Chapter 4: Hidden Power pt.2

Matthew and Rose ran according to the direction that the woman pointed. Eventually, they reached a campsite under a cliffhanger just as Yuki mentioned.

"That must be it." Matthew said.

The campfire was still lit at the time, providing a much brighter lighting than the moon.

Matthew and Rose sat on a log that was placed near the campfire.

"Let me have a look."

"Ow! Damn that hurts." Matthew flinched when Rose pulled his arm.

"That's pretty bad. We need to stop the bleeding." Rose pulled her hands away and started taking off her jacket.

“Are you sure about using your jacket?” Matthew asked.

“It’s fine. It can be washed later.”

“Ow!”

Rose was not hesitant at all and pulled Matthew’s arm closer and started wrapping the jacket around his arm. She seemed really focused on doing so too.

“Done.” Rose said after she was done with the procedure.

Matthew checked his arm around that was wrapped in the cloth. “You’re pretty good.”

“I learned basic first-aid. It’s the most I can do.” Rose said with a soft smile on her face as if proud of herself.

“I see. Good thing you do then, thank you.” Matthew smiled brightly at her.

Rose seemed surprised and her face grew red a bit. “It’s… It’s fine.”

RUSTLE! RUSTLE!

They both suddenly heard a rustle coming from the forest. In an instant, Matthew and Rose shot up from their seat and backed away.

From the depths of the forest, the same large wolf-like beast emerged from the darkness. It growled viciously as it once again exchanged glares with Matthew.

“Rose stay back.” Matthew held out his right arm in front of Rose.

“But you’re injured!”

“I won’t lose as much as you would in that case.”

“But-”

“Grooaarr!” Before Rose could retort, the beast roared loudly.

After it roared, it lifted its head high. Crackles of electricity appeared around the beast’s horns. A humming sound verberated.

VMMMM!

Then with a puff, the beast fired a large energy ball from its mouth.

“It can fire an energy ball?!” Matthew was very surprised by this.

“UWAAHH!!” Both of them screamed as they were pushed away by the force of the  blast when the ball of energy hit the ground.

The campfire and the log were all pushed away too.

Matthew hit his back against the wall. “Ark! Uhuk! Uhuk!” He coughed and gasped for air.

“Didn’t expect that.”

“Aah!”

“Huh?” Matthew heard Rose’s scream. He looked around for her.

“!!” Through the cloud of dust, Matthew could see her laying on the ground with something big pinning her down.

“Please help…” Fear was visible  in her voice.

“No!”

The beast opened its jaw and was about to chomp down on Rose, but before that could happen, something changed in Matthew. The beast flinched and slowly turned its head over to Matthew, Rose also sensed the change in the air.

Matthew had a different air around him. His eyes were different.

…..

Meanwhile at the woman’s location.

“Rawr-”

SHIEK!

Another arrow struck into a beast and brought it down.

“Phew~” The woman whistled softly after finishing off the beasts.

“Let’s see now… One, two, three, four… Eight. That’s quite a lot in this pack. Wait a minute.” The woman glanced over all the corpses, and she noticed something.

“No striped horns, the alpha is not here.”

“Aah!”

The woman’s high perceptive ability picked up on the scream.

“Damn it!” She broke into a sprint straight towards the  source of the scream, her camp.

‘The alpha is much more dangerous than the normal ones. I need to hurry!’

“[Greater Speed]!” A yellow light covered her and instantly, her speed increased greatly.

In a few seconds, she reached the edge of the forest and saw the alpha beast along with the two people. The woman pulled out her bow and slid an arrow into it. She pulled the string back and took aim. However, something stopped her from firing.

She sensed something powerful. “What is this astra? It’s so strong! From him?” The woman turned towards Matthew. She saw something that was invisible to the naked eye.

Blazing red aura surrounded Matthew. His right eye changed colour from light blue to golden yellow and his pupil, into a vertical slit.

The woman felt very intimidated by such aura. “This guy... “

Matthew glared in anger at the beast while the beast glared back in fear. Its body shivered before the immense pressure it was sensing from the human.

It charged up another energy ball. Electricity curled up its horns again and it blasted one right at Matthew. The ball exploded upon contact with Matthew’s body, black smoke filled the area.

“A direct hit!” The woman almost shouted. What she saw next was unbelievable. “He’s unscathed?”

