187 Dead yet?



[Third Person View]

The Herbal Emporium's atmosphere underwent a chilling transformation as Ren's lifeless body descended gracefully to the floor, and the ensuing soft thud was a somber punctuation to the unfolding tragedy. Silence wrapped around the shop like a heavy shroud, amplifying the gravity of the moment and infusing the air with an almost palpable sense of unease.

"Humans are... annoying," the young man with white eyes muttered with clear disdain, his gaze fixated on Ren's motionless figure. The deep wound inflicted upon Ren continued to spew crimson, its tendrils snaking across the floor, leaving a gruesome trail of evidence in its wake.

While the young man initially crossed the room, Falco's usually sharp senses remained oddly dormant, failing to detect any intrusion. However, as the young man drew closer to the door, a disquieting awareness began to crawl over Falco's senses, setting his nerves on edge.

Falco moved with swift precision, employing his spatial shift ability to position himself silently behind the intruder. His initial intent was a lethal strike, but he hesitated. The young man's eyelids rolled back, a disconcerting sight that sent shivers down Falco's spine.

"hmm and the cat?"Meanwhile, Falco noticed a small, trembling figure nearby – an intelligent-looking cat. Its wide eyes and peculiar demeanor set it apart from any mana beast Falco had encountered before.

"Shh, nothing happened.....everything is fine."Falco's demeanor underwent a sudden shift as he approached the cat. A warm, welcoming smile graced his lips, and an unfamiliar aura permeated the room – a soothing, sweet energy that diffused the tense atmosphere.

The cat, however, remained fixated on Ren's lifeless body, seemingly impervious to Falco's calming presence.

'Is it fiercely loyal to its master, or does it possess an extraordinary level of mental fortitude? But it can't be that high... it's just a mortal realm beast, not even A-tier,' Falco mused to himself. Encountering a creature seemingly immune to his magical influence was a rarity, intensifying the enigma of the situation.

**Roar**

A thunderous roar shattered the eerie silence that had gripped the Herbal Emporium, and what followed left even Falco, the son of a God, utterly flabbergasted. He had traversed the realms for centuries, studying and deciphering the mysteries of creatures in this world, but nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to witness.

In a rapid and grotesque transformation, the cat's physical appearance underwent a drastic metamorphosis. Its wings stretched and expanded, resembling those of a bat, and its body grew exponentially until it nearly reached the ceiling. The sheer majesty of this transformation was awe-inspiring.

Yet, what truly set this creature apart from any other beast Falco had encountered was the palpable bloodlust radiating from its eyes. It was a bloodlust —a menacing, primal ferocity that seemed all too real.

**Roar**

"Calm-!?" Before Falco could utter a word or make a move, the transformed creature lunged forward, its fangs bared, and its demeanor unhinged. Its eyes seemed to lack focus, lost in a frenzy of unbridled rage.

The room quaked as the wooden floor splintered under the sheer force of the shockwaves generated by the creature's ferocious onslaught.

**Roar**

As the creature attacked with unrelenting fury, Falco had to act quickly. He couldn't risk being torn apart by this seemingly berserk beast.

With lightning reflexes, he activated his spatial shift ability, vanishing from his previous spot and reappearing a few meters away, narrowly dodging the creature's lunging jaws. His sudden disappearance and reappearance caused the cat-beast to crash into the wall with a loud thud, leaving a gaping hole in the wood paneling.

Despite the massive hole and the pain it must have endured, the creature didn't show any signs of relenting. It spun around, its wings flapping with power, and charged once more.

Falco wasn't a stranger to combat, but this situation was unlike any he had faced before. The cat-beast's relentless aggression and unpredictable movements left him little room to maneuver. It was a fight for survival... for the beast, of course.

In the midst of the chaos, Falco decided to employ a different strategy. He didn't want to harm the creature if he could avoid it. With a swift wave of his hand, he conjured a translucent barrier of magical energy, creating a protective shield around himself.

The cat-beast collided with the barrier, its claws scraping against the shimmering surface as it let out another deafening roar. It continued to claw and bite at the magical shield, unable to breach its protective confines.

