Mystical Journey

Brrr…

Amidst the buzzing of the motorcycle engine.

Raffaele rode like the wind down the path between the forests, her body leaning onto the motorbike, her hair flying in the wind, her gaze as sharp as a hawk.

Large swathes of forests flew past her, the bike leaping up suddenly, and then falling down again hard.

Bzzz…

All of a sudden, the bike moved sideways, turned a few rounds, and abruptly stopped in a small clearing in the woods. The tires seemed to emit faint wisps of white smoke.

Raffaele took off her helmet, looking at the few figures who walked out slowly from the surrounding woods, they were all young girls, of around her age.

"Is Vixie back yet?" She asked nonchalantly, leaping off the bike.

"She is, she just arrived in the afternoon train, and rushed here from the city, now she’s catching up on some sleep." One of the black-haired young girls surrounding her replied respectfully.

"What about the others? How many of those who had gone out came back?"

"About six of them came back, the rest of them are occupied and can’t come back for now." The black-haired girl said softly.

"That’s enough." Raffaele nodded, "The Blood Breeds on that side are getting too much, Grano is still our Grano, it’s where our ancestors are buried, not somewhere those outsiders can show off."

"President, you want to open fire?" A brunette girl frowned. "I don’t think Serin’s group would agree."

"It doesn’t matter, this is just a small lesson." Raffaele tossed her long golden hair, her eyes cold as she said so. "Their hands are reaching too far."

"Do we need to report to the elders?" A girl asked.

"No, this was originally their intention." Raffaele smiled, her skintight black clothes showing off her slender body, in the forest that grew gradually darker, matched with her dazzling golden hair, it showed off how deep and powerful she was.

She looked around her, "Gather half of our people, tonight at eight, let’s go to the north area together."

"Yes."

All of the girls around her replied respectfully.

*****************

Brrr…

The white motorbike slowly stopped in front of Garen’s house.

Garen leaped off the bike in his black skin-tight riding clothes, in the dark of the night, on the street leading to his own house, there were several suspicious-looking people around, mixed in with the regular passersby, surrounding the whole house quietly.

Garen looked around subtly, and noticed these people all had a common characteristic, they all looked like small-time delinquents. They seemed to be chewing gum, with their hands in their pockets, but in truth their eyes would occasionally be fixed on his house.

"Watchmen?" Garen pushed his bike into the yard, he could feel that as soon as he pushed his bike into the house, the people watching him slowly retreated one by one.

"Big Brother~~"

As soon as he opened the door, his little sister Vivien bounced out and pounced onto him, the little scamp was in third grade now, wearing a dark red silk skirt, white children’s stockings, her pigtails sticking up at the ends, and add that to her cherubic face, all of it made her a very standard image of the adorable loli.

But as usual, she idolized Garen, and liked to stick to him all day.

"Big Bro, does this look good?" Vivien darted out of Garen’s embrace, and spun around on the spot, her short red skirt flying up slightly, giving off a light and pure feeling.

"Sure, our Vivi is the cutest of all, you’ll definitely be a great beauty who’s loved by everyone in the future!" Garen picked Vivien up in his arms and closed the door behind him.

"Did you bring Vivi a present?"

"Of course."

Garen flipped his hand and brought out a red pebble-like the ones from earlier, this one had the picture of a duckling carved onto it, and looked quite quaint.

He tossed it at the little scamp, and little Vivien instantly bounced away, bringing the stone to show off to Jason. And then there were the sounds of impatient yelling and bright cheerful laughter, evidently the little devil was causing Jason trouble again.

It was a completely different treatment from what Garen got.

Garen went back to his bedroom speechlessly, pulling out his computer notebook, turning it on, and then connecting to the Internet.

With a pitter-patter of the keyboard, he entered in the word, Grano.

Hitting Enter, a list of the most recent news in town appeared.

The most recent result was from one day ago.

‘Two rangers from the Grano Forestry Department were attacked by wolves, the scene too gruesome for words.’

This headline caught his eye at a glance, and Garen moved his cursor, tapping this news piece lightly.

With a light clicking sound, the page was opened.

In the darkness, under the illumination of the white computer light, Garen carefully read that short piece of news, which only had words and no pictures.

‘... The victims’ necks had canine bite barks on either side, and most of their organs had been dug out and eaten by the wild wolves…’

He noticed these words in the news.

Ever since he noticed something was wrong here, Garen had always been paying attention to the different news happening in Grano.

These past few years, he had been constantly collecting news articles, and by now, he had collected up to a hundred different articles.

"This thing again…" Closing the web page, Garen mused slightly. "There are at least about a dozen of these cases every year, a few tourists getting lost in the forest, or drowning to the bottom of the ocean, so that even their bodies could not be found. Haha… what flawless camouflage…"

He let go of the mouse, laced his fingers, and propped his arms in front of the computer.

"Wild wolves? I've lived here for so long, I know there are barely any wolves here, even if someone walked in the dense forests away from the main roads, and walked for half an hour, they might still not come across any wolves, they've practically been cleared out by the hunters, to have a dozen wolf mauling incidents every year, what a joke."

Turning off the computer, Garen stood up and walked to the window, reaching out his hand to peel the curtains open ever so slightly, and looking out.

