Since she had no need for sleep, and could easily see in the dark, Fenrir continued forward along the path without stopping for the night. There were a lot of other scent trails that had started to congregate together and the path through the wilderness had become flattened from the pa.s.sage of many people. It wasn"t like the roads from her previous world, but Fenrir felt like this was likely a route that was used by a lot of people over the years. The strange thing was that, even though she had continued along the path for a while, there had yet to be any signs of people...Just as she had started to wonder if her a.s.sumptions were incorrect, Fenrir smelled a foul stench, like burning flesh and hair. She scrunched up her nose before leaping up into a tree to get a better vantage. In the distance, Fenrir saw smoke rising out of a section of the forest and decided to investigate. There were plenty of scents for her to follow now, and finding her way back to the road wouldn"t be difficult. Fenrir had always had a good sense of direction, never getting lost even within the complex arrangement of her Master"s home.
As Fenrir neared the source of the smoke, she smelled several other foul scents and could hear the sounds of ongoing combat. Then, breaking through all other sounds, Fenrir heard the scream of a woman, crying out for help. Followed by the scream, Fenrir heard the sound of harsh laughter, causing her ears to twitch as she leaped through the canopy to see what was going on.
It didn"t take long for her to come across a young woman, possessing long black hair and a strange white outfit with one of the sleeves torn. There was blood staining the white cloth as the woman ran away from a man that smelled like he often bathed in blood and never washed it away.
Fenrir watched as the woman twisted her body like a willow, striking out with a straight longsword that didn"t seem practical for combat. At the same time, the woman cried out, "Ding Zan, you disreputable cur! How dare you attack disciples of the Flowing River Sect!? The Elders will destroy your entire family for this slight!" The man, Ding Zan, parried the sword with a strange hand ax, sneering as he said, "Lang Yahui, I warned you the last time we met that you shouldn"t have been so prideful. Don"t blame me for a fate you brought upon yourself. You should have stayed holed up in the Sect like those other snot-nosed brats. Don"t worry though, I"ll at least allow you to experience what it means to be a woman before sending you off to drink your soup!"
After parrying Lang Yahui"s blade, Ding Zan used strange zig-zag footwork that caused his body to distort as he attempted to sever the tendons of her arm. With a fretful and panicky expression, Lang Yahui swiped downwards while trying to open up a distance with Ding Zan. She knew that, if he managed to disarm her, the only options left to her were to take her own life, or suffer a tragedy as Ding Zan took much more than just her life...
(Fenrir"s Commentary: "The first time I meet people in this world and they are trying to kill each other...")