Contractbound

"Quickly! Move!"

"Watch out! It"s gonna attack!"

"Argh! My hand!"

Valentine was running in the forest carrying his spoil of war when he heard the voices of several people fighting. Judging from their voices, there were three men and at least one woman. The source of the voices was still far away, but he could pick up the sound thanks to his boosted hearing.

He was curious about the fight, so he approached the source quickly and carefully, walking past trees while avoiding shrubberies as not to make a noise. He quickly closed in and hid behind a tree when he finally could see what was happening with the aid of his boosted sight.

In the clearing far from his hiding spot, there were four people dressed in Favaran style clothes, with their signature black coats and fedoras, fighting a tiger-like monster. Just as he had judged, three of them were men and there was one woman. The woman was dressed similarly to the men, and also carrying a gun, just like the men.

Valentine recognized one of the men fighting; it was Luuk"s friend, Pietro, who was a member of the hidden organization called Fratello Maggiore. They seemed to be on a mission to slay the black beast before them but were having a difficult time. One of them was sustaining a heavy injury on his right arm, which was strangely not bleeding anymore despite the wound still being open. The others were standing their ground. They seemed to have lured the monster out there to the clearing to make defeating it easier.

The beast that they were fighting matched the description of the monster from the rumor that had been attacking people in Oostelijk Bos, which the locals called Zwart. It looked like a tiger but much bigger; it was the size of an adolescent elephant, with all black fur without any spots. Around its neck, there was a dark grey mane, which was one of the only parts of its body with a slightly different color; even its sharp claws, that could easily rip humans into pieces just because of their size, were black. From its mouth, two long sharp black fangs were sticking out, and its yellow eyes were cautiously looking at its attackers. It knew it had the size and power advantage, although it was outnumbered.

Valentine stayed hidden. He wanted to watch how the fight unveiled before deciding what he would do. He climbed up a tree to get a better view and to avoid the other dangers in the forest.

"Pier, now!" commanded the woman who seemed to be the leader.

"I, in the name of the Deity of War, play this War Drum!"

The man with the injured arm chanted while striking his stomach with an iron stick using his left hand. From Valentine"s spot, he couldn"t see the man"s front, but from the sound, he could conclude that the man called Lucio had placed something like an iron plate on his stomach.

Clank! Clank!

The sound of the drum echoed in the ears of his teammates, empowering them and also himself. The pain on his arm receded and the injury slowly began to heal. Although Valentine could also hear the sound of the War Drum, he didn"t get strengthened because the caster didn"t consider him an ally.

"Pietro, Lucio, buy me some time!" commanded the woman again. Her voice was decisive and her tone was authoritative.

Bang!

Lucio shot at the beast, but it wasn"t injured. The bullet only grazed it, creating a flesh wound that healed quickly. Pietro dashed towards the black beast with a dagger in his right hand, which was a weapon he was better at. The War Drum boosted his speed significantly, which helped him reach the beast in seconds while avoiding its attack.

Slash!

He struck a critical spot and red blood spurted from the injury that Pietro had created. However, the wound quickly closed up and healed.

"Roar!"

The beast was about to pounce at Pietro.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Reconciliation, declare fighting forbidden in this area!"

Blood splattered around, creating a circle around Pietro and the beast. The beast stopped his attack, and Pietro couldn"t attack either. They both lost their will to fight, and also the sense of danger, so they just stood there for seconds. It was the effect of Lucio"s Neutral Zone; no fighting could happen while inside the zone, although it only lasted for a few seconds and required a lot of blood to set up.

The beast, which was stronger than its opponent, recovered earlier than the human in front of it. It was about to maul Pietro, who was still under the effect of the neutral zone when it sensed danger and quickly moved away from the spot.

Stab!

There was a crimson spear that was launched quickly from the direction of the woman and stabbed the ground. Unfortunately, the beast"s instinct told it in time to dodge, so she missed. The spear then liquified into a pool of blood and gathered around her again. It was the weapon that she was preparing using her blood. Normally, she could only create a sword at most because of the amount of blood required, but with the effect of the War Drum, she could afford to lose more blood because she could recover more quickly.

"Lucio, be careful with your neutral zone!" she shouted.

"I"m sorry, Boss!" said Lucio apologetically.

Clank! Clank!

The sound was still reverberating in the clearing, which irritated the beast. It quickly darted at Pier whose right arm was still healing.

"Pier, step back!" yelled the female mafia boss.

She moved the spear with her mind and it shot through the air towards the beast, which sensed it and quickly dodged to its right. The blood spear managed to cut a wound on the beast"s front left leg.

"Roar!!" the beast let out a loud noise in anger, which was much louder than its previous roar.

Valentine, who was still hiding on top of a tree some distance away from the fight, was dividing his attention, so the roar caused pain in his ears although he wasn"t close to the source. On his hand was the ancient book that he had taken out from his briefcase. He had also placed anti-divination on it. After recovering from the shock, he continued flipping the pages of the book, scanning the content for information regarding the beast.

"Argh!" the mafia members screamed in pain. The War Drum stopped because of it.

The beast then pounced at Lucio, who was closest to him. Luckily, the woman had recovered, so she had time to shield her teammate with her blood spear which could move around much quicker than the people there. However, the beast"s long claws still managed to injure him slightly, ripping his black coat and creating a wound on his chest. He quickly moved back to a safe distance.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order my wound to stop bleeding!"

