The scream resounded throughout the woods, sound bouncing against every possible surface without losing any of its strength and sheer loudness, Edrick's face scrunched up as he covered his ears still feeling a bit blood being drawn and a piercing pain as his left eardrums was punctured, a buzzing invading the ear, a momentary sensation of vertigo, an invisible pressure obstructing the inside of the canal-
"You little bastard… Would you mind elaborating on what you intended to do to me after using your hex or whatever? Just to know how you should be punished…" the wanderer's face contorted into a scowl so deep that his visage was simply unrecognisable as his own.
"Inhumane one! You who has no concept of the powerful links that connect each human to one another! Aaah! What is wrong with you?! Not only do you ignore the pleas of a fellow, but you dare assault me?! Attack me?! Denigrate me?! Harm me?! Wound me?! Do you have no shame?!-"
Another arrow whittled through the air, piercing right through the lost one's stomach, puncturing his guts, or so Anoteros guessed, as he greatly doubted that the thing before him was a human, no matter how said being seemed to be implying it.
"Keep quiet unless you are answering a question I asked, and do stop shouting nonsense, what are you doing, trying to recite all the possible synonyms for a word?"
"Heartless scum! Die!" with a most absurd amount of blood pouring out of his mouth, the self-proclaimed human yelled once more, this time directly at Edrick, who frowned, holding his bow in one hand, he used the other to take hold of another one of his favoured weapons, although the point of the woodland visit was not to fight, he had naturally brought all of his gear with him, as he was supposed to make people believe that he was sasquatch hunting.
And besides, what was the point of owning a weapon, and learning how to properly wield it, just to not carry it in the end? One never knew when a skull would need to be bashed in.
Taking hold of his kanabo, or war club.
This, the bow, the rapier and the whip were the four weapons upon which he had decided to limit himself for now, and picked a weapon cultivation technique fitting for each of them, naturally, the whip was a consequence of learning for Ku Xing, so it was technique of the Pain Sutra that he was practicing with it, this technique alone did not really allow for anything incredible, merely allowing to inflict greater pain the more the one wielding it was sadistic, or agonistic, for this world.
For the club however, he had picked a freely-available technique from the library, believing that he lacked anything out of the norm, Anoteros had chosen one that actually allowed for a somewhat special attack.
Raising the kanabo aloft, he brought it down upon the ground, the frozen ground cracking and breaking, a slight numbness coursing through Edrick's arm right as he swung it, making him click his tongue in dissatisfaction.
'I guess I am not good with it just yet…'
Still, the attack went through, and the loud boom caused by the sudden act of destruction partially countered the shout, which definitely was not travelling at the actual speed of sound, not even close, it was like the sound waves were bogged down by something.
Just to be careful, Anoteros pivoted to the side so that his left side would be facing toward the oncoming shout, not wanting to have both of his eardrums punctured, and indeed, although weakened, like a mass of snakes slithering through the air, the shout managed to get through partially and reach him.
But the strike upon the ground did not merely make a lot of noise and some damage, apparently, the technique 'Oni Smash' was named as such because it replicated what some oni would do to kill, namely, smash the ground so hard, that the impact and destruction somehow kept travelling forward.
In a not-so straight line, the ground seemed to rise up, sending snow and bits of frozen dirt everywhere, reaching the lost wanderer and continuing for a short distance even after causing him to be pushed off the ground one or two meters, the man was thrown of balance and fell hard, his situation only made more miserable as the arrows stuck in his body were forcefully moved around.
"You lack humanity… You lack compassion… You monster! You are nothing but an animal wearing human skin!" the lost one spoke, once again vomiting far too much blood, Edrick had a hard time believing that a single arrow to the stomach could deal enough damage for one to spit that much out, either the wanderer was acting, or there was another reason for him to spread his haemoglobin everywhere.
The world was spinning for a few moments as pain coursed through his body, the snow and dirt that was roused by the attack was rather limited, and since the frost had penetrated rather deep underground, there was basically no dust and dirt particles to block one's vision following the line of demolition caused by Oni Smash.
So the instant he stopped spouting nonsense and painting the ground red, he caught sight of Edrick's dark figure running right at him.
Breathing in, the lost one prepared to shout again, but had his face quickly forced right against the ground, the soles of Anoteros's boots firmly planted right against his cheek, soon followed by a blade that hovered dangerously close to one of his eyes.
"Hush, hush… I can shout too, at this distance I should be able to burst one of your eardrums as well, but I don't really feel like it, I am curious, mind explaining what you are? A banshee?"
"You sfoul-"
"Ah yeah, hard to speak like this, huh?" he moved his foot and pressed down on the wanderer's nape, moving it just enough to let the man know that one wrong move on his part, and he could say goodbye to this world.
And also, Edrick's rapier was in position to strike right at his face as well.
"Vile beast draped in human skin…"
"You repeat yourself a lot, huh? Just answer me already"
The man groaned so deeply that it could have been mistaken for a growl.
"I am not a banshee… I am a human! I merely am not the same species of human as you are…"
"Ah, yes- I do remember hearing about that sort of things, it's true that I remember that the fact that the only the 'homo sapiens' of the 'homo' genus being the only species left was actually pretty odd, I guess the situation here wasn't the same and a bunch of different species of humans developed… So which species exactly?"
"What are you babbling about?! I am a Blasse-Fusse! I was roused from my lengthy period of sleep, I am a chosen one! Fate is on my side! Serve as my nourishment!"
Edrick added more pressure whilst rubbing his chin, pondering a most strange interrogation.
"Say, I never wondered before, but if we are of the same genus, but not the same species- Is it considered cannibalism still?"
"What?"
"Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask, huh? I have a few more questions… Consider yourself unlucky to be a man lacking in femininity, otherwise, this period of interrogation would have been much more pleasant"
And with these words, he further dug his heel into the Blasse-Fusse's nape.