6 Chapter 6: Otherworldly

{ Both players can walk. Please proceed through the portal that will form in five seconds}

This abrupt message catches Joseph and Aziue off-guard as a bright blue portal materializes in the middle of the room, illuminating their bodies blue. Joseph stares at the portal before standing up from the Wendigo's corpse and walking towards the portal.

While Joseph's footsteps echo out, he glances back at Aziue who is following him, and speaks. 

" There's no telling what otherworldly things are behind this portal so prepare yourself. "

As soon as Joseph finishes his sentence, he swiftly walks into the portal. Space warps around his body as three white flashes flicker in and out until Joseph's body is transported into a dense forest Joseph looks around staring through the trees as Aziue's body appears standing directly behind him. 

Joseph glances back at Aziue before his eyes widen. A concerned look covers Aziue's face as she looks around the forest panicking. Her lips quivered until she spoke to Joseph in a frightened voice.

" W-Why are we here? This forest is from my world. It's the place where the gods lay dormant. We need to leave as quickly as possible. "

Joseph looks at scared Aziue confused until abruptly he lunges at Aziue and pushes her. Aziue's body flies back as she stares at Joseph with dilated eyes before a dagger flies past Aziue's face slicing through the bridge of her nose. The dagger pierces into a nearby tree while Aziue falls back first on the ground. 

Aziue looks to her right before seeing a woman with tan skin and long purple hair. She's wearing a suit similar to the one Joseph is wearing. Joseph and Aziue stare at the woman until she suddenly speaks. 

" What do you think you're doing here? "

Aziue stared at the woman confused until a random message started to ring through her head.

{ Welcome to the Conji's Realm. The test for this phase is to intervene in an upcoming attack on a village. This village is twenty miles north of your current location. Other contestants will soon arrive in this realm, so congratulations you're the first one to arrive in Conji's realm. } 

Aziue glanced over at Joseph who also looked over towards Aziue. He had also heard the message. The woman in front of her wasn't a contestant in the Assassin Straight game, instead just a local of the area. Aziue stared at the woman until Joseph suddenly raised his hand in the air and spoke to the woman in a polite tone of voice. 

" We were ordered here to help prevent an attack on a village just north of here. I believe the village is around twenty miles away."

As soon as the woman heard this, her demeanor quickly changed to happy as she ecstatically spoke to Joseph with a grin on her face. 

" Thank the Lords, it seems our request for aid has finally reached the great deities, but is the aid, only you two? " 

Joseph smirked before shaking his head and answering the question. 

" No, more will be arriving soon, but I can't tell you if they will be friendly. " 

The woman looked at Joseph confused before she nodded her head and walked past him retrieving her dagger from the tree and sliding into a sheath. She waved her hand gesturing for Aziue and Joseph to follow her as she spoke.

" Please let me guide you to the village. "

Joseph followed the woman as Aziue walked behind him with hundreds of thoughts running through her mind... 

Who are these people in this forest? They weren't present in my world at all unless this is from the far past. After all these trees don't have any robotics engraved into them, they are completely organic. My world was polluted by smog forcing us to make artificial trees to keep us alive.

But Joseph was quick on his feet. I'm guessing he brought up the village, due to the system mentioning it. Looks like this system will only bring up important details to help complete our tests but that begs the question. How many tests do we need to complete to finish Assassin Straight?

I guess it will be mentioned to us later by the system. For now, all I can do is focus on the task in front of me. We are meant to protect a village but from what exactly? Is it some type of monster, or something else? I look behind the woman before speaking and asking a question. 

" What are we exactly protecting this village from? "

As soon as I said this, Joseph snapped his head back at me with a bewildered look on his face as sweat poured down his face. He glanced at the woman in front of him before speaking to her. 

" I-I'm sorry, the message that told us to protect this village was foggy and hard to read. " 

I look at Joseph confused until he starts to make hand signs, trying to speak to me through sign language. I stare at his hands confused until he bites his thumb drawing blood. Joseph begins to write a message on his left palm as the woman speaks to me and Joseph.

"It's fine, some type of monster showed up and began to bombard are tiny helpless town. "

As soon as the woman finishes speaking, she looks back forward and keeps on walking until she abruptly starts sniffing in the air with drool running out of her mouth. I stare at the drool dripping down her face perplexed as Joseph holds out his hand revealing the message written on his palm. 

[ She is a monster, look at her lower jaw ]

I glance at her jaw only to see tiny green scales reflecting in the sunlight. How did I not see them when I was face first with her? And how did Joseph see them before I did? Is his sight really that good? I glance away from the scales and watch Joseph rub his hand on his black pants cleaning his palm of the message. 

I assume that Joseph plans on following her to the village, and we are headed north but exactly why would this monster lead us to the village unless she truly thinks we were sent here by a deity and is afraid of offending those gods? Hmm, I guess we'll just wait and see how things happen.

Several minutes pass as we walk behind the monster quietly. Joseph and I periodically glance at each other before looking back forward. If the system was telling the truth, it'd take five to seven hours to reach the village. By then, more players would have shown up. And the monster knows this. I'm sure these thoughts are running through its brain. 

And to help support this idea, its footsteps have gradually become faster over time. It's running out of patience, but their increase in speed could be them trying to tire us out before attacking. Either they are running out of patience or their plan is working. I glance at the back of Joseph's head before he suddenly motions with his thumb for me to move to the right. 

I pivot my lead foot and start to head towards the right while Joseph increases his speed and walks next to the woman. The woman looks over at Joseph confused as he politely grins before his right hand flickers and he grabs onto the dagger. Before the woman could react, Joseph flings the dagger towards me before slamming a powerful kick into the woman's nose. 

The woman's legs wobble as her knees lock and she tumbles towards the ground. The woman is about to collapse onto the floor before suddenly her body morphs, and her head bends backward before she falls onto her hands in a C-like position. Her bones begin to loudly crack while I snag the dagger out of the air. 

Joseph dashes back from the morphing woman before he snaps his head towards me and yells out. 

"It's a skinwalker, a demonic entity that morphs into animals and people. Infuse your lightning into the dagger. We only have one chance at this. "...