Lucio finished chanting and blood stop pouring from the wound on his chest, but it remained open. He readied his gun to shoot at any time, although he knew his attack power was the weakest in the group, even compared to Pier who was currently unable to attack because of his injury.

Valentine heard someone using the same power as Graham and his interest was suddenly piqued. He observed the user carefully, etching his characteristics in his memory.

"I, in the name of the Deity of War, play this War Drum!"

Pier started hitting the iron plate on his stomach again without being told to. His support was essential to his teammates, and he knew well his role.

Pietro slit his palm and let the pool collect there. After he had collected enough blood, he took a small vial from his coat which had clear liquid inside it. He carefully dropped a very tiny amount of the liquid on his blood and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Bloodshed and Manslaughter, imbue this blood with the power to melt my enemy!"

Pietro put the vial back in his pocket and ran towards the beast.

"Die you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" shouted Pietro while splashing his blood on the beast.

The part of the beast"s fur that came in contact with Pietro"s blood melted a little, creating a sizzling noise. It got angrier and turned around to attack him. However, the blood spear once again was in its way, so it had to sidestep to avoid the spear"s attack.

"Growl!" the beast let out an animalistic cry and then it turned invisible.

"s.h.i.t! Everyone, be careful!" shouted Pietro.

"Die, you monster!" yelled the female boss.

The crimson spear started spinning quickly and moved across the area, cutting everything in its path. Although the beast had gone invisible, it was still tangible and could be cut through by her blood spear.

"Argh!" shouted someone.

It was Pier, who had gotten attacked from behind. The spear quickly moved towards his location and prevented him from being attacked further. Blood dripped from his back, and his wound could be clearly seen through his ripped coat. The War Drum was stopped once again.

Lucio quickly approached Pier, looked at his wound, and chanted.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order you to stop bleeding!"

Blood stopped dripping from Pier"s wound, but the wound didn"t close. However, it was enough to save his life. Lucio felt the headache that came with his spell chant.

"I only have one more chance to use Order!" he said loudly so his group could hear.

"Got it. Everyone, be careful!" shouted the woman, "Its invisibility should cost the beast a lot, otherwise it would have used it sooner. We need to buy time until it wears off," she said a.n.a.lytically.

"Pier, can you still play your War Drum?" asked Pietro.

"Yes, barely," he said.

"Save it for later. For now, don"t draw the attention of the beast until we"re sure we can keep it away from you," added Pietro in concern of his wounded teammate.

"Pietro, can you use your Romancer power to control it?" asked Lucio while staying on guard, watching his surroundings cautiously.

"No. The beast won"t get attracted to me no matter what," he answered with regret.

Pietro slit open his wrist again, whose previous wound had already healed. He made a deeper wound this time, to allow more blood to come gushing out. He listened intently to all the sounds in his surroundings, and could faintly hear a very light footstep coming closer to the woman.

"Boss, it"s coming for you!" he shouted.

"I know!"

She redirected her spinning spear towards her location when she felt something dangerous behind her. The woman dodged to the side while her spear was spinning quickly to the direction behind her, to meet her attacker.

Clang!

The spear made contact with the beast claw, and a part of the spear was chipped and the tiny part turned back to liquid blood and evaporated.

Pietro, who now had a lot of blood pooling on his palm, took out another vial from his pocket and poured the gooey clear content onto the blood.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Bloodshed and Manslaughter, imbue this blood with the power to stick to my enemy!"

He dashed towards where the beast was and sprayed some blood over the surrounding area. Most of his blood splattered to the ground below, but some hit the invisible enemy and stuck to its fur. The beast now had a red patch of blood on its body which could be used by the group to track it.

"Good job, Pietro!" complimented the woman, and then she quickly directed the spinning spear towards the beast.

"I, in the name of the Deity of War, play this War Drum!" shouted Pier while hitting the plate on his stomach with difficulty.

Clang! Clang!

The spear, that was already moving quickly, got even quicker with the boost of the war drum.

Whoosh!

The spear darted with bullet-like speed through the air and aimed for the floating blood patch that kept moving about. It was about to make a cut on the beast"s body when it was suddenly thrown back several meters with a loud clanking noise. The beast seemed to have defended itself with its strong claws.

The beast, following its animal instinct, knew that it could not win the battle easily anymore. It decided to retreat back to the forest and recover. Its attackers had the advantage of the number, and also teamwork, while it was all alone. Even if it eventually won, it would take too much energy and being weakened in that forest was less than ideal. The floating blood patch moved quickly away from the group and into the forest behind it.

"It"s retreating! What should we do, boss?" asked Lucio.

Pier didn"t stop his War Drum just in case the beast was just fake retreating.

"Don"t chase! We clearly are on the losing side here. Let"s head back to the town and recover. I"ll tell the Mastro that we failed," said the woman decisively.

Pier, who had now stopped playing the War Drum, collapsed to the ground from exhaustion and injury. Lucio and Pietro came to his aid.

She valued the life of her allies more than mission completion, and she knew the Mastro would also prefer living members to dead ones.

Valentine, who was watching the whole fight, closed the book on his lap and put it back inside his briefcase. He had seen the difference in power between him and the beast, and also the woman. He got down from the tree quietly and started moving.