My Pet Fox Is Actually A Demon Prince-Chapter 25: Skull-Headed Beast

Kyva slowly reached into her boot, taking out the small dagger she had kept hidden there. It was a meagre thing from the hunters, hardly the weapon of a seasoned warrior. But the mere knowledge of its presence lent her a fragile courage, as though the steel alone might stand between her and whatever shadows lurked ahead.

The hours wore on with a dreadful slowness as she pressed deeper into the forest. The air grew heavy, and the silence didn’t feel like normal silence at all. Twisted roots snared at her steps, and the gnarled branches above seemed to lean together like whispering crones.

Her eyes kept shifting, wary of any movements, yet searching all the while for any signs of the orbs.

Were they hidden, as in some cruel child’s game? Was she meant to search beneath every stone and root till she stumbled upon one?

Her grip tightened upon the dagger’s hilt.

The seniors had given no detailed counsel, no hints of what trial lay ahead. Whether through neglect or design, she could not tell, and that uncertainty gnawed at her more keenly than hunger.

But on the good side, nothing bad has happened– at least, not yet.

The trees in this accursed wood rose to a staggering height, far surpassing those of the forest she had left behind. Their trunks were vast as towers, their crowns blotting out what little light dared to filter through. With every step she took, the gloom dangerously deepened.

But nothing came.

No scary giant beast sprang from the undergrowth, no unseen horror seized her from the dark. She simply wandered on, wary and unmolested, though the absence of danger did little to soothe her unease. If anything, it set her nerves further on edge.

Nothing about it felt right.

A place such as this did not remain this idle without a cause.

From time to time, Kyva had to halt and take some rest. The hours passed by, step by step, until at last the dim light began to wane, and dusk settled over the place.

She burst forth into a narrow clearing, the sudden opening startling after a long day of weaving through the oppressive canopies.

Not a single orb in sight. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Kyva let out a low groan, frustration plain upon her face. Though no creature had assailed her, without the orb, her wandering would be for nothing, and she had already used most of the day. Her gaze swept across the clearing.

"Where in all the gods’ names am I supposed to find it?"

Kyva slowed her steps as the forest floor shifted beneath her feet. Before she could consider where to turn next, a piercing cry split through the stillness.

"BROTHER!"

The sound made her freeze at once, her breath catching sharp in her throat.

For a heartbeat, she wondered if it were some trick of the wood, some phantom echo conjured to lead the unwary astray. No one was supposed to be here. But... the cry had been too desperate, and too clear to be just an illusion.

"SOMEONE HELP US!"

Kyva’s eyes widened once more as she heard the frantic cry for help, her pulse quickening.

"There’s... someone here?" she murmured in disbelief, but soon snapped out of it. She gripped her dagger tightly by the hilt, exhaling sharply as she cast aside her doubts. Without further pause, she broke into a run.

The cries rang out ahead, ragged and desperate, and she chased them into the deepening gloom, toward whatever fate awaited her there. It wasn’t long before she heard something low and unnatural, like a wet, dragging growl rumbling from somewhere nearby.

She halted at once.

It was then she realized she made it to the area from which the cries came from.

Through the dim, she beheld two candidates clad in the same uniform as her, their faces pale as bone. Their bodies trembled as they staggered backwards, their eyes fixed on something that moved just beyond her line of sight.

Recognition struck, and the two candidates turned out to be the same ones who had scorned her upon her arrival. For a fleeting moment, Kyva did not move, her mind spinning into disarray. And that’s when she saw it.

A mass of writhing tendrils, black and sinewed like roots long dead, coiled and slithered over one another in grotesque motion. The creature’s form was vast yet shapeless, an abhorrent tangle of limbs that seemed neither wholly beast or plant. At its fore, something resembling a human skull jutted forward, pale and grinning, as though it had been claimed from some long-forgotten corpse and set as a mockery of a face.

Kyva lost her breath at the sight.

The ground itself shuddered slightly beneath them, as smaller tendrils burrowed and dragged, anchoring and pulling in the same motion.

The thing gave a low, rasping sound, like the scraping of roots against stone. Several of its tendrils lashed forward into the air, testing and tasting for its victims.

