Suddenly, she froze in place and turned sharply to her right.
Noroi looked at her in confusion, but the tension in her expression made him sense danger.
He slowly pushed himself up, his body ready for anything, turning toward where she was looking , yet he saw nothing in the surroundings.
When absolutely nothing happened, his shoulders dropped and the sharpness of his alertness faded.
He looked at Yamka and said in annoyance,
"There's nothing there."
Yamka paid no attention to Noroi's words and moved with slow, deliberate steps, her eyes and focus fixed on the same spot.
She kept walking until she stopped beside her axe, which was leaning against the trunk of a tree.
As soon as she reached it, her hand wrapped around its wooden handle.
She had barely lifted it when the ground beneath her feet began to shake violently, the tremors coming from the very direction she had been so focused on.
The earth quaked, and the water of the lake rippled along with it.
Noroi lost his balance for a moment but quickly steadied his footing firmly on the rocky ground.
He sensed the same danger Yamka had felt , his own alert rising as he prepared for what was coming.
Tomoi immediately took flight, sensing the approaching threat, while Haruki was jolted awake by the tremors beneath him.
He sat up quickly, his hair disheveled, his expression filled with panic as he looked around and shouted,
"What's happening?!"
Before Haruki could comprehend what was happening around him, the tremors grew stronger and more intense, and the sound of numerous footsteps approached them.
Noroi quickly turned his head, looking over his shoulder toward Haruki, only to find the boy frozen in place, stuck in a sitting position with wide eyes, his mind failing to process what he should do.
He cursed under his breath before rushing from his spot, grabbing Haruki by the collar of his shirt to pull him up onto his feet, shouting hastily.
"Grab your bow and follow me!"
Haruki snapped out of his frozen state, immediately moving from his spot and rushing toward his bow and quiver, grabbing them , but he was already too late.
A pair of red eyes appeared from within the shadows, the two floating about two meters above the ground.
The cloud that had been blocking the moonlight drifted away, revealing the terrifying form that the darkness had been hiding.
Haruki took a few steps back from the creature now visible to them , a type of arthropod with a long, extended body and hundreds of legs connected to its brown shell.
Its antennae moved as if examining the three of them.
A frightened breath escaped from Haruki's chest, the sound enough to make the creature perceive them as a threat.
It lifted its body upward to make itself appear larger and opened its mouth, roaring with a loud, echoing cry that shook the branches of the trees.
Both of Yamka's lips rose into an excited smile, and her green eyes gleamed with delight.
She raised her axe high and shouted back at the creature as if answering its roar.
"Finally, some excitement! Come at me, you insect! I'm your opponent!"
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Thank you for reading! If this moment touched you even a little , please consider adding it to your library.💐