Confrontation

The ground shook as loud footsteps echoed through the forest. Deep bellows continued to sound out as the sounds of trees breaking and falling to the ground edged closer to us. "Perfect timing. Kill whatever is making all of that noise will you?" I said while looking over my shoulder at Violet. I quickly let the Curse flowing through my body dissipate before putting Onimaru back into my belt. She met my gaze and nodded her head before making a small cut on her shoulder and adopting a low stance.

The trees in front of us burst out from the ground and showered us in splinters. A large, green skinned, fat, and ugly Goblin decorated with gold rings and a loincloth. The massive Goblin had a very small crown atop its head and an ugly smirk on its face as it said "You must be the ones killing off my kin...you beasts, killing my kind just because they're weak...you deserve a slow and painful death!!"

The Goblin dashed forward with surprising speed and Violet appeared in front of me. She caught the Goblin's punch and the two stood there trying to overpower the other. Violet kicked up with her foot and unleashed a large line of blood, hitting the Goblin in the chest and staggering him backwards.

I could tell Violet was hungry for the kill, as she had immediately jumped up toward the Goblin's throat with her hand enveloped in blood shaped like a claw, but the Goblin wasn't out of the fight just yet. It raised its massive fist and punched out with remarkable speed at the airborne Violet. I quickly intercepted the punch and landed on the ground before saying "Now, now. You know better than to get too eager in battle."

She walked past me and brushed my hand off of the Goblin's fist as she said "I know, it won't happen again..." in an irritated tone of voice. I had been releasing a mass amount of killing intent onto the poor Goblin to keep it from moving, and had released the pressure when Violet had walked past me.

The Goblin backed away and stuttered "H-How can you be so...p-powerful...!? No, this can't be! I cannot lose! I'm the Goblin King!!" The monster slammed its large hands onto the ground and shattered the area underneath itself with ease as it began to yell out in frustration.

The Goblin unsheathed its crude sword from its side and swung it out toward Violet at an incredible speed. She clad her other hand with a blood claw and stopped the strike with her fingers. The Goblin was now shaking in rage as it kicked out toward Violet in an attempt to free its sword from her grasp.

Violet lifted one knee to block the kick before snapping her foot out under the Goblin's, toppling him down onto his back. The ground cracked under the Goblin's weight as Violet swiped her hand across and sent out three lines of blood toward the Goblin's prone form.

I watched as the Goblin flipped to his feet and shattered the lines of blood with a quick swipe of his sword, but Violet was already in front of him with her claws aimed for his heart. Violet's hand dug into the Goblin's flesh and it roared out in pain as it grabbed Violet and flung her off to the side.

"Agh! Damniiiiiiit!!" The Goblin roared out as a dark aura began to shroud its body. I focused my Aura Sense and saw that it was infinitely close to Curse energy, but yet it was so far off from actually being Curse energy. I saw Violet stand back up with a smile on her face as she drew more blood from the open wounds on her body, making her claws even sharper.

The two clashed and I could feel the small shockwaves rolling over the ground like a tiny earthquake. The more Violet got hit, the more her smile widened. Her Curse allowed her to control blood, even her own, and use it as a weapon and, as long as she could picture it, she could make anything. However, if she uses too much of her own blood to fuel her attacks, she'll die from blood loss.

I saw Violet flick her hand and the blood flowing down the Goblin's chest suddenly rose into the air and cut a diagonal line down the Goblin's stomach. It's eyes turned red as it gnashes its teeth and charged toward Violet. I could tell that it was getting close to death. Violet knew this as well and decided to meet the Goblin's attack head on.

Their fists collided and the Goblin was sent hurtling backwards into the ground, its body mangled and bleeding. Violet adopted a relaxed stance and turned to face me when I yelled "Idiot! Don't turn your back, it's not dead yet!!" Her eyes widened as a large fist hurtled toward her face.

She managed to dodge the enraged Goblin's attack but was pushed onto the defensive. Violet spun, leapt, and rolled away from each of the Goblin's attacks and managed to dodge them by a mere inch each time. The Goblin's form was getting noticeably smaller as its eyes turned a pure crimson. Suddenly, the Goblin let out a loud scream as a light enveloped its body. I could feel the power radiating off of its body as it started to go through a process that I didn't expect to see today.

It was evolving.

The Light broke and the Goblin evolved into a light-red skinned Ogre with one large red horn in the middle of its forehead, red spiked hair, and two gleaming crimson eyes. The Ogre popped its neck and rolled its shoulders before looking at Violet over its shoulder. A large amount of bloodlust began to radiate from the Ogre's seemingly calm eyes, and I knew that Violet would be no match for this monster.

