A Quiet Spot (Void)

Try as he might, Void couldn't seem to grip his claws into the bark of the tree as effectively as he first envisioned, he was furious at himself for every little mistake and slip up he made whilst trying to climb. He could see out of the corner of his eye the new face overtaking him... It only infuriated the young shadow wolf further. He could feel a burning hatred building up inside, he was so filled with adrenaline and anger that he hardly could think straight. Purely acting now on natural instincts he'd give up trying to climb up to the second branch of his tree, instead once reaching the first set he'd launch himself towards Lui's tree and lash out with his claws to try and teach this human who was boss of these forests. He was hoping that Lui was still too distracted with climbing and trying to reach the top for him to realize what was happening, Void was attacking from a lower area too and by likely chance Lui would be looking upwards to see where to put his hands next to climb. If Void's attack were to be successful he's scratch out at Lui's legs before tumbling to the ground below, not really considering the fact he'd have no where to land after jumping.

At this point, regardless of if he hit or not. Void's disguise would of diminished as he hit the ground and rolled to try and brace the fall the best he could. He'd slowly pick himself back up off the ground afterwards, looking down at the ground with no clear attempts of continuing to fight afterwards. If anything he'd appear to be sulking. "I... I can't believe I lost." He'd whimper, punching the ground with one fist.

Action:

As Lui pulled himself up to the second branch, he realized that the boy had disappeared from his tree. Seconds later, he'd look down only too late to see the boy, his illusion fading to reveal a nightmarish wolf creature, scratch his legs before tumbling down to the ground. Feeling the pain shake his body, Lui fell over the second branch and landed on his arms as he tumbled back onto his knees. After checking his body for any possible damages, he initially summoned his rapier to prepare for a fight before realizing that the creature appeared not to fight back. Instead, it sulked at the base of the tree, pounding its paw into the ground. He quickly dismissed the weapon, hoping the wolf boy was too busy moping, and took a long, thick branch over as Lui stood a distance from the wolf, his branch extended to brace for another attack.
"He doesn't know yet. Just need to keep cool and talk it out."

Damage Taken:

Status:

"Y-you... What are you? Some monster of the forest?"

Void'd punch the ground with his paw again before slowly raising his claws and inspecting them with his wide white eyes. His disillusions of the world showing the blood of the new face upon his claws. In reality nothing was really there, it was merely the twisting way his shadow form thought that'd show the boy his bloodied claws. His instincts made him want to lick the blood from his paws, similar to how he had just the night before when attacking those beasts. Yet when the person who'd blood stained him spoke up, he'd remember where it had came from and threw his paw to the ground again.

He'd push himself suddenly backwards as he looked up and saw the branch being pointed in his direction, he'd let out a much louder growl than he had done before yet this time it was more defensive than aggressive. "No! Grrrr... I-I'm not a monster... I stopped the monsters! I protect this place! H-how dare you accuse me of being like them!" The boy would bark back at the question issued to him, his head twitching back and forth involuntarily as he slowly edged himself backwards away from Lui. His breathing was notably faster at this point and he'd look down at his bloody paw again before whispering to himself... "I can't..."

Now that Lui had the creature at bay, he gave a confused yet inquisitive head tilt at the wolf. Firstly, it appeared to have blood on its hand where Lui found no injuries on his legs. Secondly, it displayed its distaste for being branded a monster. It declared itself a protector of the forest. Lui began to lower his branch as he looked back to converse with Shiro.
"Is this thing really a threat? If this thing is serious, it's been slaughtering demons around here. But if it's not a demon, what are we dealing with here?"
"Considering it's appearance and abilities, we may be dealing with a Shadow. Poor child must have lost to his other self. Be careful but courteous."

As a sign of goodwill, Lui set the branch down onto the ground and slowly approached the wolf. He was still wary of the creature but nevertheless did his best to show he had good intentions. Even if it decided to attack, a quick swipe of the hand would bring the rapier through the beast's torso in an instant.

"S-sorry. Look, if you're really just a demon-slaying wolf of the forest, I have no intention of hurting you. You're not with the Cadets, are you? What happened to you? Did you... get attack by demons?"

With his back now up against a tree from trying to back away from the new face, his head would rise slightly before lowing again as he cautiously watched the guy lower the branch to the ground... He was scared, he wasn't sure why he was scared but he was. He was pretty sure it wasn't even the guy that scared him, more his words that did. The young Shadow Wolf just didn't want to wrap his brain around the fact he was deemed a monster. In all his attempts to stop those horrid creatures, had he simply taken their place after they were gone...? It had never been something that crossed his mind, and it made his head hurt to think about.

Void'd snarl sharpishly as Lui drew close enough for the shadow to feel uncomfortable, he didn't want to be aggressive anymore, but he didn't want to completely lose his guard and act stupidly either. "Those beasts... The damned creatures who were destroying this place, my home... I-I ended them. Hunted them down and ended them! T-they were evil! They had to die!" He'd bark back his response just like any child would, wanting to give any possible excuse they could think of to try and weasel themselves out of trouble for doing something they probably shouldn't have done. "I protected this place..." He'd whisper, flexing the claws on his paws as he looked at them. "I... I don't know how... But I did. And that's all I ever wanted..."

