Broken Hearts. Mended Lives Chapter 25

The horrible looking... And far worse smelling burning Wendigo released a blood-curdling screech as it tripped at the force of the massive fireball slamming into and washing over its form.

A loud boom rang out as the fireball with its chakra coating broken violently exploded outwards and I waited calmly for a couple of moments as the hot flames flew every where and I idly watched for signs of a forest fire.

But as the thick flames dispersed after a couple of seconds as flames typically do when they hadn't had the time to get some coals underneath themselves. I realized the Wendigo was properly on fire.

The flames were a hissing angry blue that crackled loudly as the Wendigo's cursed flesh burned quickly.

"Huh, no wonder the hunters told me to use flares on these guys... They burn like they are made of gasoline." I muttered.

Elsa who was more on the spiritual side of things than Annika came a bit closer and said quietly and with some fear of the flames. "Flames and fire itself is humanity's gift to defend themselves with... Regardless of what Pantheon you follow, flames wielded by a human will do far more damage to a monster than they typically would." 

"Fair enough," I said nodding before I hefted my cold iron axe and drew around the violently twitching and rolling across the dirt Wendigo trying to put out of the flames covering its form.

And when it tried to slam its massive clawed hands into the ground to get onto its knees and probably charge out. I slammed the axe into the back of the Wendigo crippling it as the axe split its spine in half.

From there I wrenched out the axe and I had to dodge a swipe from the Wendigo's large clawed hands. But with its overextension, I just cut off its long thin but still strong arms from its body.

And with it lacking its fucking arms, I then chopped off its fucking head to make it go still finally.

"Alright. Now to rip the bastard's heart out, and then burn said heart." I spoke after I used a quick water jutsu to put out the flames covering its body.

"Jake the mist is becoming thicker," Hinata called out as I was using the cold iron thick knife to gut the monster so I could rip its heart out from under its ribs.

I looked down and my lips curled up into a frown as I could tell likewise that the previous thick mist that only covered the ground and swallowed all sounds had darkened. Not only that but a thinner but still hard-to-see mist had filled the surrounding forest preventing us from seeing too far out.

A soft wet ripping noise rang out as I ripped out the Wendigo's heart and then I tossed it onto the ground and used a quick and direct fire jutsu to properly burn it to ashes within moments with the heart bursting haunting blue flames and quickly breaking down.

"Hinata, can you see through the mist?" I asked.

And there was a pause... A pause made me look away from the lone Wendigo's corpse that was breaking down into ashes as with its heart and soul being destroyed so was its body following suit.

"I... It's hard to see through the mist, it's so thick and has its own magical energy so its like the Hidden Mist Jutsu from back home." Hinata spoke unsurely.

I gave a soft hum as I took in the thick mist-filled forest and I realized that with each Wendigo, the mist would get thicker and thicker exponentially. Which allowed the larger packs to isolate whole towns and villages with the mist that could even block satellite signals and such.

However, in the winter, the mist would change to a thick snow storm which was how they made more Wendigo's by making people feed on one another before they froze to death.

Soft huffing noises rang out and I could feel the sensation of a predator... No. a pack of predators were hunting me. So I made my way back over to the group knowing that my jutsu use had gotten the attention of the monsters.

"Annika, you are in charge of watching Hinata," I spoke and then I made a couple of hand signs as the other two moved away from those two and I used an earth jutsu to surround Hinata and Annika with thick walls of stone with several large holes so they could breathe out of it and we could hear them.

"Alright get on top of the building I made," I said as I enhanced my body with a bit of chakra so I could hop five meters up onto the rock structure I made so I could take in the surrounding forest more easily with Ahri and Elsa doing the same.

"Its always the wait of a hunter encircling you that's the worst," Elsa spoke softly as we three stared out into the thick mist looking for signs of the multiple Wendigo's encircling us soundlessly.

I could feel Ahri's tails gently brushing across my body as she took my back to make sure nothing was coming from behind us and I could tell the Wendigo's were just buying time.

Making us tired from the stress of their encirclement knowing that we ourselves were dangerous foes to them. Not the weak normal humans they typically hunted.

And then from the structure below us I heard Hinata speak out with a bit of fear in her voice. "Jake, there are two dozen of them circling us!"

The moment Hinata spoke the sounds of the forest abruptly died out as though tension was building and I took a deep breath before I muttered. "Whelp... Time to become Smokey the Bear's worst nightmare." 

Because I think... If I was to get out of here with fewer issues or make sure no one I cared about got hurt. I probably needed to do a little bit of a forest fire.