Chapter 4

Autumn blinked away the sleep in her eyes, taking in the silhouettes that currently surrounded her. Nonchalantly studying the 4 adventurers, Autumn climbed to her paws, shaking out her fur.

The adventurers narrowed their eyes, on high alert. It was commonly known that most Spirit Animals usually hated trouble, and avoided it like the plague. Therefore, when it became known that adventurers had a way to contract various creatures to do their bidding, Spirit Animals slowly faded into the background, disappearing from sight. Sadly, Autumn wasn't just a normal Spirit Animal.

With a smirk, Autumn leaped at the nearest adventurer. She had no intention to wait until they made the first move, guaranteed to overwhelm her with their numbers.

Her sleek, lean figure moved like a shadow as pounced towards the adventurer's neck. Autumn's sharp teeth easily tore their flesh, dripping bright red blood onto the ground.

Autumn wasn't fazed by the killing, instead, she was filled with excitement. Her emerald eyes flashed as she set her sights on yet another target, but the adventurers were on guard.

From the corner of her eye, Autumn noticed one of the adventurers tossing a flimsy golden net at her. With her instincts screaming danger, she rolled to the side, letting it instead land on the adventurer behind her.

As the adventurer failed to break out after multiple attempts, Autumn sighed in relief, thankful that it didn't hit her. She quickly finished off the adventurer in the net, pausing to stare at the remaining two.

Her sleek wolf form, although still small enough to fit in one's lap, gave off an intimidating presence. Frightened, they ran away, and Autumn couldn't be bothered to follow.

Gazing at the aftermath of her battle, the previously clean clearing was stained with blood, and as the setting sun cast red rays of light over the forest, the blood seemed to burn into the earth.

Autumn tilted her head, the realization that she had easily killed two skilled adventurers finally appearing. Previously, she had moved in an agile, ruthless way, with her every strike aiming towards a vital point. It had just felt natural, and after searching through her memories, it made sense. Eclipse was well versed in fighting as there were many competitors for food in the forest.

Autumn shifted back into her human form, looking at the blood that coated her body. She sighed, "I guess I'll have to go into the river sooner than I thought..."

With a displeased expression, Autumn walked towards the river. Undressing and lowering herself into a shallow area, she took care not to be swept away by the current.

After cleaning herself thoroughly, Autumn looked at the neatly folded black clothing. She gave it a sniff and wrinkled her nose. "I would wash them..." She started, "...But I don't have any extra..."

Slowly gazing towards where the two adventurers' corpses lay, she shuddered. She firmly stated, "No! Absolutely not. I refuse to take their clothing. Anyways, it's all torn up and stained with blood. Not wearable."

After standing in the water for a few more minutes, Autumn resigned herself to her fate, slowly putting on her blood-stained clothes and draping her cloak over her shoulders.

She walked over towards the corpses, bending down and feeling the fabric of their clothing with her fingers. 'Soft,' She thought, 'If I can find where they came from, perhaps I can snatch a few things..."

Although her senses wouldn't be affected in her human form, Autumn shifted into her wolf form in order to stay hidden. She started filtering out the harsh iron scent and locating the scents of the two adventurers that had previously fled.

With the scent engraved in her head, she began to slowly trace their steps. It was quite easy actually, as they had brushed up against many things in their panic to leave. The only problem was that they were blindly running until their adrenaline ran off.

The night had set in by the time Autumn found herself at the edge of the forest, peering at the brightly lit city in the distance.

'Here we go,' She thought.