Iron Blooded Hound

Chapter 59: Savage Silence

Aiyen and Vikir followed the oxbear male cautiously.

Though his nerves were sharp, his body was weakened, evident from the water dissipating in his wake.

"You have to seize the moment when your target is as vulnerable as possible."

Vikir nodded as Aiyen applied frog toxin to his sharpened stone.

...When is the enemy most vulnerable?

It's when they're sleeping, especially after several vigorous lovemakings.

Aiyen glanced at the oxbear dung on the ground and nodded.

"Based on the density and consistency, he's not doing well."

"He'll probably rest well tonight."

"Of course he will, he hasn't had any rest for the past three days and is depleted of energy. He'll likely retreat to a dark, deep corner where he doesn't usually go."

Aiyen was correct.

The oxbear was familiar with its environment, and it was heading deeper into the dense floodwaters.

Thick jungle. Fallen trees tangled between the living, creating a maze of foliage.

The leaves were turning red and yellow, making it difficult to discern direction.

Tracking the creatures was made even more challenging by the fact that their tracks could be washed away in as little as half a day if it rained.

But Aiyen never failed to focus on his objective.

The way the branches bent, how the grass was trampled, the depth of the soil, the chirping of the grasshoppers around him.

To a finely trained tracker, these were signs.

"Where an oxbear has passed, you won't hear a mouse or insect for a while."

As if in agreement, the wolf Bakira let out a low growl.

Bakira had been following a scent from earlier, the faint aroma of fragrant berries, a scent that the human nose couldn't detect.

The scented berries had been stuffed into the stomachs of carp and salmon by Aiyen and thrown to the oxbear as food.

So the oxbear would inhale it and carry it with him wherever he went.

Meanwhile, Vikir observed Aiyen's skilled tracking from start to finish.

Some parts he didn't know, some parts he did.

What he knew, he would review; what he didn't know, he would learn.

Then.

Up in the trees, Aiyen peered down at the forest at the bottom of the hill and raised a finger.

Sure enough, there it was, a male oxbear lumbering along.

He could probably get it if he pounced on it right now, but he was cautious nonetheless.

"Well, we'll have to postpone the chase for a while."

"Why is that?"

Vikir asked, and Aiyen snorted and scowled.

"That oxbear has crossed the boundaries of the marsh. There are terrifying creatures that live in the marsh, so we can't go in there."

"Terrifying creatures?"

Vikir was about to ask what they were.

...Mate!

Aiyen's two palms flew out and slapped Vikir on both cheeks.

His cheeks flushed red instantly. As Vikir stood there stunned, Aiyen smirked.

"This is the creature."

Aiyen held out one palm before Bikir.

In the center of his palm was a dead mosquito.

Bakira, the wolf, growled softly and pawed at the mosquito's corpse in preemptive warning.

Aiyen cautioned with a serious expression.

"There are three types of mosquitoes in that marsh. One is the parasitic mosquito. These are not very threatening. But... bone-sucking mosquitoes and tissue-sucking mosquitoes, you have to watch out for."

This was the kind of thing Vikir knew too.

Of all the mosquitoes in the waters of the Red and Dark Mountains, the bone-suckers were the most dangerous.

They swarmed over anything that moved, turning the body of a living creature into a leather sack of carnage in an instant.

Indeed, Vikir had witnessed how the bone-sucking mosquitoes had treated a companion a few times before, so he understood the seriousness of Aiyen's situation.

...But there's one thing he doesn't know.

"But... why won't you remove your hand from your cheek?"

Aiyen's other hand was still on Bikir's cheek.

Aiyen winced slightly at Bikir's question, but then answered in a terse manner.

"Do I need to take it off?"

Aiyen was now pressing directly on the flesh of Bikir's cheek.

Bikir scowled.

"...What's wrong with you?"

"Why, I'm the master. Do you always object to me touching mine?"

Bikir's mouth was half open in disbelief.

But there would be no point in rebelling against Aiyen now, not when he was so unwell.

"You're serious."

"...."

So I'll just have to endure this embarrassing childish treatment for a while.

* * *

At dusk.

Aiyen settled down on the cliffside directly overlooking Oxbear's den.

"They'll strike at daybreak tomorrow."

Oxbear is nocturnal, so fighting him now would be a disadvantage.

It was wisest to strike when the sun rose and he fell asleep.

Aiyen and Vikir built a simple shelter on a sturdy rocky area.

A few branches, a leather cloth, and some broad leaves made a tent large enough for three or four people.

Blow into it and white smoke billows out.

This is what the indigenous people of Balak call the "cool valley," a valley where even in May, the snow still hasn't melted.

"It's so cool here, even the mosquitoes can't come."

Aiyen moved into the tent and lay down.

He lifted his leathers and gestured to Bikir, who stood outside the tent.

"Come in here."

"... ..."

Bikir was silent for a moment.

He glanced around and saw the harshness of the weather.

The ground was cold and the soil was poor.

Trees couldn't grow much, so where they had grown and died, only shrubs and weeds grew in their place.

