Luna And The Woods

Sato suddenly snapped, “It is dark under the lighthouse.” Sato said while holding an imaginary ball, looking around for some recognition,

“That was so cool, Master ~,” 92 said,

“I was thinking since we have Luna in our group-” Sato started walking slower. “You shall be called Sun-” Sato started nodding to himself. “Yeah.”

“I love the name Sunya master!” 92 said, accepting the name,

“It’s a nice name,” Prix commented with a nod as Idalec started to fall behind Luna right on his heels,

“I am going to buy a tent if that’s fine; it shouldn’t take long,” Idalec yelled to the three in front,

“That’s fine,” Sato said, looking back as Idalec naturally turned into a side alley. Luna’s eyes feasted on the back of Idalec’s neck. Idalec walked at an even, leisurely pace. ‘1… ’ he started counting,

Luna had already jumped, going for the kill, with cat-like speed. She had reached out her clawless paws to try and grab Idalec for a clean bite-

She came to a full stop before she even made contact. Idalec had cast an invisible, immovable shield, Pure Shield, without uttering a word

“Shh!” Luna hissed as she tried to run out of the alleyway when the gravity suddenly spiked, crushing her against the ground.

‘2… she's monstrously fast for someone without magic. Still pitiful.’ Idalec turned around without any concern. Luna was squirming under the pressure of Idalec’s magic. "Did you think I would really die that easily, Luna?" Idalec asked matter-of-factly while walking towards the sprawled Luna, “I thought you’d at least try and attack me with magic... Am I even unworthy of your claws?”

Luna grunted, the air slowly being squeezed out of her.

“I see.” Idalec talked to himself, bending down and lifting one of Luna’s impossibly heavy paws with ease. The paw had been declawed. Idalec put it down and moved over Luna to look at the seal on the back of her neck, which had been scratched raw, with all the fur gone. “Stabbed in the back, just like that~” Idalec said in a sing-song voice, gradually lifting the pressure from Luna.

Luna sputtered as she blinked vigorously. “Va-ve-” Luna tried while still lying on the ground, the pressure fully gone.

"You would not try and kill me anymore, First Captain Revrho, right?" Idalec asked, putting a finger on the seal before a gentle pop, dissolving the seal.

“Yes, sir,” Luna said flatly,

“Let’s get a move on it,” Idalec said, leaving Luna lying on the street.

A chalice overflowed with water, spilling onto the sand on which it rested. "It's..." A quivering voice said on the verge of tears, "... we are finally saved." The being ran out of the room as the chalice stopped overflowing, now surrounded by wet sand.

Idalec had quickly stepped into a shop, buying a tent and grabbing a day's worth of brown bread and jerky for Luna and himself; he didn’t want Revrho to go hungry.

Luna had gotten herself off the street by the time Idalec was done. “Would you carry this for me?” Idalec ordered Luna, handing her the tent and food, to which Luna nodded, head hanging.

“Thank you for waiting,” Idalec said as he stepped out of the alleyway, Prix, Sato, and Sunya leaning against the wall.

“So where are we going?” Sato asked, turning to Prix.

“We’d have to run to get to Letin.” Prix huffed, getting off the wall, leading the group out of the town of Roux.

Luna whimpered as they kept walking. “What’s wrong, Luna?” Idalec whispered, slowing to walk next to her. Luna didn’t let another sound slip as the road quickly turned to dirt and the fields flanking them gave way to a forest. “Are you not going to answer me, First Captain?" Idalec put on his General voice.

“It’s my paws-” Luna spat. Idalec looked to see that Luna had been holding the tent and food against her chest, her paws completely flat against the supplies. “- they hurt to bend.” Luna admitted shamefully.

“Ah!” Idalec breathed out in acknowledgment. “If it’s something so simple, you could have said earlier.” Without a sound, within a moment Luna’s wounds healed, her fur, thinning a moment ago, started filling out, and her claws grew back in place without any discomfort.

