Chapter 137 A gathering of soul eaters
The swiftness with which Esong's mecha brought them to the ravine was appreciated by Scarlet. It was not slowly, rickety or old and uncomfortable like her brother's mecha. Because it could fly she did not need to endure being bounced up and down as it moved so there was no nausea or discomfort on this trip.
Scarlet, Esong and Tion were all covered up in their armor and in their hands, they carried their weapons.?They each carried a storage pod to throw the animals inside as soon as they came across them. Leading the way was Severus who Scarlet assured Esong was the best hunter among them all. But trusting his mental strength more, Esong used it to scan his environment, ready to slice anything that moved or looked suspicious.
The ravine itself was smaller than the valley between the two peak mountains but it was surrounded by greenery. A variety of trees, moss draped rocks which guarded the serpentine path through which they carefully moved, worried about slipping and falling into a small stream of water which was right below them.?They followed the stream because so did the animals, but it was an eerie hallow quiet place, shared between sunlight and darkness from the overgrown canopies above. Scarlet wondered if the echoes in this place were loud or silent.
Severus ears twitched and Scarlet's grip on her soul binding rope tightened. While they could all see it, Esong and Tion had presumptuously thought it to be just another one of her whips.
"He has found something." She told them.
"How do you know?" Esong asked her.
"When a dog's ears twitch, it hears something." she responded.
Both men were yet to hear anything and they found it both fascinating and doubtful that a dog could hear what two men with mental strength could not.
Esong activated the heat seeking sensors of his helmet and he saw many heat signatures.?"I think I have something." he said.
"Go," Scarlet told him, "But be careful, sheep can be playful and dodgy."
"Aren't you coming with us?" he asked her.
"I see some bamboo shoots down there that I want to cut, I am close by, don't worry."
"Then Tion can stay with you, I will go alone." He insisted.
"No," she said sternly, "You need to capture all of the sheep, I have been inside the forest alone before Esong stop wasting time." she did not want to spend more time here arguing with him so she lifted Severus, jumped down before he could say more, landing in the stream and racing into the thick foliage.
"Oh fuck." Esong cursed. He looked in the direction of the heat signatures and then where she had disappeared.?He struggled with the decision whether to follow her or go after the animals.
"I will go after her." Tion said.
"No," he cursed and shook his head. "Let's get the animals first, I have her heat signature on my helmet so we will find her after handling this."
Scarlet followed after Severus, racing into the underbelly of the forest, even crawling at one point through a gap in the rocks before coming to a cave.
"Oh men!! another cave." she complained. "Why do soul eaters like damp and dark places. For once I would like to find one sitting under the tree and sunbathing or something."
"Just hurry, I can sense five of them here, the highest is a level three." Severus replied.
"What is this, a gathering of soul reapers? Are they holding a conference?" she asked with extreme irritation in her voice.
"I can sense about one hundred or more souls in there, these nasty soul eaters must be collectors."?He replied. "They collect souls, trap them in one place and feast for weeks or months before coming up to hunt again. It's how some soul eaters stay off the radars of grim reapers and hounds for so long."
"Great, now there is a new category to add." she said sarcastically.
"What do you spend your time doing if you are not studying? I should start quizzing you."
"Roar now, let's finish this, I don't have a lot of time.." she told him. She blinked and they both ended up inside the cave, Severus roared fiercely, the entire cave shook and souls started flying in different directions, all of them panicked.
She had added a crystal amplifier to her soul gourd which shielded the entire cave so all the souls which were trying to escape were directly swallowed into the gourd directly.
"Okay, listen carefully." she yelled, "All harmless souls politely move into the soul gourd and all soul eaters allow yourselves to be captured without giving me trouble. "
Severus rolled his eyes and attacked the first soul eater he saw, she too stopped talking and went into action, using her soul power, skills, and rope to trap three soul eaters at once.
"And then there was one." she looked at the level three soul eater that was roaring at the back of the cave. "Let's not make this any harder than it has to be, if you run, I will whip you mercilessly." she warned him. According to the forum, the higher the level of a soul eater, the more intelligent it was. This one, she knew could understand her a little bit. She noticed the black smoke around him getting thicker and she said, "Whipping it is, this is going to hurt you a lot, sorry, I will smile while doing it."
The rope divided into two ropes and she used her skill of spinning in a circle like a tornado, forming a cloud of wind through which a multitude of ropes appeared, whipping the soul eater from each and every side as it groaned . She did this until she got tired of whipping it and the rope came together, wrapping itself around the soul eater tightly.
"I told you that you would get a whipping, why did you not listen to me?" she dragged it into the soul gourd as it shrieked and struggled.?"I am done." she dusted her hands even though they had no dust and all it took was five minutes.
"You are getting better." Severus commented.
"Of course, I have a great teacher. Who else taught me that I could split my rope into many pieces with my energy. It made it easy for me to capture three at once." she spoke with pride and excitement.
"The tornado spin was excellent." he said.
"I will use it in the mecha fight tomorrow, the Eastern Paladin is dead. I heard he wants my head for defeating the Southern paladin, I am going to eliminate the five paladins of division one." she folded her small fist and gritted her teeth to make a determined expression.
"Cleanse this place, soul collectors leave evil energy behind which can infect humans." Severus reminded her.
"Ah, I remember this, once a human is infected with evil energy you need to feed them purifying water for three days and hold an exorcism. If you cannot exorcise the evil inside then you hire an exorcist from the forum."
Severus nodded as she got sage sprinkled some crystal water and lit the sage.?"So you have been studying." he commented.
"Everyday faithfully," she nodded, "There is a lot to cover but I am trying my best so please teacher be a little patient with me."
"Let's go, your husband is returning."
"Oh shoot, I need bamboo shoots." she said in a panic.
"Buy them he said, ask for the ones covered in soil, those are very common in the shops."
Both of them walked out of the cave happily, another day to celebrate a victory that only the two of them knew about.?She blinked and they returned to the area where they entered the foliage.
She squatted down, pretending to be digging for something, "The sun is soon setting." she commented.
"You will be welcomed in the underworld like a hero again." he said.
"Wait until I get to the top of the leaderboard, what prizes does one win at that stage anyway?"
From above, Esong that had just arrived watched his wife talking casually to her dog. He wondered if she did it out of necessity or loneliness. Where?those the bamboo shoots she went to dig?
"Down here." she waved when she looked up and saw him. "I need some help."
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