With short bushes rising like a mesh, it wasn't a bad spot to camp for the night, as long as you were careful about the cold.

Stir...

Vikir stepped inside the tent.

Aiyen had dug a shallow pit in the fresh floor and piled leaves and swordfire in it.

Crackle!

A small fire bloomed.

The light from the tent warmed the confined space.

True to its name, the valley became freezing at night.

His face and arms were warm in front of the fire, but his back, head, legs, and toes were immediately cold.

Beyond the crackling coals, Vikir pondered many things.

The friends and comrades he'd left behind in the Time of Ruin, that multitude of faces.

People he could see again whenever he chose, people he could never ever see again.

Meanwhile, in the sea of mist outside the tent, dead trees, like human bones, rose and sank.

Vikir was lost in thought over the dying embers of the fire.

"Boom!"

A sound interrupts his reverie.

He turns to find Aiyen wrapped in Bakira's fur, inhaling something.

It was portions of strength for a, so potent that you could discern its strength by the smell alone.

From a leather pouch, Aiyen smoked a wide slice of jerky, slathered in white fat

, and ate it as a late-night snack.

It looked like buttered bread, but the flavor and nutritional content would be far different.

After a long pause, Aiyen looked back at Vikir.

"You should eat it, it's good for you."

"...I don't have jerky."

Vikir replied, and Aiyen waved her hand dismissively.

"Anyway. Just relax. It's a master's virtue to provide for his slaves. I've even brought you your portion."

"...?"

Vikir tilted his head.

Aiyen's leather pouch had contained only one piece of jerky.

It had just gone into her mouth.

Just in time.

...Jaw!

Aiyen clapped both of Vikir's cheeks in her palms.

Then, she pressed her lips against his.

...!

Vikir lacked the freedom and willpower to object.

Aiyen kissed Vikir on the mouth, transferring the alcohol and jerky into his mouth.

Gulp!

Vikir swallowed the alcohol and meat in one gulp.

"Fuha!"

Only then did Aiyen pull her face away from Vikir's.

She stroked his jawline with the back of her hand and grinned.

"You can't chew this jerky with your recent jaw. It's really tough."

"...I'm sure it is."

Vikir frowned.

The jerky that remained in his mouth was so tough that he had to draw on his mana to chew it.

With Ahun's beating, Vikir hadn't been able to eat anything except porridge or tree berries, so this was a fine(?) nourishment.

Suddenly.

Aiyen's eyes widened.

Somehow, she had ended up sitting on top of Vikir.

In the confined confines of the tent, Vikir could do little more than squirm beneath her.

Aiyen's face was flushed red from the firelight.

She gazed down at Vikir with a strangely heated smile.

"You couldn't object, could you?"

"Because it's heavy."

"It's not heavy."

"I said it's heavy."

"I'm not heavy."

"I said I'm heavy."

Aiyen was silent for a moment, taking time to ponder something, then she said.

"It's not that I'm heavy, it's that you're weak."

With that, Aiyen smiled a smile that seemed oddly satisfied.

Vikir noticed it and gave up on the conversation.

Maybe it's the dialect, but he can't read her emotions right now.

"The main thing I want to do is recover quickly.

He had to if he didn't want to be controlled.

If I could regain my strength, I could easily subdue this smaller guy and leave the jungle.

And the quickest way to do that was to rest.

Vikir closed his eyes.

Aiyen leaned in close to the point of touching his face with the tip of her nose.

"Are you sleepy? Put your hand here. It's the spot with the most strength. In return, I'll put my hand on yours..."

As Bikir's hand slid between my chest and armpit, Aiyen paused to drape her body over his.

Aiyen's expression quickly turned to bewilderment.

"...Are you asleep?"

The response came back, too frightened to speak.

Doron-.

Vikir had fallen asleep in that brief moment.

He could fall asleep in

less than a second when he lies down, a skill that has been practiced by martial artists throughout the Age of Destruction.

"...Huh!"

Aiyen pouted her lips in disbelief.

She slid off Vikir's body as if offended and lay down beside him.

Then she rolled over and crossed her arms, her own hands trapped between his chest and armpits.

"Hmph. How dare you be insolent. A dull slave, inconsiderate of his master."

Aiyen continued to grumble.

Only Bakira, the wolf with her ears to the ground, is looking at Aiyen with a pitying gaze.

"What is it, why are your eyes open like that?"

[Grrrr-]

"What! What! I was just cold, I wasn't trying to do anything else...."

Just as Aiyen and Bakira were about to argue.

...Bam!

Vikir, who thought he was sleeping, instantly jumped up.

The momentum was enough to make even Aiyen and Bakira flinch in surprise.

"Uh, uh, you didn't sleep...?"

Before Aiyen could open her mouth, Vikir spoke.

"It's coming."

Something clicked in his senses that hadn't been there for a moment.

Suddenly, Aiyen's and Bakira's expressions stiffened.

Suddenly, an inexplicable wail rips through the night.

[Krrrrrr!]

The oxbear male had attacked this way first.

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