Path of the Cambion: Kurou's Rising, Chapter 22

Kurou's POV

Me, Saniki and Saika was currently walking throughout the forest, now long gone from Kagura Village as we walked, surprisingly, there was not that much that was dangerous enough to threaten our group as we walked through the forest, and the most we did run into were simply wildlife creatures that we scared off with just our battle aura alone. While we were walking, Saniki turned toward me, looking at my determined expression with a raised brow, I almost didn't notice her looking until she poked me with her scabbard, hard, leading to me giving her an annoyed expression. Saniki would smirk at me "So tell us Kurou, what exactly do you know about this Kaiza guy anyway? Other than that he's Edakura's brother?" asked Saniki.

I'd smirk back at her "Well if you really wanna know what I think about him, he's a pain in my ass, all he does whenever we see each other is just mock me like a child, which is sad considering I'm the 12 year old." I said to her, with a somewhat annoyed expression as I thought about all of the times he came to put me down, to try and lower my confidence. "However… despite him being an asshole most of the time, he's not all that heartless, and when I think about it, most of what he says is right, and has even helped save my hide before, kinda like Edakura does to me." I explained to Saniki as she listened intently to what I described about him. I would then look back straight down the path "And besides, if anyone deserves to know about Edakura being kidnapped, it's her only brother, Kaiza Darkness." I said.

I suddenly heard Saika, who was in the front, suddenly start to giggle "From the way you talk about him, he almost sounds like a big brother to you." said Saika with a smile on her face, as if I'd ever consider a guy like Kaiza my brother, give me a break. As we walked, I didn't notice it, but I ended up bumping into someone while walking and falling on my ass.

"You alright, Baka Gaijin?" Saniki would ask, I'd slowly manage to get up, scowling at Saniki as I did, then I would look at the girl in front of me, who seemed to already have sat up. If I had to guess, she probably didn't even fall down in the first place, simply looking down at me with glowing eyes. Upon closer inspection, I could see some sort of creature in her eyes, almost in the shape of a dragon. But she didn't seem to care, her hands in her pocket while she turned away and walked the direction we were headed.

We would just continue walking in the direction we were supposed to, yet somehow I couldn't help but feel as if we were following her now, even Saika and Saniki were silent about it. I couldn't help but wonder, what was with that dragon in her eyes, she had to be human, she certainly looked the part, yet somehow, I felt as if she wasn't all human, maybe similar to me. "Hey!!" I called out to the girl, and she would stop in her tracks before looking back at me with a blank expression, allowing me to walk up to her "I'm sorry about bumping into you like that, what's your name by the way?" I asked, trying to atleast make some conversation.

She looked at me without saying a single word, as if she were assessing me, or looking down at me. "There's nothing to say to things like you," she said, turning away with a grunt and walking along. I was speechless, angered by her attitude. She didn't even call me human, but a thing, like I was some kind of creature that wasn't supposed to exist. Maybe it was because she sensed I was a Cambion, but that didn't mean that made it any better for me.

I was about to try and call out to her again just to give her a piece of my mind until suddenly, three demons appeared, all of them being B class demons, I summoned my spirit weapon while Saika and Saniki unsheathed their swords. The girl in front of us however, seemed to be totally emotionless in front of the demons, as if they weren't even a threat to her, we were about to tell her to move until suddenly we saw her take out what looked to be a kusarigama. The only difference was that they were connected by a chain, the blade appeared to look like scythes and there were two of them. We watched as the girl then suddenly got into a battle stance with her Dual Kusarigama, and even though we had already gotten our weapons out, I couldn't help but feel like watching just to see what she could do, and apparently, so did Saniki and Saika.

Just a blink and the heads of the demons were off, and a few seconds later, their bodies were sent slamming into the trees, knocking several over in three directions, leaving nothing left but their soul cores. The girl landed on the ground, flipping onto her feet in one swift movement. Her blades disappeared somewhere in her pockets, but I had a feeling like that wasn't where she was actually keeping her weapons. She stopped in the middle of the soul cores, then suddenly breathed in slowly, the soul cores heading toward her mouth as the wind kicked up around her before she suddenly… ate them!? She didn't look like a demon, but how the hell was she able to do something like that?

