The sll of fresh blood reeked where they sat. Rolan shot up and followed the odor to its source. Velonica tailed him out of personal curiosity despite Rolan's protests. They trekked through the heavy snow and arrived at a spot where the stench concentrated.
In a portion of parted snow rested the mutilated corpse of a young man with blond hair; his bones were twisted out of shape as blood leaked from his pores. The poor fellow was already drenched in a pool of his own red. Worst of all, the bleeding didn't seem to cease; if anything, it was still pouring out.
Rolan shook his head in frustration. "Once again, a pitiful sight."
"Agreed."
Rolan gave velonica an exaggerated side-eye before facing the corpse. 'She's really starting to cramp my style.'
"Let's bury him," Rolan uttered.
"Doesn't he serve as evidence or sothing? Maybe a clue is attached..."
"No, there's no point in it. From the looks of it, he's just an average random with awful luck. We won't get anything useful from his corpse, and we can't leave it rotting here either."
"That was an..." she muttered to herself.
Rolan stepped closer to the corpse's pool of blood. To his surprise, the man had a fading wavelength oozing from the tip of his flesh. Though minuscule, it made Rolan's palms tingle like a struck thread.
'He's one of ours.' Rolan pressed both brows together in a confused manner.
"What is it, Rolan?" She stepped closer as well.
The sa sensation struck her hand; she could tell without a doubt the body belonged to a rookie of the Eerie Gothel. Velonica analyzed the recognizable features of the corpse and determined she was unfamiliar with the person, aning he didn't belong to her group.
Then again, that wasn't much help to Rolan. He already saw Velonica as a narcissist incapable of identifying anyone without above-average looks, depending on what her standards were. 'Even if it were a mber of her group, I'm sure as hell she wouldn't recognize him.'
"If you don't know him, then let's bury him. We can't leave his remains in the cold like this," Rolan insisted, his words carrying a stubborn presence.
"Shouldn't we try and find out who he is first?"
"How do you suppose we do that?"
Velonica parted her lips, but words failed to conjure; she was clueless on how to enact her own suggestion.
With that, Rolan had nothing hindering him from carrying out his side task. Velonica saw the pity exposed in Rolan's dilated pupils. His attempts to hide it were solid but not enough to deceive her; out of respect for his efforts, Velonica brushed it off as an emotional mont.
"Aren't you going to help?" Rolan gripped his waist and crossed his eyes slightly while staring at Velonica.
Velonica pasted a pondering gaze on the man's cadaver for a few seconds, then shifted it to Rolan's expectant posture.
Velonica pulled her lips to the side. "No thanks, I'm just fine. That looks disgusting, and I can't have blood staining what I have on," she answered with a repulsed face. "You'll have to forgive , but I'll pass."
'That's kinda an...' Rolan thought.
Still, he didn't have high hopes of her agreeing anyway. Since there wasn't a shovel available, Rolan was fine digging a resting place with his bare hands. The snowy ground felt agonizingly sharp on human flesh, but Rolan wasn't too bothered; after all, he had died buried in the sa ice.
Unlike the man before him, Rolan had revived. The casual benefits of a Venerable were his most useful assets in the trial. Velonica on the other hand was as good as a decoration on a vase; Rolan at tis wondered if she would be useful or just a burden he had to carry because he saved her.
BAM!
The short sound of a heavy object colliding against the thick snow grabbed Rolan's attention. He shot his glare to the side and saw sothing that hadn't been present previously. Rolan tiptoed to the spot, leaving Velonica with the task of guarding the man's cadaver.
Rolan made each step slower and more calculated than the last. In case of a surprise attack, he rolled his hands into fists and tensed his body. The crunch of his feet against the ice was low yet revealing as a freezing wind blew across his unprotected features.
WHAM!
A human hand violently clenched his ankle from beneath the snow and held him down. Before the air itself could fully pass, Rolan reacted with a series of vicious stomps that crushed the arm like seeds for an herbal redy. In a single motion, Rolan swiped a lifting kick into the snow and cleared the ice with force alone. A material blocked Rolan's leg from passing freely, thus Rolan further strengthened his kick.
Similar to using a pick axe to yank the small root of a large tree, Rolan flung the matter to the top layers with a single swipe of his leg. The thing rolled several ters before slowing down and falling off the edge of the steep ice.
Rolan didn't hesitate to chase the creature; if anything, he was invigorated by what occurred. A burst of thrill spread through his body like a stream. He darted with nimble movents and leaped off the steep edge brilliantly. Like a display of skill, Rolan made himself roll on the snow and stick the landing on his feet.
