Quin could not find any words looking at the scenery in front of him. He had gone through a lot of things and had seen things that only very few people would have at his age. Yet, no matter his past encounters and experience, there might not be anything at all that could have prepared him for this situation.
“Faiyi,” he finally said almost choking on his own words.
The girl in question was sitting in front of him -- in the middle of the left behind gore of the Shrieker -- and munching on the leftovers like it was her afternoon snack. While Quin was still trying to find his words, she looked at him and seeing his rather shocked face she may have realized that there must be something wrong.
Faiyi looked at the remains in her hands after a moment’s of confusion and then stood up while also extending her hands in the direction of Quin. Though her expression was somewhat complex Quin was quite familiar with her and knew what it showed.
After taking another second to gather himself, he finally told the girl, “No, I’m not mad that you didn’t offer me some, Faiyi, it’s...” He walked to the girl while talking and threw away the mess in her hands. “This is no food! What’s more its body probably still has some poison it, how could you eat it something like this?”
The girl looked at him dumbstruck and then back to the ground at the remains with a face clearly filled with confusion. “It’s yummy!” she stated resolved.
She looks alright, but I really have to examine her... Shit, I hope she won’t have any issues, that damn Shrieker was full with that poison.
Quin looked over the girl for some time, but he could not find anything wrong with her. The only difference he found was that her forehead -- at the place where her circular shaped scar was -- seemed to grow a tiny lump.
“Does it hurt?” he asked after placing his finger on it and touching it lightly.
Faiyi shook her head with the same confused expression as before and Quin could not help, but share the same feeling.
I’ve thought that she might not be a human, or at least not an ordinary one before, but I still can’t believe how that could be an explanation. She might be somewhat different, but looking at her she looks like just an oversized human, I can’t imagine how could be there that much of a difference? This monster’s poison was fairly potent even for me, how come she doesn’t seem to have any problem then?
“Just because something tastes good, it doesn’t mean it’s good for you, Faiyi,” he started explaining. “The poison inside this creature nearly killed me before and you know how strong I am; you were really lucky to not have any problems after eating it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Although the girl did not speak much or especially not very verbosely, she could fully understand what others said to her. Faiyi was certainly an enigma: she has been growing at an abnormal pace, eating more than three people’s worth of food and could be generally described as strange. You could talk to and communicate with her, yet it always came with a weird feeling. The best Quin could describe this was that the girl simply had a somewhat alien mindset compared to the average humans.
An intense struggle could be seen in the girl’s eyes, but in the end even if a bit dejectedly she still nodded.
“If anything hurts or even if you just feel strange say it right away,” he told her to make sure.
With that done, Quin grabbed the girl carefully and started heading back in the direction he came from. Though he was worried sick, there was not anything else he could do for her safety and any -- still living -- doctor would be probably in the city’s center as well as the battle his loved one’s life might be depending on.
The city felt like a ghost town that has been long since abandoned: many of its buildings stood in crumbles and they did not encounter a living soul during their way back. They did find some Shriekers, but those seemed to be under some kind of spell and their previous fierce nature was nowhere to be found along with their perfect coordination. Thus they quickly arrived back at the town’s center where they were met with a different scenery.
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Even though the Shriekers here were also obviously weakened, the battle was still going on and the monsters’ still had that fierceness in them. The humans, under the leadership of the guards, were gradually driving the swarm back, but it was clearly not an easy task. There was not a single one of them that did not have a fair amount of injuries on their bodies and looking at the place behind them it was filled with others so wounded that they could do no more battle.
Quin quickly evaluated the situation and joined the fight right after putting down Faiyi by her mother as well as telling her to have a doctor check on her as fast as possible.
The power balances tilted rather seriously with him joining the fray and not just for the simple fact that he was very strong. Seeing him returning completely fine, the soldier’s previously not so good moral practically skyrocketed and they continued the fight with renewed spirits.
Although Quin considered using his new found power to generate waves of wild energy against the Shrieker swarm, he decided against it in the end. I’ve got a good feeling about this, but as a pioneer I have to be careful! Especially when so many things are depending on it... I haven’t experimented with it yet and something might very well go wrong and then I might hurt the others, not these damned monsters! He knew he could not let himself be careless, not even a bit, besides their current situation was not at all the same dangerous one as it had been previously.
It took some time and effort, but by the time the sun was setting, they have managed to clear the city from Shriekers. Looking around Quni saw a rather unsettling sight: buildings after buildings in ruins with the entire town painted in a mixture of dark red and purple. These two colors naturally represented the blood of the two sides that clashed against each other on this day. Then, if it was not enough, several humans as well as numerous Shrieker corpses littered the ground everywhere the eye could see. The lingering smell of death was all too much abundant in the air turning many of the survivor’s stomach.
The day ended in a victory, but there was no triumphant feeling.
“Hey, are you alright?” After seeing that there were no Shriekers in the area, Quin quickly made his way toward his mother.
“A bit tired, but I’m alright, just like them,” she replied with a pale face and beaconed at the other members of their group. “Fortunately the worst thing we had was getting scared. Oh, right, the doctor did check on Faiyi, but she said that there was, fortunately, no problem.”
“That’s good to hear,” he said and let out a long sigh. “I’ll go around the town then quickly and see if there’s any straggler Shriekers or survivors left.”
“Alright, but please be careful,” she told her with a weak smile.
“Don’t worry,” Quin replied and with that vanished from the crowd.
Just like how it has been during his way back to the town center, the surroundings were rather deserted with only the occasional Shrieker aimlessly wandering. Unfortunately, this also meant that even after a good amount of time searching for any survivors he was not successful. In the end he decided to go back and search for Pei to maybe get an idea of what their next step should be.
“You look like you’ve aged a hundred year, Pei,” Quin said with a slight smirk after finding him.
Recognizing the voice coming from behind him he said, “Yeah, and you-,” After turning back and seeing Quin in his current state Pei was completely shocked, even losing his voice for a moment. “The spirits be damned! You look like someone who’s just finished a good afternoon stroll, there’s not even a scratch on your body!”
“You know that I cultivate my body?” he stated rather than asked, humbly.
“I’m no fool boy, but there’s a limit to that,” he exclaimed not quite convinced. “It’s not that you’ve fought a couple of times more than me or any other soldiers have, but I’ve seen that thing... That huge monster and what it was capable of! Even body cultivation won’t protect you from that and here you’re good as new. Seriously, what are you hiding from me?”
There was not a shred of malice in his words, only confusion and curiosity.
“Pei, you’ve known me for some time, do I really look like those secretive kinds?” he argued, with a smile on his face. “You should know that my body cultivation completely surpasses the traditional ones and I’ve made no secret of that. It simply turned out that I’m just stronger than I’ve ever imagined!” he exclaimed in a bit of theatrical voice and flexed his muscular arm laughing.
Even though he was fairly tired, Pei was someone he had a good relationship with and who he even looked up to due to his dutiful demeanor. Thus seeing how bad of a shape the guard captain was in he thought that a bit of teasing might liven him up.
“You!” the soldier said with an angry expression that was most definitely fake, and then sighed before letting out a hearty laugh. “Good for you, but we’ve still got a lot of things ahead of us, so we shouldn’t waste any time. I’ll gather the others and in about ten minutes we’ll hold a meeting to discuss our plan of action.”
“Sounds good, I’ll stay here for the meanwhile then,” Quin replied.