I appeared in front of the Ogre and said "I think I'll be your little partner for now..." before throwing out a fist to gauge the Ogre's reaction time. The Ogre disappeared and was running toward Violet with a large flame in its palm. I leapt in front of the Ogre once more and said "You're not getting away...!" as I unleashed a large amount of killing intent.

The Ogre froze for a split second and my fist slammed into its gut, knocking it to the ground as it coughed up blood. I was above the Ogre in an instant and muttered "Not even a warm-up..." before smashing its head in with my foot. Blood splattered everywhere and the Ogre's body went limp, leaving the surroundings painfully quiet.

I turned toward the camp and began to walk toward it while saying "Come on, let's move out. we've been dawdling for too long." I noticed that Violet hadn't moved from her previous spot, so I turned and said "Come on, or else I'll leave you behind!" She didn't respond and I was getting irritated very quickly.

"Am I weak...am I a burden...?" Her words were quiet, but I could hear them as clear as day. I narrowed my eyes and said "Yes, you're weak and a burden. The only reason why you're still here with me is because I'm keeping an eye on you while teaching you how to control your Curse. I will not let you kill my friends and, if you so much as give me one reason, I will not hesitate to kill you right here, right now."

That was the honest truth. I refuse to let my friends be taken away from me once more, and I'll do anything in my power to stop it from happening again. No matter what. I knew I was being a little harsh and, truthfully, I didn't like it one bit. However, I didn't want to become friends with someone I might have to kill later on. It was better this way.

---

We traveled for hours, hell maybe even days, without stopping and in complete silence. Finally, we reached the end of the white line. Two large, stone doors were carved into the side of a mountain with two stone statues depicting two Humanoid figures with long pointed ears and scaled tails with their hands folded over a sword stuck in the ground.

I walked up to the massive doors and tried to push them open, but they wouldn't budge. I began to look around the side of the mountain as well as on the base of the statues, but I found no lever or contraptions hidden away. I put my chin in my palm and began to rack my brain for ways to open the doors to get to the Dragon.

Suddenly, Violet walked over with a thin line of blood hovering over her finger and pressed it against the crack in the doors. The doors shuddered and began to slide open as dust and debris began to fall from the ceiling above. A deep voice came from the statues and said "The Curse that devours flesh, and the Curse that rivals the Gods...your trials await..."

There was nothing but darkness ahead of us beyond the doors, but neither Violet nor I hesitated in entering. I didn't bother asking her how she had thought about using her own blood to open the doors. We walked through the darkness as I fetched a torch from my pack and lit it with a match. The walls, as well as the ceiling, were made of rough and jagged stone, while the floor was almost perfectly smooth.

As we were walking, a strange spider-like monster dropped down from the ceiling and spit a large web out at us. The web never hit its target. Before the creature could even understand what happened, its body was already cut into several pieces with its black blood spewed everywhere. Violet and I encountered these strange monsters for a while until they stopped showing themselves all together.

We had been walking for around three hours by now, so we stopped to rest while I pushed my Aura Sense to the max just in case. "So, where do you think we're at?" Violet asked in a nonchalant tone. "Beats me." I replied. There was an awkward silence for a few minutes before I stood up and hefted my pack over my shoulders.

We continued walking and began to encounter these small monsters with the heads of dogs, but the bodies of a humanoid creature. They wielded crude weapons, often made of stone, or ruined weapons that were most likely taken from some unfortunate adventurers. I heard Violet click her tongue as she spat "Kobolds..." in disgust before killing on of the monsters.

I swung my open hand out toward a Kobold's neck and decapitated it with no effort before plunging my fist through another Kobold's stomach. The rest of the monsters decided to run after seeing us slaughter their kin. We continued on following the white line through the large stone cavern before finding ourselves at a slightly smaller version of the two doors at the entrance, excpet without the statues.

This time, I bit down on my thumb and smeared my blood over the doors surface, causing it to shudder like before and swing open, revealing a long, winding staircase. I sighed and began to walk down the stairs with heavy steps. Violet walked next to me with her hands by her side with a relaxed expression on her face.

I wanted to scold her for being too relaxed when there was no telling what kind of dangers awaited us in this place, but I decided that it would be best if she found this out on her own. Just as we reached the bottom of the steps, however, a large amount of bloodlust was directed our way. I quickly scouted out ahead of us with Aura Sense and found a massive aura looming directly in front of us.

The creature stepped out of the shadows revealed itself to be a human-like monster with black fur covering its entire body with a short black tail, clawed hands and feet, two long canines, and icy-blue eyes. The monster snarled and let out a loud howl as Violet walked in front of me and said four words, each of them sending shivers down my spine.

"Purge my enemy, Shinku...!"