"Alright, you bastard man-eater, what secrets will you reveal to ?" He flickered his fingers back and forth as he stomped through the snow in a ridiculous fashion. His face held a goofy expression, as though what occurred was nothing more than a gag.
His feet stopped, and Rolan's goofy expression drowned into a mix of somberness and bewildernt. Dark shadings drew over his hairline down to the top of his lips.
Once again, it was another human, and an Indulger nonetheless. A dashing young man with brown hair and lifeless gray eyes lay there. Blissful white flowers sprang from his sockets like a small garden, while stems and vines planted themselves across his body from his teeth down to the nails on his toes. More flowers blood on his fingers, hand, chest, and mouth. Rolan watched with a stiff stance and a seemingly captivated face.
The flowers that blood were a bright white, purer than the snow itself, each with four petals and a white style so clear it resembled a mirror. Its filant, anther, and stigma were also the sa color, and pollen-like glimrs floated at the top.
"HOOOOOOWWL!" A white-furred wolf raised its head and called in the distance. The wolf stood several miles away at the peak of an icy hill; from the looks of it, the animal seed to observe Rolan before running down the slope.
Rolan paid no attention to it and focused on the man before him. After all, they were on the outskirts of the North Pole; running into a few wild animals was an expected event. The man he looked at, however, was the exact opposite.
Velonica slid down the steep ice as well and rushed toward Rolan's side. She took ragged breaths before tracing Rolan's gaze toward the man. 'Another Indulger,' she thought.
Rolan had crushed the man's right hand into paste. The lost limb didn't sprout any of the unusual flowers, but they grew bountifully on his left arm.
"You must have noticed it as well; he's not one of us," Rolan croaked as he spoke, his mouth squeezed together like dried prunes.
"I told you before, the Eerie Gothel isn't the only faction presently in the North Pole."
"We'll bury this man as well," he affird. His current deanor spoke volus about his ntal state; nobody could change his decision or convince him otherwise.
Despite that, Velonica had to oppose. "I don't think that's a good idea. From the looks of it, he's been cursed, and a very fatal curse at that. The plant-based chanism leaves the possibility of it being contagious as well."
'All these Indulger terms and logic are starting to vex ,' Rolan thought. In an audible voice, he counter-argued, "I don't care, I'll bury him anyway. If I don't, he'll beco a al for the wolves."
"And so? Who cares! It's just a random person we don't know, so how is it our problem? Deaths and curses are the usual everyday life of Indulgers, you should know that! So why are you so bothered about this person? A man you don't even know," Velonica contended, spit springing from her mouth like a shower.
Velonica wiped her face clean. "Look, Rolan, even animals need food. Just let the wolves have his corpse; it'll save them the stress of hunting." She faked a weak smile.
Rolan acted as though all he heard was the howling breeze.
"Do you really pity these people so much?" Velonica sincerely questioned Rolan.
Rolan chuckled to himself and responded, "If it were Martin in the sa condition, would you say the sa?"
Rolan's answer caught Velonica off guard. She beca speechless as she combed her mind for an answer. Finally, she replied, "I don't know myself, but unlike this man, Martin was a mber of my team, a rookie Indulger of the Eerie Gothel. We were on the sa side."
Rolan smiled moderately at her answer and spoke, "Take it from a person with a large pile of bodies in his closet. Once a man becos a corpse, he is no longer your enemy."
"That sounds like bullshit!"
"Guess we'll have to agree to disagree," Rolan sighed. "I can bury him alone and complete this trial the sa way. If you don't like my reasoning, you're free to leave."
"Tch!" Velonica scowled at Rolan in a dense rage.
At the sa ti...
The wolf Rolan saw previously traversed a long stretch of the icy cold lands. Eventually, it stopped near a tent where cans of food were left dormant.
"It's here." A deep male voice spoke from within the oval tent.
A man wearing brown cargo pants and a large green fur jacket stepped outside. His boots stepped on the thin ice without a problem as he went toward the animal.
The man had a ssy beard and a long curtain cut, wearing round glasses that made his face seem tiny. His blue eyes reflected the dropping snowflakes like a clear pond.
The wolf growled, showing all the fangs in its artillery while extending its claws, about to pounce on the man.
The man went on one knee and slowly stretched out his hand. Before things grew more intense, the man gently placed his hand over the creature's white fur and gave it caring head pats. The wolf submitted and went down on all fours as it enjoyed the loving encounter.
"Alright, little buddy, what info do you have for today?"
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