I was only able to look on at the girl in surprise as my spirit weapon disappeared from my hands, and the girls slowly sheathed their weapons in surprise as well "I can't believe she took them all out… and in one blow... " said Saniki to herself quietly, and I looked at her, feeling her shock just as much as I felt my own. We just continued to walk on our way again, ending up unintentionally following the girl again, only for her to stop in her tracks, however, not because we called her this time.

She looked back at us slightly from the corner of her eye and asked, "Why are you following me?" she asked us, and I had a feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea to keep silent in front of her. Those eyes of hers seemed to bore into my soul, and the power that radiated from her while she narrowed her eyes seemed to be off the charts. She was not normal, and neither was the aura that was emitting from her body, dense and dark, full of hatred. I gulped, the aura worse than the aura that Edakura had given when I first ran into her. The girl was definitely someone to fear.

Despite the girl's overwhelming aura however, I managed to find my words and said "We're on our way to Astaria Kingdom…" I said, managing to find my voice in spite of the girl's powerful aura. The aura from her body had still radiated around her before suddenly, it began to stop, letting us manage to catch our breath and we'd all breathe heavily, feeling as if almost all the oxygen had been sucked from our bodies. She turned back around before suddenly grunting again and walking off, we waited until she was far enough from us before we began to walk again, the girl still in sight, but not dangerously close to us as we kept walking.

We continued to follow the girl, whom I assumed was actually heading towards the same place that we were since she no longer cared that we were following her. Taking a look at her back and strange purple and white clothing, I wondered just what she was exactly. She had a human body, but her instincts were almost animal-like, a complete contradiction towards her supposed body shape. Not only that, but her fearsome and overwhelming aura basically screamed that she was a beast, and not a demon. She didn't look like a S-class demon, but neither did Xenona. Thinking of the princess, I felt a bit sick, missing her and wishing she were here.

Despite how I felt, I decided to just suck it up, after all, Xenona wasn't here because she didn't want to save Edakura, which was a choice she made of her own volition, I couldn't change that, no matter how much I wish I could. As we walked though, I began to sense other energies around the area heading towards the girl and us at high speeds and I immediately unsheathed Rhienzan from its scabbard, the energy signatures were human, that much I could tell, but they were fairly powerful. Soon, when they made it, two of them surrounded the girl, and I felt the presence of one behind me Saniki and Saika, they didn't seem like they were demon slayers, or even the military, but I had a feeling that they weren't friends either, so I turned around, me, Saniki and Saika getting in battle stances.

The girl seemed to react immediately, but instead of going for the kill, she leaped back, avoiding the blades that the figures were slicing at her. She seemed to be specifically avoiding the blades as she moved, her eyes trained on the knives that glinted in the sunlight. One great leap and she was far away, the blades of her weapons glinting in the sunlight. They moved and sliced through the air while the girl controlled them by the chains, as if she had done it hundreds of thousands of times. Whatever the case, it was obvious that something was wrong with the blades, maybe coated in some kind of poison. She must've been a good and experienced fighter to know what was on the blade immediately. Though there was something wrong with the way she was fighting long distance instead of finishing them off quickly like the earlier demons.

As for us, me, Saniki and Saika were dodging and deflecting away our opponent's blades whenever we got the chance, however, I would finally jump back far away, and when I made it a fair distance away, I would charge energy in Rhienzan before firing off a giant ark of violet electricity towards the hunter. The hunter would block the ark, but got pushed back by it, it seemed as if they were attempting to deflect it, however, Saniki and Saika jumped back by my side and would fire their own large arks of energy towards mine, powering it up and making it even more difficult for the hunter to push back the combined energy. We would all raise our swords high into the air before firing off one last ark of energy each, and when the energy combined, it would push the hunter back easily before sending them smashing into a tree, a huge explosion of energy being created as well, surely incapacitating the hunter, we would then look at the girl, who still seemed to be fending off her opponents.