There really was still someone watching him, but it had reduced from the multiple people just now to just one.

"Looks like Raffaele’s problem is tonight." Garen was thoughtful, he mused for a bit, pulled open in his closet, and found a large black raincoat from inside, this raincoat was one that everyone in town wore, and this one was adult-sized.

He put it over him, and in an instant his whole person was covered in that raincoat, looking just like the wide black hoods from the Totem World.

Pulling on the good as well, and lowering his head, he instantly became a stranger whose features could not even be seen properly.

Garen stood in front of the closet’s dressing mirror, and took a slight breath.

Crack-crack…

His body abruptly began to emit a series of loud cracking sounds, and soon his whole shape had changed slightly, his shoulders were slightly broader, and he utterly hid his presence as well, standing in front of the mirror, it was as though he was merely a fashion dummy in a raincoat, with no indication of life whatsoever.

"After investigating for so long, it's about time I figured out the truth."

He buttoned up his raincoat, walked up to the window, and lightly opened the window.

The person watching him on the street down there was still smoking as he looked this way.

Garen went around the windows by the side of the house, the back of the house was facing the woods, so the side facing the back was completely quiet, and there was barely anybody to be seen.

He opened the window lightly, with a whoosh of wind and a flash of a black shadow, Garen darted straight out of the window, landing soundlessly on the surrounding wall underneath him, and then he landed, as though floating, into the dark recesses of the woods.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Garen walked at a normal pace into the depths of the forest, dressed in his raincoat, he was familiar with the lay of the land around here, so he was completely capable of taking a long road to the place Raffaele’s house was.

The surrounding forest was completely dark, so that he could not even see his fingers in front of him, but every so often he could see moonlight shining down from the cracks above, that was the only signpost he could see in the darkness.

Before long, Garen suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Who are you!" A black shadow had somehow stood in his path before he had noticed it. It was that smoking watchman. He was dressed fully in black, and his hair was dyed white, his head tilted slightly as he leaned against a large tree.

He was the one who asked that question.

"Speak."

The watchman was cold, and slightly impatient.

Garen did not reply, and instead stood quietly on the spot, not making a sound.

"Could you be Raffaele’s…" White Hair’s expression changed suddenly.

Psst!

Instantly, he disappeared from where he stood.

A piercing wind appeared behind Garen, pale but sharp nails grabbing towards Garen’s back like sharp thorns.

Smack!

White Hair’s fingers were blocked by one arm, and he looked shocked, his figure flashing away, appearing again on Garen’s other side, and this time both his hands grabbed towards Garen mercilessly.

At the same time, he opened his mouth abruptly.

Scree!!!

A piercing soundwave instantly crashed into Garen’s brain.

Bam!!

The four arms crashed into each other hard.

White Hair instantly separated from Garen, both of them taking several steps back, their chests rising and falling heavily.

"You…!" White Hair opened his mouth and was about to say something, when suddenly he saw his opponent disappear in a flash, he instantly knew that was bad, and he quickly used his arms to block the front of his body.

In that instant, there was a loud sound in his mind, and all the hairs on his body stood on end, the arms blocking in front of him did not touch anything, even at such high speeds, his opponent could still change the direction of his attack, and he was hit straight in the stomach, causing him intense pain.

With a bam, his whole body flew into the air, his backbone very obviously bending in the center, like a wooden plank broken in half.

He rolled onto the ground and went quite some distance, all the way until he crashed into a large rock and broke it into smithereens, only then did he finally stop, his body a mess of blood and flesh.

"Damn you!" White Hair leaped up, and with a crack, he actually managed to recover his broken spine, but as soon as he got up, a black shadow instantly appeared in front of him, and reached for his heart with his claw.

White Hair hurriedly avoided it, but with a tearing sound, his right arm was forcefully torn off, and yet strangely, there was no blood coming from the wound at all.

"Ahh!!" White Hair screamed. Using the momentum from his dodge, he instantly began to run away.

But immediately, a fist-sized rock came shooting at his back, piercing through his chest, and dragging out a trail of flesh and blood behind it before it embedded itself into a tree trunk.

White Hair fell face-first onto the ground, a large hole blown straight through his chest, but he immediately bounced back up, his face twisted as he continued to flee.

"His speed and strength are about the same as mine, but his techniques are much stronger!!" White Hair was both angry and terrified, "He’s definitely an experienced Vampire who’s much older than me!! Damn it! Why is there suddenly an experienced Vampire here!!?"

He accelerated madly, but did not sense any hint of killing intent or movement anywhere around him. This just emphasized how well-trained his opponent was.

Psst!

A white arm suddenly pierced through his neck, and a large hole was blown straight through it, creating a mess of flesh and blood.

White Hair stiffened where he stood, his speed instantly coming to a halt.

"The leader… won’t forgive you!!" White Hair forced out these few words.

With a tearing sound, his whole body was torn into four or five chunks, scattered onto the grass and the bottom of the trees.

Garen’s figure slowly appeared on that spot. Glancing at the corpse around him, he turned around and was about to leave.

Smack!

Something seemed to have grabbed his ankle abruptly, a piercing pain coming from the bottom of his foot.

Garen gave it a jolt of power.

With a bam, he instantly jolted away from the thing at his ankle.