Shinobi From Hell

"Just... get out of my sight," Klautz turned around but not before he gave off another scoff at the poor boy. With a leap he disappeared among the burning bushes.

*Cough*

Smoke invaded Stefan's nostrils. He was left all alone in the middle of the burning forest fire. His shoulder was still bleeding profusely as he was losing more and more blood every minute. 

"I can understand her pain, that's why," he whispered under his breath as he watched Klautz disappear among the fires.

'Why do you want to save that girl that badly?' That is what Klautz had asked him but he had failed to reply. But now that Klautz was no more around the reply as if came out of his very heart! Did he hope that his message would reach Klautz by some magical medium? No...

His words were for no one hear, for no one to reason out with, they were to console his own bleeding heart, to remind himself that what he had done was right!

But no matter what he claims, he couldn't ignore what Klautz said. Klautz's words felt like bolts of lightning on his dying heart. Was he really of no importance? Were his efforts of no use?

No! ...In his heart he wanted Eli to come back but he knew how dangerous it would be for her. All he wished for was her safety. But even so, he felt so left out as loneliness gripped onto his soul making it cold. 

But he wasn't completely unknown to this feeling. Even back on earth, he had spent many a day in this coldness… bullied, shunned, and treated like an outcast. He had been born an orphan or rather his parents had abandoned him from birth. He was bullied and treated like an outcast even in those so-called 'schools' that claimed to propagate equality. Why did they bully him? Just because he had no one to lean onto?

It was in those days in helplessness he had thought to himself… that if he had at least one person… just one person to stand along with him, his life wouldn't have been so miserable, at least he wouldn't have felt so lonely.

*Sigh*

Pulling off his shirt he tied it around his bleeding shoulder. The injury was deep enough. But even tying his shirt around it caused a splitting pain to shoot through his brain!

"Ugh," He grunted but that was it. Compared to the pain he was feeling, his face showed little signs. From his years of being bullied, he was used to enduring pain. The more pain you showed on your face the more overjoyed the bullies will be so you have to bite your tongue and endure the pain. After all if they find bullying you to be fun, they will bully you all the more.

It was then...

Stefan's face began to transform. He got a button-like nose, white fur growing from the sides and a wolf ear growing above. With his black button-like wolf nose he sniffed the air around. The smell of charred bodies and burning trees entered his nostrils. But he shrugged them off as those were not the things he was looking for.

He looked around. His eyes drifted to a torn apart wolf doll that was tossed aside close to his legs. It was the wolf plush Evelyn had left behind with her last teleport. Wasn't the fate this toy shared similar to his? He picked it up with his claws and sniffed its smell.

"Yes, this has her smell."

*Sniff* *Sniff*

"That way," He walked towards a random direction towards which he believed Evelyn was. His steps were slow as he feared that the wound would worsen. He had already lost too much blood.

Klautz watched him from a hidden spot.

"As expected," Klautz whispered as he nodded. 

Stefan had a transformation skill. In regards to what he could do with it shouldn't be much of a mystery. Klautz had already guessed that Stefan could track Evelyn and when he watched him sniffing the doll his theories were proven true.

That is why he chose to stay hidden while waiting for Stefan to start on a quest to find the girl. Even though the trees around were burning in a ferocious forest fire Klautz had easily found a place to hide and observe. He was too used to these kinds of sticky situations.

He leapt out of hiding as he watched the boy walk away amongst the burning bushes. He was walking too slow probably because of the wound. 

He wanted to follow him but not before he shifted his gaze to the burning sky above. The sky was clear blue but the orange flames that surrounded it like a picture frame endowed it with a majestic aura.

But even such an exhilarating view could only make Klautz to sigh.

*Sigh*

His chin lowered to his chest and his shoulders drooped. He had found a lead to the girl but alas it was no use.

"I am running out of time," he whispered as he gazed back to the blue sky above.

The sun was somewhat past overhead. In five hours or less the sun will fall and it would be complete darkness again. He had to at least kill one golem before sunset. Then he could kill the other one tomorrow. They were given a two days time limit and the deadline was tomorrow at noon. Assuming he won't be able to move in the dark he had a tight packed time limit to cross two whole floating islands and cannot afford any other detours.

In his heart, Klautz wanted to kill Evelyn. But since when had he listened to his heart? At the moment getting stronger was much more important. He had to kill two more golems and he had less than a day left.

What's more? It was hard to predict how long it would take to kill that girl. As he had stated before, these kinds of the foe are like cockroaches. No matter how many traps you set up for them they will rise out of it alive.