He knew he was probably looking at a female adventurer, but the sight of her defied explanation. Her shoulder-length hair retained little of its golden luster, replaced by the dark glow of something viscous and oily that coated its disheveled strands. Her blue eyes were hollow and glazed. Renya couldn’t tell if she saw them, or if she even saw anything at all. The tattered remnants of what once might have been leather armor dangled from her waist. Her undershirt had been torn to pieces, and what remained on her no longer functioned as clothing, exposing much of her unnaturally pale skin.
Slowly, the female figure approached them. Bite and scratch marks covered her body. Dark bruises — the kind caused by intense pressure — ran up and down her right arm. They were in the shape of hands. Her left arm was not bruised; it was simply gone. Renya’s gaze drifted downward. Her stomach looked painfully bloated, almost as if pregnant. But she couldn’t be; no one with child would wander the forest at night in armor. Further below, she was completely naked, and countless thin red marks could be seen where the grass and shrubs took their toll. Those dark hand-shaped bruises also covered her legs from knee to ankle. Her thighs were in worse shape, where teeth and fangs left little flesh untorn.
Renya’s mind blanked. He felt his foot slide back a step. Keeping Shion and Rona behind him, he tried to piece this thoughts back together. What had violated this woman so?
“…Was she attacked by a goblin or something?” The words leaked out of Renya’s mouth.
“I doubt it,” said Rona as she tightened her two-handed grip on her mace. “While goblins and orcs kidnap woman for breeding, I’ve never heard of their victims suffering abuse this horrible.”
Her eyes were focused on the woman’s left shoulder, where a mere stump of an arm remained. It had not been cut off by a sharp blade. The wound was ugly, and the severed ends of the tissue was wildly frayed.
“That left arm of hers… was probably bitten off,” said Rona.
“So it eats people… Ogres, then? But… were there monsters like that in this forest?” asked a slightly unnerved Shion. She looked conflicted. While she clearly wanted to get away, she seemed hesitant to abandon the woman before them and leave her to her agony.
“What are the characteristics of ogres?” asked Renya. He kept his eyes on the approaching woman and moved his left hand to his katana.
“More than three meters tall. Strong and stupid and eats a ton.” Rona kept her answer concise, providing only the most relevant details.
After hearing Rona’s description, Renya shook his head at Shion’s suggestion.
“Can’t be ogres then. Look at the bruises on that girl. The fingers are human-sized. More importantly, if they eat a ton, they’re not going to walk away after chewing off one arm.”
“The bite marks seem like they came from some sort of beast… but nothing explains why her stomach is so big.”
“Either way…”
She was a goner.
The words formed in his mind. They had just reached his mouth when a scream from the woman caused him to freeze.
“Eeeugh… Auggh… Eeeeaaaaaaagh!”
Her knees hit the ground and she arched her back. Her one remaining arm was pressed tightly against her bulging stomach as she let out an agonized shriek. Then, her stomach throbbed. Again. And again, undulating as though something squirmed on the inside. At this point, even Renya felt the color draining from his face.
“Watch out! She’s keeping something in her stomach!”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure she’s not keeping it there, Renya.”
“Gah! How the hell are you so unreasonably calm right now, Shion?!”
Stretched to its limit, her stomach finally gave way. The pressure from within ripped its flesh apart, and a gruesome mess of fluid burst out the new openings. Some of it was blood. Some wasn’t. The woman kept screaming, her voice growing more and more strained.
“All right, let’s make a bet: whatever comes out of there, it’s going to be bad news. Who’s in?” asked Renya with a panicked smile. The two girls nodded.
“I am. Ten gold on it being bad news,” answered Rona.
“Me too. Ten gold on bad news.” Shion joined in, making a fist with her hand.
Renya sighed wearily.
“We can’t all bet on the same thing. Then it’s not a bet. Also, you two are surprisingly calm, aren’t you?”
“Well, I personally am dying to hear you to give the order to run, Renya…”
“I want to help her…” said Shion before her expression clouded. “But I guess there’s no way we can.”
Neither Renya nor Rona had the composure to be sharing Shion’s concern.
There was no pause to the woman’s screaming; no lull in her agony. She pushed harder against her rupturing stomach as her fingers began scratching wildly at its surface. Her nails began to tear through the skin. Gashes opened from gashes, old ripped into new. Fluid oozed out of her body, soaking the earth. A pungent odor began to permeate the surroundings.
At this point, Renya decided that his danger threshold had finally been breached. He was just about to give the order to run when he noticed that a number of silhouetted figures had appeared behind the woman and were running toward them. More specifically, they seemed to be running away from something. Further behind them, something big was moving. Each thump of its heavy steps was accompanied by the cracking of the twigs and grasses it flattened.