"How does something like that even exist?" Kyva murmured, her voice unsteady.

One of the candidates suddenly stumbled back with a cry, and the creature reacted at once.

A flurry of tendrils lashed forward with terrifying speed. But by some desperate fortune, the pair evaded them by an inch. The young man staggered as he moved, one arm clutched tight to his side where dark blood seeped through his garment. His sister lingered near him, her breathing ragged, limbs trembling with strain as she sought to draw the creature’s wrath away from her brother.

They were spent, and any eyes could see it.

Kyva’s heart tightened when she realized they might not be able to fight for much longer. And from the looks of it, they had not found the orb either.

"What do I do?"

Her gaze flickered between them and the monstrous thing that stalked them, her thoughts racing and faltering in equal measure. What aid could she possibly offer here? Her dagger would be useless against something like that, and worse, she possessed no skills in martial arts. Her wits seemed all too small before a horror twice the size of a horse.

’Think Kyva.’

Even as fear froze her in place, she did not stop watching. Another tendril struck the instant the girl moved again, and multiple tendrils followed as they were determined to capture the pair.

The creature did not strike at random, and Kyva noticed. Whenever the pair tried to move, those tendrils the size of a man’s limb would aim toward their direction, and whatever little sound that followed.

’Sound... it reacts to sound and vibration,’ was Kyva’s first thought as she monitored its attacks.

The creature’s writhing limbs shifted restlessly, but it did not lash again as the siblings stood in sheer terror.

The creature’s eyes were empty too.

It could not see.

The realization kindled something within Kyva, like a fragile spark of purpose amidst her fears.

If it hunted by movements and sound... then it could be misled.

Her mind moved swiftly, grasping at what she knew about the subtle ways life and death entwined.

Looking around, her gaze darted to the stones scattered nearby, the fallen branches, and brittle husks of seed and shell. A plan, half-formed and probably the most reckless thing she would do, began to take shape in her mind.

Slowly, carefully, she crouched, wincing at the sound of her own movement. The creature’s tendrils twitched at once, tasting the air. But Kyva had already frozen in place, not daring to breathe.

It was at that point the siblings noticed her presence, but Kyva quickly pressed a finger to her lips, gesturing they stay quiet.

The sibling, though shocked by her presence, exchanged puzzled glances, but they heeded to her advice.

The creature’s tendrils lashed into the air once more, its skull for a head turning slightly as it tried to pinpoint their location.

Only then did Kyva move again.

Her fingers found a small stone, and she drew her arm back with as much force as she could wield, casting the stone not at the siblings, but far to the creature’s flank.

The stone struck a tree trunk with a sharp crack.

Instantly, the forest exploded into motion.

Tendrils lashed toward the sound with violent force, tearing through bush and bark alike, even cutting down the trees. The creature surged in that direction with an ugly shriek, its entire mass shifting with horrifying speed.

The sibling seized the moment and stumbled away from where they stood, but the reprieve was brief. The creature’s limbs recoiled, already seeking them out, and Kyva felt her heart stop when she stepped back, accidentally snapping one of the branches in the process.

Crack!

The sound rang far too loud in the deathly hush.

Her breath hitched.

"Oh no."

The creature reacted instantly, its head snapping in her direction.

Kyva took off as several tendrils whipped after her, and the ground quaked beneath her due to the creature’s pursuit.

She ran as fast as she could, somehow avoiding the terrifying tendrils that trailed after her.

It was getting close.

Too close.

Kyva ducked her head as another tendril lashed forward, but she didn’t stop running. However, the tendril had missed her head and ended up striking a tree ahead instead. There was no time to make it through before the tree fell with a heavy thud, forcing Kyva to halt in her steps.

She staggered a step, half-turning despite herself, her chest heaving.

She was trapped!

The creature loomed before her now, its grotesque skull head slowly twisted toward her. The tendril hovered, poised to strike, but it did not.

The creature had gone still.

Kyva had already raised her own little dagger, daring to challenge the creature. But before she could so much as draw another breath, the mass of writhing tendrils recoiled upon itself, thrashing in violent agitation. Then, with startling haste, it turned and fled.