Chapter 42: Invisible Foe
The whole scene sent chills down Terrence’s spine. He couldn’t make a single sound, feeling as though something thick was stuck in his throat.
He noticed Winter stagger in the distance as she slowly rested her hand against the bark of an ancient tree. She breathed laboriously, looking as if she were desperately dealing with something heavy inside her mind.
But what the hell really happened here?
He couldn’t get an answer anytime soon, but the only rational action right now was to prepare. He pushed himself behind the trunk of a massive tree, and the others quickly did the same once they regained a bit of their composure.
"Hey, did you notice something?" Terrence whispered to Gilbert, who was hiding behind another tree nearby. Gilbert hadn’t flinched at the horrific scene earlier, but he seemed to be calculating something in his head.
Gilbert shook his head slowly. "No. But I have a feeling that this is far from normal."
Terrence gulped, turning his eyes to find Winter again. She was no longer in her former spot. Instead, she was running directly toward the pile of human corpses.
"Curses! What is she doing?"
The other three squad members didn’t move. They were fazed enough to refrain from doing anything reckless, unlike Winter.
Shaking his head in frustration, Terrence summoned his Shadow Hound.
The beast instantly materialized by his side in a haze of dark energy.
"Look for anything unusual, but do not attack yet. Make sure not to be detected," Terrence commanded in a hushed tone.
As soon as he gave the order, the hound became a dark blur, vanishing into the shadow of the thick foliage. Terrence then shifted his focus back to Winter, who had already reached the bodies.
’I don’t know if she is just brave or utterly stupid. That is basically suicide. What if there’s a powerful beast hiding in ambush?’
But as he watched her, he suddenly noticed a strange shift within his own thoughts.
He paused, a sudden wave of arrogance washing over him. ’Why am I even being so bothered? The Shadow Hound could just defeat any beast here easily. What am I even doing hiding like this?’
He felt like he had had enough of being overly cautious. He had needed that caution before, but now it felt like a pathetic weakness hindering him. Yet, deep down, he wasn’t stupid enough to blindly trust these reckless impulses.
’What the hell was that thought?’
Terrence felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. He didn’t know why he had just thought like that. It was so sudden and unnatural that he couldn’t comprehend it.
He glanced over at Gilbert, who was now staring directly at him.
"What?" Terrence asked, his brow furrowing.
Gilbert shook his head, a faint smirk tugging at the edge of his lips. "I guess you managed to suppress it. But Winter didn’t."
"What do you mean?"
"Something is playing with our minds," Gilbert announced calmly.
Terrence soon realized the truth of those words as he looked back toward the clearing. The other three squad members were now marching out from the protection of the trees in a daze. They walked straight up to the corpses, standing over the dead bodies with unnatural, burning rage in their eyes.
"Why was Winter so easily controlled?" Terrence asked, his fists clenching.
"She is too confident. Maybe? Or perhaps it’s because of her strong sense of justice," Gilbert replied casually.
Terrence didn’t know what to do. It felt like they were fighting against a completely invisible enemy. Without any proper information, he couldn’t do anything except stand back and observe.
’But if I remain still, that would mean the four of them might be in fatal danger.’
And that was when blood rained down again beneath the ancient foliage.
From a short distance away, a sudden burst of sharp energy broke out, slashing straight through the three squad members. Terrence froze in place, his eyes wide as he watched them get instantly severed. Their heads started rolling across the grass as a crimson rain splattered against the dirt.
"Winter..." Terrence gasped out.
However, it seemed Winter had managed to block the lethal blow for herself. She had her sword fully unsheathed, and standing right beside her was her contracted beast.
It was a majestic humanoid creature that Terrence couldn’t immediately recognize. It possessed a furry physical frame, the head of a deer, and branching antlers spreading wide from two sides. Its entire body was pristine white, adorned in an elegant human robe.
Terrence couldn’t fully comprehend what kind of rare beast that was, but a wave of relief washed over him seeing that Winter was still alive. She had clearly broken out from the mind spell in the nick of time.
Without even realizing it, a small smirk appeared on his face.
Gilbert, who was merely observing the entire horror unfold, didn’t react violently at all. His face remained completely cold, as if he were watching a show without caring about a single thing.
He let out a quiet sigh, shaking his head.
"What now?" Terrence muttered under his breath, tensing his body as he waited for another unseen attack.
For a long moment, nothing came. The air fell completely dead silent.
Winter remained fully on guard in the clearing, casting a few quick glances back toward Terrence’s location and Gilbert’s.
The oppressive silence stretched on, slowly gnawing at their sanity.
BOOM!
Terrence felt a violent impact slam into his ribcage, cracking his bones as he was thrown through the air by an invisible force coming directly from his side. He rolled heavily across the ground for several meters, his vision blurring. His Shadow Hound suddenly darted back from the shadows, placing its large frame over him just in time to shield him from a follow-up blow.
A sharp groan escaped Terrence’s throat as agony rang throughout his entire body. He couldn’t move for a few seconds, struggling against the pain, before slowly forcing his head up to see what had hit him.
In the distance, Winter was now fully occupied, her blade flashing as she clashed against another invisible force.
Which meant Terrence had been targeted separately.
’There’s more than one of those invisible enemies?’ Terrence questioned inwardly, his eyes frantically scanning the tree line to see if Gilbert had also been blindsided.
But he didn’t expect what he actually saw. His eyes widened in absolute shock, his lower lip twitching violently.
"What the hell, Gilbert?"
Gilbert was standing a few paces away, thin, shimmering threads wrapped around his fingers, with his giant Arachne Beast looming right beside him. A sinister, twisted smile was plastered across his face.
"Did you just attack me?" Terrence spat out, clutching his bruised chest.
"No need to ask such an obvious question, kid," Gilbert sneered, his eyes gleam with malice. "Yep, I attacked you. I just couldn’t endure holding it back anymore."
’Is he being controlled by the beast now too?’ Terrence questioned frantically in his mind.
However, that inquiry instantly became irrelevant as Gilbert raised his hands, preparing his threads for another lethal strike.