285 Teamwork (2)

(Jane’s PoV)

The pair of red eyes, which were the only discernible from its dark pitch and shapeless body, were looking at us eerily. They were sinister, a promise of fear and agony for a very long time. It was not a ghost; it was a shadow.

A remarkably evil shadow.

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It was a good thing that I managed to stop Daisy from approaching that malicious being. It scared me when I thought of the possibility of harm it could cause to Daisy if she made a contact unknowingly with it.

“What’s wrong?” Daisy looked at me weirdly.

“Ah, I thought I saw a big rat there.” It was a lie, of course. How could I say that there was a shadow there?

“Rat? Are you sure?”

I nodded quickly and walked past her in a haste. I needed to get closer to the shadows to ensure their safety. “Stay behind me. I’ll check first.” I told them.

The wind danced in the palm of my hands. Judging from the way it looked so dark and emitted a bad smell -which was covered by the smell of soil, moss, and mostly woods -I needed to exert more power to provide a full guarantee of security for my teammates.

.....

Hah! I planned to have a rather normal life but what was it? It had not even been 24 hours since I stepped inside this place but I already had to work. Didn’t I tell myself to stay away from the astral creatures? Wasn’t my purpose in learning to control my power to avoid any unnecessary clashes with these creatures?

Then why did I feel like these creatures that popped were getting stronger from the previous ones?

This thought didn’t appear without reason into my mind, but I couldn’t help but notice it. It was like I was being steered to come to this place and to deal with this complicated things. Whether someone was deliberately manipulating things behind the scene, or it was the will of the Universe, I couldn’t decide for now. If this were the case, even if I wanted to hide my third eyes, I couldn’t do it.

That thing aside, this shadow wanted to harm my companions in my presence? Hah, you wish!

I was about to flick my fingers to send wind blades towards it, but I noticed a familiar barrier was trapping the shadow. The way it glistened in grey was too familiar to ignore. Was he watching us this whole time? Unknowingly, a smile crept on my face as my eyes scanned the surrounding area, trying to find Sanji’s figure somewhere.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find him. I wonder where he was at this moment.

Since the shadow couldn’t move or attack us, it was safe to assume that I could let my friends roaming around the area to find for clues.

“It’s gone.” I told Daisy with a smile.

“Great.” As soon as she got the green light, she dashed towards the area near the shadow which was being confined. I noticed the way it growled as it tried to break free from its cage. Its long claws were trying to penetrate the barrier only to be sliced by the thin and sharp needle from Sanji.

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The distance between Daisy’s hand and the shadow was not too distant, and I worried it would suddenly go into rage and break the cage and hurt her.

I was ashamed of myself. I should have trust Sanji more. Good thing was Sanji didn’t know I had a doubt of his ability.

“I got it!” Daisy stood up in excitement. There was a gold medal in her right hand and a piece of newspaper in her other hand.

“It’s really a medal!” Alivia jumped in excitement as Daisy approached them. Seeing that they were in a safe distance from the shadow made me sigh in relief.

“Let’s go! We need to submit it in the first checkpoint to get our first gold card.” Yuni waved to us to go to the first checkpoint quickly. The faster we submitted the item, the faster our record would be.

Looking back towards the trapped shadow, I noticed the cage was starting to disappear. Sanji seemed to know when he should retract his special power even when I couldn’t see him.

As if feeling upset that its prey slipped away, the shadow made a move to attack us. Its dark body flashed to where Daisy was, but it might forget about my presence or stupid enough to attack under my watch. Before it could reach its claws towards my companions, my wind blade had sliced through it. The smoke like blade disappeared upon contact with its dark body but the effect wasn’t diminish. It was like it was never there but the slice was real.

Blood-curling screech penetrated the air and the birds on the trees flew away in shock. The shadow retreated in a haste while its formless body was scattering away slightly.

“What was that?” Yuni’s presence right next to me made me startle. She was bewildered and her eyes darted left and right, searching for something. She couldn’t be talking about the shadow’s screaming, right?

“What was what?” Feigning ignorance was the best option for me.

“Did you hear that? I heard a creepy screaming just now. Look! I still have a goosebumps!” Yuni showed me her arms but her eyes still darted here and there in alert.

So, she really could hear it, huh?

“I didn’t hear anything. What are you talking about?”

“No way! It was so loud! The birds also ran away because of the sound!”

“Yuni, please, don’t scare me.” Frowning, I tried to sound as timid and scared as possible. “Let’s go. Daisy and Alivia will be looking for us if we get separated.”

I didn’t wait for her to respond. Dragging her back to the road, we caught up with Daisy and Alivia who were collecting our first golden card from the first checkpoint. They even provided drinks for us, but that wasn’t what made me stunned.

“Welcome to the first checkpoint. Is everything okay?” A middle aged yet beautiful lady welcomed our arrival while checking on us quietly. I had not seen her before which meant she was one of the personnel of this site.

“Yes, everything’s great. I want to exchange our first item with golden card.” Daisy took out the medal from her pocket and handed it to them.

The process was quick as they tried to keep our record as short as possible. But, I really couldn’t focus on the exchange. My eyes were staring at another pair of gloomy and red eyes right in front of me, wondering why this shadow was standing next to this beautiful lady.

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