Even after showing the wolf child that he meant no harm, it seemed panicked still. What was wrong? It seemed almost contemplative, as if the thought of something he only now realized had finally seized him. The beast snarled as Lui approached, so Lui laid his branch slowly onto the ground and knelt down to meet his gaze.

"These beasts you're talking about are demons, right? They invaded your home,
so does that mean you've lived here all this time? You don't actually... have a family, do you? Well,
my apologies for invading your neck of the woods. I can leave if that helps. I just need a quiet spot to train.

But if you're not with the Cadets, then I think I understand what happened. You were probably ambushed by demons in the dead of night, right? You would've been killed, but then something came over you. Looks like it ended differently from how it could've..."

This could be it. Somebody else with the power to fight off the demons that isn't under the thumb of the queen. Lui still had his suspicions about telling the Shadow his secret; his personality from earlier indicated that he may not be trustworthy or honest when it came to interactions. Should Void decide to pick up on Lui's suspicions and trust to keep his identity a secret, maybe they could both benefit from each other's abilities.

"Let's start over. My name's Lui. Can I have yours?"

"They were weird creatures... Like giant red wolves... They ravaged everything, killed so many other animals..." Void's voice would trail off, he had seriously lost track of why he wanted to stop those creatures in the first place. The boy had put no effort into helping them now that those evil creatures were dead, instead just running around basically doing what they were. What good did he do in the end... "The forest is my home." The Shadow Wolf would reply simply, not bothering to even take in the further questions. They didn't matter to him, family was nothing important for how he wanted to live.

The shadow self would stand to his feet slowly, keeping his back to the tree he was leaning against. "... Cadets...?" The word was almost instinctively mimicked in a confused tone, this new face had mentioned them twice now... Yet the boy hadn't a clue who they were, not like the animals tend to talk about that kind of thing. "I ambushed them. I tracked them down and had a plan to kill them. The forest saw me trying to protect it and gave me the strength of one of its own." He'd snap back, it wasn't against how he saw the world to truly believe that as being the reason why he was given the body of a wolf. The forest was like him, it feared humanity. Yet Void had earned its trust, showed that it could treat it with respect, only use what he needed and help replenish it in anyway he could. The forest helped him in return when he needed it most and accepted him as one of the animals of the forest. There was nothing else to it.

He'd lightly shrug when asked his name, he didn't care much for knowing Lui's and it wasn't like he had a real name of his own. "Don't have one... Not a real one... The wind calls me Void though, I guess that works..." As the wolf spoke, he'd of managed to calm himself down for the most part again after his violent attack from before and with a slight fazed image at first, the illusion of his human self would start to develop around him again. "... I think I should go..." He'd whisper, attempting to step out of the way and around the tree he was up against.

Seems this creature, referring to itself as Void, was beginning to reform its disguise. It made reference to some red wolves that had prowled in the area. It wasn't even aware of what a Cadet was? With all this in mind, it became clear that this kid really didn't have a family or wander too far from the forest. Nevertheless, it still seemed frightened by Lui. Not wanting to push Void further, he silently shrugged and step away from the boy.

"I getcha. If you don't like humans messing with your neck of the woods, I'll get out of your hair. You're an interesting... person, Void. So let me tell you something. If you ever hear somebody call themselves a Cadet working for the Queen or something, don't get involved. Nothing but problems there, and, well, they won't hesitate to attack you. So do whatever you're planning and I'll be on my way. If you want a rematch, which I doubt you'd want, you can find me."

Picking up the sticks he had previously driven into the ground as he came in, Lui waved goodbye as he made his way out of Void's grove. Leaving no trace just might put a good note in the wolf's mind, as it would indicate Lui had no intention of returning uninvited. All the while, Shiro spoke up in his mind.

"Would it be wise to associate with this creature, Lui? I distinctly remember it trying to cut your legs only a minute ago."
"Who knows? Point is, he could get involved in whatever's going on with these Terrorists. Heck, maybe he'll fight for the Terrorist side if we can get an in."
"But that would imply we ever come across that Void again, and I doubt he would take our presence lightly. He seems cautious about humans and monsters."
"If this fighting escalates, he won't have an option... And I'm just praying the Terrorists don't end up being the first forces on his kill list."

--Lui EXIT--

"I'll keep it in mind..." He'd shrug as Lui explained the dangers of these so called cadets, it wasn't like he wanted to get involved with people anyway. Not in a traditional sense for the most part anyway, it was a useful bit of information to come across that his bestial form was only viable to others when he got worked up and attacked them though... Could be useful to play the innocent role before getting the jump on someone in the future if the need ever arose... Yet this whole experience had kinda shifted the boy into thinking how his new self had taken over his pride of protector of the forest. He needed to make amend to that.

Void'd simply nod lightly at Lui as he began to make his leave, there were definitely a few things that he'd said throughout their encounter that had interested the boy greatly. Especially the fact that he knew about these so named demons... Did that mean there were more of them than just the two he'd taken out the night before? Grrr, if that were true he'd love to sink his claws into their flesh and tear them limb from limb... Perhaps if he followed this guy he'd lead him straight to them...? After taking a moment to pick up Lui's scent from the tree he'd started climbing before. Void decided it was time to play a little game of tracking unknowing prey...

Lui Saito and Void have established a Social Link...