in surprise, turning around and trying to get away from the shadow.

"Fufufu, you can't escape from me~ I'm attached to your shadow," it spoke again and turned into a male with smokey white hair and light grey eyes. His hair was long and wavy. He was wearing a black robe and the bottom half of his body were all black smoke-like fog.

"Hey! Get away from her...!" Orion called out for the male behind the girl, readying his knife and slashing at the shadow, but failed as the shadowy male used the girl as his shield.

"Gah!" Shizuka managed to cover her hands with light as Orion's knife made contact with them.

The ash-blonde immediately jumped back as soon as his knife touched the girl. He grunted as the others were trying to figure out what to do with the two.

"You hurt me, you hurt her~ Simple as that~ Fufufu~"

"Haahhh??!! What do ya' mean by 'SIMPLE?!'" Vinnetra exclaimed as he tried to separate the two by pulling the male away from the girl. But to no avail, they gave up after a while from fighting the male relentlessly. Even Isseiris panted and huffed.

"So even geniuses can get tired huh~?" the raven-haired male teased and rested his head on his palms on top of the girl's head.

Yes. The platinum-blonde-haired girl was also tired from all of the runnings since the shadowy male controls her now. "That does not have anything to do with this... Huff..." Isseiris was too tired to answer as he lied back down.

"Hoo... Do stand back up. We have not finished our training~"

"Eh?"

"Eh??"

"EH?!"

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Shizuka flopped back down in exhaustion as the three boys stared at the male agape.

"What do you mean, 'training?!' Who are you to tell us what to do anyway??!!" Vinnetra complained and shrieked again as he quickly backed away from the smiling male, still pointing at him.

"Ah, yes... I forgot to introduce myself..."

"How could you forget?!" Vinnetra yelled from the background as the shadowy male bowed down, with his right hand in front and the other behind him.

"Let me introduce myself, I am Sena Louphrise, a ghost residing in the Forest of Mishs~ Pleasure to make your acquaintances~"

"D-Did you just say g-g-g-g-ghost?!" Vinnetra stuttered out meekly, still hiding from the male and was beginning to pass out--

"Ah, ah, ah~ No sleeping for you, young boy~" With a flick of his fingers, Vinnetra stood up straightly, his eyes wide open. Shizuka glanced a little at what they were doing before flopping her head down again.

"You too young lady~" Shizuka stood up immediately as her eyes were wide open as well.

"And the two of you," Orion and Isseiris straightened themselves, feeling oddly fresher than ever. "...What did you do to us?" Vinnetra interrogated while testing his whole body, "Why am I suddenly not tired?"

"Never mind that, what do you mean by 'figure it out?' Do you know anything about this place?" Isseiris inquired cautiously as he separated the girl from the ghost, creating a decent distance between them.

"Fufufu~ Who knows~?" Sena just shrugged as Orion became more and more irritated each second. He walked up to the ghost with each of his step heavier than before, creating dents in the dirt.

He grabbed the collar of the cloak that the ghost was wearing and headbutted him. Isseiris and Shizuka stared at them in shock as the light blue-haired male kept the girl behind him. Vinnetra became speechless as he looked at them agape.

'Why did he do that?!' the three thought together whilst Orion continued to grab the ghost's collar harshly, "Don't mock me, your ghost. You've been getting on my nerves ever since you showed up. Just tell us what you know about this place so we can get this over quickly."

Isseiris, Shizuka, and Vinnetra froze upon hearing his furiously calm tone. Sure, he got angry easily, but he wasn't THIS angry before. Shizuka tugged at Isseiris' sleeves harder as they stayed quiet. Sweats rolled down their faces as they waited for the ghost's answer.

"... Fufufu~ No can do, boy~ I'm only going to--"

"I don't NEED your damn training. Tell us everything you know about this place. And. Get. Away. From. Her. I won't repeat myself," Orion's tone was cold and he was glaring at the ghost.

The ash-blonde was seriously angry. Isseiris and Shizuka were probably the ones who "suffered" the most as they were very, VERY close to the two. Vinnetra just prayed that they won't die in the middle of his wrath.

