The forest of Death

"No there shouldn't be anyone but..."

he paused for a moment

" hunters do occasionally come here to hunt."

Suddenly from the bushes in the corner, an arrow came at Ken with huge speed. Ken tilted his neck and easily dodged it. The arrow hits the Desigoth instead. Reigen seeing the Desigoth faint began to panic. Ken yelled,

"Who are you?! Show yourself?"

Masked urgonian hunters with red band color on their face and armor began to approach them from all directions. One of them responded,

"Look at what we have here. I never saw a creature like this in this forest before. It must be a rare one. Let's take it home as a prize."

As they slowly approached Ken, arrows started to pour down on them from the opposite side.

Ken held Reigen and jumped to dodge the shots. Another set of Urgonian hunters but had a Blue banner instead of a red. The blue hunters yelled,

"Step aside Umloions. We Ursians will be taking this prey."

Ken was cornered from all sides. He looked at Reigen and whispered,

"Run and don't look back."

Reigen carrying the Desigoth in his hand began to run. Ken slowly tried to leave the area to avoid conflict. The hunters began to fight among themselves. One of them noticed Ken and Reigen leaving the area and shot an arrow right in front of Ken. One of the red hunters yelled,

"Where do you think you're going!"

Ken sighed,

"I really didn't want to fight but I guess I got no choice."

Ken ignited his hand with flames and started throwing fireballs at them. They took cover behind the big trees to avoid getting hit.

"Is that even an animal? "

The hunters began charging at ken with axes, maces, and bows. Ken effortlessly dodged them and knocked them down. Suddenly a huge shockwave hit him right from the back. He looked up and saw a huge hunter did that by just kicking the ground.

"That one's gonna be hard to take down", he murmured.

"A lively prey aren't you?"

The voice felt like a woman's. The hunter pulled a bow from her back and began shooting at Ken aggressively. Ken somehow was dodging them. Getting close he punched her right in the face. To his surprise, the woman didn't even flinch. She gripped his fist and started swinging his body left and right. Ken using elemental meto somehow got out of her hands. The red Hunters were amazed. They responded,

"There is no point in running. Lady Cynthia is the strongest hunter in our regime. Her whole body is stronger than the strongest steel in this galaxy. People break their own body trying to harm her!"

"Huh, I Will see".

Ken started to hit her from all directions.

"It's no use " she responded by grabbing Ken and slamming him into the ground. She started walking away yelling,

"Get the nets!"

"Yes, mam" the hunters responded.

The blue hunters couldn't do anything since they don't wanna fight her. Suddenly Ken rushed out of the spot by going midair. He started dropping down at her at an incredible speed even using his flames for extra momentum. She smirked and said,

"Take your best shot"

"I will!"

Ken stretched his leg to the top and started falling at fast speed. Cynthia was confident that she could take the hit. Ken's leg started to emit steam eventually turn into magma-like. He yelled as he swung his leg right in her head

"Dragon style: Pyro Shot!"

Ken smashed her head onto the ground using his leg. The hunters were shocked to the core. Cynthia was out cold.

"Impossible! Mistress Cynthia lost!"

Ken glared at them while taunting,

"Who's next?"

They felt scared and ran away. The red-colored hunters retreated. Ken sighed and started looking for Reigen. He suddenly noticed many footprints in the direction Reigen went. He was petrified.

"Could it be while I was distracted those blue colored...No gotta hurry?"

Reigen was being chased by the blue-colored hunters. He was running while carrying the Desigoth in hand. The hunters shouted,

"There is no point in running. Leave the Desigoth and run away bastard if you don't wanna get hurt"

Reigen yelled back,

"You should not hurt this fragile creature. It might go extinct. Please leave this forest."

They laughed and started to run towards Reigen faster than ever. Suddenly Reigen noticed a huge fallen tree in front of him. He tried to go the other direction but was surrounded.

"Come here. You little run."

Reigen yelled,

"Back off."

They weren't heeding his words. Reigen murmured as a dark gas began to emit from him,

"I said back the hell off!!!"

Ken was trying to find Reigen when suddenly he could hear the scream of many people. The scream felt like they were in agonizing pain. Ken noticed which direction the scream came from and quickly ran towards it. Soon after he found Reigen holding the Desigoth in hand. Ken was shocked to see the sight. All of the hunters were down to the ground with faces that look like their body was dried up. As if their blood and organs were sucked out. The whole sight looked like a horror fest. Ken noticed Reigen crying while hugging the Desigoth. Ken slowly approached him and asked,

"Are you okay?"

Reigen answered while crying,

"No...no I am not. Its... it's dead. The Desigoth is dead."

Ken came close to him and tried to observe the Desigoth. It was the same as the hunters. It looked like its life was sucked out of it. Ken couldn't understand what to do in that situation. But he calmed himself and responded to Reigen,

"It's ok...you tried your best to help it. Let's find a suitable place to bury it"

Reigen calmed down. He got up and decided to follow Ken. Ken kept his guard up. He didn't know what to expect. He murmured to himself,

"I think I understand now. This is why it's called the forest of death. It's because of you, isn't it? Reigen"

They both began to walk towards Reigen's home to bury the fallen animal