Inside the barrier, Falco caught his breath and observed the creature. Its eyes were still filled with unbridled rage, but there was something else beneath the surface – fear.

"I say calm down.... I am no enemy," he tried to say the soothing words again, but the creature wasn't in a state to listen, in his opinion.

With another roar, the creature just... disappeared.

"Huh?" Falco was surprised, but only for a second as he turned -

"Roaar!!!" 

A flinging figure of a few hundred-pound weighted cat-beast collided with his

palm as he grabbed it by the neck.

The cat-beast struggled, its claws swiping at Falco, but his grip held firm. Despite the creature's overwhelming rage and strength, Falco's power seemed equally matched.

"What are you?" Falco muttered, his eyes locked onto the beast's frenzied gaze.

A small trail of inky shadow slithered onto Falco's hand, a precursor to an unforeseen revelation. Accompanying the shadow was a white tendril of crackling lightning, intertwining with the darkness in an eerie fusion.

Before Falco's astonished eyes, the creature vanished once more, its form seemingly melding with the very shadows of the room. It moved with a fluidity that defied the laws of nature, as if the darkness itself had become its ally in this otherworldly dance of disappearance.

The room echoed with an eerie silence in the absence of the relentless onslaught, and Falco's senses were on high alert. 

"!?"Just as Falco braced himself for another attack, the room seemed to shudder with anticipation. A sinister aura filled the air, signaling the imminent return of the cat-beast.

With an otherworldly hiss that sent chills down Falco's spine, the creature materialized from the shadows. Its transformation was even more ferocious than before, its wings expanded, and its form more monstrous.

Before Falco could react, the creature lunged once again, propelled by a malevolent force. Its jaws opened wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth that gleamed with an insatiable hunger for violence. The room seemed to blur as the cat-beast closed the distance between them with alarming speed.

Falco had no time to summon his barrier. In a split-second decision, he summoned a shimmering blade of pure energy into his hand and met the beast head-on.

The clash was explosive. The blade met the creature's snapping jaws, and a shockwave rippled through the room. The force of the impact sent Falco skidding backward, his feet digging furrows into the wooden floor.

The cat-beast's eyes blazed with an unholy fervor, its determination unyielding.

**Ting**

A metallic "Ting*" rang out, piercing the tension-laden air as the door behind Falco swung open with a creak. The arrival of an unexpected guest disrupted the bizarre tableau unfolding in the Herbal Emporium.

"Hey-? What's happening here?" The voice that broke the silence was instantly recognizable to both Blaze and Falco. It was Aron, whose entrance introduced a fresh wave of confusion and concern into the room.

"Ugh,"Falco grumbled under his breath as he hastily adjusted his robe, his demeanor attempting to regain some semblance of composure. Sweat dotted his brow as he faced Aron.

Aron's eyes widened with shock and disbelief as he took in the sight before him. His voice trembled with a mix of surprise and concern as he finally managed to speak, his gaze locked on the fallen figure of Ren, whose...wounded form lay not far from where Falco stood.

"Who is that... he's??!!" Aron's words hung heavily in the air, laden with urgency and a desperate need for answers. The room's atmosphere shifted once more, as uncertainty and a barrage of questions hung in the air.

**Humm**

"Huh?" Falco's gaze shifted towards Ren's fallen form, his keen eyes catching something unusual. There, around the wound he had inflicted, a faint azure energy pulsed and hummed softly. It was an anomaly, a presence that shouldn't have existed.

"Agh.... Smokeball, are you there?" Ren's voice was weak, on the brink of fading, yet it carried an air of indifference, as if the wound was inconsequential to him.

"You crying? Smokeball?"As he puzzled over this strange occurrence, a feeble voice reached his ears. It was Ren, his tone devoid of pain, as if he were merely inconvenienced rather than grievously wounded.

[Help Him.]

"..." In the midst of the perplexing situation, Falco was suddenly met with a phenomenon he hadn't experienced in quite some time—a message from the gods, a divine whisper that carried with it a weight of importance and urgency.

[A/N: Filled with questions? Yeah, I know and yep... I'll answer them all,just be with me cuz everything has a explanation.]