"Hoo~ Looks like you got a thing for--"

"Uhhh--!!! Orion!! Let's just do what he says, alright?! Wouldn't hurt to listen to him?!" Vinnetra stepped in while panicking, pulling on Orion's sleeves to get him away from the ghost. He WAS about to reveal Orion's crush for the girl.

Of course, being the kind friends they were, they tried everything they could to prevent the ash-blonde's secret from spilling.

Isseiris still kept standing in front of the girl as the ghost eyes the light-blue-haired male as well, raising a knowing eyebrow at the three of them.

"Well~ Even if you attack me, it will still affect the young girl~ Don't want your friend to be hurt now, do you~?" he emphasized the word "friend" and he smiled teasingly at the ash-blonde, knowing how he'll react.

"Tch," the ash-blonde backed up from the ghost as he went beside the raven-black-haired male, with Vinnetra holding his heart, 'I thought I was gonna die for a second there!!!'

"Fufufu~ If you want me to get away from the young girl so badly, you need to finish your training first~," the ghost stated with a smirk as he flicked his fingers again. The girl stood back up while she was quite surprised, trying to comprehend the situation happening.

"Whoa--!"

"There~ You can't get anywhere now, young lady~ I need to whip you all back in shape~" He eyed the four of them before landing on the platinum blonde girl, "Especially you~"

The girl gulped hard at what the ghost had in mind and she prayed to the gods and goddesses that it was NOT what she was thinking about.

[Monday, 27th of July, 2020 (Space-Time)]

"Whyyyyy?!" the poor platinum-blonde girl cried out, running her sixth lap. She was already breathing heavily and sweating as well.

"You need to run more, my little one~" Sena, the ghost, suggested as he floated behind her, cheering her as he cupped his mouth, "You can do it! You can do it!"

"Oh, would you shut up already?!" Shizuka shouted out in annoyance and ran faster with her eyes shut closed.

"Yeayyy, it worked~! You can do it!"

"Why. Are. You. So. ANNOYING?!"

"Fufufu~ Don't mind me, young one. I'm just here as a support--"

"HOW THE HELL ARE YOU SUPPORTING ME?!"

In the background, you could see Isseiris and Orion sparring with a...

"Why the heck are we sparring with a freaking STICK?!" Orion yelled angrily, accidentally putting too much force into his slash and ended up falling face-first into the ground after Isseiris dodged his attack.

"Guh!!"

'Oohhhh, that must've hurt...' Shizuka thought as she finished her laps. Vinnetra helped the poor male up and gave the other three each of their water. There was a river around here and Sena used his magic to make some bottles for the children.

"Why don't you just make swords out of your magic?" Isseiris said as he finished gulping down his drink. Grabbing their sticks, Sena threw them in the air and turned them into steel swords.

"Ah, these swords might injure you if you're not careful with them~" Sena warned softly with a teasing voice, turning them back into normal sticks.

"Wow. I learn something new every day," Orion stated sarcastically and drained his drink down his dry throat, "Did you know that you can also injure yourself by being hit and falling? No? Well, now ya' know."

Shizuka and Isseiris laughed a little at Orion's sarcasm while Vinnetra was just dying as he hit the ground several times.

"Fufufu~ Well, that is all for today~ Let's prepare for dinner shall we--"

Sena was stopped by the hard rumble of the ground and the strong wind blowing them. The tall trees swayed from left to right as their leaves rustled loudly. The children held onto the male ghost as he covered them with his cloak.

"Sena-san! What is happening?!"

Shizuka asked as she clung onto her own shadow for dear life. Vinnetra was just really done with life as it always gave him something unexpected, in a bad way.

"Oh, what is it this time? A villain's gonna pop up out of nowhere? Or are we gonna be moved to another place? Maybe the Antheroses will appear? Those mysterious men, aka. hunters? I'm too tired to deal with all this..."

Vinnetra was done with all this. Isseiris and Orion sweat-dropped at him as Shizuka rubbed circles around his back.

"Nope~ It's only the rampaging Telarocks~"

"THE WHAT NOW???"

|| To be continued... ||