She seemed to look at me, looking a bit relieved. It must've been because she had less hunters to worry about because her muscles soon relaxed. It was then that it happened; dark purple wings and a black tail appeared, along with scales covering her face. The sudden transformation was shocking, but seemed to make the female more powerful as she used her tail to knock the blades out of the hunter's hands. Her consecutive kicks sent them flying into each other before they slammed through several trees, leaving them on the ground, definitely dead from the impact. There was a trail of uprooted grass from where the bodies flew across.

I would watch in amazement at how easily the girl managed to finish off her two opponents, but was even more amazed by her transformation, so I was right, she wasn't human after all, from what I saw, if I had to guess, her form kind of looked draconic, like a dragon. Soon, the girl's tail and wings would just slip back into her body, disappearing easily before she began to continue walking, we would follow far behind like we did before, just simply looking at her as we walked. I looked at Saniki as we walked, who seemed to be even more in shock of this girl after witnessing what she did to kill the two hunters, Saniki knew something, I could see it in her eyes, but I couldn't tell what exactly, but I decided to shrug it off and would ask her later before focusing back on walking.

As I looked at the female, I realized that there was much I needed to learn about the world. I had never seen someone like the girl and I wondered if there were other people just like her somewhere. She had to have come from a village with people like her, and they must've been pretty cool and strong like her, I assumed. From time to time, the girl looked back at us without saying anything. I supposed she was checking to see if we were still following her, and now that I thought about it, we didn't even know if the way she was going was the Kingdom of Astaria. But I didn't want to go up and ask after witnessing what she could do.

As we kept walking, I wondered what the hell Kaiza was doing at a time like this, from my point of view, he was either lounging around in some castle of his somewhere, or he was worrying about Edakura. Honestly, I was hoping it was the latter, after all, you would have to be one hell of a crappy brother to be sitting somewhere, not even wondering for the slightest moment what could've become of your dear sister. Then again, Edakura was a traveler, and normally didn't see Kaiza much anyway, as I would have guessed, so I couldn't completely fault him for not knowing.

Eventually, the unknown girl stopped, and I looked around, seeing that it was almost nighttime. She jumped up onto a tree branch before swinging herself onto another one, laying down on it. I looked at the others, wondering if we should continue to move on and leave the girl there by herself or rest like she was. We had been walking the entire day, so a bit of rest wouldn't be too bad, but it still seemed like we were following the half-dragon girl. Looking back up at the white haired female, she didn't seem to care, laying on the branch, holding still like she was used to it.

I looked at Saniki and Saika "Well, if we're gonna stay here, we might as well set up camp, did you guys bring anything?" I asked Saika and Saniki, Saniki scowled at me as if I just insulted her.

"We're not stupid you know, of course we did." says Saniki, reaching into her bag and taking out a setup for a tent and other supplies, as well as food, as annoying as Saniki was, I sure was lucky that she came prepared. Saniki and Saika began setting up the rest of the supplies while I began to walk around, laying out traps using the energy from my soul weapons, after all, we were in the forest, and there were bound to be enemies from every place, so traps were a necessary precaution for our safety whilst asleep. I snuck another glance at the girl, realizing I didn't know her name yet.

Sighing, still worrying about Edakura, I closed my eyes and laid down on a bedroll inside the tent. I don't know how much time had past, but I sensed someone- or something- get caught in one of the traps I set up earlier. When I looked out, I would see a beast caught inside an ice barrier made from Xhanaru's ice flames, the beast constantly slamming against the ice walls, trying to break out of the large ice dome. The white haired girl was already on the move, her tail slamming against the beast, her wings helping her glide to the ground. The beast was much larger than the others she had fought, and didn't fly back as much as the humans did. It only showed how much stronger this beast was.

The beast began to rush at her, covered in a torrent of energy as it ran at the girl, however, she just seemed to easily strafe out of the way, watching as it would crash through multiple trees soon after. As the beast rushed through the trees, it would fall victim to another one of my traps, a giant lightning bolt from Rados's demonic energy rising from the ground, the beast screaming in pain. Angrily, the beast would begin to run towards the girl once more, however, she would summon forth her dual Kusarigama and just slashed through the beast with one hand, easily killing it in its weakened state.

