Chapter 78

Commander Eiga felt a sharp sting under his elbow. He blamed Shinji for it till he saw both of his hands hanging in air like tree vines.

A small snake dangled on his elbow by its fangs. Eiga shoved Shinji down and plucked the snake from his hand. Despite of being separated, its fangs were still dug in his skin like thorns. Eiga pulled the fang out and stomped the crawling snake.
Its head bits squished out from both side of head and only the body with living reflexes wriggled. Revenge aside, Eiga was in more pain than the snake. Eiga could tell where the venom had reached just by the burning sensation spreading through his veins.
Shinji somehow brought air in his squeezed windpipe. There were cramps on his neck but he was fine with it. He touched his pocket then took out the broken shell.
Pearls were also eggs. Shinji was surprised. And I was warming them?
Crushed snake from the shell which he had non-deliberately warmed didn’t cause any motherly stress to Shinji. His eyes were fixed on stiffening Eiga.
Commander Eiga couldn’t take a step further. The arm which had been bit turned brown but the brownish tone didn’t resemble to rotting skin. It was similar to tree bark. And with venom travelling in his veins, he was becoming a wooden sculpture. He had his mouth open when he became a statue of wood.
Shinji still had doubts so he picked Eiga’s sword and diced him into pieces. He didn’t mercy any chunk of wood he considered big. Not only because of anger. Fear had big part in it. Shinji didn’t know if they could regenerate or not so he kept on with his own doubt killing method.
When he got tired, he saw the hourglass. First he overlooked it but came back to it with a heavy concern. No sand was left in its upper portion. Clueless, he flipped the clock upside down, hoping it would work and restart the procedure.
The foolish act didn’t reward him. Shinji started to panic after noticing movement in Wernh’An body. Shinji knew when people behaved like this. Even Shinji moved his body to comfort while he was about to get awake every morning.
Shinji had failed to reduce his power already. There was no way he could let himself down anymore. He ran to take his escape tool while hoping Wernh’An was still many seconds away from opening his eyes.
He hasted his way to the uncomfortable bed and placed the tool on Wernh’An’s eye lid. Shinji put his hand over Wernh’An’s one eye and popped his right eye with the jab.
Shinji flinched hard when he heard Wernh’An groan because of the pain.
What am I doing? Shinji beat his own head from the tool.
Shinji put his tool under Wernh’An’s right eye and scooped the eye out. Wernh’An was much louder this time but Shinji showed no interest in it. He was just amused by the red eye which he was holding between his fingers.
A shock wave threw Shinji back. He was very near to lose the eye.
Wernh’An was waking because of the sudden pain so Shinji picked the fallen eye, rubbed off dirt and stuffed it inside his pocket. He saw Wernh’An touching his eyes only to find empty sockets.
Scared to death, Shinji loosened the horses. Wernh’An also heard the movement around him. He fell and tapped on ground to find his staff.
“Genzou!” Wernh’An spoke when he felt Genzou’s body by his hands. He also crawled on Commander Eiga’s bits.
“Who is there?” Wernh’An yelled at Shinji, who was already on his horse.
Why didn’t I break his staff? He compensated the guilt by Wernh’An’s eye. The staff was on the other side of bed so he refused to take any chances. Wernh’An was still not in his full strength.
“Who is it?” Wernh’An’s empty sockets looked straight at Shinji’s direction.
Shinji kicked the saddle and the horse galloped away from Wernh’An.