Luna lifted her head, eyes squinting with suspicion as she flexed one of her paws, the claws before retracting them back, as if hoping Idalec wouldn’t notice.

“I was always charmed by your spunk.” Idalec reminisced with a slow laugh befitting an old man.

The sun had been gradually setting so that now only an hour remained, but even that light was being dampened by the tree canopy.

The five of the hero’s party got on edge when a sudden rustling to the left of the bushes was heard,

“Wait,” Prix said in a hushed voice, pointing to a woman with tanned skin and small horns clad in light metallic armor who strided onto the road, six paces from them, hand on the hilt of her sword. Cocking her head to the side, staring at Sato slowly and deliberately, she spoke, “I- AHH!”

Before anyone realized, Luna had dropped the tent and food stuff she was holding and had jumped the demon.

“What?” Sato said as he fumbled to draw his sword, which proved a lot harder when Sunya was hung onto Sato’s arm, hiding behind him in fear.

“Ple-” the warrioress begged. The initial surprise and force of Luna’s attack had managed to knock her over, grappling with her so that the woman lay stomach down.

A constant barrage of punches from Luna stopped the demon from so much as retaliating with anything but scared screams.

"What are you doing? Let up, Luna! Drop? We don't even know who she is, so why are you attacking her?" Prix said judgmentally after she got over her initial fear,

“Y-AHHH! Please stop!” The woman cried as Luna had twisted the downed demoness’s arm into a painful position; the demon’s other arm was being pinned by Luna’s leg. Luna used her spare arm to press the woman's neck into the ground. “I’m-” the woman moaned in pain,

"What do you want?" Sato demanded, finally having gotten out his sword and pointing it down at the demon.

“I'm just a soldier of the demon ar- I didn't- AHHHH! I wasn't going to do anything! I promise! Please- AHHH!” The demon tried to explain as fast as possible between shallow breaths and cries of pain as Luna would periodically twist her arm a bit more before releasing it a little.

"So your-" Prix started putting a finger to her temple in thought before being drowned out by a blood-curdling scream. “-Luna, stop it! You have already beaten her; what good is torturing her?” Prix added compassionately for the woman,

"I'll do anything-" the demon huffed, her face wet from the tears,

Sato spoke before the demon was even done with an offer, "Oh! Would you be my slave then!" lowering his sword,

"Yes! Ahhhhh! I surrender! I will-" the woman cried out her final words before Luna had swooped down, her teeth piercing the demon’s throat; a massive pool of blood formed around the demoness's corpse.

"NOOOO! MY DEMON WAIFU!" Sato yelled, crawling over to her on his knees; the sword had fallen out of his hand, as if this was the very pinnacle of a human's suffering.

"That's..." Prix said hollowly, her voice barely audible,

"She surrendered her life. And I took it? She would have done the same things to me." Luna fired back confidently, her grip remaining on the woman's arm, which cracked as Luna jumped to her feet.

Sunya was rooted in terror as she watched paws on her mouth, and most terrifying of all was the glint of those fresh claws.

“Let-” Prix said before going silent,

“No-” Sato kept moaning; the pool of blood he was in began to dry dying the ground and Sato’s clothes red,

“You scout ahead, and I’ll make camp here,” Luna said with glee, an inferno of joy raging in her eyes.

“I can live with that.” Idalec said casually, “Set this up as well-” Idalec pointed at his tent, “we’ll go look for a bit before coming back.” Idalec sounded distant,

“You shouldn’t look like Idalec,” Prix said motherly, covering his eyes as he turned to face Luna,

“Sure… Master.” Luna hissed before she bolted into the forest from which the demoness came.

“Let’s move. Evil lurks here.” Prix said, shuffling Idalec, Sunya, and Sato along the road.

‘How could evil lurk here?’ Idalec wondered, ‘Was it not the right thing for Luna to defend us from the demon who probably intended to kill us? I guess I have a lot to learn about goodness.’ Idalec listened to everyone else’s distress as they kept marching away; the only thing he saw were Prix’s hands.