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2/09/2020

Bestia Custos Episode 12: The Festival of the Hunt - Part 5

           As expected, the wolf charged Yashima telling the ram to stay back. As he leaped at Yashima, the wolf made a remark regarding retribution for what was done to the human female. This may be of useful if this human is of significant importance to him, that is of course if she survived the fall from Yashima's technique. Despite the fear that Genkaku's allies and myself felt when the wolf demonstrated his powers, there was something almost comical in the way that he fought.
           I mean no disrespect, captain, but the wolf is a poor example of primeran combat. I know that you have told us many times of how he was raised in the human home world, but to be so oblivious to how one's own body works only means that he is indeed in desperate need of your guidance and wisdom. His actions were over exaggerated, his attacks telegraphed long before he attempts them, and his footing and posture were deplorable. Yashima showed a growing zeal as every mistake by the wolf fueled his own confidence. It grew to the point that Yashima was toying with him, dancing around the wolf's efforts. It was almost as if the wolf was a human trying to fight in a primeran body. Our battlefield is one of guile and instinct, not a barrage of thoughtlessly placed limbs and venomous anger.
           In what I can best describe as an attempt to lure the wolf into a more suitable position to be sent repelled away from his party, Yashima began using his staff to strike the wolf's open areas and confound his leg work by tripping him every chance he could find. Yashima began to take a great deal of pleasure from this and even began taunting the wolf. Again, a plot to lure the wolf into a vulnerable situation I'm sure, as I have come to know Yashima as quiet and reserved.
           It was at this point that it was abundantly clear that the wolf was not use to fighting someone half his size either, a fact proven by the wolf's verbal frustration in trying to strike Yashima. But all that changed when the ram decided to play.
           A loud and sharp noise pieced through Yashima's delight in toying with the wolf that made his hair stand on end, a sign of danger. A column of stone and earth forged into a razor's tip bust from the ground beneath Yashiman, nearly impaling him. The wolf looked towards the ram in surprised and Yashima bounded away to gain distance. Though farther away, I could still make out their words to one another.

You didn't have to join in...”

I did, watching you was just too painful to bear.”

It's okay! I'm not hurt or anything.”

... Not what I meant...”

Well, if you help I guess we'll get finished with him sooner and go find Kate and the others!”

Then we agree on something, just keep your distance.”

Yeah, he's too slippery when close up.”

I meant from me...”

           There was a grim reminder then as to why you desire the wolf so badly, captain. Because it was in that moment, Yashima realized that he was the one being made a fool of. A lesson that would fortified in pain.
           The wolf was changed when he began to use the powers of the Black Heart. There was suspicion when we all encountered him the first time, but there was no mistaking it here. The azure light that crystallized into various tangible forms was proof enough that he is indeed the inheritor of such power. No longer a flailing mess, the wolf's attacks were concise and focused. His constructs, though crude, were razor sharp or were hurled at speeds so fierce they would shatter Yashima's body should he be struck. I can only suspect that Yashima was coming to the same conclusion that I was. The wolf was the one doing the toying all along. He deliberately fought like a fool to lure Yashima into a state of overconfidence. The face on the ram seem to confirm this as she too seemed impressed with this turn of events.
           Dodging the wolf's attacks until a moment arose to strike was one thing, but when the ram began her assault as well, the fear of failing his mission was dawning on Yashima's face. On one front, a barrage of deadly objects being hurled towards him, on the other, the very ground had become his enemy as the ram played an eerie melody on her instrument that made the land hunger for Yashima's every footfall. It was a combination that paired with time had only one inevitable outcome.
           As he tired and found no means by which to strike back, Yashima fell into the clutches of one of the ram's earthly grasps, his body engulfed by the soil and stone of the earth up to his shoulders. Finally captured, the wolf and ram approached with caution in order to interrogate Yashima.

It's over. I'm not going kill you, but I need to know what you did to my friends. Where did you send them? Are they all right?”

You can't possibly be this dense, wolf... Genkaku-Sama will have a much easier time dealing with you if separated. Obviously your stronger when together, yes?”

Can you bring them back here?”

No, my technique only send my opponents away from me. Fortunately, there is only two of you this time...”

What do you-”

ANIMAL!”

           The tables turned yet again it would seem, as Yashima must have planned to be caught in the ram's grasp, as it gave him enough time to channel his anima enough to use his technique twice in succession. But not for the wolf and the ram, he was bound and could do no such thing. No, he used his ability on the earth around him to propel his own body from his prison just as the wolf fired a crystalline sphere at him in an attempt to stop him. Time almost seemed to slow down for all of them as Yashima raised a clawed paw to the wolf as he fell, his anima spiraling from his palm outward as the wolf was sent sailing off into the darkness of the forest. 

 

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