Youmu took another step back.

These disgusting things wouldn't touch her---!

Green light flowed up Roukanken's edge, shimmering and shifting along the youkai-forged steel as it illuminated the dark, damp forest. This had the unfortunate side effect of illuminating the sickly-looking paleness of the seething swarm of centipedes. It was spiritual energy, power radiating from deep in the core of her body and up her arms, heath spreading outwards and flowing over Roukanken.

It manifested not as a simple aura, but as a mystical extension of her blade, a green light nearly piercing the canopy entirely.

"Danmyouken - Meisouzan!"

The great flashing blade of light was brought down in a single instant, and in that one blow dozens of centipedes were severed apart, their fluids vaporizing on contact with the light coating Roukanken.

And then in nearly the same instant, the light was gone.

By their combined efforts, it seemed as if nearly the entire centipede swarm had been wiped out, only a few stragglers seeming to remain. Youmu took a deep breath, relaxing. While she wasn't frightened of creatures like this, they were still disgusting. Not only that, but such a great presence of centipedes simply couldn't mean anything good at all.

However---

Remilia brushing aside the leaves would make a particularly gruesome discovery. The general sent of rot, decay, meat, and wet plant matter combined together would have made it difficult to detect before, but the carcass of another boar was present.

This one was far fresher, but also almost entirely stripped clean of meat, only glistening strips of red remaining on its stained bones.

Perhaps more importantly was the creature crawling over it.

It was enormous, at least fifteen meters in length, its segmented body glossy black but with a crimson head. Its bloodstained mandibles clicked, antenna twitching as it scuttled over the bones, surging forward directly at the diminutive vampire and the others beyond.

And there was another sinuous, chitinous form already emerging from the darkness of the forest beyond it.

"Th-there's..."

Youmu trailed off slightly, half in shock as her feet swiftly left the ground.

But this explained the bodies, and the bite marks. The ones they'd killed so far weren't even adults---!

[@Izurich][@Raineh Daze][@PKMNB0Y][@Lugubrious][@EchoWolff]