Matthew emerged from the smoke, dashing towards the beast. Before long, Matthew had closed the distance.

Matthew chucked back his right fist, then thrusted it right to the side of the beast’s head.

“Haaghh!” Matthew yelled as his fist pushed the back.

A crunch came from the beast’s skull along with a broken horn. It was launched back a few metres and skidded a bit before laying dead on the ground. Blood poured out from its mouth and created a small pool under it.

“Such power!” The woman exclaimed in shock.

Matthew stayed in his just-after-punching position, stupefied.

“Wait… Did I just… What happened?” By how he was reacting, he had no idea what just happened.

He stared at his right hand that still had remnants of fire around it.

“Matt?”

“Ah, Rose.” Matthew immediately reacted to her call.

Matthew bent down on his knee and helped Rose to sit up. “Are you okay?”

“Uhh yes. How did you…” Rose’s question did not arrive as she took another look at the corpse.

But it was not hard to guess what she wanted to ask. “I don’t know either. Before I realise it, well, that happened.”

“Well, it looks like you didn’t need my help after all.” A voice came from behind them.

“Oh, it’s you.” Matthew said once he had a look of the owner of the voice. “Thank you for saving us.”

“No no, you pretty much could have handled it yourself. I saw what happened.”

“You were here the whole time?”

“No, I just got here. Why did you hide your power?” The woman asked.

“Eh? Hide? I didn’t hide anything, I don't know how I did it... But I did.”

“Huh? Impossible. You just mustered up a lot of astra back there. You beat that thing with only one hit!” The woman even acted out her words.

“Well… Yeah, I don’t know how that happened.”

“Then… Are you two from Solheim?”

“Huh?” Both of them said at once.

“... Okay, tell me from the start.”

…..

The campfire was relit and small logs were placed around it. A piece of meat was also being slowly roasted over the fire. The sounds of crickets slightly overlapped the sound of fire crackling, snapping the firewood bit by bit.

“So that’s how it is... “

“What do you think, Yuki?” Matthew asked the woman sitting across the fire in front of him.

“To be honest, it’s not really something out of the ordinary for someone to undergo a dimension transfer. Although… From a game? That’s a first.” Yuki placed her thumb on her chin.

“You mean it’s normal for these things to occur?” Rose asked.

“No, it’s not normal. World transfer occurs by supernatural causes. To have done so with a device… There can only be on.” Yuki had a very serious expression.

“What is it?” Matthew drew closer to her.

“I am not sure of it myself, but my opinion is that there’s someone behind this.” Yuki lifted a finger.

“Someone? Who?” Rose asked.

“I do not have any clue on who, but I definitely have a hunch that someone is behind this.” Yuki said.

“I see. Then what can we do? How do we get back?” Rose asked again.

“I do not know either. Maybe you could wait for a miracle to happen?”

“But how long would that take?”

“Who knows? It’s a supernatural phenomenon. It could be months, years or even tomorrow. There’s no telling really.”

“Then… What do we do? Just wait around?”

“I don’t know. Decide yourself.”

“That’s…” Rose fell quiet.

Now it was Matthew’s turn to ask. “What do you do Yuki? Are you working or something?”

“Oh, that. Actually, yeah, I am working a full time job.” Yuki seemed very laid back.

“Ho! What do you work as?”

“A Hunter.”

“Hunter? Like hunting down bears and deers?”

“Ahahaha!” Yuki laughed loudly. “Not exactly. We use the term ‘Hunter’ for those who venture about and do quests.”

“Oh, like an adventurer?”

“Yes, we used to use that term but for some reason, it was changed. So now we adventurers are called Hunters.”

“Whoa~ So cool!” Matthew seemed really interested in this. Well, as someone who had played a bunch of video games, of course he would.

“So can you use magic and all that wack?” Matthew asked enthusiastically.

“Ehh in a way, yes.”

“Whoa it must be so cool! Say, can I learn magic too perhaps?”

“Eh, you…?” Yuki’s eye (since one was covered behind her hair) moved up and down as if scanning Matthew before saying, “Yeah, you could try.”

“Alright! Can you show me sometime soon?”

“I can show you tomorrow after we get your arm treated.”

“Alright!” Matthew was so happy about it. Even Yuki was all smiles seeing him like that.

However, there was one person that didn’t like what was going on.