Unfortunately for Ciel, this perilous tree didn’t give him much time to think.
Within the next few minutes, three creatures jumped down at once, resembling extremely large mutant squirrels, almost Ciel’s height.
Their claws were as long as knives with sharp teeth to match.
Unarmed, Ciel was at a big disadvantage.
Engaging with them guaranteed several cuts, if not worse.
He did his best to hold off one of them as Ferry battled two at once.
She moved with a natural confidence, despite the precarious scenario.
Her movements were extremely precise, and she seemed to use exactly enough energy to end the fights as quickly as possible.
Ciel on the other hand, was feeling the burning in every limb and his lungs, as he tried to survive the squirrel’s onslaught.
He would duck in between swipes and keep his distance, aiming to simply protect himself rather than to defeat it.
The beast did manage to scratch Ciel more times than he would’ve liked, but thankfully none of them were too deep.
Eventually, Ferry came over and assisted him after she had taken out the other two.
Like the rest, she finished it off in under 20 seconds.
Ciel couldn’t help but think it was just unfair.
Barely a minute had passed since the fight began.
To make it worse, she didn’t use any Insight abilities that Ciel could see.
She seemed to fight with nothing but her enhanced physicality and vicious lethality, as if these creatures were simply beneath her.
After that their progress slowed considerably.
Ciel could no longer make much progress as the fights began to stack on top of him.
He was not able to continue climbing much in between, which led to even more creatures coming down to meet them.
He felt like the tree’s entire ecosystem was closing in on their location at all times.
He could definitely understand Ferry’s motive for continuing to move up, but it still felt like there was little hope.
Waking up felt like a distant concept now, as if reality and the dream had switched places.
At the very least, Ciel was grateful nothing had come up from below them.
They were already having enough trouble with the creatures from above.
Glancing at Ferry, who remained standing with her eyes trained on the branches above he quickly corrected himself.
I am having enough trouble, at least.
Ciel’s progress had slowed to a crawl and he found himself almost slipping off several times.
He imagined that Ferry was also suffering from the effects of this prolonged battle, but it was difficult to tell since he was slowing them both down considerably.
However, he was proven right shortly after when Ferry was suddenly grabbed by a large plant that had been camouflaging among the leaves.
It had suddenly dropped downward and opened up, grabbing Ferry before she could even make a sound.
Ciel’s legs screamed in protest as he jumped up, trying to catch this overgrown plant.
Just as he was thinking what to do next, he heard a muffled voice from within.
Pressing his ear against the ‘mouth’ he finally heard Ferry’s repeated cry: “The stem!”
Ciel searched around wildly, trying to find it in a sea of green.
He used his tired arms to slowly move down the plant’s body, but had to stop as it began to move around again.
Ciel’s body flew off the plant, but his arms miraculously held on.
That was when he noticed the end and what could only be…
The stem!
Ciel was still several feet above, with no clear way of going down.
He groaned softly before letting go, falling downward and landing straight on the stem.
Crack!
The stem broke under his weight and he fell right through it.
However, the branch below them was too far forward.
Ciel’s heart lurched as he stretched his arms as far as they could go, just barely catching the edge of the branch.
The pain in his arms somehow managed to grow even more intense as he gritted his teeth, trying to push himself back up.
This time, his strength failed him, and he held on helplessly, feeling the last of his grip fading away.
He looked down helplessly, which only made him feel worse.
There were still branches, but he had no confidence in reaching them again.
His arms felt numb and heavy, and his breathing grew shallow.
He felt a strong grip on his arm, causing him to look back up.
He was relieved to see Ferry now pulling him back up, though the pained expression she made while doing it also worried him.
Ciel finally made it on top of the branch and lay there catching his breath.
Please wake up…
***
After dozens of battles over the course of several hours, Ciel was seriously concerned as to why he hadn’t woken up yet.
He found it harder and harder to ignore the pain from bruises all over.
It had come to the point where the battles were almost a welcome distraction, allowing adrenaline to numb the pain slightly.
He had done his best to bandage up his wounds by tearing his shirt into strips, but now the blood continued to soak into it.
His body screamed in protest every time he even tried to move.
They hadn’t climbed at all between the past three fights, as Ciel couldn’t do much more than lie sprawled out on a branch, leaving the actual fighting to Ferry.
She was finally beginning to slow down as well, with some of her attacks losing their flowing elegance in their more recent fights.
She was still winning, but he didn’t know how much longer she would last.
Her once white outfit was now in tatters, as she also had to use it to bandage her own wounds, and more of his own. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Ciel grimaced, trying to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, as Ferry looked around the other side of the branch, spotting some movement in the leaves above.
They just wouldn’t find peace anytime soon.
Sighing, Ciel tried and failed to stand up, groaning in pain.
He tried to move his head at least, but his muscles stopped responding to his commands.
He closed his eyes again, his own helplessness infuriating him.
Without warning, he felt a burst of pain directly on his face.
Confused, Ciel felt a tight grip latch onto his face, causing him to feel his face being pulled apart while he was promptly blinded.
Panicking, he tried his best to rip the thing off his face, straining against the weight.
However, the hours of constant movement and fighting had taken all his energy.
Ciel felt the creature digging through his skin, as if trying to reach something inside.
Ciel heaved with all his might to no avail.
The thing had probed its way deep into Ciel’s head now, and he felt tendrils moving about within.
Then they stopped moving, the thing seemed to stiffen, loosening its grip.
Ciel frantically pulled it off, seeing some kind of black monkey with 6 arms lie unmoving in his grip.
Ciel stared at it in confusion.
It was dead.
How did it just… die?
Ciel held the dead creature in his hand, searching around for whatever tendrils he had felt before.
To his surprise he found nothing besides a soft underbelly.
What did I just feel then?
Eventually, he dropped the monkey, with a weary sigh.
Even its lighter weight was difficult for him to support now.
Meanwhile, Ferry had finished fighting the newest enemies, and had returned to find him holding the dead monkey in his hands.
It seemed she had seen the whole ordeal.
Ciel struggled to get a read on her face, but it seemed that she was somewhere between shocked and amazed.
But that couldn’t be right.
She had seen that the monkey had just died, and not that he had killed it.
Ciel couldn’t understand it.
The monkey had died just from grabbing him, but the other enemies had done more damage and didn’t just drop dead.
Ciel wanted to chalk it up to a defective monkey, but something inside him couldn’t accept that.
Troubled by these thoughts, he clutched his head, before promptly returning to his previously collapsed state.
The answers continued to elude him, but he could hardly be bothered by that now.
He was so tired.