Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 89: Nate a good idea

The first hour of walking went entirely without trouble. Not a single living thing bothered them, and there was no sign of any danger. That should have been the first warning.

Chance and Bella crested the last of the hills at the base of the mountains and started up toward their peaks. The trip was significantly aided by a wide, thick path the width of several houses that ran along the side of the mountain, making it more of an uncomfortable hike than a difficult obstacle.

The side of the mountain was covered with thick foliage that only barely parted over the path. Large sections of it were completely overshadowed by bulging, knotty trees whose branches stretched out over the road, completely blocking out the light.

A gentle wind rustled their leaves and caressed Chance’s face as he and Bella ascended the mountain. He could practically taste the Essence in the air. It was so thick that it felt like he were suspended in water.

Aside from their footsteps on the packed dirt and the delicate crunch of small weeds that had the misfortune to have grown in the path before them, it was completely silent. The silence was so great that it wrapped around, the sheer lack of noise turning into a dull roar in Chance’s ears.

It wasn’t a roar that he was actively aware of as much as a complete muting of one of his senses – his mind had simply stopped registering the subtle nothingness as anything of value. Neither he nor Bella spoke, both lost in their own thoughts and moving on autopilot.

That was when the monster struck. It blurred through the air, its lithe body flashing past Bella and disappearing into the foliage within seconds. The movement had been so fast that Chance barely even registered it.

He shook his head, blinking heavily. Chance squinted at the rustling bushes, the only sign that there had even been something else on the path, then turned back to Bella with a baffled expression.

The question on his lips fell away as blood started to pour down Bella’s back from four deep cuts along her back. They’d been so clean that it had taken her body a moment to realize that she’d actually been cut.

Bella staggered and fumbled for her pouch. The bushes shuddered and Chance lunged. His urumi flew to his hand and he whipped it through the air, twisting the blade in the process. The segmented weapon snaked out before him and the blurred form of the monster launched itself back into the woods to avoid getting struck.

“Bella! Are you okay?” Chance desperately wanted to look back at her, but taking his attention from the monster for an instant would probably result with his own innards getting spilled across the ground.

“Fine,” Bella replied through gritted teeth in a strained voice. She spat on the ground. “I’m ready for it this time. It won’t get me again. Focus on yourself.”

Chance inclined his head slightly. The bushes around them remained still. Evidently, the monster was hoping to wear out their patience until they let their guards down again. Chance directed the Essence flowing from his Gate into his forehead and opened his third eye.

Strands of Karma formed through the leaves, leading into a bush just a short way behind them. Chance’s urumi snapped out. A tremor ran down the blade and a pained yowl escaped from the bush.

He yanked it back, splattering black blood across the ground and forcing their opponent into the dim light filtering through the canopy for the first time. It was feline in form and roughly the size of a large dog, with motley green and brown fur. The monster’s front paws were uncomfortably large, easily the size of dinner plates and with claws to match.

Its dull yellow eyes latched onto Chance and it arched its back, hissing as all the hair on its back stood straight up. Blood dripped from a shallow wound along its side, soaking into the dirt beneath it.

“One chance to run,” Chance growled, his urumi at the ready.

It charged him. Bella darted past Chance and swung her knee up. The cat slammed into her, claws flashing. They scraped across her skin with a dozen crystalline notes that were followed by a loud crunch as Bella brought her elbow down on the monster’s surprised head.

It staggered, falling limp. Chance thrust his urumi forward and the pointed tip thunked through the back of the monster’s neck and buried itself in the ground. The cat thrashed one last time, hissing and screaming in fury, but the fight left its body with its blood.

Bella kicked it hard in the head, putting the creature out of its misery. The wounds on her back were still trickling blood, but not nearly as profusely as they had been moments ago. Bella grimaced, rolling her shoulders.

“Damn. That thing got me good,” she cursed, rolling her shoulders. She craned her head back, trying to get a look at the wound, but couldn’t. “Good thing it was too stupid to keep trying hit and run tactics. How bad does it look?”

“I don’t think it expected you to survive getting clawed a dozen times after one pass nearly killed you the first time,” Chance said. He gently touched Bella’s back and she winced. “And it’s… not great. Can’t you tell?”

“No. I’m using my Essence,” Bella replied. She sat down, pressing her lips together tightly. “I already took healing pills, but there’s only so much they can do at this level. I think damn thing nicked my heart.”

“It doesn’t look fatal right now. I think. Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” Bella replied through clenched teeth. “I’m more annoyed about getting so distracted. If that cut had just been a bit deeper, I’d be dead.”

Chance’s hands tightened at his sides and he nodded, a wave of unease washing over him as he realized just how bad the situation had nearly become.

There’s only so much I can rely on Luck. It goes both ways. Damn it.

“Can you move?” Chance asked. “We should find somewhere a little more defensible to wait while you recover. If there was one of those cat things, there are probably more.”

Bella nodded. She gathered her strength and pushed herself to her feet before Chance could offer a hand in help. “Let’s go. My Essence will keep me alive until the pills manage to pull together the last bits. I don’t want to risk taking more pills until the effects from the first ones fully wear off. It’s not worth building up impurities over.”