“Renya, there’s something else coming!”
“Don’t bother checking! We’re getting out of here! Run!”
Renya spun around and gave the two girls an urgent shove on the back. He watched them nod at his signal and dash off. A second later, he followed suit. He had only taken a few steps forward when the forest went quiet; the woman’s screaming suddenly stopped. There was a split second’s silence, followed by the sound of a wet cloth being ripped. Then, something hit the ground with a splat.
“Wah! What the hell is this?!”
“Don’t stop, you dumba— Eeugh! It’s coming this way… N-No… Gyaaaaaah!”
Men’s voices cried out in alarm behind Renya. They probably found themselves stuck between the big thing pursuing them and whatever popped out of the woman’s stomach. Renya, however, didn’t stop running. He didn’t even turn to look; he had no intention of finding out what any of those things were. All his attention was focused on one thing only: figuring out if anything dangerous lay before them.
“What… was that?”
“Don’t talk, Rona. You’ll run out of breath. Shion! Keep going straight! Rona, stay close to Shion!”
Behind him, Renya could hear noises. Something wet was squished. There was a snap — the splitting of both meat and bone. If he focused, he could hear screams of agony and cries of help coming from various directions in the forest. Stealth was no longer an option, so Renya cast another Illuminate on Shion’s left palm, cranking the brightness to high.
“Shion! Use the light in your left hand!”
“Got it!”
She opened her left hand and held it high, using the light to guide her path. Rona was close behind, and Renya brought up the rear. As he followed the two girls, he felt a growing sense of unease. They were supposed to be moving toward the outer edge of the forest, but their frantic escape reversed their direction. Right now, they were running ever deeper toward the forest’s center.
“Shion, turn! I don’t care which way! Ninety degrees left or right, you choose!”
“Okay!”
Shion threw her hand against a thin tree and executed a masterful cornering maneuver. Rona, too close on Shion’s heels, couldn’t react in time to the sudden change in direction and ended up stumbling, but was aided by Renya who swept her up by the waist. Together, the two of them managed to make the turn without losing any time.
“Sorry, Renya. It’s okay. I can run.”
“Good. I’d rather not sprint while carrying a person on me.”
He slowed his pace a little and let go. Rona slid smoothly out of his arms and hit the ground running. Her long and skirt-like priest robe should have been ill-suited for such acrobatics, but it didn’t stop Rona from matching Shion’s speed. Renya found himself impressed by the robe’s design. Evidently, those deep slits up each side of its lower skirt were not only for show.
“Renya, what should we do next?” asked Rona during their desperate dash.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, given these extraordinary circumstances, what should be our next move?”
“Huh? Bit of a redundant question, don’t you think?”
Rona frowned in confusion. Clearly, she did not consider the question redundant. Shion, however, had a pretty good idea what Renya was about to say.
“We run until we get out of this forest, and then we keep running until we make it back to town.”
Shion, having expected Renya’s answer, sighed a little. While the things happening around them were definitely not normal, Renya undoubtedly saw no obligation for them to investigate the cause or fight whatever was out there. Personally, she would rather not abandon the people in the forest and flee, but she found herself somewhat understanding of Renya’s position. From Renya’s perspective, he would be putting his friends in danger to help people whom he neither knew nor cared about. That was not a risk he was willing to take.
“Renya… what if there are people hurt out there?”
“You think we can take them with us? Are you hiding a secret horse wagon somewhere? Because otherwise, I don’t see how we can possibly carry them.”
Of course, even if they miraculously procured a wagon, they’d be faced with the rather impossible hurdle of trying to navigate it through a forest. Rona nodded, evidently satisfied with Renya’s reasoning.
Shion, however, found Renya’s matter-of-fact approach a bitter pill to swallow. She knew they’d call her naive for thinking so. She was also well aware that Renya’s view was correct given the current circumstances. Nevertheless, she stood her ground — literally, by planting down her feet and stopping.
“Renya, I have a request.”
Seeing that their lead had come to a halt, Renya and Rona stopped as well.
“I can’t just run away like this,” Shion said as she turned toward Renya. “I won’t ask you to save everyone, but I want to at least find out what’s going on. This place isn’t that far from town. If we leave this alone and run, whatever’s happening here might end up harming the city.”
She stepped right up to Renya and fixed him with a firm stare. He returned her gaze. There was a silent pressure to the way he looked at her, and Shion had to stop herself from shrinking away. At the same time, she could tell he was waiting for her to continue.
“Please, Renya. Help me with this.”
She already knew how he would respond. Despite that, she still had to ask. She had to try.
Renya kept his eyes on Shion, his expression unchanging. With his right finger, he quietly scratched his cheek.