While she was focused by the beast, another one attacked her from the side, and she slammed into a tree. She slumped, holding her head and standing up. I could see the dragon mark on her eyes glowing, and her aura seemed to be flaring, though her face was void of emotion. She seemed to be looking around warily, and I followed her gaze, seeing multiple glowing eyes hiding in the darkness of the night. There wasn't just one monster, but more than 10, if I had to guess by the amount of eyes watching. The girl seemed to be used to the odds, rushing forward, but it seemed like it was hard for her to see due to the darkness.

Before I could even think about going to help her, a few of the monsters began to surround me, at least 4 of them from what I could tell, I cursed myself, wishing Saniki and Saika were awake to help out, one of the humanoid beasts began to rush at me, lifting up one of its giant arms and slamming it into me. Thankfully, I managed to block its strike with my spirit weapon, however, it soon began to rush at me again, I would cover my Spirit weapon in flames before rushing at the beast as well and slashing at it, its arm clashing with my blade, an explosion of green flames was created when we clashed and burn marks appeared over the beast's fur, but it wasn't enough to push it back. I began straining to push back the beast, green demonic energy constantly beginning to spark around my body, making the flames more and more wild until they would finally flare out around my body like an aura, I would slash at the beast in a large burst of power, sending it flying and slamming into another beast, both of them crashing into the ground.

"SCREEEE!" an inhuman screech sounded throughout the forest, the beasts suddenly looking scared when one of their own flew above them, tattered and torn. Slowly, I looked over to see a large violet dragon, screeching while swiping its tail, sending the beasts flying through the air. Though it was still surrounded by a pack of around 10, it was like an S-class demon against a small bug in terms of strengths. A couple flaps of its wings sent me flying back from the force of the wind it created. And then I realized there was no sign of the girl from earlier. Making connections, it was obvious that the girl… was the dragon.

It didn't take long for the pack of beasts to scurry away, leaving behind their dead comrades. I couldn't blame them when they were facing a strong mythical creature that was 5x their size. I supposed that she wasn't that big since she was still growing, or maybe she wasn't a full dragon either. The girl- or the dragon- looked towards me, it's eyes blank and full of silent rage. It screeched again, wings wide and tail slamming down around the area, barely missing me. I knew that we had been following her, but I didn't expect her to attack me, and in our current odds right now, I felt true fear, fear stronger than when I first met Edakura and Vizas, much stronger. The tail was aiming for me, but stopped just before it could hit me, and I stumbled back. The dragon seemed to be holding back, though that changed when the tail drew back and it changed back into the girl. She was covered in scratches, collapsing onto the ground.

I just stood there, stunned, not even noticing Saniki and Saika running up to me, too in shock to notice them until Saniki suddenly shook me, I looked at her with somewhat wide eyes before calming down "Kurou… what the hell happened to you… and… why is she injured…?" Saniki asked in an somewhat urgent voice, I would look at them for a while before beginning to explain what just occurred. As soon as I finished explaining just what the hell happened out here, Saniki and Saika were also in shock..

"She… turned into a dragon…?" asked Saika, and I nodded, I honestly didn't expect it, however, given what we saw of her abilities before, and that other transformation of hers, I should've expected it.

"Then it's like I was suspecting… that girl, is a Drake Descendant." Saniki said, and I would look at her in confusion, asking just what the hell a Drake Descendant was, Saniki would take in a deep breath before beginning to explain what she knew. "They're a tribe of village, some of them live in a village far off to the east side of this forest, and there are more in other different lands. They're said to contain the blood of a dragon in their veins, and have the ability to change into dragons. I've heard that they've been hunted to be used as slaves because of their insane power, so they don't ever leave their villages and hid it too. Nobody's seen them in years, except for the ones that are slaves already."

So in other words, the Drake Descendants could practically be considered as a secret society, one that most likely didn't trust anyone but themselves due to them being hunted by humans, it reminded me of how demon hunters hunted cambions, and that made me sick. I looked at the girl before us, if Drake Descendants never left their village and hid it, why would she be out of her own village, it couldn't have been destroyed like mine, considering how powerful they were. Whatever the case was, I may or may not ask her later, right now, she was hurt from fighting all of those wild beasts, so I walked up to the girl carefully, about to heal her, however, by the time I got close to her, her wounds… were already gone.