Chance took the lead and they continued up the mountain. This time, Chance kept his Essence ready and his third eye open, and his head on a swivel.

It saved them.

A second cat monster tried its luck at finishing Bella off just ten minutes of walking later. Chance spotted the strands of Karma running off the monster out of the corner of his eye as it darted through the bushes in the distance, just barely visible.

He called out a warning, but his urumi was already flying before the words had left his mouth. Essence swirled around the blades, lighting it up a faint gold as it slammed into the monster’s abdomen mid-lunge and pinned it into a tree.

Chance flicked the blade, ripping it free and dragging the razor-sharp segments along the deadly cat’s chest before the whistled back to place. He snapped the blade out once more, carving the creature’s head off before it could even realize that it had been hit.

“Nice,” Bella said, giving him a small nod and lowering her hands. “I don’t think they’re used to people knowing where they are.”

“Small mercies.”

No more monsters attacked them, and the thick foliage broke a short while later. The road spilled out into a valley within the mountain, winding up toward its top. Large stones jutted out into the path, casting shadows over it and forming dozens of nooks and crannies.

A loud wind howled through the pass, buffeting both of them as soon as they stepped out of the protective wall of trees. There was little foliage in the path beyond a few incredibly stubborn, half dead plants that had embedded themselves within the rocks and refused to let go.

Through the stones, several strands of golden energy hung in the air. Chance narrowed his eyes, tracing them to spots behind several boulders.

“How are you holding up?” Chance raised his voice so Bella could hear him over the wind. It wasn’t deafening, but it was more than aggressive enough to be an annoyance.

“Almost healed. Just a little stiff now.

“Good, because I see more Karmic threads ahead of us. Three, I think. It’s too far for me to see details of who the threads are connected to.”

“Probably not cats, they’re much more suited to the forest. A different kind of monster?”

Chance shrugged in response. They both stood at the edge of the treeline and squinted into the valley. Eventually, Chance stepped forward and drew in a deep breath and prepared to call out.

I know the likelihood of it being a sentient monster that would actively choose not to fight are pretty low, but I’d rather avoid killing something that I don’t need to kill if I can.

Before he could say a word, two women and a man stepped out from beyond the boulders, their hands raised in greeting. They all wore matching leather with metal plates covering vital locations.

The man bore two swords at his side. His hair was short and blonde, and he wore an easygoing smile on his face. The woman to his side looked to be his sister or at least closely related. She had matching hair and bright blue eyes. A crossbow rested at her hip, a bolt nocked but not pointed in their direction. The final woman had black hair and no apparent weapons, and her expression was unreadable.

“Ho there!” the man called. “Peace!”

“Peace,” Chance called back, smiling in relief. “I’m Chance, and this is Bella.”

“I’m Nate. My sister is Nadia, and the dour lass behind me is Madeline. What sect are you with?”

“Dancing Cloud.” Chance lowered his urumi. “What about you?”

“Singing Fox. You’re so young looking,” Nate said with a grin, speaking just loudly enough for the wind to carry his words over to them. “How’d you manage to get here? I thought we were young, but I’ve got to be at least ten years older than you.”

“Luck and hard work.” The three were still too far away for Chance to make anything out in their Karmic threads, but their smiles all felt genuine. “We only just got here. Is there anything interesting up the mountain?”

“No idea,” Nadia said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “We’ve been camping out in the valley behind us for the past few days. The monsters higher up it are a little too strong for us to risk fighting. Did you find anything interesting in the forest? We didn’t have much luck there.”

“Just some bloodthirsty cats,” Chance said. “We haven’t found anything here, actually. I guess all the good loot is up in the castles in the sky or hidden where we can’t just stumble into it.”

“Yeah, I remember those. They weren’t too much of a bother if you hunkered down and let them tire themselves out trying to get past your aura.” Nate chuckled. He and the two women came to a stop a little over a dozen yards away from Chance and Bella, and Chance finally managed to peer into the threads of Karma connected to Nate.

Within them, he saw a dozen men and women’s shocked faces as they fell to the ground, struck dead by calculated, fatal sword strikes and pierced through by arrows. Nadia’s eyes narrowed as Chance failed to completely disguise his expression.

“Not friends,” Chance hissed urgently, an instant before Nadia fired her crossbow from her hip, not even raising the weapon to take aim.

She didn’t need to. The bolt slipped through the air and slammed into Bella’s neck – a perfect strike, executed in the fraction of a second and without the slightest hesitation. Nate’s grin grew cold as he raised his weapons, only to take pause.

Instead of dropping to her knees, blood bubbling up from her lips from what should have been a fatal strike, Bella didn’t flinch. The bolt vibrated against her neck, unable to pierce through her skin. Bella grabbed the bolt and flicked it to the side. It had only left a miniscule spot of blood on her.

“Ah, man,” Chance said, calling on his Essence and surrounding himself with a thick cloak of golden mist. “I wish you didn’t do that. I really didn’t want to have to fight you.”