Chapter 430 A Little Competition, Part 2

"Should we wait for him?" Philip asked Jacob. The two of them were turned, looking at where they came from. "He's a greenhorn. I wouldn't doubt he probably hasn't had too much experience."

"Lily said he went hunting everyday since he's been in the forest. I think we should give the three tailed Fox Spirit a little bit more credit." Jacob replied.

"So we leave or…?"

Keng blinked in front of them and let out a "ooh" before coming to a stop.

"You're done talking to Dad." Jacob spoke to Keng. "Ready to go?"

"You waited for me? Why? Isn't this a competition?" Keng asked.

"It is. We were worried you wouldn't like all of us having a head start." Philip lied. He actually doubted the Silver Fox and wanted to make sure he wouldn't get lost right away. "You know the way back or do you need help with that?"

"I'll be fine. Your Dad marked it for me already " Keng pointed behind him.

"He did?" Philip looked past Keng and noticed the familiar energy. "He did."

"Well, don't worry too much about me." Keng smiled. "It's a competition. Let's compete." He started past the brothers.

"Keng." Jacob turned. Keng stopped and looked at Jacob.

"Yeah?"

"Whatever you do, don't go into any caves on hills, alright?" Jacob came off serious. Keng nodded.

"Sure. No hill caves." Keng repeated. "That's it?"

"Wanna stick with us?" Philip asked.

"Why?"

"Bright and Winn are probably gonna throw their spoils together." Jacob answered. "This is usually a duo thing but since you're here, we'll take you with us. Show you some spots and creatures you might haven't seen before."

"S-sure. Most kills still gets the pot of gold and bragging rights, right?" Keng asked.

"Yup." Philip nodded.

'Good.' Keng smiled at them, nodding. 'I wanted a reason to see them in action. Too bad Bright and Winn left.'

"Lead the way." Keng motioned.

"Lead the way, Phi. You're the big hunter in training. Show me what you got." Jacob motioned. Philip brushed past Jacob and lead the way. Jacob trailed behind with Keng and the three of them headed off a random direction Philip chose. "So, Keng, how long have you been in the whole 'Fox Spirit' thing?"

"Mmmmm…" Keng brushed his chin. His irises glowed a silver color as Jacob looked at him. Keng could see blips of energy within his vision and Philip and Jacob, shockingly, didn't have pink auras like their sister or Dad. Philip had an aqua aura while Jacob had a neutral gray color. "Maybe six months?"

"Six months and you're already a three tailed Fox?" Philip spoke in surprise. The Wang brothers were looking at him with surprise.

"Yeah. I think we just got lucky. Now it's going to be hard because in order to evolve, I gotta get back to Lee Seng." Keng told them. Keng turned back to face the front as his ears twitched. He stopped just as Philip and Jacob came to a sudden stop.

'What's that?' Keng thought. He could hear the sounds of metal grinding.

"Do you see the disturbance, Jacob?" Philip whispered. His eyes didn't move from his spot as Jacob slowly scanned the area.

"Yeah, something's… Really wrong." Jacob whispered. "I feel like I've seen this thing before." The grinding noise grew louder. Keng's eyes had naturally moved to look around and noticed the same thing the two brothers had. The energy was moving irregularly like a fog rolling in.

"There's grinding noises." Keng whispered.

"What?" Philip started to turn to look at Keng when Jacob moved a couple steps forward. "You hear.. Grinding noises?"

"Oh no." Jacob spoke in Fox Tongue. "These are for sure signs of a Ire." The energy seemed to thicken and the manifestation of a fog started to roll in.

"What's that?" Keng started to ask.

"Stay together. Got it?!?" Jacob shouted. Philip grabbed Keng and pulled him closer.

"What's happening?" Keng looked at Philip. Everything began to happen too fast. The sounds of screeches grew loud and Jacob began to curse in four different languages.

"Ire. It's attached to the monsters. It happens every so often, but this one shouldn't have happened out of nowhere. There would've been signs." Philip explained.

"Heavy energy pockets. More monsters than usual. Even strange energy-fused nature phenomena." Jacob listed off some stuff. "I should've figured off the increase of monsters…"

"But we would've seen other symptoms." Philip spoke up. The fog grew thicker and closer.

"Will Bright and Winn be okay?" Keng asked.

"The-they migh—" Philip began to answer when Jacob manifested two large axes in his hands.

