Bang!
A particularly brutal attack struck Aries, causing his body to go limp. It was only for a moment, as he quickly caught himself.
That moment was all the time the owl needed to land another attack.
Enduring this, Aries moved. He kicked himself from the ground and bolted in the opposite direction of the rotting tree. As he moved, he could feel the air around him thin and become more tolerable.
He dashed around the trees, making it hard for the owl to track him.
His efforts seemed to be in vain, however, as the owl still appeared before him, landing another strike on him.
Ignoring the pain from the new wound, Aries pushed forward. After reaching a certain point, he released his disguise and pushed himself toward the tree before him.
Thud!
He turned himself feet-first to the tree and held his breath. As he landed on the tree, he wasted no time and used the maximum strength he could muster while enhancing himself with chi, then—
BANG!
The tree cracked and exploded under the force of his movement, sending splinters in every direction. Aries flew forward like a rocket, the trees around blurring due to the speed of his movement.
He used his wings to direct his movement as he covered the distance back to the rotting tree in nearly a third of the time it took to leave.
As the rotting tree made its way back into his vision, he raised his fist, channeling chi into it.
The owl had barely any time to react as Aries shot back in the opposite direction, but as it did, it seemed to realise what he was doing and promptly disappeared; however, it was too late. By the time the owl reappeared, Aries was standing where the rotting tree should have been, covered in blood as blood and chunks of flesh rained from the sky.
Aries stared at the owl with a cold expression, then, his hand slowly raised from his side, reaching towards the bird. His finger extended, pointing at the owl, then he made a crushing motion with his hand.
The owl's face contorted into a beastly form, resembling the expression of anger. The owl flapped its wings, shooting into the sky, then screeched with all its might.
Aries covered his ears as the sound reached him, and he groaned. It was like the sound clawed into his ears and bounced around in his skull.
He readied his wings to fly up and shut up the bird, but as he was about to lift off, he saw countless silhouettes making their way through the fog towards him. As something caught his attention, he returned his gaze back to the owl, which had stopped screeching and was already upon him.
Unlike before, however, he managed to dodge the attack.
Even though he had managed to dodge the owl's attack, he received no time to rest as one of the silhouettes shot forward— revealing itself to be a rat— and clamped down on his back.
Reacting quickly, Aries grabbed the rat and threw it into another rat that had launched itself toward him.
'This is getting out of hand. I need to do it now.'
Aries paused for a second, allowing himself to be vulnerable. Sensing what he was waiting for, he turned around and locked eyes with the owl, which had appeared behind him.
'Gotcha.'
'[Golden smoke]!'
The owl had no time to react as it was enveloped in a golden mist that burst out from Aries' body.
The owl disappeared, but it was already too late; its body was infected with the effects of the smoke.
Just as he remembered, the [Golden smoke] ability had two effects; it could make those who inhaled it hallucinate, making them see something from their deepest desires, or it could send them into delirium, making them confused and unable to focus. It could produce both of these effects separately, but not simultaneously. Maybe in the future he could produce such an effect, but not at the moment. This didn't matter much in his current situation, however, as just one of these effects were more than useful.
After activating the ability, Aries expelled the smoke with the intention of confusing the owl, thus focusing on the latter effect.
The bird reappeared just outside of the plume of smoke, trying to shake off the smoke and its effects, though it was already being affected. The owl's vision was blurry and shaky, the world spinning around it.
Shaking its head once more, the owl looked around, but it could barely make sense of its surroundings.
Suddenly, the sound of rustling grass resounded before it. Then, a looming shadow burst forth from within the golden smoke, parting it as it rushed toward the owl.
The owl tried to disappeared and escape once more, but in its confusion, found itself closer to the figure rushing forward. In that instance, the owl felt sharp fangs plunging into it's flesh and a rush of burning liquid flowing from thoes fangs.
Soon after, it felt something wrap around its body, squeezing it till its bones broke.
The owl thrashed, clawed, and writhed in its attempts to escape, but in just a few seconds, the burning liquid injected into it took hold of its entire body, causing it to go limp.
At the same time, Aries quickly returned to his normal, disguised self.
'That took too long.'
"Tch." Clicking his tongue, Aries stared down at the unmoving, but still very much alive, owl with an unnatural coldness. His body was covered in blood, and although he was no longer bleeding due to his enhanced self-healing capabilities, his wounds were still visible, resembling cracks in a sculpture.
Despite the condition of his body, Aries paid it no mind and focused entirely on the owl.
After a few moments, he raised his hand, infusing chi into it, then he thrusted it forward. The action was followed by the sound of flesh and splattering blood.
Squeak!
Caught off guard by the sound, Aries whipped around to where it originated from.
As he turned around, he realized that the sacks of flesh from the rotting tree had burst open and the mutated rats inside began to crawl out from them.
A choir of squeaking surrounded Aries, each one of the mutant rats staring him down with maddened hunger.
Aries himself stared back at the approaching rats with a blank expression, his golden eyes seeming almost black for a moment.
Then the first rat rushed forward.