Darkwood Forest-Part 4

Avery abandoned the ritual site in favor of running away after her opponent made it clear they weren't so easy to deal with, mainly by clobbering her by hanging from trees and slamming her in the face. Her invisible opponent would move from tree to tree as she tried to locate his location and would hit her from out of nowhere, confusing her senses.

So, she did the next best thing to staying and fighting…running away. It wasn't something she was proud of exactly, but she couldn't keep up with the fight. Her exorcist skills only came in handy when her opponent was a ghost, and when she tried to use them this time she got no results. 

Dashing through the trees she lamented over the fact that she had agreed to come on this mission, despite knowing exactly what kind of person that bastard was. A fun-loving maniac who would see a situation like this and run toward it rather than away. 

"Damn it all!" She cries out. 

"Don't think you can get away so easily!" The voice chasing her calls out. Something catches on her foot and she goes sprawling to the ground, but when she looks behind her, nothing is there. 

"How the fuck is this kid so fast?" She mumbles, jumping to her feet as she stares around, waiting for the next attack. She hears a crack behind her and swiftly turns around, arms raised to block, when she's suddenly struck in the back. 

"Hrgh!" She spits out a grunt of pain as she's struck again and again by the mysterious attacker. The arm, the back, the face, the leg. She waits and waits as she strikes until…there! She snakes out her arm as an attack hits her leg again, she grabs onto whatever is there and throws it to the ground. Mercilessly plunging her fist into wherever she can feel something. 

"W-wait! Gbhlk!" The child's words are cut off as she hits. She hits and she hits until the flicker of invisibility turns off and completely separates from the child, revealing two children of a similar build, both equally beat up. 

"Please, stop!" One of the children cries out. They both have short black hair and are wearing oversized sweatshirts with shorts, but the one on the left, the one who talked, has a scar over his eye. 

"My brother can't take anymore!" He cries, large tears leaking from his eyes as he sniffles and sobs. 

"Well, maybe you should've thought of that before beating me up!" Avery shouts, throwing one last punch at the both of them for good measure. 

"Explain what's happening here." She demands. The child with the scar is sitting on his knees while the other child lies on the ground, barely conscious. 

"Uhm, my brother and I work for a mysterious organization that took my brother in after my parents and I died in a car accident. I was scared wandering around as a ghost, so the director brought me back and taught me how to fight and use my abilities along with my brother, " The boy explains. 

"I meant what's happening here specifically, not what's happening in your lives." She clarifies with an annoyed huff. 

"Oh, the director brought a bunch of us to the forest in order to collect all the ghosts here to summon a big one, we just have to sacrifice one person at a ritual site along with all the ghosts to get the job done." The boy reveals. 

"Wait…did you say only one?" Avery asks. Before she can answer, a swelling of miasma appears to her right. She can feel it growing as something roars, and she has to cover her ears at the sound. 

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" She says, her eye twitching. 

"Just great! You two stay here! I'm going to destroy that ritual site and go check on whatever the fuck is happening over there." She orders, shaking her head to clear her wooziness, she stands up and takes off toward the previously abandoned ritual site. 

Destroying the ritual site only takes up a few minutes of her time, then, she takes off sprinting in the direction of the noise. She's still in pain from her injuries, but she doesn't seem to care as she moves with reckless abandon, tree branches scraping at her sides as she runs. 

The miasma pressure increases as she runs so she knows she must be going in the right direction, then, something catches her eye and she turns…to find the bastard and Leslie running through the woods alongside her. The bastard turns and notices her, smiling and sending her a small wave. 

"You bastard! I'm going to kill you!" She roars, cutting in front of his path and launching herself at him. 

"Woah!" Leslie shouts and backs out of the way as Avery brings Belle down into the dirt. 

"Oomph." He grunts. 

"Did I do something wrong?" He asks, his face is close to the dirt and he hurriedly lifts his head to avoid getting mud on it. 

"Did you? I seem to remember you telling me to check in with the walkie, but the next thing I know is you aren't responding!" She says, pushing his head into the mud with a hmph as she gets off his back. 

"Ehehe, sorry." He apologizes, using Leslie's shirt to wipe off his face. 

"Hey!" Leslie yells out, smacking him on the back of the head with a glare. 

"All of that doesn't matter, right now we have bigger fish to fry," Belle states, looking off into the distance. 

"I learned roughly what was going on earlier, seems some mysterious organization is using the ritual sites along with human and ghost sacrifices to summon something big," Avery explains. 

"I thought they needed to use all the ritual sites," Leslie says. 

"Turns out they only needed one, and it looks like they've already done it." Avery sighs. 

"These guys just keep popping up…whatever, let's go defeat that big guy and then have a nice relaxing night at home," Belle smirks. 

"Yeah right! Who can have a relaxing night at home after this!" Avery shouts, pinching his cheeks. When she's finished taking out her anger she lets him go and heaves out a sigh. 

"I guess it doesn't matter anyway, we're still doing this shit, aren't we?" She says, looking at the two other people there. 

"Yep!" Belle smiles, placing his hands on the back of his head. 

"Mhm." Leslie mumbles, a worried expression crossing his face. 

"Then let's do it!" Avery roars.