"They're coming. Get ready. Phi you stay in the back since you're more suited for long ranged combat. Keng, what can you do?" Jacob began to take over. He looked over at Keng as Philip pulled out a crossbow and load it.

"I can bounce between both." Keng told them. "My skills are more suited for close combat, though."

"Good. Protect Philip as best as you can." Jacob instructed.

"I guess we'll compete to see who can kill the most monsters then." Philip smiled. Goblins, Hobgoblins, and wolves seemed to rush out of the fog.

"It starts!" Jacob shouted. Philip fired the cross bolt past Jacob and Keng. Keng watched the cross bolt multiply and hit some wolves and goblins. Some of the hobgoblins managed to swat the crossbolts away. Philip started to reload when monsters screeched behind him.

"Shit." Philip whispered. He spun around and shot another cross bolt. Jacob met the monsters in front of him, lighting up in gray energy. His veins began to pulse and his eyes grew a dark sea color.

"AHHH!" Jacob screamed as his body began to exapnd as he swung. He flew through the goblins and wolves, landing a blow straight through a hobgoblin. Keng watched in amazement as Jacob and Philip seemed to plow through the group of monsters with ease.

"Well, I guess it's time to play. Displacement Mark." Keng smiled. Where he stood glowed a silver energy as he rushed forward. His body exploded in Silver light as he pulled Hydrosphere out. "Fox fire." Barrages of fox fires lit the area all around him and his allies, automatically attacking anything that wasn't mentally marked as an 'ally' in Keng's head. Keng flew at the monsters and plowed through them like nothing.

The field around him quickly lit up in silver flames as he slashed and impaled whatever was in front of him. Four hobgoblins flew at him as he darted to the left.

"Displacement Mark 2." Another silver mark appeared as he flew at the hobgoblins. The hobgoblins, one by one, began to swing at him. Keng dodged, narrowly avoiding the hobgoblin's teamwork, and tossed Hydrosphere into the head of a hobgoblin.

"DIE!" A hobgoblin shouted.

"Displacement 2." Keng pulled back to his second mark as the dagger reformed in his hand. "God weapon art: Waves of Mercy!" Waves of water exploded out of his daggers as he slashed. The waters slammed against the monsters and pushed them backwards.

Philip grunted as he jumped backwards. His eyes shimmered as he began to pull the crossbow down to reload. Goblins fired at him and forced him backwards. A wolf leapt and bit him, pinning him down as he let out a scream.

"Philip!" Jacob shouted. Jacob swung at the creatures in front of him and began to turn when something began to tell him to not turn.

"Fire Storm!" A Hobgoblin shouted. Flames rained down on Jacob, forcing him to shield himself and take the hit as Philip screamed in pain as a goblin slammed its bat against him, sending him flying.

"Displacement." Keng pulled back to his original and tossed his daggers at the goblins near Philip. The goblins dropped dead on top of the wounded Philip as Keng rushed to Philip's side. "You okay?" Philip bled, wincing as he loaded his crossbow. He lifted it up and shot. The arrows mlutiplied, again and impaled another group of monsters. Keng put his hands onto Philip and watched as his healing light began to heal Philip's wounds. Philip began to load when a blurry hobgoblin lifted its sword down for Keng.

"Behind you!" Philip shouted.

"Altered God Weapon Art: Devouring Sphere." Keng whispered. A ball of silver water exploded into existence around Keng and Philip. The hobgoblin flew straight into the water and Philip watched in horror as it began to move through the water. In a split second, the water seemed to tear the monster into pieces, dissolving it into nothing. Unlucky monsters that didn't have time to register what had happened to their ally, flew straight at the water, meeting the same fates.

"What the…" Philip muttered as Keng removed his hands from him.

"Better?" Keng asked, out of breath.

"I'm fine, but what was that?"

"A test." Keng slowly stood up, stumbling back to the ground as Philip grabbed him.

"You used too much energy. Are you gonna be fine?"

"I'll be fine." Keng pushed himself off of Philip and reached for the water. Philip began to worry that the water might do something to Keng. He let out a yelp as Keng's hand touched the water. The water and silver light began to fly into Keng and Keng's exhaustiveness disappeared. "Ready?"

"W-what happened?" Philip stuttered, standing.

"No time to explain. Your brother needs help. I'm going to release the sphere outwards and kill whatever isn't us, got it?"